Providence 1775 by lmagna - Artesania Latina - Continental sloop kit-bashed from colonial schooner Independence 1776 kit - First wooden POB ship build

[Dowmer]

Hey Lou, just found your build and am following along.  Glad to see a Northwestie!

Seems I'm a bit late to the party but I like the "Concept" build.  There are so many ships out there with so little known details that sometimes you have to just dive in and use "common" practices as much as possible to work out the details interspersed with known facts.

 

Well done and I'll' be watching

[lmagna]

Thanks Dowmer

There is no way that you are anywhere close to late for the party. Hopefully you have just missed the more boring parts.

 

I see from your avitar that you are a Union fan, I have that book as well and she was one of my main sources of reference for this build. So if you have any knowledge to impart, feel free. This build is in no way as well researched as I would like but there is no way I have either the funds, free time, or life expectancy to do much better. The Providence deserves to be built even if it is by my limited ability and interpretation.

 

Things have slowed down for the last month or so due to life issues and to be honest a total terror of planking a hull! but should pick up again soon.

Welcome aboard.  

Edited June 19, 2018 by lmagna

[Dowmer]

Thanks Lou,

 

I have a little bit of Sloop experience.  Check out my profile, I have several pics of my latest project.  "Union" 1792 - 1:48 scale - scratch-build.  Dimensions aren't too far from your Providence.  No build thread as of yet.  Unfortunately, I took a 15 year hiatus due to work, family etc. but I hope to start a build thread soon and get back to finishing the darn thing.  It is no means of the caliber and craftsmanship of some of the fine models on this site, but its the best I can do with the limited resources I had at the time.

 

The Union was the first of its class (sloop) to circumnavigate the globe in 1794 (Scary if you think about it).  A pretty interesting subject in Pacific NW history.  All the ships I hope to build....(note I said hope, with enough free time, money, and life expectancy ) were important to Pacific NW history in some way, shape or form.  Unfortunately, none come in kit form.   So I have to do a lot of discovery and "guesstimate" or educated guesses based on general shipbuilding practices of the time like you do for your concept build.

 

Here's a quick snap of one pic to give you an idea.

 

 

I look forward to see more of your Providence.  BTW, I'm assuming this is the same Providence that was Captain John Paul Jones first command 1776?

 

Fair Winds

 

 

[John Allen]

4 hours ago, lmagna said:

Hopefully you have just missed the more boring parts.

Okay Lou a lot of yada yada, we need to see some boat even just a little bit of a boat or your middle name will be AESOP you know the fable guy.

[alde]

30 minutes ago, John Allen said:

Okay Lou a lot of yada yada, we need to see some boat even just a little bit of a boat or your middle name will be AESOP you know the fable guy.

I was thinking the same thing. It ain't so without pictures.

[lmagna]

OK OK I surrender!

I have been able to do a little here and there since the last pictures, (Actually VERY little) my excuse has been doctors, kids, fathers day and birth days, along with a little bit of normal, (?) life thrown in.

 

I will try and put up something tonight in the wee hours when no one is looking.

[alde]

You know we're just messing with ya. Ship modeling is a slow process. That said, we still want pictures.

[popeye the sailor]

perhaps Peabody and Sherman can be of help?

[lmagna]

9 hours ago, Dowmer said:

Here's a quick snap of one pic to give you an idea.

FANTASTIC build Dowmer, fifteen years old or not! Mr. Jackson's plans make a pretty nice model when in the right hands like yours. Too bad you can no longer send him a picture of what you have been able to do with them. He could not help but be proud. His research and and work with Davis and Millar also formed some of background for this build, I can only hope to come as close as you in the execution! Please do start a build log, or modified build log if you will. I for one would love to follow the progress.

 

What is more interesting about the Union was that the voyage was done with a 19 year old captain, and it was his SECOND voyage around the world. His first voyage in 1787 had been as fifth mate with Robert Gray on the Columbia and Lady Washington. That voyage had started with the sloop Lady Washington, later brigantine Lady Washington. The Lady Washington would have been the first sloop to circumnavigate the world bout ended up spending the rest of her life in the Pacific between the Pacific Northwest and China. She never returned to the east coast. Maybe your next build?

[lmagna]

9 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

perhaps Peabody and Sherman can be of help?

Peabody and Sherman have no power over my crew of Minions. They can screw stuff up MUCH faster than any Way Back machine could handle.

[lmagna]

20 minutes ago, alde said:

You know we're just messing with ya

YOU may have been kidding but I know John, and he knows people who own guns! It would be safer if I get some pictures up and avoid a gator head laying in my bed!

[Old Collingwood]

Do you know what I would do lou to hush the rushers up  - take some pics of demon cat and post them,      atleast they will be pics.

 

OC.

[alde]

12 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Do you know what I would do lou to hush the rushers up  - take some pics of demon cat and post them,      atleast they will be pics.

 

OC.

Just as long as it's not the "demon" cat eating the keel.

[Old Collingwood]

2 minutes ago, alde said:

Just as long as it's not the "demon" cat eating the keel.

Was that Keel or Eel......

 

OC.

[lmagna]

1 hour ago, alde said:

take some pics of demon cat and post them

Pictures hell! What would be scary would be to box the little terrorist up and SHIP her to them! Luckily she has pretty much left the Providence alone since I moved it to the new work area. The Admiral's crafts after the Terrorist cat got them though............ Pictures of a couple of them would truly be gruesome! 

Edited June 20, 2018 by lmagna

[lmagna]

OK time to sneak in some admittedly poor pictures just to prove that I have been doing something. Didn't get much done and what makes it worse I may be tearing some of it off again as I am not completely happy with it.

 

First thing was to place a 2018 Penny I found at the foot of the mast. all sailing vessels are supposed to have a coin under the mast base for luck. In this case I couldn't wait until later as by the time I step the mast I will no longer be able to reach the mast base.

Then I installed the first piece of the wales. Had to redo it a couple of times in places and to be honest I anm still not all that happy with the results and may rip it off again. Kind of important to get this right as all the rest of the planking is based on it. Mess it up and everything that follows will also be messed up.

I also threw in a picture of the stern timbers that really took more work than it looks.

 

Another thing I need to figure out how to do is take descent pictures. I have never taken closeup pictures like this with the micro setting before and compared to others I see on this forum they look like complete junk! Only one of them is even in focus! Maybe I will try again tomorrow with the outside light coming through the window, and see if I can do better.

 

[John Allen]

Lou,

 

All good ,psychologically the first plank works the brain whoa I need to lay another, and another. Now your cooking. I have trouble with pics also, it seems I always fall back on my phones' camera that usually takes better pictures.

 

[Dowmer]

11 hours ago, lmagna said:

FANTASTIC build Dowmer, fifteen years old or not! Mr. Jackson's plans make a pretty nice model when in the right hands like yours. Too bad you can no longer send him a picture of what you have been able to do with them. He could not help but be proud. His research and and work with Davis and Millar also formed some of background for this build, I can only hope to come as close as you in the execution! Please do start a build log, or modified build log if you will. I for one would love to follow the progress.

 

What is more interesting about the Union was that the voyage was done with a 19 year old captain, and it was his SECOND voyage around the world. His first voyage in 1787 had been as fifth mate with Robert Gray on the Columbia and Lady Washington. That voyage had started with the sloop Lady Washington, later brigantine Lady Washington. The Lady Washington would have been the first sloop to circumnavigate the world bout ended up spending the rest of her life in the Pacific between the Pacific Northwest and China. She never returned to the east coast. Maybe your next build?

Lou,

Actually, when I built the Union, I was living in Whidbey Island, WA in your neck of the woods. I discovered that the maritime historian Hewitt Jackson lived in Bellevue WA.  So I befriended him and he convinced me to build the ship.  I used to take trips over to visit him (since he was in his 90s and living alone) with a bottle of single malt scotch.  Building the model was a collaboration of sorts with Hewitt since he wanted to publish another book specifically on the ship.  He was involved in the details of the build and saw its construction.  Unfortunately he passed away in 2007.

 

You are correct about an interesting NW history.  Quite remarkable!  As far as the Lady Washington goes, Hewitt Jackson was involved in the initial part of the building draughts for her reconstruction.  He gave me the blueprints to her and others involved in West coast history.  So some day I plan to model them all, Columbia Redidiva, Lady Washington, Chatham, Discovery etc.  There is a beautiful model of the Discovery at the Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland. Also, The famed modeler Lloyd McCaffery did a miniature version of the Lady Washington and gifted it to Hewitt.  He used to keep it on his desk.  A real work of art.

 

Fair Winds, and keep plugging away at the Providence.

[alde]

Looking good Lou. Like John said once you get that first plank down and you start to see the lines of the hull take shape you want to keep it going. 

[lmagna]

Thank you all for the encouragement. I am constantly tipping between Viking funeral and plugging away in spite of the mistakes.

 

Dowmer

I am now not only officially jealous of your skills but now your research accomplishments. Even though I have lived here for almost forever I didn't get to meet the man, In fact I didn't even know of his existence until after his death.

Your build bucket list is far more extensive than mine but there are a couple on that list that would have been or would be on my list as well.`  

Edited June 21, 2018 by lmagna

[Dowmer]

Lou,

Thanks, but no reason to be jealous. I just kind of fell into it while reading the Log of the Union. Every blind squirrel eventually finds a nut.   He was a cool old codger. He had some cool stories about sailing before the mast when the sailing lumber trade was still active out of Pudget Sound. 

[alde]

17 minutes ago, Dowmer said:

Lou,

Thanks, but no reason to be jealous. I just kind of fell into it while reading the Log of the Union. Every blind squirrel eventually finds a nut.   He was a cool old codger. He had some cool stories about sailing before the mast when the sailing lumber trade was still active out of Pudget Sound. 

I love talking with old folks that were there. My father in law joined the Navy in 1935 and served until the late 1960's. He had some great stories. His father and grandfather were also US Navy as far back as at least the 1870's. 

[lmagna]

The last person of a nautical nature I got to sit down and talk to one on one was a WWII U-boat captain. He had started out the war as a sub,(meaning lower class) officer and spent the following patrols working his way up to first mate. He then went to Command officer's school and when he returned was given command of a new sub. He was only able to make one patrol before the war was over and only sank one ship. He said he pretty much spent the rest of the patrol just trying to stay alive. He of course was able to get back to France and the war was over before he could be deployed again. 

 

That meeting was over twenty years ago and even though he was surprisingly well preserved at the time I am pretty sure he is dead by now. For some reason I can remember his face and voice, (He also spoke very good English) but his name escapes me, something I thought would never happen as I was so impressed at getting to meet and talk to him at the time!

[Dowmer]

Al, Lou,

I agree, I love talking to the old guys.  They have great stories to tell of a world that's long gone.  But then again, I love history so I guess that is why I love ship modeling and talking to older generations so much. 

 

In fact not just ships.  My other passion is RC Scale Aircraft...the big stuff 7-9 feet wingspan.  I geek out with details and historical research just like I do with the ships.

[lmagna]

On 6/21/2018 at 4:57 AM, Dowmer said:

My other passion is RC Scale Aircraft

AH.... Another hobby I was cured from at an early age! I always wanted to build the super fast predator of the skyies rather than the Piper Cub I should have been building and weeks of building ALWAYS ended up in seconds of re-kitting!  

[Piet]

Caught up with you Lou. The wale looks okay from here (Florida)but then again your are dipped behind the horizon, don't even see the tops of the masts   Oh, sorry, no masts yet.  Kidding aside, you'll do just fine.

 

Cheers,

 

[lmagna]

Hi Piet

 

Sorry i missed you for some reason some posts just don't show up until later. Thanks for the encouragement though. 

[lmagna]

Well I suppose it is time to revive what is starting to look like a dead build. Sorry but a lot of stuff just has sort of happened all of a sudden and things have been a bit out of control for the last couple of months. Not that I really ever have control around here even in the best of times.

 

So the wales are in and I have established the planking lines for the rest of the hull, for better or worse. I also planked in the counter so that the planks would terminate properly. Doesn't look like much i know but things have been kind of upside down and it was about all I could get done.

 

Hope this shows I have been working a little bit at least.

[John Allen]

7 hours ago, lmagna said:

it was about all I could get done.

Lou,

 

Nicely taking shape,  It will get there. We all get discombobulated or get the blue funk when Karma is going the wrong way. I have done nothing but stare at what is laying on the table, and tell my self "self there's tomorrow" .

 

I can see the shape of the hull coming alive it looks great considering what was in your minds eye. Keep on keeping on!

[Dowmer]

Looking good Lou, I hope our conversations off line have spurred you on.  The hardest part is getting those first planks on.  Everything else will flow after that. Its taking shape nicely.  Looking forward to the progress. 

 

I'm not sure what the kit provided for wood stock for the wales but remember that the wales was thick stuff and the planking above and below it was thinner thickness.  So you should see a discernable "step" as the planking changes thickness from wales to thinner upper and lower works.  Just a reminder as you go forward. 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Dowmer