ccoyle

Continuing to slog along on this model. Next up we have the lower wing. The construction method is dodgy IMO. The two spars must be passed through the fuselage before the wing can be completely assembled, i.e., one can't assemble the entire wing off the model and then mate it to the fuselage. At best you can assemble half the wing, run the spars through the fuselage, and then finish the other half. But there are other problems as well. As mentioned before, the laser cut frames are too thick, which means the slots where they interlock are too narrow, so they must be widened. Then, once I got the spars inserted through the fuselage, I discovered that the fuselage sides covered about half of the slots for the inboard ribs (of which there are only two per side). That meant I had to carefully reduce the thickness of each rib at its two slots down to about one-quarter of its original thickness, which makes each rib very weak, even when soaked in CA. It's no surprise, then, that one of them broke during assembly. And the icing on the cake: After I got everything assembled, I discovered that the wings are not perpendicular to the fuselage center line. 😑 I am edging dangerously close to the point where I start thinking about other, better-designed kits that I could be working on. 😒

Well done! Congrats!

Welcome aboard, Dave!

Turned out great!

Well done, Paul!

Congrats on completing a very striking model!

Great job, Tom!

This old box-scale kit is one of the earliest kits I can remember building as a kid of probably 7 or 8 years old. I definitely wasn't concerned with kit accuracy or super-detailing at that age!

Check the guidelines for sellers. You might get a few more nibbles. Personally, I love that kit, but the bowsprit alone demands more space than I have available.

Man, I didn't even remember that bit. 🤔

Welcome aboard, Felix! Your model is off to a good start. The white portion of the deck along the bulwarks would most likely have been what is called a covering board on the original vessel. As the name suggests, its job was to cover the ends of the planks. Since the covering board must fit the curve of the bulwark near the bow, fitting one can be a challenge. It was probably omitted in this kit to simplify the construction for beginners. Cheers!

Rudder added.

Construction of the horizontal stabs and elevators proved to be more challenging than it should have been. See if you can spot the reason why. And the fix:

Welcome aboard! What sorts of ship subjects are you interested in modeling.

Dutch 17th Century Ship Models in Paper An Introduction to Scratch Building Paper Ship Models by Ab Hoving and Emiel Hoving 2024 Seawatch Books USD $75.00 All photos courtesy of Seawatch Books Long-time members of MSW will need little introduction to Ab Hoving, a man well known as a curator, modeler, and expert on 17th century Dutch shipbuilding. His exceptional knowledge in these areas is on display in his latest book, Dutch 17th Century Ship Models in Paper: An Introduction to Scratch Building Paper Ship Models. I really don't need to say much regarding the topic and intended purpose of the book, since both are plainly stated in the title and subtitle. Rather, I will focus on the Big Question that any potential buyer of the book will undoubtedly have in mind when thinking about putting the book in his or her shopping cart at Seawatch: Can I actually build a card model of a 17th century Dutch ship using the methods outlined by Mr. Hoving in this book? I believe the answer to that question is a solid yes. First of all, Ab's method will not be completely foreign to anyone who has built a wooden ship model from a kit -- it's a take on the classic plank-on-bulkhead technique, starting with a longitudinal hull profile and a set of bulkheads. Instead of wood, the hull is built up from card stock. After a first planking in card, the hull is then 'planked' with self-adhesive plastic film (this is the method that we have seen so expertly done by MSW members Doris and Firdajan). Ab walks the builder through two models, a relatively simple smalschip ("narrow ship") and a more complex pinas. Templates for the framing and planking of both models are provided in the book, and digital copies are available at Seawatch's website for those who have purchased a copy. Of course, after the basic hull is constructed, it needs to be appropriately painted. One of the things I have always appreciated about Ab's models is the high degree of realism they project as a result of his particular painting and weathering techniques. These are outlined in the book as well. The book has some interesting selling points in addition to being a how-to on card modeling. The first few chapters are devoted to the vagaries of modeling Dutch ships due to the paucity of original source material (and the reasons for why such is the case), how the author has coped with those limitations, and how his research and his model building are inextricably linked (we who enjoy Ab's models should therefore be thankful for his intense desire to understand a subject as admittedly esoteric as 17th century Dutch shipbuilding practice). The book is also richly illustrated, both with diagrams and with beautiful photographs of the author's models. I was quite surprised, in fact, to learn that the book's photos depicted Mr. Hoving's models and not original works by the Dutch masters! His photo compositions are that convincing. Readers will be pleased to learn that the book describes exactly how to create such compositions using Photoshop. To summarize, purchasers of this book will receive some interesting insight into the author's research and background, detailed descriptions of how to build two different Dutch ships using a technique that can readily be used for other ship model subjects, a plethora of beautiful photographs suitable for any coffee table, and a treatise on how to create life-like photographic compositions incorporating one's own models. That makes it a worthwhile addition to most anyone's library.

See, wouldn't all of that have been so much easier to depict in, gee, I don't know -- a diagram, maybe? 😉

Welcome aboard!

A review of this title is in the works.

That confirms my guess for the front half, but the rear half remains a mystery. I suspect it is a scoop, but can't know for certain.

The gift that keeps on giving . . . 😑 Moving on to the horizontal stabilizers -- we start by gluing up the framing, except for two problems: As we have previously noted, the laser-cut fret is the wrong thickness, which means two of the four interior framing parts are too thick. Or I should say "would be too thick" (see #2). One of the four parts, 26c, the part that forms that aft edge where the elevators will attach, is missing completely. I don't just mean it is missing from the fret -- it's missing on the printed parts sheets, too These two issues are not insurmountable, but taken along with everything else that has been a problem so far, they are extremely annoying. No kit builder should have to put up with this. I no longer wonder about why there are no finished examples of this kit on the internet -- perhaps mine will be the very first. Oh, Mr. P -- Fool me once -- shame on you. Fool me twice -- shame on me. Fool me five times in a row -- good grief, what is wrong with me?!? (And now, for the cherry on top, the post editor is not allowing me to paste an image into my post like I have done at least fifty bazillion times before.)

Welcome aboard! A three-masted man-of-war is one of the most difficult types of wooden ships to model. As a beginner, you should aim toward the opposite end of the spectrum: smaller ship, fewer guns (if any), and less masting and rigging. To get an idea of what other beginning modelers are building, take a look through the following 523 build logs, all of which have been tagged as first builds: https://modelshipworld.com/tags/First Build/ Pay particular attention to the builds that have been tagged as "finished." Those are models that beginners actually finished -- a good attribute for any beginner kit!

Thought I'd start this post by showing a fix for a particularly ugly seam. I first filled in the seam with some glue. After that dried, I used my AK markers for some cosmetic work. I did not try to match the lozenge colors exactly -- there's five of them, after all. The nice thing about lozenge camo is that the whole idea behind it is to break up outlines, so I simply used the markers to break up the continuous seam line. And now for another lesson in sloppy kit design. Take note of parts 17 and 18 in the image below (lower right). They're supposed to be placed on the forward fuselage between the guns. Now notice that there are five different views of the fuselage shown in the diagrams. Five! Of those five diagrams, only one shows parts 17-18 -- but only from above, not from the side. There is no way to tell exactly how the two parts should be placed. To make matters worse, since only 59 D.VIs were built, none survived to the present day. All of the color photos you can find online depict replicas, and none of them have the parts 17-18 structure. Contemporary B&W photos aren't much help either, because whatever that little structure is, it obviously wasn't interesting enough to tempt any photographers of that era to take a close-up photo or two. To top it off, I haven't found any finished examples of this model, either. Models built from other kits, whether plastic or RC, have been no help either -- most of them don't have any structure between the guns. Whatever -- onwards!

The basic fuselage is done. I have some seams to touch up. This is the more photogenic side.

Great job, Tim!

I also moved your topic to the correct area.