Cathead

You make use of forums like this, and elsewhere, to research kits and manufacturers. There is a wealth of personal experience and testimony about the subject, here alone much less on the internet at large. You look for build logs for that kit, and read what experience builders had. You then contact those builders and ask their further opinion. You post a general question, if it hasn't already been asked, about a given manufacturer and kit. It's why MSW has this section:
 
   
 
Particularly if you aren't experienced with kits, actually handling the kit may or may not teach you much (for example, misunderstanding the laser burn marks as a defect), whereas crowd-sourcing opinions and reviews from many builders will given you a better understanding of the kit or company overall. 
 
I've purchased three kits, each of which I researched in this way, and each of them as been as I expected when I opened the box because I did my homework online. 
 
In an ideal world, we could all also go to a nice local hobby store with floor-to-ceiling kit boxes to peruse, but almost none of this live in that world. The next best stage is learning from our peers, and I've found that I can trust the folks here to provide useful and accurate information. 

If you're judging all possible model kits by the one kit you saw from one manufacturer, that's your loss.

Hi JA
may I suggest you not to bevel all the teeth in the frames?
The teeth have been designe to house the precut planks, of course they MUST be beveled but as you already understood the frames are very fragile. Nonetheless the amount of bevel is not large and, mainly, it is very confined in a small space...the height of the tooth itself. So you cannot use your usual sanding sticks the way you are accostumed to.
 
I suggest you this aproach, which I already successfully tested in my Knarr (also by Dusek):
- bevel just the first tooth, the one close to the keel
- glue the first plank (the "garboard" in the later ships) on port and starboard
- with the first plank glued, the frames are already a little bit stiffer and able to sustain the tools pressure for beveling the second tooth from the keel
- and so on
This way you are strenghtening the frames at the same time as you work your way down from the keel.
 
Another warning for you...just in case: the planks are already precut with the required shape, in theory the should be just removed from the sheet, sanded and immediatly glued.
Well, this is just theory! Don't know if it was a defect of my kit, but the fit of the planks was very poor, with errors up to a couple of millimeters, sometimes the curvature was incorrect, some other time the amount of planks overlap was unsufficient .
I only could use them as templates to cut new ones out from a 1mm thick sheet of wallnut...had to re-build 3/4 of the planks! Nonetheless it was a very good excercise for planking, and a beautiful experience for the klinker type planks.
As I've seen that Dusek is going on in this philosophy, I hope they have improved their design or the appreciation for their kits will sunk in very short time!!
 
Cheers
Fam

Thursday, January 14th, 2016
 
Today was really a whole day with rain . . without any pause from morning until midnight. The small river close to me has nearly tripled its flow rate, although without absolutely no risk of flooding.
So nothing better than close myself in the lab and do something. Then I finished installing and fixing, using the usual system, all the remaining frames and spending the idle time waiting for the glue by reading "The Lord of the Rings", Tolkien's classic fantasy masterchief. The result can be watched in the attached pictures.
 
What remains now to be fixed are the last two frames, those at the extreme bow and stern that have a different development from the others, and then I have to stop and think about what to do next.
 
I tried to remove the hull from the building slip and immediately I got to see how it is flexible and very suitable to incidents. Therefore it becomes inevitable to adopt a new building board that will hold hardly and perfectly the hull in a capsized position. This is because I do not think it will be possible to apply the planks with the hull in a different position. In addition there is the problem of beveling many frames; fortunately this angle is not very pronounced, but only the simple action of smoothing one frame, without firmly holding it, is rather risky.
The current building slip will be again useful later, after planking will be complete, allowing to work on the deck and its superstructure.
 
Hence the need to think, and maybe for some time, on the next step: the building of this blessed new planking board. Of course I'll keep you informed as soon as there will be something new to show.
 
Sincerely, Jack.
 
01 14012016 P1100419.jpg

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05 14012016 P1100420.jpg

 

Tuesday, January 12th, 2016 . . Frames installation.
 
On the day that my daughter left Pisa for Los Angeles, where she will stay +/- for a full month, I started with "nostalgia" to install and fix a first batch of frames of my "Viking". Obviously I used the process I described previously and I must say that it works brilliant, at least until now.
 
Here in Tuscany my new workshop seems to run well: till now I didn't need to use the electric heater because the weather feels more spring-like than winter. Only one thing confirmed its uncomfortability and impracticability: the chair, but in ten days will be discarged.
 
01 13012016 P1100416.jpg

02 13012016 P1100417.jpg

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04 1301201 P1100414.jpg

 
 
Regards, Jack.Aubrey

Treating the bulkheads and the keel
 
The Gokstad ship, and probably all the Viking ships, once completed, were "sealed" using the caulking process. In those days this was through tar and animals fur: goats, sheep or similar. Once filled the cracks, tar was spread throughout all the hull timbers to provide also some kind of protection against the weather elements. Hence the characteristic "quasi black" brown color of these boats.
 
To realise this model I therefore thought to stain the precut pieces before mounting and fix them. To stain I decided to use a walnut mordant, very very concentrated and dark. I've done this NOW, before to install, because if made after any glue residual would not allow a well done staining, especially so dark. But staining prior to bonding tends to melt with glue, so, to avoid this second problem, I also treated the stained pieces with one/two coats of vinyl glue diluted to 50% and immediately dried with a hair-drier. This trick avoids the occurrence of the problem just described. The same procedure was used for the keel and will be used for the planks. After the diluted glue, a light sanding to smooth the surface and spot the brown color.
 
Below is an example of some frames treated this way. Areas not dyed will be hidden after the installation of the deck and planks.
 
01 11012016 P1100411.jpg

 
Frames positioning and installation . .
 
In the previous message I raised the issue of how to precisely mount the frames on the keel. The problem is to mount them 90° relative to the keel, 90° with respect to their vertical and parallel to the building board basement, that means perfectly horizontal.
 
To do this I prepared the instrument shown here below. On one side I signed a reference grid to help positioning horizontally the frames. Positioned and fixed in the right place on the building board, according to the lines drawn with a pencil on the same, this tool lets you mount and bond the frames rather precisely and stable until the glue hardens. After +/- ten minutes, it will be possible to switch to mount another frame and so on until the end.
 
And it's what I'll do in the next steps. Sincerely, Jack.
 
02 1101206 P1100409.jpg

03 1101206 P1100407.jpg

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Erik,
 
You're not the only neat freak, though I tend to work in cycles. Mess builds up temporarily while I'm in the middle of a step, then I go on a whirlwind of cleanup to get things trim again. It's about a weekly cycle. My work station, about the size of yours, is right in our living room, which helps motivate the organization. 
 
In any case, I'm really intrigued by this new twist on "kits", and will happily learn from your experience. As another model railroader turned ship modeler in the last few years, we're on a similar trajectory! Similar name & age, too, didn't know I had a long-lost twin.

Erik,
 
You're not the only neat freak, though I tend to work in cycles. Mess builds up temporarily while I'm in the middle of a step, then I go on a whirlwind of cleanup to get things trim again. It's about a weekly cycle. My work station, about the size of yours, is right in our living room, which helps motivate the organization. 
 
In any case, I'm really intrigued by this new twist on "kits", and will happily learn from your experience. As another model railroader turned ship modeler in the last few years, we're on a similar trajectory! Similar name & age, too, didn't know I had a long-lost twin.

Erik,
 
You're not the only neat freak, though I tend to work in cycles. Mess builds up temporarily while I'm in the middle of a step, then I go on a whirlwind of cleanup to get things trim again. It's about a weekly cycle. My work station, about the size of yours, is right in our living room, which helps motivate the organization. 
 
In any case, I'm really intrigued by this new twist on "kits", and will happily learn from your experience. As another model railroader turned ship modeler in the last few years, we're on a similar trajectory! Similar name & age, too, didn't know I had a long-lost twin.

Should have mentioned, the laser cut edge isn't square because the laser takes a few micro seconds to cut all the way through and is 'on' the top surface a bit longer and that side the cut is a bit wider.  I use a small machinists' square to scrape the edge back to square, the metal having very true edges.

You make use of forums like this, and elsewhere, to research kits and manufacturers. There is a wealth of personal experience and testimony about the subject, here alone much less on the internet at large. You look for build logs for that kit, and read what experience builders had. You then contact those builders and ask their further opinion. You post a general question, if it hasn't already been asked, about a given manufacturer and kit. It's why MSW has this section:
 
   
 
Particularly if you aren't experienced with kits, actually handling the kit may or may not teach you much (for example, misunderstanding the laser burn marks as a defect), whereas crowd-sourcing opinions and reviews from many builders will given you a better understanding of the kit or company overall. 
 
I've purchased three kits, each of which I researched in this way, and each of them as been as I expected when I opened the box because I did my homework online. 
 
In an ideal world, we could all also go to a nice local hobby store with floor-to-ceiling kit boxes to peruse, but almost none of this live in that world. The next best stage is learning from our peers, and I've found that I can trust the folks here to provide useful and accurate information. 

If you're judging all possible model kits by the one kit you saw from one manufacturer, that's your loss.

You make use of forums like this, and elsewhere, to research kits and manufacturers. There is a wealth of personal experience and testimony about the subject, here alone much less on the internet at large. You look for build logs for that kit, and read what experience builders had. You then contact those builders and ask their further opinion. You post a general question, if it hasn't already been asked, about a given manufacturer and kit. It's why MSW has this section:
 
   
 
Particularly if you aren't experienced with kits, actually handling the kit may or may not teach you much (for example, misunderstanding the laser burn marks as a defect), whereas crowd-sourcing opinions and reviews from many builders will given you a better understanding of the kit or company overall. 
 
I've purchased three kits, each of which I researched in this way, and each of them as been as I expected when I opened the box because I did my homework online. 
 
In an ideal world, we could all also go to a nice local hobby store with floor-to-ceiling kit boxes to peruse, but almost none of this live in that world. The next best stage is learning from our peers, and I've found that I can trust the folks here to provide useful and accurate information. 

You make use of forums like this, and elsewhere, to research kits and manufacturers. There is a wealth of personal experience and testimony about the subject, here alone much less on the internet at large. You look for build logs for that kit, and read what experience builders had. You then contact those builders and ask their further opinion. You post a general question, if it hasn't already been asked, about a given manufacturer and kit. It's why MSW has this section:
 
   
 
Particularly if you aren't experienced with kits, actually handling the kit may or may not teach you much (for example, misunderstanding the laser burn marks as a defect), whereas crowd-sourcing opinions and reviews from many builders will given you a better understanding of the kit or company overall. 
 
I've purchased three kits, each of which I researched in this way, and each of them as been as I expected when I opened the box because I did my homework online. 
 
In an ideal world, we could all also go to a nice local hobby store with floor-to-ceiling kit boxes to peruse, but almost none of this live in that world. The next best stage is learning from our peers, and I've found that I can trust the folks here to provide useful and accurate information. 

The value is partly intellectual property. What do you value a professional's time at? OK, consider all the hours you would put into figuring out how to scratchbuild a given model, add on more hours to figure out how to represent that process to customers, add on more hours to figure out how to design kit pieces to be easily/cost-effectively manufactured and useful to the customer, add on more hours for drafting accurate plans, and so on. That all has to be in the price of a kit. Most hobby builders (most hobbyists in general) ignore the intellectual cost of what they do, but any good businessperson can't afford to do that.
 
An example from my own experience. I'm a vegetable farmer, among other things. It drives me berserk when someone comes up to a farmers market stand and challenges me as to why X produce is so expensive at Y $/lb, when they easily grow it in their garden or neighbor Bob gives it to them from his garden. Well, those people are hobbyists. They aren't charging themselves a living wage for every hour they spend in the garden, they aren't counting the intellectual time it takes to plan out a full-scale farm, they aren't trying to support a family and health insurance and retirement savings from their fun little garden. It's not a fair comparison. 
 
As for contents, those dowels may well be standard hardware store dowels. But the point of a kit, at least most kits, is that it's self-contained. People who buy kits don't necessarily want to open it, and see the instructions start with "now go buy these other things or you can't build the kit". Would you buy a lawnmower that didn't come with sparkplugs, even though they're easy to get at a different store?
 
Of course there's a markup. There's a markup on everything you buy. Pretty much any retail product has a markup of 30-50% from wholesale, because the retailer is an independent business that has to pay for everything involved in modern life from the profits of the business. Then there's a markup over cost to reach the wholesale price, because the manufacturer has to pay for everything involved in modern life, plus the cost of developing the product in the first place. So, yeah, of course the "value" of the kit's contents don't add up to $350 in terms of what's physically there. But only someone who doesn't value others' professional time would think it would.
 
None of which is to say there aren't better and worse kits out there. I know nothing about the kit mentioned above. But, boy, a great way to get under a businessperson's skin is to complain that you could do it cheaper and better yourself. Fine, go do so, and be proud of yourself. I'm in awe of good scratchbuilders. But most of them realize they're paying themselves pennies per hour, whereas everyone involved in designing, producing, and selling a kit is trying to make a living doing it.

The value is partly intellectual property. What do you value a professional's time at? OK, consider all the hours you would put into figuring out how to scratchbuild a given model, add on more hours to figure out how to represent that process to customers, add on more hours to figure out how to design kit pieces to be easily/cost-effectively manufactured and useful to the customer, add on more hours for drafting accurate plans, and so on. That all has to be in the price of a kit. Most hobby builders (most hobbyists in general) ignore the intellectual cost of what they do, but any good businessperson can't afford to do that.
 
An example from my own experience. I'm a vegetable farmer, among other things. It drives me berserk when someone comes up to a farmers market stand and challenges me as to why X produce is so expensive at Y $/lb, when they easily grow it in their garden or neighbor Bob gives it to them from his garden. Well, those people are hobbyists. They aren't charging themselves a living wage for every hour they spend in the garden, they aren't counting the intellectual time it takes to plan out a full-scale farm, they aren't trying to support a family and health insurance and retirement savings from their fun little garden. It's not a fair comparison. 
 
As for contents, those dowels may well be standard hardware store dowels. But the point of a kit, at least most kits, is that it's self-contained. People who buy kits don't necessarily want to open it, and see the instructions start with "now go buy these other things or you can't build the kit". Would you buy a lawnmower that didn't come with sparkplugs, even though they're easy to get at a different store?
 
Of course there's a markup. There's a markup on everything you buy. Pretty much any retail product has a markup of 30-50% from wholesale, because the retailer is an independent business that has to pay for everything involved in modern life from the profits of the business. Then there's a markup over cost to reach the wholesale price, because the manufacturer has to pay for everything involved in modern life, plus the cost of developing the product in the first place. So, yeah, of course the "value" of the kit's contents don't add up to $350 in terms of what's physically there. But only someone who doesn't value others' professional time would think it would.
 
None of which is to say there aren't better and worse kits out there. I know nothing about the kit mentioned above. But, boy, a great way to get under a businessperson's skin is to complain that you could do it cheaper and better yourself. Fine, go do so, and be proud of yourself. I'm in awe of good scratchbuilders. But most of them realize they're paying themselves pennies per hour, whereas everyone involved in designing, producing, and selling a kit is trying to make a living doing it.

If you're judging all possible model kits by the one kit you saw from one manufacturer, that's your loss.

The value is partly intellectual property. What do you value a professional's time at? OK, consider all the hours you would put into figuring out how to scratchbuild a given model, add on more hours to figure out how to represent that process to customers, add on more hours to figure out how to design kit pieces to be easily/cost-effectively manufactured and useful to the customer, add on more hours for drafting accurate plans, and so on. That all has to be in the price of a kit. Most hobby builders (most hobbyists in general) ignore the intellectual cost of what they do, but any good businessperson can't afford to do that.
 
An example from my own experience. I'm a vegetable farmer, among other things. It drives me berserk when someone comes up to a farmers market stand and challenges me as to why X produce is so expensive at Y $/lb, when they easily grow it in their garden or neighbor Bob gives it to them from his garden. Well, those people are hobbyists. They aren't charging themselves a living wage for every hour they spend in the garden, they aren't counting the intellectual time it takes to plan out a full-scale farm, they aren't trying to support a family and health insurance and retirement savings from their fun little garden. It's not a fair comparison. 
 
As for contents, those dowels may well be standard hardware store dowels. But the point of a kit, at least most kits, is that it's self-contained. People who buy kits don't necessarily want to open it, and see the instructions start with "now go buy these other things or you can't build the kit". Would you buy a lawnmower that didn't come with sparkplugs, even though they're easy to get at a different store?
 
Of course there's a markup. There's a markup on everything you buy. Pretty much any retail product has a markup of 30-50% from wholesale, because the retailer is an independent business that has to pay for everything involved in modern life from the profits of the business. Then there's a markup over cost to reach the wholesale price, because the manufacturer has to pay for everything involved in modern life, plus the cost of developing the product in the first place. So, yeah, of course the "value" of the kit's contents don't add up to $350 in terms of what's physically there. But only someone who doesn't value others' professional time would think it would.
 
None of which is to say there aren't better and worse kits out there. I know nothing about the kit mentioned above. But, boy, a great way to get under a businessperson's skin is to complain that you could do it cheaper and better yourself. Fine, go do so, and be proud of yourself. I'm in awe of good scratchbuilders. But most of them realize they're paying themselves pennies per hour, whereas everyone involved in designing, producing, and selling a kit is trying to make a living doing it.

Hello,
 
today I finished the stern lanterns. This is the second version, but that is a longer story. I'm not happy with the color of them at the picture. In reality they are ocher like the rails.
 

 
Next thing would be to install them and then the last thing, the cranes for the nettings and hammocks.
 
I thought and meditated a lot about this and came to the conclusion, that I only build the cranes. If I made it correct, I should build it with the tarp, in red and white, over it. But then the lines of the ship are destroyed and that is something I did't like. I think there I'm not the only one. All other modelers in the past and most of today did't like it too.
 
Regards,
Siggi

If you're judging all possible model kits by the one kit you saw from one manufacturer, that's your loss.

I agree with Bob, I really appreciate the step-by-step photos and detail you're sharing, something I've been far worse about on my build. It's interesting both as a model builder, and it  helps me better understand how this machinery works. 

The value is partly intellectual property. What do you value a professional's time at? OK, consider all the hours you would put into figuring out how to scratchbuild a given model, add on more hours to figure out how to represent that process to customers, add on more hours to figure out how to design kit pieces to be easily/cost-effectively manufactured and useful to the customer, add on more hours for drafting accurate plans, and so on. That all has to be in the price of a kit. Most hobby builders (most hobbyists in general) ignore the intellectual cost of what they do, but any good businessperson can't afford to do that.
 
An example from my own experience. I'm a vegetable farmer, among other things. It drives me berserk when someone comes up to a farmers market stand and challenges me as to why X produce is so expensive at Y $/lb, when they easily grow it in their garden or neighbor Bob gives it to them from his garden. Well, those people are hobbyists. They aren't charging themselves a living wage for every hour they spend in the garden, they aren't counting the intellectual time it takes to plan out a full-scale farm, they aren't trying to support a family and health insurance and retirement savings from their fun little garden. It's not a fair comparison. 
 
As for contents, those dowels may well be standard hardware store dowels. But the point of a kit, at least most kits, is that it's self-contained. People who buy kits don't necessarily want to open it, and see the instructions start with "now go buy these other things or you can't build the kit". Would you buy a lawnmower that didn't come with sparkplugs, even though they're easy to get at a different store?
 
Of course there's a markup. There's a markup on everything you buy. Pretty much any retail product has a markup of 30-50% from wholesale, because the retailer is an independent business that has to pay for everything involved in modern life from the profits of the business. Then there's a markup over cost to reach the wholesale price, because the manufacturer has to pay for everything involved in modern life, plus the cost of developing the product in the first place. So, yeah, of course the "value" of the kit's contents don't add up to $350 in terms of what's physically there. But only someone who doesn't value others' professional time would think it would.
 
None of which is to say there aren't better and worse kits out there. I know nothing about the kit mentioned above. But, boy, a great way to get under a businessperson's skin is to complain that you could do it cheaper and better yourself. Fine, go do so, and be proud of yourself. I'm in awe of good scratchbuilders. But most of them realize they're paying themselves pennies per hour, whereas everyone involved in designing, producing, and selling a kit is trying to make a living doing it.

The value is partly intellectual property. What do you value a professional's time at? OK, consider all the hours you would put into figuring out how to scratchbuild a given model, add on more hours to figure out how to represent that process to customers, add on more hours to figure out how to design kit pieces to be easily/cost-effectively manufactured and useful to the customer, add on more hours for drafting accurate plans, and so on. That all has to be in the price of a kit. Most hobby builders (most hobbyists in general) ignore the intellectual cost of what they do, but any good businessperson can't afford to do that.
 
An example from my own experience. I'm a vegetable farmer, among other things. It drives me berserk when someone comes up to a farmers market stand and challenges me as to why X produce is so expensive at Y $/lb, when they easily grow it in their garden or neighbor Bob gives it to them from his garden. Well, those people are hobbyists. They aren't charging themselves a living wage for every hour they spend in the garden, they aren't counting the intellectual time it takes to plan out a full-scale farm, they aren't trying to support a family and health insurance and retirement savings from their fun little garden. It's not a fair comparison. 
 
As for contents, those dowels may well be standard hardware store dowels. But the point of a kit, at least most kits, is that it's self-contained. People who buy kits don't necessarily want to open it, and see the instructions start with "now go buy these other things or you can't build the kit". Would you buy a lawnmower that didn't come with sparkplugs, even though they're easy to get at a different store?
 
Of course there's a markup. There's a markup on everything you buy. Pretty much any retail product has a markup of 30-50% from wholesale, because the retailer is an independent business that has to pay for everything involved in modern life from the profits of the business. Then there's a markup over cost to reach the wholesale price, because the manufacturer has to pay for everything involved in modern life, plus the cost of developing the product in the first place. So, yeah, of course the "value" of the kit's contents don't add up to $350 in terms of what's physically there. But only someone who doesn't value others' professional time would think it would.
 
None of which is to say there aren't better and worse kits out there. I know nothing about the kit mentioned above. But, boy, a great way to get under a businessperson's skin is to complain that you could do it cheaper and better yourself. Fine, go do so, and be proud of yourself. I'm in awe of good scratchbuilders. But most of them realize they're paying themselves pennies per hour, whereas everyone involved in designing, producing, and selling a kit is trying to make a living doing it.

Old Man, burnt parts are standard for anything that is laser cut. And yes, you need to spend time sanding them off. It's part of the deal.

Looks nice Paul, good work!
 
As for your question, I installed the floor first, before adding the thwarts or squeezing the hull. It worked well and I had no trouble with the latter, as you're really only changing the shape of the upper-most portion of the hull. And installing the floor after the thwarts would be a real pain. I did, however, wait to install the quarterdeck until after I'd squeezed the hull, as it meets the hull much farther up the sides and I was concerned it would be affected by the reshaping.  So I didn't insert the second-to-last thwart (the one that covers part of the quarterdeck) until after I'd shaped the hull. It all worked out fine.