HMS Prince 1670 by Spiderpig - FINISHED - Constructo - Scale 1:61

[Spiderpig]

Hi

 

HMS Prince has arrived. I started building this ship in November 2012. So quite a lot of progress has been made since then.

Now for the photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various parts and goodies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sjors]

Hi Adam,

 

Great to see the Prince.

I'll be waiting for updates so let those pics coming!

 

Sjors

[Murphys77]

Hi Spiderpig, pretty tough build this one I should imagine, good luck with it.

I'll be looking forward to see your progress updates, she'll be a lovely model when she's done.

M.

[cog]

Grrreat, your back laddy. Missed you and your darkling prince! You've still got some images to upload ...

[st george]

Hi Adam

 

Must admit that the Prince has long been a favorite ship of mine. I've built the Airfix plastic one twice and hope to get around to building a wooden model one day. I look forward to seeing your Build.

 

David

[Anja]

Hello Adam,

 

 

Have a great day.

 

Anja

[Sjors]

Happy birthday from me also Adam.

 

Is there any change that we see you back at the shipyard?

 

 

[Spiderpig]

Hi all!

 

Cheers for all the support and birthday wishes! It has been a while since I posted on here. Work, study and home renovations have sort of put the Prince on hold. But I have pulled her out recently and started work on her again!

 

Photos of the changes to come.

 

Cheers

 

Adam

[Sjors]

Hi Adam,

 

Great to see you back !

I will wait for the changes     

 

[Spiderpig]

Some more progress:

 

Although the instructions didn't state to paint the gun wales I decided to paint them black, as the ply wood didn't quite look right.

 

 

[Spiderpig]

Finishing up the decks heading towards the stern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting the planking:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found the pins to be quite useful in holding on the planks as I work down the hull frame.

[Spiderpig]

As I progressed planing the top half of the hull I measured, marked and cut out the cannon port holes. Sore fingers were a result of cutting out 90 holes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spiderpig]

Next was to plank the bottom half of the hull. Originally I was going to opt to do it as a single planked hull, but the bottom half in the Sapelli wood came out a bit messy for my liking. I decided to double plank it once I added some of the detail to the hull first. Constructo added a bundle of veneer planks to allow for this option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spiderpig]

Once the planking was complete I started adding some detail to the hull, before I commenced the second layer of planking.

 

The back of the stern:

 

 

Then added some lengths of wood to detail it:

 

 

And the final result after I trimmed the pieces, and sanded them down:

 

 

 

[Spiderpig]

Hi Brian

 

The hull measures 890mm once it's complete. However this measurement includes the bow spirit. I believe the hull is about 750mm in length. It's currently the largest Prince model on the market. Mamoli does one, but it is quite a bit smaller. Amati used to do one years ago, and that was enormous! over 1000mm in length I believe.

 

I got mine from the UK as it's hard to find Constructo kits here in Australia.

 

Adam

[Spiderpig]

And finally added the wales to the top half of the hull. You will also notice at the stern that I have built a small frame piece out of plywood. This is for the quarter galleries.

 

 

Here is the final result on Starboard side:

 

 

Both sides with the wales attached:

 

 

 

Now she has the first coat of varnish. I will post some more photos once I complete the varnished hull!

 

Cheers

 

Adam

 

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Very impressive!

 

Glad to see you've returned.

 

Andy

[Sjors]

Unbelievable…...

 

That is again a great job Adam !

I don't see you for months and when you are coming….there is a ship !

And a usual standard from you.

Deck planking , hull planking…great,great,great !!!!!!!

But please, don't stay away that long anymore !

 

[ZyXuz]

well done on the hull planking, Adam!

so clean and neat and your stern gallery is going well!

[tarbrush]

Beautiful work Adam!  Prince is such a gorgeous ship, I look forward to following your progress.

[DCIronfist]

Looking very good.......I will try to remember the tack version if I ever do another ship

[marktiedens]

I will follow your build with interest as I also have this kit in the closet.Looks like you are off to a good start.  I don`t know when I will get to it.

[Spiderpig]

The cast metal decorations are okay. There is a lot of them though. I guess to save on costs Constructo used cast metal for most of their decorative pieces, rather than brass which other companies use. I managed to find a spray paint of brass, and they came out fine with that. Only took a few minutes to spray them all.

 

Here are some photos of the varnished hull. I'm yet to do another coat as 2 coats hasn't come out as good as I would like it. The first photo also shows some the detail at the bow of the ship. Had some serious challenges there with curving the wood lengths at the front! But I'm satisfied with the result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Adam

[Spiderpig]

Updates for this week. I have finished the 3rd and final coat of varnish on the Prince. She looks great now! I have now begun to decorate the hull with various wood and metal ornaments.

 

Starting with the deck at the bow of the ship: I needed to build the small wooden door out of thin African Walnut strips. I then added an eyebolt to imitate the door handle. Along with some false looking hinges made of brass that were supplied by the kit. All the other pieces are cast metal that have been spray painted with a "brass" coloured paint. The look I was going for came out beautifully! I wanted a colour that was slightly shinier than gold, but not as shiny as polished brass looks. This paint really worked!

 

 

And here she is again with 1 coat of vanish added to the wooden parts. I will give them another coat or two over the week.

 

 

Thanks for watching 

 

Adam

 

 

[Sjors]

Hi Adam,

 

There are a lot of bits going in the front….

Very nice job !

That's gonna be a beauty !

 

[DCIronfist]

Gonna be? She already is a beauty :)

[Spiderpig]

Updates from this week. I have continued on with decorating the hull with some more ornaments and such.

 

Starting with the gold rings that decorate the top two rows of cannons. Also added some wales at the stern.

 

 

 

I then went forward a few steps and added some detail to the door at mid ship:

 

 

And on another note I thought I would add a photo of the building frame I'm using. I have read a lot of posts of people who buy those expensive keel clamps etc. I designed my own. I used left over planks from a previous build to build the frame work. It needs to be roughly a third of the hulls length, and about the same width as the hull. Then I used the offcuts from the plywood frame work that held the bulkheads to create the upright sections.

 

I then added some felt, similar to that used on the bottoms of furniture to protect the hull 

 

Thanks for watching

 

Adam

[Sjors]

Wow,

 

You are in a high gear.

Marvellous work !

That looks real awesome !!!!!!!!

 

[marktiedens]

Very nice!

 

 

Mark

[Spiderpig]

I love these long weekends! You just get so much more time to continue with the build of your ship!

 

I have now finished decorating the bow of the ship.

 

Starting with the figure head and some smaller figurines:

 

 

 

Then the Davits that have some small Lions head tacks, and a small figurine underneath.

 

 

I am now working on finishing off the galleries at the stern, coupled with the vast detail on the stern itself. So far I have begun to add some small sections of wood to starboards sides gallery:

 

 

This took me hours! So it'll be a while before I eventually get to this complete finish:

 

 

Thanks for watching 

 

Adam