Chuck Seiler

Progress continues. After seeing Chris' progress pics, I am embarrassed to post. Frames extensions on the round end. Less than great. Fortunately this will be covered by the stern castle. Hey, get the carpenter over here to trim that frame end!!! Progress on the pointy end. Wait! This is the same shape as the round end. Okay, the end with the antenna. What do you call it? Oh, the bow. The next step is the above deck athwartship deck beam. Up to this point, the model has had reference marks to keep me somewhat on track. I decided to make my own here. The small printed square/rhombus is where the deck beam would come thru in real life. If I put a hole thru the hull at the center to the square, it will give me a reference point. Hole on the inner hull. No worries about the hole showing. It will be covered up. The deck beam should run from hole to hole. Unfortunately, first I need to install the deck beam support/cathead thingy. I guess I COULD install the deck beam first...why start following instructions now. A couple things have got to line up. First, the tab at the bottom of the support SHOULD line up with the hole. Second, it SHOULD be perpendicular to the beam. Later a knee will be added from the beam to the support and it should be square. Unfortunately if I do that it will not line up with the edge of the top plank which angles slightly aft. Roll the dice and see what happens. The support is about a millimeter to far aft but I can live with that as long as the one on the other side is the same. Green is the hole. Red is the tab. The top of the support sticks out from the plank a little, but acceptable, in my view. I may live to regret that. It's time to trim frames and touch up the edges with paint.

Chris, Outstanding!!! Very crisp. So, what is the deal with the rudder? Did they have to untie and retie the rudder lines each time they altered course?

Progress continues. Hull planking and (most) frame extensions complete.

Chazz, Thanks for the info. I will check them out.

I have been bitten by the cog bug. After watching Chris Coyle's log, I invested in the wooden version of Wutender Hund (Woody Dog). It arrived a few days ago and I just had a good look at it. My intent is to bash it slightly so it is a non-military/more commercial version. I am very impressed with it. The instructions seem more detailed and the parts more crisp. Don't get me wrong, the parts on the Cardy Dog are good quality and the laser cutting is top notch. The cardboard, however, has issues as I mentioned above when it is hot or humid. My first reaction is to set aside Cardy Dog and start working on Woody Dog. I vow not to, but...… <build me. build me.>

I just thought he was the subject of the Hemingway novel: A Farewell to Arms

Experiment complete. Aware of the risks posed in post #5, I took my experiment outside with adequate ventilation. I still ended up with a slight headache and mild buzz. I took a gob of contact cement and placed it in a shallow container, mixed in some acetone. It thinned a little on the surface but the result was not great. At this point the bottle is nearly unusable, so I will put some acetone in the bottle and see how that works...give it some time to work.

Throbbing engines, indeed! Back in the 60's, when I was a wee lad, we used to ride on an old PT boat converted for tourists...The Pink Flamingo. I still remember the engines. No 50 cals.

I used to go to TJ alot in the 90s. Not anymore. Too dangerous for me.

All, Many thanks. I have no idea what toluene is, but a check of AMAZON says it is more expensive than I want to pay. Better to toss the bottle and get new. I will get some 100% acetone and try it out without burning down the house or asphyxiating myself. Bob, I get my Cali banned stuff from Arizona.

Many thanks to both of you. Good info.

I'm not sure if I am posting in the correct forum, but I can't find one for glue. What is the best way to thin contact cement. I am using Weldwood DAP contact cement on my card model. I am down to a third of the bottle and it is getting a bit thick... coming out in gobs. I want to thin it down a bit so I can continue to use it. I see nowhere on the bottle the recommended "clean up" material.

Newly dabbling in cogs, I have become interested in medieval ships, particularly of northern Europe...but not exclusively. As Louie da Fly said, I have been lured to the dark side (wait...I thought that was scratch building). Expanding from the cog, the more I read the more confused I get. On one site it lists Lisa von Lubeck as a late era cog or krewaal. Some have noted that this is also a caravel....is it? MATTHEW, the replica of John Cabot's ship is listed as a caravel also. When I think caravel, I think Nina and Pinta while MATT and LISA look more like carracks. I plan to do more research, including reading Louie (Stephen) and other medieval modelers, but thumbnail...how is LISA a caravel and not a carrack?

Two half hulls spliced together. Interesting concept. Beautiful work. I will be following along. Good luck with that ebony. I have never had much success when working with large pieces. I found it to be too brittle. That is definitely one wood where you need to be wearing a mask when sanding.

Postscript: I was able to dry fit the three aftmost port side planks. Notches not withstanding, the planks fit with room to spare. The gaps between the strakes are smaller than planned, but that is not a bad thing.

Model Expo went thru a rough patch a few years ago (as I recall) but they are a thriving business. I regularly get emails from them regarding sales and specials. Their customer service is normally top notch and John Garcia responds quickly to emails. I believe he frequents this forum. As mentioned before, if you have problems with parts from their kits (Model Expo kits), they happily replace the parts.

'Don't fry bacon in the nude' NOW you tell me. I would NOT recommend either the Model Expo 18th Century Longboat or a card model-particularly the paper ones. I have built both (all 3?). The longboat is a great model. Looks simple but really is not, considering planking needs to be PERFECT since you see both sides of it (inside and out). There are many great card models out there as well except I find the smaller parts deform when removing from the sheet. Alos I find it harder to work with than wood. Stay away from paper at this point. If you have a level of dexterity above me, you might want to try the SHIPYARD model of the ALERT. Nina and Pinta are good choices in that they are relatively simple. You also have an option with Nina in that you can build it as it was before Columbus got to the Canary Islands or after...he had the rig changed to better handle the expected wind conditions...but that may be a project too far. As Bob Cleek said, we really don't know exactly what they looked like, only close approximation. At this point in your model building career, that is probably not an issue. Monetary cost is only one measure of cost. Some models are very poor quality and some have really poor instructions. A slightly more expensive kit may be a better choice if it enhances your building experience. Poor instructions can be overcome by the many fine build logs here. Poor material can only be remedied by scratch building/bashing. Expect to make mistakes. Most people do first time around. I still am 20 years later. Get a bottle of alcohol (2, actually...1 bottle of rubbing alcohol and 1 of scotch). Use the rubbing to de-glue your gluing errors. Fix the problems...don't try and paper over them The just compound. Enjoy the experience!

Yeah, not anymore. In all cases I needed to cut down the bottom of the extensions. The first couple I didn't, so they extend(ed) way high. Even when cutting down, many of the extensions were too high and needed to be trimmed. I already know that the top and bottom notches are too small and that the overall length of the extensions are probably too short to accept all three inner strakes. I have been thinking about how I will handle that. Definitely bend to fit, paint to match.

Progress continues. I have completed the frame extensions on the port side and added the top exterior plank strake. I am really having problems with the frame extensions. I primed and painted them while attached to the card, as the instructions recommended for the planking. While this prevents curling (if painted after removal) it leaves residue on surfaces I don't want residue on. Some of them were difficult to remove. It almost felt that they had been exposed to humidity and were kind of mushy. Southern California is not known for high humidity, but this is a strange summer. These are also frail beasties subject to breakage. Each time I would pick it up ( normally with visors...thus creating focal strangeness) I would have the chance of bumping into a frame. As you can see. Many were bent. A closer look at the frames. The yard supervisor greets a visiting tourist. I was told there would be a pool. Chris' ship has a pool. No ma'am, no pool. Chris' pool was planked over. Dang! Hey, you are not including me in your build log just to attract viewers are you. No ma'am. That would be ungentlemanly and I would not like to be accused of that. Besides, I have a job for you...as lookout. Everybody will be looking at you in the fighting top and ignoring the crappy hull planking. A look at the planking from the exterior as well as a closer look at the cargo hatch now in place. (Could be a pool cover). I added eye bolts to the hatch. In an effort to avoid SOME damage, I installed part of the starboard side top strake before continuing with the frame extensions.

I am at that point now. I was watching out for this, but found a different problem. There is a part (135) in thicker cardboard, then there is a better quality but thinner overlay (135a). So for each you have 135L, 135aL, 135p and 135ap. In my case, some of the overlays are reversed so that 135aL covers 135P. As long as you are paying attention, it is not an issue. Great work so far Chris!!!

I guess that would be dependent on the situation. If it was old fashioned hobby model building, probably water based. Epoxy and other resin glues were available, but I suspect were not used much by modelers. If you are looking at other applications, that may be different.

Here is what I use.

As I mentioned in my log, pretty clunky looking but it did the job. It didn't have to far or fast but it did have to haul the goods. Later, when speed became more important, the length to beam ratios changed.

The thing up forward? I have seen it described as an above deck, athwartship deck beam...as opposed to the 4 or 5 that are below deck. They all end up sticking out the sides like an old adobe house in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fore warned is fore armed. I am about a week away from that.

It's like an Easter egg hunt.