rvchima

The completed model will be 35 inches (890 mm) long. I will build it for display only, not RC.

First Construction Photos
 

The laser-cut parts popped out of the sheet easily and the 3-piece keel when right together.
 

Here's the keel with all the bulkheads in position. But here's also where I found a problem with the kit. One of the 6 pieces of 1/4 inch ply has a warp built in, and 5 bulkheads are seriously warped. I soaked them in hot water and clamped them to flat boards. I hope they straighten out before I glue them to the keel. Once the planking is attached they should be fine.

Another Very Different Model (for me, anyway)
 

 
My wife gave me another ship model this Christmas. Of course I gave her strong hints what I wanted. What I wanted was a working vessel with clean lines, a planked hull, and no rigging. After a long search I found the Anteo harbour tug by Panart, which seems to be a part of Mantua models in Italy. Please let me know if I am wrong about this. I ordered the kit from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. Even with shipping to the US their price was significantly cheaper than anyone else. I ordered the kit on a Sunday and had it in my hands the following Thursday. Amazing service. I gave the box to my wife and opened it on Christmas morning.
 
What's In The Box.
First of all, the box measures 37x11x4 inches and weighs a whopping 12.5 pounds! It is packed with quality parts.
 

There are two packages of fittings including funnels, the wheel, tires, the prop, line, portholes, lights, and the anchor.
 

Planking for a double-planked hull , heavy PVC stack.
 

Vacuformed lifeboat shells, rubber bumper material, brass prop shaft.
 

6 sheets of 1/4" laser-cut ply.
 

4 sheets of thin veneer ply.
 

A large sheet of photo-etched brass.
 

Instructions in 4 languages plus 2 catalogues. The English instructions are short and pretty rough.
 

4 pages of plans, 2-sided, 27x39 inches.

Another Very Different Model (for me, anyway)
 

 
My wife gave me another ship model this Christmas. Of course I gave her strong hints what I wanted. What I wanted was a working vessel with clean lines, a planked hull, and no rigging. After a long search I found the Anteo harbour tug by Panart, which seems to be a part of Mantua models in Italy. Please let me know if I am wrong about this. I ordered the kit from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. Even with shipping to the US their price was significantly cheaper than anyone else. I ordered the kit on a Sunday and had it in my hands the following Thursday. Amazing service. I gave the box to my wife and opened it on Christmas morning.
 
What's In The Box.
First of all, the box measures 37x11x4 inches and weighs a whopping 12.5 pounds! It is packed with quality parts.
 

There are two packages of fittings including funnels, the wheel, tires, the prop, line, portholes, lights, and the anchor.
 

Planking for a double-planked hull , heavy PVC stack.
 

Vacuformed lifeboat shells, rubber bumper material, brass prop shaft.
 

6 sheets of 1/4" laser-cut ply.
 

4 sheets of thin veneer ply.
 

A large sheet of photo-etched brass.
 

Instructions in 4 languages plus 2 catalogues. The English instructions are short and pretty rough.
 

4 pages of plans, 2-sided, 27x39 inches.

Another Very Different Model (for me, anyway)
 

 
My wife gave me another ship model this Christmas. Of course I gave her strong hints what I wanted. What I wanted was a working vessel with clean lines, a planked hull, and no rigging. After a long search I found the Anteo harbour tug by Panart, which seems to be a part of Mantua models in Italy. Please let me know if I am wrong about this. I ordered the kit from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. Even with shipping to the US their price was significantly cheaper than anyone else. I ordered the kit on a Sunday and had it in my hands the following Thursday. Amazing service. I gave the box to my wife and opened it on Christmas morning.
 
What's In The Box.
First of all, the box measures 37x11x4 inches and weighs a whopping 12.5 pounds! It is packed with quality parts.
 

There are two packages of fittings including funnels, the wheel, tires, the prop, line, portholes, lights, and the anchor.
 

Planking for a double-planked hull , heavy PVC stack.
 

Vacuformed lifeboat shells, rubber bumper material, brass prop shaft.
 

6 sheets of 1/4" laser-cut ply.
 

4 sheets of thin veneer ply.
 

A large sheet of photo-etched brass.
 

Instructions in 4 languages plus 2 catalogues. The English instructions are short and pretty rough.
 

4 pages of plans, 2-sided, 27x39 inches.

First Construction Photos
 

The laser-cut parts popped out of the sheet easily and the 3-piece keel when right together.
 

Here's the keel with all the bulkheads in position. But here's also where I found a problem with the kit. One of the 6 pieces of 1/4 inch ply has a warp built in, and 5 bulkheads are seriously warped. I soaked them in hot water and clamped them to flat boards. I hope they straighten out before I glue them to the keel. Once the planking is attached they should be fine.

Another Very Different Model (for me, anyway)
 

 
My wife gave me another ship model this Christmas. Of course I gave her strong hints what I wanted. What I wanted was a working vessel with clean lines, a planked hull, and no rigging. After a long search I found the Anteo harbour tug by Panart, which seems to be a part of Mantua models in Italy. Please let me know if I am wrong about this. I ordered the kit from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. Even with shipping to the US their price was significantly cheaper than anyone else. I ordered the kit on a Sunday and had it in my hands the following Thursday. Amazing service. I gave the box to my wife and opened it on Christmas morning.
 
What's In The Box.
First of all, the box measures 37x11x4 inches and weighs a whopping 12.5 pounds! It is packed with quality parts.
 

There are two packages of fittings including funnels, the wheel, tires, the prop, line, portholes, lights, and the anchor.
 

Planking for a double-planked hull , heavy PVC stack.
 

Vacuformed lifeboat shells, rubber bumper material, brass prop shaft.
 

6 sheets of 1/4" laser-cut ply.
 

4 sheets of thin veneer ply.
 

A large sheet of photo-etched brass.
 

Instructions in 4 languages plus 2 catalogues. The English instructions are short and pretty rough.
 

4 pages of plans, 2-sided, 27x39 inches.

First Construction Photos
 

The laser-cut parts popped out of the sheet easily and the 3-piece keel when right together.
 

Here's the keel with all the bulkheads in position. But here's also where I found a problem with the kit. One of the 6 pieces of 1/4 inch ply has a warp built in, and 5 bulkheads are seriously warped. I soaked them in hot water and clamped them to flat boards. I hope they straighten out before I glue them to the keel. Once the planking is attached they should be fine.

About time for an update.
 
After playing around with different configurations (wire, wood, rope), I finally decided on using the photoetched stanchions and some line for the companionway railings.  I'll use this throughout:
 

 
The photo also shows a glimpse of the second of the aft bulkheads and the permanently installed capstan and pawls.
 
The next 8 deck beams for the quarterdeck were also installed, including lodging and hanging knees:
 

 

 
Finally, just an overall shot:
 

 
There are several more decks beams to go in to finish the quarterdeck but first we need to prepare some deck fittings.
 
 

Hi Augie,
I look in ocasionally and am always inspired by your work. Happy Holidays!
Rod

Longboat completed
 

13 weeks, 255 man-hours
 
The longboat took about 1.5 times longer than it should have because of two major mistakes. I mentioned my first mistake in my last post - I sanded through the hull. It patched up OK with wood filler but the stain was blotchy. My second mistake was to try to line up the ribs by eye. I measured carefully but the result looked terrible, as shown below. I ended up starting a new longboat from scratch. This time I held it up to the light periodically as I sanded. When I could see light through the wood I knew it was time to stop.
 

Left: What happens when you sand through the hull, then try to line up the ribs by eye.
Right: New hull with ribs aligned with a jig.
 

How I aligned the ribs
First I eliminated the center keel strip. You can't see it under the floorboards anyway. Then I used a 1/8" nylon cable tie to align each rib parallel to the last. I used spring clamps to hold the cable tie. CA glue barely sticks to the nylon. The second hull looked SO much better than the first that I'm glad I started over.
 

The longboat took 27 man-hours to build but it's one of the best tiny models that I've ever built. Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this precision work.
 

I did start on the bowsprit. Only a few hours of work so far, but it makes a big difference in the look of the ship.
 

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Lol! I can't get anything past you guys. I can't remember where I got that 13" penny, but you have to admit, it's still a challenge to make a knife when your hands are nearly 11 feet long! 
 

After not posting anything for several weeks here is a brief update about my head rail efforts:
First I ended up not really liking the middle rails shown in the last images, so I finally tore them down. The major reason for that was that the part which was mounted directly on the wall of the ship turned out to be too short and as a consequence the shape of the head timbers would go from concave to convex.  Then I tried to figure out which method of building the head timbers would lead to some decent looking results. I tried the method mentioned by Chuck in the head rail design of the Confederacy as there the head timbers do not consist out of 2 parts each but just one continuous piece. However, the Syren plans do not show any head timber profiles, so that method ended up with too many “degrees of freedom”.  I finally went with the method described in the Syren instructions. With this method one of the challenges consists in generating the perception that each head timber, although constructed out of 2 parts, looks like it is made out of one continuous piece of wood. As I was not quite sure whether I ultimately would get acceptable results I finished middle rail and head timbers just on one side. So the good news is I have finished half of the head timbers. The bad news is I still have to do the other half. 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Thank you very much for your nice compliments and positive feed back. They are greatly appreciated! And Bob, you are absolutely right, it was a "WOW" moment when I realized that I was finished with the head timbers! 
 
Dirk, I am adding a top view and a side view image. I hope this is what you wanted.
 
Thomas
 
 

Top view
 
 

Side view

The bulk of the heavy lifting on the stern and quarter galleries has been completed.  Here are a few different angles:
 

 
The photo etched garlands and metal castings were finished with Model Master 'Wood' color (never claimed to have much imagination) then given a coat of clear flat acrylic.  We've already discussed the glazing.
 

 

 

 
And now for the classic CONFEDERACY shot: 
 

 
Have a few things to add to complete the stern.  Neptune (he's at about 11 o'clock) needs his Trident, the gun ports need hinges, eyebolts and lanyards and there's a little touching up to carry out (one or 2 stern lights needs 'caulking').  That will all wait until I get the rudder and it's fittings mounted.
 
I have to fess up and admit I didn't think I'd get it to come out as well as it did.  But thanks to Chuck's design and a little care with all the alignment going back to the stern framing I feel pretty good about the way she looks at this point.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The rudder, gudgeons and pintels have been installed.  We'll be adding some additional photoetched details to the hull next, including the sweep port hinges.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Having just logged the 500th hour in the build log, it's time for a small update.
 
A portion of the photoetched parts for the outer hull have been added.  The first photo shows them blackened and ready to deploy:
 

 
For the blackening, I use the process described throughout MSW.  Specifically, the trimmed parts are degreased by bathing in acetone for about 10 minutes followed by an 'etching' in a household vinegar bath for about the same time.  They are then soaked in a bath of 50% 'Blacken-it' for 5-15 minutes, rinsed thoroughly then dried.  Before gluing (using either CA or epoxy), the surface to be glued is roughened with a 150 grit sanding block.  After the part is applied to the ship, a coat of Testors Flat Acrylic lacquer is applied.  This protects the coating and (I think) gives a nice appearance.
 
Stern gun port hinges and rings, keel fastener:
 

 
Bilge port and sweep port hinges:
 

 
Bridle port and forward keel fastener:
 

 
Finally, just an overview of where she stands: 
 

 
It is now time to bid a fond farewell to the outer hull for the time being.  There is still much to be done but we will now turn our attention to the innermost details of the ship.  But first, a short break in the shipyard to acknowledge the arrival of good weather, tend to the garden and (long delayed) Spring cleaning. 
 
Everyone stay the course and be well!
 
 

I just discovered that a lot of the images had disappeared from the first two pages of my log. I re-uploaded them and think they are all back to normal. Please let me know if I missed any.
 
Rod

Thank you to everyone for their generous compliments about my model of the Arno XI Ferrari hydroplane. And thanks to KeithW for the information about Bare Metal Foil. I will remember that for the next model.
 
I fell in love with the Ferrari when I first saw an ad for the model. I was worried about the high cost of the Amati kit and couldn't find much information about it, but I took a chance anyway. The kit turned out to be very high quality, although the instructions were minimal - just drawings of each step of the build and a few pages of English text.The kit was a lot of fun to build and the finished model is beautiful. I highly recommend the model if anyone is interested. Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
 
Rod Chima

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.