amateur

You're not like the 'standard builder', we all know that by now, but.....why start a second one? and: will you finish the first, as soon as you have a second one that (undoubtedly) will be better than the first? Jan

Hi Remco, Glad you restarted. Yours was/is one of my favourites (along with Danny's) You should not forget to post some of your famous 'redo's' Jan

The original model has flat chainplates However, the book by Ketting suggest linked chainplates. I don't know why, but I liked the idea (atleast: better than I liked the Corel provided flat plates, that did not fit at all, as I changed the dimensions of the channels) So I started out experimenting and soldering: First on the small ones for the shrouds on the spars: These were relatively easy, as there were no links below the tops, so a one-part thing would do. I did not solder the thing after putting the deadeye into place. I used a small drop of CA for those irons that did not close tightly enough. (for the scale: these are for the 3 mm dead eyes) The dead eyes on the mast are 5mm ones, and these have links to attach them to the hull. As there is quite s sheer in the hull, and a number of shrouds fanning out from the mast top, there was no way to go into mass production of the links: only the lower link is more or less mass-produces. the others are all individuall measured and modelled. As these are expected to get more strains that the small ones, the upper and the lower link is soldered. The connecting one is not. The lower one is soldered at the positionof the nail (and so connecting it to the nail). The upper link is soldered just below the dead eye. As I'm not into slver sodlering, it is all soft solder that is used. As to now (feb 2013) everything seems to take the stresses quite well. No deadeyese coming loose (just one or two nails that keep coming loose, but after a drop of CA, they don't) And in place (starboard main channel), before painting black:

Overview in may 2009, after placing the channels.

Next came the channels. It was only then, that I discovered that a bot more carefull planning atthe start would have paid off... So some surgery was necessary: This is the foremost port at the upper deck. It was just behind one of the shrouds. I placed a small plug in the hole, and shifted the port slightly to the stern. Result of this is that it is no longer possible to place the guns in these ports: the port is no longer in front of the wooden U-profile. However, as all ports on the upper deck are a bit low to the deck, I already discareded the idea of putting guns on the upper deck. Also some surgerey needed at the other end of the ship. The mizzen channel didn't fit in. I had to shift them a whole port-width (5 mm) towards the front. And the round port had to go a bit upward. That way the mizzen channel just fitted in, and the chains did not end in the middle of the port. Glad I decided earlier to make these ports as 'fake' ones. The white things you see are my version of the gun-lid hinges. strips of white paper (<1mm in width, to be painted black). I liked these far better than the Corel stamped brass hinges. The channels itself were laminated in three layers. Why laminated? They are 3 mm thick at the thickest point, and there should be a light curve in it as they should follow the main wale. The only way I could do that was by laminating (and thinking that there would be a layer of black paint covering up this little fraud) I made the channels less wide that the Corel version, but later on when the masts were in palce, and I started rigging, I discovered that they should have even less wide. Jan

After more or less finishing the hull, I came to the masting of the ship. I decided to make a few changes to the Corel setup. A bit encouraged by the fact that Corel gave me some non-straight wood to do the masts and spars. I used slightly thicker wood than Corel provided. Corels wood is a bit underscale, minie a bit overscale, but I like the overscale version (especially while the rigging thead by Corel is also overscaled in thickness) I started with the bowsprit, and the top at the end of the bowsprit was the first thing I made. While starting on the kit-provied version, I got the feeling that it wasn't correct, and that I could do better. Corel-version to the right, mine to the left. The Corel-provided clamps are way to heavy, and clumsy in form. I decided I could make my own by using some spare 1x3 mm walnut strips. I also used these strips to form the base of the top. (the version to the right also has a home-made base, as the plywoodversion of Corel didn't look right at all) By "scaling down" the parts of the top, I had also to scale down the trestle trees.I liked the finished result. The ring around the top is 0.5mm walnut, in stead of the 1.5 mm flexible beach Corel prescribes. Soaking it in ammonia made it very easy to bend around a small bottle with the correct diameter. After succesfully completing this beta version, I did all the tops in this way. To the left of this picture there is a plank I created to make the base of the top: four 1x4 walnut strips glued together to get the correct width, and doubled were necessary. Four of these composite planks formed a rectangle, with a hole of the correct size in the middle. I just had to make a circle out of it to get the base of the top, as shon on the right. The thickness of the base is slightly overscale, but as everything in this kit is, there is no problem (actually, now the topbase is 2 mm thick, using the 1.5 mm plywood, and covering it top and bnottomside with the 0.5 mm strips as per the manual, woudl have resulted in a thicker base.) And the finished main top (march 2009): Final decission with respect to the tops: to paint or not to paint. After consideration of the pro's (hiding of ugly glue residue) and con's (no wood structure visible) I decided to pain all the tops, and the mastheads black (as per the book of Ketting). As an example: the fore top, in a slightly later fase of the build. I used balck acyllic paint, quite dilluted. A light sanding was necassary between cats, as the wood fibres tended to react to the water. Due to the strong dillution, the tops are black, but quite a lot of the wood (both structure and colour) is still visible through the paint.

I'm not only trying to restore my log, but also my post-rank, that's why I use so many posts to show you 20 pictures Jan

Still updating on my build log (in stead of making any progress on the ship herself ) When I was this far in the build (september 2008) I came across the buildlog of Chuck of the Mayflower. Apart from all very usefull info in this log (which is gone by now, and will not return, I'm affraid) was some info on how to build a little boat. Chuck used a number of stacked layers, to form the basic hull, smooting and thinning it up, and use that as a base to add exterior planking, and interior framing. As Dutch ships (as all ships) should have at least a small boat stowed on the deck, I decided to add this little boat as an extra to the kit. I downloaded the plan Chuck had in his log, and gave it a go. It worked out pretty well, and was very easy to do (much easier than e.g. working from a plug). The basic structure: Outside planking: using walnut, 3.5mm wide. Flush planking on the bottom, clinker on the sides. Inside framing, using 1x1 mm walnut strips, bend using a soldering iron (there was only a thin line between severe burning of either fingers and wood and giving them the correct curvature ) Bottom planks, and the aft seat installed I had some problems to do the topside of the railing: it should be around 1 mm high and 3 mm wide (to hide the thicknes of the base-shell), and it should be left-right symmetrical. In the end I opted for the laminated version: I made a mold, and attached three layers of the standard 1x3 mm walnut planks provided with the kit. After drying of the glue, I used a sawe to divide this into two symmetrical 1 mm thick and 3 mm wide planks in the correct curvature. After attaching a details (seats for the rowers, keel, sterns and railings), I decided that this was as far as I would go at detailing the little one. I know that there shoudl be metal work, oars, rudder and so on on the boat, but I though it best to keep the level of detailing of the boat in line with that on the kit in general. The lenght of the boat is 7 cm overall, which nicely fits in with the empty space on the main deck where I stowed her. Jan

Hi Michiel, As my planking isn't completely flush, and not at all level, wuite a lot of the underlying structure is coming through. The wood used for the planking is walnut, and that has little structure visible in itself. The main structure is the gaps between the planks. The white paint itself is Talens Van Gogh acryllic paint, white, with some added yellow, brown and black. I gave it two coats, so the underlying woodcolour is not visible. I used cellotape to mask the waterline at the first layer, removed it when still wet. The second layer wasn't masked, and was done by eye (and a steady hand) Jan

I did not like the capstan as provided by Corel. So I made a couple of small changes to her: I made the head thicker, and I rearranged the spokes. It still isn't as Dutch as it shoudl be, but the colours make up for that (no flash used, so the colours are a bit 'off white') Jan

Ofcourse I will finish her (some time in the very distant future:) ) And then I started painting her. I had a problem there: the figures made by Corel do in no way resemble the originals on the Prinw Willem in the Rijksmuseum. Corel uses half-naked women, the original had just heads on some kind of pedistal. Therefore the paintscheme of the original was not fit for the model. I didn;t want to do any carving (I once tried that on a 1:30 scale, and I did not succeed, so I wasn't prepared to do it on a 1:100 scale) I decided to use a paintschem that was used the Netherlands a couple of decades later: All carvings just plain yellow. This is how it came out: Stern: Gallion Bottom and sides: I should have made all colours slightly less bright, but overall, I like the result. Jan

Great you restarted your log from the beginning! Jan

I discovered that I do not have any (!) pictures taken of the build up of the gallion.... I don't know why, presumably becasue it was not the easiest part to make, as I did some adjustents to the lion, and to the bow, so the ready made etched parts did not really fit well....

Knees of the head Here my own lack of planking skills was very visible (remember: PW was an dis my very first "real" kit) The positioning of the hawse holes if not as it should be, as the wales should (but aren't) almost horizontal towards the stern. And painted black: Visible on this last pic is a slight adaptation I made to the kit: I removed the top-layer of the plywoodkeel, and replaced it with a new top-layer, which reflects the historic correct build-up of the stern. Jan

Ed, Thanks for taking the time to repost. Your log is so full of info, we'll definitely be patient, as it is well worth waiting for! Jan

In all these years, I discovered a couple of 'historically incorrect' things in the kit, but no major construction errors. However, there was one serious mistake in the Corel kit. I think the kit had a redesign somewhere in its history. The photoetched parts were not compeltely matching the drawings (one doorpost too many), and one part seriously too large. The width of the deck is less than drawing and etched parts assume. The result is that there is a mismatch of about 1 cm between drawing and the model. Some cheating to get things fitted was necessary: I had to takle small corners out of the doorposts, in order to position them slightly more to the centre of the ship than indicated in the drawing. Also, the two outermost placed figures between the two decks, had to undergo some surgery, and I made indentations in the ships sides to get them placed properly. The four figures to be placed left and right of the doors, were placed on top of the doors. Finally, the strip above was the major problem: it did not fit, and due to the pattern there was no way to shorten it, while preserving the whole thing aligned. So I replaced that one with a version of thin cardboard (again, being glad that I decided to pain the whole ship)

Next were the golden parts on the side galleries: The white stuff you can see here is not filler, it is the glue I used. I used kind of gap filling, montage kit. slow curing, remaining a bit elastic. As the fit of many of the metal parts was lousy, this gap filling stuff worked fine with me (especially, while the stuf can be easily cut with a knife when dry) On this pic, you can see a second change I made to the kit: part of the smaller ports in the hull were assumed to be gunports by Corel. However, on the ketting drawing there is no deck behind it (at least not at such a level that a gun could be placed at the port) Ketting assumes that these ports are just for ventilation/light. I decided to keep these ports closed. So they were not actually made as ports, they were just cut into the planks, using a small chisel.

I'll try to give you a short reminder of what she looked before the pic above. I started her as early as the year 2000. (birthday present from my wife, which I told her would do for about four birthdays ) I had the book of Ketting onthe PW in my posession a long time before 2000. So I decided at the start that I would follow the kit, but would try to make some adjustments to get her more in line with the drawings in Ketting. I did this in a more or less informal way: a look at the Coreldrawing, a look at the book, and make something taht looked OK. Over the years, I discovered that I should have planned these adjustments a bit more carefully, as I had some repairs, adjustmants and changes to make which could have been avoided if the changes had been more carefully planned. I bought my first digital camera in 2007, so the first I can show you, is how she looked then. Although not complettely in focus, you can see the first change I made to the kit: I changed the size and position of the gunports: Corel positions them right between the wales over the full length of the ship, Ketting shows the more usual run for Durtch ships: the sheer of the wales being larger that the curvature of the deck, so the aftermost ports do get into the wales. (Later I realized I should have done so with the round ports at the upper deck, also. Too late to change them now.) Finally, something I did not change, but should have done: Corel makes the width of the high stern too large: the lower end has the correct width, the upper deck (and thus the width of the stern) should have been considerably smaller. You can see that there is much filler between the golden pieces, and some bare, grey metal showing. This is because the quality of the castings was not to good. So some action was needed to get things fitted to the stern. I had deceided to paint the whole thing, even before I discovered these problems. (That's why you can see red in the gunports, and white on the hull (which I discovered afterwards, should have been a couple of milimeter's higher up, but again: too late for that now

Thisis how she was, one and a half year ago. And to be honest, she is sitting on the table next to me, and I don't see much of a difference More will follow soon. Jan

I once had a build log of my Prins Willem here on MSW. I also had a backup of it on my PC. Some months ago I deleted that one.... I wish I hadn't done so I will try to recreate some of it over the next weekends. Perhaps that will give me some inspiration to continue her rigging, as I haven't done much over that last months. Jan