Landlubber Mike

Here are pictures of the model that was displayed alongside it:

Sure thing Elijah - here are the photos I took. The lighting wasn't great, and I had to change the exposure of the cannon at the bow, but here are the pictures. If you want me to send them directly to not clutter your log, let me know. Cannon shot that sunk it:

Really nice work Elijah! My daughter and I went to the Smithsonian American History museum earlier this week and saw the Philadelphia. I took a few pictures and can send them if you’d like.

Beautiful work Igor - I agree with John, you are a true master! Thanks for sharing your build and techniques!

Clare, just wanted to add that I'm enjoying your build and learning about these unique vessels. Very cool subject, and your work and techniques are outstanding.

I know the feeling. I have three and after a day of work and then coming home to my real job and getting them fed, bathed and in bed, often times it’s hard to find the energy to work on my models.

Just wanted to let folks know that I ordered some wood from Jason at Crown Timberyard and the wood and service were outstanding. Jason spent quite a bit of time answering questions and making recommendations, which I greatly appreciated. For those that remember Jeff at HobbyMill, my experience with Jason was very similar. So a big thank you to Jason!

Hi Peter, really nice start! Looks really great! On the first planking, one tool that I found really helpful is this spike insertion plier from Micromark which is used for model trains: https://www.micromark.com/Spike-Insertion-Plier Rather than hammering in the pins, I just add a bit of glue to the bulkhead and the binding edge of the plank, and then use the plier to insert the pin through the plank and into the bulkhead. It's super quick and easy, and there is no need to push the pins all the way flush. As long as a bit of the pin is in the bulkhead, I've found that the pin will hold the plank against the bulkhead while the glue dries. Then, after the glue has dried, I go ahead and remove the pins (either with the plier or even by my own fingers) and many times can re-use them. Just wanted to pass that along as I found that to be much better than hammering pins all the way. There are other "pin pusher" devices, but I've found this spike insertion tool to be the easiest by far.

Looks great Nick! The King would be proud

Wow! Truly amazing!

Looks great Mark. Good to see you putting the Death Star to good use Hey, just think of it this way - if you tackle the small one first, everything will be downhill from there!

Really nice work OC. Very crisp and clean, looks fantastic!

Looks like you made some sweet tasting lemonade despite being given lemons. Nice job!

Very nicely done! Amazing how you guys building these plastic models with the PE add-ons don't go cross-eyed in the first hour, let alone after a ship or six.

Looks fantastic Mark, really nice job. Interesting how the quarter galleries have that ledge.

Very nice work! Well done! Im reading the second book in Ian Toll’s series on the Pacific War. Spruance plays a key role in the war effort, cool to see someone building the ship named after him.

Great start Nils - so happy that you are adding sails, they make a model come alive in my opinion.

They look great Mark. How did you make the tops to the stove? Are those metal? Wood?

Coming along great BE. I have a square tuck on my La Renommee too which I'm scratching my head on. Looks like the Cheerful is slightly different than typical, and you have clear plans that show you what you need to do at least. The framing on it will look really sharp when you figure it out!

A true master at work. Unbelievable!

Nice work Jason. I pulled up the Dark Iron paint on Amazon and saw it was brown and was a bit confused - looks like it works perfectly though! That notch in the ladders worked out great. Seems like a good way generally to ensure that the ladder stays fixed in place. I'd hate to have a ladder come loose in the lower decks.

That's what I use: https://www.gorillatough.com/product/gorilla-wood-glue/ I haven't tried Titebond or some of the other glues people use here, but the Gorilla glue dries clear and has very good adhesive power. It's all I've been using since starting the hobby.

Very nice Mark. I was looking for something similar for the try works for my Morgan and saw that plastic sheet stuff. Looks great! If you're a masochist, these look interesting. I've considered trying them out to see how the finish: https://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Extremely-Tiny-Real-miniature-bricks-HO-OO-N-scale-railway-wargame-diorama/161304880942?hash=item258e85272e:g:AG4AAOxyBvZTQ9PQ

Beautiful work Mark. Everything looks so crisp! Interesting result with the Danish oil. I used it on some test pieces and it seemed to impart a little more of a yellow hue, but maybe I was using a lighter colored wood.

Finally finished the first planking of the lower hull. Ended up coming out really nicely I think - I might not have to use any filler at all, except maybe around the stern area with that turn up into the counter. I still need to clean up a bit around the stern and bow, which I'll need to do by hand, but I used a palm sander outside today to sand the planking down. Wow, does that make life much easier! Was so quick to sand the hull, I still remember doing the Badger by hand and it taking forever. I'm now a big convert to bow and stern filler blocks, they really help! A big thank you to Pete who suggested using them in his build notes. One thing I started wondering is whether even if you're doing a POB kit, whether just adding filler blocks through the full area such that you don't even have to bother with a first planking would be quicker and easier than going through the first planking, sanding, filling, etc., and then adding the second (essentially, converting it to a solid hull). Guess it depends how easy it is for the person to do filler blocks. Some pictures of where I am: One issue that has been bothering me is the fact that the kit provided different wood for the stem/rudder versus that for the keel. The stem/rudder I believe is walnut, and the keel might be ramin. The color difference between the two is too striking for my liking: I was originally thinking of painting the lower hull white which would have made this a non-issue, but given how far I'm pushing on this build, I think I'm going to leave the hull natural. I don't want to chance using a stain to even the colors out, because then I would have to use stain on the planking itself which leads to more chance of something looking out of place. So, instead, I think I'm going to buy new wood for the stem, rudder, and lower hull planking. I dropped the hull while planking it a while back and the stem snapped right off, so I think taking it off again should be ok. The keel is a bit of a different story because I drilled the pedestal holes into it, and it's secured into the false keel by brass rod. So, what I'll likely do is laminate the keel with thin walnut, and then maybe try darkening the very bottom a bit to avoid any oddities (people shouldn't really be able to see the bottom of the keel though). Going this route will also be helpful in that I think I would like to spile the full hull as a challenge to myself (for my Pegasus, I only spiled planks up to the copper plating line. Jason from Crown Timberyard is back up and running and has been very helpful in answering some of my questions. He sells both a dark walnut and mahogany. I want the upper hull to be lighter in color than the lower hull, and I found a nice lighter cherry veneer that should do nicely. I'm leaning towards using Jason's walnut over the mahogany as I think the colors will work better together. Mahogany looks beautiful, but as a chocolate/orange/rich brown, I don't think that using cherry for the upper hull will work well. Walnut and cherry though seem to complement each other nicely, at least what I've seen in other build logs. Certainly welcome to any thoughts, ideas or suggestions! Next, I'm thinking of working on the gun deck - planking, hatches, etc. A nice respite before having to go back to planking the hull.