Kevin Kenny

Chuck is spot on Henry but you can also get in touch with most of us directly. I will be happy to discus anything you wish on WhatsApp, zoom etc. Of course we now have my YouTube video log and the Virtual  reality images that Greg has recently published.  

So glad you found Tobago 1677 on Prime. We had such fun making the film. It took 9 years to raise the money to make the documentary, but  has not been a financial success. I still have many of the guns used to make the film. Anyway i did not do it to make money, just wanted to record the history which is lost on so many of my countrymen. 

Its wonderful to see this conversation progress. My only wish is that it was not posted earlier which would have accelerated   my learning curve.
alan

I will continue to use the groves as they help line up the frames. The spacers are an excellent idea which should match the groves That were cut in the keel. Of course you could  probably make a keel without cutting the  groves to take the ribs.

Bruce

the ribs went through the building board and were stuck with white glue. Supported by the groves they were very stable which allowed me to sand as aggressively as i wanted.  For the fine sanding i did use the  Proxxon pen sander which is so gently its like painting with a brush. 
 

the PVA mould release was easy to peal off. English said i could use water to clean up but i did not have to. 
 

the only change i would make is to draw lines on the building board to space an drill the holes more precisely. I used the mold to determined where to drill these holes and they were not all 100% accurate. 
 

i suppose that in time i may not have to use the groves but for now it provides me with a fool proof way of lining up the ribs. With the second one there was no issue of it coming out of the mold. It just came right off.

Hi Stuglo

not sure if that is your name.

i had to go and check what came with my sander. The grits would tend to be on the heavy side as the purpose is to grind the frames into shape. Looking back at the used rolls the smooth ones seem to clog up easily, so i would Recommend   80-180 for the majority with a few smoother ones to do the fine work. The majority of the sanding was done with the large 3”  roll but the smaller size was also very usefull.

last one on building the Gig

It has long baffled me How many of the great modelers make such superb work boats  That service the sailing ships of old. I had made many attempts but always felt that the finial product fell short of the Main ship model. One day i came across A post that suggested that these magnificent miniature  boats were made using a mold. I looked everywhere to find a paper or video to help me try but never found a complete process. So i decided to try to develop the process and recorded my work on video. The first one did not pop out of the mold but the second one did. The finial product was great if i may say so myself. 
Attached are the tree videos on the project. 
 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Completed the gig and ready for painting then the rudder and cap rail and we are done the second one.

Progress on the second Gig.

Second gig 

https://youtu.be/0ByyBhD7KR0
 

Part 3. Success

https://vimeo.com/416919939

It popped right out of the mold 

7 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

She's certainly coming along nicely! The new davits are much better. The old ones wouldn't have allowed bringing the gig inboard up over the railing. Even now, though, it would be difficult to bring the gig inboard between the width between the davits, although that may just be a factor of the photograph's perspective. 

 

And happy birthday. My 70th was a few months ago. Kind of scary, isn't it?  

Bob

what is interesting is that the lifeboats were never designed to swing in. They were simply pulled up and let down.  The back deck was covered with a canvas roof making it impossible to do so any way. This was a water taxi moving from bay to bay picking up and dropping people and freight in the life boats. See her in the the picture below .

Thanks for all the kind comments. I replaced the stern davits with ones that are more to scale made from brass rod. 
 

i have framed the second lifeboat so we will see how that pops out of the mold. 

Today is my 70th birthday so i thought i would celebrate  by showing the last few months of work. Not finished yet but certainly on the finial track.

Rowlocks installed with oars. We ar3 ready to go to sea.

Just the rudder to build and install

Most mistakes can be fixed. Here is the Gig with some of the seats installed