I've reached a bit of a milestone with 'Granado', in that I have finished all the frames, and I'm now ready to start fairing up the hull.
'What?' do I hear you say - 'I thought Ted was building 'La Salamandre!'
Well, yes - he was!
I'd better tell you the tale.
Many, many years ago, when I was a youngster, I loved the 'Hornblower' books by C S Forester, and in one of them is a very detailed account of the workings of a Bomb Ketch, which absolutely fascinated me.
Move on to 1976, and I was subscribing to 'Model Shipwright' - a British quarterly publication focussing on all sorts of ship models (MS started in 1973, but ceased publication in 2013) In June 1976 there appeared an article by Bob Lightley on the construction of his HMS Granado, which was a horizontally split model to show the interior. This model ended up in the National Maritime Museum in London, and has since become the model that a lot of people have mentioned in SOS.
Interest re-kindled, but other models requiring construction.
In 1989, Peter Goodwin's book 'The Bomb Vessel Granado' appeared in the 'Anatomy of the ship' series (Cost me a whole £18!) Things were looking good, but you can't hurry these things, and I had just started building 'Natterer' (Link below)
I then found in 1999 a pristine copy of Boudriot's 'The Bomb Ketch Salamandre' in a second-hand maritime bookshop I used to frequent (now closed) Full drawings, sections, tables - the lot. It was also 'put away' for the future.
Then I found SOS, and found there was a kit of 'Salamandre' on the market, so promptly bought it in (I think) 2019. A nice kit from CAF, but it had to go on the shelf until I finished Bob Hunt's 'Kingfisher' I finally made a start in 2020, and had got all the frames thrown up, when suddenly CAF released a kit of 'Granado' - (B****r, D**n, and worse)
Well this was a dilemma! I realised that I actually wanted to build 'Granado', and that I wasn't really getting pleasure building 'Salamandre'.
Serious discussions with SWMBO ensued, with consideration of cost, pleasure and SABLE entering the picture. In the end I decided to shelve 'Salamandre' for the moment and purchase 'Granado'. So there we have it - a gestation period of about 60 years!
Now I expect you might like to see what I have done so far. I started the build about six months ago, and have progressed at a fair rate for me (Usually glacially slow). However, I found I had lost my writing muse, and couldn't start the build log! But, I've now got the frames complete, and my conscience has managed to kick me in to submission.
I don't propose to detail the unpacking of the kit, as several members have already done this in excellent detail. Suffice to say the contents were first class, the laser and CNC routing exceptional, and the instructions head and shoulders above 'Salamandre'.
I also don't propose to go in to a lot of detail on my build, as again it has been very well covered by others. What I will do is to update you at (hopefully) regular intervals, together with my notes covering modifications, errors, mistakes to avoid and so on. Even after nearly 70 years of modelling, I often make mistakes, but the difference is I know how I can generally rectify matters.
I'm going to close this update for tonight, but will come back to you in a day or two to post the start of the kit. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture showing progress to date.
Ted
All the frames completed, but only the cant frames are fixed at this point. I now have to start second fitting and fairing
'What?' do I hear you say - 'I thought Ted was building 'La Salamandre!'
Well, yes - he was!
I'd better tell you the tale.
Many, many years ago, when I was a youngster, I loved the 'Hornblower' books by C S Forester, and in one of them is a very detailed account of the workings of a Bomb Ketch, which absolutely fascinated me.
Move on to 1976, and I was subscribing to 'Model Shipwright' - a British quarterly publication focussing on all sorts of ship models (MS started in 1973, but ceased publication in 2013) In June 1976 there appeared an article by Bob Lightley on the construction of his HMS Granado, which was a horizontally split model to show the interior. This model ended up in the National Maritime Museum in London, and has since become the model that a lot of people have mentioned in SOS.
Interest re-kindled, but other models requiring construction.
In 1989, Peter Goodwin's book 'The Bomb Vessel Granado' appeared in the 'Anatomy of the ship' series (Cost me a whole £18!) Things were looking good, but you can't hurry these things, and I had just started building 'Natterer' (Link below)
I then found in 1999 a pristine copy of Boudriot's 'The Bomb Ketch Salamandre' in a second-hand maritime bookshop I used to frequent (now closed) Full drawings, sections, tables - the lot. It was also 'put away' for the future.
Then I found SOS, and found there was a kit of 'Salamandre' on the market, so promptly bought it in (I think) 2019. A nice kit from CAF, but it had to go on the shelf until I finished Bob Hunt's 'Kingfisher' I finally made a start in 2020, and had got all the frames thrown up, when suddenly CAF released a kit of 'Granado' - (B****r, D**n, and worse)
Well this was a dilemma! I realised that I actually wanted to build 'Granado', and that I wasn't really getting pleasure building 'Salamandre'.
Serious discussions with SWMBO ensued, with consideration of cost, pleasure and SABLE entering the picture. In the end I decided to shelve 'Salamandre' for the moment and purchase 'Granado'. So there we have it - a gestation period of about 60 years!
Now I expect you might like to see what I have done so far. I started the build about six months ago, and have progressed at a fair rate for me (Usually glacially slow). However, I found I had lost my writing muse, and couldn't start the build log! But, I've now got the frames complete, and my conscience has managed to kick me in to submission.
I don't propose to detail the unpacking of the kit, as several members have already done this in excellent detail. Suffice to say the contents were first class, the laser and CNC routing exceptional, and the instructions head and shoulders above 'Salamandre'.
I also don't propose to go in to a lot of detail on my build, as again it has been very well covered by others. What I will do is to update you at (hopefully) regular intervals, together with my notes covering modifications, errors, mistakes to avoid and so on. Even after nearly 70 years of modelling, I often make mistakes, but the difference is I know how I can generally rectify matters.
I'm going to close this update for tonight, but will come back to you in a day or two to post the start of the kit. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture showing progress to date.
Ted
All the frames completed, but only the cant frames are fixed at this point. I now have to start second fitting and fairing
So, I am in to follow your build and sit and wait until you split yours. I'm curious how you will do that.