DonSangria

Thank you very much for this comparison! Really impressive!

Looking good! Nice work!

I find the narrow planks an interesting idea.

In my limited experiance the wood of which the planks are made of play a great part to how easily they can be shaped. The first layer of my Beagle from Occre was of 5x2mm rather splintering planks and rather difficult. I find the 5x1mm planks of my current build (Sphinx from Vanguard) much easier to shape and bend. So the quality of the planks matter.

I think the aft-most thwart is also for a rower and the boat is steered from the part No.11 in the drawing.

PS: Nice to see you're still (or again) active on the beagle!

17 hours ago, brunnels said:

 

This is also my first kit, so I don't have experience building with others yet, but I do have 3 other kits for future builds I have recently purchased from Vanguard, Amati/Victory, and Model Shipways and just thumbing through the instructions all are leaps and bounds better than my Beagles instructions.  I have even pulled out the instructions of those other kits to help me better understand some of the rigging parts because the Occre rigging plans are so awful.  Honestly I didn't feel the Beagles instructions were that bad until you start to get towards the masts and rigging, It feels like they just rushed through the end of the instructions because they were short on time, got tired of the project, or they got another employee to finish them or something.  I don't mind having to study plans and figure stuff out, but there are multiple parts (bowsprit installation, undersides of the mast tops, rigging eyebolts on the outer hull) that aren't even shown in the instructions, and their video series isn't always helpful either as they skip a lot of stuff in those as well.

 

Sorry for the rant, the Occre instructions have been getting under my skin for the last couple weeks haha. 

I had much the same experiance with my Beagle. The instructions and videos are ok up to the masting and rigging.

It is looking great! Well done!

Do you use whole length planks or a pattern with shorter planks along the hull?

I'm really excited to see that you have chosen to leave the hull natural wood. I plan to do the same and hope my planking skills are up to it. I'm sure I will profit enormously from your log! Thanks a lot to share your experience with me/us!

You can mark the waterline without a special waterline marker. Just fix the pencil on the rigth hight for example on a box or sanding block...

Hi Derek, 

How is your Sphinx going? 

Maybe you could paint over the (sanded) red and give the cabin a color? Something white/gray/blue, as Blue Ensign did on his Indy? 

I finally found time to upload some pictures here:

I know what you mean, but I don't know the answer. I think it depends on the relative positions of the block to the rail. Maybe also just the preference of the crew or the officers in charge?

I would go with the left version of your drawing.

I did my windows a dark blue and glued a little transparent foil on top to simulate glass. But it should not be too gloss at that scale... Mine was something between gloss and satin.

She is nearly finished. I plan to upload a gallery with pictures, hopefully soon😊

According to th AOTS-Book of the Beagle, it actually is for a flagstaff. It was probably only rigged in port and not when under sail.

I used temporary nails to hold the planks of the first layer of planking. After the glue dried, i removed the nails. The resulting hole is afterwards covered by the second planking. For me it was a good solution and easy to acomplish.

I think the letters refer to another view of the mast.

Figute A should be a depiction of the mast vrom the front and figure B the view of the mast on the indicated hight form above.

So the 17th Kit will be a 'surprise'?

I am thinking about using a blue colered MDF-plate as a base. What are your thoughts about that? Does it look cheap?

For me it is a first step to PoF Kits, which is new.

Personally I would prefer a smaller ship in 1:64 scale, but historically more accurate.

On 10/2/2023 at 2:05 PM, RossR said:

If planking your model the way an actual ship was planked is not the most important thing to you on a first model, consider looking at Occre.  I built their HMS Beagle as my first model and am happy with the results.   They may not be the most historically accurate models when it comes down to the finer details, but they can be built with minimal tools and no prior experience.   For the Beagle and I think the Polaris, they have a series of about 100 short YouTube videos to help step by step.   
 

If planking in the historically correct way is a goal on your first model I would go with something other than Occre.  
 

Good luck.  

I had very much the same experience with the HMS beagle from Occre.

On 9/22/2023 at 7:52 PM, Kevin said:

it will go in the garage with all the other builds, no one will ever see it when complete

I hope we will! And it will make us happy from what I see so far 😃 Great work, enjoying to watch the rigging process!

That coppering looks amazing!

Maybe you can slide the topmast through the hole from below?

The orientation of the bowpiece in the first picture ist right. I had to file quite a bit o the hull and if I remember correctly a little on the piece itself. Somehow I managed to make it fit...