harlequin

just go out and enjoy your model making...there are too many people in this world that get hung up over trivia...

I like to add some deck fittings very early on to all my builds to get a feel of the finished ship. These will be permanently fitted at a later date but just gives a view further down the line.   

The smallest ship i am taking on......nothing for months then along come two...this and Endeavour.

Greyhound is in front of Bellona.......about the same scale as Bellona.......the cuban tasted wonderful and apart from machine made guantanamara cigars the rest are getting more expensive by the second.....I know the crop was decimated by hurricanes so the price has gone into orbit, but the tax here on tobacco is bonkers.

Whilst Endeavour is in the news recently I have decided to get it from the shelf and start to build whilst finishing the rigging on Unicorn. A couple of pics of the initial few ist planks.

this is where i am with Unicorn......a while since I did any rigging but it must be started again.......

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

 Are you running the Dragon's Back in Wales next month?  Our youngest son and our daughter in law (both 47 years old) are running it this year.  200 miles of agony in my opinion.    I like your idea of a cigar and pints much better.   Give me any good pint and an H. Upmann and the heck with running.   Cars (or even horses and mules) were invented for a reason you know.😀

Allan

not doing the dragons back this year though a couple of friends are.....good luck to your son and daughter in law....

well, completed the fell race so now can start again on Unicorns rigging.

big 50 mile fell race coming up this weekend in the beautiful English Lake District.......starts at 11:30 saturday morning and finishes sunday morning early hours....after that then Unicorn can finally get some attention....not going to be easy but I have several friends who are running with me and my daughter too. I am the lucky one really as the 100 mile race is happening at the same time. As i am pale and ginger we need dull cool weather. Plenty of factor 50 will be applied to every exposed area of pallid skin....One good thing is the bar remains open and pints of Old Peculier will be available at the finish line as well as the cuban cigar i will light just before the finish line....

no worries.....glad they were of some use..

looking superb....this takes me back a few years...

On 6/17/2022 at 11:45 AM, SpyGlass said:

Seeing the prototype of this kit in the Olympia Model Exhibition many many many years ago inspired me to restart the hobby.  I was quite pleased with my finished product - albiet as usual with me it took ages and I had to order some parts I lost in the process.

Still have a weeny stock of the black strip - which I was thinking of using on Speedy and for some reason parts for six spare guns  !!! 

Your build is looking great !

cheers SpyGlass....i am in training for a 50 mile fell race in 6 weeks so not worked on Uni for a while.

will start on the rigging again soon....honest....

On 3/3/2022 at 8:01 AM, Joe100 said:

You probably won’t find a more enthusiastic Shackleton enthusiast than myself. I’ve collected documents written by him, in his own hand, items he personally used on the furthest south Nimrod expedition, first edition books, etc etc. Collecting items belonging to Shackleton is a passion of mine. With that said, I can’t really understand this expedition. I’m certainly all for it, and I hope they succeed in all their aims, but Endurance isn’t an unknown. We have very detailed information about her sinking, photos, film, so it’s not like  we have too many unanswered questions except for her true position position. 
 

I was discussing this subject with a friend once the second attempt got underway. He and I couldn’t come up with a major question we felt we’d like to see answered from finding the wreck. It’s pretty clear that she was smashed to pieces, and other than the debris on the bottom of the ocean, she won’t be some sort of perfectly preserved Time Capsule sadly. Of course they’ll find items from the expedition, and I certainly hope some can be recovered, fascinating no less. I think ticking her off the list is fine, but there might be other ships that ticked off first. And this coming from the most fanatical Shackleton enthusiast you’ll come across ‘round these parts.
 

I do feel there are two wrecks in the Southern Hemisphere which would be much more interesting. The first being the American bark General Grant, which was lost off Auckland Island in 1866. She was carrying a large quantity of personal gold being carried by her passengers and possibly, though disputed, a large shipment of gold bullion. This bullion is often thought to be a legend but it is interesting because on the manifest it was listed as zinc spelter ballast, which I’m told wasn’t common in New Zealand or Australia at the time. What is known is that she did have something like 3000 ounces of private gold aboard. Not only did the disaster suffer considerable loss of life, her survivors became castaways for almost a year, which in itself is one hell of a story. I think she’s worth finding.

 

Secondly, with all the other missing wrecks being found recently, and quickly becoming the Everest of missing ships has to be the missing ocean liner SS Waratah of the Blue Anchor Line. Waratah disappeared on her second voyage in 1909 off the coast of South Africa. Little wreckage was ever found, none of which could be positively identified as having come from Waratah. No bodies were found, it was as if the 500’ ocean liner sailed to Mars. The subsequent search for her was one of the biggest searches at sea ever conducted, covering most of the area between South Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. Absolutely fascinating stuff, maddeningly perplexing, but still fascinating nonetheless. There are a couple theories about why she sank, and maybe we could start a new thread if there is interest. I can bore you to tears with discussions about Waratah! Anyway, Waratah has certainly moved up to the top, or near the top of the list.

 

As I said above, I wish the Endurance search team all the best, and I’ll be the first to congratulate them on their success. I’ll be properly excited if they do find her. However, I do feel that energy could be put into other missing ships, especially Waratah and General Grant. 

not smashed to pieces by the looks of things.

Endurance.....

mine appears to be ok.....no extra dust noticed..

i could live with this all day long....it is simply superb IMHO...

also....talking of snapping things.....dont do what i did and break the bow completely off when i dropped Bellona....

i did the brass for the cabin doors in a primer followed by admiralty paints yellow ochre, same for the quarter gallery windows as well as using brass blackener for the other transom and quarter gallery decorations.  

this is what i use....minicraft drill with lathe attachment.....i purchased two extra long stainless steel rods to accommodate larger masts and spars as the standard bars are not long enough....not produced anymore but always to be found on ebay.. 

53 minutes ago, The Gimps Chimp said:

I've just ordered some.  Let's see how I get on with it.

 

Many thanks

Chimp

good luck with it.....i used it on both black and white rigging and it was fine. I suppose a lot depends on how coarse the rigging is..

i used this stuff on some of my rigging.....passed it through pressing my thumb into the wax then rolling the fuzz flat....worked well for me...

cant help you on this one Hamilton as I never build in sequence.....I jump from process to process to eliminate boredom and to see how the model looks later down the line....and yes it has sometimes resulted in disaster but that is just how i build....

great to see you and chief williams doing this model.....like i said before Hamilton.....it has every emotion contained in my Bellona....so very nearly got binned but so glad I continued with it....

great to see a couple of corels Bellona's being built on here.....i had bad and good times with the kit, but it really is a beauty....looking great so far..