Oboship

... by the way, SPEEDY might become JeALOUS(E) if I`m not ALERT enough... Sigh...🤔

During the last couple of months the build of my Jalouse was progressing rather slowly. But I can at least post a few pictures. Guns are assembled and put in place, channels and belaying banks are fitted, longboat is on its cradles, sweeps are being made and the jolly boat is also ready. I hope that I can soon start with masting and rigging.

Have you assembled the guns yet? I noted that with my Jalouse's guns the bore for the brass wire which is to form the trunnions (part no161) is not leading symmetrically through the gun barrel. The bore is rather at a ratio of approximately 1/3 vs. 2/3 of the circumference. This means that the guns might not pass through the gunports if the trunnions are placed wrongly on to the carriages ("top-side down"). I took a picture of the relevant plan section and tried to mark the bore of my guns in red.

Even if Amati and Vanguard have surpassed Caldercraft kits, Caldercraft are in my opinion still in the upper range compared to other stuff I have seen out there. I completed the Cruiser and the Ballahoo, I started with Diana a while ago and currently I'm building Jalouse. All kits highly -and only- benefit from those drawings Chris did and the instructions manual. Same goes for Amati's Lady Nelson. Of course Chris' Vanguard series is in a far different league (I just bought Speedy recently, so I know), but when Caldercrafts Portfolio came to life, times and technologies were different from today. The only problem I had with any of the above mentioned kits was the deck planking of Jalouse. This -the wood quality- is a topic Caldercraft should work on. But to me, it is unfair to simply criticize Caldercraft for not updating their products and indirectly -for that matter- criticize Chris and his earlier work which enabled many people to build representable ship models. Just my two cents. Uwe

After a speedily order processing HMS Speedy arrived already today! What an outstanding kit! And yes, I definitely do like it ! 😄

Yes, I know what you are talking about. Sanding these thick plywood parts is a tedious job, even with an electrical oscillating sander, and I'm not looking forward to this with my Diana... (One of the reasons why I have been concentrating on smaller kits). Actually, I am very curious to see that pearwood material! Uwe

Although my Jalouse is still months away from completion I just ordered Speedy after I have been reading this entire thread! I am very excited to receiving this kit... Best, Uwe

Hi Nazir, This is what I use, you can find this nice gadget in shops where they sell sewing stuff or sewing machines. It is a very thin wire sling which passes nicely through blocks, eyelets etc. and which makes rigging a lot easier. Best regards Uwe

Very nice indeed!

Thanks for the comments, guys! Will update as I'm progressing.

Hi all, I started the build of HMS Jalouse sometime late in September 2019, but took the first pictures only in March 2020 because my Olympus camera broke and I have currently only my old smartphone available. Therefore the quality of the pictures is not too good. The kit is of the usual good Caldercraft quality and standard, with the exception of the strips provided for the deck planking. The strips were not precisely cut and the width varied up to 2mm (per strip) on some of them. The plans and basic hull construction are also as known from Caldercraft (planks on bulkhead). The plywood parts in turn were cut so precisely that some sanding was necessary before they could be put together. The advantage is of course that such a tight fit facilitates the proper alignment of the bulkheads to the keel. The kit is provided with copper plates for the underwater part of the hull. Since I had some "interesting" experience with coppering when I attempted to build the schooner Pickle I decided against the plates and thought it a clever idea to cheat a little bit and paint the Jalouse's hull with copper (Caldercraft supplies a bottle of copper paint for final correction and touch-up of the plates). So, after I had the second planking completed and nicely sanded to a smooth surface I was quite happy with what I had achieved and started painting. After the paint had dried a shockingly brutal surprise was waiting for me: the highly glossy appearance of the copper paint shows you every single minor scratch and unevennesss you would hardly or not at all detect on the unpainted wood! This idea was rather a desaster than clever. After I spent some time swearing 🤬 I grabbed the sander from the shelf and removed the shine from the hull. Finally, I decided to paint the underwater part in the traditional white colour. On the pictures you may notice paint stains here and there, these have been or will be touched-up. You may also notice that the deck planking shows a few gaps. These gaps look worse on the images than they really are (modern cameras can be so cruel 😧, even my old smartphone). The main channel and belaying racks on one of the pictures were dry-fitted for adjustment purposes. Next steps will be the guns, boats and spare spars. Uwe

You didn't all that coppering in one day? Amazingly accurate! I have tried coppering so far only once, and that (HM Schooner Pickle) ended -also for other reasons- in the waste bin. So I decided to paint my Jalouse white...

Hi Tom, I am under the same impression. Jalouse is a beautiful ship and really worth building. The hull of your model looks very good and I am curious on your progressing. I was also looking for a build log and finally arrived at this friendly forum (signed up only last Friday). Similar to you, I built the Ballahoo and bought the Jalouse thereafter. I started with the kit last year late in September and I am currently working on the deck fittings. I will probably start a build log shortly, however I began taking pictures only after first and second plankings were completed. I guess it will be very nice and interesting to compare our kits and exchange hints (no competition intended). Take care! Uwe

Dear all, Thanks for the friendly welcome posts! And thanks for the lesson on Nanometers, Dziadeczek 🙂. Since this is a marine forum I thought it appropriate to indicate the bearing and distance in nautical miles (nm)... 😉 But seriously, from Hamburg it takes about 1 hour by car or train. As for build logs I will shortly reply on that

Hi Chris, I didn't know "Moin, moin" is known in South Carolina! If I posted pictures of my few completed ships where should place them? I could not find the tag for completed kits. Uwe

Hi community, I have been in ship modelling fo quite some time and completed Caldercraft's Cruiser and Ballahoo as well as Amati's Lady Nelson (which is probably similar to the Sherbourne). Currently, I am working on the Jalouse and found a few threads in this forum for that model, which is why I am here now. About 10 years ago I started with the Diana but had to put it aside because of time reasons; before I will continue with this kit, I decided to resume ship modelling with smaller kits at first. I had the schooner Pickle which is a real beauty, but for several reasons I had to hand it over to the waste bin... I might dare starting a build log. All the best Uwe