When I started wood ship modelism (some 30 years ago), one of my first attempts was a Dutch merchant model: Galjoot 1740, a model by Canav (an Italian firm that I don't think is still in the business today). The kit was decent, good materials (wood, ropes, metal parts), the instructions however were not at all suitable for a beginner. To say it gently, I had plenty of room to improvise! Having no experience, the result was awful... 
I decided however to keep it.
Recently, in a thread about this model, I saw that Willem (@Ponytail) had bought the same kit and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to rebuild Galjoot, provided that Willem could send me the plans. He gladly did it (a million "THANKS!", dear friend), and I started to strip the model down, remove everything that can be removed without causing any serious damage, and get to work in order to restore her beauty! I open this thread, for anyone who is interested in this kind of projects (i.e. taking an old/badly build model and trying to correct/rebuild/restore it)
This is how Galjoot looked like when I built it 30 years ago:
This is after I stripped her out, lightly sanded the hull, and prepared her for painting:
And this is how she looks today, after some painting & polishing, and before I start rebuilding masts, sails and all the stuff:
I'll keep you posted on the progress...
I decided however to keep it.Recently, in a thread about this model, I saw that Willem (@Ponytail) had bought the same kit and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to rebuild Galjoot, provided that Willem could send me the plans. He gladly did it (a million "THANKS!", dear friend), and I started to strip the model down, remove everything that can be removed without causing any serious damage, and get to work in order to restore her beauty! I open this thread, for anyone who is interested in this kind of projects (i.e. taking an old/badly build model and trying to correct/rebuild/restore it)
This is how Galjoot looked like when I built it 30 years ago:
This is after I stripped her out, lightly sanded the hull, and prepared her for painting:
And this is how she looks today, after some painting & polishing, and before I start rebuilding masts, sails and all the stuff:
I'll keep you posted on the progress...
