GuntherMT

Hi and a very Happy New Year Rusty, nice progress.  The links work but on PC at least, the thumbnails are not showing?

 

cheers

 

Pat

Working fine for me, PC using Chrome.

Looking great Erik.  Really need to get back to working on mine!

Thanks Brian.  The time you and I spent looking at the companion on the Star helped me figure it out.

Now we all want to see you get some more work in on your current modeling projects!  See you in January.

I finished the little robot last week.  

Fantastic work Frank.  I love that you made the companionway hatches functional, simply amazing job.

Thanks for dropping me the note to kick me into starting to catch up here from my vacation!

That looks great Dave.  Nice job getting them tucked in there.

I made a small 'jig' to do the sweep ports, should be pictured in my log.

For the bow-sprit hole, drill it undersized for now (and ignore the size given in the practicum, seems like it was too large if I remember right), and don't worry about enlarging it until you are ready to place the bowsprit, and then open it up as needed to fit properly.

Excellent work!

I may be wrong but I can't find any build log on the AVS that mentions edge bending that first plank. The practicum does not mention doing it either. It makes me wonder if I'm the only one that had to.

Probably not mentioned because it's just assumed.  If you are using full length planks that are not spiled to shape, then pretty much every single plank will need at least some edge bending.  With the basswood I found that I didn't really need to pre-bend, I could just use pins to clamp them in place along the right location until the glue dried holding them permanently.

Basswood is just so soft and pliable that you can do quite a bit with it and not need to soak or heat, just hold it in place and glue it securely.

My guess is that if Edt has a lesson on them they would be in one of his build logs, either the Naiad or the Young America in the scratch build sections.

I do remember seeing Chuck's method, but I don't remember where on the site it is, but I do know that he uses a Sherline milling machine to do it, so if you don't have a mill, his system might be difficult for you to replicate.

Personally, even though I have a mill, I just buy them from Chuck.  

By the end of my planking, I was using heat only except in the case of extremely tight bends, where I would apply both water and heat.

I don't care for the water 'expanding' the wood, meaning that if you don't have it perfectly dry when you apply it, you'll end up with gaps as the wood will shrink as it dries.

I do know that lots of people make very good models using only water, but I prefer heat.  I use a heat-gun, not the electric plank-bender, although I did start out with one of those.

System:  Fire up the heat gun (it has a built in stand to prop it up) and then hold the plank in front of it while holding the bend into the wood.  When I think the bend is about right, move it away from the heat and let it cool.  The planks will cool very rapidly.  Once cooled, the bend will be part of the wood, so test fit, and repeat as needed.  Depending on the bend I used flat bladed pliers with no cross-hatch to mark the wood to hold one or both ends as needed.

For edge bending, go to the planking sub-forum and do a search for Chuck's planking video that is posted there.  He uses heat only and his system works really well for me.

Can't speak for others, but I have a very difficult time visualizing the appearance of different woods to decide stuff like that in my head, which is why I make samples of everything before applying to the ship.

Try taking small samples of the woods you mentioned and lay them down in the same relationship they'll be on the ship, and then apply whatever finish you plan to use so that you can see how it looks.  If you are happy with the appearance, then go for it!

I know I'm not much help, but there is a reason everything I own is very 'blah', I have no sense at all for decorating/art/colors...  Classic wood/beige furniture, silver or white car, etc..  

Fantastic work Frank. That spider band is awesome.

I highly recommend pinning those 4 pieces in place.  Even if you manage to get the notches to perfectly fit the pieces (I sure didn't) they will still be natural weak points and very easy to knock off without pinning them.

If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, they sell packages of random sized blocks of basswood (some fairly large) for under 10 bucks.  If that fails, you can get them from various wood working places, as carvers use it a lot.

You can get a 10lb 'grab bag' box of basswood from Woodcraft if you have one near you (or you could order it online, but shipping might suck).

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/149262/basswood-grab-box.aspx

By the way, I have not tied any of the lower strouds or back stays to the hull. They are just hanging there for the photos.I wont do that until i finally afix the mast to the ship. Still have some work to do before I take that plunge.

Honestly there is no need to fix your mast to the ship.  Your rigging will hold it quite securely when it's all tightened up, and by leaving it unglued you can adjust the angle if it ends up slightly off for some reason by simply adjusting the rigging tension.

The mast on my AVS is not glued to the hull at all.

Pretty sure everyone that has built this kit had to re-do the cap rail as the laser cut parts in the kit don't fit.  Good work, yours looks just fine.

What is the purpose of the upper brass rod and gear on the Syren Serving Machine It looks like the lower gear and handles do all the work. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks

The upper brass rod transfers the turning energy from the handle you are turning to the other end of the machine so that both ends are turning together.  Without that connection there would be nothing turning the far end of the rope and it would twist a lot before starting to turn.

The bottom rod is only to hold the spool of thread.

It defies gravity!  

Looking great.  You are absolutely right about getting everything that goes around the lower mast done before adding the cap.  This should include blocks which you did.

Another thing to watch as you move forward, is whether an upper mast section can fit through the cap, or whether the cap needs to be placed after the mast.  I ran into this when I placed the cap per instructions on the main mast and then had to insert the top-mast from below!

While the pin-prick method does work for some, I've never seen it implemented in a way that left the impression of a cleanly done plug.  I'd love to see photo's to prove me wrong on that one!

Chazz

Remember scale...it goes for (dark) colors as well as measurements.  The size of the nails or caps was mentioned above.  At 1/4" scale, one inch is 1/48th of an inch real size, and the nails were not black.

The plugs were 1 to 1.5" typically (based on actual ships I've been on and taken pictures of).  This works out to .021" to .031" in 1:48 scale.

I chose to go large just because I liked the looks better and used a .031" drill for the plugs in my deck, and I am very happy with the result.

I encourage everyone to simply make up test deck sections and experiment with all the different methods until you are happy with the results.  It's your model, and you should make it in a way that makes you happy with the results!

The Dos Amigos is an Occre kit in 1:53 scale.

http://www.victoryshipmodels.com/ship-model-dos-amigos-wooden-static-kit-occre-american-slaver-clipper.html

Thanks,  I do know about those but never thought about using them on wood.

I've seen the bird carvings that Frank (Mahuna) has made, and I'm not sure there are proper adjectives to do them justice, so I'm going to say that they work really well on wood with the right artist driving.  

I tapered all of my planking with a #11 Xacto blade and/or sandpaper.  I also beveled all the planks with sandpaper.

Very nicely done all around!

Looking at my photo's from San Diego of the Surprise, I only found a single belaying pin in the rails that didn't have a line belayed to it.  All of the other locations without a line were also missing the pins, especially the rails around the masts (the rails on the sides are mostly full of lines).

It's only one point of reference, but it's the only one I have.  

You will likely remember that there were a number of belaying pins without lines on the Star of India, but it is also only partially rigged right now, so no idea if there are lines that should go to those pin locations.

The new pins are looking very nice!