Armed Virginia Sloop - 1:100 - Seahorse

[catopower]

Thank you DC,

I'm glad you find it instructive. To answer your question about the instructions, I don't have a lot to compare with. They are better than most of the Shipyard kit instructions I've gotten in the past. But, sailing ships are complicated by nature, and hard to explain when you get past the hull construction.

Besides that, I did find the instructions helpful. One thing they reinforced was how to keep the ribs of the hull from showing through the hull coverings. Also, the instructions taught me to score the planking lines to give the hull planking more relief.

Anyway, they're good enough that this has been a fun project so far.

There are certainly some areas where I really had to dig through the few provided diagrams and photos to understand some things. The bowsprit, for example. I was trying to figure out how the inboard end is fixed to the ship. I used an external reference to figure it out. Later, I realized there was one photo in the kit that was at an angle where you can see the way the bowsprit is attached. Other details seem adequate, though they may not be mentioned in the provided text.

[catopower]

Hello Tomek,

Thanks for your support and your explanations. I can understand how paper modelers in Poland could make a challenge out of building models using ONLY paper. I'm sure there must be those that feel that way over here on this side of the ocean. Coming from a wooden ship model background, I see this to a large extent with wood and metal.

It's funny that you mentioned using matches to make timberheads. I don't know if you meant wooden or cardboard matches, but then it dawned on me that it would have been much simpler if I just cut some small cardboard pieces for them instead of using the polymer clay. The clay was just kind of an automatic response for me, and my brain went straight to this as a solution, even though there were simpler solutions.

Eventually, I'll learn!

[catopower]

So, I've been looking at the wooden models of the Armed Virginia Sloop and so I got a little bit daring and made a risky decision to color the decks a bit. I made a thin mixture of paint and tested it and re-tested it many times. Finally, I put paint to the deck. It was like jumping into a pool of water, not really sure how warm or cold the water is, or how deep it is...

I think the paint worked out. It soaked into the printed paper quite easily. Below, you can see the before and after pics...

[catopower]

Plugging along now, slowly but surely. All the big features are done, so all I have are the little things. Been making wire rings and eyebolts lately. Lots and lots of them, and with cannons, correct rigging means lots and lots AND LOTS more to go.

The wire I'm using is a bit on the large size, but at normal viewing distance, these look okay. And, this size wire holds its shape pretty well. I'm afraid thinner wire will not hold its shape when I tie lines to it.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together some of the other deck furniture, such as the main companion way and the ship's wheel. A much needed break from making eyebolts.

By the way, I count that I more than 50 more eyebolts...

[catopower]

Last week, I received me order from Seahorse.pl of the additional parts for this kit. I'd ordered the 3D printed cannons, the blocks and deadeyes set, the dowel set. The most impressive items were definitely the cannons, which included the 3pdr gun barrels and the swivel guns.

The parts were black, but the handles of the swivel guns looked like they were slightly transparent. So, I went ahead and sprayed them all with Tamiya matte black acrylic.

Regarding the dowels set, being a wood ship modeler, I probably won't use them myself, as they still need to be resized a bit, and real masts and bowsprits have square cross sections in certain places, and I find it easier to start with square stock, just from habit. I actually got them because the product description said they were made of beech, and I like the color of beech and wanted to try them out. However, when I got the dowels, thery were definitely more like common birch dowels, which are fine.

[georgerutherford1861]

Very nice, keep up the good work!

Doug

[Wyvern]

Really looking good, and a wealth of good information!

Wyvern

[catopower]

Thank you Doug, Wyvern...

Okay, so here are the gun carriages, now complete. These were made from the optional laser-cut gun carriage set, which is available separately. More advanced modelers than me may want to stick with the printed paper parts. One thing to note is that the laser-cut set does not include instructions, so you have to use the same instructions in the kit for the printed paper parts. It was mildly confusing, because there's nothing that actually says you have to do this. Also, some of the kit parts need to be used for the laser-cut gun carriages, and that's not mentioned anwhere. Even so, it didn't take much to figure out what I needed to do.

Now, you can see in the photos below, that I started by assembling the carriage, but left the wheels, or gun trucks, for last. When you get to the photo that shows all the carriages assembled and painted, the wheels are still on the laser-cut sheet. Those hubs on the wheels, axles actually, are provided in the basic kit on a tiny laser-cut board.

I had a little problem with those axle pieces, as they delaminated very easily. So, some axles look bigger than others.

The other problem I had was that these are very tiny cardboard parts, and it was hard for me to work with them and see very clearly.

In the close-up photo, you can see that the front axle on this carriage got rotated about 45 degrees. It's so small that it's not noticeable at all. Plus, it will be 90% hidden once I put the wheels on.

The last photos show the cannon barrels in place and the guns out on the deck of the ship. I will play around with some configuration ideas about which ports to put the guns in.

In reality, the ship may have carried few guns that gun ports to minimize the weight of all that iron. Or, that's all that they ship owner was able to acquire. I expect that the captain would have decided how to distribute the cannons, to keep the ship in the best sailing trim.

Still more detailing to come on the cannon carriages...

[catopower]

I haven't gotten around to making all the eyebolts I need yet. But, instead, I began working on the masts and spars. There are 8 wooden dowels I need for this model.

I purchased the mast accessory set from Seahorse.pl, but the ship modeler in me realized that I should start with square stock strips, as the masts and bowsprit all have section with square cross section. This is actually shown nicely in the kit instructions.

Fortunately, I have a very nice hobby table saw, so I can cut pieces to exact needs. I have plenty of boxwood, so I used that. All masts, yards, bowsprit, gaff and boom are tapered. For this, I have a very nice mini-plane I bought from Lee Valley Hardware a few years ago, which I used to taper the stock and then to round out the square stock. To do this, you shave down the 4 corners until you have an octagonal cross section. Then, you take down each of those corners and it's most round then, which I just finish off with a sanding wand.

I shaped some of the pieces I need, and added some of the paper details for the mast head and the round truck at the tip of the topmast. But, obviously, I have a lot more to do.

Note that to better secure the bowsprit, I drilled a hole in it and into the deck and I inserted a length of brass rod. The end of the rod will be hidden, as there is a strap that goes across the bowsprit. In reality, this would be an iron strap that is bolted to the deck, holding the bowsprit in position.

Most of the paper pieces on the mast need to be strengthened, so I soaked them with CA glue after putting them into place with Aleene's Tacky Glue. Also, the "mast doubling" will be painted black, and most of the bare wood will end up getting painted or stained a darker brown color.

[Michael Mash]

I like the look of this one with the long bowsprit.
Nice work.