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Roger Pellett

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Everything posted by Roger Pellett

  1. Roger Pellett
    I assume that even buttoned up these are unpressurized. How high can they fly?
  2. Roger Pellett
    You can date that picture- A guy on the right looking at his smart phone.
  3. Roger Pellett
    Louie da fly (aka Steven), I beg to differ, Hornblower’s Typhus probably was caused by his dalliance with the Countess. Typhus is transmitted by lice supposedly living in her hairdo. At least that’s what the review that I read said. Roger
  4. Roger Pellett
    Our local Target store sells 15 double sided emery boards for $1 and the lady that runs the department is more pleasant to be around than the guy in the paint department at Menards.
  5. Roger Pellett
    Back in the 1970’s the Nautical Research Journal published a series of articles by Robert Caro describing the boats used to service ships in naval dockyards. While this may not be exactly what you are looking for it at least it illustrates the variety of services that were provided. I am less sure but I seem to remember that a past issue of the Journal also included an article about the Royal Navy’s system to mass produce blocks. Old NRJ articles can be researched on the Guild’s website. They are inexpensive if sent to you electronically for download. Better yet buy the Guild’s 2 CD or Flashdrive set of back issues. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll find. The museum at the ex Royal Dockyard in Chatham, UK has extensive exhibits about wooden shipbuilding in the dockyards. Also included here is an operating rope walk. There is a very large mast crane that still exists in the Danish Dockyard in Copenhagen. Roger
  6. Roger Pellett
    It A number of years ago I bought a five gallon kit of epoxy paint used for industrial tank lining applications. It was a two part paint, two 2-1/2 gallon cans, mixed 1to 1. We used it to coat the keel of a Soling Class Sailboat owned by our Community Sailing Association. I brought the left over paint home and used it to paint, by brush, the carved pine hull of my Benjamin Noble model. The idea was to provide a smooth impervious surface for application of shim brass plating attached with transfer tape. Well, the paint worked fine providing a hard smooth matt surface. On the other hand the 3M transfer tape did not provide a strong bond and the plates soon lifted. The model has sat for several years and I recently lightly sanded it and remarked the plating. PVA glue seems to tightly bond paper plates to this surface. Epoxies are notorious for an Amine Blush that can interfere with coatings applied on top. It is removed with soap and water. They have poor resistance to UV radiation so if prolonged exposure to sunlight is expected they are usually top coated with something else. Roger
  7. Roger Pellett
    These boats have to not only be fuel efficient but highly maneuverable as well. You often see one of these boats pushing a huge collection of barges flanking- moving sideways, as it moves through a turn. This gets even more complicated if there is a bridge within the turn as there is on the Ohio River. The effect of this maneuver is to shorten the turning radius of the tow. This requires careful design. When I was a student at the University of Michigan in the early 1960’s I used to see model towboats with tows of model barges being tested in their large towing tank. Roger
  8. Roger Pellett
    Some of this depends on what you are trying to do. Are you outfitting a shop where ship modeling will be part of what you want to do or you outfitting a shop to just build ship models? In my case, I first bought full sized shop tools as funds became available- 10in table saw, 14in bandsaw, drill press, jointer, scroll saw. With these tools I scratch built a plank on frame model and several other ship models. I have also used them for boat building and repair, for building several muzzleloading rifles and for all sorts of home construction projects. Much later when I had more money and fewer responsibilities I bought a Sherline lathe/milling column and Byrnes Saw, but I continue to enjoy the flexibility of full sized tools. Much of the work done on ship models can be done with full sized tools but specialized model making tools don’t have the capacity for other work. BTW Spars are easily made without a lathe. Shape a square stick with the correct taper(s), plane it eight sided, sand the eight sided stick to a round cross section. Roger
  9. Roger Pellett
    Full sized (1/2 in capacity chuck) bench mounted drill presses are inexpensive. Almost every project that I tackle seems to include drilling holes. I have a milling column that mounts on my Sherline lathe. I also have the sensitive drilling attachment that is useful for drilling holes under 3/32in diameter. For all other drilling including hole saws it is much quicker and easier to use the drill press. Roger
  10. Roger Pellett
    Although it would be nice to see a stern view, that looks more like what I think a carrack looked like; again there is a lot of speculation here. A lower boat shaped hull with convex but not bulbous lines forward. The forecastle and after castle are more like separate structures built atop the lower hull than integral parts defined by the lower hull’s framing. Roger
  11. Roger Pellett
    Come on Patrick! I’ll have you know that here in Northern, MN we just realized that there is such a thing as “inside plumbing”, so we no longer have venture outside on cold winter nights. BTW, our glorious Northern Minnesota summers are a detriment to ship model building; middle 70’s and moderate humidity everyone wants to be outside (except when the black flies and mosquitoes are out). Roger
  12. Roger Pellett
    These old semi planing hull raised fore deck cruisers of the 1930’s are real classics. WoodenBoat Magazine often runs articles on the restoration of these. They also included an article on Pilar several years ago. You might want to get reprints of some of these to clarify or add details for your model. I believe they have an online index. Roger
  13. Roger Pellett
    Very nice! You are taking things to a level of precision that is way beyond my abilities. Roger
  14. Roger Pellett
    The tool that I use by far the most in my shop Is my drill press. I use it all the time. I not only use for the projects that I build, I also use it to make the jigs and fixtures to make things. The ability to drill an accurate, straight hole square to a surface is an essential factor in doing quality work. As you get into metal work it becomes essential.
  15. Roger Pellett
    Yeah, The photography in this movie is spectacular. I got vertigo just watching it. At least some of it appears to be the real thing. Although the boxes that they are dropping are transported to the open ramp by a powered roller conveyor the crew standing close to the opening gave them a final shove. Although they tethered, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if someone lost their balance.
  16. Roger Pellett
    I hope that this is not too much off topic. It ‘s about things that fly with large drop down tail gates. It’s always a problem for my wife and me to agree on a NETFLIX movie. She likes “chick flick” romantic comedies and I like mysteries and some of the better military themed movies. Last night after getting my daily fix of The Blacklist I agreed to watch Operation Christmas Drop with her. It’s a boy meets girl romantic comedy filmed against the backdrop of the USAF’s actual annual Christmas Time present and supply drop to isolated islanders in Micronesia. The thing that separates this from the usually schmaltzy Christmas Movie is the fact that it was actually filmed on an active USAF air base on Guam and features a lot of live shots of military hardware, particularly C-130’s. There are also a number of great shots of a US Navy helicopter ( a current single rotor one). The last fairly lengthy scene of the movie shows the squadron of C-130’s dropping boxes by parachute to the islanders. Much of this was shot from the rear of the plane out of the dropped tail gate. My my wife agreed with me that the movie was surprisingly well done. Roger
  17. Roger Pellett
    Very nice workmanship and an innovative design. For those without these skills, I offer my hillbilly solution- I buy the closest diameter self stick disc, using the disc as a pattern, draw around it with a pencil and trim with scissors, and stick it on. Then turn the machine on and use coarse sandpaper glued to a stick to clean up any overlapping edges.
  18. Roger Pellett
    Maybe the reconstruction was an over reliance on computer algorithms by the archeologists? Roger
  19. Roger Pellett
    It’s been a while since I read the archeological report about the Newport Ship. I also have a book, The World of the Newport Ship that illustrates the reconstruction. W hen I read the book, which is mostly a collection of very dry papers about Medieval economics, I felt that the presence of the transom stern without any justification was a stretch. I later read a more technical paper on the web where they justified the transom stern. It had to do with extrapolating waterlines beyond the known remains. Either by curvature of planking or the last known frame. Either or both of us could be right. If they sold the pictured “Carrack” model for even 1% of the asking price it only goes to show that PT Barnum was right about suckers. It would not be worth anything to me since I don’t have a wood burning fireplace. Roger
  20. Roger Pellett
    I have read the entire Hornblower series several times beginning as a teenager. In my opinion, C.S. Forester is a master of naval history fiction. While the Hornblower books are certainly great adventure yarns, careful reading reveals that Forester carefully researched geography, history, and square rigged seamanship. Three examples, I don’t exactly remember which books: His description of Hornblower’s close blockade of the French port of Brest as a young commander in a sloop of war masterfully describes the port’s hazardous, complex geography; In a later book, his narrative of Hornblower’s navigation, political as well as naval along the Pacific Central American Coast wonderfully illustrates this obscure area’s complex history; and finally his description of navigation in and out of the tiny Mediterranean harbors puts you right along side Hornblower on the quarterdeck. Interestingly at least one of his books, The Commodore was controversial when published due to his very tame, by today’s standards, mention of Hornblower’s adultery with a Russian Countess. Readers will, however, note that Forester passes judgement on Hornblower’s dalliance; He winds up with Typhus. Roger
  21. Roger Pellett
    The MSC that I spent several weeks aboard was homeported in Sasebo, a nice city. When I joined her she was in drydock after a grounding. Later I joined Loyalty a larger MSO. She had deployed from the West Coast of the USA using a rubber fuel bladder on deck to provide the necessary Trans Pacific range. The structure enclosing the bridge is a later addition. In 1964 both the MSC and MSO’s had open bridges. Also, in 1964 both vessels were equipped with conventional 26ft motor whaleboats. It’s interesting to see the way that this classic design adapted over the years and withstood the test of time. Roger
  22. Roger Pellett
    The US was slow to adopt diesel technology. The US Navy did not convert its motorized ships boats from gas to diesel until well into the 1930’s and the landing craft that fought in WW II were initially gasoline powered. American PT boats remained gasoline powered by three Packard engines burning high octane aviation gas throughout the war. The US has never adopted the very large direct connected slow speed European diesels for marine propulsion. Applications using large scale diesel power such as the 1000ft Great Lakes ore carriers and the few larger diesel powered US Navy ships use medium speed diesels driving controllable pitch propellers via gear box. Semi diesels have been used in the US, the most famous being the Khalenberg engines built in Two Rivers Wisconsin. Many of these were used to power Great Lakes fishing boats. One of these was used to power an environmental research vessel owned by the Superior branch of the University of Wisconsin. She continued to sail until she was recently sold to a private owner and I lost track of her. Roger
  23. Roger Pellett
    I didn’t get into details with my post but I too question the flat transom stern on the Newport ship when you consider that no part of the stern exists. If I understand things correctly the flat stern was extrapolated from the curvature of existing planking; ie. some of the recovered side planks do not exhibit enough curvature to have extended into the more typical of the time round stern. In the late Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries the people of the Basque region of Spain were the masters of the then high tech art of wooden shipbuilding. With that in mind, I recommend the book Vanguard of Empire (Ships of Exploration in the Age of Columbus) by Roger C. Smith. It describes the Iberian system of calculating rising and narrowing lines by the half circle method. The archeological report for the Red Bay Galleon published by Parks Canada also describes this. Roger
  24. Roger Pellett
    The best representation of a sixteenth Century Iberian ship is the Red Bay Galleon, but she is too late, 1570’s. For an earlier Iberian built ship consider the Newport Medieval Ship thought to have been built in the 1450’s and discovered in Bristol UK. Probably too early but another viewpoint. You can find reconstruction information on the web. Roger
  25. Roger Pellett
    VERY NICE!! She looks just like the real thing. When I first saw your photo I said to myself, “That’s not a Greek Navy minesweeper, That’s a US Navy MSC.” Then I read your post and saw that it was indeed a USN MSC that had been transferred to the Greek Navy. I spent an 8 week midshipman summer cruise in 1964 aboard two minesweepers, USS Widgeon MSC 208 and USS Loyalty both operating in the coastal waters of Japan. Your model brought back fond memories. Roger

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