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Juraj When you say suitable materials, I assume it is silk span not cloth as there is no woven cloth in existence that is appropriately scaled at scales smaller than about 1:12 or perhaps 1:24. There has been a LOT of discussion on sail making in the past year here at MSW and worth studying. There is also an excellent pamphlet for $7US by David Antscherl available from Seawatch books as well as YouTube videos on making realistic sails using silkspan. Allan

Mark, Interesting question. I don't know that there is a formula as all ships types have different shapes. You could go on the safe side and take the length along the center station from port and starboard where the top of the coppering ends, then multiply it by the length of the ship. It will be more than you need, but a safe number. Take a string from point A to B below and multiply that length by the length of the model. Keep in mind the plates overlap 1.5 inches but measuring at the largest part of the hull will compensate for the amount needed. According to Goodwin in The Construction and Fitting of the Man of War on pages 225-227, the plates should be 4' 0" long X 1' 3" and nailed to the hull, not bolted with a 1/4" nail every 1.25 inches or so. He gives very detailed drawings on page 225. Depending on your scale, it may be best to leave out the impressions of nails. Most kits plating is totally out of scale with dimples that are too large, too few, and protrude rather than indent. You have a great opportunity to show them as they actually were. Allan

Mark, The dimension I am curious about is the moulded dimension at the top of the top timber. Sketch below. THANK YOU Allan

You are very welcome Marinus. If you will you be following the tutorial articles on how to properly do your second layer of planking be especially careful that the garboard strake does not go to far forward as on your first layer seems to have done. This, along with forgetting to taper the planks will yield the high sweep Viking ship appearance and not leave enough room for a full run of every strake. As an obvious fan of Victory and hopefully Nelson, I hope you have signed onto screenwriter Adam Preston's Trafalgar TV series as noted in my signature below. He is gaining traction on getting the series going. Allan

FINE work Juraj! I am look forward to seeing Smuggler make progress. Does your kit include sails? Looking at the Blue Jacket kit on line I only see photos of Smuggler without sails, thus my question. Allan

Just saw this old video that some may find interesting and useful. I am no fan of CA, but this is intriguing, if not for our model exploits, for around the house.

Hi Mark, It is hard to tell from the photos, but what is the in and out dimension at the top of the top timbers (not including the planking)? Just curious as Vanguard has a great reputation for accuracy and this is one item where other kit manufacturers are sometimes off. Thanks Allan

Beautiful fairing of the frames!!! This will allow the planking to go much more smoothly. Allan

Marinus Going back a couple weeks to the treenails..... at 1:72, the diameter will only be about 0.02" for the hull planking and 0.14 or smaller for the deck planking. These can be difficult to make even with bamboo and a high quality draw plate so patience is needed. At this scale, it is probably best not to include them. With dark wood hull planks you would need to use a similarly colored wood and there are no woods that can easily go down to this diameter other than bamboo which will probably be too light. Keep in mind, to replicate the hull trennals as if it were actually framed, you will need well over 10,000 of them just on the hull. If you only use them on the bulkheads, it won't look right, so maybe consider forgoing their use altogether Even contemporary models at 1:48 do not always show trennals and none that I have yet seen at your small scale. Alternatively you can drill the holes at the correct diameter easily, then rub some PVA in the holes a few at a time and sand as you go. The sawdust will fill the holes and be close in color. Regarding the planking, it takes practice and is rarely easy. Have you studied the articles here at MSW by David Antscherl on spiling and heat bending by Chuck Passaro? The strakes of first layer are not tapered in width going forward but does not matter on the first layer except for being good practice. If you study the articles you will see that the planking tapers in width for all planks below the wales if it is to look realistic. They give step by step information that will ease the pain. 😀 Allan

At 1:64, if wooden treenails were used on Syren, they would be about 0.012"- 0.16" diameter for the deck planks. Making trennals at 0.16 is a challenge even with a Byrnes drawplate and an appropriate wood such as some species of bamboo. More models are wrecked by having treenails that are oversized both on the hull and the deck so I believe your decision to leave them out is a good one. Allan

Crob Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride. Allan

Rick, Drag files here to attach, or choose files.. This is the bar that appears on the bottom left when you are typing a reply that Chris mentioned. Allan

Glenn, What is the narrowest blade that the Kell holder will take? Thank you! Allan

Hi South Your photos show over all very nice workmanship. Your question is intriguing. When Chapelle refers to solid covers, it sounds like it would be a solid wood cover, but perhaps canvas over the grating. Another possible solution is having the grating flush as in your second photo and then a cover with sides. see sketch below. I really have no firm answer, but over all I would trust Chapelle the vast majority of the time and would rarely trust many kits without doing some researching as you have done. Allan

Rick, Excellent that you researched and came to a great conclusion on a first build. Too many folks don't bother researching and get suckered into starting with kits that are too large/complicated and/or not of the best quality in plans, materials and historical accuracy. Chuck has researched and developed a realistic model that is to-scale in all aspects with fine materials from what I have seen and heard. Hope you start a build log. You will get advice if you hit a snag and ask for it as you now have over 40,000 potential friends and teachers here in the wings. Allan

Druxey, I believe you have chisels from Mihail. If that is the case are you using the Veritas guide system with the chisels from Mihail? I have not had success in using my Veritas unit for these small chisels, but would love to. It works great for chisels of about 1/4" inch wide and wider, but not so well (for me at least) for smaller blade widths. Greg and Druxey, do you have a go-to angle that you prefer on your Veritas system or do you vary it for different chisels? TIA Allan

Continuing to love your build! With copper wire being as soft as it is, is it really necessary to set up on the lathe rather than just winding by hand? I have always hand wound, but then again, the max diameter has been about 24 gage. Allan

Jon With top quality turnbuckles costing a small fortune, making that many is a wise choice. As you get these to where you are pleased with the results, it would be super if you could do a step by step photo shoot of the process. Loving your build! Allan

Hi Branko, Thank you for your video. Sabatini may be mistaken as I don't believe belaying pins were used in the 15th century, and if they were, certainly not made of iron. From research and discussing here at MSW in some depth it appears belaying pins of any kind really would not have been used until sometime in the 18th century so there would be none on a model such as in your video. Allan

You can use a cheap butane cigar torch and heat the barrels until cherry red. This what I used for silver soldering before buying a soldering torch so there is no question it will produce the heat you need. Let the barrel air cool or dunk it in water. It will be soft enough to bend much more easily with the pliers. I would put a piece of scrap leather between the brass and pliers no matter how you do it to avoid scratching the barrel. My concern with heating though is if the ball at the end is glued on. Also it looks like you put in the trunnion so it may better to do the heating before pressing the trunnion in place. If it is glued in, you can always take it out before heating the barrel. In that case, put it back in after the heat treatment but before bending the barrel. Allan

Hi Laggard, Did you consider using a harder wood such as castello, Alaskan cedar, or some other rather than soft wood like bass? If you have to stay with basswood If you have access to a band saw or table saw you can always cut your own from blocks. Consider no plank is over about 30 feet long so even at 1:48 the block of wood need only be about 8 inches long. Allan

Dave Study the planking tutorials here at MSW as well as build logs. If you spile as described by David Antscherl or side bend with heat as described by Chuck Passaro so that the plank is shaped to what it should be before gluing it to the hull framing, there is no reason for using pins or in most cases clamps of any kind. Finger pressure for less than a minute with PVA glue (or 10 seconds with some CA glues if that is your preferred glue) is all that is needed if the plank has been properly pre-shaped. There seems to always be a couple strakes that will give fits, but a minimum amount of clamping and certainly no nails, are necessary in those cases. One problem with pins in some cases is that the hole they make might be larger than the treenails that would be used if you decide to treenail the planking as well as gluing so they will look totally out of scale unless you have very thin pins. Keep in mind a maximum treenail diameter of 1.5" then you can figure the hole/treenail size for your scale. It takes patience and practice, but it can be done with either method described above as you can see with quite a few of the build logs here at MSW. Good luck. Allan

McMaster Carr is easy to navigate, has good quality and has a LOT of choices. The least expensive ones at MC are MUCH better than the stuff at Micromark. As said above and many time before, quality is not cheap and as you can see from the responses, there are other sources of quality bits as well. No matter the quality, for the tiniest sizes, consider buying several of each as it is no fun when one breaks and there is no back up in the bin. Allan

Welcome aboard Steve! Living in Alicante must be super if it is anything at all like I remember it. It was my first ever foreign port of call in 1966 while serving aboard as a cadet on the SS Brasil. Good times!! Allan

Some folks like to add sails, some don't. If you look at contemporary ship models, sails are a rarity. If you decide you must have sails, research the subject here at MSW thoroughly as there has been a lot of discussion on materials. Sail material in kits generally is pretty much useless as it is out of scale. The consensus here is that no woven cloth exists that is to scale for 1:48 or smaller. Silk span and other nonwoven materials is a great substitution. There are lot of otherwise fantastic models to be found here, both scratch and kit, and many have been utterly ruined with out-of-scale sails. In addition to the many discussions here at MSW, consider buying the booklet on sail making from Seawatch Books by David Antscherl. https://www.seawatchbooks.com/ItemDisplay.php?sku=115003 Good luck. Allan