SailorGreg

Clue - or clew? Certainly current use this side of the Atlantic is the latter. But given the detective work you have done to get the rigging correct, perhaps clue is more appropriate! Amazing work. Loving it. Greg

Great start Mike. I will be following closely, not least because I live on Hayling Island. Still plenty of sail to be seen in Chichester and Langstone Harbours but regrettably no sightings of the Hayling Hoy in recent years! Greg

It's a Dumas kit of a Chris Craft runabout. Not really correct to have a picture of a kit on this particular forum, but I haven't quite got to full scratch building yet! It's about 3 feet long.

Firstly you have done a great job on the hull. That flared bow was never going to be easy. Regarding the glass sheathing, I have used products from Easy Composites Their 100 gram cloth seems fine for this purpose and their resin comes with slow or fast hardener - I'd go for the slow for what you are doing, it gives you lots of time to play around and avoids that panic as the resin starts to cure before you have quite got everything in place! Final curing takes 24 hours but are you in a big rush? Thought not. (I have used West epoxy as well, which works fine but is a little thicker than the EC resin. You can thin it a little of course, but I find the EC stuff just right as it comes.) I would not use a primer. I think getting the resin and cloth into contact with the wood gives a better bond, but that is just my view. I know others advocate priming (or applying a coat of resin) before glassing. Each to his own. I would spend some time smoothing the dry cloth over the hull to get as many creases out as possible, The weave can distort to accommodate the curves, and some "pre-forming" of the cloth does seem to help avoid the worst of the crinkles and folds. I use a small foam roller to spread the resin over and into the cloth which doesn't pull the cloth as a brush (or the oft-recommended plastic card) can do. Here's a hull of mine with a fresh application of the Easy Composites cloth and resin (no connection with the company, just been happy with product and service) - It will need another coat or two of resin to fill the weave and to give a reasonable thickness for wet sanding to give a good flat surface, but I hope you can see that even at this stage you get a pretty fair finish. Good luck and have fun. Greg

Yes, Tom, there are lots of fine, skilled and experienced ship modellers on this site. Then there are the rest of us. We look forward to your detailed explanations - don't skimp please! Greg

Superb work on the hull mould - a lesson for all of us. :im Not Worthy: :im Not Worthy: And the other pieces are looking pretty good too - your moulding and casting came out beautifully and I look forward to all the pieces coming together. Greg

Just found this thread, much appreciated as ships of this era are, in my view, rather neglected. Great work on the research and I'm looking forward to the build very much. Incidentally, I think the date written on the plan in your first post is actually Fby [February] 8th 1875. I think the ii is just a decorative part of the underline. But I can't help on whether it is a launch date or something else. Greg

I am not normally a fan of ships in bottles, but in your case Danny I am happy to make an exception. Marvellous! Greg

I agree. I am sorry to sound negative, but you are putting a lot of effort into the plug and it would be a shame to spoil it all because you either lose the detail in the mould or you find you cannot separate the mould from the plug. Remember the mould will be a hard shell, not a flexible shape. It must pull free from all the details in a single rigid piece. If there are details that trap the mould on the plug you will damage either the mould or the plug pulling them apart. Damaging the plug probably doesn't matter if the mould is good - but you will then have the same problem when you try and take a hull from the mould. It makes no difference that the mould is in two halves if there is an "undercut" in the details that will trap or damage the moulding. At the very least use lots of release wax! Greg

Nice work on the plug Kees. Splitting the mould along the keel will let you capture all the nice detail on the hull sides with no problem. But the detail on the transom, particularly the vertical pieces, could give you a problem when separating the mould from the plug. Imagine pulling the cured mould sideways away from the plug - those vertical members on the stern will stop the mould releasing cleanly. You might have to remove those pieces from the plug then add them to the model hull during the build. Or have I missed something? You may well have thought this through more thoroughly than I have! Greg

Thanks B. E.

The first thing I need to point out - it is not April 1st! As many will know, HMS Victory is undergoing a major refit and renovation at the moment. As part of this process, there has been some intense research to determine the exact colours she wore at Trafalgar. She has now received her new coat of paint, and this has left many somewhat surprised. Despite wearing the common yellow ochre for many years, her stripes are now a pale pink ("salmon", "peach", "pale red" depending on your perception). This is not a joke - the best estimate is this is the colour she showed in 1805. A smaller change is that the font used for her name on the stern will also be modified. I guess this poses a challenge for all those models of Victory out there, especially those that have taken great pains to depict the ship as she was at Trafalgar. UK readers can see a TV report on the Meridian TV website, but I don't think that is available outside the UK. I see sales of masking tape and pink paint rising sharply!

Vulture finished?! Can it be true? This log has been a good and reliable friend for years and one whose company I have enjoyed every minute of the way. Thank you Danny for a beautiful model and a thoroughly entertaining and educational log. Like others, I await the next one with eager anticipation - but we'll give you a week or so to raise your glass, clean the bench and sweep up the sawdust! Greg

As nobody else has responded - I can't give you a definitive answer, but browsing here might help -http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-materials-and-tools.php

OK, looks like it's time for another thread to help us inveterate hoarders. How do you break the habit? How do you throw away ( ) that lovely little piece of walnut that is definitely going to be just right for... well, something, or that strip of maple that didn't quite work on this model but will be ideal for the next one? All advice gratefully received! (And I did use one spare piece just the other day, really I did. Only 873 to go ) Greg