SPA Modeler

Duke Maddog wrote:Wow, you want to tackle the HMS Victory? Oh man, that is one frightening looking model!

And my bro-in-law want me to do the USS Constitution.... Oh hell, no.... well, maybe without the riggings.

I'm certifiable.
Actually, I bought the kit in 2003 for around $300 (turning in bottles and cans and picking up spare change) and have worked on it on and off since then. All I have at the moment is a skeleton frame and a lot of sanding to do. The instructions are horrendous and don't make any sense. They are poorly translated from Italian and come in book form without pictures or reference to parts. It does come with several large well drawn "blueprints" that help a lot.
Just before I purchased the Victory I bought and built the Mayflower, so I'm not a total novice, just mostly a novice.
I have a few wood sailing ships including the America, Ranger, both with mostly built hulls, and the Blue Shadow. I have so many plastic kits it'll take me another lifetime to build them.

My goodness! They look great...both of them

I will admit... as intimidating wooden ship kits are, it takes a it a whole new level in building and boatload of confidence to do one. I'm not one to be intimidated by wooden ship models but one day, I'd love to take one on. I'd start with one simple without ridiculous riggings involved.

Wooden ship kits are a completely different beast. Every now and then I'll pull the long boat out and do some sanding on it. So much of a wooden ship kit is here's a block of wood shape it to look like this drawing.

OK, so, it doesn't look like much but this



Represents two days of work. I'll install the PE canopy frames and give them a primer coat to see where I may need to add some filler. 8 Kate's and 4 Zeeks (plus the one I already assembled) so far which leaves 19 Kates and 4 more Zeros to build.

The Zeros are the same IJN light grey top and IJN light green/grey underside but the Kates, well the Kates can be a variety of green tops with splotched, peeling paint and a variety of other schemes, mostly green though.






Now I know some of these are fictitious but it does show the variety of the Kate paint schemes.

Fuchida's mount was green with peeling paint. Several pictures to reference.



All are going to be fun, seriously.

I should be receiving the last of the AA guns tonight so I'll get those built and on so I can take the last pics before I add the planes and crew.

So to give myself a break, I went back to the SBC. I finished filling and sanding and masked and attached the canopy.

I think the SBC is a bit out of scale for the carrier, but...at least I can see it! My goodness, those are way too tiny. Can you take any pictures with an electron microscope? I'd love to see them....

I built a wood boat once!

It is about 45 years old now, and spent six months on the bottom of a shallow lake when it sank in scale gale force winds. I saw it stop moving but when I waded out to get it all I found was the superstructure. The hull had submarined off about 100 feet, being electric drive with a rheostat controlling the motors still providing power though the R/C electronics were swamped and dead. I rebuilt the drive and electronics last year so my grandson can run it in his swimming pool.

That's cool John. Mine never actually float let alone are controlled. I always wanted a sailboat and/or submarine.

John that rocks! Way to go! Looks like the grandson is having a blast!