ccoyle

Only a moderator can do that.

I had to take the Praxis exam in two subject areas. 😵‍💫😵‍💫

As I was working on the cap rails, I noticed that the temporary gun port support strips (part of the outboard veneer) had disappeared from the photos. I don't remember reading about this in the written instruction, but I decided that now was as good a time as any to go ahead and remove them, so I did. Now, this leads to a rather unpleasant task: cleaning up the gun ports. The ports are laser cut into both the inboard and outboard veneers, and I suppose that if one manages to line up everything neatly then nice, square gun ports should be the result. Apparently I didn't do the job neatly enough, because I don't have nice, square gun ports. The ports don't everywhere line up properly inboard-to-ouboard, and the linings are here and there off kilter. There are limited options to fix this. One would be to simply file away the overlapping planking until it is flush with the port linings, but that would ruin the square shape of the ports. I only see one other option, and that is to add material to the linings until the new material sits flush with the inboard and outboard strips. That material could be putty, but then that would need to be painted and would thus ruin the all-wood look of the bulwarks. So the material will have to be wood, which will of course require more effort to fit and shape correctly. But who doesn't like a challenge, right? My package from Poland made it to Georgia today, so I'm hoping it will be here on Monday. 😮

I've seen at least two sources that state that the German East Asia Squadron were all painted gray as of 1910.

Welcome back, Elia! I have wondered from time to time what became of you -- I still remember your wonderful Smuggler build. At least, I think I remember it -- I ain't getting any younger, either!

Muh eyes hurt!

A ruse de guerre, no doubt! Captain Aubrey would approve -- if he were German.

Cap rails all done.

Hi, Jim. Nice model, but I had to delete the watermarked image from Getty, as they are a commercial site.

Me neither, mostly because many years ago eBay sellers lost their collective minds and lost all sense of what used merchandise was worth.

Well, we couldn't get them until Keith found an eBay seller I've never heard of. I'm curious about the seller's ID -- his or her profile tells us nothing about them, and they've only been a seller since November of 2022.

They do! There's a few pieces of veneer left to do on the keel and stem post, but the rough underlying structure is quickly disappearing from view.

I have started in on the cap rails.

Congratulations, Kevin, on finishing this striking model. I can't believe it only took you six months!! 😮

I believe they have, only as you pointed out we can no longer purchase their kits here due to the present geopolitical situation. I'm sure we all hope that things will be resolved soon for the sake of everyone involved. We have modeling friends on both sides. As for rigging, I am not planning to add sails. As I outlined earlier, I plan to replace ALL the rigging line in the kit, since the supplied rigging line is the kit's biggest weakness. Doing so won't be cheap, so I plan to economize a bit by adding only the standing rigging and minimal amount of running rigging, e.g. lifts. P.S. I should add that this build will be taking another brief hiatus soon, as I currently have another project on its way here from Poland (which should provide a hint on the nature of the new project), but I won't disclose what the subject is until I get the build started. 😉

The fashion pieces have been added. Like other parts, these were pre-cut (BTW, I found out that these pieces are cut from 'black hornbeam' -- since hornbeam isn't black, these pieces must have been dyed, as I previously supposed), but they did not fit in the allowable space. I needed to cut them into two parts, trim a little off of the curved section, and then glue the separate parts to the hull.

Nice job, Greg! Out of curiosity, I googled the Deutsche Reichspost (the Reich Postal Service), expecting it to be a Nazi-era creature, but was surprised to learn that it was established in 1870 and operated until 1945. They even set up a system of public videophones beginning in 1936.

Witam! Prosimy pisać wiadomości w języku angielskim (jesteśmy forum wyłącznie w języku angielskim). Tłumacz online sprawia, że zadanie jest szybkie i łatwe. Thank you!

Contract logging, or did you work for one of the big timber companies? If memory serves, I think LP owned much of the land around Fort Bragg?

The current generation of cell phones have sufficient resolution to take shots from farther back, which makes for a thicker focal plane, and then crop the image down to what you want.

As a follow-up to this episode, I had an exchange with the designer this morning on one of the Polish card modeling FB groups: I like the part where he leapt to the conclusion that I must have worked from a pirated kit. 🤨 I have previously suggested that some of my problems with certain Polish kits may hinge on the fact that I'm not Polish, since Polish modelers have been known to complete fine examples of models I have struggled with. But I simply cannot accept Mr. Pacynski's argument at face value, since I have attempted five of his kits and only managed to complete two of them. Even those two finished models had numerous issues (as documented in my MC.200 Saetta build) and were not very much fun to build. And I'm not alone in this assessment, since other builders have shared their MPModel struggles with me in the past. For whatever mysterious reasons, I have never had the same struggles with one of Pawel Mistewicz's KK kits, so draw your own conclusions. 🤔

I know the area from when I worked in the CCC. Did a lot of work on the Noyo River and Usal Creek. We stayed in the Jackson DSF while we were on assignment there. I should say we camped at Jackson, and the Corps gave us a $10/day stipend for meals -- they were too cheap to put us up some place nice!

The name "Blanco de Sal" is odd, since it literally means "white of salt." I think whoever manufactured that curio meant to say "Barco de Sal," which means "ship of salt."

All the inboard bulwark veneers have been added, along with the covering boards. After fixing some of the chipped second planking layer, here's where we now stand compared to where we left off last May: That's all for now!

Not being an expert on WW2 Japanese paint flaking myself, I must place my trust in the researching skills and technical abilities of the kit's graphic artist. Regardless of whether the print accurately reflects the wear and tear of the original, it will look cool when built! 😉