Thukydides

Isopropyl will loosen PVA and acetone will loosen CA. Be careful as you don't want to get it on any finished parts as it may stain them. It doesn't really matter which side you choose to tapper, just pick one side and stick with it. Theoretically you could just cut the correct curved shape out of sheet stock, but using strips you need to do a combination of edge bending and tapering to get them to fit right. You should be able to just place the plank in the right place without any effort if you have done it right. I do planks individually, but do one on one side then one on the other. The reason is to make sure that the plank ends at the bow and stern are lining up with each other. You should check out the planking tutorial videos (look under modelling techniques in the top bar). Also take a look at some of the build logs for people who have done similar ships. As @vossiewulf said starting a build log is a good idea. Good luck.

Beautiful work as always Tom. So many cool little details which combine together to create a really impressive model. Personally my eyes are drawn to the shields. I like how the bright colours contrast with the drab wooden ship. Congrats!!!

I like the dark grey better. You could also look into dry brushing with a slightly lighter colour on the top to give a bit more contrast. Looking good.

One thing I also found with the fly tying thread is you have to give it some extra twist as you serve it on otherwise it lies too flat. Yes magnification is the way to go when doing the smaller threads. The yard looks very nice

One further thought on this. You can actually use the fact that the grain raises to your advantage. One of the issues with making scale models look realistic is that in real life nothing is just one colour. There are minor variations which our eyes pick up on even if we don't consciously notice them. In miniature painting one of the things you are trying to do to make something look realistic is trick the eyes into thinking it is bigger than it is. I have been experimenting lately with very thin ink coats to raise the grain, sand it back and then go in with a slightly different shade, sand it back etc... This produces subtle variation on the colour which I have found to produce an interesting effect. Obviously you need very watered down coats for this to work, but it is also something you could experiment with on scrap wood. As a note I would say whatever you do try it out on some scrap first to make sure you are happy with it before you try on the model.

Welcome to MSW.

Welcome to MSW

Welcome to MSW. I also came from the plastic modeling world and started with a cutter. I think they are good starter ships if you have some modeling experience as they allow you to work through all the many problems that come from switching from plastic to wood without overwhelming you. There are a number of cutter model kits out there you could consider, most of them on the lower end of the price scale for wooden models. Take a look at some build logs and find one that inspires you. Maybe read up on the history of the ship a bit. If you are interested in your subject you are far more likely to complete it. Good luck.

You certainly can do that. I personally just paint straight on the wood and then sand it smooth and then do so again and again until I have the finish I am looking for. If you do seal the wood then I would recommend using a primer before painting as it will adhere a little better.

I am pretty sure I many cases it was canvas or potentially filled in with wood. There are lots of examples where they are painted red. So likely not hammocks. The example I saw which made me think had things attached around the other sides, not just the one you usually see the railing on.

I have never heard of this before though as you say it does sound plausible. I have recently been on a kick looking through contemporary marine paintings and I have vague memories of one painting I looked at having something odd about the fighting tops that stood out to me. I will try to go back through and see if I can find it again. Not really a help with this per say, but if you search 'bray album' at the RMG collections website there are a number of drawings of sailors carrying/stowing their hammocks which might be of some help is making them for your model.

Looking good. Uboats are a fun little builds. Are you planning on putting it in a seascape or just the sub?

This is one of those cases I think where you have to weigh the aesthetic considerations with historical accuracy. Too much randomness may potentially look a bit off. You might want to try gluing card paper planks on a section just to make sure you are happy with the look before committing to the wood. That being said I would say your plan sounds like a good one. If you want to make the variable widths more random you could split into more bands and/or potentially randomly adjust some of the widths so that they are say 75% of what you put on the ticks and then make another one in the band take up 25% more. What I mean by this is lets say you have a band of 4 planks and at the point you are measuring they are each 8mm if equally divided. Then you could make the first one 6mm, the second 8mm, the third 10mm, the fourth 8mm. So essentially you are still equally dividing up the band, just in a much more random way. Now obviously this is much more complicated than just using a planking fan, but it will probably get a more random look if that is what you want to achieve.

Like many things in a build the instructions are basically showing you how to produce a reasonable model out of the box. There are many places such as this where you can make small adjustments to improve the model. Ultimately it is up to you (a model is a piece of art after all), but if you want to see an example you can look at my alert log where I detail how I did it.

Nice job on the tiny served eyes. They are not easy to make look that good.

Those pumps look really good.

If all other avenues fail Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War by James Lees has the ratios. I believe there is somewhere on the forums where someone turned them into an excel sheet to calculate the sizes based on the size of your ship. However, I would recommend taking a close look at the plans from RMG as a starting point. Sometimes the mast and yard dimensions are written onto the plans. Check out the plans for all the other ships of the same class as some plans will have info others will not. You can also take a look at The Steel tables the following link has the 1781 numbers as well as the more detailed 1799 ones. https://www.goldenhind.ru/steel_en/ Good luck.

What colour are you planning on painting them? I have been looking through every contemporary deck painting I can find and my very unscientific survey has found approximately an equal split between yellow ocre and red ocre. In one case they even had both colours on the same ship. The gun deck ones were yellow and the forecastle chasers were red. It is always possible they were repainted in-between the two drawings, but they were dated very close together. In any case good to hear you are on the mend. Merry Christmas.

As you say it is somewhat subjective. The problem is that what might be a good thing for one person might be a downside for another. For example if you want to kitbash / super detail your model then in many cases all you are looking for is the main structural elements as you will end up replacing most other parts anyways. In such cases the extra costs associated with "better fittings" would be wasted on you. But I suspect that most people asking the question are doing so because they are relatively new to the hobby. Once someone has at least one major build under their belt they should know enough about what they want to answer the question themselves. If we then redefine "best" to mean good for a relative novice, we are really looking for something that allows them to complete the model out of the box without requiring additional fittings or materials. I would say this means the kit should have: Clear easy to follow instructions Laser cut materials that don't require the builder to scratch build many things Quality materials and fittings meaning that the purchase of 3rd party materials is not necessary

Great Job Mike. Alert is indeed a lovely model and you should be proud of her.

Yes it does require a bit of practice to learn to keep everything within the focal range. But as your ropes get smaller, I found it really helps with getting things right.

Great job, you can really see the progression as you have gotten more practice. Only thing I will mention is as your rope size changes you will also need to make sure the line you are serving with is appropriately sized (what you have looks great, I am just referring to if you serve smaller ropes). I had to go down to fly tying thread for some of my ropes (granted I was at a smaller scale than you). Yes a machine really helps. Good job on building it/ I also find that having some form of magnification is good. It allows you to more clearly see that the loops of the serving as you go particularly if you are serving smaller ropes. I just use some cheap glasses similar to these though you can use whatever ones work best for you / are easily available: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D5LX2FG1/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?pd_rd_i=B0D5LX2FG1&pd_rd_w=1XFVw&content-id=amzn1.sym.516c2169-755e-413a-a38a-68230f4ab66f&pf_rd_p=516c2169-755e-413a-a38a-68230f4ab66f&pf_rd_r=HR22QG8YS7AGKM1XNDFY&pd_rd_wg=ofXh7&pd_rd_r=75eec39e-7cea-4bea-8486-54a2f9768de1&s=kitchen&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw&th=1

Fantastic job Jacques. It has been a pleasure to follow along though I only joined late in the process. I always appreciate some good speculative research. I personally think that there is something very exciting about compiling what little info there is on lesser known subjects and bringing them to life. All in all a great build and a very informative build log.

Log #13: A Research Rabbit Trail I have been casting my net a bit wider in an attempt to reconcile some of the issues we have been discussing here regarding gun carriages. As I mentioned one of the main goals with this log is to bring those of you following along on a journey through my research, I thought I would open the door a little on what this looks like for me on a practical level. Having exhausted (at least as far as I can tell for the moment) all of my leads that deal directly with guns and carriages, I decided to start looking for sources that might incidentally mention / show them. I started by searching for paintings from the period which depicted deck scenes. In doing so I came across the following very interesting painting (I have cropped it to the parts I am interested in and increased the exposure a little): The painting is of Lord Howe at the Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794. Now I have to do some more research to confirm this fact, but the RMG description says that the painter: This implies a degree of care and accuracy about the scene which makes it very interesting for research despite the fact it is about 15 years after the time period I am concerned with. In particular you can see the following interesting details about the gun: It appears to be a Bloomfield 12pdr based on the breeching loop and the label on the stool bed. The Queen Charlotte carried 12pdrs on her quarterdeck confirming this detail. The name of the ship is written on the quoin, this may be an extra embellishment added by the painter, but given the care he took to get everything just right it is possible this writing did exist on the gun. The carriage is painted a brown/yellow color similar to how the current carriages on the Victory are painted. This is in contrast to the bulwarks which can just be made out in the background as being a brownish red. The breeching rope appears to be hawser laid. The tackle at the rear of the gun is a double block. This matches what I have found in my research (12pdrs and up had single double combos), but runs counter to what Caruana says. It is a similar colour to the carriage. The strop for the block appears to be served. The stool bed has a slot which the quoin fits into allowing it to slide along. This makes a lot of sense to me from a practical perspective, but I have never seen this in any of the plans or other drawings. Edit: I also just noticed how the eyebolts are countersunk like the example Gregory posted. The next step is then to carefully go back through all the other primary documents/pictures/plans I have acquired to see if any of these details are mentioned or implied. Often I find when I go back I notice things that were just mentioned in passing that I missed the importance of. These other sources in combination with more research into the artist will allow me to judge how reliable I treat these details as being. Then comes the question of if there are accurate, do they also apply to the 1780s?

She really does look lovely Eric.