rek

Thanks to everyone who dropped by. You are probably right Joel, nobody will notice when viewing so many carvings. My goal is to get her as close as possible to how the contemporary artists of the day viewed her.
 
Bill

I varied between 200 and 300 W.   The temp did not get above 120 F  and was mostly 90-100 F.  I mounted the box inside a shelf in my unheated garage.  The temp in the box was something like 20-30 degrees higher than the temp in the garage. The foam sheets were not a tight fit, the air leakage was needed, and the foam only 1 inch thick.  This is nothing like as aggressive as a commercial kiln,  but it does produce an effective movement of water out of the wood that was a lot faster than air drying.  I think it is not so much the temp as the relative humidity that counts.  I was drying Holly so it was a race with the blue mold. I also wanted a temp that was higher than the mold liked.  It worked.   The exhaust fan - being a computer fan is DC - needed an AC power adapter - it seems that an adapter that is equal to or greater than the fan rating is OK. One with a lower output will burn out the fan.

Dan,
 
as allways, very clean and crisp work. I like your idea with the cut outs and think that I will copy this, if I build a section.

Steve: Thanks for the good wishes for my brother and daughter! Thanks for the link to the model railroading lights too - I checked them out and they look very interesting. The idea of flaming/flickering lights would add a touch more realism, but I have to confess the lights I bought from ebay were $2.00 and the resistors $1.50 and I like that price point better....we'll call this my budget ship.

Hi Sherry
 
I must have missed your posting when you mentioned your brother and daughter. I went back and I am truly sorry to hear about both! I am glad your sister is doing better and I truly hope your brother turns things around and makes a speedy recovery.
 
Just to add to your lighting thoughts, model railroading being another of my endless hobbies, they have simulated flame lantern or fire lighting accessories for between $25 to $70. Most come already wired and ready to hook up. And HO scale is very close to the same scale you are building your model at. Here is one such gizmo...
 
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mtr/mtr10010101.htm  George's Trains in Markham might be a source to try out. I haven't been following the model railroad stuff for a few years to direct you any better but they have been around for ages, since I was a wee one. LOL
 
The frames look great so far...great to see the decking go in. What are you planning to do for the deck planking? Please tell me you aren't going to mill those as well? LOL
 
 
The scroll saw was a great investment. I must have several days of cutting ahead of me cutting all the printed parts for my HMS Serapis kit...honestly, I am not stoked about it at all....I guess this is why they invented the laser cut to assist lazy bones dude like me!   Don't get me wrong, I love working with wood but if all my kits were like the HMS Serapis, I would never have time to finish all of them. Thank God for laser cutting!!
 
Cheers
Steve

Nice thing about the larger scale is that those treenails will be easier, I always hated the last few holes when making the things. 
 
Joss

Mark, Thanks for looking in.
 
Russ Wanted to make sure everything would be square!
 
Bob   Real good friend, says he has about 200 board ft in the attic of a barn for the last 15 or so years. Doesn't know what to do with, so I can get more if needed. He is into blacksmithing (has his own forge, so I throw some old files and stuff his way   when I find them.

It's expensive, but front-silvered glass eliminates that 'gap' in a mirrored half model. 
 
A possible help for rigging of the earlier period might be to look at blocks recovered from Mary Rose. They are certainly different than 18th century or modern blocks. OK, they are not as early as your model, but might give some useful pointers anyway.
 
Lovely work, Dick.

Some people like the BIG scales 1:2
 
https://youtu.be/PmXK0gDNP_g

Thanks Patrick.  Not posting, but quietly sitting in the corner for a while.
Ken.... You got it mate. 
Thanks all.

Ronald,
 
You may get more answers if you post your question in a general discussion area rather than in someone's build log. I would suggest posting it here:
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/forum/18-modeling-tools-and-workshop-equipment/
 
You are likely to get a wide range of answers though, as what you are asking is a bit like asking "how long is a piece of string?" The answers could range from, you don't actually need any power tools at all, to as many as your budget will allow. Some folks do some marvellous work with almost exclusively hand tools, except for maybe a Dremel type drill. Others, like me, are power tool junkies - I've never met a power tool I didn't like!
 
If you dig around a bit in the link above, you may find some more answers to your question. You might also want to have a look through some of the scratch build logs to see what tools these modellers are using. Have a look at Victory by EdT; Naiad by EdT; Vulture by Dan Vad, Kingfisher by Remco, and Atlanta by tlevine, to name just a few exceptional scratch builds. There are many, many more.
 
I hope this helps.

What are the best blades to buy for my craftsmen scroll saw Houston wooden model kits

Getting the keel flat is hard, and keeping it flat is hard too. Once you get it the correct width, it is easy to sand off your crisp edge as you shape the rest of the hull. 
 
I used a bit of drafting tape to mark off the keel and it worked really well.
 
the "c" should be the centerline.  
 
Also, I used gouges to help rough shape the hull then sanded to final shape. Especially around the stern with the narrow keel area, it was much better to just get aggressive with the gouges to remove wood in a hurry. In that area, the keel meets the hull at a rather acute angle whereas the blank is shaped with a really gentle curve that isn't even close. 
 
Watch your fingers! It is pretty easy to get carried away and plunge that gouge into a finger if you don't think about how you are holding the hull as you work on it!!!
 
All this is to say yes, indeed, the rough hull blank is sort of hull shaped, but getting it "correct" takes a ton of work. After building a bunch of balsa airplanes (essentially "plank on frame" method) I found working with a sold hull a total pain!
 
cheers!

may I throw my hat into the ring and suggest 2 books by Keith Julier? "Period Ship Kit Builders Manual" & "The New Period Ship Handbook" published by "Special Interest Model Books"  As a relative beginner I find them both invaluable.   Geoff  PS I nearly forgot! "Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Peterson.No text but lots of fantastic rigging drawings

Looking great Ed!, I think the iron work was a fantastic inclusion and in a couple of hundred years when the model is being inspected by "experts" and "students" this model will be a fine example of extreme clippers being built in the 1800's and one they will be writing their research and thesis on!

Regarding Diagonal Frame Strapping;
It is my understanding that British clippers were composite built, as illustrated in
George Campbell's book "China Tea Clippers", eg. "Cutty Sark" and "Thermopylae";
whereas most of American clippers had fully Wooden construction. More suitable
wood sources were available in America and Canada, and American clippers were
larger by 1-1/2 or double the British tonnage. Diagonal (iron) strapping would have
been introduced when larger wooden timbers became scarce.  Regards,  pollex

Beautiful as always. Thank you for sharing this wonderful build with us.

Hi Chuck:
 
I look forward to following your build.  What differences do you experience between boxwood and pau marfim?  I have some castello and pau marfim and haven't discovered a major difference between them.
 
Frank

Hi Bob, Thank you for your kind words.
 
Hi Alan, Well you could I say I did do it in halves or in this case about an eighth.    
Oh scratch building is a lot of fun but I also enjoy a good kit bash here and there too.
 
 Already in progress is the HMS Winchelsea a Chuck Passaro design.   

I agree with Nils.  If it weren’t for the grain of the wood you would never know.
 
Bob

I would contact Jim Byrnes about your problem and get his advice.
 
Russ

Nice build you have going.I built this kit many years ago.From the looks of your kit Mantua must have totally redesigned the kit since I did mine.
 
Mark

Ed if I have understood this process correctly you are in fact doing the work of preparing the keel for the cant frames as the builders would have on the full size ship.
 
As I looked at the sequence of pictures the thought crossed my mind that I would have as others have said preferred to do this work flat on the bench.  Smile I can just imagine the foreman on the ways "OK lads lay that keel over so we can cut those scores"
 
Michael

T e i l  4

It's nice to see the first frames erected, Ed - even if only temporarily!
 
John