Jolley Roger

I have managed to get my hands on the HMS Alert by Trident model.

Cost for the kit was $350, shipping with Fedex to SA was $105 and the tax man took another $50.

I see that James H also got this kit and is planning to do a kit review, so I will leave that to the experts.

A basic idea of what to expect:

The kit comes in sturdy nondescript box, everything was packed nice and tight, so it can't move during shipping

Plenty of wood to keep one busy for a while - mostly cherry, all cut out with a CNC router, so no laser char to worry about

The metal bits

Parts for the building frame, made of MDF

I have already started with the building frame - have to say that so far it has been done very accurately - some of the parts fits so well that it doesn't really need glue to keep it together 

A dry fit of the keel assembly, seems to be very accurate

Overall very impressed with this kit so far.

Yep, i'm in as well, my favorite piece of man made machinery ever! Hence my profile pic

22 hours ago, Jaager said:

White Pear - what I find is Pyrus calleryana in answer to the search.  The white refers to the color of the blooms.  The cultivar that I am familiar with is Bradford. 

The basic assumption behind this is that your objective is scratch building using POF.

Thank you for the the info Jaager, much appreciated!

The white pear we have is the Apodytes dimidiata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apodytes_dimidiata, still worthy of stocking up I think.

Definitely going the scratch build route.

PS. Apologies captian_hook for the thread drift.

10 hours ago, Jaager said:

Jolley,

You have the advantage of it being domestic for you.

Given similar history elsewhere, what seems to be a constant and never ending supply,  could just as easily evaporate in the future.

It looks as though you can also get Pau Marfim - which is listed as being excellent for masts and yards.

What sort of wood do you get with Mixed Indigenous?  The price looks good,  maybe scrap for jigs, if there are no gems in there?

Yeah, I hear you. I try and stock up as much boxwood as I can.

The horrible reality is that boxwood is used as firewood in rural areas over here! - one man's trash is another man's treasure comes to mind.

The mixed indigenous has some potential, which I would like to explore in future - White pear, which is similar in characteristics to European pear and Cape holly, similar to the other holly species

On 5/23/2020 at 1:12 PM, captain_hook said:

Price including tax would be 11,50 Euro (about 12,54 Dollar) per Kilogramm (2 pound).

Interesting, i'm paying the equivalent of 5,50 Euro per kilo for Cape Boxwood(Buxus Macowanii) over here.

From the local https://www.rarewoods.co.za/info/price-list-timber/

I planked my Marie Jeanne with them, worked well. They bend easily and sand to a smooth finish. 

Welcome Nathan! Always good to see another Saffa join the ranks.

What are you currently building or plan on building?

Welcome back!

From what I can see, you have done an excellent job of the hull planking.

It is very difficult to plank a hull the 'correct' way with only kit supplied planking strips - if you are interested there is a tutorial at http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/plankingprojectbeginners.pdf (might be a bit late now!)

Coppering - have you considered doing only one side, then you get the best of both worlds. 

The first layer of planking is to build a solid base for your second layer, so do not worry about tapering, spacers etc, yet.

The first layer is going to look ugly, it's normal

17 hours ago, RickyGene said:

I was floored when I came across this and for the 1st time realized the figure head was painted and not just white as so many depict.  But again, as the builder has the option to paint as they wish.  From what I can find, the photo is just before the end of her last runs of the seas.  Hope you enjoy.

Rick

I believe the figurehead in your picture dates from 1922, after she was returned to Falmouth Cutty Sark images

Could be that the figurehead was painted after she became the Ferreira.

and great build so far Don!

2 hours ago, The_bitter_end said:

Do you mix your varnish with turpentine before applying? is there a special process?

No thinning required, it is very thin already.  I just apply with a small hobby paint brush and clean the brush with turps.

Keep in mind not to paint any areas where you still need to glue any components.

6 hours ago, The_bitter_end said:

Any advice on the best deck varnish would be a life saver!! 

I use Woodoc Interior Matt, made in SA for SA conditions.  Woodoc

Should be available at your local hardware store.

If you are not happy with the bleed out from the artline marker you can try a Archival pen, no bleed out at all! Sakura archival pen

17 hours ago, The_bitter_end said:

Finally completed, the balsa fillers. This did present some challenges, firstly I only had one 8mm sheet of balsa so I had to stack, glue and cut up to 5 layers at a time. The glue I used made this stack of wood very hard to cut and shape but I am happy with the result. I also had a fraction too little wood to complete the filling I wanted to do. you will see that the area above the lower deck between BHS 10/11 and 3/4 are not completely filled. I had to make do with what I had and my remote location make getting more very very difficult.

Looking good so far Haiko.

You don't need to use balsa, in your case you can use pear for filler blocks!

Also, cameras/phones will quickly distort an image if the pic isn't taken perpendicular to the subject, so that's why it might look a bit asymmetrical.

On 10/4/2019 at 8:33 PM, The_bitter_end said:

Thank you so much for your kind offer. I would love to give the drill press a good home.

 

If you would like to come out to the farm and choose your trees and wood you are most welcome to. This is a guest farm so there is plenty of room if you would like to stay the night. Alternately I can just pick and choose a load of good stuff and meet up with you next time I'm in Cape Town, which should be fairly soon.

 

Thanks Haiko,

I actually live in Hartbeespoort, North West! Pity we didn't have this conversation a month ago, I drove past Montagu three weeks ago!

I  will be coming to Cape Town sometime in 2020 though, so would like take up your kind offer then. I'm sure my admiral will like to come stay over (had a look at your website and it looks fantastic)

If you have need of the drill press in the meantime I can courier/postnet it to you - we can discuss the finer details on the message function under our profiles.

On 10/4/2019 at 7:17 PM, Jaager said:

If you have any ambition to go to scratch building,  get as much and more of what Haiko is offering as you can even unrealistically handle.

Thanks Jaager, I will take your advice to heart.

I am definitely leaning towards scratch building, busy tooling up and sourcing wood  

23 minutes ago, Gregory said:

That's an interesting looking drill press...  I don't see any kind of dynamic motion mechanism..

The dremel tool stays stationary and the table moves up and down, pretty old school, but apparently a lot more accurate than their newer drill presses.

Well, guess more wood for us SA locals!

I'm definitely interested in your offer.

I have an old Dremel Drill Press that is gathering dust, if this is something you would be interested in?

Hi Haiko,

Looks like the SAPO came through after all, hope the customs duties wasn't too rough!

I have come across two build logs that have reference to the rabbet and bearding process, hope it helps:

HMS Pegasus by SkipW - Amati/Victory Models - Scale 1:64

HMS Pegasus by Landlubber Mike - Amati/Victory Models - Scale 1:64

Straight into my digital library, thank you sir!

51 minutes ago, The_bitter_end said:

You might be horrified to hear that I use pear wood to braai(barbecue) on. If you(or anyone else in the hobby) ever need apple, pear, peach,plum or apricot wood I have access to an almost unlimited supply which you are most welcome to. In fact I am about to pull out 900 forelle pear trees if you are looking for fresh wood.

Ha ha, not at all, you have your priorities straight! Over here (I live in Hartbeespoort, North West) we braai with Red Ivory!

Thank you for the generous offer, you should consider selling to the local hobbyists. ☺️

I bought some Swiss pear(steamed pear) from Rare Woods in Knysna about two weeks ago, selling for R62000 per cubic meter!

https://www.rarewoods.co.za/wood-price-list

Welcome Haiko!

Looks like you are of to a great start.

If you are in the Koo valley then you should have access to pear and apple wood - very valuable for model ship building.

All the best and good luck with the SAPO.

19 hours ago, Vane said:

Where in the world does boxwood grow? 

Everywhere 😊

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buxus

Scary thing is, over here our local variety, the Cape Box (Buxus Macowanii), is still used as firewood in rural areas!

Add some fish! ☺️

Pear or cherry might be a good option too and should be available in 4mm strips - Pear and cherry

Tamiya has a good name in the plastic model community and is available worldwide

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/list/enamel_gloss/kit80001.htm