Arrow by mikiek - FINISHED - Amati - 1:55 scale - American Gunboat

[mikiek]

Welcome back Scott. I appreciate the comments. Getting closer to completion - about half way thru with the last mast. Then anchor & paint.  Last weekend I was beginning to think about what to build next.

[mikiek]

I'm still kind of bummed out over Joel. His loss really took me by surprise. He was quite a fellow. Always direct, honest with a sense of humor almost as dry as mine. He loved this hobby and this site as well as most things nautical. He was a teacher and I learned a great deal from him. Although I have never met Joel personally, I consider him to be my friend. I will miss his wit and style greatly here at MSW.

 

Moving on - trying to at least, I am going to order the display case for Arrow tomorrow!    I'm wrapping things up here. Rigging is done, as is the anchor. I didn't take any in progress pix mainly because it just looked like a bunch of ropes all over the place. Just need to finish painting and I'll call this one finished. Hopefully that will free up my time to focus on Niagara which I am dedicating to Joel.

 

I'll start taking some pix of Arrow soon and get them posted. I'll go into some details and observations about the build then. She has been an interesting build.

[mikiek]

Losing my mind. I could have sworn I posted this same info last nite. At any rate, I'm about to retitle this thread to Finished. I'm waiting a couple more days for spot painting and last minutes fixerups. But I have no more major tasks for this build. I ordered the display case yesterday, should look cool inside it.

 

Overall this kit was not too bad. The build wasn't overly difficult. Probably to the toughest part was the process for reading the instructions. The kit came with 2 pages of plans, 1 instruction booklet with pix in Italian and a smaller booklet in English that referenced the pix in the big booklet. So I really had to have both open. After I understood what they were trying to tell me the rigging plan made pretty good sense. I do wish they had labeled the various ropes - with the lateen rig I imagine there would be some new terminology.

 

The rigging was different. Shrouds were cleated rather than terminating in deadeyes & channels. As a matter of fact most all the ropes would feed thru an eyebolt on the rail or deck then tie off to a cleat on deck. This allowed for a certain amount of tightening of the ropes which I liked. So this was my first rigging and first sails. That was one of the goals of this build, so I get a gold star there. The other goal was to go along with the instructions - no bashing. One thing I tried & liked (maybe everyone does this) was painting the finished rigging with matte lacquer. I was hoping it might make the ropes shrink and tighten up a little. It did not do that but it did stiffen everything and I like the result.

 

Materials were good, I ended up a little short on some of the hardware - had to order some more. Also some of the sticks were shorter than they were supposed to be but I did manage. I would rate this kit slightly above beginner mainly because I was left to figure out a few things and prior experience helped there. But I will recommend it if you are looking for something a little off the beaten path.

 

This would have been a tough boat to crew. No room for anything. Probably even difficult to stand up and stretch. No wonder they had a hard time mustering a crew.

 

So here she is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haliburton]

Congratulations on a fine build Mike!  Please show us the cased model when you can.  Scott

[mikiek]

Thank you Scott. This build was exactly what I needed. It didn't take too long and I got some more basics in my 'toolbox' now. I'm in a good frame of mind to get back to Niagara and be productive.

[mikiek]

Changed the title to FINISHED yesterday. Must be a slow time of year at the plastics manufacturer - ordered the case Monday, picked it up today. Came out pretty nice. I may try a mirror backpiece for my next build. This is my second case from these guys. On both I had them build the black pedestal. Costs twice as much because they are really building 2 boxes. But I do like the look. I need to figure out the best way to do some sort of plaque with name & brief description. Maybe just some card stock in a laser printer with a nice font.

 

 

 

 

[MEDDO]

It has come out wonderfully.  I really like the case.  I think it displays the model very well.  Did you say where you ordered that from?

[mikiek]

Thank you Michael!  I found a local shop in Houston that makes that sort of thing. I went over and ordered in person and picked it up today - Contemporary Plastics. It was a lot more comfortable talking it out with them face to face. I knew we were all on the same page.

 

Cases seem to add something to the finish. More elegant maybe? It did the same for the cross section build I finished a while back. Plus it keeps the contents clean as a whistle and intact. With 2 house cats it's a must.

[russ]

Very nice model and case. Congratulations.

 

Russ

[mikiek]

Thanks Russ - I appreciate the compliments.

[Tigersteve]

Echoing the above comments, Mike. Try a trophy shop for the nameplate. 

Steve

[russ]

I went to a local trophy shop for a nameplate for my recent project. They did a great job and it was very inexpensive. I agree with Steve. Give that a try.

 

Russ

[donrobinson]

Sweet looking model and case Mike, nice work.I will sit back now and watch for more of the Niagara

[mikiek]

Thanks for checking in Don. Yup, Niagara is on the front burner again although I have been debating whether to get something else started as well. I learned a lot about rigging on this build. Not that Arrow & Niagara are the same but just general techniques. The Lauck Street tutorials really showed me a lot about seizing and how to do one almost anywhere on the build. That was huge for me.

[mikiek]

Hah!! How could I miss this?  Was going thru the kit box and found the flag. It's paper and it just folds over a rope. I'm trying to decide how to rough it up a bit.

[Haliburton]

The case was well worth it Mike - it compliments the build so nicely!  Scott

[mikiek]

Hi Scott and thanks. I do like cases for looks and even more for protection. The cross section build looks the same now as the day I put it under the plastic. Fortunately, both builds I have completed are small. When I finish Niagara it's going to need a case 3-4 times larger than either that I have now. It will be quite an investment.

 

I did learn one thing at the plastics company, when figuring the size of your case, costs for materials goes up every 6".  So a 12" x 12" x 12" case is a lot cheaper than a 12 1/2"x12 1/2"x12 1/2". And a 17 7/8" x 17 7/8" x 17 7/8" is the same cost as a 12 1/2"x12 1/2"x12 1/2". So plan accordingly if you can.

[Ryland Craze]

Beautiful model and the case accents the model.  You have a nice and very detailed build log.  I hope to see other builds of the Arrow as it is a very unique boat.