Thistle17

I really like the sandable ease of EverCoat Rage. It is a 2 part filler and adheres to the PVC (roughen the PVC up though). It is used in auto body repair.

Paul here is the method I am using to metal foil the rub strip. In the vise is a 1/4" MDF scrap cut to the contour of the deck curve using the negative space material in the kit. If you look closely I created a 3/8" deep rabbet to reduce the contour (of the MDF) to match the width of the 1/2 round styrene I am using for the rub rail substrate.The substrate is temporarily taped to the form. In the background you will see an approximately 3/8 inch strip of the metal foil cut from the sheet. It is fairly easy to lay down centered and burnished smooth on the substarte. The next piece will slightly overlay the former strip and so on. Obviously it needs trimming but that can be done with a very sharp razor blade. Hope this helps..

If the chine run is fair and true I would keep going as you show and then bring the side panels down (up as in the picture) as far as they will go. Hopefully you will have an edge (of the side panels) proud of the underside panels and then you can sand flush with bottom. If there is not enough side panel depth to do so just fill with your glass compound and fair in. If you believe the bottom PVC panels are the true run then I would carefully sand the chine to conform and keep going as stated above. My guess is this is the more correct reference (i.e.the PVC panels).

Well here is a saga that ended well. The owner of the ship model kits previously referred to called and offered his kits up to the Military History Society of Rochester NY. In turn he will receive a write off for his taxes and we the Model Shipwright Guild of Western NY will work to find the kits a good home and hopefully raise funds for the museum in so doing. This was a win.win for all. It just shows this "band of brothers" that exists in the model ship building world.Indeed a great ending.

I am not exactly sure what you mean, but if I perceive what you are asking I will answer this way. You must sand the sides flush with the bottom. The planking will reach all the way to the chine and the bottom, as stated, in the Dumas directions does not get (or need planking). The same sanding advice goes for the deck and sides intersection. Pay attention to the bow as well for a nice smooth intersect and that it is as true in sweep as possible. One last thing the PVC clad as it nears the bow at the chine was not a smooth transition because of the twist it has to make. it required some fill (not much). Don't forget to rough up the clad material before CA ing the planking.

Paul, you will find some places where the fit isn't exact. Whether down the seam, amid ship, or at the chine or bow. What we had to do was ensure as good a fit as possible. Gluing in "fillers inside if we had an unreasonable gap and filling all seams that were not quite right with EverCoat 2 part compound (use the blue hardener) . It adheres great and sands well. It's par for the course with this kit. There is no way that all of the parts fit like we all wish they would.Its the nature of the kit. I have built all types of models and I found this one to be a challenge due to parts, multi media material, using the wrong CA glue (low viscosity version was overused), used auto body resin for the uppers top coat (had to be sanded off #!?$!!!!). Well you get the idea. And, oh yeah, i didn't look like a "cool" grandpa with my grandson at times.

Think of it this way. You are going to lay down a layer of PVC clad and the definition of the "lines" of the hull will be defined by the fit. So with careful sanding you need to get a good solid intersect of the sides and the bottom. I wish they would modernize this kit and laser etch the parts. This would help and avoid the problems I am sure many of us have run into.

Paul unfortunately I tossed the label wrapper for the servo but I do know it is a Traxxas water proof micro servo. https://www.amazon.com/Traxxas-2080-Micro-Waterproof-Servo/dp/B002BE8672 isa link for a similar unit on Amazon. i do not recall it coming with a bell crank so check your accessories before you order anything.

Paul it is pretty tight under the rear seat compartment. I had to drastically hollow out a channel on the underside of the seat cushion so that the bell crank attachment to the servo would move freely. The bell crank arm is almost vertical and this was to get the rudder to move fully left and right. This was with the micro servo so I am guessing that the larger size is going to give you trouble.

Paul I built this boat with my grandson over last fall and this winter. We are presently at a stage where we need to coat the upper body with a clear coat. It will be a pretty model for him and should be fun to use. Anyway I don't want to dismay you, rather I think alert you that the kit I bought for him had die cut bulk heads which were not very well made nor accurate. Use a batten to true them up. Secondly they were a bit on the thin side so we added 'beef" to some to get a good landing surface for the PVC substrate. The next problem I have never understood was that the PVC substrate elements did not conform well to the bulk head to yield a completely closed hull. The hull planking went fairly well without much fuss save the fact that some planks did not easily match up with the former applied plank. Some sanding and some fill was needed. I highly recommend that you outfit the engine compartment early on while you can get at things. Also the rudder compartment. You can remove the parts while building , but plan your mounts like battery, switches, ESC etc. One last thing we used the foil that came with the kit to cover the rub rails and cut-waters. It did not go well. I have seen one other method that applied the material after the rub rail was on the boat. For the life of me I cannot understand how he got it to lay well and trimmed. I gave up and have made an MDF contoured board to which I am pinning 1/2 round styrene to and coating it with the foil. BTW since I screwed up the original foil I purchased anew at the hobby shop. It was of thinner gauge and ripped easily. So I ended up using aluminum heating duct tape. It is more sturdy. Again a fun kit to build especially with my grandson. Good luck. Hope this helps..

John your point is well taken. We will proceed with caution even if he decides to donate the kits. I wrote the owner of the kits a letter and rationale for our proposal based on perspectives provided here, feedback from club members and my own continued watching on e-bay. I have not set any expectation of the owners agreement with the donation proposal. We will see what we will see!!!!!!

Thank you all for your sage advice. I took your feedback to a sub group of our membership and we unanimously decided not to make an offer to purchase the kits. We did however propose to the owner that he donate the kits to our benefactor, The Military History Society of Rochester, to help raise monies for the continuation of this great museum. The owner in turn would be able to write off the donation on this years tax returns as it is a not for profit entity.

Sorry mike no kit like that in the mix.

USS Frolic There is a MM Rattlesnake in the mix. I will remember your post. Right now the individual wants to release the whole lot. I meet with 3 other members tomorrow and will see what they have to say. If it were my call at this time there is a less than 50% chance we will make him an offer (and then will he accept). There is a possibility that within the group some of the MS kits would be picked up. So it is a mixed bag. Standby..

Thank you very much to those who responded. I must say you are a wise body out there. I think I knew this but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. His kitchen table was piled almost 2 feet high with these models and I may have seen them through e-bay dollar sign colored glasses.. And yes they were stored in his basement and I noticed even the stapled pages showed signs of rust so I am sure they were there awhile. I have been an NRG member for 35 years and I think this forum is the best thing to come down the "ways" in some time. I will say thank you again.

This topic may have been covered by others but I have been unable to find references here. If someone can point me to a thread I'd appreciate it. Anyway i had put a post in a local hobby shop to entice new members. I did get a response from a gentleman who had about 25 models still in boxes. Most were Marine Model and Model Ship Ways. There were 4 or 5 Italian kits. It struck me as an odd collection since there were 2 sets of duplicates. I recognized the boxes for the MM, they were yellow. Most boxes were in decent shape. The Model Ship Ways were of near recent vintage as they were the boxes prior to their current 'blue boxes" but not the ones of the 1980's. I am guessing the MM were of late 1970's vintage and into the 1980's. All are solid hull. They probably have lead fittings. I am guessing the Model Ship Ways are 1990's vintage as most have laser cut bulkheads. He desires to sell all as a package. So I am wondering what is the common offer profile in terms of cents on the dollar one would offer? I am thinking our club would buy them and resell to start a small treasury fund, not that we would be looking to make a killing. Anyone, any thoughts?

I have been a long time woodworker and of late returned to model building. In the 45 years of woodworking I have owned 2 large stationary saws and one contractor saw. The kept table saw is now 35 years old and has been a work horse for me. The contractor saw is a name brand that is an excellent field saw but it is used infrequently, yet it still comes in handy. In modeling I have owned/own 3 model saws. The latest is the Byrnes saw. The prior, the Preac,was recently sold. The Emco add on saw has never been used because of its limits. The Preac was a decent saw for its day but I found it too limiting and falling short of some basic capability. So what is the point you ask? Buy the best you can afford even if you have to be patient in purchase. Amortize the expense over your lifetime and its pretty cheap.Quality tools are lifetime investments and endure. If they find no practical use in the future they are easily sold and the quality ones don't stay on the market very long. My Preac was on Craig's one day.

I have followed Chuck Passaro's method by making small sanding blocks that will span a minimum of 4 bulkheads. The blocks have a little handle (just a perpendicular block glued to the non sand paper side for ease of holding). He has also suggested making the sanding block itself have a slight contour (either concave or convex) to them. I then glue on, say 120 grit paper, and carefully sand. I then use 180 to finish off. Of course I have not mentioned the width of the sand blocks themselves. I made several of varying width given the scale and nature of the hull curvature. In regard to the bulkhead or frame rigidity I did add stiffeners to them so as not to break any. Even a temporary pinning of a batten or stiffener will help. Hope this helps.

We tried a slightly different approach on the lower rub rails of the model this past weekend and it seemed to work reasonably well. I have a roll of shiny aluminum heating duct sealing tape that is about 4 inches wide and comes in rolls starting at about 25 feet. We rolled out a section that had no crinkles in it and lopped it off. We then cut srtips about 3/8 inch wide. We applied the strips (which has adhesive on the reverse side) to the Stripstyrene 1/2 round molding. The half round was .125 in (3.2MM). The foil forms a "U" shape overlap over the molding. We then carefully sliced the excess off the back of the molding with a brand new razor blade. Any excess was scrapped off the back using the razor blade as a scrapper. It was then burnished and applied to the hull with med viscosity CA glue (brushed on). Imagine that it worked! With any problem you have to break it down and determine more acceptable methods. Even as I age I seem to have to learn that lesson over sometimes. Its on to the upper rub rail but the difference here is I will mock up a hull contour to address the inflexible nature of the foil. I will report back on its effectiveness. One last note the Stripstyrene only came in 13 in length so they have to be joined with a scarf joint. Any surface anomalies can be lightly sanded to smooth out the joint. This is required for the upper deck rub strip unless a better source can be found.

Thank you"gjdale". What a great site you recommended. I have tried the thinner chrome metal sheets(that they offer) and I found that the "foil" was so thin it easily abrades. So I don't think it will hold up under use. I also found if CA glue comes in contact it either tarnishes the foil or seems to eat at it. Never the less it is a great site recommendation. Thanks again and as you carry on with your build I will be watching.

I am building this model with my grandson. I have been a model builder off and on all my life however this one has its challenges.Among the sagas with this kit is the baffling method to trim out the rub strake (bumper) where the deck meets the sides. I bought some perfectly scaled Stripstyrene molding to apply. I have tried several methods to apply "foil" to the molding to make it look realistic but because of the curved nature of the hull from stem to stern it is not easily applied off the hull and then attached afterwards as the metal foil just doesn't stretch going from straight (off the hull) bent curved to apply to the hull. I gave up on the thin stuff from the hobby store and am using heating duct foil as it is a bit more formidable. Got any thoughts? Thanks.

JohnE for a short time I had a Comet which along with Ligthning's was a favorite on Lake Ontario and its bay. I always loved the Thistle and almost acquired one (to restore) about a year ago. Always loved the boat but now have to be satisfied with static modeling. Oh well!.

This is such a rich and unselfish forum for all aspects of this incredible pursuit. Thank you for your excellent response "MarkP"!

I am working on a model of a 1750's British frigate. In the stern area there is considerable rise from mid-ship. When looking at different drawings including the kit plans and other sources it appears that the sills are true to horizontal and the verticals are at 90 degrees rather than all elements following the cant of the deck. Which is correct? As an aside how, on the real vessels, did the guns not slide toward mid-ship in foul weather? Were the carriages built differently for these guns?

My model of A J Fisher's Bluenose built in the 1980's showed signs of fitting deterioration many years back. I removed the model from the case and removed many of the fittings save the mast bands since all the running rigging would have had to be redone. Recently I modified the case (a mahogany framed case with glass sides) by installing a hidden DC fan in the case bottom vented to the outside. It is on a programmable timer so the fan runs every 6 hours for 1 hour to evacuate the case. It seems to be working and I have no signs of further deterioration. Now I am aware of the history of these early fittings as referenced on the NRG site. My question is the following: "I have kept the removed fittings in plastic cases all these years and they show no sign of degradation, does any one have any idea why"? I am tempted to re-install in the modified case. Is my experiment just a delay of the inevitable? Thanks