Katsumoto

Hi Sjors, neen ik ben pro kantklosser 😎 thanks for your kind words. You are a good builder yourself and I like your work! After work and in the weekends when I am not entertaining my little kids I can work on the ship. I don’t have deadlines so I can take my time which I believe helps to work neat and tidy.

Thanks Backer, it took some time and elbow grease, but it is the result that counts. I’m not speedbuilding, so I don’t matter it takes a bit longer. 😉 thanks for stopping by and your comments! I’ll appreciate it!

**Chapter ? - Throw away the manual** Hi guys! Today a big update with a lot of pictures, 50 to be exact. So take a seat, relax and step aboard! The last few days I really cracked my head on some issues with the kitmaker. For instance, the railings on the sterncastle. These were, how to say, not to my taste at all. So here is an impression how AL designed the railings. As you can see, there is no toprailing, just three pieces of wood running horizontal on a few vertical placed pieces of wood. I needed to redesign this part...but first some other things that has been done on the ship.... #Cliffhanger I have placed the capstan! After the capstan, I decided to change the base of the main mast as well. The kit provides some cast metal parts and I made some new ones from wood. So, after this I looked at the Mizzen mast and saw that the angle was wrong. Further more, the mast hits the upper part of the captains cabin so I needed to change that as well. I made the holes for the mast a bit bigger on both decks and made two news bases for the mast to cover up the holes. I can now place the mizzen mast in the proper angle and it doesn't hit the cabin anymore. See it as an easy fix... I still need the place the second base, but that's for a later moment. Time to start on the upper railings on the sterncastle. I made some sketches of a new design and made a decision. I had some extra wooden walnut strips, but needed to order some more to get the job done. Having the design ready, now I needed to figure it out how to construct it. The first "challenge" was to construct a solid base and to do this I needed to place the vertical parts first. These parts are lined up in two different angles compare to the deck surface. It's like building a trapezium shaped box. To glue the pieces onto the deck itself, it didn't had the best effect. The angle the parts have and the small glue surface wasn't going to work. I decided to cut away a small part of the deck so I could stick the parts into the deck instead of on the deck. This worked perfectly! See? I just cut away a small part for the part to fill in and it created a much stronger bond! I bought a few new clamps which came in handy... The first part done, the lower part is next... Now the construction is solid and I can place more vertical parts to make it even stronger. all placed, and as you can see, I kept the vertical parts a bit to long so I can cut them to length later.... The last part of the desing was construction the upper board of the railings. I've bought some 7x1,5mm walnut strips and cut them to width of 6mm. Since I have no power tools at my disposal, I simple used a knife, ruler and sanding block to get the job done. I hope you guys like the improvement. I copy this design to create the front castle as well. Next is to change the Anchors. The kit provides more cast metal parts which I don't use. I made some new ones from scrapwood. Next are some small parts placed on the ship as well as my first ladder... That's it for today, I would like to take the opportunity to wish you a very Merry christmas time with your family and dear ones and see you hopefully soon. comments are welcome ofcourse! ciao! Pter

How much fun must it be to continue a kit after 30 some years and doing a wonderfull job at it! Excellent work on the waterways with the boiling water technique!

Thank you mtbediz!

Oh yes! I like the ebony stain more than the usual blue! Well done. Can you explain what you did with the minwax and what it does?

I love the fact that you used the natural colours of the wood to get contrast. Very very neat and tidy work. Great great model, you should be proud! ausgezeichnet!

She’s turning into a real beauty! Love the bow section a lot. Very neat work so far Mark!

Thanks Zappto, your Dutch Friesland ship is a work of beauty too! I’ll try to take my time on the details on this “Tiny” ship in comparison of the real biggies like, Soleil Royal, Titanic, HMS Victory and Friesland. It’s like a practice run for me before to take a next step to such big models.

I think that the "MK" kits are superb engineered. I am sure you'll manage the last planking stroke at the keel and make a perfect fit even if the keel is already installed. Great job so far and I toggle along as well. regards, Peter

Love the overall appearance of this ship. The LED lighting is spectaculair! Great job! Not an easy vessel and kit.

**The little things matter...** Hello shipmates! Good to see you again... Thank you for all the positive feedback, reactions and cheers from you guys. I really appriciate it! Today the update is all about the "little things" on a ship. Things that matter because they compliment the ship and thus gives the overall apperance a boost. I'll start with the little boat that should be placed on deck somewhere. The kitmaker AL provides a cast metal one which isn't to bad. AL suggests to paint the hull of the boat. I decided to plank the hull with walnut veneer. I used CA gel glue to stick the wood to the metal. It's not the best glue for the job, but it worked. the other side as well.. Both sides finished... Aft, stem and keelson's turn... ...and the endresult! Time to move on to do some work on the windlass... I have stained the parts into a walnut colour... The axel of the windlass didn't fit, so I reduced the diameter of the axel. *A poor man's lathe...* Next, I'll started on the capstan. I did not want to use the brass roundbar included in the kit for the handles. So I decided to use toothpicks instead. The toothpicks are a bit out of scale. I have no lathe and the parts are to small for a lathe anyway....so I used my cordless powerdrill to be a lathe for a moment...It's all about useing your tools to the max I think! I used two sanding blocks to reduce the diameter to the required 1,5mm, while the drill was on. After giving it some colour... I used a pin vice to drill the holes in the capstan... And then all the parts together... Finished for this weekend. Time to go, see you next time and thanks for watching! Peter

Beautiful ship she is! Very wel done. I noticed difference in colour of the hull and the planks between the Wales, these are much lighter. Is that the same wood (walnut) or did you use woodstains? great build! Peter

Thank you my friend! I am doing my best!

Beautifull ship and you did a awsome job on the planking part! Don’t mind the speed, the sharpness and cleannes of your work is only what’s important. When your model is finished,, that is what other people will notice, not the speed of the build. Keep following along the way sir, if you don’t mind...

This is a very nice kit. You can see the quality of the wood and the other parts like the cannons, anchors and metalparts are allready black! I will follow this build and this is a kit on my wishlist! good luck sir! Peter

Railings are as straight as an arrow! Good job!

Thank you Tim. Appreciated!

very clean work Sir! Excellent job so far. I'll keep following along the way if you don't mind.

I like the solid stem pieces from Walnut. With a Jigsaw you will get them out in no time! When bending thicker walnut pieces, try to use boiling water diluted with ammonia. Just don’t do it in the house, the ammonia smell is overwhelming and may “upset” misses Nikbud.

I’ll drink to that... The kit of Amati is better quality, but wasn’t availible at the time I wanted to start with my build, so I ended up with another AL kit. I’m sure you’ll succeed building a beautifull ship if you decide to do the AL version. Many thanks for the compliments!

Just keep the overview sir....we are just gasping for air and amazed what you show us.

Build me a boat to sail on my dreams! This one is a magnificant ship. Great work Cyprian, love the colourscheme. keep building, I’ll keep dreaming.

Lol!!

Thank you Sir! Channels, I'll remember the name. Thank you for that as wel. I agree with you there about pins and nails on a model on this scale. Whatever you do, they almost always look out of scale to me. In this case these nails represents some kind of big nails or bolts and do look fine on this model. So I took a gamble and hopefully paid off a bit! regards, Peter