Fair American by Pine Tar – Model Shipways – 1:48

[Ol' Pine Tar]

Thanks Don. The gallows, bits and binnacle are wood. Gallows are from the kit and the bits and binnacle scratchbuilt. The capstan and anchors are kit castings. I'll probably replace several of the castings with scratchbuilt stuff.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Len Turner

[JPAM]

good morning Sir, 

 

I am glad you are not mothballing your build. I am on the rigging stage (tying ratlines) of my FA build and I can tell you it's worth while as she builds a bonnie boat. 

i'll let you know of some issues I've encountered thus far that will help you facilitate your project. 

 

yes, the gun ports are the wrong size or the guns are too big. I sanded the bottom of the gun carriages and made the notch of the gun pivot deeper but even that did not really do the trick. some of the guns will have to face down a bit especially the ones up front. it's just a design flaw on the kit. 

install all deck blocks around the masts and the mast blocks (you will have to figure out where all this goes from the full size rigging plan) before you step them, I should have known to do this but the booklet did not mention it and thus I did not think about it. 

the rigging is horribly obfuscated.the deck view plan has items on it that do not appear on the full scale rigging plan and vise versa. it says that the rigging plans are supposed to be on black and red ink but only come in black. they were, 'revised' in 1977 (40 years ago!) and are in sore need to be, 'revised' again. it's good to have a rudimentary understanding of 1780/s Brigs before tackling this and thus you can fill in the gaps. regardless it would be nice for MS to make this part of the build more accessible as i would in no way recommend this ship for a first time builder.

I am just myself getting back into the hobby and this is the fist boat i've worked on in quite a while.

 

but keep at it.. your binnacle and hull are looking fantastic.

 

 I will follow your build. she does make a very pretty boat when finished. 

 

Yours Sincerely

 

JPam   

[Ol' Pine Tar]

Thanks JPam. Yes, the gun ports were the cause of most of my miseries. I think I've got that problem solved. And, once again, I've been going through all the FA build logs on MSW and still finding a lot of good advice. Thanks for commenting!