AnobiumPunctatum

Reached a milestone of sorts today. The hull planking can be roughly divided into lower hull and upper hull, and I have finished the lower part -- the upper hull planking requires the installation of the upper stem and stern posts before proceeding. This brings us to the 12th page of the instruction booklet 😊 -- out of 39 pages  🥺 .

Ready for planking.

Progress for Day 5. Another aspect of this kit that is very card-like is the need to laminate parts. The four stringers in this first photo are each laminated from three parts.

And some more false decking.

A few more bits need to be added to the hull before planking can start.

And here's the hull skeleton after another evening's work. The kit is designed with pretty tight fit tolerances, as evidenced by my experience with the previously-mentioned misaligned false keel component, which was by only off by about 0.5 mm. Before gluing in bulkheads willy-nilly, I decided to check whether the misaligned part would really affect the positioning of the last bulkhead (#24). It did, so I had to remove a little sliver of wood with a chisel to get the bulkhead to slot in correctly. The end of the false keel itself will be covered over by additional parts later. After correcting that bit, I glued in the bulkheads. The parts have their numbers laser-etched on them, so I removed the entire set from their plywood sheet and prepped them all, so that I could do the gluing of the whole set at one go. Laser-etched tick-marks on the outer edges of mated parts allow for precise alignment. The false deck is only dry-fitted at this point.

As Chuck S. will likely attest, this is essentially a card model done in plywood. The construction method is the same as seen in many full-hull card designs.
 
Cheers!

Well, here we are back at it. I decided to skip doing a turn on a card model and instead roll with the wood momentum and go straight to Wütender Hund (hereafter referred to as "WH"). I won't do an unboxing here, as I did a complete review of this kit in the reviews section. It is the first wood offering from the Polish firm of Shipyard, who are well-known for their excellent line of tallship card models. Clare Hess is currently working on a very similar cog model, also from Shipyard -- although its name is different, it is more or less the card version of this kit.
 
So, I didn't make very much progress on Day 1, getting only as far as removing the longitudinal profile former and gluing up the parts that form a false keel. I noticed after the glue had already set that one of the parts is slightly misaligned, so I may have to debond that part and reposition it. One thing to watch out for on Polish kits is that left and right parts are marked L and P, not L and R. L does in fact indicate left, same as in English; to remember that P is right, I always think of it as the Greek letter rho, then it makes perfect sense.
 
As you can see, the box is quite large -- too big for my modeling area.

 
And the exciting work of Day 1.

The cutting mat is a little less than 12" wide, so you have an idea of how big the finished model will be.
 
TTFN!

Hi photo Victory.

Thank You Michael, Chuck, Ryland and to all the 'Likes'.
Ryland, it's really nice to be able to find your way to the workshop and especially to be able to reuse your right hand. Shaving with the left hand is not always very safe. 😅
 
I finished all the carvings.

They are now in place and I am not unhappy to have opted to use them.


I steel have to order the wood for the base. And it will be my first completed project 😁
 
 

It's been a while ! Unfortunately, I was away from my workshop for 5 long weeks following a surgical operation on my right hand in February (see the photo taken the day after the surgery).

I can now start doing some small jobs and it is also a good thing to regain the mobility of my hand.

So I take this opportunity to finish the carvings for the Queen Barge.

Work in progress...

Thanks, Gary, Dave and druxey for thoughts on the hawse holes. I will definitely drill undersized and fill to the correct diameter.
 
Druxey, I was many years into this build before I realized that the hawse hole were related to the location of the hawse timbers! I had faithfully followed the stylized construction methods of the original dockyard models, which used symmetrical hollowed shells at the bows, bearing no relationship whatsoever to the actual framing construction. For a long time I pondered how big, and in what location, they would be drilled, trying to eyeball dimensions in photos relative to other things whose sizes I knew.
 

 
Finally, after reading about this in David Antscherl's Fully Framed Model series, I was able to construct in a drawing where the hawse timbers would have been had I constructed this accurately, and therefore where the hawse holes would be drilled. Indeed, in the next model.....
 
 

On another topic, I just received the micro chisels I ordered from Mihail Kirsanov in Russia. A number of Model Ship World builders recommended these, and they are indeed the premier micro chisels of all time. Exquisite craftsmanship, sharp as anything, and all of the shapes needed for ship ornamentation. I highly recommend them. They took more than 3 weeks in the mail, surviving the uncertainties of mail delivery during the pandemic. Now I just have to do them justice and carve something at least as beautiful as the chisels themselves.
 
Sharpening these will definitely be a challenge, there are some so small it is hard to see the surface needing sharpening! Mihail sent sharpening instructions which I will try to follow to the letter. Google Translate is our friend here!
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark
 
 

 
 

Main topsail sheet bits with gallows completed, you can see the blocks there with their respective sheaves made out of ebony to simulate the lignum vitae that they would of been made from.

Thanks so much for the kind comments, Gaetan and Steven.
 
I have now completed the starboard channel wale, which is as far as I will go with planking for a while. I need to catch up inboard, and get the remaining decks in place before planking the topsides. I don't want to risk errant drill holes coming through from work inboard.
 
Here we can see again the dramatic resolution of various curves at the stern, as the tumblehome twists upright for the stern works.
 
I think it is now on to spirketting on the gundeck, and perhaps proceeding with the cheeks and hawse liners at the bow. Once those are done, I can finally drill the hawse holes, something I have been looking forward to for many years!
 
Mark
 

The stern castle of the "Kogge von Kampen" is based on a shipwreck which was found in Kamen Netherlands. It's showing an older type of a stern castle. I am quite shure, that the rest of the kit is based on "Kogge von Bremen"
The cog "Wütender Hund" shows in my opinion the classic cog also with a stem castle. It's a generic cog model. Most historical pictures are showing the stem castle. There is always a discussion, of the Bremen cog was finished before they got lost, because she don't has this.

The stern castle of the "Kogge von Kampen" is based on a shipwreck which was found in Kamen Netherlands. It's showing an older type of a stern castle. I am quite shure, that the rest of the kit is based on "Kogge von Bremen"
The cog "Wütender Hund" shows in my opinion the classic cog also with a stem castle. It's a generic cog model. Most historical pictures are showing the stem castle. There is always a discussion, of the Bremen cog was finished before they got lost, because she don't has this.

If you choose the HMS Sphynx of a ship from this class, it is perhaps a good idea to go in contact with Alxander. He made excellent drawings of this ship.

Thanks AP,
 
I also started the topsail sheet bitts, I decided to try and carve the panels into the angled tops and it didn’t come out too bad, also I left tenons on the top to fit to the gallows when I make it.
 
ben

If you choose the HMS Sphynx of a ship from this class, it is perhaps a good idea to go in contact with Alxander. He made excellent drawings of this ship.

If you choose the HMS Sphynx of a ship from this class, it is perhaps a good idea to go in contact with Alxander. He made excellent drawings of this ship.

Because, my friends, it will take me a few days to make the sixth structural improvement on the slipway. The update speed may be temporarily affected, thank you for your attention. I'll keep going until I finish it!  
 

Really nice progress

Good morning.

Good morning.

Really nice figurehead. You made a great progress in the last few month.

Hi Michael,
moldings are made on CNC milling maschine. I am using VCarve software for this purpose. You have to create only curve (cross section) of molding and maschine does the work itself🙂. You can see in this example that my workmanship is not so superb as you noted🙂.
Preparation of deck beams for forecastle and quarter deck.