HMS Sharke by zeus_japonicus - FINISHED - Mantua - 1:50

[zeus_japonicus]

Hello all!

 

My name is Nemo, and I'm a complete newbie!

 

I'll be honest, I wasn't really planning on posting a build log, hence why this is all going to be coming at once rather than staggered (which would have let me benefit from feedback as I went, but hey... you live, you learn) 

 

I've been a silent viewer on these forums for about a half year, getting tips and tricks, but I'm still not really sure how people feel about modding (/modifying) kits - especially when done by a complete newbie! I'm a first time ship builder, but the reason I wanted to make this ship is because I'm a writer who's just written a show about a crew of pirates. I set myself the goal of building their ship before the show comes out in the beginning of August, because woof don't deadlines help with everything. Essentially - because my characters are pirates - I had the idea that they sailed a customised Bermuda Sloop. I started with the HMS Sharke but took inspiration from other ships from the period, and wanted to play with some of the features the ship had (most significant was having a cabin instead of a second level deck).

 

I know exactly where all my mistakes are (especially on the hull... planking even with guides sure is hell), and I'm sure as a ship it's not exactly accurate or sea-worthy, but I'm fairly proud of myself because of how completely incomprehensible the manual/diagrams in the kit were to me! I definitely would not have finished this (or any ship tbh) if I didn't have a passion for my characters, but now it's done I really miss fiddling with it! 

 

You'll also notice in the pictures that I made this ship in the smallest space in the world - a 50cm/50cm desktop, with no power tools - and in a rented flat (with sound limits!) so there was definitely some crudeness and thickness that I couldn't overcome with my little strips of sandpaper and using the back of a knife as a hammer... but hey, if you're also new I guess know that it is possible to make this ship with just some knives and files? 

 

Again, I wasn't going to post this, but I've noticed that there aren't any *complete* logs for building this kit on these forums, and while mine is definitely not *how you should do it* guide, it might give someone in the future some idea of what it looks like? 

 

Anyway! Excuses out of the way, here's my ship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CiscoH]

looks great!

[allanyed]

Welcome to MSW Nemo.

For a first build you are to be commended, especially that you studied the ship and building techniques and learn from any mistakes.   A few kit makers have really done their homework so kit bashing is not really needed to a great extent, if at all, but there are many others like yours that will require a lot of design and material changes depending on your interests.   It is a never ending learning curve so enjoy the ride!  There are many of us that are well into a half century of model making and we are all still learning something new on a regular basis thanks to the many members here at MSW.

Allan