napoleonicfrigates

Square rigged ship modelling is one of the most demanding, time consuming and rewarding of the modelling areas. A lot of people graduate to a ship of this nature and give up when they realise the work that is actually required. A common comment comes after the keen beginner buys a kit and opens it to see wood. No labelled parts just what appears to be a couple of planks and sticks and a bunch of instructions that appear to have been written in Russian.

Most kits and shops will inform you that the best thing to do is to take your time (true) and follow the instructions. Open the instructions and get confronted with (or similar)

Remove the keel (1) from it's sheet along with the bulkheads (2=-13). The top edge of bulkhead 13 should be bevelled to the same sheer as the keel to allow the false deck to sit properly...

All plain and simple to an experienced ship modeller but to the beginner this promptly sets in motion drastic efforts to discover what bevelled means and wonder why there are not handy pictures to help him understand the process.

Now I plan on walking you through, should you wish to come along, the entire process of building one beginners kit from scratch. Hopefully if I come across something confusing or downright incomprehensible and cover it then it will prevent you having the same problem.

To prevent you having to trawl through the entire site to get to the later pages I also present you with this unhandy index! The first three are currently unlinked as I feel I need more experience with other manufacturers before making any sort of comment.

Chapter 1    Model Choice
Chapter 2    Tools and Equipment
Chapter 3    Plans
Chapter 4    Hull Construction Part 1
Chapter 5    Hull Construction Gun ports and Deck
Chapter 6    Hull Construction First Planking Layer
Chapter 7    Hull Construction Outer Planking Layer
Chapter 8    Hull Construction Tidying Planking
Chapter 9    Deck Planking and Rudder
Chapter 10  Fore and Aft Platforms
Chapter 11  Bulwark capping Rails
Chapter 12  Paint and the Bow
Chapter 13  Deck Fittings
Chapter 14  Coppering
Chapter 15  Chain Plates and Channels
Chapter 16  Carronades
Chapter 17  Masts
Chapter 18  Rigging Ratlines
Chapter 19  More Rigging
Chapter 20  Conclusions