edmay

Well done mate.
 
Denis.

now let me see........what did I say?   I wasn't going to scratch make these parts........I'm sure I did.   well......to start the ball rolling,  the port side fore channel / dead eye assembly was cemented in place.

I counted out seven of those bars........in bending the top end into a loop,  it broke!  this is not good......it broke in a way that made it unusable.   it makes me one short,  and I wasn't going to try another one.   since these were useless,  I had to think about what to use instead.........and I remembered that I had these....

these are found in Billing kits.......as you can see,  I've amassed quite a few of them.   I didn't like using them in the kits I got 'em in,  so I saved them and found other uses for them.  I cut them to size,  fitting them so they would be attached just above the rub rail.   they are quite bendable......I was able to create the hook needed to go through the eyelet. 

setting the first one up {I wasn't going to paint them},  I drilled the hole for the brad.   I was alarmed to find that the drill went through the bulwark,  and skirted over the deck!   I'm glad I noticed {actually woke the hell up}........can you imagine all these brads lining the bulwarks.   the deck wasn't damaged.......I repaired the hole.   I needed to make them longer.

they have to fasten below the rub rail.........wasn't looking forward to bending them around the rail,  so I decided to cut slots for them.   stringing them on the wire,  I was able to cut them all the same length.   I did the first one with no problems at all.

the hook at the top,  and a brad down at the bottom......insuring that I made sure they were pulled down all the way,  I wouldn't have to secure the top.  the rest were done the same way.

they were removed in order......the cuts were touched up with the med green.   I had used the black I had created for the Titanic,  to paint the whiskers on the cat heads.   I decided to use it here as well.   when they were all reinstalled and fastened down,  they were touched up with the soot black.

the port side main mast was next to do........during this time,  I decided to add the starboard side fore channel assembly.   I had cut the next segments of the cap rail,  and they were added too,  after they were painted.   I also added the main mast channel assemblies.


we have a major problem going on at the moment.......the refrigerator stopped working.   I found it was beginning to get warm inside,  so we headed out to buy coolers for the stuff in the fridge.  we have a chest freezer,  so the freezer part of the fridge was put in there {good that we bought it}.   the session was broken throughout the afternoon.....I worked on her here and there while remedying the problem at hand.   we found that it will be a few days before our landlord can get us a new fridge......so we went out again to get a bigger cooler,  because the two little ones we bought wasn't going to cut it.  more to the story........but I don't want to see a lynch mob come here for the landlord.......bad enough WE want to kill 'em!    so a while later,  the port side was done.

it took me till just a short time ago to get the starboard side done too.

all that's left are the mizzen channel assemblies.  I have the segments that will lead up to them painted and ready to cement in place.  from there,  will be the transom rail,  that will complete the cap rail assembly.   what a crazy day!
 

I've made a little progress....thought I'd share it with you all.   I'm working on that poop deck railing at the moment....again.   since the first try was a bust,  I figured I'd try something else.   I have the fife rails roughed out for the fore and main masts.   I can't use the kit supplied ones, 'cuz the holes are already drilled for those wooden ones......the belaying pins I got would fall right through them.  
    so, here's what I have so far...

now,  I mentioned the anchors.......I put the darn things together.   definitely.......got to get some that are more to scale.   I couldn't believe it!   putting them together was easy.....that is,  until I got to the eye rings.   the holes for them were not drilled out......none of my bits would touch 'em.   I remembered that I had some old dental bits that a friend had sent me.   burned the first one out doing the first anchor...but it did drill the hole.  I found out that the anchors are made of white metal......hard stuff,  I can tell ya that     it took two of those bits to do them both!   the rings are on,  but I didn't bother to do the puddin.  check out the size.

this will give you a better sense of their size.......

another thing I noticed were the eye bolts.   here is the size supplied in the kit.......

I have two sizes of eye bolts........three if you count the ones I get from Hobby Lobby {I wouldn't use them anyway......they're too big too}.     here's what I'm going to use instead.

as I mentioned earlier....I need to get chain......there was none supplied in the kit.   the capstan and binnacle are now in place on the deck......still more deck stuff to go  

hope to have more soon........thanks for look'in in.

Redesigning some bulkheads on the bow:
 

As she sits tonight  the figurehead and great lantern isn't fixed, just wanted to see how she looks haha

The start of a very long process of carving....

Have started fixing bolts to the hull. Initial bolts represent the gun rigging eyelets from the inside of the hull. These are plastic bolt heads used in model train building and come in all sorts of sizes and types, again found these while building my modern ships. Also playing around some of the brass fittings from the sergal kit - what is suitable and what should be replaced. Some of the carved filigree carvings that would need to be replaced is so small I think I'll have to sculpt rather than carve to keep them fine enough. I wish these were painted on like the later vessels of the 17th century! I'd find that much easier to do.

Just a touch of colour
 
The colour I've used is actually closer to midnight blue rather than just flat black paint. This is to tone the colour down a little otherwise I think it'll be too much. The lower wales I will however paint flat black. King Charles wanted no colour on the Sovereign apart from black on the hull sides above the upper wales as a backdrop to the gilded carvings. A little unfortunate as I think she would have looked amazing with those carvings painted to reflect reality as in the Dutch ships and that of the Vasa. I've seen a build on here where the whole hull is painted black saying it matches what King Charles wanted and that of the ley portrait however as mentioned the quote from King Charles was the black only above the upper wales. The dark hull of the ley portrait would be the black transom which I agree with and the dark tarred hull as most ships of this period would appear a darker brown colour as the more and more layers of tar where added to the hull sides. I will stain my hull a darker colour which is another reason I changed my hull planks to stop making the hull too dark after staining. 
 
An an interesting difference which I haven't seen in any paintings is the part works Sovereign models showing a dark red band of colour between the two lower wales... if anyone has build or is building the part works kit - do they give a reason to this colour? 

Port side second planking complete, now to clean up the gun ports to the correct size, ill then have to plank the transom but still yet to cut the four lower ports which will need to be done first.

To show a perspective on size, here is my sovereign beside my 1/72 Arleigh Burke flight iia DDG

Port planking coming along nicely  well I think so anyway haha

Hello Larry ,Nice to hear from you,I have also been semi absent from MSW, there seems to be many folk swimming in the same direction as far as health issues go , getting old is not all it's cracked up to be,so my thoughts and prayers of wellness to all is paramount including those members who do not comment on health . I wish you gods speed in your helping your family ,hope to hear more from you soon and your model ,Your return today is like a breath of spring air ,your friend Edwin

Hello Larry ,Nice to hear from you,I have also been semi absent from MSW, there seems to be many folk swimming in the same direction as far as health issues go , getting old is not all it's cracked up to be,so my thoughts and prayers of wellness to all is paramount including those members who do not comment on health . I wish you gods speed in your helping your family ,hope to hear more from you soon and your model ,Your return today is like a breath of spring air ,your friend Edwin

Hi everyone! WOW a brand new site. I hope everyone is doing well. I have some updates for my Niagara but life has been too busy to post. The Admiral is recovering from knee replacement surgery and I'm currently in Ohio helping my parents with their health issues, add to that my own health problems along with planning a move and somehow trying to get a little ship building accomplished. I hope to get back home (Florida) next week but time will tell. I apologize for my lack of communication but I could not even find time to follow the amazing builds on here. I did start a word file on my update that I can hopefully finish and then simply cut and paste but we'll see how soon I can do that once I'm home (fourth trip to Ohio in less than a year and another one planned in April). Now all I need to do is figure out how to post updates with pictures....lol

I found you can get these polishing/separator strips on Amazon. The stainless steel ones appear to be spring steel coated with diamond so very promising, I ordered some yesterday. The mylar ones look good also and I ordered some of them, but they're more or less flexi-i-file pieces so they might be just a better replacement for those.

you know more knots than I do    very nice rigging Michael!

Outstanding Max, you have certainly honed your skills . kudo,s

Outstanding Max, you have certainly honed your skills . kudo,s

Hallyard winches on windjamers, Passat and Krusenstern
Tadeusz

Hello again
 
I have finished the hull so far. The decorations are fixed - and hopefully will keep fixed... - all parts are on their place. Only the steps and gunport lids are still missing and I will do this after the rigging. Otherwise it would be too difficult to care for this parts. Next is to build the masts, but as mentioned before I am not sure to start this now. Probably I will wait until autumn when the summer fades away. However, the masts are to been shapen (is this correct grammar??) from square-shapened timber. A challenge But an intersting one. If all goes wrong I can buy some rods and taper them to the right shape.
 
Some pics show the status in which the Fregatte Berlin is at this moment. Enjoy them
 
Cheerio my fellow mates and friends
 
 
 
 
 

Balsa seemed to work for me in past models.

If you're going to glue to the balsa, after shaping it, coat it with a layer of glue and water (50/50).  It will help hold anything being clued to it.

Thanks to everyone! Seems that each one of us has a different opinion / method. I've raised the question as I found out in some posts that some people tend to avoid using balsa but was not sure why. Definitely pine and basswood offer much more support but it also requires heavier sanding. 
 
Since my filler is only used for additional support/shaping of the bow/stern and I am a bit lazy I will stick with balsa  

Hey Howya goin Ulises Victoria mate, have you thought about scratch building her?

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