ccoyle

Hi, Dan, and welcome to MSW! Some observations (and you're probably not going to like the first one): "Established kit" is a very generous description of any Mini Mamoli product. I think most of our members would agree with me when I suggest that these are terrible beginner kits -- poor materials, poor instructions, poor representations of the real-life subjects, and scales that are difficult to work in for wooden ship subjects. To be frank, I'd recommend setting this kit aside and starting over with something that is much more likely to result in success. You'd enjoy the hobby far more by going that route, IMO. I can't for the life of me imagine why the kit would have you attach shrouds to the inboard side of the bulwark. That doesn't mimic actual practice at all. A modeler is never obligated to rigidly follow instructions. Thinking the various tasks through in advance may suggest to you better ways to get a task completed. Modelers use a variety of tools to work in tight spaces, including various styles of tweezers (including some with curved tips), hemostats, and assorted rigging tools that can often be home-made on the cheap. Yes, attaching rigging to eyebolts before gluing the eyebolts in is one way of doing things, but it's a terrible way for doing shrouds -- because that method exists only in the minds of Mini Mamoli kit designers, not in actual practice. Anyways, just something to think about.

Fingers crossed!

Got the frames cut out and glued to the vacuformed canopy. Afterwards I noticed that there is a slight defect on the aft starboard side that didn't allow the lowest frame on that side to sit level. It remains to be seen how that will affect fitting the canopy to the fuselage later. I will let the glue fully cure before cutting the canopy free from its blank. Since I invested in an upgraded cockpit interior, I'm leaning toward displaying this model with the canopy open.

It looks to me like you don't have the stem seated all the way back. The contours of the stem and longitudinal profile should come together without a gap.

That's a tough diagnosis, Marcus, and I'm with Patrick on wishing you strength for the challenges to come. But I think I would not be alone in hoping that you would seriously reconsider the 'Viking funeral' plan for your model. Certainly someone in your family would appreciate having it, even if it is not completed? Might even be the kind of project someone would be willing to finish up for your family.

The model? Or the full-size boat? The full-size one can really move, and it would be a great project for anyone who lives near a large body of water, like the Delaware River.

Eberhard, I saw that your wonderful build log had never been tagged as finished! I have belatedly rectified that oversight.

Sound advice! I had more or less the same experience with spiling

That is a charming model! Congratulations!

Well done!

We used to have more detailed instructions, including directions on how to append the medium (wood is the default medium) to the end of the title, but it made little or no difference in the number of titles that we ended up tidying. I'm happy if new members get their titles 75% 'correct'. As you pointed out, looking at existing log titles is the best way to see how it's done.

I have to admit that I'm a little envious about the full-time narrowboat plan. I told my wife that we have enough equity in our home to sell it and pay cash for a narrowboat, but she wasn't keen on the idea -- my loss!

Exhaust stubs added.

Welcome aboard, and good luck on your project!

Engine mounted. I wasn't happy with the placement of the machine guns. Since they're made of paper, removing them understandably made a hash of them, so I ended up replacing them with styrene rod. And cowling on. I can't believe I've only been working on the engine and cowl for thirteen days -- it feels like ages. The next task will be to sort out the exhaust stubs.

I'm a fan of the transitional sail-to-steam period, too. I have always thought that USS Petrel (PG-2) would make a very interesting model.

Welcome aboard! At the risk of ruining any future good name you might have acquired among this august company, might I suggest you take a look at card models? They do not require lots of time, space, tools, or capital outlay (a big plus for starving students). You can check some out by clicking here. Cheers!

The saga continues -- probably would have been easier to just build the card engine! First we had to carefully remove the original engine mount and rebuild it to the desired thickness. Next we wired the cylinders. I only added half of the spark plug wires -- I'm just hinting at their existence, not replicating them in all of their glorious detail. After all, little of them will actually be visible. Fuselage guns added. And lastly, the oil cooler intake is added -- this will help position the cowling. I think I'm more or less ready to mount the engine now, but I need all my wits about me when I attempt the job.

Hi, folks. Consider this a gentle reminder about our forum guidelines regarding signatures: We have some members whose signatures are getting very lengthy indeed! This is not something that our small staff wishes to spend hours ruthlessly purging, so we are counting on the members to kindly self-moderate. Thanks for your cooperation! P.S. If a member wishes to see every topic a member has created, they can easily do so by going to the member's profile page and clicking the "see my activity" button. The results can be filtered for 'posts' (i.e., all posts) or just 'topics'.

Very handsomely done!

Finished the surgery on the engine. I used a cutting ball with my Dremel tool for the rough work and finished it off with files. You can see that in addition to cutting the grooves for the machine gun channels and removing the rear of the block, I also had to file the top of one rear cylinder completely flat, as well as file off the tops of all of the rear cylinder valve covers. 😩 Now, if only the engine would have fit inside the cowling after all that work! It did -- but the engine, and thus the cowl along with it, still sits too far forward when test fitted to the front fuselage. Still more work to do!

We can see now that this will be a POB design.

These are the gaps I was referring to: In the book you can see that there are no gaps:

Most of the cowl interior is done now. Some sloppy fitting here and there -- my fault, since much of the work could only be done while viewing with one eye, which ruins depth perception of course. I also installed the two tiny spacers inside the middle section of duct work upside down, meaning the ugly seam shows, which shouldn't be too visible on the final assembly. Next step will be the necessary modifications to the engine cylinders to get that darn thing to fit inside the cowl.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the openings in the door panel should be just large enough to straddle the bitts. I think this is an error (i.e., openings too large) that I made on HMS Fly, but that was along time ago.