Roger Pellett

Michael, What an interesting project! The lifeboats alone are wonderful models, not the crude poorly shaped objects often seen, and the Welin davits too. Regarding miniature wire rope, you might want to check out fishing tackle, specifically cable used to hang downrigger weights. This is seven strand stainless steel so it is real wire rope. I'm not sure how small it comes. One spool that I found on the web listed the diameter as .032in which is a bit large for your purposes but maybe you can find a smaller size. The miniature model maker Lloyd McCaffery writes of spinning rope for his models from nichrome wire. 36ga nichrome wire is available from Amazon. Roger Pellett

On a visit to the Royal Navy Museum, Portsmouth a month ago I went past HMS Victory on my way to the new Mary Rose museum. The inside of the gun port lids are now painted a rather startling orange color. Looks like the keepers of the ship would come down on the red ochre side of the debate. Roger Pellett

It depends how your chuck is mounted. On many drill presses including the one that that I have, rhe Jacobs chuck is mounted on a morse tapered shaft. There is a threaded nut above the chuck that can be used to push the chuck off. This setup is not designed to accept side loads and loads from routing or milling can cause the chuck to wobble and in some cases to fall off- personal experience! If your drill press works this way you will have to see if a collet chuck is available. This locks onto the shaft using the threads on a the shaft. A collet chuck will probably come with two inserts to fit 1/4in and 3/8in router bits and milling cutters. Roger Pellett

I cannot comment on Micromark power tools because I have never used any. I am a fan of Sherline for a number of reasons A huge number of well thought out accessories. Very high quality, mine was made in the USA. I think in inches. Millimeters require conversion, and Sherline's tools not only can be purchased calibrated in inches, but collets screw threads, etc. are in inches too. Great customer service- Sherline uses socket headed set screws with a machined point to secure its heavier components. When setting up the milling column these are removed and reinstalled. A while ago I broke the socket on one of these, and could not find a replacement locally. I called Sherline and the lady on the phone said " Yes, those are hard to find, give me your address and I'll send you some." A few days later an envelope with several screws showed up gratis! Roger Pellett

For drilling small holes if you have a Sherline mill or a milling column for their lathe (which is what I have) their sensitive drilling attachment is a "must have." For me, however, a full size drill press also gets a lot of use in my shop. Roger Pellett

Diagonal planking is much more common than one might think. The Royal Navy used it extensively in building small boats - their steam pinnacles and picket boats were commonly diagonally planked and there is a 42ft launch from a battle cruiser in the small boat shop at their Portsmouth museum that is diagonally planked. In 1960 my father and I built Thistle class sailboat from a moulded hull built from diagonally laminated layers. The diagonal planking should have no effect on fluid flow around the hull, positive or negative. First of all, the hull would have been faired longitudinally and with several coats of paint the effect of the diagonal planking would disappear. Typically, there would be two or more layers of planking laid 90 degrees to each other either glued or with a layer of glued fabric between. This would prevent the seams from opening up as with a longitudinally planked hull. Wooden Thistles with their diagonally planked hulls are fully competitive with their moulded fiberglass sisters. When a boat travels through the water, there is a thin layer of water against the hull moving slowly and parallel to the hull. Outside of this "boundary layer" the water becomes much more disturbed or turbulent. Much of the shear that creates drag is therefore water moving against water. Once the hull is smooth enough that irregularities do not protrude past the thickness of the boundary layer further smoothness is unneccessary. In preparing models for tank testing the University of Michigan hydrodynamics lab painted them with a semi-gloss enamel. The surface of the model was then considered to be hydraulically smooth. The hull of a crack racing yacht would be faired painted and polished to the point that the direction of planking would be immaterial. Roger Pellett

If you are trying to make spars by tapering dowels I believe that you are doing things the hard way. I find it much easier to cut a strip of straight grained stock and to taper this as a square. I use a homemade taper jig but you could also use a disc sander driven by your drill. Assuming that you have a small block plane, plane off the corners to form an octagon- doing this by eye works surprisingly well. Plane off an equal number of strokes on each corner. Now, using sandpaper on a block round the tapered stick. You can then chuck it up in your drill rig and spin it while pinching it between a piece of sandpaper. Don't use the tail stock. Try it. It's surprisingly easy. Roger Pellett

I the shelter deck idea was a successful gimmick to minimize tonnage (a measure of internal volume used as the basis for calculating certain operating costs such as canal tolls, port charges, dry docking charges, etc.) without actually affecting the vessel's cargo carrying capacity. Tonnage is calculated in accordance with internationally accepted rules and these rules exclude areas of the ship "open to the weather." The shelter deck was penetrated by one or more tonnage openings-small hatches that were not sufficiently watertight to meet the definition of a watertight closure for tonnage purposes but sufficiently robust to not affect freeboard calculations. For tonnage purposes the shelter deck was therefore considered to be open to the weather. Roger Pellett

Harold Hahn built his spectacular models using an 8in table saw and years ago I scratch built a plank on frame model using similar equipment, so a special purpose miniature saw is not absolutely necessary. Zero gap inserts are not hard to make, and I have had to make them for my Byrnes saw. My Byrnes saw frankly scares me.as I have not found the right blade(s) to saw wood smoothly. The very thin fine toothed blades tend to burn, pinch and bind and a regular 4in circular saw blade often kicks the pieces back. I know that many builders do excellent work with this saw, but I have not figured out how to make it reach its potential. The preferred way to cut thin strips with a table saw is to "cut off " the pieces by running the block between the blade and the fence. This way the thin strips are not pinched between the fence and the blade. This means that the fence has to be indexed for each cut. Rockler makes a jig for ripping thin strips that fits into the groove of a full sized table saw. There is no reason why using a properly set up table saw and this gadget strips thinner than 1/16 in could not be ripped with a high degree of repeatability. There is used to be a post on this forum from a guy who built one of these jigs for his Byrnes saw. Roger Pellett

If you have a full sized thickness sander you can adapt it to sanding very thin sections. Get a piece of MDF to use as a carrier. Affix the piece that you want to sand to it and run it through. I have a thickness sander that I built and I use this technique to sand small pieces. To attach the piece to the carrier I use several spots of glue at the leading edge of the piece to be sanded. You can debond after sanding with alcohol, or you can sacrifice this small area of the piece. Not elegant but it works. Roger Pellett

I have a mini torch that hooks up to a propane cylinder via a braided hose. It has screw on tips of different sizes and a screw on nozzle so it can be used as a soldering iron or a torch. I got it several years ago from Micro Mark. I have used the larger tip to solder some pretty big joints. It works great and propane cylinders are easy to find. Roger Pellett

Like many other things in ship modeling, much of this is a matter of opinion, and it depends on what you are modeling and what you are trying to accomplish. Some modelers and even some museums prefer a natural wood finish. An expert in this type of modeling was Harold Hahn. See examples of his models elsewhere on this forum. He, however, was modeling ships a certain period (2nd half of 18th Century) and he used first class woods- boxwood, pear, holly and sometimes ebony. With these high quality woods, he did not have to stain, the woods could be left in their natural colors. He was also trying to achieve an artistic representation of these vessels, not their exact appearance. Also, These dense, tight grained woods can be very difficult to stain. In my opinion, many of the models built from kits that furnish species of wood with oversized grain appearance would be better off painted. Also as you move from the 18th to the 19th century, I think that models of this period look much better painted in realistic colors. American working craft in particular look better to me painted. Roger Pellett

Installation contractors are able to cement corean panels together so well that you cannot find the seam. I saw them do it when they installed our bathroom countertops. Unfortunately, I don' know what they used. As far as suitability for "Wooden ship models". That bridge has already been crossed. MDF and plywood are hardly traditional materials and what about miniraturists who use brass rod for spars and wire for running rigging? Assuming that the stuff can be worked and glued I don't see that it is any different from the casting resins. Roger Pellett

The Earlex steam generator looks just like my Wagner unit. Roger Pellett

Over the past 20 years or so I have restored or rebuilt four wood/ canvas (Old Town type) canoes. All of the have required replacing steam bent cedar ribs and planking And ash stems. On my first canoe I rigged up a system in mt driveway using a camp stove. While it worked fine, it was a hassle to set up and after I had dismantled it I usually discovered a couple of cracked ribs that I had missed and would have to set it up again. A work colleague who had been remodeling his house offered me a Wagner Power Steamer, intended to steam off wallpaper. This thing produces steam by heating electrically so I can use it indoors, and the steam is hot! The coupling at the of the steam hose mates with a 3/8in npt male pipe nipple screwed into a threaded flange mounted on my steam box. If I need to steam a piece of wood it is a simple matter to hook this and to put it away when I'm done. Several years ago, WoodenBoat magazine reviewed a specially built steamer. It looked exactly like my Wagner Steamer. Roger Pellett

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that my compressor can provide air at the right pressure. To high a pressure and the metal fitting that is pressed into the airbrush body is blown out. Trust me, it has happened. The pressure tank for my compressor stores air at 125 psi, probably required for various mechanical applications but way too high for an airbrush. The regulator on my compressor lets me turn the air supply down to 25-30psi. Roger Pellett

A somewhat dissenting voice: I have two airbrushed- a Badger 350 and a Badger "Paint Sprayer". The paint sprayer is a very simple inexpensive air aspirated sprayer. Both work fine. Virtually all of my airbrushing involves painting of relatively large surfaces. Where I need to paint small surfaces I mask off rather than trying to turn down the airbrush. For this type of work the point sprayer lays down a nice smooth coat. It is not particularly adjustable for width of spray but for the work that I do this does not matter. For me, more important, is the air source. I started with an aerosol can, then a jury rigged ancient compressor. Recently, our large home improvement retailers have been selling small air compressors with air accumulator for less than $100 US and I recently bought one. This made a huge difference as I can accurately control air pressure. For my level of expertise, having a good air source with controllable pressure is more important than a higher end air brush. Roger Pellett

Mike, with the prepackaged red oxide primer in spray cans, you don't need an air brush or compressed air source. Roger

No Mike, I thought that the photo was the repaint job! Since you have sanded it all off, you now have another option- maybe. Here in the US, red oxide primer is widely available in spray cans. Here we can buy this as a solvent based product in lieu of a water based. The big advantage of solvent based paints is that they do not raise the grain of the wood. It is often sold as auto body primer. While, I have been mixing my own acrylic colors for my latest model, this is one application where I would use a solvent based paint in a spray can. Using a spray can you should be able to lay down several thin coats. Roger Pellett

I personally like the paint job. The joints between the planks show up nicely and the color is good. It doesn' look too glossy but if you think that it is there are ways to flatten it. Here in the US Testors makes a product called Dullcote, a flat lacquer that would help. I have also noticed that paints often get flatter as they fully harden. As for the "dog tooth" joints pile some freight on them! You are doing a great job that will produce a handsome model. Roger Pellett

Several years ago I built model of a US Navy motor whaleboat at 1:32 scale. I wanted a wartime finish so I painted the decks navy deck blue instead of varnished as would have been the case during peacetime. Research indicated a foredeck caulked with white seam compound. I first painted the entire deck white and then sanded the white paint off. The white paint of course stayed in the seams between the planks. I then "caulked" the seams with thread and sprayed on my deck blue. After the blue dried, I pulled out the thread leaving a white seam. On my first try, the seam was too regular and too bold so I tried again with thinner thread and was happy with the result. I did not plank this very small deck but sawed the seams into a piece of model aircraft plywood with a miniature table saw. Roger Pellett

Considering the mode of transportation that existed prior to 1900 I wonder what "road scrapings without stones" consisted of. Roger Pellett

The following is from Alan Bates Western Rivers Cyclopedium. Thought that you might enjoy: Composition for Covering Boilers & etc. Road scrapings, free from stones, 2 parts, cow manure gathered from the pasture, 1 part,; mix thoroughly and add to each barrowful of the mixture 6 lbs of fire clay; 1/2 lb of flax shoves or chopped hay, and 4 oz of teased hair. It must be well mixed and chopped ; then add as much water as it will bring to the consistency of mortar, the more it is worked the tougher it is. It is hard for us to understand today, how homespun the engineering of these steamboats was. Roger Pellett

I built this model many many years ago. It is a handsome model and it is interesting to see the improvements that MS has made to the kit over the years and you are doing a fine job with yours. I hope that you won't mind a friendly suggestion. I believe that the vents behind the windlass shown on the drawing are actually the pipes that lead to the chain locker for the anchor chains. The pair of cowl vents that you have placed aft of the windlass actually should go atop the deckhouse to ventilate the boiler room. Roger Pellett

I studied NAME at Michigan, graduating many years before you did 1965. We learned to make lines drawings with ducks and splines traced with ink on vellum. What a mess! T still make model ship drawings this way though. Roger