JeffT

I have decided to take a shot at building this kit. This will be a test of my vision but I'll do my best. I have an opinion on a few things that I may state but its just my opinion. First of all, this is classified as an elite level kit by AL. My take is that this means that you need elite skills to build it and so far I believe that to be the case. The videos are great but they don't offer any insight on some things you need to pay very close attention to. This kit is complicated and requires a bit of scratch building to finish. I really think that a kit like this should have written instructions (my opinion). You must think far ahead before completing a step and I don't recommend following the order of construction in the videos. This is critical when installing the inner frames. It would also have been nice to have drawings to scale for a build like this, particularly of the hold area. The hold drawing is virtually useless for lack of a better way to say it. There are templates provided for the various structures that you will need to build. The first thing I did was glue these templates to a piece of cardstock with an Elmer's glue stick. They are too floppy otherwise. Also, in the video, they will have you glue a bunch of planks together to make a sheet to cut the parts from. I'm not doing it that way. I'm gluing just enough planks together to create a specific part as needed. I think there will be less wasted wood that way. In addition, in the video, the builder is gluing the planks on top of a sheet of paper creating a mess to clean up on the back of the planks. I'm doing this on top of a piece of parchment paper. The glue will stick but pops loose from the paper easily with no cleanup needed. And very conveniently, I can see that the builder is cutting out the parts with a laser cutter. I don't have that convenience. On with the build: Assembly of the hull is pretty straight forward and now in addition to the videos, you can use the written instructions for the full hull version to help you along. I do love this hull assembly method. The inner hold planking isn't too difficult but does require some thought on getting the planks to clear the bulkheads at the bow and stern as seen in the videos. The videos would have you glue in the mast step after finishing the planking but I left the mast step out for a reason that you will see in a minute. I live in a very arid environment so a lot of parts are warping badly. I was able to straighten the hull using the build board and then the planking holds it. Here is where things get interesting. In the videos, they have you draw a line using a provided template to position the inner frames. If you do this and nothing else, you will have big problems later. Specifically with installing the orlop deck (is that right?) pictured here. The frames must be positioned perfectly in order to fit this deck. You have about 1/2 mm of wiggle room all the way down the length of the ship to play with. If the top of the frames are off by more than that there will be troubles. The first thing to think about are these decks and how they will fit. The deck is assembled from 4 pieces. Mine didn't fit lengthwise or across the width. I suggest dealing with this before assembling anything in the hold. This required some fairing of the inside of the bulkheads to fit across the width. I didn't want to take anything off the decks in either direction on the length because of the various structures that are sitting on top of this deck. I do think my most forward bulkhead was slightly out of alignment top to bottom (not a kit problem, just my eyes). I ended up chiseling away some of the thickness on the hold side of the bulkhead to get the decks to fit lengthwise. I am using the orlop deck as a template to align the top of the bulkheads ad as you can see, there is very little room for error, almost none. The videos don't address this at all. I'm using the template provided in the kit to align the lower part of the frames and the paper template for the walkways. This why i didn't glue in the mast step.

Okay, try now. They should be good.

I'll take a look.

Moved build log to 1801-1850 category.

I have moved this build log to the 1751-1800 category.

This build log has been moved to the 1751-1800 category.

Thanks guys. I’m feeling optimistic that things will get better.

Hello everyone. Just wanted to let everyone know that my build is temporarily on hold. I'm the unlucky recipient of not one, but two autoimmune disorders, one of which is affecting my vision. My immune system has decided that my eyes are a foreign invader and is attacking them. As a result, I'm having vision difficulties. I have started treatment and I'm hopeful things will improve enough in a few weeks to get back to it.

I like it 😀

Nicely done

I built this model years ago and I think I used Eduard or Toms modelworks PE. I had to buy the wood deck separately.

Well that was fast. Looks very good.

I know it will hold the CC Victory not sure of smallest size

PM sent

Another potential issue. Hopefully I'm not just being dumb again but cant find anything in the notes about this. I can't find one piece of Cant frame part 9. I'm not able to find one of the lower parts of the frame. There are 3 parts for frame 10 though. I circled the three 10's and the one 9 in the photo. I looked everywhere for the other part 9.

Okay, now I remember why I dismissed the note on the 10a and Af parts. When I checked my kit I saw that I had a set of correctly marked 10a's, so I assumed I had the corrected kit. I have both sets of parts, the correctly marked 10a's and the originally incorrectly marked Af's.

Problem solved. I still had the old chapter one mono. Just downloaded the new one.

Thanks. I totally forgot about that.

So, I'm in the process of separating all the frame parts and I'm concerned about the parts for frame Af. My Af frame parts don't seem to fit together very well. The upper timbers seem to be over sized compared to the lower frame at the joint, pictures below. This surprised me since all the others fit together almost perfectly. Did anyone else encounter this? Or is just me? I'm confident I have the right parts.

Its been a while since updated this log. I have started working on the masts. This is not something I usually do so I'm learning as I go.

The mirror is a great idea

Welcome!

Trying to get back in the saddle here. Continuing on with my gap issue with the apron. I went back a couple of steps here and removed most of the forward parts of the rabbet strip and replaced it. This was because I removed some material in an attempt to get the apron to sit flush, which didn't work. I decided to replace the rabbet strips with the 1/16 strip included in the kit. I cut the first two parts to match the length of the kit parts. I soaked them and clamped in place to hold the shape and then glued them on afterwards. I also removed two of the upper parts to allow the apron to flex a bit. They may have also have been causing the lower apron to straighten a bit. At this point its nearly a perfect fit and it doesn't look like I will need any flex at all. The next challenge for me is gluing the parts on. These parts are wider than the keel so I will need to figure out how to make sure I get them properly centered.

Very nice model!

I'm a little behind on this. I've had a couple medical procedures to deal with over the last two weeks so I haven't been able to do much. I'll be back on it soon.