Phantom 1868 by Greg Davis - Model Shipways - 1:48 scale - New York Pilot Boat

[Greg Davis]

I'm hoping to work more on Phantom this evening, but wanted to post a picture of the BR86 after 7 days of work. There is very little I can now add prior to painting.

Currently, the model disassembles into 7 subassemblies and all the drive wheels come off (which is good since the second from front needs to be in the third position when the model is completed).

 

[vossiewulf]

I don't know about that, it's a fungus so if you leave some in you're risking infecting the rest of the holly on your boat. I just don't see that a little bit of realism (even if we grant that it is) is worth the risk of spoiling an entire project.

[Greg Davis]

3 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

I don't know about that, it's a fungus so if you leave some in you're risking infecting the rest of the holly on your boat. I just don't see that a little bit of realism (even if we grant that it is) is worth the risk of spoiling an entire project.

In this situation, I am not interested in the 'bluish realism' - I want a white deck! So I am really hoping the piece of wood in the mail is a good one.

[juhu]

Hm, I thought of some natural colorization, fungus is definitely out of question 😕 Hopefully the next batch will be better

 

As for the loco, I was wondering how would you paint it assembled together, now I see you mention it is still only dry-assembled and could be taken apart to paint separately? Then ok.

I used to build plastic model kits, mostly planes in 1/48. While yes, in theory you should be able to get replacement if some part is broken etc., in reality it may not be so prompt and if you add shipping cost from around the world, you may well add half of the cost to the model kit. Also, in some cases it is not an option at all. If you ruin painting on almost finished model or realize the canopy glazing under paint mask suffered, it is too late for any replacement. Plastic model kits rely heavily on premade parts, full of beautiful but delicate details. Particularly painting is something I fear of - lots of opportunity to ruin the whole work , for sure in my case, not to speak of quite aggressive chemistry.

Another funny aspect is how master plastic modelers achieve to simulate various surface effects, it is truly a sight to see the plastic looking like a linen, metal, wood. Yet, with wooden model kits there is no need to create such illusions, well, not to that extent

 

Back to Phantom: I am looking forward to see the final wood appearance. Depending on chosen finish, it may look other way at the and. Do you plan to paint the hull and to oil the deck?

 

 

 

 

[Greg Davis]

Juhu

 

Yes I hope the next batch is much better for being able to move along in the Phantom build (and also due to the price of holly). It is my plan to paint and copper the hull. But I don't want to use much paint at all other than that. I plan on the deck, inner bulwarks, deck furniture, and most of the masting to be natural wood color. I'll be doing what I can with different wood species to have some color changes on the model. For example, the deck houses and skylight will have C boxwood sides and pear edging - not sure yet on the roofs! 

 

I've gotten, or requested, replacement parts for wooden kits in the past. I only make a request when it is a part that I cannot remake on my own - typically a casting that is missing and/or partially formed. Typically, I haven't needed to pay shipping when the parts were sent to me. Sometimes it has been free, fast, and easy; sometimes free slow and hard; but the worst was a company that implied the parts would not have been missing and I was just trying to get extras for free.

 

I looked at some videos and read some books to get some ideas on how to paint plastic model. Last time I built a plastic model was is in the early 70's and the high tech I used was painting parts still on the spur with a can of spray paint - a few steps past assemble the model and paint everything with a brush! But then I was barely a teenager. I think I've learned that making model kits is more of an adult thing even though the models where always placed in the kids area of the department stores. Yes, the painting skills of plastic modelers can be most impressive - besides the surface effects you mention, the ability to weather a model is incredible. When I paint the BR86, I'm going to be going for a closer to factory new look, than a well-used look! 

[Greg Davis]

I milled some L-shaped pear to serve as hatch and skylight combings. They will be attached to the deck before I plank it. The material is 5/32" high, so once the deck is planked there will be a 1/8" high exterior border to the structures that is 1/32" thick. Scale-wise this would represent a 2" x 6" surround. I just went with a simple miter at the corners. Before attaching these pieces to the subdeck, there is a section of the cockpit margin board that needs to be cut away for the hatch combing to fit properly. 

 

I'll build the skylight and hatch off the model and drop them into the combing depressions. This should be an upgrade from the kit supplied materials and construction method. 

 

In fact, the construction method in the model baffles me - the sides of the structures are PE brass and use scribed plank sheets for the roofs. I'm confident that anyone that can plank this ship, copper the hull, mast and rig it, can build deck structures out of wood! So strange 🤔

The BR86 got some track to sit on. It is needed so that when the couplers can be added, they will not hit the ground as they drop down below the top of the rails. Ordered some paint for this machine - it will now sit for a few days as I await delivery.

[Greg Davis]

Here is what the cockpit floor looks like planked in holly:

The pear, C box, and holly do look nice together!

 

Received a new piece of holly today with no visible blueness - I hope its the same when I cut into it!

  

[juhu]

Looks good in my opinion. I wonder, how much material from the kit will you use at the end....

[Greg Davis]

3 hours ago, juhu said:

Looks good in my opinion. I wonder, how much material from the kit will you use at the end....

Juhu -

 

Great question! I've used the false keel, bulkheads, keel / stem / stern assembly, stern deck, and transom from the kit so far. I plan on using the rudder and copper tape, as well as some of the PE parts.

 

Chances are good that I'll sub out the rigging - I'm not a big fan of Model-Shipways nylon rigging line. Probably will not use the provided blocks either. I'll need to see later if the belaying pins are a good size for the model. The use of pear, box, and holly was partially driven because I had access to the material and the tools to mill it. If I was making this 15 years ago, I would more than likely used the kit supplied planking material even if it was not as close to scale as replacing the material achieves. I don't see that I would have used the PE formed deckhouses / skylight even at that time. It is possible that I would have tried to drop the cockpit floor. I also would have used dowels as a basis for the masts then and possibly the nylon rigging. I'm sure I would have been proud of the result!

 

Given this kit is being marketed as a beginner kit, what bothers me most is how Model Expo did not update the presentation, from the old 1:96 kit, to bring it more inline with other more recent kits they produce - Syren, Confederacy, the Shipright Series, ... . It is really inexcusable that new plans were not drafted (with bulkheads drawn to the inside of planking, and cockpit dropped down, as well as masts and spars drawn to scale separately). They could have made laser cut, notched, margin planks like is done for the Emma C. Berry kit (that lists for less). A much better instruction manual should have been crafted as well. I don't agree with the choice of so much PE - seems like a gimmick here. If they wanted to make an 'upgrade', suppling their 'beautiful blocks'  would have been better. For ME it would be good advertisement for the blocks and not too costly given the low number needed for this ship. 

 

I know some will say the faults are included in the price / you get what you pay for; but here, for example, compared with offerings from Vanguard Models for around the same list price-point the Phantom kit falls short in most all aspects. 

 

The big selling point for me was that I was / am interested in a 1:48 scale model of Phantom; but in retrospect, for my purposes a nice set of plans would have been a better choice! 

 

Either way, I think the finished model will be nice and that there will be others that produce very nice models from this kit. 

 

Greg

[HSM]

Seems there is quite a bit of confusion over the design choices in this kit, so I figured I should try to defend it. I designed the 1:48 scale Phantom as an easy Plank-on-Bulkhead model based on the old solid-hull 1:96 version. Yours is the first online build of the Phantom and your workmanship and technique is flawless, but your build is nowhere near a beginner's level. I am afraid your build log unfairly taints the kit and might give it a bad reputation before anyone has given it a chance and built it "out of the box". I will explain some of the decisions made in producing the 1:48 Phantom, a beginner's level model.

 

The planking as described in the kit is not run the way it would have been on the real ship, but it is very easy to complete successfully, and that is the primary goal of a beginner's kit. IMHO, spiling planks like you have so expertly done is beyond what most first-timers would be able to do. The Phantom will be covered with paint and copper anyway, and for a beginner a nice looking completed model is the most important goal. The transom not being planked follows the same design philosophy. 

 

Similarly, for the deck houses I used brass because it would be easier for a beginner to get a nice looking result. I don't like Basswood for complex structures like these because it is hard to sand and fill and get a nice finish on it. I'm sure the Pear or Box you use will look terrific, but those materials and the tools and techniques you use are well beyond a beginner's kit. 

 

There must be some scaling errors in the production laser-cut kit parts. For example, the molds with alignment holes were drawn once in CAD, then copied and rotated so the holes are in exactly the right position. Model Expo made me a few iterations of the wood parts and I built and modified the files several times to ensure an easy assembly. The alignment holes were perfect in all of those physical examples. 

 

I appreciate the build-log, but I just don't think it's fair to buy a beginner's kit, and then build it as a master-level scratchbuild, and then complain about all the reasons that beginner's kit doesn't produce a masters-level scratchbuild. If you were to "kit" your masters-level Phantom, it probably wouldn't make sense to point out all the reasons it doesn't make a good beginner's kit.

 

With all due respect and admiration, your workmanship is certainly beautiful and I can't wait to see the finished model.

 

Cheers!!!
Jarod 

www.historicshipmodel.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[juhu]

Hi Greg,

 

I consider myself a beginner, at least when it comes to wooden ship kits, and I express my support and thanks for the way you present your build.

 

I am interested in ship construction and technical aspects of design, I would like to build kits that do resemble originals with my limited skills and honest build review like yours brings great additional value to me.

Am eager to see the final outcome and am happy to learn even more through your progress.

Regards

Juraj

[Greg Davis]

Jarod –

 

First, thank you for taking the time to look at the progress I have made on the 1:48 scale Phantom model. I also appreciate the comment on the quality of my work. However, I have been taken aback by your post.

 

I hope that individuals following this build log will have noticed that there are multiple lines of thought running through it. Besides the actual construction of the model, I have attempted to be clear as to the pros and cons of the kit as presented by Model Shipways independent of the modifications that I have chosen to make on my version of the model.

 

The only fault that I can find in what I had written is that twice (posts #75 and #99) I said the model was marketed toward ‘beginner’s’. The reason that I had used the word ‘beginner’s’ was due to the caption of a picture in the instruction manual, on p15, where it is written: “Nibbing” of deck planks at the bow is very difficult to do in a beginner’s model.  Also, the 1:48 model seems to be a replacement for the 1:96 model that had been clearly labeled as a beginner’s model (whatever that really means).

 

If one goes to the Model Expo website, opens the PDF version of the instructions for the 1:48 scale Phantom kit and searches for ‘beginner’ just two instances of the word will appear. One is in the nibbing comment noted above, the other is in the bibliography associated with Campbell’s 1962 publication. There is no mention of skill level on the ME website description either. In fact, one could easily infer that the new kit was going to be quite a step up, as in the kit description (and instruction manual) it is written:

 

The kit was originally offered as a 1:96 scale solid-hull model and was redesigned as a 1:48 scale plank-on-bulkhead model in 2024 by noted modeler Jarod Matwiy of Winnipeg, Canada. The larger, redesigned kit offers more detail and more advanced construction techniques yet remains true to the research upon which original design was based.

 

When I saw the model launched and decided to purchase the kit, I had interpreted the phrase  ‘more detail and advanced construction techniques’  as that the new kit could / would be more than what had been offered before. So, it was your post above, that confirms that the kit is designed as a beginner’s kit. (A good kit to start with that isn't overly complicated and doesn't take too long to finish?)

 

I believe that I’ve been fair with my specific comments on the kit – they have been a mix of pros and cons, and I certainly have not condemned it. Kit bashing / modifications are being made to my model; something that is abundantly common and seeming encouraged on this site. I don’t like the inference that I shouldn’t have presented such work here. I haven’t said buy or don’t buy the kit – that is up to whomever is interested in the kit.  It isn’t my responsibility as consumer / kit builder to be concerned about the sales of a product.

 

I will continue this Phantom build and express my views on the kit – what I feel is good /bad / what could have been. I won’t stop making modifications that I want on my version, and I don’t expect others to make the same modifications. I don't have any illusions that my version model will be the perfect representation of Phantom. It is also possible that I will present a summary of my views on the kit when I reach the end.

 

If you would like an ‘out-of-the-box’ build presented on this (or another) forum you / ME could consider hiring someone to do so.

 

Greg

[HSM]

No worries, mostly fair comments, but I never suggested kits shouldn't be modified... they should be! That is entirely up to the individual builder.

 

You expressed repeated confusion over some of the design choices of the kit, I wanted to explain them, that's all. Sounds like mostly a misunderstanding over the intent of the kit as a beginner's model vs. an advanced one. 

 

I should have also stated I am not part of ME. I was only hired to re-work the existing Phantom to 1:48, make it POB and generate some illustrated instructions. I did the brass work, but the other fittings, plans, marketing, etc... were beyond my scope of work and I have no interest in the kit's sales, other than hoping for the continued success of a respected ship model company.

 

Like I said; your work is beautiful and I can't wait to see the finished model. 

 

Cheers!
Jarod. 

www.historicshipmodel.com 

[Greg Davis]

Sad day for me today - had to have our 14 year old dog Phantom euthanized today as his health had rapidly deteriorated and there was no more that could be done to help him.

 

So RIP good friend!

[Ian_Grant]

Sorry to hear. It's a very hard decision to make. My wife's a vet and we've had many pets, few of whom just passed peacefully away in their sleep.

 

[Greg Davis]

19 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

Sorry to hear. It's a very hard decision to make. My wife's a vet and we've had many pets, few of whom just passed peacefully away in their sleep.

 

Thank you - this one was particularly hard since we had him since he was a puppy and he needed a good deal of care and attention throughout his life. We've also had many pets, most often rescue dogs with many being midlife to senior. It somehow made it a bit different this time. We've never been fortunate to have a dog (or cat) pass peacefully in their sleep, but have always hoped that would be the way they left us.

[vossiewulf]

I'm so sorry Greg, always very hard to lose such close friends.

[Greg Davis]

Put a few deck planks on today - some of the easier ones. The next plank to the starboard is one that is not as easy for me; getting the correct notch for the skylight will be tedious as it will need to drop in about half the planks width at the aft end.

[Greg Davis]

Got that tough one that passes the skylight fabricated and a few more deck planks in place.

I can do one  more plank on this side and then I should probably switch to the other side and even the work out. After that it may be best to work art of the cockpit area until it is filled out to match the work forward. The the first plank that goes unimpeded along the deck (on each side) can be fashioned. Those will be pretty challenging to make so that they smoothly pass along the sides of the cockpit margin board - I expect a few tries each side! 

[juhu]

Hi Greg,

 

stopped here after a while. Great looking deck planking. I believe, these boats has similar pattern as fishermen, i.e. straight planks with nibbling on main deck and curved planks following deck margins at quarter deck? When building my boat, I took safe approach and started planking from the deck margins. I knew there might be a challenge to make perfect spacing when coming together in the middle, but the idea was, that any imperfections will be much less visible along the cL, than at the sides. Planking along the center is interrupted by many deck structures, planks are thus shorter and even if not perfect, will not show so much. Along the margins they are running all the way without any obstructions.