hamilton

Hi Tom: Saw a fresh post, but no pics!!! That's ok....still recovering from the Hannah, though excited to see where you take her. I would never have considered smoking the interior of the bottle - an interesting idea and quite a puzzle.....I'm sure someone will have a suggestion - unfortunately, it's not me!! Looking forward to seeing your progress and hope you get a chance to get back to the table soon hamilton

Hi Jason: Yes, indeed! Just to ask - does Caldercraft not supply patterns of the laser-cut parts? Such a feature is very useful to have - though not all manufacturers include them it seems - Corel, Model Shipways and Mamoli all do (at least for all the kits I've built/ones on the shelf). Of course, I've also read about (on build logs here) situations where the symmetry of the printed bulkhead patterns was off, leading to questions of where one should place one's trust.... In Frank Mastini's intro to ship modelling book, he lays out a method of testing symmetry using card stock that I believe I may have tried once (on my Brittany sloop) - but it would be interesting to see what other methods kit builders have for doing this..... hamilton

Arghhh! Danny - I feel like this will be a great idea for me to entertain for the next several (dozen) years.....it will have the company of many other ideas consigned to a similar fate.....but if you issue this as a challenge, then......well that's another story...... Thanks all for your positive comments - they give a lot of heart to a sad modeller. Bye for now and I'll continue to enjoy all of your work hamilton

Look at that! Great stuff - the ratlines really bring her to life. Nicely done hamilton

OK - having now said goodbye to the Hannah SiB, I can now focus my attention on America, to which I returned tonight after an absence of over a week. Efforts continue at adjusting the bulkheads. My last work involved shimming the keel and bulkhead faces so that the bulkheads fit snugly on the centre keel. Tonight, I started focusing on the outside edges of the bulkheads, many of which needed shimming to get them to match the drawings. I focused on the forward bulkheads tonight - that is, 1-8, under the fore deck. Of these, only 1, 2 and 5 needed no work. 3, 4 and 6 needed moderate shimming on one edge. 7 and 8 needed significant shimming on both edges. Here's a bit of the process. I first tested each of the bulkheads against the drawings - lining them up to the bulkhead top and keel slot, making sure they were centred. for almost all of them the extensions were really off from the drawings, but since I'm cutting them off, I was only really concerned about the outside edge, which has to hold the planking.... When I was satisfied that the position was good, I made note of whether the edges needed any kind of adjustment. some require trimming, but nothing of the sort that can't be handled during the fairing process, so I wasn't worrying too much about that. But as I mentioned, a lot of them needed a greater or lesser amount of shimming. Here's bulkhead 8, which ended up being one of the more desperate cases..... I used some .5 x 4mm wood left over from the Fair Rosamund planking material (as I may have mentioned) and just glued this to the bulkhead edges (after sanding the wood burn off) with CA.Here's bulkhead 8 again - I ended up having to put another small shim lower down towards the lower end of it and same on the other side. This shot obviously shows it before sanding. I used a sanding block and then just sand-paper in hand to soften the edge and get a smooth flow from the bulkhead edge through the shim and then, testing the piece against plans, cleaned up those bits that need more wood removed until I got a good match. Here's a picture of bulkhead 3 sanded and done (note that where you can see the gap from the drawing on the the inside of the keel slot, I have already placed a shim on the keel, so this is corrected for....) I think I may also have mentioned earlier that the bulkhead bottoms in mid-ships are uneven - they rise at midships from bulkhead 7 through bulkhead 9 in a way that will really wreak havoc on the planking unless corrected. I took some time to mark the bottoms of the bulkheads from 6-10 to get a sense of how things should flow. The bottom of bulkhead 6 is 4mm above the line of the keel, while that of bulkhead 7 was 7mm, 8 was 6mm, 9 was 6mm and 10 was 5mm. Here's a couple of photos I figured that 5mm at bulkhead 10 is ok, since that's where things should start to rise towards the stern. But 7, 8, and 9 all needed to be brought down. I haven't touched bulkhead 9 yet (that's for next session, when I get the the aft bulkheads) but with the shimming, I reduced the space at bulkheads 7 and 8 to 5mm. A bit more shimming is required, clearly, to get them level, but I want to wait until after all the bulkheads are dry fit and I can run a test plank along to see how far up the shims need to go. I suspect that they only need to cover a small space at the foot of the bulkhead.... The other thing I did this evening to pass time while some glue was drying was to mark up the forward deck - centre line and location of bulkhead tops for when it comes to fixing the deck on the framework - I'll add planking references later. To do this I marked a centre line on the drawing, after taking measurements at several places. The line extended both above and below the drawing so when I laid the piece on top of the plans, I could see where the line should do. I made reference marks at the bow end and aft end, and then connected them. Had to re-do the forward part once to bring things over a bit to starboard, but now all is square.... Alright - that's it. Not sure when I'll get back to the build - my weeks are filling up rapidly, and it's likely I'll only have 1 night a week if that from now till Christmas......next session will be similar to this one, so I doubt I'll update the log. Once I've got the bulkheads done up to a point and the decks marked up, I'll start putting the framework together so I'll update then. Meanwhile - happy modelling hamilton

OK - as promised, here are the results. Tom - I did have fun making this one.....up to a point. Last night and today I found myself promising I would never build another SiB....Building the hull was a lot of fun and very rewarding, but the rigging (which on a larger scale model I usually find very enjoyable) was trying to say the least. Also - I think if I were to do it again (a big if) I would make sure that the bottle I used was much thinner and clearer than the one Amati provided (though in all other respects, Amati's kit was very nicely presented - except maybe the sails, which I should probably have also replaced). Anyways, after letting the epoxy cure overnight, I couldn't resist having a go at a mast raising after breakfast and a coffee (instead of a beer, which was also delayed tonight in favour of wine). I gently pulled on the out lines and it seemed that something was stuck....the main mast wanted to come up but the fore mast was being very stubborn. I realized that the rigging must have been tangled up on the mast somehow (or on one of the yards) but because the glass is so thick I couldn't clearly see what was happening....here's a shot of what I was looking at.... It turned out that the fore course yard had managed to get on the wrong side of one of the outlines. I used the same tool I had used to put the hull in the bottle to work the yard free - it was a bit of a tricky business, but eventually the yard went round the right way.... Then things got a bit worse. I pulled on the out lines further but things were still sticky.....Something was caught that I couldn't see at all. Then I noticed that the foremast itself was bent (likely from my trying to pull the mast up with the out line - I didn't think I was hauling on it that hard!). I couldn't imagine how I was going to straighten it and then also figure out where the snag was.....as I was mulling all this over, I decided to try to use two of the tools together to gently correct the mast. And then disaster struck - the outline that hauls up the main mast snapped off at the hole in the bow sprit where it threads through....I guess it had seen too much action and had had enough.....That ended up being the end of all my correction work. I very quickly dabbed some CA on the remaining out line, set the sails as well as I could without the whole thing collapsing and called it done......Here are the results. Again - I'm proud of my efforts, though not of the results..... In closing, there are a few things to note 1. Building SiB's is hard. Having done this once, I have incredible respect for those who focus on this field of model building. In a year or two a might think otherwise, but for now, I think I would rather watch and enjoy the efforts of others than try to emulate them! Having spent a night with America I can honestly say I'm happy to be back working at a scale more suited to my temperament and abilities! 2. I think I can see a few rookie mistakes in my own process. First and foremost is being impatient to see it in the bottle. When folding the model down to put it in the bottle, I did not really pay much mind to where things were lying. Then, when it was compressed going in the mouth of the bottle and I was (however gently) working it through, things got muddled up. The first time I had it in the bottle, things came up fine - and if it had stuck on the stand that time and the main sail hadn't come off it would have worked out pretty nice. The second time, I think I just wanted to finish - never a good place to be at any stage of any kind of modelling. Another issue was not trusting some of my instincts to begin with - specifically an early concern I had about visibility and the Amati-supplied bottle. There are enough antique shops in town here that I probably could have found something better, but I didn't bother.....I think getting something with a slightly wider mouth and slightly thinner glass would have helped to produce a better result.... 3. As with all models I've made, I've learned something. Perhaps I won't build another SiB, perhaps I will. But I am glad I built one - I think everyone should try it, if only to learn what your limits are!! Thanks for comments and likes as usual and bye for now hamilton

Thanks for the encouraging words Tom! I'll admit I was being a bit dramatic....a habit. I guess I've been used to each build being closer to the vision I have in my head than the last one that when I hit a hiccup like this it feels like backsliding.....I'm still happy with it all things considered...pics later - and good luck on yours - I'll be following closely hamilton

Thanks Grant! But unfortunately, it has not gone so smoothly...The masts are up, the out lines are glued and severed and the bottle will soon be sealed, but the results are not what I had hoped.....it's not a ship-wreck-in-a-bottle, but it definitely leaves quite a bit to be desired, especially next to the many amazing examples on this forum! I'm almost embarrassed to show my results, but I believe the bad should be shown alongside the good, since people can learn as much from a negative example as from a positive one..... I don't have the photos loaded yet, so I'll leave it there for now, and update this "log" later...... hamilton

Hi Brian: I think the ratlines look great - I've always had a hard time getting a nice dip in them to make them look like people have actually climbed them.....yours do this well! hamilton

So I've now put Hannah in the bottle.....I'm waiting until after dinner (and possibly a beer) tomorrow before risking the mast raising....As I mentioned before, I made a "V" stand to replace the pins and while this seemed like a good idea (easier to mount?) in practice I kind of wish I'd stayed with the pins....there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether the hull was going to stay on the "V" stand, especially since my pre-emptive attempt to mount the hull last time, which resulted in quite a bit of 5-minute epoxy curing on the stand....But let me begin from the beginning.... I think I mentioned before that when I put the Hannah in the bottle last time, the boom and main gaff came off, and the thread that makes up the fore course yard and topsail yard braces and fixes the fore topsail to the yards also snapped....I repaired these parts of the vessel, using stronger upholstery thread to attach the boom and gaff and reinforcing the rigging where the topsail attaches to the yards. Here's a shot of where I started tonight, followed by a shot of the topsail repositioned on the yards....not the prettiest work I've ever done.... I then did a trial run to see if it would still go in nicely - a tight squeeze, but not too bad..... My source build log talked about attaching the boat hook tool with double sided tape, but there were no photos provided to show how he did it.....here's my inference....also, I don't think you need double-sided tape - I think I could probably have used my Tamiya masking tape and it would have worked fine..... I can hear you thinking how precarious it looks....at it was!! Getting it into the bottle was a struggle. I had to keep my hands incredibly steady and kind of cajole the hull up onto the "v" stand, on which I had applied a liberal amount of 5-minute epoxy using a chamfered piece of scrap wood glued to a bamboo skewer. Then it was a nerve-wracking process of keeping entirely still to prevent the hull from slipping around (which would not have happened with the pin stand) on the stand as the glue set.....even if I could move to see the thing from different angles, the bottle really prevents a clear view of its interior except from the front and the top....I really wanted to get a forward or stern view to make sure all was well. And because I was seated high while doing this, I couldn't crouch down to confirm whether the hull was connecting with the stand at all three lifts I had made....All I could do was concentrate hard on not moving, while angling the tool in such a way as to press the hull down as much as possible while not having it collapse or slide off.....A very tense series of minutes.... In the end, though, it stuck....not only that, but the shifting and balancing had loosened the tape, so I was able to easily extract the positioning tool. Now the Hannah is in the bottle, the outlines are draped out of the mouth, and tomorrow, we'll see what happens when I pull on them.....There's still a 50/50 chance it's not going to work....but I guess that's always the case, so it's hardly worth mentioning....here's where it stands as of now. hamilton

Thanks Augie: Thanks for dropping in. Yes - I think it'll just be a matter of shaping the filler blocks to conform to the curve of the cockpit....hard to say how much shaping this will involve until a bit later in the build.... hamilton

Hello there: The bulkheads are now adjusted to fit snugly on the America's centre keel....it took a bit of time and patience and quite a bit of fiddling to get the positions right, but the essential corrections have been made (though there are more to come before the framework is complete). The trickiest part was fitting the final bulkhead (15). Unlike the others, there is no slot on the keel, just an abutment forward on which the bulkhead sits. I had to very gently deepen the slot on the bulkhead so it fit flush. But I could not shim this part as I did with the other bulkheads, since there is nothing to shim it up against....I added the port and starboard shims on the keel piece and it sits ok, but not as securely as the other bulkheads - this will change later once the stern fillers are attached. Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the bulkheads drift on the keel Of course, once the bulkheads were fit I couldn't help but dry fit the decks..... When I first tried this, I noticed that a few of the deck slots were not deep enough, so I filed them out a bit so the deck slides on nicely. I'll have a bit of clean-up and adjustment to do on these pieces too. At the bow, there is a gap between the end of the deck and the stem - easy enough to fill. I'm a little worried about the stern as well. The issue is whether the stern fillers get in the way of the cockpit. It sees as if the area of the cockpit extends very slightly past the aft end of bulkhead 15 - but the stern fillers lie flat against that bulkhead....I'll have to double check everything and see if I need to adjust the filler pieces so as not to impede the cockpit. It's very hard to get a shot, but here's what I'm talking about - please note that the angle of the photo amplifies the problem - it's not this bad in reality.... Well that's it for now. Next steps are to complete the deck adjustments, mark them up for installing and planking, adding mast mortices, and working out the proper bearding and rabbet lines to set up for planking - once this is done, I'll glue the bulkheads in place along with some support beams and the decks..... hamilton

Hi JPett - I was just re-reading your review of the Berlin and wanted to let you know about something (if you haven't already discovered it) that I noticed when I was reviewing my Berlin kit contents. The Italian notes on the plans are translated into English (and French and German) in the instruction booklet, towards the end under the list of tables.....I was a little jarred by the italian on the plans, too, until I found these translations.... hamilton

Hi Tom I can't help you get out of work, but I can say that my cannons needed some slight adjustment given the positioning of the bulwarks. I had fit the bulwarks and then realized that the cannons sat too high. My choices were either to scratch build cannons at 1/300 scale (HA!! - I'm a masochist but not that much of a masochist), to peel off the bulwarks and reposition them (I was both too lazy and too afraid of doing this after much wrestling to fit them), or to try bending the barrels of the cannons downwards to accommodate the low gunports (I opted for this, but accidentally snapped one of the gun barrels off....) I think you could correct for my errors by trying the following: 1. Dry fit the bulwarks - the key here is getting the little channel extensions (the 4 tabs sticking out from the deck) to slide into the slots for the bulwarks. With some light bending these could be positioned and then held in place with an elastic band 2. See how the cannons fit and make any necessary adjustments to the bulwark positions. 3. Then fix the bulwarks, being confident that your cannons will go where they're supposed to.... Hope this helps - my work is now getting in the way of my building too - It's almost midnight and I've only just finished work for the day - 15 hours! And it's only the first day of the semester....it's going to be a long one....... hamilton

Wow Tom - the hull looks great - I think you could definitely leave it natural and avoid the painting altogether....the lifts show a little bit it seems, but I think that this effect will be diminished once the model is complete and in the bottle - looking good! hamilton

Thanks Augie - we planted some purple garlic too, which is quite spectacular - both varieties smell wonderful and taste fantastic. I believe I said I wouldn't update this until I was finished adjusting the bulkheads, but in continuing this work this evening I noticed something that I wanted to document, and that will cause a bit of work later on......Here are two photos, one of the port side and the other of the starboard side showing bulkheads 6, 7 and 8 dry fit. You'll notice that the bottom of bulkhead 7, which should (at mid-ships) be on the same level as bulkhead 6 and 8 is actually significantly higher up, which will create a very unsightly bump in the planking unless corrected....the difference with bulkhead 6 is 1.5mm and with bulkhead 8, 1mm. 6 seems correct, as does 9, but both 7 and 8 will need shimming on the outside. Oddly, though, the laser cut bulkheads seem to match the plans more or less well, so the area that needs shimming might actually be very small....I'll have to see what's what when it comes to fairing the hull, at which time I'll make necessary adjustments to the edges of all the bulkheads. To compare this situation with another similar one I've faced in the past, check out these bulkheads from the Corel Greyhound....can't remember the numbers but you can see they are significantly out of step and required a HUGE amount of extra wood....to call it shimming does not truly describe the situation at all..... hamilton

Hi Tom: No problem, of course - it's nice to follow a log so close on to a model I'm building, and glad to be of assistance. A couple of notes. My quarterdeck needed A LOT of reducing in size. It ended up being quite thin top to bottom, with a slighter angle aft. Looks like you've got more sanding ahead of you there! As for the paint - I think your hull looks good, though it would be nice to see it in daylight. Just my opinion, but I would avoid a gloss finish. Satin would be my choice. I think that the glass will give the hull a glossy shimmer without applying the extra coat of gloss finish....again, just my opinion. I think I mentioned before, I use artist acrylic paints (by Golden) - don't know if they're available in the UK, but something equivalent must be - you should be able to pick something decent up at any artist supply shop. I like them much better than other modelling paints I've tried because they hold the pigment extremely well over time and do not separate. They go on very smooth and require fewer coats to get something that looks clean. The trade off is that they're a little pricey (small bottles ranging from $8-12 CDN - roughly 4-6 pounds) and they do not come in the variety of colours that model paints do.... Anyway, enjoying your build - you'll catch up to me very quickly at this rate! hamilton

Beautiful work Augie! hamilton

That boiler/engine looks like a very fun little project - nice work! I'm not eagle-eyed so I didn't notice the repositioning of the whistle.... hamilton

Hello all: Well I guess I'm now officially working on two models at once.....actually, I feel like I'm avoiding the Hannah a little bit....or anyway, I didn't think the last night before the beginning of another school year should be spent redoing her topsail rigging.....maybe once I get back into the rhythm of the semester.... In the meantime, there has been some progress on America. I've adjusted and dry fit the first 5 bulkheads. I think I mentioned earlier that all of them had significant play, so it'll be kind of slow going. Here is a shot that shows how much play - this is bulkhead 3, but it's pretty representative. As you can see from that photo, bulkhead 1 and 2 are already fitted. The process was very straightforward. I first filed off the laser burn on the inside of the bulkhead and keel slots. I then filed out a bit of the forward section of bulkhead slots 1, 2 and 3 (4 and 5 did not require this, though some of the bulkheads further aft will). This widening might seem counterintuitive, but it's not just that there was wiggle in the fit of the bulkheads - in the cases of bulkheads 1, 2 and 3, the position of the keel slots was slightly aft of where it was marked on the plans. For bulkheads 1 and 5 I had to file the bottom of the slot so the top of the bulkhead was flush with the top of the centre keel. I used a small triangular needle file for this (I preferred it over the square one because it was wider and left less chance of unevenness), while for filing out the forward and aft edges of the keel slots I used a larger flat file. Here are implements at rest and at labour For bulkheads 2 and 4 I had to add a thin shim at the bottom of the bulkhead slots on the centre keel so that, again, the tops of the bulkheads would be flush with the top of the keel. I trimmed down some crappy deck planking material leftover (unused) from my Fair Rosamund build for all this kind of work. I used CA to fasten it in place and the after a few minutes of letting it set I snapped off the excess and filed it down. Here it is in process Because the bulkhead slots on the keel had to move forward this meant shimming them aft. I prefer to put the shims on the bulkheads themselves rather than in the slot on the centre keel. To do this, I simply drew lines up to the top of the bulkheads from the slot, marking out the area in which the shim would be placed. Then I used some of that thin leftover material to make the shim. Here's a shot This is bulkhead 1. I test fit it after shimming it and it fit great. But I still needed to put shims in to stabilize it and even it out symmetry wise port and starboard. Here's a shot with bulkhead 1 pushed over towards the port side. The gap is large, though in reality to make it sit symmetrically, gaps half this wide had to be filled on either side - I pushed it over for this shot to give you a sense of what needed to be done. These shims are placed on the centre keel running down below the bulkhead slots. They must only be as long as the bulkhead itself, so my process was first to draw extension lines to the rabbet from the bottom of the bulkhead slot and then to mark to the bottom of the bulkhead "arms" (or legs?) so I would know how much area had to be filled with the shim. I then cut the shims and installed them on both sides. The keel shims for bulkhead 1 needed only a bit of sanding, but those for the other forward bulkheads needed quite a bit to get the bulkheads to sit snugly. Here's a shot of the portside shim for bulkhead one with a bulb of garlic from our garden for scale comparison. And here's bulkhead 1 fit nice and snug on the keel..... Repeat four more times tonight (and ten more times on future nights and this part of the build will be done. Here's where I am now.... Hope you've enjoyed this update....I'll post again once the bulkheads are done and I'm on to the next thing....bye for now hamilton

Hi Tom - my keel also sat deep in the hull - I don't think it's a huge issue in terms of construction and I think that given the height of the model and the space inside the bottle, a low set keel will actually help (I think it helped in terms of the relative ease of getting mine into the bottle. I don't think the keel should disappear entirely but it doesn't look like that's the case with yours - how far does the keel protrude at the bottom? Mine is at a minimum of about 1mm I think, though it is well exposed at both stern and stem.... hamilton

Haha! By "give up" I mean just toss the ship into the bottle in a heap and leave it like that as a "ship-wreck-in-a-bottle" - it's pretty high concept and I don't think many people would get it immediately, but it might be my last option if all else fails.....I won't be trying to mount it again tonight, but am going to stick with redoing the topsail.... You might also have noticed that I decided not to rig the fore course - I felt that too much of the deck work would be masked by this large sail, so I opted to go for a rig as depicted on the bottle with topsail only......anyhow....more later hamilton

Hi Tom: Looks about right to me! The sanding will help a lot with the unevenness of the lifts. I spent a lot of time sanding (probably could have spent more). The top side particularly and the bottom both needed quite a bit to smooth out the edges that define the sweep of the deck and the shape of the lower hull. The bow was probably the trickiest area to sand to smoothness while keeping it even. Looks like you'll need some filler in a couple of places, but it's better than mine - I had a small gap (about .5-1mm) that ran around the entire ship due to the misnomered lift..... One issue with leaving it with a natural finish is that the lines between the lifts tend to really show up when the hull is sanded and it looks kind of weird. Maybe this would be ok with the dramatic effect of the sails and the opacity of the bottle, but you'll see once you get it sanded - you can hold off on the decision till then, fortunately - I actually held off until I'd already installed the bulwarks.... Anyway keep it up! hamilton

Hi Tom: Yes at least she went in! I've not given up yet, though I still have to re-do the topsail rigging before trying again.... Here's a shot with the sails set - they look pretty overdone (with the dark seams and reef bands) but again, I'm assuming this will help them show a little bit once in the bottle and for better or worse, I'm going to use them.....I'm not sure I could make a set of sails at this scale - the material would need to be very thin to do it justice and very difficult to sew for the average 10-fingered person. Anyway, hope this helps... hamilton

Hi there: Glad you decided to start a build log for this kit - there are a couple on here, I think, which will likely provide some help as you go - though since you're aiming for a particular version, the help might be more in particular construction techniques rather than overall aspects of the vessel. Anyway, I've always admired the look of the Mars and hope to build her myself one day.....I'll follow your build with interest (though ten years is a very long time!) On another note, I've visited the Twente region a couple of times - both times staying in Enschede while visiting at the University of Twente. Good times! hamilton