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jbelwood

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About jbelwood

  • Birthday 02/15/1940

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  • Gender
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  • Location
    Stratford, CT
  • Interests
    Current build: Bluejacket Portland
    Finished builds: Inter-Action Enterprises C.R. LAMB, Train-Troll Western River Towboat

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  1. Finished the Portlands skylight. I started by making a pattern of the rabbeted base on a piece of manila folder. Decided to have the vertical window framing 1/2" apart. Measured around the perimeter of the pattern and drew a line every 1/2" and place a blue dot on each for identification. Here you can more readily see the idea. At this point I painted the window wall with Floquil Engine Black. When dry, I burnished it with a soft cloth which produced a nice sheen. Fastened the pattern to the base with double sided tape and added the frame work. Used 1/32" x 1/16" bass wood strip along the base and uprights. Used 1/32" square where the window wall meets under the roof. Painted the roof Floquil CN Gray with a white stripe around the edge. Not glued down yet but here it is finished. John Elwood Stratford, CT
  2. Over the centuries many thousands of ship modelers have had to step many masts. There must be endless ways of doing this. I my case this is a first. As a life long model railroader I have few tools to address this. I do however have a 50 year old Dremmel drill press. I had to step the mast atop the skylight at 90 degrees to the deck and raked back at 5 degrees. I first cut a piece of black foam core to a 5 degree angle and used it as reference to afix a piece of scrap wood to the drill press base. I slid a piece of scrap under that to get the proper angle. Then held it in place by hand and drilled a few holes until I got it right. Then inserted the 1/8" dowel to determine if my measurements were correct. They apparently were. The next step was a challenge. Took me an hour to clamp the skylight to the base correctly so that the bit wouldn't wander. Had to be correct at first shot. The end result was perfect. The mast lined up exactly with the center line of the ship. John Elwood Stratford, CT
  3. Nice to see you back Norm. Very few modelers are apparently interested in the Portland. Will try to post the mast installation this evening. Not sure where I am going from here. Need to install the crew quarters and get the hurricane deck in place. John
  4. Well, this blasted COVID19 got me back to the Portland again. I decided to tackle the skylight after agonizing about it for some time. We start out with a 1/2 x 3 x 10 inch piece of basswood. I first roughly cut out the top view contour with my bench saw and then finished the outline with my Allwin Disc/Belt Sander. Next you cut a 3/16 high x 1/8 deep rabbet completely around the entire structure. Not having a router, I was able to adjust my bench saw to do the same thing. Cleaned up the curf marks with a sanding stick. Contouring the the roof with gentle curves is not adequately discussed in the instructions. Their instruction manual from the original kit is much more specific. I quote "Draw a centerline on top of the skylight. Measure up 1/16"from the top of the rabbet. Draw a line from the side of the skylight at its widest point (just before the forward curve) to the centerline 1-1/2" from the front edge. Draw another line from the narrowest point of the side (just before the after curve) to the centerline 1-1/4" from the after edge. This double "Y" is the shape of the ridge line. Carve the roof using these lines to the line 1/16" above the rabbet". Page 14 of the new manual give you a sketch of what they are talking about. NOTE: Instead of carving I used 1" wide sanding sticks to create the roof contour. Have yet to figure out how I want to do the windows. My next post will show how I installed the aft mast atop the skylight. John Elwood
  5. OK...here's a few for you. Camera shots, unfortunately, show a few years of dust. Oh well. Looking back I probably used Titebond and ACC. John Elwood
  6. Hi Duanelaker, I've built four of these over the past 40 years. Original list price was $13.00. Shaping the interior of the hull never got easier as I always struggled using a chisel. My latest build, somewhat modified, sits in a river scene on my model railroad. I believe the latest issue of the Taurus has an etched brass pilot and deck house. That sure would make the build much easier and quicker. Will follow you along to see what additional ideas you might come up with. I love these little tugs as they add greatly to a maritime theme if in a diorama. John Elwood
  7. Just thought I'd throw this photo in for something different. Perhaps the most photographed scene on my layout. John Elwood
  8. Hi there Norm, Thanks for all those photos. I've heard many very positive comments about the museum from fellow modelers who have visited there. From your many photos, I can see why. I have yet to get back to the Portland. My overall health has slipped to a point where the passion to build has diminished considerably. I did finish the trestle however. Although it doesn't show, there are 374 pieces in this model, all cut from sprues. I estimate 70+ hours of work. It is to be installed on a friends Northern Pacific layout over Elwood Gulch. You couldn't pay me to build another one. John Elwood
  9. My current project brings me back to my first love of model railroading. The below image shows an HO scale steel trestle and scenery that I built for a client some 15 years ago. I am currently building the same trestle kit (Micro Scale Models) but in a longer (270') and higher (87') version for a close friend. Scenery to be added is yet another story. Quite a departure from the Portland, I'd say. John Elwood
  10. Have been away from my computer for the past week. Spent the week visiting my daughter and SIL in their summer cottage in Digby, Nova Scotia. Photo was taken in November last year. All last week the Bay of Fundy was extremely calm. Digby is advertised as the World's Scallop Capitol. Bought them fresh off the boat. Thin line in my photo of their photo is due to failed pixel sensor. John Elwood
  11. Before you go any further, take a look at this photo. In particular the paddle box cover. At this point in the build, I couldn't determine where the cover ended. Was it at the main deck or further up just past the saloon deck. No where in the instructions did it tell you to completely cover the box or not. I took a chance and completely covered it down to the main deck as shown in the photo. I guess I did it correctly as the build has gone smoothly since. Out of curiosity, what did you do Dan? You can probably catch a few other little problems, but we'll talk about those later in the build. John Elwood
  12. Norm, I cleaned it with alcohol and q-tips as best I could. Lousy job at best. Sprayed it without using primer but, looking back, I probably should have done so. Floquil seems to adhere quite well on it's own. And yes, some of the paint has chipped away but easy to touch up.
  13. Thanks Mark, I should have known that. Note to Norm, re: MSG question. Lighthouse on CMMS home page yet to be identified. John
  14. Don't be too concerned about the wrong orientation of the floats. Just make sure the floats are ahead of the spokes in the direction of forward rotation. Once installed only the lower 30 per cent of the wheel will be visible. In the above port side photo, the wheel is still removable. Paddle box cover not yet painted or glued in place. Can't understand why the photo got inserted mid sentence. John Elwood
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