Spellapeaka

Looking great! I currently have this kit in waiting until I finish the AL Harvey I'm working on. Same situation with the planks. Single hull, thick planks, really tough to bend. It took me a long time. It was fustrating and irritating to say the least. The only caveat was the fact that the planks are so thick, you can sand them down a serious amount and the end result actually looks quite good. I am going to try some more professional methods of planking when I get around to the SF2. Like splining as mentioned up above. For now, I am happy with the result. I will be watching your build with great interest! I might have to steal a few ideas from you too! 🙂

Thank you! I got a little more done. I had to re make the side boards that hold the dead eyes (shocker) and I decided to move them up the side walls a little to make them easier to attach to the rat lines without the side walls rubbing against them. It might not be "historical" where I've placed them, I think it will come out looking better in the long run. 

A great looking build so far! You have peeked my interest in the spray. I have read Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World a few years back. It's a great novel and this looks like it might be my next build. Keep up the good work!

It came out a little bigger than the supplied one. But still, I think it looks nice.

I really enjoyed remaking all of these do-dads (I don't know what they are called) I think the tone of the wood really sets them apart. Onward!

Much better then the supplied ones in my opinion. Work has slowed down a little as I have to reverse engineer each element. Slow but steady. More pictures to come soon.

Well it took a few tries but I started getting the hang of the grates

Well I got a little more done over the weekend. I got the hull glossed, put a matte varnish on the rest. I am a little jealous of how good the matte finish looks. Now I am wishing I could do the whole thing in matte, oh well. I got the rudder installed and a couple of the details for the deck started. A little more bashing, looking pretty good. 

Wonderful build. I have admired this build from a far for a long time! I am currently working on this kit as well. Your marvelous kit bashing skills is what inspired me to continue with this kit in the first place. Now that I have time to work on mine I am really enjoying "re-building" all of the shoddy components included with the kit. I hope life has treated you well my friend! May God's blessing be upon you!

Great looking deck! as for the supports, I would thing it would be pretty easy to cut the deck a  little and "fudge" the top part. I don't think ripping out the decking will really be worth the effort. 

Much better! (In my humble opinion)

Thank you sir! It's been real fun over the last couple of days. I did a little more work. And I took a stab at a little kit bashing. The little pre made pieces that come with the kit are pretty aweful. I'm not sure that mine are that much better, but at least I won't leave glue everywhere all over it. After a whole lotta sanding, I have to say I am really please with the way the hull came out. I noticed a problem though. The angle of my bulwarks is a little to flared out. To late to do anything about it now. The dead eyes up front will probably look a little silly rubbing up against the sides. I'm not to worried about it though. It's only my second model so, lesson learned.

Well, Its been almost 2 years since I last uploaded any progress to this little vessel. Who would of thought that it would take a global pandemic to get me some time to work on it. Maybe in a hundred years when I finish this thing I can win some kind of award for longest build in history. lol. Any way, Its coming along nicely. I finally finished up the hull, still have some sanding to do though. I put on the sides and started on the finer bits. I am into the fun stage finally, where the little details matter and It is starting to look really neat.   

Finally got around to working on the hull a little. Not looking to bad. For those of you who may have this kit (the old one, single hulled planking), I cannot recommend in good consciousness to follow the directions included with the kit for planking. There are many, many examples of much better techniques on how to plank a model ship hull on this website. Had I known when I started so long ago, I would not have wasted my time with the method included in this kit. The results may look "Okay" but seeing some of the other techniques (Splining, double planking, ect) I wish I could go back and start again. Well, having said that, the hull is nearly there, just need to finish up some bits at the back end and then start putting on the bulwarks. So glad to be almost finished with the planking on this vessel.   

Hey Welcome back! I'm just getting back into the hobby myself. Good to see you man. Keep up the good work! Don't judge yourself by the other boat builders masterful planking on this site. I'm sure most of them had similar stumbling blocks at one point or another. I think you do great work and i'm sure this ship will turn out great too.

Looking real good! I just got this model, its currently in dry dock as I'm working on another ship right now. Can't wait to start! I bet your excited to start on the second planking huh? 

Well its a little late now Dan. lol. I thank you for your honest assessment of AL. I already have ordered and received the San Fran II. Probably be the last I order from AL. Just couldn't relinquish the idea of finally building this ship. We shall see how it goes. I'm currently struggling through the Harvey(Another old model kit I've had forever). Its pretty poor quality so I expect nothing less from the San Fran. Shame, AL has some really neat kits.

Got some more work done on the little ship. I figured I would post some action shots.

Not the prettiest ship right now, but its a diamond in the rough. following along with the instructions so far so good. I can see now why so many people on here have developed better methods for planking these ships.

Well that was quite a break from this hobby. Its been just about 4 years since I have worked on this little ship. In that time, I have graduated with my bachelors, switched jobs three times, my kids are growing up and we just moved. Now, I find myself with a new hobby room! Its all coming back to me slowly. Here's an updated photo of how the ship stands as of right now. Still struggling through these ridiculous walnut planks and the flimsy pins they give you. But, I am enjoying working on this ship again! 

P.S. at the rate I'm going I will complete this model some time in the year 3026.

Oh wow thanks guys! So I'm guessing it's not discontinued? Some model companies had it listed as such and amazon and eBay prices have gone up. Hmmm. I will definitely be picking it up then.

Hello, I have been away from the hobby for a few years. My wife and I just recently moved and I finally have a space to hopefully enjoy this hobby again! I am currently getting back into my Harvey build which will no doubt take me some time to complete. However, I have noticed some interesting developments with another kit that I had wanted to purchase from AL, hence this thread. It all started about 20 years ago when my father bought me a Model kit from AL the San Francisco. I loved working on this model. I couldn't wait to see how it would turn out when I completed it. I had planked the hull and did some of the finer details (about 15 hours worth of work or so for a 15 year old at the time) when I suddenly noticed that the ship had a wicked twist running down the length of it. I was very disappointed at the error I had made in not checking for this before planking. I thought of many different options on how I could fix the issue, none the less. I resolved to just give up on the ship. It has since become fire wood. Many years later I discovered that AL had released a second version of the San Francisco, the San Francisco II. Since I still had the box from the old San Fran, I figured I could buy the new kit and possibly use some of the old pieces to dress it up a bit if need be. I really loved this ship and working on it was a treasure of my childhood so you could say I was more than thrilled to have a new version available. well a few more years went by, I got married, had kids, and now I'm getting back into this old hobby. I recently saw that the San Fran II was discontinued from AL. My question is this, any particular reason why? It seemed like a relatively newer version of a classic ship. I had assumed that many people liked the model and that it was pretty popular. I see that some distributors have already listed it as discontinued. Prices on amazon and eBay have increased because of this. here is what I want to know:

   1. Was the kit defective or bad in some way?

   2. would anyone recommend buying it at the inflated price?

   3. do you think AL will release an even newer version of this old classic?

   4. If no to all of the above, what could be some alternatives to a ship of similar design and scale?

Thank you for taking the time to read all of that, any info or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Its looking Awesome! I have been on the ship in Baltimore many times. Cant wait to see the final product!

Thank you for the insites, i will probly go with the SFII, love both of the ships though. Was kind of wonder ing if the bpunty by constructo was a better quality than al. From what i can see i think both kit makers have short comings so. Thank you.