Landlubber Mike

Hey Don, like Doc said, yellowheart does seem to keep its color which is nice. I did put tung oil on a test piece, and it turned a nice vibrant yellow. If it changes, I blame Doc who recommended yellowheart to me All kidding aside, this is a good resource for thinking about what woods change colors and how much. Interestingly, Bloodwood is listed as a wood that experiences pretty strong color changes: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/preventing-color-changes-in-exotic-woods/ From my limited understanding, applying a finish isn't a foolproof method of avoiding these changes. I even asked the guy at Woodcraft whether their UV-resistant finishes would help, but he said that the UV-resistance of those finishes breaks down over time, so you end up just delaying the inevitable.

I grew up in Bayside I'm probably not the best person to ask about varnishes and lacquers. I've never tried lacquer. For varnish, I bought a small bottle of Vallejo varnish. They make paints and finishes for wargaming miniature figurines and models, and are very high quality. The paints and the varnish go on very thin and easily. I'm avoiding paints on my larger scale models, but I've been using them on ship-in-bottle models that I work on here and there. If you're looking at stains, I've really liked working with General Finishes products which you can find at Woodcraft. They go on very evenly, no smell, easy clean up. I recently used their blue stain on boxwood to good effect (at least I like it) on my Pegasus build. I also used GF Antique Oak on pear to get a nice deep brown look (interestingly though, if you use that stain on a light wood like maple, it turns the wood a grayish color). For finishes generally, I really liked using Tung Oil - they sell at "Tung Oil Finish" which is only partially made up with tung oil, but I use 100% tung oil. Minwax wipe-on-poly is another one I like. I did some tests with my Badger, and thought the tung oil barely edged out the wipe-on-poly. A year or two later, I looked at the same test piece, and really couldn't tell the difference between the two. The oiled finish really brings wood to life in my opinion, especially on woods like walnut (I'm sure cherry is another that becomes very rich). It's too bad that walnut doesn't have the finer properties of woods like pear and boxwood, because oiled walnut is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion.

Hey Martin, thanks very much for the recommendation. In my workshop, along with a shop vac connected to my power tools, I also have a Jet air filter hanging from the ceiling (good thing the workshop is in the basement as I don't think my wife would be happy if I hung it in a finished room). I think it's the model a step below this one: https://www.amazon.com/708620B-AFS-1000B-Filtration-Electrostatic-Pre-Filter/dp/B00004R9LO/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1484317848&sr=1-1&keywords=jet+air+cleaner I also purchased a table-top unit, mostly for when I start carving. The ebony dust is pretty heavy, so between the shop vac and the Jet unit I think I'm in pretty good shape. I also make it a habit of immediately wiping down and vacuuming the area when working with ebony. I found the unit below on eBay for significantly less than retail - I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems to have a pretty strong air pull which will be great for when/if I start carving, especially with power tools): https://www.amazon.com/PSI-Woodworking-DC725-Portable-Collector/dp/B000REX1UU After seeing Alexander's carvings, makes me want to get a good set of carving tools and start carving - wow! http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5412-carving-from-belgorod/

Hey Charlie, looking fantastic. Lots of interesting planning and techniques, thanks for sharing! I've also been doing a lot of experimentation with various woods, stains and finishes on my various logs. I haven't tried holly yet, but I've read that holly does tend to take a yellowish tone with certain finishes. I think a quick search of logs on here and you can find out what finishes people tried. I would think that most oils and wipe-on-poly would yellow the holly. I wonder if a varnish would have the same result? One thing I've found is that certain woods turn almost black when the end grain is oiled (e.g., redheart). However, when I applied varnish to the end grain of redheart, the color of the redheart was preserved nicely. It and other finishes like lacquer are certainly worth a look. Queens is my home town too by the way!

I'd probably have to bring a parka and thermal underwear this time of year? Wow, those plans look beautiful. Lots of detail there.

I bought this a while back for my Pegasus, and couldn't recommend it highly enough. It makes setting nails super easy. I had one of the push tools (I think from Amati) that worked pretty nicely for my Badger build, but then it broke shortly thereafter. I tried out the Excel one listed by the OP, but find the Xuron one linked above much better.

Looks great Don. These kits really seem to be creative in the way they make things easier, and more precise, for the kit builder. I'm still very impressed with the dowel approach of lining up and squaring the bulkheads.

Don, I think you give me way too much credit. I'm actually learning a lot from you in your builds. Some of the stuff I've been doing I think is some kind of subconscious desire to torture myself I went over the NMM plans very carefully, and the Amati plans are incredibly close to them. I think in a few minor areas there are deviations, mostly intended to simplify certain aspects of the build (for example, that one bitts I mentioned earlier). The NMM plans are not necessarily how the actual ship came out either, particularly on the more decorative elements from what I gather. The TFFM books are not necessary. They are a nice educational resource for sure. When I originally bought the kit, I was intending to just build it from the box as a more advanced kit to learn from. When I got the books, I ended up getting the tools and the wood and now the build has morphed into a close to scratch build. I've enjoyed learning the woodworking and modeling techniques, but there are times when I think about "what if" I had just build the model from the box. The kit is so great that frankly, I'm wondering if there would have been any meaningful difference in outcome had I just build her straight from the kit.

Solid start Don. The patterns look fantastic - you got a really nice curve along the bulkhead extensions which will make for a nice curvy lady. If I remember correctly, I don't think there are any tricky things to be aware of at this stage. The wale was tricky for me to line up, but wasn't too bad. I found, like the TFFM series, that as the wale approaches the stem in an upward curve, it flattens out right around the last bulkhead or two. I think I mentioned earlier that if you look at the NMM plans, the kit's plans deviate on some of the hatch locations and sizes. I think the rear-most bitt actually extends through the hatch behind it, and I believe the cross bar (I'm not sure if that is the proper term) is on the opposite side of where the NMM plans show it should be (aft rather than fore). These are all very minor variances though and in many cases, won't be noticeable if you decide to go with the kit plans.

Beautiful work - very crisp and clean. You must get a lot of compliments on your cheeks

Really great work Rossi - you sure this is your first build? You look like a seasoned pro!

Thanks BE! The Morgan does have an an interesting history, and it's great that you can still visit her at Mystic Seaport. The restoration was very well done. There's lots of little detail pieces on whalers which make for a fun time - a nice change from the typical warship kit that is out there, and a nice reprieve from rigging cannons with 2mm blocks

Next, I attached the lashing rail, which is attached inbound of the stanchions maybe 2/3 up the way. I used the lashing rail as a means of securing the stanchions in position, and then started to work on the mail rail. At this point, I decided to make the opening for the starboard gangway, rather than run the rails and planking, and then try to cut it out. Seemed much cleaner and easier to just maintain the opening at this point with a 36mm spacer block. As a note, the two stanchions on either side of the gangway are slightly further apart than the kit's pre-cut plank sheer, and I believe one is wider than the other. I'm making the main rail, which sits on the stanchions, in 4 pieces: one piece to go around the bow made out of a single piece of yellowheart, one long piece for the remainder of the port side, and two pieces on the starboard side which are divided by the gangway. The bow section was custom cut with grooves to set against the knightheads. For the remaining sections, I cut the sections on the Byrnes saw, soaked them, and pinned them to maintain the slight curve of the hull and they ran from the stem to the stern. I haven't glued them to the hull yet, as I'm using them as templates for the the log and topgallant rails (which is why the main rail looks a little wonky in the pictures below). The main rail will be laminated with ebony and holly strips for the outbound portion. Right now I'm in the process of finalizing the log rail (which sits on top of the main rail) and the topgallant rail, which sits on top of the log rail. I'm using formers to get the bow curve of the log rail, which will be yellowheart on the inbound portion, laminated with ebony strip for the outbound portion. The topgallant rail is entirely in ebony, the pieces of which you can see in the first picture below. Yellowheart takes a curve nicely with soaking. With ebony, I found you need to soak and use heat. You have to be really patient with ebony, with multiple soakings and hot iron treatments - but, you can bend thin pieces pretty nicely. While I was able to bend the yellowheart for the main rail laterally to get the correct curvature of the hull, you can't really do that with ebony. So, for the topgallant rail, first cut out wider strips than the rail itself, and sanded them back, mostly by hand, to get the curved rails. Hours of work, but I'm happy with how things are looking so far.

I've made some progress over the last couple of days. Finally got the stanchions set up - there are a bunch of them, you have to account for different heights, and they are slightly inclined inbound, which leads to a lot of work. I cut them out of yellowheart, and inserted a brass pin in the bottom to help keep them secure to the plank sheer. The kit's planksheer pieces are laser-cut with square holes for the stanchions - no way to replicate that with a tricky wood like yellowheart, so I went with pins which worked very nicely. I created a number of spacer blocks of different heights to help with the spacing and orientation of the stanchions, in particular, to help keep them parallel to each other.

Bob, your rigging is pristine. Truly awe inspiring. I might have to send you a few of my builds to rig If you're looking for larger scale models of smaller ships, if you like the look of the Dutch ships from the 17th century, there are some really good subjects/plans in this book from Seawatch: https://www.seawatchbooks.com/ItemDisplay.php?sku=114003 I also recently picked up from a fellow MSW member Ab Hovings "Ships of Abel Tasman" which has two ships from that era, with great plans and history: https://books.google.com/books?id=iedDTFBr8GwC&pg=PA70&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false I have a bunch of projects on my workbench at the moment, but thinking ahead, and thinking about working on smaller models, these ships, to me at least, make for very interesting models.

He's back! Good to hear from you Martin - really nice update on your Fly. It's coming along beautifully. I love the little touches you're adding.

Really beautiful work Ulises! Love the colors you are using - all are working very nicely together for a really nice antique look.

Looks great Jason. Love the rudder, and I think you're right to spend the extra time on the stern. I feel like the stern is one of those areas that makes or breaks models. You've given me a few ideas to think about how to approach the stern on my models, so thank you for the timely tips!

Cool to see more of these big PE-enhanced kit builds coming on MSW. More and more I see of them, the closer I come to wanting to try one (the tiny PE parts must appeal to my masochistic side). Good luck with the build, looking forward to the updates!

I came across these tweezers from one of my ship-in-bottle books (or maybe it was one of the Phillip Reed books on miniature ship model making). Very expensive, but incredibly precise tips. Some of the tips are so small that if dropped, you probably ruin the tips. I bought a few to try out when I get down to very small detail work - given the price, I'm probably going to use these sparingly, as the larger, less precise tweezers are usually fine for most modeling purposes. https://www.dumonttweezers.com

There is a Byrnes adaptor thread on here somewhere. I have a Fein shop vac which is in a metric size. I had to use two adaptors, one inside the other, for a tight seal. You might be able to get away with one adaptor and some gaffer tape. The thickness sander is awesome by the way. I don't use it nearly as often as the table saw and disc sander, but when I do, I am thankful I have it.

Nice work EJ - you work quickly, yet very precisely. This is coming along really beautifully. Just saw you started the SR - signed up for that one too

Love it - very nice subject. Cool to see small scales being built too. Any particular reason you went small? After reading the Phillip Reed books, it's amazing to see what kind of detail you can get at such small scale, yet have a model that doesn't take up as much space as a 1:64 or 1:48.

Gorgeous work on a gorgeous subject Mark. Really inspiring! Have a great 2017!

Thanks very much Joe, really appreciate the kind words. Any luck on your Morgan?