First Pirate Ship

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Alot of holes dont match up or no hole at all, tons of plastic skin on parts, instructions are not horrible but also far from good. I had to look at other builds to figure some stuff out.

Example, you get all the cannons glued in place only to find out the cannon port holes are really small so you have to go back and break the cannons loose and re-adjust them so that they all fit when you add the main cannon window piece.

There are times it should tell you both sides but they forgot. Also the top and bottom floors were both slightly warped and had to bind them together overnight to get them in sinc to glue up as the posts did not match.

But i am making progress.

I dont understand why the color insignia red for some of the parts, ill google it maybe pirates had a reason for the red.

I would like a suggestion of how i can easily accent the black hatch cover with the two doors. ?

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As far as i can find, pirates wore red because the dye used to make that color was expensive, so you had to be well off to own or use red anything. So when they painted items in their ships red or wore red scarfs it was seen as a sign of prosperity. :)

Now days its not scarfs, its $1500 cell phones they wave around to say "im important". I think they are stupid for paying that much for a stinkin cell phone.
 
Superglue the cannons and mounts. Once you put the sides on, many of them are impossible to put back unless you break a hole in it, see pic first port, ill disguise it as battle damage.

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And hereis my attempt at seam repair.

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ok its seemless, battle damaged and 3 color (white, black, brown) washed. Here are the results.

I do wish i knew how to make burn marks on it, ill check youtube.

This part of the process took forever, between back and forth black then brown repeat like 10 times due to shacky hands, priming sanded parts, washing, and cannons falling out left and right lol

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ok its seemless, battle damaged and 3 color (white, black, brown) washed. Here are the results.

I do wish i knew how to make burn marks on it, ill check youtube.

This part of the process took forever, between back and forth black then brown repeat like 10 times due to shacky hands, priming sanded parts, washing, and cannons falling out left and right lol

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Coming along nicely!

The only plastic sailing ship I built was the USS Constitution. That was a blast. After that I switched to scratch built wood ships. You have more control over what you build and it's not as hard as it sounds. But I would still try another plastic kit if I found one that looked really fun.

As mentioned above, rigging the ship is an adventure. I didn't go blind, but it does take a while. And - if you're obsessive like me - you might go over some historic drawings of sail plans and discover rigging that was left off the model and add it yourself. :)
 
Thanks for the link, i guess pastels are just lighter shades according to google.

I have 2 parts that are not in the manual, two 98's (across from each other in pic)and one 99. Have no clue where they go.

Also is there anything i need to know about working with paper sails? I want to paint them black, do i paint them just like plastic?

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Thanks for the link, i guess pastels are just lighter shades according to google.

I have 2 parts that are not in the manual, two 98's (across from each other in pic)and one 99. Have no clue where they go.

Also is there anything i need to know about working with paper sails? I want to paint them black, do i paint them just like plastic?

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Talking about the " chalks "
https://www.google.com/search?q=pas...BixAxiDARiKBZgDAJIHATegB-wl&sclient=img&udm=2
not color
 
Spray paint would be better .
You don't want them saturated , they might tear .
Thank you, will do.

I have the three masts up but i may not do the rigging ropes, its not fun for me. Besides, once i made the first battle damage, all hopes of authentic went out the window lol
 
Ok major update and challenges last night. I went to put on the ratropes (?) the side nets and my masts were too high. I was sure they went all the way down thru both decks, but i guess not.

So i spent the night cutting the tops off the masts and removing 1cm of mast. Then i used blue tak to hold them in place while the ca glue cured. Then had to pick all the blue tak off where it touched the glue. Then i wrapped the section in putty and when dry shaped it like a 4x4 and primed n painted.
Not professional but acceptable.

Its alot easier to cut off the bottom of the mast than to have to do what i did.

So be sure you test fit ratropes before you glue masts in place. Also remember to test fit the ship end of those ropes as it says to widden the slots to fit (wish i would have done that before i glued them.

Another warning, the ratrope ends are super duper fragile, broke several installing and some broke in box. You cant glue them normal because the materal is so thin it melts n falls apart. The only way i found to do it was to overlap it onto the plastic above so its like a double stud.

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Ok major update and challenges last night. I went to put on the ratropes (?) the side nets and my masts were too high. I was sure they went all the way down thru both decks, but i guess not.

So i spent the night cutting the tops off the masts and removing 1cm of mast. Then i used blue tak to hold them in place while the ca glue cured. Then had to pick all the blue tak off where it touched the glue. Then i wrapped the section in putty and when dry shaped it like a 4x4 and primed n painted.
Not professional but acceptable.

Its alot easier to cut off the bottom of the mast than to have to do what i did.

So be sure you test fit ratropes before you glue masts in place. Also remember to test fit the ship end of those ropes as it says to widden the slots to fit (wish i would have done that before i glued them.

Another warning, the ratrope ends are super duper fragile, broke several installing and some broke in box. You cant glue them normal because the materal is so thin it melts n falls apart. The only way i found to do it was to overlap it onto the plastic above so its like a double stud.

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Thanks for the info. Luckily my ratropes are nylon so easier to fit I hope. Pantherman

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Also a quick note, the sails are not normal paper, i dont know what its called but im guessing its thick craft paper with a thin plastic coating it seems. I think if you want to dip it in a wash it would hold up, just do it quickly. But do it after you cut them out, if not youll be painting edges as the paper is white inside too lol
 
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