petervisser

Beautiful work! So much intricate detail to admire. Looks like a real labour of love. Congratulations on such a fine build!
Peter

The anchors
Corel provides one anchor.

The metal part was used after modification, and the wooden part was newly made. A dredge was also made.

Anchor in place

Dredge in place

Some "leftovers in a box"

And the finnished model.
Building and updating this old kit was challenging.

Thanks for following this build.

I’ve made quite a significant decision regarding the build. Over the past month I’ve been working on the masts and had started the rigging, but my enjoyment of the project was steadily diminishing with those jobs. I found the masts and rigging far too delicate for my liking, with unforgiving tolerances that needed to be precise to achieve a satisfactory result.  Keeping the masts perfectly upright while maintaining properly tensioned lines proved frustrating rather than rewarding.
 
I also realised that once the yards, bowsprit and masts are in place, the model became very large and, for me, somewhat impractical to display, particularly as I’d like to continue expanding my collection. Presenting the model without the full rig also has the added benefit of making it much easier to appreciate the deck details, as you can lean directly over the model without worrying about anything getting in the way.
 
So, I've decided to present it like a contemporary dockyard model - perhaps a gift to a senior naval officer - with shortened masts and bowsprit and no rigging. While there’s a sense of disappointment in not completing the model exactly as originally intended, I invested five months in the build and was genuinely pleased with the result right up until the mast and rigging stage. Presenting it this way has allowed me to finish the project in a manner that still reflects the enjoyment and effort I put into it.
 
I think this will be the approach I take with future ships as well.  Of course it's convenient because I personally struggle with rigging, but I like to think I'm following a historically legitimate presentation style as well.
 
I leave you with final photos of the finished build. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Welcome back, 
The Corel yacht is finished (learned a lot of new things) and the problem with the foresail knight is solved.
 
2026 started with "demolition work".

And overtired staff (again).

But, a knight (basic), a block and rope was made.

Early 16yh century blocks are "special" and complicated to build.

Knight in place (with the screw)

Test.
This setup can be operated with the capstan.

Deck one back in place

Deck two also

Mary Rose is back on track

Feeling the need for some creativity in image making, I fed one of the photos of my Flying Fish model into Google Gemini and asked it to create a photorealistic image of what the ship would have looked like in Boston Harbor in the 1850's.  I was blown away by the results, which I share here:
 
 

A neat way to run line to a belay pin is to remove the belay pin, run the line through the belay pin hole, insert the belay pin and then wrap. This makes the line taut and allows the line to be wrapped around the belay pin with ease.  

Thank you very much Mark, I wish the same.
 
So in the new year, I measured the Topmast shrouds..🙂


Tied up temporarily. Topmast will be removed..

 
 

Hello All,
Happy New Year to everyone, hope the Holidays were good for you. I have been pretty busy the last month or so, but unfortunately it hasn’t been in the shipyard. I do want to provide a small update on the progress I have made so far though. I have continued fabrication of the deadeyes and chain plates for the starboard side channels. I am using the same technic that I used on the Port side channels. So far things are going rather smoothly, but I found myself losing patience and decided to move on to something else for a break.
 
I have been following Frecap’s build log of the Bellona, and I must say he is capturing some interesting details. One of the details pointed out was whether the Catheads had knee bracing on the axial. There appear to be several depictions with and without this bracing. I felt that the Catheads on my ship were missing something, and it made perfect sense to me from an engineering standpoint to include this axial bracing. I found the angles that I needed using a piece of card stock and then used it as a template to cut out the braces. I used some leftover beechwood that I had and sanded them to a thickness of 3mm. I polished and applied a couple coats of WOP and attached them to the hull. I know I did not capture the full decorative detail of the grooving, but it matches the lack of detail I don’t have on the Catheads already. LOL It does however satisfy my eye on that element I felt was missing.
 
I decided to continue on with the stern and install the dicast figurehead and trailboards that were supplied with the kit. The quality of the PE and diecast parts that are supplied with the kit are of very poor quality compared to what I have seen on other kits being built on MSW, especially the VM kits. To try and improve on the appearance of the figurehead, I fabricated a spear some time ago and attached it to the hand of the figurehead. It seemed to help distract from the poor quality of the casting. I cut the pieces I needed from the brass sheet that the PE parts are stamped on. I soldered them to a piece of wire that I cut from a paperclip. I shaped the head of the spear using a file until I felt I had the proper shape. It’s not perfect but I feel it does improve the appearance of the figurehead.
 
Well, that’s all I have for now and as always, your comments and guidance are always welcome.
 
PS The last pictures are of the tool holder my wife made me for Christmas. She designed it and used her laser to cut out the parts. It has really helped to keep the tools organized and at hand.
 
Cheers
Nearshore














 
 

Finally some work done on the 4 anchors.
 
I left them the natural color which I quite like and added 2mm Tamiya tape (that I first colored with black permanent marker) in order to simulate the iron bands. I had to do 3 passes with the black marker to get a full coloring.

Please give this post a 'like' to indicate you have read it!
___________________________________________________________
 
Hey, folks!
 
Your friendly moderating staff at MSW have been editing a lot of build log titles in the past several weeks -- including three just today alone! The usual reason for editing a build log title is that it does not follow our site guidelines for naming build logs. Why do we have such guidelines? To keep our site looking spiffy and to enhance its functionality.
 
There are two ways you can check to see if you have titled your log correctly:
Consult the pinned topic on naming build logs -- it's pinned at the top of every build logs sub-forum. Take a look at some of the other build logs. The moderators make every effort to catch and fix all of the incorrectly titled logs, so 99% of the logs you look at should be correctly titled. Two more things: 1. Please don't freestyle or get cute with your titles. Titles are considered formal writing, not creative writing (you can get as creative as you like in the log itself). 2. If a moderator has edited your build log title, please don't edit it again yourself. This can make your moderators cranky, and we don't want them to quit on us! Remember, the moderator has fixed your title to conform to site guidelines.
 
Thanks in advance for helping us make this not only a great site but also a great-looking site!
 
Your MSW Staff

Thank you very much Kirill. Definitely useful for many modelers!
 
Another component. Removable loading hoist "Stay tackle"..

It was nicely discussed here by modeler Mati and the author of the book "The ships of Abel Tasman" Ab Hoving. https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/pinnace-papegojan-1627-1-48-completed-build.7055/page-2#post-159810

On the last day of the year, I wish all modelers a lot of peace in their construction, personal well-being and, most importantly, health until 2026. Ondras

She is as done as I am going to make her.  I will post more and better back dropped photos in the Gallery later.

Port side Wale planking completed, and all of the inboard jigs that were supporting the bulkhead extensions have been removed.
I need to complete the two missing pieces of the channel wales and then add the two strakes of boxwood planking below the wales, clean up and paint the gunports to basically complete chapter 2.
 

Manufacture of ladder futtock shrouds..🔥

Referring back to post #97 and my paper bow carving; while that attempt was not bad, I almost immediately knew I was not going to ever be happy with it.  To me it was too muddy, two-dimensional, and ultimately was not convincing.  It looked too much like someone applied graffiti with a spray can.
 
From then to now I dropped everything and set to work to try and find a better solution.  This single element has consumed me for quite some time.
 
What I came up with is as follows.  It is a solution that has been on my mind for quite some time and always avoided it as it promised to be a very tedious process.  In the end, though, the results are better and feel I can finally call it good, or at least good enough.
 
A is current attempt, B is former condition.

 
The process starts out with coating my design with a tack spray.  I made a rather heavy application.  After drying for an hour or so it is ready for the next step, which is following the design with #50 cotton thread.  The thread I used is black and that turned out to be a major problem trying to apply black over black.  So redid this process with a much lighter print.  If I had this thread in white or red it would not have been a problem.  I had a lot of trouble seeing the thread intersections so would tend to either come up short or create an overlap.

 
I altered this process 4 times before I got something that worked.  All you had to do was lightly press the thread into the adhesive to keep it from moving around.  I started out using raw thread which would tend to flatten out where you pressed it down and it would not rebound.  This left a very bumpy surface which would look terrible once painted gold.  I ended up dousing the thread with water-thin CA so it would hold its shape followed with a few draws with 0000 steel wool to remove the fuzzy whiskers.  The downside of this was the stiffer thread made it significantly more difficult to make a smooth radius.

 
Once I got the thread down, I carefully flowed water-thin CA along the thread paths to lock it down into the adhesive.  The CA bonded nicely to the tacky adhesive and would dry hard after a few hours.  Next step was painting over the entire area with Tamiya XF-1.  This paint likewise bonded nicely to the tacky adhesive and left a hard/firm surface after a couple hours.  What turned out to be an annoying problem was painting the thread surfaces with gold paint.  Even after burnishing the thread surfaces with the back of my fingernail, the surfaces were still rough enough that the gold paint looked very uneven and broken.  Admittedly, I was using a very old bottle of Floquil gold paint.  The Floquil label didn't have a barcode which makes it probably 50 years old.  It did not flow well even after thinning.  I then tried using my new gold Pilot paint pen which did cover the thread evenly but acted like a superfluid and ran absolutely everywhere.  I was forced to clean up the mess by trimming with more black paint.  At one point I tried thin Cu wire the same diameter as the #50 cotton thread.  I had to anneal the wire to take the springiness out of it.  The wire was much easier to put down and would have worked great... except when I put on the CA to lock it down the wire would pick up off the surfaces.  I never found a way to keep the wire pressed down long enough for the CA cure, so abandoned the wire.

 
I decided to apply the star separately so printed out a sheet of scaled stars and then soaked the paper with water-thin CA.  Once hardened, the stars could be cut out cleanly with a razor blade.  If you were to use plain paper the edges would be fibrous and easily tear.

 
As a follow-up to post #93 and my quick and dirty etching experimentation, I found the scrap piece of brass I had let sit (unagitated) in 30% ferric chloride for an hour.  So here it is.  It is clear that the laser toner resist layer worked surprisingly well.  I scraped off the resist layer so you can see there was very little undercutting.  While this approach was never going to produce the results I wanted, it might find some application down the road.

Thank you very much Ronaldo. Thanks for the like.
 
Lower Ratlines finished..🔥




Next is the Catharpins component, seen from the William Rex ship model..
 






 
 

Played around with my decal paper today and the results were disappointing.
 
First thing I did was scale and bend the design in Photoshop until it fit the ship.  I would cut out the paper version and apply to make sure it fit properly.  First thing I noticed was just how good the paper version looked, to the point I almost didn't bother with the decal paper.  The toner almost perfectly matched the hull paint.
 
But, I have the decal paper so wanted to see how it would work.  After printing out my design on the laser printer the first thing I noticed was the toner got partially picked up and smeared by the outfeed roller.  Toner adhesion is terrible, at least with my printer.  You can very easily scratch off the toner by dragging your fingernail across the surface.  For sure, you would have to seal this work once you transfer your design.
 
Even though the decal paper didn't look that good I went ahead and tried to apply gold to the scroll work.  I initially tried to use my nib pen using some gold paint (I couldn't find any gold ink) and that went badly as the pen tip would quickly foul.  It also proved a little difficult to apply paint to the glossy decal surface.  The pen would probably have worked great if I had ink.
 
It was at this point I tried to apply the gold paint to the paper version, which was a lot easier but would bleed a little, so the design was not as crisp as I was hoping for.  Never-the-less, it didn't look all that bad.  I used an old brush that I trimmed to a point and thinned the paint with a little mineral spirit.  I ended up using some of the gold paint out of my new Ultra Fine (0.5mm) Pilot paint pen, which turned out to be useless.  The tip was too wide and every time you pressed the tip down to feed more paint the line would get wider.
 
I almost went w/o the gold as I'm actually not sure the carving was gilded at this point in time.  In fact, I still lean in that direction.  Longridge did his work in gold so maybe it was gold.  Really hard to tell with B&W photos.
 

 
I carefully applied water-thin CA around the edges of the paper using a wire loop.  I went around it twice letting the CA completely wick up behind the paper.  You had to be a little careful as too much CA would melt and flow the paint.  I might later go back around with some black paint but honestly without a bright spotlight on it, as in the picture below, you would have no idea there was a paper edge.

 
I also applied silicone to my little lifeboat form.  I used alcohol but mineral spirits would likely have been better.  It needs to completely cure before I try to apply my planking, which I might try to start tomorrow.  Funny how you will see things in pictures that you might not otherwise notice.  For example, it jumped out at me in my last post that the hull needed more fairing.

Have been simultaneously working on a number of smallish jobs that are not all completed.  Multitasking is not an efficient way to work.  The reality is some of my current tasks are not much more than a series of experiments to see what works.
 
Framing the masts:
Pretty straight forward but took a surprising amount of time to measure out and remove decking, then color some replacement wood to match decking.  The mast diameters are not enough to fill in between frames but when a weather skirt is applied that will cover things up.  Unfortunately, my old-work masts will need to be completely rebuilt as there is just too much wrong with them.  After the framing was complete, I started gluing down all the items I have been making... chicken prisons, winches, etc.  Something always goes wrong at this stage and the big oops this time was one of the chicken coops took a ride down the throat of my shop vac.  It could have been worse.

 
Although I made the whiskers and dolphin striker a while back, I had to remove them as they would surely get broken off in the course of modeling.  I refitted them on the ship but will take them back off until I get to the rigging.  Made out of soft copper wire hammered out to shape.  The hammering process turns the Cu hard and not easily bent.  Soldering on the clips was an exercise in patience.

 
Mounting the anchors:
There are, of course, several ways to display the anchors.  While at Falmouth the anchors were stored on deck and the anchor chains used as mooring points, and that never changed.  Every picture I have from that period shows the anchors simply laying on the deck with only a protective board under each fluke and not lashed down.  As a practical matter, I did lash down the anchors as they would otherwise be constantly moving about.  Longridge displayed his model that way, even if it wasn't exactly as it was.  In the right-hand picture below, you can see how the almost identical anchor is stored on the deck of the Polly Woodside.  I also attached the anchor chains, again, even though that was not how it was in reality.  It's simply a matter of practicality. I had to make a couple small shackles out of brass to make the connections.  Sections of the railings could be temporarily removed to allow the anchors to be stored on deck.  I need to somehow detail that in a way people don't keep asking me how they got the anchors under the railings.  

 
Lifeboats and storage skids:
This is one of those jobs that is ongoing and outcome uncertain where the lifeboats are concerned.  It took some time to figure out the exact locations of skids, as they were moved forward at some point while in the hands of the Portuguese.  I have no published plans for this so had to stare at pictures until I felt I got it right.  One big difference is that the distance between skids was narrowed, and a section of the aft skid bridge was cut out to accommodate the water tank.  The lifeboats are currently a work in progress and am working out the process as I go.  I started out making a mold for the shell out of soft pine.  I printed out scaled drawings to help and that makes this so much easier.

 
I then made a pair of keels that get notched into the mold.  I made the keels very oversized so after the planking is done, I can then shape the keels down to the proper depth.  My next step is to coat the mold with silicone so it will be much harder for over-applied CA to grab the mold.  To do this I'll dissolve some 100% silicone caulking in isopropyl alcohol, or maybe mineral spirits.  CA does not stick well, or at all, to silicone.  I've been looking for over various materials to use as planking and in the end, I'll likely use a paper product to achieve the look and scale.  That'll be fun.  


 
Bow carvings:
Concurrent to all these projects is I'm still trying to figure out how to apply the bow carvings in a way that I'll believe.  My latest effort was to see if I could reproduce the design in etched brass or copper foil.  You can find various methods to apply etch resistant designs from the internet.  The easiest and cheapest method I found was to print your design on glossy paper with a laser printer.  From there you can transfer the design either by heat (cloths iron) or melt it on with nail polish remover.  Straight acetone will work but tended to dry to fast.  Once the design is pressed on and the acetone is mostly dry you can peel off the paper.  That part seemed to work pretty well except when I tried to sponge off the paper whiskers stuck to the toner, I discovered the toner did not adhere all that well.  I later determined that how you clean the metal is VERY important.  Initially I simply scoured the surfaces with 0000 steel wool.  Turns out that leaves a faint oily residue which guarantees failure.  You need to use detergent and water as a final step and then don't touch any part of the surface.  I tried using straight acetone as a final rinse but that didn't work well at all.

 
Don't use cellophane tape to hold down your designs.  It will melt and leave a gooey mess.  As you can see, this process is quite doable.  I took this rather thick brass test plate and soaked it in 30% ferric chloride for about an hour and was surprised to see the edges were still quite sharp around the toner resist that was still intact.  I sprayed the back of the plate with lacquer to keep it from getting eaten.  For some reason I didn't take a picture of that.  If I do this again, I'll use thin copper foil and see what happens.

 
As a possible alternative to etching, I just got in the mail some water-slide decal sheets.  I have prepared some jpeg files to print out to see how it works.  My plan is to print out the design with a black background.  From there I will use an ultra fine pen nib (of which I have) and follow the design with gold ink.  I can then cut out the design and apply to the ship.  We'll see how that goes.  I have other ideas on how to use this product but need to see first-hand what can be done.  It's a process of discovery.

 
I'm starting to think about rigging so recently ordered a sample pack from Ropes of Scale.  They make some really nice stuff.  Having the samples in hand is going to make my decisions on which sized to use so much easier.
 

Bottom Ratlines strung..🔥

..compare again, glue the end knots and cut..🙂
 




Measurement by the figure of a sailor..

Sometimes a rung had to be replaced..

This is how Ratlines are knitted on the replica "De Witte Swaen"..💥 At 6:00 minutes...
 
 

Final shots! 

So today I’m done, I build the third kit for comparison in 1 hour 50, 

I continue tying the deadeyes. Mizzen mast..🔥

After measuring and tying the deadeyes to the shrouds, I glued the masts..

"Tackle" and Deadeyes tied cleanly. Just need to adjust the height..💥





 

Have been using beeswax for rigging the past 40 years with no problems, it hasn't rotted and fallen apart. It was recommended to help preserve the rigging. As for it being acidic, I'm no chemist but I just did a search:
Bee's wax is not acidic; it is primarily composed of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols. This composition means that bee's wax does not contain significantly acidic compounds, making it pH neutral and suitable for various applications, including cosmetics and preservation of artifacts. 
  Wikipedia+2      

Quite an array of yards! As with any stage in a model of this type, it's easy to be overwelmed by all the major tasks involved in the model's completion. But you're making great progress, judging by your build log. I look at it as taking bite size pieces and before long another stage of the build is complete! All the best going forward!
Peter

Painted.  Some own questioning going on as to whether or not I should rework any of it, but it's growing on me as probably done.
 
There's some variance in the coverage, and I'll appreciate any comments as I mull it over for the next day or so, but I'm tending to the idea that it's not worth remedial work.  And overall hafta say I like it.  One thing that worked out well was the masking which gave me a clean line.
 
I am going to re-do the stem; I guess I overlooked filling those gap lines.
 
Nick