ccoyle

Nicely done!

Finished
 
So, first of all, if anyone is interested in why this model is finished without having any masts or rigging, allow me to refer you back to post #25.
 
I ordered resin swivel guns from Chris at Vanguard Models. These are very nicely done and far superior to the off-the-shelf metal ones from Amati. I was surprised, though, to discover that the guns did not come with any mounts. I don't blame Chris for this at all -- I never asked about the mounts and he never said anything about whether they were included. The lesson here is it pays to ask! I tried several methods to create mounts: wire (fail), cobbling something together from leftover PE parts (fail), and finally hit upon yokes made from scrap black construction paper. These look fine as long as one doesn't view them from head-on, otherwise they look impossibly thin.
 
The final shots:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So, that brings this seventeen-year-long, on-again off-again journey to a close. I do have another wooden subject waiting in the wings, but I'll divulge that project at the proper time.
 
Cheers!
 

Finished
 
So, first of all, if anyone is interested in why this model is finished without having any masts or rigging, allow me to refer you back to post #25.
 
I ordered resin swivel guns from Chris at Vanguard Models. These are very nicely done and far superior to the off-the-shelf metal ones from Amati. I was surprised, though, to discover that the guns did not come with any mounts. I don't blame Chris for this at all -- I never asked about the mounts and he never said anything about whether they were included. The lesson here is it pays to ask! I tried several methods to create mounts: wire (fail), cobbling something together from leftover PE parts (fail), and finally hit upon yokes made from scrap black construction paper. These look fine as long as one doesn't view them from head-on, otherwise they look impossibly thin.
 
The final shots:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So, that brings this seventeen-year-long, on-again off-again journey to a close. I do have another wooden subject waiting in the wings, but I'll divulge that project at the proper time.
 
Cheers!
 

First thing to do was to re-secure all the guns and tackles that had been knocked loose. Six of the eight guns in the waist needed repair of some kind. Fortunately, none of the other guns had come loose, because those would have been impossible to reach.
 

 
There were a number of holes in the deck for eyebolts that needed to be filled. These were originally left off because they needed blocks attached first. Since I'm not going to rig this model, I went ahead and added the eyebolts sans blocks.
 

Finished
 
So, first of all, if anyone is interested in why this model is finished without having any masts or rigging, allow me to refer you back to post #25.
 
I ordered resin swivel guns from Chris at Vanguard Models. These are very nicely done and far superior to the off-the-shelf metal ones from Amati. I was surprised, though, to discover that the guns did not come with any mounts. I don't blame Chris for this at all -- I never asked about the mounts and he never said anything about whether they were included. The lesson here is it pays to ask! I tried several methods to create mounts: wire (fail), cobbling something together from leftover PE parts (fail), and finally hit upon yokes made from scrap black construction paper. These look fine as long as one doesn't view them from head-on, otherwise they look impossibly thin.
 
The final shots:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So, that brings this seventeen-year-long, on-again off-again journey to a close. I do have another wooden subject waiting in the wings, but I'll divulge that project at the proper time.
 
Cheers!
 

I´m still continuing ( slowly, but at least you can see some progress ). Some railing around the entries are finished.
Now I have a little dilemma: how to make the stairs on the poop deck.
On the Payne´s engraving and the Culver´s model they leads over the railing.
On the Van Velde´s work  they are made in the style of renaissance ( BUT.....the drawing itself is NOT dated, the date 1660 was just based by prof. Callender´s opinion. Van Velde arrived to England probably ten years later, when the ship looks absolutely different, it´s not sure he saw the ship in her original look, his drawing is probably based on Paynes engraving and he add the modern stairs. )
A lot of others models contains various other ideas ( based on the author´s taste ).
It is the same case as the belfry and the appearance of the forecastle from the main deck......nobody knows 😉
 
Jan
 
 

Finished
 
So, first of all, if anyone is interested in why this model is finished without having any masts or rigging, allow me to refer you back to post #25.
 
I ordered resin swivel guns from Chris at Vanguard Models. These are very nicely done and far superior to the off-the-shelf metal ones from Amati. I was surprised, though, to discover that the guns did not come with any mounts. I don't blame Chris for this at all -- I never asked about the mounts and he never said anything about whether they were included. The lesson here is it pays to ask! I tried several methods to create mounts: wire (fail), cobbling something together from leftover PE parts (fail), and finally hit upon yokes made from scrap black construction paper. These look fine as long as one doesn't view them from head-on, otherwise they look impossibly thin.
 
The final shots:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
So, that brings this seventeen-year-long, on-again off-again journey to a close. I do have another wooden subject waiting in the wings, but I'll divulge that project at the proper time.
 
Cheers!
 

Third trip to the cottage

Tiny steps…

The next pieces, according to the plans, were the ladders to the forecastle.  These would be the first pieces from the laser cut set to be used.  I am very impressed with this set as it is well labelled and has an index and diagrams of all the sheets to help you search. 
 
After carefully fussing for over an hour with the first tiny ladder, attempting to bend those blasted minuscule treads into place I was not in the mood to bend the second one right away.  Nonetheless, I carefully glued the first into place and as I saw those delicate rails sticking up above the forecastle I knew they would  certainly be crushed as I continued with the rest of the model.  I carefully took it off before the glue dried and stored it in a pill bottle for now.


Big steps…
At this point I had a choice of which of the four ships I wanted to build so I read over one of my reference books on flower-class corvettes that I had brought up to the cottage. I have purchased several books on these ships because I will be building the Revell 1:144 HMCS Snowberry kit in the near future - my first plastic model in 50 years.
 

 
HMCS Wetaskawin was mentioned as having sunk a u-boat early in the Battle of the Atlantic, so I went with that ship for this model and cut out the lower hull and gunwale pieces.  Clay modelling tools were used again to create curves to match the deck shape.  

Over two days I alternately glued hull sections.  First the lower hull, one side at a time.  To thicken the gunwales and provide printed details on the inboard view, the model requires an inner gunwale be glued to align with the outer section.  And then I made the stupid mistake of trimming off some lower hull that was sticking slightly above deck on the port side before gluing down the gunwales. This has left a little gap that I may have to address.🤬Fortunately, there are three more gunwales that I have to try and patch/fix the issue.
 
I should mention that I debated at length about cutting out the scuppers.  I regret my decision not to.  I think the model would have looked better and now that I completed these steps it will be too difficult to do a good job of cutting them out.  
 
And this is how the model sits until next visit:

 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe
 

Building log for the Lightship Overfalls at 1:96 by Jond.   
 
LSO 01. the beginning

This new project has taken some time to figure out.   Last year I completed an overview of the history of Boothbay shipyards 1800 up through 1920.   I built a three masted schooner to be a center piece of that presentation.  I then built two brigs to fill in more of the past.    This year I have begun to dig into the next era of Boothbay shipbuilding beginning roughly 1920.   I also want to move into the world of steel ship building.  Wow there is so much to learn and each week I find even more avenues to follow.   To reel in the expanding study and to focus on what will be part 1 of what now will be at least three builds, I chose a fun topic.  Lightships of Boothbay.  There were four of them.
 
First up I would like to list the 4 Lightships built here in East Boothbay at the Rice Brother’s yard.  Parallel to this log is my research of the evolution from wood schooners into steel ship fabrication that started here about 1915.   I chose a lightship as a model because I just learned that three Lightships of the 4 built right here are now in prominent US Museums. One is in Delaware, so a fall road trip is already planned.  The four lightships built here include:
 
1.    LV 99. Poe, a reef off Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the work was started in 1916, but alas, the hull was burned in a yard fire 1917. The Lightship was rebuilt and launched in 1921. She was sold out of service in 1955. 2.    LV 118 Cornfield, a reef in Conn, was built in 1938.  She served 20 years there and then as LV Cross Rip near Martha’s Vineyard then LV Boston through 1972.  Since then, she has been docked in a museum in Lewes, Delaware. 3.    WAL 604 Columbia, Mouth of the river in Oregon, was built in 1950. Now she is docked in the museum at Astoria, Oregon 4.    WAL 605 Overfalls, the entrance of Delaware River built 1950.After decommissioning, she was sent to Blunt Reef in California and then became the west Coast Relief.  She is now at the museum in  Oakland, California    
Secondly,  let’s start at the beginning of Rice brothers and their Lightships.
Rice Brothers started in East Boothbay in the 1892.  Their growth was substantial and lasting. After they finished in 1955 several owners worked in the yard and then since 1985, it has become the major establishment named Washburn and Doughty.  For my immediate study, the steel hull 98-foot Lightship built in 1916 has few documents on its detail.  I will continue to research to see if I can create better images of it, but not a built.  Several steel draggers were built then and steel aluminum work as well as an impressive wooden fleet emerged. I have just digitized over 400 images of their history.  
 
I love the stories and history of the second lightship, built in 1938 at 114 feet. Its history led through Connecticut then Martha's Vineyard and Boston eventually to its home starting in 1973 at Lewes, Delaware.  To confuse some of us, she was renamed Overfalls by the park in memory of the light ship near there. Rice Brothers also built the real Overfalls in 1950, but she went to the west coast after closing the Delaware station.   I really wanted to build smaller 1938 one but again lacking in drawings I hesitated.    
 
Number 3 and 4: we have the best possibility to reasonably create a model based on documents.  Two vessels-built weeks apart and launched in 1950, were the lightships Columbia and Overfalls.  They were virtually identical at launch.  The Columbia naturally went to Oregon, and she rests today in Astoria.   Finally, we have my target.   Wal 605 was launched as the Overfalls.  After decommissioning in Delaware, she went to be Blunt Reef in California.  She then became the west coast Relief vessel.  She now rests in Oakland California with the name Relief painted on her sides, however I will name her Overfalls as that is how she left the East Boothbay yard.  Sorry for confusion, but I didn’t do it.
 
I believe for me it is a good transition vessel. I know so little about modeling anything like this.    That means more books and more fun.   As to the modeling it takes me into work where I also have little experience. The on deck fitting out of a vessel of this era makes tying knots and silk span sails a useless skill set.   

The build: what to do and how.
 
This build is based on taking the Bluejacket Kit for the lightship Nantucket and changing it to another Lightship 20 feet shorter with a different on deck configuration that was built 14 years later.  Unfortunately, as I have already progressed a little, I have found much of the kit material will simply go unused.  Never mind there is so much new stuff and am grateful for what is included or available, and I will make up a list of what more I need due to the different configuration.  Example I need another exterior doors, a different motorboat, and a navy anchor. 
 
My first need is plans.  The lightship kit Nantucket comes with great plans. Unfortunately, it was 148 feet and over 1000 tons. I have read that by 1950 the service had settled on a standard design of 128 feet and somewhere around 600 tons.   The lightship Nantucket was apparently a beast due to its location.  I found a small pdf set of plans online of Relief and now thanks to Don at Taubman plans I have a complete set even with lines for the LV612 San Francisco.  That was another 128 ft standard coast guard design lightship that was built in Maryland in 1950. Both sets are the same, so they should be a match for here the same year.  
 
Starting out the hull using the Kit
 
After a very brief consideration of scratch building a hull with at that time no proper line drawings, I called Nic at Bluejacket.  They have a solid hull kit for the Nantucket lightship. That vessel is bigger but was built in the same era with many of the same things.  We talked briefly about options in cutting down the hull to fit a smaller build, 1938 Cornfield.  I had been trying to get back to this ship at only 114 feet and the kit would not work.   I decided then the 1950 hulls at 128 feet is the way to go.  I have a normal cut off saw and can take 20 feet [ 2.25 inch in scale] out of the middle of the hull and then make it work…..we’ll see!  Nic said after listening to my plan that if I screwed up he could sell me a new hull.....😄
 
I think this kit will also help me get into more modern ships much more easily too.   Many of those little pieces will be new to me and I surely need more experience at the 1:98 scale as well.  My fingers don’t like it small but that is the way it goes.
 
Hull early Progress:
First up I have the outline and template plan from the kit. It is right on …18.5 inches = 148 feet.    There are two stations, 5-6 that are the same, so I need to find the middle of them and cut back 10 feet in scale each way.
01   here we have the kit template plan. I have identified where to remove the 20 feet of hull amidship.  I will do the lines separately before making the templates.    
02   here I have cut out profile section of the 128-foot standard design I found on the internet.  The highlight confirms that the draft difference is about a foot and the bow is not quite so high.  It is not perfect but a way to get there.  
03   I glued to hull to a plywood strip and made the deck level.  This will sit in the cut off saw.   
04   Here we are back from the garage shop with the center cut.  
05   the center is now apart.  
06.   the hull is dry fit.  
07.   I chose to go get the Wes Systems epoxy to make this joint.   I will need to sand 1/8 inch off the sides, so it needs to be a strong joint.  
next up fix the hull profile.....all for now

 

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!

Hello to you all,
 
It's been a while since I've been here online. I was dealing with some personal stuff and didn't feel to work on this lovely hobby of ours.
But lately I wanted to have something to work on again. I was building the HMS Pegasus from Amati, and I am about halfway I think. But
the motivation to work further on that project is a bit low. The great kits that Chris Watton is producing now in his own company are so much
further in design and realism that it's difficult to unsee the flaws in the earlier designed kits with the less quality materials and poor instructions.
Ofcourse there is a lot to learn about building these kits and you can easily update them with other materials, but at the moment I just like to build
something that is just beautiful and great out of the box without the need of altering to much. And Chris his new stuff is just perfect for this in my opinion.
Luckily I had the funds now to purchase such a gem from Vanguard Models and it's the HMS Sphinx. I ordered it yesterday from a online store in Germany
so I need to wait a few days before it arrives here in the Netherlands.
 
There are already great building logs here on MSW, so this one won't add much to it. But it's nice to have a watchful eye of the designer and builder here
on the forum, may I run into some difficulties.
 
 

Hello,
First planking in progress....
 
Have a nice day

Congrats on the finish!

Excellent result!

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!

After finishing the treenails...finally, I continued to plank up to the sheer.  This meant one more 1/4" wide strake to cut around all those ports.  It wasnt too bad to do.  Then another stake of 1/8" wide planking which is the first layer for a fancy molding strip.  We will add that soon.  The top of this 1/8" strake and molding is the sheer.  The top of this along the waist should NOT be altered or sanded down.  You want to maintain that ice continuous and graceful flow for that molding strip and sheer.  If for whatever reason your planking in the waist ends up slightly higher or lower that is OK.  This is tough to plan out exactly.  The top edge for me along the waste was about 1/64" higher than the sheer I sanded into the framing and fairing cap.  Thats is perfectly fine and it is best not to sand the strake down to match.  Best to keep a nice flow and even width to what will become a molding piece.  Hope that makes sense.
 

Then I planked along the drifts fore and aft to complete the external planking on the starboard side.  I will repeat this on the port side next.  The Qbadge and window for it are just lightly tacked in place for the photo.  That wont be glued permanently yet.  
 

 
Note where you would see the scrolls along the waist.  On Speedwell they are different than on a frigate like the Winnie.  Therefore a different approach is needed with them.  So you will notice how the planking drifts along the waist are stepped.  This shape will allow for the addition of the scrollwork later where it will make perfect sense.
 

Once I complete this on the other side I will begin adding the second layer of the wales painted black and the fashion pieces.  Then the fancy molding will be added outboard. 
 
All of the planking should be relatively easy.  Aside from the detailed expansion templates (below), I also created an expansion of every single planking strake above the wales individually.   They have the tapers needed on each of them.  This can be used to literally cut the exact shape of every strake from a 3/64" thick sheet of Yellow Cedar if you chose to.  Even the drifts are included.  You will still have to cut them around each gunport and break them into individual lengths depending on where your planking step pattern is.  You can use the plans to find those.  There was no need to create an expansion drawing for the 3/32" and 1/8" wide strakes that represent the fancy molding.  I just ripped those on my table saw as they are not tapered and easy to plank with being so narrow.
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Yes, I know.  Thanks for the reminder anyway.  I wanted to make sure the keel fit before planking and the instructions suggested this step in fact. It took a lot of sanding but now the keel pieces fit perfectly without excessive force.  I also now have 3 rows of planks in place. It is nice having the planks shaped to fit.  The shipyard will be closed for a week as we are taking our granddaughter to a nearby lake for a week.  

While I haven’t quite finished the Mark IV tank, as a side build I started this heavy howitzer used by Germany in WW1 and WW2.   There are decals to portray this as a captured by the Canadian 21st battalion at Vimy Ridge. 

Hi
New/Old member intro time ,I used to be fairly active on the old MSW forums way back but I kind of drifted away after the great data booms,(lost my build logs and just didn't have the will to redo everything).
Looking at getting back into the hobby with the Corel Victory cross section which could be interesting..(atleast i'm not trying a full victory model as a comeback😎🤣)
hoping to be around more and re-discovering the hobby!
 
Richard

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!

Excellent result!

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!

Excellent result!

I missed the finish of this, but wow what a great diorama! It really invites the viewer in to explore all the little details. Very fine job!