Chuck

Lantern test in 3 sizes.... 3/16" scale and 1/4" scale and one size in between. 19mm, 23mm and 27 mm tall without any crank. Top to bottom. That isnt a really big dime so you can imagine how thin those individual window frames are on the sides of the lanterns. No clear glass insert yet. But that test is coming.

That is first in line after Speedwell is completed. At 67 would be great...but far better at 65 for me and then really wind things down. But who knows. Depends on the Admiral more than me. Chuck

I will continue making those as well. Those are no big deal to make. Once Speedwell moves along a bit more I am sure they will be in stock more often. I literally just made 6 more ropewalks two days ago and they sold out in an hour. And only one serving machine left in stock. So it looks like next week I will make a bunch more of those. Chuck

As I get close to retirement I am shifting my business plan a bit. I am not retiring yet, but I am starting to create the end game plan. My business is currently really two sep. divisions or production flows. Production of kits and then Production of after market parts, blocks and rope and fittings etc. Both take a huge amount of time and effort. I have mentioned before that I am currently working 7 days a week and 12 hours a day easily. Now that I have moved and enjoy the leisure living in the back country of NJ, my wife has started to use the word "leisure" as a verb. Chuck we need to "leisure" more. You work to much. I want to travel more. You are going to have a heart attack...yada yada yada. Sooo, the Speedwell will be my last physically produced kit. In addition, I have stopped production of all of my kits...Kind-of. I AM NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. Let me make that perfectly clear. In fact my business and sales is now greater than at the height of the pandemic. Lots of rope and blocks being sold. LOL I have many many years left in me. BUT moving forward, I will now be focusing on just fittings and related ship model items...No kit model production. I am retiring all of my kits. This includes Speedwell. I sold the last of 50 Speedwell chapter 1 and 2 sets recently. I will only be selling the remaining chapters to those who bought those 50 chapter one and two sets. So that will be easy enough for me to handle and administer. Its just getting tougher and tougher to source enough wood to make this stuff in the USA and remain profitable. I also dont want keep buying and storing a mountain of wood in my garage. Literally a mountain of it as you can imagine. In addition I just dont have the time or desire to do this in 60's. The good news is that I will be introducing a ton of new fittings. Stuff for French ships too!! I am slowly revamping my website...and you might experience disruptions as I make it easier to find all of the fittings I offer. I have hundreds and hundres already and many more on the drawing board. This is mindless repetitive work and will help pay the bills into retirement and beyond. So no plans to stop making that stuff anytime soon. In fact my wife wont let me fully retire until Im 67 so there is that. God bless her. Now the fun part...just because I am not producing these current kits any longer doesnt mean that someone else wont be MFGing them. All of my kits already available will not just go away...you do know him and love him. I have reached an agreement with Chris at Vanguard who will be taking over the reigns and manufacturing my kits. This will take some time as Chris is finishing up his Surprise model kit. The Winnie group is fine...just not selling any more starter bulkhead sets or chapter one sets. I will continue making later chapter sets available for the group in perpetuity. Its not a big deal until Chris can take over. The longboat group build will also remain because that will probably be the first kit being produced by Chris followed by the barge. So stay tuned and please dont bother Chris about getting any of this stuff. It will be made available as soon as he can get to it. He is busy like me...so keep that in mind. All Winnie parts, and Speedwell Chapter sets and Cheerful parts will continue being sold on MY site for folks currently building them until the hand-off is eventually made. So fear not!!! NOW...this frees me up to build and design Newer projects. These however will be made with the idea that the models will be built using plansets and thus not dependent on kit production. Those will be released here as open source plans or at Seawatch as a new book. Or if Chris wants, he can take them and run with them too. That is my retirement plan. Keep making parts for sale for all of your projects while still building models that interest me and passing those designs on. Now back to making rope!!! Blocks!!! and other stuff.... Lantern mini kits both English and French are next on deck. Then ship's wheels and a whole host of other good stuff for you folks!!! Chuck

Looking forward to seeing this Ben...

Absolutely beautiful work. You should be very pleased.

First print test. I have a few modifications to make and I dont have any clear resin…its on the way. This resin is just plain old elegoo resin which I use for my tests. Then I dipped into some wood stain. When I get my delivery of the good stuff it should make a huge difference as well. But this test proves the parts actually fit...I am pleased about that. Anyways…I will make some tweaks and print again.

And just to keep me busy...a new Lantern...typical but detailed English Navy circa 1770-1800. I have so much to do and lots of new stuff in the works. This will be printed in four pieces if all goes according to plan. The glass will be an insert and printed in clear resin.

Thats what I use...I got this. It just takes time. 1.75 mm are up next.

Tried weighing them even with a very expensive scale but there is too much variation. I basically count out my blocks and these like a pharmacist counts pills. These are just very squirrelly. I am used to it but its a pain. Putting them on a pin is fine but that would take three times as long. I have to be quick. Too high a volume. Chuck

Thimbles are now in stock...only 2mm today but the other sizes will show up over the next few days...a couple of new sizes per day starting tomorrow. Packaging these things are a pain. A massive pile on the table of round items that roll. I count by two's 2, 4, 6, 8, 11....15....25 thimbles. ugh. Repeat. FYI

Its a wonderful wood...I use it almost exclusively except for areas that are tiny and might need extra strength.

Lovely work so far!! I am quite pleased with how you are making this little project your own. It should look great when completed. I just finished making another dozen of these kits. I will be sure to reference your log when my club starts building them. chuck

Thank you Greg....

Next up.....3d printed thimbles...I hate making them so I am trying to print these tiny things. Should know by next week if they work. Black resin is the goal. Starting the test with 3 sizes and will adjust from there.

Beautiful work Chris!!!

I am gonna do some tests on 1:64 pins next week. I am about 50/50 on whether they will work. I know a lot of heavy-handed riggers out there!!!

Thank You for saying guys. Some 1:48 scale swiss pear color belaying pins. Just stocked a bunch of them. I am not sure which folks will prefer but I made both colors just in case.

Great start...This small kit should take you little time to complete. Just have fun with it. I am busy making the second set of kits as I write this. Chuck

I thought some of you would want to see how I tested the viability and strength of the belaying pins. I made a crude mock up which you see below. This allowed me the opportunity to test in actual use various belaying pin iterations over and over again. I must have tested so Many different resins and resin mixes until I found the correct mix of two that would be strong enough and look good. There is no glue holding the pins in the rack and they are press fit. There is also no glue on the rope. This is the way I actually rig my models. If a pin breaks you can easily remove it and insert another although I never came close to breaking one. They will flex if you over tighten the line ridiculously. But normal rigging tension works wonderfully. These are 1:48 scale belaying pins. It actually is very encouraging and may also test 3/16” scale pins as these worked so well.

For ships much later in the 18th century for examples...toggles were used to secure blocks under the top. They are also used in other places but are usually too tiny to make and have look good. Even with 3D printing these 3mm toggles are a bear to make. They just get all over the place and its impossible to keep them on the sprues at this size. But I am getting the hang of it. Chuck

While restocking rope I am trying to take advantage of the downtime to finally make some new stuff... Belaying pins...9.5mm and 14.3mm And some teeny tiny toggles. 3mm, 4mm, and 5mm long To begin with just the boxwood color. The belaying pins are in no way as strong as brass. But they are plenty strong enough as long as you dont over-do the tightness....which you shouldnt be doing anyway. The toggles are also quite resilient. Pictured are some tests in 3 and 4 mm long. So look for them on my fittings page when I reopen next week.

Its gonna be a few days. Its always first come first serve. Have to get some stuff made and on the shelf first though.

I dont think so. Most of the orders are from the USA and domestic. So it doesnt really matter. Of the 36 orders from yesterday only 5 were international. 2 from the UK, 1 from Canada, and one from the Netherlands and one from Germany. Yes my costs are going up for almost everything but I am trying to hold off on raising prices if at all. I havent raised any prices yet. Having said that...My AYC wood costs have almost doubled. My resin costs are up slightly about 15 to 20%. I just bought a crap ton of boxwood so I will hopefully be good for a while. That was only slightly up as well. Those are my biggest material costs. Other materials are up 10 -15% on average. Not a good thing at all..... But my prices will remain the same as long as I can keep them that way. At least through the summer and into the fall. Unfortunately I have no control over the Tarif tax if you are buying from outside the USA. Its a shame and not great for small businesses like mine. But out of my control. Chuck

Well, LOL...you guys actually managed to do it. I thought it would have been impossible. You cleaned me out...literally every package of rope and every package of blocks...swiss pear that is. At 1:45 PM I had to call it, a $620 order for rope from a great customer in Germany. He cleaned the shelves empty of what was left. Approx. 3600 linear feet of rope. Unfortunately this means I have to close up the store to restock. Otherwise they literally sell out as quickly as I can make them. I need to build up some cushion in my inventory so I dont have a heart attack chasing orders while open. Its springtime...its beautiful outside. What are you guys doing cooped up in the shop buying so much ship model stuff? Get outside in the garden and enjoy the great weather, LOL. Seriously though, thank you so much....and sorry about the delay. I am working on it!! Lets see, I think I am working on 5mm pear deadeyes currently and .018 brown rope...a long way to go. I am not going anywhere and I am NOT going out of business, there is no pandemic...so I have no idea why or what seems to be happening. Its mind-boggling to say the least. Crazy