Fright

Great article and food to chew on! Level of skills, time and patience are needed for any accomplishment done well and modeling is one of those. My 3rd model was Lindberg's Cap'n Kidd Pirate ship and I don't know how many times I wanted to throw that thing against the wall! Nothing seemed to fit, constant breaks on parts, totally warped bowsprit - it taught me perseverance and patience, and even taught me how to resolve my problems. I am 'working' my way up the ladder with each new model that I build. It never hurts to do a little research and read some reviews about what kits are there before you jump into really deep waters! Just like anything else, having a good network of other modeler's posts and support makes it all worth while. Thanks again for this wonderful article.

I was able to get quite a bit of work accomplished on my model over the weekend. I installed the four radio wires between the beacon towers using rust-colored EZ line (a little hard to see in the 1st picture). This is pretty amazing line. I then glued my ship to the base and set about creating my ocean effect using a tub of plaster of Paris that my wife had in her hobby stash. I poured three layers and allowed each one enough time to dry. Once dried, I broke out my acrylic paints to lay down a base coat. I used two different colors of blue, a bluish grey and a little green for my mix. My wife also reduced and printed out a red small craft advisory flag so I can have it flying from one of the forward beacon lines. All of this needs to thoroughly dry before I can use my Vallejo Atlantic Blue gel to create my swells. I will then add some white caps here and there and finish with a coat or two of Liquitex Gloss varnish. Getting close to the end now. 

I added my base for stability and completion on my Jenny. 

popeye - here's what I plan to use as my base. I picked up this 9"x20"x1.5" shadow box frame for $16.00 @ Micheal's. The AA battery pack and on/off switch will be attached on the backside of frame. Fits perfectly! I'm passing the electrical wiring thru a 1/4" clear tube (remnants from last year's surgeries) that will run from the ship's hull to the frame's edge. I will use a thin layer of Plaster of Paris (which I'm 'borrowing' from my wife's stash) to fill around the bottom of frame; paint and also use Vallejo's Water Effect Atlantic Blue gel to create an ocean effect. At least that's the game plan LOL This will be my 1st attempt at creating a water diorama.
 
 

Update - sprayed hull with Dullcoat. Finished off painting all  railing brass. Next will be to paint the fire hoses that are attached to the one cabin flat black. I went about trying to remove all of the flashing from the three searchlights that will sit atop of the wheelhouse. On the back of each of the two smaller lights, there was a mold indentation. I used a dab of Elmers to fill in the impression and drilled out all three of the lights. I'm thinking I will paint the inside with chrome and then use a drop or two of my wife's decoupage clear coating as the lenses.
 

Job well done - especially on the sails!  

I am currently working on Lindberg's 1:60 Shrimp Boat and I'm at the stage where I need to do my rigging. The diagram in the kit is somewhat useful but I still have some questions due to my lack of experience with parts of a ship, lines, blocks, pulleys etc. So here are my questions:
1) Am I correct in thinking that working lines are usually tan in color and fixed lines are usually black? With a shrimp boat, would some of the lines be wire cable and, if so, would the color be a dirty metal or dirty black? 
2) Are stays and backstays fixed lines and therefore black in color?
3) Are the 'boards' on a shrimp boat made of wood? If so, they should be a brownish color?
4) I've tried to find clear diagrams of rigging used on a Louisiana shrimp boat and I found these two.  On the 2nd diagram, I have been trying to use colored pencils to keep track of position of lines. Like I said, I'm a true layman when it comes to nautical terms! If anyone knows of a site or access to diagrams, I would greatly appreciate the help. Many thanks!

I am currently working on Lindberg's 1:60 Shrimp Boat and I'm at the stage where I need to do my rigging. The diagram in the kit is somewhat useful but I still have some questions due to my lack of experience with parts of a ship, lines, blocks, pulleys etc. So here are my questions:
1) Am I correct in thinking that working lines are usually tan in color and fixed lines are usually black? With a shrimp boat, would some of the lines be wire cable and, if so, would the color be a dirty metal or dirty black? 
2) Are stays and backstays fixed lines and therefore black in color?
3) Are the 'boards' on a shrimp boat made of wood? If so, they should be a brownish color?
4) I've tried to find clear diagrams of rigging used on a Louisiana shrimp boat and I found these two.  On the 2nd diagram, I have been trying to use colored pencils to keep track of position of lines. Like I said, I'm a true layman when it comes to nautical terms! If anyone knows of a site or access to diagrams, I would greatly appreciate the help. Many thanks!

Jfinan - I think you've got the hang of it and this is the spot for your build photos. Keep up with the good work and I'm watching your build. I'm almost 2 years out now on my 1:96 Connie by Revell but also working on a Bluenose that's almost complete. Take your time and don't be afraid to ask questions or for advice. Someone in here will come to your rescue. Other modelers have helped me along my path. Smooth sailing and look forward to many more photos. Cheers!

Nice find on Ebay!
 

Frankie Day - Compliments to the chef on this one. Not only the ship and deck but the rigging is Fantastic!!! Your time was well spent. Thank you for sharing this treasure. 

I added my base for stability and completion on my Jenny. 

Have you ever missed a step that cost you a week of work? I was all set to install the gammoning that ties the bowsprit to the ship when I discovered that I had missed installing a "slot" in the knee through which the gammoning goes. To get in to install the slot, I had to remove all bowhead rails and timbers. Anyone who has built this boat knows what a pain they are! Each one is sized, cut, painted and placed individually. Anyway, a week later, it's done. I have revised and deleted all explicatives from this submission. 🙂

Thanks Jay. I share your pain regarding the galleries. I have attached my second attempt to the hull and I'm going to revisit them soon. I just can't seem to get them to line up with the edge of the brass transom plate. In the meantime, I've just rough fitted the top masts and jib boom after turning them on a mini-lathe ( a birthday present from my missus). As Kurt has pointed out they're a real challenge as, at different points, they are round, square, and worst of all, octagonal. For the last part, I started with square, added thin strips to the flat four sides, added filler on the seams, and sanded to "octagonal". Close enough! 

Just an update on the quarter gallery issue. As mentioned above, I've been trying to get the galleries to meet the port and starboard edges of the transom. I was doing this based on current photographs. Wrong!
Nic Damuk has reminded me that the BlueJacket plans reflect the Connie as it was in 1812/15 where the galleries actually butt against the transom so that the transom sticks out beyond the galleries.
Waddyaknow! I had it right the first time. For me, this means I don't have to rebuild!
Thanks, Nic, for the reminder to FOLLOW THE *&*%^^ INSTRUCTIONS!

thanks OC and Ken..........this one was worse than I've been accustomed to.    true that most kits do require some fitting......but this one looks like it might have been the last of the run.   very soft plastic to boot.........the cement seems to soften it even more,   so I need to watch how much pressure I put on the parts to hold them together.   the fruits of my labor are paying off though.
 
to bring you all up to where the model is at this moment.........the interior of the fuselage has been painted.......the landing gear has been painted,  and the tires and props are in the process of being painted.  the tires for the PBJ are on the table too.......they are being painted.  simply......more painting.

 

the nacelles were cemented on the wings today.......I'll be doing some trimming,  scraping and sanding to clean the lines up.

there is a gap at the wing tip of the port wing......I filled it with a strip of plastic.  the doors were a terrible fit as well...that's why you see the clamps.....I glued them shut.
 

The last item was the dreadnaught stack. Using a piece of brass, I turned the cone shaped base on the lathe by rotating the headstock 15 degrees clockwise.

 

Cutting the upright stack and the 2 side stacks was straight forward. It was the center piece that was tricky. Bothe ends of this piece needed to be cut at a 15 degree angle and they need to be perfectly parallel with each other. Since this was round stock it kept “rolling” slightly when I attempted to make the second cut with a razor saw and then with a jewelers saw. Finally I made a jig to hold the brass tube securely and cut both ends with a high speed tool and cut off disk. (thanks to overworked 247 for the tip on this tool).


 
I filed the top end of the upright and both ends of the center piece with a round file for a better fit and  soldered the pieces together and then into the cone shaped base.



Moving forward…..
 

Next was the companionway. I wanted to do a better build on this this piece than the skylight and really tried to keep everything in scale, including the size of the side and top boards, the width and height of the baseboard and such.  I started by building the 2 aft corners, cutting slots in which the companionway boards would fit into. I cut these much longer than needed for “do overs”.

Then I fashioned the 2 forward corners like those on the skylight, again longer than needed for any “do overs”

Instead of using a simple rectangular piece of wood for the base molding as I did on the skylight, I used a scraper to achieve better detail. I found it much easier to use a 4 inch long by 2 inch wide piece of stock basswood of the proper thickness, locked into a bench vice and scraped before cutting it to the proper height. This also allowed me to have more base molding than needed for “do overs”. Then I mitered and glued the corners.

To avoid a gap between the aft base molding and the bottom companionway board I cut a threshold with a groove that the bottom of the companionway board would fit into.

Instead of using my usual method of scoring and using a stylus to simulate individual board, I decided to cut individual board of the proper scale and edge glue them. In order to show s bit of separation in the boards I lightly beveled the edges before gluing them together.

After getting all the pieces painted and stained I began the assembly by gluing the aft corners with the threshold piece at the base and the forward corners with a stiffener at the base. The threshold and stiffener made sure these corner pieces would form a solid 90 degree angle to the base.

 
After carefully measuring and cutting the pieces I slid the companionway boards and side/top panels into place.

Next was to fashion the 2 rails that support the top.

After painting these and building the top, I finished the assembly. It isn’t exactly the way I wanted it, but I think at his point it’s my best effort so far. But there is much room for improvement. 

It’s been a while since I posted but I managed to build 3 deck pieces during that time.
The first piece is called a skylight on the build plans but is completely different that the skylight over the main cabin.
I started by cutting the corner pieces on the Byrnes saw.

Then I made the side panels in the same way I have been doing: scoring a shallow line with a very fine tooth saw and widening these with a small, round stylus to simulate the separate boards. I also made a simple baseboard and got everything painted and stained.

It was pretty straight forward from there, cutting everything to size and gluing them together. I drilled holes for the port light and installed the brass fittings


After fashioning the top piece I glued that on to finish the piece.

Beautiful detail, Dave!  Crisp work. Hope I can come close once I get to my own fittings and deck furniture!!!
 

What a wonderful job you did on building the Pearl. She looks seaworthy and ready to sail the seas!!!

with the holidays over,  I can get back to this model    it took a little though to figure out what to do about the gear door situation.   what I did isn't correct.......but it's the best solution.  any other remedy would mean almost total disassembly of the model,  and to go there would mean certain damage.
    the brace for the rear gear door was altered slightly.......basically cutting off the locator pins and cementing them in the proper place in the well.  the door hinges were added to them and painted.  once the braces were dry enough,  the doors were cemented in place.

the gear doors were added to the front well.....a couple other parts were added too.

I tried to get a shot of what can be seen as you'd look into the cockpit.......flash wasn't a help here

I went into macro without flash for these pictures.   it was plain to see that the front gear door wasn't going to fit.   what I did was cut the door in half, and cemented the curved part of it in place.  as I was working on her,  I slipped and the wing came off .......it's OK.. no damage......I can put it back on afterwards with little effort   

as can be seen,  the other half has a definite lip groove........but the groove would have had to be cemented along the body,  leaving the flat {cut} edge exposed.  to make this look a bit more plausible,  I switched these two halves,  and cemented the part meant for the starboard side,  on the port side, exposing the lip and appear as though it would mesh with the other half.  the back edge is at an angle and matches the rear gear door.

 

there is one other part,  a brace for the gear itself........but  I'm not sure I can add it without it looking like it would impede the operation.   even if I didn't add it,  cemented to the base,  it likely would never be seen.   so,  there are a few more parts to add,  and then it can be glued to the base.  almost there my friends  

Lower deck guns, pumps, air ways and stairways installed. Ongoing touch-ups needed. The bottom half of the bulwarks should be white, but as they will not be viewable once the spar deck is in,  the I've opted not to sweat the error.

According to the instructions, sixty-two knees, that will support the beams under the spar deck, are to be jigsawed out of a  single 5/32" plank. Since that sounded like a monstrous task to me I opted to make the knees by "glue-lamming" some hull planking left over from a earlier kit. Here's a few of them, shaped with the Dremel and lightly sanded. To fit the curved bulwark, each will have to be fitted individually.

The knees, horizontal beams and the visible stanchions are in. Now I'm carving out the two halves of the spar deck. A lot of trial and error. More trial and less error I hope.