ccoyle

Good work with the PE, but I thought you said it is a card model!

That's dedication to craftsmanship, Mark. Good luck on the Mk II!

I've been an advocate of penciled panel lines and glued boltropes for years. Properly sewn sails certainly don't look bad on a model, but the actual-size sitching of real sails can't be duplicated in the scales we work at, and besides such lines are practically invisible at scale viewing distances. Cheers!

Chris Watton designed both kits, so both of them will have similar design concepts. However, Chris being the innovator he is, he has regularly made improvements to his designs with each new issue, and that will be reflected in the Vanguard kit, since it is by far the newer of the two. I have the Amati/Victory Models Fly kit in progress and can tell you honestly it is a great kit. But like any kit, it has compromises and can be improved upon by any modeller wishing to do a little extra research and work. Same is most likely true for Vanguard. I have also built a Caldercraft kit, and it was a great kit, too. So, bottom line is both are good kits, but both can be taken up a notch, especially since you say you have experience scratching parts. The deciding factor may well be how much model do you want to commit to? One is a frigate, the other is a ship of the line with all that entails. Either of them will be a long-term project, so I'd go with whichever one set my heart to beating just that much faster. Cheers!

The Victory Models line, a subsidiary of Amati and of which the Lady Nelson is a part, is an excellent range of kits. Cutters make good first models, and there are many build logs of cutters here at MSW to peruse for tips.

Darr, Nature Coast Hobby Shop also sells this sort of kit/tool combo. Personally, I would be cautious about buying something like this, as the tools included might or might not be something your dad would find useful, and for the prices listed you can probably buy a kit and some basic tools for less. If your dad has not modeled anything in a while, I'd recommend one of the kits from Midwest Products to get old skills back up to speed. These kits are inexpensive (and can usually be found on eBay for significantly less than retail), have good instructions, and always include a thorough list of needed tools, some of which are likely already in your dad's house somewhere. Kind regards,

Nice photographs, and interesting to have a personal connection to the subject matter. Your ancestor's ship has very fine lines - I can imagine she was a fast sailer. Regards,

I think the fact that I keep wondering, "How did she do that?" when I see your work speaks volumes about your abilities. Very impressive! Cheers!

If you are speaking of Galt, California, then I can't say that I envy them too much, since I have lived in the mountains most of my life and lovingly refer to residents of the Sacramento - San Joaquin valley as 'flatlanders'. (My parents grew up in Stockton, just a few miles south of there, and I still have many relatives in the area.) As for 'American livery', common practice for that time seems to have been a black hull (with possibly white across the gun ports) and green inner bulwarks, maybe coppering below the waterline. This would all be conjectural, since if I remember my reading correctly, she wasn't actually taken into service. The kit will also not have any sail material in it, but it would not be difficult to make up a set and rig them for Ballahoo, as she had a very simple rig. Cheers!

These small Caldercraft kits present wonderful opportunities for super-detailing, if that is something that interests you. All of these kits, which by the way were designed by Chris Watton who frequents the forum regularly, will build into very nice models straight out of the box. But, since they were designed with beginners in mind, they are somewhat simplified. Caldercraft's Sherbourne kit is one such model that has been souped up by some of our members; as one example, check out this build by dubz, who has a knack for this sort of thing. Another angle to consider, though this might not be all that appealing to an English builder, is that Ballahoo was captured by the Americans during the War of 1812, and although there is little documentation of her after that event, it would be interesting to see a model of her done up in hypothetical American livery. No matter which build route you decide to go, have fun with this kit and rest secure knowing it is a quality model and well-suited for a novice builder. Cheers!

John, Just saw this thread for the first time. Excellent choice of subject!

The first thing you need to ascertain is which Herreshoff kit are you building? The Boy's Boat is one of the designs BJ acquired when they purchased the old Laughing Whale company years ago. Since then, BJ has updated some of the Laughing Whale designs, but (to the best of my knowledge) not all of them. The old Laughing Whale kit was not true to the original Herreshoff design, in that the kit uses the typical POB construction method (like in your Midwest lobster smack), and this will be plainly visible on the finished model. I used to have the Laughing Whale version years ago, and the only thing I can dimly remember that might have been caution-worthy is that the number of bulkheads was on the small side, with extensions that could probably be snapped off somewhat easily, but this is true for many small boat kits. Other than that, the materials were good. The instructions were sparse - nothing like what you would get in a Midwest kit, for example. BJ do have a good reputation for customer support, so if you ran into difficulties you could most likely get help from them.

I love the barkentine rig! It's one of my favorites.

Zero warning points is good!

Good luck on your project! I love the lines of the Whitehalls.

Have you tried Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft? Probably a few sets of lines in there, I would imagine, and you can probably get the book through your local library.

It always comes back to balancing how much detail do we wish to show with how much pain and/or effort are we willing to endure to get that level of detail. I include more than some guys, and some guys include more than I do. Hopefully, each of us is happy with what we produce. Cheers!

Nice to see this model back!

And finally, a few dabs of touch-up paint here and there, and a careful separation of the model from its working base (sliding mono-filament line between the two does the trick neatly), and V108 is done, done, done! I hope you have enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it. I really, really hope that at least a few of you will be emboldened by this little treatise to step out and try a card model of your own. Let's see what you can do!

After installing all the railings, there are only a few items left to do. The anchors can be glued to the deck on the forecastle. If you wish, you can add anchor chain. Some kits include printed anchor chain, but this one does not. Another item is masts and rigging. There are any number of materials you can use for making masts, including wood dowels, toothpicks, metal rod, and/or styrene rod. Heck, I even used dry spaghetti on one of my early models (brittle and not recommended!). I used styrene rod for this model. The instructions include 1:1 templates for making and tapering the masts and spars. One tip to make construction easier is to assemble the entire mast off the model, including the halliard and topping lift on the mainmast, and then spray paint the entire assembly before gluing it to the model. You can add as much or as little rigging as you like. The rigging on this model is made from two pound mono-filament fishing line. The kit does not include an ensign, but adding one is not difficult. I found an image on-line of an Imperial Navy ensign, scaled it to the proper size, and printed two copies of it on 20# bond paper - one in its normal orientation, and one flipped horizontally to make the other side. I cut out and glued the two sides together and then added some folds so the flag would will hang naturally. The finished flag was then glued to the mainmast halliard with some CA glue. Next: The Reveal!

So, how do our thread railings look on the model? Judge for yourself: Adding the railings consists of measuring off the right length of railing to add, adding any extra stanchions that might be needed due to cutting to length, and gluing the railings to the model. I use PVA for straight sections and CA where necessary to tack down any sharp curves. I brush the PVA onto the deck where the railing goes, not to the railing itself - these springy railings are a great way to spread unwanted glue on your model. Here's the finished forecastle railings: The forward flagstaff is a short length of wire. Anywhere there are angled bends in the railings, I prefer to cut the railing at the joint and glue down two separate panels. Unlike photo-etched metal or card, thread does not like to make nice, crisp bends.

The Digital Navy V108 kit does not, with a few exceptions such as the bridge wings, include railings for the model, nor does it include any templates for railings. But hey, it's a free model, so we won't complain too much, right? But that doesn't mean you can't add railings. Railings add a lot of subtle visual appeal to a card model, and there are four ways you can add them: 1) made from paper, much as the bridge wing railings (these create the illusion of open railings); 2) after-market laser-cut railings (to my eye these are overly stout-looking, but they come pre-cut obviously, and that's worth something); 3) photo-etched railings (the best-looking and also most expensive option); or 4) thread railings. I'm going to show you how to do option #4. Start by downloading the free railings template at Paper Shipwright. You'll have to go through the whole checkout procedure, but relax - you don't get charged anything for the transaction. The Paper Shipwright template is in 1/250 scale, so you'll need to scale it up for 1/200 by printing at 125% of the original. At that size, you won't be able to print the template on one sheet of paper. What you do absolutely need is both ends of the template; I managed this by printing two copies of the template in landscape mode. (L to R: full-sized template, middle portion enlarged 125%, two copies at 125% printed in landscape mode.) Next you'll need to glue the templates onto some heavy-duty cardboard. I found that a case for liquid fabric softener worked well -- it's very rigid, because of course liquids are heavy. Use spray adhesive to glue down the templates. In this picture you can see that I've spliced the two landscape-mode copies together to make a single template. There's also a thread ladder template, which I won't be demonstrating, but which works in principle exactly like the railings template. Next, remove the center portion of the template. You're now ready to start wrapping thread. I use quilting thread, but regular thread will also work. The template works like this: At each end are tic marks labelled two rail, three rail, and four rail. These are the marks you will use to align the railing threads. Notice that the two-rail marks actually consist of three marks - the bottom 'rail' is actually used to mount the railing to the model and doesn't count as one of the real-life rails. On opposite sides of the template are drawn railings with the stanchions spaced at different intervals. The smallest interval is about 5.5 mm. The stanchion locator marks on the model are 6 mm apart. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to nit-pick over 0.5 mm, so I used the 5.5 mm spacing. Start by wrapping the rails first. Use some tape to secure the thread right on top of the tic marks. Go ahead and use all four sets of two-rail marks - you'll get four lengths of railing as a result. When the rails are done, cut the thread and secure the end with tape, taking care to ensure the thread stays taut and properly positioned. Next, add the stanchions in the same fashion. You have to kind of train yourself to concentrate only on the stanchion interval you want to use, otherwise you wind up with irregularly spaced stanchions. You can cut off the other stanchion spacing guides if you find them too distracting. When all the rails and stanchions are wound, it's time to secure the joints by giving the entire railing set a coat of diluted white PVA glue. You can also try medium-cure CA, which will make the railings stiffer. I didn't use CA this time around because my bottle of medium-cure is on the old side and is more like medium-slow, which is too viscous for this job. Before brushing on the glue, I find it helpful to add some tension to the railings by sliding a piece of dowel or strip wood under the rail threads at either end of the template; this will push the rails up and against the stanchions. After the glue dries thoroughly, you can paint the railings in any manner you choose. I use gray spray primer. One thing to take note of here is that any thread will have some fuzz on it. Quilting thread has less fuzz, but it still has it. Spray painting causes build-up on the fuzz, and too many coats can make this build-up unsightly. It helps to pick off as much of the fuzz as you can before and/or after painting. When the paint is dry, you can remove the finished railings from the template. Here's my set: At this scale and template length, I got about four feet of railing, which should be more than enough to do the model, even if I mess up on some and have to try again.

It's been a while since I built this kit, but I do remember having difficulty with that lower plank. As I recall, the amount of bending at the front was particular severe. I believe i got around the problem by making an approximately one inch long cut in the plank parallel to the keel and about half-way up the the front edge. Once the plank was glued and dried, I filled and sanded the resulting small gap in the plank.

Believe it or not, there's just a few things left to do on the basic structure. Something we didn't add way back during the hull construction are the propeller guard struts. Same as we did with the bridge supports, start by carefully punching holes in the hull above the guards (there are locator marks). Cut small pieces of wire slightly longer than needed for the finished strut. Insert one end through the hull and pull the opposite end down onto the propeller guard. Secure it with CA. When the glue dries, the loose wire ends at the hull will allow you to move the guards up or down to get them level with the waterline. The galley stack (61) is one of the last parts for good reason -- it is easily knocked off the model if it is mounted earlier. A long, cylindrical part like this can be made from paper alone, but I prefer to give it some more substance by rolling the 20# bond version of the part around an inner core, in this case styrene rod. Start by tacking the glue tab side of 61 to the rod. When that's dry, simply roll up the remainder of 61 onto the rod and add the cap. Notice in the previous picture that I left a small stub of styrene at the end of 61 - this will be a locator peg for mounting the stack on the model after drilling out the locator mark on the roof of the galley. (You may notice in this photo that two of the photo-etch rungs have come off the forward stack. They disappeared into the ether and have not been seen since. I had to cannibalize two replacement rungs from the PE fret. ) The anchor crane (51) will require some very careful cutting. Start by removing all the interior white bits, using the push-cut technique we learned earlier. Before removing the crane from the parts sheet, stiffen the part by applying some CA to the back side. Parts 56c are a pulley; adding it to the crane requires making a tiny cut into the end of the boom and then inserting the pulley. Probably no one will notice if that's too much surgical detail for your liking and you omit the pulley. After cutting the crane out, folding up the back corners, and adding the base and pulley, I gave the whole thing a coat of gray spray paint before mounting it to the deck. You can try adding a cable if you so desire. Next we'll make the anchors (56), but we won't mount them to the model until after the railings are added. The anchors are another assembly I prefer to paint after constructing them. Punch the holes for the stocks before cutting the anchors (56a) from the parts sheet. Cut out and glue the flukes (56b) to the anchor arms. While those dry, you can use the template (56c) to cut two small pieces of wire to length for the stocks and add the bend. The knobbed end of the stock is easily made by dipping the wire into some PVA glue. The surface tension of the glue will pull it into the desired round shape. The glue shrinks as it dries, so you might need a second dunk. Add the finished stocks to the anchors and give both assemblies a coat of black paint. Next I'll show you how to make something that will really add a sharp touch to your model: thread railings.

Ship's boat (48) is next. A paper ship's boat is mainly all about forming, forming, and more forming. I don't color the edges before hand, because whenever possible I like to paint the boats after making them. I use my scribing tool and the round end of a paintbrush to get the shape of the boat (48c) as close to the finished product as I can before I glue any of the seams. Next I seal the seam at the stem and add the transom (42d). I glue the middle seams last. The boat now has its basic shape. It might need some additional forming to get it to match the outline of the caprail. After the boat is painted, add the thwarts and caprail (42a and 42b). The kit doesn't include any boat chocks, but I can't imagine the ship wouldn't have had them. They're easily scratch-built from scrap card. Mount the boat on the chocks (or to the deck if you opt for not adding the chocks).