rshousha

Hello Again, 
 
In my humble opinion, there are now enough connections out there for people to make up their own kits, in whatever scale and whatever quality level they want to make. For instance, using advanced CAD software, I can develop frames for any ship in any scale, as long as there are line drawings. I can also supply single-shot photo-etch parts. Once you have frames in hand, there are several excellent manufacturers of strip wood out there. After that, there are people like Chuck Passaro, who makes absolutely lovely blocks and ropes. After that there are several websites where you can get 3D printed parts for some other bits. 
 
The only thing missing are the decorations and those will be available within two to four years, in my opinion. So, really, we should be thinking in terms of the "virtual factory" instead of trying to figure out which kit is best. I think the sky's the limit in terms of what people can do with modelling these days. 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Rick 

Thanks for the encouragement Eamonn, I'm pleased with how it's turned out, too.
 
Rick: I've got a little list of power tools I'd love to have, too... trouble is, it keeps on growing!! 
 
Rob 

OK, so I'll have to get that Proxxon saw and then a nice, little lathe. 
 
Eventually, i absolutely have to get a laser-cutter of my own, though. 
 
Regards, 
Rick 

Greetings,
 
I`m partial to Timbermate. It comes in a variety of colours and can be thinned with a little water. Bondo is, of course, wonderful but, you`ll have red dust in your house for a month.
 
Now, I have to get back to my own Pickle build. I will have questions of my own tomorrow.
 
Best Regards.
 
Rick

And, finally, here is what the little shipyard looks like at the end of the day. 
 
For those who are interested, that is Titebond in the back. I do not use CA glue as I am allergic to the stuff.To make things easy, I always have at least three glue bottles going at the same time. There is always one that is filled right up to the top. This is the one that is in use. By keeping it filled to the top, the glue comes out as soon as I turn it over. 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Rick 

Rob, 
 
Thanks for the note about Blue Ensign's build log. I'll definitely have a look. Now that the varnish is curing on my workbenches, I have to wait three days before starting. So, in that time, I'll be building up my Project Management on the Pickle. 
 
I know Pickle is not as involved as some of the Pocher models I've done but the only way to get to the end of a project is to line up the steps and prepare some to-do lists. Also, it's very important, in my opinion, to stick the plan. Otherwise, one tends to do the fun things first and leave the difficult things to the end. The best way to see a project to the end is work in order, cutting through the difficult steps as they appear. 
 
The next post will be on Thursday, when I can spread stuff out on my workbenches. I'll have the steps laid out by then. 
 
Regards, 
 
Rick 

Thanks for the notes, fellows. Just to give you a tour, that box on the right is my spray booth. It has a clear acrylic top so you can look down onto the work while spraying. This way, you're removed from the fumes, even as they get vacuumed out the back. There's a clothes dryer hose attached to a vent that fits right in that window you see whenever I want to use it. Right now, there's a partially completed Corel Corsaro II sitting on top. 
 
On the left is the second Pocher model I ever built. Under the two tables are cupboards that are 27" wide, in order to fit my stash of Pocher kits. That stash is now down to only a handful as I am slowly moving towards building wood ships. After building twenty of those Pocher models, I felt it was time to move on. 
 
Also, I have to say the people on this website, and ship modellers in general, are a great bunch and truly inspirational. 
 
So, let's see what I can do as the model takes shape. 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Rick 

First things, first. I sand off my workbenches and give them a fresh coat of varnish for each model. 
 
Now, if I can just figure out how to add pictures to this blog....
 
I'm not complaining; this is really an amazing website. I want to thank Chuck and the other moderators for making this possible. 
 
Well done!
 
Rick 

First things, first. I sand off my workbenches and give them a fresh coat of varnish for each model. 
 
Now, if I can just figure out how to add pictures to this blog....
 
I'm not complaining; this is really an amazing website. I want to thank Chuck and the other moderators for making this possible. 
 
Well done!
 
Rick 

Interesting discussion and I'd like to put a different spin on it, if I may. When i started building car models for people, I specified that my models are "art quality" models and nothing do with either the real thing or anything that was "museum quality". The goal was to make something whimsical out of a cool kit. I was successful with that and had a great deal of fun with my clients. Yes, I did paint a 1933 Alfa Romeo in metallic paint. 
 
So, my question is; who is going to be the first person to make a five-masted HMS Victory? 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Rick 

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me      

Working on Hull Detailing and First Decking
 
I've been working on finishing the outside hull details and started some decking.  After all the experimentation I did trying to find a way to make a better fashion piece I ended up using the supplied piece.  I think one of my misconceptions about the kit was that the metal pieces were good to go as is.  So I filed stretched and worked the fashion piece till it was at least passable.  I don't think there's a way to make a better piece short of getting into carving a new one myself and I wasn't ready to tackle that yet (next time).
 
One thing I'm completely lost on is how to shape the molding strip that goes down the side of the hull. The plans show it at curving up from the edges to a point in the center.  Short of a teeny tiny router (which I don't have) I just can't think of a way to produce that curve consistently alone the length of the molding.  Still not sure what I'm going to do for that.
 

 
I've added the molding and the fashion piece extensions. The fashion piece extensions I made are quite a bit different than the plans but it seemed like the best way to go.  I've also added some of the gunport covers and I've decided I'll close the back two and front one.  Made a couple fake cannons for the open gunport that will be in the officers quarters.
 

 
Then I started with the first deck.  Started in the center and used a black art marker to color the edges for the tar effect.  As it got where the planks needed to be curved to start matching the curve of the hull I took the two pieces on each side and sanded the curve of them together trying to keep them as symmetrical as possible. 
 
 

 
I did run out of the stock to make the grating covers so I sent Model Shipways an email asking if I could get more and offering to pay for it, and a couple days later it just showed up in the mail.  Great customer service and much appreciated.
 
At this point I'm preparing to do the fore and aft decks and start working on all the deck details.  Everything here seems very interconnected and I'm trying to make sure I do things in the right order so I won't have to undo anything to get to something I missed. Most of the pre-cast deck pieces look OK except the capstain and I think I'll need to build one for it to look decent. 

Someone asked what building HMS Victory was like and I replied with "It is a series of highly repetitive building tasks; just as you get the hang of a task in hand it's completed and its time to move on to the next repetitive task."                                                                                                                                                                                                           I am still at the planking stage and was just thinking to-day i must keep a record of usefull hints and tips cause it will probably be a couple of years before im planking again and ill have forgotten all im learning by then, same applies to rigging etc it can be years between builds and you keep saying i must remember that method for the next time,but never do . Maybe im just getting old .                                                                                                                                                                                                    your build is looking great Glenn and as David said with the number of Victory builds going on someone should come up with a system of building large and cheap display cases  Have Fun