Ulises Victoria

Great great job Matti! Every step you do is a masterpiece. I like what you did with the gunports. I may copy that look in my R.L. They add a sense of life and reality.  

I just handled the golden metal parts in my Royal Louis, and my hands became sprinkled with something like fairy dust. (Where are you Tinkerbell? :))

So what I am planning to do is just dip the whole batch in thinner, strip all the paint in them and paint them again. I will probably use Alclad, as I have a bottle of that stuff laying around for maybe a couple of years.

Aaaahhh new toy!!! Is that a Proxxon Sjors? I would love to hear your comments on it.

And your rigging is coming along so very nice. Good job on those crows feet! They are a pita.

Yes Mark. Here:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rigging-Ships-Spritsail-1600-1720/dp/048627960X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398394759&sr=8-1&keywords=the+rigging+of+ships+in+the+days

Karl and Mark. While rigging my Vasa I started following the Corel instructions AND the book "THE RIGGING OF SHIPS IN THE DAYS OF THE SPRITSAIL TOPMAST, 1600-1720" by R.C. Anderson.

I finally quit trying to follow both sources as it proved really confusing. Maybe if you are just starting can use that book as your rigging source. Seems to be very accurate, complete and is of just the right period.

Nice going Mark. Rigging is my favorite part of building a ship. Well... also  planking a hull... and decks.... Things that I hate: whatever that comes out bad

Good job, or should I say outstanding job on you Vasa. It's really coming to life.

Thanks Denis.

CaptainSteve : Yes the shape of the hull is curved. I wouldn't rule out completely the fact that my planks may have deviated from the Parallel line, or whatever. But if all the planks are exactly 4mm wide, then they shouldn't... or not?

As I said before, I will not waste more time trying to figure out what happened and just move on.

However, on my upper decks, I am going to have to be extra careful and draw lines all over to ensure eveness.

Hey Karl. I am attaching here a clean photo of the area. You will see is not that simple. By modifying that plank I will destroy a proper 4 step joint just where the black spot is. This is like a Rubik cube: You put one piece in place and two others move out of place. 

Clare (post above) had a keen eye and pointed out something I had missing. In these photos you will see there are 8 planks

in the fore side of the center opening of the false deck, and 7 and just a very small fraction of the adjacent planks in the aft. So that is a difference of 4mm, however, the difference in the measurements of the opening ends is just 1.5mm...       

Anyway, I decided I'm not wasting any more time with this and  will continue with this as is. This is an area that will be barely visible, and with the masts and rigging, you won't be able to peek inside directly from above. So be it. I'm glad this is my "learning" deck.

@Pat. Yes I started with a central plank starting at the bow, and kept working a bit on every side of it and advancing towards the central opening. I was very careful that my pattern was not disturbed at any point.

Oh, and to the starter of this post 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2113-are-measurements-really-that-critical-moved-by-moderator/

 a big YES THEY ARE!

Small update and baffled!

Hello all.This is just a small update that shows how far I am with my lower deck planking.

I know most of this deck will not be seen, but I'm doing it for several reasons:

1-Practice,

2- Try different caulking methods,

3- see in advance potential mistakes that may arise in the upper and more important decks.This has proven useful, as you will see below.

4- somehow I think it's the right thing to do... 

Some planks had to be shaped like this to accommodate to the frames

I am baffled!!! At what moment did the pattern broke?

In this next photo, the green circles show the correct pattern (4 step) that I had religiously followed since plank 1.

When coming around the central opening and closing the planking behind it, suddenly I realized the pattern was broken to a 3 step (Red circles) in a few rows instead of the 4 step I was doing all along.  I am puzzled about what and how it happened. Now... I don't know if just keep going like this, or try to fix it somehow, but I have no idea at this moment how I would do that.        

Hey Michael.Thanks for visiting. 699 dlls is very good price for this kit. ME has it at 1,100 but it has to be ordered. I got very lucky I got mine at ME at 450 dlls.

I'm not 100% sure, but by reading some things that other people who owns this kit had said, I think mine is the newer version. I bought it in May 2010.

Metal parts are ok.I like the gold parts, but don't like things like the boats, steering wheel belaying pins etc in metal.

There is NO instruction book. Some sort of instructions are in the plans, but they are definitely intended for an experienced modeler.

Hope this helps.If you have more questions, shoot.

Thank you Steve. Appreciate the detailed explanation.

Where do you find research material for this ship? Have you a web site that covers a lot about her? Books? I've never heard of this ship until now and would like to know more about her. Pictures etc of course.  Let us know what you've got. Maybe it will lead me to something you don't yet have. 

Hello and thanks for your interest.

If you go to post # 47 above, there is a link to some photos of another model.

I wish there was more info about this ship. Google searches lead you to wikipedia which has very little info. Searches in Amazon for books, lead you to some crappy things they call "models", and other assorted stuff.

I have a couple of French books that I have not researched well yet. Will do this weekend.

This is a nice site to get some general info about ships.

http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=ships_search

If anyone finds more info, I will be forever in your debt.

I would give my right pinky for a practicum on how to build this kit. 

Exactly!

I like the looks of that deck very much. Could you elaborate a little more on how to do it? I don't understand 

"the way prefab decks are made by attaching the caulk joint to the plank ahead of installation"...

Thank you.

Since the webpage at hobbymills says that new orders will be fullfilled until July, I ordered what I needed from Model Expo. This is my first time ever that I buy extra wood for my builds. I hope everything goes OK.

Now, this is a nice looking ship, Nick, and I can tell you are off to make a nice build out of it.

Your planking jobs looks very clean and even. Congratulations!

Wow Viv... It's looking really really nice. You are doing a spectacular job, linda.

Felicidades!!!

I started this thread, and I think it was a comment I made later about Jeff's payment policies, that unchained these long posts by both sides. I'm glad that the final outcome seem to be an understanding on both parties. At least, I hope so.

I would like to do business with Jeff sometime in the future.

As David said...

Sjors: Beautiful work, my friend. I am learning a few things by watching your photos.

Thank you, cangratulations and keep going!!!

Viv... So glad to see you back, linda. Please, some photos. What you are doing with your ship is fabulous!!!

Tell me more about Pay Pal. I live in the dark ages. I have a cell phone but not much more. A computer of course. So lots of internet businesses are asking me to pay by PayPal, and I've resisted. To me its just another way for someone to hack in and get either information or actually steal money. Am I wrong? How does it all work and what are the protections? Is it really worth having an account for maybe two to ten purchases a year?

PayPal is the widest accepted internet payment method in the world so far. There has to be a reason for that. Your PayPal purchases are guaranteed. If you don't get what you ordered or have any complaints, PP refunds your money. Of course they have to charge something. It is a business after all. I have used PP extensively for several years. Never had a complaint.

Thank you Brian C...Cool... Western Union may be the option

Too bad they don't accept PayPal or CC as payment method. Hard to believe a company dealing with internet orders, relying only in checks or money orders, when setting up a PayPal account is so easy.

Bindy: thanks for visiting

What I've found that works best, so far, is taking each plank and paint the side with a black pencil. I've found that trying to do this job in batches (several at a time) doesn't work for me, or I may be doing something wrong. (most likely  )

There is a product used by plastic modelers to simulate metal finished. Its called Alclad. This video is for chrome, but they have a gold also. I have some of this gold stuff and plan to use it in the gold metallic parts of my Royal Louis.

Hahaha, Yeah, right!