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Merry Chritmas!

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Friday, December 26, 2008 12:02 PM

You'll also find some extremely useful stuff about this kit if you do a search here in the FSM Forum.  Several threads deal with it.

That practicum from ModelExpo is excellent.  I do have a couple of minor reservations about it - both easy to fix.  One - the black-painted pintles and gudgeons on the rudder ought to be copper- or bronze-colored.  (When iron and copper are placed next to each other and submerged in salt water, galvanic corrosion takes place and the copper disintegrates.  That's why copper sheathing had to be held on with copper nails.)  Two - the gentleman who wrote the practicum realized too late in the process of building his model that the instructions and plans omit a rather big feature of the ship:  the cockpit (just aft of the after deckhouse, where the steering wheel is located) is supposed to be sunk about a foot below the main deck.

I think this goof happened because of the quirky history of the kit.  I bought one many years ago, long before Model Shipways was taken over by Model Expo.  I think (though I'm not absolutely sure) the cockpit in that old kit was preformed by the same machine that carved the hull.  The new version doesn't have that feature - and apparently the instructions weren't updated to inform the modeler that he needed to carve out the cockpit.  (Just a few years ago I bought another Phantom kit, this one with the cast resin hull that MS was selling at the time.  Same problem.)

Fixing it isn't as hard as it may look at first glance.  Using a chisel and/or gouge, dig out a hole about 3/16" deep in the hull at about the right place, as measured from the deck plan.  (If you're a little inaccurate about the location, don't worry.  While you're at it, you may want to chisel out a similar hole under the deckhouse, so you can leave the companionway open.  That sort of thing really livens up a model - and goes some way toward creating the illusion that it's hollow.)  Cut a scrap from the scribed deck planking sheet, and glue it to the bottom surface (the "sole") of the cockpit.  When you're cutting out the deck from the scribed sheet, cut a hole in it to correspond accurately with the edge of the cockpit (and the deckhouse that forms the front of the cockpit).  Glue the deck sheet down.  After you've finished building the deckhouse and wheel box, make the "wall" around the cockpit out of scrap basswood strips, about 1/16" wide; glue their bottoms to the cockpit sole, and trim off their tops so they match the height of the cast metal parts provided for the purpose.  (You can use those parts if you like, of course, but this trick is actually a little easier.)  Make a little cap for the rail and you're done. 

Like most such things, this is harder to describe than to do.  If I remember right, building the cockpit on my resin-hulled Phantom took a couple of hours, at the most.  Here are some pictures, for what they're worth:  http://www.hmsvictoryscalemodels.be/JohnTilleyPhantom/index.html .

As I understand it, the kit Model Expo is selling now is identical to the one I bought except for the replacement of the resin hull with a basswood one.  I hope, though, that the company took the opportunity to fix a few other problems.  Mine came with a bag of "deadeye strop rings" that were at least five times as big as they should have been.  Utterly useless.  And, as I noted in at least one other thread, the omission of the "pilot canoe" is...well, problematic.  A pilot schooner can't function without at least one small boat, to carry the pilot to and from the ships he's piloting.  (The argument can be made that stowing a boat on the deck would, to some extent, spoil the graceful appearance of the model.  But I really think the boat ought to be in the kit - or at least represented on the plans.)

In general, though, it's a nice kit, and the little ship herself is beautiful. 

Good luck.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: San Bernardino, CA
Merry Chritmas!
Posted by enemeink on Friday, December 26, 2008 10:45 AM

My wife bought me the Model-shipways Phantom combo kit for Christmas! Needless to say I'm pretty excited about it. I started to shape the hull last night. And needless to say the instructions for this kit are horrible. It's kind of funny in a way. I down loaded the practicum for the build and it makes alot more sense now. Just out of curiosity are other wood ship kits instructions this bad? And why, for an entry level ship, are they so vague on the details? why not just include the practicum along with the manual?

My Royal Louis is now on the back burner so I can work on this. Since my wife has had it for a month already it leaves me with a little less time to complete it. But I'm not complaining. She loves me Big Smile [:D]

Merry Christmas!

"The race for quality has no finish line, so technically it's more like a death march."
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