kurtvd19

We are mailing the first 6 kits today. A bunch more are ready but pending payment. The office sends tracking numbers when kits are shipped. As the PDF instruction manual isn't yet posted for download it will also be emailed. Kurt

PLEASE HELP US WHEN ORDERING Please help make it easier on the office as we are finishing the conference registration process along with the usual membership renewals, etc. by providing the following information when emailing the office about purchasing a kit. We are getting emails saying “I want to buy the planking kit” without a name or address or how you want to pay. This makes it necessary to send an email asking for this information. Also, the prices are listed here, please don’t email the office asking how much the kit is or how much the shipping is. If you want a PayPal Invoice sent, we need to know your name and PayPal address. We also need your complete name and mailing address in the email – please don’t make Mary send emails asking for this information. If you are using a credit card the best way to order is by calling the office. Or by email, please provide the name on the card, your name and address and the card number and expiration date and security # off the back side. Feel free to send the card details in a separate email. Thanks

The final shipping weight was a bit less than earlier calculations so we have been able to reduce the US shipping to $10.00. Unfortunately the weight difference doesn't affect non US shipments. We will refund the $5.00 for those who paid the higher US shipping. The shipping date has been moved up to starting 10-16-19. Kurt

We can now take orders for a limited number of the Half Hull Planking Kits Go to the NRG News topic area for details.

We can now take orders for the Half Hull Planking Kit The number of kits on hand is limited due to the lead time for the laser cut parts. We will only take orders for the number of kits on hand. We are awaiting the basswood sheet material that is due very soon – everything else is in stock now. The kit is not yet listed at the NRG Store, and when it is, we will update this, but we can now take orders through the NRG Office. Payments by credit card or PayPal can be accepted now. Call the office directly or send an email. See the NRG web site for the phone and email. (Not listed here to thwart robots/spammers) The price is $65.00 for non-NRG members. NRG members get the member’s 20% discount price of $52.00. Prices are plus shipping. US shipping is $10.00. Canada shipping is $20.00. Other non-US shipping is $26.00. Shipments will be made as soon as the wood sheets are in stock – expected shipping is the week of 10-22-19.

The State of MA has strict tax laws and vendors must have a MA Tax account to sell there that the Museum is enforcing so there will only be Train Troll a kit mfg. who has a lot of waterline boats meant for RR layouts - I am currently building my second such kit - they are excellent. Bluejacket will be there showing their products bet can not sell at the conference. There will be attending member's models on display. Kurt

I wouldn't try to wood burn plank seams - unless you are a true artist with the tool. Plank the hull with individual planks. Kurt

Eric: That's what I meant. No need for the box to be any wider than adequate clearance for the wheels/buckets. I think the artist might have used photos of other boats as reference for the painting and the referenced boats had wider wheels. Kurt

Eric: Unless I am seeing something wrong, the painting shows a wide box but it only comes to the side of the boiler deck cabin. I think it might be a matter of the visual perspective as to how wide the box appears in the painting. You have made the paddle wheels and buckets per the wreck and the box should be sized accordingly. There is nothing gained by making them wider than is needed for clearance of the wheels/buckets. With the photos of the other boats, I think they had wider wheels - thus the wider box. Kurt

Ordinary solder does not accept blackening agents - one of the reasons many say to silver solder. Stay-Brite does accept blackening well at least if the joints are neat. Have used Birchwood Casey Brass Black on soldered joint w/o there being any difference over the solder vs the brass - not excessive amounts of solder. Kurt

Peter: First, welcome to the NRG. Thanks for your support. Send an email to Mary at the office nrghomeoffice - at - gmail.com - substitute @ for the -at- (keep the robots from snagging the email address) and provide your correct email address to her. She will get it taken care of. Take care, Kurt

Here are two places that sell some hardwood strips and sheets Balsa Wood Shop - www.balsawoodshop.com - they sell Black Walnut, Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, Oak and Bass besides balsa. National Balsa - www.nationalbalsa.com - they sell Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, Walnut, Bass and balsa. Kurt

I used plastic lens Optivisors and the lenses were clean and not scratched. Absolutely no comparison to the quality of the glass lenses in Optivisors. Whatever focal length/magnification the glass is far superior to the plastic. After I got the glass lens set some local club members tried my plastic and my glass Optivisors and went out and got glass. Plastic might be perfectly acceptable for some but not for me after trying the glass. This product looks like an exact copy of the brand-name Optivisor - wonder what the origin of the product is - China maybe? At the price I would bet on it! Kurt

The props were not part of the kit. I have a like new yellow box kit with plans and all, with the fittings bag unopened - no props. The vintage of the COP when it was stem propelled would have used two bladed props. Kurt

You are right - it's not as complicated as some would make it - or think it is. Remember to keep it clean, always use flux and solder flows to the heat. Kurt

Silver soldering, in my opinion and I have used it extensively in the past, isn't needed for the strength of the joint in our ship models. The only need I have for it now is when doing multiple soldering operations in very close proximity to one another. Using a high melting point first and then using progressively lower melting points for adjacent joints allows one to not have too much worry about loosening earlier joints. If you read Foran's book you will see that in our usual applications joints in close proximity can be made w/o resorting to silver soldering. He's a big advocate for Stay-Brite solder - it is a high silver content solder but not a true silver solder as the melting point is lower than silver solder. Techniques he describes allow adjacent joints to be made easily using Stay-Brite. I made several presentations on silver soldering at NRG seminars and conferences and used it extensively, but over time I have moved away from it and find myself using Stay-Brite almost exclusively. Regular soft solder doesn't blacken but the Stay-Brite does, just like silver solder which was my primary reason for using silver soldering. There isn't a joint on a scale model that requires the strength of silver solder - R/C boaters need it for rudders and control levers but I think one is doing something wrong if silver solder is needed for any joint on a scale model - the strength just isn't needed. My suggestion is to get the Foran book and follow his techniques and later on investigate silver soldering. And yes, the second edition of the Foran book has a section devoted to ship modeling. Much of the material in that section can be seen in his USS Constitution build log here on MSW Kurt

I second the recommendation for Ken Foran's Model Building with Brass - I learned a lot from it that I never heard or saw elsewhere. More than worth the cost. Another book is The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight. If you are going to be working with brass Ken's book is a must have. If you are going to delve into other metals or might consider casting then you will want the McCreight book too. Kurt

The use of the Optivisor and other magnification aids has been discussed here at length. Do a search for magnification or Optivisor. Kurt

Sounds like it's a Passaro designed longboat - extra keel pieces the clue. Check out build logs here - whichever kit it is there will be multiple build logs. Kurt

It floats - it's a nautical vessel. An important one too. I wonder just where it was used as most of the canal is cut through solid stone. Looking at the drawing I think the vertical pole at the stern was a "spud" that could be lowered to hold the dredge in place and as you said it could pivot on the spud. However spuds could only go up and down. The piece of equipment that angles down off the stern (from what I can see of the photo) is probably part of the discharge tube for the material picked up by the dredge machinery and pumped to the stern and then deposited ashore or into hopper barges. Sometimes dredges had discharge tubes that reached several hundred feet. I will follow your build with great interest. I am very interested in the canal and its history and have been on many tugs, towboats and barges on it. I have done many models of tugs and towboats that operate on the canal. I have 7 tons of stone from the building of the canal in my fireplace. There were still piles of flagstone free for the taking n Lemont all the way to Lockport when my Father and uncle built this house in the early 50's. Also have retaining landscaping walls of the flagstone. Kurt

There are spray adhesives similar to rubber cement that work great. Elmer's makes one - Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and art stores have it. Any water based glue or such will distort the paper. This has been discussed at length here - a search might yield specifics. Kurt

In Memorium Mitch Michelson July 12, 1953 to August 28, 2019 This week, we lost a passionate member of the ship modeling community. Mitch Michelson died on Wednesday, August 28 from a massive heart attack. He was 66 years old. His funeral was held on August 30 in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Mitch joined the Nautical Research Guild in 1989. He had been a Director since 2009 and served as Chairman of the Board in 2017. Those members who have attended the annual Conference recently will remember Mitch as our humorous emcee. In addition to his contributions to the Guild, he was actively involved in Boy Scouts and mentored many young men to achieve Eagle Scout status. He was an avid pipe collector and served on the boards of several business organizations and his synagogue. He is survived by three children and three grandchildren. Most of all, he was my friend. Kurt Van Dahm Chairman of the Board Nautical Research Guild

Every fire starts small - that is the time to tackle it. The fire extinguisher is the tool - just like the rest of your shop has specialized tools - the extinguisher is your first line of defense after prevention. A fire doubles in size every minute. Having an extinguisher at hand can avert a disaster. Call 911 and THEN grab the extinguisher and aim it at the base of the fire, not at the flames. If you have the fire extinguisher and get to the fire in the first minute you will have a small issue. If however, you call 911 and then stand there watching the fire grow because you don't have the extinguisher to use, know that the fire is going to double in size every minute. How far away is the FD from your home? Remember the fire is doubling in size every minute, when you had the chance to pull the pin on a fire extinguisher and put out the fire before the FD even got the fire truck's engine started. A club member had left his shop at about 11 PM to go upstairs to see the news and go to bed. His invalid wife was in bed on the second floor. He got to the first floor closed the basement door and went to the kitchen for a glass of water and heard a noise he didn't recognize. Started to investigate and as he neared the stairs to the basement heard the sound and identified it a the basement smoke detector. He opened the door and saw a small fire on his workbench and started down the stairs. He kept a small tea candle burning on his bench to flash off the C/A from the C/A applicator and had forgotten to blow it out. It had somehow ignited a sprue of plastic from the kit he was working on. He said he was truly shocked and scared at how fast the small fire he saw upon opening the door had grown by the time he got to the fire extinguisher by the bench - it had grown to take over the entire top of the bench and all the kit pieces, box and plans before he could get the extinguisher and put out the fire. As it involved a plastic kit the entire basement was filled with black smoke and floating plastic that clung to every inch of the ceiling and covered the floor. He called me the next morning and told me of the fire and asked me to advise him on how to avoid a repeat. After looking over the mess I pointed out his extinguisher was located so he had to go past the burning workbench to get it - I had him locate the extinguisher by the stairs so it is close to the exit - and it would have been right at hand as he came down the stairs and he could have used it quicker than having to go past the fire to the other side of the room before he could grab it. I also encouraged him to have smoke detectors on each level of the house and to have them interconnected so that the basement detector would have made each detector sound an alarm and he would have heard it sooner. More importantly, if he had not extinguished it quickly his invalid wife was asleep on the 2nd floor w/o any alarm on her level. If he didn't have the extinguisher he would have been waiting for the FD to show up with his wife on the second floor - and heat and smoke rise. The chance of her getting out would not have been good with the proximity of the stairs to one another. I have had guys ask why my fire extinguisher is so far away from my work benches and I point out that it's near the phone to call 911 and near the stairs to get out. You never want the fire to be between you and the exit without an extinguisher in hand. I have a propane torch and several containers of solvents (all in metal cans) near my bench. If I have a fire and go for the extinguisher my back will be to the exit if it grew to involve any of the hazards by the time I have it in hand to fight the fire and I can bail out and direct the FD to the right area. I have the advantage of being confident I can probably extinguish any fire I might have in my shop with my 30+ years of experience and the fire extinguisher at hand. Remember, call 911 and aim at the base of the fire not at the flames. Kurt

Roger: Any UL listed extinguisher with the minimum rating of 2A-10BC - can do the job. Anything smaller just isn't big enough to do the job in the hands of the average person. Avoid any with plastic handles - stick with metal. Kidde is a good brand name and is readily available. If not buying one with a brand name make sure it has the UL label and the 2A-10BC rating.. Kurt

They are good - very similar to the crock pot liner.