Landlubber Mike

Nice start. Be careful with the clinking at the bow, try to let the planks lay as flat as possible. If I remember correctly. the planks start to sweep up so by trying to flatten them out and pull them down into a more horizontal position, you are going to get the clinking that you see. Sanding and filler will be your friend. Better to start your tapers at the stem further back. I think what is a little more concerning is the sharp bend at the last full bulkhead. Again, it's better to let the planks lie as naturally as possible (and you may need to fair them a little more). Rather than try to align each plank against the one above it at the stern, plan to use more stealers. I think by forcing the planks into the unnatural orientation you are ending up with the cracked planks and the sharp bend at that bulkhead. I offer this just as a bit of experience on my Pegasus. You can see I had similar issues, but I soon figured out to start tapers earlier at the stem, and leave room for spacers at the stern. The one thing I've learned in planking my Morgan and LAR is that the bow and stern filler blocks really help with the planking. Without the blocks, it becomes a lot more of a strategic exercise to figure out where to stop the planks so that they end on a bulkhead. With the blocks, much less concern.

I would also say that it boils down to whether by "best" you mean from a practical usage perspective or from an aesthetics perspective. Folks know a lot more about this than I do here, but when I look at British ships, I see workhorses. When I look at French ships, I see pretty ships. Kinda like a Honda versus a Ferrari - the Ferrari is much nice to look at, but will always be in the shop.

Great work as always BE. I agree with Jason, the metal black is really sharp looking.

Really great work Don. Love the blocks, nice job! Any movement on your Pegasus? I need to turn back to mine, maybe after I finish the planking on my LAR and Morgan.

You've done enough models that I don't think you need to look at the instructions. There really isn't any complicated framing or anything that needs to be done. I think you can just stick with the plans and proceed with the construction in the steps as you see fit.

Good choice David, these kits are wonderful and the subject beautiful with lots of resources out there. Welcome to the Swan club! BE’s Pegasus log is the gold standard we all try to reach. Hope you don’t mind me following along!

Looks great Mark. Just out of curiosity, did you laminate the front and top of the stem or just the sides? I’m wondering if I need to do something similar on my LAR for a better match if the woods...

Wow, your model looks absolutely perfect. Very nice work!

I went with the RB guns for my Pegasus as well. I think I pretty much piggybacked off of BE's research and decision to do so. The Chuck guns seem a bit too skinny for my taste.

It's a really nice subject and Euromodel does a nice job with their kits. Go for it!

Joe, thanks very much for that. Really appreciate the benefit of your experience with it. Sounds like my current mill size at 10” should be just fine. God help me if I ever work on pieces that are five feet long! Mike

Very cool wefalck! I wish I had the space to put something together like that. Right now I'm using two work benches put back to back for a "work island" so to speak. But, after adding my table saw, disc sander, thickness sander and mill, I don't have much room left for anything else if I want working space for my model. So, the lathe and certain other tools are on shelving units I am jealous of folks that have the room for separate work stations with different tools on them!

Hi again guys, thanks for all the thoughts and insight. I think I was able to locate the inch to metric conversion kit for the mill, which is about $126. Certainly cheaper than buying a new mill. I thought about selling the mill, and converting my lathe to a mill with the vertical attachment to save space and it would be a little cheaper (for example, I think you only need on DRO set up). Looks like the milling area would be really small though, so the option would be to buy a separate milling table and share the power system between the two machines. That saves a bit of money, but results in the same amount of space as two separately powered machines. So, probably not worth it. I took a look at my lathe, and saw what people mean by the tailstock getting in the way. I suppose I could always upgrade to a longer lathe if that ever becomes a real problem. I don't really have the space to accommodate a 3 foot lathe though with my current work space... So, probably keeping what I have makes the most sense at the moment. So, after all this, I think I'm back to where I started as to whether to buy a new mill, or just outfit my current one to metric. If I bought a new mill, it would only make sense if I got one with a bigger table. Is there any reason for ship modeling to upgrade from my current 10" table to a 12" table? I see that they also offer an 18" extended table for another $200. I'm guessing that the 18" bed might be nice to have, but it's not really necessary (and would take a lot of space)? Thanks again for all the input on this thread, I really appreciate it! I have to say that after all this recent research, I really am impressed with how Sherline makes things standardized as well as modular to adapt for various circumstances and budgets. I didn't quite get all that when I bought my mill and lathe.

Thanks guys! Love the building board with drawers idea - very clever! Mark, love your workshop. Twenty years from now when my kids are out of the house maybe I can claim one of their rooms and put together something like that.

Thanks Mark, that's all really helpful. Appreciate it!

Could you laminate the stem and keel? I have a problem with my La Renommee where Euromodel uses different woods for the stem and keel. The keel looks a bit lighter Since my stem has come off once already, I’ve been thinking about scratching the stem, stern post and rudder, and laminating the keel with the same kind of wood. Otherwise, I could even try laminating keel with walnut from the kit, but not sure I have enough. Did you have that issue with the Royal William? One question too if you don’t mind on the cherry veneer. You said it was tough to cut - any tips? Were you using a table saw or hand cutting the strips? I went to Woodcraft a few days ago to find a lighter wood for my Renommee’s upper hull planking and found some cherry veneer in a lighter shade than typically seen (bought some normal cherry veneer as well). I notice that the veneers they sell tend to be so thin they have a curl like they were thick paper. Anyway, just wondering if you figured out and easy way of working with it. Thanks!

Looks great to me! Nice job!

While I’m thinking about it, do you guys mount your mills and lathe? If so, what do you use? Thick plywood? Some other material?

Wow, thanks very much for all the responses! I really appreciate it, and they give me a lot to think about, so thank you all! If others have any thoughts, I’d very much welcome them as well. Thanks!

Thanks Mark. I’m slowly learning. I agree about the French ships - your Licorne is certainly a great example of the beauty of that class of ships!

Thank you very much! I hope to get a similar effect on my Charles Morgan. Really appreciate it!

I currently own the base Sherline mill (5000) and the 8" lathe with the upgraded hand wheels (4530). I bought both used on eBay, and have slowly accumulated a bunch of the accessories that would likely be needed for ship modeling. I saw that Sherline is offering the digital readout accessories (DRO) on sale this month, so was going to buy one for each (they would share the readout box). But, I realized that my mill is in inches while the lathe is in metric. I was hoping it wouldn't matter w'ith the DRO, but the screws, etc. are all calibrated so I'd still have to work in inches on the mill and in metric on the lathe. Since I pretty much only like to work in metric these days, I'm thinking of selling the mill and buying a new one that is metric. I'm thinking of going with the 5410, which has a slightly wider Y axis (5" versus 3") and a few other upgrades. In trying to work all this out, I was considering other alternatives: 1. Upgrade to 8-directional (2000) mill? The next model up that has 8 directional milling (the 2000 I believe) is nice, but probably overkill I think for what I would use it for. Anyone think the 2000 is worth it? I have the tilting and rotating tables, so to the extent I needed to mill at angles, I could change the angle of the working piece, rather than the mill. I'm sure there are various scenarios where one is better than the other, but I don't have enough experience to know for sure. 2. Instead, buy a new lathe with the vertical milling column? Is anyone using the vertical milling column setup? I understand that the "milling base" would be a little smaller than the base of the standalone mills, but is that a problem for modeling ships? Putting aside the hassle of having to sell both my mill and lathe, having one unit versus two would save some space in my workshop. It seems like Sherline has done a nice job of making it fairly easy to switch from milling to lathe work without much issue. I just don't know how much functionality one loses by combining the two machines. 3. Upgrade to 17" lathe? Another thing I could think about doing is upgrading to a longer bed lathe. I think I posted this before, but if I recall correctly, folks (including DVM) suggested the 8" was more than sufficient, and if I needed to mill longer pieces, planing those pieces would work better than having to try and support the longer thin piece on the lathe. Not to mention, the 17" lathe is almost a foot longer than the 8". Thanks in advance for any thoughts. If anyone is looking for a Sherline 5000 mill, feel free to PM me. I'd prefer to sell it to someone here than to have to list it on eBay.

Just caught up with your build log Mark. Really nice job! I love the colors. Cannons are looking great too, what did you use to blacken them?

Really beautiful work! I like how your copper plating came out. Can I ask what you used to achieve that effect?

Hi Ferit, thanks for looking in. Interesting, the picture does seem to show a gap or indent, but when I look at the model, it looks perfectly straight/in line with the general curvature of the hull. My guess is that it's an artifact from my iPhone picture. I was doing my best to take a picture over the top of the model without capturing my toes in the picture. Ian Major pointed out my feet on one of my other logs a while back, and I've been self conscious ever since!