Unicorn 1/48th scale Bonhomme Richard (Swiss Pear)

[Luiz B. F. Grassi]

I am a bit disappointed, I set you up for the perfect comeback with the rum joke, but not one person took the bait. You guy's really need to brush up on your pop culture jokes. There has to be one Pirates of the Caribbean fan in here.

Onward! I have made some progress! The next step call for planking the two lower decks, the aft end of gun deck 1 and the whole of gun deck 2. The designer didn't really mean for you to detail out the aft areas because the windows in the galleries are just for show, there isn't anything inside the aft cabins. I intend to change that, but I don't know to what level, yet. I do know I wanted more experience planking a deck before I started on the big main deck. The decks themselves are 2mm plywood that you are supposed to plank with pear strips that are provided. I decided to use Alaskan Cedar instead for the contrast. The decks come in 2 parts for the lower deck and 4 parts for the upper. I used masking tape to tape them together for planking.

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I bought some 5/32" and 1/4" billets from Dave. These came thicknessed to the proper deck plank width I wanted, but I needed to make my own planks from them. I cut them on the Byrnes saw, but I think I need more practice because my plank thickness repeatability is dreadful. At the very least I might need a Byrnes thickness sander to boot. I was able to use one of my Veritas mini tools, an end planer to clean up the rough sawn edges of the billets from Dave.

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The results were some nibbing strake width planks and some regular planks.
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He is where I need practice. I started the nibbing strake from the end, but I soon found out I should start them from midships and work aft. The geometry doesn't wrok the other way around.
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But with that figured out, I moved on to planking from the center out. Because this has to remain two parts until it is installed, it took some doing but I was able to glue the two strakes just outside the centerline like this:

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I went back and glued the center one to one side of the deck later on. Then I worked my way form the center out, planking as I went. Here you can start to see the board thickness problem really stand out.

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Next I started cutting in the nibbed planks. This was quite enjoyable for me.
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You might see a couple spots where I practiced with the mini cabinet scraper to even out the boards midway through. When I finished planking the first thing I did was to scrape the whole thing down to a uniform thickness.
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Here is the finished scraping. Because of the scale and the multiple directions of the wood grain, you might see a couple spots where I scraped against the grain, but unfortunately, I had little choice at this point.
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Only thing left is to sand it et, voila! I would give it a personal 7 out of 10 for a first time doing my own planks and doing nibbing. I am unsure if I want to do trennels at this point, but I might. I still have that whole main deck to do, so it might be something I distract myself from that with.
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Very nice work, beautiful result, congratulations !

 

[Uwek]

Very good work - the cedar is a real good solution

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Placing the trennels can be simple or complex depending on location and desired outcome.

For simple representation, I use a fine point awl, or needle and make holes using a ruler to keep lines across the deck straight. Then come back with a sharp pencil and just twist in the dimple to darken the hole.

For larger scale ships or top deck in plain view you can get more realistic with toothpicks or other methods folks have used.

 

[Uwek]

So this won't be a build log for a little while, I am working on a couple other things to improve my skills before I tackle these big ones, but I thought I'd do an unboxing of the kit to get things started. Here's box 1, part 1:

Hallo @rtwpsom2
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Enjoy your special day - are you still working on the Bonhomme?

 

[rtwpsom2]

On and off, I am still planking the upper deck, it's a slow process.

Thank you for the b-day wishes.

 

[Tobias]

Happy Birthday

 

[rtwpsom2]

, that was a pretty good nap. I am working on the main deck again.

Before I go into any of the small progress I've made, I would like to address something that was said regarding this kit on MSW. I was told it was made using the ANCRE plans and was thus not paying/attributing ANCRE for their work, which is one of the reasons you can't post the kit on MSW. Now, having the ANCRE set of drawings and the Unicorn kit, and having spent a great deal of time going over both, I can categorically state that, in my opinion, the Unicorn kit has taken NOTHING from the ANCRE plans. To whit, I have spent a month or so laying out the gun deck structure on the kit substrate parts.

I scanned some sections of the ANCRE plans and put them into Solidworks so I can get dimensions off them.

As you can see in the pictures below, not a lot of the structure is accurate. The fore and main masts will need to move back, and all the little mid deck opening and grates will also need to move, the four grate cutouts are a little undersized and very far forward.

The kit has a giant hole in the floor of the rear of the gun deck. It is meant for you to use to insert the guns for the lower gun deck after the main gun deck is installed. I don't intend to do things like that, so I am going to plank over this, but I need some structure so that some of the plank ends aren't hanging out in midair. But I also need to be able to separate the right and left halves of the deck in order to insert them into the hull. So here I am adding "nailers" to one side using the middle plank as support.

I figured out halfway through that I wouldn't be able to use the first nailer or the first section of middle plank, so I cut them short, and started adding in some staggered planks.

I then unfolded it and added some on the other side, making sure they were snug against the middle plank while still being able to fold.

And then went back and added some nailers for the other side, now that I had something in there to support them.


And that's about as much as I have gotten done now. I plan to try and get some major sections planked tonight and tomorrow, now that the groundworks is laid. Thanks for reading, just wanted you all to know I hadn't died yet.

 

[dockattner]

Welcome back. A very thoughtful approach to the decking.

 

[Jackie Wolf]

, that was a pretty good nap. I am working on the main deck again.

Before I go into any of the small progress I've made, I would like to address something that was said regarding this kit on MSW. I was told it was made using the ANCRE plans and was thus not paying/attributing ANCRE for their work, which is one of the reasons you can't post the kit on MSW. Now, having the ANCRE set of drawings and the Unicorn kit, and having spent a great deal of time going over both, I can categorically state that, in my opinion, the Unicorn kit has taken NOTHING from the ANCRE plans. To whit, I have spent a month or so laying out the gun deck structure on the kit substrate parts.

I scanned some sections of the ANCRE plans and put them into Solidworks so I can get dimensions off them.
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As you can see in the pictures below, not a lot of the structure is accurate. The fore and main masts will need to move back, and all the little mid deck opening and grates will also need to move, the four grate cutouts are a little undersized and very far forward.
View attachment 493445View attachment 493446
The kit has a giant hole in the floor of the rear of the gun deck. It is meant for you to use to insert the guns for the lower gun deck after the main gun deck is installed. I don't intend to do things like that, so I am going to plank over this, but I need some structure so that some of the plank ends aren't hanging out in midair. But I also need to be able to separate the right and left halves of the deck in order to insert them into the hull. So here I am adding "nailers" to one side using the middle plank as support.
View attachment 493447
I figured out halfway through that I wouldn't be able to use the first nailer or the first section of middle plank, so I cut them short, and started adding in some staggered planks.
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I then unfolded it and added some on the other side, making sure they were snug against the middle plank while still being able to fold.
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And then went back and added some nailers for the other side, now that I had something in there to support them.
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And that's about as much as I have gotten done now. I plan to try and get some major sections planked tonight and tomorrow, now that the groundworks is laid. Thanks for reading, just wanted you all to know I hadn't died yet.

Thank you for your fair comments with evidence.

Now they can only rage with non-sense because those "pirate" manufacturers came products that surpass theirs. These “old” shareholders are attempting to hinder players from obtaining better products through rumors and proof less accusations.

 

[Golgobot]

Do not buy this model. I needed replacement parts and I haven’t heard back from the seller. They’ve gone dark. I even offered to pay for the pieces, shipping, and time the seller would spend to replace the parts, but no response. This model is $1000 and I’m completely blocked. I implore people NOT to purchase this kit. If you mess up you will never get a replacement. Stick with UK models that have customer service and can replace parts.

 

[Jimsky]

Do not buy this model. I needed replacement parts and I haven’t heard back from the seller. They’ve gone dark. I even offered to pay for the pieces, shipping, and time the seller would spend to replace the parts, but no response. This model is $1000 and I’m completely blocked. I implore people NOT to purchase this kit. If you mess up you will never get a replacement. Stick with UK models that have customer service and can replace parts.

First of all what model kit you are talking about? This is your third warning message but it is not clear what are talking about. Also, why should we stick to UK models?
Things happened, and unfortunately for you, you had a bad experience. But if you will tell us what kit and what model this kit assembles we will try to help you.