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usedtosail

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Everything posted by usedtosail

  1. usedtosail
    Yes varnish will slow done the "patina"-ing of the copper plates. That's a really nice plating job there.
  2. usedtosail
    I painted the cap black on the three sets of carriage parts to test the assembly and then built three carriages using the jig I made. I have to say they went together easier than I thought, even with having to cannon barrel in between the two sides as I lined everything up. I also like the look, so I will use the carriage sides as is. I still need to add the bolts, wheels, and quoins to these but I don't anticipate problems with them. I went ahead and started painting all the carriage parts red. I also used a toothpick as a mandrel in a Dremel tool to sand the char off the wheels.
  3. usedtosail
    Fantastic work on the whole model but especially those side decorations.
  4. usedtosail
    Thanks for the responses Nipper and Ron. I made a jig like I usually do to glue up the sides and axles, but in testing it out I realized that if I use the sides as they are I have to put the cannon barrel in the sides before I glue them to the axles. This also means I need to paint the individual parts before glueing so I don't have to paint around the barrel. I am painting three sets of carriage parts now and will try assembling them as is, but if I find it too awkward I may do as you suggest Ron and file or cut off the wooden cap part of the sides.
  5. usedtosail
    I finished the bitts and windlass but put them away before taking pictures. I then made up the capstan, pumps and swivel guns. I am going to put 8 swivel guns per side, unless that looks too crowded. I certainly don't want to fill all the swivel gun supports. The capstan went together so nicely. The laser cut pieces just fit together do problem. The pumps weren't too hard either, except when I cut the middle pieces from the PE I cut off the pin that is supposed to be glued into the side of the shafts. To compensate I drilled a hole into the top of the shaft and glued the part of the pump into the hole. I also glued the pump to the side of the shaft using CA and held it until the glue dried. They seem to be attached well but I don't want to risk catching anything on them so I will wait until much later to add them to the deck. Now I am working on the cannons. I cut out all the pieces, which took a while, and started cleaning the char off the carriage sides. I am using a sanding block on the flat edges, a small Swiss flat file on the steps, and a small round file for the curved portion. I am also opening up the slot for the bolt on the back sides using a very small flat pointed file. I am going to use a mandrel to hold the wheels while I spin them to remove the char and a small file to carefully remove the char from those small pieces. One thing that confused me some was that the supplied carriage sides are different than those shown in the instructions, as you can see here: But, the PE caps (part PE-3 in the image) are also supplied. To me the supplied sides already have the cap as part of them. I did try adding the PE cap over that part of the side but it does not conform well to the wood. So I think I am going to paint that part of the wooden side black and not add the PE part. If this isn't correct, please let me know.
  6. usedtosail
    I have the hatch coamings and other deck fittings that fit around the larger holes in the deck ready to go. I used some sandpaper round a coffee can to sand the deck round up into the bottom of the larger fittings. These are just dry fit for now. I am now working on the bitts and windlass.
  7. usedtosail
    I added the outer stairs and the depth numerals to the hull. I put some black paint on the copper numerals that were added over the copper plating so they would show better. Next I am on to the deck fittings.
  8. usedtosail
    I have finished working on the bow area for now. I will add the boomkins at a later time. Nothing really to talk about here as everything went together pretty well. One thing I did do was use the mill to make some simulated sieves in the catheads. I also added an eye bolt to each cat head so I can rig blocks to them to hold the anchors. They also filled the otherwise laser cut unused holes in the cat heads. Next up I will be adding the outer stairs and depth markings.
  9. usedtosail
    Oops. I meant hemostat, like this one - https://a.co/d/8pynFKM Sorry for the confusion.
  10. usedtosail
    I have found that using heliostats (clamping pliers) to hold the eyebolts while inserting them into holes to glue them works well without scratching them up or removing the paint.
  11. usedtosail
    Nice to find your build log. You are doing a great job, especially for your first build. I am just about at the same stage as you in my Speedy build so I will follow along with your Flirt build.
  12. usedtosail
    I bent two pear strips for the taffrail since one layer was not thick enough to be even with the ends of the side rails. I glued the mast crutches to the transom sides and then notched the end of the taffrail pieces to fit around them. I was able to clamp these while they dried using clamps that fit into the ports in the transom. Later I glued the three rail trim pieces onto the transom and touched up the black paint on these pieces. I then glued the pintles into the holes in the stern post to attach the rudder. I glued the tiller onto the rudder from inside the deck. With the transom finished I can now focus on the head rails. I painted the head rail pieces with yellow oxide paint , which I am using instead of yellow ochre. I then added a strip of black down the insides of the PE pieces. I used a very small brush and cleaned up the excess black paint on the raised parts using a damp Q-tip. In order to be able to push the soft PE strips through the slots in the stem, I filed a point of sorts into the end of a thicker piece of brass strip and used it to clean out the slots first. The starboard hawse piece was in the way of the back slot a bit, so I moved it slightly and glued it back on. You can see that I have the model in a Keel Clamper stand, which helps me tilt the model for these steps, but I am going to put it back into the wooden stand as soon as I can. I am worried that a good push to either side will separate the glued on keel from the rest of the hull. I do have it clamped on the dead wood in the back but the front clamp is on the keel.
  13. usedtosail
    I finally was happy with the ends of the wale pieces and the fashion pieces, so I added the little trim pieces to the swivel gun supports. Instead of using the supplied laser cut pieces I painted a then strip of wood yellow ochre and cut each one out from it. You can see what's left at the bottom of the photo. I did it this way because I know I wouldn't have been able to keep each of the laser cut pieces organized and painted. Next I will be adding the swivel gun bases to the rails and drilling the holes for the brackets. I have also started to make the taffrail.
  14. usedtosail
    Oops, sorry Chris. I got so excited from the pictures I forgot what I had read.🤪
  15. usedtosail
    Thanks Theodosius. I hadn't thought about the channels yet. I think for most of the length of the hull the wale was in the right place, based on the guide marks supplied on the bulwark extensions. It was probably the last couple of inches that were too low. Here is the corrected wale planks and fashion pieces. I need at least another coat of black paint on them and a little clean up on the hull planks. I cut the three sails (spanker, main and fore topG) from the frame. For these sails I separated them but did not cut them at the edges when removing them from the frame. I found it was easier to cut the excess sail material from the sails while they were off the frame. Cutting around the loops was still a bit tricky. Here are the sails ready to use. I have put the sail making equipment away until I have the masts and spars made, as I need more accurate dimensions for the courses and topsails. I have approximated these dimensions from the plans but since it takes many weeks to make each sail I want to make sure I don't have to remake any.
  16. usedtosail
    That is a very interesting looking ship. Different and nasty looking. Will the kit come with masting and rigging? Thanks for the great new designs and kits.
  17. usedtosail
    I was looking through the Speedy build log by @Theodosius yesterday, which is a really nice build of this model, and saw that when I added the wale planks I let them get too high at the transom. As shown in the plans, the lower edge of the wale should be even with the bottom of the lower transom piece. I knew something was wrong because of the way the fashion pieces looked. So I did some surgery this morning. I carefully pried the wale planks up from the hull, cleaned the glue off the hull planks, cut the wale planks back to clean up the ends, and touched up the wipe on poly on the hull. I used the holes in the laser cut sheet to trace new fashion pieces onto a piece of pear wood and cut out the new ones with an X-Acto knife. I plan to cut the plank extensions to exactly fit the fashion pieces, or at least fit better than the previous ones did.
  18. usedtosail
    I have started adding the side "trim" pieces that have part of the swivel gun supports. I have just added the last piece on the port side and the front piece on the starboard side. The kit comes with laser cut small strips of wood that go over the swivel gun supports but I will be using a 1mm square strip of wood that I painted ochre to cut out small pieces instead. In anticipation of the step after that, I removed the swivel gun bases that sit on top of the rail, cleaned them up, and painted them black on the top and sides. I have been securing the reef points to the spanker using diluted acrylic matte medium. I finished the back side and am close to finishing the front side. I still need to trim these to length and replace one that I took off because it was too short. Finally I added a coat of wipe on poly to the new cradle after assembling it. I also rubbed some black paint into the lettering on the plastic name plate. I am not sure if I will use it but if I do I will trim it down.
  19. usedtosail
    I am making progress on three fronts. I trimmed the aft ends of the wale planks then added the fashion pieces to finish them off. On the three sails I have been working on, I finished adding the bolt ropes with all the loops and added small pieces of line across the loops. I added the reef points to the spanker after pushing holes through paint for the grommets. I am in the process of using matte medium to fix the knots of the reef points and hold them down to the sail so they fall correctly. Here is a picture of the balsa inset I made to hold the pins better when adding the bolt ropes and loops to the sails. And I have also started making a new cradle for the finished model. I used the plastic cradle ends pieces and traced the shapes onto 1/8" mahogany sheet, then cut them out with a jig saw and sanded them with a sanding drum in the drill press. I milled the slots into them for the cross pieces and have squared them off with a square file since this picture was taken. Next up for the hull is to add the trim pieces that contain the swivel gun supports. I also need to trim the reef points and cut the individual sails out and make the cross pieces for the new cradle.
  20. usedtosail
    Dave, I also had a torch like that which was hard to light and never stayed lit if I did start. I then found this pencil torch which works a lot better. You have to use a lighter to light it but it only has one switch that you don't have to hold down.
  21. usedtosail
    That's a great solution for the gun carriages.
  22. usedtosail
    Yep those pictures surfaced during the last Constitution refit, I think, which was after I copper plated my Connie. I should have made dents instead of bumps but I didn't and I am not changing it now on this model. Enough said.
  23. usedtosail
    I a had some thin silk span which I didn't like. For these sails I am actually using something called tea bag paper, which is the same or similar to silk span I read. Here is the link to the paper I bought from Amazon: https://a.co/d/jfCkwMM I know this is controversial and I thought about leaving the copper foil smooth, but I wanted some texture on them. When I built the Constitution model many years ago there was a discussion on this forum about how the copper plates look on the real ship, and that's where the idea of the raised "bumps" came from. In fact I used the same jig I did for the Constitution build. I could have used the ponce wheel on the front of the foil to get indents instead of bumps if I wanted to but I didn't. I may smooth down the bumps a bit with a burnishing stick but maybe not. Some sad news on the sail making. 🥲 This morning while tightening the bolt rope, I managed to drop my tweezers onto the middle of the spanker and put a hole in it. I am going to continue making the sail, maybe just for practice, but I also may try patching it after it is cut out. I am also going to keep the sail templates over the sails as I work on them so if I drop something again maybe it won't go through the template as easily as the tea bag paper.
  24. usedtosail
    I painted the cheeks and added the painted hawse hole pieces. I used a series of small to large drill bits to drill the hawse holes through the bulwarks. I was having trouble getting the pins to stay in place while creating the loops in the bolt rope on the sails. I had some 1/4" balsa wood sheets laying around so I used them to make a new inset for the sail frame. I cut two 6" wide pieces for the top layer, which fills the whole frame, and some smaller strips for the bottom layer that holds the top pieces together and raises it 1/4" so the top layer is 1/4" from the sail, which is high enough that the sail doesn't touch it. I glued them all together and placed it in the frame (forgetting to take a picture of it). The pins stick into the balsa wood easily and stay upright even when the bolt rope is tensioned. This addition will make adding the bolt ropes much easier.
  25. usedtosail
    I finished up the rudder and tiller and added the pintles and gudgeons. These will be added to the hull later. I added the cheek pieces to the bow. These will be painted black next along with the hawse hole pieces and the top rails. I am working on the spanker and both topG sails, which I can make from the same piece of stretched silk span. I am currently adding the bolt ropes. I also transferred the hand drawn plans to the computer so I can have an electronic version of the sail plans and if I have to change the dimensions slightly, which I expect to have to do for the topsails and courses, it will make that task a lot easier.

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