catopower

LOL, to me when I'm working on models, I think the term is FAT fingers! 😁 The Japanese temple and castle kits that Woody Joe makes are particularly full of milled wood like this. Before laser-cutting, all the parts were milled wood, cast metal, or stamped metal sheet. Their ship models are mostly laser-cut wood now, but I guess there's no good replacement for the milled parts use in many of the other kits. In this kit, the other main milled wood pieces are for the eaves underneath the ends of the roofs. There, the pieces are more like slatted wood. So, instead of a sine-wave cross-section, it's a square-wave cross-section. John, you must have been gone for a while! Hoping to make more progress now, so come back sooner! 🙂

Peter, I forgot to answer your question about the roof. While a tiled roof may not be correct, this kit is based on the museum model, which has a tiled roof over most of the castle structure. Woody Joe has a history of providing kits containing milled wood shapes. So, in this kit, they provide sheet wood that has a wave pattern on one side. Kind of like Ruffles potato chips. Sorry, it's a little blurrier than I thought it would be. But, should give you the idea. These pieces work very well for Woody Joe's castle kits, so they should work well here.

Hello Peter, don't think I hadn't considered that! But, they'd be too small to be recognizable for this model... Thanks for the castle comments. Here are a couple more photos after adding some of the trim details. There are some barred windows that are added as well. I decided to try gluing a piece of black tissue paper to the back of these before gluing them into place. You can see the difference is makes below. And, finally, when they were all glued into place... And, finally, I've been working on modifying the forward most building of the castle, from the simple laser-engraved outlines of a door, to something a bit more 3D, with wood trim. That middle piece with the cutout is my own addition, so that the door is inset from the facing woodwork. As it still seemed to need some detail, I built a framework around the door panels and then painted the archway around the opening. It may not look all straight and centered, as it hasn't been glued together yet. I just wanted to set them all up for the photo here.

Hello Modeller_Masa, thanks for your posts. I have a Cameo 3 myself, which I've used to resolve certain masking and template problems, as well as providing a means to create flat decorations to models. Your posts are giving me some interest in taking another look at trying some creative solutions to work with copper foil with it.

By the way, I did manage to find the time to fool around with a website someone posted on Facebook which puts you into your own customized samurai armor. You can even download yourself in 3D CAD files that you should then be able to send to a 3D printer. In case you don't want to visit the site, you can just gaze upon my samurai awesomeness here... That's a screen shot from the website. You can make your own awesome samurai self here: https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/contents/craftsmanship/samuraiavatar/?detail=5355d664-2612-4a59-b9dd-33762b266023 If I 3D print this, probably should be at least 1/32 scale to appreciate – I'm going to need a much bigger ship!

Just starting to get back to the atakebune build after the holidays. Not much progress, but some. I decided to continue working on the castle structure for a bit, so I gave the whole thing a base coat of white paint. For the wood trim, I decided to go with a different shade of wood, as this it very likely be of a different type of wood here. I wanted a warmer looking medium brown, and settled on some ZAR wood stain #120 "Teak Natural". Here, you can see that the roof supports have been stained and added. These roof beams will be pretty well hidden, but they give you an idea of the extent of the roof that will be installed later. I then cut out the trim parts that will go on the walls of the structure. I stained these parts in their wood sheets, but had to do a little sanding and touchup after I cut the parts free. These are thin and delicate parts, but only one piece broke and had to be glued back together. This happens a lot where the wood grain runs across the narrow dimensions of the wood. After I get a little ways along with this structure, I'll go back to finishing up the lower hull.

Hi Michael, Mark, Harvey. Domo aritago gozaimasu. Glad you like them. Michael, I'd love to see any photos you have of traditional Japanese watercraft. Harvey, I hope you do build one of the boats that Douglas Brooks studied in Japan. Funny thing I realized recently, is that I haven't really built anything that was described in his book, except the bekabune. That was an early build, and I think I need to try it again to do a better job on the mortise detailing and on the nailing on the inside of the boat. But, one that I really want to do soon is the water taxi, or chokibune, that he built with the late Mr. Fujiwara. Sadly, his first three teachers are gone now. But, that's the very reason he's recording these builder's techniques.

Thanks for the comments Ian. You're probably right. If I don't want it too bulky looking, I could try thinning down those strips. They're laser cut, so that might be a bit tricky. Then again, I can probably use my own stripwood, as there is another modification I've been planning on where using my own stripwood will probably be easiest. Appreciate the suggestion!

By the way, over the holidays, I created two Youtube video slide shows. These are two scratch builds, the Hozugawa Ayubune and the Himi Tenmasen. Both small boats in 1/10 scale. These are based on projects by boatbuilder Douglas Brooks, and in many ways, they are tributes to him and his teachers. The Hozugawa Ayubune is a small river fishing boat used on the Hozu river, northwest of Kyoto. The Himi Tenmasen is a general purpose coastal workboat from Toyama prefecture on the Japan Sea coast. Hozugawa Ayubune: https://youtu.be/N16kF7O_VIY Himi Tenmasen: https://youtu.be/bCLl2Xb-V0o If you enjoy them, please give them a like! In the meantime, I also was asked about putting together all the wasen models, or traditional Japanese boat models, that I've completed. A couple that you may be aware of aren't on here yet, as they aren't technically complete. But, if you want to see everying in one shot, you can find them here: https://wasenmodeler.com/wasen-mokei/

Hi Michael, glad your here. I haven't done much study of samurai ships, so this is kind of making do more study of the subject. Of course, this is basically a ship on the large end most ships of this type didn't have the elaborate castle structure. So, was your dad at the Marine Corps Air Station there by any chance? Well, I've had to take some time away from model building to deal with family matters, but I'm starting up again this week, so stay tuned.

For the holiday weekend that's coming, here's a bit of an update on my Atakebune build. First off, I have to say that Mr. Kazunori Morikawa has been really going to town, making all sorts of major modifications to his build. Now, I don't agree with what he's been doing with the mast and yard details, but everything else I've seen are major improvements to the model. Here's a link to one of the more recent photos on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JapanOnlineHobbyStoreZootoyz/photos/pcb.1724615267728676/1724590987731104 As for my own model, I've finished cutting the "stanchions" on the inner side of the box structure walls. I then added an upper rail to mostly match the rail on the outside of the structure. In addition, I cut some thin cross sections of some 3mm square stock wood, dyed them, and glued them to the hull to represent the beam ends coming through the hull planking. At some point, I'll need to add the simulated mortise covers, which were made of copper. On my most recent models, I simply used brown adhesive-backed vinyl that I cut using a Silhouette Cameo 3 machine. I could do the same thing here, but I'm considering alternatives, to give copper parts are more natural patina finish, rather than the tarnished copper look. I've got some ideas I want to experiment with. More on that later. The last addition, is an extension of the front of the castle structure. This idea is based on a similar modification that Morikawa-san made on his model. He ran into a few issues regarding the construction of the roof, which for this part of the structure, is very different from the rest. But, the idea is to make the build closer to the museum model's appearance. One thing to note is that there is generally some controversy among those who follow the design and history of Japanese traditional boat construction regarding the accuracy of this design. This kit is based on a museum model, which is an interpretation of a ship depicted in a very old folding-screen painting. If you think the ship looks very top heavy, there are those that agree. But, the main issue that I've seen brought up recently is the presence of a tile roof. Now, the painting shows a traditional castle-type roof. It is dark gray in color, just like the tile roofs that appear on castles. But, there's the suggestion that this is wrong. I suppose one possibility might be that the roofs were simple wooden roofs. Perhaps they were painted gray to look like actual castles? No one knows. But, it's worth noting. Perhaps on another build, I'll use a bit more conjecture.

Druxey, you're Dad's words are very appropriate... and perhaps explain a lot! 😁

Thanks Mike, Druxey, I'm glad you like it. Here's a little bit more. There was one simple kit modification I've wanted to make. The inside of the bulwarks, for lack of better term, is smooth on the model. That's simply a copy of the way the museum model is constructed, which always kind of bothered me. There's a great illustration of samurai fighting on the deck of an Atakebune that I found on a Japanese blog site dedicate to the late Mr. Kenjo Tanii, who worked with and did illustrations for the late Professor Kenji Ishii, who is well known for his work on the history of Japanese boats. There's some great illustrations of Atakebune on the page I got this from. There's also a lot of great historical information, but it's all in Japanese. However, you can get a lot out of it by running it through Google Translate. In fact, here's a link through Google Translate. Scroll down past the aircraft carrier information to find the entry on Atakebune: https://navy-ap-teacup-com.translate.goog/applet/kanzo/archive?b=30&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US In any case, I went ahead and added this feature to my model... Now that I'm well along on two of the three main components of this kit, I figured I might as well start off on the third component, which is the castle structure. So, I glued up the parts that form the basis of the structure. Construction was pretty easy and straightforward, but it took a bit of trimming of the deck opening to get it to fit nicely. Here's what the whole thing looks like when it's all together at this stage. In the bottom image, you can see where it's missing my customized parts, which I have yet to replace due to breakage. I've been thinking about making those pieces from thicker wood, say 1.5 or 2mm vs. the original 1mm sheet wood. I guess I should try it, since I've made one set of hull pieces already and need to make another. Why not, slightly thicker wood?

It's kind of easy to make a box look neat! 😁

Well, I called my client because the information she sent me precluded the need for me to come out and help her out today. Wish she had sent it to me earlier in the week, as I now have a gap in my schedule. But, what the hey... So, here's that photo, if it's any use to you. Again, this is from the Gloucester Clipper Fishing Schooners book. You can also see how Corel apparently misinterpreted what is called the "fish" in the drawings as a break in the deck, which is why they gave it a raised forecastle. The book also shows that the chainplates are most probably internal to the bulwarks planking, so you wouldn't see any metalwork, and the deadeyes are mounted directly to the rail at timber heads. Also, while not in this photo, the plans shown in the book do show the stack on the aft cabin roof directly forward of the skylight. Oh, and just to allay your fears as to what you are building. I'm pretty sure it's actually the Flying Fish. Here are the plans published by Chapelle... When dealing with companies, particularly the older European manufacturers, just bear in mind that these kits are produced primarily as an enjoyable pastime, resulting in a model that represents the original ship, and looks beautiful on a shelf in your home. Scale and historical accuracy are taken into account, but only so far as their standardized components are able. There are also some liberties taken where the manufacturer's knowledge or capabilities may be lacking, etc.

Hi Jimmy, All, l Let me add that Ronnberg shows that the anchor chain is not run belowdecks at all. Rather, there is a chain box on deck next to the forward companionway hatch, on the opposite side of the galley stack. I was going to send a photo from the book, but I have to run out to a work appointment right now. I'll do so when I get back.

I got a little farther with the box structure and re-finished the deck planks. The laser-cut "framework," is in place on the box structure. The instructions call for the addition of strips for the horizontal portions of the framework, but I like the way this is looking now, and I'm a little concerned that the added horizontal strips kind of bulk-up the appearance. So, I'm going to think about this for a bit. In the meantime, I managed to damage some of the components of the new stern modifications. It's not surprising, giving how thin the wood is that I'm working with, and how much I've been changing back there. I don't see any issues though – I just have to remake some parts that I made in the first place. Also there are still a few additions I was thinking of making to the inner wall of the box structure. Plus, the castle structure is a completely independent assembly, so I can actually start on that too. Oh, I should mention that the coaming around the steering well is my own addition that I think better mimics the appearance of the museum model. Also, you may recall from my previous post that all the door panels fell out. They're shown in place here, but I just have them taped into place from the back sides.

Jimmy, I have to say, I'm really impressed with what you've done so far. When I read that this was your first wooden ship model kit, I did not expect to see such a nice job with the woodwork. I worked on this same kit a LONG time ago. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the model. What I do remember is that in appearance and deck arrangement, the kit follows very closely to the drawing of the ship in book The American Fishing Schooner, 1825-1935, by Howard I Chapelle (pg 95). Now, some people say Chapelle's deck arrangements can't be trusted. But, lacking other information, I see no problem basing the construction on it. And, it seems pretty much what Corel based their kit on. The only flaw that I see, is that I believe that Corel mis-interpreted the plan and put in a raised forecastle. Anyway, if you can get access to a copy of this book, there's a large amount of detail information – pretty much the entire second half of the book. Also, I strongly recommend the instruction book put out by BlueJacket, Inc, for their book Gloucester Clipper Fishing Schooners, which is used for their model kit "Smuggler". It should be available separately from the kit and is an excellent source for model details on this ship type, though it's for a ship from 20 years later. Still, it was by Erik A. R. Ronnberg, Jr., who has a lot of background connection on the subject. Edit: I just found it on Amazon.com for $15 here. By the way, both Chapelle's drawing and Ronnberg's drawing show the charlie noble or galley stack similar to what you have now on your model. So, unless you have actual information that's better than these sources, I wouldn't change it. Good luck and keep up the nice work!

Mark, it only seems like I'm thinking that far ahead. In reality, it's more like how many steps ahead can I fear? 😕 Then, the real question is not how far in advance was I in fear, but was I afraid enough? 🤔 Now, we'll just have to wait and see! Here's the latest. I've gone through test fitting the box structure shell and then seeing how well it will mate with the lower hull. The clamps are there to hold the two parts together tightly, so I can see exactly how well the walls will sit on the beams. I'm kind of thinking now that it might have been a better order of construction to add those beams just before the two sections glued together. But, the fit seems okay. The biggest problem I had was handling the box structure. The instruction have you leave the door panels in place – I assume for strength. The problem is that every time I picked up the structure, my thumb would pop a door loose. I now have these walls glued to the box structure's framework, and I don't think any of the doors remained. Below, you can see the fit of the walls on the beams. In this photo, you can see that they're close, but not quite where I want the fit to be. This is about as good as it's going to get in this area, as the fit is much better closer to the ends. We'll just have to see if there's some way I can minimize this apparent gap when I get further along in the build. Finally, here's a test fit of the laser-cut external framework piece. Laser-cut design certainly makes this type of construction very easy. By the way, on the real Atakebune, through those open doors, you should probably end up seeing the sliding wall panels of the samurai living spaces, probably quite decorative. They would form a kind of central structure, probably with a floor plan similar to the castle structure that will go on later. The castle museum model is a little bit light on detail, so this is similarly light, and probably there would be wooden covers for those firing ports on the top deck. There were also likely similar ports across that middle band as well. But, I think any available information on such firing ports may all be just guesswork. The fit here looks very good – much better than I'd anticipated. The one thing yet is that the main wall pieces are very thin, and there's a little minor warpage around the doors. So, I think I'm going to reinforce those areas with some vertical wooden strips on the inside. They may actually not be necessary with the laser-cut frameworks glued to the outsides, but I'll do it just to be safe.

Hi Dan, Don't listen to Chris – he's not even in the state anymore! 😀 By the way, you're just down the road from me, almost literally. I'm probably less than 10 miles from you, up in Pleasant Hill. Welcome to MSW!

Thanks Druxey. I don't know if it's GOOD planning, but it is certainly some kind of planning. I guess I'll find out how good it is when I try to fit the box structure into place. I have a sense now that there will be a slight issue with that aft deck frame or platform I made, because it is pushed up at a greater angle, now that the great beam is underneath it. On the actual museum model, if you look at the last photo of it that I posted, the very end beams of that platform form the base for the aft "wall". In the kit, it provided aft platform doesn't really seem to do that. The platform is kind of separate from that "wall". I'll have to play it all by ear later, but I'm hoping that I can somehow modify the bottom of the "wall" and the aft part of the platform, so that they merge together to a more complete joint. At this point, I don't imagine it will be difficult to modify the bottom of that aft "wall".

I'm making some slow progress now with the planking of the upper deck, as well as adding all the smaller beams to the lower hull. Planking the upper deck is pretty straight forward, or at least it would be if I could leave well enough alone. I've had to sand down the deck in order to smooth out the planking. The process too off the finish I'd applied, so I'll have to go over that again. You can see the difference when you look at the planked steering well area. One thing I discovered while doing all the sanding was that some of the deck areas aren't well supported from underneath. It doesn't really affect the structure that much, as the planked deck is about 3mm thick. But, saning these areas results in these areas not getting the same degree of sanding as the rest of the deck, as the deck here was flexing a bit. So, I just put some reinforcing wood under these areas. Meanwhile, I cut new pieces of the aft section of the lower hull, cutting out the old piecees to use as patterns. You can now finally see what I'm after. I traced the openings of the original piece onto this one, so I could "map out" where the new beams need to go. The new "Ōtoko" or great beam is about twice the size of the one provided in the kit. This gives me more room to cut the rudder hole into it. You can see also that this rear platform area is now above the beam and not below it. All of these changes will likely create some unforseen problems that I will have to deal with later, so I haven't glued any of this into place yet. Lastly, I started adding all the smaller beams into place. The model nicely provides laser-cut notches in the hull for spacing these properly. Inboard, the beams just rest on the internal framework, but they don't always rest nicely on the framework, so I had to use gap-filling CA on those. The important thing is that the outer ends of the beams need to be in a nice neat alignment with the ends of the larger beams. Also, the tops have be nice and level. To do this, I just used plastic clips and a piece of thin scrap wood as a guide The beams closest to the bow have to be cut to the proper length before installing, but most don't need cutting right away as the inboard ends have no restrictions here. It turns out that the inner ends of some of the beams obstruct the placement of the box structure, so they do need to be clipped at some point. Oh, I should mention that all the beams come as a set of pre-cut pieces. The large ones come from a laser-cut sheet. The small beams are simply pre-milled lumber. I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but the deck planks also come as pre-milled pieces in 3 lengths. Made planking the deck a relative breeze. Once I finish with the beams, I'm going to leave the stern assembly unfinished until the box structure is further along, so I can test how everything will fit together. In the next few days, I should have the outer shell to the box structure started.

Bug, I wonder if you two ever met? She was a Captain in the 441st MI Battalion, working in S3. She retired in '92 and then stayed on as a civilian up until she got transferred to Hawaii around 2012 or so. Anyway, the build continues! While contemplating the stern construction, I went ahead with the deck of the box structure. I took my time fitting the sub-deck into place since I made those modifications to the height of the internal framework, thus lowering the deck by about 1mm. For this kit, Woody Joe has opted to provide 2mm thick planks for the deck. I suppose they are so thick, because the sub-deck they are glued to is pretty thin. While deck planking mostly runs across the width of the ship, the first pieces to glue into place actually run the length of the ship. To make sure that these run correctly and fit well, I temporarily taped down some of the pieces provided that will have to fit in between them first. After that, it was a rather quick matter to lay down the long fore-and-aft planks, and then the rest of the planking pieces. Something interesting about this kit is that in order to simplify construction, Woody Joe milled the planks to three different lengths. Those long pieces in the middle were already cut, and I jus laid them into place. Below, you can see all three sizes of planks. I've had to do no cutting for any of this. It wasn't long before I had the bow section done. Note that in order to keep the middle and outer planks aligned, the instructions show to start the planking from the edge of deck opening, working outward from there. Later, those plank ends that are sticking out over the edge of the deck will need to be trimmed. By my next post, the deck will be planked and trimmed. I'm considering adding the outer shell next, before I return to the final decision on the stern section of the hull.

Roger, Your comments are well stated, but nobody is arguing against quality in ship model kits, your standing in the NRG, or advertising vs quality. What I wrote was simply a comment about your anti-importer remarks. As if importers provide nothing. But, you also have me thinking about your comment about ship model business being like any other business. It really isn't though, is it? Those who are really advancing kit design, I doubt they could make a living off of it. I think they're mostly subsidizing it because it's something they want to do. There just isn't the volume sales to do otherwise. They need a larger market, which is nearly impossible to do without advertising and all that you refer to as wasteful stuff. That's why they're often happy to have importers/distributors, because they get the products out in front of people and make larger quantity purchases, which gives the manufacturers a little needed cash infusion, so they can spend a little more time designing and less time shipping individual orders. I'm just saying this because I'm always running across a lot of unnecessary bashing of kits, manufacturers, sellers. They have their place, even if it's not in your own workshop. And, I don't say this, just because I do some occasional work for an importer and know many people in the industry – I actually believe it. Anyway, sorry to plug up the thread with this stuff, Kev! I'll go quietly...

Bug, that must have been nice. Tachikawa was the last piece of Japan my little feet walked as we left there when I was 3 and didn't return for about 40 years. Meanwhile, my sister was at Zama for god knows how long. She managed to avoid getting transferred for an amazingly long time. That was fortunate for me, because she was still there when I finally got interested in visiting in 2006, so I had a place to stay.