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Nipper

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Everything posted by Nipper

  1. Nipper
    Sounds very sensible to me Chris. You have to have a strategic plan for your business to succeed long term. As long as Surprise still goes ahead at the appropriate time, because it will be a winner, I'm certain! Many of us on MSW will have our own personal wishes and wants from you, so I will confess mine - that you will produce some crew figures for Surprise, not just the main characters. But above all, I believe we all would be happy to put our personal wishes to one side and support you to the full in ensuring that VM goes from strength to strength. Nipper
  2. Nipper
    Thanks B.E. for your detailed explanation. I've marked this ready for my next planking job - it will make my next model better, more realistic and more satisfying. As ever, your meticulous thinking, planning and execution provides a guide for the rest of us. Nipper
  3. Nipper
    Lovely work B.E. If there's one thing I've learned from you, Chuck, and the other master builders on MSW, it's that if something will look better, then the time taken does not matter! Nipper
  4. Nipper
    Could their purpose be to help secure the gun carriage when not in use - either lashed up to the bulwark or lashed alongside? Nipper
  5. Nipper
    Kevin There are some very constructive suggestions above for how to proceed. All is not lost! In addition, a thought that has occurred to me sometimes, after I have blundered, is that in reality, ships would have been subject to storm and/or battle damage, and fresh repair work on a hull would not be out of place at all. It may even add to the realism. Nipper
  6. Nipper
    Congrats on your successful fitting of the side patterns - I know from my own experience how challenging this is! Thanks also for your detailed description and analysis of your methods - this is so helpful to us all in a similar way to B.E.'s outstanding build logs.
  7. Nipper
    Thank you B.E. for giving us all the opportunity to have this insight into your thinking as you plan your way forward in this build. As a relative newcomer - I'm only on my second build - I find your explanations and reasoning behind your decisions as helpful as the building techniques themselves. It must be very time-consuming to write a build log lke yours, but thank you for doing so because you are helping many of us to become better, and more satisfied, ship modellers as a result. Nipper
  8. Nipper
    Looking good! I too used Chuck's method when planking my Sphinx. As you say, it's very time-consuming. Sometimes I only managed to fit one or two planks a day. But the time taken and careful measuring and checking meant that it was so satisfying when the plank fitted smoothly into place. So well that I soon realised that my sanding of the bulkheads left a bit to be desired. i should have spent the time and care that you did on fairing the bulkheads! Nipper
  9. Nipper
    Yes. I was being facetious . . . I had in mind a sort of reverse razee! The fully framed hull is scratch-built up to the gundeck and then the upper decks and fittings come out of the box. Someone is bound to have done this! I wish you joy of the awaited arrival today. I noted your comment earlier about the shortage of space at home for displaying your models. This surely is an issue for all of us. I'm put off building something the size of Indy because of this, and I don't want to go to a smaller scale. On the contrary. I'm keen to put as much detail as possible into the model, like you do. I'm pondering on the thought of a larger scale model of say, a section of a ship to include all the internal fittings and furniture usually covered by the decks - a sort of nautical dolls' house! Nipper
  10. Nipper
    B.E. I'm looking forward to enjoying your build log and learning as well. I understand your fondness of the Navy board style models - they do look evocative. I'm sure you must have thought about creating the full frame view below the wales, which is so characteristic of the style, rather than fully planking the hull. But I guess that would need to be a scratch build, although it could be a hybrid scratch built hull with one of Chris's kits on top. Nipper
  11. Nipper
    Thanks Chris In fact, I did just that when fitting the bow section without realising the cunning plan that you had come up with! I'll think about filling them, possibly with a bit of sanding dust and dilute glue.
  12. Nipper
    Chris Please would you help with this question about Sphinx: I've just got to where I fix the sheer and waist rails (slow going I know but I'm relishing every minute!) and I cannot find any reference to, or use for, the pre-drilled holes on the rails either side of the gunports. I've looked through the Sphinx build logs here, but in the finished models it appears that these holes are not used for anything. Nipper
  13. Nipper
    Clever! Like the sort of Chinese wood puzzle that intrigued me as a child at Christmas! Nipper
  14. Nipper
    A good idea Paul! I'm going to use your method on my next build. I used a pin pusher on Sphinx and too many pins bent and marked the surface of the planks. I also disliked the amount of force needed - can't be good for the shape of the frames. Nipper
  15. Nipper
    Oldsalt - Great ideas! Having crew furling/unfurling sails would be so realistic - ditto a proper helmsman. I haven't seen a helmsman figure anywhere, for 18th century ships. A ship bowling along with stuns'ls alow and aloft looks pretty silly with no-one at the wheel! Nipper
  16. Nipper
    Chris, I love this picture with the bosun wagging his whistle at some miscreant, probably. I'll be delighted if you produce some more sailor figures as yours are unbeatable and add so much atmosphere. Not just action movements though, some need to be lounging about to give the bosun something to moan about. Nipper
  17. Nipper
    Tom If Patrick O'Brian doesn't mention the colour, I'd suggest that you can't go wrong with red ochre. It was a very common colour for the inside bulwarks of Englich ships, and for a model, looks much better than a brighter red, in my view anyway. Nipper
  18. Nipper
    Chris I'm really looking forward to the Baltimore schooner, with its link to Patrick O'Brian's Ringle. It will be a great addition to the VM range and I guess will sell very well - it will very likely be my next build after Sphinx. Will another frigate be the best next project for VM? You haven't yet got a two- or even a three-decker but I wonder if these may be out of the price range for many modellers - I'm sure they would sell but perhaps not as well as something the size of Sphinx. I think that the Aubrey/Maturin books are the most inspiring and enjoyable for those interested in maritime history. and I think that many of us have been moved to build a ship as a result of them. I might have gone for a Surprise kit if one had been available before Sphinx. So I guess Surprise could be a big seller, perhaps really enticing for new readers of the Aubrey/Maturin books. If you do decide to go ahead, why not offer some figures of Jack Aubrey's crew, not just Jack and Stephen? Then I could use them to crew my Sphinx! Nipper
  19. Nipper
    What an incredible outcome! Your description of making the sea effect sounds so simple, but it isn't at all. I guess it seems simple because you cannot really describe what you have done as a series of steps. Instead, I think it is a creation of art, not an assembly of materials. It's your ability to see what you want to achieve, and then to let your hands and brain pull it together. Genius! Nipper
  20. Nipper
    Well, I can only echo the comments made above. That is so realistic that we could be on a cross-channel ferry looking across at a full size replica sailing past us. Thank you for giving us such a detailed breakdown of how you create such a masterpiece. Nipper
  21. Nipper
    Yes! We are wondering if you only ever communicate with each other via MSW, or whether you ever chat on the phone! Nipper
  22. Nipper
    What a wonderful build! - and inspiring for the rest of us to watch. I really like the figures and can't wait to get mine ready for my Sphinx. I've also thought about making the ship more realistic by creating a full crew - well, say, at least half a watch on deck busy working the ship, splicing and mending and so on. Can we convince Chris that he should continue to create more of his beautiful figures in a variety of poses? We could get away with perhaps a couple of sailors in the same pose on a busy deck, but not more. As you say, the VM figures are a class apart and for those of us who like to bring our models to life, they are perfect. Nipper
  23. Nipper
    Happy birthday Chris - and I hope you've managed to fit some appropriate celebrations into your day. So you reckon you may have another 20 years of making kits?! Well, when you get there that would make you just a couple of years older than my current age - and I've only just started!! Nipper
  24. Nipper
    This is not a guessing game! But wasn't this the boat on which Patrick O'Brian modelled Jack Aubrey's Ringle? Nipper
  25. Nipper
    Chris - what a brilliant idea for kit 13. A two master, medium sized kit, with beautiful lines. Assuming it's a Baltimore Clipper, then something from the 1812 war could be really attractive on both sides of the ocean and sell like hot cakes! Nipper

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