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Sctatch addition to Model Shipways , Glad Tidings


legend

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Hello All ,

Some more help needed . Regarding Model Shipways Pinky schooner "Glad Tidings " . I really like the shape and lines of this model but I also like a schooner with a more prominent (pointed ) bow or front . The Glad Tidings has a rounded bow with the protruding bowsprit ,  is it practical /possible to scratch build and fit  a forepeak / beak under the bowsprit where I think I am right in saying a Figurehead may have been placed ?

Thanks

Mike

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Is it possible? Yes. Is it practical? That depends upon what you want to do with the model when it's finished. It won't be a model of Glad Tidings, or any other vessel that ever existed and, thus, not much good for anything but a decorator piece. (And, if you really do a good job on it, it runs the risk of surviving long enough to be mistaken for a model having some historical value!) You'd be better off scratch-building than kit-assembling. Why buy an expensive kit to assemble a model that isn't the one you intend to build? 

 

If you want to build a pinky schooner with a sharp bow (not a "front." ships don't have "fronts." Ever.) build a model of a pinky schooner that was designed with one. There is a later variant of the pinky schooner sometimes called a "clipper pinky." These have a sharper entry than the fuller bowed pinkys that were common before the sharper bows came into fashion. If you research the pinky type, you will find examples with finer entries and some with actual "clipper" bows. Without checking for sure at the moment, I expect you'll find and example or two in the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey ("HAMMS") plans collection in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. Howard Chapelle, the long-time curator of the collection, who designed Glad Tidings and was a big pinky fan. 

 

Below is a photo of Ardelle, launched, I believe in 2010 or 2011  

 

 

  • dsc0649.jpg
     
    • squam-creative-teele-pinky-schooner-ardelle-january3.gif

 

1 hour ago, legend said:

is it practical /possible to scratch build and fit  a forepeak / beak under the bowsprit where I think I am right in saying a Figurehead may have been placed ?

No. It's not possible. The forepeak is the area below decks forward of the foremast. The heel of the bowsprit may be on top of the forepeak, but forepeaks aren't "fitted underneath" bowsprits. There aren't any "beaks" on sailing vessels, except if there's a picture or carving of an eagle somewhere, in which case the eagle would have a beak. There is nowhere that a figurehead would have been placed on a pinky schooner. They were (are) relatively small vessels and did (do) not carry figureheads at all. 

 

If one wants to assemble a kit model, they are limited to the subjects of those model kits. If you want to build a model of a vessel that is not the subject of a kit, you have to build it from scratch yourself. It's more of a challenge for some to build a model from scratch than to assemble a kit, but the pay-off for the former is that you will have built a unique model of whatever it is you wanted to model and not just another one of hundreds of the same thing out there. 

 

Good models often require a fair amount of research. This research is really what one pays (a very high price) for when buying a kit. Doing one's own research can actually be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the modeling hobby. There is a lot of information on the pinky type and many accurate lines drawings available. It should be no problem to obtain these for modeling purposes.

Edited by Bob Cleek
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As an alternative HIC (Smithsonian) drafted a class of schooners - Morris is the lead.  He drew one alternative bow similar to what you seem to want = Hamilton.

The subject is not an impossible one for a first scratch build.  An uncomplicated hull and rig,  it is closer to something hanging from the davits on

a liner than a consort for one.

NRG member 45 years

 

Current:  

HMS Centurion 1732 - 60-gun 4th rate - Navall Timber framing

HMS Beagle 1831 refiit  10-gun brig with a small mizzen - Navall (ish) Timber framing

The U.S. Ex. Ex. 1838-1842
Flying Fish 1838  pilot schooner -  framed - ready for stern timbers
Porpose II  1836  brigantine/brig - framed - ready for hawse and stern timbers
Vincennes  1825  Sloop-of-War  -  timbers assembled, need shaping
Peacock  1828  Sloop-of -War  -  timbers ready for assembly
Sea Gull  1838  pilot schooner -  timbers ready for assembly
Relief  1835  ship - timbers ready for assembly

Other

Portsmouth  1843  Sloop-of-War  -  timbers ready for assembly
Le Commerce de Marseilles  1788   118 cannons - framed

La Renommee 1744 Frigate - framed - ready for hawse and stern timbers

 

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