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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I know it’s been a while since I posted anything new on my laser-cut card model kit of the snow-rigged brig HMS Wolf, but I am working on the model. I’ve been distracted with a couple plastic kit projects and my Woody Joe kit of the Charles royal yacht, but I find time here and there to work on Wolf.
The biggest update on this 1/72-scale Shipyard kit, is that I’ve been making some of the deck details and rigging the cannons. In the photo below, you can see I got the guns rigged with their breech ropes. I’m trying to decide if I can manage to rig the train tackles. I need very tiny blocks, and I haven’t decided if I will continue with the kit’s laser-cut card blocks or if I’m going with some wooden ones. Also, I need to make up my mind on the use of rigging material.
The kit comes with rigging line that I think is linen line, though someone who probably knows better told me is more likely cotton. I should check with Shipyard to get a definitive answer. But, in any case, the finest of the provided line is very strong, but the larger sizes aren’t as well defined as the stuff that I can get from places like Syren Ship Model Company or Ropes of Scale.
This past Thanksgiving weekend, I helped out our ship model club at a model show of the local chapter of the International Plastic Modelers’ Society. I was really reluctant to enter any models into the competition, but that’s what the event was mostly about, so entered two models (they don’t have to be plastic, even though it’s in the name).
Mine are the two on the left. The other is a model of our club member Jacob Cohn.
It was pretty obvious, since only myself and one other member of our ship model club had entries in our category, that I was going to win awards. But it was still nice to come away with some model recognition. Also, I was sort of taken by surprise, when I heard my name called again near the end of the awards. Turns out that they awarded my model of the American Galley Gunboat (a.k.a. Gunboat Arrow) Best Ship or Space Ship.
My American Galley Gunboat, built from an Amati kit, back at home port, now with “display enhancers”…
In the end, as a modeler of wood and card sailing ship subjects, it did make me feel more welcome and accepted by the IPMS. I think there will be a larger showing of these types of models in the local shows now. Then, perhaps there might eventually be more categories for them in future events.
My little fishing boat Dana, built from an inexpensive Billing Boats kit came away with a 2nd Place award.
The next local IPMS event is the Silicon Valley Classic in June. I’m already thinking about what I might have ready to enter in that one. But, I’d better get to work on my projects. Six months isn’t a lot of time for ship modelers! Ω
A quick update here, as I finished the deck house door and fixed all the hatches and coamings to the deck, as well as the deck house. I also permanently fixed the prop into place, and made the ventilator cowl.
Pressing on with the Monterey salmon boat, I managed to add the cap rail. I traced out the shape of the bow and stern, and cut sheet wood to fit these curves. The outer edge of the rail is going to be made flush with the outer edge of the hull. After painting, the whole thing will be edged with a strip of natural finished wood trim.
I’m happily keeping focussed on the Monterey salmon boat and making good progress. Most recently, I had primered the hull, coamings, and deck house. I felt I was far enough along to go ahead and do some full on painting. I masked off the hull and painted the whole hull with Tamiya gloss white spray lacquer.
Ship Modeler 