The Ship Model Forum

Great work! These are really coming to life!

Wow, that is a lot of work for those a tiny little shield. But the result is amazing. Great work Callen.

Timmy C wrote:*whimper* it's miraculous!

Thank you sir!

Timmy C wrote:In regards to Cyrano, the Turkish symphonic metal band Almora made a song for it, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yuhAV9HkWE

Hmm... sounds interesting. I am a huge Yes fan and also like Toto (a lot) and Rush somewhat. Toto can be really heavy, particularly on their recent stuff. The closest I think I've heard to symphonic metal is probably Dream Theater, which I heard while in college in the early 90s. I don't really know if that qualifies or not, but I've been out of the Pop Music stream for some time. I've got nothing against heavy guitars, but don't like the negativity of most metal. These days it's mostly 20th Century Symphonic, Baroque, or something Ethnic/World Music, etc.

But I'll check it out, just cause you said to, Tim.

JIM BAUMANN wrote:definitely add sails!-- however-- have the wind coming from a quarter-so that the yards are braced around 25 deg from the centreline-this will show the rigging even more effectively--as the rigging will show against the light background of the sails.

You do not need much ' wind'...( your flat sea and lack of heel precludes this currently) just enough to give steergae....


the shield's aft--very innovative and well carried out!


JIM B

That would be a great idea Jim... if I hadn't already glued, and re-glued and re-glued the yards at about 5 degrees from perpendicular. Even at that angle I've got issues between the mainsail yard and the mainmast shrouds. How did they deal with that anyway? Did the yard just push into the shrouds or what? I'm not happy with my wave pattern, actually. I used this great new gel that really holds the brush strokes well after drying, but I did it hastily and somewhat clumsily, with the result that they look more like brush strokes than waves (no discernible axis to the wave direction.) I'm thinking of attempting to correct this with another layer of waves which would deepen the water but also give the effect of depth and clarity, at least to a point. I thought about the problem you brought up, i.e. that the calm water does not justify a strong wind needed to account for the sort of bulging sails I want to do. Deepening the waves would give me the opportunity to correct the wave pattern axis and perhaps also justify fuller sails. Would welcome your comments on a solution.

MichelB wrote:Great work! These are really coming to life!

Thank you Michel! I hope to finish her soon.

Cadman wrote:Wow, that is a lot of work for those a tiny little shield. But the result is amazing. Great work Callen.

Thanks Tim! Thanks for dropping by. They were a bit tedious. A lot of ideas I come up with sound more fun before I actually start doing them... but they didn't take as long as I feared they would.

I forgot to mention my technique for placing glitter on the Livery Shield. I think this might be useful to everyone who is watching. As you can imagine the small pieces of glitter were too small to grab with the tweezers. I was at a loss for a moment as to how to proceed, but here's what I worked out.

1. Place the drop of glue where you want the glitter to be. This leaves some CA on one tip of the tweezers.

2. Rub the CA off with your finger. As most of you know this still leaves a bit of CA behind that, while not having the full strength of Super Glue is still tacky.

3. Pick up the bit of glitter with the tacky part of the tweezer, and then place where the glue drop is (BTW I used CA Gel, don't think this would work with liquid.) The full strength CA at site should pull the glitter away from the tweezers. You then have a few moments to manipulate the glitter bit into alignment before it sets.

4. Completely scrape off any residue of CA from the tweezers before repeating.

It sounds hard but it worked amazingly well. Of course humidity could play a factor into this so experiment first to make sure conditions are right. In pondering the 'glittering possibilities of glitter' it occurred to me that green and red glitter might be useful for things like navigation lights as well as representing those green and red thingys that get hoisted on foremast halyards... not sure what they're called, but I think they have to do with navigation as well. In addition tiny silver glitter might serve to brighten up signal lamps if they are small enough. But of course in regards to antique and ancient ships, there is quite a bit more scope for this kind of detailing.

Ok. That's all for now. Bruno just sent me proofs for his home-made PE set for the carracks. I am extatic! I am going to ask him if he'll allow me to post them here so everyone can see. I'm happy with the Beja, but the other carracks are going to really be spectacular. But I have to wait until my 'French Art' arrives before I can proceed with them.

Going to really hit the Beja this week end. Wish me luck!

callen wrote:Ok. That's all for now. Bruno just sent me proofs for his home-made PE set for the carracks. I am extatic! I am going to ask him if he'll allow me to post them here so everyone can see.

Hello Neal and Folks
OK, here is the template for "Fatty" PE superset:



Sao Bruno (narrow hulls) is a little different: shrouds are not the same because of hull shape and dimensions and she lacks part 37 (upper deck gratings).
I managed to add 30 crew in three sizes as well as one commander and three musicians (drum, shawm and lute).
I included after Neal's suggestion two types of crow nests (XVth and XVIth Centuries) and two types of sculpted wood railings (parts 33&34).

You'll notice Neal's new logo: New World Models right of parts 36... but don't look at this name on the internet for now... you'll get... err... good looking girls

Now I'm preparing a decal set with plenty of early XVIth Century flags, both Portuguese and Spanish (Magellan sailed under the Spanish flag) and decorated "festons" for aft deck sides.
I'll post them next week-end.

I look forward to have those challenging set etched: I'll do that myself because I attempted to go down to the limit of etching accuracy.

Cheers!
_Bruno

I have three things to say:

1. Wow!

2. W - O - W !!!

3. If you ever plan to sell this set, write me down for a couple!

Jorit

Hello Folks!

I just etched and sent the carracks photo-etched (PE) set to Neal, who'll use them on his builds as soon as he receive them.

Here is a scan of the first etched set (for "Fatty") :



I've cropped some details from the sheet above.
Here are the shrouds:



The crow-nests in both XVth and XVIth Century style:



Two ship's boats. I modelled them from the drawings of Columbus Santa maria (in the AOTS book)



I redesigned the guns carriage by using earlier sources.
Here is the "bombarda" gun carriage drawn from the Columbus AOTS book.
This will fit with the wonderful brass turned guns I ordered from BMK.



For ML guns, I choose a late XVIth Century Spanish two wheels carriage from an engraving I found in Conway's history of the ship.



At last the crew:
My revised set now includes forty crew in three sizes (about 2.5mm high)



and a captain and three musicians:



The lute player has been drawn after Neal (who really plays the lute) and the shawm player has been modelled after me (I play most renaissance woodwinds)

_Bruno

I want to thank Bruno Gire for posting these! He sent me a pic of the over all set, but I didn't see the close ups until I came here. As you can see, my friend Bruno is a master Photo Etcher. I will post pics of my utilization of his parts as soon as I get them.
I have made progress on the Beja this last week, but I am going to work all day today and post progress at the end so that we are up to date. Soonercon, a regional Modeling Contest hosted by IPMS Metro happens next Saturday. It looks like it will be a race to the finish to get the Beja completed and entered in the contest in time. Slightly complicating this scenario is the biggest concert of my career this Wednesday at the OKMOZART Festival in Bartlesville, which will take at least three days out of my week, as we will be traveling and in a hotel etc. None of this makes finishing my little inch-long Carrack any easier. Wish me luck!!!

Well Gentleman, the Beja build is coming down to a dramatic climax. I have pictures of some recent work, but I don't have any time to post them. My entire day and night is going to be taken up with completing the Beja in time for Soonercon Modeling Convention tomorrow, which is hosted by my club, IPMS Metro. The next time I post here I will have either finished her or not, entered her in the contest or not, placed or not. Wish me luck!!!

Well my friends, it is a somewhat chastened and humbled carrack modeler that is posting these updates tonight. The little Beja was alas, dwarfed by the competition at Soonercon 11... in more ways that one... But I will share more of that below. First I thought I would get us caught up on the build.

Here we are, two weeks ago, ratlines for mainmast underway, shrouds for mizzen and bonaventure in place.Replacement shrouds for the foremast.Reviewing my sources I realized that the upper masts would need shrouds. Also, rather belatedly I realized that these shrouds would also need ratlines, at least the masts with upper sails. More work and I was quickly running out of time... I conceived of the idea of running the shrouds into the notch between the jackstaff and the mast top, hoping that the tension from the shrouds would not pry the jackstaff loose from the mast. Glad I decided to add those jackstaffs! Taking a break from the rigging to do the rudder. At this point I was realizing that the premier of my Wiley Post Tone Poem (which we would travel out of town for four days) was going to seriously eat into the week leading up to Soonercon 11. I decided therefore not to follow Tom Lindsay's method of making a rudder and fashioned a 'quick and dirty' rudder and rudder post out of scrap PE.Here is the rudder installed. I found it necessary to add a tiller to the top, made from rod styrene. in this shot it is not yet painted.Here it is in semi-silhouette. I think the space between the rudder and rudder post is quite effective, adding immensely to the character of the model.Installing upper shrouds on the foremast...tedious and difficult.

progress...Being able to focus on the ratlines with my mk-I eyeball proved impossible with the ratlines installed on the opposite side. The guys at the club said my eyes were good, but they're not that good.... I found it necessary to install a 'blind' behind the mainmast shrouds on the port side in order to be able to see clearly enough to complete them. These ratlines were the most difficult, tedious, and unpleasant effort I have ever attempted with rigging a ship model! No FUN! I will not use this method next time. While the blind worked well on the mainmast, it perched too close to the shrouds on the other masts and the glue drops intended to secure the ratlines kept adhering to the blind behind them. In one case (the mizzen, I think) this caused the complete demolition of the shrouds, necessitating replacement and eating up more of my rapidly diminishing window to complete the build.A close-up of the blind.The blind also helped in photographing progress. Nearing completion now...Roadtrip! This was Monday, June 13th, heading out for Bartlesville and OKMOZART 2011, where my piece was to be premiered. A very exciting time which does not bear on my modeling efforts, except that in all of the excitement of rehearsals, meetings and forging new business relationships there was hardly a moment to work on the Beja, despite the fact that I was able to carefully pack everything I needed to complete the ratlines. We did not get back until Thursday Night. Thrilled, exhausted and numb from the whole experience I went to bed determined to spend all of Friday working to complete the Beja in time for the contest on Saturday... which is exactly what I did...

Here is the Beja the morning of the contest. Half of Friday was spent completing the ratlines (at last!) Which left only half a day to do the rest of the rigging... forestays, backstays, lifts, etc. It took me two hours to rig two lifts to two knight's bitts, forcing me to realize there was no way I was going to do all of the rigging I had originally planned. Still I felt reasonably confident about entering the ship. Even somewhat schematically and incomplete as the rigging would be, it would be fairly fine job, and I was overall pleased with the final effect... I discovered, for instance that 'crow's feet' are fairly easy and fun to do... Of course I had planned to do much more than this, but I thought at least one or two would demonstrate some effort. I was also counting on the judges being impressed by the novelty of the subject, the fact that it was scratch-built, and perhaps a lack of familiarity with the era and style of these ships. Though I knew the stern was completely inaccurate for the period, I wasn't worried that would detract from the build. More worrying was the fact that the stern castle breech-loader guns had all broken away and been lost during construction, and there wasn't time to replace more than a few of them, so there would be several holes without guns mounted in them. Still I felt good going into the show.

Soonercon 2010 had been my first ever contest experience and it had been a completely unexpected 'clean sweep' for me. I had won 1st and 2nd Place for Ships, 3rd Place for Diorama and Best of Show. It was a tremendous boost for me and encouraged me to enter the IPMS Nationals, where I got 3rd in my category. Coming up to Soonercon 11, I felt that the Beja, though far from perfect, showed more skill, originality and effort than the Niko Vermont that had done so well for me the previous year. And she was scratch-built, which I felt was an added bonus. It's unreasonable to expect to win a show, but I felt, at the very least I had a good chance of placing in my category. That morning as I joined the fellows of the club setting up for the show I placed my very small carrack on the table where the ship model category resided. For several hours it was the only ship build at the contest. I feared for a while I would win my category by default... as it turned out, I needn't have worried...

Anyone who has ever entered a model contest knows what it's like to see the other builds arrive and discover that you are not the only one in your area who has spent countless hours hunched over a small piece of plastic (or wood) in the past year...Rusty White's excellent CSS Teaser. Rusty is a long time veteran of the Scale Ship Model Scene and has won many contests.A midget sub by Richard Fisher, founder and long-time member of our club. He is an armor modeler by predilection, but made a stunning entry with this IJN midget sub, in addition to his numerous armor entries.A very large HMS Bounty model with cutaway stbd hull.

Have you spotted the winner yet?Here she is, a 4-piper from WEM. Like all the builds at the show, the finish and detail on this ship was simply stunning. I only have one photograph of her, because I was so distracted by the other builds, not the least of which is the excellent Mikasa which got 2nd. Best of Show was an armor model this year, an M2 Bradley, and the very lovingly and painstakingly built Santo Amaro de Beja won nothing...

In retrospect I think that my expectations were entirely too high, and actually the concert which I have alluded to was such an incredible experience I'm not sure I was even thinking straight for the next four or five days. Of course when I saw the other entries I was blown away by their quality, and had the feeling they were all a good deal superior to my own effort, yet, I had felt the same way last year and still taken home 1st and BIS. I had begun to believe that I couldn't fail to place, and that was quite wrong.

There were any number of inaccuracies or omissions which might have prevented my little carrack from doing better at the show... gun ports with no guns, lack of certain rigging elements, others overly simplified (particularly sitting next to the HMS Bounty, which must have been 40 times the size of my little ship) but I think probably the most damning defect was not lack of historicity, but the encrustation of CA glue that was visible on the ratlines from the very tedious and difficult effort to get them to adhere to the shrouds. When I think back to the Niko Vermont, I realize that there were no flaws of this nature on her, no obvious exposed glue. While this particular defect on the Beja was very small, it was visible, and, after all, the whole point of a highly detailed very small model is to invite closer inspection. One can hardly blame the judges for obliging.

So, a very valuable lesson learned for me. Having won something at every show I'd entered up until this point in my modeling competitions, I walked away Saturday empty-handed, but maybe a little wiser. There is no substitute for completion, and huge amounts of effort and time expended on a build, even new techniques, materials and ideas, do not guarantee one recognition in competition, and most importantly, imperfectly executed tasks late in a build can completely compromise the quality of earlier stages in the process.

I still believe that these subjects are interesting in this scale, and will be entering at least one of the resin builds at the Nationals in Omaha. Of course the real pleasure of the Contests is not placing or winning, but being able to share one's efforts with others of like mind. That really is the best part of it, despite the excitement of competition and the thrill of placing and receiving recognition. But it's easy to forget that. I hope everyone who follows this thread has the opportunity to enter a model contest at some point and win a prize for their efforts. I also hope that everyone has the chance to 'lose' a contest� fail to place� and to enjoy what's really important about the hobby� just being there.

Callen, I feel your pain, bean there , done that, got the T shirt, but did not get a prize, thanks for all the wonderfull posts,

It could have been worse, Neal - the winning entry could've been a perfectly assembled and airbrushed infantry landing craft that took the builder all of two hours to make. At least the four-piper and Mikasa would actually take some work! It is unfortunate that IPMS rules are based primarily on fit and finish first, and detailing and accuracy far seconds; but I suppose that's the only fair way about it. Regardless, totally impressed by and floored with your work!

Competitions....

Its all in the eye of beholder and bias of judge...

I think you vessel is very fine indeed...-- very teeny and very intricate!

I too have entered models in competition that I felt were the last word in fine-scale...

and been 'surprised ' when...in my view--a lesser model won the gold ...

Its all fun really... not serious like... getting it accurate!!!!!!!!!

Apropos ratlines...

Here is a technique worth a try...

Rig up your shrouds as described...

use stretched sprue as your foot ropes-- the plastic Revell contact adhesive dries matt and the shroud ends
will be exactly flush with the shrouds

JB


see here for more description of the glue and its uses...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37536

ARH wrote:Callen, I feel your pain, bean there , done that, got the T shirt, but did not get a prize, thanks for all the wonderfull posts,

Wow. Thank you Ron. To think that a modeler like you has been there... that is consolation indeed. Much appreciated my friend.

Timmy C wrote:It could have been worse, Neal - the winning entry could've been a perfectly assembled and airbrushed infantry landing craft that took the builder all of two hours to make. At least the four-piper and Mikasa would actually take some work! It is unfortunate that IPMS rules are based primarily on fit and finish first, and detailing and accuracy far seconds; but I suppose that's the only fair way about it.

Hahah!!! Are you speaking from experience Mr. Choi? Love to hear more about that one!

I guess I had forgotten that there are actual rules in play. Actually I don't even know what they are. But I think that if one is going to compete in a contest, one must be willing to accept the judgement of the judges with good grace. After all, I won outright last year by the same rules, so I have no reason to complain. On that head, I hope I don't sound like I am complaining; no complaints, only an expression of disappointment, (and who wouldn't be?) I'd also like to state for the record that I think the winners were fully deserving of their awards. They indeed were not spray painted LST's but very beautiful builds indeed. I felt like I put a huge amount of work into my little Beja, and I think it might even be fair to say that I put more work into my build than the winners did into theirs (although that would certainly not be true of that Bounty... can't remember if it placed though...) but the lesson learned is that more work does not equal a better build.

Timmy C wrote:Regardless, totally impressed by and floored with your work!

Thanks Tim. You, Jim and Ron are a shot in the arm... Definitely came home from the contest a little deflated, I can tell you.

JIM BAUMANN wrote:Competitions....

Its all in the eye of beholder and bias of judge...

I think you vessel is very fine indeed...-- very teeny and very intricate!

Thank you sir. Most appreciated.

JIM BAUMANN wrote:I too have entered models in competition that I felt were the last word in fine-scale...

and been 'surprised ' when...in my view--a lesser model won the gold ...

Well now see, that's the funny thing because I always think the other guy's builds are better than mine... I don't know why... I guess staring at the same piece of plastic for nine months straight you get kind of jaded with it.

JIM BAUMANN wrote:Its all fun really... not serious like... getting it accurate!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely.

JIM BAUMANN wrote:Apropos ratlines...

Here is a technique worth a try...

Rig up your shrouds as described...

use stretched sprue as your foot ropes-- the plastic Revell contact adhesive dries matt and the shroud ends
will be exactly flush with the shrouds

JB


see here for more description of the glue and its uses...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37536

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I will check that out. I use Locktite CA and it works pretty well in most applications, it even dries flat instead of gloss, which is a nice feature, but I was forced to overglue the ratlines in order to get them to stick... I was getting both impatient and desperate for time... looking back on it, I think that is the one really obvious flaw of the build... don't get me wrong the glue bits are tiny, but if you look close you can see them. They're even visible in some of the above photos. I don't think I really need to go any further than that to look for a reason why I didn't place. I will check out your glue though. I'm interested to see if it works better.

It sounds like you and Tim Choi have suffered some actual unfairness at contests. I suppose I had better prepare myself for that at some point. I think it would also be a good idea to actually read the IPMS rules, if I am going to continue to compete. It's funny, before last year I never dreamed of competing in modeling. My friend Bo Burris encouraged me to, so I thought 'what the heck?' And then doing so well the first year really whetted my appetite. I don't think of myself as a competitive guy, but having said that, it is nice to place, I must admit. Anyway, I am forewarned for Nationals... We'll see what happens.

Time for an update Gentlemen, I hope everyone has been enjoying the hobby this week end. It is dry and hot and windy at the moment where I live, almost like a desert, weather-wise; good conditions for staying inside and modeling.

After my disappointing debut with the Beja at Soonercon I felt a little deflated, even jaded on the subject of 1/700th scale sailing ships... Perhaps they are simply too different from the standard fare? Too exotic, too different from what the judges are used to seeing to be competitive as model subjects? So, since I was a bit 'down' on carracks, I decided to go back to the Loose Cannon USS Long Island I had started last year,
in the hopes of getting it finished in time for the NATS... But it's a funny thing... I sat there in my modeling chair for three nights staring at it, looking over the (very complex) instructions, mulling over whether to attempt a lowered elevator, etc, and I simply couldn't bring myself to get back into it. The idea of going back to work on the Long Island appealed to me, but actually getting to work on it... going back to the 'haze gray and underway' world... I just couldn't bring myself to go back... not yet. For an evening or two I wondered, (feared) whether I had fallen into a modeling slump... (and six weeks before Nats no less!) but breaking out the 'carrack' box I began to feel a little glimmer of enthusiasm once again.

While still mulling this over the package from France arrived finally, more than a week late. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait.

Oops! How did that get in there? Can't talk about that yet...


I decided to take both Bruno's new PE and the Beja and the Long Island over to my good friend Rusty White's house and have a discussion with him. As many of you know Rusty is a fixture in the American Resin Ship scene, owner and founder of Flagship Models, long time IPMS Nationals Judge and winner of numerous awards, etc. over the past 20 years or so. Rusty is one of those fellows that doesn't have a problem with directness, and you can be sure when you're talking to him that you know what he thinks on a given subject.

First of all I wanted to show Rusty Bruno's work and get a reaction from him on that, and also to show him the completed Beja and ask his brutally frank opinion on the pros and cons of this kind of model. I also wanted to see how he felt about the viability of this subject, and whether I should continue in the Carrack mode, or perhaps concentrate on entering the Long Island for Nats. Rusty's response to my questions were surprising, and I think might be helpful to some of the modelers here. At any rate they were enlightening to me, so I thought I would share them. I'm paraphrasing his words, obviously, but you'll get the gist.

Rusty's first comment about the Beja had nothing to do with the ship. He said that my entry was compromised in being lumped into a single category covering all eras, types and scales. He emphasized once again that IPMS rules were based on the basics of modeling, fit and finish, and that they did not give awards based on a predetermined standard.

"Your model is judged based on what was there that day. On a different day you might have had a different mix of builds and you might have won, but unfortunately your ship was going up against that gigantic HMS Bounty with all of the work and detail that went into it. It's hard to compare something like that with other kinds of models, but in a local contest with one ship category, that's what happens... Local contests are crazy, you never know what's going to win."

I asked him to look closely at my model and 'judge' it for me. He noticed the slight alignment problem with the masts, which I was aware of, but had brushed aside in my efforts to get it done (breaking and resetting the masts to get perfect alignment would have set me back two weeks in build time, so I decided to leave it, though I know better now.) Some of the things I worried about (such as empty gunports in the after castle) he brushed off as insignificant, some of them (like the masts) he emphasized. He pointed out that the shields were unpainted and that this would be counted against me. When I told him they were deliberately left unpainted he said 'Did you say that in your description?' I said 'no.' And he said 'you'll want to do that, otherwise they'll count off for that.'
(!!!!!)

But what surprised me was that he suggest that I enter the Beja in the Nationals... and said I might have 'better luck' there, since there are more categories. He also suggested I show photos of the WIP, that that would help them to see all the work that went into it. I had actually thought about doing this but ran out of time, also I wondered if it would be a bit pretentious to do. Rusty said it was actually a good idea and would be well received.

When I asked him about whether he would enter the Long Island or a carrack, he suggested I enter both, to improve my chances. All of this was very encouraging because it made me feel like these subjects were viable at least, and would not be overlooked. Had I been more aware of the rules of IPMS I might have done better, or at least known why I didn't.

Armed with that knowledge I returned home eager to start work on a new Carrack, and this time (at long last!) with Bruno's superb PE to work with...

I decided first to go back to the Flemish Carrack, which you'll remember was based loosely on this engraving: Now that I had Bruno's PE in hand I could begin in earnest on putting her together. I was very excited about the 'double decker' castles topped by the net canopies... and also because (according to the above engraving) there were no ratlines on her shrouds. Once again I would be rigging shrouds by hand... but this time (thank God!) I would not have to add the ratlines. Here we go! state of the hull at the beginning of the session... I attached the hull to a card with double sided tape to assist in handling during construction.I had asked Bruno to create paneling ribbons that could be applied in strips to the hull sides to add some finesse to the detail. In the event he did not wind up doing these, but instead provided me with a quite generous supply of railing in two different styles. In examining one of the styles I realized that inverting it and using as an applique would create those nice church like arches one sometimes sees on carracks from the period... Bruno, I hope you will forgive me for improvising with your materials! I decided to face the upper stage of the forecastle with the inverted railing...Rather belatedly I realized the bowsprit would need not only to emerge from the lower forecastle deck, but pass through the upper stage (and the canopy as well) making necessary a new angled hole for the purpose.Test fitting a brass rod for the mainmast (checking for height) As you can see from the engraving, this carrack had an extremely massive single-piece heavily wolded mainmast. This time I would paint and do the wolding before installation.Wolding... Tedious, but there's nothing for it.About two hours work just for the one mast. Most frustrating, the CA produced a whitish film on my black nylon monofilament that will need to be touched up with paint later. I still think it's worth the effort though.This was a dubious operation involving inserting the foremast into the upper stage prior to wolding the mast. I couldn't glue the stage to the mast yet, as I didn't know the precise height it would pass through it, so the stage flopped around and interfered with my wolding turns...

Mainmast installed. In reviewing the engraving I decided to remove the molded chainplates and replace them with styrene higher up. (see engraving above) Here are the scars for the removed chainplates. This will need to be touched up later.Mainmast and Mizzen installed. Creating the stage supports from 0.01x0.01 square rod. First thing, installation and alignment, then cut to height.Ladders! This was my first attempt to bend the steps to the correct angle. Very difficult but it worked! ...however, once freed from the PE fret the ladder proved to delicate under the strain of bending the boards round the steps... I tried again, this time bending the boards 90 degrees first and then the steps...This time it worked. Nice looking ladder Mr. Gire. Aftercastle upper deck railing installed (next to the ladder. Forecastle staging supports... I really started to get a 'thrill' at this point... leaping ahead on this build, where the end of the Beja had been soooo tedious... primarily because of the ratlines which had been my own ill-advised idea.Checking alignment.... very important! Stages installed with masts...I thought the first effort at installing the forecastle upper stage looked too high. I was very conscious of height, as the more imposing the castles became, the less realistic I felt it would look, this being particularly true of the forecastle. Also, I realized it would be really neat to mount some figures inside the forecastle, so I decided to break the stage off, trim the supports, and paint and mount some figures.