Scottish Maid - Artesania Latina 1:50

[DavidL]

Hello to you all,

 

I am a new member and just taking my first steps in model shipbuilding.  I have been making models in a different subject area for quite a long time, including scratchbuilding, and I have built up the facilties in my workshop over the years to the point where there are machine tools to play with as well as a fair range of blunt instruments.

 

I read lots of wise words beforehand about not going in too deep too soon, and when a cheap model of Scottish Maid came up on Ebay I got it.  The kit had been started to the point where the spine and bulkheads had been assembled together with the deck, and then abandoned.  My intention was to use it as a practice piece to learn the art of planking, and then if it all went horribly wrong it would be a case of valuable lessons learned from the experience but not a catastrophe.

 

Unfortunately it has gone horribly wrong without my doing anything.  When the parcel arrived, it was obvious immediately that the hull assembly was a bit if a mess.  Amongst other things, the builder had not followed the sequence set out in the instructions, and in the process created problems that would occur later on in the construction.  More fundamentally, the bulkheads towards the stem are so far inbord from the edge of the deck that there would be a horizontal step between the top of the hull planking and the bulwarks.  I have included a photo to illustrate this.

 

Question 1 to you therefore is whether this situation is the result of the builder doing something that would have been better avoided, or whether the parts are as supplied originally in the kit.  I suspect that this may be an early version as I have seen different pictures on different box lids, and the parts do not look to be laser cut.  There is a photo of the box lid in this post.  I would be interested to know the answer because it would give an indication of what else might be lying in wait, and whether Artesania Latina would be better avoided for future projects.

 

The scope of this inrtroductory project has expanded as a result of the above, and other factors (for example, the spine has a curve from midships to stern).  As far as I can see the existing hull is past praying for.  I don't think it would survive attempts to remove and then replace the components which are not fit for purpose.  This is where a blunt instrument is going to come in really handy.

 

My first thought was to make a replacement spine, bulkheads and deck, but this has rasied further issues: -

1. The plans supplied with the kit do not include a section view and so there is no way of determining what the bulkhead profiles should be.  Question 2 therefore is whether more recent versions of the kit include this view - if they do then could I buy the plans alone?                                                                                                       
2. As an alternative way out of the problem I bought Fast Sailing Ships by David Macgregor so that I could use the drawing of Scottish Maid that he produced.  He quotes the breadth as 19ft 4ins.  On the box lid of the kit, Artesania Latina state that her beam is 100mm.  At the quoted scale of 1:50 this equates to 16ft 4ins or thereabouts - a tad thinner.  Question 3: just how reliable are the dimensional accuracy of this kit and any associated plans?

 

I am heading towards the view that I might just as well build the whole thing from scratch, making use of the remaining materials where possible. There is an interesting article in Model Shipwright 94 on just that.  I would be interested to hear your views.

 

Regards,

David