Jack12477

Nice shot !

Magnificent model, table and case, Bill.  A museum quality model and display. Congrats !

Another alternative would be to coat the hull with two-part epoxy resin then imbed a fine mesh fiberglass hobby cloth - smooth it out well - sand and leave unpainted. You can get the epoxy and cloth in any good hobby shop.  I did a model of a Coast Guard utility boat that way many years ago and it came out really nice.

Nice model, Brian ! Been thinking of doing a canoe myself, now you've convinced me to get one.

For those that do want to go with block planes or spokeshaves, Lee Valley has a particularly fine collection of mini wood-shaping tools perfect for working with small dowels and wood shapes.

 

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=70138&cat=1,41182

I have that exact set and they work well. Very well sharpened also.

Beautiful, Ed !!

Nice job, Rich. Very impressive.

Ed, what is the difference, if any, between gouache and gesso ?  My son uses gesso to seal his paint canvases and at his suggestion I've tried it on my woodcarvings with good results.

Does anyone remember the IBM 2311 or 2314 disk drives and their removable disks?  Don't drop one and make sure the cover is screwed on tight!

When planking the deck I use the Elmer's glue for dark woods - it leaves a nice dark line between planks

Nice looking boat. I like the ribbed thwarts.

P.S - Welcome back.

Slow and not very sure rigging progress. I now have to buy some very long tweezers and sissors since it's getting very hard to reach into the inner recesses to attach lines to belaying pins. I have drilled some sheaves to run lines through the gunwales.

Rich I use these to get into the small spaces especially the belaying pins http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=MS111-A I find the a great help

I agree with Mark. Also the Pfeil brand (Swiss) of gouge is excellent as is Soligen (Germany) - I have several of each brand. Another brand which I have not tried but is reported to be very good is Two Cherries (Germany).  A source for carving tools is  Chipping Away Dedicated to Wood Carvers

Michael, amazing !

Glad to hear Judy is improving.

Michael, those are amazing ! Your machining skills are incredible !

P.S Hope your wife is doing better with her health.

Chuck, could you explain here how you use the "fan" ? The camera angle on the video blocked the view and the audio is difficult to hear.

Chuck, thanks for posting the pictures. Now I "see" what you are talking about. Great looking planking ! I'm still trying to get mine to look like yours.

Very impressive, Dave ! Nicely done !

Brian the Badger brand single action airbrush should be fine. I used one for years on my plastic models. The Badger comes with 3 interchangeable heads, fine., medium, and heavy. The fine head is for paint with a very fine pigment - like the original Floquil paints.  The medium and heavy heads are for the thicker pigmented paints. I would classify ME paint as THICK or HEAVY. I've used it with a [paint] brush and have had to water it down to the consistency of weak tea to get the brush control I wanted. (BTW ME paint is NOT my preferred paint brand).

Check your airbrush and see what tip it has. You should be able to buy the extra heads at any good art supply store (not Michaels). I used to interchange mine depending on the paint I was using at the time.

Of the top of my head I don't remember the thinning ratios - it has been too long now. But it has to be very thin, maybe even the consistency of 1% or even skim milk.

I do remember they are "tricky" to use but once you get the hang of it they work really well and do a nice job of coverage.

Thanks for posting the two videos, Chuck. Very informative. I did consider joining your NJ Club until I did a Google map to see where you meet. It's over a 2 hr drive for me - one way. I just wish there was a club closer.You are right about the up-close collaboration. I do have  a local woodcarving club that I belong to and learning from the masters has helped my carving immensely. Wish I could do the same for my boat building.

Chuck, a trick I learned to kill some of the intensity of the flash is to drape an ordinary white handkerchief over the flash's lens. You'll have to experiment to determine how many fold(s) of handkerchief you need to get the right intensity. Also some external flash units have the ability to cut the output by 1/2 or 1/4, especially if they are the TTL type and you're using an SLR camera.

Brian is right about the "daylight" vs "tungsten" light temperatures in Kelvin, except I think sunlight is 5600K and tungsten is 3200 K.

I have one also - a small 6x8 and a larger 12x14. Works great !

Nice work Augie. Great looking model.

"color" and "collar" are pronounced differently - at least in the USA

My first ship was also an AL - Morgan's Whale boat. Since then I have built 4 more and I have 2 more waiting to be built. All in all I have had no problems. As Keith said above the wood is very good, the laser cuts parts are accurate, and the finished model looks great. The first 2 models I did the English instructions were good, but I think in some of their more recent kits they have outsourced the Spanish to English translation to someone who is not that proficient in English because some of the wording makes no sense.

As to historical accuracy or whether the model is fictitious, well that all depends on what you expect from the kit. If you want to build a really nice looking model of an "old" sailing ship, and want the challenge of planking and rigging them, and is somewhat accurate to the period,then they make some really nice models. But on the other hand, if you are a stickler for historical accuracy, accurately rigged and/or configured, or want a ship that actually existed, then maybe some of AL's kits aren't for you.

Personally I've had more trouble with Model Shipways kits and cursed them (kits) the whole time I was building  - notably the Sultana, Phantom, Morgan and Niagara, than I ever had with AL or Amati. I like AL and Amati kits, but that's my personal taste. The one exception to Model Shipways kits are the ones designed by Chuck (Passaro) with instructions written by him, those I've enjoyed building.

I think both Keith and Mark summed it up quite succinctly