Fernando E

I usually use a small center punch or a pointed tool to make a small, pointed dent in the wood at the exact center of the hole and then drill a pilot hole with a very small drill bit. The pilot hole centers and guides the drill bit used to make the finished hole. I use this method for tiny holes drilled with a pin vise and larger holes drilled with power. 
 
Bob

It is also good practice to clamp a piece of waste wood over the hole to be drilled, or a metal plate with a hole pre-drilled to the correct diameter. This prevents the drill from wandering and ripping out pieces on entry.

At the risk of sounding negative, how often do you really need a "crisp" hole that is not going to be covered by some type of framing, such as mast partners or other framing.
At the least, any round hole would probably need some kind of beveling

Hi All,
When drilling larger diameters holes in the hull of model ships for portholes, masts etc. it can be a challenge to get a nice clean hole without damaging the wooden edges. Also the drill can wander off-center if the material underneath consists of different materials, for example plywood and balsa below the same hole. 
It is possible to start with a smaller diameter drill and then enlarge the hole with bigger drills or files. Drills for making holes in metal is to me a no-go in wood as they tend to wander off-center, especially in woods like pine. Drills specially designed for drilling holes in wood should be used. They usually have a point to ensure that the hole is drilled where it is supposed to be. Also, the circumference has sharp cutting edges (spurs); the purpose of these is to cut the wood fibers and secure a sharp edge. There are a lot of different manufacturers of brad-point drill bits for wood; they can all cut a hole but the quality of the hole varies a lot. As with a lot of things - the more you pay the better quality hole you get. 
 
So I thought I would share my preferred go-to brand of brad-point twist drills: https://www.fine-tools.com/holzspiralbohrer.html
The spurs are very sharp and leaves a nice clean edge in any wood I have tried. The smallest diameter with spurs is 2 mm all the way up to 20 mm. 
 
As you can see, they are a bit pricey but they will last a life time for any modeler. If you are worried about the longevity, you can also get these drills with tungsten-carbide bits from 3 mm. 
 
/Lars Peter
 
 
  

Hello. My name is Bob Garcia and I live in Sacramento, California. I first joined MSW way back in the fall of 2014 and, although I've been reading the forum since then, I only but began posting recently. So I thought it was time to properly introduce myself before I try to start a build log.
 
I'm 73 and, like many of the older members here, I enjoyed making plastic models as a kid growing up in a small town in central Indiana. I usually made cars and hot rods but also airplanes that I would hang from the ceiling in my bedroom. My favorite classes in high school were machine shop, metal shop, and wood shop. Making something was much more interesting to me than most of the regular classes. College wasn't on my radar at when I graduated in 1964 so I went to work on the assembly line at the Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana. Although I quickly got bored out of my mind, I earned a good enough wage to buy a 1964 Corvette. That car was a girl magnet and I thought I was in heaven. However, that year was short lived as the Vietnam War was heating up and my draft number was getting close.
 
I had decided to just wait on the draft but several of my high school friends had joined the US Coast Guard and they persuaded me that it had a lot to offer. So I joined in January of 1966 and spent the next 9 weeks of boot camp in frigid Cape May, New Jersey. After boot camp I was sent to Kodiak, Alaska, for an 18 month tour of duty aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Storis WAG-38 and that's where my love of ships and the sea began. 
 
The Storis was fondly known as the Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast. We were involved in primarily in search and rescue operations and international fisheries patrol in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. We patrolled from as far north as the Arctic Circle, south to Juneau and west to Adak in the Aleutian Islands. When out on patrol the work days were long and tiring but also very exciting since we were often involved in SAR operations while out in powerful, Alaskan storms that churned the seas up to 50 feet at times and encrusted the whole ship in ice. 
 
This was during  the Cold War era and tensions always ran high with the Soviet Union. At one point we were given the green light to take action against Soviet fishing vessels that were constantly violating our territorial waters. We were the first ship in the history of the United States to seize a Soviet vessel on the high seas after we caught a trawler fishing inside what was then a 12 mile limit. They fled into international waters with us in hot pursuit and they only came to a stop after we threatened to fire across their bow. We placed an armed boarding crew aboard the vessel and took them in tow. While towing them to the mainlawe were intercepted by their large mother ship and some other ships in their fleet and, after tense negotiations, they agreed cooperate and their captain was eventually flown to Anchorage where he pleaded no contest in court, was fined and returned to his ship. A few months later this scenario was repeated again as we seized another Soviet vessel.
 
After 18 months of tumbling around the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska I was able to choose where my next duty station would be. I elected to go to southern California. The Beach Boys were singing about California Girls and I was eager to meet a few. For the next 2 and a half years I was stationed at the Captain of the Port Los Angeles/ Long Beach. It was great duty. I was an engineman and coxswain on one of the 3 man, 40 foot utility boats. We were mainly involved in harbor security patrols, law enforcement and search and rescue. In January of 1970 I was discharged and two weeks later began going to college using the GI Bill. I eventually graduated from UC Davis and settled into a career and family until I retired in 2009.
 
The Storis became the Queen of the Fleet in 1991 as the oldest active ship in the Coast Guard. She was decommissioned 2007 after 65 years of service which began in 1942 during World War II patrolling the North Atlantic and Greenland. She was placed in the moth ball fleet in Suisun Bay near San Francisco and a concerted effort was launched for her to become a dockside museum in Juneau, Alaska, but that fell through and she was unceremoniously sold to a scrapper in Mexico in 2013. It was a shameful ending for one of the most storied ships in the history of the Coast Guard. 
 
When I began occasionally reading the MSW forum 5 years ago the build logs sparked my interest. Two years ago I built a small dory boat by Artesania Latina which was not a very good kit. My next build was the Batelina from Maris Stella followed by the Indian Canoe from Midwest. Both of those were vey nice to build. I am currently two months into building Chuck's wonderful Medway Longboat and I'm learning so much. I'm about to start the rigging and, even though it is a very simple rigging, I think I'm going to need some help so I plan to start a build log. I would like to move on to scratch building at some point. It would be great to build a model of the Cutter Storis and a Coast Guard 40 footer sometime in the future. 
 
I've certainly caught the ship modeling bug and I've learned so much already from so many of the fine, experienced modelers on this forum . So thanks very much to all.
 
Below are a couple of photos of my completed builds of the Indian Canoe by Midwest that I placed on a piece of driftwood I found and the Batelina by Maris Stella in front of a mirror:
 
 

 
  

 
Bob
 

Im just a amateur model "ship" builder from Finland! My first wooden ship was way back when i was 13. (Picture below) 
Just too big project for someone that age😅
Never finished that and lost all parts, but maybe i will complete it someday. 
I got model building background from building and painting plastic models and dioramas.
 
Now i just got back from the military and i have some spare time. I have ordered master korabel phoenix model from ebay and i want to modify it little more. Add more details windows, etc. 
Maybe i will start a model building log when it arrives. 
I made quick small illustration for custom stern gallery and i will be here looking for some ideas and tricks!
 
Below my first model and illustration for the master korabel phoenix 

Thank you for your praise and all the "likes", dear friends. I am happy you enjoy the pics and the progress.

Paper brings a huge range of options; it is possible to create almost everything using only ordinary modeling tools and it costs next to nothing (except spent work and time of course...). With every other model I can find a new and better application of this material. Of course, I prefer to make ornaments and scupltures from Modurit (this is my favourite modeling clay available in Czech Republic) and there is still opportunity to improve details and realism. Now I have made tiny reliefs for cannons,  8 of them will come for smaller cannons - sakers on the quarterdeck - these cannons will be made later. At the same time, I created other ornaments and placed them on the hull.
 

 
I use mainly photos of museum models for inspiration.

Thanks Dirk! 
 
The rest list is one item shorter. Pumps installed on the deck. The pumps in kit are made from some strange wood. I used the scrap wood from the kit and carved the pipes from pear. 

 
 

Hello,
Before starting reading this, sorry about my poor English skill.
 
I'm a wooden ship modeller which is considered most rare hobbiest in South Korea. Because of super thin community in SK, I had a lot of help from this forum when I built my ships. Thank you.

I began with the Artesania endeavour longboat, and the most recent ship I completed was the Artesania King of the Mississippi. Currently I'm building a 'la recouvrance' from the Soclaine.
 
The reason I decided to join this foreign community is that I want to share my technic regarding unventable tungsten reinforced mast to everyone. I searched several times related with my technic, but there were no topics related with it. I want to open the technic to everyone and receive feedbacks from worldwide modellers to improve it.
 
I'm a newbie modeller, so my most activities will be reading or searching topics, but I hope you people enjoy my pictures when I finish each ships.
 
Thank you for reading, and happy new lunar year. 
masa

Hi all, I'm on a mission. My great great great grandfather was a sailor and served on 5 ships from 1787 through 1793. He sailed to Australia on the Scarborough in the first fleet. He moved to the HMS Sirius, HMS Supply, a hired Dutch Snow called Waakzaamheid then returned as one of the 5 first free settlers to Australia on the Bellona. 
I decided to build them all. Nuts I know. 
So I've finished the HMS Supply & moved on to the Bellona. Imagi e how cranky I was after buying the Corel kit when more research turned up another Bellona. An East India company ship that he really sailed on. Bugger! 
Oh, well I've started now so I may as well enjoy it. 
Any advice greatfully accepted. 
Thanks Gan Do 

Hello Gan Do, and a warm welcome to MSW.
I also had an ancestor come to Australia on the 'Scarborough', but he was a 'guest' of the Government!  He was also on the 'Sirius' when she went onto the reef at Norfolk Island.
 
John

Anchors tied up and finished (almost). I still thinking of adding boyos but first I want to finish the kit and this detail can be easily add later. 

@greenstone thanks a lot for the info.
I was not questioning the RAC flag. I will defenitely use it on AVOS. My question was more if it can/should be acompanied by another flag or pennant perhaps. As there are more places for the flag I was thinking (just an example now....put RAC flag on the stern flagstaff and on the topmast some pennant). But I do not want to do any non-sense combination that is why I was asking. If there should be only RAC flag I use only this one. Thank you!

I'm working on the last bits. 
I have finished jib topsail sheet mainsail reef tackles. Also chimney and ladders were added to the deck........ Still remaining are pumps, boat, finish anchors, coils and flags

January 18, 2020
 
 
Masts & Yards
 
 
 
This build log entry covers the preparation of the masts and yards and assembly of the masts.  However, before I started on that there were a few items remaining to be done on the hull.
 
 
The shroud supports had been glued to the hull, and now the deadeyes had to be installed.  This is when I found out that the shroud supports for the foremast and mainmast were not symmetrical (see 3rd picture below).  The deadeye slots were closer to one end than the other, and the way they were manufactured and labeled caused them to be offset differently on each side of the ship.  I tried to compensate for that (as well as even out the spacing) when I widened the precut slots to accommodate the deadeye holder.
 
 
Note:  The metal parts in this kit have no deformation capability; they just break.  I found this out trying to bend the deadeye holder around the deadeye as indicated in the instructions.
 
 
To properly align the deadeyes to the shroud lines coming down from the mast, I construct substitute masts of the correct height, then ran thread down to each deadeye slot, so that I could determine the proper angle to put on the deadeye link when mounting it to the hull.  This was suggested in MSS.
 
 

For the mizzen mast deadeyes, I found that the provided deadeye links were too long for the hull that is available at the stern, so I shortened and re-bent the link to fit the available space (this is the only metal that is pliable).
 
 

After installing the deadeyes, I covered the edge of the shroud support with a piece of mahogany lath, which seem to blend very well with the shroud support wood.
 
 

The second item was crosshatching in the bow.  It is shown in one of the instructions …

and the material is provided for it, but there is no mention of adding it in the instructions.
 
 
To fit the material in the bow space, I created poster board templates for the port and starboard sides to give me a starting point for cutting out the crosshatching. 

I then put together a grid of laths to accommodate the templates, cut out the pieces, and sanded them until they fit into the bow area.  These will be installed after the bowsprit woold is completed.
 
 

Now that I was ready to start on mast construction, I started by building the masttops and crosstrees for each mast.  Although not indicated by the instructions, I added a chock between each mast for all the masttops and crosstrees, as suggested by MSS.  I believed this would aid in aligning and securing the masts during assembly. 

For the main and fore mast masttops, I added bolsters, also suggested by MSS, to protect the shroud lines extending down from the masts.
 
 

I then proceeded with cutting and shaping the masts and yards.  I drilled holes in a 2x4 and labeled each hold with the respective mast or yard putting them in order from stern to bow.  I cut out all the masts and yards from the supplied material leaving excess material to be used to handle the wood through the shaping process. 

I shaped the masts and yards as needed by setting up a homemade lathe using my electric drill (another MSS suggestion) with a loop of Velcro (felt side) to hold the other end of the wood.  The other piece of Velcro was over the trigger to keep the drill on.
 

 
As I mentioned previously, I had built square mast boxes in the hull for the three masts, so I now needed to square up the masts to fit into those boxes.  I did that by placing the mast into the vice, leveling both, then filing down each side of the mast – another MSS suggestion.  I did the filing iteratively with testing the fit into the hole until I achieved a tight fit.  I then labeled the side of the mast facing the bow, so that I could build the rest of the mast segments on top facing in the correct direction.  I used the same process to square the tops of the masts.
 
 

The mizzen mast boom and gaff required yokes, which again were indicated but no material was provided.  So I fashioned the yokes out of a bit of oak by drilling the mast hole, then cutting the yoke out using the hole as the base.  In addition, I drilled a hole in the bowsprit mastcap for the martingale. 

The yards, booms and mastcaps were supposed to be either dark walnut (instructions) or black (paint diagram).  I chose to go with the former.
 
 

The last thing to add was the mast woolds on the main and fore masts (see picture below).  Here the amount of 0.8mm hemp rope was completely inadequate to do the woolds, no less that other uses for that diameter on the ship, so I had to order some additional rigging line.  Now that I was ready to assemble the masts, I first ensured that the workbench was level.  Since the masts sit vertically in the hull, then I could everything as it was being added with a level.  In addition, I verified that the masttops and crosstrees were parallel to the deck planking, and I tried to make sure that masts were parallel where they overlapped.
 
 

I also verified that all the masts were aligned when looking from bow to stern and vice versa.
 
 

Since MSS recommends rigging the masts before stepping them, I inserted the masts into the hull for assembly, but I did not glue them to the hull.
 
 

Lastly, I put a rope gannion on the bowsprit jib.  It wasn’t shown in the instructions or diagrams, but it did appear in a diagram in MSS, plus it makes a lot of sense to hold the jib boom in place.
 
 

Build time to date – 434 hrs: 59.5 hrs for the work in this build log entry.
 
 
Next: Rigging
 
PS - 95% of the time was in preparing the materials; only 5% of the time was spent in actually constructing the masts.

 
 
MSS - Model Shipbuilding Simplified by Frank Mastini
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you for your advice, dear friends, I greatly appreciate your help.
 
Johann:  Oh yes, I also have this picture available and it will certainly help me to make halyards.
Dave: That's exactly the thing I was looking for. In the books there is a good description, but the pictures are not complete - that confused me a little, but this is a right solution I will make on my model.
 
I am continuing with the demi-culverin cannons for the upper deck. They will be created will all details.
 

 


 
 
 
We also had to reinforce the shelf supports on which the model will be displayed. It already weighs more than 8 kg.
 

 
 

Thank you Yves. I'm glad you guys like it! 
 
Progressing further..... Topsail yard and topsail secured in place......... Jib topsail installed......... 2nd round of cleaning the deck (finaly after long timeis my deck without ropes) 
 
Here are some details of "busy" belaying points:

And the overview 

I pimp a little my photo area
 

I was cleaning up the deck and securing the position of the spreadsail yard. I thought it would be Quick and easy task but I had hard times to secure the correct position of the yard. Also attaching ropes to the belaying pins is pretty difficult as the deck is quite full. 

Working on the topsail. I have attached the sail to the yard and added al the ropes
Next I put the assembly on the ship and run the ropes through all the blocks 

Next step woul be set the yards to correct position and fix the running rigging on the deck

Hi! My name is Mikko, and I started my first wooden boat model just before christmas. 
My model is a Billing boats Dragen. Now I am doing the planking. It seems to take some time, but I think the slower the better! I’ve really enjoyed so far. 
I am a sailor too, and building feels good while waiting a new sailing season! 
I was very happy to find this awesome forum, thanks!
-Mikko
 

Satnding rigging is now finished. Time to prepare last 2 sails. Bolt rope added to both of them. Now jump to attach topsail to the yard. 
 

This is a “patch” I added to one of the cross beams that was short.  I’m not sure if I did it correctly or how others would have, but this was my work-around: I cut a section from the un-used plywood provided in the original box.  I hand carved  (and at one point...thumb carved 🙄🤭...what’s a little blood in a tall ship?!) a piece to match the curvature of the cross beam.  I glued it in and after letting it set I sanded it down.  I didn’t want to use the provided “plank” material because I’m not sure how much I have vs. how much I need. (Another issue with the instructions).
 
Interrogative:  Is there an easier way? Did I make this way harder then I needed? 

Thanks Fernando!  I actually read everything you posted on this model before I started.  You gave me some much needed direction.