ZHL Royal Caroline Kit, scale 1/30

Hello John, You are sure turning into a Chief, that cheese dish looks great. Sure would be nice to drop in on you but that would be quite a long paddle in our canoe. Sounds that I am a bit luckier than you as my Admiral still goes in to the mail and still likes to shop for groceries, I normally cook breakfast and dinner and a few suppers, but she cooks much better than I. We are coming up on our 56th Anniversary in Oct., hard to realise just where the time goes. Please say hello to your Admiral for us OK.
Your rope walker sure sounds interesting, just may give it a try when I complete my Oliver Cromwell build, sure would be a nice change in pace, keep up the great work and will stop by again soon.
Regards Lawrence
 
Thank you for the nice comments Lawrence, that's a coincidence our Anniversary is in October as well, the 5th to be exact, it's our 52nd.
A long time ago when I was in the British Merchant Navy we used to sail to Canada, we used to sail to Le Harve in France , then we would go to Cobh in Southern Ireland, then it was across the Atlantic to Quebec and then up to Montreal where we used to have 3 days before reversing and going back to Southampton England, and then on across to Rotterdam for 4 days, it was a great life, I really enjoyed it, your country is very nice, but very cold in winter, it would be nice if we could catch up with all our friends on SOS, you and the Admiral take care and stay safe,

best regards john,
 
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It was time to attach the rails to the back of the Tops, in the instructions they say to file half way through the top
a 1.5mm brass tube as in the pic above then drill a hole through it and the wooden rail and attach them together
with some CA glue and a small brass pin, I didn't like that idea seemed a bit flimsy, so I did them as in the pic below,


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I had some 2mm brass tube with an inside dia of 1.5mm, so i cut and glued lengths of the 2mm tube and glued
them in place on top,


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then I glued another strip of wood to the rail provided and sanded them to shape, I then drilled and glued the
1.5mm tube into the rail making sure each piece was a different length,


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the reason for the different lengths is so that you can get one tube inside first and then follow on with the others
instead of trying to fit them all at once, then I just slid the rail down into the bottom tubes until there was only a
couple of mm's showing and then just a touch of CA glue on each rail and they were pushed down all the way,


1265.jpg
the finished rail, its a little bit thicker than it should be, but its a lot stronger,

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Thank you for the nice comments Lawrence, that's a coincidence our Anniversary is in October as well, the 5th to be exact, it's our 52nd.
A long time ago when I was in the British Merchant Navy we used to sail to Canada, we used to sail to Le Harve in France , then we would go to Cobh in Southern Ireland, then it was across the Atlantic to Quebec and then up to Montreal where we used to have 3 days before reversing and going back to Southampton England, and then on across to Rotterdam for 4 days, it was a great life, I really enjoyed it, your country is very nice, but very cold in winter, it would be nice if we could catch up with all our friends on SOS, you and the Admiral take care and stay safe,

best regards john,
Hello John, Yes my sea going days were also many years ago, Been into Le Harve, Newcastle England for 21 days in drydock, Bremerhaven, Germany, also for 21 days drydock. a lot of country's in Europe and the Med. Sea. I also sailed the Great Lakes and costal Canada and the USA from Newfoundland to Texas, We were in most of these ports. On the tankers we did a lot of runs out of Venezuela and a lot of the Caribbean Islands. Thinking back, sure have been in a lot of places before my marriage life and that all changed.
Great job you are doing on your ship, your mast and platforms rails look supper, will have to keep this in mind when if ever I get to that stage in my build, but she is growing day by day. Do say hello to your Admiral for us OK.
Regards Lawrence
 
G'day Greg, hope your feeling a little bit better now, and yes I did find the stuff for the hinges, it is provided as wire and thin strip, I ended up just gluing the companion way doors, I may give it a go on the skylights, will have to do a mock up first to see what they turn out like, have you bought yours yet, I was in touch with ZHL and they have now sent me the full English instructions and parts list, I will go through them later, but they should be a great help,

best regards John.
Hello John,
My name is Rick of Albany, Oregon USA. I purchased the same kit and received it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, I had to purchase the cabin Interior separately, ugh!!!! To make a long story short, thought I was buying from Max at Zhl but was a different seller on Ebay. I got all the plans and the Chinese CDs but would love to get a copy of the plans and parts list in English from you if all possible??? I would gladly pay you something for your time and hassle. Keep up the great job and I am watching your build with great intrest--- Rick
 
Hello John,
My name is Rick of Albany, Oregon USA. I purchased the same kit and received it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, I had to purchase the cabin Interior separately, ugh!!!! To make a long story short, thought I was buying from Max at Zhl but was a different seller on Ebay. I got all the plans and the Chinese CDs but would love to get a copy of the plans and parts list in English from you if all possible??? I would gladly pay you something for your time and hassle. Keep up the great job and I am watching your build with great intrest--- Rick
Hi Rick welcome to the Royal Caroline build, it is a fantastic model.
Hope you start a build log on her.
 
Started adding some of the iron work,


View attachment 33008
These are the etched brass fittings for the middle seatView attachment 33009
After bending and painting black I attached them with a small dab of super glue and four brass pins




View attachment 33010
So this will be the final lay out of the oar positions, I will fill in X and cut a new position at Z, the spacing seems OK.




View attachment 33011
Close up view.



View attachment 33012
The present state of the boat, still a bit to do.




View attachment 33013
Overall view, slowly getting there

Hi John,

I am very late to the party, though I am enjoying the build.

I guess you are not going ahead with the removable keel?

This blog has opened my eyes I didn't realise how incredible these kits are.

Love the cutter/launch.

Buy the way your tug looks great.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Well just for my own satisfaction and for anyone who might build the Royal Caroline, I got out the drawings and measured them against the model I am building,
from the transom to the front of the figure head on the AOTship drawings the distance is 1100, and on the model the distance is 1055, so the model is 45mm shorter than the AOTship drawings. This causes some problems when attaching the carvings along the sides of the ship, I didn't know about this till I started attaching the carvings and subsequently I had to trim the carvings to get them to fit.

So I took some further measurements to find out where the differences were, from the front of the figure head to the first bulkhead on the bow,
on the drawing it was 123mm and on the model it was 110mm, 13mm difference,

there is not a lot you can do about this area, the main ones are the next three areas that I measured where the carvings fit along the hull

then I measured from the bulk head on the bow to the end of the last cupid on the fourth gun port , on the drawing it was 415mm and on the model it was also 415mm, no difference,

then I measured from the end of that last cupid to the back of the cabin, on the drawing it was 305mm and on the model it was 290mm, 15mm difference, so if you are going to extend the length of the model you need to cut the keel and insert a strip of ply the same thickness as the keel and 15mm wide, preferably in front of the main mast, if you do this the carving will sit in place quite comfortably


then I measured from the back of the cabin to the back of the transom, on the drawing it was 255mm and on the model it was 240mm, 15mm difference, also you would have to do the same right behind where the main cabin ends, there are several other things as well but these are the main changes to get all the carvings to sit in place without having to trim them like I had to.


all the differences add up to 43mm, which is close as to the 45mm overall difference

also Greg wanted to know the width of the main cabin, at the front it was 215mm on the drawings and 203mm on the model, at the back where it narrows it was 192mm on the drawings and 178mm on the model,

all the above measurements are give or take a mm,


happy modelling,

best regards John.

.
Hi John,

That sort of problem would give me a headache.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Hello John, That Zhl Royal Caroline never fails to amaze me, such a great kit with so much beautiful wood work it seams like the surprise in this kit will never end. A friend of mine over on the other form was building the European Royal Caroline, he was so discussed with the quality of the kit, that he replaced most of the planking and then gave up on it as a lost cause. As far as I know he never returned to this Royal Caroline, but that was many years ago so who knows for sure.
Today Bernadette and I celebrated our 55ths Anniversary, a rather pleasant day. We would like to get out more but due to this virus thing we are very much stuck inside, at least to they bring out the vaccine in a month or so. Please say hello to your Admiral for us.
Regards Lawrence
 
Hi Rick welcome to the Royal Caroline build, it is a fantastic model.
Hope you start a build log on her.
Hello John, I will be doing a build log. I am currently in the process of converting the Chinese parts list to English. There are a few items I am not entirely sure what the part is and hopefully will get a better idea when finshed..
-Rick
 
Hello John, I will be doing a build log. I am currently in the process of converting the Chinese parts list to English. There are a few items I am not entirely sure what the part is and hopefully will get a better idea when finshed..
-Rick
Any questions Rick, just ask, through trial and error I have found out what most are,

best regards John,
 
Today Bernadette and I celebrated our 55ths Anniversary, a rather pleasant day. We would like to get out more but due to this virus thing we are very much stuck inside, at least to they bring out the vaccine in a month or so. Please say hello to your Admiral for us.
Regards Lawrence
G'day Lawrece, and a very Happy Anniversary to you and Bernadette on your 55 fifth Anniversary, catc h up soon,

best regards John,
 
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