Hello all, I've been stalking the forum for a while now and decided it was time to contribute a little.
A few years ago I bought a cheap kit from China, it lived a drawer for a while and I recently decided to get started on it. This will be my first build of a wooden model kit, I've built some plastic kits as a teenager but that is a good 10+ years ago. I was a bit intimidated to start (which is why the kit lived in a drawer for a few years), but have been very pleasantly surprised by the experience.
The build logs on here have been fantastic in helping me figure things out, especially this excellent log by Kurt.
Without the resources on this forum I would've struggled with the very brief instructions that came with the kit.
Anyhow, I've been at it for about a month and am getting close to finishing the build but I'll start at the beginning. For my first model I'm not going for historical accuracy, just looking for a good time building and a result that I can look at proudly for years to come.
I have the kit with the little lifeboat, and I figured if I'd be able to make that one first I'd definitely be able to do the planking on the main ship.
After the lifeboat I got started on the main hull.
The planking took me a good few evenings of work and didn't turn out perfect, but nothing some wood filler, sanding and painting couldn't fix
I had already decided from the start I was going with a painted hull and not with a stain since I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do the planking good enough for a nice finish.
As you can see I decided to add some detail to the gun ports, partially inspired by another build, partially because I snapped one of the sides right at a gun port while dry fitting and wanted to strengthen them a little.
When I started adding colour to the build I wasn't quite happy with the look of it especially after adding the wales to the hull. It just looked messy and unbalanced. Sooo... I took it all off and redid it all, moving the wales a bit higher and lined up perfectly with the edges of the gun ports. I had some leftover planks so I added them to the tops as well as adding a nice edge detail at the stern. Very happy about that change, it looks so much more balanced this way.
Added some detail to the rudder with small strips of planks painted with gold/copper paint to match all the other copper details like the chains and cannons.
I bought some 6 mm (brass?) belaying pins from china that fit well with the scale and colour scheme I'm going for, as well as some chains for the anchors.
I'm on a bit of a budget, but also a bit of a perfectionist so I wanted the main details to look at least mostly right.
So I also got me some 4mm deadeyes from china, which was the smallest size I could find for a reasonable price (€2,20 for 20 pcs.)
I made a little jig to make sure I'd be able to get everything at the same length.
That's it for now. Interested to hear what you all have to say
A few years ago I bought a cheap kit from China, it lived a drawer for a while and I recently decided to get started on it. This will be my first build of a wooden model kit, I've built some plastic kits as a teenager but that is a good 10+ years ago. I was a bit intimidated to start (which is why the kit lived in a drawer for a few years), but have been very pleasantly surprised by the experience.
The build logs on here have been fantastic in helping me figure things out, especially this excellent log by Kurt.
Without the resources on this forum I would've struggled with the very brief instructions that came with the kit.
Anyhow, I've been at it for about a month and am getting close to finishing the build but I'll start at the beginning. For my first model I'm not going for historical accuracy, just looking for a good time building and a result that I can look at proudly for years to come.
I have the kit with the little lifeboat, and I figured if I'd be able to make that one first I'd definitely be able to do the planking on the main ship.
After the lifeboat I got started on the main hull.
The planking took me a good few evenings of work and didn't turn out perfect, but nothing some wood filler, sanding and painting couldn't fix
I had already decided from the start I was going with a painted hull and not with a stain since I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do the planking good enough for a nice finish.As you can see I decided to add some detail to the gun ports, partially inspired by another build, partially because I snapped one of the sides right at a gun port while dry fitting and wanted to strengthen them a little.
When I started adding colour to the build I wasn't quite happy with the look of it especially after adding the wales to the hull. It just looked messy and unbalanced. Sooo... I took it all off and redid it all, moving the wales a bit higher and lined up perfectly with the edges of the gun ports. I had some leftover planks so I added them to the tops as well as adding a nice edge detail at the stern. Very happy about that change, it looks so much more balanced this way.
Added some detail to the rudder with small strips of planks painted with gold/copper paint to match all the other copper details like the chains and cannons.
I bought some 6 mm (brass?) belaying pins from china that fit well with the scale and colour scheme I'm going for, as well as some chains for the anchors.
I'm on a bit of a budget, but also a bit of a perfectionist so I wanted the main details to look at least mostly right.
So I also got me some 4mm deadeyes from china, which was the smallest size I could find for a reasonable price (€2,20 for 20 pcs.)
I made a little jig to make sure I'd be able to get everything at the same length.
That's it for now. Interested to hear what you all have to say
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