Hello!
It has been a long time. I have yet to make any progress on my L'Egyptaine, I just don't have the time currently to sit down and do a full scratch build. So I was extremely excited when I saw this little kit announced. I immediately pre-ordered it and it arrived about a week ago. I'm getting started right away!
One thing I will be altering is I will be using plates from Shipyard Models plans to scratch build the rest of the ship that doesn't come with the kit. Which from I understand is only going to be the masting and rigging.
It was extremely difficult to find these plans in the states and ultimately was able to order them from a small shop in the UK.
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I've already got them scanned in as they will need resizing. I've never seen plates like this before where different sections are in different scales. And interestingly these plans don't come with any ribs despite having 36 plates included. That's alright though because the kit comes with a full account of all ribs.
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After an inventory only one piece broke, disappointing of course but impressive none the less.
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The plans are nice enough. I didn't realize the instructions are located on the website, you have to download them separately, the PDF booklet is over 150 pages long. The detailing looks like it might be a little sparse on the instructions but we'll see. I was able to figure out the platform after a few minutes.
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I ordered the pearwood version, everything looks great out of the box.
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I'm not sure how I feel about so much photoetch in a wooden boat kit, but I imagine it makes things much easier. I'm sure once the sheet is cleaned, the gold removed, and the parts tarnished black they'll look great.
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The platform parts came out fairly easy, the laser cutting is smooth and everything fits together surprisingly well.
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I'm not sure if I did something wrong but my top pieces didn't fit right if the writing was face up. So all of the nice numbering is hidden underneath. I followed the diagrams but I'm guessing that one of the first diagrams is wrong. The cradle pieces are backwards I think. I could take it all apart and fix it, which I might do. The whole thing sits together nicely but will likely need to be glued together. The instructions recommend tiny nails, but I think I'll stick with superglue.
Anyway, that is complete and next time we'll start breaking out the pearwood. Starting with the keel.