British Beginner

[MarkW]

Good afternoon,

 

By way of introduction my name is Mark, although I find most people like to call me Mark for short. I live on Hayling Island which is on the south coast of England, and as you will see I am brand new to wooden ship modelling. 

 

I have in the past made various plastic models, and while I found them to be fun, always felt that a wooden model ship seemed a natural progression. Life, as the saying goes, tends to get in the way of everything important and so I never followed up on this. One Sunday I was wandering the streets of our nearest city and happened past a model shop. On a whim I went in and asked the owner if he had an wooden ships for sail. "Oh yes" he said and pulled out a box with Constructo's HMS Bark Endeavour (listed as intermediate on this site). "Hmmmm" said I only seeing the outside of the sealed box, "that looks enormously complicated, and only ever having done a plastic model before is probably way out of my league". "Oh no," was the reply. "If I have done plastic models this will be easy. It is almost the same thing, follow the instructions, stick the pieces together and do things step by step and it will be fine. Oh, it might take a while." Pleasantly reassured I concluded the purchase and set off home.

 

Can you imagine my surprise when I got home and opened the box to find a bunch of pieces of wood. Great, well the instruction manuals consisted of two books, one full of photo's and one full of instructions, and 6 of the biggest pieces of paper I have ever seen, full of drawings. This is going to be easy thought I. Lets start at the beginning and go through it step by step. Oh woe is me, the instructions are cryptic. Take a piece of wood and bend it to the correct shape. Perfect, now if only I knew how to bend a piece of wood, and what the correct shape is meant to be this will be a walk in the park. Next, take a block of wood and shape it. Huh? How? I soon realised that this is not at all what I thought I was getting. On top of that, being an organised sort of fellow, I like to lay out everything neatly so I know just where to grab it when the time comes. Lets put the paints nicely on this little shelf over here, what no paint. Ok, I will just buy some, where is the painting chart. Oops, not one of them either. Fine, so I will just guess. Lets at least put the glue somewhere the cat can't eat it, hmmm...no glue. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

 

Being fairly quick witted I came to the conclusion that if I was going to do this I needed to figure out a few things first, so I sat down and went through the instruction manual, comparing what I read to what I could see in the kit. From here I made a list of tools that I would need and spent the next few months gathering those. Once I had everything I thought I needed, I started to assemble the internal structure (bulkhead I believe it is called), and after two days realised I needed help.

 

The internet is a wonderful thing, and a quick google search bought me to this site. Now normally a site like this is full of "trolls" who love to show their superiority by "flaming" the new guys and ridiculing their question. I found not a shred of this abhorrent behavior here and everyone seems to be really kind and helpful. I find that quite fantastic. On top of that a quick search helped me to find out what I needed to know, and unfortunately has shown me where I have already gone wrong. I am so looking forward to the weekend so that I can fix my mistakes.

 

Three things I learnt in this process:

1. Do your research before buying, not afterwards.

2. This model building is going to be a whole lot of fun. Even with the wonky start I am excited to build the ship. I know it is going to take me a long time, and that is ok. To me it seems the journey is a very big part of the whole process.

3. Being wood means that making a mistake is not the end of the world. You can fix it.

 

I hope you have a great day now and look forward to interacting with others on this site.

[BETAQDAVE]

I think your first order of business would be to look up the Endeavor in the build logs for Ship Model Kits and open the quick-find indexes.  There you will even find a couple listings for the kit by Constructo.  Good luck with your first wood build, as this will be a totally different experience than plastic kits. 

[ccoyle]

Very well told, Mark. All of us here were beginners at some point, so we can all (well, most of us at least) relate to that first reaction upon seeing the unpacked kit.

 

Good luck with your project!

[James H]

Great first post! 

 

Welcome to MSW, from a fellow Brit.

[DenPink]

Hi Mark

First welcome to MSW.

Dry fit all parts before gluing , if you are not sure ask on this forum.

The most stupidest question is the one you did not ask Ok.

 

Most of all take your time and have fun.

 

Denis.

[druxey]

Welcome here, Mark. There's no such thing as a stupid question. You'll find helping hands here.

 

It may interest you to know a book is coming out shortly on the Hayling hoy of 1759-60. Yes, she worked Portsmouth harbour back then. 

[Jim Rogers]

Mark you are absolutely correct about the people on this site. They are gentlemen all ...Unless you are a person pirating kits. Welcome aboard. If you show pictures of your build in a log as you go along you will receive both praise and how to fix your errors and as a new builder we all made errors. Heck I still screw the pooch on occasions and I’ve been at this for ten years. I believe the Endeavor is a blunt bow, meaning a big bend to a flat front. Read up on planking, bending and shaping planks in the “More” section above. Enjoy yourself. 

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW, Mark.

 

Just take your time, ask questions.  Oh.. open a build log as it's the best way to get help and you'll be having folks looking over your shoulder.  

[ikkypaul]

Mark - a very warm welcome to MSW.  I agree with the others' comments.  In my progress on my project the main thing I need to have is patience, especially on a task that is repetitive and fiddly to do.    And dont give up!  All the best in this venture. Paul.

[geoff]

A Warm welcome to MSW Mark, all the best, Geoff

[Baker]

Welcome to the wonderful world of wooden ship model building.

 

You will have "ups and dows" while building your model.
Always remember the "ups" and learn from the downs 

[MarkW]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. 

[shihawk]

Welcome to MSW   . I  think from your obvious sense of humour u will make an excellent modeller .

 

Have fun Boyd.

[GrandpaPhil]

Speaking of the blunt bow on the Endeavour, don't do what I did on my Endeavour (Mamoli 1:100) build.  I didn't use filler pieces in the bow, like most planking guides suggest.  Make sure you do.  It will make your life much easier.  It screwed my bow up badly and caused me much filling and sanding, to make the second layer of planking go on right.

Edited May 4, 2018 by GrandpaPhil
Incomplete

[grsjax]

Hi Mark

Your experience sounds a lot like the experience of a lot of first time wooden model builders.  The difference is that you saw the problem and looked for solutions rather than quitting.  That right there puts you ahead of a lot of people.  Keep at it, ask questions and don't get discouraged.

[MarkW]

Wow, so many nice welcomes. Thank you again. @GrandpaPhil that bow bending does have me concerned. I did use a bow and stern filler, and now realise that is one of my mistakes. I glued them in place before shaping them. My new dremel arrived on Thursday, so I'm going to try shape them over the weekend (when the Admiral give me time off from gardening in this glorious sunshine). Holding thumbs and crossing fingers that it works out well.

[spars]

Thanks for clarifying your name. I almost mistook you for the other Mark! LoL. You are on the right track. If you haven't already, check out JoToKa. They are on big island and have superior kits. Much of the cost after initial production is quality of wood. They are tops here. You may want to google search any/all names of wood used. It can help explain cutting and shaping.

[Fright]

Welcome !!! Like so many that have already said, this site has great information and tips in here from many talented people on modeling a ship. Having a good sense of humor sure comes in handy when things take a turn! Enjoy and have fun

 

[sticker]

Hi mark    Have you seen the news about the endeavour replica thats based in the north, if you havent then on or abouts the 25 of may this year it will be towed down to whitby  to settle there for good and become a tourist attraction so you could have a little holiday  and check out the ship .also i would recomend the pannet park museum its  a cracker ,(  take alook at thier web site     )  ive been many times   , as idont live too far away   ,also the GRAND TURK berths there from time to time and welcomes visitors aboard,  and if you do get to whitby  then make sure you try proper yorkshire ale   ! 

 

 

 

 

[lmagna]

Hello Mark, I hope you don't mind me calling you Mark for short, but I have a friend here who already goes by the name Mark and I don't want to get the two names confused!

 

I certainly am in no position to offer much help to virtually anyone, as I am not only fairly new to this kind of modeling, but I am pretty much a dunce as well and only tend to learn by my own mistakes anyway. As my wife is fond of reminding me though, I can always be used as a bad example. I do feel that as long as you are excited to build this ship then you will do well and that your excitement will carry you through the many challenges to come.

 

Welcome to the world of expensive boxes of sticks!    

[MarkW]

Thanks guys. I will have to go and see the Endeavour when she reaches her permanent mooring. I've started assembling the first bits, and after a lot of restarting am almost satisfied with the deck. Once that is done I will start with a build log. Hopefully I have not done too many bad things. 

[pirozzi]

Welcome aboard mate! 

Vince P. 

[sticker]

Hi mark    sticker here a while back itold you of the endeavour rep that will be based in whitby   ,well a few months ago i visited whitby and the endeavour was in,   sadly its a big disapointment the hull is welded steel  ,the shrouds are held in place with shackle bolts and from what i can gather it is more for education about life on board ship , so still a great idea to come up for whitby  theres plenty of maritime history to see and soak up

[michael mott]

Hi Mark, and welcome from an ex pat living in Canada now, I hope that you can start you build log soon so we can watch from the cheap seats, and yes an excellent first post.

Lou this made me laugh out loud " Welcome to the world of expensive boxes of sticks! "

 

Michael

[lmagna]

That was my reaction when I bought my first kit and the thought has stuck in my mind ever since. Just my weird way at looking at the world I suppose. Glad it brought a smile though.

[druxey]

Welcome, Mark. I smiled when I saw where you live. Recently I had a book published on Hayling, a harbour hoy from the 1750's, named after the Island you live on. You'll find all the help you need on this forum. Have fun!