xken

For future builders of this kit. I spent half a day fixing an error in the assembly instructions for this kit regarding the framing around the gun ports. See the pictures below that show best the problem and fixes. I am now thinking that a "Proof of Production" was not done for this kit. I also think that some of the build steps are out of sequence; for example when to add the top rail. The lesson I have learned is to now double check everything and read ahead and study both the assembly instructions and plans and sort out which is correct.


 
Have a great day!
 
Ken

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! They make the extra effort to document worth doing. I am doing it more for those who are new to ship building like myself than those of you more experienced.
 
Here are two images of the finished paint work using Krylon semi-gloss white.


Here I have added the dried, stained and clear coated footlings upon their supports. 

First I masked off the inside and outside of the hull to define the bright rail. TIP: spray first with a couple of light clear coats to seal the edges and reduce the chance of the color coat bleeding through the edge of the masking tape. Once the paint was dry I then added all the rest of the bright parts and lifting rings.


Here are a couple of close up of fore and aft. In hind sight the next time I will use individual planking for the sole rather than scribing. 


Here is the set up for soldering the hinges; if wanted to make functional after all the finishing it would be sawed into two parts through the center. In this case they are fixed.


Next while waiting for things to set and dry I made a molding cutter by filing a half round into a piece of 1/32"  brass. Then using 1/16" square basswood strip I slowly and carefully scraped on a hard flat surface the half round profile for the side fenders. I have used this to make accent molding for other projects as well. These will be added to the side following the bottom edge of the buff paint.

 
Enough for now back to work. I have honey-dos this afternoon.
 
 
 

Well I primed the pinnace and while waiting for primer to dry I looked over the plans and tried to sort out the next steps. The side and top views do not seem to match each other when it comes to the footlings and the keel; so I ventured forth with common sense.
Here I have added the internal structures based upon the side view.

Here is a closeup of the mast fitting.

Here is the sole added and I used 1/64" plywood to conserve space and scribed the joint and panel lines.

I then primed again using white primer for two reasons; first the final color will be white, second for the exterior hull sanding down will reveal high and low spots between the white low and grey the high. However, gentle sanding is needed so as not to break through the primer coats to the wood.
Also I fabricates the bench and thwarts which will have a bright finish.

Here I am edge forming the footlings which have a slight curve and a bright finish. First I cut a carrier the shape needed fore and aft and side to side using a 1/32" thick piece of wood. Next using Midwest Scale L item number #8003 .0208" x .0625" and soaking with water slowly and carefully edge formed just using my fingers. Once formed the side pieces were clamped to the carrier to dry and set.

Once all were formed and clamped in place on the carrier they were all soaked again with water and let to dry and set overnight.

 
Now back to work.
 

I am off and running to continue my education of model ship building and hopefully on this one I will add sails. Like my Niagara build I will start with the small boats which are mini model kits in themselves and that my two young granddaughters like looking at the "baby boats". They are 2 and 4 years old.
 
I will skip the presentation of the box and contents since others have done it so well. I am starting with the pinnace the larger of the four. I started by marking the top surfaces of the laser cut parts before removing them from their parent sheet. The reason is that the laser cutting process burns a slight angle in the wood and when layering and gluing together you can use this angle to your advantage and avoid super thin areas.

I glued all the layers of all the boats together minus the bottom layer. I used the scrap center as a clamp surface to provide even compression.

Here is the reason to leave the bottom layer off and allow clearance to work on the inner walls.

Here is the finished up inner walls rough cut and then sanded.

Next I added sparingly automotive glazing putty to the inner walls for additional smoothness. This glaze dries quickly and is very easy to sand. Think of it as a thick layer of primer filler.

Here is the finished exterior 

Here the bottom layer was added and shaping started by rough cutting with an Xacto blade, sanding block and sanding sticks.

Here is the finished exterior ready for the keel.

Here is the finished sanded interior ready for keel and other details.

First I had to address the bow to stern sidewall curve which I developed using 1/4" masking tape, then marked the upper edge with a pencil and removed the tape and trimmed to the pencil line.

Here is the interior with all the details added that will be painted while the rest will be bright stained finish. The exterior keel has also been added. The ribs are .0208" square Basswood Midwest Scale Lumber item number 8000. I have used their micro cut lumber for years on airplane builds.
 
Next the pinnace will be primed and sanded and readied for paint per the plan scheme. 
 

John,
Love to see WWI planes being built; these are my first love in model building. Not sure how detailed you will wish to get, but here is a link to my scratch built Camel that was a commission for Fine Art Models at 1/15th scale per their request that you my enjoy for details. It also includes the bomb rack that was used on some. Looks like you are off to a great start and keep up the great work!
 
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/Camel/index.html
 
 

Nice build and great presentation the medal is a nice touch! What’s next?😎

Nice build and great presentation the medal is a nice touch! What’s next?😎

Nice build and great presentation the medal is a nice touch! What’s next?😎

You are right - it's not as complicated as some would make it - or think  it is.  Remember to keep it clean, always use flux and solder flows to the heat.
Kurt

Silver soldering, in my opinion and I have used it extensively in the past, isn't needed for the strength of the joint in our ship models.  The only need I have for it now is when doing multiple soldering operations in very close proximity to one another.  Using a high melting point first and then using progressively lower melting points for adjacent joints allows one to not have too much worry about loosening earlier joints.
 
If you read Foran's book you will see that in our usual applications joints in close proximity can be made w/o resorting to silver soldering.  He's a big advocate for Stay-Brite solder - it is a high silver content solder but not a true silver solder as the melting point is lower than silver solder.  Techniques he describes allow adjacent joints to be made easily using Stay-Brite.
 
I made several presentations on silver soldering at NRG seminars and conferences and used it extensively, but over time I have moved away from it and find myself using Stay-Brite almost exclusively.  Regular soft solder doesn't blacken but the Stay-Brite does, just like silver solder which was my primary reason for using silver soldering.  There isn't a joint on a scale model that requires the strength of silver solder - R/C boaters need it for rudders and control levers but I think one is doing something wrong if silver solder is needed for any joint on a scale model - the strength just isn't needed.
 
My suggestion is to get the Foran book and follow his techniques and later on investigate silver soldering. 
 
And yes, the second edition of the Foran book has a section devoted to ship modeling.  Much of the material in that section can be seen in his USS Constitution build log here on MSW
 
 
Kurt
 

Wulf, here is a link to the show. Put this on your must go to list, plenty to see, swap meet and suppliers to buy from. Plan on taking a fair amount of cash. 
 
http://www.wemeshow.com/
 
 
Ron, the challenge with stacked disks is cutting them out and then alignment. This was one reason I bought my first lathe. As for casting in resin one would need to do pressure pot casting to drive the resin into the fin detail and then contending with the cleanup of the mold joint lines. Don't ask how I know all this. 

Vossiewulf, if you have a milling machine and a rotary table an easier way is to use a slitting saw to cut the fins. Still requires attention to detail but much less nerve wracking. Are you familiar with the model engineering show up in your area?

Ken, Thanks here is the set I used. http://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_32&products_id=30
Will be buying now that they are available again.

Visit and explore this site for Pocher cars and replacement parts. 
 
http://www.modelmotorcars.com/our-store/
 
Enjoy! 

Torbogdan, Thanks! WWI planes are my first love and I have more planes that I want to build than I have time left to build them. Here is a link to my other plane builds. Check out the Sopwith Camel it was built as a half and half from the upper left side it looks like a complete plane and from the lower right side you can see the structure details. This was requested by the client it was built for along with a spare engine for display as well.
If you are going to cover do so before final assembly.
 
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/

Here are pictures of the finished brig other than a couple of paint touch ups here and there. Being my first ship build I learned quite a few lessons that will certainly benefit future builds. I plan on building the USS Constitution and will do a little more research and study the plans before starting the build.
 
I would also like to thank those that provided both guidance and encouragement during this build. 
 
Here are a random sampling of overall and detail pictures. 












 
Now to move on.

It's time for me to put a bow on this one and call it finished. Tonight it will go into my display case for the grandsons and other visitors to eyeball behind glass, safe from curious hands.
Of course, I reserve my right to float it in the bath tub with me from time to time when necessary to run "sea trials". 
 
 

Paul, please keep in mind that the 5/16" dowel is a reference dimension for the dowels to be ordered by M.E. for kit production and given manufacturing variances dowels can be slightly larger or smaller. Please reread page 34 where is says use the boom ring as a gauge when tapering the mast. The cast parts are labelled correctly. As for the 3/8" that is tolerance to allow straightening the mast allowing for variances in the build by individual builders if the mast foot is slightly out.  I personally do not like to see crooked ( out of perpendicular) masts.
I hope this helps. Look at page 37 for the finished part.
 
I learned very early on about plan reproduction which is why I include a 1 inch reference square on my plans. Plan reproduction variances can be large or small based upon the machine settings, quality of machine and quality of paper. Also file transfer can cause issues as well, to minimize this I and the M.E. folks both work with CorelCAD now. They were using CorelDraw to covert the CAD files for plans and laser cutting and when I would get laser cut parts they were usually 5% off in size due to the conversion from on program to another. This also happens with PDF files we discovered, hence they finally bought the CorelCAD so we all worked with the same program. 
None of these I can as a kit designer control. I have seen variance as much as 3/8" and if using plans as dimension guide could be disastrous.
 
The greatest challenge I have with the kit designing process is writing the instructions which is a balance between enough information to too much information and I like to err on the too much side. Builders also have to use a degree of common sense and allow for variances in building. 
 
When working with laser cut parts the finished dimension is on the bottom of the part sheet not the top, and laser cutting based upon the thickness of wood will have a slight taper (draft) though the thickness of the wood. 
 
The hexagon versus octagon is my bad, I should have caught that, but neither did the three other Proof Readers.

Thanks everyone. Well, now I can say this project is really finished. Here she is in her new home.

I am really happy the way the case turned out. My full size woodworking skills leave a lot to be desired, but this project I tried to be a lot more precise.
 
One thing I did over the last few days was to remake the cradle. I had originally made it a few years ago using 3/16" walnut for the supports. In all the moving they suffered a few dings and breaks that looked terrible, so I took them off the base board and remade them in 1/4" walnut. I am much happier with the result.

That's it for this project. Thank you all who have followed along through the journey. I have certainly learned a lot and I much appreciate those of you who built this model before me so I could learn from your experiences. I also hope this build log will prove useful for those who build this model in the future. I would highly recommend the experience. Just make sure you have a big enough place to put it when finished.

Arthur, not sure why you are experiencing the problems you are having. The boat in the pictures in the instructions were built from the laser cut parts in the kit and before being released M.E. also had two independent builders assemble the kit as well as part of the proof of production and the only issues were tweaks to the instructions for better clarification of terms for new builders. This is a standard practice I have asked M.E. to do with all kits I have done for them.
 
I also purchased 1/24 scale sailor figures for my build, not to be included with the kit just for my own display purposes. See attachments.

Here is an image of the rear cockpit area using the laser cut parts from the kit.

Here is just the hull completed with all the laser cut parts from the kit and all fitting well. As for the quality of the wood in the kit's Basswood that I have no control over; however, they do supply me all the materials used.

Good luck with the rest of your build, should be smooth sailing here on out.
 

Arthur, not sure why you are experiencing the problems you are having. The boat in the pictures in the instructions were built from the laser cut parts in the kit and before being released M.E. also had two independent builders assemble the kit as well as part of the proof of production and the only issues were tweaks to the instructions for better clarification of terms for new builders. This is a standard practice I have asked M.E. to do with all kits I have done for them.
 
I also purchased 1/24 scale sailor figures for my build, not to be included with the kit just for my own display purposes. See attachments.

Here is an image of the rear cockpit area using the laser cut parts from the kit.

Here is just the hull completed with all the laser cut parts from the kit and all fitting well. As for the quality of the wood in the kit's Basswood that I have no control over; however, they do supply me all the materials used.

Good luck with the rest of your build, should be smooth sailing here on out.
 

Arthur, not sure why you are experiencing the problems you are having. The boat in the pictures in the instructions were built from the laser cut parts in the kit and before being released M.E. also had two independent builders assemble the kit as well as part of the proof of production and the only issues were tweaks to the instructions for better clarification of terms for new builders. This is a standard practice I have asked M.E. to do with all kits I have done for them.
 
I also purchased 1/24 scale sailor figures for my build, not to be included with the kit just for my own display purposes. See attachments.

Here is an image of the rear cockpit area using the laser cut parts from the kit.

Here is just the hull completed with all the laser cut parts from the kit and all fitting well. As for the quality of the wood in the kit's Basswood that I have no control over; however, they do supply me all the materials used.

Good luck with the rest of your build, should be smooth sailing here on out.
 

Arthur, not sure why you are experiencing the problems you are having. The boat in the pictures in the instructions were built from the laser cut parts in the kit and before being released M.E. also had two independent builders assemble the kit as well as part of the proof of production and the only issues were tweaks to the instructions for better clarification of terms for new builders. This is a standard practice I have asked M.E. to do with all kits I have done for them.
 
I also purchased 1/24 scale sailor figures for my build, not to be included with the kit just for my own display purposes. See attachments.

Here is an image of the rear cockpit area using the laser cut parts from the kit.

Here is just the hull completed with all the laser cut parts from the kit and all fitting well. As for the quality of the wood in the kit's Basswood that I have no control over; however, they do supply me all the materials used.

Good luck with the rest of your build, should be smooth sailing here on out.
 

Guilty as charged! I will look forward to your progress and feedback. Just a note again on the plans they were 100% size when sent to Model Expo so the size increase is due to what I mentioned above about reproduction.
 
When designing kits the challenge is always the instructions. M.E. wants short and sweet and as few pages as possible while some builders need ever nut and bolt explained. I always try to put myself in the builder's head while writing the instructions and strike a happy compromise between novice and experienced.
 
Keep up the great build you have going.  

Great job on the planking and tree nailing! Just FYI look at the second row from the bow at 5th and 6th plank up from the bottom. I marked mine as I planked using a .5mm mechanical pencil while I could see the bulkheads and just pressed the lead straight down. This left a pencil lead mark even after sanding.