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I've made several ship models in the last 10 years. My best work was on the HM Bark Endeavour by Caldercraft, but the model that gets the most compliments is my Anteo Harbour tug. I've been wanting to build another tug for a while and settled on the Marie Felling by Caldercraft. They offer a couple of other tug kits but they are nearly impossible to find at the moment, so I settled on the Marie Felling. This is a BIG model, 43.5" long. It has a Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) hull and superstructure and is clearly made for RC. I just build for the fun of building, and will build this as a static model. Here's a photo of the GRP hull next to my Anteo. MSW has no build logs for Caldercraft tugs or the like, so I hope that this will give the readers some information about this. There are three good build logs on https://www.rcgroups.com, all of RC equipped models of course. Here are links if you're interested. Marie Felling by Longbike Marie Felling by Rmay Marie Felling by Kaskazi- 26 replies
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Well, with the continued encouragement of Vane, I have decided to break the ice and start a build log for my efforts on the HMS Granado. I have ordered the AOTS reference and my wife was super kind and found a nice reference book on the builder.... Granado was ordered to be constructed on September 14th, 1741 and the keel was laid on November 18th, 1741. The construction of the ship occurred at St Clements on the River Orwell near Ipswich. The Granado's design was unusual in that she was to be used as either a sloop or a bomb vessel, being constructed with a conventional square stern. Launched on June 22nd, 1742, Granado was initially taken to Harwich, and fitted out and put in commission as a sloop. It was not until 1756 that Granado was fitted for the first time as a bomb vessel from an Admiralty Order on July 26th 1756. However, between the launch of Granado and her fitting as a bomb vessel, a number of changes had been made as compared to the original Admiralty plans, the most noticeable of these were as follows: 1. Two extra 4pdr carriage guns were added (Admiralty order of June 20th 1745) bringing the total 4pdr carriage guns to 10. 2. Two bow chaser gun ports were added allowing accommodation of the extra guns either under the forecastle as bow chasers or at the fifth gunports. 3. The mortars as shown in the Admiralty plans are two 13 inch mortars however when fitted as a bomb vessel this was actually changed to 1 x 13inch and 1 x 10inch mortar. This is confirmed by the provisions list on March 30th 1757 which details 50 large and 50 small shells. It was during its period as a bomb vessel that Granado was involved in her most active role. On January 22nd, 1759, Granado and the squadron under command of Commodore John Moore anchored off Basse Terre. By January 24th troops had occupied the forts of Basse Terre and Fort Royal, and the town had been devastated by fire caused by the carcasses discharged from the bomb vessels. On February 7th, the fleet moved to attack Fort Louis at the entrance to Cul de Sac Bay. The attack began the following day and by February 15 the bombardment ceased with the capture of the Fort. Granado remained as a bomb vessel until the Admiralty Order to fit her as a sloop on March 20th 1760. Granado was again converted to a bomb vessel in August 1761 and she remained as such until she was sold on August 30th 1763 for £575. During this period Granado was involved in the action of capturing Morro Castle and El Morro in the West Indies and the capitulation of Havana on August 13th 1762. . -
I started my first ship, HM Cutter Hunter about 25 years ago and left it on a shelf. A couple of years ago, when I finally retired, I decide to finish it. I really enjoyed doing that so I looked around for something else and settled on HMS Fly but first as a refresher, I built the Brig Scotland by Corel. When I began the build, I discovered that unlike when I started Hunter, there was now lots of help and ideas on forums like this one and I must pay tribute to all the Swan builders on this forum who gave me the inspiration to add a few more features my build of Fly. I will post some photos when I have finished some final tweaks to her. I looked at various options as a follow on from Fly but finally settled on HMS Diana. This will be my first build log, so please bear with if I make any silly errors. The ply keel and bulkheads, though not quite as easy to work as the mdf in the Amati kit, I haven't found it too difficult to work. The keel and bulkhead slots needed quite bit of cleaning up to get them to fit together, as did the false deck but I think all is looking good now. I am using AOTS Diana as a reference plus all the good information from previous builders on this site to help me. I started by drawing the waterlines on the keel and bulkheads to help with chamfer angles and planking. I marked out on the keel where it will be visible through the hatch openings on the gun deck and although they may not be clearly visible, I'm thinking of cutting these away because I don’t think that it will compromise the structure. I have also marked up the angle of the bowsprit. As noted by Beef Wellington if placed as per the kit, it will interfere with the figurehead. Strangely it seems that the angle in the top drawing of sheet 1 is correct while the drawing below has it at a shallower angle. In the end I may replace the stem with a piece of boxwood so that the edges of the ply don’t show. I have marked out and cut the rabbet and am have started to shape the bulkheads at fore and aft but have left #17 because I’m not sure if it needs any shaping. -
After much thought I eventually decided to go for this ship. Mainly due to local interest . I was not planning on starting building until october when the nights start drawing in but could not resist the temptation on getting my hands on the kit and seeing what she would be like. I was quite surprised to see for such a hefty price compared to my first period build the Bounty by Amati there were no sails or flags within the kit. Fortunately I am not planning fitting the sails anyway but might of changed my mind later on. Upon opening the box and checking the contents I was a bit disappointed to find that all of the 5mm plywood boards are bent/warped to varying degrees. The main piece being the false keel the others which housed the bulkheads. I decided to remove these pieces from their boards so to determine the extent of the warping. I am happy to say when laying the bulkheads on a flat surface they seem to be ok . Unfortunately no so with the false keel. Here is a couple of photos with the extent of the warping, so let me know what you guys think. I have read a few different threads regarding how to put this right but first I thought I would contact Caldercraft and see if I can get the false keel replaced together with a couple of parts which are missing. Strange as it may seem this parts belong to a walnut board and a brass sheet which have other pieces as well. When I mean missing leaving holes, I mean I can,t find them but have numbered all the parts as per the drawing. I am now awaiting the reply from Caldercraft and hopefully they live up to their reputation and its not too long until I hear from them. Although I wasn,t thinking of starting the model until october perhaps I would be better of assembly the hull to the point of fitting the wales to ensure that the replacement keel doesn't warp before October. I also have lots of questions before I start in earnest. Best regards Dave -
This forum has been a fantastic help as I've gotten back into model ship building after a good 15 year break! I purchased the kit from Modelers Workshop just after Christmas and figured I would post my progress to share the build and all the various mistakes and success along the way. First, I highly recommend Rick Shousha from Modelers Workshop. He was a tremendous help in getting the kit and all the basic supplies in the time of COVID where everything seemed to be scarce. His customer service was outstanding! In addition, watching others build logs was fascinating and extremely helpful. Special thanks to Henke, Ooglee and Kusawa2000 Aggie builds that were particularly helpful so far. Thanks for all the shares and ideas from the forums and happy to be doing the same along the way. -
Hello, I am a new member and started to build the HMS Victory. Visited this site very often in the last month for building info and found a lot of great building logs. I had problems finding the right location for the top gunport pattern (270). -
Build started September 2021. Early days log and photographs to follow -
Hi All, This is my first proper wooden boat build, I say proper because some time ago I began building the Bounty from those magazines that came every week (you may be familiar with them) and though she turned out reasonable enough (I'm about 80% complete, just the Rigging to finish) the instructions (there was no 'plan', just text with photos) left a lot to be desired and makes even the simplest task awkward. Last Summer I came across MSW and having read and followed many build logs I decided to buy a proper kit, in fact I bought 3 over the past few months! Sherbourne, Convulsion & Ballahoo all at 1:64 and all Smallish Vessels (This is just a personal preference) Anyhoo, I have decided to do Ballahoo first, and possibly stagger the others over the coming months. (The first time I opened the box and was hit by that pleasant wood smell, reminded me of those old wooden pencil cases from school Oh! and it was great to unfold 'actual' plans too!) Right lets begin.. Whilst the Keel and Bulkheads were still in their 'Matrix' (or whatever the wooden surround is called) I oriented the Matrix to the appropriate instruction sheet (in the Booklet) and numbered each piece, as some of those bulkheads may end up in the wrong slots on the Plywood Keel (am sure it would be easy to spot, but why take the chance) I then removed the Ply Keel and all the Bulkheads using a Jewellers Saw (tried using a craft knife but ended up having to apply pressure, which didn't sound like a great idea) All items once freed got a light sanding and were then 'Dry' Fitted (see Photos) So Far So Good.. I shall cut a Rabbet and Bearding Line etc (as per Jim Smits and his Ballahoo) though the Plans/Instructions do not call for them, it seems logical when you take the Ply Keel dimensions and 2 layers of Planks into consideration. Should anyone wish to offer advice, please feel free to do so.. it all helps and I would be very grateful. Take Care Eamonn- 913 replies
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I had much less of a break after finishing the Alert than I had thought -- got the itch to start this kit, which I have been looking forward to. It's my first Caldercraft kit and I'm interested in the comparison with Amati and Vanguard -- my gold standards up to now. There are a number of build logs on this kit by builders with much better skills than mine, so I don't know how much added value I can provide, but I find these logs fun to share, and what I'll try to focus on (as in this post) are construction details and issues, and how I addressed them. So I've skipped the "what's in the box" opener, because what's in the box is what you'd expect. There are three manuals: one for the hull -- with pictures, one for rigging, and a third for parts -- which is great, as you don't have to wrestle multiple plan sheets up on the wall to figure out the wood panel and other cut sheet parts. I also bought some white posterboard to provide a better backdrop on my workbench for my pictures. I have finished the first phase of the frame: keel, bulkheads and lowest deck. This kit uses 5mm plywood for all of that -- in all of my other kits these parts have been MDF, and based on my experience with MDF where all the parts slide together easily without sanding, I found working with the plywood a challenge. NONE of the slots in the keel, bulkheads, or deck fit without some more-than-trivial widening. Regular sanding would take forever, and I tried a couple of times to use rotary tool sanding disks, but they get chewed up fast. So I found some 3mm rotary burrs on Amazon, and that did the trick. But with 18 bulkheads and 16 double-sided deck slots, it comes out to 68 slots to widen. Got it done, and everything fit together as you can see. This is a heavy ship because of the plywood and its size. I'm looking forward to digging into it. Regards, David -
This is my first semi-scratch build and it is more like an experiment, which may possibly end in an epic fail. I bought a Caldercraft Badger and Granado kit from eBay (from a guy who probably gave up this hobby) some years ago for a reasonable price and the Badger had been already started but with some mistakes. I kept both kits in storage and did some easier builds instead. A friend of me had recently bought a simple CNC laser engraving machine (to cut ribs for RC-Planes) and I had the idea to build a bigger version of the Badger instead of fixing the already started kit. I also would like to add some extra details and make some changes to the hull and structure according to the NMM plans. There has been a discussion about this before to prepare that build. I decided to enlarge the plans to 1/48 scale, redraw the bulkheads with Corel Draw to add a rabbit, redesigned the center plywood piece as two parts instead of one (because the machine’s working area is restricted to 30cm x 40cm) and create dxf-files to let him cut the parts. After some trial parts he was able to cut all the bulkheads, the false keel, plywood deck and gun pattern for me. Although the engraving machine was not designed to cut 5mm plywood, the parts are usable. So I started to build a 1:48 version of the Badger, which will be approximately 80 cm long and 70 cm high. I will mainly use the supplied Caldercraft plans but enhance the build with the NMM plans that I will also use for reference. The Badger is a small brig (former US merchant vessel Defence) that allows me to do some custom work and will be a nice addition to the AVS as both ships have a lot of similarities and are build in same scale. Also it allows me to stay with 1/48 scale some more time. I made a start already, building a rack to put the model on during construction, gluing all bulkheads together and adding some balsa fillers to give the first planking more gluing surface. Bevelled all bulkheads, sanded the filler blocks to shape and already prepared the 1,5mm x 5mm basswood strips for the first planking.- 64 replies
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Greeting all Well here we go with another build. There was quite a few ships that I would love to build but frightened me off including the SOS and the San Felipe. So hopefully I can cope with the DIana which should keep me happy for a couple of years. I like others will replace the tanganijka strip with maple when I find how many strips are needed, as the supplied looks horrid. I will also need to purchase some decent dowel, as some of the supplied would come back if you threw it away. There are also a few castings that are not useable, so I shall just order them when I purchase the maple strip. One thing that did surprise me was no cannon balls are supplied, which one would have thought would be needed on the ship, after all it has cannons. I have made a start on the build as you can see, and all the bulkheads have been faired, but will obviously need some attention during the planking. You can see the planking on deck (18) which is the supplied timber, and is gladly unseen. So wish me lots of luck chaps , and off I go with my build, and please post loads of photos, I will definitely need them. Here's a few of mine. DAVID -
G’day. I’m a new member, so this will be my first build log. I’ve been trying to decide whether to commit to a log, as there are already finished logs of the same kit here, but I’ll do this for a couple of reasons: 1: To possibly aid newcomers overcome self-doubt in starting a kit. 2: To force myself to pay more attention to my own processes, because I find myself looking at details of kits I’ve completed and wonder “How the hell did I do that bit?” 3: To benefit from other member’s advice and thereby improve my own skills. I’ll try to detail the planking process because I think it’s the bit that worries new builders. And I won’t try to hide my shoddy workmanship. Feel free to pull up a pew. But grab a cushion, this may take a while. -
Hello all, And yes, another Victory build! Welcome all. My apologies to Amati, but I couldn't wait any longer for their Victory. So I ordered the Caldercraft / Jotika instead as a present to myself on the occasion on my upcoming 40th work anniversary in August. And boy, she is big and heavy. A box filled with 15 kilo's (33 lb) of all kinds of goodies.- 59 replies
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Hi everyone! Last week I celebrated my birthday (53rd). From my wife I received HMS Agamemnon by Caldercraft. What a wife I have! To push me a little bit further I have decided to start a build log on my project in order to push myself and encourage others. I know there are so many skilled builders out there. I am perhaps not one of them but maybe I can help others avoiding the mistakes I eventually will do. I am a slow builder. I can be expected to put in 4-5 h a week into the project. The building instructions warns you to expect 1000-1200 h of building joy. With my tempo I will struggle for at least the next five years so be patient and enjoy my quest for the holy ship. So far I have dry fitted all the bulkheads on the false keel as well as lower gun deck and bevelled edges. The garage where I do the building is white with dust which slowly spreads in the house. I have to vacuum clean the garage before the wife retakes the birthday present… Whilst dry fitting I discovered that the upper side of the false keel is slightly banana shaped (not parallel to the bottom of the keel). It has its lowest height in the middle (around main mast) and the height by bulkhead 3 is different from that by bulkhead 14. I first thought this very strange. The height difference from the highest to the lowest point is slightly less than 10 mm. That is 64 cm in reality. Imagine dropping a cannon ball on a sloping floor like that. Sailors will lose their legs! Checking drawing 1 I realized the lower gun deck is bent into the banana shape of the upper side of the false keel. I cannot remember anyone commenting this on Caldercraft’s Aggy. I will now follow the drawings in hope that lower gun ports will be correctly located. Anyone who wants to comment on this? I suppose Caldercraft’s lower gun deck is not an exact depiction of the reality. Kind regards Henrik -
Hi all, I started the build of HMS Jalouse sometime late in September 2019, but took the first pictures only in March 2020 because my Olympus camera broke and I have currently only my old smartphone available. Therefore the quality of the pictures is not too good. The kit is of the usual good Caldercraft quality and standard, with the exception of the strips provided for the deck planking. The strips were not precisely cut and the width varied up to 2mm (per strip) on some of them. The plans and basic hull construction are also as known from Caldercraft (planks on bulkhead). The plywood parts in turn were cut so precisely that some sanding was necessary before they could be put together. The advantage is of course that such a tight fit facilitates the proper alignment of the bulkheads to the keel. The kit is provided with copper plates for the underwater part of the hull. Since I had some "interesting" experience with coppering when I attempted to build the schooner Pickle I decided against the plates and thought it a clever idea to cheat a little bit and paint the Jalouse's hull with copper (Caldercraft supplies a bottle of copper paint for final correction and touch-up of the plates). So, after I had the second planking completed and nicely sanded to a smooth surface I was quite happy with what I had achieved and started painting. After the paint had dried a shockingly brutal surprise was waiting for me: the highly glossy appearance of the copper paint shows you every single minor scratch and unevennesss you would hardly or not at all detect on the unpainted wood! This idea was rather a desaster than clever. After I spent some time swearing 🤬 I grabbed the sander from the shelf and removed the shine from the hull. Finally, I decided to paint the underwater part in the traditional white colour. On the pictures you may notice paint stains here and there, these have been or will be touched-up. You may also notice that the deck planking shows a few gaps. These gaps look worse on the images than they really are (modern cameras can be so cruel 😧, even my old smartphone). The main channel and belaying racks on one of the pictures were dry-fitted for adjustment purposes. Next steps will be the guns, boats and spare spars. Uwe- 17 replies
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Opened box and started before joining but here is the work to date. Have planked the main gun deck. Have been looking at other logs as I forsee the placing of the gunports will be an issue as the plans and guide not usefull. Appears they need to be adjacent to a rib for at least 8 of them. The plans say 30 mm apart but looks more like 33. IMG_4438 2.HEIC IMG_4439 2.HEIC -
HMS Snake - 2nd build After picking up my modelship building hobby again (after many years of dorment) I decided to buy my second kit to have something to alternate with when doing the rigging on my first build Corel's HMS Victory in 1:98. It took a while to go through various brands and to decide which one to invest in. My first choice of doing the Victory was kind of naive and a typical newbie mistake. Dont get me wrong, I really love it and it has turned out ok. But I never finished it and modelling is learning by doing and everyone should start more easy is my recommendation. After discovering Caldercrafts Nelson Navy series it become a choice between several ships I found very beautiful. First I was tempted to go for the Diana or even the Agememnon but eventually i decided not to do the same as before and doing something too advanced. In the end it become a choice between the two mast HMS Cruiser or the slightly more advanced HMS Snake. I settled for the latter. It is basically the same model but the Snake is some kind of "special edition" of the Crusier with 3 masts and carronades. History According to Wikipedia, HMS Snake was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of 18-gun brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816. The Snake was the sole vessel of her class. This class was very business like with a flush deck and nine cannons or carronades each side, they were very fast and seaworthy. As originally built Snake had a full ordinance of 32 pounder carronades. Carronades replaced the carriage guns because at close quarters the short range carronades proved devastating to their opponents. Class dimensions were: length 100’; breadth 30’6”; displacement 382 tons with a crew of 121. Her designer was Sir William Rule. He produced two designs, one for a ship-sloop (Snake), and one for a brig-sloop (Cruizer) that differed only in their rigging. His designs were in competition with those of John Henslow, who produced the ship-sloop Echo and the brig-sloop Busy. Rule's brig-sloop design won. The Admiralty ultimately ordered 106 Cruizer-class brig-sloops. In 1811, the Navy converted Snake to a brig-sloop, making her indistinguishable from the Cruizer-class brig-sloops. The kit I order it from Cornwall model boats who shipped it quickly to Sweden. My first impression of the kit is really Good. Lots of details and pre fabricated wooden pieces. Caldercraft seem to have quite alot of different design solutions than Corel. The plans where more detailed but at te same time they come in huge size making them abit difficult to handle in my small kitchen "workshop". Two things on the negative side. The box was full of sawdust, perhaps not a major issue but it kind of gave a non quality impression. The second issue was that some of the Wood especially the walnut was not great. Very rough and edgy. A couple of the sticks were basically 50% of the material they should had been. This comes as a surprise considering that Caldercraft seem to be at the high end of kit manufactureers. The rest of the material seem to be fine. -
Hello to everybody. Finally started the long voyage. I ordered HMS Victory Caldercraft from CMB and received it just a few days later by UPS, very well packed. I was a bit busy and could not start on it right away. Apart from that I was still undecided whether to install lights on it or not. In the meantime I prepared a rotating board to build it on and did some research on available led’s. I was also browsing HMS Victory Caldercraft builds on MSW. Very nice builds going on, congratulations to Gil Middleton, Seventynet, Rob G, Heinz746, Robert22564 and Dominic. I enjoyed going through their builds and tried to absorb some ideas. So my first decision to make was ‘lights or no lights’. If I opted for the lights I knew it was going to delay the start of my build as I had to do some planning beforehand. After some research on lights available and on builds with lights, I decided to go for it. I think the end result will be worth the extra effort. I sourced small 3mm yellow flickering led’s, candle effect and ordered some of them together with the resistors to see their effect. I dry fitted the keel and bulkheads and literally spent hours looking at it trying to plan how to put the lights in the lower and middle deck gunports. I don’t want the boat to look like the Titanic lit up for its maiden voyage. I decided to put a led in each gunport. I experimented a bit and tried to put the lights in a position where they give a very subdued light, as of course there is nothing to see in the lower gunports, except the dummy rails for the cannons. I wanted to create the effect of a very dim light where the gunports are still a bit dark but you can still see a very dim light with a candle effect. Finger crossed the final result would be what I am hoping for. I also planned from where to pass the wiring for them and for the upper decks. Another thing which was bothering me was the power supply for the lights. I do not want to use batteries as in the future I intend to put it in a glass case and it would be very inconvenient to have to remove the glass case each time you want to switch it on or off. On the other hand I do not want any cables showing coming out of the model. I decided to take out the cables from under the keel and through one of the mountings and base board of a future glass case. I drilled three holes under the keel, two to take the mounting rods and the middle one to pass the wires through. Now that I have visualised more or less how to install the lights for the lower and middle deck gunports I prepared the holes for the wiring in the bulkhead as it is much easier to drill them at this stage, painted the inside of the bulkheads black, and started gluing the bulkheads in place, taking care to have them all at right angles with the keel. Here goes a few images of my working table I prepared and the start of my build. It is going to be a slow start because of the lights. HMS Victory Kit arrived by UPS very well packed. Prepared a rotating working table for the model. Cut a tick MDF board, fitted a tv turntable to it and fixed to the table. The table is on wheels as well. Glued the walnut Stem and the front keelson to the main keel. Prepared and numbered the bulkheads. One of them was not pre-cut properly and repaired. Drilled the holes in the keel for the mounting studs and the hole through which the power will be supplied to the model. Fitted a nut inside the keel to take the mounting studs, and also reinforced the sides of the holes. Dry fitted the structure, sanding and making sure the joints fit without needing to use force. This is the method I used to bend the dummy barrel strips. I steamed the strip in a pot then put it on a flat surface and while rolling a jam jar over it, pull up at one end, repeating this process until the desired bend is achieved. Immagine there are better ways to do it, but for the moment worked fine. Started work on the lights. I cut small squares from a circuit board on which I mounted a led, resistor and a pair of wires. I drilled a whole in each gun port on the dummy barrel strips through which the led’s protruded from the back. This way I did not have to do all the soldering on the model, all I had to do in place was to loop the pair of cable to the next one. Each time I soldered one in place I checked all is lighting up so I don’t find any surprises later on. On the led’s if you switch polarity, it will not light up. Painted black and started gluing the bulkheads to the main keel making sure they are perfectly square. The middle gun deck is only dry fitted for the moment. I have to do the wiring for the lower gun deck first. Installing the lights. The red and black wires are to supply the upper deck lightings, which I still have to plan as I go along. Will appreciate any comments where I can improve, change or am doing any tasks the wrong way. Robert -
Hi All After some gentle persuasion on another thread, here's my build log for the Mary Rose. From what I can see this is the first build log for this kit which is fortunate for me as you've got nothing to compare me against.🙂 This will be a build as it comes out of the box and will hopefully somewhat follow the plans but some allowances will have to be made for my lack of ability. As long as it looks sort of like the photo on the box at the end and I've had a lot of fun along the way then I'll be happy. The kit itself is pretty good and is standard Caldercraft fair in that the wood varies from pretty good for the most part but poor in some instances especially the Tanganijka provided for the deck planking. Instructions are brief but the plans are excellent I started this back in December 2020 and have been working through the planking so not a great deal to see so far. Not sure how some members seem to get through the planking really quickly as it seems to take me forever. I'm not a master shipwright like a lot of members so my log will be pretty much limited to progress rather than a master class in how to's and techniques, however I will point out any issues that I come across so that any other builders of this model will be forewarned. Oh yeah, I'm not a master photographer either.....now that expectations are set, feel free to follow along -
Hi All, I just joined today after starting a build several months ago and would greatly appreciate any and all input. Questions for everyone: Would one or two of you be willing to act a as mentor for this build? Caldercraft seems to be a tad vague sometimes about when to paint what for example. Does anyone have any specific suggestions regarding hull treatments before I install the copper tiles? Do I need to apply a thin hand-rubbed coat of polyurethane first? If so, water-base or oil? I found an assembly guide for copper tiling DeAgostini's kit. They recommend using a glue from England. (Solvent-free contact adhesive.) What does this equate to here in the States? I'm looking for something in stock at my local Home Depot. Thank you Guys! -
As a new member and model ship building neophyte, I posted a couple of months ago, with the ambitious goal of having my first build be the Le Cerf. At the urging of others on this site, I took on a little less challenging project for my first build. So, I ordered HM Ballahoo, and after waiting a few weeks for it to arrive. I began the build and I am close to completing the first planking of my first planking. Will submit pictures in the next couple of days. Be gentle, LOL. Constructive criticism welcome. -
Hello all. I've been a member of this forum for many years, but have never posted a build log before. I'm a little late to the party here, as I started this build over 11 years ago. I actually took a few years off in the middle, and am now in the final laps of this journey. I had made two previous models, and this time I wanted one that had a lot of detail, and was authentic, so I decided on Caldercraft's Victory. It was, in retrospect, a good choice, because there are tons of sites and photos of the actual ship available on the net for research. At this point I have put in a little over 4300 hours in the build, not to mention the hundreds of hours spent in research, making spreadsheets etc. I'm posting here a few pix of the current state of the build, perhaps later I can add some earlier shots as well. I apologize for the quality of some of the photos, as the light in the workshop is pretty poor, and I don't spend a lot of time trying to make them look pretty - they are more for documentation's sake. My build process is a little unorthodox, I guess, at least for the rigging part of it. From prior experience I have learned that fragile pieces sticking out are disasters waiting to happen. Therefore my masting/rigging process went something like this. (Note that all masts and spars have been previously built and have the blocks, etc attached). Install all three lower masts with tops in place and the bowsprit, then add lower shrouds and bobstays. Rattle down all lower shrouds, then add futtock shrouds. Next step is to add all topmasts and the jibboom, then install the topmast shrouds and rattle them down. So, these pix show that the topgallant masts and the flying jibboom are still uninstalled. At some point in the build I had to decide whether or not I wanted to add sails. I was generally disappointed in other sails that I have seen in that the stitching that is supposed to represent the sail seams was way out of scale and was way too apparent and obvious. I spent a fair amount of time developing a procedure for making what I think are more realistic sails, I am happy with them, so I am going for a full suit of sails for her. I also had to make a decision on how to display the model, and after much thought decided to depict Victory as she made her turn to port in her run to break the Combined Fleet's line. Her courses would have been clued up to avoid catching fire from the weather deck's muzzle blasts, and she would have been sailing in a light wind on a port tack. Getting the sails right to suggest this scenario is my current challenge, and I am wrestling with getting the fore course to look right. Presently 3 of the 4 head sails, along with the spritsail and sprit topsail, as well as the fore topsail are in place. After I get the fore course to look right, I will go on to the main course and topsail, followed by the main staysails. Then on to the mizzen - driver and topsail, then the mizzen staysails. The final step will be shipping the topgallant masts and flying jibboom and their sails. Enough for now; I'll add some more pix later on. Thanks for looking -
I needed to keep my mind occupied during the long covid lockdown in the Melbourne area from June to October 2020 so I thought model ship building would be good. I built a few balsawood and tissue paper model aircraft when I was a kid (a long time ago) but nothing since so thought a kit would be best and looked for one suitable for a novice. The Jotika website stated "The kit of H.M. Brig Supply has been designed with the Novice builder in mind" so this looked OK. I also like the history of the Supply, linking Britain with Australia, as I also migrated from Britain to Australia later in life. Knowing what I now know, having progressed well into the build and struggled numerous times, I would not describe the Supply as suitable for a novice and thank goodness I didn't start with a more advanced kit. I ordered from Cornwall Model Boats and the kit took about 3 weeks to arrive, which considering the logistics during covid was pretty good, and started in late July 2020. I hesitated to start a build log as I was not sure if I could complete the build but as it progressed and each difficulty overcome, step by step, I slowly became more confident of finishing the job. I also realised after completing the hull that I would need some help when it came to the rigging. Anyway here goes with some photos of the early stages.- 26 replies
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I will be using the Caldercraft/Jotika kit of the Ballahoo schooner (Fish class) to build a model of her sister schooner Whiting. Why Whiting? Because she has an interesting history that I have researched in depth and I continue to study log books and other records. We are blessed with several drawings of the Fish class and their fore-runners at the National Maritime Museum and the drawings of Haddock in particular are excellent (ZAZ6116 and ZAZ6117 are the best two). I am now trying to interpret some features on the drawings and already have several questions about aspects that confuse me. I hope that some of the experienced shipwrights here can help. Height of the deck This is a big issue where the Caldercraft kit seems to make a major simplification. The kit has a level deck from stem to stern, but the drawings show that the deck is higher over the commander's cabin and the 'entrance lobby'. The side profile is a bit fuzzy but the deck planking and the sections through the deck beams show where the deck is higher. The plan view shows where there are pairs of deck beams at the steps, one at the low level and one at the high level. Is this something that Caldercraft and other builders have missed, or am I misinterpreting the drawings? (There are a couple of photos below that show extracts from the drawings.) Windlass and catheads The drawings do not show a windlass which is plausible for the size of anchor that this vessel would have carried. I have read that a couple of blocks would be set up in place of a windlass to raise the anchor, and then more blocks for the final lift because there are no catheads either. It all seems reasonable, if hard work for the crew, but an alternative explanation is that the drawing does not show the windlass or catheads but they would be fitted anyway. The builders might be expected to know to add these items, in the same way that they know about masts and yards even though the drawings do not show them. (There is an old saying that 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.) Any thoughts? Holes in the deck for anchor cables There are various names for these holes (Navel pipes?) which were used to route the cables from above deck down to the cable tier. The Haddock drawings do not show any and I guess that this is correct, the alternative being to cut away the fore corners on the grating over the main hatch. I suspect that the holes in the deck are later practice but have no real evidence to support this assertion. Does anyone have information from contemporary models or paintings? More to come later... George Bandurek (Previous model is Sherbourne, completed 5 years ago) -
Finally I managed to start a building log. I have unfortunately already more than 2 years behind me, so it is too late for the early stages. I have not figured out how to make good pictures yet, so these pictures are kind of a test....- 122 replies
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