ScottRC

Thanks, John.
 
I've now added the stern frames and stern filler blocks. At the risk of sounding nit picky, this went alright, but with the prospect of trouble down the road, as a result of a few issues: first, I found the stern drawings confusing and inconsistent with the prototype photos in the manual (i went with the photos--I think); second, the frames were a little thicker than 3/16" which required some sanding to get them to fit into the spacers provided to supposedly ensure the proper spacing of the frames to allow for installation of the stern windows. I foolishly assumed that once the frames fit in the spacers that the windows would be no problem. That was a big mistake. The windows ( which are nice laser cut items) are too wide to fit between the frames. This wouldn't be a big problem, except for the fact that the frames are so thin at this scale that very little sanding is possible. When I get to window installation, I'll have to enlarge the space between the frames or scratch build new windows.
 
The filler block material is not provided, so i used some basswood I had on hand. The work is straight forward for anyone who has done it before. I didn't follow the 2 piece pattern shown in the photos, but made continuous blocks.
 
I now need to do the bow filler blocks and probably clean up the shaping of the bow as well.
 
Bob

Ulises,
Did you do a base coat then several "washes" of differnent shades of browns and black?  Kimberly, this style of painting is a lot of fun.

Hi Robyn,
 
Many of us understand fully your dilema.  Its is why an artist will have a studio full of unfinished paintings, a bodymen a garage full of cars in primer, and myself, a workshop with shelves full of projects in various forms of finish.  Some may never get finished, at least by me.
 
To me, whom is very linear in his thinking, it drives me nuts to leave a project unfinished, but this hobby forces me to accept it. If the current model hits a snag, set it aside and move onto something else.  I have three projects drydocked for the same reason you are docking yours.  But I find other projects that do not require funds, or a lot of foresight, but just time.  Kinda why I started carving and looking at starting a ship in the bottle.  I have lots of scrap chunks of wood and wine bottles from the nights of working on the above said, unfinished, models.
 
Ahh, manufacturers drawings and instructions.  If you look at most of us who have built for a time, our prints and instruction books end up covered in notes and redmarks, dogeared, and re-stapled with the pages out of order.  Its part of the fun now, getting a new kit and then, as one put it, at least how I put a take on it, brings out our Frankenstein in us.  We may spends months laying tracing paper over plans and redrafting lines, angles, and lofts.  We may end up making photocopies of the instruction manual and putting the pages in a different order of build and cover the margins with notes.  Hell, at times we just through the manual out and use our builders notes.  You are learing a new phase in ship modeling, one that now uses your experience and combines it with trust and eptitude when starting a kit.
 
Scott

Kimberly,
 
Great progress.  I built the "Pirate Ship" and converted it to a fictional ship from the Alexander Kent series.  I must tell you, that is one of the bloody hell's teeth of a model to start on.  Lindberg kits tend to be more flash and missmolded plastice than actual parts.  I raise a toast to you.
I also have a few of the Revell Columbus ships.  I love the Pinta, and the Santa Maria is tops for a quick, easy, relaxing build.  All three of the kits are great.  The Heller Santa Maria is also in the same boat (pun).
 
Other fun sailing ships to build are the galleons by Revell. Golden Hind and the large Spanish Galleon.  Although some discredit their historical accuracy, they are by far fun to build.  Since you like working with bright colors, you will have a lot of fun painting these models.
 
Note that all the above kits I mentioned are simple square rigged ships that will help you move into more complex square riggers such as Frigates and Clipperships.
 
I would also suggest for future builds the Revell Mayflower, Bounty/Beagle, and of coarse their Constitution.  If your ready for the challange of multiple yards, the Cutty Sark and Stag Hound are great kits to cut your teeth on clippers.
 
 
I have built a number of Heller models, and to me, they are beautiful kits, but seem to be harder than wooden kits.
 
Keep up the good work
Scott

Great work Jim, and thanks for the pics, they are helping me with my build.
Scott

Lookin good on the shrouds and ratlines.  I agree with shrouds, the making of which is like herding a group of three legged cats through a square dance competition, I could never seem to get them to all be the same height.

That is good that you are giving youself a deadline to complete a model.  You are doing the right thing by not putting a YEAR to the month, it makes it easier on your sanity.
 
You need a shop huh?   No you don't, trust me, we are like goldfish, the bigger the tank, then more we expand.    You no longer work in 1/100th of an inch but in 1/10th's of and inch and the shop is never large enough.  

for anyone interested
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-22337881
 

That is good that you are giving youself a deadline to complete a model.  You are doing the right thing by not putting a YEAR to the month, it makes it easier on your sanity.
 
You need a shop huh?   No you don't, trust me, we are like goldfish, the bigger the tank, then more we expand.    You no longer work in 1/100th of an inch but in 1/10th's of and inch and the shop is never large enough.  

Agree with Steve,
Spray is not a good thing, you cannot control the thickness which ends up with runs, cracking, and orange peel effects.  It also draws dust onto the model, and a wood ship is a incubator for dust.  I prefer to use brush, cloth, and small sponges to apply stain and sealer.
 
 
  Yippee, a stick is protruding.

Yes, the Endavor was a Barque rig in later years but was ship rigged under Capt. Cook,  She has slightly raised prowl and poop.  Designed as a collier with a blunt bow and shallow draft, not a real pretty ship is you ask me.
Here is it in need to some future attention.  I plan to start back on it after the Constitution is done.
 

Agree with Steve,
Spray is not a good thing, you cannot control the thickness which ends up with runs, cracking, and orange peel effects.  It also draws dust onto the model, and a wood ship is a incubator for dust.  I prefer to use brush, cloth, and small sponges to apply stain and sealer.
 
 
  Yippee, a stick is protruding.

Folks, we will need to be sure we are her support group throughout the up and coming phase of shrouds and ratlines.  A phase in which she will endure hours upon hours of tying one knot after another, working up one mast, then the other, and through each individual eyebolt, a shroud will be formed and every turn of the thread counted to be equal to the last.  All the time, she will be yearning for the smell of fresh wood being glued to newly sawn timbers and missing the feel of a hull coming together beneath her fingers.   She is going to be tempted to be drawn away from the current build, with its tedium and redundancy, an off to the young, newly acquired, and ready to be laid up and planked kit, until it too may be drawn off to a lesser priority in order to have a new curiosity pursued.
This, my fellow modelers, is how we become masters of many builds at one time.  We do not want her to go into this dark side of our hobby.  Or do we?

Agree with Steve,
Spray is not a good thing, you cannot control the thickness which ends up with runs, cracking, and orange peel effects.  It also draws dust onto the model, and a wood ship is a incubator for dust.  I prefer to use brush, cloth, and small sponges to apply stain and sealer.
 
 
  Yippee, a stick is protruding.

Hello to everybody  .
 
My nickname is Jack.Aubrey and I was in the past a strong follower of ModelShipWorld, both with my own logs and as a normal, simple but very interested reader . .
 
I knew some days ago what happened to the old Modelshipworld forum . . it was a big loss, a dramatic loss. I hope for the future this will never happen . . anyway I have decided to participate actively to this new adventure.
 
I'm working on a model of the french "Le Soleil Royal", from De Agostini.
 
I started this new project on Sunday April 18, 2010 and I have maintained a personal WIP on http://www.deagostinipassion.com/forum/posts/list/24639.page since that date.
 
Unfortunately it is in italian language so it may be probably difficult if not impossible for somebody to follow it, so i decided to translate part of it here, starting from the beginning.
 
In order to have the possibility to post the past and the present, I have decided, if accepted by the forum staff, to split the log in two segments, the first is this one, where I will post my work from the beginning until now and a second one where I will put the messages of the work I will start tomorrow until the end.
 
In this way I think to show easily my work, without to wait to complete the past before starting with the present and future.
 
See (or better read) you soon, Jack.

Folks, we will need to be sure we are her support group throughout the up and coming phase of shrouds and ratlines.  A phase in which she will endure hours upon hours of tying one knot after another, working up one mast, then the other, and through each individual eyebolt, a shroud will be formed and every turn of the thread counted to be equal to the last.  All the time, she will be yearning for the smell of fresh wood being glued to newly sawn timbers and missing the feel of a hull coming together beneath her fingers.   She is going to be tempted to be drawn away from the current build, with its tedium and redundancy, an off to the young, newly acquired, and ready to be laid up and planked kit, until it too may be drawn off to a lesser priority in order to have a new curiosity pursued.
This, my fellow modelers, is how we become masters of many builds at one time.  We do not want her to go into this dark side of our hobby.  Or do we?

Folks, we will need to be sure we are her support group throughout the up and coming phase of shrouds and ratlines.  A phase in which she will endure hours upon hours of tying one knot after another, working up one mast, then the other, and through each individual eyebolt, a shroud will be formed and every turn of the thread counted to be equal to the last.  All the time, she will be yearning for the smell of fresh wood being glued to newly sawn timbers and missing the feel of a hull coming together beneath her fingers.   She is going to be tempted to be drawn away from the current build, with its tedium and redundancy, an off to the young, newly acquired, and ready to be laid up and planked kit, until it too may be drawn off to a lesser priority in order to have a new curiosity pursued.
This, my fellow modelers, is how we become masters of many builds at one time.  We do not want her to go into this dark side of our hobby.  Or do we?

Folks, we will need to be sure we are her support group throughout the up and coming phase of shrouds and ratlines.  A phase in which she will endure hours upon hours of tying one knot after another, working up one mast, then the other, and through each individual eyebolt, a shroud will be formed and every turn of the thread counted to be equal to the last.  All the time, she will be yearning for the smell of fresh wood being glued to newly sawn timbers and missing the feel of a hull coming together beneath her fingers.   She is going to be tempted to be drawn away from the current build, with its tedium and redundancy, an off to the young, newly acquired, and ready to be laid up and planked kit, until it too may be drawn off to a lesser priority in order to have a new curiosity pursued.
This, my fellow modelers, is how we become masters of many builds at one time.  We do not want her to go into this dark side of our hobby.  Or do we?

Steve I had the same thoughts and settled on the following for my USS Constitution, a war ship.
 
I am in the process of adding six sails. The spanker, jib and flying jib, and the three topsails. It is my understanding that this was one of the usual rigs for ships in battle. Others, such as the main course and perhaps the top gallant sails could be furled, but I decided not to do that because of the extra work and 'busy scene'. There are many paintings of ships in battle and they usually show all sails rigged, but unless there was a slight breeze, that was not usually so because it took too many men to handle the sails instead of the cannons.
 
Here is my first sail installed.
 
Notice I have not yet finished the rest of the mizzen mast at this point, because the shrouds need to go up first.
 
PS. I just remembered the picture below of the USS Constitution after its last overhaul. I think it was when it arrived in Boston. It had the sails rigged as I mentioned above.

 

Thank you Sjors, your kind words are very insuring. Glad you liked the pictures. I live on a lake, and it gets difficult to get a good background shot that shows the masts very well. My work table faces out to the water, so I can enjoy the lake and build my ships.

One of the wonderful things I've found in transitioning from plastic to wood is the infinite beauty and character of wood. I love the way it can be wet and shaped. The internal structure and characteristics of differing woods is a fun learning curve. Just like every builder has their own mind, so does each type and also each piece of wood. 
 
In our polymer would of plastic, so many have forgotten the beauty and malleability of wood. Modeling has reconnected me with that.

Patrick - The Bluejacket PE is actually reasonably thick - especially compared to normal PE.  I think it'll do fine once I sand the coamings with the PE gratings in place to make them look cohesive and eliminate the edges that may suggest that the gratings aren't thick enough.
 
Radman - It has been at least 25 years since my last attempt at this kit (which you see in my initial post).  I do vaguely recall filling some minor gaps, but nothing as serious as you suggest.  Here is an underside view:
 

 
I'm not sure I can be helpful, but I'd recommend working to align the bottom edge first and letting the rest of the stern piece fit in place.  Notice that the thin white trim strips don't exactly align between the transom and the quarter galleries.  That can be adjusted with some extra styrene.
 
I'm a bit far from that step as yet, but I'll be a bit wiser if I can benefit from your experience once you've mastered it on your build.
 
Thanks to you both for your continued interest.

What are these?  How many before one is voted off the island?

Hello Robbyn,
 
I just re-joined MSW after a long hiatus and found a number of subjects within your build log interesting and easy to relate to. First and foremost, it is so great to see another person from Kansas in this hobby,  I live in the Southeast part of the state and its interesting to discuss the reactions I get from members of my community when they find out what my hobby is, Yes, I like ships, the ocean, and I live in Kansas, so the point is?
 
I am in the middle of two builds, HMS Endeavor and Constitution, of which both got put on hold as of last summer because of an injury to my right index finger.  I slipped with a screwdriver, yup, a tiny flathead screwdriver, which dig into the finger right at the knuckle and cut through two tendons and into the bone.   After surgury, some rehab, and a rather large withdrawal from my bank account, I now have full use of the finger, which comes in very handy when tying up Ratlines and shrouds.
 
On the subject of stain, I have the problem when I apply it in that it is too light, too dark, too sticky, or just right.  Your’s came out just right.  I like the dark look.
 
Regarding dogs, I have four of them ranging from a Shitzu to a Labrador.  Yup, they keep the floor very clean and they find that Basswood is quite palatable.  Yet these dogs are not as dramatic as the cats, who do their best at keeping me busy with repairs and rebuilds.  I leaned one thing building with cats, NEVER PUSH A LONG HAIRED CAT OUT OF THE WAY WITH SUPERGLUE ON YOUR HANDS!  Almost needed stitches after that incident.
 
I look forward to seeing you work at fitting out and then rigging the San Francisco.  
 
Regards,
Scott