Stevinne

Thanks for the kind words. Enterprise was my first build. I enjoyed it a lot and was pretty happy with the way she turned out.

Well worth the effort. The ship is looking very good.

The decorative castings that come with the kit are gilted. I decided to paint the coat of arms that is placed on the stern. I looked around the Internet for pictures of the Elector of Brandenburg's coat of arms and lit on this version. The coat of arms included on the kit box is painted in a slightly different manner, with the upper right quadrant also gold/buff or yellow. I had no idea what color to paint the background that surrounds the shield, so I settled on red, since I figured that goes best with the color scheme used in the other decorations. The casting was a bit muddy, so it was hard to find all the arrows and what I guess are supposed to be axes, but I did my best.

That is looking very nice. Good work.

Anchors, with the bands made by painting masking tape with Tamiya gunmetal paint. Neither cross piece fit as originally provided. If you look closely at the cross piece in the rear, you can see the join where the piece broke as I was carefully using my round mini-file to try to enlarge the opening and get it to fit. Again, I was wondering why these things seem designed to frustrate.

Over the last couple of days, I have also worked on the gunport lids. They come as a pre-cut piece of ply wood and the instructions call for them to be covered by thin pieces of wood laminate, same as the second course of hull planking. This kit has been a headache from the start, and the gunports are a good example, as the pre-cut wood are of an odd shape, so none of the 0.5mm planking actually fits. Two pieces are too few and three pieces are too many. Several of the white-metal hinges also came broken into two pieces, though I was happy to see they included one extra hinge, in case I lost one or couldn't salvage the broken pieces they'd provided. Overall, though, my impression of the materials has been that they are pretty shoddy. Everything about this kit seems to be like that, and it is frustrating. The ship's boat has caused me headaches. It is cast metal with spots to add wooden benches to dress it up. It also it looks like I should add a strake of real wood to finish it off, but each time I try I can't get the wood and metal to line up and adhere properly. Just another headache that makes the kit less fun then it should be. I'm thinking I'll just spend the money and get one of those mini plank-on-frame ship's boat kits from Model Expo to replace it. I bought this kit from Model Expo shortly before Mamoli went under (though I didn't know what was going on at the time), so I hope that things have gotten better now that Dusek is handling legacy Mamoli kits. The quality of the wood and the overall quality of the kit makes me think (or at least hope) that the soon-to-be-out-of-work Mamoli staff were throwing whatever it is they had on hand into a box before they walked out the door.

The last couple of months have been difficult to dedicate to the hobby. With me working from home, Rainy has gotten accustomed to sleeping most of the work day, since I've made it pretty clear I can only play for an hour or so around lunch. But, she is ready to run after 5 p.m. and I feel like she's earned the attention. She is a high-energy dog, so most nights involve tossing toys until at least 9. My wife says I'm nuts, but my last dog - whom I adored - only lived 'til she was 14. Time with them is so short, I think it is important to enjoy it while you can - and I really enjoy having a smart, engaged dog around the house. It rained like heck today, so I took the time to clean up the stern in anticipation of mounting the Brandenburg coat of arms. Back in December I tapered the yards and stained them black - so we are getting close to completion. With Spring garden planting delayed by the cold weather, I think the next couple of weeks are going to be tough to find the time, but I really want to get this done.

Problems with the glue notwithstanding, those are some very nice looking ratlines.

Very nice work.

Very nice. Welcome aboard.

Definitely sign up for Model Expo emails - they frequently have sales, so the emails will alert you. I agree with the recommendation to start with some of the Model Shipways starter kits or something like the Phantom. I'd also recommend picking up the book "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini, which does a good job of laying out all you need to know for building a first kit.

East Carolina University is very involved in the survey of the Queen Anne's Revenge site. They would probably be worth looking into.

There is a very nice Mary Rose build log on another site by a member named Graham who also bashed the kit to bring it more into line with the Anthony Roll. He is nearly complete with his and it is looking very nice.

Very nice. Congratulations!

I've thought about printing the name of ships in white letters on a black background using clear laser-jet decal paper to. Since the printer doesn't print white, that would allow me to place the decal on a brass strip, allowing the letters to be in brass surrounded by a black background. I have not tried it yet.

Yes. She has a small bed and is the first dog we've had that actually enjoys sleeping in a bed. She ties herself in a tight knot and likes having a padded wall she can rest against. Lucky for us, she also seems smart and was able to pick up house training in just a few days.

That's the same technique they used on a lot of the gold materials found in King Tut's tomb. I saw an exhibit of the items many years ago and the coolest part was that once you got up close, you could see the impressions left on the gold leaf by the fingers of the people who applied it. As for the support brackets on the galleon, I'd think that's the manufacturer deciding it would be easier to provide cast pieces instead of carved wood.

I haven't had much time to work on the ship for the past couple of weeks. The pressgang brought aboard a new shipmate. She's still a grass-combing lubber who can't hand, reef or steer and requires a lot of attention and our free time, but she's fast as a whip and will surely play havoc with the bread room rats (and the squirrels outside, though she's not really much larger).

Instead of a rabbet, you can bevel the inside of the underside edge of the plank. I have done that in the past and it gave a nice, tight fit. I do the same thing with the front edge of the plank, again so it lays nicely flat against the keel. Are you starting your planking at the front of the ship, working backward? That allows you to get a good, strong attachment first, and once you achieve that then you can work backward. My preferred method is to bend the plank to shape as much as possible and then use CA glue on the front of the plank, and the first pair of bulkheads while I paint and the bow filler blocks with wood glue. I attach it, hold it in place until the CA grabs and dries and then apply pins to hold it into place while the wood glue dries up. Once enough time has passed I then move on to attaching the rest of the plank in a similar fashion, doing a couple of bulkheads and allowing for drying time. Once all is dry, I then break out the wood glue again and use the opening in the hull from the missing planks to paint some wood glue on the bulkheads to reinforce the CA. I let that dry. I use the same technique on subsequent planks, with the only difference being that I paint the top of the plank with wood glue and push it up tight against the upper plank to both ensure a snug fit and allow the glue to solidify the hull. Frank Mastini's "Ship Modeling Simplified" offers great advice on planking (and just about everything else for someone starting out in the hobby).

It's been a while since I've posted, but I have been at work, slogging through attaching the ratlines. This is my first galleon build, and this ship has six shrouds on the lower foremast and seven on the mainmast. That compares to four on each for my Constructo Enterprise and Le Reynard cutter - so lots more tying of very small knots. Once I was done, I painted the whole assembly with diluted carpenter's glue to help keep the knots together. Futtock shrouds are next.

A shame. I'd been thinking about this kit as a future build somewhere down the line, since I also thought the scale would be a good fit in my house. One good thing about following build logs is being forewarned.

You're right about the futtock shrouds. My plan is to do the ratlines on the lower shrouds and then attach the futtocks. In retrospect, perhaps I should have completed the lower shrouds, ratted them and attached the futtocks before I moved on to the topmast. That would have prevented another issue I had with the topmast shrouds, which was the lower deadeyes twisting as I rigged the upper deadeyes. Oh well, live and learn.

Krill, I'd originally had the lower mainmast stay rigged as you describe, that is what is called for in the plans, but I was concerned because things were rubbing against the top of the focsle. I looked around for alternatives and found some Golden Hind build logs and copied their approach. The main top stay is rigged as per the plans, though having worked with these plans for many years, I increasingly find that to be little comfort.

I've been slogging through attaching shrouds and thought I was making progress. But, when I went to gather the foremast top shrouds, the top ring of the foremast top came loose, requiring some gluing and clamping. I'd been really careful when originally putting the top together to make sure everything lined up and looked good. Now I fear what things will look like when I remove the clamps.

I would recommend going to Model Expo and signing up for their email list. They have sales just about every week and the email will keep you abreast. I'd also recommend getting your hands on "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini, which I found invaluable when building my first kit. The book clearly and simply lays out what to do in each step of construction.