Royal William, Euromodel, a retro log

[Ken]

Hello all. And thanks again for following. You’ll notice that some of my build descriptions and photos are a bit out of sync, you’ll have to cut me some slack about this, as it’s a retro log and not a real time build I’m just trying to piece the build sequence together from notes as best as I can and match them to the photos that I took at the time.

Continuing, I had cut out the two blocks that were to form the bow and started to shape them according to the plan templates. I used my small Davids plane, a chisel and sanding blocks, I hadn't realized just how much effort this would take and how much dust and wood shavings it would create. I ended up after being strongly advised by my wife to finish the job outside in the garden, but she did make me a cup of tea. When they were near enough to shape I glued them in place. I then glued the four quarters of the gun deck into place. I was pleasantly surprised just how well they fitted, better than I’d expected. After liberally gluing I nailed along the middle and held the outer edge with clips. I made up and attached the fore and main mast steps in the keel then went for a game of bowls.

When I returned the glue for the bow blocks had cured so I sanded it further into shape, I’d finish it off when I sanded and fair the hull ready for planking. I was very pleased with the way the build was coming together so far.

I dry fitted the upper decks to get the correct placement for the mizzen mast support which fixes onto the lower deck. The middle deck supplied needed the front cut off to fit as it was shaped to go right through to the bow but it should terminate at the first bulkhead. Other than that both decks which were in halves fitted very well with only some slots needing to be opened a little, the depth of all slots on both decks needed to be about 2mm deeper so that the deck halves didn't overlap in the middle.

I'd heard that this kit was criticised for not being accurate and being difficult to get right, I'll add my bit. I felt that I was competent but not a very experienced builder, I was probably in the honeymoon period of building it and I thought that opinion might later change but up to now the basic structure for the hull had gone very smoothly without any issues, everything lined up and fit well and the quality of the materials had been excellent, it gave me confidence for the rest of the build.

I am showing quite a few pictures so that you can see for yourselves the fit of the parts, the lower deck is glued, the middle and upper are just dry fitted.

I did a final shaping of the bow and stern then faired the hull. Again this took quite a bit of time and effort to get it close to satisfactory, I thought that any slight imperfections could be addressed with the first planking.

With regards to the dummy gun carriages on the lower gun deck I decided not to use small single blocks but to use strips in between the ribs with plenty of height so that the barrels would find a home no matter how I messed up my port measurements, it probably wasn't necessary but this is what I am used to and I feel happier this way. I had an old chair that was ready for the tip, I realized that the lathes at the back were of a good quality ply and had a curve that matched that of the hull almost perfectly. I cut these into suitable sized strips, angled the base to allow for the curve of the deck and cut them to length . I used Pete's measurements for fitting them, I made a small gauge to keep them at a consistent depth then using plenty of glue fixed them into place.

The second gun deck was fitted and glued, again no problems were encountered. I cut to size the dummy gun carriages and fitted them as I had previously done. I wasn't going to get involved with detailing too much but just in case I decided to do a bit more than intended I cut out the opening for the ships staircase which I might tackle, I then fitted and glued the main deck. It was then that I noticed a slight error. When I fitted the bulkheads I mentioned that the second one was too high to form an even base for the forecastle deck so I lowered it by 2mm, with the main deck in place I saw that it had been the first bulkhead that was too low not the second being too high. Looking at the plans I saw that there is a marked sweep upwards at the front which I hadn't taken into account, I'm really glad that I noticed it in time. I added strips to bring these beams to their correct position, the front needed raising by 4mm. I really must learn how to look and properly interpret the plans, I gave the whole structure a final sanding to shape and was ready for the next stage of the build.

 

[GrantTyler]

Hello all. And thanks again for following. You’ll notice that some of my build descriptions and photos are a bit out of sync, you’ll have to cut me some slack about this, as it’s a retro log and not a real time build I’m just trying to piece the build sequence together from notes as best as I can and match them to the photos that I took at the time.

Continuing, I had cut out the two blocks that were to form the bow and started to shape them according to the plan templates. I used my small Davids plane, a chisel and sanding blocks, I hadn't realized just how much effort this would take and how much dust and wood shavings it would create. I ended up after being strongly advised by my wife to finish the job outside in the garden, but she did make me a cup of tea. When they were near enough to shape I glued them in place. I then glued the four quarters of the gun deck into place. I was pleasantly surprised just how well they fitted, better than I’d expected. After liberally gluing I nailed along the middle and held the outer edge with clips. I made up and attached the fore and main mast steps in the keel then went for a game of bowls.

When I returned the glue for the bow blocks had cured so I sanded it further into shape, I’d finish it off when I sanded and fair the hull ready for planking. I was very pleased with the way the build was coming together so far.

I dry fitted the upper decks to get the correct placement for the mizzen mast support which fixes onto the lower deck. The middle deck supplied needed the front cut off to fit as it was shaped to go right through to the bow but it should terminate at the first bulkhead. Other than that both decks which were in halves fitted very well with only some slots needing to be opened a little, the depth of all slots on both decks needed to be about 2mm deeper so that the deck halves didn't overlap in the middle.

I'd heard that this kit was criticised for not being accurate and being difficult to get right, I'll add my bit. I felt that I was competent but not a very experienced builder, I was probably in the honeymoon period of building it and I thought that opinion might later change but up to now the basic structure for the hull had gone very smoothly without any issues, everything lined up and fit well and the quality of the materials had been excellent, it gave me confidence for the rest of the build.

I am showing quite a few pictures so that you can see for yourselves the fit of the parts, the lower deck is glued, the middle and upper are just dry fitted.

I did a final shaping of the bow and stern then faired the hull. Again this took quite a bit of time and effort to get it close to satisfactory, I thought that any slight imperfections could be addressed with the first planking.

With regards to the dummy gun carriages on the lower gun deck I decided not to use small single blocks but to use strips in between the ribs with plenty of height so that the barrels would find a home no matter how I messed up my port measurements, it probably wasn't necessary but this is what I am used to and I feel happier this way. I had an old chair that was ready for the tip, I realized that the lathes at the back were of a good quality ply and had a curve that matched that of the hull almost perfectly. I cut these into suitable sized strips, angled the base to allow for the curve of the deck and cut them to length . I used Pete's measurements for fitting them, I made a small gauge to keep them at a consistent depth then using plenty of glue fixed them into place.

The second gun deck was fitted and glued, again no problems were encountered. I cut to size the dummy gun carriages and fitted them as I had previously done. I wasn't going to get involved with detailing too much but just in case I decided to do a bit more than intended I cut out the opening for the ships staircase which I might tackle, I then fitted and glued the main deck. It was then that I noticed a slight error. When I fitted the bulkheads I mentioned that the second one was too high to form an even base for the forecastle deck so I lowered it by 2mm, with the main deck in place I saw that it had been the first bulkhead that was too low not the second being too high. Looking at the plans I saw that there is a marked sweep upwards at the front which I hadn't taken into account, I'm really glad that I noticed it in time. I added strips to bring these beams to their correct position, the front needed raising by 4mm. I really must learn how to look and properly interpret the plans, I gave the whole structure a final sanding to shape and was ready for the next stage of the build.


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Very good Ken.....no surprise here. Cheers Grant

 

[WilliamM]

Hi Bill, Thanks for telling me of your interest, unless you find one on Ebay you'll just have to settle for watching my build. I hope that you enjoy it.

Will do!

Bill

 

[WilliamM]

I have checked the various sites that sell ship models in the U.S. for the HMS Royal William, all without success. I was finally inspired to try the Euro Model website in Italy. Lo and behold! It is there. It is listed as available. I ordered one today! Finally, I am thoroughly enjoying watching your build of this magnificent ship!

Bill

 

[Ken]

Hello, Welcome again, and thankyou for the likes you've given me.

Next I checked the hull against the plans and saw that the front bulkhead wasn't forward enough, a piece needed to be added otherwise the whole of this area would be out later in the build, I found that during the build I needed to constantly refer to the plans at my peril.

The next job was the deck planking. The wood supplied for this was good quality but it was a darkish walnut, I wasn't happy with the colour, it looked very wrong for a deck so I decided to bleach it. I soaked it in household bleach for about three hours, I then rinsed it through and left it overnight to dry during which time it got even lighter.

I used a dry board marker to darken the edges. I found that being a drier medium it didn't leach into the grain and gave just the right amount of dark edge to the planks. I used 100mm for the plank lengths with a four butt shift at 25mm per shift. I marked out the deck and using white alaphatic resin glue I fixed the planks, the middle ones over the hatches I left full length to get the lines straight and scribed them later. I ran a thin line of glue the full length then put a line of planks down, the white glue made it easy to slide them into position and allows them to be corrected for a couple of minutes, I then rubbed a damp cloth over them to firm them down and at the same time clean the surface of any glue. I found that with this white glue they bonded very well, they didn’t warp or lift and if you noticed any mistakes you made you could lift them without damage for up to about 15 minutes. I sanded the planks and rubbed in a light oak stain, I gave them a coat of sealer then sanded again before giving them a coat of poly.

I tried a few methods for tree nailing and found that for me the one I prefered was to drill out the holes using a .6mm bit then rub in a water based light walnut wood filler, this was quick and easy. As I had already varnished the deck the colour didn't stain the wood and the excess was easily wiped off with a damp cloth. I gave it another light sand and a final coat of varnish, I was very pleased with the result.

I made up the main deck gratings and fixed them into place, pretty standard practice.

At first I wasn't going to make the stairs to the lower deck, they would hardly be seen but as I wouldn't be able to hold my head up if I didn't at least try I gave them a go as they are somewhat of a feature, mine I decided wouldn’t be elaborate and I thought that I'd be able to come up with a simple version that suited my skills at that time.

Instead of building it up in sections on the ship I made it on my bench, I cut two identical pieces out of ply, one was for the upper hand rail the other for the base. I cut several 10mm lengths from 2mm dowel for the stanchions. Using cyno I glued the dowels to the lower piece of ply then I glued the handrail on top, as the top and bottom were identical the top just dropped into place. I then just cut away the entry gap to the stairs in the handrail, sanded and stained, as easy as that, the pics show it better. For the stairs I cut steps from 4mm square strip, bevelled the rear edge then glued them onto a strip of ply. Again I stained them and placed them in position, because of the closeness of the steps you can't see the ply. I glued the rails in place then put in a hand rail for the stairs and varnished everything. I was very pleased with my simple not too fiddly construction. ( you’ll see later as I became more confident that I re made the staircase )

I painted the area of the of the dummy canons black and was now ready for the first planking. I'm surprised that I had got to this point in just two weeks, everything had gone smoothly so far, and I hoped that it would continue so.


This shows how I raised the forward bulkheads and added a false bulkhead at the front to match the hull to the plan.



Before and after bleaching
















This will be under the quarter deck and won’t be seen, but I know that it’s there.

 

[AllanKP69]

Ken,
It is great to see you have the battens running fore and aft. This is often missed with them running athwartships. As this is a retrolog, something to consider for the future, the gratings never had openings laying against the head ledges and coamings and the head ledges always rest on top of the coamings. It is easier to make the gratings as close to the size you need first with a solid edge on all four sides, then build the head ledges and coaming to suit. Note that the corners were often rounded above the top of the deck planking.
Allan



The joinery did change over time. B would be appropriate for Royal William 1719.

 

[GrantTyler]

Hello, Welcome again, and thankyou for the likes you've given me.

Next I checked the hull against the plans and saw that the front bulkhead wasn't forward enough, a piece needed to be added otherwise the whole of this area would be out later in the build, I found that during the build I needed to constantly refer to the plans at my peril.

The next job was the deck planking. The wood supplied for this was good quality but it was a darkish walnut, I wasn't happy with the colour, it looked very wrong for a deck so I decided to bleach it. I soaked it in household bleach for about three hours, I then rinsed it through and left it overnight to dry during which time it got even lighter.

I used a dry board marker to darken the edges. I found that being a drier medium it didn't leach into the grain and gave just the right amount of dark edge to the planks. I used 100mm for the plank lengths with a four butt shift at 25mm per shift. I marked out the deck and using white alaphatic resin glue I fixed the planks, the middle ones over the hatches I left full length to get the lines straight and scribed them later. I ran a thin line of glue the full length then put a line of planks down, the white glue made it easy to slide them into position and allows them to be corrected for a couple of minutes, I then rubbed a damp cloth over them to firm them down and at the same time clean the surface of any glue. I found that with this white glue they bonded very well, they didn’t warp or lift and if you noticed any mistakes you made you could lift them without damage for up to about 15 minutes. I sanded the planks and rubbed in a light oak stain, I gave them a coat of sealer then sanded again before giving them a coat of poly.

I tried a few methods for tree nailing and found that for me the one I prefered was to drill out the holes using a .6mm bit then rub in a water based light walnut wood filler, this was quick and easy. As I had already varnished the deck the colour didn't stain the wood and the excess was easily wiped off with a damp cloth. I gave it another light sand and a final coat of varnish, I was very pleased with the result.

I made up the main deck gratings and fixed them into place, pretty standard practice.

At first I wasn't going to make the stairs to the lower deck, they would hardly be seen but as I wouldn't be able to hold my head up if I didn't at least try I gave them a go as they are somewhat of a feature, mine I decided wouldn’t be elaborate and I thought that I'd be able to come up with a simple version that suited my skills at that time.

Instead of building it up in sections on the ship I made it on my bench, I cut two identical pieces out of ply, one was for the upper hand rail the other for the base. I cut several 10mm lengths from 2mm dowel for the stanchions. Using cyno I glued the dowels to the lower piece of ply then I glued the handrail on top, as the top and bottom were identical the top just dropped into place. I then just cut away the entry gap to the stairs in the handrail, sanded and stained, as easy as that, the pics show it better. For the stairs I cut steps from 4mm square strip, bevelled the rear edge then glued them onto a strip of ply. Again I stained them and placed them in position, because of the closeness of the steps you can't see the ply. I glued the rails in place then put in a hand rail for the stairs and varnished everything. I was very pleased with my simple not too fiddly construction. ( you’ll see later as I became more confident that I re made the staircase )

I painted the area of the of the dummy canons black and was now ready for the first planking. I'm surprised that I had got to this point in just two weeks, everything had gone smoothly so far, and I hoped that it would continue so.


This shows how I raised the forward bulkheads and added a false bulkhead at the front to match the hull to the plan.

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Before and after bleaching
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This will be under the quarter deck and won’t be seen, but I know that it’s there.
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Good afternoon Ken. Man I wish I read this before I started my deck. I made it with walnut and as I add more features the ship is starting to look like one big walnut. I have started a deck redo with Maple, but the bleached effect looks so cool. Never stop learning on this forum. Cheers Grant

 

[Ken]

Ken,
It is great to see you have the battens running fore and aft. This is often missed with them running athwartships. As this is a retrolog, something to consider for the future, the gratings never had openings laying against the head ledges and coamings and the head ledges always rest on top of the coamings. It is easier to make the gratings as close to the size you need first with a solid edge on all four sides, then build the head ledges and coaming to suit. Note that the corners were often rounded above the top of the deck planking.
Allan
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The joinery did change over time. B would be appropriate for Royal William 1719.
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Hi Allan. Thanks for your input on my log, there’s a lot that I wish that I’d known about when I took this build on. At the time I think that I was a bit of a beginner probably moving onto intermediate level so this was quite a step up for me. It was daunting but stick with it and you’ll hopefully notice quite an improvement in my ability as the build progressed, my main criteria was not to stall and get disheartened like many that take on too much for their ability but be satisfied with what I was able to achieve. Ken

 

[Ken]

Good afternoon Ken. Man I wish I read this before I started my deck. I made it with walnut and as I add more features the ship is starting to look like one big walnut. I have started a deck redo with Maple, but the bleached effect looks so cool. Never stop learning on this forum. Cheers Grant

Hi Grant, It worked for me in the end but it was really hit and miss to get the right effect, I wouldn’t want to rely on this method for consistent results, I now prefer to get the correct wood in the first place. It was all part of Ken’s learning curve.

 

[Ken]

.

Hello , and again thanks for your continued interest and likes. The build continued, now I had what I thought would be the daunting task, the planking of a rather large hull, as this was all part of my learning curve I didn’t really know what to expect.

I’m showing you all of the tools that I employed. I used a flask of hot water to let the ends of the planks soak, usually about six at a time, this was probably the reason my tea tasted the way it did. My main bending tool was the Amati bender, I found that this was quick and easy to use on the planks and did just about all the bends that I need. Any difficult curves I resorted to using the shaft, not the tip of a soldering iron. I liked using the Amati pin pusher, again easy to use and a small hammer for finishing some nails off. I use a small David plane, a blade and sander for tapering the planks and I had a home made plank holding vice. I always had a dish of water and cloth on my bench as I liked to clean off any excess glue from the surface, I've learnt the hard way about poor varnish results having left traces of glue on the wood.

I didn’t use anything to hold the hull when I planked but just put an old pillow on my knee to take the shape of the hull and rested it on that. I liked to be able to move the hull around so that I can attack it from all angles. I must tell you though that doing it this way with the Royal William is like wrestling with a baby whale.

When I opened the wood bundle I saw that the quality was again excellent, as good as I could wish for and better than most of what I have had in the past and there appeared to be a generous amount of it too.

I put the first plank on as suggested, about 3mm below the finished main deck surface, glued and nailed it. I made sure that everything was well glued to everything else, again I had learned the hard way about sprung planks. The curves were quite friendly and it wasn't until the 7th plank that I found it necessary to start tapering I marked the line of the upper gun ports 11.7mm above the gun deck. I knew that this was needed so I had already set my callipers to that height but using the lower deck as the reference as the upper gun deck would now be covered. Later I would take from the plan the centre points of the ports and drill a 2mm hole where the lines meet. I noticed that when I was working the upper deck frames felt vulnerable so as a precaution I put a couple of stringers across the top. They won't save it from a fall but from being handle too roughly. It was so far, so good and again I had no issues and I was gaining confidence.












You’ll notice that I had to put strips onto the lower part of bulkheads 2 and 3 to ensure a correct flow of planks

 

[Uwek]

some days not looking into the forum building logs and Ken started already a new project and finished already half of the hulls-work
This will be very very iinteresting to follow - the big baby Royal William

 

[Ken]

some days not looking into the forum building logs and Ken started already a new project and finished already half of the hulls-work
This will be very very iinteresting to follow - the big baby Royal William

Hi Ewe. Thanks for visiting my log. You didn’t miss anything, I built this about seven years ago but have only just decided to do a log here, so it may look like the actual build is pretty rapid.

 

[Ken]

After finishing the initial planking, of the upper, I turned my attention to starting from the keel upwards. Initially this caused me problems. The false keel is 10mm, nice and sturdy but the walnut keel to be added later is only 7mm, the bulkheads are set flat and even with the bottom of the false keel except for where they arrive at a steep angle at the bow and the stern. It's difficult to describe in words the problem in getting the transition from planks laying flat at the bottom then over what is a shoulder of the wider false keel and lie flat against the side. To overcome this I added a 7mm planking strip along the bottom of the 10mm false keel, and used this to butt my planks up to. It means that I have planked the bottom of the keel as well but it made it easier to get a good flow of the planks and when complete I thought that I could always sand it back to near its original dimension. I think you’ll understand better when you see the pictures.

I split the area to be planked in half, worked upwards and downwards letting the planks have as natural a run as I could let them.

I had to take a short break from planking as the repetitive gripping of the many hundreds of small nails was causing cramps in my hand, I knew it wasn't going to be easy but that part of it was now nearly complete. I'd planked to below the lower gun deck, I was happy with the way that the planks were lying with a nice true run. I checked and rechecked the gun port positions from as many reference points as possible and all seemed to be ok.

Looking over the planking that I had done I could see that a slight hollow was forming around the second frame and that where the bow filler blocks joined the frame the curve had a slight bulge. I thought that the hollow relates to the earlier problem of the height of the bulkheads which I'd corrected, I've added strips to the edges of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th frames and re-profiled them so that should now be ok. I realised that the bulge was because I hadn't been aggressive enough shaping the edge of the bow blocks, I took more off the remaining part and hoped that I'd done enough to get a good profile. I hadn’t yet managed to complete any hull without the use of filler and I was hoping that this would be my first. This wasn’t really important but is just a matter of satisfaction.

 

[Ken]

Hello all, and again welcome.

I'd completed the first planking, it was a great feeling seeing that last bit of plank slot into place, closure. I looked over the planking and I was pretty sure that after sanding I would achieve my goal of no filler for the first ever time. The stern and the rear part of the keel needed to be sanded down from the original 10mm to 5mm to allow the second planking to butt up flush with the stern post. I thought that I'd done this initially but I'd been much too timid and quite a bit more sanding was needed. To get it down to 5mm evenly and without going too far I made a metal 5mm strip and attached it to the area needing reducing, this was a good guide for me and give me confidence to take as much off as needed without going too far.

The pictures show the hull just having been completed but not yet sanded, next would be the big sand, on my wife’s suggestion this had to be done outside.

The sun came out and I was able to go into my garden and get some serious sanding done. The high spot at the bow needed sanding back almost to the bow blocks but once done the hollow that I'd noticed disappeared and that area nicely flowed forming the correct shape of the hull. Nothing more of note just a lot of elbow grease saw the whole hull take on a very pleasing form, no high spots or hollows and I'm delighted to say not a drop of filler anywhere, success, and yes the metal strip really worked a treat.

It was then time to tackle the gun ports. To mark them out I made the appropriate size plugs and using the guide holes that I’d drilled I drew in the port positions. Before committing to cutting I checked, re-checked then checked again. Next will be the cutting out of these ports.

For those that have followed my other builds you’ll notice that this was when I had real grass for my lawn!

 

[AllanKP69]

Hi Ken,
The hull planking aft is tough, but yours looks really well done. The fit between planks is nice and tight which also takes some perserverence. Kudos! Is the second planking in a similar fashion or in another way? If done as the first planking and as this is a retro log, maybe consider for future projects, the garboard strake at the bow should end at the boxing joint rather than curving and extending up onto the stem like it does on a Viking ship. This helps get the subsequent planks, which were tapered in width to about half the full width midships, to all end at the rabbet. While planking expansion drawings are not necessarily the easiest to use, they will give an idea of how the planking was tapered in width. The wales will also taper in thickness as well as width so they are the same as the surrounding planking and fit into the rabbet as can be seen in the photo below. Some kits do not explain this and the wales wind up not sitting in the rabbet as they are too thick. I hope the following is more clear than my words.

Allan

 

[Ken]

Hi Ken,
The hull planking aft is tough, but yours looks really well done. The fit between planks is nice and tight which also takes some perserverence. Kudos! Is the second planking in a similar fashion or in another way? If done as the first planking and as this is a retro log, maybe consider for future projects, the garboard strake at the bow should end at the boxing joint rather than curving and extending up onto the stem like it does on a Viking ship. This helps get the subsequent planks, which were tapered in width to about half the full width midships, to all end at the rabbet. While planking expansion drawings are not necessarily the easiest to use, they will give an idea of how the planking was tapered in width. The wales will also taper in thickness as well as width so they are the same as the surrounding planking and fit into the rabbet as can be seen in the photo below. Some kits do not explain this and the wales wind up not sitting in the rabbet as they are too thick. I hope the following is more clear than my words.

Allan
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Hi Allan. Again thanks for your input. As this was one of my early builds and a difficult one at that I wasn’t going to try and achieve an expert level build, just a presentable, neatly built model. I wasn’t going to try for historical accuracy but do it at a level that I could at least complete and enjoy the build rather than take on too much, get frustrated and quit, as many modellers that get over ambitious do.

 

[AllanKP69]

I wasn’t going to try for historical accuracy but do it at a level that I could at least complete and enjoy the build rather than take on too much, get frustrated and quit,

Point VERY WELL taken. My comments were meant only as something to consider for the future as it is really no harder to do than the style some kits show. I have never really understood why the instructions do not explain proper planking methods. There is no extra cost to them for materials and little if any extra time needed by the builder. I suppose that is for another general post on planking.

Regardless, your finish work on the planking is exceptional and with the bottom painted off-white as she would have been when launched or possibly coppered in her later life your ship will continue to look super.

Thank YOU for sharing all your work. Very neatly done work and photos!

Allan

 

[Ken]

Point VERY WELL taken. My comments were meant only as something to consider for the future as it is really no harder to do than the style some kits show. I have never really understood why the instructions do not explain proper planking methods. There is no extra cost to them for materials and little if any extra time needed by the builder. I suppose that is for another general post on planking.

Regardless, your finish work on the planking is exceptional and with the bottom painted off-white as she would have been when launched or possibly coppered in her later life your ship will continue to look super.

Thank YOU for sharing all your work. Very neatly done work and photos!

Allan

Hi Allan, I totally agree with you about many kits lack of instructions, this kit had only one sheet of A4 hand typed instructions for what was a very complex build, but it did have the most comprehensive set of plans I have yet seen. I think that it was targeted at very advanced builders and as such left it to the modeller how he should tackle its construction rather than guide one. Ken

 

[AllanKP69]

Ken,
One of the best things for simpler builds all the way through complex builds is the wealth of contemporary information available to us on line. When many of us started in this hobby there were very few books compared to today and no access for most of us to the vaults of RMG, Danish Archives, and so forth. These things can be used to supplement and often improve on what comes in the box. There are thousands of contemporary drawings, lists of scantlings, and many times, there are original contracts that can be used to help us, be it a scratch or kit build.
Allan

 

[Bryian]

Just checked out the Euromodel web page for current pricing. This model is $1,600 U.S dollars plus shipping and taxes.
Think I will pass on that .