Cathead

What a great start! I love reading about others' problem-solving.

Any further progress after your good start?

Looks like a neat project. I'm not familiar with this source, so what a great chance to learn about their kits!

Beautiful, and thanks for the detailed instructions from the beginning. Helps folks like me learn.

Wooden ship building definitely has a steep learning curve. You're doing great and you'll be proud to display this when you're done. And yes, I think you'll love building a new project with good materials and instructions!

Welcome back! I hesitate to note this, but will do so in case you care: several of the deadeyes are rigged incorrectly. They should always be rigged so that the top hole in the triangle of three holes faces away from the other deadeye, like this (from this great page on rigging by the San Diego Ship Modeler's Guild😞 Of the four you show, the second from the left is correct, the rest are not. Now, you don't have to fix this; the vast majority of viewers won't notice or care and the model will look great regardless. I just mention it because a lot of modelers enjoy learning as part of the building process, and if this level of accuracy is important to you, it's easier to correct it now as you've only done 4! But you have every right to shrug and move on; we all draw the line somewhere. EDIT: Oops, apparently you posted your update as I was writing the above. Adding all the ratlines does change the equation on redoing the deadeyes. It's still up to you, as they're technically independent from the shrouds. But you can always apply the "correct" method to the other mast and just not worry about this obscure detail.

Here's a thread (no pun intended) from the MSW rigging section that contains a variety of suggestions, examples, and links for methods:

If I understand your question correctly, I did that in two ways depending on context: (1) by passing the line through the bolt or block, tying the simplest possible overhand knot to hold it in place (think the first step of shoelace tying), using a small clamp to hold both ends of the line parallel, applying a tiny drop of glue to fix the proto-knot in place, then finishing the knot or wrapping the loose end around the taut end as needed. (2) by doing something similar, but to simulate "serving" (the finer line wrapped around two rope ends to hold them in place), once I used a drop of glue to hold the original rope in place, I simply used fine tweezers to wrap finer line around just like real serving, again using a spot of glue to hold it in place once done. If these written descriptions aren't clear, I can try and whip up a mock photo or two for you.

Well, if you have questions, you can always send me a direct private message through MSW's system. To do this, click on a member's name to go to their profile, then hit the prominent "message" button right next to "follow member".

I could easily imagine it being a storm-driven wreck. Even if it happened post-settlement, hurricanes can move incredible amounts of sediment, easily covering a large anchor before anyone had the chance to salvage it.

Not necessarily. Shorelines change naturally all the time, especially if there's a river mouth nearby dumping sediment into the area. Waterfronts also routinely get filled in by humans to make more usable land. For example, a significant amount of downtown Boston is built on fill and its modern shoreline would be nearly unrecognizable to 18th century residents. So it's pretty easy to imagine the anchor being lost in a harbor area 200 years ago that has since filled in. Reading the Spanish account, this was found along a seafront promenade, so a variety of scenarios are possible, from it being dropped in an area that's since filled in (naturally or anthropogenically), to it being washed ashore and buried by a long-ago hurricane (to which the Yucatan is prone), to even theoretically being abandoned on land as naval stores and buried.

This is a great attitude! I'm so glad you're sticking with the project despite the kit's myriad flaws. If you're finding this worthwhile, you have a bright future ahead building kits from better sources! Do you have a build log? If so, I'd be happy to follow along and offer advice if needed.

I just heard about that as well, so cool! Looking forward to following your project. I agree that a newer kit will give you a much better building experience.

I personally think railings are the worst part of steamboat modeling.

Thanks Brian and others. I won't be doing any projects for quite a while, I injured my wrist and need surgery with a 1-2 month recovery time. Has rearranged our whole life.

That's wonderful! Not sure what to tell you about the album question, I've never had that problem. Can you be more specific about what's not working?

Thanks, Tommy! I'm glad to hear it. Sounds like you're pretty far along, but if you'd like to start a build log anyway and I'd be happy to follow along as you finish it off.

Rule of thumb for maintaining sanity: there's always someone better than you at any given task/skill. And if there really isn't at the moment, there will be in a few years. So enjoy what you can do, 'cause there's also plenty of people who haven't gotten as far as you have! So sorry to hear of the accident, such things really do turn life upside down. Best wishes for getting through that and continuing with your lovely build.

I have this tool and have found it useful, though I don't always use it. Most often I soak in warm water and then let dry while clamped to a form, either on the model itself or some other curved surface. But there are strong advocates for dry-bending (never using water, only heat). The tool doesn't keep you from learning anything about how to shape planks properly, it just helps apply heat in a way that eases the wood fibers into accepting your bend. The relevant skills in shaping the planks in the first place are needed regardless of what you use to achieve the goal. The most important point, though, is to get your head around how planks will wrap around 3D surfaces. As you found, parallel lines of same-width planks simply won't work, despite what so many kits try to advise you to do. So they either need to be spiled (cut into non-linear shapes that actually follow the hull) or edge-bent (deformed into those same curves against the natural grain of the wood). It's a really fun skill once you get your head around it!

That approach (and lots of filler) works fine for the under-planking, which is just meant to provide a solid base for the outer planking, but I'd suggest reading some planking tutorials before tackling the outer layer. There are some concepts and skills that would really help you in the next step. Check out the relevant section on MSW for more. You might even consider making a bit of a false hull out of scrap material (think a few bulwarks on an easy keel) to test how to bend and shape planking before doing it on the real thing. EDIT: I meant to add that I left some blood in my last project, too. Think of it as a signature to your work of art.

Y'know, that'd make a great figurehead...

Congratulations! Such a neat vessel, and a model to be proud of. I've greatly enjoyed following along and learning from your work.

Great progress!

Ironically, any maritime model building is going on hold for a while as I have several 1:1 projects in the works and a potential model railroad project. I've been busy cutting a stand of large cedar trees to produce lumber for an outdoor kitchen, which I plan on building with proper traditional post-and-beam construction, seen here in my initial 3D rendering of the conceptual design: Much of our life on this homestead farm is built around food production and cooking, so this space will take some of the mess out of our overworked indoor kitchen, making it easier to do everything from meat butchering to food preservation to maple boiling, as well as simple entertaining (note the included wood pizza oven). I've already built many home-milled cedar-lumber barns and other outbuildings here, but this will be my first true post-and-beam structure. Here's the log pile so far and the area I'm logging: In addition, I'm about to start ripping out the carpet in a spare bedroom so I can refloor it properly in wood. This is likely to become my new modeling/woodworking space and may end up hosting a small model railroad centered on Missouri coal-mining history. Early 20th century Missouri had some really cool mining complexes that are screaming to be scratchbuilt, such as these (from the Missouri Historical Society): These are going to keep me quite busy for a while and I'm ready for a temporary break from nautical modeling. Not going anywhere from MSW, but I probably won't start any new model projects until at least next fall/winter, at which point I'll probably return to some Missouri craft like the Lewis & Clark barge or another steamboat. I have my eye on the JR Wells, a relatively well-documented small steamboat that operated into the Missouri Ozarks on the Osage River. See the Miller County Museum website for some nice photos and background; not reproducing them here because they're marked as copyrighted. Okay, that went off-topic, but you did ask!

I declare the capstan completed! I didn't take photos of the final details and assembly, partly because I was excited to push through, partly because they were all pretty straightforward. A few notes on these: The capstan bars are just a basic shaping of square stock, easily followed from the plans. Because the slots in my drumhead were a little wonky, I custom-fit the insert end of each capstan bar to each hole, but this isn't noticeable in the final display. I used black walnut for the color contrast. I didn't try to add the nailing pattern in the grating, as I didn't think I could do this well at 1:24 and preferred to leave it out than do a bad job. I added the bolts to the drumhead and base by drilling holes, inserting black wire, and nipping it off just above the surface. The instructions call for making sure the bolt heads are flattened/widened, but at 1:24 I decided this wouldn't be worth the work, so just left the cut ends in place with a bit of filing. I made the iron ring atop the drumhead using fine black sandpaper rather than the regular paper (colored with ink) called for in the instructions. This was sturdier to cut out, had no danger of ink running, and had a nice rough texture that looked more iron-like to my eyes. I made the pawls out of walnut and just oiled them rather than painting them black to represent metal. This is less realistic but more aesthetically pleasing to me, matching the capstan bars and emphasizing the natural wood. I left off the pins & chains that hold the capstan bars in place (photo below from @tlevine's log). I didn't have anything on hand to make these and wasn't sure I could do it right by hand at 1:24. The instructions say these are optional anyway. Maybe if I end up with some spare chain and tiny eyebolts from a future kit, I'll go back and add them, but didn't feel like ordering a tiny pack of chain and other material: My model is essentially an artistic interpretation anyway, more than a perfectly accurate scale representation, so I decided I was pleased with it as it was. Here are a few more photos: Below is the worst drumhead hole; it's still barely noticeable except in closeup photos, so I'm ok with it. Closeup of the walnut pawls and black wire bolts: So that's that. This project certainly achieved its goals of pushing me to try something new that I probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise, and exposing me to new skills that I will be able to put to good use in future. It was a challenge at times, and I strongly encourage other builders to think ahead to be sure you aren't led astray by confusion or inattention (a good practice in any build). I'd also say it's fine to make your own course; I deviated from the instructions quite often where I thought necessary, and in truth that's also part of the scratch-building skill set this is meant to teach (confidence to think for yourself and work out the best approach to a problem rather than blindly following instructions). Although I've been critical at times, I want to be absolutely clear how grateful I am to @tlevine and the NRG for developing this project. I wasn't at all sure I could produce something this nice, even if it isn't quite at the level of truly skilled builders, and I couldn't have done it without their development work. It's especially cool to display knowing that all the wood (except a few hidden dowels) was harvested, milled, and finished right here on-farm, making this particularly special to me. Here's the capstan in its final location within a bigger display case, staged with its companion 1:24 naval gun dioramas and various marine life collected primarily from my favorite coastline in the world, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Thanks to all the readers who gave encouraging likes and helpful comments. Hopefully this log is of use to others.