markjay

Hey folks, Dion Dunn here.  I’m a mid-50’s builder of. Pretty much anything and everything,  and have recently turned my attention back to model ships.  Over the past 40 years, I’ve built or restored everything from a 1952 Ford Custom (first car) to a Formula Vee race car, to a vintage Italian  bicycle….Lots of RC airplanes and sailboats, RC cars, an HO scale model railroad (in progress), and now back to boats.  I’m also the ex-Commodore of our local Sailing club and actively race a Sunfish and a Capris 14.2 fullsize sailboats.
 
In the past I’ve built the Model Expo Phantom pilot boat, the Amati 1934 J class Rainbow, and the Model Expo Taurus tugboat (for my Father’s train layout).  A few years ago I purchased one of the older Artesania Latina 1:50 Swift kits at a garage sale, and have just started it.  It’s not the best kit in the world, but it’s scratching the itch for now.  Looking forward to a larger build and learning lots from the folks on this site!
 
Dion

The castle structure is now done, except for the decorative fish fittings that adorn the corners of the castle towers. These fish figures are called shachihoko, and are found on many castles, gates, and the homes of some nobles. I'll save these for later, as it's easy to knock them off during construction – Something I know from first-hand experience. 
 
Anyway, here's where we are as of now...

 
Next, I'll need to get back to finishing the lower hull modifications. But, before I get to that, I thought I'd start taking care of the many sculling oars I'll need. These are partial oars, so I don't have to make the whole oar, just the lower part that sticks out of the ship. This ship is represented as having 36 pairs of oars. 
 
Below, at the bottom, you can see the pieces as provided on the laser-cut sheets. Immediately above those is an example of one oar that's been cleaned up. At the top is a sculling oar from another model, so you can see what the whole thing should look like. I might have to make some full-length oars from scratch if I display any of the doors open. But, I don't know if I'll do that, as that leads to so many other details that aren't provided in the kit, like the internal deck, walls, and structural members, etc.
 

 
Cleaning up all these oars is slow going. Below are 12 cleaned-up sculling oars. Only 60 more to go.
 
Now, another modification I'm considering, though perhaps this one will be fairly minor. The kit includes a forward leaning mast, equipped with a yard and sail. Only a mast is depicted on the museum model, as that's all that's shown in the original painting. But, the kit looks like this:
 

 
Now, I think whole idea that the mast wasn't in the center of the ship is somewhat controversial. But, that it leans out in front of the shipmay be even more controversial. To my knowledge, this arrangement isn't seen on any other Japanese ship in history.
 
Now, I have noticed that the museum ship has a feature on deck that leads me to think that the forward leaning position might be just to drop it out of the way from the castle structure, and that it might be pulled upright when actually sailing. This would pivot the mast at its base, deep inside the hull, and cause it to come up through the deck, a bit further aft.
 
Unfortunately, the best museum photo I have that shows any of the deck in front of the castle structure is the on below. But, in it, you can see a few features that I've marked out with color arrows.
 

 
The red arrow points to what look like mast supports. To me, these are familiar as the tops of supports that stand to either side of the mast. The mast would usually be lashed to these supports. 
 
The green arrow points to what look like deck panels. Removable panels that stick up from the main deck would cover a long, narrow opening, through which the mast could be raised to a vertical position. Similar panels are seen on coastal transports. And, similar slots for the raising of masts are seen on  other types of Japanese sailing craft.
 
Now, this could simply be a museum invention to try to explain how this forward leaning mast might work. But, it makes sense to me. I can't see the whole features, but I can speculate. And, it would be easy enough to add this to the deck. Plus, it would give me a reason not to add the sail provided in the kit, which looks a bit odd to me anyway.
 
I suppose the yard arm could also easily be stored below deck and brought up through that slot when they decide to raise the mast and sail.
 
I'm going to try running this by a couple people who are familiar with atakebune before I make modifications there.
 
 
 
 

You  are a brave soul. Good luck!

You  are a brave soul. Good luck!

You  are a brave soul. Good luck!

You  are a brave soul. Good luck!

I been repairing model sailing ship for the last 8 month
having a lot of fun and I learn a lot from the builder
what I,m working on now is HMS victory 
the ship was damage during a short move flip over on top and below what it look like
I replace the mast , bow and flag staff
I have white string and print order 
I have the first section of the broken mast glue in
and the rattline installed
 
 

It's your preference, I like a medium oak stain myself. 

Hi Tony, 
So sorry for your loss! Can't image what it's like to loose a sibling, even so a twin. 
Hope you find the strength needed ❤️ 
 
About plans, will this link prove useful:
https://www.billingboats.com/index.php/modelboats-footer/75/120/boats/the-expert/P-bb490-wasa
There are two downloads. One for the construction and one for the rigging.
It says copyrighted on the rigging plan but you easily see through that text.
 
Might it work?
 

It's your preference, I like a medium oak stain myself. 

This weekend, I was looking at the chock rail photos and something didn't look right. I finally figured out that I had put them too far inboard. Duh! I redrew them on Sunday and had Shane recut them this morning. It only took a couple minutes to strip off the old ones and install the new ones. Much happier now.           11     Seen by 8 Like     Comment   Share    

As and addendum to my prior post, I have to disclose that learned this process from watching a YouTube video by Tom Lauria where he described this a the process he used to as opposed to beeswax.
I think this works really nice...........
 

Just found this awesome build, words escape me. Recover soon. 

Just found this awesome build, words escape me. Recover soon. 

These terms are often used in a fast and loose manner with no anchor to what they really mean, so some posts can be confusing.
 
I think these are functionally precise definitions:
 
A sanding sealer, or sand-n-sealer -  a clear and thick mixture with micro particles -  the main use is as a base coat on furniture built using open pore wood species such as Oak, Walnut, Ash...   It fills the open pores so that when viewed at an oblique angle, the final surface appears to be glass smooth.
Opinion:  it is too thick for scale use.  Open pore wood is best not used at all on scale models if the wood is to be clear finished.  There are other ways to fill pores before painting.
 
A primer is generally a 50% diluted clear material intended to soak in deeply and limit any additional material layers to being surface only.  The traditional primer is half strength shellac.  It is easy to apply, easy to undo, quick to dry, low cost, and compatible with most any other materials applied over it.
If an clear oil finish is the goal, half strength Tung oil can be its primer coat or I am guessing half strength Linseed oil will serve as as its primer.  Both would want additional time to polymerize before being covered over.  50% shellac is probably more cost effective as a primer for these. 
Shellac is alcohol based and the oils are organic solvent based.  They do not raise wood grain.
Paint can be its own primer, it just requires more coats to get a dense enough surface layer.  If the paint is water based, the surface may need fine sanding to remove any raised grain.
 
A dye is a monomolecular solution of a pigment that soaks into wood and changes its color.  It does not change the surface.  It does not obscure wood grain.  If anything, it increases the contrast,  This is not necessarily a wonderful thing on a scale model, so having grain with lower contrast is a deciding factor for the choice of wood species if it is to be clear finished.
Dyes come water based and alcohol based.  The water based dye soaks in more deeply, but the first application raises wood grain unless a dilute PVA/water solution is used first and then sanded when dry.  The alcohol based dye does not raise grain and on a model, any effect that a deeper water dye penetration may provide is probably too slight to be noticed, so alcohol based is probably the better choice.   No primer effect with either is there.
 
A stain is a suspension of pigment particles in a solution with a polymerizing binder.  This is also the definition of paint.  The pigments are wood colored and some commercial products may also contain a dye so that it can advertise that it penetrates.  
Opinion:  on a model, if it is wood that needs a stain before clear finish it would serve you better to replace this wood species with one that needs no pore filling or grain hiding with a semi-transparent paint - which is what a stain is.  The purpose of a stain is to try to make a low quality wood appear to be a high quality wood ona piece of economy furniture.

Just found this awesome build, words escape me. Recover soon. 

Just found this awesome build, words escape me. Recover soon. 

I've been working out the formulas for the Gutermann E thread and I have some pictures to show. I purchased the color card and bought every color that I thought would look like rope. I like this thread quite a lot. It's easy to work with, has zero fuzz, low shine, and is very strong. It's also a quarter the cost of cotton thread and I don't have to treat it with book-binders PVA. This should make my synthetic line of rope more affordable. 
 
On the left we have pale beige. In the middle we have tan which is very close to my cotton tan color. On the right we have a golden brown, I think it's close to manila hemp. The tan I'll get into production for sure. The other two however need some testing onboard some models before I go any further.

For the standing rigging colors we have the usual suspects. Black on the left. Very dark brown in the middle. Dark brown on the right, It's actually a little darker than what is in the photo as I turned the brightness up a bit. I like them all to be honest and will probably have them all available on my store.

Here is a 2.4mm cable I made with the tan color. Very crisp detail with no fuzz!

I'm going to put the dark brown and tan into production and I hope to have them online by early next month. I'm also going to look into other types of thread for the lighter colors. Amann Serafil I hope has some good options but the color card still need's to arrive. 
 
Thanks for looking in!