Justin P.

Indeed.

Hi All, With a return to onsite work slowly approaching full-time, my modeling at home has taken a severe and gut-wrenching slow-down. For context, I commute 2.5 hours each way, 5-days a week. I take a bike, a bus, a boat and a train - so lots of down time just sitting. Ive been looking for ways to scratch that itch and express my interests in ships and ship modeling when I cant be at the bench at home and started messing around more seriously with available "soft-CAD" programs available on things like iPad. Some time ago I discovered Shapr3d and used it to design and build my home workshop and found it incredibly useful and very intuitive to use. This is not a full-featured CAD program, and it is likely that a seasoned CAD user will likely find it limiting. However, if you simply want to tinker casually without being bogged down by 1000 features you'll never use, and are looking for a way to build things when you cant be in your workshop than this is a great option. When I first picked it up I had ZERO experience and learned the program pretty quickly. The available online tutorials help a great deal. In the last week, I used the practicum designed by @tlevine available at NRG to build the British capstan project virtually. I did all of this work in 2 hour stints while traveling to and from work, using the pdf of the plans to model each component and then assemble. I still intend to build this project in wood very soon, but for the time being found this little exercise well worth it. In either case, its a great way to prototype ideas and work out designs. I tried to build as close to the specs and steps outlined in the practicum. In a way, I think Im better prepared to have a go at the real thing as now Im intimately aware some of the complicated aspects of the model design. Modeling the beams and carlings... Modeling the capstan step, marking out, bolt holes and brakes... Grate ledges, grates.... Barrel, Drum Head, Welps, Chocks, Chains Final Assembly, Completion

If anyone is willing to part with Volume 1, or part with the complete two volume set - please let know. Thanks.

Hi All, Just a quick question about the recent update to the Capstan documents. It isn't immediately clear to me which part was updated, and as Ive already printed everything out Im wondering which part was updated so that I can simply reprint the effected sections. Thanks, and apologies if I missed the update notes somewhere.

Ive been spending the last few weeks working on stanchions and the upper deck beams. I probably turned about 20 of these before I settled on something I liked and could reasonably repeat. I dont have a lot of turning experience so it took some time get into a rhythm. Otherwise, I'm happy with progress.

To each his own I guess. There are a few items in that listing that I consider to be indispensable and are used frequently. The rest, would just take up valuable real estate. But for my $1000, the Byrnes Trifecta is a no brainer, toys they are not. That said... my wife only accepts "Model Machines" on our card statement every couple of years, ha. After 6 years, Im 2/3 of the way to completion! I think the fellow might have done better to make it an auction rather than try to unload the whole lot for such a steep price (not including shipping).

That is a lot of stuff for sure. Wish I could make on offer on a few items and not the whole lot.

Can someone confirm that submissions as late as the evening of August 1st PST would still be eligible? Thanks.

I looked at this system as a way to produce relief carvings at scale for ship models. In the end I wasn't convinced I would get the fidelity I wanted and skipped the deep dive. I look forward to seeing what you can do with it!

Thanks Mark, Im happy with how they turned out - but like the knee's I can tell I might eventually NOT like them. I did mock them up on a smaller panel, but I wonder if my mock-up wasn't large enough to get a good feel. Ill just need to spend some time looking at them. Appreciated Matt, I am glad I went ahead and changed them out. Im not sure where my head was at when I first did them. Thanks Bob!

Thanks! I did use a thin brass shim for spacing (another trick purloined from Chadb's build). The putty caulking does give a great impression and provides a nice level of detail.

Progress! It has been over a month since I last posted, and Im glad to be able to report that Ive been able to make some headway, albeit at a much slower rate now that the post-COVID world is clawing back. In all Ive been able to get the outer planking and wales completed, gunports framed-in, the interior planking at the lower deck completed and treenailed, the gun deck beams made and simulated caulking done to a point. At this point Im not terribly convinced that I like the wales so hopefully time (or perhaps someone here) will point out if something is egregiously off. I opted to rip out and replace my lower deck hanging knees in favor of a more realistic shape and am much happier to have spent the time. They were really bothering me, and despite the pain-in-the-**** method of shaping them and fixing them after-the-fact I managed to do a reasonable job of it. (Left: Old coming out, Center: New template, with old knee removed, Right: Completed replacement) I also chose to give Chadb's method of using the putty for caulking a try as I like the effect he achieved and wanted to try something different. I did do a pretty extensive mock-up first to figure out the process. The result does look great, if perhaps somewhat out of scale.

Your work is beautiful and unbelievably fast. Ill be following along with interest, as I did with your Young America.

I don't know which part of the book you are at, but I would imagine that given the amount of coastal exploration and surveying they were doing at the time, they probably didn't bother pulling up the boats. Leaving them tied to the ship to expedite short excursions was likely just a practical choice.