• SUBSCRIBE TO SHIPS IN SCALE TODAY!

    The beloved Ships in Scale Magazine is back and charting a new course for 2026!
    Discover new skills, new techniques, and new inspirations in every issue.

    NOTE THAT OUR NEXT ISSUE WILL BE MARCH/APRIL 2026
  • Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.

Endeavour 1/80 by Amati, Daqar - first time builder

D

Daqar

Joined
May 5, 2026
Messages
4
Points
3
Hi SoS,

This is my build log of the 1/80 scale Endeavour by Amati. I've never tried building a wooden ship before. I have a lot of experience with plastic model kits and wargaming minis, but I've never worked with wood before.

Box.jpg

I am fairly excited and have no idea what I'm doing. Which is probably the best starting position for learning something new. So far I've numbered all the parts on the lasercut sheets:

Numbered Parts.jpg

On friday I will pick up the last tools I need to get going. I picked up a large, flat cutting matt as my current setup isn't suitable for this kind of job. There are lips on my current cutting mat and so I can't have the false keel lie flat on it.

I am a bit worried about messing it up, but I figured that the shop I bought it from has a VERY large stock/inventory of wood strips/planks, dowels and fittings, so as long as I can manage to not break the lasercut stuff I can probably buy the whole model all over again in loose planks and fittings.

Between now and friday I'm gonna watch some more build videos, go over the instructions again and try to write out what I need to do on friday, in a small note book.
 
So I decided to cheat a bit and get started on the keel today. I didn't plan on doing any work on it until tomorrow for my hobby evening with a friend.IMG_20260507_174901959.jpg

So I got small coloured bookmarks that I'm using to navigate through the instructions, so I can quickly find the English translation of whatever photo I'm looking at.

IMG_20260507_174905602.jpg

Naturally only having worked on plastic models before I got worried about how to use a glue on wood. I ended up trying to find a youtube video on how to glue parts together, when I got a bit frustrated and decided that I just need to glue 4 pieces of wood together I don't need to analyse that situation.
IMG_20260507_193534398.jpgIMG_20260507_193618568.jpgIMG_20260507_193625081.jpgIMG_20260507_193637281.jpgIMG_20260507_193741027.jpg

Last image here is how I'm letting the keel rest overnight. The picture with the keel on the the clamps shows a slight curvature of the keel. I don't know how that happened or if it's even a problem. I got the support blocks as close to the slot as I dared and I think it came out quite well. So now all I need to do is let the keel rest until tomorrow for the spars and in the meantime workout how to deal with the curve if it is a problem at all.

I enjoyed this small step very much and I can't wait to see the finished model. I've seen youtube videos all afternoon and evening on J-class yacht and hot damn those things are beautiful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top