Chuck

Nice progress Bob....

Should have more resin casting sets in stock next weekend..

Doesnt that look pretty...😃

Of course they will be available in my store....the key is how you finish them.....as I described. They look exactly the same as the blackened brass versions. But the cyphers are cast into these resin versions already. The gun deck carriages and cannon will be chapter six....they take a long time. So this will be the entire chapter along with making the eyebolts and split rings for the bulwarks and deck. You will need to buy six packages of 1 15/16" long black resin cannon...or the brass ones I have but that will double the costs. You will also need six packages of gun carriages in Cedar or in Cherry They are sold four per package. I will have them ready as soon as make more ropewalks and a few more chapter parts installments which are currently out of stock. But the cannon should be in stock right now.. Chuck

Here is the finished carriage with gun in position... Doesnt that cannon look great? Hard to believe it is black resin and not brass. To treat those, just spray a mist of matte finish on it. You know the stuff....spray fixative. I use Krylon or dull coat. I did this after removing whatever sprues and flashing with a very fine sandpaper. Once sprayed and dry I give each barrel the treatment with some weathering powders as I have described numerous times. It really does the trick. Keep in mind I havent applied any Wipe on Poly to the trucks yet so they appear very light. Thats the raw cedar. They will have a deeper color once I apply the poly. You can also add the pins that hold the trucks onto the axels. Its all up to you. I have seen so many different treatments by builders with gun carriages. You guys can have fun with these. I made the quoin handle.....basically a belaying pin like I usually do. I chock a length of 3/64 x 3/64 boxwood in my Dremel and shape it with files. I suppose you can buy some of those but its real tough to find nice belaying pins to scale. The Crafty Sailor sells some nice ones. Its up to you and how much time you want to spend on these. Remember you have to make 24 of them. The cap square......these are finicky details You can put as much time and detail into these as you desire. Check out a few of the scratch build logs and you will see some guys go nutty with these. I tend to simplify these merely out of boredom with them and lack of desire to go beyond what you see in the photos. My goal is to just give the suggestion of a more detailed version. It is not a great deal accurate but because of there size this gives a great impression at this scale that they are. The close ups are brutal but when you see them in person they do a swell job. Its very simple really....the base of the cap square is literally a length of black masking tape pre-cut into 1/16" wide strips...maybe a tad wider. Then I cut the tiniest lengths of 28 gauge black wire.....to 1/16" long. The same width as the tape. I place one of these wires at the front and back edges of the tape...... To finish it off you will notice that wire loop around the aft wire of the cap square. This is just a tiny "U" that I made out of that same wire. One side of the "U" was a bit longer. I pre-drilled a hole just behind the tapes edge and inserted this "U" into it so the upside down "U" would come down on top of the wire glued to the edge of the tape. I hope that makes sense. Its one of those things that isnt easy to describe. And finally, a picture alongside a natural version I made of the cannon. Its dirty from handling it the last six months or so but you have seen this one. Its up to you guys to choose if you like the painted red version or the natural version. I am going with the painted version....it will add some color to the already colorful model. Otherwise it may look too neutral and drab. Only 23 more to go!!!! I will get the assembly line going now. I will so three batches of 8 guns. I may not even finish these all at once and skip ahead because its tedious work. ANY QUESTIONS???

So how goes progress on this restoration?

Its a thing of beauty!!!

Nope Never.

And by the way guys...I use a lot of black annealed wire. It is all the "Hillman Wire" brand. It can be found at Ace Hardware stores and even on EBAY. Home Depot has it too but sometimes they dont have the right gauges. I use 28 and 24 and 22 Gauge black wire mostly. To make my eyebolts they are primarily 28 and 24 gauge.....although when I need I heavier hook or eye bolt I will use 22 gauge. They also have really heavy stuff 19 gauge but I rarely use that.

Those hinges look very good. Well done. If that was the first time you made them it is an outstanding job.... Chuck

Nicely done....real interested in seeing those sails on her!!!

Yes probably.....making 24 of these is not fun so I will offer it as well. It makes life so much easier. Chuck

You shouldnt need to clamp each plank at all. Too risky. A small drop of CA will do the trick if you have pre-bent the plank properly. No clamping is needed. Just glue the plank on a few frames at a time slowly working from the bow to mid ship. But dont forget to measure the length of that plank and cut the aft end so it falls on the frame center first ....before you start gluing it on. Your new planks will ship out this morning.

Very nice...interesting stuff. I never even knew that partnership in Nj existed.

It depends on the use on the model. I use different gauges. For the gun carriages I am going with 24 gauge wire for these. But the smaller gun carriages on the qdeck and fcastle....I will probably go with 28 gauge. for the rung size i usually go with whatever my source plan indicates. Certainly go smaller than larger. It is yet another item that will cary and research is in order which most wont do. Its a pain to do it but it makes a big difference. My eyebolts on any given model will vary quite a bit depending on location and use.

Im not sure how I can do that. Its really hard to explain. I just use a good set of needle nose pliers and nippers. I am not sure ...let me think on this. Chuck

Just a start on the gun carriages....You can paint them as I have or leave them natural. I first sanded both sides of the sheet before I removed the parts....then I sanded the char lightly from the edges. I prefer to paint all parts first before assembly. But I know everyone has their preference. Note the wheels/trucks were left natural. In addition, the ends of the axels were rounded off and also left natural. I removed only the smallest amount of laser char before painting these. You dont want to reduce the size of the parts too much because they need to fit into the jig which I will make available to everyone....also pictured. The jig parts are all laser cut. Then the axels are placed in the jig...hopefully they fit snug. One tip is to build the jig around the actual axel parts to ensure a tight fit. Then add the sides and glue in place. When dry...remove from the jig. Dont glue it to the jig. Next I added the two other wood parts on the front and back ends of the carriage. These parts are slightly longer so you have to sand them for a nice fit. Finally I also added a 1mm round bar across the center. It goes through the hole in the sides of the carriages...see below. At this stage you can either start adding the metal work...eyebolts or finish building the carriages. Its up to you. I added the carriage bed and quoin at this stage....below. By the way please do follow the plan for these which is available on the large sheets you printed. I may copy them to 8 1/2X11 sheets for you guys to make it easier to print and have next to you. The metal work is straight forward... eye bolts and split rings. These were made from 24 gauge black wire. The split rings were made using a #41 drill bit. The other bolts were just simulated using 25 pound black fishing line. They were left standing proud of the surface a bit after slicing off the excess. If you will rig each cannon dont insert the eye bolt with split rings yet. This is easier done later by placing them onto your breech rope. More on that later. I havent made the quoin handle yet. That is next. Then I will add the cannon and trunnion caps. Stay tuned. So far I have only made this one carriage today to show you guys the process. This will take a while to make all 24 carriages. To begin I made all of the eye bolts and split rings and cut the brass 1mm rods to length. Its a lot of work.... Each carriage has 7 eye bolts...or a total of 168 2 split rings....48 and 24 bras rods cut to length and blackened. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: its no fun to make this many eye bolts or hooks...which you will need for the carriages including another 125 eyebolts for the bulwarks. BUT there is nothing that wrecks a model more than gun carriages with commercial eye bolts that are way too large and made from wire that is way too thin. That is why I make my own. It just looks really bad. So take your time. Also note the eye bolts in that picture above. Each one is sunk into the carriage sides a bit because that is how it was done. This prevents them from twisting. The cedar is great for this as it is soft and you can just push them in a bit to sink them. Use the plans for the size and shape of the eyebolts. I will update this when I make the quoin handle and start on the cap squares... PDF download of gun carriages... winnie gun carriages.pdf

Not a big fan of that style.....It looks to angular and over thought out. Cant show any guns on upper deck either. Chuck

As I plan ahead for the future parts of the Winnie I thought I would start a discussion about different ways you can plank the Qdeck and Fcastle.... You can plank only half the deck like I did on my Confederacy model. This gives you a different look and more access to view the gun deck details below. It will also show the various knees on those deck beams. See below. And yes Model Expo broke this model as you can see.....the Anchor and timberheads are now broken on the Port side. An easy fix that they should really do.... OR...You can plank like many of the contemporary models out there. Here for example is how this is done with two running open areas down the Qdeck and Fcastle. Since I already did the half open thing with Confederacy I may go this route with my Winnie. Its more traditional. Its entirely up to you and will help make the model more unique to your personal tastes. Going with the version below will allow you to omit most of the knees all together because they wont be seen. Also note how the fore and aft edges of the deck beams are painted red. This is a typical way that they are shown on contemporary models.

Yes it is but he used a 50/50 mixture of shellac and mineral spirits on the cherry. It gives it a really nice look.

I would say that looks pretty darn good. 😃

Just to show you a different look with the barge here is a friend of mine building it right now. Early paintings show the planking painting white.......it looks nice.

Excellent work...that just shows how you can make your model very unique. Well done. Chuck

Nice and straight....almost at the fun part.

Very Nice.....just take care when fairing. It will fair easy enough with a light touch and some sandpaper that is NOT too course. This is a step you dont want to rush. You can just glue that tab back together. No worries with that.