catopower

Here's another thing to add to the HMS Terror kit review – at least I didn't see any mention when I dug through the review and follow-up posts... OcCre created a series of short videos to help less experienced ship modelers with their HMS Terror builds. They made 111 of them – yes one hundred and eleven – posted on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrPwa5r7zKUzCBCWrtnYjaSn4I5Ex-qBp

It's definitely not a one of a kind – I've run into this rig before a number times, particularly on steamers. I've been trying to classify it as well. It's a good question, and my first thought was also that this is a 3-masted topsail schooner. But even so, I think ships of this type may have been considered bark rigged, though they may not have strictly fit the definition. There's a beautiful model of the Russian steamer Strelok, I found one time. It has a similar rig: I've been studying the Japanese ship Kanrin-maru, a Dutch-built screw steamer with a similar rig, and she's commonly referred to as a bark. Her sister ship, the Bali (see below), was called a schooner, but had a pretty heavy square rig on the foremast, including a mast top. These steamers seem to have mucked up the classification system...

Hi Will, Looks like you are doing an excellent job with this model. I personally really like this line of Constructo kits, as I think they are enough of a challenge for first time builders, yet provide a taste of most of the tasks that will be faced with bigger kits. Also, it gives you a good platform to modify and upgrade to make it as complicated or as simple as you want. Regarding the rigging instructions, to be fair, I think rigging is really hard to explain, and most of it is better left to diagrams to show you where things go. If you looked at written instructions on rigging, you might be tempted to put the kit back up in your closet for being too much to deal with. Anyway, there's plenty of help here on MSW if you need it.

Well, I couldn't help it... I was at Ages of Sail, picking up items to take to tomorrow's IPMS show in San Jose (I'm manning the Ages of Sail table at this event), and they had the HMS Terror kits there – the shipment just came in. Not that I need another project to start, but I also want some experience with OcCre kits for my own blogging purposes. At least, that's my excuse for spending more money on yet another kit. Anyway, it's a great looking kit, and the Building Terror Blog is great material and inspiration for making an even better model. Looking forward to the build.

Hello Christos, Wow, you've done a really wonderful job with your Sir Winston Churchill build! I'm very impressed with your work and the results. As you know, I have the kit, but have been trying to get some other work done in order before I can get to it. You're definitely inspiring to press onward. Truly a lovely build. Clare

I can vouch for the plane from Lee Valley Hardware that Jack posted. I LOVE this thing. Been using it for just under a year now.

Hi Keith, That's a great project for some restoration practice, and an a classic Artesania Latina kit. The Swift is what actually lured me into wooden ship modeling – there was a nicely done model in a glass case in a hobby shop that was across the street from where I used to work. I'd find reasons to visit the shop, just so I could look at the model. It was around 1990 that it hooked me. Have fun with the model, and please bring her back to her glorious potential! Clare

There are no Barbary Pirate kits per se. But, what you're probably looking for is a Xebec model kit. Amati and Occre both make kits in 1:60-scale, though I thought the Occre kit was a bigger scale. Anyway, these are about as close as you're going to get. The Amati kit is a little shorter than your Enterprise model and the Occre kit is a bit longer. You can find them online, but Ages of Sail has them both. Here are links to them: https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/amati-xebec-am1427.html https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/cazador.html I've seen beautiful builds of them both.

Thank you all for the kind words! Druxey, your comment about someone damaging two of your models on the same night is making me cringe! Perhaps I'll have to hear the story over a drink... or two! Also appreciate the support on the decision to end the project. I've decided to try building a very unusual subject based on Douglas Brooks's work: A Taraibune, or a Tub Boat of Sado Island. This is such a simple boat that I don't think there's much material for a build log. I've already pieced together the wood for the bottom and cut staves. The hardest part is probably going to be making braided hoops to fit around the "hull". What I probably WILL create a build log for is a small Gozabune, which is a type of highly ornate official yacht used by daimyo and their officials. There are two that appear in Souvenirs de Marine by Paris. I've already got a big start on it, so I'll be back filling the details of the build to this point.

I'm no fan of Las Vegas but the conference itself seemed really good. Unfortunately, I was working the Ages of Sail table the whole time, so I didn't get to attend any of the events. But, I was at the member meeting and the dinner. Plus, I got to see a lot of great models and I spent a lot of time talking with Pam from Sherline and Nic and Al from Bluejacket since they were sitting in the vendor room with me. I managed to take photos, but somehow never manage to get photos of the Ages of Sail table(!). Always happens. I even brought some big kits, including Amati's Vanguard and Orient Express kits, Caldercraft's Diana, and others. Somehow, I also seemed to miss Bluejacket's table too. They had a new re-release of the brig USS Perry.

Hello Wefalck, Yes, damage to models is a great deterrent to club meetings. Much safer to blog about them. But, I'm trying to help keep the local clubs going, so I try to take things if I can. Still, I do have models that I simply won't bring to certain meetings due to their locations, distance from parking spot, complexity of model, etc. Thanks for the link. I'm actually in regular contact with two members of The Rope Tokyo that went to Rochefort. One of them has been helping me obtain information from Japan and to make contacts. I did some online research once and found an obscure Excel spreadsheet, in Japanese. I recognized some of the information on it and translated enough of it to discover that it was an old list of museum model dispositions. I found several models listed in a regional city museum and asked my Rope contact about it. Next thing I knew, he had contacted the museum, found that the models were in storage, and he and two other members arranged to take photos of the models. I felt pretty good in being able to help them dig up some things they weren't aware of. He has since helped me many more times, visiting museum models that I've discovered, and sending me information, photos, and help me establish contacts. VERY helpful. I hope I can visit one of their annual model exhibits, which usually take place in the Spring. It's yet one of many things on my list of visits to Japan!

Well, tragedy struck when I took my model to one of the local club meetings. I don't know how it happened, but I had the model in a travel box to help keep it from getting damaged. It made it just fine through a 114 mile round trip to one meeting. The next meeting, more like 30 miles one-way, I'm pretty sure it survived just fine. It wasn't until it was sitting in the box in our model shop (I tried to keep it out of harm's way), that it looks to me like someone leaned on the box and broke up the aft structure. It's not the first time that taking a model to a meeting, particularly one stored in a box to protect it, appears to have been damaged in this way. I have one model that I just never got around to repairing. Fortunately, when I got it home, I found that most of the damage was done to various glue joints. No wood was actually broken. So, I had a small stack of puzzle pieces to fit back together. But, all in all, I was able to make the repairs pretty quickly, and with visible signs of the damage. However, this did keep me from finishing the oars before I had to leave for the NRG Conference. So, I simply took it with me, along with some tools, glue, etc. Since I was driving there anyway, taking the extra things was no problem. I got to the location in the evening and took the model up to my room, added the remaining oars, and it was on display the next morning! Here was the model the night before the accident, displayed at the meeting of the South Bay Model Shipwrights at the Los Altos Public Library. It is shown here next to a model of a club model of a Viking ship in the same scale. The model was one of three scratch built Japanese "wasen" models that I brought to the NRG Conference. That's the Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding book by Douglas Brooks, which I used for the Urayasu Bekabune model in the center. On the left is my Hozu river boat. And, finally, the completed Kamakura period Sea Boat... 鎌倉時代の海船 After seeing the model on display at the conference, I decided to officially call this project complete. Being that this is part of an ongoing research project, I'll always be adding some small details to it. I could either leave it as permanently incomplete, or simply call it "done" and sneak little additions to it over time. So, I'm opting for the latter option. I did feel that the model was a bit small for this display. At 1/50-scale, it's 21-1/2" long. If I make another, which is very likely, I think I'll opt for something like 1/30-scale, making it up to 35" long. Of course, the larger the scale, the more details I'll need to add, and the better job I'll have to do. In any case, this has been a test bed for reconstructing this type of boat. I think my next step is to get a first-hand look at a couple of the Japanese museum models built of this type of boat. That's going to take some savings and fundraising again to make the next trip to Japan!

Greg, I know that Wikipedia is not the greatest source for this kind of information, but they list HMS Wolf as a 14-brig snow rigged sloop with a launch date of 1742. They also show a plan of the hull, which looks very much like Shipyard's HMS Wolf. The ship is listed as Wolf-class, with only two other ships of the class being HMS Otter and HMS Grampus. There is no mention of the Speedwell or Cruiser classes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wolf_(1742) I can tell you that the Shipyard Laser-cut boxed kit of HMS Wolf does NOT include the plans set that they sell for scratch modelers. Richmond, Keep in mind the pictures are actually of Shipyard's 1/72-scale kit. If something looks like it should be thicker in the pictures, it may just be that way on the larger kit. There definitely is a lot of care needed in "reading" the instructions, paper model instructions tend to be very sparse. Certainly, the Shipyard kits are that way. I'm curious as to what sheets you are missing. I have the kit and it has the number of sheets listed on the back. The "photos" and "drawings" sheets are double-sided, so one piece of paper translates to two sheets. I spot-checked the Ages of Sail inventory last year and discovered that one of the parts sheets that was supposed to be printed in color was, in fact, printed in black and white. So, I got Shipyard to provide those sheets for the shop's 6 kits. I have to say, it was a lot easier to contact them through their Facebook page than by regular email.

Good luck with your build, Richmond. I built the HMS Alert paper model and had a great time with it. I really like HMS Wolf and hope to get to that at some point. It should be much simpler than HMS Mercury, since all of Wolf's guns are on the open deck. Not sure why all those Eastern Europeans like to use double-edged razor blades. Shipyard even includes one in their boxed kits. The only thing about them is they are extremely thin and sharp, so it may be easier to use them, but I'll stick to using a scalpel for thin blade cuts. I've assembled some of the paper blocks from the kit and they really are challenging, but not impossible if you assemble them in groups as printed. But, for my HMS Alert, I just ended up using the wood blocks from Syren, even though I made all the necessary blocks. The Syren blocks just looks so nice on the small scale model. In any case, have fun with the build!

Chris, I suspect that anything you decide to do as a first subject will be a hot seller, so have at it! We're all waiting excitedly for it. Clare

Looks like I will be at the conference after all, representing Ages of Sail in the vendor room. Looking forward to seeing you all there! Clare

Also, for those scratchbuilders out there, the plans are available as a separate purchase. It is also possible to order P.E. fitting and castings sets specific to the kit. But, the kit has everything and is definitely one of those that make me drool... Oh, and forgot to add that Ages of Sail should have the plans and kit available. Email or call about the availability of PE and castings sets.

Again, also available from Ages of Sail, which is the North American distributor for OcCre products!

Also available in the USA from Ages of Sail, which is the North American Distributor for OcCre kits, and MSW sponsor!

Hi Pat, It's a good question. The answer is really that I can't say for sure. I'm not aware of any archaeological evidence, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Might be in a museum somewhere. Mostly, all I have to go by are modern models and some old paintings. The paintings don't show this level of detail, and I don't know where the knowledge of the model builders comes from. I've seen nothing written about the subject, but my access to the information is extremely limited. As far as I'm aware, there is nothing for the oars to come "loose" from. The ropes serve to keep the oars in place and double as full-time "retainers". Note that on sculling oars that appear later on, boats do not use any form of rope retainer. The oar has a small hole that fits over a ro-gui, which is a rounded metal knob. The only rope is one that holds the handle of the oar in a proper position for sculling. You can see such a rope on the model below. If used correctly, it would also serve to keep the oar from getting away, should it become dislodged and fall overboard. This is a model of a water taxi, called a chokibune. A similar boat is detailed in Douglas Brooks' book Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding.

Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes! All is well. My insurance company took good care of me and paid out for the car. I feel sorry for the guy who rear-ended me, as he damaged his own truck as well as my car and my insurance company is going to be wanting to recover their money. Turns out he did have an insurance company, but he didn't have the truck he was driving on his policy. Don't know if it was an error on his part or what. I lost a reliable, tough little car, and had to go through the process of getting a new one – and it's a process I HATE. But, the insurance company paid out very quickly. Only now, I have car payments. But, I like the car. So, all is well. Work-wise, I've just been a bit too busy, so decided to try to slow down a bit and to try to make some modeling progress. Took some time out today, as I'm feeling really worn out. But, made a little progress on the trade boat and other things. You may recall that this boat has one large sail. I don't know if I will mount a sail on it or not. I find it rather interesting how the lowered mast is stowed. I think I have a method for creating the sail, which was made from rice-straw matting, not cloth. But, I will have other opportunities to make that, and it would probably be simpler and more realistic at a larger scale. In any case, I also have the full set of oars I made. I've decided that even though the museum models I've seen show the boat equipped for sculling, that my interpretation of early scroll paintings suggest they were rowed and not sculled. Also, I started to thinking about the side-to-side motion involved in sculling, and I see only rope bindings on these oars in all cases (museum models). I can't see how rope bindings would be able to take the amount of side-to-side pressure without loosing very quickly. If rowed, the binding would simply be to hold the oar and keep it from slipping. All the force of propulsion from the oars are taken by the beam extensions of the ship. So the next issue was how these would tie into place. Nothing too special there, except that you can't simply tie it the oar to the beam, as you'd have a hard time moving it. You need to tie a rope securely around the oar and then that rope needs to be tied to the beam. Does this difference make sense? There needs to be some freedom of movement for the oar, so the rope itself becomes something of a pivot. So, I started by tying a length of line around each rope at the pivot point. I used pencil marks for measurement. I didn't feel this needed to be exact. There is an extra pencil mark, as I realized I wanted the pivot point just a little higher up on the handle. Thread cutter and pencil included for size reference. After I tied all of the oars like this, I realized I needed more of a lashing, so I wrapped the thread around the oar and tied a second knot. Tying the rope then onto the model, I kept the knot-side against the beam. I can't quite explain the final wrapping, as I kind of figured it out as I went. Something like wrapping both ends under the beam, over the top a couple times, making sure to stay on the opposite sides of the oar, then tying a final knot around the rope in between the oar and the beam. This turned out to be as challenging as rigging blocks on a square rigger. Another difference between my model and modern museum models and their sculling oars is that sculling oars have a handle near the end of the oar and a line tied down to the rail or beam wraps over that to help hold the oar in place while sculling. Such lines seemed to have no purpose with this type of oar, so I didn't include them. In this side view you can see how the oars look once they're all on the model, though I still have to add them onto the other side. I made the base just a tad too short, causing the aft-most oar to hang down just a little too much.

I've always thought this was a really nice looking kit of a nice looking boat. Well done with the kit review, James. I might also point out that this kit is also available from Ages of Sail, which is also an MSW sponsor. Clare

Thanks friends! Fortunately, I was uninjured, but my car was totaled and the other person was effectively uninsured, so it took a while to resolve. Then, after having to work more hours, dealing with the car rentals, getting paid, finding a new car, dealing with new payments, etc., it took my remaining free time. I still am working more hours, so it has affected my ship modeling time, but at least the other issues are behind me. Mostly... Clare

Hi All, Finally a post! As if my work wasn't coming along slowly enough, a car accident and heavier work load managed to bring my ship modeling of all types to a standstill. After nearly two months of making no progress on anything, I finally found myself in a position to move forward again on the Umibune. I didn't managed to figure out too much regarding the making of scale figures for the model, but I did finish tying the bindings on the rails. I also decided on how I wanted to finish the aft deckhouse, or yakata. I basically returned to the idea of installing only lower panels on the sides of the structure. There seem to be a multitude of ways that artists and model makers have interpreted this design, so I just went with something I recall seeing in a painting. Is it accurate? There really doesn't appear to be any way to know for sure. But, it seems reasonable. In the photos below, you can see the panels before installation, as well as how they look in place on the model. I originally built these slightly oversized, allowing me to adjust them to fit. As you can see from the photos, I also attached the rudder. The rudder on larger Japanese boats are fit through a hole in the back edge of a heavy beam at the stern. The Japanese did not use gudgeon straps and pintles to hold the rudder in place, but instead, rudders were held up by a rope lifting system, like Chinese boats, which allowed the rudder to be raised or lowered as needed. The hole in the large beam provided the necessary lateral support. The lifting rope is attached to a hole in the top of the rudder blade and runs through a block, which is attached to the aft-most roof beam. The design of the block was not described anywhere, so I based it on a block that appeared in Woody Joe's Higakikaisen kit. This is a teardrop shaped block that apparently contains no wheel, unlike a modern-style block. I was motivated to use this based on a comment that was made to me while visiting the Hacchoro fishing boats of Yaizu in 2016. While showing me some of the features of the Hacchoro, Mr. Hiroyuki Kobayashi, one of the people who are responsible for the Hacchoro boats, told me that while the Hacchoro replicas use a standard wooden blocks in their sail gear, the Japanese didn't originally have such blocks. Modern blocks on the modern Hacchoro replica. He didn't elaborate, but seeing the wheel-less blocks on the Higakikaisen model suggested to me that this was the design that the Japanese originally used and is what Mr. Kobayashi was referring to. Unfortunately, I can't find any photos of that type of block, but here's the one that I made. This type of block would most certainly have too much friction with the rope passing through it to be very efficient. But, it's very possible that its function is more to help support the rudder than to lift it up. Possibly, a few strong sailors would physically haul up on the rudder and tiller as someone hauled on the rope to take up slack and to help support the rudder's weight until the rope was tied off to beam at the stern. In any case, I glued the stropping rope around the block and siezed it into place. The ends of the rope were simply run over the top of the beam and tied off underneath a crossbeam. I have no idea how the original was attached. Probably just passed around the beam, the way a block is fastened around the yard arm on a Western sailing ship. The rudder was put into place with a rope seized through the hole in the rudder blade and rigged. To help hold the rudder in place, as it's too light to simply hang from the support rope, a hole was drilled through the rudder post and into the great beam and a pin pass through. This allowed me to keep the lifting rope taught, while keeping the rudder nicely in position. More on oars and the very unusual anchors next time. Clare

Thanks Mark, James, I think it might be a good way to formally indicate by the admins that the review meets the criteria established above. Some kind of stamp of approval. Clare