mtdoramike

Welcome to the forums, rigging is one of my favorite parts of the build because it makes a tall ship a tall ship and has such a dramatic effect once completed. There are numerous rigging books on the market, which will help you out.

Very good job on the Prince. I like the weathering and the paint job.

I'm loving that wood deck, she's looking beautiful!

I'll bet that got the to steppin.

hahahahahaha, everything. Don't you mean malarkey?

There should be enough room for the motor and the prop. I ordered a Graupner 600 motor for her. It looks like it is going pretty well right now, but one thing I have learned in my old age is, ( for every positive action, there is always a negative reaction and I'm sure there will be one here, but it hasn't shown itself yet.

I'm replacing the two pieces (K7 & K6), which goes on the bottom of the stern and K6 is supposed to be removeable to allow access to the rudder arm, but since I'm making a new access panel on the top, this is no longer needed. So I'm replaces these two pieces with a solid piece of plywood. My main issue was to make sure I was going to have enough clearance between the prop and the rudder since I was moving the rudder forward about 1/2".

Clark, even though I have sold ship and boat models, I rarely even got more than 50 cents an hour for my time because I always looked at it as being a hobby and I had the pleasure of building it so how much could you monetarily ask for that pleasure. As an example, I recently built a Dumas Chris Craft 1930 mahogany runabout and sold it for $375.00. Now the kit itself retails for close to what I sold the model for, not to mention building materials and electronics to make it run. But I was able to get the half built kit from an estate and had very little investment in the kit itself. So I have always been overly reasonable on what I asked for them.

I have sold a few ship models on ebay, but that was years ago, before they started selling all those cheap Chinese knock offs and poor quality junk. Most people really don't care about scale or quality, their main focus is price. It got to the point that good quality models didn't command anymore than the cheap junk and that is when I looked for other sources. There used to be a Canadian site on the interweb called Tall Ship Models and owned by Morey Benton, I had posted several wooden ship models on his site and they sold fairly quickly. He would get like 10% commission off of each sale. I also received a few commission request for builds through his site. But alas his big down fall was his importation of models built in Russia, Ukraine and the like, which flooded the market here, which caused the drop in prices for us U.S. builders so we slowly left his site. Disclaimer: Now this was my observations of the events as I experienced them and may not be the same view as others. I have also sold a few on Craig's list, but don't expect top dollar for it if you go this way. Most people on Craig's list are cheap and looking for a deal. Lastly, if all else fails, you do have the classifieds on these forums that you could list a model. You would be surprised at how many kit collectors are on this site that collect a ton of kits, but has never built a model, but would also love to have built model ship if the price is right and I'm sure they would appreciate it more than most.

OK, I bit the bullet and started the modifications to the stern by removing two of the rear frames. The critical part of this is, how many bulk heads need to be removed because you have to be able to mount the rudder and still have room for the drive shaft and prop. Ideally, it would be nice to have at least a 1/2" between the rudder and the prop.

I have found Libraries, schools, hospitals (especially ones that do auctions to raise funds). I often thought about St. Judes, Make a Wish, Wounded Warriors, VFW, especially if anyone is fairly close to those organizations. But saying it and doing it is quite different and as hard thing to do. I have always looked at my models that I put sweat, tears and yep sometimes blood into as my babies and the thought of letting any of them go was heart wrenching, but sometimes you have to let go. I must also add here that I was once a model hoarder and had the monkey on my back for a while with a wall display until that housed some 15 ship and boat models that I had built with the intent of keeping all of them until visitors who would stop by really took interest in them. So I started slowly giving away some, selling some and donating some until the display unit was totally empty. I saw how happy it made my wife and realized how tolerant she had been over the years putting up with my overly consuming passion and once that light went off It lessoned the pain of the loss. It also helps when I get the opportunity to visit my local Library where I donated the Victory and watch as people walk by, stop and take notice of it and really seem to appreciate my efforts. I get that warm fuzzy feeling inside although my wife says it's probably indigestion:)

Unfortunately Mark, no one will appreciate them like you will or another modeler. Unless they pay for them and have an investment in the models. This is why I am donating my last large model (the Montanes) to my local hospital. The Hospital will auction the Montanes during their Gala/auction event in February and who eve the high bidder is, will appreciate it I'm sure. As an example: I offered my daughter an HMS Bounty ship model (my first model) in a display case for my oldest grandson two years ago. Guess what, it's still sitting at my house with the excuse of "well I have no where to put it right now, but please hold onto it for a while". Their house is almost twice the size of mine. I have had people asking to buy that model for years, but she insists not to sell it. mike

Fast forward a couple of years and an open heart surgery later and where I was starting to scale down from model building, I have built three models since planning to retire from modeling and currently working on two other ones. But after the heart surgery, I feel 20 years younger in my mind, body is still the same though, but improving. It just goes to show how best laid plans can go awry.

CD, It may have been this build thread from a Radio Control forum. The OP and builder Legendary Pat Trittle did a splendid job on one of the first production Typhoons. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?291645-Dumas-Typhoon-Kit-Review. If you can't tell, Pat is kind of a hero of mine and I only wish I were as good a modeler as Pat Trittle, maybe one day.

OK, after studying the issue of the rudder access door being under the stern section of the boat and attached with screws and with the possibility of water being able to get in through it, I have found a probable solution. If I remove three supports in the stern section behind the rear cockpit, I can mount the rudder servo and be able to access the rudder from the top and eliminate the access door from the bottom of the boat. The modification will be where the blue tape is located. I will have to make the access door for the top of the stern, but shouldn't be a big deal (famous last words) hahahahaha.