aliluke

Just found this log by a master. As a mere maker of kits with hand tools only, your work is humbling and awe inspiring. After that I am lost for words. Incredible won't even do.

I used the Amati plates for HMS Fly. As Jason says you can lay them in strips and then break them into single, double or whatever units to get the curve sometimes with just minor trimming. This is not visible and I didn't overlap them. I have seen them being overlapped on a one or two models and it seems to be messy to my eye and out of scale. My aging technique is as seen in my Fly log. Not for the faint hearted but it worked really well and, after sealing, has held up for years now.

Agree with Andy - amazing planking on a very big hull where things can stray and go pear shaped very quickly. You arrested that early which is good lesson for plankers. I got a bit of strife here after covering the boxwood planking on my HMS Fly - it is just about how you want the end result to look like isn't it? Either way, this will be a masterpiece.

That's very good work. Very clean and tidy. I plan the same - mast stubs only should I ever wish to rig but that'll be a distant day...For now (well, when I get to where you are) I'll also be happy with just a hull.

Beautiful work ECK in all aspects. The stove is superb. I admire your dedication to a fully rigged cannon - never again for me! Breeching ropes only from now on. I don't know what airbrush you use but my Iwata Eclipse has never missed a beat in years...but these are tools that need very careful cleaning and care.

Thanks for the Likes Thanks Jason. I can't imagine you having any problem with this little kit! The wick is just a length of the wire supplied in the kit, glued into a hole drilled in the top of the candle and then snipped down to a sensible height.

What a rip off! A sad start to getting into wooden ship modelling but, I must say, that as long us the maker and designer is still in business, buy it directly from them. It helps their business and that gives us more of their developments and kits by them. It might cost more but you get the back-up and support when you get stuck, when things are missing or even when you make a mistake. Chris Watton is an exemplar of this support. A harsh first landing for you and a shame.

I have only just caught up on this - completely extraordinary!!! I swear I am looking at the real thing under sail. Also, being an architect, admiring the backdrop of your concrete walls - very nice.

Hi I am going very slow...Next little thing to make was the stern lantern using the Syren Model 1/64 version. A truly brilliant mini kit but very tricky to build. To call this small is very much an understatement - it is tiny and some parts ridiculously so. The macro photography takes you way beyond beyond what you can see. For absurd detail, I added a wick to the candle. The only panic was popping a glazing panel inwards during handling after fixing the top on. I drilled a hole through the door and gently pushed it back into place with a wire. First rule when modelling at this size and breaking something - don't panic and find the fix. Only departure from the kit is the crank - basswood in the kit but I replaced with 1mm diameter solid brass rod which is fitted into a hole drilled into the base parts. It feels much more solid than a bit of wood glued to the base. The lantern catches the setting sun as HMS Fly sails out of Dusky Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand - the background photo is taken by me in Dusky Sound and is my computer wallpaper (it is not is not blurry in reality!)

Hi Kevin Been watching from the sidelines. This is all coming up really well!! If you don't like shiny copper there is a way to make it otherwise - see my Fly log. User beware...

Thanks Al Very tempted but terrified by the shipping cost. Keen now to see how this USS Maine progresses. I have been back through Rich's log and it is very impressive - so many innovations but so many tools that I don't have. Please keep the updates coming Rich, I'm loving this log and build! A

Hi I just strayed into this log as it isn't a part of the forum that I usually roam. A stunning build is unfolding! I have coveted battleship kits of this era and at this scale and I'm frustrated that they are unobtainable now. I'd leap into one. Hey Ryland - want to sell USS Olympia? I'm only half joking...but back to the main, Maine build - a really informative log with great techniques and results. I'll follow along from now.

Thanks Allan It is always good to improve my knowledge of ship matters to make a more authentic rendition in a model. I will bide my time looking for a fix and may settle for the more elegant VM pinnace when I build that. Certainly it is a single piece in the model but takes nothing away from the quality of the kit for me, as a purist would spot it and fix it with ease. It's good to know that someone with your keen eye finds the rest of the kit so good.

I did see the thickening of the davit on another kit like this. I planned to do that but quite simply forgot when I fixed it in place! Now that I am reminded, I might see if I can remove it. Yes Maurice I recall your pinnace - the launch was a practice and the plan is for the pinnace which I'll do later. The only problem is that the VM version is 28' which may be a tad long (I recall that yours is 26'). When it comes to it, I'll have a choice as I'm happy enough with my practice launch.

Thanks all for comments and likes. Jpalmer - your renditions of these little kits are brilliant, I looked at them often - cleaner than mine and you'll know how hard but satisfying they are to make. Thanks to VM I have a boat that'll do good grace on my ship but I'm also going to do the 28' pinnace to see if it is a better alternative on the chocks. The launch was practice. I think...Either way I'll have two little standalone kits.

Truly inspiring work - totally incredible in fact. I am in awe. Can't imagine getting there but a joy to see unfold here.

Very nice work Maurice. I used this technique on the wales for Fly but I cleaned it up so well that after painting them black the jointing was invisible! Be careful of that.

I have, when time allows, been tinkering away at the VM 26' Launch. It is a relentlessly tricky little kit and I'll be glad to get back to the main subject - HMS Fly - next. My launch is pretty well a straight out of the box kit. The main floor didn't fit so I removed the outer planks. I added an anchor rope. I shaped the oar handles and blades but inserted them into a micro brass tube for the shafts and added a leather? thickening where they base through the oarlock slots. I painted the upper works red as that suited my ship's Captain. Even though I didn't need to, I painted below the waterline in a creamy white. My hull planking allowed it to be left natural but I thought that would look odd on a ship with a copper bottom. Some photos (which show touch-ups required). I have yet to stow the oars which promises to be as fiddly as everything else was.

Your work on these looks pretty good. Blue Ensign has nailed this - talk to him.

Hi Avi Just looked through your log - very nice work indeed. But I'm confused by your coppering technique and it seems to frustrate you as well. Why at 1/96 - a very small scale- are you overlapping the plates? It seems like a near pointless detail that is causing the frustration and it appears to be "ruffling" the lines of the hull. Why not just butt joint them and the problem goes away? Why are you doing them in sections rather than them running full length side to side? On my Fly model at 1/64 they are just butt jointed and I laid each row, starting at the keel - stem to stern, side to side before I moved up to the next row. All glued with a light coating of CA. The plates follow the planking lines and are snipped to the correct angle when they reach the waterline. At least for Fly or Pegasus this the correct layout for these ships. They aren't the Constitution of course so I can't speak to that. I have no idea how you'll be able to match the sectional approach from side to side. I'm also confused about why the kit supplies them as individual plates when you can get them as strips which work quickly and accurately for long horizontal runs? With strips you can snip off individual planks to work with the upward flow made by imperceivable increments. The strips with butt joints also keep the flow of the hull intact and avoid the "ruffling" effect that I see and remove the adhesion problems as well. I can't help feeling that you are digging a hole with your method and it looks like it'll just get deeper as it progresses. My more radical advice would be to de-bond what you have done and take a simpler line of approach. Strips if you can get them, butt joints (for sure), run them full length and from side to side and go with the planking flow from the keel upwards. I'd see this as a make or break moment as an outcome below the waterline that detracts, for you!!!, from all of the work beforehand will always detract from all of that work and all of it afterwards. I hope you take this as intended - advice from someone who has coppered a hull (but not done a Constitution build!) and had a relatively easy time of it.

That's a brilliant build and a brilliant design! A stunning ship with those "go fast" lines. Thanks Jim and Chris - I'll seriously be considering adding the kit to my (so far...) meagre stash.

The current state of affairs is extremely impressive!

Hi Ron That is an insane number of cannons. Cross eyed indeed. The cannons have become the least favourite part of kit building for me and sent me away from the ships for a while. You have a heck of lot to go. Allan's image of a crew at work is great - the tensions, the chaos, the dangers and the mess of ropes. I'm not sure what you mean by the lack of 'trunnions' in the kit - that is just the pivot pin for the gun? And how can a hardware store help? I have decided on my Fly model to only add breeching ropes for the eight remaining cannons. I went through the whole tackles thing for those that are concealed under the decks - never again. The breeching ropes I used were 0.6mm (Morope) which felt about right for scale. Trust you are dry down there as we are here in Welly - no wind either. Bloody hell - who'd live in Auckland?

Thanks Allan It is a VM kit and I went with what was supplied. A wider or thicker plank might be historically correct but the contortions I put the planks through while gluing them would be much more difficult. Essentially I am edge bending and twisting during the gluing process using my highly specialised clamps = fingernails and thumb! A wider and thicker plank would resist that very gently applied pressure. But you give me thoughts for the future. Cheers A

Thanks Vitus and HOF My experience with Vallejo was the same as others I tried - not matte enough. Same with AK but I haven't tried the 'Ultra' - will have a go with that. My find of Pintyplus in NZ was a fail. As soon as you go to the various website offerings they don't ship to NZ because it is an aerosol. A minus for living here but hardly a reason to live elsewhere...