Oboship

All the best for your mom and good luck with the races! The hull and rigging of Alert look very nice! And -by the way- your Duchess (and in her showcase) is another beauty. I will certainly take a look at the build log very soon. Uwe

For the sake of good order, here is my picture of the combiship Scharnhorst (the one I described in my post). It is still wrapped from the move, though. Uwe

😉👍🍻

But to ease your misery you're allowed a beer, surely?

Cheers!

I'm very curious and am looking forward to see Sphinx fully rigged! Hope that sweat-box of yours isn't too hot 🙂. Uwe

I second what Vane and Chris stated, and to work with white metal is no fun at all. I recently gave up to rig studding yards because I could not manage to glue the 0,5 mm tip of a brass rod to a white metal ring. Maybe wrong cyano or maybe too clumsy fingers, but my current build will have no studding sails. I think Chris' approach to new materials and techniques is a great step forward and a benefit for the hobby Uwe

James, while you work with both hands on the model, who is taking the pictures anyway? She or he deserves a big Thank You, too! Uwe

Absolutely breathtaking, and I envy your skills, James! Great build log of a great design! Uwe

Very precise and neat build! Uwe

I'm running out of appropriate words to comment on this beautiful model! 😊😉 Uwe

I wish you best of luck in your new role as a self-employed person and I'm convinced that your concept for ship modelling will continue to be very successful! Vanguard Models is a benefit for the community already! Best regards Uwe

I've read your Snake build log for the first time only today . Great planking and coppering, and a very neat craftsmanship! Wish my Cruiser looked at least remotely like your Snake. I wish you success with the ropes, and I will be following this great log Uwe

Glenn, This is a very informative build log, and I like your jig for the eyebolts! As you started the build in April and when I'm looking at its current state I wonder how many hours are you working on the Alert each day? Uwe

Glenn, thanks for the clear description. To utilize tape for the gunports is a good idea. Looking at the (latest) pictures I'm certain this will become a very nice cutter! Uwe

I agree to what GrandpaPhil wrote. Apart from that you might want to take a look at Caldercraft's "Pickle". This is a beautiful schooner with a lot of detail on deck and she was part of the Trafalgar fleet, hence a historic ship. The kit ships complete and, when I built it, there was no issue on material etc. Welcome to the community and best regards Uwe

Great job on the hull and planking! I'm curious about your doing the gun ports. I've seen this part in the manual already and I'm not quite sure yet how to deal with it (will start with Alert in a month or two after Jalouse is completed). Best regards Uwe

Many thanks for your comment. I haven't rigged the stays yet because they obstruct attaching the yards. And from bitter experience I know that the stays (as well as the jib boom and dolphin striker) can very easily be damaged along with a terrible cracking sound... 😒 The tension of the shrouds is now okay and I will wait with the stays until the very last moment. I'm not sure if the stays would have helped to solve the problem because they lie on top of the shrouds. Since I had to remove and re-do the shrouds the same would have been necessary for the stays if had I rigged them earlier. All the best, Uwe

Here's another brief update. I had to remove shrouds and ratlines couple of times because something went wrong with the necessary tension and that caused a delay of several weeks. The shrouds are in place again (still not perfect but acceptable) and I have now started to cut and shape the yards. So I'm getting there slowly... The pictures show today's status of Jalouse. All the best Uwe

I particularly like the idea to use the original sheets as template for the final shaping! Very nice work with the first planking, too! Uwe

Chris, first of all I wish your wife a speedy recovery (I was thinking to rename my Speedy to - what's her name again? 😉) Anyway, this might be slightly off topic and I already apologize to moderators. Coming back to Scharnhorst . It may not be commonly known but in the same period there were actually two ships named Scharnhorst: the battlecruiser (we are looking at here), launched in 1936, and the „combiship“ (Kombischiff in German) launched in December 1934, a combination of passenger and cargo ship. This one and two sisters were owned by then Norddeutscher Lloyd and they were designed for a fast Germany / Far East Service. Scharnhorst was particularly innovative in those days because she was one of the first bigger ships with a turbo-electric propulsion feeding two propellers. Besides, she was a beauty in her own right (see picture below) Dimensions: length: ca. 199 m, width: 22,5 m, deadweight: 10.500 tdw, speed 23,3 kts. In 1938, after several other ships, my father sailed as Electrical Engineer Assistant for some months in the (combi) Scharnhorst, and Scharnhorst became his favourite ship because of the then modern power plant, and moreover, because this was his last seagoing voyage before he started studying to become an electrical engineer. In 1974 dad’s 60th birthday was coming up and one day I was asked by one of his colleagues: „Which Scharnhorst did your father sail in, anyway?“ I replied: „It was the combiship, not the warship.“ The colleague replied: „Oh, then we have got the wrong photograph“. The great day came and my dad was given a framed picture of the warship Scharnhorst. Since he would never had admitted that this was the wrong ship he thanked everybody for this nice and memorable present and how glad he was to have received it. After the applause etc. finished he was given another present, this time it was a framed picture of his Scharnhorst. And that left him simply touched and speechless. He was really glad and proud to have this very picture and he admired it literally daily until he died a year later. I still have this picture which is now waiting for an appropriate and decent place in our new appartment at the Baltic coast. I also still keep a special edition of a shipping magazine from 1935 which describes the construction and build of „Schnelldampfer Scharnhorst“ (Schnelldampfer = Fast Steamer). Many years ago I donated the picture of the battlecruiser to the Maritime Museum Bremerhaven. If there were a model kit of „our“ Scharnhorst I would definetly go for it... Take care and stay healthy! Uwe

A new definition of (light-)speed, maybe? Great log of a great model! Uwe

Good luck with your new kit! I'm looking forward to your build log as Alert will be my next build as well. Uwe

Looking great! I'm curious to see your guns rigged. I rigged my cannons according to the instructions with breech ropes only and I think the thread I used is a bit too thin. Maybe I will still change that. Uwe