Landlubber Mike

Hey Chris, hope you and the twins are doing well  Your build is looking fantastic as always.

I bought the Le Gros Ventre book/plans off of eBay this summer for a good deal.  Looks like a fun build.  I probably need another couple of models under my belt before progressing to it, but that's on my list too.

Very nice Frank!  

Thanks very much for all the birthday wishes.  Thanks also John, AVS and Bigcreekdad for the comments on the build.  I'm about to turn back to and wrap up the Badger after a fairly long hiatus with the birth of my twin girls.  They are starting to sleep the night (or at least most of it), so I should be able to get back to the shipyard.  

In the meantime, I've been finishing up the Amati Hannah ship in a bottle kit that I started alongside the Badger.  Hoping to get that wrapped up this month, but adding the "sea" to the bottle has been tricky.

Hi Ian,

Most importantly, I wanted to extend my condolences for the loss of your faithful companion Tom.

Your stove is magnificent.  Really top notch work.

Mike

Hi Mark, so sorry to hear about your dog.  They are like any other close family member in my book.

Nice job on the repair - I am really enjoying your build and learning a lot.

 I also approve of the orientation of your paper towel roll.  I like them coming over the top as well

I fight my Admiral about that orientation all the time!

Really nice work Mobbsie!

Thanks very much Jason!

Thanks for the painting tip Chris - it worked out incredibly well.

Nice updates too - I don't know how you have the time with the twins to work in your shipyard.  I haven't been so lucky

Thanks very much Kevin and Mobbsie!  I don't know how much relaxing I can get in having three little girls under the age of 4, but life is good

Hi Mark, really incredible work - thanks for sharing.

On the issue of ebony versus other means of blackening wood, has anyone used any of the ebony stains that are out there?  I purchased a small can on Varathane ebony stain (which I believe is pre-mixed with pre-stain conditioner), but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.  I believe Minwax offers ebony stain as well.  I've been thinking about avoiding the use of black paint on my future builds as well.  

Can't argue with Chris' results using leather dye on pear though - wow!

Wow Ian, that's really incredible work!  A masterpiece!

Just out of curiosity, if you're using solder to join the pieces, will you be able to blacken the solder also?  I prefer the look of blackened metal over painted, but always wondered whether the solder could itself be blackened.

Thanks for the techniques - I like how they turned out.

Twins are doing very well, thanks for asking.  They are four months now, and not waking up too many times during the middle of the night.  Hopefully things get easier soon so that I can finish my Badger and move on to other builds.

Hi Frank, looking great!  Did you use some kind of weathering solution for the wood?  The anchor stocks came out very nice.

For the anchor puddening, I used the technique in the attached article on anchors.  Hope that helps.

Anchors.pdf

Hi Bill, welcome to the Badger club.    The kit does make for a nice model.  There are a few of us here that are working on or have completed the Badger.

I'm just about to the running rigging on mine, but my wife recently had twins, so I am a bit waylaid at the moment.  If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  

Really nice job John - you're really cranking along!

I have the Proxxon mini lathe DB250.  It came in very handy in building my masts and spars on my Badger.

Great!  I'm a few months from starting my Unicorn, but it will be nice to work on this build alongside yours and Ian's

Sorry to keep asking you questions, but what kind of paint and color did you use to paint the ship's wheel?  It looks fantastic, and well coordinated with the boxwood in your build  

Very nice job - congratulations!  Hope you win the Unicorn

As far as the wood Mike - its Swiss Pear - sanded to 600 and finished with 100 percent pure Tung Oil.  

 

Hey Chris, thanks for the response.  For the deck elements, the pear almost looks more red than the planking on the hull which is why I thought there was something different.  Looks absolutely gorgeous

I use a small razor saw. It looks just like the number 11 blade but it has saw teeth on it. They come from Micromark and are very thin. They come in two different numbers of teeth. These blades fit the standard handle just like the number 11 blades.

 

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=saw+blades

 

Russ

That's what I started using as well.  They make removal much easier and cleaner in my experience.

Amazing work Chris!  Just out of curiosity, what are you doing for the red color?  Is it a specialty wood?  Paint?  Dye?  Stain?

Hi Chris!  We chatted a bit on MSW 1.0 before the Great Crash.  My wife had our twins back in March, so I haven't been able to get to the shipyard much lately unfortunately.

Your Confederacy is amazing - the pear looks gorgeous, both oiled and dyed.  And the carvings are incredibly good.  I've been doing research on my next build, which will probably be the Corel Unicorn and maybe the MS Charles Morgan as a parallel build - after seeing these pictures, I think I'm going to go with pear for the builds

Hope you and the family are doing well - hope you're getting some sleep too

No, Mike...

the winner won me just by another USD$10... 

argh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's fine.. let's wait for another auction and bid higher.. haha

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing these precious info here..

The Guadeloupe is really a good reference for the Unicorn

Sorry to hear that.  Good luck next time

Hi folks - thanks again for the recommendation.  I received the bench in the mail a week ago and put it together today.  One of the drawer pieces was a bit dinged up, but it put together really easily and is of very sturdy construction.  One criticism I've read is that the drawers didn't glide very well, but mine seem to glide fine.  I'm very happy with the purchase, especially for only costing about $127.  I saw that they were running a 25% off sale on July 4th so I would have saved a few bucks had I waited, but all in all, a good deal.

Here is a picture of the bench, with a few ship modeling tools and other items on it - Sherline mill, Dremel workstation and Proxxon mini-lathe so far, will likely add some Byrnes tools as well (Dewalt scroll saw next to the bench).  It's in my HVAC utility room, so hence a few of the pipes, etc. in the picture    Better than trying to explain to the admiral why I'm using power tools on the kitchen or living room table 

So thanks again everyone!