Baltimore Schooner LYNX 1812

[Red Devil Squadron]

Greetings,
This is the Baltimore Schooner LYNX of 1812 built from the "Halco Ocean Ship" kit made by NTKJ Model Company in China. Described as being 1/100 scale, this inexpensive kit is very basic (see photo of the kit contents) and may actually be 1/130 scale. I think it is a copy of the ubiquitous 1/100 kit of HALCON which is perhaps a slightly better kit with some fittings included. I don't believe there was ever a ship named HALCO , but the kit does resemble a Baltimore Schooner from the early 1800's so I decided to build the actual ship LYNX from this kit.
The kit does not include any fittings so these details had to be added or scratch built. A small piece of sail material along with a basic sail plan is included which I did not use. After many attempts with various materials, I decided that regular photo copier paper along with Derwent water colours, pencils and PVA glue produced the best results for sails. No rigging plan is included with the kit and I struggled to find accurate detailed information on both standing and running rigging. I believe I got most of it correct, but some elements remain a mystery so I apologize for any mistakes with the rigging. My spares bin provided most of the missing metal and wood fittings and I scratch built several items. No paint was used, everything is natural wood or wood stains with small details done with pencils or markers. This is a small kit which complicated construction in many areas, see the photo with a match stick to get an idea of the size. A basic display stand is included, but I made my own display stand which looks better.
Many thanks for having a look, questions and comments are always welcome.



Bill

[Red Devil Squadron]

More images . . .

[Red Devil Squadron]

Final photos, including kit contents and completed build with match to demonstrate small size.

Many thanks,

Bill

[Timothyo]

Really nice job! How was the planking- and was the wood quality ok?

[Red Devil Squadron]

Thank you! Wood quality was surprisingly good for such a inexpensive kit. I used the kit keel and frames then applied a single layer of hull planking using leftover planks from another build. Extra time and effort getting the frame edges shaped correctly and carefully heat forming the hull planks saved me from having to do a double plank on frame build. The hull planks are a darker wood slightly shorter in width than the kit planks which looked better to me. After final sanding the hull was stained with a very dark color and aggressively rubbed down to help bring out the wood grain.

Bill