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Set up shop in the new house - ready for more work on Fair American Model Ship:
 
Moved into the new house pretty smoothly. Only 9,997 boxes to go!
 
The ship survived the move intact!!!  I placed it on my wife's lap as we drove to settlement - I couldn't prevent her from breathing on it, but hey.  
 
Finally got the basement set-up for ship modeling - bought a new wood top work bench, which gave me some elbow room. My grandfather's small lathe and milling machine DO take up a lot of space, even in the back corner.

I still may move some things around, but this is a good working area for now. 

The peg board has helped, gets many of the tools off the table top, so I'm not constantly pushing them on the floor, accidentally.

A year ago, or so - during Google searching, I came across some Fair American plans, showing the sails. http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/0PLAN1C.html
I am planning on adding sails to my model, so this will be a great ''overview'' of size and shape, and rigging. The plans, once downloaded, are in several tiny sections, which I printed and taped together as closely as I could.  These are what are hanging around the workbenches now.

 

 

 

 
I'll be soon working on the Bowsprit and other masts - finally. 
I'm looking forward to meeting up with @CiscoH this weekend, to sharing shipbuilding tips and stories!
 
More updates in coming month, I hope.
 
- Jason -

Hi all, the good news is that I'm back working on Winnies chapter 9 which is great. The bad news is I should have been at the Admiralty Models workshop and not working on the Winnie. On Monday morning after ducking and dodging for the last two years the COVID bug finally caught me. I'm on meds and able to function but at a much slower pace.
 
I have enclosed the framing on the bulwarks, added the cap rail at the waist and worked my way aft.

 
Here you can see that my bulwarks curve is slightly different than Chucks laser cut cap rail but not enough to cause an issue.

Tiny update as I am doing a few other things in other build areas of Indy too.
 
I now have some colour on the model. I first varnished the exposed strip on the inner bulwarks and then used masking tape before I added paint. For this, I used some Plastikote Red Oxide (same as on the lower fisher hulls) and decanted it from the aerosol so I could airbrush it. The paint was left to de-gas for a few hours. That's important as it'll boil if you try to use or do anything with it when fresh from the rattle can. The paint was then thinned with mr Levelling Thinner, about 60:40 paint to thinner. When completely dry, I airbrushed Tamiya Flat Red over the red oxide. 
 

 
 
After more judicious masking (and masking the ports off from interior), I did the same paint regime for the gun ports. Once dry, everything was unmasked.

 
 
 
The standard kit will be supplied with Red Alder for deck planking. This is a beautiful timber. However, for this, I am using an engraved maple veneer deck. There will be an option for a maple deck, but it's an actual maple deck, not veneer. Fitting the deck will be the same as for this, with a subtle flex and sliding into the rear first, underneath the stern timbers. First though, a test fit should be done and the edges sanded so it lies flat to the bulwark edges. 

 
 
 
The deck was then glued down and left to dry. In the meantime, the main gu deck coamings were masked and airbrushed in Tamiya Flat Black. The grates will be added after the coamings are fitted, so to reduce rigidity when fitting.


 
 
More soon(ish) 

hi Ed,
Nice job on the tank! Glad to see you back working on the Norske Love! Looking forward to more pic's of your build and any handy tips you can pass along.
Cheers,
Peter

Made stairs..




Ramshead pulleys made for Halyard Knightheat posts..


Next work aft deck wall..


And a supply of Small staghorn harnesses..


 
 
 
 

Completed poop deck..
 




Created a bench above the mirror..
 



Also the flagpole and the inner railing..
 
 

I have now completed the work in chapter 11. The final items were the gangways, gangboards and their supporting knees, the newel posts and fancy rails, and the gangway ladders. Although the work was relatively straightforward, it was done in tight crowded spaces and required an extra measure of care. Apparently, I didn’t do that because I damaged a number of previously installed items, including snapping off off three more swivel guns. This meant that my final work was damage repair and replacement and touch up painting.
 
The attached photos show the work done with a few overall shots of the model as it sits now.
 
Bob
 
 
 
 

I have now completed the remaining external hull detailing in chapter 11. This included making up and installing the billboards, the fenders and chess trees and the swivel guns and their stanchions. When that work was completed, I mounted the gun port port lids which I had previously  left off out of caution. Speaking of caution, the mounted swivel guns are extremely fragile, as I learned when I snapped off the two at the bow with an inadvertent hand movement . Replacing them required drilling through the broken off  pieces glued in the knightheads, a tricky task. The last thing I did was to add the rigging eyebolts shown on the plans.

All in all, it was enjoyable work and fun to see the outcome. I will now finish up chapter 11 with the gangboards et al.
 
Bob
 
 

Thank you so much Rick, I appreciate your words!
 
The last part to be painted, the inside railing of the foredeck..

 

The wall of the back castle..



Added rear side bar for Belaying pins..

I cover the last plywood part, the roof of the rear castle..

JThe deadeyes and chains were next up. At least for me, this was one of the more tedious tasks in the build . Due to stupidity on my part, things started of badly. I bought and assembled  Chuck’s deadeye kits and also bought and assembled the Model Shipways block tumbler suggested in the deadeye instructions. I couldn’t get the thing to work at all. Rather than asking here what I was doing wrong, I chose to use commercial deadeyes that I had on hand. They were virtually identical in size to the kit deadeyes, but required some adjustment in the strops to fit. I then found that the chain   links had to be fitted to each individual chain, using the various sizes provided. I lessened the pain by realizing that the  links  links (the lowest links) were the one constant and used them to mark where the other two links had to reach.
 
I then added the eyebolts between the chains.
 
I’m satisfied with the final result,  but happy to move on to other things.  
 
Bob 
 
 
 

I didn't like the look of my blue PE oars and I had to do something about them, as they were too prominent on deck of the DoK. I de-charred the also supplied ones from pear wood, rounded them cautiously with sanding paper and files and gave them a coat of Wipe on Poly, followed by blue for the blades and gold for the handles.
Now I like the look and it was well worth the extra effort to tear off the PE oars, rip of the seat planks, clean them from CA and repaint them.
The supports were glued to the deck, but the boat will be removed, as it may is in the way, while rigging.
Next is cleaning of the bench and then, it's rigging time .

Cheers Rob
 

 

 

 

 

Almost there with the Cutter. I painted the hull flat white, the seats flat red and the rudder, rows and stripe flat blue, all airbrushed with Tamiya's XF colors.
The gratings, which are made from PE, were primed, airbrushed with Desert yellow and then received a oil color treatment with a flat brush and whit spirit, to emulate a wood finish. Last was a coat of clear matte. The colors were chosen to match the DoK's colors. Some minor touch ups and fitting the rows, hooks and anchors and this little side project can be called done.
 
 
 

 

 

 
Cheers Rob

Hi Guys. It's been a while but I'm still plugging away. Albeit slowly. I finally got around to fitting the decoration to the hull. It's a part of the build that I had been struggling with. The parts that came with the kit included two plastic molds of the name and scroll work for the bow and a decal with the name, port of registry and scroll work for the stern. Nothing too inspiring to attach to the model. I then searched around for suitable replacements, first acquiring the brass fitting sheets that come with the Sergal kit which is 1/78 scale. Although the scale is very similar to my model I found the name boards and scroll work to be a bit oversize. Then I discovered that Artesina Latina also does a Cutty Sark model at 1/84 scale and they sell fittings seperately on request. Bingo! A perfect solution. I decided to use the scroll work pieces that came with my kit to provide some relief and added detail to the bow. I simply sanded off the scroll work to make the pieces smooth. A bit of paint, and presto, they were installed on the model. The decoration arrived from AL and were then also added to the model. The scroll work on the stern meant that the wood strake around the hull had to be modified to accept the decoration, but the sacrafice is worth it I think. I also added some white styrene strips to the bow decoration to jazz up. Here are some pic's of the result...
 



 

I finished all breech lines and started with the gun tackles. For these I am using the 0.008’’ line from Chuck’s Syren company, served with a 100wt beige silk thread (image 1a), and the Syren 2mm single sheave boxwood rigging blocks. I opened up the holes in the blocks a little (77 drill), sanded the corners slightly with a fine sand paper and mounted each block on a wire loop to facilitate the handling of these tiny objects (image 1b). For hooks I went with the photoetched 3mm hooks from Dafi (http://www.dafinismus.de/plates_en.html#anker7). All parts needed for a hook-block assembly are shown in image 2c. Images 2 and 3 present the assembly sequence for a tackle and image 4 shows the finished result. For rope coils I used a variation of an idea from Richard (kscadman). Image 5 shows my jig which allows making rope coils right beside the gun. It also allows varying size and shape of these coils. I want to avoid for these coils to look all identical and ‘too perfect’. The first completely rigged carronade is shown in images 6 – 8. I still have to see whether I stick with this process for the remaining 17 guns . . . 

 
Thomas
 

 
Image 1
 
 

 
Image 2
 
 

 
Image 3
 
 

 
Image 4
 
 

 
Image 5
 
 

 
Image 6
 
 

 
Image 7
 
 

 
Image 8
 
 
 
 

Thank you very much for the like!
 
I provided the rear deck with all the pins..



Added Kevel blocks to the rear deck..



And the final spray, the inner railing..


Cleaned the holes in the gretings and waxed the rear deck..


 

Hi Guys. It's been a while but I'm still plugging away. Albeit slowly. I finally got around to fitting the decoration to the hull. It's a part of the build that I had been struggling with. The parts that came with the kit included two plastic molds of the name and scroll work for the bow and a decal with the name, port of registry and scroll work for the stern. Nothing too inspiring to attach to the model. I then searched around for suitable replacements, first acquiring the brass fitting sheets that come with the Sergal kit which is 1/78 scale. Although the scale is very similar to my model I found the name boards and scroll work to be a bit oversize. Then I discovered that Artesina Latina also does a Cutty Sark model at 1/84 scale and they sell fittings seperately on request. Bingo! A perfect solution. I decided to use the scroll work pieces that came with my kit to provide some relief and added detail to the bow. I simply sanded off the scroll work to make the pieces smooth. A bit of paint, and presto, they were installed on the model. The decoration arrived from AL and were then also added to the model. The scroll work on the stern meant that the wood strake around the hull had to be modified to accept the decoration, but the sacrafice is worth it I think. I also added some white styrene strips to the bow decoration to jazz up. Here are some pic's of the result...
 



 

My chapter 11 parts arrived and work is now well under way. I began by assembling and installing the channels. I found that applying the spray adhesive to both pieces created a much better bond than applying to only one piece. I also found it very helpful to slip a couple of deadeye strops into the channel slots while I was gluing and positioning the channel pieces to ensure proper alignment.
 
After the channels were in place I moved on to the channel straps. Following the suggestion to use pliers heated over a candle to make the bends in the straps worked out great.
 
Now it’s on to the deadeyes. 
 
Bob
FullSizeRender.MOV

Thank you very much Patrick!!
 
I lined the back deck with lapped boards..

 

Deck with gratings ground..



Deck sanded..


View below the rear deck..
 

Thank you @rwiederrich. Yes, I have to do a walk into the kitchen to turn the boat these days... Ethalion is still sat at the other end of the bench, so not enough room to slide Stefano round the corner to see the other side these days... 
 
While the weather is so exceptionally fine, it seemed like a good moment to take some photos of the whole... Bearing in mind that so much of it is only placed in place at the moment, Stefano's not looking too shabby
 
At some point, I shall try and get some reasonable photos of Ethalion and Stefano side by side - that really would be a fascinating comparison, but Ethalion is protected behind dust covers at the moment, so it will have to wait.

Finally. Enough focus and concentration have returned to allow me to complete the making, installation and rigging of the quarterdeck guns. While the results are not all that I hoped for, I am absolutely delighted to be back at work on Winnie again and making progress. 
 
Recovery is a slow process, particularly at my age, but I am far more optimistic about being able to complete this project than I Iwas when I  last posted. On to chapter eleven, when the parts become available.
 
Bob6

Hi Guys. It's been a while but I'm still plugging away. Albeit slowly. I finally got around to fitting the decoration to the hull. It's a part of the build that I had been struggling with. The parts that came with the kit included two plastic molds of the name and scroll work for the bow and a decal with the name, port of registry and scroll work for the stern. Nothing too inspiring to attach to the model. I then searched around for suitable replacements, first acquiring the brass fitting sheets that come with the Sergal kit which is 1/78 scale. Although the scale is very similar to my model I found the name boards and scroll work to be a bit oversize. Then I discovered that Artesina Latina also does a Cutty Sark model at 1/84 scale and they sell fittings seperately on request. Bingo! A perfect solution. I decided to use the scroll work pieces that came with my kit to provide some relief and added detail to the bow. I simply sanded off the scroll work to make the pieces smooth. A bit of paint, and presto, they were installed on the model. The decoration arrived from AL and were then also added to the model. The scroll work on the stern meant that the wood strake around the hull had to be modified to accept the decoration, but the sacrafice is worth it I think. I also added some white styrene strips to the bow decoration to jazz up. Here are some pic's of the result...
 



 

Next up, fairing the bulkheads. This is something that needs special attention in order to have a smooth looking hull. I have always used a couple of sanding blocks (a wide one and a narrow one) made by Exacto which work really well. By running the sanding block lightly the length of two bulkhead (keel to deck) it bevels the edges. I bevel two bulkheads at a time, then move on to the next one and bevel that pair. In this way every bulkhead is fair to the one immediately fore and aft of it. Using a shot piece of plank I check the beveling of three bulkheads in order to see the results.
 
Here's a couple of photos showing what I mean.
 

 

Hi Guys. It's been a while but I'm still plugging away. Albeit slowly. I finally got around to fitting the decoration to the hull. It's a part of the build that I had been struggling with. The parts that came with the kit included two plastic molds of the name and scroll work for the bow and a decal with the name, port of registry and scroll work for the stern. Nothing too inspiring to attach to the model. I then searched around for suitable replacements, first acquiring the brass fitting sheets that come with the Sergal kit which is 1/78 scale. Although the scale is very similar to my model I found the name boards and scroll work to be a bit oversize. Then I discovered that Artesina Latina also does a Cutty Sark model at 1/84 scale and they sell fittings seperately on request. Bingo! A perfect solution. I decided to use the scroll work pieces that came with my kit to provide some relief and added detail to the bow. I simply sanded off the scroll work to make the pieces smooth. A bit of paint, and presto, they were installed on the model. The decoration arrived from AL and were then also added to the model. The scroll work on the stern meant that the wood strake around the hull had to be modified to accept the decoration, but the sacrafice is worth it I think. I also added some white styrene strips to the bow decoration to jazz up. Here are some pic's of the result...
 



 

Hello Dirk and welcome to this great site. I have built the Marie Jeanne by Billing a long time ago now. I really like the lines of this boat and it's colourful paint scheme. I ran across another site that had photos of the same model built by other modellers with totally different colourings. It was a treat to see! Anyway, all the best with your project. It was a fun build for me and I hope a fun one for you as well. Happy New Year!
Peter