reilly

I rest my case. What hogwash!!! How many people send an email without filling in the subject box. Especially when it is addressing an important issue like the ones raised on this thread. What about the phone calls? People have made these as well with no result. Does he have a spam folder for phone calls too?

thought you might like to know that I have just sent a message to John Wright at Caldercraft/ JoTiKa regarding some of our members difficulties. I have known John for many years & I told him I am personally concerned over this.I hope I haven't overstepped the mark, but it may do some good . I will let you all know when I get a reply. All the best, Geoff

Ron,
 
Here's the thing... I got read receipts from the very same Richard Wright on all four e-mails I sent to the Jotika, yet he claims he only received one. That's pretty bad, to outright lie like that. This the last I'll say on all of this, and I really hope my part does arrive as promised. 

Joe (and mrcc),
 
I'm sorry you've both had difficulty dealing with Jotika. This is a "trading name" for a manufacturer (Caldercraft) and it is largely a dormant web site that nobody in England pays any attention to from what I can tell. However, "Shipwrightshop.com" is another matter; this IS attended to by Richard Wright, who does take care of business, even small requests and orders.
 
On several different occasions (with Shipwrightshop.com) my experience has been excellent. Also, I've built three Caldercraft kits (Granado, Diana and Agamemnon) and there were no missing parts.
 
Here's my tip: try ordering from www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk for your next project. Their web service is extraordinary, their prices are the lowest I've encountered - including frequent adjustments on the exchange rates. I've bought two of the Caldercraft kits from them. They do know how American Customs works and that's very important too.   I believe they check the kits for completeness BEFORE shipping (what a concept!) which is precisely what I'd do with International customers to save time and hassles were I the proprietor.
 
Lastly, I'd bet my Dremel drill that Cornwall is important business for Caldercraft (the whole company especially RC, not just the static ship model part we like). I would also hazard a guess that the respective owners work closely with one another, or even frequently play golf or cricket together, or just hang out at the local pub. The last thing a small manufacturer wants to do is fiddle with small orders and missing parts. Especially ones that are, literally, half way around the planet. Hence, my recommendation for Cornwall who maintain an inventory of Caldercraft stuff (including tiny fiddly bits) and get all those bits in the right boxes BEFORE they ship!
 
Like I said, What A Concept!
 
Good Luck
Ron
 
 
 

I do still agree, it is terrible service overall. I also made sure I got read receipts on all of my e-mails, so they are definitely full of it when they say they only got one e-mail from me. 
 
I'll reserve my final judgement if and when I actually receive my part. It is very disappointing, considering the quality of their kits.

i have tried to mail them on several ocasions with no luck i have also signed up to their newsletter but never had a reply they are either too busy (deff not updating website that has had a message about an up coming new kit for the past year at least)
or they just dont care about service
Andy

So as a second point, I inherited a 30 year old Billing Boats kit, specifically the Bluenose, a kit that is no longer available and discontinued in the current scale. My neighbour, who passed the kit to me, many years ago lost a small sheet of the kit.
 
Last week I sent a blind email to the Billing Boats distributor, PM Hansen, based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, and within 1 hour I had a reply, and 3 days later, the parts arrived in the mail. Remember this is a 30 year old kit, now discontinued, and I was still able to get parts replaced in "days".
 
Now that is customer service!
 
Sorry no excuses should be made for Jotika and Caldercraft. I sense that people are too forgiving of Jotika and their current level of deplorable
"customer service". If Mr Wright is so busy that he can not return emails or get that sheet off to Australia, then he needs to hire some extra help, someone with the skills to assemble "all" the sheets and parts to complete a kit.

This is from Chuck's new set of plans for the English Cutter Cheerful.  While I'm waiting for the next update for my Echo Section, I ordered the plan set.  I like the lines of the ship and since there is only one mast, I'm even happier.  Aside from Chuck's long boat, I've not done any POB models, but since she will be fully planked, why not.  Chuck puts almost as many bulkheads in as some stylized POF models out there.
 
First up was buying the plywood for the spine and bulkheads.  Lots of it in hobby shops and on line.  ALERT:  You only need one sheet of 12" x 48" quarter-inch material.  Every piece easily fit with plenty of leftover material for fillers, etc.  See pics.  The material that I got is slightly over-sized so I'll run it thru the thickness sander before gluing on the patterns.  Another tip on working with plywood.  The good side should be UP cutting on a table saw.  Use blue painters tape over every line to be cut (on both faces of the plywood)  to prevent any tear-out.  And use a good 80 TPI blade.  There is not a chip on any cut I made so far.
Cutting the slots for the bulkheads (B/H) over the spine will be critical.  It's easy for Chuck with his new laser cutter, and careful layout is important if you're doing it with a saw.  First off is determining a 90 degree line between the B/H slots and and the tops of the frames.  I cut the patterns out by carefully cutting a line across the very top of each B/H pattern.  Once the patterns are glued on each blank with the top edge flush with the edge of the plywood blank, I can use that side in my table saw sled to get a perfect 90 degree slot.  For the spine (which has a curve to the bottom), I used the bottom of the plan sheet as a square reference to the slots in the spine.
Maury

Your off to a really nice start Maury. I look forward to seeing your progress.

Historical corectness aside , it would be a shame to have to cover up such wonderfully done planking. I ve been looking at shipmodels for nearly 45 years and I ve never seen the equal to your work.

Don't feel like a knuckle head, you didn't know. Now you do and you know what is going on. If your not sure just ask and someone here will tell you. Best of luck with your searching.

Continuing with the build. Next will be pictures of the deck structures and paint. That pretty much gets us up to date.
 
I'll post more pictures as I build. I'm sure I'll have questions regarding the rest of the build. Should I post questions here or somewhere else on the forum.
 
Thanks for looking. 
 
Eddie

More pictures of completed deck. Also the Plaque and Waterways I made that it will be mounted on when complete.
 
I got bored working on it, so for a change of pace I built a Dory to sit on the deck when complete.
 
Eddie

OK, I'm back. All the pictures previously shown gets us to the completion of the hull planking.
 
Here's some more pictures.
 
Eddie

More Pictures

Hi All,
 
Well I decided to try and do kind of a build log for the Benjamin W Latham by Model Shipways.
 
This will be my first wood ship build. But by no means my first wood kit build.
 
A little background before we get into the build. I'm a retired Design Engineer for a Civil Engineering firm. I build and fly RC Sailplanes and have built, designed and  scratch built numerous sailplanes. I love building, but I don't need anymore sailplanes or for that matter have room for them.
 
I wanted to build something else, and something with a bit of a challenge. I've always loved the old ships and square riggers, so I decided to build one to feed my hunger for building. I wanted something with a bit of a challenge, and with my sailplane building experience, I figured I could build an intermediate model as my first kit build. However my sailplanes have 10 foot and 11 foot wings compared to this whole ship that's only 24". So I definitely have a new challenge.
 
Now, I'm not trying to be a perfectionist or build this as 100% authentic. But something closer to maybe 90-95% authentic or per plans. I have made a couple changes to start with and a couple mistakes as well. So you purist out there, don't blow me out of the water.
 
The first and main thing I changed from the kit was the deck planking. The plans call for 1/16" wide strips for the deck planking. I've read and understand the reason the original Latham used narrower planks for the deck. But I just didn't like the looks of the narrow deck planks. So I decided to use 1/8" wide strips instead.
 
Also, I'm not going to build the Seine boat as part of the kit and display. But will build it separately and display it as a different kit.
 
I started the build a couple months ago and have been taking pictures as I go and have pretty much completed the hull, with the exception of a couple additional items that still need to be added. But basically I'm about to start with the build of the Masts and Spars. From this point on I'm totally lost as how to proceed and this is where the real challenge will begin.
 
Hopefully some of you out there can help me along with the rest of the build.
 
So I'm going to try and post pictures of what I've built so far and get you up to date before I continue building,
 
Any tips, ideas, suggestions, criticism etc is welcome. So please chime in. 
 
So my next post will be the beginning pictures of the build and I'll continue posting pictures to get you to where I am with the build to date. So here goes. Hope I can post the pictures.
 
Eddie

Thanks George....No kit but definitely some other parts....see this post in the build log.  But I havent ruled it out entirely.  I Never say never.
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8131-hm-cutter-cheerful-1806-148-scale-by-chuck/?p=244654

Thats not entirely true....if everyone thought I was nuts or off-base I wouldnt have.  Based on the even mix of opinions though,  I feel comfortable that folks wont say "what was he thinking".   So black and red it is.....the comments are a huge help actually. 
 
I am hopefully going to get the fashion pieces made and installed today and then the final layer of wales.
 
Chuck

Natural is the safe way to go.  I think I am a bit more adventurous than that.   So I will go with the Surly color scheme.  It will be interesting to see a few more with different paint schemes should any of you decide to build her as well.  Thats the fun part of this hobby.
 
But who knows,  I could change my mind tomorrow. 

I'll be contrary: Black and red!

I would vote for the the Surly paint scheme, the red looks great to me.

I am actually leaning towards the Surly paint scheme.   Black caprail and black sheer strip,  with red bulwarks and red counter.  But that can change,  This is always a struggle for me to decide.
 
Chuck

Hi Chuck,
 
I like your jdea to paint it. Then as we build our version we can fret about painting it or leaving it natural.

The planking above the wales is basically completed.  Just a few more planks to add on the port side as you can see.  I didnt bother simulating the caulking between the seams where it wont show.  So it looks a bit weird now.  But once the molding and second layer of the wales is added it will look fine.
 
You can only see a few places with a crisp line for the seams.  This was done by running a number two pencil down one plank edge.  If I did this on both plank edges it would have been too pronounced for my tastes.
 
I will plank the transom and counter next at the stern.  Its an interesting detail that in case of a cutter like this you dont plank the stern counter first.   The transom and counter are planked after the sides of the hull.   The exposed end-grain of the counter planking and transom planking will be protected from the elements and rot by the fashion pieces.   You can see them in the profile drawing.  So you will not see any of the end grain from the planking.  The frame for the square tuck also does this for the end grain of the planks.  Its an interesting feature and I almost forgot NOT to plank the counter first.  It is something I am so accustomed to doing.
 
Before I plank the stern transom and counter I have some shaping of the outer stern frames to do.  I will post pictures of this as well because its an important feature to keeping the finished model looking accurate.  So far its coming together quite well without any real issues.  Its a fun build so far.  You can start to see the final shape of the cutter come to life as the planking progresses.  I know the bulwarks look thick at this point but they will actually be thinned down quite a bit soon.  The outboard and inboard planking at the sheer was actually just 1 1/2" thick....once its planked inboard and out the final width will be just 1/8 - 5/32" thick at the most.   Closer to 1/8" thick I hope.
 

 

 

If you do a demo, have someone video it for the rest of us.
 
Bob