Bill97

Thank you Daniel for your advice and recommendations. Here are a few new requests for advice. This where I am. First photo shows the holes I drilled in the bulkheads before I assembled them to the false keel. I plan to light my portholes as you did. Two separate circuits. I ran two raceway set holes the length with the holes separated the height of the lower decks. I used a 3/16” bit. You suggested larger. I was concerned about light bleed through the larger hole. Did you patch around the hole after the wires were run through to prevent light bleed? Secondly you recommend making a list of what I want to light. I am curious in the second and third if the lights are on the same circuit or if the two lights you have in the floor are on the lower deck port hole circuit? Maybe all the deck lighting is on the same circuit? I will need to go back and read through your circuit inventory again. By the way did you find the LED spot lights that shine the colors up into the mast? I have searched for such things to no avail. Lastly based on your previous recommendation I also plan to power my lights with a power brick. I have my power brick, switches, voltage regulators, resistors, and LED lights(except for the mast spot lights). I am currently planning 4 or 5 circuits. Not exactly sure yet. I am not smart enough to try the USB-C so I plan to just run the four or five wires directly into the bottom of the hull and maybe incase them together in that heat shrink tubing.

Daniel I continue to read through your build log (several times in fact) to pick up tips and pointers from your experiences before I get to those points in my build. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems I definitely need to determine my wiring plan in advance of adding structural elements to the ship. I need to know where I want to add lights, inside and outside of structures, and which circuit I plan for those lights. It appears that it could be difficult to add a run of a circuit into an area that was not previously set up for a light(s). I notice in some of your photos you have a rolls of wire that will eventually run and connect to a circuit. I am thinking I should draw up my ship plan showing each circuit before I even begin running wires and LED’s instead of deciding I want to put an LED somewhere and try to find a connection point to a circuit already run. Your thoughts?

Daniel I continue to read through your build log (several times in fact) to pick up tips and pointers from your experiences before I get to those points in my build. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems I definitely need to determine my wiring plan in advance of adding structural elements to the ship. I need to know where I want to add lights, inside and outside of structures, and which circuit I plan for those lights. It appears that it could be difficult to add a run of a circuit into an area that was not previously set up for a light(s). I notice in some of your photos you have a rolls of wire that will eventually run and connect to a circuit. I am thinking I should draw up my ship plan showing each circuit before I even begin running wires and LED’s instead of deciding I want to put an LED somewhere and try to find a connection point to a circuit already run. Your thoughts? P.S. I am going to post this comment over on your build as well. I would not expect you would be looking here at mine that often.

Starboard side lower deck herringbone deck planking complete. 5m x 15m planks. Eyes crossing but very enjoyable.

Here in the very early stages of my AV build I want to take a brief pause here to give credit where credit is due. As I progress through my build and post my updates there are a number of bashes to the kit I have planned. The vast majority of these bashes are inspired by my following another AV build here on MSW. It is often said imitation is a great form of flattery. DanielD is building this same ship and has his log here on MSW. He is miles ahead of me on his build. He is doing an amazing job of lighting his AV and an incredible source of information and advice on my future attempt to do the same. So as I move along if I copy something DanielD did I intend to say I got the idea from him. No plagiarism of his work. Thanks so much Daniel.

Call me crazy but I think this is going to look pretty cool. I have started planking the main deck. I used walnut strips to border the sides and structures and run a band down the center of the deck which will be furthered copied on the fore and aft decks. The area inside the borders is being filled with the lighter planking supplied with the kit. I am laying this planking in a herringbone pattern. Nothing at all authentic about this. Just something I want to do to add additional visual interest.

Daniel I know it is still a while before you will get into rigging and very long time until I do. Most likely sometime mid to end of next year for me. In preparation for that have you given any thought or research to the size of blocks and thread you will use? OcCre provides two block sizes (single and double) and two sizes of dark and light thread. Which we know would not be accurate throughout the ship. In my past builds I was able to use an Anatomy of the Ship book for the particular ship and find the actual size of the blocks used on the actual ship and then just use my conversion table to arrive at a block size close to authentic. I have not found any such reference material on the AV. As a last resort I am thinking I could use my conversion table to match the actual size of the AV to other ships and use some formula to get close.

Today I am getting into dry fitting the main deck structures so I can begin the layout of my future deck planking. My plan is to go way out of the box and do a herringbone deck pattern with the included deck planking material but also outline the structures with walnut planking left over from my Endeavour. Will dry fit a bit of the planking to see how it looks before I proceed with the scheme.

Daniel my build log is up. Come on over and lead me by the hand my friend. 😊

And so it begins. Built the ship skeleton. The deck sections are just in place to hold everything square. Once the glue dries the deck sections will come back off for a good while. During the weeks, and maybe months, ahead the deck sections will get planking then be reinstalled. Some of the ship structures that will be on the deck will need to be built as well to determine their deck placement. Similar to the real AV I plan to outline deck structures with a different planking pattern around them.

An so it begins. The unboxing, sorting, and identifying the pieces. I always enjoy this part. Looking at all this and imagining what it will all turn in to over the unpredictable amount of time I will spend with it in my ship yard. Always feels like Christmas morning.

Yes Ian the AV does look more complex. There is a ton of small metal items to be painted and attached. Also my plan to light it will be a new challenge. All new experiences with that endeavor.

No apologies necessary Trevor. This is a stock photo if the AV alluminated at night. It has spot lights the colors of the Italian flag that shine up onto the mast. I also like the random cabin lights effect. That is my attempt instead if all on or all off.

Marc my next build is going to be the wooden OcCre Amerigo Vespucci. I am going to attempt to follow the lead of another OcCre Amerigo Vespucci builder DanielD here on MSW. He is wiring his model for full lighting on 4 or 5 separate circuits to display several different lighting arrangements. I hope I can come close to doing as well as he did. I am also going to take a little artistic license with this build. On past builds I have tried to stick as close to authentic as my skills permitted. On this AV build I am going to step outside the authenticity box and be a bit more artistic in my presentation. One thing I am going to do is lay a herringbone pattern deck planking. I have layed herringbone pattern wood floors and really like the appearance.

Thanks Veszett. I appreciate your comments. I am able to pair my iPhone with my TV. So I take a photo of a particular spot where I am working (ratlines, etc) and then pair the phone to the TV. I am then able to expand the photo to my big screen and really examine what I am doing. Helps my old eyes a lot. A negative if doing that is I see the provided OcCre thread is fuzzy even though I run every thread through beeswax 😊.

Thanks Trevor. It was a real pleasure building this ship.

I am about to open and start my next project the OcCre 1-100 Amerigo Vespucci. You are invited to come along for my journey. I just completed the OcCre Endeavour which was my first wooden ship and was very impressed with the quality of the OcCre kit. I have no doubt the Amerigo Vespucci will only enhance my view of OcCre models.

Gentlemen aside from adding a few more coils at belay points this beauty is finished. It has been a great pleasure building my first wood model. It has also been a great pleasure interacting with you guys on another build. I consider you guys great friends even if only through this fantastic web site.

Daniel I am adding the final touches to my OcCre Endeavour and will soon crack open my Amerigo Vespucci kit. I have limited my excitement and preliminary research on the AV so as not to steal my enthusiasm away from the Endeavour. I am now ready to jump in and I have started rereading your build log along with Mike’s comments. For all my previous ship builds I have tried to stay as authentic as my research and skills permitted. You are going to think this crazy but for my AV my plan is to step outside the box and employ some artistic adaptations I think will enhance the beauty of the ship while not being totally authentic. I will be setting up my build log real soon and will add the linc to a comment here.

Gentlemen it has been a little over a week since my last update. I believe I am rounding the turn and heading for home (Kentucky Derby verbiage). Since my last post I have gotten the mizzen mast rigged and working on the mizzen course. The mizzen course will be furled when I am finished with rigging it. I still have a good deal of detail work to do like making a zillion coils to put at each of the belay points, additional ropes at the hatches on the sides, flag pole and flags, etc.

Hello Daniel my friend. So glad to have an update from you. I was concerned that you might be ill or just quit on your AV. The handmade net looks beautiful. Great job.

Lifts and braces the order of the day in the ship yard now that I have moved past the boomkins.

Oh no Allan you did not hijack my post. I started the discussion and appreciated all the input. What I eventually did was keep the boomkins and simply ran guys back to the ship above the howser hole. Now no guys are below that point. I am not even going to question the outer gammoning! 😀

That does seem to be the most practical solution. I will give a look at removing the boomkins. If I can’t without to much damage I think i will arrange some sort of satisfactory rigging and call it a day on this riddle

Good morning Marc. Welcome to this very intriguing conversation. I always say when the world seems to be going to the dogs it is good to have a cave we can get in, roll the stone in front, and just talk ship building!😊