Deck Furniture

[tball4217]

spending too much time looking at the advertisements for models,, and a few things keep kicking into my head..

The scale has gotten bad for many things... seriously,, blocks on guns that are larger then the wheel of the gun carraige itself... retraction tackle for carronades , not the slide but the side to side pivot,

And deck furniture that is not even completed.. Yes not all will use a photo from the correct stage of construction,, but I would hope that someone would be proof checking photos and realizing that your ad photos for a 400$ model,,, has the hatch coamings as unpainted, unstained, plywood. And that the "windows" were never cut out, the burn line from the laser cutter serving as the window..

This may be picky and my OCD kicking out at me. But have anyone really looked closely at the plywood roofs of the deck houses, hatch coamings, etc? Its really bad when painted.. its normal to cut individual strips of wood to plank the deck, but not cut a few strips of wood to make a proper gun carriage for your gunboat william, or a nice deck house roof for your 300$ hunter model...

 

[dockattner]

Ha! I spent $1300 on a Vasa model and had to throw out sheets and sheets of plywood. When the instructions said to paint the hull brown to simulate wood planking I knew I was in trouble .

 

[AllanKP69]

blocks on guns that are larger then the wheel of the gun carraige itself... retraction tackle for carronades , not the slide but the side to side pivot,

Many of us agree with you. There are other examples such has huge belaying pins or worse, having belaying pins on English warships before the mid 18th century when they were not even used. On the other hand making the smallest scale parts is difficult and getting things right requires research which takes time and experience and that all carries a cost. Accurate reviews on new entries into the market would be a big help.
Allan

 

[paul ron]

thats what got me into scratch building. id buy the plan set for those kits and make everything myself as well as research what my build needs to be as close to the real ship of its time...

but also realize the limiting factor of scale as well. im working a 1:96 1851 clipper im including full righing, but no sails... i can fit them in. i have so many scale problems.. blocks dont have enough variation in size so some places just look out of scale. ropes are too thick or thin, blocks are too big, belaying pins out of scale... its almost imposable to get it all right at this scale... its just the reality im dealing with so i make do as best i can with what i have and my level of skill. BUT... when i do my next ship, ill be ready for these problems because i dont make the same mistakes twice. my next ship will be in 1/4" to the foot where i can get a better level of detail. im still learning for the past 55 years and dealt with my share of mistakes, but im having a hell of alot of fun doing it. it keeps the gray matter pink.

besides, its only a model and a great hobby. my grand daughter helps me solve problems and in her 10 years of wisdom says, "grampy most people looking at your ships have no idea what it should be and will think your ships are awsome anyway." and she is 100% right. im not building exact replicas for a museum. its my fun factor that counts more. i love all my hobbies and give each one all the attention i can to the best of my ability.

so spend a fortune on kits and be the best kit builder you can, or become ocd with the rest of us and push yourself to the crazy house fussing over details no one will ever notice except you... and me.

 

[tball4217]

on the gun tackle... its not right when they use a 10-12mm block instead of a 2-3mm block...


But on other things... If you buy a kit, and its a glaring issue, even if it passes the 1 foot rule of photography, is it any harder to make a hatch cover out of a single layer of wood strips and have it look right... or to just use the crappy mahagony laser cut sheet and leave the chipped edges exposed..

 

[bluenos2]

I feel your pain brother. I started building the Corel HMB Endeavour. Going great. I received my copy of Karl Heinz Marquard's book on the same. Oh no. All is kaput. The kit wasn't even close to the real thing. Luckily I was able to contact a company in Great Britain that sent me parts for the Jotika kit. Correct stern decorations and photo etch etc. I scratch built the binnacle and many other things to accurize it. The Jotika kit wasn't available yet. $500.00 Canadian and I felt so discouraged. Purchased the Mamoli HMB Beagle. Received Marquard's book. Great googly moogly, same thing. Saved what I could and purchased the OcCre kit. Another 500 bucks down the drain. I built plastic before turning to the dark side of wooden ship building. If Tamiya or Hasagawa tried to pull a fast one on you like some of these guys do you'd burn their companies to the ground on social media. I know what some of you are going to say, well they have high developmental costs etc. I just finished a Tamiya, Africa Twin motorcycle model for a customer. Went together like a Swiss watch. Absolutely gorgeous. Looks like a miniature version of the real thing.No kit bashing involved. I would imagine that Tamiya spent more on development of this kit than some popular ship model companies do on theirs. Just saying. After you buy, do as much research as possible before putting glue to wood.

 

[Namabiiru]

besides, its only a model and a great hobby. my grand daughter helps me solve problems and in her 10 years of wisdom says, "grampy most people looking at your ships have no idea what it should be and will think your ships are awsome anyway." and she is 100% right. im not building exact replicas for a museum. its my fun factor that counts more. i love all my hobbies and give each one all the attention i can to the best of my ability.

True story.

 

[Smithy]

spending too much time looking at the advertisements for models,, and a few things keep kicking into my head..

The scale has gotten bad for many things... seriously,, blocks on guns that are larger then the wheel of the gun carraige itself... retraction tackle for carronades , not the slide but the side to side pivot,

And deck furniture that is not even completed.. Yes not all will use a photo from the correct stage of construction,, but I would hope that someone would be proof checking photos and realizing that your ad photos for a 400$ model,,, has the hatch coamings as unpainted, unstained, plywood. And that the "windows" were never cut out, the burn line from the laser cutter serving as the window..

This may be picky and my OCD kicking out at me. But have anyone really looked closely at the plywood roofs of the deck houses, hatch coamings, etc? Its really bad when painted.. its normal to cut individual strips of wood to plank the deck, but not cut a few strips of wood to make a proper gun carriage for your gunboat william, or a nice deck house roof for your 300$ hunter model...

I think the idea is that you can use your own skills and enterprise to enhance what the companies provide, making the model 'your own'. If you got perfection straight out of the box, where's the personal achievement?

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

scale, historically accurate etc are not high priorities these are hobby level mass produced kits not something built for a museum or art gallery.

you want to better yourself and produce a better model then either kit bash or scratch build.

when you spend $1,200.00 on a kit and toss half it in the trash it might be time to move on from kits.

you will never ever change the way a company produces a product for the hobby level builder. There are cost involved at every level of manufacturing a "kit"

 

[Tim Green]

True story.

Yeah - When I was weathering a model, my granddaughter asked why? And she mentioned that all boats were new, and shiny, at least once.

Anyway - I love this hobby. And some of these kits - they're pretty darn close to scratch building - except that you don't have to make your own plans. Scratch builders are in another league. But a good modeler can make a kit come to life too.

Anyway - as previously noted, 99%? of the people have no idea what's historically accurate. Besides - ships were always being rebuilt. And modified.

I do my best though, to make all the rigging work just like it did in the big boats. Fake blocks (just holes for the ropes), but the ropes move through em.

And I still weather my ships - love that (and my granddaughter).