Vivian Galad

Finally received the new bookcase with a nice place to show the Vasa already.
 

 
and also on an other bookcase a nice spot for my Statenjacht
 

Hi everyone - a little update. The first planking is now sanded nice & smooth. I had to add a little filler due to not using filler blocks at the bow.
 

 

 
Mark

Hi everyone - another update. The first planking is now done below the level of the lower wale. I used 1.5 by 6mm strips of limewood for this. Now i`ve got a lot of sanding to do - may need to add a little filler at the bow area to some low spots.
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

A small update - planking is done & sanded smooth from the waist to the level of the lower wales. The blanks for the dummy cannon barrels of the lower gun deck were glued in place & painted flat black,along with painting the inside of the gunports red. This is a single planked hull,so I needed to get it nice & smooth. Below the lower  wale I am going to double plank the hull with some cherry veneer(I hope). The planking on the upper part of the hull is 2mm thick,so I`m using some 1.5mm thick lime to do the first layer of planking below the wale,which after adding the second planking should come out very close to the same thickness as the upper planking. Any slight variation will not be noticeable due to the wale separating the upper & lower halves of the hull. I`ve never tried using veneer for planking,so if it doesn`t seem to be working ok I can always sand it down & use some of the usual .5mm thick strips.
 

 

 
Mark

Update - the poop deck,stem&keel,and the lower gunport frames have been added. The keel & stem are plywood,pre-stained,so I lined the edges with a veneer stained to match. Also,the planking has begun.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Mark,
Do you know there is an e-book available describing the build and history of these Manila galleons, in particular
this Nuestra Senora del Pilar? It's called  "Retrato de un Navio" by Jesus Garcia del Valle y Gomez, available at 8 Euro
from Bubok.es.
Although it's in Spanish only, still you could get some interesting info from it I think.
 
Piet

Hi everyone - the next thing to do is the inner bulwarks at the aft end of the ship. It comes in one long laser cut piece,which I painted red & glued to the bulkhead extensions - I had to look closely at the pictorial instructions to position it right.
 

 
Next,the aft cabin walls were made up. The doors & windows are bronzed metal & were pretty well done. The instructions say to cut out the window inserts from the paper provided,but I thought it looked kind of cheesy,so I made my own windows by gluing some black window screen material to some clear acetate,then cut them to fit.
 

 
Next,the cabin wall were chiseled out & painted yellow. Then the doors & windows were glued in place. The instructions indicated just painting the walls brown,which would look awful,so I planked them with some walnut strips. It came out that the doors & windows were close to flush with the planking,which I thought looked much better than just glued on & painted around.
 

 

 

 

 
Mark 

Hi everyone - another little update. The upper decks are now in place & finished off with a coat of polyurethane.
 

 

 
Mark

Hi everyone - a small update. Been working on the small deck sections at the waist. I decided to do them a little differently than the instructions called for - they said to glue the decks to the beams,add short sections along the length,cut some columns out of square stock & glue them in place,then cut the previously installed beams off where they span the opening over the lower deck. Seemed like an odd way to do it. What I did was cut off the support beams first,then glued a beam to the edge of the deck sections their full length. I didn`t much care for the look of plain square columns,so after some searching I found some nice turned columns at Ages of Sail. The columns were then glued to beams under the deck sections before I glued the decks in place so I could get them nice & vertical,then the decks were glued in place as a complete assembly. Just a note about the columns - I ordered them on Saturday morning & they were in my mailbox Monday afternoon!  Now that`s service!!! 
 

 

 
Mark

Hi everyone - a little more progress. The upper deck support beams are now in place as well as the forecastle deck & it`s planking. These deck planks came out much better than the previous batch {used tanganyika instead of walnut).No finish will be applied until all the upper decks are in place.
 

 

 

 
Mark 

Hi everyone - another update. The inner bulwarks were planked & small gaps between the bulwarks & the gunports frames were filled with scrap pieces as per the instructions. Then the gunports were cut out of the planking & the bulwarks were painted red (a Vallejo paint called gory red).
 

 

 
Mark

Hi zappto - welcome aboard! Yes, the kit comes with a full set of pre-made sails.
 

 
Also,a small update. A coat of poly has been applied to the deck. The look is a little more uneven than I would have liked,but that`s ok because most of this deck is not visible. It still looks way better than the kit supplied strips which were unusable anyway. The last batch of planks I treated this way came out really nice & even,so I figure I must have messed something up.
Also the gunport frames for this deck were glued in place.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Hi everyone - time for an update. The lower deck sections were glued in place & planked with bleached walnut which turned to a light grey & a #2 pencil was run along the edges. Nailing was simulated by using a half twist of a #78 drill bit to make a tiny indentation.  No finish is applied yet. The kit supplied deck planking will be used for kindling. Also did some fairing of the bulkheads.
 

 

 

 
Mark 

Hi everyone - just a small update.
The lower deck is provided in 4 pieces which the instructions say to plank before gluing them in place. I prefer to plank the decks after they are glued in place,so I glued all 4 sections to the bulkheads - they fit almost perfect. Next will be to plank that deck,but there is a slight problem - every single strip of wood provided to plank the deck is terribly warped as you can see in the picture. I just happen to have a bunch of leftover walnut strips which are nice & straight,so I will bleach them to a light grey & use them
 

 

 
 
Mark  

Hi everyone. Getting started,I located the keel former which is in 2 pieces. The bad news is the front section has a nasty warp in it.
 

 

 
Using the lower gun deck & the stiffening bars along with some creative clamping,the bulkheads lined up acceptably & were glued in place. To straighten the warp some slots were cut into the stem section so it would bend more easily & the 2 reinforcements were glued & clamped to the sides,eliminating the warp. Many of the wood sheets were enclosed in shrink wrap,so moisture or dryness should not have been a problem. The shrink wrap was pretty tight,so maybe that caused the warping. There was more warping further back on the former,but did not affect the bulkhead alignment. A little disappointed that pretty much all the wood in the kit is plywood except for the planking strips,so a little creative painting or veneering will be needed in some areas. Also,I found some more plan sheets hidden in the bottom of a couple of boxes so the kit does contain the usual number of plans showing the deck layout & etc.
 

 

 
Mark

Tied up at a pier.😂

Hi everyone - I have had this kit in the closet for quite awhile from Model Expo,so now is a good time to start it. After doing a little searching on the internet,this appears to be an actual ship - a Manila galleon of 50 guns that sank in 1750. The kit came in 6 boxes & upon opening the boxes there a number of laser cut wood sheets(mostly plywood) along with several plastic containers containing fittings & other small pieces. There are also the usual bundles of strip wood & dowels. Some of the wood will likely be replaced since much of it is a coarse grained reddish brown wood. One nice feature is it comes with pre-sewn sails ready to mount(no excuse for not putting sails on this one). It builds into a ship just over 1100mm long,so it shouldn`t be too hard to add some detail.it comes with written & pictorial instructions,but the only plan sheets provided are for the masting & rigging - none for the actual ship structures(not really needed because of the many pictures.
 

 

 

 
 
 
Mark

Peter,
Fair question
Ah yes - those now, in this household, infamous Pegasus. As some of you may know, they got “planked” by the Admiral as soon as she saw them trying to be included as part of the base. (I may be sharing too much J
It turns out that with the small mounting braces that I made they crowded the area, and did not correctly fit under the ship.
Also, visually they took too much away from the minimalist case that I had intended.
So the Admiral was relieved that I did not place them inside the case. “It’s all good” - Oh well, I may put them on eBay.
 

 
 

Welcome aboard mates,
 
Martyn: nice - you will prob. finish your superb ship build before I finish this little cross section. This cross section will be an excellent follow up for you indeed.
Capt. Steve: Oh yes! those are very nice. Started looking around and discovered that they come with the kit. Tried to find some as Corel fittings, but no luck. They’re on my mind – thanks for the idea and link.
I’ll ask Cristikc for the part number and see if Corel would send me some. They, Corel, have been so kind sending me extra metal parts for the Vasa. Though I did indicate that I had purchased it from Model Expo.
 
Yesterday I placed a large order of various fittings with Cornwall in the UK. I will start in earnest when the shipment, and my veneers arrive. Oh they carry Oak strips of various sizes !!
 
Cheers,
 

My previous construction of a kit.. 
..is coming to an end, so it's time to start with a new one...
Another construction I'm starting is scratch build, I've decided for a ship from the 16th century, a galleon, which I always liked, specifically 1597 Roter Lowe..

I've had the 1:60 plan at home for many years, it's a copy of a well-known German plan..





The scale is close to fifty, still very detailed and mainly the ship hasn't got much decoration, which I do not dare make yet. I'm leaving 3D aside, I hope paper plans will do..

Right from the first comparison of copies of the two side elevations, I came across different front ligament shapes..

That's also why I decided to create a cardboard half of the hull and check the crossing of the ribs, and then do the plywood frame..

Hi Mates,
Having learned so much about rigging, gun carriages and so on with the Vasa – this one seemed like a better next fit.
 
Intend to bash this one as well.
1) Show lower, upper and weather deck framing details by leaving out some of the deck planks from each deck.
2) Will try my hand at coppering the hull
3) Scratch build much of what the kit provided.
 ===================
 Kit seems to be well thought out. I would consider this one (to me) as a basic to intermediate skill level kit. Included carriages and gun port frames and doors are pre-made of metal. The subject is certainly interesting. And its just a bit of the ship haha
 
I like the included dark timbers, not so liking the white woods, - prob. won’t use in any case.
Instructions are simple, and the mast and rigging sheets are excellent. I have no intentions of adding running rigging with sails (well for now anyway) haha
So: first steps are to add a face to the front facing frames.  So a first thank you;
 
Denis (Popeye the Sailor) – I saw you write  the word Veneer on your current Mississippi boat build - that  struck me as a perfectly simple way  to add details to the front facing frames. So ordered some veneer woods (without glue backing) from eBay.  Had NEVER thought of this as a perfect addition for detailing certain areas.  Will be perfect for the face of the front frame
 
Will also use Longridge as a reference – close enough I would think. That said, oak timbers seem hard to find. I don’t have a belt sander planking type machine. No big deal it will only be for the keel – Veneers are coming for the side framing work.
 
Welcome aboard mates, thanks to those of you already on-board – sweet indeed.
 
OK Now I need to catch up to all of your builds…..Have fallen behind
 
Cheers,
 

 
 
 

Looking good Mark.
Bigger is always better.
Sam

Would always go for the bigger scales - don't know what admiral would say though. Great advance on canons, Mark. They're comming alive!

Would always go for the bigger scales - don't know what admiral would say though. Great advance on canons, Mark. They're comming alive!

Would always go for the bigger scales - don't know what admiral would say though. Great advance on canons, Mark. They're comming alive!