King of the Mississippi by maturin52 - FINISHED - Artesania Latina

[maturin52]

This is my last completed project: HMS Bounty's Jolly boat by Artesenia Latina.

I am now working on the King of the Mississippi by the same company.

 

 

Figured out low res mods so the pics aren't so huge. I've been working on the hull for a while now. It's a time consuming process!

 

Does anyone have any closeups of the "stabling boxes"? The pics in the instructions are very unclear!

Edited February 15, 2015 by maturin52

[Philg88]

Hi there,

 

My first post and hopefully the first of many. I started this kit about a week ago and will create a build log before too long. The hull is certainly time consuming - the instructions are sparse to say the least and trying to figure out the stern took me a while. Look forward to seeing your progress.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[maturin52]

Finally have the hull and deck planked and now starting to finish the hull. My plan is to put 2 coats of stain on the hull and the 2 coats of polyurethane over hull and deck.

[Philg88]

I didn't stain the hull - the wood looked good just as it was. I used three coats of matt varnish on the hull and first deck with a light sanding with P2000 grade emery paper before the last coat.

[maturin52]

The hull is finished at last. I wanted a bit of a distressed look, so I worked a bit with the stain and then covered the whole thing with two coats of polyurethane. I like the result. The lower deck structures are almost ready to install, so hopefully things will move along a little quicker now. In any case, there's no rush!

Edited February 24, 2015 by maturin52

[maturin52]

The hull is complete, and the Engine Room and the Boiler Room have been put in place. Despite sketchy instructions, I figured out the stabling boxes and the supports for the bars to the livestock area. Progress is being made!

 

 

 

 

 

I've been purposely using low resolution images to keep the file size down. Should I use higher resolution to improve detail?

Edited March 7, 2015 by maturin52

[Philg88]

Hi resolution is always nice - then we can see your handiwork at close quarters. I drop my pics down to 40 cm wide at 72 dpi using Photoshop, which makes them about 150 - 250 k.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[maturin52]

 

The second deck is planked and the rubbing strake is installed. Next step will be to clear coat it, and then to continue working on the second deck cabins.

 

Thanks for the input on picture size, Phillip, I've tried your suggested size here, and I think it looks good.

 

Mike

[Philg88]

You're welcome. You might want to check  the smoke stack holes - the precut holes in my kit pieces  were out of alignment between the second and third decks.

 

Philip

[maturin52]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check that before gluing up. Did you fix it byrelocating the 3rd deck openings?

[Philg88]

Yes,  I just moved the 3rd deck openings back a bit.

[maturin52]

 

The second deck has been finished and installed.

 

 

and the cabins for the 2nd deck are under construction.

 

 

I've just got a new phone, whith a higher resolution camera. I'm going to have to work with the images a bit more to bring down the file size some more, these are well over 1 meg each.

 

[maturin52]

I've been exteremely bad at posting build pictures. However, I have been better at working on the ship herself. It's FINISHED. I've taken a few pictures of the finshed project. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post them, as the files are too large as they stand. I'll resize them and get them up here tomorrow, along with a few comments on the experience. My next project was delivered by UPS this afternoon, Artesania Latina's HMS Bounty - 1783. I'll take a few days to clean up mywork area, sort and store leftover bits and pieces, and start all over again. I can't wait.

 

OK, here are my remaining photos. I've stuck pretty closely to the build as in the instructions. The only real addition I made were a couple of coils of rope on the foredeck where the lines for the gangplank are. I'm pleased with the overall result, and I'm looking forward to returning to square rigs and to starting a new Build Log.

 

Mike

St. Louis, Missouri

 

Edited August 27, 2015 by maturin52