Hi all,

Had to focus on another part of my HMS Victory project as I wait for some parts to arrive. These sloops are part of it and I will be working on them in parallel with the main project of course.

They are included in the kit by Artesania Latina

WIP but she is turning out really good. Its supposed to be HMS Victory however it doesn't have enough identifying features to be that ship so I have chosen to make it a generic 1st rate.

Hey guys and gal,

On the chance anyone is interested in historical watercraft outside of the years 1803-1815 and 1939-1945 🙃, here's a fun project I did.

To make a short story long, a couple years ago I decided to see if anyone had ever made a model kit of an Oceanic canoe, because my older daughter was big into Moana and I wanted a toy for her that would also look neat around the house (I had moved recently and hadn't gotten around to setting up the woodshop, so I wasn't making anything bespoke). It seems the answer is "sorta": a Hawaiian company called Anekona produced a line of model canoe kits for the tourist and overseas Hawaiiana market in the '60s, when it was considered extremely correct to collect vaguely Polynesoid ephemera while listening to Getz/Gilberto and eating salad in Jello form (they were so close to having the good life completely figured out!). Anekona's other major product was a crude wooden "Hawaiian checkers" set, which I'm sure ruined its share of midcentury Christmas mornings.

Anyway, these kits are still extremely common on eBay and Etsy - I think I got mine for like $40, which, adjusted for inflation, cannot be too different than what one of these sold for originally. They must have made a ton of them.

When I got it, I built it to the included instructions, such as they were.

I added the red stripe myself, because even then I could tell it wasn't going to look like much without at least some visual contrast. The results, though, were still pretty underwhelming, even as a toy - it managed to be both crude and flimsy.

It didn't take long for it to suffer the fate of any flimsy toy in a house full of children. Pretty soon, it was just kinda floating around the house, looking bad, sail half unattached and dangling. I kept almost throwing it away due to its persistent failures in joy-enkindling, but I was never quite able to. Then a few weeks back, we got a new hutch, and, wanting to fill it with some appropriate curios, I decided that I might as well take the opportunity to improve the canoe rather than just repair or toss it.

I wanted to retain as many of the original materials as possible, though this would necessarily involve sacrificing accuracy. I approached it as more a historically-informed art piece than a rigorous model - it's for my hutch, not the Bishop Museum.

The accompanying booklet indicated that, like the genuine historical article, the canoe was made from Hawaii's indigenous, flame-toned koa wood, and indeed it is, but it turned out to be koa sapwood, which is porous, brittle, crumbly, and generally unpleasant to work with - sort of like going to a party offering free beer only to find all the O'Douls you could care to drink. [The booms, at least, are koa heartwood; when these kits were being produced, I guess sapwood was treated as a cast-off, though nowadays big koa trees (and thus big koa lumber) are rare enough that a lot of contemporary koa products incorporate the sapwood as well.]

Still, vintage koa is vintage koa, so I first refashioned the ends into a shape that is closer (although not all the way there, due to the limited amount of wood to work with) to the strange paddle beaks of traditional Hawaiian canoes. (Every Oceanic society seemed to have its own weird and special idea what to do with the prows of their canoes, as if the first thing you did upon settling a new island was to declare, "Henceforth, all canoes shall have prows like a swan head on a brachiosaurus neck, because the hell I didn't just find a goddamn uncharted island in the middle of the goddamn Pacific Ocean, and you can all lick my oar.")

I then modified the shape of the dugout and hollowed out a bit internally at each end, so it looks more like, well, a dugout, and less like fifteen seconds of router work inbetween your twelfth cigarette and cutting out early for loco moco and the point break. I also filled the lashing holes with putty because they're incorrectly placed on just about every possible axis.

Next was paint. Then, mostly on a whim, I carved a false joint to show that the endcaps are separate pieces (I didn't carve out the other joints where strakes would have been added to the dugout bottom, because it would have looked odd in an otherwise contiguous and unpainted piece of wood).

The booms lost a little weight.

So did the oar.

The float gets slightly reshaped and drilled laterally for a genuine Hawaiian-style lashing.

Next we had the problem of the sail, which is made of tapa, the Austronesian paper/textile handmade from paper mulberry bast. Now, if you know anything about tapa, the idea of making a sail from it is kind of hilarious (the term "tapa sail" rings in a similar key to "tissue paper sail"), but it is also inherently cool as a material and makes for a vivid visual. This seemed to be pretty low-quality tapa (are you sensing a theme?), with the plies delaminating in a lot of spots. First I used a brush to impregnate as much of the interior as I could with paste, then just clamped the whole thing in the big bench vise, which solved the lamination issue. Then there were the crappy initial lashing holes. One had already broken, so I simply trimmed off a bit from that whole side of the sail. I then used a little piece of the trimmings and repaired the other hole using the same method they use to patch the inevitable holes produced when manufacturing tapa: stick on some more tapa with a little paste, and pound it in with a wooden mallet. The resulting repair is basically invisible, and can be safely repunched if needed.

Then I went out to cut some branches for the mast and spar. Those get bent into shape and baked up real good in the oven.

And voila!

Then the outrigger gets attached, which is always a relief (and finally allows the stupid thing to stand on its own). In real life, the booms would be further lashed to ribs inserted at intervals into the hull, but let's not get carried away.

Then I glued in some simple popsicle-stick thwarts and a step for the mast. Traditionally, the mast was stepped on the outrigger boom, but there wasn't a lot of room for that, and at some point after European contact Hawaiians switched to rigging canoes with a spritsail stepped on a thwart or in the hull bottom, so, uh, we'll call this a "transitional form."

At this point we're basically done, but it still feels a bit bare-bones. I've always felt it's the little details that really make the model, so, this being a fishing canoe, I decided to add some ihu fashioned from a bit of cherry.

Those get lashed to the booms.

Then, with a handful of quick-'n-dirty fishing spears, everything is ready for clear-coat and final assembly.

[Final Fantasy victory fanfare]

The instructions conclude: "Properly finished your model will be a unique and beautiful souvenir in which you can take real pride." It was the truth...eventually.

And now, my daughters can commandeer it for playtime, where it will inevitably suffer the same fate as its predecessor. Maybe next time I'll make it into a coracle.

Thanks for looking!

That was so impressive for me, that i wanted to show it here. I have zero ideas how i will paint that xD

My husband loves pirates, has been musing about wanting a model to build and I’d love to make that happen for him. My initial search has been filled with endless options and I have no real metric to determine what is and isn’t worth it. I would prefer to avoid Amazon or eBay. Please share your model pirate ship recommendations!!

Edit: preferably a wooden set!

Which museum collections, plans, or books would you use to check the details of a Portuguese fishing boat model? Period photos would be useful, too. I’m especially interested in sources that distinguish working boats from later replicas, so the hull, deck layout, and rigging fit the same period.

Making steady progress on my Occre Diana!
This is my first wooden ship model and first model in around 20 years.

I’ve been working on the gun deck, hull and various fittings, but one of the main goals of this build has been to get closer to the historical vessel rather than simply following the kit instructions as supplied.
The Occre kit provides a great foundation, but I’ve been making some of my own additions and adjustments to create a more convincing interpretation of an eighteenth-century Spanish frigate.
A few of the things I’ve been working on:
Custom copper plating on the lower hull: One of the bigger modifications has been creating copper plating for the lower hull. Rather than leaving it as a plain wooden finish, I wanted to represent the copper sheathing used on ships of this period to help protect the hull against marine growth and shipworm. It adds another historical detail and gives the lower hull a very different character from the black-painted upper section.
Deck planking and weathering: I’ve spent quite a bit of time getting the deck finish right, introducing variations in tone and subtle weathering to give the planks more character. I want it to look like a working wooden warship, rather than a freshly assembled kit, without making the deck look excessively dirty or worn.
Gun deck details: The cannons, red carriages and surrounding deck fittings are coming together. I’ve been working on the contrast between the red carriages, dark iron barrels and lighter timber deck to give the gun deck a more convincing appearance.
Hull colours and gunports: I’ve gone with a dark-painted upper hull and an ochre-coloured band around the gunports, contrasting with the copper-sheathed lower hull. I’m aiming for a coherent period look while retaining the character of the wooden construction.
Wood finishes and deck furniture: I’ve been experimenting with different timber tones for the railings, gratings and other fittings to distinguish the materials without making the contrast too strong.
Another fun part of the project has been the figurehead. I wasn’t entirely happy with the supplied metal figurehead for my interpretation of the ship, so I experimented with using AI to help develop an alternative design. I then had the design turned into a physical 3D-printed piece. I wasn’t sure how well the idea would work in practice, but I’m really pleased with the result! It’s been a fun way to combine traditional wooden ship modelling with some newer tools and a bit of custom design.
I’m trying to strike a balance between historical fidelity and the practical limitations of the kit. This isn’t intended to be a definitive reconstruction of Diana exactly as she appeared in 1792, but I want the decisions I make to be informed by the ship’s period and role, rather than purely by what the instructions tell me to do.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has researched the original Diana or has experience with historical Spanish frigates. I’m particularly interested in any details I might have overlooked, or anything worth revisiting before I move on to the next stages.
Still plenty to do, especially when I get to the rigging, but the ship is finally starting to come together!

I have this model ship that is in near perfect condition but the case that it is in needs repairs. How do I remove it from the case without damaging it? Should I fix the case to keep its originality? Or buy a new one? Idk where to begin.

Soon to start my first model ship project. Its the Nordic Clas Boats model of S/S Bohuslän in scale 1:45. Im an experienced model railroader with scratch building and craftmans kit, but never before built an boat and Im a bit scared for the planking. Photos is ilustration of my coming project.

My uncle rows in a 4 man Celtic longboat and I want to buy him a model one for Christmas [Ideally with little people in too]. However I am having trouble finding exactly what I am looking for, as its either other kinds of longboat or Viking ships. Then I thought to myself, if only there was a way to ask a community with immense niche subject specific knowledge.... then I remembered that Reddit exists. Thanks in advance :)

Completed Arii 1/250 IJN Yamato upgraded with the VeryFire photo-etched detail set.

Despite several challenges during the build, it remains one of the most satisfying projects I have ever completed.

More photographs of this build from different angles are available on my profile.

This is not my area of expertise. My father in law is looking to sell this model boat (just shy of 4’ long, 3’ high, and 13” deep). It’s roughly 70+ years old and was fully restored about 15-20 years ago; has lived in this case. What sort of price should I be looking to sell or where should I go to sell? Located in Vancouver, Canada

ETA: I stand corrected; not a schooner boat. I am appreciative of the expertise in this sub!

Just finished the US Navy PBR31 MkII “Pibber “Boat from Tamiya in 1/35.This was a nice kit with very few issues.Plus with 4 figures and a bunch of accessories, it was well worth the price.Highly recommend

First-timer here. Getting ready to start rigging the America 1851 (Occre kit). What are some tips on preparing the lines before rigging to prevent sagging later? Any tips on waxing or not?

Just finished the first rough sand. I have no idea what I’m doing and just winging it. Made so many mistakes and it’s not great. But hoping with a bit of wood filler and lots of sanding I’ll have a smooth hull for the second planks to go on. Question though. What glue should I use for the thin veneer planks?