Wappen von Hamburg by andy - Corel

[mtdoramike]

Andy, I checked the link you posted at the beginning of your build and I would have to question the 8000 hours of building time. If he kept a build log, I would want to see this for myself because unless he's anal when it comes to perfection or built quite a bit of the ship by scratch building or doing quite a bit to the model that is not required by the kit, I find that an awfully long amount of hours. Now I don't doubt the 13 years, I have seen models take that long and longer to build. It depends on how much time is spent on the model.

 

Great work on yours, by the way.

 

mike

[josh0526]

Hi Andy,

 

Any chance you could remove the upper gun deck?  I think the key on this may be to avoid placing the actual cannon barrels until the very end of the build, even potentially once all the rigging is completed. 

 

I have seriously wondered about this with the WvH and other models I've seen where they place the cannons before actually completing the planking (or even the entire ship)!  It seems to me that keeping those cannons in place would be an impossible task, as they are just begging to be knocked loose. 

 

Anyway, my idea is this:

 

1) Remove the upper gun deck so you can access the cannons.

2) Rework the cannons in such a way as so the carriages can be placed on deck without the barrels.  This would even allow you to rig the carriages if you so chose.  For the cannons that are hidden below deck, I think that simply setting the barrels into the carriage toward the end of the build and securing them with a drop of glue would be acceptable. 

3) Replace the upper gun deck by taking the pieces you have left from the original (surely they will break as you remove it), and transposing them to new plywood which can then be cut to shape.

 

Let me know your thoughts on this.  As you know, I will be up against the exact same challenge so I will be curious to get your feedback.

 

Best of luck, and things are looking great despite the set back and frustrations.

 

--Josh

[josh0526]

Looking at the photo of your cannons above, I guess this would mean completely eliminating the strip of metal that secures the barrel to the carriage.  Since these cannons are below deck - nobodies going to see that piece missing anyway :,).  Then you can just set them in to place later on.

[ChrisLBren]

On my WVH - which is fully planked and begging for some attention - I epoxied the gun carriages (which were scratch built - I got the crappy pot metal ones in my kit from 2002) to the deck.  Ill add the barrels later with a drop of epoxy onto the carriages - the ones below deck will not be rigged.  I agree with Josh - if you can remove the upper deck to access the cannon - would be best

[Ponto]

When it comes time to  maneuvering and placing the guns onto the carriages through the gun ports, tying a string around the barrel will help with retrieval should one happen to slip through by accident.....once the cement has set,  the string can be removed.

JP

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for all of you comments and suggestions. Mike, I certainly agree that 8000 hours is anal to the extreme. I considered removing the second deck to redo the cannons, but I would also have to remove some of the planking I have completed, and frankly, I think I might completely ruin the ship. The idea of simply removing the barrels, and attaching them to the carriages at a later date is possible, but if you read above, you will see that the kit was missing the metal strips used to attach the barrels to carriages. My improvisation would make it difficult to easily remove the barrels without destroying the carriages.

 

Since my last post I have scoured the internet for paintings of 17th century sailing ships with the lower level gun ports closed. I have found several and have reconciled myself to building the ship in this manner. I have completed the repainting of the hull below the waterline. I'm glad I have redone it because it looks much better. I'm awaiting the new wale strips and will take pictures as soon as they are installed.

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

The new wale strips arrived and after staining them ebony I have begun installation. I have also completed the lower deck gunport covers and have added them. I had every intention of blackening all the hardware, but in the end decided I liked the look of the shiny bits even though it is probably incorrect. I continue to add additional planking and though it looks a little rough right now it is nothing that sanding, walnut wood filler and walnut stain won't fix.

 

I have also completed the main gun deck, and though it will mostly be covered I have planked the whole thing. The kit and build continues to be very challenging, but progress is being made. Pictures below.

 

 

 

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

It has been awhile since my last post, but I have made a fair amount of progress. the planking has been raised above the 2nd gun deck and all elements of the 2nd deck have been completed. Given my problems with the gun carriages on the lowest deck, I have used dowels to secure the carriages on this deck. I can't imagine them coming loose this time.

 

One of the features of this kit are the elaborate rear galleries, and one of the mysteries of the kit is how in the world do you build them with the materials and instructions supplied. There is only one schematic of how the various parts are supposed to fit, and no other written instructions that I could find. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how putting the pieces together per the schematic, or any other way, was going to end up looking like the finished model pictures I had seen. I finally gave up!

 

Although it was probably too early in the build to start the galleries, I decided there was not much point in continuing on with the build unless I could complete them. I decided to ignore the schematics and do a freelance build that would end up looking like the terrific pictures I had found on the internet. In the end I think things turned out pretty well as shown in the pictures below.

 

 

 

 

[Gmummey]

my name is gordon just got my wvh kit can use all the help i can get 

send any help to      mummeywins@yahoo.com

106 degrees hot today in las vegas

[josh0526]

Hi Andy,

 

Just noticed today that our go-to source:

 

http://chez-xandra.be/publ/16-1-0-60

 

...no longer seems to be available.  Did you happen to ever go through and save all the full-res photos from the site?  If so, I wouldn't mind getting a hold of these from you if you'd be willing to share them.  I could also figure out a good way to host them for any other interested builders.  I was even thinking of maybe adding them to my own blog under a resources page or something like that so that this valuable information doesn't get lost to those who need it.

 

Hope to hear from you on this.

 

--Josh

[buffialdo@alice.it]

salve potreste aiutarmi inviandomi delle foto nella sequenza del montaggio della wapper  grazie 

[lgfrench]

I am currently building this ship and located the very helpful build log noted as missing in the previous post,

 

 http://www.chez-xandra.eu/publ/16-1-0-60

[josh0526]

Great find lgfrench!  I'm going through the site and downloading all of the excellent build photos now.