catopower

Today is Saturday, and our ship model club, The South Bay Model Shipwrights, met at our usual location at the Game Kastle shop in Santa Clara, CA, at the south end of the San Francisco Bay. It was a good meeting, and we have four out of the seven people out of the members in attendance that have built paper models. Three of us have built, or are building paper ship models.
Maybe it was that, or I don't know what, but I've just gotten so jazzed up about these Shipyard laser-cut kits that I'm just so ready to go out and get another one or two, so I can start working on them as soon as HMS Wolf is done. And, that's coming from someone who loves building wooden sailing ship models.
 
I actually have two of Shipyards "Super Modeler Plans" sets. These are plans for scratch building models, but they include all the laser-cut frameworks for the hull, as well as the inner hull covering, decks and planking, inner bulwarks pieces, to start the model. The idea is that the modeler can then use materials of his or her choice to cover the model with a final planking layer, then scratch build all their own details, armament, masts and spars, etc.
 
I'm absolutely itching to try building ones of these. But, they are limited edition sets, 150 of each were made, and I have HMS Enterprize no. 47 of 150 and Spanish Frigate Santa Leocadia no. 100 of 125 copies. When I start these, that's it, they're gone, and I really don't want to screw them up or leave them unfinished. 
 
They are made to be built at 1/72 scale, like my HMS Wolf kit, and I even have extra detail parts sets that were produced for them by GPM, which includes cannon carriages, hatch coamings, capstans, ship's wheel, mast tops, galley stove, and various cross bitts.
 
I kind of feel like I should maybe build Shipyard's HMS Mercury kit first. It's not cheap, but it is complete, and might give me a better handle on building these "semi-kits". 
In the meantime, I'm now working on rigging the yard arms on HMS Wolf. So, here are some pics of that.
 
 

Not much of a roll, I'm afraid. Hit some speed bumps with work. But, I thought I'd show at least SOME progress here.
 
Made the stuns'l booms and mounted them on the fore lower yard.
 

All the 'iron' bands here are just paper strips wrapped around the spars. The hard part here is that the paper strips are made for spars that are of an exact size. I didn't want to make these parts too weak, so they're slightly thicker than they should be. As a result, the bands don't go all the way around the spars the way they should.
 
In one case, they stop where the wire for the boom iron "attaches". In reality, the wire passes into the boom itself, making for a secure fit. In another location, they stop in the gap between the boom and the yard, so you can't really tell there's any gap.
 

Like I said, not a LOT of progress, but at least I'm not going backwards any more... at least not at the moment!
 
Anyway, that's the last of the "yard work", though I can now start rigging them, which will be a nice change.
 
Edit: One more thing to add is that I finished the detailing of the anchors, adding the rings and wrapping them. I was considering just using the kit parts, but I was feeling party inspired and partly put to shame by the beautiful work that was done on a build of Shipyard's 1/72-scale HMS Mercury kit by a shipmodeler that goes by the screen name Bonden on his website here: https://www.karton-im-wind.de/nicht-von-pappe-doch/hms-mercury/der-baubericht/
 
 
Hopefully, I'll get some time over the holidays to press forward on the Wolf.
 
 

Merry Christmas all!
 
I took a couple weeks to work on some other stuff, but then got back to my HMS Wolf build.
 
I decided to take a look at using Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new resin deadeyes. I don't love the idea of using resin parts on my wooden ship models, but my paper models are really multi-media models anyway, as I'm using wood for masts, yards and blocks, metal cannon barrels... so why not resin deadeyes that so beautiful? You can see them here, along with a couple of the cardboard deadeyes from the kit.

Below, you can see how the model looked like, or would look like, with cardboard deadeyes...

And then, compare that to how it looks with Chuck's resin, 3D-printed deadeyes.

The larger deadeyes are 5mm diameter, and they look a bit big in comparison to the cardboard ones, which are also labeled 5mm, but are closer to 4.5mm. I wish there were 4mm deadeyes available from Chuck's store, but it's currently "Closed for Maintenance", so I have no way to see if he makes them in this size. I'd consider substituting the 5mm ones with 4mm ones if he makes them. If not, these will do.
 
Certainly the 3mm deadeyes on the mast tops look really good. I'm very happy with them!
 

For Christmas, I decided to get myself a new serving tool, which I intend to use with this model. So, I have a brand new Serve-O-Matic that I'll be assembling this week. In the meantime, I'm putting together a rigging table, so my line sizes should be more accurate than using sizes provided solely from the kit plans. Also, I have plenty of work to do on fixing blocks to the yards, and adding those mast cleats I mentioned a few posts back.
 
 
 

Merry Christmas all!
 
I took a couple weeks to work on some other stuff, but then got back to my HMS Wolf build.
 
I decided to take a look at using Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new resin deadeyes. I don't love the idea of using resin parts on my wooden ship models, but my paper models are really multi-media models anyway, as I'm using wood for masts, yards and blocks, metal cannon barrels... so why not resin deadeyes that so beautiful? You can see them here, along with a couple of the cardboard deadeyes from the kit.

Below, you can see how the model looked like, or would look like, with cardboard deadeyes...

And then, compare that to how it looks with Chuck's resin, 3D-printed deadeyes.

The larger deadeyes are 5mm diameter, and they look a bit big in comparison to the cardboard ones, which are also labeled 5mm, but are closer to 4.5mm. I wish there were 4mm deadeyes available from Chuck's store, but it's currently "Closed for Maintenance", so I have no way to see if he makes them in this size. I'd consider substituting the 5mm ones with 4mm ones if he makes them. If not, these will do.
 
Certainly the 3mm deadeyes on the mast tops look really good. I'm very happy with them!
 

For Christmas, I decided to get myself a new serving tool, which I intend to use with this model. So, I have a brand new Serve-O-Matic that I'll be assembling this week. In the meantime, I'm putting together a rigging table, so my line sizes should be more accurate than using sizes provided solely from the kit plans. Also, I have plenty of work to do on fixing blocks to the yards, and adding those mast cleats I mentioned a few posts back.
 
 
 

Merry Christmas all!
 
I took a couple weeks to work on some other stuff, but then got back to my HMS Wolf build.
 
I decided to take a look at using Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new resin deadeyes. I don't love the idea of using resin parts on my wooden ship models, but my paper models are really multi-media models anyway, as I'm using wood for masts, yards and blocks, metal cannon barrels... so why not resin deadeyes that so beautiful? You can see them here, along with a couple of the cardboard deadeyes from the kit.

Below, you can see how the model looked like, or would look like, with cardboard deadeyes...

And then, compare that to how it looks with Chuck's resin, 3D-printed deadeyes.

The larger deadeyes are 5mm diameter, and they look a bit big in comparison to the cardboard ones, which are also labeled 5mm, but are closer to 4.5mm. I wish there were 4mm deadeyes available from Chuck's store, but it's currently "Closed for Maintenance", so I have no way to see if he makes them in this size. I'd consider substituting the 5mm ones with 4mm ones if he makes them. If not, these will do.
 
Certainly the 3mm deadeyes on the mast tops look really good. I'm very happy with them!
 

For Christmas, I decided to get myself a new serving tool, which I intend to use with this model. So, I have a brand new Serve-O-Matic that I'll be assembling this week. In the meantime, I'm putting together a rigging table, so my line sizes should be more accurate than using sizes provided solely from the kit plans. Also, I have plenty of work to do on fixing blocks to the yards, and adding those mast cleats I mentioned a few posts back.
 
 
 

Well, I'm not sure if it's the time change, the shorter days, colder weather, or what... But, I've been finding myself more motivated to get back to the completion of HMS Wolf. 
 
Perhaps it has something to do with the restarting of a ship model group in the San Francsico North Bay? I don't know. But, it's good to be working on this project again...
 
 
HMS Wolf is now out that small case I had it in, all the deck furniture except the gallows structures has been permanently fixed to the deck, as well as the bowsprit itself. I ended up not adding the little belfry, as it's very much crammed in behind the foremast, between the aft pinrail and the riding bitts. I'll have to figure out what to about the ship's bell. I'm inclined to mount it from a stand on top of the binnacle box, if that seems reasonable.

While it's not shown in the photo above, I went back and installed the belaying pins. My kit included brass belaying pins. I'm not sure, but I think Shipyard has since gone with 3D printed belaying pins. Mine, being brass, were treated with BlueJacket's Brass Brown metal toner. 
 
 
Gammoning rope has been added, and stay collars added to the bowsprit.


This may not seem like much, but it's the first time I've been really motivated to work on rigging for a long time. I did have the rigging on the Charles yacht, but it was a lot simpler that this smaller scale brig-rigged snow.
 
I think I'm going to go ahead and rig those bobstays. Then, I can get started dealing with the deadeyes and chainplates, which are weirdly mounted on Shipyard kits.

Nothing new to report, except that I removed the jib boom for now. This allows me to put the model under a nice dust cover. Kind of looks like a good way to display a hull model...
 

Merry Christmas all!
 
I took a couple weeks to work on some other stuff, but then got back to my HMS Wolf build.
 
I decided to take a look at using Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new resin deadeyes. I don't love the idea of using resin parts on my wooden ship models, but my paper models are really multi-media models anyway, as I'm using wood for masts, yards and blocks, metal cannon barrels... so why not resin deadeyes that so beautiful? You can see them here, along with a couple of the cardboard deadeyes from the kit.

Below, you can see how the model looked like, or would look like, with cardboard deadeyes...

And then, compare that to how it looks with Chuck's resin, 3D-printed deadeyes.

The larger deadeyes are 5mm diameter, and they look a bit big in comparison to the cardboard ones, which are also labeled 5mm, but are closer to 4.5mm. I wish there were 4mm deadeyes available from Chuck's store, but it's currently "Closed for Maintenance", so I have no way to see if he makes them in this size. I'd consider substituting the 5mm ones with 4mm ones if he makes them. If not, these will do.
 
Certainly the 3mm deadeyes on the mast tops look really good. I'm very happy with them!
 

For Christmas, I decided to get myself a new serving tool, which I intend to use with this model. So, I have a brand new Serve-O-Matic that I'll be assembling this week. In the meantime, I'm putting together a rigging table, so my line sizes should be more accurate than using sizes provided solely from the kit plans. Also, I have plenty of work to do on fixing blocks to the yards, and adding those mast cleats I mentioned a few posts back.
 
 
 

Merry Christmas all!
 
I took a couple weeks to work on some other stuff, but then got back to my HMS Wolf build.
 
I decided to take a look at using Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new resin deadeyes. I don't love the idea of using resin parts on my wooden ship models, but my paper models are really multi-media models anyway, as I'm using wood for masts, yards and blocks, metal cannon barrels... so why not resin deadeyes that so beautiful? You can see them here, along with a couple of the cardboard deadeyes from the kit.

Below, you can see how the model looked like, or would look like, with cardboard deadeyes...

And then, compare that to how it looks with Chuck's resin, 3D-printed deadeyes.

The larger deadeyes are 5mm diameter, and they look a bit big in comparison to the cardboard ones, which are also labeled 5mm, but are closer to 4.5mm. I wish there were 4mm deadeyes available from Chuck's store, but it's currently "Closed for Maintenance", so I have no way to see if he makes them in this size. I'd consider substituting the 5mm ones with 4mm ones if he makes them. If not, these will do.
 
Certainly the 3mm deadeyes on the mast tops look really good. I'm very happy with them!
 

For Christmas, I decided to get myself a new serving tool, which I intend to use with this model. So, I have a brand new Serve-O-Matic that I'll be assembling this week. In the meantime, I'm putting together a rigging table, so my line sizes should be more accurate than using sizes provided solely from the kit plans. Also, I have plenty of work to do on fixing blocks to the yards, and adding those mast cleats I mentioned a few posts back.
 
 
 

Congratulations on your completed Alert build, Mike!
 
That's a great looking model. I built a paper model in 1/96 scale, years ago, and now you have me thinking about doing another in a larger scale. 🤔

Congratulations on your completed Alert build, Mike!
 
That's a great looking model. I built a paper model in 1/96 scale, years ago, and now you have me thinking about doing another in a larger scale. 🤔

Quiet improvement!

As you say it is somewhat subjective. The problem is that what might be a good thing for one person might be a downside for another. For example if you want to kitbash / super detail your model then in many cases all you are looking for is the main structural elements as you will end up replacing most other parts anyways. In such cases the extra costs associated with "better fittings" would be wasted on you. But I suspect that most people asking the question are doing so because they are relatively new to the hobby. Once someone has at least one major build under their belt they should know enough about what they want to answer the question themselves.
 
If we then redefine "best" to mean good for a relative novice, we are really looking for something that allows them to complete the model out of the box without requiring additional fittings or materials. I would say this means the kit should have:
Clear easy to follow instructions Laser cut materials that don't require the builder to scratch build many things Quality materials and fittings meaning that the purchase of 3rd party materials is not necessary

And so here she is, and probably finished!
 
So, first of all some pics of the full rigging.  The instruction book is pretty clear - though you have to combine the information for with, and without, sails.  I used the sails exactly as supplied and rigged them all hauled tight.   I am aware that sails are often not installed because first of all they are very hard to do accurately at scale, and also because they hide much of the work of the builder. As a modeller I accept both of those points, but feel they really are issues for the cognoscenti, the average slightly interested friend or family member will assume that a sailing ship should have sails.  So, first for that reason, I rigged 'em.  A secondary consideration is that the running rigging is literally superfluous if no sails are present, and in that regard having the sails has been a joy.  The sails also speak to the whole purpose of these craft: they were very fast and very weatherly, carrying a truly prodigious area of canvas for such small craft

And some details

Shortly after I had rigged the square sail I realised that the tacks and sheets and the foot of the sail would not hang as they should so reflected on how to stiffen the sail athwartships.  A stall at a Christmas market was selling florists wire for building wreaths, I bought a roll but it was shiny black.  A few minutes of googling found the perfect refinement - white coated wire for sugar flowers.  I was able to thread a wire - athwartships - through the hem along the foot of the sail.  It works a treat in providing shape and stiffening.  Sheets and tacks now run outboard as they should - though hardly along the graceful curves that they should. Given my time again I would think about stiffening along foot and leach of all the sails and perhaps more.  But not this time.

And a little reflection:
She's a beautiful small vessel, showing a style quite different from the square-rigged ships we so often model from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  I think a single-masted rig should be on everyone's list to build and this kit worked ideally for me.  The materials are beautiful to use and plentiful in quantity (though why anyone would dye their own 0.25 mm thread is beyond me - fortunately I had a large supply).  The large A3 instruction manual is beautifully conceived and magnificently clear.  It suffers a little in clarity through the revisions to the model, but the revisions are all welcome.   The sails were provided for free, and apart from being slightly miss-cut, I was happy to use them as provided, and I really do think the sails are worth having
 
My biggest uncertainty in the whole project concerned attachment of the lower yards to the mast, and of some of the rigging, all lower than the gaff.  With sails rigged it's obvious that if the gaff is to be raised or lowered at any speed then for the rings holding the spanker to be able to descend or rise, the mast must be free of rigging.  And surely it must be possible to deploy the spanker in a hurry - to chase or flee abruptly to windward, for example.  I couldn't find an image of the Alert model in the Science Museum - but all the cutter rigs I could find online showed no obvious attachment of the lower yards to the mast - so I've not added any.  I used simple trusses for the topsail and t'gallant yards, and I suppose the lower yards could have had light trusses swiftly removed before deploying the spanker, but I cannot see how parrels could have been used on those two.
 
But in fact, one of the alleged defects of rigging sails - they hide details - is a virtue in that they hide the attachment of the yards.  They also hide details I chose not to add - hanks and coils of rope attached to all the belaying points.  The pins just struck me as too small to take hanks of rope, and the decks too crowded already with sails, for coils to look right.  Some things in modelling just don't scale well - mainly things to do with rigging thread, in my experience!
 
This was meant to be a sort of infill project before HMS Surprise hoves into view, where I could try a few things out (sails, bare planking) - and hone some skills (too many to mention).  It was all that, but much more: rich in features, novel in rig, but above all, beautiful.
 
 
 
 
 

Have been back building - but not posting.  So here is the first of a couple of updates.
 
The standing rigging was reasonably straightforward . I built a jig to line the dead-eyes up while tensioning the shrouds, which meant I could tie throat seizings.  Naturally managed to rig at least two of them with the eyes the wrong way round, but spotted it pretty quickly
 

After about 100 clove-hitches my mojo returned and I rattled down the shrouds in a a couple of sittings.  Am I weird for enjoying that?  I space the ratlines at 5 mm, so 32 cm or 12.5" IRL.  I've previously persuaded myself that that follows historical precedents.  But I think 7 mm might look better.

Once the stays are in you get some perspective of just how much sail these relatively small ships carried.  And sails are the subject of the next post.

Looking good. If you haven't glued the topgallant yet (I am not sure from the photos if it is dry fitted or glued), hold off a bit. It is easier to do the shrouds if you can slide them over the top.

Well, it has been a while...  But we've been home for about three weeks, and after 10 weeks of marvellous sunny, dry warm wether in Australia we have returned to truly abysmal spring weather here: 6ºC, constant northerly wind and nearly continuous rain - interrupted by sleet and hail.  So perfect modelling weather!
 
The hull is now finished, with scarcely a problem - beyond periodic lapses of competence.  This iteration of the Alert kit has some documented, and perhaps some less-documented differences from the manual.  The first I noticed in recent work is that the cap squares are provided as small PE parts, but are also laser-cut into the sides of the gun carriages.  The laser-cut detail is astonishingly high resolution so I wanted to use it, but that means the build order of assemble and glue carriage, paint carriage, add gun barrel, won't work since the barrel needs to be included before the gluing.  I felt that painting the components and then assembling would not work well as the tolerances on the carriage are very fine and the paint would mess that up.  But in any event, I was inclined to stain the carriages oak-brown, so I did. The results, I think are remarkable.  Note the detail of the laser-cut cap square - including the tiny rebates that mean that it takes paint without it running all over the place.  For scale, the lines on the cutting mat are on a 1 inch grid.

 
A less-pleasant experience was the discovery that the chain (plates) sit lower than shown in the drawings - indeed they sit exactly on the water-line, which is not all that plausible IRL, and very inconvenient in that I had added a waterline batten.  A simple lesson learnt: where relative positions are going to be important, measure the parts!
 
But anyway, she looks OK!
 
  
I've got the mill and the lathe set up, so mast and spars, here I come.
 

And so, I have progress to report.  Let me show you where I am up to.


As you can see, the hull is painted and substantially complete.  Given how many blunders and the odd challenge, I'm amazed how well she passes the "30cm test" - in fact I think she looks drop-dead gorgeous with beautiful lines and very fetching paintwork - all credit to the designers.
 
In the blunders camp, despite the clear instructions to the contrary, I used satin varnish to seal the the woodwork, having done so in all my previous models, but then neglected to either scratch or sand it when gluing further components - they fell off - a lot. I also discovered subtle variations in the shape of the hull which meant fitting the transom proved a right royal pain.  I think those arose because I didn't quite get the sanding of the frames right, and because I chose minimal bending of the 1st and 2nd planks, I ended up sanding a lot of planking off.  Essentially I rushed.  Still, lesson worth learning.
 
The biggest challenge can be seen here:

There is a gap between the counter (attached weeks ago) and the transom attached just before the first photo (I knocked it off about 30s later - learnt my lesson and stuck it on properly).  I cannot work out what, if anything I did wrong, but a little seam of Milliput sorted things out.  When sanded and painted, the stern looks fine.
 
I was also rather perplexed over where to fit the side counter timbers.  The fig on p24 (and later) of the manual, and the photo on p 32 show different things.  I opted for the latter, as can be seen in the opening pics.  Had I known I was going to do that, I wouldn't have tapered the main wale at the stern, but I think I will leave it as it is, now. 
 
Hope to get a little more done before Christmas, but the full Admiralty Board will be in residence, with a supernumerary flag officer arriving this week, so that might slow the work of the shipyard (not to mention make it off-limits to all those below the rank of captain), and have the shipyard Matey too busy swabbing and knuckling his forehead to get any useful work done. So Merry Christmas one and all - or Happy Holidays, if you'd rather.
 

Done some decorating - of the hull that is.  Fitted the rough tree rail, and the rather beautiful scroll decorations.  As an original act, I chose to paint the outboard edge of the rail in yellow ochre to match the other embellishments.  To good effect, I think.

I found the rough tree rail rather challenging - mainly because the cut-outs in the capping rail were smaller that the size of the various inserts.  I thought I could just trim these latter with a scalpel, but it ended up a bit rough and ready.  Should have used my Proxxon mill.
 
 
Installing the decorative scrolls was time consuming but went well.  The manual suggests spraying the paint on while the parts are still attached to the PE sheet to avoid getting dobs of paint on the reverse.  Spraying paint in the the spare bedroom was never going to happen, so I did as follows
Stuck the unpainted PE parts on masking tape, painted the PE pieces, sliced the tape around one piece, pulled that tape off (revealing the unpainted reverse - success!), trimmed the paint with a small scalpel

I attached the PE to the hull using @James H's floor polish method.  Works astonishingly well.  
 
 

Final post for a while while I, the Admiral and one of my bikes seek a couple of months of winter sun.  The hull and deck furniture are pretty-well complete - apart from guns, channels and one or two other things.  No major traumas (that I can remember).  Opted for the PE gratings, as the rebates in the coamings were sized for them, rather than the laser-cut pear wood.  

 
As a piece of painterly whimsy I decided the sky-light is glazed and the glazing bars are painted white. And as I have before, I fitted a copper rain cap on the galley flue

That's it for now.  Back in the spring.
 
 

Roger is 100% correct.  I once had the part number - direct from Charlie File's son - when I had to replace a bearing.  Sold the sander and dumped the note but it was a standard bearing.
Kurt

In building these tools Preac would have used standard industrial bearings.  Pop out one of the bearings, take it to your nearest bearing distributor and I bet that they can match it.  Here in Minnesota we have branches of a company named Bearings, Inc but industrial supply houses like Grainger Supply also carry bearings.
 
Roger

I've seen post after post asking for info on the "best kit".  The catch is, the author never specifies what they mean by "best" until others begin asking.  The concept of "best" is rather subjective to many factors.... instructins, begnner kit or more advanced, materials, and reputation of the supplier, historical accuracy, etc.
 
So help us out.. give us some more info on what your criteria is.
 
Thank you.

@vossiewulf, Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the chaiplates, but I have one of the pinrail which was attached with the same system:

For the chainplates, I drilled through the thickness of a chainplate side to side with a drill of the same dia. of the tube. The external diameter of these tubes can be found with increments of 0.1 mm: https://www.albionalloys.com/en/brass-tube/ . They have also brass rods, but I like using the tubes better. Here, I find an assortment of these tubes and rods in many hobby shops.
Best regards,
Dan
 
 

Thanks Dan, got it. But I think you mean how to attach the channels, not the chain plates? My channels are already attached to the hull and I think I used brass rod to reinforce the joint. In this case I'm talking about the end of the chain plates, seen below. I think I need to use nails here. Correct me I'm missing what you're saying.