Baltic_submariner

Polaris has has been finished. I added two dinghys on her and covers of gun holes. 

I made something with Polaris and now she is closer to the end. As I decided I modified some parts of kit to customize her look. 

I added amunition in storages on deck and 2mm bearing balls work nice as immitation of cannon balls.

Anchor lift made from few pieces of wood which remained from tapering of masts and planking. I always collect such materials as they always can be usefull without need for awaiting of delivery of wood from hobby shop. Deck was too empty in bow area so I must improvised something.

I wonder about her armament? 4 bigger long guns, 6 medium long guns, 2 smaller pursuit guns and 4 swivel guns on gunwales. Le Renard which was of similar size had 14 guns so such schooner I think could have 12 guns plus 4 swivel guns? Two lifeboats are planned. One on cargo doors and second on stern derricks.

Black Pirate Flag I think will be good too.

From the update I made deck and planked the hull. So far many work for sanding the hull but I think I'm at good direction towards finishing of the first layer. In gunwales I cut 5 gunports per side. There will be two more gunports in rear.

I collected some armaments of various producents and size. Carronades looks too much out of scale and maybe they could be placed on some ship of the line but not schooner. Correct me if I'm wrong.

This 28mm guns looks stunning with all ornaments and I'm still didn't decided did I use them on Polaris.

Carriages looks rather universal so I definitely use few of them.

Smaller barrels. Bigger ones will be starn chase guns while smaller maybe I'll convert into swivel guns. This guns are from RB Model.

6 hours ago, BranPie said:

Will be following this with interest. I'm building Polaris myself - my first build - and am also thinking of doing some modifications. Nothing like what you're planning, just upgrading some parts (like the plastic deadeyes and blocks, possibly the rigging thread) and adding some detail here or there. Hoping you'll be building faster than me (shouldn't be too hard, I've been going for almost three months and I'm only on first planking) so I can steal some ideas.

 

BTW: how are you liking that building slip from Hobbyzone? I'm thinking of getting one (waiting for restock), but it's always nice to get some opinions first.

Thank you!

This kit seems for me as very good base for various modifications so any changes I think should be justicable especially when for me this deck seems just empty but it's only my opinion and it's not any form of critique this kit as kits for beginners should be easy and very understantable. This kit so far is very understandable.

Yes, the deadeyes and blocks made from plastic didn't seems too realistic and I'm also thinking about replacing them. Deadeyes are mostly covered by ropes but blocks looks artifically.

I'm not sure did I'm skilled enough to rate this building slip but at least for me this slip seems to be better suited for slightly bigger ships like HMS Terror and similar size. You can perfectly build on her ships like Polaris although she will be sit too low in the "trench" so I used some small mdf positioning pieces as filling in this "trench". Maybe it's other trick which I didn't realised. Now Polaris sits well and it's stable. This stand is out of stock at least from January in their shop when I searched for this so maybe you should seek for another shop. 

Unfortunately in my building slip there was no instruction so some elements were strange for newbie although "build log" and review from MSW helped a lot.

Hello, 

after finishing Le Renard I decided to make my own version of popular Occre's Polaris schooner. Kit is really wonderful and allows for many modifications as for my information didn't represents any real ship but it's just more a generic schooner. Very cute schooner what should be added. My plan is as follow:

- arming her with at least 10 guns with maybe 2 stern chase guns although I will must to modify her stern for gunports ( not many space for two guns ) Polaris is bigger than HMS Pickle which was armed with 8 carronades so 10-12 guns with slightly lower weight should be possible I think,

- stacks of cannonballs near guns,

- mounting lifeboat on deck,

- rerigging ship into topsail schooner which will require some modifications in rigging,

- some experiments with gratings,

- possible other modifications.

Did on XVIII-XIX century ships pirate/corsair/merchant raiders was practised hiding of guns/disguising of armament like on XX'th century both World Wars Armed Merchant cruisers from Germany or Entente/Allied Q-ships? I wonder about rotary carronade on the middle of the deck like I saw on few models ( it was not heavy mortar on bomb ships for sure ) and I wonder how logical it could be? Didn't such corsair/raider could be overweight due to this? Asking seriously.

I made and glued skeleton of Polaris which was pleasurable as everything fit very good. I decided to change a little order and place deck to the skeleton first instead planking deck first. Some reinforcements near frames to keep strenghtened structure. Probably unnecesery but it didn't hurt. I made lines of false keel and frames for mounting deck and laying king plank.

12 hours ago, Cathead said:

Congratulations! This has been fun to follow.

Thank you!

10 hours ago, Blackreed said:

Beautiful job, what will you do with it now?

Thank you!

Le Renard now will sit in her berth on commode in dinning room as households shows too many interesting to her. I'll probably make plexi case for her.

About next model definitely it will be Occre Polaris with conversion into topsail schooner ( I think it will be rather easy to make as I want very badly to make own sail ) and other modifications as Polaris looks rather empty on deck and at least for me she has great potential for adding of many things due to her generic design ( dinghy, 8-10 cannons I think can be logical on vessel of such size, 2-4 swivel guns and some other cargo )

Le Renard today has been commisioned into fleet and on her mast has been raised naval jack. Vive L'Empereur!

During finishing of work due to my lack of attention I made stain of CA on Spanker Sail. As it was visible mainly from sarboard I improvised and mounted Pirate Flag on this place. Maybe this sail now it looks funny, maybe a little infantylish but definitely makes own charm  Personally I dubt that XIX century privateers could use this flag although I can be wrong.

Finnaly I rigged rest of 4 Pounder guns, I didn't mount all belaying pins as wooden elements were very fragile and started to brake during drilling and now they are kept in one piece mainly due to my trust and even more of CA. French Flag has been cut from paper and painted using Vallejo and Tamiya paints.

Overall building Le Renard was great fun and this kit definitely teached me a lot. I made a lot of things different than instruction says and I hope it's not bad.

Postman bring to me little parcel. Maybe not a little but definitely interesting. 

Let's say honest as big fan of Dan Simmons book about Franklin Expedition I just can't didn't buy her even if her complexity scares me.

Some of running rigging has been arranged as same as ratlines. I was afraid to make them in such size but I think they are not bad for the first time. Some parts of the running rigging were really challenging although instruction was definitely much better than in previous models which I build. Mounting yard to the mast was real problem as photos were not very informative for this case but again Ship modeling simplified was great help.

Now only main yard remained although in kit it was never in my box so I wait for courier tomorrow and then I could make missing part. 

I started to make flags unfortunately French Jack was damaged and I didn't think it can be repaired. I make flag myself as French Jack is easy to make. Saint Malo Banner is undamaged.

I started standing rigging and I think majority is done. I done upper ratlines as first as I was really afraid for this, so far simple ruler do the trick. With both ratlines I use rather milimmetric paper. I connected deadeyes with chainplates, channel and lanyards. It wasn't easy as I done this first time ( this for sure was one of main reasons why I was afraid of sailing ships models ) but somehow I done this.

This is fighting ship so finnaly I mounted pewpewers, which I painted in Humbrol gunmetal. 

Now time for finishing ratlines, running rigging and some smaller details. Luckly vapours of CA glue on metal belaying cleat will be hidden under coils of ropes.

6 hours ago, Cathead said:

Paul,

 

I studied both German and Russian, but did not have the opportunity to add Polish to the mix. клар doesn't mean anything in Russian as far as I know, but its German meaning definitely fits what you're describing in the sense of precision, accuracy, preparedness. Looking in Google Translate, the same word has the same meaning in Danish (closely related to German), so I'd guess it's a long-standing Germanic root word that got transferred to Polish a long time ago (like French words in English after 1066, another otherwise Germanic language).

 

Here it sounds like you're describing the English word "shipshape", usually used as in "everything made shipshape" to imply that all ropes are coiled, all loose items put in their proper place, tidy and organized.

 

Forgive my being a language nerd, I love questions like this.

Languages are interesting and it's always nice to read something which widens knowledge. Now I know word shipshape. Thank you!

History of Polish Navy mainly during Royal times was more or less connected with German language due to Hanseatic city of Gdańsk/Danzig. Galleons and fluites of Polish Royal Navy which fought during Polish-Swedish War and Thirty Years War ( as part of contingent sent by king Sigismund III Vasa for Catholic League ) in all official documents made by Royal officials after Battle of Oliwa had German names ( Polish translation names are more or less reconstruction ) as same as ealier vessels like XV century privateer carrack Peter von Danzig/Peter von Dansk. If we tell about languages then I realised that Dutch Admiral ( Arend Dijckman KIA during Battle of Oliwa ) commanded Polish fleet founded by king of Swedish origin, which ships had German names. I found in Poland small company which makes Polish Royal Navy wooden kits of ships from this period but unfortunately they ceased production due to COVID as they told. 

11 hours ago, Cathead said:

I forget what your native language is? Klar means "clear" in German but I'm not sure what you're describing here. Your work looks nice.

I'm from Poland. I'm sure for 90% that this word must come from german language as some other maritime terms in polish language seems to come from german although I can be wrong. It means order on ship/tidyness on ship which one of part it's coil of ropes to allow fast usage and preventing from stumble.

Another update on the work. Hull is almost finished beyond few smaller fixings and some sanding. I installed bowsprit and started to mount blocks on main mast. 

Strips 1,5x1,5 mm used as thin strips on hull sides after soaking in water started to peel which it's annoying. PVA gives little help with this.

I made gun carriages for 8 pounder carronades and 4 pound guns and rigged them with anti recoil systems of blocks and ropes. Carronades were rigged as instruction shows but long guns were made how Frank Mastini showed in his Ship modelling simplified. It was definitely challenging. For pursuit guns I want to made all ropes presented in figure on page 47. I again runned out from wire and eyebolts taken from spare parts bin from previous builds are on end. 

Coiled ropes of lift I made on jig or rather head movable roundable part of Olfa AK-3 scalpel and strenghtened with few drops of PVA glue to retain the shape.

Few photos with daytime light and few with flash lamp. 

First time I decided to make klar ( not sure how this word sounds in english and dictionaries didn't help ) on ship and I try to coil all ropes from anchor and lifeboat lift ect.

Portholes and embrasures are from Amati 7x7mm portholes. Third gun had modified porthole by me because channel for deadeyes made impossible to mount as movable this element.

Scheme of rigging the guns and their anti recoil system which I try to recreate.

Time for weekly update of work. Port side has been planked, I planked keel and started stem and stern post as same as majority of gunwales. Few planks in linden wood didn't went well ( I was thinking that sanding and putty do the trick but it wasn't ) so I made decorative belt from cherry to partially mask them. After more sanding and adding some more elements I think it will look ok.

I decided to mount metal made portholes. They have this nice expensive look when mounted ( dry fit ) Anyway as I decided to not go into 100% accuracy I think some of Baroque look of my Le Renard didn't hurt her.

In case of plastic modelling I literally stashed tens of boxes ( mostly submarines in 1:350 and some tanks ) just in case because in six months I maybe want to build "X" variants of such class ect. like I made about 5 variants of each Gato's and B-class submarines. Now some of this unbuilded kits are very rare and I could definitely monetize them if I want but "inner hamster" won ( not sure did it's understandable in English as it's in my language ) Of course I never will be able to build them all but FOMO as said others is real threat.

I always make research about kit which interesting me to avoid "suprises" as like others said price not always determines quality. In case of wood kits I always look for reviews, opinions, build logs and thats why I discovered MSW. Before I bought my first wooden model ( Saint Malo dory boat from Artesania Latina ) I read many internet topics ( I was wondering also about Bounty Jolly and Bon Retour from same manufacturer ) Unfortunately nobody in my city from fellow scale modelers ( I think I know majority of modellers in my city ) make wooden ships - everybody only make tanks and planes ( only ship modeller in city ) so I was forced to lone wolf search. I wanted to make wise decision to avoid entering into problems. I think rational approach is best tool as it's not a problem to sink thousands of Dollars/Euro/Pounds ect. into "dreamed" kit and then curse using "famous words on certain letters". I have only 3 kits on stash ( two ship of the line Capitan boats and one yacht ), before making an order I searched a lot for informations about them and I try to choose smaller kits due to not many place for models in my flat. So far my list of ships which I want to build is rather short but I afraid that some stories can change this. Am I strange if I often choose models because their story captivated me? 

About scratch ect. I'm afraid that I will must enter this zone at one time as few ships about which I dream are not made by any manufacturer ( too niche to even care for western manufacturers ) but they exist as paper models ( pretty popular genre in country ) so I think some rescaling, many plywood and my wish can afford this at some point. After longer thinking I concluded that such build could be much cheaper than average kit.

After week I managed to fix stern transom, plank inner bulwark and plank transom from inside and outside. All plankings are made with Cherry and day after day I'm more sure that I want to lay a second planks on hull instead of painting. I'm now considering all ship in Cherry as this wood looks beautiful although Pear beyond waterline is also tempting to differentiate hull beyond waterline.

Guns at ends are 26mm brass guns from RB Model. About 4$ for 4 guns is just nice price and their quality is very good. Carriages of guns I painted with yellow penetrating stain as same as booths on deck. I'm not sure about effect. Carronades by Artesania Latina looks just poor and I probably replace the barrels with carronades from RB Model. In case of booths instead of painting black/tar immitation I made black/tar base near deck by painting thin planks from Ramin Wood. Gratings are from Occre Universal grating. As I said I'm not sure about red penetrating stain on booths. Sand them and paint with Tamiya Flat Red or maybe leve them as they are now? I know I could definitely do them better.

I almost finished dinghy. I must raise the gunwale as boat looked strange to me. Unfortunately due to stronger Dremel sanding I damaged a little bottom of the dinghy so I must paint her now.

Booths alone

Comparison of guns on Le Renard:

10 hours ago, Gaffrig said:

Looking great! 👍

That’s a lot of progress in a short time!

It might be my eyes seeing wrong, but it looks like you may have got the transom upside down?

Don’t mean this as criticism, just something worth checking. 
Might be easier to redo now than later in the build.

Keep up the good work!

 

Gaffrig.

Thank you for an answer and correcting! 

Planking of the hull as it's the most time consuming was really easy and after soaking planks for day in water I've even didn't needed bending tool as everything goes very smoothly.

I checked this and You have 100% right and transom is upside down. I have no idea how I can make this error

Now I must cut transom from jointed points. PVA keeps strong both parts but I think razor-saw will do the trick. 

During last few days I managed to plank a hull, made all deck booths as same as tapered and constructed Main Mast. I also started making a dinghy. Everything goes smoothly and without problems but I found that I didn't have one yard for upper sails as same as I accidentaly broke another yard. 

I make awsome purchase as in local DIY store as I get my Dremel Stylo+ tool and so far I wonder why I neglected this machine for so long time. 

Hull after usage of wood filler was sanded. Sanding, sanding, sanding ect. still hull will need many love. Using carving tip I made hole for bowsprit and bowsprit even after tapering. So far I remember tapering main mast for Zuiderzee Botter and it was real nightmare when tapering bowsprit and main mast for Le Renard was smooth and pleasurable. 

Now I wait for more wood to finish upper hull. Looking at most completed Le Renards I decided to:

a. paint lower hull white and make second planking with upper hull sapelly or cherry,

b. make lower hull with sapelly or cherry with upper hull made using linden or pear?

I can't decide.

I managed to work on deck of my Fox. First time I tried to immitate deck caulking and deck nails. For deck nails I used good old toothpicks. Method is of course long and needs many effort but in my opinion is rather nice although after cutting rest of the toothpick I sanded the deck for the long time. Definitely I want to make this again during future builds. Caulking made using mechanical pencil and long ruler. Maybe a little bit exagragated but after first coat of semigloss varnish looks really nice. 

Now time for planking and I must decide did I want to paint model like instruction says or maybe finish my Fox with Sapelli wood second planks under waterline and with ramin/basswood planks above with another wood for bumpers? Telling the truth I do not see any logic why some models are not painted like many builds of Santisima Trinidad in example shows and why others are painted like my Le Renard when in real life both must be painted? It's reference to the old models made for shipyard or Admiralities which were not painted or maybe it's not sure which colors were used? Sorry if my question is stupid but I know that I must learn a lot in this matter. In plastic modeling it was much more clear but here I love wood models for this freedom of build and interpretation.

Le Renard like threedecks says had 10 8-pdr Carronades and 4 4-pdr canons. Artesania Latina gave hovewer only 10 carronades which leaves some of portholes without pew pew  I'll definitely try to scratch build this 4 cannons as obviously 14 cannons looks better than 10! In this scale it shouldn't be difficult especially when I saw so many aftermarket barrels. 

On 1/30/2021 at 3:16 PM, Cathead said:

That's a beautiful vessel and looks like a good choice to take the next step in your modeling skills. Looking forward to following your progress.

 

Are you referring to the piece just right of the keel? It might be intended as a vertical clamp to be placed at either end of the keel to help stabilize it in that direction (not just from below). I haven't used this building slip, but for example see this image.

 

 

 

Yes, It's this part. Still if this could be a stabilizer then this part should have some placement to the building slip and this screw and nut seems for me utterly useless. Still this part wasn't very used by me but I bet in case of bigger ships it could become important tool. 

Hello,

few days I introduced myself on this great forum and recived very warm welcome. I decided to share with my build of French Corsair Cutter Le Renard from Artesania Latina kit. As I realised this is very popular kit and many modellers make this wonderful warship. I'm not suprised because she looks awsome and it's famous ship with her own place in history. This is my third wodden model which I will made ( Saint Malo dory boat and Zuiderzee Botter were respectively first and second wodden model ) and I think it's good idea to graduate difficulty to do not fail with build of ultra difficult, big and expensive kits. Also I want every next ship to be more difficult and this cutter has one thing which always made me fear of sailing ships that means rope ladders. Le Renard has only few of this elements so I have many place for learing how to make such element.

Out from curiosity what is purpose of this element made from MDF with screw and nut inside on the right of this photo?

I use Hobby Zone building slip which looks like is designed to rather bigger ships but after few modifications it works very well for Le Renard. I placed few doubled keelblocks which were added to the Building slip and now keel of Le Renard is nicely positioned. So far no problems with hull with exception of unnecessery piece on deck of Part 1 which I cut as Part 16 didn't needed this. Everything glued with PVA glue and reinforced with nails. 

Hello All!

My name is Paul, I'm teacher of HVAC in life and I'm scale modeller from about 10 years with various gaps due to life. I mainly sit in 1/350 submarines with very special infatuation to the WWII IJN submarines but I had rather wide range of interesting in plastic modelling ( tanks, airplanes, 120mm figures ect. ) 

Few months ago I decided to start with wood modelling and I fell in love with this. As first model I bought and made Saint Malo dory boat from Artesania Latina which even if it's not most difficult kit then still teached me a lot ( I would definitely do not start from Santisima Trinidad or Victory as I would definitely be defeated ) and I understand that 50% of skills used in plastic modelling is more or less useless here so I'm beginner in Wood. Work with wood is ultra fun and so different from plastic modelling and I'm not sure why I neglected this for so long. As second boat I made Zuiderzee Botter from Artesania Latina which looked for me very interesting. This kit was much more difficult and instruction caused me a lot of problems but fact that I learned something about all this lines, ropes, deadeyes and blocks was very instructive and this teached me a lot. Still I'm collecting my all tools but I think I have majority of what I need. 

As next model I'm not sure what it can be as I have Commander Launch from Santisima Trinidad and San Juan Nepomuceno as same as Pen Duick and La Renard, all from Artesania Latina. Pen Duick looks awsome and it's love from first sight ( as same as with Dutch Statenjaht which reminds me male of Mandarin duck as another synonymous of beauty ) but I'm not sure did I'm ready for building her. I very like various yachts and fishing boats designs. 

As I didn't want to become freeloader I decided to show some of my models in spoiler.

Some of my 1/350 models. USS Gato 1941 AFV club, T101 IJN landing ship Pit Road, battleships Tsesarewitch from Trumpeter and Orel from Zvezda, cruiser Varyag from Zvezda, submarines I-58 and I-56 from B3 class build from kits made by AFV Club and I-47 submarine from C-2 class from Aoshima kit. Saint Malo dory boat and Zuiderzee Botter from Artesania Latina. Photos taken using smartphone in previous and this year.

Wodden kits

English isn't my first language so sorry for any gramatic and word mistakes.