Roger Pellett

Scale: If your scale is 1:48, when you look at your model from a distance of 1ft, it is as if you would be seeing the real thing from a distance of 48 ft, 1:64-64ft, etc. So the question that you need to answer is how much detail would you be likely to see on the real thing at the distance equivalent to that from which the model is to be viewed. Roger

Allan, Is it possible that the your “false keel” is actually the real keel, structural member, on the real boat. The ballast hangs from this and the tapered pieces fore and aft are just there to provide a fair shape. The naval architect has concentrated the ballast near the boat’s longitudinal center of gravity to keep it out of the ends. Roger

I used to travel to Kansas City on business. A nice city, centrally located for driving too. In my case, I would only want to exhibit a model if I could drive. I don’t even want to think about handling one through an airport. I’d go to a conference in Kansas City. Toledo’s accessibility is based on the fact that it’s less than 50 miles from the Detroit airport, one of Delta’s hubs. Roger

In my opinion, a planer, mentioned above, is intended to perform a different function than a thickness sander. I have a Dewalt planer bought for milling cedar canoe ribs and planking. It’s useful when you need to remove a lot of stock quickly. Downside is that it makes a very loud noise and mounds of dust and shavings. It, therefore, sits on a rolling stand and I take it outside to use. This limits its usefulness to major projects in good weather. I cannot imagine trying to use a planer, no matter how small, in the very small spaces that some modelers work in. The thickness sander is quiet and dust is manageable. It is convenient to use when I only need to remove very little material and for otherwise small projects. Roger

Thanks for posting these. Ed Marples appears to have been in the August Crabtree league! Hopefully Covid19 will subside to the point where it is again safe to travel to see these. Roger

Hank, The University of Wisconsin has a large collection of stuff pertaining to marititime activities in the Duluth, MN and Superior, WI area. If Lidgerwood disposed of documents they might have landed there. Same old story though, Covid19. When they again become accessible, I have a pile of drawings to donate and would be happy to check for you. I am acquainted with the curator. Roger

Check The Floating Drydock as a source for plans.

There are two and possibly two WW II Government built tugs here in the Duluth, MN Harbor. One, named Lake Superior is a surplus Army Corps of Engineers boat. A local towing company, Heritage Marine operates another one and possibly two. See heritagemarinetug.com Roger

Darrell, I’ve actually been to Zoar, Ohio. I remember it as an interesting place. Once a planned, or religious community? Roger

As the speaker on the last day of the 2015 NRG Mystic Conference was getting into his talk about Black Sea shipwrecks I saw my wife coming into the conference room. It seemed that my daughter in New York City was having difficulty delivering her daughter and they had decided on caesarian (sp?) delivery. We immediately checked out of the hotel and prepared to drive to New York. By the time that we were ready to go my son-in-law called with the news that the operation was over and mother and daughter were doing fine. As our trip suddenly became less urgent we decided to stop at the nearby McDonalds before getting on the highway. In the next booth was a lady working on some needlepoint. My wife’s comments about her beautiful work resulted in a nice conversation. She was from California and working on her needlepoint while her husband attended the conference. The discussion led to where we were from and to my desire for a conference to be held in Duluth. She thought that Duluth would be a wonderful place to hold a conference especially as she had little or no knowledge of the Great Lakes. There has been considerable interest on the forum about non-saltwater vessels, and a freshwater venue would allow members to broaden their interests. Otherwise, based on the models built or imagined by forum members, the most logical place to hold it would be in Portsmouth (UK)!! Realistically, I have to admit that NW Ohio is a better midwestern compromise location as it is a not unreasonable drive from either Chicago or the East Coast, and weather is probably more manageable in late October. We made it to New York that evening in time to hold our new gradddaughter who will start Kindergarten this fall if the NYC schools can figure things out. Roger

There is a company in Superior Wisconsin, Named Superior Ligerwood Corporation that specializes in the manufacture of winches and capstans for the Navy. From the looks of their buildings they must have made winches for John Paul Jones. I believe that the winches used for underway refueling were Constant Tension winches, not necessarily off the shelf. “Ligerwood” might be spelled Lidgerwood. The other well known manufacturer of deck winches is Hyde, I think now owned by Bath Iron Works. I don’t know if you have a copy of Grey Steel and Black Oil by Thomas Wildenberg, considered to be the classic account of the development of the Navy’s tanker fleet. Unfortunately once you get past the first 50 pages there is not much technical detail useful to modelers. Lots of discussion of administrative negotiations between the Navy and Maritime Commission. Roger

Kurt, Although I only met him once, I enjoyed Steve’s many articles in the NRJ that described his innovative solutions to model building; Things that will have real lasting value to future readers of the Journal. Grumbling aside, if it is safe to travel, my wife and I will probably attend the 2021 CA Conference. We BOTH enjoyed 2015 in Mystic and 2019 in New Bedford, and I have to admit, once you get there, the California Coast north of LA is a beautiful area. BTW, is you have a few minutes, google Kitchi Gammi Club. A great venue for a conference. Maybe we could hold a virtual (nonexistent) 2020 conference there! If you decide to have 2022 in Toledo, pay attention to the University of Michigan football schedule. Lodging can be crazy in the region when there is a home game. As a native of Ohio prior to moving to Duluth, I might suggest exploring options for holding the meeting further east towards the Sandusky, Port Clinton, Marblehead area with an excursion to the Toledo Museum. This area might be more appealing to spouses not excited about maritime history. Visitors to Northern Ohio in October will see the region at its best. I hope all is well with you and that you have fully recovered from your recent procedure. Roger

My first choice for an overdue Midwest meeting would of course be Duluth- a working Harbor, the largest on the Great Lakes; two Museum ships; a dynamite conference venue that I have access to; wonderful lodging; and New England like fall colors without the crowds. But we’ve already beat that subject to death. My second choice, would be the new National Great Lakes Maritime Museum in Toledo, Ohio. Easy access from Detroit airport (a major Delta hub) and Cleveland. PS. In my opinion, a major Disadvantage of the California venue is accessibility. Correct me if I am wrong but the only airport sort of nearby with non stop service back east is LAX and to those of small town folk Los Angeles traffic is a real pain. Roger

I really like the anchor on the deck. As far as the weight, seamen of old were experts at using blocks to rig temporary leads. Could the anchor cable have been led to the trawl winch heads? Another thought, the anchor gets its holding power from hooking into the bottom, not from its weight. A lighter weight anchor with 6-10 ft of chain shackled to it might be more appropriate. Instead of making a new anchor just “skinny up” the one that you already have. Roger

I should add my high tech solution for insuring that the drum is parallel with the hinged plate. I have a piece of sandpaper glued to a flat piece of plywood. With the sandpaper on the drum removed the sandpaper faced plywood is clamped to the angle plate. With the machine turned on the angled plate is raised until the sandpaper contacts the drum and removes ant irregularities. I should also add that the 1 /2 hp motor surplus from upgrading my bandsaw gives me plenty of power Roger

Here is my DIY thickness sander loosely built from the NRG plans that Jaager referred to. Total out of pocket cost was under $30 as all that I had to buy was a pair of pillow block ball bearings and a length of 1/2 in cold rolled steel shafting. I had a spare motor. The drum is maple laid up in laminations epoxied together around the shaft. A couple of cross pins thru the shaft lock the drum in place. I do not own a wood lathe, so I mounted the laminated block in the thickness sander frame and pillow blocks and set up an improvised tool rest. Turned by the motor this improvised lathe worked fine. The disc sander on the end of the protruding shaft was a plus. I use it all the time. I use belts sold for belt sanders, cut and wrapped diagonally around the drum. Secured with contact cement this works well. Sanding thickness is controlled by an inclined plane pivoting on a horizontal shaft with the free end adjusted by a threaded rod. Roger

When I lived in Southeastern, Ohio a favorite conversation starter was, “How bout them Ears?” Ears referring to the West Virginia University’s Mountaineers football team. A pipe fitting salesman used to call on us who introduced himself as “beef” which I thought was rather strange until I learned that that had been his nickname on the Mountaineers football team. This was supposed to get his customers’ attention. Roger

That same guy could probably spend an endless amount of time telling you about his golf game.

OC, Does your wife have nail polish remover in her stash? It’s probably acetone. Roger

For a flat surface, I use a piece of 1ft square “Quartz” countertop material, actually I believe it’s synrhetic, ground quartz in an epoxy type maitrix. It was a sample got when we installed new kitchen countertops. I have two bench height seats in my shop, a cheap rush seat chair with a back like you might find for seating at a kitchen island and an old swivel drafting stool that I paid $5.00 for when the company reconfigured our engineering dept. When I bought it our accounting mgr accused me of stealing it at that price. When I got it home I found a tag on the bottom that said “Property of the US Navy” So the company didn’t own it anyway! It was probably war surplus from the years when the company built LSTs on Neville Island near Pittsburgh. I have also found a regular height chair to be useful, especially If I have something mounted in my bench level carpenter’s vice and I want to look directly at it instead of looking down at it. Roger

From what you show above, it appears that some instructions were included on the plans. Your post also shows your nicely planked hull so if this were the real ship, she’d be ready to launch. Take her to your miniature “ fitting out slip” and finish her per the drawings. I think that you’ll do fine. Roger

From the photos the treads are flat pieces with steel cleats at each articulated joint. Were the flat pieces between the joints rubber? If so these treads must have had a very short life. Roger

A number of now old timers, Rob Napier and Eric Ronnberg among them advocated custom mixing of paint from tubes of artist’s colors. Ronnberg in particular used acrylic artist’s colors to paint his collection of large scale New England fishing Schooner models, now in the Mystic Seaport Collection. During the 2015 NRG Conference we saw these models in Mystic’s storage area and they looked like they were freshly painted. I tried this technique to paint my scratch built longboat model. I mixed colors from acrylic artist’s pigments, added some acrylic matt medium and thinned them with water. They sprayed beautifully with my Badger 350 airbrush. When I was satisfied with the results, I overcoated with a light coat of Dulcote. I will paint my next model the same way. Roger

I’d like to weigh in on this topic. I’ve used a lot of West Sysrem Epoxy with excellent results. When mixed properly, it cures 100% of the time. I would like to emphasize Bob and Kurt’s comments above. It needs to be mixed in the specified proportions. In the case if the resin/hardener combination that I am using it’s 5 parts of resin to 1 part of hardener. If in a group project, some eager beaver decides to add more hardener to “speed things up” it won’t cure - personal experience with another participant restoring Sailing Association Lasers. Use of the calibrated pumps mentioned above is the easiest way to dispense in the correct ratio. These are sold in pairs specific to the resin hardener combination that you are using. Just make sure that you dispense a squirt of hardener for each squirt of resin. West system also sells a small batch kit that includes a digital scale that allows you to compensate for the weight of the container. Once that you have done that, you dispense hardener, miltiply the resulting weight by six and add resin until you reach the correct total weight. There are probably digital scales on the market that would allow you to do the same thing. West System also sells a range of thickeners to add to the mix as fairing compounds. You will probably want to add one of these. The unthickened resin will probably be too thin for your needs. Roger

People build models for different reasons, and chances are that when you start your project you have an idea of what you want it to look like when it is finished. It is is entirely possible to built a model shown under construction that satisfies your reason for building it. The best example of this that I know of are the models in Harold Hahn’s exquisite shipyard diorama. There are also models in the NMM collection that are built to demonstrate aspects of shipbuilding technology that show only parts of ships. In my case, I consider a model to be finished when it goes in its glass case. Roger