David Lester

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Really nice Dave! Sails are excellent!👍😀 What’s on the horizon?

Another beautiful build David! I’m sure your friend will be over the moon with it. Thanks for sharing and look forward to seeing your next project.
 
Best,
Jim

024 - The Completed Saucy Jack
All good things must come to an end and this morning I completed the final task so the Saucy Jack is now complete and will be added to my ever expanding Vanguard fleet. To date I have built Speedy, Alert, DOK, Sphinx, Erycina and Saucy Jack. The Indy, when released will be a major undertaking and I expect it will take 2 to 3 years to complete.
 
Thanks to everyone who has been following this build and for all the kind comments and likes. It is greatly appreciated. Thanks also to Chris and James for all the the work they have put in to developing and producing a brilliant range of models.
 
Until the Indy kit is released, which I have pre-ordered, I need another small project so I have now ordered the Nisha – Brixham ‘Mumble Bee’. My plan for the Nisha is to use it as a practise piece to try to hone some of my weaker skills, especially the planking aspect which needs great improvement.
 
I have attached a few pictures of the completed Saucy Jack.

 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

What in the wild wild world of sports is a goin on here? 😳 Had to remind the shipyard that it is really a guitar bench. 😆 The Strat needed a long over do tune up. Then my baby needed some new flat wounds. 👍

Hi All,
 
We’re back from our month in Hawaii and as much as I had fun (sun burn, screaming grandkids, moody daughter-in-law and losing too many games of chess to our son) I’m glad to be home. Here is the Britannia stern piece… finding out just how hard this is to paint free hand. The raised portions of the casting do not allow some of the techniques I’ve seen. Two feet away… eh. 😉 I’ve got some touch up to do.
 
This is also my 1000th post on the forum! 😀 Honesty, I have been on many forums in my life with different hobbies and interests (there are forums for any subject on the planet) but have never had the involvement that I do with MSW. The month I was in Hawaii, it was a joy to open up the forum every day or two and see what the boys have been doing. What I did not know when I joined is that MSW is not just for wooden model shipbuilding! Card, plastic, wood, bottles… ships, planes, anything, and I’d guess that many of us do dabble in more than one modeling medium.
 
Anyway, glad I’m here and enjoy the many online friendships. God Bless you and Happy new year to all! 👍😀

Thanks for the comments guys!
Derek, I'm a big fan of shellac, especially orange (or amber.) On very pale wood like basswood or birch dowels it gives a really good even colour if I'm looking for a natural finish - a little richer than with just polyurethane, with none of the problems of trying to get an even colour with stain and it tones down to just the right degree of sheen.
 
I always have a canister of compressed air handy. It's great for removing all dust and debris as I work. I don't think I have any little bits of steel wool hanging on.
Thanks again,
David

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning,
A little more work on my Shamrock to report. I've finished up the deck details and have a good start on the rigging. The rigging on this model is minimal and quite simple to do. Also the instructions are quite clear so not too big a challenge -
 






I've upgraded the blocks to internally stropped ones, from BlueJacket.
 
This is as far as I can go until I add the sails. Most of the running rigging must be added at the same time as the sails.
 
I'm finding the sails to be a very big challenge. The kit provides some material that seems quite suitable to me. It's a very fine synthetic fabric which does not seem to be over scaled (to my eye at least.) But they only give you just barely enough, certainly not enough for a practice round. I followed the instructions in the kit and also followed someone's Youtube series about his build of the Amati Endeavour yacht, which appears to use the same fabric and method. His seemed to turn out beautifully, but it's lot easier watching it being done than doing it!
 
The approach is to coat the fabric with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. Cut out narrow strips to represent the reinforcing at the edges and other points and glue them on. Then cut the sail out. I have two problems, which aren't actually well reflected in my pictures below. First it's very difficult to get the sail to lay flat and not wringle. The first one below is by for my best effort and I even think it could pass as acceptable, however the others are not nearly as good. The second problem is that I underestimated how easily this gluey fabric would pick up every last bit of dust and dirt in my shop. As a result the sails, in addition to being wringly, also look pretty dirty.
 


I think it's possible that I could manage to get an acceptable set of sails using this method, but I would need about three times the fabric to allow for do-overs.
 
So, I have ordered some silkspan from BlueJacket and I'm going to have another go at it, this time following Tom Lauria's approach as he outlined in one of his videos. It's quite similar to the first method I tried, but he coats the material in paint instead of glue. I think I've ordered enough to allow at least one do-over. If I can't get a decent job with the silkspan, I'm not sure what I will do, but I remain optimistic!
 
Once I conquer these sails, the build will be virtually finished.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David