HardeeHarHar

I'd be making a ship in a Mickey's Wide Mouth Bottle I believe! 😃

That is sick! 🧐. They are beautiful!!!!!

Kev, I’m glad you are here to help me out and clarify my gibberish! Doh! Here (see pic) are the teeny posts with the holes I drilled in them using a dremel…all the posts were then painted black. 😬 I broke another hand drill bit in the rail installing them today. Argh!!!! I also hand drilled holes in all the channels (2 per channel, 8 channels) and then glued pins in the holes to be used to secure them firmly to the hull. I have also put all the deadeyes in their chain plates. These metal parts were also painted black. You then stretch them open, put the deadeye in, and squeeze‘em shut on it (see pic 2, with a 3mm deadeye stained dark).

Welcome on board Paul!

Haha hahaha! You guys are such good colleagues!!! Thanks very much for making me smile and letting me know you’ve been there done that!! FYI- I take my contact lenses out to see better, but there isn’t much I can do about the shaking hands (I try to use liquid refreshments, with little success). In my latest struggles, I definitely had a moment of relief when I got the broken drill bits cleared, and then I could act like Joe Cool when the panic subsided. Today, was another challenge for shaking hands and drill bits. Drilling tiny holes through tiny brass parts with a Dremel!!! I’ll post pictures later (they are wet with black paint at the moment). I’m stunned I was able to go 4 in a row with no “oh shooot” moments. I also prepped and stained the channels and painted the chainplates, drilled out all the required deadeye holes a wee bit bigger, and stained them too. There is a lot still remaining to do before I start making the masts, yards, gaffs, etc!!!

This is a hard hobby that requires a lot of patience and self control. These are characteristics I am lacking. I recently moved on to the cheeks and headrails of the build, and it was not easy. Small parts, CA glue, and shaky old man hands are a bad mix. I went so far as to craft the headrail by hand as the kit supplied part wasn't going to work very well with the configuration and space my build had provided. When all was said and done, the part I made wasn't that different from the part supplied in the kit (which was not the way I had intended, sigh). Looking back, I believe @Timmo had the right approach, and next build (if I get that far) I am going to work a little more on my techniques using a blade, lamination, etc. Another thing I should note when it comes to "why does this have to be so hard"...is one should be careful when one is drilling pilot holes using itsy bitsy drill bits. In drilling pilot hawserholes for the Hawsers, my itsy bitsy drill bit broke while imbedded in the wood. This meant using a slightly less itsy bitsy drill bit to try to drill through/around/over it. Of course, it broke in the side of the ship as well. Being stubborn, i started shoving my new broaches and bigger drill bits in the "hole-that was filled with metal" and a miracle occurred, and a hole was made in the right spot, and of the right size. I got the job done, more or less. It needs a lot of touch up/clean up, and maybe some wipe on poly would help?!? The quality of these pictures taken with my iPhone leave a lot to be desired too =(

Hey Andrew, pray tell us how you went about doing your rat lines. Having never done one, and about to do many, I could use all the help I can get!!!

Love it!! Great work my good man, great work indeed!

That looks great!!!!! Really shows what a tough job that must have been…

That seems like it was an excellent solution to getting the angle correct. Looks like I need more tools too. 😃

Thanks Ron, I'm doing my best to not screw up a good kit (too much) 😃 Thanks Kev, If the truth be told, the tiller in the picture is #2. Numero uno suffered an undocumented structural failure during manufacture. I manufactured the first one out of walnut, starting with some square stock. I used a sanding wheel on my dremel to remove material in a hurry, then switched to files and sand paper, and got it down to the 1 mm taper as specified, when "IT BROKE". I glued it back together but it was visually apparent. My depression deepened. After my despair was alleviated with repeated beverage intake, I then switched to basswood, which is probably not a great substitute. I would have gone for using boxwood, but I didn't have thick enough stock and I didn't want to make a laminate to use. So I had basswood, and I thought I would see if that would work. Man, basswood is soft! So removing the majority of the material was relatively easy, and it shaped nicely too. I didn't push the diameter reduction as much with the second attempt. When I had the shape of the tiller finished, I took a piece of 3mm walnut stock and fashioned the round cap for the tiller. I drilled a wee-hole in the round cap, then increased it's diameter with increasing drill bit diameter, until I could delicately SHOVE the tiller into the cap. I then painted the tiller matte black and the cap red, and glued it into the rudder. I slid the rudder housing down the tiller and glued it into place, and called it a done deal. By the way, I am using this Loctite Extra Time Control CA lately, and I don't hate it. I have used it to clue the hinges to the quarterdeck panels doors, and to glue the hinges to the gun port lids, and it allows some fiddling before it sets, which is required often. I miss seeing updates from you Kev, so if you need a new throw-out bearing, I will find you one and send it to you! Oh, and if I put figurines on board my Granado, I think we would find that my tiller cap is about the size of a human head....so my Granado won't have any figurines on board/nobody's hands are going to slide off that tiller 😃

Well ahoy and happy New Year Andrew, it sure is good to see your hard work paying off on the Nisha again. Your life ring is much appreciated by the crew I bet. In all fairness though, I think you need a little one for the dog too ;-). I am excited to see how this all comes together, as it is definitely going to tell a story (a fish tale) with all the modeling extra's you have added to the build.

Slowly, but progress is being made. Catheads in place and home-made tiller installed. Will add the rest of the bow chaser gun port lids later, just one installed to ensure it doesn’t get fouled….

@Mozartman YAY, puhlease do start a build log for others to reference!!! It will be both helpful and inspirational for those who follow along (me :-). @ir3 YAY, I’m happy you are still pursuing this model, and glad to hear CafModel is supportive of your efforts!!!

Crazy good Ron. Just pretty much perfect in every aspect, including the photos.

Hey Tom, It would be great to have a build log for the split hull version. Any way you could make that happen (before I start the kit ;-)? It would be a huge help for those of us who want to build the kit but don't have the experience or knowledge to do it on our own. Best regards, and season's greetings to you and yours! BT

@Ab Hoving Seasons greetings my good man, and to all the other forum members as well! I am pleased to share the final product, all framed and ready to hang on the wall at our coastal retreat. This was a large print, and I wanted to make it look like it should be hanging in the Rijksmuseum (I know, good luck with that =), but truly, I did want a relatively bold frame to make it look as good as possible and like an antique. Most importantly, the Admiral (and I) are very pleased with the end result, and I am thinking I would like to get a few more files to print out and frame if Ab and his son are still willing to share the fruits of their hard labor. Ab, I truly hope you like the frame and the print! Thanks so very much, you made our holidays so much better having this ready to be displayed proudly amongst our other art work!!!! Happy Holidays, and thank you again!

No apologies needed amigo, you know what works for you. I’m glad you know yourself and what you really want to do. I’m on your side, and understand your decision.

A lot of the steps in building a ship make me overly anxious, and I need to stop letting that happen so much. It slows progress, and isn’t healthy. For example, gluing these stern decorations was fairly nerve wracking for me for some reason. I wasn’t sure if I should pin and glue them, or just rely on PVA or CA. I didn’t want to ask opinions, as I ask a lot of questions already. I opted for CA, which makes it a one time operation, unless you like to clean up the mess you make of things. I think I got lucky on this one, and things turned out pretty good. All in all, I believe I don’t have to undo anything, and that it looks fair enough! All that angst wasn’t needed I guess!!! I’ll have to get my real camera out sometime soon and take some better photos…

Yes they are, but armed and dangerous!

Back on island time, with a paint brush in my hand. Just about ready to finish attaching the stern details!

Wow! That sounded tedious, thank you for your build log and perseverance!

It is true, you ROCK Ron. What a beautiful build, and to offer up such historical information along the way further demonstrates what a true master craftsman you have become . Your Camilla is spectacular, and then you add the water....inspirational work my good man!

It appears to be hard to locate specific issues of Model Shipwright or find the table of contents, and Robert Lichtley doesn't have much of a web presence. It would be nice of CafModel to do a build log or sponsor someone to do a good build log of the split hull (hint hint), because the instructions for this seem to be quite lacking (at least for someone of my skill level = newbie/intermediate at best). I will have to take a look at my part I kit when time permits to see how much information is provided that someone like me can understand. I can definitely saw something in half though 😉

Well, I upgraded the Granado to Boxwood planking on the hull, and have purchased and begun to employ Syren Ship Model rope, blocks, and deadeyes, etc. for the rigging. I have also been encouraged to purchase boxwood for the masts, spars, etc as well, instead of using the birch wood that came with the kit. So, one aspect of wow would be quality materials, the other aspects are appearance overall, historical impact/story. I liked the Granado because it was a little different, being a bomb vessel and all, and was just difficult enough to make me sweat non-stop. I really like your suggestion to work on the split hull in the background. Maybe someday soon someone will elect to do it before me, and start a BUILD LOG!!! One can hope!