wefalck

It is not a boat from the Adriatic, but rather from the coast of Campania down to Sicily (as is written on the box). The kit seems to be based on a Napoletan paranzella, plate 27 of Paris' 'Souvenirs de la Marine'.

More information on these boats from the western coast of Italy can be found (p. 164-167) in this book:
 
BELLABARBA, P., GUERRERI, E. (2003): Vele italiane della costa occidentale dal Medioevo al Novecento.- 277 p., Milano (Editore Ulrico Hoepli).

And here it is. Very old and very nice Wood.

Ok. The foam base warps and needed to re glued to the base. I got some bollards and drilled holes through them to run chains. Added the two lamps. I have spent weeks. Painting up little filler pieces to go onto the base. The story will hopefully be self evident when it’s all over. 

I’m really not happy with the hands on two of the figures and will probably amputate them and replace with something a little more looking like hands and not plastic blobs. I’ll have black oil pouring into the engine 

I am not an engineer, but I have a bit of an engineer's mind and my natural tendency would be to work off drawings and measurements taken off drawings. However, I realised that 'as built' is never 'as drawn' - and was never so in the world of real ship building. So it is a good idea to fit new pieces in situ to parts already existing. I kind of learned this, when I was working together with professional builders on renovating our house. They never cut wood according to the drawings, but always took the real measurements from the parts already in place.
 
Having said that, I think my strategy would have been to first build the breastwork structure with its stanchions and rails and then fit the decorative lattices into the resulting spaces ...

Absolutely - getting a cohesive colour 'mood' is not easy, preventing individual figures or props from sticking out visually 👍🏻

Absolutely - getting a cohesive colour 'mood' is not easy, preventing individual figures or props from sticking out visually 👍🏻

These seem to be nice kits. I think I have seen some finished when I attended modelling exhibitions during my Vienna years in the early 2000s. I actually met then the guy behind Wiener Modell-Manufaktur (https://www.wmm.at).
 
 

This column of wide doors with a hoist above is a common feature on warehouses, mills and any place that needs to hoist material to different floors. In the Netherlands, Northern Germany and the Baltic States, one finds such hoists even on private houses, as staircases were often too narrow to bring in furniture or let alone pianos.

Absolutely - getting a cohesive colour 'mood' is not easy, preventing individual figures or props from sticking out visually 👍🏻

I am not an engineer, but I have a bit of an engineer's mind and my natural tendency would be to work off drawings and measurements taken off drawings. However, I realised that 'as built' is never 'as drawn' - and was never so in the world of real ship building. So it is a good idea to fit new pieces in situ to parts already existing. I kind of learned this, when I was working together with professional builders on renovating our house. They never cut wood according to the drawings, but always took the real measurements from the parts already in place.
 
Having said that, I think my strategy would have been to first build the breastwork structure with its stanchions and rails and then fit the decorative lattices into the resulting spaces ...

Absolutely - getting a cohesive colour 'mood' is not easy, preventing individual figures or props from sticking out visually 👍🏻

Perseverance. Camaraderie.  These are the ties that bind us to each other, and to our projects in-hand.  As always, many thanks to all who continue to persevere here.
 
Small update.  They’re all small these days, but chipping away.
 
I will say that it is always remarkable to me that no matter how scrupulously I draw something, and use straight edges to scribe the lines into plastic, while also accounting for the half-width of the blade-to-point (and the half-width of the drawn line) - there are always WILD discrepancies from the drawings, in the cut parts.
 
It is essential, IMO,  to make the actual parts fit the initial drawing, because the pattern/drawing is based directly on the actual deck camber; minuscule discrepancies in angle-to-post will create gaps between panel and rail that are much more difficult to remedy, given my sub-assembly approach to building these breast rails.
 
Here are my panels laid as carefully over the drawing as I can, after they’ve been parted on the lines with a razor-sharp chisel:

One has to account for the shortcomings of phone-photography - which does not provide a truly flattened perspective in close range, however, it is evident in the picture above that there are overlaps, and angle-to-post inconsistencies that would make a final glue-up far less than ideal.
 
My advice to anyone that reads this will be to trust the quality of the initial pattern that you make.  Base all of your geometry on that.  Shape your parts as closely as you can.  You will have FEWER surprises on assembly.
 
Part of what is happening here is that I am paring to a line with a really sharp chisel through soft plastic that is less than 1/16” thick.  I am squaring that chisel intuitively by eye.  I am careful to always leave less than 1/32” for my final paring cut to the line.  And.  And, yet.  The chisel will still drift to an out-of-square cut.
 
I say all of this to say, that fitting these small panels to a drawing:

is a process of consolidation; of checking and re-checking against the drawing; a little from the lower left corner; a little from the top right.  Oh, and the central panel does require some actual camber along the top and bottom surfaces.  A very little here, and a very little there, and eventually I have arrived at a reasonable bet for sub-assembly:

I will note that the central “Soleil Royal” badge is, in actuality, 1/64” off center.  I point it out only to highlight that this is what the eye can perceive.  In this instance, it is a consequence of process and bonding.
 
I’m using C/A to bond BONDO to plastic.  The window for placement is limited.  I managed to get the top/bottom spacing right.  In the end, after all is said and painted, and posts are in-place - the discrepancy will hardly be noticeable.  There is too much else for the eye to focus on for it to matter.
 
Next, I will make the knee/post supports.
 
On what I think is a helpful side-note:
 
I wish good mental health to all.  On a personal note, I am finding it harder and harder to remain grounded.  Take a breath.  Visit a friend, in person.  And, take faith that better days will prevail.  At some point, they will.  These are my steps forward.
 
If any of you feel similarly, please know that you are not alone.  Take care of yourselves, MSW/SOS.
 
BTW, I am not on any kind of brink or ledge.  I have too much to live for, and plastic Soleil Royal is the least of it😜  I am simply acknowledging that what is happening in the world is really stressful;  I think, to the vast majority of people.
 
Things will probably still get worse for a while, but they will eventually get better.  I think this way because the MAJORITY of people, and what they need and think still matters.  It does, and it always will.
 
I like to think that there is a path forward where the modern  “information age” actually limits potential bad outcomes.
 
I’m going to go with that!  There is always an open ear, h’ear for anyone “having a moment.”
 
Take care of yourselves, friends.
 

100% agreed to all, above.  I forgot about patience, but that is a big one!

Back to the dio 

I think I said something like that before, but I love those 'shanty-boats' (as in shanty-towns), these improvised thingies of a kind, one would have rarely seen anymore in regulated early 20th century Europe.
It also shows a kind of live that has largely disappeared since the 1950s, where whole families were living on workboats and where husband and wife (and possibly children) shared the work.
 

Nice cabinet-maker's work 👍🏻
 
I gather you milled the mould from some plastic cutting-board? Gives me some ideas, as in a future project I would need some deep-buttoned cushions ...

Nice cabinet-maker's work 👍🏻
 
I gather you milled the mould from some plastic cutting-board? Gives me some ideas, as in a future project I would need some deep-buttoned cushions ...

Didn’t you treat the wood first with some filler? Otherwise that seems like an expensive procedure …
 
Nice progress, btw.
 

Nice cabinet-maker's work 👍🏻
 
I gather you milled the mould from some plastic cutting-board? Gives me some ideas, as in a future project I would need some deep-buttoned cushions ...

Eberhard
 
Yes - an old kitchen cutting board, nice and flexible to ease extraction. Fabric mesh embedded in the paster to prevent breakage while extracting. The board was cut with a ball nose end mill.

Nice cabinet-maker's work 👍🏻
 
I gather you milled the mould from some plastic cutting-board? Gives me some ideas, as in a future project I would need some deep-buttoned cushions ...

Thank you Pat.
 
I am moving along with the owners cabin.
 
There is a nice little dressing table between the lockers on the forward bulkhead.

I started with the top / draws milled form a solid piece of mahogany.

The legs have a bit of brass work.


The base is likewise milled from solid.

the handles are brass pin heads.

I needed door handles. I had some 0.1" brass balls but these need to be drilled to take a shaft. I put  piece of brass in the lathe and centre drilled it to form a cone. The balls were glued into the cone and then drilled with a .040" drill.
 

I then got on with the rest of the panels. The bed has various draws.
 
And there are cupboards on the starboard wall.

The bed has a quilt but I am simplifying it. I keep reminding myself that most to this will be hidden below deck with only a very small skylight for viewing. I made a mould and cast the quilt in plaster.

I now have most of the bits I need so assembly staring tomorrow.

 

 

Didn’t you treat the wood first with some filler? Otherwise that seems like an expensive procedure …
 
Nice progress, btw.
 

These seem to be nice kits. I think I have seen some finished when I attended modelling exhibitions during my Vienna years in the early 2000s. I actually met then the guy behind Wiener Modell-Manufaktur (https://www.wmm.at).