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Jaager

NRG Member
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About Jaager

  • Birthday 09/11/1946

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Norfolk VA
  • Interests
    wooden sail pre-1860

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  1. From my perspective - wood - scratch - POF - if your near term goal is to scratch build a yacht using wood, any time spent building a plastic model is time wasted. There is very little overlap in the skills required. The rigging on a large scale version of a modern yacht will have very little in common with the rigging of Nelson Era first rate man of war. You may even choose to paint with wood rather than pigment in a binder, so the only other overlap is not relevant if you do. The surface prep on plastic does not relate to that of wood either. A small craft starter kit of a wooden model would be a more productive time investment. It will probably want a couple more incrementally complex kits to get there. Meanwhile - read. Chapelle's Boatbuilding, Books covering small craft and yacht construction, lofting. As a background alert, I see plastic as being an absolutely terrible material to simulate wood. It is close to essential as a material to simulate steel. But, it requires really special skills to use it as a raw material and be shaped to match a one-off plan.
  2. It is also possible that knowledge and lessons learned give you the power and determination to persevere , when not having that chip would have lead to the easy path. If you did it twice, that would be troubling. At least you are not a song writer who signed over the rights to a song whose royalties could have supported you for the rest of your life.
  3. The situation is probably even worse. The veneer has a high probability of being rotary cut. Think of a blade producing a continuous sheet of wood that resembles paper towels coming off of a roll. The wood came from a curved environment and will always "want" to go back to that cupped conformation. Wetting, pressing, ironing will just be a futile fight against Mother Nature. Even at a distance, that hideous yellow stuff looks like crap. It will likely not be the joy to work that an appropriate species is. It appears that the ZHL episode was not the aberration that I was hoping it was.
  4. It is a terrible choice. It has a relatively short life. It becomes brittle and releases its bond. It is thick and does not allow positioning. There is no easy way to reverse it. Attach Lino to a plywood sheet for something intended to last 10 years or so - go for it. PVA plus heat can become a contract cement of sorts. A dry even coat on both meeting surfaces plus heat activates a bond. The outside layer has to be thin enough to allow heat transfer at a temp that does not char or cook the outer layer.
  5. I offer another ship that you might give some consideration as a subject : Namure 90 1756 it underwent a bit of a metamorphosis for the Nelson Era but as launched is my choice. There is a bit of fame attached to it now.
  6. The choices Linen seems to be lost into the past. Cotton - limited lifespan - smaller fibers -smaller fuzz Poly - seems to be winning the race. As long as the model itself is plastic, any resistance to using man-made materials is moot. Poly already is what a wax would provide. Wax seems to me to be pointless. If it is beeswax on it - I would question it ever case hardening to become NOT a dust magnet. Paraffin would change its phase with changes in room temp. The semi liquid phase would also hold dust. Renaissance wax will case harden as its organic solvent evaporates. It is probably more positive than negative for linen and cotton. It would offer no advantage with poly.
  7. Northeast US, There are many low cost species that will work. Looking at species that are favored for scratch clear finish wooden sailing vessels is not a productive or economical path for your needs. Pear - Swiss Pear ( is a steam oxidized European wood ) It is expensive here. It is difficult to source here. Basswood is favored for architect's models because it is available precut and does not rival platinum in price. It is also soft and fuzzy. Your economical choice is construction Pine (not Fir). The endcap loss leader at Home Depot. Pick clear with no sap. Yellow Poplar is low cost and would do exactly what you want. Hard Maple, Black Cherry are over kill, but like the above two also have closed pore, so save a finish step. Nut wood species would work - Oak, Ash, Hickory, Willow - they just need a pore filling step Sand-n-Sealer. Your problem is getting lumber into 1:12 scale 2x4 and 2x6 and 1x8 -1x12 clapboard. If you do not have a bandsaw and a thickness sander and a modelers table saw, you can make do with a full size table saw. Just mount a hollow ground rip blade. Borrow the use from someone who has one and bring your own blade. Try to avoid feeding your fingers to the saw or getting impaled by a kickback. If you use Pine, the extra loss to kerf is something that you can stand. Prime any wood with half strength Zinsser shellac - Scotch Brite- follow on with full strength - Scotch Brite and tack rag. Then any paint will bond.
  8. I would use a filler at the stem and paint the hull. or remove the planking and buy a replacement from a site vendor or visit your local WoodCraft store and get a veneer that is better - sawn not rotary cut if possible. Veneer just needs a steel straight edge and a keenly sharp knife. Strop often. The color of the planking is way darker than any species that I believe was used for an actual ship. To my eye, it looks brittle, course, open pore. - not even close to a 1:75 scaled down version of real wood that was used. A Wayback machine view of this: Taper the stem to about half its thickness at the outer char. Cut a rabbet - a proper rabbet = the correct width in the stem. Small chisel. Practice a lot on scrap first. Start the planking at the rabbet and add bonding as it fits aft. Apply the same plank P&S - not all one side and then the other. Planking width 6" -8" in scale with the the garboard maybe a bit wider.
  9. The War of Jenkins Ear. The bureaucracy managing this war for England were incompetent amateurs. Really a lazy effort on the part of the scribbler. Obviously zero understanding. HMS Tiger 1722 was old and obsolete - it was actually a pre 1719 Establishments design. Definitely NOT a frigate. In that era, even a 40 gun would not have been a frigate. With two full gun decks, they were slow slugs that were definitely top heavy. Often not able to use the guns on their main gun deck, because much wave action would flood thru the open ports.
  10. Might this tool help with getting a uniform thickness? https://bridgecitytools.com/products/hp-8-mini-block-plane
  11. It is a Jarmac. The ID label has been removed. It was made in a one-man shop in Springfield, IL. When the owner died, his shop died with him. It filled the small table saw niche during the time between the loss of the Unimat with its saw attachment and the JIM saw. The motor is probably a repurposed sewing machine motor - no power. It sorta worked with stock that was essentially veneer thickness. The fence was a welded bar - low - no adjustment. Simple miter gauge. Two tracks - so a home made sliding table worked for it. If you make a sliding table - about a full afternoon's time expense - it will be machine that fills the crosscut function that the recent chopper saw thread was all about. Note that the blade is a slotting blade - too many teeth for anything more than thick veneer. The companies that made reasonably priced blades that fit - Thurston and Martindale - no longer do. I think that there was a similarly T-ball league disc sander in the Jarmac line. Not really good, frustrating, but better than nothing if it was the only thing available. In my imagination, I can see this machine as a negative example for Jim.
  12. Along with my premise that plastic may be a hindrance as an introduction to wooden ship model kits because of the difference in now the instructions relate (or how the older wooden kit instructions did). Unrealistic expectations because of the many different skills beyond just assembly and and that most of them are common to just about every kit. This gets repetitive and and excessive to do for every kit when there are "how to" books that do this. Looking at the above, I have another premise. A plastic kit is straight forward assembly. Additional knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of the object being assembled is not necessary. For a wooden ship model, it is important to have at least a basic knowledge of the individual parts and how they fit together. Knowing the proper names allows for an easier look up or inquiry about what is going on. Knowing what a proper keel, keel rabbet, stem, stem rabbet, hawse timbers (the first planking layer has to cover the purpose of the hawse timbers) the proper run of planking, would help with this specific problem. Faking it is not likely to yield a satisfactory product.
  13. Rather than the vertical under the counter supports, why not mimic the original and use horizontal instead? I would worry that vertical may not fit well with the run of the planking. The upper part of the planking will run in almost the same axis. You could have flat filler pieces between the pseudo transoms with holes for dowels into the last mold. This would make a precise locator for each filler (reverse mortise) for almost idiot proof slots for the transoms. You could include a few Bamboo skewers as the dowels and burn holes that are their diameter. If you doubled up on each transom (two pieces instead of one in each slot) the planking would have a firm support. The planking will have serious bending and a firm base will have a better grab.
  14. I see the original volume is available on the second hand market Half of it covers masting and rigging I have the US reprint by Sweetman : CUTTY SARK, THE 1933 LONGRIDGE,C N EDWARD W SWEETMAN NEW YORK 1959 Make sure the loose plans are in the pocket.
  15. It is the same as drawing Bamboo trunnels. For years I have used General steel drill gauges 1-60 61-80 They work -I rub the reverse on a sharpening stone from time to time. Then there was one that works really well The Jim drawplate which I think is still available from http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/drawplate5.html The Bamboo skewers on the end caps are hit or miss as to which variety is in the bag. Some are soft and play nice but then to crush at the gripper and some are hard and brittle and fight you all the way. I have never seen drawplates for wood and I wonder if there is the necessary range of holes? I have jewelers drawplates, but they are more difficult to use - Thick with a cone on the reverse - it is a lot of work to get enough Bamboo thru the hole to have enough to grip and pushing does not work ar all
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