juhu

Hi Greg, stopped here after a while. Great looking deck planking. I believe, these boats has similar pattern as fishermen, i.e. straight planks with nibbling on main deck and curved planks following deck margins at quarter deck? When building my boat, I took safe approach and started planking from the deck margins. I knew there might be a challenge to make perfect spacing when coming together in the middle, but the idea was, that any imperfections will be much less visible along the cL, than at the sides. Planking along the center is interrupted by many deck structures, planks are thus shorter and even if not perfect, will not show so much. Along the margins they are running all the way without any obstructions.

Hi Greg, I consider myself a beginner, at least when it comes to wooden ship kits, and I express my support and thanks for the way you present your build. I am interested in ship construction and technical aspects of design, I would like to build kits that do resemble originals with my limited skills and honest build review like yours brings great additional value to me. Am eager to see the final outcome and am happy to learn even more through your progress. Regards Juraj

Looks good in my opinion. I wonder, how much material from the kit will you use at the end....

Hm, I thought of some natural colorization, fungus is definitely out of question 😕 Hopefully the next batch will be better As for the loco, I was wondering how would you paint it assembled together, now I see you mention it is still only dry-assembled and could be taken apart to paint separately? Then ok. I used to build plastic model kits, mostly planes in 1/48. While yes, in theory you should be able to get replacement if some part is broken etc., in reality it may not be so prompt and if you add shipping cost from around the world, you may well add half of the cost to the model kit. Also, in some cases it is not an option at all. If you ruin painting on almost finished model or realize the canopy glazing under paint mask suffered, it is too late for any replacement. Plastic model kits rely heavily on premade parts, full of beautiful but delicate details. Particularly painting is something I fear of - lots of opportunity to ruin the whole work , for sure in my case, not to speak of quite aggressive chemistry. Another funny aspect is how master plastic modelers achieve to simulate various surface effects, it is truly a sight to see the plastic looking like a linen, metal, wood. Yet, with wooden model kits there is no need to create such illusions, well, not to that extent Back to Phantom: I am looking forward to see the final wood appearance. Depending on chosen finish, it may look other way at the and. Do you plan to paint the hull and to oil the deck?

You are fighting bravely with kit's deficiencies. I am sure the final result will be a very fine maquette! I appreciate, that you not only post the progress diary, but also point out various traps to watch for. Anybody thinking about purchasing this kit should read your blog before doing so. And after purchase should study it even more.

From those shown I would pick the one at the bottom for planks. Definitely would avoid anything with prominent coloured structure....

Well, am also eager to hear other opinion. I also first thought of grating being some kind of prevention to stay out of the water, but this is simply hard to believe, at least to me. Water must go away, rather than to build some platforms in the cockpit to stand above it. I have checked for example BJ's America or cute Lively schooner kit or other ships of similar design. I somehow feel the grating would make sense if laid flush with the rest of the cockpit bottom deck. And water drainage is somehow made under the grating possibly? Also, to prevent helmsman from slippering, I see some simple battens are usually fixed to the deck as a feet support (I remember this nice detail from BJ's Smuggler kit). But yet I believe in rather small enclosed cockpit this might not be necessary at all. The cockpit side walls might well suit as needed support. From my limited charter yacht sailing experience, having such a stepped platform around the wheel, always to check I do not fall over that step would be pretty annoying :). But again just my guess too. I simply do not like the idea of stepped up grating as proposed in that photo, but will be happy to be corrected.

Thank you for the reference to scratch built Phantom, must go through it. The attached book picture brings to me one technical question. What was actually the purpose of that grating? I believed it was to drain the water out of the cockpit. But in that case it should be in cockpit floor level. But I might be wrong here, may be there was some special scupper for that? I believe there must be some way to get water out. But for sure the grating in the picture with noticeable step above the cockpit deck in quite a cramped space opens for me the question, what was it good for?

Difficult part of the build, at least it would be for me. Not sure of cockpit construction, was there supposed to be grating at the bottom, at least aft ? Could be a challange to do it now, after hull is planked and false deck ready too. I guess you plan to make a hole wide an deep enough, then make full cockpit, glue it to the reverse side od the false deck and only then put it atop together?

Hi, I was also scanning the pic from #46 post, not sure first what was meant, but I think the idea was that the size/shape is way off? I mean the copy of the plan, particularly in the aft part does not match the hull / transom / deck at all and is too short? If this is the case, that is pretty bad. As far as deck planking is concerned, very good point comes from #48 - would the cap rail fix the missing height? If yes, great, if not I would suggest to try to use less thick planks. Something like 1/2 or even smaller of the suggested strength with careful sanding then might do the job and even make deck planking easier. At least from my last build it helped me a lot. The other option would be to raise the bulwarks as you mentioned. Not sure how much it would hinder the hull appearance, but considering the shown mismatch and distortion compared to plans, the question is if it matters anymore... I mean, is it possible to build scale replica from this kit? I have it in my shopping cart already, order and delivery to Europe is by no means cheap, but am more and more reluctant and not sure if I will commit the purchase.... It seems to be like with plastic kits: while downscaling a kit is relatively(!) easy, you are omitting details, upscaling must not only consider additional details but also their effect on the proportions and build overall. I have several ME kits in my stash, they are beautiful, looking forward to building them, this new Phantom seems to me well, like some different approach. Will keep an eye on progress and wish all the best with it. Edit: One more question I forgot. From few pics on the web it seems to me that this ship also has the stepped up deck, i.e. thick beam (called grub beam?) divided main deck and quarter deck? If so, I wonder that there is actually no corresponding rail step, meaning that the rail height must be lower at quarter deck than at the main deck? But as said, this might be just my misunderstanding of the given ship design, I have never build smaller Phantom.

Great progress, will keep watching this thread for sure. Since I first noticed wooden static ship models and ME company I have admired their 1/96 Phantom kit and only wished it was available in 1:48. Yesterday I have found it just by accident. First I though there is just an error on the web with the scale From what I see I agree with the notes - to enlarge the kit from 1/96 to 1/48 should involve something more than just "enlarging", i.e. adding the detail appropriate for the scale and proper plans. . From the pics available I think the cockpit area just sitting on the deck looks strange. As you said I would also suggest to burry it little bit. I am just not sure, to achieve this, would not it be better to cut space in the bulkheads before assembly? Or maybe I just see it wrong from the web photos. Edit / added: I have been going through those few pictures from manufacturer website. If possible I would have one more question: how does the kit handle the whole anchor mechanism? I mean, I would expect this boat having anchor chain, but I see no windlass, no storage box for anchor on the deck, nothing. There are apparently some small winches directly at, I think called Samson post, but not sure this would be the answer for heavy anchors. Totally unfamiliar with pilot boats design, they still do resemble fishermen from Gloucester I have researched little bit, so am just wondering... Thanks a lot!

The look from above confirms again and again how good choice on which planks to omit you made. I would almost forgive the kit that it does not include proper individual frames plan. What a shame it is not available in Europe, I would go for one, but postage and duties sum for overseas order is too high. Splendid work, thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot for responses. Probably I would not dare to go for this kit, but your build is impressive. I think the way you decided to left some parts of the deck planking off is very eye-catching.

Hi, I have been studying this and other America's build logs - have been considering as an option for me. Reading all the build logs, it seems that the frame alignment is the common issue due to rough, often asymmetrical shape. Do the kit plans show no 1:1 individual frame shape, so it would be possible to use them a s a template for exact shaping? I see each modeler takes its own approach how to cope with this challenge, but I would expect that proper profile drawing would be a must for POF model. Having not seen the actual plans, am not sure what to expect and whether I shall venture into this particular kit. Thanks for sharing any info on that in advance.

I really like the result - fore deck view from above with all those exposed frames is very interesting.