Building a Monterey Salmon Fishing Boat, c. 1916 – FINAL

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been making a big push to get the Monterey Salmon Boat model and diorama done. A couple months ago, I was in contact with Tim Thomas at the Japanese American Citizens League Heritage Hall and Museum in Monterey, and they are having a special event that they wanted to have the model for. So, that lit a fire under me to get the model done.

The first thing was to get the beach done. As you may recall from my previous post, I started off with an MDF (Medium Density Fiber) board with pink insulation foam glued on top of that. I carved the foam to get the basic slope of the beach. I also carved out space for the launch ways, so that it would be partly buried under the beach sand.

HM Gun Brig Adder, 1797 – Vanguard Models

New Kit Arrival – HM Gun Brig Adder, 1797 from Vanguard Models

Ages of Sail is more active these days, and so am I. I’m finally getting some posts out on this site again after a bit of a hiatus. And, with the release of new kits from Vanguard Models, it’s very easy to get back to posting, as these new kits are very newsworthy.

The gun brig Adder, following the fairly recent release of HM Trial Cutter, looks like another beauty, and somewhat more affordable than some of Chris Watton’s kit releases last year. And, while I have an enormous stack of kits to build, this one looks REALLY tempting.

La Belle Poule, 1834 – New OcCre Kit at Ages of Sail

OcCre’s Newest Kit La Belle Poule Now Available!

Ages of Sail just announced receiving a shipment of the newest kit from OcCre of Spain, the 1834 French 60-gun frigate La Belle Poule. The name La Belle Poule has been carried by a number of French ships, including a training ship built in 1932, of which Dusek ship model company makes a kit. There is also a very famous frigate of the same name that fought with the British frigate HMS Arethusa on 17 June, 1778.

However, this La Belle Poule was a large 60-gun frigate of the Surveillante class, launched in 1834. She is most well known for being the ship that returned the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte to France from St. Helena.

OcCre’s new kit appears to be up to their well-known standard, offering a kit that builds into a nice looking model, including pre-sewn sails, and, unlike their counterpart Artesania Latina, also located in Spain, still includes printed instructions, parts lists.

As with all of the OcCre kits that I’m aware of, the instructions can be downloaded from the OcCre website, which is especially nice if you want to get a good look in advance at how the kit will go together. There are also step-by-step construction videos posted on YouTube, though at the time of this writing, I only see the first 5 of these posted. More will certain come soon. Ω

Building a Monterey Salmon Fishing Boat, c. 1916 – Part 6

My apologies, as updates on this site are LONG overdue. I have no excuses, except to say that I’ve been having to do a lot of extra work and haven’t had nearly enough time for my various projects. Most are on hold, but one, this Monterey Salmon Boat. The boat model itself has been finished for months now, and I’ve been spending my time trying to figure out how to build a relatively convincing diorama that looks something like the scene in the one photo we have of the boat.

Charles Royal Yacht, Third Update

For those of you who are wondering where I’m at on the Charles royal yacht kit from Woody Joe, progress continues as I delve into the rigging. And, while the rig is about as easy as ship model rigging gets, I have found that I enjoy rigging much less than the wood working and the hull and deck detailing. Progress is slow, but moving forward, and I’m pretty happy with things in general.

The first thing to note is that before I started the rigging, I took the opportunity to mount the model on a baseboard. I bought a 4′ plank of 5″ x 3/4″ walnut from Rockler. I was too lazy to actually go to the local shop to see if they had any decent pieces, so I just ordered one and had it shipped, taking my chances on the wood quality. When the wood arrived, I cut a 20″ long piece and routed the edges. I sanded it gave it a satin polyurethane finish, which I prefer for most of my baseboards.

My Latest Tool Addition – Anycubic Photon Ultra

It seems to me that I should have mention this quite some time ago, but back at the end of 2022, I broke down and bought myself a new Resin 3D Printer. Now, I really know next to nothing about 3D printing technology, though I’ve purchased 3D printed parts on occasion. But, I’d been contemplating how I might be able to create certain ship model details using 3D printed parts. It was holiday time and Anycubic posted some well-placed ads that caught my attention and I just couldn’t help myself. What I bought was the Anycubic Photo Ultra. 

Charles Royal Yacht, Second Update

My Charles royal yacht model is not done, but it is slowly coming along. I’ve just started the rigging stage and all is well. To recap this 1/64-scale model is a very fine kit from the Japanese wooden model kit maker Woody Joe. It represents one of the many royal yachts built by England’s Charles II, following his return to the throne in the late 17th century. The model is roughly based on a model that appears in the Royal Museums Greenwich.

New Kit Arrival – HM Cutter Trial, 1790 from Vanguard Models

https://blog.agesofsail.com/2024/01/27/new-kit-arrival-hm-cutter-trial-1790-from-vanguard-models/?page_id=8292

What can I say? I really want to build this!

Building a Kit Without the Kit – Corel’s Misticque – Part 2

It’s been nearly two years since I wrote about the possibility of scratch building a polacca xebec Misticque model from kit plans. Our local ship model club has been asked to participate in an even celebrating the reconstructed French 32-gun frigate Hermione, so it only seemed appropriate to be working on a French ship of the general era. Though a very different type of ship, Misticque was built in 1750 and was in service through the early 1780s, which is in Hermione’s time.

Charles Royal Yacht, New Year’s Update

My 1/64-scale Charles royal yacht is coming along very well, thought it’s not complete. I ran into a bit of a snag that I didn’t mention in my last post. When attempting to fit the “carving” work on the side of hull, I found that the distance between the line of the molding and the cap rail was too narrow. The scroll work is a cast metal and bends nicely, but I couldn’t bend them enough to fit properly. I ended up removing all the gunport wreaths and stripped the molding off, which was actually part of the hull planking. The whole thing was a pretty sad sight, but it needed to be done.