vossy

What's with the paper on the bulkheads in the second picture David? It is used as some sort of a guide as to where the doorways are? Nice planking too. Are you going to stain it or just clear coat? Cheers Chris

Hooray!!! Glad to see you back on this at long last! Cheers Chris

Hey Mark, any more info on that? Size etc? Links? Cheers Chris

Is this kit the current "go to" kit on the market for size, quality, plans, material, and authenticity? Or are there any others in the wings/development that rival it? Cheers Chris

Hey Rod, great you finally made it here! First things first though. Go to the build log page. On there, near the top, you will see a topic called quick find indexes. Click on small craft and scroll down to you find the logs of the kit you are building. Some will be better than others, but everyone who starts a log on a kit is in there. This is a link from my latest build https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/17564-mississippi-1870-riverboat-by-vossy-sergal-150/& You will definitely learn heaps here. My first piece of advice however would be, a full blown Endeavour is vastly different and way more difficult than the kit you have chosen to begin with. Anyway, enjoy mate. Cheers Chris

Hey welcome mate. My number 1 piece of advice is to follow what Bob said. Read every build log you can find, then ask questions if you are still unsure. My number 2 piece of advice is to then start a build log of your own. Someone else will be in your same situation as a new builder one day and may find how you tackled a particular part of the building process invaluable. Good luck. Cheers Chris

They certainly follow them on Facebook. I agree David that there probably isn't a kit on the market that doesn't have some sort of issue, but this is a bit over the top I reckon and given the stage of the build it comes in could well end up being a critical error further down the track. Would be great if we could somehow get this rectified. I have a good relationship with the people at CMB. I will email them and see if they are aware of it? Maybe they can convince Amati to at least have a look at the issue? Cheers Chris

David, she just trumps your Titanic at 1100mm Cheers Chris

Pretty much done and dusted with the final Starboard side upper rails. Just the stairway and single rails to go. Time to turn the old girl around and complete the Port side. Still need to put the fancy deco's on the posts though. Cheers Chris

So the bulkheads are faired and now the planking begins As you all can see I managed to get one of them out of square! Looks bad on with the camera, but I don't envisage this being an insurmountable to overcome . Having said that, this is a single planked hull, but being painted I think it should come up ok. The error was my fault. Not the kits. So far loving this manufacturer. Looks pretty straight when you look along the length. Overall, happy with it up to this stage. Cheers Chris

Really good start David. I cant believe how terribly wrong those bulkheads supplied with the kit are and why a large, reputable company like Amati hasn't addressed the situation yet. As you suggest it wouldn't be too hard to provide half a dozen new pieces of the correct shape as an aside to the kit. After all, these kits aren't cheap and many who purchase this one may not have extra wooden at their disposal to produce what you have. I would love to build this kit, but I wouldn't buy it until this issue is fixed by the manufacturer. Perhaps I should try to contact them or the shop I buy my models from to try to get them to act upon it? The kit is well over $1000 AUD to purchase here and a glaring, easy to fix (for Amati), error is not very equitable in my opinion. Cheers Chris

Good work on the bulkhead fix David. Will it impact on the covering strips or ply pieces? Will they need to be lengthened etc? Seems to me that if you are pushing out the width of the vessel you would have to lengthen anything covering them up to compensate that. Looking at Mr. Pucko's picture he posted I cant tell if the covering (under the strips he bemoans), are separate planks or sheets of ply. If its the latter it could be a problem if they are laser cut to fit the given bulkhead pattern. Just a thought. Cheers Chris

Very nice model. Well done! Cheers Chris

Hey David, welcome back. Hope you had a great holiday. Really looking forward to this one! Cheers Chris

Hey Greg, I really like and admire your builds. Don't know if I should ask this here or not, but you seem to be able to come up with a great deal of different models. Have you ever seen a kit of HMAS Torrens (my avatar, and home for some years), on the market? I must say, I haven't really searched high and low, but maybe you have come across a kit in your travels? Cheers Chris

Getting all the bulkheads in place. A couple a bit out of whack, but the stringers will straighten them up. Most of the work just involved removing the char! Have also checked and the stringers will correct the warp in the keel. Looks pretty dodgy at this stage I know, but I am 100% confident she will turn out just fine under the right hands! When you get to bulkhead number 5 the clever folk at Model Shipways decided to make it a bit easier to fair the hull prior to planking by adding these really cool and useful guidelines! In my opinion, a few more kit manufactures could follow suit. Specially with beginner kits. I don't have any data to back up this statement, but I bet more than a few novice builders have abandoned a build because they didn't fair the hull and thus planking became a nightmare that was too much to overcome. I reckon, by doing this on beginner kits it would at least instil the basic principle of fairing before planking. I don't expect a Caldercraft 1:72 Victory to have this feature. If you are tackling one of those you better know how to do this already. But for a beginner feature, for me its a no brainer. Cheers Chris

Agree with all the above comments and recommendations, but I will add this if I may: your build should govern your tool kit. Not the other way round. If you buy a multi tool set you may well find you don't use any on the particular project you are undertaking. A good hobby knife, a few hobby files, assorted grades of sandpaper, and a straight edge ruler should kick you off well in the right direction. Easy to add on from there as you deem necessary. As for workstations, I tend to think they are over hyped. Just my opinion. I would rather save the money on a workstation toward my next model. All my modelling is done on the coffee table in front of the tv in the lounge room. But then again I do live alone. Horses for courses I guess. Heaps of clamps, cradles, holding devices etc. can be self made. All my models live their building life ultra cheap Styrofoam cradles I glue together from packaging materials. Costs nothing, is beautifully soft on wood and associated paintwork, and gives a great non-slip cradle so the model wont slip when turned on its side. Cheers Chris

Be good if someone could post a copy here so us convicts can see it too. Copyright depending though. Cheers Chris

Thanks for the nice comments Popeye. Much appreciated. The boat on the shelf is the Mamoli Golden Hind. I pretty much gave her up at this point when I got sick and tired of replacing deformed pieces or missing lumber etc. Probably my own fault as I should have done an inventory before I began, but this was one of the first kits I built so I didn't really know any better. It is a real disgrace how much of this kit was missing. For example, there was only enough planking material to do one side. But don't get me started. I will, or at least want to, finish her off one day. Cheers Chris

Hey Steve, interesting build. Can you post a link to where you bought this model? Cheers Chris

Hi Dave, you have found the number 1 ship modelling resource site on the planet! As they say in the classics; don't be fooled by imitations! Anyway, that book you have purchased is THE ship modelling bible! Full of easy to read and understand concepts and illustrations to boot. I cant recommend it highly enough for both beginners and experienced builders alike. Have a good look around here at the multitude of different build logs. You will find all manner of craft in various levels of degree of difficulty. Ask questions. No such thing as a dumb one. Ultimately though, build something you are interested in and have a great time! Cheers Chris

Hey Carl, yeah it is easily the most burnt I have ever come across. Its nothing more than annoying though. I just wanted to alert newer builders to the fact that you do need to remove some of it to get good adhesion to other parts. I wont need any wood slivers as I wont be sanding them down too much. Cheers Chris

Thanks for following along. Be prepared to be bombarded with questions as I go! Anyway the first thing we need to do of course is construct the basic hull. Here is the first hurdle. Well not really a hurdle, but more of an annoyance with this particular kit. CHAR! With a capital C! The photo's don't really show up the level, or darkness of it too well, but being a 6+ kit builder, this is easily the worst I have ever seen. What it means in reality is that a simple task like assembling the hull and false bulkheads is turned into a long and tedious job whereby I have to sand every nook and cranny before anything will stick. This is a massive pain in the butt, given there are about 30 of these to do! Having said that, I am in love with this vessel, so I forgive her and the manufacturer who produced her for me! Nothing has been glued yet. Way too much sanding needs to be done. Hope you all stay tuned. Cheers Chris

Hi mate. Not sure what else you want me to add??? I am happy with the kit in general, bar the couple of gripes I have pointed out. Pretty hard to review a kit unless you have finished it I reckon. Just my opinion. If you want to add my first post to the section you mention, by all means do so. Cheers Chris

Ok, so I was given this kit as a present last Christmas and have so far resisted the very strong urge to start it whilst I am still completing my current project, which can be found here - https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/17564-mississippi-1870-riverboat-by-vossy-sergal-150/& Given the stage I am at with Mississippi, and deciding I needed a really good birthday treat, I thought I may as well make a start. I will be finishing the aforementioned model in conjunction with this build, but as they are so obviously now at very different construction points I thought it might break up the monotony of one build with something fresh. There are a number of really great build logs of the Chaperon on this site, and trust me I will be getting as much info as I can from all of them as I proceed. The one thing I noticed however was that not one of them did a "what's in the box" type introduction. So by way of a start, here's a look at what you get for your $$$$'s Minimal box art, but it tells a brief history of the vessel, and more importantly, the model specs. Parts list and instructions are first rate I reckon. All in English and easy follow. Plan sheets are full size, and thus very large. I haven't photographed every individual sheet, but I hope you get the idea. The lifeboats are metal; which I don't really like, but I figure with a nice cover they will come up ok on the finished model. There are many laser cut boards of various sections of the boat. I will get to this later in another post, but one thing I have noticed is an excessive amount of char on the parts once they are removed from the board. The parts themselves seem to be of very good quality otherwise, but it is necessary to remove the char before gluing. Also on this model you have to hand paint the name. It is slightly etched into the panel, so hopefully it wont be too much drama. One thing I don't like however is the pre-scribed decks. I love the way random planks show the different grain patterns of timber side by side. unfortunately with these you don't get that contrast. Also I don't like 100% uniformity on wooden vessels of any age. In my opinion there would have been a lot of difference from one plank to the next. Also, these scribed planks have no length. I will deal with that when I get to that stage. The kit has a very nice sheet of P.E. to do the fancy bits. My particular box was shipped in extremely good condition and the sheet was perfectly flat upon opening. Nothing worse than opening a box to find bent P.E. I did a fairly detailed inventory of the supplied wood for hull planking etc. Seems to all be in very good condition and of a high standard. Also, I cant see that I have been short changed on the amount of any. Though, this kit is not as generous as the Sergal Riverboat Kit when it comes to materials. Something i'm not overly keen on is the solid dowels for the chimneys, but again, I will deal with this when I get to that point. And finally you get this long brass, very fine rod in this cylinder. Have no idea what its for yet, but it's packaged well! So that's the box contents. Hope it was of use to some who maybe might be thinking of building this boat. Cheers Chris