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Haven't posted for a couple weeks, father in law passed away, and my Australian Shepard who has shadowed my side for the last 14 years has been in pretty poor health and required nearly full time attention.  I have actually been working on the model quite a bit to take my mind off of things, but I haven't been very good with pics, so sorry for the lack of progress picks but here are few shots of the whole ship to show my progress.
 
I finished the masts, and have started on the standing rigging.  I decided to replace my rope with rope from Syren, the difference in quality is staggering.  Since this is my first ship model I have been focusing on how the rigging works and what the purpose of each rope is and I am not quite as focused on making sure all the correct knots are being used and everything is whipped etc., but I am trying to add those things and learn how they should be done where I can if they aren't too much effort. 
 



 

I have started fabricating the main hatch coaming.

@druxey
Hello,
I'm glad you like it. Thanks !
I would also like to thank everyone else for the LIKES.
 
Continuation: Equipment of the mizzen topgallant yard – Vergue de perruche
After a suggestion from model building colleagues, I secured the mousing of the hook for the tye with a thinner three strand rope with a diameter of 0.15 mm that was specially made for this purpose.

We then continued with the quarter blocks (clew lines and sheets), which are among the smallest double blocks on the model.
For the block ropes I used ropes with a diameter of 0.25 mm, which were served with silk yarn.

The last two pictures show the arrangement of the quarter blocks with the truss already attached.


Up soon …

chesstree, fenders and the entry steps:
 

Main mast bitts have been fabricated and mounted in place.

Boarding steps--


 
I would have made the steps the full width of the hammock opening, but the carronade position wouldn't allow it.   The hammock position corresponds to Chappelle's sail plan drawing and also the location of the outboard boarding steps shown on the hull plan, but a little foresight may have warranted shifting the steps and opening just a bit.
 
Ron
 

Thanks Joe, and all looking in.
 
The hammock cranes and cloth are done.   It was more work than I anticipated, but I think it was worth it.  I got some practice making jigs and drilling small holes on the mill, and I learned about Silkspan.
 
Here one side is done, and the other has been "strung".  I was tempted to leave it this way, but elected to complete both sides--

 
Done.   Work on the capstan bars continues--

 
Knotted boarding ropes hang over the boarding steps.  I don't know why Lieutenant Woolsey is falling all over the deck in the previous photos, but he's found his feet here.  I'll secure the ropes with a dot of glue on one of the lower steps, but for now the clips make them hang straight and give the idea--

 
I am reminded of something I read about Oneida being reported by an early crew member (I think) as being a "warm cozy" ship.  They were probably talking about below deck, but the more enclosed and protected feeling with the hammocks in place on the rails does give me that impression--
   

 
All for now,
Ron

The actual assembly guide started simply enough with step A for the support stand. The part numbering system however, didn’t seem to follow any particular order. Step A, as shown below, started with part number 240 joined to part number 17 which was from an entirely different billet. So I had to do a lot of searching for the correct parts for each step.
    At least the instructions were well illustrated with contrasting colors showing the parts involved in each step, and the finished assembly shown in white. They included exploded views of subset steps like A1 shown above.
    Certain parts with a gilded finish were called out with a T added to it. For instance, Part T7 in step A1 above was the first use of one of those designations. The backside of these gilded parts are all covered with paper that needs to be peeled off to expose the pre-applied adhesive underneath.  Needless to say, careful alignment is required to allow the exposed edges to blend in with the piece below, because they can't be shifted at all once they are in place.  Wherever these parts are employed, this symbol is nearby. 

    As the instructions continued on to step B, the diagram for the assembly of the frames on the keel. The previous A1 subset shown in gray, was brought forward and its new placement was shown below.

    Just below that diagram, the lower deck part is shown in pink and shows its alignment below that with the framed up keel in white. The first instance of folding a part came up now and was shown as an unlabeled subset. Careful bending was required for this interior stair assembly, because the core of the part could easily separate from the vinyl facing. Lastly, the placement on the deck of the stairs and twelve of the cast black plastic canons was shown to complete step B. Here are a few photos of the state of construction at this point.

 

 

    Step C followed with the alignment of the main deck on the previous frame and several subsets, including the main cabin entrance wall, the next deck above that with its pair of stairs, the curved balcony railing, and the ships wheel.
Here is the ship below with the subsets from step C added to the ship and a portion of step D.

 

 

 

    Step D was actually more of a continuation of C than a separate step. The subset C1 was brought forward and combined with the upper cabin walls and attached to the main deck. The upper cabin walls, the Poop deck above that with its railing, a fife rail that passed through an additional upper rear deck, and various other fittings to go with it were all assembled and added.
    Step D continued with a pair of curved stairs with subsets D1 and D2. Those stairs were quite a handful themselves, between bending in the curve, inserting the seven treads, and anchoring the ends to the two decks without twisting them out of shape. They are shown below after their installation and the status of the build at the completion of step D.

 

 

 

To be continued.

The actual assembly guide started simply enough with step A for the support stand. The part numbering system however, didn’t seem to follow any particular order. Step A, as shown below, started with part number 240 joined to part number 17 which was from an entirely different billet. So I had to do a lot of searching for the correct parts for each step.
    At least the instructions were well illustrated with contrasting colors showing the parts involved in each step, and the finished assembly shown in white. They included exploded views of subset steps like A1 shown above.
    Certain parts with a gilded finish were called out with a T added to it. For instance, Part T7 in step A1 above was the first use of one of those designations. The backside of these gilded parts are all covered with paper that needs to be peeled off to expose the pre-applied adhesive underneath.  Needless to say, careful alignment is required to allow the exposed edges to blend in with the piece below, because they can't be shifted at all once they are in place.  Wherever these parts are employed, this symbol is nearby. 

    As the instructions continued on to step B, the diagram for the assembly of the frames on the keel. The previous A1 subset shown in gray, was brought forward and its new placement was shown below.

    Just below that diagram, the lower deck part is shown in pink and shows its alignment below that with the framed up keel in white. The first instance of folding a part came up now and was shown as an unlabeled subset. Careful bending was required for this interior stair assembly, because the core of the part could easily separate from the vinyl facing. Lastly, the placement on the deck of the stairs and twelve of the cast black plastic canons was shown to complete step B. Here are a few photos of the state of construction at this point.

 

 

    Step C followed with the alignment of the main deck on the previous frame and several subsets, including the main cabin entrance wall, the next deck above that with its pair of stairs, the curved balcony railing, and the ships wheel.
Here is the ship below with the subsets from step C added to the ship and a portion of step D.

 

 

 

    Step D was actually more of a continuation of C than a separate step. The subset C1 was brought forward and combined with the upper cabin walls and attached to the main deck. The upper cabin walls, the Poop deck above that with its railing, a fife rail that passed through an additional upper rear deck, and various other fittings to go with it were all assembled and added.
    Step D continued with a pair of curved stairs with subsets D1 and D2. Those stairs were quite a handful themselves, between bending in the curve, inserting the seven treads, and anchoring the ends to the two decks without twisting them out of shape. They are shown below after their installation and the status of the build at the completion of step D.

 

 

 

To be continued.

I previously posted a review of this model kit back on January 4 th of this year.  I took numerous photos of it during the process and have decided to post this build log for it.  First, I'll give you a bit of its history and details of the actual ship.
    While there are no confirmed records of the date and place of construction it is generally assumed to be around 1710 since there are no records of its activities prior to that date.  She was a three masted frigate of approximately 200 tons, that measured 103 feet long with a beam of 24.6 feet.   Originally operated as a slave ship operated by René Montaudin, a leading slave trader of Nantes, until it was sold in 1713 in Peru. She was briefly operated by the French Navy in November 1716, but was sold by them for commerce five months later in France as a slaver once again. Then in November 1717 she was captured by Edward Teach (AKA Blackbeard the pirate) near the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies.

Hi ☺️
 
 last photos before putting the glass on the model

Hello Everyone, I've been thinking of way to keep me off TV, computer, and phone in the evenings and recently decided to try building some models. It's something I've always been fascinated with, but figured I would never have the time or patience to do it until I was retired.
 
I just turned 40 a month ago, and am currently going thorough some medical issues and I think this will be a good escape from that. I live in the countryside with my wife and 3 year old daughter. I have next to no modelling experience, but enjoy building and working with wood. The most interesting thing I've done was make an English long bow style bow and arrows.
 
To start, I was looking at the 3 skill level tiered boats from Model Expo (shipwright series), or the Polaris from OcCre. Both come with tool kits. After a couple indecisive days, I went and ordered both. They seem to have different yet useful tools, so I feel this will be a great start. Even if I end up moving onto other things and not finishing, it won't be a terrible financial loss.
 
My plan is to build the shipwright series dory (top picture), then order the skill II and skill III kits together. I'll either complete both of those before going onto the Polaris (bottom picture) or do the Polaris in between (I noted the OcCre Polaris says it takes 120 hours and after speaking with Model Expo, it seems the dory can be completed "in a few evenings"). Any comments about that are welcome, for now I'll just play it by ear.
 
I read the post about finding a mentor, I'm not sure how to go about that, but I'll ask around should I really get into this. (or feel free to jump in if someones looking for a protege 🙃)
 
I'm looking forward to being here, and very excited for the first models to arrive. I hope this hobby sticks, and strikes a nice balance between challenging enough to keep the boredom away, but I can pick the skills up quick enough to not walk away frustrated.

The capstan bars are roughed in--

 
I need to soften some of the transitions between the square end and the rounded part, but they are dry fit into the capstan head, and on deck--




 
They'll also need a coat of Tung oil finish when done.   
 
The list is getting smaller of what is still needed before stepping the masts and starting the rigging.  At this point I still need some inboard boarding steps, and I think I'll make some mast collars.  I am also contemplating redoing the gratings, with a tighter grid.
 
All for now,
Ron
 

Finished the second planking, then removed pins then re-drilled re added pins for adding third planks.
 

 

This again worked well, now have all with three planks each side and pins removed to start last set of planks.
 

 

Thanks guys for looking in and the likes.
 
Regards
Richard 

Looking at the drawing I bought from the Fishing museum in Lunenburg it shows how the planks overlapped at the middle station, then at each end they butt up so to hold plank in place I drilled holes in the jig so that it would overlap in middle and butt up at ends, started with three wood posts which was not enough so added two more, then I broke the wood posts so change them to brass tube..
 


Shape was good so have cut all sixteen planks now started the production.
Got two glued and they have come out pretty good.




Have been using this glue on all my wood gluing and it works great.
 

 

 
Thanks for all the comments and likes, until next time.
 
Regards
Richard
 

I thought the same and although it was a bit pricey, I went to this site: Scaledecks.com and took care of the problem with mine.  It's an actual wood product about the thickness of a heavy sheet of paper backed with a thermal fleece.   Unlike some products out there that have a self-adhesive backing that makes aligning and placing the sheets very difficult, this backing provides plenty of surface for styrene cement to bind with and yet allows you to fine tune your placement.  The pattern is very accurate and there is good contrast between individual planks which really makes it quite attractive.
 

Just an additional note on the hammock cloth, and historical accuracy, since you don't see this black cloth depicted often.  Usually you see some diagonal netting, and some folded over hammocks contained within.   The netting is problematic for me.  Whatever you can get "ready-made" is plastic and seems out of scale, and would be difficult to fasten realistically.  So I liked Glenn Greico's black cloth--much simpler (I reference his model for the Institute of Nautical Archeology in Austin, Texas of the USS Brig Jefferson often, and in that context he HAS to be as historically accurate as possible.).  But I am now realizing that I have seen it other places.  A recent photo in archjofo's La Creole log led me back to post #783 where he shows his version of the black cloth.  Very interesting that he used balsa (or similar soft wood) for the underlying form!!  And then I remembered a black cloth in photos of Frolich's models of Swan and Cygne.  
 
I (we) look at so many sources for these details that I lose track of where I saw them, or even forget I even saw them.
 
So I am feeling good about the approach.  The bigger question of whether this ship would have even HAD hammock cranes is unanswerable.  We don't know much about Oneida beyond the basic lines.  I wish I was building an Oneida that I know is accurate, but I will continue on building an Oneida that I hope is plausible, and in the end for me, is a beautiful model.   
  

@Gregory
@Keith Black
Hello,
thank you very much for your kind words.
 
 
Musée national de la Marine in Paris
Today I have to get the following off my chest.
As you all know, the Musée national de la Marine in Paris reopened its doors some time ago after many years of renovation and modernization. Our forum colleague Eberhard @wefalck reported on this with impressive photos.
I actually planned to visit the reopened museum later this year and in particular to view and photograph my "object of desire", the original model of "La Créole", in order to, among other things, to explore unclear details of the upper rigging.
After his first visit, Eberhard indicated that he was not sure whether “La Créole” could still be seen in the permanent exhibition.
After contacting the museum, I was informed that this was indeed the case and that the "La Créole" had ended up in storage, like many other models. When I asked if it would be possible to take a few photos of the upper rigging (topgallant yards and royal yards), I was referred to the restorers. A very friendly restorer then went to the depot especially for me and took a whole series of pictures of the rigging.
Regardless of the fact that these recordings are very valuable for my project, I am shocked by the fact that this beautiful model has now become the victim of a new museum education.
Apparently the aim is to reach a wider audience. The German Museum is also apparently following this trend. As I found out, for example, the beautiful 74 model after Boudriot by our forum colleague Robert @tarjack can no longer be seen in the permanent exhibition.
Is this the future of cultural-historical and artistic creation?
Here is a picture from the depot of the Paris museum, where the "La Créole" will now eke out its future existence alongside many other models.

It almost looks like a prison, which makes me a little sad. Previously proudly presented in the permanent exhibition, published with glossy photos, among other things, by J. Boudriot and now in the depot without protection. Hopefully the air in the depot is dust-free.
I'm still hoping that one of the restorers will remember the model and fix the already partially dilapidated rigging.

More hammock crane work.
 
I decided I needed a better way to make the modeling clay form for the hammock covering cloth.   I had just kind of rolled it out and mashed it into rough shape, but it was a little TOO rough and varied in height and thickness.  So I made a mold out of scrap wood.  This is the length I need for the forward sections.  The previous clay form and removed covering paper are above it--

 
Then I mashed the clay into one side of the mold--
 
And clamped the outer mold piece against it.  There are spacers at the end to make the right thickness, and I used my calipers to make sure it was the same width at the middle.  They also worked as a clamp.  I mashed additional clay into the top where needed--

 
Then scraped the top smooth--

 
This gave me a piece of clay that was uniform in height and thickness--


 
I ran a finger along each side of the top to round and smooth it--

 
New pieces of Silkspan were moistened and folded around it--

 
When this dried, I tucked and glued the loose ends at the bottom, and let that dry--

 
Here it is fit into place--


 
 
I am much happier with this attempt.   It may be more uniform than it really should be, but it will be easy to go back and make it a little "lumpy" if I decide it needs it.  Here's a view from inboard--

 
As I finish up the hammocks I'm adding the capstan bars to the capstan.   It's always one of the things on a model that catches your eye, and I've been waiting a long time to add this touch!   I cut some blanks, and test fit a few times to get the length I thought was appropriate.  They look pretty chunky, but they haven't been tapered or rounded yet, hence they are also not glued to the capstan yet--

 
I numbered each hole and bar on the underside just in case it matters which one goes where--

 
As the afternoon light starts to fade--

 
That's all for now.
 
Ron
 
 

Started on the masts last week.  I was pretty ignorant to how many parts were involved in building them up, and the Occre instructions are borderline horrible especially regarding the mast tops, I had to watch quite a few videos just to show steps that aren't even in the instruction book.  I'm really starting to understand why people avoid kits that have bad instructions.  Another common complaint I see about this kit is most of the builders seem to run out of 1mm brass rod.  I ran out before I even started on the masts, and the masts require quite a bit of the material for the railings on the tops,  I broke down and just ordered 10 bucks worth of brass rod from amazon and that should last me for many future kits.
 
Lower mainmast and foremasts, Mizzen mast work has just started and was in the garage drying with a fresh coat of shellac.

 
Bowsprit ready for some rigging.

 
I also decided to add a head to the ship with some 2x1 walnut strips, this wasn't part of the kit but I thought the ship looked a little naked with nothing there to fill the void. It's not accurate to plans or anything, and I may add a seat of ease and toilet paper holder in the future. 

 
How the ship is currently looking.

 

Bruma, this link to a photo of the 'Cutty Sark' taken in Sydney during her working days may be of use to you. It's from a glass plate negative, so is very fine grained and can be enlarged quite a bit.
 
John
 
State Library Victoria - CUTTY SARK (slv.vic.gov.au)

If you want to learn ship building techniques and do the best job possible on your project, research is vital and often requires more time than actual modeling. 

Ah, you're not a young man but you've got plenty of years left to you.
 
 I started this crazy ship modeling hobby when I was 69, I wish I had started at a much younger age.  There's a certain amount of information and knowledge one needs to absorb to be semi successful in the hobby. If you come late to the party as I did it's very hard to reach a high level of accomplishment, now at 77 I have to be satisfied with the fact that I'll never be much better than I am today. That's why it's so important to get kids interested and involved in ship modeling when they're young so they'll have the chance to become masters and more importantly, teachers. 
 
 We each must do what we can to pass the torch no matter how small the flame. 
 
 

Continuing with hammock cranes.
 
I was able to thread the three outboard lines and test the hammock covering cloth.  I'm not truly happy with the covering cloth, I may redo that, but I do like the overall look--


 
It was blackening residue in the holes that was making it so hard to thread the line.  And the end caps were clogged with Tung oil finish.  I had to carefully try and get the drill bit through the holes and clean them out.  The angle wasn't exactly right, and I probably should have just twisted everything out and re-glued them.  Some became loose anyway (and many bent this way and that-thankfully none broke).   But after clearing the holes, I found that I could get the thread through.  By the last one, I found that with the tip just stiffened by wax, rather than CA glue, I could get them through quite well--didn't need to push and pull with the tweezers.   The CA, though it stiffened the end, did increase the diameter a smidge.
 
Here are the first set of lines through, and the next set of hammock cranes glued in.  After all the lines are threaded, and the cloth in, I'll knot off the ends of the lines--

 
Now I'm off with my daughter to my parents' house in Rochester to try and see the eclipse.   It's supposed to be cloudy, but maybe we'll get lucky.  If not, we'll still have a nice, if brief, visit with my folks.   Hoping the traffic will be manageable, but it probably will be pretty bad.
 
All for now,
Ron 

Hello Dave, I had to take a few breaks in building this model. I neglected to post the next steps a bit, but I'll catch up. But I will answer your questions first. The book I use is based on H.I. Chapple drawn half model by Lawlor and a revision of a plan by G.F. Campell by the authors. There were also 3 plan drawings of the hull, deck and details as well as a side view of the entire ship. The author of the book presents the construction as a team project step by step in our forum, so we get a lot of individual information about the components and construction steps. I myself have not conducted any research into PHANTOM and its sister ship PET. So I don't have any other sources. Thank you for liking the posts. I will now continue the report regularly.