Vivian Galad

Great work on your windlass. Made me take notice of those on my ship. ^^

Masterful, outstanding, great, beautiful, awesome... All the words I can muster won´t be able to describe my awe. Have just gone through your log and just loved not only your careful job, but the fantastic pictures shared and the way they´ve been brought together. I feel tiny, right now, but not diminished - your work inspires me for higher standards. Gratz and thanks for the sharing.

Nice work on your planking, Schnu. Don´t know about small kits for boats, but I definitely wouldn´t use a brass one. I´ve got a San Francisco to build in my shelf and it brings a brass boat - I´m planning on scratchbuilding my own. As for the colors, think u should research about your ship and find the best suited color considering what the real ship should look like. ^^ Keep up the good job!

Have I said already that I love the look u gave to this ship? Great work, Matti - Masts just gave her the serious look of a sailing ship.

Prikrosno, Sergey! I searched for some older russian kits on the link you provided (I´m a bit obsessed with medieval ships from all around the world) but to no avail. Your building is coming very nicely done. Keep it up and bring us new pictures. Paka!

Great work, great build, nicest of kits. Luck on u! Admired on the quality of it so far. ^^

Lots of things to learn. Loved the scraper u improvised. All in all, a master´s job - piece by piece.

As promised, new photos from my ship - once it was the Red Dragon, don´t know if I can still call it that. First of all, some explanation on what I did. I made the cabin so it would look plausible enough; windows should be part of it. Inside the cabin I made a molding for it and outside it was rough. Using some wood from my scrapbox I did the same windows molding on the outside. Gave some curves to them so it could look a bit original - and the most different from kit´s windows. Last time I had put the first side rail. Now I´ve finished the second and on overall, ship looks like this: Following my fellow modelists opinions, molded the door frames. Also fixed doors to their proper places - they won´t be functional as I wanted at the beginning of her making. Had to sand some more after I tainted some deck details. As she´s coming up some thoughts come to mind - little lessons I hope to have learned. 1. Never ever do things hastily. The time u lose after making things that way will not compensate why u did it in first place. 2. Take some time to think on what u´r going to do. If I had tainted all dark wood before fixing it, lots of work on sanding would not be necessary. 3. If u´r going to modify a kit, make a list of all modifications u want to do and try to figure it out before reaching the point of bringing them to life - try not to get too many creative while building, too. 4. Everything u learn from MSW has to be put to though - it means nothing when u learn something and just let it linger on your mind - make it worth. That´s all for now. Many thanks for the tips, following, liking and everything. Here goes some extra pics:

Sam, I´m healing, but the full amount of time I´ll need to heal - at least, doctor´s words - it´s about 6 months after last surgery. Can´t lift weight or work hard on anything - stairs give me the feeling of climbing a mountain. Can work on small things, though. :D Raymond, estoy bien, amigo. 100% will take some time, as I just said above - but I begin to enjoy modeling again. Won´t let u down on my promises of new pics. ^^

Wolf, glad to see my work reach u ^^! AL kits ask to be bashed. Just followed the line. Walter, many thanks and after 1 month and a half from my last surgery, I´m much better, indeed. I know I have been a little absent, but will return with pics soon enough.

Wow! Great work and a fast one on deck fittings and all. Looking really beautiful.

Superb work on deck. Neat to say the least.

She´s nice, I have to say. Beautiful work till now, and gratz for the tools!!

Matti, think u´r right. I´ll sand it now, well, soon after I finish the outer frames for windows and doors. ^^ Popeye, yep. I´ll do the molding around. As for the functionality of the doors, thinking in letting them 2 open, in different angles. That should give the space to peer inside, while the doors seems to be functional. Jack, hold the armada! There must be someone needier, now. I´ll follow Popeye´s idea on the molding and will sand it earlier, too. Thank u guys! Ty for the tips! ^^

Great explanation on methods. Just learning!! =*

Some small advance: As I can get back to my desk and work on the ship, some little things just annoyed me a bit. The doors framing were different one from another and I had to sand some more stains that shouldn´t be there all over the ship. That gave me some extra work, since I had already made the doors to fit the frame. Well, took out the frames and now have to do new doors. Made one already, but don´t know if I´ll keep it. Thinking in doors with some work, some finery. For sanding, that´s some real deal. Do I sand it now and then make some fixing to waxing/varnishing the dark wood or sand it later on, when all dark wood is properly stained/colored? Both ways seems to me to leave open field for errors. Meanwhile, finished my first outern rails. AL gave me too few wood for that and I´m using some from my scrapbox for the second. I´ll modify the ship here, too, as the plans bring some small wooden balls to top the rails and I simply don´t find out why they should be put in there (have seen none on other junks). I made and remade the rails, for they seemed all the times to be untidy. Doors work - As u can see, the door on the frame don´t fit. Those doors will give me some trouble, I think. Don´t know if I´ll be able to make them functional.

Mij, Thank u. I still don´t know if I´ll let it that way, but wood speaks for itself. The truth is it should be painted, red and black, to follow resources I´ve found till now. Time will tell, though. Popeye, It´s a superficial spot, easily sanded away, already. ^^ Bindy, happy to be back and for your nice words. =**

Great details!!!

Great job on them, Matti, as for the entire ship till now. Love this "unclean" look u gave to your ship. Many Vasa reproductions have that clean look so artificial and distant from the ship itself. Yours is really a great one.

Wow! Great work on those canons!

Going pretty well. Great hull work!

I´m about my first AL kit. Sufficient to say, lots of mods are going on - but my kit is old, bought from e-bay, cheap and a surprise when I opened it. Have a San Francisco on the shelf, just waiting for more bashing, as lots of things seems wrong or are just too ugly to be used (metal pre-cast parts are the worse). AL kits are good to bash, though - And I like to do exactly that. So, if I can by another one cheap, I will. Never will buy it from their site, though.

Brigada, Ulises!! (meaning thanks ^^) Sam, she needs some new photos, though, cause I already got to her and made some progress. Ty! Popeye, thank u. That arrow is to show the plank covered inside. Kit plans forgot about that and presents a very unreal view. I could not let that pass. That mark, though, is a problem I found when treating the wood later on, when it should be treated earlier. That will need some sanding, a carefull one.

Great job on Newsboy. Neat work!

Outstanding, just that.