Benjamin W Latham by Fundysnapper - Model Shipways - 1:48

[Fundysnapper]

Hi, I am new to building wooden ships. This is my first build. I was gifted this kit. I know it's quite advanced for a newbie but I am diving in. Unboxing and I am already overwhelmed. I am also new to the site. I started building back in January 2025. I have made a lot of mistakes but learning every time I work on it. I have completed the planking, the deck planking and have built most of the deck parts. 

[Fundysnapper]

Pre-fit the bulkheads. Want to glue in place but I was nervous about it. 

[Capt. Kelso]

You might want to search the site for similar builds. Welcome and good luck.

[Fundysnapper]

4 minutes ago, Capt. Kelso said:

You might want to search the site for similar builds. Welcome and good luck.

I have been checking out every build of this ship. Reference them often. 

[Fundysnapper]

Glued and fitted the bulkheads. Unfortunately I didn't tack them in place. My first mistake of many more to come. So I had a bunch of warping. Made spacers and with a little steam and heat I fixed it up. Lesson learned the hard way. 

[Fundysnapper]

Started painting the deck and deck parts. Thought I would start there before attempting the hull. Still trying to figure out how to properly mark the waterline. 

[Fundysnapper]

Started painting the hull. Had a little trouble figuring out the water line. Turned out all right. 

[palmerit]

I'm not an expert - one thing I'd recommend: That looks like green Frog tape (or similar). For masking at the edge of painting a line like that, Tamiya tape (which is yellow in its thicker versions, white in its thinner) is significantly better (I've seen people test alternatives on YouTube and the difference is pretty striking) - it comes in a bunch of sizes (from really tiny to wide). It's kind of expensive (certainly compared to Frog tape) but you do not use much, especially if you just use it to mask lines being painted. Also, after you put the tape down, "burnish" the line by running the back of your fingernail or the back end of a paint brush along the line.

 

Another trick for painting a line: Imagine you are painting the top white and the bottom red and you already painted the top. After masking the line with (Tamiya) tape, paint white along the line and let it dry, so some white paint is where you'll be painting red and on the tape. Then paint the red. That one layer of white paint can really help keeping a fine line (along with using Tamiya tape and burnishing), limiting the bleed through under the tape. 

 

I learned all those tricks here and the most recent line I marked off and painted was nearly perfect compared to the first couple of times I tried just using tape alone.

 

Depending on how OCD you are, you may still have some bleed through you'd need to touch up with a tiny paint brush, but doing these things can help keep the bulk of the line crisp.

Edited 7 hours ago by palmerit