Armed Virginia Sloop Troubles

[soilsguy]

Hello,

 

This is my first time posting on this forum so forgive me if I am posting in the wrong spot. I just started my first wood ship model, the Model Shipways Armed Virginia Sloop and have already ran into trouble. I am not new to modeling as I have experience with plastic kits so I was not expecting a perfect kit and figured I'd have to do a lot of reshaping and fixing things to get the model to work. When I got my kit, I put the parts on the plan sheet to check sizes since I have heard this is sometimes an issue. Sure enough, the bulkheads looked fine but the basswood center keel was short by over 1/8th of an inch. Since it was so short, this threw off the alignment of almost all of the bulkheads and by differing increments as well. I figured that since the bulkheads were right, and because of how the error didn't just look like a scale issue, that the part was certainly wrong. I began reshaping it to make it work (shimming and sanding) when I was told that MS would send a new piece if I inform them of the error.

 

I sent MS a request for a new piece with an explanation and they responded that due to the way the plans were printed they may not match the physical part and that the keel was fine. I responded to MS that because the other parts matched the plans I thought the keel was just wrong and I was already halfway through reshaping the keel. I have not heard back from MS as I just sent the reply but I wanted to know if anyone has had experience with something like this? I thought all the parts were supposed to at least be close to the plan shapes and I am not sure what MS plans to do. I am now worried that I will have effectively destroyed my kit before even really starting.

 

Thank you for any help or insight you all can offer. I've been a lurker of this forum for some time now and I am always impressed with all the knowledge on here.

[Sea Hoss]

I think you'll find that most all kits have some error or another, wrong parts deformed parts, missing parts etc. MS is usually good at replacing parts. One idea, did you take into consideration the addition of the stern post later in your build that causes the 1/8th difference in your bulkhead former? 

[soilsguy]

Using the sub deck sounds like a good idea. I'll try that when I get home.

 

Regarding the stern post, it looks like the plans are only showing the center keel without any other pieces. However, I'll still check for any notes that could have escaped me before. Thanks for the suggestions. 

[Ryland Craze]

I remember that the subdeck on my AVS did not match the plans.  I was concerned about this.  The openings for the hatches were off center and the notches for the bulkhead extensions had to be opened up to fit properly.  The subdeck is going to be planked over and everything worked out just fine for me.

[soilsguy]

I matched the notches in the subdeck piece to the bulkhead notches on plan view of the keel and they matched almost exactly. At this point I'm convinced that the keel on the plan sheet is correct and the part is wrong. Especially since almost all the other parts match their plan sheet counterparts. I guess I'll continue reshaping the keel to match the plan sheet in case MS doesn't send a new part. Looks like it'll be a lot of shimming and sanding. Thanks for everyone's help.