BenD

Aurifil is expensive but looks pretty good. Limited colors in 80wt though.  

here are some of my Aurifil samples. It looks better and behaves well when treated with watered down white pva.

Welcome to the snake club!

There are a few finished Snakes on this forum but this kit is a challenge. I have been working on mine for 2 years, I'm burnt out. I'm moth balling it and working on some easier projects and will return to it at some point. It's a decent kit with mostly good materials but it's not very good for newer modelers.  You did well on your longboat so I feel you may be ready. good luck!

I'm going to hop into a Master Korabel kit, they seem to be more my skill level.

After working on the old Caldercraft kit you are going to find the Vangaurd kits just fall together.  Laser cutting magic I tell you! 

If the belaying pin was made out of Lignum Vitae it would sink.  It is the most dense wood, as far as I know.  

The pins on a ship are not held down by anything but gravity or by a rope if a line has been belayed to it.  It's meant like this so you can pull the pin and all the rope drops to the deck.  You can react quicker to what ever sailing task is needed. 

Yeah I was on your store and I just impulse bought the 9th century Slavic longship 1:72.  It was too cool looking to pass up.

The Avos, Phoenix, and the Polotsk are all equally enticing...

This looks amazing!  I need to get my hands on a Master Korabel kit. 

HMS Sphinx - 6th rate 

The excitement is palpable. 

I've been working on all the deck features.  Nothing is glued in yet as there is a lot more work to be done.  Next up is the fore and aft platforms.

The chain plate loops are supposed to be closed.  Using some wire and soldering your own is the best way to go about this.  Soldering kits are pretty cheap, even a $30 kit can get this done easily.

The Rudder looks good! 

Sorry to hear about the Cancer Shellback. I hope you are well.

This is a decent kit but everything on it needs a lot of work.  I would still recommend the kit but be prepared to put in 500-800 hours of work.

Your excellent work makes me want to throw my Sherbourne in the rubbish bin...

That lighting is so cool!

Overlapping might be the way to go.  I didn't with my Caldercraft plates and the gaps got filled with copper polish.  The polish I used turned slightly green.  No cloth seemed to get it out.

I just received some of Chris Wattons binnacles.  They are really detailed for their size.  I guess that's what you get when you buy a state of the art laser cuter.

Both sizes could work but I think I'll have room for the 1.64th one.  Honestly an 18 gun sloop of war probably wouldn't have one of these but it's going on anyway!

Thanks mugje!  

Carronades continued. 

I made some .95mm rope for the guns and think I may move up to 1.10mm and see if that looks closer to scale.  The length needs to be increased also as you can see it can't haul in very far.  Fiddling with all these tiny parts makes me nervous about adding outhaul tackle.  

Made the Ships wheel and capstan as a break from the guns.  The wheel may be changed out in the future if I can find a reasonable replacement.  The parts came off the sheet all hairy and chipped but they turned out okay regardless    

The cost of making Royal George kits would be immense.  100 turned brass or resin Guns.  boxwood planking for master version.  Half a pallet of mdf only makes like 8 kits.  Madness...

I guess we should start saving   

Used a brush. I added 5 ml of water to the Caldercraft paint pot to thin it out and did 3 light coats.  They came out almost like airbrush, If you get really close you can see a bit of brush marks.

I upgraded my workstation once again.  This time I got a new desk and some cheap Ikea lamps that can use 800 lumens bulbs.  I now have more desk space than I know what to do with. 

So many hours have gone into prepping parts and painting for the Carronades. I can't even begin to imagine doing all the guns for a frigate or a ship of the line.  Anyway I tried using a black deckblock to see If I liked the contrast or not, backed out of that pretty fast.  

56 minutes ago, chris watton said:

There's a 20 gun, 32 gun, 38 gun and 44 gun razee. Head says the smallest or 32 gun, heart wants the biggest...

The 20 or 32 gun would be the logical progression of your kit lineup.  No reason you can't develop the razee down the road.

I can't tell what ship the top three are but the Sphinx on the bottom looks like a 24 gun. It's the 1775 one right?

I agree with Gary that you could do a vote for the next kit if your really divided one what to do next.  So far I know you want to do the Bellona, Leopard, and the Indefatigable.

I'm looking for a frigate for my next build and I would be willing to drop $800 on a good one.  

The 16 inch scroll saw is your best bet.  I have one and I use it for so much more than model making. 

The other one has a rip fence and a miter gauge if you want to try that.  I can't imagine they would be to terribly effective with this type of blade.

Thinking about painting?  I personally like the natural wood you have going on. 

The ships wheel that comes with these kits are kinda crappy and flat. The one you bought is better.  I just ordered some wheels myself, got 2 sizes.

Thinking about rigging already? You can get a lot done with just a few knots like a slip knot or even an overhand knot. The real game changer for me was learning how to make lashings, I'll link a video from a really old guy on YouTube. 

Chucks method does work.  Clamp the strips then use a hair dryer instead of an iron and it wont get burned. 

This is how I did it and it worked really well.