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mtdoramike

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Everything posted by mtdoramike

  1. hahahahahahahah, my wife threatened to take away my tools. The Monte is on the work table calling my name, but it will be at least a week before I will be able to really do a lot with my left hand, which has swollen up to almost twice it's normal size. mike
  2. Lay out line down the center of the deck from bow to stern. Then start your planking in the center of the deck working out to the sides. Never start your planking form the bulwarks or sides and go towards the center. Sorry, but looking at the pictures, I ain't seeing no bend or warp. mike
  3. Thanks George and Ken, yep, I found a pair of the butchers gloves on Amazon and ordered them. Cheap investment of $15.00 will keep me humming on the Monte. I'll be convalescing for a few days anyway so it will give me a chance to get the gloves. mike
  4. Well that old saying of a dull knife will cut you quicker is wrong. I mis-proved that statement today. A sharp knife will cut you longer and deeper. This happened with a new blade and again cutting out gun ports. I'm going to have to take a few days off and then when I hit it again, I will used my dremel tool with a router style bit and see if I can't keep from getting cut. This time I actually had to seek medical treatment. Blood spewed every where, it nicked a vessel. My work room looked like I had butchered a hog. mike
  5. I broke down and went to the store this morning and bought some new hobby knives AND BLADES! Take that Xacto. mike
  6. Thanks guys, and yep I leave a piece of me in every model that I have built. You know Don after reading your post, I just had to go in and get me a sip of a little Vodka since I had bought it back a few months ago when I came down with a bad cold. It helped cure the cold and made my finger feel not quite as bad as it looked. Well Craig right now I would have to say it's cutting out those %#&*&^())_))*&% gun ports. mike
  7. I did a little more planking yesterday until while cutting out the gun ports, my hobby knife slipped and cut my left thumb and left me with about a half inch cut. The bad thing I knew it was pretty dull, but I figured I would try and get a few more gun ports out of that old blade. But like the saying says "a dull knife will cut you quicker than a sharp one will". mike
  8. Thanks George and Ian, The problem with this kit to me is the thin wood used for the bulkheads and then with fewer bulkheads used, I figure it might help give a smoother finish to the planking once applied. I would have done this even if it were to be double planked hoping to get a smooth lay of the planking. mike
  9. Also to give you an idea of the length of the white wood and the reddish hull planking, the planks can be laid in one solid piece if you choose to do that. But although I appreciate the long length of the planking, I don't plank like that way. I prefer to do mine in sections just like the deck planking. mike
  10. I started planking the hull with the supplied wood and you can make out the contrast in the two dark woods. I planked the upper sides with some of the dark hull planking wood I had left over from the Latina Victory and now using the reddish colored wood to plank the bottom hull. I think it will look pretty neat once it's sanded and a good finish applied. mike
  11. The cheap quality woods and some fittings are what turns me off with Model Shipways kits. With their kits, you have basically one way to build it and that is usually painting the model. But with most foreign made kits, they use exotic woods and you have two options, either build the model and leave natural wood or paint it. Heck even their cheaper kits come second planked with a nice thin wood veneer. Plus I have never gotten a foreign kit with white pot metal cannon and fittings, they are usually turned brass from the cannon to the belaying pins. So I don't mind paying the extra for a kit that gives me these options plus a multitude of subjects to model. mike
  12. Oooo, lucky you Mark. I hope you start it soon and post some details of the kit as you go along. mike
  13. This is one fantastic piece of work on one of the most majestic ships in history. mike
  14. WOW, you are you are lucky, the only thing we can get around central Florida is red oak and maple. mike
  15. Thanks for the info Py, I was thinking it was a member of the walnut family, but mahogany makes a bit more sense. It is beautiful wood. I also notice that a lot of foreign kits use it, so it must be easier to get overseas than in the States. mike
  16. hahahahahaha, Heck I live here and this is the first I'm hearing of that BIG CABBAGE shortage. I didn't know we grew that much cabbage. I'm going to have to check into this I might need to stock pile some and jump the price up . Thanks guys, I'm going to start laying a few of those reddish planks and see how the contrast will be. mike
  17. I usually don't pay that much attention to paint schemes since over the decades most ships under went changing paint schemes. But if it were a historical ship with documented colors and I were building it as a commission for a client which requested historical colors then I would paint historical colors. But usually if it's mainly a display model that I'm building for myself or for sale then I would paint it the colors that I like. mike
  18. I had some left over planking from the Latina Victory and decided to use it for the upper sides and bulwarks planking because it is a different wood than the supplied hull planking wood from OcCre, which looks quite a bit like mahogany, which is a more redish color than the dark brown sapeli from Latina. mike
  19. Just buy them, you can get them for like $13.00 on ebay. So at that price, why spend the time making your own when you could be spending that time working on your model. The most useful tool to me is the one with the flat end and a groove cut into it for pushing the rigging line onto playing pins. BUt you will need some type of rigging tools depending on the size of the model. The smaller the model the more the tools are needed. mike
  20. They use Sapeli on the Victory, which is quite a bit like dark walnut. Most of the larger more experienced models from AL only come with single planking, but the smaller or more of a beginner or intermediate level sometimes comes with double planking. But I think they are trying to get away from the double planking system. OcCre which is an off shoot of AL also uses single planking. I prefer single planking rather than using the white wood for the first layer then a real thin veneer as a second layer. You have to stain or paint the first layer because if you don't and there is a minute gap in between the second layer, it will stick out like a sore thumb. So if I have to do all that work, I would rather spend it on the first layer. mike
  21. Boy o boy, is this going to be one beautiful Victory. I can't wait to see her finished. mike
  22. I bet daddy, that Latina wood is some hard stuff, like cutting steel. I got so tired of cutting gun ports on the Vic, when I was finished cutting them I didn't want to see another gun port. I'm glad however that I gave myself a 1/8th inch space for the back of the dummy mount to the sides, had I positioned them flat on the inside of the sides, it would have left very little space behind the plank for the blade to cut the planking and I think I would have punched out a lot more than one gun port mount in the end. mike
  23. You ever have one of those days. Well, I did. I had rip some planking off of one side because I had gotten some of the white wood planking mixed up with some old stock that I had that was different thicknesses. Fortunately I caught it not in time but close enough and only had to rip, pry and talk dirty to the three pieces in order to replace them with the right planking. No harm no foul there. But while cutting out the top row of dummy gun ports planking, my hobby knife slipped and punched out the dummy cannon mount on the first gun port towards the bow. You know that one, that is now covered by the top deck and sealed at the bottom by the lower deck. Fortunately I was able to cut a hole in the lower deck and with a little fussing and cussing, I got the gun mount back into position and re-glued. This has always been my fear when it comes to dummy gun ports that are sealed by two decks. But since the opening I cut will not be visible after planking, again no harm, no foul. But I think I will take the rest of the day off. mike
  24. If not mistaken, I think it was like 1x3mm in like walnut or sapeli they call it. It's a nice wood if you decide not to paint the liners. If I were you, since this is a very complex build, I would get to certain stages and then wait or take a couple of weeks break because I know with the Latina kit, which I believe Model Spaces uses for their installment kit, I needed to read several steps ahead to make sure of certain things before I did them. Now if you go to Model Space forums, they have or had all of the steps to building this model and I even used it at times to verify something that I needed clarification on. I like Model Space because it actually breaks down different steps making it a bit easier to understand. mike
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