Keith_W

You can use shellac, but I would not recommend it. You don't know how your paint is going to react to shellac. It is better to use a clear flat base from the same manufacturer as your paint. 

It will be almost impossible to fabricate a moulding out of wood. The grain will be running in different directions, and it would be incredibly fragile. 
 
This is what I did when I had to fabricate my own windows: 
 

I used a milling machine (Proxxon MF70) to mill a channel in a block of wood, then my Byrnes table saw to take off slices. The moulding was made with strip styrene glued to the curved edge, and the whole thing was painted. 
 
If you really want to make the moulding out of wood, you will need to carve it out with a suitable router bit that you may have to fabricate yourself. It will need to be supported by thick wood to stop it from breaking off. I would suggest a Proxxon MF70 with the CNC option but that is a lot of money to invest in only one part. 

I was told that the movie is a hot mess. Apparently they tried to rewrite the story so that it's all about Napoleon's love for Josephine and how she motivated him to conquer most of Europe. Too much screen time devoted to those two and major battles and strategic planning is glossed over or skimmed. Apparently the acting isn't great either, as if everybody "turned up and did the bare minimum to avoid getting fired" and so they all look oddly indifferent. 

What a way to ruin what could be an interesting movie by injecting a love story that nobody cares about. We turn up to watch Napoleon, not Josephine. 

You can use shellac, but I would not recommend it. You don't know how your paint is going to react to shellac. It is better to use a clear flat base from the same manufacturer as your paint. 

You can use shellac, but I would not recommend it. You don't know how your paint is going to react to shellac. It is better to use a clear flat base from the same manufacturer as your paint. 

I was told that the movie is a hot mess. Apparently they tried to rewrite the story so that it's all about Napoleon's love for Josephine and how she motivated him to conquer most of Europe. Too much screen time devoted to those two and major battles and strategic planning is glossed over or skimmed. Apparently the acting isn't great either, as if everybody "turned up and did the bare minimum to avoid getting fired" and so they all look oddly indifferent. 

What a way to ruin what could be an interesting movie by injecting a love story that nobody cares about. We turn up to watch Napoleon, not Josephine. 

I believe there are two reasons for wales: 
 
1. It provides additional protection to the side of the ship 
2. It strengthens and stiffens the hull 
 
And maybe a third reason: 
 
3. It looks nice! 

I was told that the movie is a hot mess. Apparently they tried to rewrite the story so that it's all about Napoleon's love for Josephine and how she motivated him to conquer most of Europe. Too much screen time devoted to those two and major battles and strategic planning is glossed over or skimmed. Apparently the acting isn't great either, as if everybody "turned up and did the bare minimum to avoid getting fired" and so they all look oddly indifferent. 

What a way to ruin what could be an interesting movie by injecting a love story that nobody cares about. We turn up to watch Napoleon, not Josephine. 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

I was told that the movie is a hot mess. Apparently they tried to rewrite the story so that it's all about Napoleon's love for Josephine and how she motivated him to conquer most of Europe. Too much screen time devoted to those two and major battles and strategic planning is glossed over or skimmed. Apparently the acting isn't great either, as if everybody "turned up and did the bare minimum to avoid getting fired" and so they all look oddly indifferent. 

What a way to ruin what could be an interesting movie by injecting a love story that nobody cares about. We turn up to watch Napoleon, not Josephine. 

I was told that the movie is a hot mess. Apparently they tried to rewrite the story so that it's all about Napoleon's love for Josephine and how she motivated him to conquer most of Europe. Too much screen time devoted to those two and major battles and strategic planning is glossed over or skimmed. Apparently the acting isn't great either, as if everybody "turned up and did the bare minimum to avoid getting fired" and so they all look oddly indifferent. 

What a way to ruin what could be an interesting movie by injecting a love story that nobody cares about. We turn up to watch Napoleon, not Josephine. 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

I considered sculpting my own display base with Sculpey and went as far as making one prototype (I need 4). But I decided against it for a few reasons - (1) the model sits too close to the base, I prefer it to look more elevated, (2) I was concerned about the structural integrity of the base and whether it would adequately hold up a model ship without tipping over, and (3) the sheer amount of work required to sculpt 4 stands out of Sculpey. I suppose that 3D printing would solve the problem. 
 
In the end I bent some thick brass rod and soldered it together to support the hull, and drove a hefty bolt into the keel to secure the ship to the base and lock the model to the brass rod support. It is rock solid and does not move. 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

My order for rope from Chuck at Syren arrived faster than expected - 12 days instead of the anticipated 20 days. This means I can get back to work on what I dread the most - rigging. 
 
I would like to thank @BANYAN for lending me his rope server. I was originally going to serve my rope with tan string, but he convinced me to use black. He also pointed out that some lines were served along their entire length, e.g. the first line in the shroud, to prevent chafing. I had forgotten this. I have VERY FINE black string, and even with the machine it took forever to serve 56 lengths of rope for the shrouds. This is his machine: 

Notice there are two motors - one to turn the rope, the other to advance the feed. It is possible to set the machine up, leave it running, go make a coffee, etc. and return to have your rope all nicely served. I forgot to ask if it had an auto-off feature, because I was not game to leave it running unattended. It's not my machine! So I sat there and manually served all the rope. It took a really long time. On the plus side, I covered a lot of podcasts. 
 

All the rope has been served and tagged sequentially so I don't lose track of which is which. 
 

The served rope neatly stacked. The fid was made by cutting off the bottom of the topmast and topgallant mast, cutting a square hole using the table saw as a dado cutter, and gluing the bottom back on. Once securely glued on, a hole was drilled from the bottom, through the fid, and the whole thing was pinned together. It was sanded flat and painted, and you can not see that it has been cut. I know that the crows nest should be painted all black, but I like the contrast of the pearwood to black so I left it that way. 
 

 
I have also constructed a base out of plywood and veneered it with maple burl. The reason I did not use the Euromodel base is because I need to route power into the ship through the supports. You may recall from my earlier posts that very early in the build, I drilled a hole into the keel, placed a nut there, and soldered wire to the nut to run power to the whole ship. The whole thing was reinforced with spare plywood. This was always the plan. 
 
You can see the support I made for the ship in the second photo. This is 3mm brass rod, bent to shape with the help of my vice. It was then soldered with reinforcements. It is then screwed through the base into the hull with an extra thick stainless steel bolt, and I made the base extra wide. The base is also ballasted for even more stability. It is really solid and stable and I doubt it would tip over in the car even if I took a fast corner. 
 
I can tell you that applying burl veneer is not easy! When you receive it, burl is always badly warped thanks to the grain of wood running in different directions, and there are holes everywhere. The first step is to flatten the veneer - spray it with water, then sandwich it between two melamine boards. After 24 hours, it is dry and must be used within a few hours otherwise it will curl up again (don't ask me how I know). Then brush on some PVA thinned with water (70/30) on both the veneer and the substrate (the plywood frame), and sandwich between the boards again. Wait 24 hours. Then trim and apply the edge veneers, trying to match the grain as best as you can. Clamp and wait 24 hours per side. Then it's clean up time - patch all the holes with spare veneer, trying to achieve a colour match. Make up some filler by mixing sawdust with thinned PVA. Sand the whole thing flat, going down the grits to 600. Then I applied Tung oil. So far 6 coats. I am waiting for the last coat to dry before I seal it with wipe-on poly. It is almost 2 weeks and the Tung oil still feels a little bit oily. 
 
If you look closely, you can see that I applied the top veneer before the edges. In hindsight, I can recommend that you do not do this, because you can see the side of the edge veneer. I should have applied the edge veneer first, and then the top veneer so that it overhangs the edge. 

Removing the name plate reveals a hidden compartment with the battery and a switch. 
 
After going through all that rope, I found that I did not order enough. Another order was fired off to Chuck, hopefully this will be enough rope to finish the project. And I am woefully short of deadeyes, Euromodel did not supply anywhere near enough of the 3mm deadeyes. I have put together a shopping list and will visit my hobby shop later this week. 

I considered sculpting my own display base with Sculpey and went as far as making one prototype (I need 4). But I decided against it for a few reasons - (1) the model sits too close to the base, I prefer it to look more elevated, (2) I was concerned about the structural integrity of the base and whether it would adequately hold up a model ship without tipping over, and (3) the sheer amount of work required to sculpt 4 stands out of Sculpey. I suppose that 3D printing would solve the problem. 
 
In the end I bent some thick brass rod and soldered it together to support the hull, and drove a hefty bolt into the keel to secure the ship to the base and lock the model to the brass rod support. It is rock solid and does not move. 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

There may be many Victory kits on the market, but at the moment there is only one kit worth considering - the Caldercraft. Having seen the prototype pictures on MSW many years ago I have been anticipating this kit for a long time. Anyway, we'll wait and see. 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ... 

Darn, these Hollywood product placement deals are going to a whole new level! First it was fast food, soft drinks, and cars ... and now ship models! I'll bet Artesania is green with envy that they chose Syren and not Artesania as a subject. To make it extra realistic, you should tell Ed Harris to crawl around looking for a tiny part he dropped on the floor ...