ChrisLinden

wow the craftmanship and detail on those metal parts is awesome. Fantastic to see! 

Couldn't resist to take a few atmospheric shots with the LEDs on. Just for fun.
I still have a ton of details to finish up around the hull, so from here on its work, no fun :-) 

Hello,

Its been a long time since I posted. Ive been away from the hobby due to starting a new company, becoming a father and getting a new band together to record music. Recently I felt a strong pull again, so I picked up the Friesland build.

Long overdue on the todo list was wiring up the last LEDS. I had pondered long and hard how to tackle the LEDS in the lanterns. I couldn't really figure out a good way to do it. Finally I decided to just "start" and troubleshoot along the way. I think I found a decent way to do it, and will describe it here so if others like to try something similar, they can take cues from what I did. Theres likely many ways to do this, but here's what I ended up with:

1. Saw of the top caps of the lanterns so you have an open space to work with.
2. Remove the inner excess "circle" to clean up the interior
3. Drill 2 holes in the bottom to receive the wiring. See first picture below.

1. Dry fit the lanterns into the wood
2. Pull wires through the back of the ship, run them into the lanterns
3. Make sure you have enough access wire so they stick out at the top
4. This makes it easy to solder the LEDS onto the wires (and why I popped the tops of the lanterns off) 

In the wood backside (don't know the jargon) of the ship, drill holes to fit the lanterns plus 2 smaller holes to pull through the wiring. At least for me the wiring was branched of from the leds under the decks. Make sure you leave the wires at excess length so they come out at the top of the lanterns. This makes it easy to solder the leds onto the wiring. When done, you pull back down the wires and led into the lantern. Tuck away the excess wires underneath the deck. 

Important note: The metal material of the lanterns acts as a current for the electricity. I found its important you keep a little bit of the plastic wire shielding in the holes at the bottom, to act as shielding. I forgot this at first and the leds/wires were touching the lantern, making everything flicker. 

1. Occasionally check all LEDS still work
2. Once the LEDS are soldered on, pull them and the wires back down into position
3. Secure the Lanterns into position

You can see above that I have excess length of wires, but these will be "pulled" back in and then glued to the metal poles of the lanterns.
I will then paint it all to hide the wires as good as I can. On the ship side, I plan to drill some gutters into the wood to receive the wires, then plank over it. 

Once you feel confident everything is ok, you can glue the top parts of the lanterns back on. In my case I will paint the whole metal material in a custom color with wash inks to age it. So Im painting first and adding some fake plastic glass before glueing everything down. 

A few tips I discovered: 

1. The wire is from a railroad model shop, the thinnest thickness I could find
2. Buy 2 different colored wires to make it easier to keep track of Plus - Min.  I had 1 color and it drove me mad to continually double check what was plus and minus. 
3. Cut the metal LED rods short so they fit into the lantern. You only need about 6mm length to solder your wires onto. Mine are still a bit too long, Try to make them as short as possible. 
4. Consider leaving the LED rods longer if you like to have the LED bulb end up inside the "dome" at the top of the Lantern.  I tried to get mine in the middle of the lantern. Do what you feel looks best.
5. The electricity wires, even how thin, still are hard to hide from sight. If you don't like this consider not LEDding your lanterns.

Hope this helps some of you who consider adding LEDS to your Friesland.

Looking good jerry. Allmost ready to start rigging i think?

Looks awesome Sjors! Very nice work

Hey unfortunately i was caught with flue for weeks. I am still ill so my build is paused. Would love to hobby again!

Had a break from building, now continuing again. Started making the masts and yards:

Fitted the bow sprit to the hull:

Tester flag, dry fit just for fun:

Will post more progress soon!

Hi Jerry.

I had some tough times at home and work so my mind was not set to hobby mode. Now i am slowly picking up the pace again.

My build log of the Friesland is here in dutch:

http://www.modelbouwforum.nl/forums/bouwverslagen-historische-schepen/202911-bouwverslag-friesland-mamoli-cvl-1-75-a.html

And a summary here on msw:

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8318-friesland-by-chris-van-der-linden-mamoli-175/

It is a dutch two decker closely resembling the 7 Provincien. Its my first large build and only my second ship so i am struggling sometimes. Especially now i need to start rigging. No experience with that so very daunting

Hi Jerry,

Ive been away from the hobby for a few months. Checking back in on your log.
You've made quite some progress Looking really neat and tidy. Nice ship.
I am now continuing building my Friesland, and have set the Half Moon aside for a while to focus. 

Looks really good, nice job!

Looks fantastic! Such clean work

A nice trick i learned is to bend multiple strips soaked in water around a cup. Set it aside to dry. Afterwards you have a lot of pre-bent strips you can cut to size and apply. Simply find a cup that matches your bow shape, fairly easy.

Wow this has to be some of the cleanest well made rigging ive seen on a modelship. A league on its own!

Looking good, i need to pick up my half moon build as well but the Friesland isnt going to finish by itself either

Hi Jerry

I am also building the half moon (slowly) as a side project to my all consuming Friesland. I also felt the first planking is very thick, thicker even than my 90cm long Friesland

Its not a showstopper but do realize that at the stern deadwood the thickness will add up substantially. I solved this by redoing the keel, leaving a recess to accept the first planking.

You can check my log if you want:

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8253-half-moon-by-chrislinden-corel/#entry266514

As for bending, this type of wood does not need 24 hours at all. 10 minutes in hot water usually is enough. Hot steam above a boiling pot also works wonders. But again its personal preference, just offering some thoughts that might speed up your workflow.

Cheers!

Looks good jerry, you can opt to place supports between the bulkheads, so its sturdier when you are fairing the hull.

Hope to see more progress soon

I would use a varnish to deepen the color of the wood, then mask off the underwatership and paint that off white.

Personal preference though.

Enjoy this build

Hi Tadeusz

Thanks very much for the good examples, thats really helpful.

Chris

Most kit manufacturers simplify or take liberties with some of the designs/plans in favor of being wholly accurate. You can always deviate and scratch build certain parts if you want to improve on what the kit provides.

With my Friesland build I did a lot of things myself, not using some of the kit prefab pieces.

Greetings Chris

This is one ship I would love to build, and I was on the verge of buying it, but thought it was out of my league. This is a must watch for me. Lovely work, well done. Just keep enjoying it. DAVID

Hi David, its certainly a challenge but i am not really experienced, so for me its always challenging

keep in mind that Mamoli company burned down recently and they quit business. My kit has various shortages (deckplanks, gratings, metal pins etc) that you will not be able to order from them. Just a note of caution

Made a rudder from scratch. Did not love the prefab mamoli piece. Will put on the hinges and attach it to the hull soon.

Hello, its been too long, i was kept busy with starting a new company, decorating our 3 story office and now re-decorating our own home to try and sell it.

Long story short, little time and headspace ro focus on the hobby.

This week I had a few evenings to relax and build. Here's what ive done:

First I completely finished the galleon section. I scratch made these parts from putting thin 1mm strips together to give a profiled look, then bent them using a jig.

once in place I used Nuln Oil black ink from Citadel paints to stain the wood. I created the grating to go inside the galleon. While not perfect I am happy, it is better than the parts provided by Mamoli. The paint job on the lion figurehead is still basic, iplan to develop this further when i have some daylight to work in.

Next I scratch made the crane bars, that hold the anchors. One turned out better than thether but overall I am satisfied. I plan to add lion head carvings on the top ends of them later. Finally I added the first anchors.

Now I am working on adding the deadeyes around the hull to take the standing rigging. This is not as difficult as I had feared, and I am making good progress. After this I have a ton of small ljobs to do around the hull, that I left unattended in favor of making progress on a big picture.

Will return soon with more progress!

Hi i am building the friesland, what color wood would the masts have been back in the day? I have a dark stained finish going on for most wood so I am not sure how light masts will look, dont want to have them jump out too much...

Any thoughts?