Sciabecco 1753 by Greg Davis - Amati - 1:60 scale

[Greg Davis]

I hope there are no limits on the number of build logs one can have open at any particular time!

 

I'm trying to make more bench space to get back to may 'main project' - a scratch-built model of L'Invention 1799 based on G. Delacroix's amazing ANCRE monograph. Unfortunately, I have a problem with starting models and not always finishing them directly. So lately it had been pointed out to me, by the resident space allocator, that I don't need more space, I just need to finish a few projects to reclaim the space I need. I concede that this is a truth. There are at least two models, well along that could / should be finished. Once done a good deal of space will open up again. This is a picture of the two as they sat a few days ago:

 

In the back is the Corel model of La Couronne that I purchased in 2011 and started in 2020. In the foreground is the Amati model of the 1753 xebec Sciabecco; purchased and started in 2015. 

 

With the help of this log, I hope to make some steady progress and finish the Sciabecco in tandem with my Santos-Dumont 14bis airplane kit build and my Santos-Dumont No18 Hydroplane scratch build project. Big hopes, but I figure something a retired person can achieve.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any photographs of the early stages of the Sciabecco build so I will try to provide some background in a written form. I believe the key aspects wood be that

 

• The plywood keel assembly was replaced with one made of cherry so that the ply's in the stem and stern would not be visible when finished
• The lower deck was extended / planked past the gratings on the upper deck
• The gratings were glued to the false deck prior to planking and then sanded flush with the deck. The instructions call for the gratings to be added on top of the deck planking.
• The large stern grating is made from cherry (this was my first try at making my own grating) and replaces a plastic grating that had spaces too large for the model.

 

Over the last couple of days I have been adding the quick stuff to the bulwarks and getting this material painted to match the interior paint.

The first layer of planking was pretty well done, so it shouldn't take much time to prep the model for the second layer. It may get up to 50 degrees (F) here tomorrow - that would be just fine to sit out back for a while and smooth out the hull.

 

At some point I'll open a log for La Couronne - it will be great to get that one done also. I really like the rigging of that time period.

 

[Greg Davis]

I've had time to smooth out the first layer of planking and started to attach the second layer. The sheer has been adjusted as well - I find this type of ship to be very gracefully designed.

[Greg Davis]

I used single strips of wood for the first three strakes below the sheer. This area of the ship will be pierced by a large number of holes - gun ports and oar ports. There will also be two half round moldings added to this section. Because of all the additions (and subtractions) I thought the planking would hold up better with a minimal number of butt joints in the region. Also, with the 'business' of this region, the joints will likely not be missed from a visual perspective.

 

Now moving down the hull, I've marked out two planking belts. Each will accommodate 9 strakes. These are being set in with 8cm long planks. Typical strakes will have 5 planks each of the 4mm wide planking material provided in the kit. The supplied wood is quite nice, a great feature of the kit.

 

[James G]

Greg, you are a model making machine! 😆 Really do enjoy your logs.

[Greg Davis]

The first belt on the port side is done.

It should look nice once it is smoothed and a finish is applied.

 

Time to mark out the lower belt and continue on.

[Greg Davis]

I've finished the 2nd planking of the port side. I was hoping not to need any stealers, but it turned out that one was required. If the kit had come with wider material for the garboard (or I had matching wood available), then I could have done the planking stealer free. Either way it's looking good to me.

[Greg Davis]

Earlier today I was able to hang my latest finished model - the Santos-Dumont 14 Bis airplane in my office / workroom. So I got some space back to do other tasks, and started the second planking of the starboard for the Sciabecco model.

[Greg Davis]

Made some good progress - there has been a spring snow storm here, so more modeling time than usual!

[gsdpic]

Nice start, the planking looks excellent.  Xebecs always look to me like the sports cars of the ship world.  My "build someday" list definitely includes one, we'll see.

 

[Greg Davis]

10 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Nice start, the planking looks excellent.  Xebecs always look to me like the sports cars of the ship world.  My "build someday" list definitely includes one, we'll see.

 

I totally agree - they just look fast!

[Mirabell61]

very nice build Greg,

 

Nils

[Greg Davis]

On 4/4/2024 at 9:51 AM, Mirabell61 said:

very nice build Greg,

 

Nils

I appreciate your evaluation and I hope that my final result does not pale too much in comparison to your 'Eagle of Algier'. I've looked through your log quite a few times for inspiration! 

[Mirabell61]

thank you very much Greg,

I`m happy that my "Eagle of Algier" could be helpfull for inspiration with your build. You`ve realy created a wonderful model, so neatly built. In fact the Eagle is off the same Amati plan, only magnified to scale 1:48

I`m looking foreward to see your sails and rigging as well. Wishing you further success and much fun with your build you can be proud of.

 

Nils

[Greg Davis]

Completed the starboard planking this evening.

Everything worked out well - same number of planks on each side!

 

Hopefully there will be some nice weather coming this week so that I can sit outside and sand the planking smooth. I prefer to do the major sanding out of the house and with the wind at my back! I don't think it will take very long as I was able to lay the 1mm x 4mm x 80mm planks quite tight to the hull. I would have preferred for the material to be a little more uniform in color; however, the variation is much less noticeable to my eye than it is in the photographs.  

[Greg Davis]

Starboard planking smoothed!

[Greg Davis]

I am now done smoothing the hull. In the previous post, I had smoothed the hull as best possible with paper as fine as 180 grit. I've now gone over the planking with 220 grit sandpaper - this is the finest that I will be using. Here's the starboard side again; not sure if there is any visual difference, but it is now glassy smooth to the touch.

One final picture at this stage of the planking from the bottom / aft looking forward.

I believe the next step will be some painting. I no longer like the current interior red I had chosen. Now I'd like it to be a deeper darker shade. I also need to make some decisions on the amount of coloring that will be used on the exterior. I think that there will be some exterior paint, but not anywhere near the amount shown on the model as presented in the kit. In my mind the planking looks too nice to cover up with paint.

[Greg Davis]

Did some exterior painting today. This was a bit of an experiment for me as the deep blue was done with a watercolor paint.

[Greg Davis]

I've attached the top half-round molding to each side of the hull. Gun port wreaths fit between this molding and a second molding. The instruction booklet shows the second molding being attached next. I've decided to open the gun ports and attach the wreaths before attaching the second molding. I feel that I will have a better chance of having these pieces line up if I work in this order. I could see how I could easily not leave enough space between moldings and not be able to get a wreath in place and/or leaving too much space and then having gaps between the wreaths and moldings.

 

So here's a look with the 7 starboard gun ports being opened up. I drilled a 1/8th hole and then have been increasing the hole's diameter with round files. There is just a small amount of filing left to do on this side.

[Greg Davis]

Now all 14 gun ports (and two more ports aft) have been opened to 1/4". They need to be opened a bit more - I've a larger round file on order to do the job.

[Greg Davis]

The starboard side is coming along nicely. The new file arrived and let me open the gunports to nearly their final diameter. At this point I attached the gunport wreaths, which are pressed from brass, after they had been chemically blackened. Once that was done, the second half-round molding / wale was added using the wreaths to space the work. Finally, the lower molding was glued leaving a 5mm gap to the one in the middle. 

Just a note - the kit came with 6 pieces of half-round material for the moldings; two pieces were shorter than the others. The short ones are just long enough to be used for the lower molding / wale. I didn't see anything in the instructions pointing this out. I am glad I pulled all 6 pieces from the wood bundle and made the observation before accidentally using a long piece for the lower molding on this side. 

 

Now to the port side where I have a bit of a problem - it seems that I was provided with 13 gunport wreaths; i.e. 1 short of the needed 14. I've sent an inquiry to Amati asking if they can send me a replacement. I'm not sure how long to wait for a response before having to solve the problem on my own. I'd certainly like all 14 to match exactly but I can see that there is a good possibility that I will need to fashion the missing one myself. 

[Greg Davis]

My e-mail to Amati has gone unanswered; however, I have found that Ages of Sail has the part in stock. One of these pieces costs $0.58 - but they want a minimum of $13.45 to send it to me from California. Sort of crazy for a part that go in an envelope with a single stamp!

[Greg Davis]

Today I received a package from Amati containing not 1 but a full set of 14 gunport wreaths - a big thanks to them!

 

I just wish that I they had sent a note that the parts were going to be sent. Sunday night I had broke down and ordered a several wreaths from Ages of Sail; the bill came to over $15 and the product has already been shipped so no going back on that order.

 

Now I will have enough to build another copy of the boat!

[Greg Davis]

I'm waiting for the more expensive wreaths from Ages of Sail to fill in the missing wreath. For some unknown reason, I am resistant to opening the package of 14 wreaths that Amati sent me!

 

In the meantime, I've attached 6 wreaths to the port side and started to work on the deck furniture. I've removed a good deal of laser residue and fabricated the cross-beams to this substantial structure that surrounds the main mast:

It looks like I need to do a little more shaping before gluing these pieces together. There are also 4 cleats that attached to the sides before it is done. I wish I knew if the structure actually has a name or if it is simply a significant structure for belaying lines to. Either way, it will be an impressive addition to the deck.

[Greg Davis]

A couple days ago, I got the gunport wreaths that I had paid for. Blackened and attached the missing one to the hull and glued on the two additional lines of the half-round wales to the port side. 

 

Oar ports came next - 9 to a side. It took a lot longer than I expected to open all of these ports with a file. Once that was completed, a few rigging related holes were drilled thru the hull. Finally I painted the inside edges of the gunports and oar ports to match the inner bulwalk color. 

 

I believe that installation of the capping rail will come next.

[Greg Davis]

The capping rails went in without too much difficulty. The rails for the quarter deck were a bit short, so I created small extensions from scrap wood. Not an issue for me, just cut up a bit of wood to the correct size on my Byrnes saw ... I can see how this would be a bigger concern for a person that hadn't been making a few models and/or had limited tools. Next I went to work on the quarterdeck rail ornamentation. This was something I really wasn't looking forward to, but I think it came out nice. 

I went with a dark motif unlike the bright yellow shown in the instruction manual. I tried to use blackening solution on these ornaments, but surprisingly it did nothing in terms of color change. So I mixed some flat black and gun metal paint together and got a nice look, very much like wrought-iron. The stern decoration has also been painted this color and it blends into the blue background quite well.

 

I also have attached the head rails.

The rudder may come next. 

[catopower]

Beautiful work Greg! I'm just catching up on this project now.

 

Sorry to hear about your missing wreath and the thing about Ages of Sail and the cost of shipping. I do some work for them and apparently, they got tired of people ordering one or two parts and being told that the item that was mailed out in an envelope never arrived. So, they only use tracked shipping methods now. Sucks when you only want a 60 cent part, I know. 

 

I'll point out your comment to the staff, so they realize it's actually a problem.

 

Anyway, very inspirational model!

[Greg Davis]

10 hours ago, catopower said:

Beautiful work Greg! I'm just catching up on this project now.

 

Sorry to hear about your missing wreath and the thing about Ages of Sail and the cost of shipping. I do some work for them and apparently, they got tired of people ordering one or two parts and being told that the item that was mailed out in an envelope never arrived. So, they only use tracked shipping methods now. Sucks when you only want a 60 cent part, I know. 

 

I'll point out your comment to the staff, so they realize it's actually a problem.

 

Anyway, very inspirational model!

Thank you for the supportive comments!

 

I had not really thought about the fact that there could be some 'abusive nature' when it comes to requesting spare / replacement parts. This also got me thinking about the time commitment that Ages of Sail employees need to use while filling the request. So maybe the cost of an envelope and stamp is asking too much, but perhaps a middle ground could be worked toward - especially for people that don't seem to be offenders of the system. Quite frankly, I would never of placed the AoS order if Amati would have had a response system indicating that they could/would send the part!

 

Greg

[BobG]

She looks great, Greg! I love the sleek, fast looking hull of these ships.

[Greg Davis]

The rudder is attached and the mast blanks fit correctly.

Planning to work on the deck furniture / details before shaping the masts and preparing for rigging the vessel.

[Greg Davis]

A little more progress on the deck. Cannon carriages are in place, the companionway is done (doors face aft), quarterdeck rail is attached (the pillars are pinned and glued), and cleats have been added. At this point I am thinking the model will be fairly minimalistic and that I will not be rigging the carriages - but that might change down the road!

A bit more work to do and it will be time to work on the masting and rigging.