Completed Model

When possible, I like to photograph my models in sunlight. The natural light gives a more realistic look to the whole thing.

Finnishing Touches

The pennant ,which flies from the lateen yard, posed a problem. How to get it to fly as if in the wind? Instead of using thread to suspend it from the yard, I used thin wire, twisted into a loop. The loop was slipped over the top of the yard and cemented with super glue. After all the rigging was done( and the possibility of breaking of small parts), the stern lantern and swivel guns were cemented in place. I found some N gauge figures and placed them around the ship to give a sense of scale to the model. Since the model is presented as underway, the figures prevent it from looking like a "ghost ship".

Mounting the Model

I mounted the model onto a base that simulates water. Under the label Modeling Tips I have all the instructions to make this kind of a base and attach the model. The instruction sheet has the anchors just hanging from ropes down the sides of the ship. Again this looks incorrect to me so I mounted the anchors on the fore channels and used thick (.025") thread for anchor cables. Since the model is now presented as a ship underway, the sails and flags should all be reacting to the wind in the same direction.

Running Rigging

Light tan thread, pulled over a cake of bees wax, was used for the running rigging. As much as possible, I stuck to the instruction sheet. I used stretched tan spru for the tack lines at the front corners of the sails. This enabled me to put a realistic sag in these lines since they are slack when the sails are filled from astern.

Installing the Forestays, Flags and Sails

I used some heavy black thread for the lower forestays and thin black thread for the upper forestays and installed them per the instructions, no problems. The next few steps I deviated from the instruction sheet. After installing the shrouds and forestays to the masts, there was not enough room at the tops of the masts for the flags. To remedy this, I glued the flags for the fore and mainmasts around short pieces of plastic rod and cemented them to the tops of the fore and mainmasts. I replaced the furled foresail from the kit with a spread sail from another kit in my spares box. I just did not like the way the furled sail looked. The upper layteen yard on the mizzen mast just looked wrong. After looking through a great deal of reference material I could not find any ships of any period with upper and lower layteen yards on the mizzen mast. I decided the best way to go was to leave it off the model altogether and just install the lower layteen yard and sail. Since I intended the yards to be braced around, as they would be with the ship under way, I tied them to the masts instead of cementing them. The sails were carefully cut from the sheet and cemented to the yards with super glue.

Painting and Weathering the Sails

I painted the sails Testors Model Master Camouflage Gray. This very light gray color gives a canvas look to the sails and provides a good surface for the pastel weathering. Dark Umber pastel was used to darken the center of the sail where they would have rubbed on the forestays during furling. A little dark gray pastel was applied to the top of the sails and the corners.

Installing the Yardarms

Since I'll be installing the sails and, I want them to be turned as if to catch the wind, I tied the yard arms to the masts instead of cementing them in place. the lifts were installed also to hold them at the correct height. I decided to leave the upper lateen yard off the mizzen mast. After looking through my reference library, I could not find any pictures of a ship with an upper and a lower lateen yard on the mizzen mast.

Assembling Masts

The masts are all straight forward one piece affairs. After removing the molding seam, I painted them Tamyia Nato Brown. Black thread was wrapped around the masts for woldings. The tops were glued in place and painted the same as the masts. As a backup, I made a copy of the flag sheet (just in case of one of my usual goofs). I very carefully cut the shields from the flag sheet and glued them onto the tops with Elmer's glue.

Hull Details

After installing the parts for the chain plates, there was no way I could get the thread for the chain plates through the holes. To solve this problem I cut small lengths of thin wire, super glued them through the holes and trimmed away the excess. I'll have to figure out a different way to attach the shrouds when I get that far. I assembled the remaining cannons and installed them with super glue. After touching up the paint where needed, I used Flat Clear acrylic to go over the glossy places created by the super glue. I decided to leave off the small parts like the stern lantern and swivel guns for now to prevent them from being broken during the remaining assembly steps.

Installing the Sterncastles and Decks

Since the hull is curved, I found it best to cement the rear of the sterncastles to the transom with super glue first. This will anchor the parts. Holding the sterncastles to conform with the hull, I again, used super glue to cement them in place. The decks were a real challenge but with persistence and a lot of super glue, I finally got them in place. I'll still need to fill gaps with white glue and touch up the paint.

Painting the Sterncastles

Camouflage Gray was painted on the sterncastle exterior, continuing the color of the upper bulwarks. Flat Brown was painted on the raised areas. The interior was painted Flat Insignia Red. Instead of cutting the shields from the flag sheet and gluing them onto the shields, I just painted them using colors selected randomly.

Installing the Forecastle Turrets

After painting the turrets, I installed them the best I could. Since the bulwarks between the turrets must curve to match the forecastle, this was a bit challenging. On the port side I cut the bulwarks away from the turrets and glued all three pieces on one at a time with super glue. Lots of super glue was used for this.

Installing the Beakhead

Parts 63 and 64 were painted and assembled separately. After the glue dried this sub assembly was cemented in place. The two sides of the beakhead were painted and installed with superglue. The port side did not line up with the hull as well as the starboard side. Some white glue will be needed to fill the gap.

Painting and Installing the Transome Pt.2

Installing the transom turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Cementing the main deck in place reduced the area of the stern so much that the transom would not fit. I had to dissolve the glue at the rear of the deck/hull attach point so I could spread the stern apart. The springiness of the hull at the stern required that I cement the transom one side at a time with a lot of super glue. Fortunately, this will not show on the finished model.

Painting and Installing the Transom Pt.1

Using the instruction sheet as a guide, I started painting the transom by painting all the raised surfaces first. After the paint dried I painted the flat brown hull color to the lower part of the transom and Camouflage gray to the upper part.

Forecastle

First, the beakhead bulkhead ( don't we just love this termanology) was painted and cemented in place.

The carriages for the cannons were painted dark brown. A bronze look for the cannon barrels was achieved by painting them dark brown and dry brushing with Testors copper. Super glue was used to cement them in place in the forecastle and the bulkhead and deck were cemented in place with liquid cement.

Installing the Main Deck

I painted the main deck Model Master Flat Dark Tan and dragged a dark Umber prisma color pencil over it to highlight the wood grain. After assembling the other parts of the deck, I fitted the deck in place inside the hull and cemented it with liquid cement. Masking tape was used to make the bow and stern of the hull conform to the deck profile.

The Hull Pt.4

The center parts of the hull were attached with liquid cement. I began painting the hull exterior with Testors Flat Brown and the interior with Model Master Flat Insignia Red. To get a wood grain look to the hull planking, I dragged a dark brown prismacolor pencil over the flat brown after it dried. Using the nut I attached to the bottom and a screw, the model was fixed to a piece of balsa to make handling easier. The threads from the holes in the hull look like they could be a major pain for the rest of the assembly so I pulled them taught and taped them to the bottom of the balsa board to get them out of the way for the time being. According to the instruction sheet, the top sections of freeboard are to be painted white. In cases like this I prefer to use Camouflage Gray instead. On relatively small models like this one, white looks very bright and stark. I think the camo gray looks more "in scale".

The Hull Pt.3

After tracing the outline of the hull onto a piece of .020" sheet styrene, I cemented it to the hull using liquid plastic cement. The stern piece is only installed temporarily to give the hull the correct profile and will be removed, therefore it's important to keep cement away from it. A few hours later, when the cement has dried, I trimmed away the excess styrene and sanded the bottom to the hull profile. For extra strength I applied a filet of 5 minute epoxy around the inner joint and added a nut for attaching the model to its' stand.

The Hull Pt.2

The plan is to make and install a styrene bottom for the hull below the waterline. This will make the model more secure when mounted on it's display base. Besides cutting the hull at the waterline, the stern needs to be cut also. After cleaning up molding flash, I temporarily installed the stern with masking tape to mark where to cut. After cutting off the required material, I once again temporally attached the stern to the hull. This is to make sure the hull will have the correct contour when I use it to draw the shape on a piece of sheet styrene.