SiriusVoyager

Welcome to MSW!

The second capstan is now installed. I basically made it the same way as the upper capstan but with the added shaft atop. Next is making the buckets for the shot. This again required either painting the iron bands on or making them from an index card. The bands on the buckets were much more pronounced which would have likely required me to sand them down had I made the bands out of card. Because of how pronounced they were, it was much easier to tape them off and paint them compared to the barrels. One bucket had a drilling error, but it was serviceable and won't be visible when placed in the middle of the gun deck. I used CA glue to hold the shot in place, then lightly painted them to make them look more like iron. I believe that all that is left now is the mast and rigging. I started working on the crows nest. Part of the frame required quite a bit of resizing to fit properly but was otherwise straight forward. One of my frustrations with this kit is that any removal of char in the notches causes the fittings to be loose (except for the grating which was very tight even with char removed). It would be nice if char removal was taken into account when sizing the laser cut pieces.

For the ladders, I didn't want to install them the way they are shown in the instructions. The slope is nowhere near realistic, even for normal stairs. To make them more steep, and to face for and aft, I decided that they will extend from the opening in the grating to just clearing the grating below. I used some trigonometry (who says you will never use math) and figured out the angle which was almost 65 degrees. My miter box has an angle of 65.7 degrees, which I figured would give me a pretty good angle. The first ladder I eyeballed the steps to try and make them parallel to the deck. For the second ladder I made a wedge at 65.7 degrees to hold the steps. I also measured the ladder railing by simply holding it up to the deck below. It is apparent which ladder used the wedge in the photo below. I also started laying the base for the second capstan.

Welcome to MSW!

Very nice looking vessel!

The instructions are available on AL's website here EDIT: I linked the instructions rather than the actual page they are on, so if you click on it it will go straight to the PDF download.

Bundles of spare rope are also now competed. I simply wrapped the coiled thread around a dowel and two pieces of tie thread. I then tied them while still on the dowel. This made making them pretty quick and easy. After sliding them off I added a little diluted PVA to hold everything together. I also assembled the bilge pump, of which the parts were painted earlier. At this point I could start putting the furniture in the ship. I also added the gun port hatches on the gun deck. A little touch up painting was required but nothing major.

Welcome to MSW!

Working on more decorations. Mostly painting barrels. I started out trying to freehand paint it hoping I could keep the brush on the raised edges of the barrels. That didn't work well. So I went to masking. It was better, but trying to mask around a curved and tapered barrel still left a few areas where paint made it into small gaps. Finally I decided, why not just make bands. I took an index card, painted part of it black, and cut off strips for bands. This was much easier but then I noticed that the side of the strip is still white after putting them on the first barrel. Once the edges were painted it looked fairly good. The above photo you can see on the left where I tried to free hand on top and paint with tape on bottom. Using tape is definitely better. In the center you can tell the edges of the bands are white. On the right is the barrel with the bands painted on the edges. I like how that turned out and I think it took less time than trying to add and remove masking tape for every band. All barrels finished I also added more ties to the supply bundles.

Very nice looking model!

Thanks! There are fun aspects with this kit but as I work on it, I realize there is also a lot to be desired with it. It was relatively inexpensive though and it is serving its purpose.

Looks amazing!

All eight guns are now installed. The trickiest part was getting the guns to stay in place. On the one side of the weather deck I added a small piece of wood under guns that wouldn't be visible. On the other sides I simply glued them to the bulwarks with PVA. On the gun deck I glued one wheel to the deck and the gun to the bulkhead. I used the dreaded CA there. For the rings to attach the breech line and tackle I used two methods. On the weather deck I drilled holes and bent the stems to hold the rings in place. On the gun deck, I glued the rings to the deck and bulkheads. I also made a few sacks of supplies for decorations. To add some randomness I made them with different numbers of ropes wrapped around them, but I think I will go back and make them more uniform after seeing the photos here.

I don't think it's ruined and is probably a fairly easy fix. The frames do look like they could be out of order. I think @Nirvana has a good point and that would be a good place to start. It is hard to tell from the pictures if the frames are really square or not, but they don't appear to be too far off. The easiest way to square them is to hold them in place with something that is perfectly square. I use legos. It also looks like there is a lot of char that has been stained over. Make sure everything is beveled properly and that may help as well if the frames are in the correct places. If all else fails you can shim up the edges of the frames. Just be very careful to make make it look nice since the frames are visible in an open boat. As far as removing the frames, a small paint brush with isopropyl alcohol and a hobby knife can actually separate them more quickly than you would probably expect (assuming you used PVA glue).

Great job! The boat looks good! Any ideas for your second build?

Welcome to MSW!

I got a small blowtorch from Walmart for about $25. It is well worth the investment if you plan on building more.

Almost all of the info you need is really in the photos. You can download English instructions Here

You could print the names on paper, trim them out with a hobby knife then use then as a stencil on name plates.

Great job on the Palamos! I think you should be pretty happy with the result. As far as the brass around the paddles at the stern, did you anneal it prior to drilling? I did break quite a few drill bits trying to get through those strips, even with the brass annealed.

I have decided that I cannot have a gun deck with no guns, so I will get them in, one way or another. More on that below. Making the hatch grating was tricky. It would have been nice if the pieces fit together perfectly, but the notches aren't quite wide enough. I tried using a metal file, but it was breaking the 'teeth' too often. Fortunately the kit supplies many extra pieces. I eventually found that flossing the 'teeth' with a piece of sand paper folder over twice was wide enough to work. It still wasn't sanding quite evenly, but I was able to get it together. Making one grating should be enough for both decks after some trimming. I cut the opening for the ladder to slightly different dimensions than in the instructions because I am going to make the ladder face forwards and have a steeper slope. Now for the gun deck. Using every ounce of patience I could muster, long tweezers, gravity and that blasted CA glue, I was able to finagle 3 of the guns into place so far. The two guns more in the middle were really the tricky ones. The one on the end wasn't so bad, so once I get the fourth gun rigged, it should go in pretty easily.

Thanks Chuck, I hope you do better than I. Definitely don't follow the order of the instructions and otherwise just take your time. Do everything deck by deck since placing everything, especially the guns, will be much easier. The CD has the instructions in PDF and JPG format. There are also a couple of videos showing how to make mast parts. I downloaded the instructions from the AL website and saved them to my phone so that I don't have to have my computer right there all of the time.

What phone and browser are you using?

As I have spent more time working on the guns, I came to the realization that I should have followed my instinct and not installed the decks first. I cannot figure out a good way to properly install the guns on the gun deck. At least not without making a mess of CA glue. I was quite frustrated about it and decided that it wasn't worth the time, effort and frustration it would cause me so I am going to simply leave the guns off of the gun deck and have the guns ports closed. I may try placing them later but for now, I don't see a good way to do it. In the mean time, I will work on the guns for the weather deck. The instructions come in two parts. The first part had written descriptions. The second part is essentially only photos with no explanations. For the guns, it simply shows where they go, not how it is intended to mount them. The resolution isn't good enough to tell how the rigging is supposed to be attached to the bulwarks. I didn't want to use CA glue as it looks terrible, so I drilled small holes and bent the eyelets around to hold themselves into place. The instructions call for drilling the eyelets into the side of the gun mounts. I decided to simply glue them to the bottoms as it will look the same and won't be seen. I also added a small piece of wood to make it easier to glue the gun to the deck. I made my inhaul tackle a too long and now it conflicts with the capstan. I redid the inhaul tackle so it would fit a little better, but it still gets into the way of the capstan footing. The tackle is attached to an eyelet with the stem bent under the deck to hold it in place. Holes drilled for the rings to attach the outhaul tackle and breech lines. This is actually the second gun installed, but it is the one with more documentation. First gun installed. The inhaul tackle is longer, but not in the way of anything.

Thank you!