john_weiman

Thank You Michael, will follow your technique. Beautiful ship you built.

Regards, John

Will this set the bundled up cords nicely on the pins, so that I can shape them?

Continued progress on the ship. Require some help. Would anyone be kind to recommend how to shape the end rigging in place on the belaying pins. Some of the cord is so light that I am wetting the cord, and holding in place until dry with weights, but if anyone can advise the best way to shape the end rigging it would help me, thanks in advance.

Good Job

Starting to do the sails, corrected the anchor rigging, and added the life boats. The rigging is slow, and tedious. 

Looks great.

Thanks Mike, I should not of tightened it. I will make the correction.

Hi Michael, 

I am presently doing the anchors on my ship build. I have attached a photo of what I have done. I used black rope, and just did a few turns, but also used nails to simulate the assembly.

Beautiful work

Thanks E.J, I see we are working, and have worked on the same ships. Your Le Soleil Royal, and La Couronne look great as well. Also, what do you know one kit that I also have in waiting is The Royal Louis.

Thank you so much, the coloring, and effect is beautiful,

 for my next build I will try these dyes.

Regards, JW

Thanks I will look into it. Yes I always want to keep the grain structure of the wood. It brings out the beauty of the wood, and the natural texture. Thanks again. 

Peter, I managed to obtain different color grades in walnut, and used stain to get the final colors. The blue is a mix of Saman water based stains to get the right shade I wanted. I never use paint on wood. The top coat is oil based from Minwax (Natural). Golden Oak, Ebony was used for the hull sides, and mix of Dark Walnut & Provincial & a touch of Mahogany to get the lower hull shade.

Regards, John

Rat lines are coming along, but is a slow process

Michael most are from the kit, but the transom was cut out for the window pains, and a thin sheet of clear acrylic was used for the window pains. The back detailing required a lot of extra work in cutting out the windows, and forming the transom. What was great about the fittings was that it is solid bronze so one could do a lot of filing, and bending into shape to fit using heat to soften the bronze.

The rigging is underway. This is the first time that I have used the drawn lines on a cardboard to guide the lines. I like the way the rat lines are coming along. It makes it so much easier to get them straight, and with the white background you can focus on the quality of work.

Dear Kevin,

Snoepert is correct. The white cardboard that you can get at an art supply store helps you focus on the work. It would be far more difficult to work with the background, and you would not be able to gage the accuracy of the lines. Also, working each line on the ship allows you to adjust the tension of the lines, and makes the build more realistic. I found a wonderful tweezer at Walmart for just $5. It does not damage, or risk scarring the lines.

Dear Kevin,

I use tweezers, and the hard white carboard which adds a support to my hands when tying those clover hitch knots. Also doing the ratlines at about eye level helps to balance. Being in a comfortable balance between arm position, and work makes a world of difference, because it will be tedious work.

Regards, John

Starting to rig the ship. This will be one tedious job. Next photos I hope to post will be of the spars with folded sails. I think having sails brings more life to the ship, but folded. For the rigging lines that are over 1mm diameter I could only find in beige color so I used SAMAN wood stain to color the rigging black. Saman is a water based stain. I soaked the lines in the stain overnight, and then rinsed it in water. I then repeated this and got a good color out of it. 

It has been several years since I put a halt on my project. I have now started back up on this kit, wanting to finish it. I forgot just how heavy this kit is! I am always viewing posts from time to time envious of seeing all those finished builds so I thought it was time to dedicate the time to finish this project. I had never started a diary from the start of the build since these types of forums were new to me at the time. I will surely do such as I begin to complete this kit, and with some kits in waiting, but for now I want to finish this beautiful kit ( next project either Euromodel's Friedrich Wilhem Zu Pferde, or Sergal's Amerigo Vespucci). Now it is time to work on the masts, and spars. I had purchased separately the sails from Sergal so I will incorporate them into the finished kit.