petervisser

a bit more on the hull with the addition of the dead eyes and chains/brackets.

let the masting begin.....my extended minicraft lathe comes in very handy for the masts and yards...

cheers petervisser....i am not particularly bothered about the historical accuracy of the build in any of the kits i complete, i just enjoy the hobby for what it is ....hull nearing completion......

I just ran across your build log for the first time. Having built the Unicorn a few years ago, it brought back some fond memories. As you say, not the most accurate model of an authentic British frigate, but an attractive model in the end. I modified mine in a few areas, using John Mckay's AOTS book, Pandora and Petersson's rigging book.
All the best going forward. You're certainly doing the model justice.
Peter

I just ran across your build log for the first time. Having built the Unicorn a few years ago, it brought back some fond memories. As you say, not the most accurate model of an authentic British frigate, but an attractive model in the end. I modified mine in a few areas, using John Mckay's AOTS book, Pandora and Petersson's rigging book.
All the best going forward. You're certainly doing the model justice.
Peter

Thanks for the pic's Pete. I have put in a request to AL for the parts comprising the bow and stern decoration. Fingers crossed that they get back to me...
Cheers,
Peter

got her lower in the water now, but as i've moved into a retirement home, i had to give away my ships or sell them at cost of materials, as i live in the middle of nowhere, and have no access to a auction house .....impossible to sell these things online....but i'm happy to have had the experience, and they'll make someone happy one way or another....cheers, vic

I've completed the stove. This little gem is a tribute to Chuck's skill, both in design and production. Even a very old guy like me would have trouble screwing it up. A fun item. I tried some weathering, but liked it better without, so repainted over it.
 
Bob

I am now in the midst of the chapter eight work. In summary, I added the foremast coat, the bowsprit  step, the manger boards, the forward riding bitts, the Y bitt,  the forward six deck beams and their hanging and lodging knees and the the fore mast partner and its carlings. Most of the work was straightforward, but some of the fitting of the parts (such as the manger boards) is quite fiddly. I should add that I moved the notches for the forward deck beams, as called out by Chuck , and in accordance with the templates ,which were used constantly and were essential. 
 
I will now build the stove  and complete the remainder of the chapter eight work.
 
Bob

And the port side is now plated as well. Just the line along the keel and up the bow, and the rudder to plate now, but I shall take a breather first. 
 
I had to slightly sand the notches in the display stand to make space for the copper tiles which make the keel marginally wider.
 
A couple of pictures, one of which shows the Vanguard Models Zulu "Lady Isabella" for size comparison... Both are almost identical scale (1:64 for the "Lady Isabella", to 1:63 for "Stefano")
 
I have to say, as much as these copper plates are brilliant, I shalln't be sad to have a break from sticking them on individually for a while!
 

 

 

I have finally started work on the masting. Boy, there sure are alot of spars compared to my last model. The foremast went together with lots of trial and error. Mostly error. But once I established a system, the other two masts went together rather easily. All the masting is currently dry fitted so that they can be worked on. There is a ton of fittings that will be glued on piece by piece and careful planning is called for before the spars are stained and painted. I'm pretty excited about getting to this stage. Rigging is one of my favourite phases of the build. Once the spars are fitted, rapid progress can be made with the rigging. Here's a photo of the masts in place...
 

After a long hiatus from Cutty Sark, I have finally started on the masting and rigging. This is just a short update as to where I'm at with the project.
 
The first step in this long and involved process is to fabricate the parts that hold the masts together, they being the tops and cross-trees. My old kit had these pieces marked out on sheets of ply which had to be cut out with a scroll saw and fret saw. I cut the pieces out with the scroll saw and then filed and sanded out the pieces to size.
Due to the fact that the tops are less than detailed as marked out on the plywood, I opted to use them as templates. The templates were then used to trace the shapes on thinner sheets so that I could sandwich the gratings in between. I decided to use styrene for the grating as they are a uniform thickness and width and there is no sanding involved for such small and delicate strips. All will be painted white so there won't be an issue with the different materials.
Here are some pics of the initial construction.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm finally back from New Jersey, where we ironically ran into a hurricane. Nearly six weeks away didn't change my mind about redoing the forward pump handles, so that was the first thing that I did upon returning. Next, I did the aft handles. After those, the elm pumps were next. I was having trouble creating slots in the laser cut brackets for the handles, so I chose to make up my own by laminating three pieces of 1/32" strip and shaping  that assembly appropriately. To complete the chapter seven work, I added the remaining deck beams and their knees.
 
Now, I will wait for Chuck's return and the release of the chapter eight parts and the stove.
 
Bob

The fun part of second planking is done.
Also the second fun part of sanding is also done.
Now it's gonna be time for the bulwarks.
Measure, measure, measure
But that's for tomorrow....
 
Sjors
 
 

I'd not really seen anyone on here making the hammocks for the netting-- had a go-- and apart from tidying some twisted up ones very pleased..so I will finish doing them for the final model . I could not find a definitive on how they were stacked so I went for a simple ascetically  pleasing..
 
 

Bow work, and Quarterdeck rail on Fair American Model Ship:
 
I enjoyed this portion of the build.  Mostly because from the plans, I can make all the measurements pretty easily, and transfer to the wood for shaping.  That's what I did.   I should have reversed the profile for the port side, to make things easier - another learning moment.  I transferred the cheek knee profile by drawing lines across and duplicating the measurements. 
 

 
Now comes the cutting and round file-work to carve the shape....A LOT of file-work, to get a straight walled profile.  After I glued on the bow-wrapping piece, I can sand down the taper and radius from 1/8" to 1/16", before installing
 

 

 
In the meantime from the bow work, I also completed the Quarterdeck Rail.  I had actually pre-carved the rail stanchions and the rail a while ago.  Its all ready and waiting for me.  I had to put some mind-space towards how to attach the rail.  I pre-drilled the holes for the stanchions dowels to sit in first, then glued them, while the rail itself was pinned to the tops. This held the stanchions from tilting while the glued, and ensured the rail would line up later.  Once the stanchions dried, I glued the rail on, keeping the pins in place. Once they were dry, I removed (with difficulty) the pins. 
 

 

 
This is basically where I am with the build, up until now.  I'm working on the rest of the beak at the bow, which is tricky, but manageable. Building the ship, so far, has been really rewarding and enjoyable.  It's amazing to think how centuries ago, people built these ships full-scale!
 
Once I get back from the African Safari in two weeks, I'll post some more progress!
 
Talk soon,
 
- Jason -

Hi Blunty. Your model looks great! Lots of very nice detailing. As for the rake of the masts they do vary a little. I have Longridge's book and he states that the foremast is raked at 86*, the main mast 85*and the mizzen mast 84*. The angle is measured from the horizontal  to the after side of each mast. Therefore they are angled aft, for clarification,
By the way, I wondered if you could send me a photo of the bow and stern decoration that's included in your kit. The ones from Billing that I have are not ideal, especially, the stern. I am thinking of applying to AL to see if I could purchase a set of theirs.
Anyhoo, great work so far. Good luck with the masting and rigging!
Peter

I bought my Norske Love model in 1979 and have resumed building during last year's lockdown. I also had  a major issue with the carving
of the figures on the stern. Definately carving with a razor-sharp blade is a no-no. So I sent an e-mail to Billing using my remaining 9 fingers
and found out that all of figurines are now available in plastic. i managed to get the stencil sent over to South Africa and all I have to do is paint
them gold and attach to the hull. The stencil number is F536. Good luck!

Deck planking for the Fair American Model Ship:
This part was fun. More so than the planking: no bending required!  My goal was to employ the same ''false treenail'' approach I did with the quarterdeck, but I'll have to keep track of where the bulkheads are before they're all covered!
 
As per the instructions, I started with the deck pad (5/32" thick planks).  I made sure to add a thick layer of lead pencil rubbing on the edges, to simulate the caulked appearance.  And I even remembered to cut a hole hole for the masts to fit in.  The mast will ultimately be round, but as it fits in, I'll keep it square. The slight angle SHOULD be maintained, but the deck needs to be opened up a bit for the mast to seat properly, I'll do that. 
 

 

 
As the deck pad gets glued on, at the house front, the planks are pretty tall.  I can see already that it will cover the door from 'opening'.  I've decided that I'll cut reliefs into the deck pad in this region, so there's sort of a step-down to the door.  I've heard from many other modelers, that this door is not to scale, via the plans. Either a raised roof or different door size was used in their models. I'm keeping mine, as I like the overall shape. Hopefully it won't look too out of place in the end.
 

 
The deck planking moved along pretty easily. Now with the 1/8" thick planks, its starting to take shape.  I darkened the butt ends with more pencil to make it stand out. Sanding dulls it a little bit, but it's not bad.
 

 
I created a little scaled sketch to keep track of where the butts should go. It helped tremendously. After each row, I'd cross off that set on the drawing, then move onto the next. I followed a similar pattern to the first row of hull planking, since I already knew where the butts landed on the bulkheads.
 

 
Except for the deck pad, I used Titebond CA Wood adhesive for the deck planks, since they aren't load supporting.  Some spots, the deck planking drooped. It could be a bad spot on the bulkhead, or a thin spot on the plank itself. You can see this on row 5, port side, near the large hatch.  I couldn't fix it, once it was glued in.  But, again, the port is the less pretty side anyway. It'll be hidden by gun carriage tackle later on.
 

 

 
After all the planks were laid, it was time to do the 'pencil treenail' trick!  Along each bulkhead, I drew a feint line to indicate the bulkhead, then I'd take a small pin vice and drill the holes by hand.  Maybe 1/2 way into the plank. Afterwards, I'd use a mechanical pencil, and bury the lead in the hole, and twist.  It leaves a nice mark behind. It's good enough for me, and gives the appearance I want. I also went back and traced the ends of the planks to make them more pronounced - sanding kind-of filled it in.
 

 
Near the bow, I must have messed up the bulkhead lines, since they are not straight on both sides 😕
I guess it's a good thing the deck will never be covered over with furniture, gun carriages, tackle or ropes, making mistakes all but hidden in the end. 😉 
 

 
 
 

 
All planking, deck and hull is now finished!  I'm not going to stain the deck, since I didn't stain the quarterdeck either, it would look strange.  Before the deck was fully finished, I took time to smear wood glue over the insides of all the hull planking, just to give it some extra hold:  I don't want any of them letting go and popping out later. After the deck was installed, there was no turning back! Fingers crossed.
 
More posts tomorrow, then I'm off for an African Safari for 2weeks!!!  If the rains come while I'm away, and floods the garage, I'm not sure she'll float!!
 
More progress tomorrow...
 
- Jason - 
 

Hull staining and painting of the Fair American Model Ship:
 
After taping off the upper and lower hull, I painted the wales a semi-gloss black. I should have primed it first, since wood likes to soak up paint - it took 3 good coats, but its done.  I was worried peeling the painters tape off would pull the upper stain with it, but it didn't, thankfully.  Now with the black wales, stained upper planking, and gold trim - it pops!  I love the contrast.
 

 

 
I'll still need a bit more gold trim paint later on - just handling the model does wear it off some. I'm still not happy with how the gun port trimming turned out - its not a consistent 1/32" for all ports, but I'll live with it. I guess everything at high zoom/magnification looks bad up close, but I'm extra critical.  
 

 

 
I'm keeping the lower hull planking as-is - no treenails.  When I first added clear poly to the lower hull, it darkened the color a bit! Yikes! But after it dried overnight - it wasn't an issue. It stayed the light basswood color.  Also, I only added 1 coat, as I didn't want the hull to have a shine to it. Should I go with more or heavier coat than this?
 

 
As per the instructions, the next part is deck planking. I'll tackle this in my next post, before moving on to the beak and deck furniture.
 
Its been a year and a half of very on-and-off work, buy now it looks like a ship!\
 
More progress soon.
 
- Jason - 

Thanks for the like..
 
Grate head deck pinned pins 0.5 mm..
 

 

 
Sidewalls glued ..
 

 

 
I'm creating a decorative head deck ..
 

 

 
 

The only problem with that type of deck plank clamps is keeping them full 😂, good to have you along.

Hi Ed,
I just ran across your log and will be following along. I have this kit on my shelf as well, and it's one I've always wanted to build. Handy that you've started yours so I have an idea what's involved. And I have the self same "deck plank clamps" that you have so I'm set in that department!
Good luck with your build. You have made an excellent start!
Cheers,
Peter

I followed the same course.  My Sergal kit was purchased in the late 1980's and not started until 2009.  Construction took 12 years with attention to detail from Longridge, Underhill, and Campbell.  The plans that I had were of little use and had several serious errors.  I don't know if the errors have been corrected so please check, especially the pinrail and rigging diagrams.  The model is largely kit bashed and scratch built.
 
It can be done!  Take your time, and always think ahead.  To do a full rigged with sails model you will need a lot more rigging points than shown on the original plans, and a lot more blocks and belaying pins and eyebolts.  Lou

Thanks for the like.
 
I decided to keep the lion statue only in red, that's how I found it..😎
 

historical picture..
 

model R.L. from the Gdańsk Museum..
 

replica Duyfken..
 
I finished the head deck frame. Again, I came across different dimensions of the drawing of a lion statue on the plan sheets ..😵
 

 

 
I had to lower the lion's back..
 

 
This is the size of a lion statue ..
 

 
Now the statue will fit under the head deck..