HMS Beagle by Maid of the Mist - OcCre - 1:60

[Maid of the Mist]

Okay guys, my first real ship and my first real ship log.  HMS Beagle just arrived this evening.  This is going to take me considerably longer than Polaris, not least because I intend to do it more carefully....  I will probably only do updates once every couple of weeks, but it depends how I go.

 

So without further ado, first impressions:

 

Nice box, nice materials.  It's noticeable how much longer all the pieces of wood are, I guess this kit is that much bigger.  One of the veneer sapeli strips had snapped during transit, but that's not a big deal.  You might be able to see in the box picture that some of the brass rings managed to escape.  They were everywhere inside the cellophane, but I think I found them all.

 

 

 

One thing I did notice that was different from Polaris is that the bulkheads have these tiny notches on the inside of their slots.  These are part of the design, they're not to be sanded away and I think their purpose is to grip the false keel.  I've slotted a couple of them in some far as they certainly seem to fit more snug than the same pieces did in the Polaris.  Hopefully they'll stay straight without much assistance from Lego.

 

 

That's it for this evening.  Hope you guys will join me and Mr Darwin or our voyage.

 

[Maid of the Mist]

A little under two weeks into this build and I have made quite a lot of progress.

 

Frame construction:
The bulkheads slotted in beautifully, everything lined up straight away without any fuss. I barely needed my trusty Lego jig, just a quick check on each one and I was off to the next stage.

 

Deck:
I decided to go with the 6cm planks as per the instructions, using a 2-butt shift so that each change was a neat 2cm. Cutting and laying each plank individually was a good call, it gave me a nice mix of wood grains across the strakes. I skipped the tree nails this time, thinking it would keep the deck looking clean and tidy with the shorter planks.

I had a little experiment with pencils for the caulking lines, my first choice (6B) smudged more than I expected an dirtied some of the planks, but switching to an HB gave me sharp, clean results that looked better. By the time I reached the bow and stern decks, the process felt smooth and enjoyable.  As for the dirty planks...well, it's not a royal yacht.

 

The doors and windows:
I followed the instructions here and had fun adding some colour to the doors. I learned that scraping away stray paint isn’t the best approach, but it’s no big deal, those little imperfections will be hidden under all the exciting deck details later on.

 

 

I'm happy that I managed to get the bulkwarks to line up at the bow.  This will help me a lot later on!  

 

 

I haven't started tapering the planks yet, but will do so for the planks below the bulwarks.

 

I expect to make a fair few mistakes but nothing that a bit of sanding and wood putty can't put right.