Missing instuctions

jtilley

You are 100% correct. Now that you said this I can see hole dead center from the being on the lathe. I guess now my work begins.

Jim

Runkel - I think the chunk of wood on the bow is the spindle that was left over from the manufacturing process.  I'm pretty sure that Scientific, like the other solid-hull wood kit companies, farmed out the making of its hulls to a furniture manufacturer, which turned the hulls on the same lathe it used for making table legs. 

Back in the Goode Olde Dayes I made several visits to the old Model Shipways "factory," which consisted of a tiny storefront on a deadend street in Bogota, New Jersey.  On at least one of those occasions a very nice lady (the wife of one of the two owners, I think) was sitting at a desk just inside the front door shaving the spindles off hulls that had just arrived from the furniture firm.  The lower-priced kits, like those from Scientific, made the modeler do the job himself.

Carving off the spindle is one of the trickier parts of working with a solid hull kit.  The photos may show you enough; if not, the plans in the Chapelle book certainly contain enough detail for that purpose.  If you're within driving distance of a decent library, it may have a copy of the book.  If not, hundreds of used copies are available on the Web - many of them for extremely reasonable prices.

Good luck.  Despite their awful history, slavers make handsome models.

Michel

Thanks for the link. They have some nice photos of the bow section.My hull is a 1 piece solid wood and I need to do some research on how to shape the bow. Thanks for the input.

Jim

Jim,

all I can do to help is show you pictures of a Dos Amigos model by John Luberti.

Though, this is the Constructo - Golden kit model, not the Scientific one.

http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album72

Michel

Thank you jtilley. I was aware the ship was a slaver from reading in the past.This is my first wood ship and things look quite simple but the square block on the front of the hull. I understand I must carve it to shape and was looking for a litte detail. The kit included 6 nice photos of the model completed.I guess I will have to figure out where to mount the bow spirit and work from there.

Thanks

Jim

I can't help with the instructions - though I do remember the kit.

It's pretty obscure nowadays; I'm afraid you may have trouble locating a set of instructions for it.  If you aren't able to find anything else, you might look up the ship in Howard I. Chapelle's History of American Sailing Ships.  I believe it contains a set of plans for the Dos Amigos that would, at least, give you a good idea of what the finished model is supposed to look like.

As I remember the kit (and my memory may well be incorrect; I haven't seen the thing for decades), the text on the box was careful to describe the ship only as a "Baltimore clipper."  That description is, of course, correct, but it says nothing about the vessel's function.  She was a slaver.