KevinR

Hello everyone here is my build log of the Black Pearl by Hatchettepartworks it is a weekly issue, I will be receiving four issues every four weeks.
 
this is the first part from issue number one.
 
Regards steve-h

Muzzlehead, did some poking around and found this in the database here. Really helps explain the decking process, wish it was available when I did my deck. 
http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/Deck_PlankingIIbuttshifts.pdf
Sam

Well here is the beginning of my first build log with Model Shop World. I have opened the box, read the instructions at least three times and numbered all the precut pieces. As you can see I have started the hull. I think this will be a challenging kit and somewhat unusual as part of the starboard side of the hull will be left open to show the decks, accommodation etc. That is why the hull at the moment looks like fish bones as all the decks have to be assembled at the beginning of the process. This will give sufficient strength (I hope!) to be able to do the fairing of the hull prior to any planking. 
This has meant that I had to be extra careful to get all the sections completely vertical at this stage. I have to say that so far the pieces have been very well cut making the assembly process thus far reasonably easy. The only slight worry is the transom where the pieces could have fitted better but I hope to sort that out when I come to do the fairing.

I had some free time today due to the weather so I planked the transom. I am now back to where I was when the stern post broke on the original.

I have painted brass before using acrylics.  The secret is the brass needs some teeth.  The good thing about the original Floquil was it adhered to brass once cleaned and primed.  The secret was that it actually was very mild etchant just below white vinegar.  What I did after cleaning a brass part was let it sit in some white vinegar for awhile to give it a little tooth after a thorugh rinse and cleaning I was able to use acrylics after using a primer.  You have to experiment it did not always work.  In my opinion brass was always difficult to paint.
David B

Multi layers of thinned paint vs. 1 layer of thick paint and paint separate whenever possible before being assembled onto other parts. Water base acrylics will not adhere well to brass, I use testors oil base flat enamels. Make sure the brass is cleaned with alcohol before painting.

Hi all,
 
please can anybody advise on the best way to paint the fine details on the brass details such as windows doors etc
 
thanks
 
Bill24

Your little boat is coming along quite nicely Kevin. I was also a plastic modeler and I think the experience helped me start in the wood ship modeling but then again you always learn new things along the way. Keep it up, you are doing great, as with plastic modeling, the more you do, the more you learn, the better you become.
 
Happy Modeling,
Marty G.

You are doing good Kevin. Keep up the good work.
David B

I have the keel glued to the frames now.

 
I dry fitted the shear lines and see that the bow is going to need additional work to get a proper fit.

Does anyone know a source of 1/48th scale figures other than Prieser?
It seems the other scales have more to offer. I'm not quite ready to make my own completely, but feel comfortable modifying ones.
Kurt

I've seen a few ships with diff colors in the area of the hull.....ochre, light blue. Is there some historical accuracy to this? And if so, what other different colors were used?

Beautiful kitchen! what a nice job Paul.
 
I have similar expirience since I made my own house from an old stone shed of the nineteenth century... It only took seven years to acomplished the whole thing. This summer I have finished all the frames (22) and the doors (12). That´s why I could not be modelling a lot. As you, there´s lots of things to do but now is habible and seven years ago it was nothing but a ruin.

 
the ruin, looks in good shape but believe me it was not.
 

 
demolishing the roof, all the timber had woodworms, I could use none of them.
 

 

 
New pillars and beams, really fun stuff with the chainsaw and 200mm nails. At this time I joined the old MSW 1.0 getting traped with EdT´s Naiad... and then I joined the Triton project
 

 
And the final result, still lots of things to do.
 
Best wishes Paul! There is something priceless when you do the things by yourself.
 
 
Daniel.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello all,
 
a belated happy new year to all. Sorry for the long absence, but am still doing house jobs, they seem to be never ending. hope to have averything clear by next month, as I really miss my Scharnhorst, and the conversations with you guys.
 
see you all very soon.

Just some pics for comparison and explanations on what I changed from the original instructions.
 
Kit instruction

 
My view

 
Explaining what I´ve changed:
 
1 - Bowsprit (?) - Maybe not a bowsprit, for it has no function as one, but this piece on the fore didn´t pleased me, so, it was cut more like some other references I found.
 
2 - Peering holes - Didn´t like them from the beginning, but that´s not all. When I was reinforcing the hull some planks couldn´t fit cause the pre-cut parts just ignored this building step. To fix the problem I remade the planking on this part of the ship and completely closed the holes.
 
3 - Collor for the Hull - The kit´s instruction tells us to paint the hull black. I thought it would be a shame to put all timber to paint and made it different - used betume on the hull to give an aged look and then a wood sealer to protect the wood. Disagreeing with the kit´s excuse for the painting (iconography shows black hulls), we don´t have any proofs about the hull colors and although the iconography shows dark hulls, it was hard to have the right color to paint the hull on the middle ages - almost all iconography shows dark hulls for many types of ships, and those we have some evidence were not that patterned on painting.
 
4 - Rudder´s fittings (holders) - That was something the kit didn´t provide. Had to improvise and make my own with the few tools I had. In the instructions it is left with the original collor (brass), mine, as all metal on the ship, was painted black.
 
5 - Deadeyes - this took me some time. Deadeyes provided were lead, as all metal fittings. The manufactor said it was because he thought wooden deadeyes didn´t show a realistic view, since deadeys were handmade. Well, I disagreed again and had to order new fittings. Deadeyes took 1 month to arrive, but the results are way better. Funny part is that in the instructions the deadeyes are wood.
 
6 - Didn´t put the flags. Those which came with the kit were paper and I prefer to have my caravel countryless.
 
7 - Cleaning holes - Intructions told me to make four of them in each side. After searching for immages on the case, I found it was pretty conjectural and made 2 on each side, to better accommodate fittings inside. Could´ve put them all along the hull too, but 2 didn´t seem too few to me.
 
 

I've been experimenting with a filler technique on my 2nd layer planking.  This may have been discussed elsewhere already.  For small gaps or near the end of planks where the veneer has chipped, I'm adding a thin layer of glue, letting it sit a few seconds, and then I sand.  The dust settles into the glue and I get color matched filler.  So far so good.

Superb craftsmanship.  I like the way you rigged the guns.  Have you ever visited the ship in Erie and seen the museum ?
 
Here's a short video I took last year.:
 

 
S.os

Kevin, it looks real good.
 
Now take your X-Acto knife and cut the tips off your sharpies  I found a real soft drafting pencil, like a 6B, works well for marking. 
 
Uncle Duck

AFTER YEARS OF SEARCHING AND A TRIP TO ECUADOR I FINALLY FOUND THE LOCATION OF THE REMAINING CANNONS BELONGING TO FRAGATA COLOMBIA BUILT IN NEW YORK BY HENRY ECKFORD IN 1825. THIS DISCOVERY ALSO CLEARS THE RECORD FOR THE CANNONS MATERIAL FOR WHICH A LOT OF SPECULATION HAD BEEN BUILT WITH NO EVIDENCE TO CORROBORATE IT. EVEN THE ECUADOREAN NAVY Instituto de Historia Marítima (INHIMA) IN GUAYAQUIL DOS NOT KNOW THE ORIGIN OR MATERIAL USED IN THE CANNONS. MY FIRST LEAD WAS A COURT RECORD IN THE CITI OF NEW YORK WHERE ECKFORDS DECENDANTS WERE BEING SUED FOR A DEBT HE SUSTAINED WITH A SUPPLIER. IN THE DOCUMENTS I FOUND THE REFERENCE TO WEST POINT FOUNDRY, AS ONE OF THE SUPPLIES GIVEN TO ECKFORD FOR THE SHIP AROUND THOSE YEARS. THIS PROVED ECKFORD DID BUSSINESS WITH WEST POINT FOUNDRY. THIS SET MY COURSE OF THE INVESTIGATION. THE NAVY HISTORIAN FOR INHIMA HAD TOLD ME ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF THE CANNONS IN THE CITI. MY TRIP CONCLUDED WITH MY VISIT TO GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR TWO MONTHS AGO. THE CANNONS ARE SCATTERED AROUND THE CITI AND SOME ARE BEING HELD BY PRIVATE PERSONS. THE FIRST TWO CANNONS I SAW , ARE LOCATED NEXT TO CERRO SANTA ANA AND HAVE BEEN DETERIORATED OVER THE YEARS DUE TO LACK OF MAINTENANCE, THE INITIALS WPF(WEST POINT FOUNDRY) ON THE TRUNIONS WERE NOT THERE.
I TOOK DETAILED DIMENTIONS AND PICTURES FOR THE CANNONS AND ARE IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING TECHNICAL DRAWINGS. THEY ARE 10 FT 2IN LONG,BORE SIZE IS 6.625 WHICH MAKES IT A 32 POUNDER.
I WENT TO SECOND SITE AND FOUND TWO MORE CANNONS AND OH BOY WAS I HAPPY TO SEE THE WPF MARKS.
AFTER SEARCHING WITHOUT SUCCESS FOR YEARS I FINALLY FOUND THE MISSING LINK. BUT THERE IS NO POINT IN ME KNOWING THIS HSTORICAL FACT WITHOUT SHARING IT WITH OTHERS. SO HERE ARE THE PICTURES AND HOPE YOU CAN GIVE ADDITIONAL INFO ON THE CANNONS. ANY THOUGHTS ON DESIGNER, MAYBE AMSTRONG OR BLOOMFIELD? ANY IDEAS ON THIS ARE WELLCOME.

Hi, 
I'm new to ship modelling and I'm wondering if anyone has advice on how to ensure masts are aligned. I have a solid wood hull and I'm at the stage where I need to drill holes into the hull, and I'm concerned that drilling the holes with the slightest misalignment will be compounded at the top end of the mast. The way I see it there are a couple of ways to do this:
 
1. Drill the holes perfectly to size and angulation.
2. Drill holes larger than necessary and use shims to align later.
 
What methods have you used? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

USS Alloway?

Hello to all here
First I want to introduse muself - My name is Mihail, and I'm form Sofia, Bulgaria.
Before 4 years ago I made my firs sale ship - it was dissaster
Now I sarted a new project:
Heller's Soleil Royal in 1/100 scale.
 
I will made a lot of modificatiins on this ship - woodne decks for example, and I try to show here the hole proces of building.
 
Se let's start:
 
First for trainig I made some of main decks:

 
It's not so good, I will remade them again later
 
The armament:
 

HMS Terrible (1845).

You got her Dave.
 
HMS 'Terrible' was launched at Deptford in February 1845. She was a large 19-gun paddle-frigate, and served during the Crimean War.

You might look into the classic book, Seamanship in the Age of Sail, by John Harland. It gives a comprehensive account of how the sailing ships worked, all of their maneuvers, different sail settings. It is a fascinating read.