San Francisco II by newbee - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:90 - 2nd wooden ship

[newbee]

At last I have returned with an update. Having taken a few weeks away from the build. I now have all the rope coils made with only a few to be attached to the belaying pins. A couple of the pin racks coming adrift have also caused small set backs. I was not happy with the shape of the sails  and have removed the thin wire I had inserted into the seams. I then wound 3 strands of the wire together and re inserted them. I had added the tack lines but now need to redo them to avoid the sails folding inboard. I have also redone the aft most lateen sail line, which, I think looks more practical and hopefully correct.    

At present I have not fitted the ships boat yet. There are few ropes crossing the main deck that I am delaying making the oars until I need to. I have attempted them but not yet achieved the effect I want. A couple of deck cannons have come unstuck so I am leaving them loose until the rigging is complete. 

[newbee]

Well, after 2 and a half years, I am final nearly there. With time outs it probably works out at around a year of spare time to get this far. All the ropes are belayed and tied off now with coils attached. This week I have sprayed starch on the sails and placed a hair dryer behind the sails and achieved the shape I wanted. I still need to tie off the anchors to the fore channels and finish off the ships boat, but apart from that she is complete. Thanks for all the comments and encouragement  I have received.   This has been a fascinating build with a mixture of everything. Some frustration, excitement, disappointment, and achievement. Research took so much time with very little success. Excitement with overcoming a challenge. Disappointment with mishaps or things not working out. And achievement with finally getting there.

I am not sure I will be building another wooden ship. My captain says she likes how this one looks but not sure if she wasn't to wait another year or two for another especially having to put up with the dust and bits of wood and thread everywhere. But we shall see.

[Noblenut]

What a great build i have started the San Francisco ii and and hope it turns out just as nice!!

[newbee]

Thanks so much for the comments and thumbs up. Since the build I have left wooden ship kits to build plastic aircraft and then some military models with the idea of making some dioramas. Partly as they are smaller, they are cheaper but mainly I don't make so much mess. In the meantime we have moved home and I now have the end of a garage I can use as a workshop. I have ordered HMS President which was nearly my first build a few years ago. I hope to start a build log on her next week sometime. Really looking forward to attempting another ship. See you all again soon.  

[newbee]

Well the President arrived today, 2 days earlier than expected so I cleared the deck, or rather the desk and opened the box. On first look she doesn't look to bad. The guide book has a step by step guide with great photos, but, as with Artisania  Latina the how to do it instructions aren't really there. Also before ordering I checked the length as I didn't want a very small ship. The length is similar to Mamoli's Golden Hind which I was happy with.  Thus I was a little disappointed with the length of the false keel and the height of the bulkheads. After dry fitting, eventually, she may not be as small as I had thought.

 

Looking at the sheets of wood supplied I am a little worried that I will run out of strips fairly quickly if I am not careful. The rest of the small parts look sufficient with the possible exception of the blocks. There do not seem to be all that many. My biggest disappointment though are the cannons. The barrels, although short aren't too bad but the carriages are hopeless especially without wheels, despite the instructions saying to carve them into shape. I am also a little disappointed that the decks are laser etched with only 2 strakes. I would have preferred to plank it myself or have 3 or 4 planks between butts. 

 

Regarding the dry fitting this was a challenge and a half. The Bulkheads and false keel have 0.00 tolerance so each notch needs to be filed down quite a lot but , little by little, to get a snug fit. When this is achieved the next hurdle is to attach part 15 the deck support. I thought I had filed down all the notches on both the deck and the bulkheads, only to snap it aft of bulkhead 5 as I tried to push it down. Luckily I had a couple of 4mm wide and 2 cm strips of wood which fitted into the notches in the bulkheads to tap the deck into place. (I didn't think I'd need to find them until too late.) This is as far as I have got this evening but have already found out this is not ideal for a beginner. No mention of filler blocks and timber having to be sanded or filed to fit never mind snapping by accident is a bit too much to ask of a novice. These are the photos of contents and progress so far though nothing  is glued but considering the tightness of the fit, I'm not sure it needs to be!! 

[newbee]

After my last post I had a day off from the build and, by the time I finished, it was too late to add an update on Monday. Added to this I've installed  an computer clean up system and now can't get a preview of my photos. Anyway I have now added the decks as well as the filler blocks to the bows. I have also added the stern gallery piece which was made harder by the elastic bands pinging off the bulkheads. This was fixed by placing other elastic bands across them and the decks. There is no mention of having to soak the stern piece to get it to bend to shape. Out of curiosity I looked at the fit of the metal gallery surround and, of course it is flat. 1mm wood panel is easy to bend into the correct position but 4mm metal ??? Any suggestions welcome here. At present I am waiting for the glue to dry and have another go tomorrow night. I'm now convinced this is not a beginners kit. Here's the photos so far.

[newbee]

I should have mentioned, for anyone that hasn't done this before, that the masts were located through the decks prior to gluing to ensure they will fit correctly later into the build.  

[Bob Fraser]

I have this kit to one side at the moment, partially completed hull.

Some of the parts you have are much better than the original one I got 9 years ago.

An etched deck and laser cut parts, colour build manual - such luxury!  The original had the diagram sheets and a couple of typed pages saying "do this" make that" with a parts dimension list. Only one of the reasons I put it aside to gain more experience and do some research to turn her into a reasonable model of a snow rigged sloop a distant cousin was 3rd lieutenant on.

Looking good. Does it come with cannon, or only the carronade as I, and many others who built this, got?

You may want to consider doing a seperate build log to your SF, as it can be found much easier

Cheers

Bob

[newbee]

Thank you Bob. I will try to start a separate log. In answer to your question it still comes with carronades and a base which needs to be shaped. I will not be using them unless I have to.