ZhangRenWing

Week 5 update: added 3 more strakes of planking on each side, filled the gaps and sanded them, and started work on hollowing out the upper gun deck gunports. To make the gunports, I first made an 8mm sized square jig from the styrene sheet I recently bought for the inner layer, then I laid the jig on the ship's plan and cut out the areas where the gunports should be. Then I tried to lay the plan on the ship to mark where the gunports should be. It did not work out very well as the plan was not designed to curve around the hull. I ended up using the ribs and the deck as a guide to mark out the individual gun ports. Next up: more planking, drilling, and cutting for the gunports.

Week 4 update: assembled all 20 cannon carriages, pre-bent a few planks for use, and made a jig for bending. I have to hand it to Billings because I am actually impressed with how bad their instructions are. They seem to have started including these laser cut sheets for the gun carriages at some point, but have decided that updating their instructions was too much work for them, so now you have to guess which parts goes where. Luckily the carriages have very few parts at just 6 per gun so there was not too much trouble there. The main issue I have are the gun trunnions and the wheel axles, which are not on the sheet and due to the lack of instructions, I had zero idea of what I am supposed to make them from. I ended up sanding down a bunch of scrap basswood I had from previous kits to avoid using wood I was not supposed to. With the gun carriages assembled, I can finally measure out the distance to attach the inner layer, and it seems like I would need to basically glue the inner layer directly behind the first layer. I decided to go buy some styrene sheets for the inner planking since I do not have enough scrap wood or plastic to make them. In the meantime I have painted the carriages and the wheels. Might have to paint a third layer along the edge to cover up the plywood layering. Lastly I created a jig with scrap plywood to bend planks length wise, which have so far been such a huge pain that I have only done the center planks which required little to none bending in that direction, hopefully this will speed up my planking process. Next up: inner layer planking.

Week 3 update: added 3 more strakes of planking on each side of the ship, sanded and blackened the cannons, finished shaping the stern gallery base, made the glass panels for the gallery, and started working on the transom. I was working my way down the main deck when I realized I couldn't tell quite finish planking the stern without the transom and gallery base in place. So I started making them instead of continuing planking. It looks kind of rough right now as balsa wood was not very happy with being sanded and I had to use a bunch of wood filler in the gaps joining the three balsa pieces. Should look better after the wood filler dries and I sand it smooth and paint it. Bending these pieces also proved to be a challenge, as they would not bend no matter how much I soaked and steamed them with soldering iron so I just superglue and wood glued them on to the balsa wood which was much easier to bend instead. According to the instructions and other build logs of this ship on this site, the cannons below decks are just glued straight into the hull planking with black paint being used to simulate the firing ports. I really do not like this idea and much rather cut out the gun ports and create a small recess for the guns to stick out from, to create a sense of depth. To achieve this, I plan to add a second inner layer of planking (probably using just whatever junk wood or plastic I can find, since it will be painted black anyway) behind the first layer, close to the waterline and above, which will serve as the base for the guns to stick out from. However, since the brass guns parts provided for the guns below deck are very short and only shows the protruding parts away from the ship, I need to get a sense of how far they would protrude when they are above deck, with the carriage shown. Here is a picture of what I have in mind, the inner second layer I plan to add is shown in orange. All this is to say I have decided to create at least a few guns assemblies for distancing the inner layer planks to mount the stubby guns. I first blackened the guns with some brass ager, but then I decided I really do not like the sharp edges around the bore of the guns and sanded them to be more rounded and smooth with a rotary tool and then blacked them again. Next up: carriage assembly for distancing.

Week 2 update: I have finished fairing the bulkheads and attached the deck and first hull plank. I had to remove the two upper structural beams because I glued them before I had test fitted the deck, and they would not fit. I also took a bit of time to identify and label every type of strips included in the kit. It was pretty much impossible to apply enough downward force to the beams as the glue dries while making sure the bulkheads are correctly spaced for the deck, so I ended up doing this using spring clamps. After I made sure the beams are dried and the bulkheads are correctly spaced this time, I glued the deck in place and held them down using a bunch of pennies I had collected. Then after a bit more hair tearing with bending the planking strips, I have finally attached the first plank on the ship. My speed is much slower than I was expecting, the combination of thicker planks and obeche being harder than basswood that I have experienced with in my two previous builds meant it was very difficult to bend them by soaking. I might have to buy an electric plank bender if I want to finish this build in any reasonable time as it took me nearly an hour to bend just two planks by soaking them over and over. I am also still not sure if I will have enough leftover planks to actually do the decking on the ship, might be forced to buy them as well.

Thank you, I did notice the other non-wooden ship sections of this forum but what attracted me to here from r/ModelMakers on Reddit was the wealth in wooden ship knowledge and experience. Billings now include a cast metal lion figurehead for this kit so I would be saving some work there; it's not as detailed as newly designed 3D-printed ones, but it will do. The instructions still say to carve out my own volutes for the decorative bulwark ends from the balsa blocks, however, so hopefully I will be able to manage that. I did consider the two other kits from the shipwright series at first, but decided on the 18th century longboat to practice instead as I preferred its looks.

Having recently finished my second wooden ship kit, I have started the long journey to build this Norske Love kit from Billing Boats that I bought on Model Expo for around 260 USD. I noticed a lot of build logs of this ship have seemingly been abandoned and I aim to not be one of them. Updates might be infrequent but I will try to post weekly on the weekends.  Before I did anything I firstly sanded away the laser scorch marks on the back sides of the wood sheets with 200-600 grit sandpaper, then I stained them with Minwax golden oak. The keel lumber provided was oddly bumpy and required sanding. Now for the problems I have with this kit: most importantly, the instructions are simply incomplete, and I am not talking about the sparse directions, but the fact that three entire laser cut sheets (1067L-A/B/C to be specific) were not labeled in the instructions at all, not even on the digital copies on Billing Boat's official website. I ended up finding a properly labeled copy of the instructions on Model Expo. Coming from a plastic modeler background where every single part was labeled on the sprue itself (meaning you did not have to flip between pages or write on the parts yourself) this was a huge disappointment right off the bat. Secondly, according to the instructions, the decks are to be made from 6 big laser cut parts, with pencil being used to mimic the deck's planking. I hope I am reading it wrong and the pencil was merely intended to be used as guide and that there will be enough wood for me to finish the planking. Lastly, the included blocks are all made from plastic, I read they have replaced these with wooden blocks in a different build log but evidently my kit was not new enough. As with the upsides, the kit does come with 4 sheets of A1 sized plans for the ship and sails which are also included. Enough yapping and I will just end the first post with the current progress after a whole weekend's work. Progress is rather slow because sanding plywood seems to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. Next up is fairing the bulkheads and getting her prepared for planking.

Thanks for the reply, I have finished the rigging using your suggested build log and the 1/24 armed longboat kit instructions. (can be found here MS1460_18_Century_Long_Boat_Assembly_Instructions.pdf) I ended up using a combination of halyard hitch, clove hitch, and overhand knots to finish the riggings. I originally wanted to try my hands at heaving line knots but found it too hard to tie at this scale.

Greetings, I have finally decided to join this forum after years of wanting to dip my toes into wood modeling. I have been in the plastic modeling scene since I was a kid and have finished quite a few plastic ship models, but for some reason it has never occurred to me to actually build wooden ships until this year. I have already finished the Model Shipway's Lowell Grand Banks Dory kit and is currently rigging up the 18th century long boat kit. I also have a Billing Boats Norske Love kit in my stash that I am hoping to start soon after learning the ropes with these two kits.

Greetings all. I am a newcomer to the hobby; I have recently completed the Model Shipway's Lowell Grand Banks Dory kit and have started work on their 18th century longboat. I have finished planking and painting the ship but have run into a major problem with rigging. The kit's instructions for rigging are somewhat basic for beginners so I have no clue what knots to tie for seizing the blocks to the boom and the horse. Any help and tips on rigging would be greatly appreciated. Renyun Zhang