catopower

Two steps forward and... that's it! Managed to make some progress on HMS Wolf this past weekend. I installed 31 cleats, mostly on the bulwarks, but 9 tiny ones had to go onto the inboard side of the bowsprit. Also constructed the ladders that I'll need to mount on deck soon. Still have to touch up the painting of those, but it was nice to get some construction done. After I finished these, and with the guns permanently fixed in place, I started to feel much better about my progress on this model. Pretty soon, I'll start rigging the tiller ropes and adding the ship's wheel, and rigging the bowsprit.

It seems that my ship modeling "prop" is cavitating, my sails are taken aback... it's two steps forward and TWO steps back... Made main t'gallant and topsail yards, but there are problems. The laser-cut part for the octagonals/battens takes a lot of care to fit, and as a result, I found the topsail yard too thin. Also, the t'gallant yard mid-section where the laser-cut part fits is also very thin and it seems the wood broke underneath the laser-cut part. I'll need to re-do the topsail yard, but not sure about the main t'gallant. I'm now considering the sail configuration of the model (so that's kind of a step forward!), as this might tell me if I can reinforce the main t'gallant yard with a piece of wire that might hide under/behind the sail material. Below is the kit photo. The kit includes all the sails shown here, but I think I'm going to try my hand at making some sails from silkspan, inspired by the recent workshop by Ron Neilson and Tom Ruggiero. Excelling workshop, by the way, and I'm very inspired to try it! I think I'm going to go with a simplified sail arrangement and try flying the topsails, jib, and spanker. The courses I'm thinking I may furl. Still not sure about the t'gallants. If I furl them, I can put the yards in lowered position. I could also leave the t'gallants off the yards. Given the tall nature of the rig, that might give it more of a nice balance look, especially if the courses are loosely furled. But, having the furled sails on their yards will allow me to hide repairs. Looking through Harland's Seamanship in the Age of Sail, as well as online images of brigs under sail. Beyond that, I did permanently fix the guns into position, so I won't be adding any of the additional tackle there. On the blocks, can any paper modelers out there suggest the best way to glue up the laser-cut card blocks? Mine tend to fall apart when I try to clean out the sheave holes. I'd still like to be able to use them, but I'm consolidating my wooden block supplies to be ready to go with those.

Vacillating on which blocks to use again! I went through my inventory of blocks, and I have two different lines of wooden blocks that include ones small enough for this model. I'd still LIKE to rig the gun tackles, and that calls for 2mm blocks, though it looks like I could get away with 2.5mm blocks. I have some old Warner Woods blocks, quite a few actually, and fair supply of Master Korabel blocks. Neither of these includes shoulder blocks or long tackle blocks, which the instructions call for, and which are readily available in cardboard form. So, I'm giving the cardboard blocks another chance, seeing if I can assemble ones that don't fall apart when I start to work with them. Meanwhile, I ended up making a couple spars today. Oh My God are these tiny, even at 1/72 scale. I started with the kit dowels, but I ended using some 1/16" diameter birch dowels I have a supply of, as they were smaller diameter to start with. I just used these to make the main gaff and the fore t'gallant yard. I tapered the dowel accordingly and sanded them down closer to 2.3mm in diameter. That was okay for the main gaff, but the t'gallant yard has a nice laser-etched piece that wraps around the middle to represent the octagonal section or battening. In order to get it to fit, I had to shave down the middle section of the dowel to 1.7mm, creating a slightly recessed section in the center of the yard. Even then, the battening piece doesn't quite wrap all the way around, but it's close enough. The seam will be located on the underside of the yard, and if I mount sails, they will completely cover it up as well. This was more of an effort than I was expecting. But, it's done – 1 yard down, 7 yards to go. Fortunately, this is one of the smallest. The others should all be larger and easier to deal with. At least, that's what I keep telling myself...

I agree with GrandpaPhil. Nice find! This is a very rare kit. You are right that Aeropiccola has been out of business for a LONG TIME, and the kit is from an era of older kits that are harder to build into an "accurate" model. But, some of us have an appreciation for these old classic kits. A friend of mine recently told me he is in possession of a USS Essex from Aeropiccola and wanted to know if I wanted to buy it. Unfortunately, I have more than enough kits to last the rest of my life. I need to get rid of some, I think! Are you going to build the kit?

Nice score Erik! I'm familiar with just about all of those kits, except for the BlueJacket Blue Gray half-hull. The Black Hawk half hull, If it's the kit I'm thinking of, is basically a framed half-hull that you can pretty much display on the wall as-is. It's really rare, and I've only ever seen one of these before. Anyway, it looks like your stockpile is now well seeded. Good luck with all those builds!

For the best quality model rope, yes, go with those suggestions. For a general source of parts, I personally recommend one of our site sponsors, Ages of Sail. However, being that I do some work for them, I'm somewhat biased. They mostly carry Amati and Billing Boats parts, but also some Caldercraft parts as well.

Those cardboard crosstrees turned out to be SUPER delicate, so I ended up having to reinforce them. Since the detail is so small, and will be mostly hidden by the topmast shrouds and t'gallant shrouds, I was able to just apply some 2-part epoxy to the undersides. Painted over, the results are hardly visible. In fact, I can't even get a good pic of the details of the small black-painted parts. I considered gluing some short pieces of thin, stiff wire to the undersides of the crosstrees, but it didn't seem necessary in the end. Meanwhile, I went ahead and added the jib boom to the bowsprit and added the belaying pins to the pin rails. However, I have yet to glue all the deck furniture into place yet. I want to make sure I have enough room to add the gun tackle, though I'm still not sure if I will do that. I also started adding the eyebolts to the mast caps and bowsprit cap. The kit provides thin copper wire for this purpose, but it's really soft stuff. I was trying to replace it with some black wire I bought recently, but it turns out to be copper wire with a black coating, so still pretty soft. Finally, I settled on using some annealed steel wire. It's a little shiny, but at this scale, they're barely visible anyway. I need to start adding a bunch of blocks onto the model, particular on the underside of the mast tops. This means I need to make a call on the which blocks I'm using. I was really trying to use the cardboard blocks included in the kit, but I'm just not great at assembling the multi-sheave blocks and had some problems with that. The cardboard blocks are very detailed and I think they look more like the actual blocks needed for the model than anything else commercially available and in the right sizes. But, I've decided I need to use wooden blocks at this point. It's hard to find ones in all the sizes necessary. Fortunately, I have a large collection of old blocks from Lloyd Warner, who used to be heavily involved in the NRG here. I have my own supply, and I recently inherited a friend's supply as well, so I'm pretty well set with that. Still have to decide on the rigging of the gun tackles though... I definitely don't put them on my 1/96 scale (1/8" = 1') models, but I though as a rule of thumb, that I'd add the gun tackles at 1/72 scale and larger. However, these are very small cannons, only 3 or 4 pdrs. So, I'm thinking I may have to skip them on this model. Anyway, I can still work on some masting details before I'm forced to make the final call on the gun tackles. I think I'd really like to add all the bowsprit rigging and those blocks under the mast tops next.

Working on card (paper) models can feel like really slow going at times. Possibly, it's just because the hull construction is so quick in comparison. So, I'm posting a little bit of progress I'm making, and it doesn't seem like much. But, it's progress nonetheless, and I just wanted to show that I've been giving this model some attention. There are three sub-projects I'm currently working on with this model. First, there are the masts and spars; second, there's the rigging of the cannons; third, there is the rigging of the ship's wheel. The spars are the easiest, I suppose. Below is the progress already made on the mast tops and the snow mast, or what the kit calls the trysail mast. The topmasts required the most work, as both ends are card assemblies, connected by a dowel. The snow mast is the simplest. It's just a dowel with holes drilled in it for the fids, or that's what I assume they are called. Below is another view of the same pieces, with the fore topmast test fit into place. It's actually not very clear how the snow mast is to attach to the mainmast. At the top end, it seats into the crosstrees and that's fine. But the bottom end doesn't have a hole in the deck to fit through on the model. I contacted Shipyard and they said is just sits on the deck. Doesn't seem very secure, so I went ahead and drilled a hole in the bottom of the snow mast and fit a short piece of brass rod in it. I've since removed the brass rod and trimmed the length of the snow mast so that is will sit on the deck, and simply glued it to the back edge of the mast coaming. However, I think I'll go back and put that piece of rod back in, just to make the assembly more secure. Finally, I finished the assembly of the topmast crosstrees. These are kind of delicate, so I made sure to treat them with thin CA, which stiffens up the parts pretty well. They're still a bit delicate, but not nearly as much as they were, untreated. You can see I have the ship's wheel out on the work bench too. I need to rig this and the tiller, but that requires running thin line through 8 teeny blocks, and then some... I think I'm moving forward with using the kit blocks, which have to be assembled. You can see some of the smallest ones at the bottom of the photo above. Assembly isn't a problem now, it's how to rig them that's an issue. 1/72-scale isn't the worst scale to work on (I practically swore-off 1/96 scale early on), but the level of detail and scale accuracy of these Shipyard kits (and I think Seahorse is the same way), results in dealing with very tiny parts. In the old days, I learned to "fake it" and to take various short cuts, understanding that this is a model, and that the "art" of model making is much an art of illusion, of making things look correct, even they really aren't. This is something I used to do better and I think I've forgotten that. It's something I need to remember on a model of this size and detail... At any rate, I'll try to keep at it a while on this model. It's nice to be making some progress on it again. One of the guys in the local ship model club has put me to shame, recently completing his model of Shipyard's 1/72-scale armed pinnace Papegojan, while my HMS Wolf is still in dry dock...

Thanks Druxey, Chris. It's been nice getting some things done and "out the door" as it were. Fortunately, I'm finding fewer potential projects distracting me, so I don't really feel like starting anything new. Unfortunately, I have more than enough projects to juggle between, even after eliminating a few... Clare

For those who are wondering, I haven't given up on this. I needed to finish a model and diorama for a small museum in Monterey, CA, a 1/24-scale, scratch built Monterey salmon fishing boat, 1916. With that done, I also wanted to wrap up another model project that's been hanging over my head for some time, my 1/64-scale Woody Joe kit of a Charles royal yacht, 1674. Well, I just finished that up this past weekend as well, and I feel I really need to get more finished up. My Japanese coastal trade ship, called a Kitamaebune, is another Woody Joe model kit in 1/72 scale. Pretty much, it just needs sails and it's done. So, chances are good that I'll focus on that next. There are also a couple other projects that I'd like to make at least some progress on, including HMS Wolf. So, expect to see some activity again here, soon – I've not given up on anything...

Yes, except by average onlooker. I notice it every time I look at an OcCre kit. I think your idea of what constitutes a "complete" model is not universal. The sheathing is a sacrificial covering. Also, I know many people who don't like the look of the metal on a model, and would rather have natural wood that has the general color of copper plating instead.

Thank you Tomek!

Chris, can you tell what blocks or belaying pins are required to complete the model?

Interesting. At 1:50-scale, that makes it a direct rival of the Kolderstok Speeljaght wood kit... 🤔 Will be interesting to see how this compares. 1:50 is a big scale for paper ship model kits.

Marcel, Welcome! I've built a few Shipyard paper models, mostly the laser-cut kits. Temporarily on pause are Shipyards HMS Wolf laser-cut kit, and the Seahorse Armed Virginia Sloop kit. Hoping to get back to those very soon! LOL! Hey Chris, I don't think that may be a universally understood reference! 😁

Beautiful work Greg! I'm just catching up on this project now. Sorry to hear about your missing wreath and the thing about Ages of Sail and the cost of shipping. I do some work for them and apparently, they got tired of people ordering one or two parts and being told that the item that was mailed out in an envelope never arrived. So, they only use tracked shipping methods now. Sucks when you only want a 60 cent part, I know. I'll point out your comment to the staff, so they realize it's actually a problem. Anyway, very inspirational model!

Wonderful job on your Yakatabune model! I'm sorry I didn't see your question on my build log and didn't find this build log until just now, but I'm glad you put it up! I read what you wrote about how some of the construction tabs are visible on this model. I didn't worry about them on mine. You have to look closely to see them. But, were I to do it again, I'm sure I would basically just do what you did in covering them. Really glad to see another Woody Joe kit build and I'm very glad to see your comments about it. Nice job on the copper trim, it all looks perfect!

Sorry, I didn't see this until today. The figures don't actually say 2001, but they are clearly the lunar astronauts from the film. You can find them here: https://www.shapeways.com/product/MWUZ2B6Y9/sf-lunar-set-1-48-1-55-1-72?optionId=314218691&li=ostatus Hope that helps!

Yes, unfortunately, while the photo I posted at the very beginning is of a contemporary model, the rigging was a modern addition, so not much help there.

Phil, Tony, my hats off to you both. That's exactly what I needed, thank you! Tony, I checked out your making and use of the head stick on your Sherbourne model. Wow, what a treat to see the work you did on that model. Outstanding!

Hi David, welcome to MSW! Others have given some good advice here. I'll just add that I would at least start considering how you want to mount the model. If you wait too long, it will become difficult to drill holes into the bottom of the ship safely, if that's something your stand will require. I usually use mounting pins or screws and try to plan where they will go ahead of time. If your model has a solid hull, then screws or pins are no problem. If it is plank-on-bulkhead, you may want to reinforce the interior structure by gluing in some solid wood blocks, so screws or pins will have something to support them.

I don't know where some people are coming up with ridiculous ideas of the value of kit built ship models. If they're well done, then they have value. The idea that they're worth so little is total BS. It all depends on the modeler and their skill, and attention to detail, and scale. If that's not the case, then many of us shouldn't even be here, myself included...

I noticed that your first post shows Shipyard's HMS Wolf kit. Are you working on that one? I've been working on it too, though I took a bit of a break to finish up some other stuff. I got as far as making the masts and starting on the other spars. Would love to see what you're doing on the Wolf!

Nice work on the color conversion. My only concern would be with opacity/transparency of the paints. As you discovered the Shipyard kits include a brand of paints called Renesans, a Polish brand. They can be found online, but you usually have to order from Europe, and it can be difficult to find a seller that can/will ship internationally. The Renesans acrylics have a slightly transparent quality to them, so you can see printed or laser-etched (burned) details through the paint. I like to use these paints for the Shipyard printed paper kits for this reason. Also, I've found that with lots of grinding and stirring, that I've been able to revive most of the dried Shipyard paint jars. But, it is a lot easier to just get new Renesans paints if you can find them.

Lovely work. Wspaniały.