Hello all.

[Sparkysparks]

Hello all. hank you for having me here. I've joined here to ask questions and pick brains if needed. To me this a hobby of time and love. Lots of time and love of the art. . My back ground in modeling has been in styrene back in the 60s and 70s . My last ship build was the Revell Conny. These days I still play with plastics while evolving my n scale rail layout. I also have two wooden ship restoration projects that I'm researching before and during the projects. It seems that part never ends. lol. One basket case that I've only looked over is a Artesania Latina USS Constellation. I only got a good lookie see at it yesterday, along with some web search to ID it. This is one of this " I got in over my head builds that I'm investigating weather to save the build or scrap it for parts. The latter being equivalent to take your dog out behind the wood shed to put it down. The second is a Whaler that looks like its from a kit but I've found no hits on the web. It may be an interpretation of a merchant ship converted to the whaling industry. This one is old but seems post war. All the deadeyes and yardarms are wired with steel or tin and the tops and crosstrees are/were made of nitrocellulose, Now tiny crumbly pieces and the wire has become brittle and unworkable. She's now demasted and stripped of hull paint, main deck stripped of its coat of shellac, and  all her lil bits bagged and tagged. So i'm in the hull repair and paint prep stage with her.

Note 1. The whaler 's hull was stripped of paint due to massive orange peeling. The hull was never filled and sanded correctly,so whoever did the last work on it decided to use the paint as the filler. Anyways I digress. I'll create a project post with Before pics, status and the odd questions. 

Note 2. I do welcome opinions, directional advise, commits and jears from the two guys in the balcony seats.

Expect me to call out some questions regarding, well maybe be everything. lol Thanks for having me here and here's some pics of the whaler. Man I'm glad q-tips are cheap.

[Jim Lad]

Hello Sparky and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.  That model looks like it's got a lot of character and would be well worth restoring.

 

John

[JeffT]

Welcome to MSW 

[mtaylor]

Hi Sparky, welcome to MSW.   Give some thought to opening a log in the Scratch area if you decide to restore it.  People will follow along and offer advice, etc.

[Sparkysparks]

Thanks mtaylor. I plan on doing so. The ship has no name.  The closest example I can find is the Wander. Both are barks, but then most whalers were. The only item that's accosted with The wanderer is the mizzen mast protruding through the aft deck house. her bow is to streamlined to be a vessel built from the keel up to be a whaler. Hence my belief it is a merchant ship converted to whaling. Any ideas so I can show up in the index and not be given s**t about a false name?

[ccoyle]

Hello and welcome, Sparky. If you haven't already, here's the entry on naming build logs. If you're pretty sure that your model is a generic vessel, you can just say "whaling ship". I look forward to seeing your work -- restorations are often very interesting projects.

 

Cheers!

[GrandpaPhil]

Welcome!

[Sparkysparks]

I posted up in Scratch build as "Unknown Whaler." Admin is welcome to change it. Just email me so I can find the bugger.

[ccoyle]

Just needed your username added is all -- already fixed.

[Sparkysparks]

Well thank you sir.

 

[Beeman911]

Hello Sparky, ( also name of our beloved dog ). I probably can’t help you, however, I inherited this unnamed solid hulled model about 30 years ago. I see similarities between your model and mine. Several of my Marthas Vineyard, New Bedford, and Maine coastal ancestors in the 1800’s were Mariners, and two were Masters, not sure if on Whalers but a couple on unknown Merchant ships. Subsequent ancestors were wheelrights and carpenters so I THINK this is a homemade model. I’ve restored and added some features. Many on this forum agree it is not a commercial model because the scale of many items is off, and since it is a family heirloom I can do as I please, as it will never be a piece of value. So I started to restore and augment a few years ago with features as well as I can, and built a lit display case. Except for the main masts, the smaller mast pieces and some deck items are made from Whales teeth. I don’t feel ready or capable to tackle the rigging. Good luck!

Beeman

[Sparkysparks]

I was looking at it and thinking nice job. Then I saw the state if it when you started it. Wow. nice restoration. Most notable is you kept the character of the piece. Yours is definitely a scratch built piece of folk art with eye pleasing hull lines. The rigging is the most difficult part as it requires research and a ton of paintance.