Golden Yacht 1678 by Glenn-UK - Amati - BOTTLE

[Glenn-UK]

As a birthday present I received the Amati kit for the Golden Yacht (in a bottle) which was a total surprise. The box states this will be a Museum quality wooden model. I will be very surprised if I can build any wooden model to be suitable for display in a museum.

 

Once I have completed sanding the Indy hull I will take a short break to have a look at start building this kit, which will become a side project. Having opened the box the parts all look very small.

Having been spoilt for high quality pictures and instructions with the various Vanguard Model kits I have built the Amati instructions seem a little bit threadbare in comparison.

 

 

[Glenn-UK]

I thought I would make a start on this build. The hull construction is very different to any of my other previous builds. As can be seen in the picture below the hull is made up of 5 differently shaped sheets which are glued together in a staggered manner.

The picture shown in the build instructions is drawn at a scale of 1:1. After a taken a measurement the required stagger is 1mm. I added a strip of 1mm tape to help me align the parts.

I continued with the checking the stagger, using tape to help with the alignment as the remaining parts were glued in place.

The next task is to sand the hull to get the required curved shape. The kit has provided a series of templates to aid this shaping process.

 

The quarter gallery comprises 4 parts which are stacked on top of each other. According to the build manual the 4 parts are different sizes but in reality the parts were all the small size.

 

 

hjh

[Glenn-UK]

Despite my best efforts this kit is way to small for me to complete. I managed to shape the hull and to then paint and fit the deck and bulwarks. The problem came when I started to fitted the deck items. I really struggled to located and secure the parts as required. After failing to fit the fore bitts and windlass assembly I decided to abandon this project as I do not have the requisite tools or eyesight (even with my magnifying glasses).

 

It was a nice gift to receive and I am glad I tried to build it but unfortunately, in my opinion, it was a very poor quality kit.