...for my son's third birthday! My son asked for a "pirate party" for his birthday (at the end of January), so I figured this was the perfect time to build the Maiden.

I have printed the entire ship (and standees) with the exception of the transparencies (just looking for my box-o-paper). I will use this thread to chronicle my progress, with pics, of course!

Any tips along the way would be greatly appreciated.

First, some preliminary shots:



The Maiden in its raw form.



Wow! Lots of cutting, to be sure!

Looking forward to seeing the in-progress shots!

Thanks! I should have some ready soon. I am trying to post in relevant groups of pics. We'll see how that works out.

The Maiden has always been of interest to me. I just can't seem to muster the courage to begin my voyage. Please keep the pics coming, as I am sure it will prove to be incentive for me...

Smuttynose (Portsmouth, NH) Robust Porter makes cutting light work. I hope to have some more pics up tonight!

Okay, so not as many pics as I wanted, but getting there, slowly but surely.



Transparencies all cut out - some duplicates as I found scoring these to be delicate indeed.



Getting some moral support from Eddie...my first standee, BTW.



Decks!



More decks!



One more!

It's coming along!

Looking good so far. Keep 'em coming.

Woohoo! Everything in that first pic of the stack of cardstock is "initial-cut," meaning pre-glue and fold cut. I still need to cut white space out, but that will be during production.

I have the Maiden proper, the master board, tons of props, interior walls, and standees all ready for assembly.

I will not post any more pile of parts pics - the rest will be production as I move through each stage.

Good to hear things are coming along. You should try and get a rough estimate of the hours it takes to complete as well. Would give me an idea of when I might try and finally build the Maiden...

I am keeping a rough estimate during prep, but I will keep more accurate times during construction. I would say I cut everything in about 4 hours total time, maybe less. I have definitely sat longer than that, but when watching the TV or talking with the wife/kids, it may pull me away for various amounts of time.

Three nights, though. That is accurate. I sat down around 7 each night for three nights.

The other thing I will say is that I freehand just about everything. If you are using a straightedge, your time may very. I am very satisfied with my cutting, so I use the straightedge for cuts longer than say 6 inches or so and scoring longer than an inch.

Tools of the trade...



My edging kit



My baby! HP4700DN

Decking Pre-Hull



Lower Deck



Upper Deck



Transparencies

Looking forward to see this take shape!

Thanks!

I have more to post - the hull is done and I am working on the sterncastle...battery was dying last night so I had to stop. I'll try to get those up in the next day. Actually, they are in my gallery on wormhole gamer...I just need to link them here.

If you want a recommendation I would suggest reinforcing the railings... they are kinda flimsy and are the first parts to go. What I did was doubled it up with a transparency sheet in between the two. I'll post pics of my maiden at a later date to show what I'm talking about.

That makes sense. Thanks for the tip! I have more pics to post, but I have been slammed with work (and life in general), and there is the matter of actually finishing the build. I'll get there soon but I am about 2 months behind my deadline. Oh well!

How is this coming along?

Slow...just had so much life going on, my hobby has been on hold...I should just do a little a night, but when I finally get to settle down, I am SO unmotivated to do anything fun...I will try and ramp it up.

See my new thread for motivation. You are way ahead of me, but I hope to speed through the build/review.