I've had another bash at building up the Navy of the Republic of Haiti 1867-1869, this time with a bit of paddle power.
My previous attempt was the Triumph (formerlly the USS Atlanta) TMP link and I was happy with the results. This time, with more complicated tiny shapes, I'm less so.
I thought I'd still share the results, though, to share what I've learned if it helps others, to benefit from any scratch-building tips that you might have or merely to encourage anyone who's ever fancied scratch-building but not got round to it to have a go: I may might not be 100% happy with the result, but I am still pleased with it and, as it's only my second scratch build, I know I will get better.
For Dahlgren & Columbiad, the Salnave's stats are:
Size: M
Speed: 5
Man:H
DF:3
AF:0
Gunnery: FW (GF3/PF+3), AW (GF2/PF+1), PS (GF1/PF+0)
And here in company with the Triumph:
Lessons learned:
1) My eyes are still okay, but I need reading glasses (at +1), but I struggle with close work like this. Stronger glasses are too strong, and using a standing magnifying glass make me lose depth perception for some reason. As I use cheapo one quid glasses I knocked up a way to put a second pair in front of the first to double up – daft, but effective
2) Using a vice leaves both hands free and makes makes drilling or sticking on small parts so much easier – this one is really cheap, but as it's delicate work it can cope with the pressure easily
3) Watercolour paper mounted on a warbases laser-cut mdf base gives a subtle ripple effect which is perfect for 1/2400 (you can's really see it in the photos but the effect is such that this is now my basing of choice)
4) Sticking the scaled plan to the plasticard is all well and good, but it does mean that you can't use plastic cement to add the deck – I should have used the reverse or stripped the paper off, ah well!
Advice I'd love:
1) How the heck do you file small pieces to shape when they measure just millimetres across?! I tried my fingers (filed my fingers), tweezers (filed my tweezers), vice (filed my vice)
2) How do you shape ship's boats in this scale?!
Materials used – Hull: 1.5mm plasticard (styrene sheet), deck: 0.2mm plasticard (scored to represent decking), superstructure and ship's boats: plasticard off cuts, filed to shape, Masts: 0.5mm (I think) brass rod, davits: 0.2mm brass rod, bent to shape), funnel and paddle cases: plastic tubing (size based on just trying different ones against my reduced scale plan), flag halyard: paintbrush bristle, ensign: foil from a wine bottle.
Best wishes,
Nick
plastic tube, brass rod, all of different gauges.
builds 
