Jason

The original purpose for those sponsons (bulges) on the stern was to house quad 40 mm Bofors mounts : http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/images/I/o/Iowa_class__stern_full.jpg However, I do not know what the purpose of the equipment shown on the modernized vessel is. It definitely looks like the purpose is for dumping or throwing something overboard.

Hello Kevin, These videos are amazing! I have only watched the first one and the last one so far, but as an indication of the whole, excellent work! Your videos are a fantastic resource for other model builders. I look forward to watching the rest.

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I have to agree, it is an exceptionally well done website.

Hi Mike, As a US citizen, we are pretty lucky that in general, we do not owe duty on things that we buy from overseas. Long may it stay that way. I purchase hobby related items and books fairly regularly from Europe and New Zealand, there is nothing that has popped up yet. In fact, as a bonus, usually shipping from Europe is cheap in comparison to what it costs us to send something to them. Go for it if you find a deal.

That is an excellently executed deck!

Great planking job!

It was a great conference. I enjoyed meeting many of you, and seeing your work. The day at Mystic Seaport was fantastic. The highlight for me was tucked away in a small building way on the corner of the Seaport campus. On loan from the Royal Museums Greenwich, are John Harrison's famous chronometers. H1, H2, and H3 are replicas in this display, but the original H4 is in there. Also contained in this building were Harrison's first clock, a beautiful tall case clock, original items from Sir Isaac Newton, The earliest known portrait of Galileo, an original chronometer from the first and second voyages of Capt. James Cook, and the Bounty's original chronometer. It was an outstanding collection and display, with excellent interactive displays from the RMG. The only bad thing about it was the fact that photography in that building was strictly forbidden!

WOW! Amazing work. I am really glad to have found your build log. The finish that you give the completed parts is absolutely beautiful! It brings out the natural beauty of the wood perfectly.

Hi Greg, Looks great as always. I am having trouble finding those aftermarket armament pieces. Would you consider writing a post where you make a table of all of the aftermarket parts that you used, and provide a link to find them? Thanks!

Looking really good Greg. I can see my Varyag from where I am typing this, and your build log is really inspiring me to jump into it. But alas, it is not to be right now. You did inspire me to purchase some PE from North Star and Eduard though... The Master Models' mast set is up next. Those masts are truly an improvement over what comes in the kit, from what I can see here in your build log. Keep up the great work!

Hi Sal, Your Syren is looking really good! The cannonades are great. I always like to see when other people use Lego blocks to square things up. My kids often see a couple of their blocks on my work table .

Hi Max, As might be expected, I buy quite a bit of these woods. The price you quote for holly is very reasonable. There are other exotic wood suppliers here in the states that are asking up to $140 per BF for a really white, rough board. This is before it is ever processed down into smaller pieces. The sizes that you are looking at, I would definitely not begin processing with my Byrnes equipment. Even though the saw is technically designed to handle 15/16" materiel, the 3" slitting blades will not do that. I usually use full size equipment for anything of around 3/8" and greater. A band saw would really be a gateway tool for processing down larger boards to scale thicknesses. Also, I find that when cutting planks, more accurate results can be had if you use a sheet that is milled to your desired plank thickness. Then you cut the desired width. Of course you need to pay attention to how the grain in the wood runs. Oh, and I find it much easier for my hands, which are not small, to work with pieces that are 2" wide on the Byrnes saw. I often use much larger pieces of stock, but 2" is by far, for me, the most comfortable to work with on the Byrnes Table saw.

WOW! It's been a long time since I have posted any of my own work! So, like the post above says, a lot has happened in the last year around here. We moved, had a child, started a business, and bought a house among other things. Working on models has been a thing that I very much want to do, but the time to do it is very limited. However, I have started to get the shipyard chugging along just a little bit. In the Syren camp, after looking at my model on the shelf for a couple of months I decided I needed to go backwards before I could go forwards. There were a couple of things that were really starting to bother me about the model as it stood. One, the height of the bulwarks in the bow was not a smooth symmetrical curve. The port side was higher than starboard, and it had an awkward run to it. Off it went! While I was at that, I decided that since I have all of this great wood in my shop, it would be a shame not to use some of it in my own work. The perfect place to start was the deck. I didn't really have anything against the deck, but why not replace it with some holly? After that work was done, I pulled the Britannia metal decoration off of the transom, and re-hung it in the correct attitude. Next I was on to making gun port lids, which are now made from Castello boxwood. The holly that I used for the deck is what I call second grade holly, which has grey streaks running through it. I find that when it is cut and mixed up on a deck, it looks to my eye like a deck that has been in use for a few years. You still get gleams of white, but there are stains and dark areas too. I like the overall effect. I have yet to redo the tree nails. This work was done a few months ago. Since then I have been working on some other small projects that increase my skill in small areas. I hope to return to this model by the end of the year, but only time will tell.