Barr1

I am building the San Francisco from Artesania.  This is the first ship I have built and got it about 15 years ago.  I started it but put it asid and am now back to it.  I find the instructions and photos to be somewhat lacking and if one is not sure about how ships are put together a lot of reseach is required, which I have done.  This site and the people who have built the SF have been immensely helpful. So, thanks to all! I have two die cast pieces - the grate for the bow and the small life boat.  the rest is all wood.  Most of it is pretty good, however, a couple of pieces broke while cutting them out - the braces for the gallery.  So, I have to refabricate them.  I am now doing the deadeyes that fit into the channels on the sides of the ships and have found that the wire in the kit is too thin. So I found some small gauge wire I had laying around the house, stripped the insulation off, painted it black and put it around the deadeyes.  I aslo used black chain from my wife's jewlery projects.  Just the right size!  One of the biggest problems I have had is with the rudder attachments.  2 of them broke, so I had a piece of copper laying around and used that to cut out attachments similar to the original ones.  I liked the brass, but will paint mine black.  Thanks again for posting pictures and descriptions!

Nice work on your San Francisco.  I got this kit about 10 years ago and started it, but have not touched it for about 8 years.  I have the planking done, which was a little frustrating at times, but I learned a lot from making mistakes.  I am now working on the bow grating.  I have a metal one with my kit, but it is not going to be used.  I have been looking for a way to make the bow grate and your pictures are helping a lot.  Thanks for posting them.  A question I have is on your deck.  How did you get the lines between the deck board and the dots for where nails are?  I have not done that and I like the look.  Another quesiton is the bow sprit stanchion.  How high should it be?  My instructions leave a lot to be desired.  Thanks.

On 9/27/2020 at 11:18 AM, sire_eris said:

Also the grating for the bow had to be scratch built. The AL instructions says "these parts are supplied in cast metal" but there was noting in the box - and if it would, it would have looked ugly anyway...

 

Getting all the angles and the bending for the bow right was quite some effort. Then, when almost done with the part I almost destroyed it when trying to do some minor sanding with the sanding machine. Not a good idea... Luckily only a small damage at the bottom side occured which is gladly hidden on the photos and the mounted part on the ship 😉