Hello from Alabama

[MWMooring]

Hi, new member here and newbie about to begin a journey trying my hand at wood model ship building. This is also my first time participating on an online forum of any kind.

 

I have dabbled in woodworking for many years and have always been fascinated with model ships, but have never attempted to build a ship model. I have loved the sea my whole life and have enjoyed reading books about sea voyages, exploration and the age of discovery for years now, with a particular interest in Arctic and Antarctic exploration.

 

My goal is to complete a model of The Endurance one day, but decided I should start a smaller project first, and found a vintage Model Shipways kit of the America Schooner 1851 on eBay. 

 

I've never been great about documenting my woodworking projects but I will try to keep a build log of the America as I go. 

[CPDDET]

Welcome aboard! All the help you need can be found here.

[GrandpaPhil]

Welcome!

[ccoyle]

Welcome aboard!

 

When you say "vintage" kit, how vintage are you talking about? Various iterations of that kit have been on the market for decades, and the art of kit designing has advanced considerably during that interval.

[Ryland Craze]

Welcome to Model Ship World.  You have come to the right place to start your journey in ship modeling.

[MWMooring]

Thanks Mr. Coyle,

The kit should arrive in a few days, so I'm unsure of the age of it. The pictures of the kit show what appears to be a carved, one piece hull. Everything appears to be in good order and complete with clear plans, unopened packages of the small bits, and neat stacks of planking, masts, rigging, etc. I assumed by the one piece carved hull that it would be a bit different from modern kits today, but it was a minimal investment in a kit that looks to be of good quality. We'll see...

 

Thanks! Here's a picture of the box, if that helps determine the age,

 

[palmerit]

While you probably won’t find any build logs here for that old kit, you might learn something from build logs of their more modern version of it. It looks like they kept everything the same except change from solid hull to POB construction. The online instructions for the current model says they kept the plans and a lot of the instructions unchanged from the original solid hull kit. 

[wmherbert]

Welcome. I've built that old kit and it came out very nice. If you would like message me and I'll send some photos and some thoughts.

Bill

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, MWMooring said:

Here's a picture of the box, if that helps determine the age

 

Yes, it does. In the hobby, these are known as Model Shipways' "yellow box" kits and date back to when the company was located in Bogata, New Jersey. I don't remember off the top of my head when the move to Florida happened, but it was at least thirty years ago. Some of the yellow box kits are even much older than that. Many of the yellow box solid-hull kits were converted to plank-on-bulkhead kits, but some were kept in production as solid-hull kits, and some of the converted kits have since been reissued as solid-hull kits again.

 

Confusing, right?

 

A couple of things worth noting about this kit:

• Depending on its exact age, the kit may have lead fittings. These will decay over time ("lead disease") and should therefore be replaced. Later kits included cast parts made of Britannia metal, a type of white metal alloy, and will probably state that somewhere as a selling point. 
• Most Model Shipways kits, especially the older ones, offer little or nothing in terms of pre-cut parts, e.g., laser cutting or CNC. Things like deck houses, companionways, and pinnacles must be built from strip or sheet wood using dimensions taken directly from the plans.
• If your intention is to eventually build a plank-on-frame Endurance, such as the kit from OcCre, then building a solid-hull kit will not prepare you for building a plank-on-frame hull. The two methods are substantially different.

If none of those things is a deterrent, that old yellow box kit can certainly be built into a nice model.

 

Cheers!

 

 

[Keith Black]

 MW, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.