The pirated Black Pearl

[Nietslim]

I just read your logg, and i understand you have bought the cheap Chinese version.
I did the same, bought it last year and by a lot of reading here from the guys who bought it at zhl i build it.
I gladly got pictures by Vfordyce of the building plans, otherwise i had nothing on paper to look at , but...You are doing great actually.
And go on building. It is a challenge some days
i know some missing parts you have to look for in otherways (example ; the lanterns on the back at mine pearl are railroad lanterns)
It is maybe the cheaper version
but when finished its still a great ship to have.
(I know at mine not all lights are working)

 

[matweaver]

Thank you for the encouragement, you have a very nice looking ship there

I just read your logg, and i understand you have bought the cheap Chinese version.
I did the same, bought it last year and by a lot of reading here from the guys who bought it at zhl i build it.
I gladly got pictures by Vfordyce of the building plans, otherwise i had nothing on paper to look at , but...You are doing great actually.
And go on building. It is a challenge some days
i know some missing parts you have to look for in otherways (example ; the lanterns on the back at mine pearl are railroad lanterns)
It is maybe the cheaper version
but when finished its still a great ship to have.
(I know at mine not all lights are working)

 

[matweaver]

I was once asked by my daughter "What's the difference between a boat and a ship?" I replied "a boat can't carry a ship"... Ok it wasn't actually me, it was Edward Kenway and I was playing Assassin Creed: Black Flag at the time.

So... let's make some boats.

So we start with the usual issues, the frames for the life boat hulls are flaking and breaking, the laser had charred the ply which left it far weaker than it should have been.

But once locked into shape, the glue did its job and reinforced the structure pretty well. This time I actually decided to soak the veneer before trying to shape it, this seemed to do the job.

The oar lock horns were simply made from bent modelling wire.


I had originally left the paddles as they were, but looking through everyone else's here I liked the way people had shaped them, so I set to them with a craft knife ane they were done.. So small, but actually a very large job.

 

[Nietslim]

Thank you for the encouragement, you have a very nice looking ship there

It is the same one as you, cheap Chinese version. I did buy the inside stuff also on the Internet, (same chinese site) and all the ornaments i found a guy who printed them 3d for me. It is a fantasy ship so you don't need to follow it by the letter.

 

[Rowboat]

The hand rails and stairs..
The supplies to the ship are seriously dwindling, what I have doesn't seem to match the plans, what I don't have seems to be only what I need. It's HMS Terror all over again!
So using 5*5 Balsa, I tried fabricating the post that would hold up the rail.
View attachment 217981
Which just looked wrong, so I figured I'd disguise the mess with a rope or chain that could hang from the tops.
View attachment 217989
I experimented with the eyelets, I didn't fancy drilling through the wood as it's almost unworkable at this size. I decided on modelling wire, coiled around a 2mm Dia pin. I snipped the end of at an angle and used the sharp end to pierce through the end grain.
View attachment 217988

Glued and painted black, it seems to work... in a really rough way, but better with the eyelets dry brushed .

View attachment 217985View attachment 217984
Now the sides of the ship, again no posts here, so I whittled.
View attachment 217987
And crushed and bent and glued.
View attachment 217982
Time to bring you up to date!!
So last week and this week I've been on the steps.
View attachment 217993
The great thing here is that I had tonnes of stairs but no bloody instructions for them.. and of course I ballsed this up by using the wrong size in the wrong place..
View attachment 217992
Which meant having to remake all the parts just by looking at the various photos of the completed build around the net.
View attachment 217991
I did, however have some lovely bannisters.. too large but nothing a knife and file couldn't sort out. What's 5mm between friends?
View attachment 217999
Oh and they didn't give me enough of them! Of course.
View attachment 218000View attachment 217997View attachment 217998View attachment 217996View attachment 217995
Thank God it's the BLACK pearl... This paint will cover up everything!

Lots of custom work you are doing on this project.
The build is coming along nicely.

 

[Rowboat]

I was once asked by my daughter "What's the difference between a boat and a ship?" I replied "a boat can't carry a ship"... Ok it wasn't actually me, it was Edward Kenway and I was playing Assassin Creed: Black Flag at the time.

So... let's make some boats.
View attachment 287041
So we start with the usual issues, the frames for the life boat hulls are flaking and breaking, the laser had charred the ply which left it far weaker than it should have been.
View attachment 287042
But once locked into shape, the glue did its job and reinforced the structure pretty well. This time I actually decided to soak the veneer before trying to shape it, this seemed to do the job.
View attachment 287043View attachment 287044View attachment 287045
The oar lock horns were simply made from bent modelling wire.
View attachment 287035
View attachment 287036View attachment 287039
I had originally left the paddles as they were, but looking through everyone else's here I liked the way people had shaped them, so I set to them with a craft knife ane they were done.. So small, but actually a very large job.
View attachment 287040

Were these mini "ships" , ie.. the rowboats, part of the kit or did you make them from scratch.

 

[matweaver]

Were these mini "ships" , ie.. the rowboats, part of the kit or did you make them from scratch.

A bit of both. Like the rest of the content, I have most of the frames intact, some are charred and burnt out. Once I have the scale I build what I can and try to craft (fabricate) the rest. For the rowboats I had the skeletal frames for about 1.5.

 

[matweaver]

Chains and Tops

So the issue here, I need to glue the chains (the platform that holds the lines to the hull?) the wood supplied obviously not to the correct profile due to me having changed it earlier on in the build. Luckily I've got the Draper profile pins, great for skirting and dido rails, also works for hulls.

And with my hobby tool (A floor mounted reciprocating bobbin sander) I got the profiles needed to achieve a solid(ish) fit.

The Tops or Fighting Tops were of course wrong, either my mast replacements were too large or the kit was mis aligned, most likely a little bit of both.
At least the parts were well labelled though, this one (Number 5) had it cut right the way through the material.

And these parts were just completely wrong.

But luckily I had the old Laser Cutter to hand and those pieces were getting replaced as quickly as the rubbish ones were being produced>


Not too bad if you've got the equipment, head bangingly painful is you haven't.

 

[Nietslim]

Nice the laser. Think a lot here wish to have one. , it is right some (a lot) parts don't fit as they should. But you are making it great and very interesting to follow

 

[Uwek]

I thought I'd keep a log of my experiences in; being cheap, buying third rate goods, being too lazy to ask for a refund and just trying to fix up what might simply be a floating lemon.

(I'm about 2 weeks in, so the tenses may change in a few posts time.)

Straight to the point -> I asked my wife to buy me a Black Pearl kit from a dodgy drop shipping company, she did, and when it arrived it was junk in a box. It was a "copy" of the ZHL full senario, but seeing as how they copy other companies I continued on the premise that two wrongs don't make a right but so what, it's most likely some poor factory worker raiding the bins.

It arrived.
View attachment 131039
Burnt out, stinking, ripped up and half there.

Challenge accepted!

Hallo @matweaver
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY