King of Prussia by Iseaz - Corel - 1/42

[Iseaz]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm going to start my first build log with the King of Prussia from Corel. This is my 4th wooden ship, following the big HMS Prince from Constructo which kept me busy for more than a year. It's a smaller but quite detailed ship that I chose, my first from Corel. Here are some pictures of the box: 

Start of the build:

 

 

Scratch build interior (will be visible through a hatch):

 

 

 

First planking:

 

I decided to paint this part directly in white without a second planking, because I was satisfied with the initial result, which brings out the lines of the planks. Here is the first coat, which shows some areas that need further sanding:

Then I will cover the deck and add the inner planking.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this build !

 

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Iseaz

[BenD]

You managed to get really fair curves on her despite only having 11 bulkheads to lay the planks across. Is it single or double planked?

 

 

[Iseaz]

I only make a single planking even though a second planking is provided in the kit. To help me with the curves, I added wood to the bow like this:

[Ian B]

Never seen this build before -- keen to see how it turns out-- good luck

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, Ian B said:

Never seen this build before

 

I believe this is the first one we have ever had featured in a build log here, so I'm sure many of us are curious to see how this turns out. 

 

No pressure, though! 😉

[Iseaz]

There is only a build log on an Italian website, but it is not very detailed. I will try to do my best!

Also, I specify that this build will be balanced between aesthetics and feasibility, it will not necessarily be historically accurate.

 

To change from the planking, I worked a bit on the rudder, creating lines to imitate the planks. I also added 1.5x4 walnut pieces around it as I have seen on other builds:

 

I started to make the deck planks, cutting 6 cm pieces, then blackening the sides with a felt pen. I then fix them to the deck with neoprene glue:

 

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Iseaz

[Iseaz]

The work continued with the inner planking. I then carved the sides to insert the half circle pieces that represent the gunports. The quality of these pieces is not very good, half of them were not the same thickness (1mm difference) and I adjusted them to obtain correct curves.

I also built a gun, for once they are of good quality, already blackened and with few traces of molding, which is a big improvement compared to my HMS Prince guns which were terrible. The supports are well shaped (but maybe a bit too big). I added some pencil marks to detail them, but I'll add the other details later.

I then glued the pieces and painted the inside. I also did some tests for the blue paint that will be applied on the outside:

[Iseaz]

I continued the work on the inside, adding some putty, sanding and repainting. I added this piece to the bow (does it have a special name?) which required a lot of adjustments, then the whole thing was covered with a coat of satin varnish:

On the outside, I painted a first coat in light blue, added 2 second planking strips with the nails and then the wales, which will be painted in black. 

 

 

 

Later, the outlines of the ports will be highlighted in gold, as on the pictures of the box.

As a bonus, a size comparison with my HMS Prince:

 

[Iseaz]

Last week, I slightly curved the stern plate, which was not easy because of the thickness of the plywood piece. Despite that, the gluing was a bit tricky...

Then, I prepared the fake windows, with 1x1 strips instead of the 1x2 recommended in the instructions which seemed too big. I don't know if I paint them gold because the walnut colour looks good, The rudder chains were blackened and installed. The white part of the hull was varnished. 

 

 

The storage of the cannonballs was drilled out with a round drill bit and painted with walnut colorant. I added the top part of the rails with 1.5x5 walnut strips.
However, these strips had to be bent to fit the shape, I tried to do this with an steam iron but the strips broke. As I can cheat by painting the walnut pieces, I took some leftover sapelli, glued them and then cut them to form the railings. I'm quite happy with it!

 

 

[Iseaz]

Today is a sad day. Mistakes were made. I started the weekend by installing the railings, after bending the pieces flat to follow the hull. It was difficult to apply the glue because of the size of the small supports and the stresses induced by the rail. I was satisfied to see that it held. 

 

But today, as I was drilling the holes for the swivel gun with a rotary tool, I don't know why, the right hand rail exploded taking part of the stern rail with it. I quickly tried to glue it back together but it made it worse because of the glue residue. It's very frustrating, I've stopped everything for the moment and will start again next week to fix everything. 

I should have attached the supports with pieces of nails

Some pictures before the accident, how I sanded the supports to the right height :

 

 
 

[carlo_l]

Nice and clean work 😃

[ccoyle]

Bummer! But at least the damaged pieces are made from wood -- wood is pretty straightforward to rebuild.

[Iseaz]

Hello everyone!
I didn't have a lot of time to make progress or repairs in the last few weeks, I only did the gratings. Now I'm wondering how to glue them as the deck is quite curved. I have 3 ideas:

• bend them (is there a method?)
• sand them to fit the curve of the deck
• enlarge the opening of the bridge to insert them 

What would you recommend?

 

[Iseaz]

Before finding a solution, I repaired the railing and repainted the whole thing black to hide all the glue stains. The paint is really a cheat code on this build 😅...

I saw on another build that the stair cover was bulging, it's a good detail that I tried to reproduce, by soaking the parts in hot water and then using a plank bender.

 

I then worked on a big piece: the capstan. This involves cutting a 12mm diameter round piece into a hexagon. It was quite challenging to keep a good shape, but I'm happy with the result (far from perfect).

 

Also, I carved the mast of the bowsprit in square at the base, then I added a thickness of wood to fill the lack of material:

Here is a preview of the deck, with most of the elements not glued:

 

[DavidG]

nice work on an interesting subject

for the gratings, any of your options may work, while I had success in the past sanding them, by placing sandpaper on the curved deck (with the help of masking tape if needs) then moving the workpiece over it until the required shape reached.

Edited August 24, 2022 by DavidG

[Iseaz]

Hello everyone,
Thanks for the advice!

The deck is almost finished, but I need to install the guns before making the mast. I'm wondering if I should paint them red or leave them in natural wood to add contrast (like on the box illustration). Were the supports always painted red at that time? Do you have any suggestions?
 Here is a photoshop editing to see the result : 

[BenD]

I like the unpainted gun carriage. The painted one with natural wheels is a fine choice too. 

 

The rest of the ship is looking really good.

[Iseaz]

 

Hello again,

As I still can't decide on the colors of the cannon carriages 😅, I started to make the main mast. The top had to be carved, tapered and cut into a square section. For the upper part, I cut the square section in another larger piece of wood and glued it to the mast by adding a brass rod to reinforce the connection. For the mast, I chose to make the supports (1) in two parts of 2mm+3mm instead of 5mm because I failed to precisely cut the piece to insert the bars (2). Thanks to the walnut dye, the connection between the 2 and 3mm parts is barely visible.

 

 

Now I have a problem because I don't know which way to orientate the mast: the instructions indicate direction 1 whereas all the models I have made so far are in direction 2. I don't know if this is a typical detail of this kind of ship 🤔.

 

 

 

 

Then i made the anchors, which had a problem: the hole in the bar was too big, so I filled it with the remains of another model mast and re-drilled the hole. The reinforcement rings are simply made with black cardboard (like on the capstan).

 

 

Here is a last view with the coloured carriages in walnut (nothing is glued): 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Iseaz

[Iseaz]

The guns were finally painted red and attached after many minutes of thinking. I chose to attach them in a more " ordered " way, like in another model I saw. Before that, I slightly modified the carriages by cutting horizontal lines and imitating the nails with a pencil, as well as the wheels. At the risk of running out of thread for the rest of the model, I used leftovers from other kits. I re-tooled some HMS Prince hinge scraps to simulate the “capsquare” (?).

After that, the rigging really started with the standing part. The rope provided is only one colour, I used TAMIYA panel line to blacken them, which is very effective. As this model is bigger than my previous ones, the rope can be more easily detailed, for example on how to attach the blocks more realistically

 

 

[Iseaz]

The rigging continues with the start of my construction of the yards (gaff-sail boom?). The gaff jaws had to be cut out of 2 blocks of wood, then the dye was applied. In the same time, I also started the installation of the shrouds. With only 2 shrouds in 3 parts, this boring step is quite fast (even if I still haven't finished...).
Despite a few mistakes on the plan numbers, the rigging is a very pleasant step on which I like to take my time.

[Iseaz]

The next part of the model consists of the rigging and the making of the yards. I made them by inserting the wooden rod in an electric drill and sanding progressively. On the central part, I covered with 0.6x4 wood to create a hexagonal section. Then I sanded, painted, added the details and blocks, and attached them to the mast one by one. The end of the construction is approaching, there are still a lot of rope knots to place to finalize the detail work. The future model has already been ordered during this black friday, I hope not to receive it before finishing this one ...😅

 

[Jack-in-the-Blue]

That's a beautiful build and a very useful log. I have one of these models and your experiences will help me lots. Thank you.