catopower

Thanks Slog, Ken and Tony for the kind words and advice. Well, today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to mention that several months ago, I acquired Shipyard's HMS Mercury kit, but not the super deluxe 1/72-scale laser cut version that looks EXTREMELY AWESOME in the box, but the regular 1/96-scale paper model kit. I had to check it out as part of my research into the hobby and also because I just couldn't help myself. In addition, I bought a matching laser cut detail set from GPM. The basic kit includes the laser cut frames, but the detail set includes some very nice features like the gratings, parts for the ship's boats, cleats, blocks and deadeyes, cannon and carronade carriages, and especially nice are the laser cut parts for the stern and quarter galleries. I just couldn't imaging using the printed windows or trying to cut out the frames. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on the Alert and starting the Mercury just now. But this does lead me to some issues I've been having with the Alert. I do periodically pull it out to work on it, but I'm finding that cutting the small parts has been SUPER difficult and it's really slowed me down. I'm doing it, but I'm used to working with wood and being happy with the results. I'm not used to making something that I can't get looking as nice. I've been tempted to cut my losses and go with the 1/72-scale laser cut Alert kit or something. But, then I came up with a nice time saver that may save my project. I looked over the 1/96-scale HMS Mercury detail set and discovered that several items in that set are compatibly with this kit. Maybe that's saying that the kits aren't to precise scale. But, I was going to build the small Alert kit and if I can get laser cut parts that are the same size as those I would otherwise have to cut-out, then I don't care where the scale might be off at this stage. The detail kit for the Mercury cost me about $35 shipped from Poland, and I'm quite willing to sacrifice it for the good of the cause. Turns out that the quarter deck cannon carriages are a perfect match for the Alerts carriages (and the right quantity), the gratings look like I'll be able to cut them to size, some of the cleats are perfect match and there are some others that I think I can trim quite easily. Also, while I've already acquired laser cut blocks and deadeyes of the right size, the Mercury detail set has a ton of these and enough of the smaller ones are the right size to use for the Alert. Anyway, the point here being that if you want to make your life easier with this kit (and probably others too), get one of the detail sets from GPM. It's definitely going to give my project a boost! Clare

Hello Puckotred, I too am glad to see you picking it up again! It's such a nice looking ship. I'm looking forward to building this one eventually. Clare

Stop taunting us! Where's my issue?

Bummer. Looks like he sold 2 of them at the reduced price, then kicked the prices back up again. If you don't mind the Japanese instructions, you can still get them straight from Japan for about $260 from my friend Kazunori at zootoyz.jp. He only does Paypal though. Sorry about that. It was a good deal while it lasted.

Hi Luke, I have to agree with others that the Midwest kits generally have the advantage of good scale kits with great instructions. But don't get used to good instructions as you will find that very few ship model kits have them – You will definitely have to learn to read and build from plans. As for Artesania Latina kits, 3 of the first 4 ship model kits I built were AL kits. I think they make great starter models and something like the Endeavour's Longboat is probably a good choice, though I don't know the details of that kit in particular. The ones I built had a sheet or two of plans and 4 or 5 pages of instruction. I think a lot of them now have a picture book included that shows you step-by-step how to build the kit. The fittings aren't necessarily the most "to scale" fittings, and if you build more than one AL kit, you're going to start kit bashing really quickly. But, for me, "upgrading" the kits to my satisfaction was half the fun. Clare

Hi Bob, hope you're getting settled in okay. I hope you don't mind me interrupting your build log with this, but I just wanted to mention for the benefit of those who are interested in this kit that a local importer (local to me in the SF Bay Area) made some kind of deal last year with Woody Joe to sell some of their kits on Amazon and to provide them with English language instructions. Among the kits are the Higaki Kaisen, Battleship Yamato, large Nippon Maru and others. Problem was that he jacked the prices up by 50% over retail – That's 50% on top of prices that are generally kind of high to begin with. Well, a year later and I don't think he's sold but a tiny handful of kits. With high prices and no marketing, what can you expect? Appears now that he may be dumping them, or at least some of them. I recently noticed the Higaki Kaisen listed at about $238, which is a good sale price, but then I just looked a couple days ago again and it is now listed at $187.36, that's a $230 drop from what he was originally selling at and it is also about $70 less than I've been able to get it for from Japan after paying shipping. He's only got 11 of them, but I haven't seen any of them sell. Not sure how long the price will last, but it's a really good deal, plus you get the English language version instructions. I wouldn't normally plug this guy, as I like to direct business to my friend Kazunori at Zootoyz.jp, but the prices are VERY good and I think these are the last 11 available at this price. Bob, I'll be looking forward to seeing you startup on your Higaki Kaisen build again. Clare

Sadly, I have nothing more to add, but I'm glad I asked the question! I've been just sitting back enjoying this discussion immensely and am finding it very informative. Clare

There are some examples in the book on the Kriegstein Collection, and the authors mention that four of the models in their collection were originally fitted with poles for flags. There is a painting of The Edgar, a 60-gun fourth-rate, 1758, that is shown in the book. It actually shows two ships, each with 5 flags. Both ships are flying the same flag arrangement. Union Jack - bow Admiralty Flag - fore mast Royal Standard - main mast Union Jack - mizzen mast Red Ensign - ensign staff Also two contemporary models of the Greyhound, 6th rate, 1720, and the Diamond, 5th rate, 1723, show the exact same flag arrangement. I did note too that the authors wrote a good paragraph about flags at launching. Nothing revealing, but they do mention that launchings were festive events with royalty occasionally present. Do you suppose the Royal Standards are flown because royalty was present? I assume the red, blue, or white ensigns would be flown depending on which squadron they were assigned to. That seems to be consistent across all examples. The Union Jack seems mostly consistent too. Druxey, that foremast flag on the Royal Sovereign doesn't look like a Blue Ensign to me. Yet, it's not quite a Union Jack. Looks like a St. George's Cross on a blue field. Not sure what that would mean. Clare

Hi Jason, Thanks for the link and your input. Still looks to me like it changed with practically every monarch until at least the House of Hannover. But, perhaps as you say, those changes were more due to major events since some monarchs of the same family use the same or very similar flags. I'd found a link that showed the chronological list of monarchs and that's where I got the idea that the Royal Standards changed with each monarch. But, I was mistaken, it was showing their coat of arms, which is different and, as you point out, quite complex. Druxey, As you point out – I can't imagine they flew all five flags on say, a naval cutter, like the Alert I'm building – I don't know where they could put them all. I have noted that two contemporary paintings of the 120-gun HMS Nelson, 1814, show only 4 flags with no Union Jack at the bow. So, we're getting closer and maybe this would be the same configuration on a brig or a ketch? Only conjecture of course... Clare

Thank you Duff and Druxey! I still have a number of questions, but I feel better with your replies. I was curious what happens with small ships like a cutter, say. But, it's more curiosity than a practical question that I need to have answered. Would like to understand this at some point. So, Druxey, with your list of flags, I had to find out what the Admiralty flag was, but I found that easily enough. Then, as Duff pointed out, I need to decide on the ship because that might affect which Royal Standard to use. I've been digging around on the Internet and think I finally understand the relevant ones. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Royal Standard changed from Monarch to Monarch from 1707 to 1837. But, from Victoria's time onward, 1837 to present, it has remained consistent? Not to be disrespectful, but the flag makers of old must have gotten quite anxious every time a monarch took ill... Clare

I've been recently thinking about presenting a British Royal Navy vessel at launch and there are some beautiful contemporary models and paintings that depict English Royal Navy ships before they have any masting or rigging, set up with poles and an assortment of large flags. As far as my understanding goes, these are flown at time of launching. I see Union Jacks, White Ensign and other flags – royal standard maybe? Does anyone know what rules govern what flags are flown? Also, where are poles located? I would expect something fit into place where the masts would later go, but there appear to be flags at a jackstaff at the stern and at the headrails. What about smaller ships? Do these fly fewer flags? Which? And where? Clare

So, I managed to sneak in a little more time on this build. I'm taking it to a couple ship model meetings this weekend, so it's nice to be able to show some progress in it. Added the rungs on the side of the ship as well as channels and bolsters at the bow. Also spent some time thicknessing some of the parts for the deck furniture, but not much to show there. In order to show some accomplishment, I decided to work on the mast. I had purchased the masting kit from Shipyard. It was only something like $8. Now, it's even cheaper given the rise of the dollar. But, I wasn't thrilled about the wood quality, so I just used some birch dowels I have on hand and did the usual cutting, tapering, etc. It's nice to be in familiar ship modeling territory! I decided to make the masts based on the kit plans and not the Goodwin book. The kit has the topmast forward of the lower mast like one of the models show in Goodwin, not like in his drawings. I'm not out to redesign this kit. Just trying to learn how to build a model from paper. I was working on the bowsprit and got it shaped based on the kit. But then realized that the kit has a round cross-section for the full length of the bowsprit. Well, I have to draw the line somewhere, so I'm going to redo it using square stock wood. I might use basswood, but I actually have a birch board on-hand and may just cut some down for the task. For the color of the masts, I used a mixture of TransTint alcohol-based wood dye. By the way, the trestletrees and the mast cap are paper. Clare

Hi Nils, thanks for the compliments. Yes, I think that photo shows that a paper model doesn't have to be left to display on the kit provided paper stand. It's like spending a little time and money to nicely frame a photo. It can really bring out the beauty in it. I might be able to get away with this kind of mount for a small model. I think a larger one would at least need those brass side-supports you often see on museum models. Ken, on this model, I think even the smallest bird shot that I could see listed is too big. Larger models I think bird shot is fine as long as it's lead free. I've seen the results of lead rot on models and it ain't pretty. But, good priming, painting, coating should take care of it. The steel ball bearings I got are from China and they end up costing something like $5 for a bag of 500+ and that includes shipping. The 0.8mm size is perfect in this case and I've got many other sizes on hand now too. Regarding the paint, I have indeed been using the stuff that Shipyard sells. It's a artist's acrylic made by a Polish company call Renesans. The stuff is dead flat and has a bit of transparency, so it doesn't cover up the planking lines and such. It also has a somewhat coarse texture. Not really noticeable except to the touch. I've been pretty happy with it so far. Clare

Ken, pinball wizard indeed! I finished the shot racks yesterday, but pinball at least comes will a lot of bells and flashing lights, and a chance to win a free game. Loading those shot racks with 0.8mm ball bearings is quietly painful. And the last thing I want is a free game or an extra ball when lit! I ended up using the smaller 0.8mm ball bearings over the ones I originally started with, which were 1mm. I didn't measure them with the micrometer to verify their sizes, but just went with relative appearance. Here's a comparison of the two sizes in the shot racks. The larger ones are more visible, but 1mm is well out of scale for this model. The ship originally was armed with ten 4-pdrs, for which the 0.8mm ball bearings are perfectly sized for. Later, she was armed with a dozen 6-pdrs, which should be right in between the ball bearing sizes I have, but closer to the larger size shown here. So, loading up the shot racks all went pretty well, but I do expect to find tiny ball bearings around the work table every now and again. And it turned out a lot more like the game "Operation!" than pinball, only reverse. I dab a tiny amount of Insta-Cure+ CA on each position and use hemostats to pick up individual cannon balls and drop them into place. It was actually not all that painful. When it was all done, I glued the completed racks into place and touched up the pain on the racks and cannon balls. Progress is slow because it's not my main project. But then, what's my excuse on my other builds??? I'm still really enamored of these paper kits, but cutting out the really tiny parts is hard on my fingers and I'm trying not to switch to a larger scale, laser-cut kit. I remember making those Guillow's balsa airplanes and having a similar pain from trying to cut those printed parts carefully. I didn't enjoy those kits without the die-cut parts. As much as I love the way this model looks, I may have to switch kits. We'll see – I don't want to let any followers of this topic down! Clare

As a side-project, work on the Alert continues and I'll probably be focussing on cutting more of her parts this week. Since my last post, I added some of the timber heads at the bow. Not really thrilled with my ability to cut small paper parts consistently. But, when I set it aside and came back to it, the issues I was having seem less significant than they did. I've been taking the Alert to ship model meetings now and again and in order to protect the hull better I decided I'd make a display stand. I cut a piece of cherry sheet wood and routed the edges to make a base. The kit comes with a paper cradle, but I decided to go for something more elegant and made a pair of brass posts, similar to those on other models. 3/32" brass rod fit the keel very nicely, but I was worried about putting too much stress on the paper around the holes in the keel, so I soldered a brass strip onto each post. I had pre-drilled these and bent them to fit the keel so that the post would fit into the keel, while the u-shaped seat would hold the sides of the keel snugly. So far, it seems to work quite well. Meanwhile, I still am working on a counter that I'm happy with, so I'll be working on that and on fitting the rudder, which I'll just pin into place. I also prepped the shot racks, which will go on shortly. With all the decorative work, this model seems like it would represent the ship when she was first built, or at least when she was envisioned in the painting of her portrait. As built, she carried 10 4-pdr cannons. In the model's scale of 1:96, the cannon balls would be about 0.8mm and I managed to order some stainless steel ball bearings of the appropriate size on Ebay. I had ordered some previously, but hadn't noticed they weren't stainless steel. This is important because I've been using a blackening agent specifically designed for stainless steel and it works GREAT. However, on the high carbon steel ball bearings I mistakenly got in the past, it doesn't do a very good job. I'm figuring it will be easier to glue the cannon balls into place on the shot racks before I glue them in place. Otherwise, it become like one of those plastic "Cracker Jacks" prize games where you're trying to roll all the tiny little balls into place! Clare

In general, I've found that Artesania Latina kits are simpler by design. The problem usually encountered with their kits are ones of accuracy, rather than construction difficulties. They are intended to be more decorative as opposed to accurate. The planking methods expected on the AL kits are simplified. I generally recommend first timers not to worry about trying to follow actual planking practice as it's a bit complicated when you're still trying to find your way around the ship model kit. There's plenty to learn already. Ship Modeling Simplified is a great book and a particularly good guide for the AL Bluenose II kit. Enjoy your first build. And, when you have a nicely built model sitting on your shelf, you can spend more time advancing specific skills on a more complicated build. Hope Santa is good to you and you get what you want! Clare

Hi Popeye, I'll try to keep making progress. You know, something beyond dusting it off, which I had to do today and boy was there a lot! Mark, thanks for the tip. I had a nice email exchange with Jerry Todd today on the subject. Got some ideas, but still plenty of questions. I guess I can come up with something now though. Still don't know about those fittings for the train tackles, but they look straight forward enough. In the meantime, I got the brass tubing I needed at the hardware store. I'll finish my construction jig for making the paddlewheels and see where that all leads. My car has been in the shop for a few days and it's ready today, but I decided to leave it there until Monday. That will keep me from going anywhere and I can stick around and get some work done here. And today I actually did a healthy thing and walked 20 minutes to the hardware store (and another 20 back). I even managed to find more than one item I was looking for. Tomorrow, it's supposed to start raining for a week, so I'll just have to stay in and work on ship modeling! Clare

Hi All, Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Latest status update is that the USS Saginaw project still lives! I actually finished coppering and painting the rudder a couple days ago and spent much of my free ship modeling time yesterday reviewing what needed to be done. Today, I actually started working on the paddewheels again and resolved how I will be making the hubs and axels and just finished making notes on the steps to finish their assembly. I think I've got a handle on it finally. As it turns out, as much as I needed to try out the laser cutting, the design I did is off a bit. Looking back at the rims I made from copper, I've had a chance to step back and appreciate them a lot more. I think these will work though they are slightly out of round in spots. With half of the covered by the wheel houses, I don't think the issue will be noticeable, so I started moving forward again. I finally learned how to correctly use the parting tool with turned brass on my Sherline lathe and I was able to quickly fashion the hubs for the paddle wheels. These aren't perfect. I'm going to end up centering the hubs on the axels, where on the actual saginaw, the hubs are actually slightly shifted on the axels. This makes the hubs slightly different in shape, but I wasn't able to work that out, so I'm simplifying here. See the edge view drawing in the center of the following attachment. I'm ready to move forward, but just need a length on #129 K&S 3/16" brass tube. Tomorrow, I'll hit the hardware store for some and hope they've got it in stock. Meanwhile, I'm laying out the steps I'll be taking to mount the rudder and start working on the gun ports. On the latter, I've identified a few reference photos that I'm using, but just need to find more detail on the drop-down ports used by the U.S. Navy around the time of the Civil War. I also went back over some photos that are making me feel more confident on my ideas for the way the bridge area between the wheelhouses was made. It's not shown in any detail in the National Archives plans I'm working from. More soon... Clare

If you're got a Byrnes table saw, get the .030" blade he sells for it. Rip your planking from sheet stock, but to get uniform strips, cut them edge-wise from a sheet. So, if you want 1/8" wide planks, get 1/8" thick sheets. Cut strips 1/32" thick (or whatever suits you) and all the planks will be perfectly uniform width. If you get a little variation in thickness, a little sanding of the deck will deal with that. I agree with Jaager about buying more than you think you'll need – double sounds nice and safe. Figure 1/32" thickness and add the blade kerf. Divide the width of the sheet you want by that number and that will tell you about how many strips you'll get out of it. For the hull planking, you can take the same idea or follow what Jaager is saying if you intend to spile. Clare

Actually, the NRG directors apparently decided to eliminate the gallery. The MSW gallery is now the only way the NRG specific stuff is being shown. I'm not too thrilled about the call myself. But on the upside, I just got my copy of this wonderful book. Well written and beautiful photos of an exquisite looking model. The plans are in a separate folder that comes with the book. I'll probably never get around to building something as beautiful as the author's model. I just look at the book and drool mostly... Clare

National Balsa is great. I've order from them on at least two or three occasions. I've bought mostly sheet basswood from them in 1/4", 3/8" boards and other wood as well. As doghomer points out, they deal with a lot more than just basswood. Very professional service, good turnaround and I've always been satisfied with my orders. And, given that the topic is Timber source and not National Balsa, I'll also point out another fine source of basic lumber in basswood, cherry and mahogny is Norteastern Scale Lumber. I've found them to be a great source for strip woods and sheet wood. I've bought a lot of cherry strips from them mostly as well as birch plywood. They're service has been great and they're communication very good as well. Clare

Hi Erin, I've built a few Artesania Latina kits and based on those and what you show in your photos, it looks like all that probably happened was that you ran the planks past the bow instead of of simply up to the edge of the bow, as Jason pointed out. Assuming the framing is okay, you should be able to just trim/sand the excess planking off. As you do, you'll start to see the edge of that internal keel piece show through. By the time you uncover the whole edge and trim/sand the planking back, you should find that the curve of the bow will match that keel piece your holding in the photos. The kit probably includes thin strips of mahogany veneer for the second layer of planking, so you don't have to worry too much about how the planking looks, but you do want it to be smooth. Good luck on your build. It's your first, so I wouldn't sweat it too much. Just do what you can and learn from it and, most importantly, enjoy the build! Clare

Is the hinge screw tight? I have a Chopper III and one issue i have is that the screw loosens after a time and I end up with some play in it. So it requires periodic tightening. Clare

Hi Chris, Funny you should mention David Okamura's models. Two modeler's I know both bought card models at the SMA's Queen Mary event way back after seeing his models on display. I've never seen his models myself, but I understand they are really nicely done. Well, on the Alert, things slow down a bit as I work more on cutting small parts. The cheeks of the gun carriages take a lot of cuts to make. There are only 12 guns on this model – not so bad. I also cut the timberheads. These are really small, but I think I shaped them okay. All these parts are listed as 1mm thick. I've found that I don't really like using 0.5mm or 1mm cardboard as it's kind of soft, so I like to use 3M spray adhesive to laminate sheets of printer paper. This seems to cut cleaner than cardboard. The paper I use is pretty thick, so two sheets of printer paper, plus the kit part sheet comes out to 0.5mm. The kit parts for the gun carriage cheeks are lined up on the kit sheets very nicely, allowing me to glue up several parts at one time. The parts show cut, yet to be cleaned up. The cleaned up, painted parts. Clare