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russ

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Everything posted by russ

  1. My dad also used a soldering iron in his electronics work. I tried it and found very quickly that it was not as well suited to modeling. A friend and fellow modeler showed me silver soldering and I have been using that for almost ten years now. It takes some practice, but you will pick it up pretty fast. If you have not yet read it, I have soldering tutorial in the ship modeling resources section. Click on the Nautical Research Guild homepage link at the top of this page, click on ship modeling database of articles, and go to the section on materials and tools. The article is down the page a bit called Silver Soldering tutorial. Russ
  2. Mike: What confuses you about torches and irons? The soldering iron is used for soft soldering such as what electricians use. Torches operate at much higher temps and are used for silver soldering, sometimes called hard soldering. This is like what jewelers use. Soft soldering is akin to gluing two pieces together where silver soldering is like welding so that two pieces become one. Russ
  3. I use a pencil style torch I got from Micromark. It is refilled with butane from the bottles used to refill lighters. It works well for me, but you can literally spend as much as you want on soldering equipment. I would recommend the smaller torches as they will handle any job you would need on a model. Russ
  4. See my post above for the circumference on the breechings for 24 pounders. If you need the scale size, it would be about.021" diameter for your model. Russ
  5. There is probably no correct answer since no one knows for sure what the vessel looked like. Everything you see is a reconstruction in some fashion, of what she might have looked like. I would go with Chuck Passaro's color scheme for the Model Shipways Mayflower. It is very attractive. Russ
  6. It looks like it is coming along well. Small steps, but it will get there in the end, Good work. Russ
  7. Andy: The spars look good. Very nice work pinning the royal yard. The topgallant yard should stabilize once it has all of its rigging, but pinning it will certainly help the situation. Russ
  8. The scuppers should be in the lower part of the of the waterway and angled downward as they go out the side of the hull. Maybe if you post a photograph of the problem area? Russ
  9. At 1/48 scale, an inch would be .020" diameter. If you choose to show treenails, this is very doable with some practice. Like Mark said, it is your choice. Russ
  10. Wally: Make sure you are drawing from the correct side of the plate. Insert the material through the flat side of the plate and draw it through, pulling from the countersunk side of the hole. Split the bamboo down to something that is several holes above where you want to finish and then begin drawing the material through the hole. Do not try to pull a piece that is too thick. Always pull it several times through the same hole before moving to the next hole. Russ
  11. Have you considered sewing the hoops onto the mainsail first, before mounting the sail to the mast? That would be much easier. Russ
  12. They look good. Nice work. I have sewn a few boltropes and it is not that bad to do it. Yours look very good. Russ
  13. I have used birch, basswood (in a limited fashion), and western alder. I avoid store bought dowels whenever possible since they are hardly ever straight and if they are straight, they have a nasty tendency to warp over time. Alder is nice because it typically has very straight close grain. That is the key in spar making material. Straight grain, close grain, and no wavy knotty areas. Cherry would be nice to work with, but its grain can be wavy, shaky, and knotty. Avoid walnut and mahogany since they are rather open grained. Boxwood can be good as well, but I have pieces in my stash that have warped over time. The birch I have has been pretty stable and it has some strength to it, but it is not as hard as cherry. Hope that helps a bit. Russ
  14. Martin: Thanks for the kind words. Compared with many here on MSW and other sites, I am a mere apprentice. Russ
  15. Michael: There were many schooners working in the Bay St. Louis area back in the 20s. Most of them probably shrimping and/or oystering for the Peerless Cannery or Dunbar-Dukate's local cannery. Your father was a sailor, but he sailed schooners and catboats. Best I can do on that. Russ
  16. Back in those days, there was no regulation to govern such things on working vessels. The Bureau of Navigation wanted to make sure they had the name clearly visible on the boat, that they had running lights etc., and that they had a current license issued by the customs collector. Russ
  17. I use basswood for decking regularly and it makes a good deck if done carefully. Russ
  18. Yes, the height of the bulwarks was generally about knee high or thereabouts. Russ
  19. Bob: I would say about an inch in diameter for the bolt rope. It is large enough to support the sail and keep it from tearing. It is there to reinforce the sail so it has to be a little beefy. Russ
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