Jean-Pierre

Maybe I found the trick to have some pictures edited.  So here is the model out of the mothballs.
 

Maybe I found the trick to have some pictures edited.  So here is the model out of the mothballs.
 

Maybe I found the trick to have some pictures edited.  So here is the model out of the mothballs.
 

Although this ship looked promising, I for some reason gave up this build 7 years ago.  In the meantime, we moved from our house outside Brussels (where we had lived for 45 years) to a flat in the city, where place is obviously more restricted.  That was a big issue not only for my built models (a painful selection had to be made), and also for the various tools and materials that had to be packed and stowed where room was available.
 
What happened up to now?  Well, I must say that the level of craftmanship among the community of modellers has considerably increased, and I am amazed to see what you people now produce, and the level and quality of finishing they achieve.  Congratulations to all of you.
Now my Dutch Whaler has recently be taken out of the mothballs.  One has to find things to keep busy in this confined environment.  The ship, as she had been stowed away, is a little more advanced than the last pics above.  I now know that the expensive satin colored varnish I had bought at one of the local diy stores was **** (too glossy, and low tack masking tape would rip it off even after a few days drying time)
 
Also, I found that the gloss was unsuitable for a working ship like this.  I brushed a layer of  thoroughly mixed flat varnish from the same maker: no use. I finally used one of my last bottles of Humbrol enamel based flat varnish, after a wash of much diluted flat black.  Looked finally good enough.  That was just before the mothball hibernation.
Alas, in my former life, I had a helpful program called ACDsee which allowed for easy resizing of pictures, but in my new life, my Mac Book ,with standard programs does not offer that possibility, and the pics I took on my Galaxy S7 on the lowest resolution still are over 2 Mb and are not uploadable  here.  Sorry, but I'll first have to find a solution to this!

Although this ship looked promising, I for some reason gave up this build 7 years ago.  In the meantime, we moved from our house outside Brussels (where we had lived for 45 years) to a flat in the city, where place is obviously more restricted.  That was a big issue not only for my built models (a painful selection had to be made), and also for the various tools and materials that had to be packed and stowed where room was available.
 
What happened up to now?  Well, I must say that the level of craftmanship among the community of modellers has considerably increased, and I am amazed to see what you people now produce, and the level and quality of finishing they achieve.  Congratulations to all of you.
Now my Dutch Whaler has recently be taken out of the mothballs.  One has to find things to keep busy in this confined environment.  The ship, as she had been stowed away, is a little more advanced than the last pics above.  I now know that the expensive satin colored varnish I had bought at one of the local diy stores was **** (too glossy, and low tack masking tape would rip it off even after a few days drying time)
 
Also, I found that the gloss was unsuitable for a working ship like this.  I brushed a layer of  thoroughly mixed flat varnish from the same maker: no use. I finally used one of my last bottles of Humbrol enamel based flat varnish, after a wash of much diluted flat black.  Looked finally good enough.  That was just before the mothball hibernation.

Alistair, I do hope that some day, you will restart your excellent build.
 
Indeed, the plank nipper is simple as fast to use (no soaking, no drying), it is cheap and you cannot get burnt by using it.  The only issue is convex shapes, as can be seen at the stern, or on the inner bulwark on the fore deck.  Now on this model, I took the risk, and after some careful sanding, filling, varnishing, the grooves of the nipper can hardly be seen, I dare say.
 
I forgot to mention that while doing the upper part of the second planking, I felt iut necessary to do the inner bulwarks.
 
Inner bulwarks
The original vessel was built as cheaply as possible, and therefore were single skinned.  Sergal suggests to make the inner planking with the same planks as the second planking which would have made a triple skinned vessel at that level.  Of course, no one would notice, but the overall thickness of the bulwarks would be too much: indeed, a single skinned vessel would most surely show the ends of frames, and I wanted this feature on my model.  So I used for the inner bulwark layer the battens left over from the deck, and added planks 3x1mm to simulate the ribs.  Everything was painted a nice green colour, but later on, a forum member mentioned that the bulwarks were indeed painted black, or grey, or left dark wood.  So I later repainted the whole area black.
 
Here are the following pics of the second planking:

















 
So that s how the project looks like now.  Present job is to add the garboard strakes or whatever they are named, then a second layer tinting varnish will be applied to the hull, then a layer of matt varnish, as the hull is way too glossy for my taste.
 
And then...Mmmmm: the ornaments, window frames, gunport and rudder hinges.

By the way, I think a flute was by no means a prestigious ship.  Her building would most certainly be done with restricted budgets.  So they would most probably try and use as much as possible of the available trees.  Therefore they would accept the decks to be made of planks of various widths, and this can be seen on many contemporary replicas (Batavia, for instance).  Now for obvious reasons, it is easier for a model wood supplier or model maker to offer all planks at standard widths (often too large!).  It is also easier for the model builder to have all planks at the same width.
The length of planks, I suppose, would be defined by the necessity to have all butts fixed into bulkheads rather than have a standardized length.  While 7,50 m certainly makes sense, I think that shorter planks would not have been discarded, and longer ones when possible would not be cut shorter.  Any opinion?
One last point about planking.  I noticed on various ships (ex.  Hermione),  paintings (carrack by Botticelli, if I remember well) that planks often were not a set of parallels running fore and aft, but that they were set to follow the ship's side where possible.  I confess that this is what I did on my 'fluitschip'.

By the way, do you have the photo album of an excellent Zeehaen model at this address: https://www.modelships.de/Fluyt-Zeehaen/Fleute-Zeehaen.htm. ?

Doris,  your sculpting talent is so impressive that you could help some manufacturers with sculptures (or their moulds) for their ship offerings.  I am thinking for instance at Kolderstock Models from Holland, who provide some excellent and well known models of Dutch ships from the 17th century, but which are a little let down by their sculptures.  Once again, their kits are great, but with the "Doris touch" they would be real wonders.
 
OK, just an idea...

Doris,  your sculpting talent is so impressive that you could help some manufacturers with sculptures (or their moulds) for their ship offerings.  I am thinking for instance at Kolderstock Models from Holland, who provide some excellent and well known models of Dutch ships from the 17th century, but which are a little let down by their sculptures.  Once again, their kits are great, but with the "Doris touch" they would be real wonders.
 
OK, just an idea...

Doris,  your sculpting talent is so impressive that you could help some manufacturers with sculptures (or their moulds) for their ship offerings.  I am thinking for instance at Kolderstock Models from Holland, who provide some excellent and well known models of Dutch ships from the 17th century, but which are a little let down by their sculptures.  Once again, their kits are great, but with the "Doris touch" they would be real wonders.
 
OK, just an idea...

Doris,  your sculpting talent is so impressive that you could help some manufacturers with sculptures (or their moulds) for their ship offerings.  I am thinking for instance at Kolderstock Models from Holland, who provide some excellent and well known models of Dutch ships from the 17th century, but which are a little let down by their sculptures.  Once again, their kits are great, but with the "Doris touch" they would be real wonders.
 
OK, just an idea...

Looks much better than your previous attempt.  By the way, you may be interested by some pics of my own build of a flute (on this forum: see Dutch Whaler by Jean-Pierre:  I tried to add the link, but the program  keeps changing the address into an image of said build log)
You might be interested by the way I made the short bends at the stern.
 
Anyway, I strongly suggest that you also glue the battens to each other, which hugely reinforces the first planking.

Fantastic recovery action!  You are on the right track now.  But don't rush it...

I love this build log because of its subject and I hope this build will succeed.  I find this type of ship deserves more attention from the community.  There used to be 2 kits of ships of this type, one of them was the Derrflinger but the makers recently went out of business.  And then there is the Baleinera Olandese by Sergal, which is based, I think, on a model from the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam.
 
Now, on the site of ship models from Recklinghausen, there is a series of pics from the Zeehaen, and for sure, she is a beautiful ship, and looks better than the two aforementioned models.  Let me hope that one of the Dutch modellers who follow this thread would pass on the idea to Kolderstock models!!!  And while I speak of Kolderstock, he really should contact Doris, the builder of the Royal Katherine, and ask her to make the moulds for his models.
 
Personnally, I have been building my interpretation of the Sergal model, based on the paintings of Dutch whalers at work.  One of the tricks I used to help follow the intricate curves of the hull was to use narrower planks for the second planking.  I made a simple jig to cut the 4mm planks in 2, as the 2mm resulting planks were much easier to bend laterally.
 
I wish you to succeed with this build.

I certainly look forward to your progress, Marcus. Your success in this project will be an outstanding achievement.
 
How did you get the information about Kolderstok preparing a flute ship?  Great news indeed!  Do you know this gentleman? He surely is filling a gap in the market, and his kits look fantastic, except for the sculptures, for which he himself admits that they can be improved.
A great idea for him would be to find an agreement with Doris (see build log Royal Katherine) to either have her make the moulds for his kits, or to allow her to market some aftermarket upgrade kits!  Let's dream🙄
 
You know

I love this build log because of its subject and I hope this build will succeed.  I find this type of ship deserves more attention from the community.  There used to be 2 kits of ships of this type, one of them was the Derrflinger but the makers recently went out of business.  And then there is the Baleinera Olandese by Sergal, which is based, I think, on a model from the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam.
 
Now, on the site of ship models from Recklinghausen, there is a series of pics from the Zeehaen, and for sure, she is a beautiful ship, and looks better than the two aforementioned models.  Let me hope that one of the Dutch modellers who follow this thread would pass on the idea to Kolderstock models!!!  And while I speak of Kolderstock, he really should contact Doris, the builder of the Royal Katherine, and ask her to make the moulds for his models.
 
Personnally, I have been building my interpretation of the Sergal model, based on the paintings of Dutch whalers at work.  One of the tricks I used to help follow the intricate curves of the hull was to use narrower planks for the second planking.  I made a simple jig to cut the 4mm planks in 2, as the 2mm resulting planks were much easier to bend laterally.
 
I wish you to succeed with this build.

Thanks for the positive reactions, gentlemen.
I also hate whale hunting, and truly admire those fantastic animals, but as a matter of fact, it is the bulky aspect of the ship and the challenge of reproducing her lines that attracts me.
 
About the rudder mechanism, this is exactly the mechanism that can be found on Batavia for instance, and I am sure, on almost every large ship of the 16th and 17th century.  Usually there would be some covered up cockpit from which the ship would be steered, but on some ships (ex. frigate Berlin) the crew would steer on deck.  But I found that it would have been cruel even in those days, to let the man fully exposed on deck on a ship that would sail in ice cold waters, hence the little deck overhang: nice but not sure it was a correct layout.  Also, I read that flutes often did not even have a steering stick: they would just move the rudder with a system of pulleys.  So my steering mechanism might be a little luxury.
 
The guns will remain in the box, they are just too ugly.  Even carefully painted, they look ridiculous for me.

 
 

I know it's in german, but you may be interested to have a look at what I consider to be a very nice build of the Revell Kearsarge (much modified as well):http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=36813.
 love to see how you manage to reqt
As far as the Alabama is concerned,  I have had this unbuilt kit on a shelf for decades, but never started it, because I found the built up model rather clumsy:  silly, drooping stem, impossible open stern, masts too short.  I really will love to see if you can restore her in her former beauty.
 
If that should prove impossible, I read that Bluejacket is issuing a kit of her...
 
Happy modelling.  I'm looking forward to your progress!
 
JP

2 little ideas if I may.
I use to improve the look of the blocks simply by simulating the sheaves with a black pencil: easy and very effective.
 
Secondly, you may wish to check the rake of the mainmast.  It looks like its 3 parts do not run completely parallel.  This can be partly rectified by adjusting the tension of the rigging, but on the long term... ??
 
Btw, the overall look of your ship is terrific! Congratulation!

Congratulations.  This is a very nice build indeed. A President to be looked at with respect!

Beautiful job.  I dare say that this is the best president around!!!!

Anyway, let's hope they 'll be back soon.
 
I also know that their "main" activity is the radio controlled plastic hull ships, a field where they definitely were market leaders.  But there again, there isn't much new to be seen.

I'm afraid you are right. I suspect that they brought out a little too many models in a short period of time, some of which, although beautifully made, were rather uninteresting. It's a pity that HMS Surprise did not make it to the shelves, and now I suppose it's too late.  A 74 gun ship would still be selling well though.
 
I think there might be some financial issues and that's too bad.  They also ran an inquiry if I remember well, to know if their wood should be replaced with some better quality... and this may have induced some doubts about the quality of their current wood.
 
Anyw

Anyway, let's hope they 'll be back soon.
 
I also know that their "main" activity is the radio controlled plastic hull ships, a field where they definitely were market leaders.  But there again, there isn't much new to be seen.