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KeithAug

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Everything posted by KeithAug

  1. Pawel Thank you - Very nice - but i don't have CNC so I will have to find another way of making them.
  2. My time has been much diverted so progress has been slow. I decided to make the bowsprit but only had square section timber available. I have a 4 jaw independent chuck but changing over from the 3 jaw chuck is very tedious and I wanted to find a quick solution to holding square section stock for masts and spars. The primary requirement was to hold and drive the square section stock while turning the diameter at the opposite end. I made a wooden hub with concentric bore diameters. The concentric diameters being made in a single operation using a step drill. The square section of the timber goes into the nearest across corners diameter hole. A piece of sting provides the drive and the tape takes up any slack in the fit. I installed the hawsepipes. The upper ends were filed to the correct length and angle using wooden guides temporally held in place by double sided tape. I mounted the bowsprit foot on the deck. The bolts holding the foot down are reading glasses repair screws - from ebay.
  3. Pawel A bit of information on how you made the blocks would be quite helpful. I have a number to make. Thank you.
  4. Thanks John. That seems to be the most sensible solution and has the benefit that it will look right. I'll go with it.
  5. Hello Members I am seeking some advice from those of you familiar with classic yacht or similar rigging. The plans for Altair show the forestay shroud starting at a turnbuckle that lies alongside the foot of the jib boom. From here the stay passes through the bulwark at the bow and on to the forward end of the jib boom. It then continues upwards to the head of the foremast. The issue I have is with the plan detail at the forward end of the jib boom. The plan shows the stay entering the bottom of vertical hole at the end of the boom, then passing through the boom before heading back at an angle of 60 deg to the mast head (see diagram). Clearly this is impractical as the forces imparted by tightening the turnbuckle would be all but completely dissipated by the geometry of the cable / hole. My guess is that some form of pulley is mounted at the front of the jib boom to maximise the transmission of tensile force to the forestay. However I am guessing. Do any of you know the usual or correct arrangement?
  6. The holes in the bulwark through which the martingales pass turned out quite neatly, so I was pleased that i went to the trouble of using a brass sleeve. I spent most of the day making the turnbuckles for the martingales.
  7. Today I got on with a bit of brass work. Under the stern are 3 discharge pipes. I made a start on a bit of detail at the bow. A small hole had to be drilled parallel to the hole in the bulwark for the jib boom. The fore topmast stay passes through this hole. The angles are a bit complex so I decided to take drilling easy using a pin vice. I also made and attached the dolphin striker and the 2 outriggers for the martingales. Obliquely angled holes pass through the bulwark to take the martingales. I decided to line these with brass tubes to give a crisp edge. Again I drilled using the pin vice and corrected the angle using a round needle file. It took an age to get the angles correct. I should have done this before painting as now touching up will be necessary. You live and learn! I used brass rod to make sure the tubes were correctly aligned while glueing.
  8. Hello Julie Thank you for the comments. Maybe you need to plan shipbuilding for the summer months.
  9. Alan / John Thank you. Bob Thank you - Not brave - I know mistakes can be fixed.
  10. Pawel The view along the deck is just like standing on a real ship. Lovely work.
  11. Thank you Bedford. Hello Wintergreen, thanks for visiting my build. Its good to get feedback from a fellow yachtsman. Today was the last day of building for a few days. A 50th wedding anaversary to go to and the brother in law and wife then arriving from Arizona. I think they will find the temperature difference a bit extreme. Returning to the build. In trepidation I decided to take my rather powerful DIY drill to the hull. I needed to mount the portholes - 7 in total - 4 starboard and 3 port, this required the boring of .250 inch dia holes by .250 inch deep. I wanted to get the positioning spot on so I used a card template which I transferred from side to side. The holes were drilled slightly undersize and finished off with emery cloth glued to a piece of dowel. The previously made portholes (covered earlier) were glued in place with ca. I also finished off mounting the screw. The "A" frame was glued into the hull and the mounting plates pinned in place.
  12. I finished airbrushing the white enamel today and being impatient to see the results I started to peel back the masking. I always find this stage a bit stressful - Will the edges be crisp? and how much bleed will have taken place? Starting with the waterline the masking was removed. Generally the result was good with one minor area near the rudder that needed a bit of attention. So far so good so I continued to remove the masking from the bulwark area. The bulwark capping rail had proven tricky to mask, particularly at the stern so I wasn't surprised to find paint bleed in this area. Fortunately a bit of scraping with a craft knife improved it. Generally the result was better than I had feared. Meanwhile another coat went on the deck fittings - only one more to go I think.
  13. Roger, Your explanation of mahogany types makes a lot of sense. I have used "modern" mahogany with mixed results. What I have found recently is that dark wood antique furniture is out of fashion and that auctions are selling it for a song. A great source of quality wood if you are prepared to put a bit of work into cleaning it up and ripping it to size. Nils, Thank you for your comments And thank you to all of you who have hit the like button.
  14. Hello Roger. My mahogany comes from a hundred year old table. The down side is it is very dry and a little brittle. The up side is it cuts beautifully with a very smooth surface. The real payback is when the poly goes on - the wonderful almost ruby red tones are mesmerising. I sometimes just sit and admire the depth of colour and the natural beauty of the wood. I'm not sure why model building advice warns against mahogany (it is claimed to be too coarse) but I prefer it to some more commonly used timber.
  15. I airbrush quite infrequently with long breaks, typically of a year. I therefore need to relearn the technique each time. This time the relearning was complicated by a different model of airbrush - gravity feed as opposed to suction feed. The new brush delivered a lot more flow which was a bit of a surprise and I ended up with a couple of runs - which fortunately I blew out with air. The paint was matt white Humbrol enamel. The pictures are of the 2nd coat ( I am now on coat 5). I was pleased with the definition on the sculptured hull. The matt white seems to emphasise this and create really good definition. A couple more coats should do it and the masking tape should come off Friday morning. I a hoping that I won't get any bleed but at the same time I am a realist and therefore expecting a little. Brush painting of the deck structures continues - now on 6th coat (with poly thinned - half and half). 2 more coats should do it.
  16. Hi Michael I wouldn't dare airbrush in the kitchen. Only masking in the hot part of the house. Airbrushing reserved for workshop. 6 deg is plenty cold enough when wearing t shirt and shorts!!!!!!!!! Number 1 airbrush failed, today - o rings seem to be shot. Now using reserve airbrush but I now need a reserve for the reserve. Reccomendations from shipwrights would be most welcome.
  17. I have to confess that I started the deck structures to put off the task of masking and painting the bulwarks and waterline on the hull. Masking is such a pain and airbrushing seems to be 10 minutes of painting followed by and hour of cleaning for every coat. Anyway the time came when it could be avoided no longer. But first I had to glue the previously made scupper covers in place. I reattached the strong back to give me a marking out datum. I needed a flat surface for the datum and fortunately my wife was out so I used the expensive stone worktop in the kitchen. I think I got away with it! I find it easier not to mark the hull but instead use the pointer to position the masking tape directly on the hull. I completed masking in the dining room. The workshop temperature is below 6 deg centigrade and thats a bit too cold for my liking. I must get round to installing some form of heating! In the mean time the deck structures got another coat of poly.
  18. Thanks Michael. I spent a bit of time fitting the sliding roof hatch. It worked out pretty well. I then made a start on painting the various deck structures.
  19. John Thank you for your positive comments. The finish is a trick of the camera. For the most part the deckhouses are still in their raw state - just sanded. They look a lot better when photographed in natural light without flash. Interestingly with no flash they are much closer to what the eye sees. The camera flash tends to accentuate the dust / grain in a way that looks quite odd. I am planning to finish the all deckhouses in silk finish PVA. The mahogany on Altair is polished to a high shine and I wanted to give a polished impression on my build.
  20. Phil Thats great, being born in Warrington my son is a lifelong supporter of United.
  21. Hello Dharma. Is it City or United? Guitar building seems to be a popular route into ship modelling, you should check out Julie Mo's J Class Endeavour Build. If you try a kit I think its well worth finding a relatively simple one, preferably plank on frame. The reward of rapid progress will spur you on to attempting something more demanding later on. Good luck,
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