Mississippi King: Walkway

I decided to put the Red Dragon on hold since the sails need to rebuilt to the correct scale and stores are either closed or completely out of thread due to COVID. That means I will be switching over to my other ship project, the Artesania Latina: King of the Mississippi.

This kit was the one my youngest picked out for me to build as an heirloom for her. It's a big ship in comparison to the other's I have built so far. In doing some research on the build, I came across this build diary (all in french). I absolutely love the weathered finish this builder was able to achieve. I spent some time playing around with stains, oils, and pigments to see how I can try to achieve a similar affect. For the gangway I finished this past weekend, I used pigments to discolor the edges.

I also started experimenting with diluted oil paints, almost like a wash. The effect is very nearly what I was hoping for to have on the wall panels.

As with my last two experiences with Artesania kits, I am expecting to quickly toss out the instructions and use the blueprints as a rough guide. For someone who needs to achieve high precision, these kits have often left me very frustrated when instructions are wrong or the kit parts have changed.

Red Dragon: The Sail Dilemma

My grandmother bought me an antique wooden ship when I was fifteen. Even though she didn't build it herself, it still represents an extravagant gift to me (given her very limited income) that I still proudly display in my home 25 years later. She past away almost two decades ago, but I am so glad I still have this memento from her.

Inspired by this, I have often thought about what I would like to leave with my two daughters that they can pass down. Building small things is a big part of my life, but I didn't want them to be left with a bunch of 1:35 military plastic kits to deal with. Instead I asked each of my daughters to pick a wooden ship that I would build for them. These ships represent hundreds of hours of my time, pain, and as you will soon see, frustration. They are truly a part of me and represent who I am as a maker.

My oldest daughter, who was adopted from China about 8 years ago, appropriately picked out a Chinese junk boat. In November of 2018, I started work on the Red Dragon. This boat will truly look stunning when completed, but the Artesania Latina kit has caused me so many problems along the way.

 

I have had to make a LOT of modifications to this ship and basically tossed out the instructions completely. The biggest issue that has caused a rise in my blood pressure was that front side of the blueprints were printed at 1:1 scale and the back side of the blueprints where scaled up by 10-15%. I didn't catch the discrepancy until recently, but it is wrecking havoc on the build. I was attempting to put sails on this week, and discovered they were way too large to fit the boat. Now, I have to redo about a week's worth of effort to remake them at the proper size. EXPLETIVE!!

It's so frustrating to be approaching the end of this project and to have another big set back. I haven't decided whether to shelve this boat for a while until I am ready to redo a tedious part of the build. After I calm down a bit, I will have to make a decision. Either way, I need to buy some more thread since I burned through a lot making the first set of sails, and our fabric store is closed a few more weeks due to COVID.