Caldercraft Brig Badger 1:64 (wooden ship model) - complete

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Phil for the kind words, really appreciate it!

The Duchess looks really nice!  It's about the same size as the Amati Pegasus it looks (which I'm working on), but certainly more ornate (and the Pegasus is a pretty ornate ship itself). 

[Peterpools]

Mike

Geeze, I only wish I had the skills and patience to build a wood sailing ship. Beautiful work

Keep 'em comin

Peter

 

[DocRob]

On 1/5/2021 at 1:56 PM, Bomber_County said:

I sneaked a look at the Duchess of Kingston.......oh my I want one, you and Ernie have intrigued me.......probably wait till I’m retired......

How on earth could your formidable build of the Badger have passed my attention, maybe it was caused by Christmas blindness due to heavy abuse of spirited liquids.
The Badger looks simply gorgeous and there are lots of great details to spot. I love the look of the deck, with the slight variations in the colour of the planks and, like Ernie mentioned, the realistic appearing sails.

I have ordered a Duchess of Kingston kit from Chris, which still is in the claws of that terrible transporting service, called after what you say, when something bad had happened.
First I thought, 1/48 would have been the better scale, but wooden ship modelling refined itself a lot in the last twenty years and the amount of possible detail was enhanced by the use of photo etched parts, resin instead of metal cast, and finer woodworking in the kits.

I'm looking forward to start the DUK as my next winter project and hope it suits my skills, as I only have a half build 1/48 kutter on my list.

Please Mike, keep us in the loop with your future builds. 

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

15 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Mike

Geeze, I only wish I had the skills and patience to build a wood sailing ship. Beautiful work

Keep 'em comin

Peter

 

Thanks Peter.  They do take longer for sure, but like other models, it usually depends on the subject, how much extra detail you put in, etc.  Some ships like the Victory take people upwards of 3-5+ years - and that's for people with a lot of modeling time on their hands.  If you did smaller craft though, you could knock those out in a few months.  Like anything else, it takes a bit of time learning how to work the material, use different tools, etc.

What's really impressive to me are people who find some plans and scratch build their ships - even building every last cannon, bolt, etc. Those people blow my mind with the kind of work that is possible.

[Landlubber Mike]

3 hours ago, DocRob said:

How on earth could your formidable build of the Badger have passed my attention, maybe it was caused by Christmas blindness due to heavy abuse of spirited liquids.
The Badger looks simply gorgeous and there are lots of great details to spot. I love the look of the deck, with the slight variations in the colour of the planks and, like Ernie mentioned, the realistic appearing sails.

I have ordered a Duchess of Kingston kit from Chris, which still is in the claws of that terrible transporting service, called after what you say, when something bad had happened.
First I thought, 1/48 would have been the better scale, but wooden ship modelling refined itself a lot in the last twenty years and the amount of possible detail was enhanced by the use of photo etched parts, resin instead of metal cast, and finer woodworking in the kits.

I'm looking forward to start the DUK as my next winter project and hope it suits my skills, as I only have a half build 1/48 kutter on my list.

Please Mike, keep us in the loop with your future builds. 

Cheers Rob

Rob, many thanks for the kind words.  The Duchess looks like a really fantastic kit!  With your modeling skills and experience building the kutter, I think you should be completely fine.  I'm building Chris' Pegasus kit (from Amati) and it goes together very nicely.  That was the next ship after the Badger that I did (Badger being my first), and I was such a novice at the beginning, and in many respects still am, but I think it came out ok.

The wood ships are fun, and I started back in modeling with wood ships because of the variety of materials (wood, string, cloth, metal, etc.) you can use.  You can really bring woods to life with oils and other finishes.  On my current builds I'm "painting with wood" and using woods like ebony, yellow heart, redheart, paduak, holly, etc. to represent the colors in lieu of painting.  Plus, I had memories of painting plastic models with those Testor's enamels.  I didn't want to do models where I just put it together in a couple of days, slapped a coat of paint, and called it done.  Of course, I came to realize that kits changed a ton since I was a kid, and with things like airbrushes, new paints and finishes, PE and resin aftermarket, etc.  Now I'm more into plastic than wood, but mostly because I'm more interested in the subjects.  What's been cool is learning techniques from one type of modeling that I can now apply to the other and vice versa.  It's been interesting seeing that even in the plastic world, there are techniques that plane modelers use that ship and car modelers tend not to, and that car modelers use versus plane and ship modelers, etc., but the techniques can be helpful across modeling subjects.

Personally, I think 1/64 scale is a good one.  The Badger is probably a good 20" from end to end, and probably about that in height.  Long story, but I was going to work on a larger ship with I think 24 cannons that was in a 1/70 kit.  I was going to convert it to its sister ship to do something different, but the kit hull was the wrong proportions and I couldn't make it work without a ton of effort.  So, I decided that eventually I will scratch build it.  It was a fairly good size at 1/70, but I took the plans for the ship that I purchased from the National Royal Maritime Museum and printed them out at 1/48 scale.  Huge difference in size!  1/48 is a scale that a lot of scratch modelers work in, but for a big warship, you are talking a lot of bench space.  

I have three other wooden kits in various stages at the moment.  Once I get through the stash, I'd like to scratch build some.  I'd probably look to do them in smaller scales though.  I'm just about finished with a 1/700 IJN destroyer, and have really enjoyed working with small scales.  I like the old Dutch ships, but if I can get the carving down, I'd love to build the 1693 HMS Sussex at 1/100 or even smaller scale - the ornamentation is really beautiful:

  

Anyway, sorry to ramble on.  Looking forward to watching you work on your Duchess!

[Buckeye82]

That is one beautiful build and the rigging is awesome.

Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Mike, really appreciate it.  

[DocRob]

On 2/20/2021 at 2:38 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Anyway, sorry to ramble on.  Looking forward to watching you work on your Duchess!

No need to be sorry Mike, It's interesting to read your motivation and your approach on wooden ship models. You seem to dig deeper and deeper into the building process and there will be complete building from scratch as I understand.
I'm primarily a plastic model builder and motivated by the appeal of a subject. I like to learn new techniques and to work with different materials than plastic only. Shipbuilding from wood has a special fascination to me, since my teens. Working with wood is different and can be very rewarding, if properly done. In the last years, I've done a lot of woodworking in the house, building chairs, tables, a very complicated kitchen with organic shapes,..., and learned a lot about working with wood. I feel prepared now, to start a project like the Duchess, mainly, because the perfect design of the kit makes it easier for the beginner, as it takes a lot of burdens from the builders shoulders.
Generally I prefer larger scales and therefore smaller vessels. I can't stand to much redundancy in modelling, so no four engine planes for me and no ships of the line as well. 
Larger scales make detailing, painting and weathering easier, but ship modelling has developed a lot in the last time, incorporating materials, techniques and designs, which were more originated in advanced plastic modelling, like the use of photoetch and resin and painting and weathering techniques too.

Let's see, where the journey ends, I have a lot of anticipation for the duchess and hope to see more of your great builds here.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks for your thoughts Rob.  When I first picked up the Badger kit, I was starting from square one - had no clue about tools, adhesives and other materials, paints and finishes, etc.  Also, it had been close to 30 years since small plastic kits I did as a kid, so I didn't fully appreciate more complicated modeling techniques like jigs, etc.  I read a few of the beginner books out there, but thank God for the internet!  I'd be lost without the help from kind-hearted fellow modelers.  With all your skills and experience, you'll be able to jump right in and go to work.

I hear you on the larger vessels.  Ship modeling involves a lot of repetitive tasks - in some ways you can get in a groove and it's therapeutic in a way, while in others, building yet another cannon and rigging it with 2mm blocks gets old quickly.

Can't wait to see your work!  Good luck with the build!

[Clunkmeister]

For all who don't know, MSW (Model Ship World) is our Sister Site.  If you have even the slightest interest in ship models, have a peek. Many of us here are also members there.

many members there also build Large Scale Models, and some of us here dabble in ships.  

[Clunkmeister]

21 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

For all who don't know, MSW (Model Ship World) is our Sister Site.  If you have even the slightest interest in ship models, have a peek. Many of us here are also members there.  

many members there also build Large Scale Models, and some of us here dabble in ships.  

One thing to bear in mind is that model building is model building, and I've learned some interesting techniques from the ship model builders that translate right across into cool techniques for aircraft and armor.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Couldn't agree more about the techniques crossing model types.  I certainly will approach some of my wooden models differently after learning techniques from the plastic side.  I'd really love to sometime build a weathered wooden fishing or Dutch commercial vessel in a waterline diorama setting.

[Peterpools]

Mike

I am just blown away - wooden ships and your work in incredible.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks for the kind words Peter.  I feel like I'm still very much an amateur.  You should see some of the work posted on MSW - there are some world class artists there.

[KevinM]

Glad you had that at the bottom of your builds there Mike Very Nice indeed!!

I should get back to the Baltimore II .......one day

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Kevin, really appreciate it!  You should definitely get back to the Baltimore - maybe after the Scharnhorst!