King of the Mississippi by Smokey030 - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - 1:80 - first build

[Smokey030]

Greetings all, I am in the process of making my first attempt at building a wooden ship.  The kit i have started on is the "King of the Mississippi" by Artesania Latina.  I look forward to advice as I progress.

[vossy]

Looks like you have been working on this for a while. Really nice progress. I will follow along. I love these boats!

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

[Smokey030]

Yeah I started this over a year ago while i was in Korea,  my wife bought it for me in Seoul.  Unfortunately I was to busy to work on it much there, but now since I am back in the States I decided to continue on.  Currently though the wife and I live in a two bedroom apartment with 4 cats (the cats already broke the model once...) so i have no permanent work space (will be house hunting this September) to leave the model out.  It becomes quite a chore to setup and tear down a workspace to just do a little bit of work.  I am determined to work on it a little everyday though and look forward to learning from it.

[Smokey030]

This weekend I worked on the next two cabins, I skipped the decking of the second deck as I was struggling with the herring bone setup.  I know that if I take a break from a part that I am having trouble with and come back to later i will do well with it.  I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, I took these, my wife took the orginal posted pictures.

[Smokey030]

Finished planking walls of the next couple of cabins, going to trim and work on the windows next.  Planning to use wood instead of the kit's metal fittings.

[vossy]

good stuff. I think wood is a lot more realistic than metal.

 

cheers

 

chris

[Smokey030]

Hello all,

 

An update on my progress, sadly it has been slow, work has been demanding and the wife and I have been house hunting.  The good news about the house hunting is that we have found a house and should be able to close in mid September.  The house we are closing on has fully a finished bonus room above the garage that the wife has agreed to allow me to have for my work space.  No more taking 30 minutes to set up to work on my model, I found the setting up took most of my desire to model out of me. 

 

The first picture is of the pewter pieces the kit recommends to use for windows, but i do not like the look so decided to frame and make my own windows.  The parts are still rough and require a lot of sanding but i must wait for the glue to dry first. I hope it will be worth it in the end. 

Edited August 3, 2018 by Smokey030

[Smokey030]

Hello all again, sorry it has been several months since my last update.  The wife and I purchased a house so I have been dealing with getting the house the way she wants it. But with the new house I was able to get a permanent work space for all my modeling needs.

The only downside to the space is my cats insist on sharing the room with me.

Thus I can't leave any of my works out while not working on them.

 

I have started up again and made some progress on the build.

I have glued the first two decks together.

I have redrilled the holes for the nails because my first attempt was not straight and driving me nuts. You now can see how my windows will look since I decided to make them out of wood and not use the pewter windows supplied in the kit. They will at a later time will have the red background like the doors on the first floor.  Also i started trimming the top and bottom in wood, I feel it will add a bit of finish to the project.

That is all for now, thanks and any input will be greatly appreciated.

[Smokey030]

Well, I am back, had to put this and all other projects on hold for a long, my family was blessed with a child, and I also had to switch jobs.  Now I have started try to get back into the swing of building my models that I have in the stash.  I find trying to build a model with a three-year-old boy quite a challenge, but he is a blast.  Now on to what I have added to the build.

 

 

This kit has pewter windows, doors and shutters, which honestly, I can't stand so I decided to make my own windows, doors and shutters (shutters have yet to be put on but they are built). I cut out the windows and then put red tissue paper behind them to simulate curtains and to allow light to shine through.  I have noticed that Artesania Latina is now producing this kit with see through windows now which I think will make this a better-looking kit. 

 

 

I showed my wife my work and she told me that the model would look so much better if it would light up.   I was dear god no, that would be so much work and I doubt I could do that. And so I looked at her like she was crazy!

 

 

So, after researching how to add lighting I started to add lights.  I had to solder all the LEDs together and run power.  I chose to go with a flickering orange LED for the build as I thought it would look the best.  I will be lighting up each level of the model as I go.

 

 

This is my first time ever attempting to wire a model so my soldering and work is not that great but so far it is working.  I used a power board that was attended for a model railroad but it seems be working great, in fact I attend to install a second one higher up just to make the load easier on the kit.

That is it so far, I will be drilling through the bottom to run the power cord through (I hate batteries).  I will also being installing the shutters and moving on to the next deck.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Smokey030

[Smokey030]

Time for an update, I know it has been a while, but I have been working on it when work and family life allow.  I have completed the second level and completely ran lights throughout the level, and also started on the third level.  I have completed all the light building so it should move a bit faster but then again time might not be on my side.

The stairs were quite a challenge, but I think they came out better than I expected.

Even though you can not see the exact lighting effects they flicker to simulate a candle. Which I think makes it a bit more stylish.

And now on to the third deck, I am almost done with it, just need to place doors and put it all together, I think.

Hope you enjoy, this model is a lot of fun for me.

[Bob Fraser]

Just caught up with you and following along.

Looking good!  As you say, a fun model to build, and your windows and lighting changes certainly enhance the model.

I found AL only supply just enough wood strips with no leeway for mistakes or alterations.

[Smokey030]

Thank you, still a ways to go. I found the same thing about the wood, so when I was going to start changing stuff I bought some walnut from modelexpo-online.

[Smokey030]

Attached the third deck on to the ship, and ran lighting,

The wire you see going through the top is for the pilot house, which I am planning to light up as well.  After the pilot house is installed and lit, I will go back and add trim to all levels like the first floor currently has, so that i can hide the ugly edges and stop light bleed.  But she is coming along, 

And here you see my little helper that has been with me through the whole process giving me pointers.

Till next time...

[Bob Fraser]

Looking good - I do like the lit look.

15 hours ago, Smokey030 said:

I will go back and add trim to all levels like the first floor currently has

They do make the cabins look a lot better too .... I did top and bottom, it hides a lot of things! 🤣

 

[Smokey030]

Well time has progressed and so has my work on my ship.  I have completed wiring and attaching the pilot house to the ship.  With that all the electrical is done being ran and most of the ships main pieces have been constructed.  Now it is time to start adding the details which there are a lot of. I am excited to see it really taking shape.  My next step is to trim it out, I am just waiting for the wood I ordered to start that process.

The pilot house windows were a challenge, I decided to go with black thread and laminating it between the clear plastic.  I think it came out very well and will now be new tool in my tool box for future builds.

 It also is lit in the pilot house and I will show off the lantern that I built in the roof later on.

now I wait to work on the trim and start the details.  I think it is starting to look like a ship.  Thank you to my wife for taking the pictures.

[Auger]

You were smart to build it up before adding any of the railing support beams. It’s looking good!

[Smokey030]

Well time for an update, time has been limited due to the holidays but some stuff has been done.  I completed trimming out the edges of the model which I feel adds a more completed look, I used walnut from model expo online. I also built and placed the stairs on the model.  I really like the how the stairs and platforms going to the pilot house look, it came out really nice with the trimming of the platforms.  After completing the stairs I treated what has been done on the model so far with some Tung Oil finish since the next steps will block my ability to treat the model later.

The oil used, I think this oil displays the look of the wood very well.

The stairs in the front of the ship, the railing will be added soon. Wanted to stain it before I added the railing.

The stairs and platforms to the pilot house came out really nicely if I do say so myself.

Now I will start with placing the outer railings along the decks.  I am still debating if I want to add figures in model, I am really torn. Regardless I am really enjoying this build and thank you all that has posted your builds on this ship because it really gives me great ideas on how to proceed forward.  Also I must thank my wife for taking the pictures, she always takes better pictures than I do.  Till the next update...

[Smokey030]

I would say this project is due for an update. Even though it has been over seven months since I have updated the forum on the build a lot of progress has been made.  I have finished it, it was a fun build.  I learned so much from building, sure it took almost 7 years for me to do since work and family caused a lot of delays.  The lady of the house likes it and seemed very willing to have it displayed in the house.   The flags in the kit are not my favorite, they are really thick, if I find a better set I think I will replace it in the future. 

The paddle wheel I painted a long time ago but I kept it wrapped in cloth to protect it and only installed it near the end.  I think it is very eye catching part of the build.

I added lighting to it earlier in the build, the wife suggested it and I can not lie, it was a good idea.  The light flickers like a candle which adds to the look in my opinion.  

 

 

 

Sadly the light in the pilot house stopped working, and I don't want to risk the rest of the work to take it all apart to fix it.  This build was a blast and I would recommend it to anyone.  My next build I am starting is the La Candlelaria by Occre.

it's final resting spot.

 

Edited August 12 by Smokey030

[Knocklouder]

Well done  Smokey 030, I really enjoyed this kit as well. There is some difference between the two  but your's looks great. Well done. Congratulations  

Bob  M.

Edited September 9 by Knocklouder
Typos