fifthace

Good afternoon. Before starting on the main build, I wanted to get another of the smaller tasks out of the way. The first of four Anchors. I won't write much on this, the photographs tell the story quite well. Thanks for looking in.

Good Morning from a non-EU Scotland. More work on the launch.Had another coat of white after the stabilizers were added. Then masked off for the upper colour. I lightly brushed this on and then used an airbrush for the rest. I did end up with a slight bleed so had to mask the top off once it was dry and redo the white. That's it for the launch for now as I have gone as far as I can with the parts available.

Good afternoon. More progress on the launch. After removing the launch from the jig and sanding down the ribs, I began work on the outer hull. I started by giving a light coat of grey primer to help me see the areas that needed work first, then began the process of filling and sanding and filling and sanding. I didn't want to go for a perfectly smooth finish, these boats were made of wood not fibreglass. The final coat of filler was diluted and brushed on. After I was happy with the hull I began with the colour coats. Started with a mist base coat and gradually added very very light coats to build up the paint. Took about 4 very light coats in the end, lightly sanding between them. I've not put the final topcoat on yet as I needed to fit the stabilizers. Thanks for looking in.

Good afternoon. Continuing with the Launch. I finished assembling the frames onto the jig, and after some rather delicate fairing, (and only breaking one rib), I started on the planking. Pretty straight forward job. I did give the inside of each plank a light sand first just to make things easier further on in the build. Once finished, I brushed on 1:1 diluted PVA to help seal the planks, and then a light coat of Admiralty matt white so make seeing the area's need filling easier to see. Today, I applied white wood filler over the entire hull, and begun the process of sanding/filling/sanding...and repeat. Still have some work to do around the Bow, but will know more once I've been able to apply a light undercoat. Thanks for looking in.

Ahh ok. Yes that was the original partwork I had got part way through previously. If you need any pointers let me know, as there are a few things they didn't point out in the build instructions, particularly with the frame for the launch.

Thanks. Fabby, are you doing the 12 month one as well then ?

Hello again folks. I've been away for a while, life and work gets in the way sometimes. However, Fathers day has just been (UK) and I got a pleasant surprise. A new subscription to Deagostini's Sovereign of the Seas and a new Dremmel to go with it Some of you might recall me mentioning I was building this particular one before. I was, as a 3 year part work. Things didn't go according to plan and...well we won't go there. The advantage of that though, is for a good portion of the series I know what is to come, what to avoid, where to correct my first attempt...not to mention a lot of spare parts The first thing I wanted to do before actually commencing the build was to correct the way I made supports in the keel for attaching to the base further down the line. (Remember me saying we won't go there...). So a quick visit to the hardware store I picked up some steel threaded bolts with square nuts. There are easier to fit into the keel. Before starting on the main build, I wanted to build up the two cannons that came with the first months pack. Previously, I collected the cannons to make them in batch. However I found, personally, that I ended up focussing on the overall project of making 10 or 20 cannons at once, instead of looking at each individual cannon as a project. I am hoping the results this way will be better. Not really a lot to say about this, sanded/smothed/painted the sides whilst still in the fret. I used Ensign red instead of Red Ochre as I found it a brighter colour. As there is no hard and fast historical data on the ship, I used artistic licence and will continue to do so throughout the build. I also primed and painted the cannon itself and the wheels. Strictly speaking the cannon should be bronze, as per cannons of the era, but I stuck with a satin black. Then it was simply a case of removing the truck from the fret, sanding the edges and then assembling it before giving it a final coat. Another advantage of having previously built this/having a 12 month sub is again, being able to skip ahead and see what is to come. I knew I would be having to drill holes for the eyelets, and would rather do this before the truck was assembled. Finally, I put everything together and made the first parts of the tackle to go with them. With pack one came the first parts for building the ships launch. I always like these from Deagostini as they are almost like mini kits. The first time I did this didn't turn out too bad, but I knew I could improve on it by tweaking the order in which I did things. The first change was sanding/smothing/painting the ribs before fitting to the assembly jig. I've started on assembling the frames...and that's where I am upto so far Thanks for looking in.

Hiya Kevin. I took a break from this to build a car. (Don't ask lol) I have just dug her back out though so will be resuming work on her shortly.

Afternoon all. Sorry such a delay between posts, I've not been able to achieve very much due to illness and inconsiderate children getting in the way haha. I've made a start on the long process of coppering the hull, not much to show just yet though...

Evening. I've finished all the lower gunports and this afternoon I masked off and sprayed the lower hull, first with a primer then black upto the first yellow band. Few areas need touching up as the last pic shows, but nothing major.

Keith, forgive if preaching to the choir on this, but frog tape to mask, then paint again with the colour you are masking to help "seal" the masking tape, then once dry apply your second colour.

Yes I agree there is an awful lot of black on this one

That was my original plan as well but I am tempted to brush on the black...

Thanks Kevin. I've decided where it comes to painting/linging the gunports and painting the ships sides, I am going to work deck by deck. It just breaks up the work a little for me. I've applied two coats of Admiralty Yellow Ochre to the lowest gun deck, allowing more than is needed so the black bands can go over after masking. Is she yellow with black stripes though, or black with yellow stripes...? I've also used filler to extend the whales into the q-galleries.

Hello. I've corrected the upper whale on one side, again as with the lower ones was quite a simple fix, I was even able to trim the lower edge off cleanly enough to be able to make use of it along the upper edge. I know pics below are from opposite sides, but they were both the same with the same fault, so show the difference before and after so far:

Kevin yes I think that was my mistake as well. I did try to take into account the plans were flat etc but clearly not enough. I was pretty much taking a reference point and holding a straight ruler and using line of sight to mark...how I ever thought that would end well is beyond me lol Gary it does, thanks. Confirmation is key. *sigh* Means I have yet more trimming/filling to do

Thanks Kevin, looking at that mine are about 2mm too low amidships. The lower edge of mine touches the upper edge of the middle row of gunports, where as yours are above them by about 2mm(ish). Gives me a better frame of reference to go by, thanks.

Thanks Jerry. I did think afterwards that the curious way the yellow bands are painted might have the effect of lessening out that curve, and maybe it is because it is unpainted that I am thinking it looks wrong. Now someone else has basically said the same thing, makes me feel better. Cheers.

Afternoon. I've finished adding the whales on either side, and on one side so far tidied them up, partly filled any cracks although not completely. (The real thing isn't made of fibreglass after all). Obviously I still have a lot of work to do on the ports...but I would like opinions on the upper whale. To me it looks too low in the centre. It measures up correctly going by the planks but still to me it looks too curved? Could just be optical illusion based on the direction one looks at it, I don't know.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. It actually wasn't as much of a chore as I thought it was going to be. Trimming the lower edge was easy, for the most part the strip came off with little damage to the underlying planking. I think filling the resulting gap on the upper portion was the most fiddly, and will no doubt need redoing before work on the hull is finished. Pics below. Needless to say everything is looking rather rough at the moment.

Greetings all. I've been busy the last few, though not very much of it on ship. And I've managed to make a glaring mistake on an area which has always plagued me. Will bring you upto date first, no pics sorry. I've added the eyelets for the cannon tackle on the upper gun deck, only the 8 that were lined as the rest won't be visible so I have no plans on rigging them. Continued the outer planking upto the lower edge of the upper ports. Now it came to the lower whale. I spent so much time focussing on getting the run smooth and not to dip at the bow or go up and down as I have had on previous builds, that somehow I managed to completely mis-measure its position. The pictures below show where they are currently, and the pencil marks show where it was meant to be. You can see I had already corrected their run a little at the bow, and I still didn't notice they were out of position. It was only when I began planing the middle whale that I noticed they were wrong. My plan to correct them is simple: Trim the lower edge to where it is meant to be, and sand back smooth. The upper egde is a little more tricky. First, I have to add another layer over the upper strip to bring it out to the same thickness as the rest of the whale, then I will add the thinner strip in it's correct position. This will leave me a gap between the two, which I plan on using filler to bridge. (Thank goodness this ship is painted!) And so ends the theory...

Good morning. Over the last few days I have been working on the inner bulwarks still. Basic planking, followed by lining the lidless ports. Painting. Then adding a few extra details, the waterways and ceilings. Finally followed by filling a few cracks that had crept in and repainting.

With the gun ports lined I have started planking the inner bulwarks. I pre-painted the lowest one before fitting to make keeping the crisp line between deck and bulwark easier, as masking would be difficult due to the upper supports just getting in the way. The remaining planks will be painted after fitting.

With the inner patterns fitted I started lining the gunports. Apart from the strip being quite brittle was a fairly straight forward task. Was a bit of filling needed here and there although on these ones the planking covers them so not really required.

lol it's perfectly fine bud. I just thought you were comparing progress