Jump to content
MSW Spring Donation Drive

schooner

NRG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    641

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by schooner

  1. schooner
    Gary, no personal connection. Based on the photo in BlueJacket's catalog I assumed the kit only had the type of air search radar used on about half of the FRAMS so that narrowed my search down a bit (I found out they supply both types of radars). I remember a sailor on my first ship had served on the Basilone and thought she was a great ship, and her namesake was a great hero so I went with her. An added plus was that her former shipmate's website had a ton of photos which helped with the detailing.
  2. schooner
    The initial shaping of the hull is coming along pretty well, a small hull like this one is much easier to shape than a 2 or 3-footer. The are my go-to tools for this stage of the work. The mouse sander works well on most of the hull surface, the flap sanding wheel works well around the stern post, and the half-round file is needed to handle the stern knuckle and transom area. For those places where I get carried away this stuff works wonders as a filler. It comes from auto parts stores. It does not need to be mixed with a hardener, it dries quickly adheres well to the wood and sands easily. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you need to make it more than about 1/16" thick it is better to put on multiple layers -letting the previous ones dry. It needs air to dry and harden well. The bow and stern are at their final shapes: The overall length is in accordance with the plans: And the shaping of the hull is coming along at the individual stations (more work to though).
  3. schooner
    Gary, I'm going to be following along because this is such a nice looking ship. I enjoyed your build log of the Fannie G and learned a lot that will help me with my (just started) build of BlueJacket's ALFRED kit. At the rate you move along you will be done with this one before I've even finished shaping the hull!
  4. schooner
    It does come with planking, albeit a bit on the small size (.02 X 3/32) because of the scale and yes I would like to plank it, ideally the whole hull, including the inside of the bulwarks, but if that is too ambitious I'll just do the wales on up.
  5. schooner
    David - Glad to have you following along. I may need your advice when it comes to planking. That is an impressive list of completed models, I'm sure a solid hull build would be easy for you. Kevin - that is an incredible build of your St Nectan trawler! If I were crazy enough to try something at that scale I would have to go for something 8-10 ft long so I could sleep in it after my wife threw it, and me, out of house. I finished up the preliminary stuff that has to be done prior to making sawdust. The half hull lines have been cut out and pasted to cardboard, as have templates to shape the bow and stern and an overall template from the side view on the plans. There are some discrepancies between the bow/stern templates and the overall template, enough that to get them to fit at their specified station lines I would have to remove a lot of wood in some areas and add it in others. I decided to go with the overall plan and just use the bow & stern templates to guide shaping but not length on the model. The station lines, waterline, and caprail locations have been marked on the hull, as has the centerline (always more guesswork than technique for me but It looks OK). I'm going to have to build up the stern area with Bondo in order to get the proper shape and then it will be time to break out the electric sander and get to work. Note from further along in the build: As you shape the hull DO NOT sand the top of the bulwarks - after thinning my bulwarks I did a lot of measuring for the placement of the gunports and found that the height of the bulwarks, with the exception of the last 2-3 inches back aft, is spot on for their final height above the gun deck so my advice is to leave the tops alone at this point.
  6. schooner
    Kit Contents Upon opening the box the first thing that jumps out is the hull. It looks to be about 90-95% pre-carved which is great because hull-shaping is my least fun part of a build. The hull is carved down to the gun deck which leaves the option of leaving some planking off on the main deck to give a view of the gunlock - not sure yet if I will take that option. The hull can be planked or just painted - I'll try to plank it although it has been at least 10 years since I've planked a model - at least this one is small. There is a ton of strip wood, dowel and scribed decking. When I inventoried the kit I took the time to bundle together the various sizes of strip wood and label them - worth your while since some of them are very close is size and are very difficult to tell apart by eye. There is a nice PE fret which, thank God, includes a stern piece with all of the cabin window included - trying to build square windows that line up properly is beyond my talents. There is a lot of britannia metal fittings to include guns, deck furniture, blocks, deadeyes, cleats and lots of other stuff. A package of cordage and netting is included. The 57 page instruction book is full of photos and diagrams, and it includes tips on HOW to do things, including a good discussion on how to shape the hull. This is something not always found in advanced kits. Bluejacket rates this kit as "Advanced", 9 of 9 on their skill level rating, requiring "prior experience with more complex kits." This kit would not be a good first model for anyone, but if you have several kits under your belt, particularly involving planking and complex rigging then you could probably handle this one even if you have not tried a solid hull kit before but it would be best to call Bluejacket and talk to them about it. There are 2 sheets of plans including a rigging plan. Last but not least there is a set of flags and the quarterdeck cloths.
  7. schooner
    I'm going to be building a model of the Continental Navy Frigate ALFRED using Bluejacket's solid hull kit. The ALFRED was one of the first ships commissioned into the Continental Navy in 1775. Converted from a new merchant ship she was John Paul Jones' first ship. I picked this kit because I've never done a 3-masted ship model before, and as much as I would love to build a clipper ship I simply don't have room for it, or to be more precise, as far as my wife is concerned there is not enough room in our house for both me and a large cased sailing ship model. Bluejacket's ALFRED meets my needs perfectly because the completed model is only about 18 inches long and 13 inches high but is fully detailed and it will fit on one of my bookcase shelves. I need to point out that this kit is NOT a good choice for a first build. BlueJacket uses a 1-9 scale to rate the complexity of their kits and this one gets a solid "9". Before choosing this kit you should have experience working with a solid hull kit and also with sailing ship rigging - this one has as much as a clipper ship kit but on a hull that is only about 1/3 as long so the rigging it will be an adventure. If you think you might like this one I encourage to call BlueJacket and talk to them - they are very helpful and can assist you in your decision. My next post will show the kit's contents.
  8. schooner
    Great job!!! It has been a real pleasure (and a trip down memory lane) to watch this come together. The model is awesome, as is the base and case.
  9. schooner
    Jim, I drilled holes in the keel before glueing it in place, put the rod thru the keel so about 1/4 inch was projecting thru the top of the keel, put some pencil lead on the end of the rod pieces and pressed the keel into position, drilled into the hull at the pencil marks (more than 1/4") and then glued the keel in place -pressing the rod pieces into their holes. I could have drilled the holes thru the keel, glued it in place, drilled into the hull and then pressed the rods thru the keel and hull but I wanted to put as little pressure on the keel as possible. Holes/rod were about 1/16".
  10. schooner
    Simply amazing .....
  11. schooner
    Mike, An interesting fact about the ship SS Robert E. Peary is that of the more than 2700 Liberty Ships built she held the record for the shortest building time - 4 days, 15 hours from keel laying to launching! Of course it was a publicity stunt with a lot of prefabrication work and unlimited manpower but still that is an amazing accomplishment. I suspect that record has never been broken for any large ship built since. Below is a link to a 1-hour wartime movie about the shipyard where the Peary was built. If you advance it to the 9 minute 20 sec mark it will show the construction and launching of the Peary. Pretty impressive. Here's the link: (Link doesn't work - see next posting below - that one does)
  12. schooner
    Thanks Nic! My next one from y'all (as we say down here in NC) will probably be the ALFRED.
  13. schooner
    Lobster Pots and Done! The kit provides a mini-kit for 3 lobster pots, with strip wood, nylon mesh and line included. I stained the strip wood before assembly the glue wouldn’t prevent the stain from penetrating. I had some black florist’s mesh on hand so I used that in lieu of the kit’s white mesh and I substituted some larger line I had on hand. The pots went together without a problem - the floats are scratched from plastic. The name letters are stick-on vinyl lettering for my granddaughter’s name. The home port lettering are dry transfers from the kit So with the addition of the pots this build is done. The “Pros” for this kit as I see them are: As advertised, this is a good kit for a first time solid hull build, there is enough shaping to learn how to do it but it is not too complicated Size - This kit will easily fit on a bookshelf Details - just enough and the ones provided are not too delicate to stand up to dusting so this model really does not need to be cased. This build is 99.9% out of the box, the only scratch details I added were the lobster pot floats and the protective stripping on the hull under the pot davit (a lot of boats have them and I thought it would make it look a little more “lobster-boaty”) No “Cons” as far as I am concerned. Altogether an easy and enjoyable build.
  14. schooner
    Thanks Chuck! A compliment from Dear Leader is greatly appreciated.
  15. schooner
    Detailing Now that the painting is done things are moving along pretty quickly. Some of the interior details include the engine cover, instrument panel, engine controls etc. The instructions call for mounting the compass and engine controls on the dash after the windows are installed but it is pretty cramped up there under the roof so I put them in earlier so I could reach thru the window openings to position them. The gages are just a photo from the internet downsized and covered with acetate. When I inventoried the kit upon receiving it I noted that there was sheet plastic for the window - I just assumed it was acetate but it is actually 1/16 inch plexiglass which looks a lot more realistic. It is cut to shape using the window cutouts saved for that purpose. The plexiglass can be cut with a saw to rough shape and then sanding to its final dimensions. They do not have to fit perfectly because the joints will be covered with mahogany strips.
  16. schooner
    Taner, you have an interesting build going on here. I have never seen bulkheads like the ones in this kit - should make a very nice model. Keep up the good work.
  17. schooner
    Nice work Keith, it's a pleasure to see this come along. WRT one of your earlier posts regarding the cannon, I'm pretty sure that was a boat howitzer, small enough that it could be hoisted into a boat and carried ashore with a landing party and then moved around on land by hand. If you have every watched a Navy football game on television, they have one that they fire after every touchdown. They are solid brass and look good - as does your model. Keep up the good work.
  18. schooner
    Painting It’s been a while since my last post but it is not because I have not been doing much - it is just that painting this thing is a slooooow process. The kit provides most of the needed colors (the primer supplied is white, not gray, so the cockpit deck was painted with my own primer). The brand provided for all of the colors is True North Precision Enamels, a brand I was not familiar with. For anyone who builds this kit my best advice for painting is if you are good with a airbrush (I’m not) use it. If you brush on the paint as I did make sure to thin it and be patient. It takes about 5 coats to cover white primer and the first 3 look really bad with lots of bleed thru and brush marks. Coats 4 and 5 look a lot better. The paint is also relatively slow to dry so doing 5 coats of each color explains why this took me so long. The white boot topping is kit-supplied pin striping tape. I followed the painting sequence in the instructions and they seemed the most logical way to go about the painting. I did deviate from the kit instructions in the following areas: There are 2 colors of green supplied, both are supposed to be mixed with white or each other to match the colors on the real-world RED BARON. Since I am not building the RED BARON but a generic lobster boat I did not bother mixing the paints - if you do your greens will look different from mine. I used gloss Krylon red enamel spray paint on the hull because I wanted some gloss as some relief from all the rest of the flat paint. That may not be “realistic” but I like the look and since the model will not be cased it will be easier to dust. The instructions recommended using the pin stripe tape to mark the waterline for painting. I did not use it for that, preferring some Tamiya masking tape I had on hand. Next up will be the lettering and then the addition of the details which should go pretty quickly.
  19. schooner
    Should be a great build, looking forward to following along.
  20. schooner
    Looks to be a great looking build
  21. schooner
    Nice looking Pigs and Otters!
  22. schooner
    Finishing up the hull The window frames went in OK after a little sanding and adjusting. The inner roof is also on with 3 curved pieces on top that will impart some camber to the top of the roof. Lots of filling and sanding done and more to go. At this point all of the structural work is finished. The 1-piece ply deck is in place, the sheer guards around the top edge of the hull and the toe rails around the outer edge of the deck are also done. There are 3 pieces of coaming around the edge of the well and the pilothouse roof is in place. After a little more sanding and priming it will be time to paint everything.
  23. schooner
    Assembling the cabin The 2 cabin sides and the aft cabin bulkhead hook together with tabs. It took a fair amount of sanding and carving to get the bulkhead flush against the cabin formers. An important step is to do plenty of dry fitting of all 3 pieces to ensure the forward ends reach to the proper point on the deck - any adjustment or trimming of one piece will require adjustments on the other 2. Bottom line: I spent a lot more time than I had planned on what I thought would be a simple step. The cabin top went on easily. The piece of ply laying on it between the raised portion of the sides it the former for setting the angle and slope of the window frames. The instructions recommend leaving the cut-outs in the window frames for support until all the work in the area is done.
  24. schooner
    Smooth sanding the hull I’ve got a new BFWF!! (Best Forever Wood Filler) I went to Auto Zone to pick up some more Bondo for a wood filler. They did not have any but they did have this stuff so I thought I would try it. It’s Great! Unlike Bonds there is no need to mix in any hardener - just squeeze a little where you need it and spread it around with your finger tip. It adheres to the wood as well as Bondo, dries pretty quickly and sands as easy as the bass wood. Nice stuff. After using sandpaper, primer and the wood filler to get the hull as smooth as possible I attached the keel. A little sanding on it’s mating surface was needed to get it to lay on the hull, in contact all along its length without having to apply pressure. After gluing it in place I thought I had better pin it because I could see myself breaking it off while working on the deck. I drilled 4 holes thru the keel and about 1/4” into the hull and filled them with tight-fitting brass rod. The joint feels very strong now. With the keel in place I was able to sand it and the bow fair and then go thru the smoothing process again. My last addition was the 3 pieces of ply that will shape the forward cabin and serve as its interior bracing. The deck has not been smoothed because it will be covered by a piece of laser cut ply.
  25. schooner
    Nice build! Great painting. Mind if I ask how did you paint the bridge windows? Did you hand brush them with dark paint and then go back and touch up the frames with haze gray?

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...