Jack12477

The AVS is 1:48 scale, but for the rope and tackle I am using the "It looks about right" scale.  I have no clue if they are correct for the scale, but they are about 10 million times better than the hilariously oversized blocks provided in the kit for this.

The scale of Brian's AVS is 1:48, but if you're referring to the size blocks and materials, a quote:
 
"I am using Syren 5/32" Pearwood single blocks, Syren 3mm hooks, some generic tan thread I found that is very thin for seizing, .008" Syren brown rope for the stropping, and .012" Syren tan rope for the tackle line." 
 
Cheers

Brian thanks for the link; now to figure out which ones to get. Also thanks for the pictures, they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
What scale are those you are doing?

That pear seems like it's really nice to work with Robb. The windlass looks great! 

I received my pear wood planks for building some of the components that have precut pieces I seem to have misplaced over the years. So I worked on the windlass over the weekend with some pretty good results. getting the belay pin board drilled was a task, I split two boards before getting it right. I also received my brass wire so I'll begin my lower deadeye chain plates. 16 of them so not too bad, but probably will take a few sittings.
 
I also ordered some brass strips of a few different sizes. The strips that came with the ship look a little to small/fragile to fasten the chainplates to the hull, so I'm going to try to make something a little more sturdy. I hope I'm not going overboard with the brass, but in keeping the wood natural color and not painting, I'm hoping it will give the ship some color.
 

Although not as impressive as those, this one fits up there pretty nicely... a 1/6 scale turbine powered F-4 Phantom done up in VF-111 livery. By far my favorite jet! (not me in the pic...)
 
 

This Mil Mi-24 helicopter is equally impressive. It is offered for 18,000 Euros from Helicrazy: http://www.helicrazy.com/crbst_86.html
 
That's right, you can buy a BMW with that kind of money. It is powered by a jet turbine engine. For those who don't know, real helicopters are not powered by piston engines because they generate too much vibration. Instead, a jet engine blows into a turbine, which spins the crankshaft and thus the rotor via a transmission. Most nitro powered helis use 2 stroke piston engines because of the sheer cost of manufacturing a scale miniature of a jet turbine. But if you want realism, a jet turbine is the only way.
 
Need to be convinced? Watch this video:
 

Went back into the workshop and made the pumps.  The kit used to include walnut dowel for the pump bodies, but at some point they changed it and only give beech dowels, so they required staining.  I used card-stock for the bands instead of brass, because it's so easy to work with and it is painted black anyway.  I used the hard brass nails from my Carmen kit for the rods and handle pivots instead of the softer brass rod from the kit.  It's slightly smaller diameter, but not enough to really change the visual look at all.
 

Very nice tutorial, Brian, and a well thought-out process too.
 
I like what you did with the catheads - glad to see your getting lots of use out of the lathe already.
 
Frank

Don't know how I missed this build Brian.  So many beautiful builds out there and not enough time I guess.   Found it when you posted the link for Ken. Great tutorial man.  I know I'm months late for the party, but you've been doing a fantastic job on her, and if you don't mind, I'd love to set in and join the rest of the spectators. 
 
Cheers

Wow! You are doing some great work! Thanks for the tutorial.

Great work Brian. Who cares if no one can see it -- you know it's there.
 
Bob

So instead of finishing the guns on the other side of my ship like I should have today, I totally went off on a tangent, for no real reason other than the idea popped into my head and I felt like it.  I apparently have modeling ADD.
 
I played with the Catheads.  The base parts are part of the laser cut walnut parts, but the holes for the tackle to go through are not pre-cut of course. The kit instructions are to drill 4 holes, and then using your X-acto blade, cut a shallow slot between the hole pairs in order to make a fake sheave. The slot would be just deep enough for the rope to be flush with the top surface when the rope then runs through the holes.
  I apparently don't put any value on my time at all, so I decided I was going to make working sheaves with actual little tiny brass pulleys in full slots instead of faking it.   First I cut out the slots, and then drilled a hole through the sheave slots for the axle to go. Here you can see the catheads with the other items I used - a brass rod for the axle, and a brass tube to be cut into the pulleys.   Next up was cutting little tiny slices off of the tube to make the pulleys.   Then sticking the little pulleys into the sheaves and fishing the axle through them. I secured the axle to the outside edge by applying super-glue and working the axles a bit to allow capillary action to pull the glue into the catheads.   Complete!   Then I fished a .021" rope through one of them to test it. Works perfectly. Such a huge waste of time for the heck of it on something that nobody will ever see once it's rigged, but hey, I had fun!

Mark, I am in total agreement with what George said.above.  If this man was indeed a "reputable businessman" he would have addressed you by name not some slur; he would have come right out and identified himself as the owner, President and CEO of Micromark and offered his rebuttal. Instead he stooped to the lowest denominator, pretending to be an "offended but satisfied customer", and launched into a personal attack.  I've given his company an awful lot of business ($$$) in the last year; not so sure I want to spend any more money on his products.
 
In my opinion your review of his product has been very professionally done and presented in a professional manner to the modeling public. I thank you.
 
Maybe he should be reminded of those immortal words of our late President Harry S Truman - "If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen" 

Thanks for the tutorial. Nicely done.

Slow progress.  More planking.  I'm not happy with my progress with edge bending, so I'm back to spiling...and getting better at it.  After they are all in, I'll smooth them a bit (Particularly at the drop plank, which was thicker).  Five more strakes in the upper band.
Maury

Ken,
 
Rather than clogging up your build with a giant post with a bunch of pictures on how I'm doing something, I added it to my build log.  Here is a direct link to that post for you - http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-model-shipways-scale-148/?p=328294

I had a request to document my method of stropping the single block to include the tackle rope, so this post is a pictorial step-by-step of how I do that.
 
The materials.  I am using Syren 5/32" Pearwood single blocks, Syren 3mm hooks, some generic tan thread I found that is very thin for seizing, .008" Syren brown rope for the stropping, and .012" Syren tan rope for the tackle line.

 
I cut about 8" of .012" line for the tackle rope, this leaves me with about an inch or so left over after creating the rope coils on deck and an extra inch or so for the block end to make it easier to work with while seizing.
 
I cut 6" or so of thread for the seizing to give me plenty to work with.  If you leave it too short it can be hard to grab while wrapping the seizing, and it's thread, the spool is something silly like 300 yards long, I'll never run out and if I do it's cheap.
 
For the same reason (ease of working) I cut 5" or so of the brown rope, even though less than an inch is actually used in the strop.
 
1) I put the single block into a clamp that I secured in my vise, and then tape down the tackle rope to the clamp across the base of the block.  Before I tape the rope, I apply a very tiny dab of CA glue to the base of the block where the rope will cross it.  I use the tip of a steel X-acto punch tool to apply the glue from a drop on a piece of tape.

 
2) I thread the stropping rope through one of the hooks and tie a single knot in the rope *before I cut the hook free from the sprue*!!  I lost about half the hooks I tried to thread to the floor when I was trying to hold these tiny hooks and thread them when cutting them free first.  Once I have a hook tied to the approximate middle of the brown rope, I soak about 1" or so on either side of the hook in CA glue (from the same drop on the tape I used above).

 
3) I don't really know how to capture a photo 'in progress' of the next step, but I'll try to describe it.  Take the hook on the rope and put it in behind the block, centering the hook on the top of the block.  Pull the rope down both sides of the block, cross them across the bottom of the block where the tackle rope is, and then continue up the other side of the block and then back across the top where the hook is.  This will give you a double rope strop all the way around the block.  Continue back down to the base, and then hold them steady for 30 seconds or so to let the CA take a good set.  If the ropes are not even on the sides of the blocks, it is easy at this point to use the back edge of an X-Acto blade to push them into place.  You can add glue at this point if needed, or in the next step.

 
4) Remove the block from the clamp.  At this point if everything is looking good, you can trim the rope at the top shoulders of the block.  If you need to adjust things, it's pretty easy with either the X-Acto blade or a very small set of pliers or whatever tool works to prod the rope into place.  Add another dab of glue if anything comes loose and squeeze it into position with the pliers.  

 
5) Using small flat blade pliers I then squeeze the tackle rope into shape at the base of the block.  It will be stiff because of the CA.  I also use the pliers to flatten down the ends of the trimmed stropping ropes, adding a tiny dab of CA if needed to get rid of the cut ends.

 
6) Put the stropped block back into the clamp, but this time clamp in the seizing thread with an inch or more going past the block.

 
7) To seize the tackle rope, form a loop with the seizing thread, with the top coming back up to the clamp.  Leave the loop large enough to be able to thread the other end back through it, which is why I cut this thread longish.  Take the top of the thread and while holding everything else in your left hand (or right hand if you are one of 'those' people), and wrap the thread around itself, starting at the block and working away from it.  This part takes practice to make it work, as you really can't watch it, as it's all happening between your holding fingers to keep a tight seizing.  I use only about 5 wraps on these tiny blocks or the seizing looks way too big.  Once you have 5 wraps, take the loose end, and thread it through the loop between your fingers, and pull it firmly until it goes through your fingers so that it's tight.  Bent nose tweezers can be helpful for this.

 
8) Now remove the assembly from the clamp, but keep holding everything with your left hand.  Using your other hand, grab the end of the thread that was clamped with the block, and start pulling it.  This will pull the loop closed between your fingers.  Feel for the loop to close up against the seizing, and then pull the back of the thread tight again.  Now you can stop holding with your left hand, and see how the seizing looks.  If needed, slide it up closer to the block now, and play with the bottom thread to tighten up the seizing coils.  Then finally, pull the top thread firmly until it completely pulls the loop inside of the seizing.  You should end up with something like this (the practice part is important here, it took me doing a bunch of these before they didn't look a total mess).  Now apply dabs of CA glue to the three points that will be trimmed - both ends of the seizing, and the extra tail on the tackle rope.  Trim them off with nippers or nail clippers or whatever you have that will trim very close.

 
9) Dab a bit of CA on the trimmed ends, and using the flat nose pliers, crimp them to make them blend into the overall seizing.  I use a very fine Xuron needle nose plier for this.  No substitute for good quality tools I've learned. I get more use out of a single $25 plier than a full set of pliers from Lowe's that are cheap.

 
10) It's done!

 
Hope others can find this helpful, it's a system that works well for me, when other systems that I've read and tried just didn't seem to click for me.

Ken, very nice. Now I see how your jig works. Thanks for posting the photos.

Looks very nice Mike. Nice progress.

Nice work Ken.  The line supplied by Model Shipways in their kits is probably the biggest gripe I have with MS.  That rope is garbage.  I threw it all out and am using Syren rope instead.
 
Something to consider in the future, instead of gluing the train rope to the side of the block, instead glue it to the 'base' of the block before you strop it, and the strop will hold it on.  Then take the tail, fold it back over and seize it.  Of course your way is probably easier, and at the smaller scale you are working on it might look just as good when complete, I certainly didn't notice it in any of your photo's until you showed how you were doing it!
 
Looking through my raw images, I see that I didn't take a single photo of how I was doing that, but if you are interested I'll take a few photo's today while I'm working on the tackle for the other half of my guns.

Mark, I am in total agreement with what George said.above.  If this man was indeed a "reputable businessman" he would have addressed you by name not some slur; he would have come right out and identified himself as the owner, President and CEO of Micromark and offered his rebuttal. Instead he stooped to the lowest denominator, pretending to be an "offended but satisfied customer", and launched into a personal attack.  I've given his company an awful lot of business ($$$) in the last year; not so sure I want to spend any more money on his products.
 
In my opinion your review of his product has been very professionally done and presented in a professional manner to the modeling public. I thank you.
 
Maybe he should be reminded of those immortal words of our late President Harry S Truman - "If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen" 

Thanks everyone for the kind words and also to all of the likes.  Progress continues at a glacial pace, but I'm slowly catching up to Mobbsie (albeit that will only be a temporary state of affairs!).
 
Mortar Pit Housing
 
Construction of the Mortar Pit Housing is relatively straight forward, once you get your head around the angles involved.  Although the corner diagonal walls have two 45-degree faces, the faces need to be of different widths in order to align properly with the side/end walls.  It only took me three attempts to work this out……
 
The other thing that became immediately obvious once I started to fit the Mortar Pit walls, was that the pre-cut notches in the surrounding beams (for the angled carlings), were very poorly cut and positioned.
 

 

 
I decided to glue the Mortar Pit Housing in place and then adjust the notches to allow a proper fit of the carlings. This left some unsightly gaps, which I have filled with a mixture of sawdust and diluted PVA glue. 
 

 
The end result looks okay, but the lesson learned is that it would have been better to NOT pre-cut the notches for the angled carlings.  It was not as difficult as might be imagined to cut them in-situ (with a sharp chisel) once the mortar pit housing was in place.

thanks for the feedback, gentlemen.  If anyone is interested I do have a complete list of quality control items that I found that have to be address.  I guess I'm so jaded by the lack of quality control in Chinese goods that I just fix them and go on my merry way. I have yet to see any product involving tech that doesn't have these or similar issues.
 
Jack,
I'll be using a mix. I have some Dockyard micros, assorted Swann-Morton plastic surgeon scalpels, a micro-motor and assorted micro cutting and grinding burrs.  Along with the obligatory lighted magnifier and an optivisor.  I'm looking forward to doing those... and holding my breath about doing them at the same time.
 
 
.

Xander,
 
Gently cut them free with a #11 Xacto type blade.  You'll have this probem with laser cut, CNC cut, or stamp cut.   The wood around the pieces protect them.  It's just takes a wee bit of time to cut them loose.