B-Ram

Hello Taras, Thank you for the link to your site. It looks to be filled with lots of very good information on the history of shipbuilding. This will give me many hours of interesting reading. I hope you are able to someday continue with this site. Thank you for sharing this information with us. Bill

Thanks Johnny. I scaled the planks for an 8" plank at 1:70 scale. That made my planks about 2.9mm wide. Bill

Thanks Joe.

Hello everyone, Hi Joe. I have heard some discussion on the placement. If I have some difficulty, I will give you a holler. Thanks. I didn’t like the way the deck color turned out, so I removed all of the staining. Also, I am in the middle of the first planking. Bill

Hello Ian, After doing some research, I went with a 2.5mm plank. This was based on a plank about 6 - 7 inches. As far as the length of the plank, I found that to be a mystery. In all of my pictures, I could never see any planks butted together. Also, I was never able to see any nails. That leads me ( and it’s just my theory) to think that the deck was painted at one time. I don’t understand the concern with the bulkheads. The biggest concern that I had was getting them in place correctly before gluing into place. I didn’t do this very well and it required me to add some filler wood. Bill

That's something I never thought about. I spent several decades in scale R/C aircraft hobby scratch building. There are a number of laser cutting companies that cut airplane part and entire kits from plans. I know of a few that advertise if you send them a copy of the pieces you need to cut, they can cut them. Could be interesting. Bill

Thanks for the look in and the congtats. I plan to make a lot of corrections to the kit. Also, thanks for the likes. Bill

Hello everyone, I have made some progress on the Endurance. I’ve gotten the bulwarks and stanchions in place. I have enlarged the portholes made new material for the portholes. I have also started the planking. Bill

Hello Tobias, Your work is coming along great and looks fantastic. Bill

Hello Valeriy Beautiful work as always. Your skills are amazing. Bill

Hello everyone, I am new at all of this, but I just wanted to say that I am enjoying the conversation very much and learning a great deal of information. Thanks, Bill

Hello Tobias, Your work is coming along great and inspiring me to get started on my build. Bill

Time for a little update. I've created the opening under the foredeck and have added planking to that area. I have also added shiplap to the wall under the foredeck. I will need to add stain to the planking and paint the interior under the fore deck. Also I've gotten 3 of the four decks planked. Bill

Beautiful work Rob. I have enjoyed following along with your work. Bill

Hello Johnny, Thanks for looking in. My comment about "many" builds is a fallback to my scale R/C aircraft competition days. When you built an airplane for competition, you wanted to build something that obscure and not well known. This aspect was helpful during judging. The last thing you wanted was to have four or five aircraft that were the same as yours. I have just started this kit, but it looks like it will be a lot easier than my first build. My wasn't hard, but it appears that this kit has better instructions. There will be many changes along the way. I like to take things one step at a time. If I get too far ahead, I always mess up. I do plan on replacing many of the fittings. I have been able to gather around fifty pictures of the Endurance. I am aware of the Getty Images. Do you know of another source for pictures? Thanks for the likes also. Thanks, Bill

Hello everyone, The bulkheads went together very good. On bulkheads A3, A7 and A11 I used dowel material to fill in the holes that were drilled for portholes. The grommets for the portholes that were supplied with the kit are too small. I am going to replace them to more a more scale look. Bill

Thanks Bob, The Latham has been a trial and error build. With a lot of error. I hope the Endurance turns out better. Bill

Hi Yves, Yeah I like to plan ahead. I find that the planning and research stages are as much fun as the actual building. The L'Amarante build could move around. I am also looking at the Young America from Sea Watch books. Thanks, Bill

Hello everyone, I haven't made any updates for a while. I have made some progress on the Lathem. She is coming along well. I have made quite a few mistakes, but I am learning a lot. As you can see in the pictures, I have also started a new project. This is the Occre Endurance. I have started a build thread for this. Also, I am gearing up for my first scratch build. The French Corvette L'Amarante. Beautiful plans of a beautiful ship. I have also been collecting a lot of books and reading a lot of building threads. I originally started the Benjamin Latham to see I would like scale wooden ship building. Now look what I've done.🙂 Thanks, Bill

Hi Eric, Thanks for the reply. I plan to make changes based on the pictures that I have collected. Some of the changes are as follows: The planking for the kit appears to be too wide. The supplied material with the kit is 5mm. This would equate to an approximately 14" (355.6mm)wide plank. From looking at my pictures, the planks appear to be around 7-8 inches wide. I have read that some kit manufactures generally supply 5mm material for deck planking without regard for scale of the model. In the pictures, the planks may be painted. I can't see any end to end butts and I don't see any nailing. The smokestack (I'm not sure if there is an official name) is round in the kit. It should be a rounded rectangle. On the model, below the foredeck there is no opening. The pictures shows a opening, but I can't tell if there are any doors. More investigation needed. The model vent stacks are way too small and will need to be replaced and repositioned The hull planking is very different from the model. There are a lot more enhancements I plan along the way. It's going to be fun. Thanks, Bill

Hello everyone, I'm not sure if there will be a lot of interest in another Endurance build as there are many very nice builds already. This will be my rendition. I have admired Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition for a long time. What he and his men were able to endure was truly amazing. With the recent discovery of the Endurance wreck, the story has become more interesting. I have purchased the kit from a local hobby shop. I am lucky to have a hobby shop close to me. I found that the contents of the box, in my opinion, are very good. All of the supplied wood is of good quality. The laser cutting is very crisp, photo etching very nice and fittings are of good quality. The supplied instructions are very good. The instructions include written instructions, pictorial steps and there are QR codes to scan that will take you to the corresponding YouTube video for that pictorial step. This will be my second build, so I still have lots to learn. From my first build, I learned that I need to spend more time thinking about the step I am going to take before I perform the step. I found it frustrating to perform a step and come back later only to discover I did it all wrong. I did a lot of "What Was I Thinking". I plan to do a lot enhancements to the kit along the way. I have been able to gather over fifty photographs of the ships and I feel the are a lot of corrections that can be made to the kit. Along the way, if anyone has any comment on a step that I did wrong or something I could do better, please let me know. I welcome all comments and information. Thanks Bill

That is the most amazing workmanship I have ever seen. Bill

Hello Tobias, Very nice detail work. She is coming along great. Bill

Hi everyone, The wood soaked up a lot of paint. Three coats of black and red. First coat of white and it will need several more coats. Bill

Sorry. I just realized that I didn’t add my picture to the post. Bill