BobG

She's a sweetheart for sure! She really likes my modeling and gives me a lot of support. There have been a couple of times when I was about to quit on a model and she told me to set it aside and look at it in the morning. That's great advice when you reach a frustration point!

I bought some retarder but haven't tried it yet. Great information! Bob

Thanks everyone for the likes and taking the time to stop by and look at my build. I'm finishing the rudder and will add some posts soon. Bob

Thanks again, Bob, for all of this truly knowledgeable and sage advice about painting. I have always loved painting of any kind. I have painted the exterior of our house twice and all the rooms and woodwork inside several times. There is just something about the transformative process of painting and seeing the beauty of a good paint job emerge that I find very satisfying. I'm quite new to ship modeling and, as you have noted, getting a "perfect finish" is tricky especially with a brush and I'm still striving to get better. Unfortunately, I find that I often learn the most through my mistakes first! I've completed most of the painting on my Medway Longboat build and, as a result of what I've learned in this topic and another recent topic on painting with acrylics, it has turned out quite nice. There's certainly room for improvement when you look at it carefully and up close. I must have laid down 15-20 coats on the cap rail and the cockpit seats before I finally said "that's good enough." I used Vallejo acrylic paint that I had thinned significantly and the challenge for me was not getting lap marks which, although they aren't all that noticeable, you can see some unevenness when looking at it closely while a bright light source is hitting it at an angle. I'm pretty happy with it but there's room to get better. In regards to airbrushing, my wife gave me a complete Grex airbrush kit for Christmas. I haven't tried it out yet but I'm excited to do so. I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions about airbrushing techniques and paints once I start using it. I'm grateful for the experienced modelers here that are so willing to share their knowledge. Once again, thanks for sharing your expertise! Bob

It was icy and frigid when I went through the Coast Guard 9 week boot camp there in January and February of 1966. I think climate change has turned the weather upside down just about everywhere anymore. I'm looking forward to see you continue with the rigging as I'm at that point now and don't really know what I'm doing. Bob

Thanks for the advice regarding the Mamoli kit, Tim. I know that Bluejacket has model of the America and I've looked at a couple of the build logs here and it looks really like a very advanced plank on frame model. I might have to have a look at the Constructo kit. I'm about to start the rigging on the Medway Longboat and I'm moving slowly since I've never rigged anything before. I'm looking forward to following your progress. Bob

Bob, thanks very much for taking the time to write this detailed and thorough reply. It's really excellent information. Much appreciated! Bob

Thanks very much, Ryland. I've really slowed myself down and am taking my time trying to be more precise. I'm about done with the rudder and then the rigging starts. I'm really unsure about that whole process but I'm determined that this boat will be my first rigged boat. Bob

Your daysailer is a great example of well a "simple, little boat" can be built. You did a fantastic job on this beautiful little model! Bob

You are building a really beautiful model! The America is most definitely on my "to do" list at some point. I have always loved this yacht. I wonder how the Mammoli kit differs from the Constructo kit of the Yacht America? Bob

Thanks, Bob, for this great information. Will Wipe-on-Poly essentially do a similar job of sealing as the shellac you talk about? I'm not sure how they are different in what they do. Can you give me an example of the shellac and sanding sealers that you find useful? Also, in regards to gloss finishes, racing sailboats would have a high gloss finish on their hulls wouldn't they? I ask because I have a Pen Duick kit that I will build at some point and I thought the hull would be a gloss finish. Bob

Thanks very much, Don. Yes, the scrapping of the Storis was very controversial and happened rather surreptitiously by the General Service Administration even as the efforts to save her as a dockside museum in Juneau was well underway with plans and fundraising efforts in place by a group dedicated to preserving her. There was a public outcry by Alaskan legislators but it fell on deaf ears in Washington. Another little known fact about the Storis was that she was the first US flagged vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent in 1957 after she navigated the Northwest Passage along with the Coast Guard Cutters Bramble and Spar. She also received 47 unit service awards in her long and storied lifetime of service. Here is a link to an article recapping her history and her final days: https://www.militarytrader.com/military-vehicles-news/former-coast-guard-cutter-storis-goes-to-scrap-yard Bob

After achieving a nice, smooth finish by sanding I have been applying Satin Wipe-on-Poly to seal the bare wood which can then be left natural or painted over with acrylics. I've also been using Elmer's Wood Filler for small nicks and cracks and that seems to work pretty well also and, if the imperfections are a bit deeper, I apply the filler is small layers allowing each layer to dry before adding another. I like the Elmer's Wood Filler that changes color from lavender to yellowish-white when it has dried. It sands nicely. This method has worked for me so far. My question is, is it best to apply sealer or something like Wipe-on-Poly be over the wood filler before painting or is it ok just to paint directly over the bare filler? Bob

This looks like a very interesting build of a ship with beautiful lines. I'll be following along. You have a very sweet looking dog also! Bob

Hahaha...too true! Bob

Beautiful job, Bob. She's really wonderful. Bob

It's looking great, Dave. I used medium viscosity CA and it worked well for me. That hull will sand up nicely. It looks like your cat has had a long day and is out for the night! Bob

I'd say first of all, finish the ones you're currently working on. While you're doing that take a look at each of the other kits you have and ask yourself if that kit it special enough to you that it is indeed a keeper. I've found that even "easy" models take quite a bit of time to build well and I'm not willing to put a ton of hours into a model that isn't that special to me. In the end, I'd rather build fewer models that are special to me and, because of that, I'll do a better job on them and be ok with investing a lot of time into them. I've got a few models on the shelf that I bought that I'm not so sure about anymore so I think I'm going to put them up for sale pretty soon. It will make it much simpler for me to decide on my next build also. Bob

Thanks, Don. I was careful to position it so you couldn't see a couple of places where the planking could be much better! I had some difficulty knowing just exactly when and how to correctly bevel the edge of a plank when there was a gap. Oftentimes, I could see that a plank would be tight in some sections a have a gap in other sections while I was test fitting it. So I tried only beveling those sections on either side of the gap thinking that, if those sections are a bit too wide, then by making them narrower it would help close the adjacent gap. It worked sometimes and yet there were other times where I just couldn't get a plank tight all the way along it and there would still be small gaps. I'd be happy to hear what's the best way to overcome those small gaps that appear when you are not going to be using filler and painting the hull. Bob

This is the first time I've seen those photos of your Midwest models and they're all very nice. At some point, I want to build a small, working boat and attempt to do some weathering on it and make it look like a real, hard working boat that been through the wringer but still going strong. Bob

I love the smaller, working boats and you've built a beauty! Bob

Yikes...talk about model ship acquisition syndrome! I pulled my eyes away from the most recent Model Expo sale. I've decided that I need to focus on completing my Medway Longboat before I add more stuff to the stash! Oh well, it appears that you're young enough to keep yourself busy building for a very long time. Me...I'd be pushing up daisies before I could complete all those kits! Bob

It's weird that my memories, from when I got to go aboard the Calypso back in 1969, was that she wasn't as big as she appears in these photos. I'm not sure why but, over time, my memory of her overall size had shrunk! So I looked up her size: she was 139 feet in length, 25 feet at the beam, had a draft of 10 feet and a displacement of 360 tons. Thanks for all the photos! Bob