JPAM

fantastic Job!

hi Douglas. great progress thus far. I was in Hong Kong earlier last year, I LOVED your city! what an amazing place. I spend some time trying to locate a hobbies shop that sold wooden ship models and did not find any. is there one that I missed? most of my evenings were spent on the restaurants by temple Pear St market. I wish some company would build a kit of a Star Ferry boat, i would build that in a second. anyhow, I hope to be back there next summer.. ill follow your build. Juan P.

fantastic, very ship shape.

this is really making me want to build one of these... I love the distressed look. great job! i say lights! these things looked like floating birthday cakes with candles.

joining this build log. it's looking fantastic.

those look fantastic

check out the Amerigo Vespucci kit by Panart. at 49 inches it's big, it's detailed.... pretty epic.

joined! you had me at the dowels. this looks like a great kit.

tinted cello is what they seemed to have used here with great results. I was once in the Great Chesapeake Schooner race where the Pride overtook us flying everything including her stuns'ls, she is so majestic. your model is looking fantastic.

i'd watch that Rat Fink around Becky, she's kinda hot...

i'll check it, she's one of my favorite tall ships.

the kit I have wich was bought last year still has the monograph by Erick Ronnberg, and yes, he has a great reputation there is no denying that. the plans were, 'revised' in 1977 and are in sore need to be revised again. examples of missing info are; the plans call for Chess-trees but the rigging plan has nothing going through them. the boomkins have nothing on them on the rigging plan, blocks that should be under the fighting tops are not anywhere mentioned, just to name a few. none of this is a big deal as all the information can be found in books or looking about the web IF you know what you are looking for. this lack of information is what usually turns off newbies to the hobby, and or shelfs a build half way to completion. I don't really quite mind as the challenge forces me to learn rigging better. I just wanted to bring this up as an FYI to anyone wanting to build this ship.

"are the yachts in sight?" The queen supposedly asked, "Yes, may it please your majesty", the signal-master supposedly answered. "which is first?" "the America". "which is second?" "Ah, your majesty, there is no second". apocryphal or not, it's still a fun story. your S/Y America is looking quite fine.

one of the prettiest schooners and rightly a Canadian treasure. i just got back from Vancouver and was very impressed by the R. C. M. Police St. Roch in the Vancouver Maritime Museum. I've been trying to find a model of it to put in the queue. i will follow your progress. we LOVED Canada. I miss Poutine! (i can't find cheese curds around here.. ) JP.

Chesapeake working boats are wonderful. There is something so simple and honest about them, they were built by watermen with no specific tools nor plans but just an idea and shape passed down through generations. here is a great documentary on the building of a Chesapeake bay deadrise. if you have not seen it before I highly recommend it. Yours sincerely. jpam

good morning Sir, I am glad you are not mothballing your build. I am on the rigging stage (tying ratlines) of my FA build and I can tell you it's worth while as she builds a bonnie boat. i'll let you know of some issues I've encountered thus far that will help you facilitate your project. yes, the gun ports are the wrong size or the guns are too big. I sanded the bottom of the gun carriages and made the notch of the gun pivot deeper but even that did not really do the trick. some of the guns will have to face down a bit especially the ones up front. it's just a design flaw on the kit. install all deck blocks around the masts and the mast blocks (you will have to figure out where all this goes from the full size rigging plan) before you step them, I should have known to do this but the booklet did not mention it and thus I did not think about it. the rigging is horribly obfuscated.the deck view plan has items on it that do not appear on the full scale rigging plan and vise versa. it says that the rigging plans are supposed to be on black and red ink but only come in black. they were, 'revised' in 1977 (40 years ago!) and are in sore need to be, 'revised' again. it's good to have a rudimentary understanding of 1780/s Brigs before tackling this and thus you can fill in the gaps. regardless it would be nice for MS to make this part of the build more accessible as i would in no way recommend this ship for a first time builder. I am just myself getting back into the hobby and this is the fist boat i've worked on in quite a while. but keep at it.. your binnacle and hull are looking fantastic. I will follow your build. she does make a very pretty boat when finished. Yours Sincerely JPam

wow,, this is fantastic!

i have the older version of this model on the shelf.. well. framed up but that is where it was stored, it's on queue, I will follow your build with enthusiasm, thanks for sharing.

man you are killing it, it's looking awesome. tell me what is the LOA of the model?

increible, esta perfecto. voy a seguir a ver como termina, gracias por ponerlo aca. muy pero muy bueno.

always loved this little ship. your build log makes me want to build one again! great job !

Hi, I built the Jeff Davis EONS ago. i remember felling a bit duped as it was the 2nd POB model that I built and i felt that it was way over my skill level at the time (the first one I did was the AL's Swift wich I recommend to anyone wanting to learn pob builds) however I finished it and it turned out to be a decent model. the AL Harvey that i built after it was much easier as most pieces are laser cut for you, scale and authenticity aside. . the J Davis asks the molder to fashion many of the deck and masts components themselves, thus it can be a bit of a crash course in model making. perhaps they've updated the model, like I said this was over 20 yrs ago. However with the solid hull Cutty Sark and the HMS Fly under your belt you should not have any trouble. if you are not feeling 100% conformable with POB then I would start with something else before tackling the Jeff Davis. good luck! jp.

well you went from novice to shipwright from one model. Congratulations on a great build. Sincerely jp.

I second the recommendation of AL/s Swift. it was the first POB ship I ever build and it got me hooked. it's a fairly quick and inexpensive build and you can add great detail to it, paint it or leave it in wood. Either way it looks great. I would definitely hold off on that Fair American (I am finishing off one of those now and would not recommend it to a first time or newish builder) either way have fun and keep us posted. JP.

what model are you working on?