Thistle17

As so many of you recount, fairing the bulkheads is such a tedious and for me a boring job! To break the monotny I took a stab at the transom. After sanding and trial fitting I was not pleased with the transom frame member alignment and spacing. There are so many ways to get this wrong even with the care and deliberate bulkhead alignment of #28 and #29 that I took. I clamped the transom facade to the frames and was not surprised to find them out of alignment. One way I thought of to aid in truing up the transom uprights is to copy the drawing of the transom on vellum and attach it to a frame (at the proper height and angle) that I can lay up against the transom and work on the alignment of the members i.e. the slots in the bulkheads. I perceive this will be a tricky method. So to those who have gone before me can you offer some idea(s) of how to go about this critical stage? Joe

Roger I built a 45 degree mitre sled for my large shop saw using 2 inch aluminum right angle. Someone smarter than me suggested I check the "trueness" of the right angle. Sure enough I had to have it milled. At the low height of your stock it should not matter I am sure you know. Just a thought. Joe

You are to be complimented on your organization of a work area. Joe

My model building experience started with an AJ Fisher kit in the 1980's. It was the Bluenose. I bought a number of others, both foreign and domestic pre Syren. They may never be built. Your products have been successful for so many reasons for the "average" model ship builder that they have displaced them. Product design/engineering, material quality, instruction sets and customer support are the bedrock of your enterprise. Add to that the models you build so skillfully are so inspiring! Who else delivers such a complete product? Joe

If I may add my experience to the mix. I am just finishing a restoration of an exquiste scratch model that had ferrous parts/fittings. I estimate the model is somewhere in the 60 to 80 year age. It appears not to have been abused and shoved somewhere that was dirty and humid. Nonetheless the ferrous parts have rusted and as pointed out by others will stain the wood in the area. Another case in point. I restored an old machinist chest sometime back. It had ferrous drawer pulls and corner protectors. All the wood surrounding the ferrous parts had blackened. My advice is do not use ferrous fasteners or material for models! And as mentioned other forms of ferrous metal that do not corrode are just too hard to work with. You may not see the effects of environmental exposure in your time but your future beholders will. Joe

Slow at times wins the race as they say. This build is not a contest save with myself to execute this model with the best ideas of others who have traveled before me. I was looking at sheet 3 of the plans last eve and came up with at least 2 questions at this time. 1. The simulated rabbet stops at bulkhead 21. I was trying to envision how the planking would transition to the stern given the rabbett absence. Can anyone recall how that worked? 2. I observe that the gunports on many of the bulkheads appear to have a piece of material "let" into the face that forms the vertical of a gunport. Is that really the case? I do notice that my model ply is pretty rough on the surface so is that the reason the drawing is so? Joe

The pressure has finally built to the point where I cannot ignore this model any longer. I took it down to start some of the rudimetary work such as fairing the hull. Although I treated the prior work with respect I did have a number of the mid section uprights crack since last year. I have repaired those but i still find those upper elements quite weak and are sure to break during fairing. One advantage of a late start is one gets to see how others have worked through their encounters. I hitch hiked on Stunt Flyer's method albeit with my own rendition shown below. I was careful not to force any of the bulkhead uprights out of their rest position as I expected they would spring back when the 1/16 X 1/8 strapping was removed later on. If needed I added a suitable scrap to keep them in their natural position. The end result is a pretty strudy upper frame area that should take sanding well. The bow and stern areas will have to be dealt with in a similar manner but the scrap build out will be a bit more elaborate.

Dilgence and determination results in a task well done. Just a remarkable beauty Mike! May I ask what are you using to photograph your work? Joe

We cannot account for the lost days and time during the Covid isolation as I am sure you will agree. As far as the PBR is concerned we have been working on her albeit haltingly. Here is a recent photo of the model coming together in April for a dry fit of masts, gun turret, helm (not shown) and rear 50 caliber tripod mount gun. The hull still needs some refining but we are getting close to a full paint job of the basic unit. Lots of fittings and details to add but we are getting there. Joe

Well deserved Rusty!!!!!!! Joe

I should not be surprised by your response but I am. The demands you place on yourself in model building run deep. It would be a pleasure to meet you were it possible. I say that as I am working on a "restoration" of a model that is extremely well done, yet not of your complexity. The modeler is unknown yet the work deserves my efforts to bring it back to life. Everytime I work on it I can hear myself saying "Who was this person?". Sadly I will never know. It is the same thing I say when I look at a painting masterpiece such as Caravaggio or Vermeer work. I will let you read into that. Joe

You deserve all the continued praise for your work is no surprise. Bitao it did get me thinking about the long term and your legacy. Have you thought about what to do with your works? Where will they go/ certainly to somewhere where they will be cherised. Joe

Prior to MSW few could comprehend the labor, love and progressive record of construction of this heirloom piece. I do hope there are plans to archive this incredible journey for future generations. It just speaks volumes to the work. Joe

Many thanks for all of your suggestions. I will go back at it again with these updates. If you have had success it can't be "black magic" as I was beginning to believe! Joe

It has to be immensely satisfying to be nearing the end of what was in your "mind's eye" come to life. All that thought, experimentation, expert work and results and carrying us along. Just amazing!!!! Joe

Ian there are so many good folk on this forum who are willing to help. Don't be intimidated by their works and abilities. Ask for help and reconsider posting. In one way or another we are mostly students of this subject with few masters. Joe

Hello Michael. Your disciplined and extremely well executed staging is always an inspiration to me. I think I understand your process well enough as I learned watching David's build of his recent model using similar techniques. The hull blank is in itself well thought out but after trying unsucessfully to blow up your photos, for closer inspection, it leaves me with a couple of questions. Can you relate the following? 1. Is the hull blank a bread and butter fabrication with the extensions for the "ribs" fastened afterwards? 2. Some "ribs" fall within the relief slots and some don't; can you relate what is going on there? 3. And lastly what method did you use to create those reliefs? Thanks Joe

Just yeaterday I had to replace a chain plate that broke on a restoration I am doing. I followed Roger's method exactly and the results were disappointing. It came out of the solution (JAX Black) quite dark. I placed in a vial of tap water and the blackened surface turned a bit blotchy. Perhaps it reacted with the tap water treatment residuals. I then let it dry and lightly rubbed it with a clean paper towel and all the black came off. What if anything might I change? The solution, move to distilled water...I am at a loss! These results are consistent with other past attempts. Joe

A number of things have kept me away from modeling that I seem to have no control over. However recently I have been able to carve out some time to proceed further with the rigging. This model has some very straight forward rigging and in no way compares to the challenges of say a 5th rate ship of the line. Having said that it certainly continues to present its own subtle resistance to me. Given the age of the model, which is somewhere in the 70 years of age range, is very fragile. Glue joints separate seemingly at will and metal fittings (which are scratch) break at the slightess touch. The other obstacle has been the exquisite execution of the original modeler. I had started out with a conservetorship mentality in the restoration. Having been at it for some time now I realize I was a bit naive! I have been challenged in coming up with like materials in terms of gauge, size and material as the original modeler used a mix of ferrous and non ferrous material. Gaff and boom bands for example were hand made and wrapped around these elements and soldered at some point. The gauge of the metal is less than 0.031! The holes for attachment of hooks or shackles are incredibly minute. In another example, his/her hand made shackles are of size and gauge I just cannot match. I have some (working) ones that broke that are approximately 0.125 in size!!!!! In rigging the model I am convinced that the modeler was interrupted in the process. I say this as some deck furniture was not secured to the deck, and given that some terminations were to the main cabin for example, permanent rigging could not have been accomplished. I also find that some rigging is missing. Missing meaning it was never applied. I have had to consult with Reuel Parker who is a sharpie expert and David Bennett of the NC Maritime Museum to gather enough information to proceed. So with this new found humility I have continued the rigging and have forgiven myself as I find the need to compromise. For example, in the attached picture the main and fore gaff had shackles of the size I described connected to the mid section of each element for hauling. I have reattached them with 'S" hooks in place of shackles. They are carefully "crimped" and in appearance only the most astute eye would recognize this transgression. The rigging is about 70% complete. I had originally intended to add furled sails but have decided against this as I reason there will be an incongruity of that presentation with the base I am making which at this moment will be an "out of the water" depiction. We will see if that is indeed the fianl word. Those vertical posts on the aft end of the main and for boom/gaff setups are temporary rigging aids. Joe

Thanks you have been so deliberate about the system setup I guess I just flew by that. Joe

Can you remind me please anout the wiring of the limit switches since you moved the controller outside? I don't see the wires coming out or am I missing something? If they are indeed there what connector did you use to bring out the bundle? Thanks Joe

Ron you certainly are investing a good deal of thought, time and improvement to this machine. I am sure the lessons learned will be of benefit to many others including myself. And thank you! I have built a number of tool adaptations as well as jigs which I have found for the most part are useful over time for my machines. However the one thing I often wonder and lament during the process is how much time I have spent on it all away from modeling. Now in particular to this project for you I would ask "how will you put it to work"? What usage do you forsee for the sytem in your modeling? It could be a boon to your product for sure. But what do you envision its applications? I ask having had the following experience for an up and coming model I worked with a good friend who has a large CNC system to create my bulkheads and strong back for the project. I will admit getting the end product turned out quite well but getting there was a hill climb. I had a starting point other than a clean sheet design yet the work to make the file(s) ready was a chore. I am not being critical just trying to determine the worth of it all as I think about upgrading from my 3018 Pro to something better such as yours. I would add I am finding the same thing with 3D printing. With my grandson's help we designed a ships wheel using Solidworks. It is a beauty, however when it was sent onto a friend who has a printing system and software it generated so many slices (faces or facets) it was too big for his system. So now I may retreat to milling the components out of brass. You might say I am back to square 1. Do you see what i mean? Regards Joe

A "selfie" to go with your good works Ron. Good to see your recent work so well executed. Very nice work indeed. Joe

In regard to the ship wheel and the resultant STL file (a 2MB high resolution file) I asked a friend to do a "pre flight" check for me before I sent it off to Shapeways. When it was run through his Slicer program to produce the "g" code it generated 40,000 faces (or slices). It was much too big for his computer to process. So now I have learned another lesson. When you don't know what you don't know you can run aground! At least from a home computer standpoint. I am quickly getting the impression that 3D printing is a bit more complicated than CNC processing where feeds and speeds are the watch word. After discussing the issue it was suggested that the 'productuion' run should be resin as opposed to filament printing. I suspect this will not be a problem with Shapeways as they limit their file size to 64MB or 1 M polygons (I am pretty sure this can be interpreted as faces). Anyone correct me please. Joe