bdgiantman2

Hey Brian, amazing progress with this ship of yours! She looks very authentic and should get many prizes. Just as a FYI, with my current model ship (Brig Eagle of Lake Champlain in 1814), I also bought an American flag with the 13 stars in the circular pattern. Of all the places, to get the flag in the size suggest getting (the size of an index card), I ended up buying from a company in England! Will need to see if able to find the name of the company to send to you over private messaging. I tried companies in the United States like Blue Jacket, but the biggest options they had available was 1:96 scale or else it was too modern. I look forward to additional progress on this amazing model as well as whatever your next project will be on here. Brian D

That pill container you are asking about is a travelers pill container. I see these a lot as I am working at an airport. You have a canister for each day of the week and put the appropriate pills into each day. You can find these easily at most drug stores.

Nice information about constructing your cannons and carriages, the final results are looking great. And I can tell a few old wire coat-hangers got recycled to good use, lol. Keep up the great building process, Glenn! Brian

While you are in San Diego make some visits to the the Maritime Museum and the the Midway Carrier Museum. I used to live in San Diego. Have a great vacation with your family.

Yellow Alaska Cedar definitely looks great as planking. I just was trying to follow the advice of Mr. Passaro for whatever it's worth of having as few as possible varieties of wood on my model. I will admit that right now I am looking at three different types of wood being used on this model when the finished version finally comes out. I'm not trying to pick on anyone at all in any form, but I am feeling better about my progress after reading a re-shared blog of a very experienced model builder on here talking about how took 30 years to build one of his models. Hopefully my build wouldn't be quite that long, but it will be a while with the pace I am going around working.

Congrats on the finished project of Winnie, Mr. Passaro! Your model has come out fantastically and this blog has been a privilege to follow and learn from. Thank you also for putting up with my questions and comments on your forum. This is a real masterpiece. Looking forward to your next group project on here.

Thanks for the reply, Chuck! I hope that you are doing well buddy. The temps in Denver today is supposed to be 98 degrees, so not that much cooler. We could actually set a new record today weather-wise. As you know, my parent's house is not far at all from Santee, I used to overlook Santee attending Grossmont College for years. The keel pieces I have made and used thus far are all made out of Boxwood. I am debating about staining the wood making up the actual keel. Bill Edgar, the guy I am trying to follow in construction style, stained his keel for sure. But I also really like the colors that Chuck Passaro's Winnie model has turned using Wipe-on-Poly. I am highly unlikely to apply any paint itself on this model other than painting the wales black and red around the perimeter of gun ports, although I have humorously considered painting head of capstan when I get to that step.

Hello my friends, I have a question for you as I attempt to slowly continue. I know that this is my model, but I just want to see what you all suggest. In the enclosed picture, you see a close-up of Eagle's keel and the start of her keelson. My question involves the first piece of the keelson. Currently this piece is cut from Boxwood, I will have to re-cut it either way to get the correct shape as well as sand down the outer pieces. I am debating making the keelson out of Yellow Alaskan Cedar like the ribs will be.

Very impressive model. I have been fascinated with Ketch rigs for a long time, they have a uniqueness about them as there never seemed very many throughout nautical history. Most seem to have been private fishing or small cargo vessels. Enjoying your blog and looking forward to more. Brian D.

First it was Mr. Passaro, now there's at least three others since who have had mini's of themselves inspecting the ship models.

The mini-me imitators are hilarious and thriving well.

When Zelenskyy was first asking America and the NATO forces about supplying his country with additional aircraft, and the first pictures afterwards starting coming out of destroyed lines of Russian ground vehicles, I thought someone had sent over some A-10s to Ukraine. The miles long line of Russian tanks and attack vehicles looked like Swiss Cheese with all the bullet holes in the vehicles.

The instructions said to place weights into the ammunition drum for the nose cannon, which I have done. Its pretty heavy for the size of it. I have considered the possibility of adding so additional weights around the cockpits if space allows for it.

I am planning to arm her with both the Mavericks and the MK-82 cluster bombs. Will be using the Triple Ejector Racks for both weapons on either side of main gear pylons. I have been considering too having the external fuel tank on center rack just to give her some extra range abilities. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTT

This is also the heaviest aircraft model I think that I have ever constructed. Not sure what final weight will be of the scale model, but it will not be hanging from ceiling for sure.

Hello friends, I have been making some progress on this model aircraft. Having to use superglue to apply photo-etch brass to plastic is always interesting, and yes, I have come close a few times to gluing fingers together or even to the plane. Even the weapons are getting pieces of brass installed. I am at the stage now where I will have to make the cockpits in order to proceed further with the construction of this plane. Yay me, I get to learn how to do weathering and applying color washes!! 😃

Finally I have a little update about Eagle. Feels good to be making sawdust again. I have had to remake part of the stem of Eagle. Should have left the original alone, sigh. Also am starting to tackle making some of the bow and hawse timers for Eagle, been doing a lot of research on here about how you guys make these pieces. I didn't take any new pictures of this part but am also making some more stern timbers.

Timmo, as someone who used to work in logistics with FedEx Ground, there are a number of potential reasons. The first one that comes to my mind is the possibility that the shipping label somehow came off the package (happens way more often than you may think) and having to do research to find out where your package is going to -- or there is the fact that some labels just become unreadable with the scanners being used and having to guess at some information. Another possible issue could be going through Customs. Some packages just take longer even if the shippers writes on the outside what is inside. There also are some shippers that just don't provide tracking of tracking which I know is a inconvenience to anxious recipients.

Impressive model and great explaining of your processes building this ship. I am curious about one thing. I can understand the louvers and air ventilation for around the anchor ropes storage and the sail storage room, but why do they do this on the pump room as well? It has to be more than worried about a fire in the powder storage areas, as the powder rooms always seemed pretty protected.

I apologize in advance that didn't start this blog sooner of this project. While I continue doing research around my work schedule as well as cutting pieces at a pace slower than evolution to make the laminate frames for Brig Eagle, I am undertaking a fighter-jet kit of interest I found online. This jet is the N/AW A-10B Warthog by Trumpeter, the experimental two-seat model that enabled the warthog to excel in night aviation attacks as well as adverse weather. This plane was launched in 1979, the same year that I was born. I have largely found in my personal opinions that the two-seat models of many American fighters are way more attractive than the single-seat usually in service in the military. Unfortunately only one model of this aircraft ever came off of the assembly line and never saw squadron service. Overall, my opinion of this kit is good quality of parts except for cockpit details considering that this kit was made in China. There are these lame decals suggested that don't even resemble the real planes cockpits at all. For a kit of this scale I have come to expect better details especially of cockpits. Thankfully, after conducting research, I was able to come across quality photo-etch brass detailing of front cockpit and will kit-bash the back-seat. Also purchasable are fuselage detail pieces as well as a kit for detailing the weapons. Included are two pictures that someone took of the back-seat of real jet when it got downgraded from test aircraft at Edwards Airforce Base to museum exhibit status. The instruction manual has good illustrations of the construction and even included a short history of real plane with some pictures. Also of interest with this kit are metal landing gears as well as two high-detail resin engines. Again, even though the real jet never saw active service in any squadrons, I plan to take artistic license and display her with a squadron. The chosen group is Eielson's Ice Hawgs stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fully armed, this plane is definitely a bad-*** bird wouldn't want to mess around with. The wing, tail assembly, and engine casings are not currently glued to the fuselage, I just have them placed to show how big this kit is.

Thank you again for the information, Allan. I don't know why I mentioned Google in my last response, although I am certain that I did try them in the past. Also, this is what I get responding over my cellphone later at night than I ought to be. This web site is super helpful, and so many skilled ship builders.

Thanks, Allan. I'll have to re-check Google images. Last time I recall doing this, most to all of the pictures were model parts above deck only. Maybe I did a bad search...... .

I have a question involving the deck pumps. Am building a model of Brig Eagle 1814, the ship has two Elm Pumps. I can't tell from the plans if the tubes (not sure this is the correct term for them) for the pumps are vertically straight or if there is a slight tilt to them away from the keel. I see many diagrams of the chain pumps which clearly have a tilt to the tubes. I have the books by Wolfram zu Mondfeld and Bernard Frolich, but I didn't see specific answers about regular elm pumps. Thank you for your help. Brian D

The Sphinx is getting her teeth now! Keep up the progress on your model, she is coming along! Brian D

Great story, Brian! What an amazing experience, glad that you and your wife were able to reach out to those men at the museum like that and go behind the scenes. I am a little jealous, I confess -- LOL. Question for you: Looking at the pictures provided of the grapeshot, I am guessing that they are eighteen inches to two feet in length and probably 6-8 inches in diameter?? Keep up this amazing model, you are doing a very accurate job and I enjoy following this thread. Brian D.