Landlubber Mike

These are amazing! The heron is really incredible. You’re a true artist!

Looks great Mark!

My set from Mikhail arrived this week. Got stuck in customs and took about 6 weeks, but well worth the wait: As everyone said, they are really well made and at a nice price. I bought some micro gouges and other tools from Dockyard years ago, but these are much higher quality. As you can see, I opted for the more decorative handles and glad I did so. The tools are almost too beautiful to work with and dirty. Mikhail is a very nice guy, and google translate worked very well for our communications. He stayed on top of the delivery to make sure that the package got to me and periodically checked in. I’m sure some may have misgivings about communicating in a foreign language with someone halfway around the world, but it was a very smooth process, customs delay aside. I believe he makes batches of these twice a year, so if you are interested, it’s best to contact him sooner rather than later. Mine was the last set for this batch, otherwise I would have had to wait until the fall. Thanks Mikhail!

To get the hang, I added a weight to pull the slack down. I forget what I used - it might have been a toothpick or a pin - something heavy enough to pull it down yet light enough so the rope would naturally hang without looking sharply angular at the nadir. Then a couple of coats of well diluted PVA to set things.

Very nice Mark!

Those anchor buoys are looking awesome. Not at all easy making that rope basket - I had a lot of choice words when trying to get them on the buoys for my Badger.

I think there are already a lot of Chinese GRS knock-offs on eBay.

Cool project. I always thought the Blandford was a nice subject.

Nice start on a great looking kit! Spyglass, I have to say, your build logs are always entertaining

Pear takes stain very nicely I've found.

Yeah, I would definitely tie them to the ring bolts and then insert the ring bolts into the bulwarks. Not sure I see doing it any other way. Use the one you have now to test out lengths of the breaching rope to get to the proper length to have adequate sag, etc.

A beautiful gift! Really kind of you. Hard to tell which looks better - your LN or the knife. Both are works of art. 👍

Hey Mark, sorry to hear about things. Hope 2019 is treating you a little better. Everyone is different, but for me, having multiple projects going on of various lengths works. I find I get excited by a project, then eventually that enthusiasm dwindles, or I get stuck or feel overwhelmed. Then things stop being fun and the project turns into a chore. Having something else to turn to, even if it is a different pursuit, keeps my spirits elevated and i’m in a much better state of mind approaching whatever it is I’m working on. These long projects that run years do require a particular personality and mindset to get through I think. That’s why having some short projects in the mix where the finish line is measured in days or weeks really helps. I just started playing around with turning pens and am having a blast. Turned a few pencils for my girls and I’m a hero to them. I’ve also started looking at other things, including ships in bottles which take significantly less time to complete and you don’t have to worry about absolute perfection at such a small scale (especially when the glass provides some distortion). I also think that coming to MSW and seeing the incredible artistry is mostly a blessing, but sometimes is a bit of a curse. I get inspired for sure, but there are times when I feel like it becomes a lot of self imposed pressure to build the model at a high level. For me it’s not that I would feel embarrassed to post my work, just that you come here and see what can be done and want to do the same. In some ways it would be nice to just open a kit and build it from the box without really mentally torturing myself to get things perfect, historically accurate, etc. Anyway, sorry for getting philosophical on this. Take care of yourself my friend. Looking forward to seeing whatever you end up doing.