MEDDO

Very nice pumps.

That is absolutely beautiful! Love the presentation which also includes the small boats. 

After a bunch of shaping and cutting away, I am able to temporarily get the rudder in.  Next up is making the gudgeon and pintles.  Which include soldering and blackening.... Yikes, will be my first time doing both. 
 


 

After a bunch of shaping and cutting away, I am able to temporarily get the rudder in.  Next up is making the gudgeon and pintles.  Which include soldering and blackening.... Yikes, will be my first time doing both. 
 


 

Hi All,
 
Still slowly rigging the cannon. I’m so glad there are only 12!
 
As a distraction I assembled the elm tree pumps.
Again another great mini kit from Chuck.
The laser parts were a life saver.
 

 
I will hold off on placing until after I finish rigging the guns.
 
They should be safer that way.

After a bunch of shaping and cutting away, I am able to temporarily get the rudder in.  Next up is making the gudgeon and pintles.  Which include soldering and blackening.... Yikes, will be my first time doing both. 
 


 

After a bunch of shaping and cutting away, I am able to temporarily get the rudder in.  Next up is making the gudgeon and pintles.  Which include soldering and blackening.... Yikes, will be my first time doing both. 
 


 

Rudder time...  As usual in this kit it is built up in layers.
 

 
With a bit of sanding and glue... (tiller is probably upside down in picture...)
 

 
Now we come to a problem.  The itty bitty little tiny space on the ship where this big fat rudder is supposed to fit into.  Obviously gotta work a bit of shaping on the top half of the rudder and the "rudder hole" (I am sure there is a nautical term for this area). 
 

And where will the book be available?  Will there be autographed copies?  Sign me up for one of the very first!
 
Martin

Rudder time...  As usual in this kit it is built up in layers.
 

 
With a bit of sanding and glue... (tiller is probably upside down in picture...)
 

 
Now we come to a problem.  The itty bitty little tiny space on the ship where this big fat rudder is supposed to fit into.  Obviously gotta work a bit of shaping on the top half of the rudder and the "rudder hole" (I am sure there is a nautical term for this area). 
 

That is absolutely beautiful! Love the presentation which also includes the small boats. 

I also ended the little boat; I have to pass only a coat of matte varnish
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small forward:
this is my wrapping machine

Hi Pete,
 
If I understand well the thickness of the plank is the thickness of a half frame, it was about 1/2 inch.
I guess you would like to know the size of all the bundle as in the picture.
 
It is not a good idea, for many reasons, and these 2 specifically:
 
stack of plank was for frames only and to add planking  and decks is difficult to calculate, especially the loss when cutting. Iy is not an exact science, guess is even a stronger way to be closer to what you need.
 
a 74 guns at 1/48 is roughly: 1 foot by 4 feet by 1,5 foot: 6 cubic feet
a 74 guns at 1/24 is roughly: 2 feet by 8 feet by 3 feet: and it is more than the 2X
 
Nevertheless, here is what I usually do to estimate the quantity: I buy a quantity of wood which is between 1 and 2 times the volume of the model: a 74 at 1/48 would be 6  cubic feet.
 
Every time I tried to calculate a wood quantity to buy, I had to go back later to buy some more.
So If I need 6 cubic feet, I would buy the double, this way I am sure not to arrive short and if there is too much, I will have some for the next one.

Hi David,
 
I'm looking forward to your build.  Sorry you've had problems due to the kit supplied plywood.  
 
I bought the kit a couple of months ago and it was sitting on the shelf awaiting it's turn.  Based on your experience and a couple of others like Svein.erik I decided I should crack open the box and see what I was facing.  Since the plywood looked like the material others were having trouble with I took out the bulkhead former and one of the bulkheads.  On the 1st gentle drift the plywood on the bulkhead was already chipping away.  The stern shaping pieces did not look well cut and I could imagine the frustration laying ahead trying to work with them.

I emailed to Model Expo yesterday (sent to both the addresses suggested by Tigersteve and by Dubz).  Within 20 minutes both Marc Mosco and John Garcia had replied and promised to send out replacement laser cut basswood sheets.  I'll see what turns up but since I like the basswood bulkheads and  bulkhead former that came with the Model Shipways Prince de Neufchatel that I'm currently building then I'll be quiet happy to accept the basswood replacements.  (I can't quite imagine how the stern shaping pieces will be strong enough cross-grain without some help from me to reinforce them - TDB)
 
I agree with the sentiments expressed that Model Expo could save a lot of trouble by ensuring that the wood they supply is of good quality however I am still very impressed with their response to mine and other's issues.  I'm sure that kit manufacturing is a challenging business given the continual need to source material and parts from a variety of suppliers.  I hope that they will do better on that.

Home again and back to work, so time for an update. I've made up and mounted the three square half frames at the stern. Same procedures as for the full frames. I also did some fairing while waiting for glue to dry. This was primarily in the midship area and consisted of using various sticks and blocks with 60, 100 and 120 grit sandpaper. Final fairing will be done when the frames are complete.
 
I'm now working on the stern cant frames.
 
Bob

Once I get to the point where I need to case one of my models. I was going to look into this place. http://www.casesforcollectibles.com/
 
 It's just down the road from me and I could probably just drive there and avoid delivery and shipping charges. 

Lots of the same stuff. I finished the Main Mast Yards. Not much different from the fore Mast Yards.
 
 


 
I have everything on the yards that I want prior to hanging them on the mast. Now onto the Mizzen Mast

Thank you Steve.  I agree the way the instructions have you plank the deck is strange to me but I guess everyone has their own preferences/aesthetic reasons for doing things.
 
Dave:  I think I am probably not going to rig her at this time.  I cannot say that would never change.  Getting the standing rigging up I think would be pretty doable but the running lines and where they end up/belay to is a mystery I haven't looked into.  
 
I think it was Bob (username Rafine) who has built this kit in the past and rigged her.  He is also now just getting going on the Lumberyards version.  He might be able to enlighten us a bit.

You should always watch Amazon as well. I was able to pick up a used copy of volume one of the 74 gun ship for only $16 a little bit ago .

We just finished some work on our house, which included major renovations to my workshop.  I thought of putting up a build log of the renovations, but it wasn't me doing the work, and I just never got it together.
 
My old workshop was my dream workshop when we moved into the house. It was the first time I ever had a dedicated room, and it was decent size, around 17x12 feet. It was a usual basement room: unfinished, with exposed insulation, uncovered small part-eating gap between slab and wall, and just got outgrown as I go more tools and tried to work on two projects at once.  The room was off a “two-car garage”, which only fit two cars if they are parked front to back.  I used my table and band saws there.
 
At the urging of my tremendously supportive wife, we put up an insulated wall that splits the garage and creates a new second workshop room. There is a third furnace room in back, which we were able to clear out.  All three rooms will be part of the new workshop.  The two front rooms got:
 
-Sheet rock over ceilings and exposed insulation
-Painted walls, ceilings, and floors
-lights and electrical outlets
-dehumidifier with drain for condensate
-vent for spray booth
-molding covering gap between walls and slab where parts always disappeared
-utility sinks
 
The unfinished furnace room got lights and electrical outlets.  The epoxy floors should be dry enough that I can start to move my tables and tools back in over the weekend.  Plan is for storage and big sawdust producing machines in the unfinished room (band saw and table saw). Still working on the layout of the other rooms.  Most likely paint and assembly in the new room with the spray booth vent, and wood and metal small power tools in the old workshop.  I don’t think I will outgrow this workshop, and now could build something bigger than a model if I ever want to.
 
Some pictures below. The camera on my phone made the rooms look a lot darker than they really are - the lighting is great.   I didn’t take any of the furnace room. It looks like an unfinished basement room with a furnace in the corner, but now with lights and enough electrical outlets.  First two pictures are the new room, second two are the renovated old workshop room.
 
Should be able to get back to Echo in a week or so.  It’s been sitting on the shelf if my office waiting. 

I completed the upper hull planking to the level of the shear strake.  Treenails are boxwood.  I started work on the inner upper hull planking as well.  I added the quarterdeck clamp and port stops.  I’m going to use swiss pear on the bulwarks planking and gun carriages.  I have some bloodwood, which would do better for a red color, but the grain seems too prominent.
 
I must have had some cumulative error in my measurements.  The plans specify two 11.5” planks with the lower one starting at the upper edge of the gunport.  This put the quarterdeck too high, so I thinned both strakes.  I used boxwood for the clamp on the side I am leaving unplanked.  Hopefully the different woods on the two sides won’t look bad.  The alternative was to use pear on both sides, but then it would have been the only piece of wood that wasn’t boxwood on that side of the hull.
 
I still haven’t decided about treenails for the holly lower hull.  I’m going to put finish on the upper hull tonight and reassess.  I think it will make the boxwood treenails more prominent, and if it does, I may decide the outer hull looks busy enough and not add any more treenails.
 
I’m still a little stuck on next steps.  I’d planned on putting in the lower and upper deck quickwork and spirketing prior to installing the deck beams and inner fixtures so I can sand and treenail without disrupting anything.  It looks like the placement of the deck beam and waterway determines the placement of the quickwork, so I may need to start work on the lower deck.
 

Pinnace
Now I will concentrate on one boat at a time. The pinnace is the first. The plans call for 1/64” thick footlings but don’t specify their width. The US Navy plans show these are 5” x 1” or about 1/16” x 1/64” but the kit does not provide 1/64” wood stock. Using the Byrnes saw and some of the kit wood stock (I forget which size I used), that was easily remedied. I painted the cut pieces first and then glued them into place using 1/32” wide spacers.

I also got a chance to see some real carvings today as my uncle from Sydney was in town visitng and wanted to drive down and see the Naval Academy.  Of course I had to show him Preble Hall.  As always very impressive.
 
Maybe  future projects.......
 
Galley Washington and a Swan class
 

Sorry about the iPhone pictures but I figure this is a better use of time than watching bad television here.  I see where the cuts look a bit blocky and am going to try to clean em up.