mtdoramike

Just checking in, I have been doing more sails attaching and some rigging so slow and a bit tedious. The Monte is close to being finished and hopefully within the next month I will have her finished and the closer to being finished I get, the more sad I become. When I started the Monte it was with intentions of donating it, but now my wife likes the model and since It will be my last ship model build, she is wanting to keep it. 

mike 

I put a layer of masking tape on the outside hull of the commmander, which will help with cleanup later and just in case some of the resin oozes out of any cracks that I missed.

I tried the nickel plating, but it didn't work with a hoot. It actually started  pittting the metal parts. It seems that the metal parts aare a pot metal and doesn't take to well to being plated. I was skeptical anyway with type of black magic. Now , it would or at least it started coating a penny before I stopped the test. So after spening $50.00 on the caswell plating kit, I will not throw good money after bad trying any other of their black magic or supernatural things. Next will be aa can of spray paint.

On 3/31/2017 at 0:38 PM, le débutant said:

Yes and no.

I explain, yes the instruction manuel suggested that kind of planking but the Sapelly wood is very hard to cut or bend so i decided

to go with the natural curve of the hull.

 

For your second question, yes only one layer of plank.

 

 

 

I love the way your planking job turned out, it looks fantastic.

WOW, what a real beauty she is I'm impressed with your progress aand fantastis job you are doing on her.

What a real beauty she is.

There will be no hobby work today, I will be baby sittting my grand baby and nothing comes between that.  

Will not be any hobby work today, I'm baby sitting my grand baby and nothing comes between that 

No problem there, inside is wide open. I was thinking the same thing and will try the 1.5oz. cloth and see how that goes.

8 hours ago, ofencer29350 said:

yes i know what you mean.....

it's why i prefer with no sail.

That is a matter of preference, I prefer the full sail look myself as well as most of the people who have bought my ship models. Out of 30 or so ship models, I have only built a few without sails and that was mainly because they were commission pieces. It's also quite a bit easier and quicker building without sails, especially if you make your own like I usually do. I have gottten quite good at sewing.

None of these sails are not tied down, only hanging.

Im thinking it might have been better to fiberglass and resin the inside first before ddealing with the outside of the hull. 

You do realize that the sails are just sitting on the model and have not been tied down? Once they are all attached with running rigging you will get a little more distiction from the sails as tention is applied. Now there used to be a process used years ago using silkspan, hairspray a blow dryer, which gave a little more active looking sail. But collected dust like crazy turned the sails brown after a few years.  

2 hours ago, ofencer29350 said:

u're sails are great... but without wind it's not realistic!

you could  buy amidon in spray ,and with an hair brush give the  form.

I have tried that and many other things to try and get lofty sails, but it doesn't work and actually looks like crap. The closest thing I have found to lofty sails is to add wire to the edges of the sails when sewing on the bolt rope and then bend the sails to give them a little shape. But these saails came pre-made. To me, they look realistic as far as a ship being on the water with little to no wind blowing. Had I made the sails which I usually do, I would have made the sails much bigger to encompass a larger area and a thinner material.    

I putttied and sanded three times and finally got an accceptable finish that I like. It's smooth as a babies bottom. But I made note of a few things I will mention:

1. I made sure to add the same amount of putty and in the same areas on both sides of the hull in order to keep the balance of the hull. The putty is heavier than the balsa wood.

2. When sanding the hull, DO NOT grab the hull and rough house it, caress it like a fine woman becaue if not, you will crack some planks.

3 minutes ago, mtdoramike said:

I have the sails on the foremast set, but not completely done , but enough to give you an idea 

mike

Yep, thaat is a pile of sails all tied down ready to be installed on their rightful mast. It shouldn't be long now boys and girls.

4 minutes ago, mtdoramike said:

The top left is the 3/4 oz, top right is the 1 1/2 oz and the bottom right is the 4 oz material. 

I thought for sure I had found a glaring omission with the Monte when I was in the process of sewing on the sails to the yards, I realized there was no lower boom for the lower studding sails aand no mention of them in the instructions or the plans. But upon further research  , I found that there are two ways of doing the studding sails, such as the full studding which is attaached to a boom and the triangle studding sail with the studding being attached to cleats or davits . 

I have three sizes or weights of fiberglass cloth: 3/4 oz, 1 1/2 oz, and 4 oz. I wiill probably use the 4oz  which seeems to be more substantial at least for the exterior of the hull.

So far so good. Now to get back to some model work.

mike

I bought a new notebook and addded hotspot and tetherring to my cell phone or at least that is what my daughter tells me. So hopefully no more smoke signals.

mike