If we learn from our mistakes, I must be pretty smart now.

[skipper1947]

I have been told that if a model patzer posts pictures of his efforts here, he will not be laughed at or have his ancestry called into question.

 

I consistently fail to achieve results at a level of those displayed in the gallery here. I think my problems are of 3 general types. I try to document them so I am more aware when working on my next model.

 

Mistakes.

1) Instruction myopia. Concentrating on the immediate next step, but failing to look ahead several steps, to make sure the current step is done correctly (wooden kits are made out of wood and typical kit instructions can be vague)

2) Mental gaff, or 'It seemed like a good idea at the time',  'what was I thinking?'

3) Failure to do sufficient research, or 'lazy', 'short attention span', 'undisciplined'.

 

Here is my latest model (San Felipe). In my opinion it passes the "galloping horse" test (if you gallop past it on a horse and cannot see anything wrong, it passes. Test courtesy of a fellow modeller long ago).

 

However, if you start looking closely you start to notice some mistakes. Here the decorative scroll work pointed at, is too short. It appears I made the section too long. This is mistake 1) above, failing to check ahead when I was building the hull.

 

Here, the missing cannon is another example of mistake 1) and may be the result of the same mistake mentioned above (short scroll work). The goofy looking coiled rope behind the guns would be mistake 2) above. I left it because I figured it would look worse if I tried remove them. The boats are an example of mistake 3) above.

 

I am curious if others deal these modelling issues and how they overcame them.

[Jack12477]

Looks pretty darn good to me !  None of the "mistakes" you point to are obvious to me until you pointed them out. And I'm really not sure they are "mistakes". I'm not sure what you mean with the coiled ropes on the deck?  The stern detail looks good, even the molded wood (instead of brass) looks good.

 

We modelers sometimes tend to be too critical of ourselves. I would say your model is excellent.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Jack12477

[Ulises Victoria]

Ditto!

I see your work as very well done. Are there mistakes? Of course. The day we stop making mistakes will be the day we stop learning and thus, the day we  cease to advance. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes so in your next build you can do "new" mistakes to learn from.

 

Best regards and keep on building!

 

Ulises

 

Edit: BTW, the San Felipe is most likely my next project. I've already learnt something from your mistakes.

Edit 2: Where did you get the base for this model? It's lovely!

Edited April 6, 2015 by Ulises Victoria

[mtaylor]

Looks great from here.   We are our own worst critics. 

[amateur]

Yours does pass the "standing horse test"

 

Jan

[wq3296]

Greetings Skip...

 

Nice model. I see no reason why you couldn't install the gun by the stairs. There is no rule that calls for the guns to be perpendicular to the gun ports. I would place it at an angle to the port so that it fits the space. I expect guns were placed as necessary to fit the spaces available.

 

wq3296 

[GLakie]

I think she looks fine Skip. On mistakes, I can say I've made my share and I think there's not too many people could say they've never made any. The trick is to learn from them, so we don't keep making the same one over and over.

[skipper1947]

Wow. Thanks guys. This forum really is a friendly place.  

 

If I recall correctly, my last experience with a ship model discussion group turned out to be a negative experience. My wife referred to them as 'the ship model gestapo', she has a good sense of humor.

[Jack12477]

I think you will find that this group of modelers offers constructive critique not destructive !  Come join us !

[michael20]

Great job Skipper. As we modelers go mistakes are bound to happen. I drilled a hole in the deck of my cutter trying to get the haws hole for the anchor rope to go through. I covered it up with a coil of rope so it wouldn't be visible. It's all in camouflage. I will say that there are so many nice features to your model that many, including myself would not have noticed what you call mistakes. Great model.

      

                 Happy modeling.

                 Marty G.

     

              P.S. Just have fun, that's what the hobby is all about. You don't have to make anyone else happy but yourself.

[gjdale]

My horse just returned from his gallop and reports that you're model looks great, even without his blinkers on!

 

There are many who would be well satisfied to have made your "mistakes", Skip. If the number of mistakes we make is a measure of our learning, then this is a pretty darned erudite group here! I just had three goes at making the shell room on my model, before being satisfied with the results. It's a very well-educated shell room now!

Edited April 7, 2015 by gjdale

[marktiedens]

I have also built this kit & made plenty of mistakes - chainplates at the wrong angles for one. I didn`t even rig the guns . Yours looks very nice to me. I have a few pictures in the gallery if you`re curious.

 

/Mark

[CaptainSteve]

IMHO, Skip, I think your rope coils ("What was I thinking..") would most probably be more historically correct than the pretty, flat, tightly-wound and even Flemish coils often seen on ship models (and which, yes, I did include one of on my Launch build).

Edited April 7, 2015 by CaptainSteve

[Yambo]

If I didn't make mistakes I'd be wondering who had made the model.  

 

As others have said, we are our own worst critics. You have to remember that a) it's your model,  b.) most of the people looking at it haven't got a clue. 

 

Your model is excellent! If all you are concerned about are those few things you've mentioned then a lot of us (well, OK, me) had better start over.  

 

*Edit*  I should have said Skipper that the companies that make kits are not averse to mistakes. I'm currently building an AL Bluenose for a friend. There are lots of errors in the kit. I mentioned a few to my friend who wasn't bothered. He thinks it'll look fine just the way AL designed it. I'm thinking of calling it 'Bluenose-ish' as a protest.  

Edited April 7, 2015 by Yambo

[jbshan]

My old professor used to say 'never see it on a trotting horse', which I guess, just by speed, is a titch more fussy than your galloper.

Yes, kit companies make mistakes.  I wonder if they manufactured your kit so the supplied parts and plans conspired to give you problems, in other words the kit and plans didn't match.  If the side scroll work is too short for the woodwork, or rather the wood is too long, when you put in the quarterdeck and stairs, there isn't room for the gun.  That's one solution.  Another solution is that the stairs are designed to be moved toward the centerline for action, and that makes room for the gun to function.  It could be normally secured sideways to the bulwark and only brought out into battery at need.  The crew could exercise at the adjacent gun while theirs was out of battery behind the stairs.

I like to think of the process of building as also including 'covering up my tracks', by which I mean covering traces of what I needed to do to hide a mistake.  I know it's there, but you're going to need magnifying lenses or X-Rays to find it.  We should learn from our mistakes, but we don't have to take out a billboard about it.

[skipper1947]

I like to think of the process of building as also including 'covering up my tracks', by which I mean covering traces of what I needed to do to hide a mistake.  I know it's there, but you're going to need magnifying lenses or X-Rays to find it.  We should learn from our mistakes, but we don't have to take out a billboard about it.

 

I like this. I think it is my new ship modelling philosophy.

[skipper1947]

Edit: BTW, the San Felipe is most likely my next project. I've already learnt something from your mistakes.

Edit 2: Where did you get the base for this model? It's lovely!

 

Good luck with your San Felipe, I think it is a beautiful model. As for the base, it has been 5 years so my memory is vague. I remember hunting about for the wood base, I think it is a kitchen cutting board!? As for the Pegasus brass cradle, I am sure my wife got them off Model Expo (Christmas present), but they are no longer there. I did find them on this site, I hope this helps, they are from Mantua:

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mantua_display_stands.html

Edited April 8, 2015 by skipper1947

[skipper1947]

Looks great from here.   We are our own worst critics. 

 

I think that my subconscious plan was to point out the mistakes, before somebody else could point them out for me.

[skipper1947]

Great job Skipper. As we modelers go mistakes are bound to happen. I drilled a hole in the deck of my cutter trying to get the haws hole for the anchor rope to go through. I covered it up with a coil of rope so it wouldn't be visible. It's all in camouflage. I

 

Hah hah, reminds me when I was drilling a portal (or gun port, or some such round opening, I forget) in the side of Yacht Mary, I used an electric drill!! Lesson #235: never use a electric drill. I was very careful.... but when the bit cut through, it "grabbed" the wood and shot through, gouging a ditch across my beautifully planked deck. I was not amused.

[skipper1947]

I have also built this kit & made plenty of mistakes - chainplates at the wrong angles for one. I didn`t even rig the guns . Yours looks very nice to me. I have a few pictures in the gallery if you`re curious.

 

/Mark

Thanks Mark. Actually, I have your gallery pictures booked-marked in my browser, she is a beauty.

 

Thanks again everybody for the kind messages. I should stop responding or I might appear over-eager.

[bigcreekdad]

I use the galloping horse thingy when my wife asks if she is still beautiful.

 

BTW....Your ship looks awesome!!

[philo426]

Looks great too me!It is true that we modelers are our own harshest critics.

[divarty]

Skip it looks great and I can't add any more to what the other folks have added.  Keep up the good work and post up with us on the forum, I need more role models (excuse the pun) to chase in my quest to build a better (not perfect, just better) model.  My longboat and my half section have a ton of flaws but all I got from this forum was support and advice.

[omarcs]

hopefully I can make my ship look as good as yours.

 

Omar

[twintrow]

Skipper 1947

I herewith confess to a mistake I made several years ago and since I've never told anyone this is sort of like baring ones soul.  I built an absolutely beautiful ship on commission.  Over the years I have seen it 10 times or so....on about the 5th visit, I was admiring her and gasped as I was looking at the shrouds....I had forgotten to put on the ratlines!!!  Still haven't and am far to prideful to point it out.   I know that i will and probably soon having admitted it finally.

 

Point to be made is.....EVERYONE has or will make a mistake.  Like was said before no one probably has seen the mistakes you have made until you point them out.   We see what we want to see.....I know I have shown my subject ships to at least 20 shipbuilders, either no one saw that the rat lines were missing, or were too embarrassed, for me, to mention.

Just say you did it that way on purpose to give the ship some character, and make it unique!!!

Tom

[NenadM]

Dont be worry, you did just perfect job.

 

Here on MSW I heared another therm : "landing airplane perspective" ... you see some buildings and roofs fast passing by, but no details you can notice and remember

 

If there are no mistakes, then there will be LEGO . But, there is fun.

 

Even you go forward from mistake to mistake (like me) instead step to step, you can make very nice model, and learn a lot.

 

And do another mistake... and learn again ... and mistake again ... perpetum mobile

 

I was so happy I made almost perfect windlass, and proudly mount it under deck, when I noticed that windlass above deck strucrure WAS NOT GLUED IN VERTICAL AXE !!!!! Glued !!!!!

 

And sure "what I was thinking", "have you anything in head, man" ,"do you have even a bit of brain,,and if you have any, why don't you use it" ...

 

Our hobby is just ... art of mistakes

 

And I really like it !!!!

Edited May 23, 2015 by Nenad