GrandpaPhil

Welcome! Well done!

Thank you very much, OC! I am glad you found that useful, Emmet. It saved me a lot of time.

Welcome!

I like to carve cannons from dowel rods. It works well for me.

Thank you very much! It went back together much better than I thought it would. I thought for sure I would have to redo much more of the rigging.

Have you thought about buying the Amati plans or Sergal plans from Cornwall or Age of Sails? Both sets of plans should have templates for all of the laser/die cut parts. It would be copy, cut and glue at that point. The old Mantua kit had preprinted wood parts, that you would have to cut out anyway. The hardest part would be making the carvings, and you can buy the carving set from Cornwall if you didn't feel like carving them yourself.

Thank you both for the comments! Thank you everyone for the likes! So far, I have not needed to use magnifiers. I do however have multiple halogen bulbs sitting right over my work area. My work area has lighting like an operating theater. I am back to working on my fire buckets. I have rough carved 3, so far. I took a pause to paint some 28mm miniatures that I bought last winter. I also fixed up a broken whaling ship, I think an old Model Shipways Kate Cory, that I found at a local flea market yesterday. That was fun. I just had to remake a few pieces (mostly located in the head), fix the masts and replace/install some rigging. During this process, I found a quick and easy way to make the cheeks on the head (the pieces on the sides of the breakwater that provide lateral support for the beakhead and typically support the head timbers), which were missing entirely. For those who are not experienced with model ship building, the head is one of the more difficult sections to make. Making the cheeks usually involves a lot of trial and error. I call this out and provide my discovery because even for those building kits, most of the kits I have had did not provide the head pieces pre-cut. Those kits advised making the cheeks from card first and utilizing trial and error to fit them to the ship. The quick way is to use a contour gauge. That completely eliminates the trial and error. It was the quickest and easiest head that I have ever made (admittedly there were no head timbers or head rails). I think all four pieces took me a couple of hours to measure, draw, make and paint. If you have read through this log, it took me many hours, over several weeks, to build the head on the Victory (which while much more complicated, I also used the trial and error method, which involved multiple re-do's).

Thank you very much!

And, it’s done: I always try to learn something new from every build (or rebuild in this case). This time I learned to use a contour gauge to make the cheeks on the head. It makes it much easier and takes the trial and error element out of it. We all know that the head is one of the most complicated parts of a ship. That makes learning this a valuable tool. It will make life easier in the future. I am glad that I found this model. PS: I know the original builder installed the flag on the main mast upside down. Out of respect for the original builder, I left it that way.

Dry brushing only catches the raised areas of what you are painting. It’s predominantly a miniature painting technique. I learned to paint from wargaming (Warhammer 40K), years ago. The general gist is that you brush most of the paint out of the brush and then paint what you are working on. It catches the raised area of the model. It’s also a great way to shade an area. It takes care when there isn’t much difference in height, but it makes the painting process much easier and in my opinion, looks much better because you can shade your model and add highlights and shadows to it. That’s how I add the illusion of depth to my models. I use a flat brush. It works better to use a brush with stiffer bristles, and the brush must be dry for what you need it for. Never use a good brush. Dry brushing is bad for paint brushes. I also use a technique called inking in which you use thinned down paint to add tinges of color (frequently for weathering).

The original builder painted the cheeks metallic gold. I will do the same. The historical paint scheme would have been black with white trim, copper below the waterline. Here is the current state of the cheeks (the second layer drying):

Thanks, Keith! Here are the initial patterns for the cheeks: I am making them from double layered card. I used my contour gauge to get the shape of the head. Note to self (and others), this has worked beautifully.

All I need to do now is replace the cheeks: Fortunately, I now have a contour gauge! Thank you very much Model Ship World for giving me the idea!

One replacement rigging piece:

At this point, I am calling the main hull, foremast and main mast, with associated rigging, done. The head and bowsprit had some damage. It needs a new rigging piece made and new cheeks. The block of beeswax is my secret weapon against fraying rigging.

I’m not worried about accuracy on this one because it’s already finished and I’m not willing to make fundamental changes to the model. If I did that I would be better off just building a new one with the amount of damage that I would have to inflict. Plus, that wouldn’t be fair to the original builder, since it would no longer be his or her model. It should be coppered and the paint scheme should be fundamentally different. Perhaps one day, I’ll buy the plans and build another one.

This model is missing a lot of the standing rigging, which I am installing using the Prince de Neufchatel as a reference, because they are both Baltimore Clippers. At this point I have replaced the foremast backstays and begun to replace the missing stays.

Main mast is fixed now too: I sacrificed the backstays for the main mast, too.

I pinned the foremast in place. I only had to cut the backstays. I am letting it dry. It won’t be perfect, but I am not going for perfect with this. I am only doing a quick repair so I can display it in the living room. I am leaving as much original work as possible.

The bowsprit is back up: It needs a replacement piece on the side, the bobstays need some TLC and the head needs new cheeks, which are completely missing. The windlass has been reattached: The aft boat is back on: I believe that I will have to cut some rigging lines to fix the masts.

Definitely hand built: Yes, I’m holding a model ship upside down.

1st step: Cleaning.

I found an old model of the Kate Cory at a flea market today, that is in dire need of repair. I believe it to be an old Model Shipways kit, but I do not know for certain. Some initial observations: It is actually, mostly correctly rigged. It has a planked solid hull. It appears hand built. The castings appear to be pewter. The whale boats are bread and butter construction (much like the last Model Shipways model that I built). The paint scheme is completely wrong. It’ll make a nice addition to my living room. By the way, pardon the painting mess on my building board, I’ve been tearing through my 28mm miniature collection the last few days.

Welcome!

Welcome!