gjdale

Always a joy to read your updates Gary!

Nice to see your update Sjors, she's looking mighty fine! Can't wait to see your start on the rigging......

Hi Ben,

Nice to be here for the start of your "darkside" career. If your kit building standards are anything to go by, then we're in for a real treat with this.

Very nice work Ryland, supported by excellent photography. I have this kit in the cupboard, so it's nice to have an excellent log like yours for reference.

It's a real pleasure to look at any of your work Rusty. I don't know how you manage to keep so many on the go at once!

Brilliant idea for the gratings Mark. I'll surely be filing that one away!

Looking great Mobbsie. Your "trademark" certainly adds a point of difference for you. If you like it, then stick with it - you're the Captain after all!

Looking very nice Kevin.

John,

In the Mamoli kit, the "copper" plates are simulated by wood tiles which have been given a green finish. The idea is that once they have been applied to the hull and given a very light sanding, you then apply copper paint and sand that back lightly so that some of the green shows through. This gives an aged "patina" to it. I was dubious about this, but went ahead with it anyway. As you can see from the photos, it comes up pretty well in the end.

Hope this helps.

Very nice Danny, and as always a great explanation of your methods. 

Yup - what Greg said! 

Nice "set-up" Rusty!

Well done Dan. The other side will be done before you know it.

That's really cool Gil. You're certainly setting the standard! The Gold Standard, that is!!!

Looking good Augie, looking real good!

Just stunning Nico!

Lovely work, as always John. She's looking a treat.

Kevin,

Nice to see your build back. If you're not happy with the gunport rope work, you might like to try "splicing" them. I picked up this tip from Gil Middleton's excellent log. You use a sewing needle to thread the line through itself and create a sort of fake splice. It is actually really easy to do and looks great.

Nice going Sjors. I've consulted my crystal ball and I see ratlines in your near future - lots of them!

Congratulations Mike on an outstanding build of a unique and interesting subject.

Just found your log Wim. What an interesting subject to model! Looks like you're doing a fine job. I look forward to following your build.

Just came across your log Matt. Amazing work! Very impressive indeed.

Hi all,

It seems ages since I posted some progress, though in reality it's only been a couple of weeks.  Life has been pretty busy lately, between work and house guests, but I've slowly managed to make a little progress with the yards.  I've now completed the basic shaping of all of the yards.  Not much to tell with this part of the build - cut to length, place in lathe and sand until you've got the right taper.  Fairly mind-numbing, but at least I was making sawdust again.  The yokes for the Driver Boom and Gaff were an interesting proposition to make. The kit instructions would have you make each of these from two pieces of timber.  I had some stock of sufficient size, so opted to make each from one piece of timber.  As simple as they look, there were some interesting challenges in making these (read, I got to play with lots of my toys ).

I've placed all of the yards together in the one picture below.  The ship in the background gives you some indication of the relative size of these.  In the picture, all of the Foremast yards are at the lower left (including the Studdingsail Booms), the Mainmast yards are in the centre at the rear, and the Mizzenmast yards are at the lower right.  I still need to add some 2mm x 1mm strips to the centre section of the lower two yards for both Fore and Main masts (this gives the larger octagonal section for these yards).  I then need to paint them and add all of the various fittings etc.

The glacier moves!

That's quite a difference Toni - on both counts!

Your build continues to look superb. I've really enjoyed re-reading your log as you've re-posted.

Ouch! Bad luck with the bowsprit Sarah, but as the guys have already said, you can make it even better second time around. I don't want to think about how many times I've nearly snapped the bowsprit doing the rigging on my Victory. Don't lose heart - you're doing a great job!