RichardG

Antanas, I was a little confused by that. When I take a closer look, there seem to be 50 teeth per 30mm. The blade has a total length of 60mm. All the best, Richard.

Step 5. Another simple step. Just 3 bulkheads. A bit of Step 6. The lower deck is 2 pieces. I've glued and left them to dry. Till next time. Richard

Step 4 My first problem. I managed to break the small tab on the keel three times. Twice when dry fitting and once gluing the bottom of the boat on. My hands are a bit clumsy; when pressing down on the keel, I flipped it to one side and broke the tab. After the third time, I gave up and added some 1/8" square basswood to the sides of the keel for support. This made fitting the bottom easy. Someone a little less ham-fisted should have no problems. Step 4 is now complete Richard

Steps 1-3 Added the stem extension and sides plus the counter at the stern. I used a couple of Lego blocks to keep it square (the blocks again give an idea of size). This is I think the easiest part of the build. I've been doing this in between bathroom painting, grocery shopping, and burgers on the grill . Now it's 8pm where I am and time to see if I can do a bit more tonight. Richard.

All the best with your healing. I've had two "serious" cuts in my life, the one from the power saw cut a slice of flesh about 1/32'' deep from my fingertip and was treated at home. The one from a knife needed 3 stitches. Having said that, power saws still really scare me. This is one reason I'm not feeling a deep need to use power tools in my modelling. At the moment I have a Dremal only and to be honest I will probably adjust my model and wood purchases in the future to avoid the need for a power saw (despite how good the Brynes saw looks). Keep safe everyone. Richard.

Welcome everyone and thanks for your support. I'll try and make the log interesting . This will be my first build of a laser cut kit (other than Chuck's Serv-o-matic), my other build was die-cut - this is much better. The char is very light and the picture on the box looks like none of it was removed. I think I'm going to take it off very carefully where necessary. I still haven't decided whether to put this in a case, it would help keep off the dust and would be a very small case to make. A couple of changes I'm considering are new screens (these are printed paper in the kit) and maybe an interior light (I think my daughter would like that). Thanks again, Richard.

The Admiral and my younger daughter have no real interest in this hobby but my teenage daughter thinks it's cool. She asked me recently to make her a model. She doesn't want to wait the years for me to make anything very big so I'd been looking for something small. I'd seen the Woody Joe builds from Clare Hess and Bob Riddoch and liked the look of the boats. Then in one of Clare's posts he showed the mini version of the Yakatabune he is building. It looked perfect for my daughter. I checked with my daughter and she really liked it as well. I also mentioned as an added bonus, the wood would smell good - that sealed it for her. I ordered the model from ZooToyz.jp, with shipping it was $48. It took less than a week to arrive from Japan. Clare had recommended ZooToyz and I would agree with him that the service is excellent and the owner is very helpful (I also purchased a saw from there last month). Here is the link to the kit - http://zootoyz.jp/contents/en-us/d67_Woody_JOE_Wooden_Sailing_Ship_Model_02.html#p1685 The model is small; 210mm long, 49mm wide, and 57mm high. The wood is Japanese Cypress and does smell really good (my daughter spent a couple of minutes just inhaling the scent!). The kit is multiple sheets about 1mm x 30mm x 210mm. The laser cutting is very clean with minimal char. It also comes with a stand, brass nameplate, paper screens and lanterns, and a single length of brass rod. As with other Woody Joe models, the instructions are in Japanese and very well illustrated. There are only 21 steps on 12 pages. It is supposed to take about 8 hours to build. I expect it to take me 2-3 weeks. I will be using Clare's and Bob's build logs for guidance. I've already started thinking about some minor bashing - I can't seem to help myself doing that. Richard.

Clare, I'm about to start my mini Yakatabune kit. Do you put any finish on the wood? It's for my daughter and she loves the smell of the wood but if I don't put any finish on it, I think it's going be difficult to clean any dust off. Thanks, Richard.

The BBC did a program Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns: "A mile off the coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history. Presenter Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they attempt to find and raise the ship's four-hundred-year-old cannons. By recasting and firing them, they hope to demonstrate how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance." It's available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzWtPe1TkgA It's been a few years since I watched it but I think it was interesting and you might get some information from it. BTW, your model is looking good Richard

Thanks druxey. "The actor Otani Oniji II is captured here in the role of Yakko Edobe. A yakko is a manservant often used by samurai to perform violent deeds" http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/JP2822 So presumably he used a saw?

Having seen this saw in Clare's post http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/10860-yakatabune-by-catopower-woody-joe-124-scale-small/page-2#entry330886, I decided to order one from Zootoyz.jp. It took about 10 days to arrive from Japan. The saw is small and with a very narrow blade. Here is a comparison with my x-acto razor saw. These are some sample cuts on 1/8" sq basswood. The HISHIKA is on the right. The saw came very well packed. It was inside 2 heavy plastic sleeves then wrapped in this cloth, then bubble wrap, all in a box. I'm not sure of the significance of this guy . The saw is not cheap, about $25 with shipping, but is very nice and well worth the money. Zootoyz were very helpful and responsive. Here is the link to the site http://zootoyz.jp/contents/en-us/d141_HISHIKA_Super_Fine_Cut_Saw_.html Richard.

Congratulation on the stamp - it's well deserved. Have you considered adding stamps to the model? I don't mean literally but maybe as an "Easter egg" hidden inside the hull, or maybe on the stand. Richard.

Gaetan, Are you sure this isn't a real ship? Richard

EJ, do you have a link where to buy the vise? Thanks, Richard

Wonderful !!! Richard

Given that software is an important part of this tool, it doesn't bode well if they can't even setup an automated email reply. And even if you'd been offensive, you should still get a reply. I think my email under the circumstances would been a lot less polite. Richard.

Thanks Izzy and Mike for your input. I will need to do lots of practice. I've never stropped a block, seized a line, or tied much other than shoelaces. I have Chuck's Servo-matic almost all sanded and ready to assemble. I need to go buy some line to practice with. Make some blocks (to try stuff; I have Chuck's for the real thing). Try a few knots. Finish the software. Start entering the data. Re-read my books a few times. Steal some paint. Decide if I need to make something to put the model on while I rig (so I don't mess my back up changing heights all the time). I think this is going to take a while :). Still, I'm in no hurry. Richard.

That's not too crazy an idea. I have 2 daughters as well but the nail polish gives me a headache. However they do have lots of paint :-) I can easily add a color field to the software. Thanks Richard.

Carriage roof completed. Still need to add final coats of poly and trim the stern timbers. There's still plenty of deck stuff to do (cannon, pinrails, windless, etc) but I want to take a break. I'll be practicing some rigging stuff which is total new to me. There also one of Chuck's Serv-o-Matics on it's way so I'll need to assemble that and try it out. Richard

According to https://sites.google.com/site/shipwrightsfaq/smf-researchnotes/smf-RN-Cross-CulturalHistoricMeasurementUnits, "The French foot, pied, measured 32.48 cm", an English foot is only 30.48cm. If you're taking the measurements and scaling them say to 1/48, the relative sizes will be correct but the actual scale would be different (I'm too tired to work out what it would be). Is there anything in this hobby that's simple? Another Richard.

I used Nigel Brook's method http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/7445-plank-caulking-using-tissue-paper-tutorial-by-nigel-brook/ and was very pleased with the results. Richard.

It looks like the bands around the mast have ears that are bolted to the barrel: Although as Druxey says, it would make more sense if the hoops were above the bands. Richard

Dave, Thanks for the samples. My ship is smaller and simpler than the Endeavor but still daunting for me. I will also be using Steel's book for reference, I'm assuming American ships would not have been too different; after all the rigging is there for the same purpose. Once I get the software roughly working and some data entered, I'll post some screen shots. So long as the final result doesn't look like this Richard.

JerseyCity Frankie - I'm writing software instead of just using a spreadsheet because I need images. Each "item" will be able to have as many pictures I want. I'm assuming I'll be taking pictures from the plans, books, web pages, etc. as well as copious notes. I like the idea of sketching but my drawing skills are non-existent . Richard.

Nick - I cannot imagine tackling the rigging of a Victory model! Your build looks really good. Unfortunately I have no sources for the specific rigging on my cutter other than the AL plans. When I look at these, some of the lines don't make sense. As I go through them, I going to have to work out what the line is supposed to do and see if would work (i.e. if I were to pull here does yard or whatever move in the right direction). Don (I hope that's right) - There are no ratlines . I actually asked the question here http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/7091-no-ratlines-on-revenue-cutter-dallas/, and the consensus was that this was correct. Ken - Thanks for the link. The instructions from AL are less detailed than shown there, but there's a lot less on my build. The tables, such as they are, only show 2 sizes of thread (without specifying standing or running) and 1 size of block. I will therefore be making the rigging more complicated but hopefully more accurate. I have started on the software. Fortunately my computer is right next to my workspace; so I can glue a part, move my chair slightly, then do some code while the glue is drying. I'm also using some new software so I get to learn something for the work I get actually get paid to do. Richard.