mbaryckyj

I am starting to build this boat and I have a few ideas.. a completely furniched Captain's room, opening doors, wood windows and adding a deck where the second row of cannons is located, so instead of just closed cannon doors, one will be able to look inside and see a deck with cannons and hopefully lanterns. I have built a mast for the "lifeboat". I also plan to have a real light in the great big lantern on the stern. This means figuring out where to perform some surgery on the formers. I also want to build real decks a la Skipjack, intead of using the supplied plywood decks. 

I have the following AL kits: Bluenose 2, Swift, King of the Missippi and SF2. I have also built a Corel kit.

The instructions are lacking in many details for bothe the AL kits and the Corel kit, however, the instructions for the SF2 kit are about the most detailed I have seen. The Bluenose instructions were very difficult to understand and read. For a beginner's kit, I would have expected the Swift instructions to be more detailed.

I would say that prices for all kits from the various manufactureres are about the same and that there are definintely deals to be found on the internet.

I would like to see either Model Expo or Bluecrafter make kits of tall ships like the Lynx and the Clearwater.

Finally, this site is great for reviewing other peoples' builds and ideas at making this hobby fun and enjoyable. I make a habit of checking this site at least once a day.

Richard: Thanks for getting back to me regarding the various hinges. Your build looks terrific. I am working on this boat as well but I do not have any pictures to show.I made small beds as well from old cloth. I think I will put real port and starboard lights.

Someday I hope to scale up this model and add R/C equipment.

How did you build the hinges?

How did you build the steering gear? 

My biggest problem with this kit is the instructions. They are very clear up to the framing part, but it seems that anything after that point is up to the builder to figure out- for example the steering wheel box- no instruction on how to build it.