BLACK VIKING

This photo shows a boxwood trim piece being glued to the bottom edge of the port beak head side panel. The starboard panel and trim piece is shown above it.
 

 
More to follow..........

It has been a few years since I have started a build log or worked on a model ship. There are many things I will need to re-learn. I noticed the ad banner for Marisstella Models on Model Ships World's home page and found this model of a Ragusian Carrack. I emailed the company, and Zoran Pavlocic' replied. The process went smoothly. I ordered and paid by PayPal, and 12 days later the mailman dropped off the package.
 

 
The model box was packaged inside a sturdy cardboard box.
All the material is top quality. I'm very impressed.
 

 

 

 
The sails have already been stitched.
 

 
Directions are in English
 
.
 
The building will start tonight, and I will have pictures tomorrow. It looks like I need to learn how to take pictures with my iPhone.

Hi all
This is my first post on this forum as I am merely a 13 month newbie. I bought my first kit 13 months ago and just happened to be the Corel, Victory, so thought it fitting to make comment.
I found the written instructions near on useless for me as they are way to vague. The only useful items in the instruction book is the parts list. The drawings are exceptional though.
I have studied them over and over while putting her together. As much as I study them, I still find that I see new things 2 weeks after I have incorrectly completed parts of my ship.
Although I have made many mistakes, I try and make it look as 'only I know about them'. I am nearly completed planking the second layer of planks now, with all 3 decks planked also. Bow sprit also affixed.
Everywhere I read, it stated I shouldn't start with this model as it is hard to do, especially the corel. But the way I look at it, after I finish her in hopefully 12-18 months time, I will have enough experience to tackle almost any ship I want.

Thanks, everyone!
 
I entered the longboat in this year's Midwestern Model Ships & Boats Contest and Display at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI.  This was the 40th annual contest and was absolutely fantastic.  In addition to the regular model contest, we had a Masters Competition for Gold Award-winning models from prior years.  Talk about some amazing work!
 
It's so much fun to get together with other modelers, see their work and learn how they achieve the results they do.  I thoroughly enjoyed this year's event and would recommend it to anyone who can make his or her way to Manitowoc, even if you don't enter a model in the competition.  
 
And, yes, my longboat won a Gold Award!  
 
 
Dan
 

In order to gauge the size of the Satyr carvings, I decided to prepare the side panels of the beak including capping the sides with a boxwood rail. This required bending the cap to the curve of the side with a brass tip on a soldering gun. Soaking the strip and repeatedly coaxing the wood to shape on the form shown at the top of the picture did the trick It is now glued in place and clamped.
 

 
More to follow..........

Thanks Ferit, 
 
Will follow the 1/10th
 
Looked at, and tried to make a couple of blocks from scratch to better match the longer and thinner ones as seen on the 1/10th photo just below.
 
Too much work, so took the kit block; minor reshape, better articulated the “pulley” areas, and added some black bands. Along with a second hole drilled to simulate the top lateral pulley.
 
Those black bands I had mentioned in a previous post – they were from a car model. They were self- adhesive vinyl trim from an F40.
 
Cut the strips to size, and then coated the block with clear flat gloss to “lock” the strips into place.
 
Michael

First sailing after completion, a major amount of adjustments needs to be made to the radio such as channel assignment and servo travel. I also need to change the rudder system, so Charon will be put on hold until I get this one perfected. It is at least water tight and the only water that came in was from oar splashing. WARNING: Video is very painful to watch!
 
 

Update time!
 
With a hectic weekend behind me, I got some time to take a few pictures.
 
I added some extra things to the hull, such as the balcony door, railings etc.
 





 
I started working again on the balcony, added the bottom rail as can be seen with all the pins. This time I actually tried the soaking in warmn water method ( I always just soaked in room temperature water). Worked very well.
 
This week I am going to focus on finishing the balcony, so that I can add it to the hull, as well as try to fit the cannons.

I think I will order Raboesch. Cormwallmodels shop seems to have a selection of them. They look good enough and the prices are affordable. I don't need anything heavy duty.

Modeling the 'Optimist'
 
   The hull with very simple lines, just a few frames, having not a keel, flat bottom, each side made of a single piece of plank, simple sail and a rudder makes the ‘Optimist’ to be a very suitable for the next step ... This is a second very easy to build, perfect example to explain certain basic operations that are constantly occurring in ship modelling ...
 
   When you open the box of this second very simple kit, the first thing you'll notice is a photo of the dinghy and a book of instructions for building. The draft contains two sheets of paper ... There is a panel of plywood with the laser cut structural elements of the 'Optimist' under them... At the bottom of the box, there are two sheets of 1mm thick veneer. There is a bundle of several strips and round dowels ...
 
 

It's a pity that the Admirals are spoilsports.       That  is impressive and a feast for the eyes, Dave.

Update....Beak carvings completed....
 
After several months of carving and sculpting, finally able to post photo update with essentially all carvings done.  I only say it that way because there are still several ornamental carvings that fit into rail corners, and atop the transom cap rails.

Also, not forgetting the most challenging of all the carvings.... the full three dimensional beak head figure of King Chuck mounted on his mighty steed.  Think I'll save that one for last.  
Or.... if I could talk my friend Mr. Short into knocking that one out for me and dropping it in the mail.... (I somehow doubt that will ever happen)  
 
 

 

 
There is plenty of inboard work to turn to now.... all fun stuff.
 
Still seems a long way from the final rigging stage, which I am still completely undecided on.  
Right now, I am leaning strongly toward rigging her to the lower tops with no spars, simply because I have no space left in my home to display another fully rigged model of this size.
 Admiral has ruled against adding another room onto the house dedicated to model ship displays.

Hi mates,
 
So lower mainmast is now completed. Here are some updated pics.
 
Now onto re-building a lower top for the main – need to order some rope from Chuck so shrouds pending.
 
Again – as always - thanks for the comments, the Likes and/or just dropping in for a visit.
 
PS: Nigel your pencil suggestion made such a great diff. Thanks again.
 
Cheers,
 
Michael
 

Bill,
 
Would there even have been room inside for the gun crew to work any guns in those ports? 

The cat head is carved and mounted against the slots for the sheaves.
 

 
More to follow.........

Well, I've finished the flags and alas before looking at the post above.  They turned out pretty well though, and since I have the artwork in digital form, I can always go back and look at the build log above and see if I can improve things.
 
So first I scanned the Corel artwork.  Then I noticed the large flag is basically the Vasa royal arms, and I found a vectorized public domain image of the arms that was much nicer looking than the Corel version.  My sister's a graphic artist, and she vectorized the remaining artwork, and mirrored it so I could fold each flag back on itself and have nice bright colors on both sides.  Here's the artwork layout:
 

 
Next, I printed the flags onto silk, using an ink jet printer.  The silk is backed by paper so it feeds through the printer nicely.  Then you peel off the paper and you're ready to go.  The silk was fine enough that it printed through to both sides, but was much brighter on the outward face.
 
Then it was time to experiment.  First I had to deal with fraying on the edges.  Fabric seam sealer dissolved the ink, so that didn't go well.  Fortunately I had a pack of ten sheets of silk, and two copies of all but the largest flag per sheet, so the failures weren't a problem.
 
Next, I tried diluted white glue, which ended up working quite well as long as I applied it before I peeled off the paper backing on the silk sheets.
 
I then cut out a flag, peeled off the paper, folded it back on itself, and glued using more diluted white glue.  So far, so good.  Then once that was dry, I soaked the flag in water, applied more diluted white glue, and bent it to shape.
 
The result was OK, but messy to do, and it was hard getting the flag to hold its drape while the glue was drying.  So I decided to try another approach and see if it worked better.
 
I took a sheet of aluminum foil and sprayed both sides with flat white paint suitable for metal:
 

 
Then I cut a piece to match the flag.  I didn't cut the swallow tails - I wanted to do that once everything was together.  Then I folded the flag over the foil and glued it with slightly diluted water-based craft glue.
 
Once it was dry, I trimmed the flag to size and ended up with something slightly heavier than plain silk, but not by much.  And importantly it would hold bends without starch or glue!  Then it was just a matter of creating furls that I was happy with and mounting the flags to the flag staffs.
 
I used the same thread that I used for seizing rigging, glueing it to the inside of the fold at the leech of the flag.
 
I'm pleased with the result.  The silk has a nice texture and a very slight sheen.  At any rate, the result is much better than I'd get using the kit flags.  Here are two of the flags mounted:
 

 

 
And with that, the ship is finished!  I'll post a few more photos of the completed ship shortly.  I'm still waiting for the display case to be finished - should be done in a few weeks.

Hello my friends
 
I am back again. Everything was good with my Dads funeral, we had much fun, were sad, had da drink or two in remeberance - and now it's good,
 
I started with the filler block, which I will use in the bow section and at the stern. Here the ship is quite rounded and a good fundament for the planking will be needed.Some pics will show the progress.
 
Cheerio
Max

END OF BUILD DAY 3.
 
5 hours today.
 
14 hours into build in total.
 
This is the status at the end of DAY3 .Thanks for watching.
 

 

 

Liberty Ship SS Stephen Hopkins - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/192 scale
 
Kit Contents

 Although this kit has been in the BlueJacket inventory for quite a few years, it was updated just a couple of years ago to take advantage of new technologies and materials.
 
Difficulty Rating
BJ uses a 1-9 ranking to help customers figure out if a kit is within their skill level. They rank this kit “8” with the elaboration:
“Construction experience with more complex kits is helpful.”
I would not recommend this kit for a first time build mainly because the instructions tell, and sometimes show, WHAT to do but not always HOW to do it because prior experience is assumed. If you are interested in trying this kit I recommend you call Bluejacket and have a talk with them about your previous builds, they may recommend a simpler (and less expensive) solid hull kit to get you up to speed.
 
Instruction Book
The 28-page instruction book contains:
a list of recommended tools (just simple had tools, nothing most folks would not have on hand) recommended construction sequence with explanatory sketches a parts list that should be used to inventory the kit on arrival (mine had everything) 

Plans
3 sheets of plans show the ship in both plan and view, fore or aft views of sub-assemblies where needed, rigging plan, and multiple copies of the hull lines which you cut out and glue to cardboard as templates for shaping the hull.

Hull
When I opened the kit the hull was wrapped in brown paper, I left it wrapped and put it aside while I looked at the plans. Looking at the stern area I thought “How am I going to shape the rudder area???!!!” since the rudder post sits on a integral projection of the hull that looked complicated to bring out. Fortunately when I got around to unwrapping the hull I found the rudder rest already carved.
The basic hull shape and dimensions are in place. There are machining plugs at the bow and stern which are easy to remove, after that it is just a matter of sanding the hull until the templates for each station fit properly. The hull is 27.5 inches in length.


Laser Cut
One of the updates to the kit involved more use of laser cut wood. In addition to the expected pieces which are stacked to construct the deckhouses there were several pleasant surprises. Although the printed catalog photo of the finished kit do not show them, there are now etched hatch covers showing all the individual hatch covers. After discovering this I’ll be leaving most of the hatches uncovered and even trying to open a couple of them up. Another nice surprise was the bulwarks. I don’t know if they were always in the kit but I had assumed that like many solid hull kits with bulwarks I would have to carve down the deck leaving the bulwarks as a thin “fence” around the deck. On a model of this size that’s a lot of wood and I am a poor hand with chisels - I might as well use a chainsaw since it would be quicker and no worse than my chisel work. Fortunately the kit provides the bulwarks, with the scuppers in place (there are a ton of them). The bulwarks are simply attached to the deck edge along a rabbet. The last surprise is that thin facing pieces with portholes in place are provided to cover the exterior of the deck house. Drilling portholes has always been my bane, I either get tear-outs or have 1 or 2 that are out of line with the rest of them, now I don’t have to worry about that. 




There is also a sheet of laser cut plastic for gun tubs and other fittings. 

Photo Etch
There is just a little PE supplied with this kit which is not surprising - it is used for delicate parts and there was nothing delicate about Liberty ships. Having just finished a 1/350 scale USN frigate with hundreds of tiny PE parts it will be nice to get away from that stuff for a while.

Brittania Metal Fittings
There are quite a few Brittania and brass metal fittings provided, all of them well cast and largely free of flash. This kit does not have any resin fittings.

Misc. Parts
There are wood dowels, wire, brass rod for fabricating parts and a sheet of rub-on letters specific for the Jeremiah O’Brian, and rigging thread.


All told, it looks like there is everything needed for a nice model.

The remaining two cat head carvings are now in place below the gun ports and it is time to move on to the ports at either side of the bulkhead along with the catheads and supporting sculptures.
 

 
As a result of a recent discussion with some other modellers, I have chosen to believe that the additional two ports shown at port and starboard location on the bulkhead in the Van de Velde sketch were possibly observation ports as there is a lot of anchor rigging directly in front of the ports from the catheads and it would seem that gunfire from a canon in these ports would not be possible. I intend to construct the catheads and surround these two ports with decorative carvings. I have marked the centre of the observation port openings in pencil.
 
More to follow...........

I'm going to pull up a chair for this one as my dad was in the merchant navy during the 2 world war he was on tankers.
 
Rgd BV

I'm going to pull up a chair for this one as my dad was in the merchant navy during the 2 world war he was on tankers.
 
Rgd BV

I'm going to pull up a chair for this one as my dad was in the merchant navy during the 2 world war he was on tankers.
 
Rgd BV

I'm going to pull up a chair for this one as my dad was in the merchant navy during the 2 world war he was on tankers.
 
Rgd BV