michael mott

About 42 years ago I made a small commission for a chap who was giving a gift to an owner of a swan yacht, it was a small brass bracket with a chunk of the deck of the clipper ship the Lightning which sank at Geelong. In payment for the work I asked for the balance of the piece of the deck. it was granted, here is the piece that I have. Michael

A quick and dirty yest to see how the vinyl looks as a buttoned cushion. a couple of layers of the thin craft foam sheets from Michaels carpet taped to a bit of 1/4 inch thick plywood then the vinyl stapled to the wood on the bottom, and some brass coated estuchions pins hammered in to a rough pattern to represent the buttons. A dab of green craft paint on the pins and see it in situ The green vinyl might just work, tomorrow I will look at a test with the pigskin. Michael

He was just a figment of my imagination Keith....no resemblance to me at all

Hi Tom its a through the wall air conditioning and heating unit like this one but an Armana It keeps the shop nice and warm in the winter and cool in the summer, I keep the temp at 66f I have a couple of choices for the seat cushions the green is a forest greenish vinyl and the other is a, nice reddish brown pig skin. The pig skin is a little thinner than the vinyl the computer screen is making the green look a little bluish and is toning down the red of the pigskin a bit. I like both but am having a difficult time choosing. Michael

A bit nippy out there this morning -31c with a windchill of -47c it seems so weird having to put on a parka and gloves going from the back door to the workshop which is only about 20 feet, but fumbling with the key and very cold door handles is not pleasant. Michael

Hi Druxey no he is actually Montague,s Gardener come Jack of all trades, a bit more portly than me unfortunately, here he is taking Mars for a drive Michael

Very nice clean work, The model looks super with all the added care and attention to detail. I notice that you are in Alberta, one of the cities or in the country? Michael

Hi WalrusGuy? I am using a fairly small Canon SX730HS and it has a flip mirror screen I just sat i on a block of wood or in this case a jam jar. I like the flip screen and have used the timer and then just held it in my hand as well Michael

Tom, Rob and Ed, Thank you for your kind words. I do find them encouraging, especially when one discovers that the reason one is having troubles with fitting this or that, that these are generally the result of an oversight or an error that was unavoidable. It turns out that the aft bulkhead was tight because i was trying to fit it a foot aft of where it was supposed to be. This I discovered this morning while setting up to install the side paneling.... Hmmmm the distance seems wider than the panel. After cutting a new slot in the floor and moving the bulkhead forward chopping an 1 1/2" off the length of the seat bottoms it all came together. I shall insert a strip across where the earlier slot was cut no doubt the interior cabinet workers and shipwrights had a reason to the inset wood. Access perhaps.. Angus was reasonably happy , mentioned that leather would be a better choice for the cushions. I told him I would see what we had in stock. Michael

Hello Nils, A couple of hours this morning going through this fine build, What a delight to see more of your clever ways to make things that are complex. you Seem to have a great skill at breaking things down into their smaller parts. I also like the peek a boo ways that you show the interior parts. Hope all is well with you during these challenging times and that you and your family are healthy. Take care Michael

It was nice to revisit this wonderful model Nils. so many neat and interesting details and neat little tricks. Michael

Thanks for all the comments and likes. There is something intrinsically satisfying about being able to prepare ones own materials from the raw tree. The maple that I am using in this model is from a log of maple that was 24 inches in diameter and 6 feet long that was cut in Nova Scotia in 1973 and was given to me by a students grandfather. It was about 7 years later that I cut a 3 inch slab from the center of the log with a hand held chainsaw and then hand planed that into a top for a coffee table. Because the log had sat upright on a concrete floor for a couple of years before laying out the back of my model shop the log had started to get some spalting, which can produce some pretty figure. The rest was cut into various slabs of 1/4 sawn pieces and set up in the rafters of the model shop when I was running my model building business. Over the years since I have resawn various bits into 1/4 inch thick book matched panels and stacked then for later use. Today I used a couple of 1/4 by 3 1/2 sheets that were 14 inches long that were still in the raw bandsawn state and decided that they would represent some figured plywood for the bottoms of the seat cushions. Hand planing the air dried maple was a joy soft paper thin shavings curing out of my benck plane. The planks are resting on some rebated cleats. I will add some cross pieces that when finished will hook into the rebates. Michael

A bit of a struggle this morning fitting the aft panel section I had trouble getting it to fit in the correct position so kept removing material from the top edge so that it would rotate onto place. Then did a check only to fin out that the floor was not seated properly. The it all fell into place. From under the cockpit looking forward. then with the skylights replaced Now the real fun begins getting the side panels to hook into position and lock the whole works together. lunchtime Michael

Very nice work on the davits Keith. Michael

Tom... Sextant that's complicated! Gary, Thanks I appreciate it. The aft panels for the main cabin are now ready to be glued up, but lunch and a nap are in order first. In order to get the paneling as clean as possible without sanding I love using my little block plane and the thickness planing jig. I needed to creat slight taper from one end of the horizontal pieces so that the surfaces mated smoothly so after getting to the main thickness , I added a couple of slivers of paper to create the difference from end to end. All the parts are now interlocked with mortices and tenons and the panels are fitting with some ability to move. Michael

Following up with the paper strip comments, I needed to do just that today but I also needed a slight taper so I added a small bit of paper to the end that needed to be thinner. So there are many useful tricks with this little jig Michael

Hello Jack the jig looks good , a neat trick is to use multiple layers of card or paper under the work being planed once it reaches the amount of material that can be removed because of the side supports, if you need to remove a "smidgen" more place a piece of paper under the wood, and take another pass with the plane. I find this very useful. and also you can have special plates that you can pop in when working with different know thicknesses. Hope this is helpful. Regards Michael

Hi Ryland just finished going through your build very nice work on the planking by the way. I like the ropework as well. Looks like you are close to finishing, I enjoyed visiting with you on the Zoom meeting. it is nice to be able to put name and voices and faces together. Michael

Tom the paneling is definitely a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, It will all work out and look interesting when done. I am looking forward to the gimbal stove and the chart table with some maritime instruments like these ones parallel rule and compasses . Michael

Ken, look more closely, I'm not sure what baccy he is using though😉 Michael

Hi Keith, well again sorry for the long delay as you might have guessed I have been down a few more of my rabbit holes. The deck sounds like a great project. The ability to set up the track on a nice flat surface is a plus with live steam, and given the climate in our parts of the world the ability to take it up over the winter is not such a bad thing really. We are going back down temperature wise it is currently -20C and overnight are set to get down to -36C in the next couple of days. The RH Billy looks great, was the kit difficult or an easy job? I think they sell their cylinder sets as a separate item. I have considered buying a set to bypass all that side of the work. And regarding the other rabit holes I have been working on a 12 foot long by 2 foot wide layout in 7/8th scale of a section of a locomotive building building works with the Crewe works as inspiration. Then there is the Hospital tramway model layout that is also 7/8th scale and just 4 square feet of model surface . this first picture is in the public domain and shows the intersection of two corridors and one of the electric locomotives. This is my proposed floor plan. and the 3rd or fourth iteration of the loco. The wooden flooring is laid over some old salvaged rail from some HO gauge set track that was soldered to brass spacers the gauge is 1.25 inches The flooring is Yellow cedar. Then there are these two locos, One of Montagues new fangled electric experimental locos. this parts salvaged from an old battery drill. it is 1:10 scale and 45mm gauge My own design for a forward and reverse switch using a rotary set of wipers. testing the efficacy of the switch It worked well enough Using the old third hand to do a bit of soldering. And finally this odd loco using some salvaged printer motor and gears with some Servo link plastic chains for the drive, it has gone through many iterations as well it is based on the only known photograph of a 2 foot gauge loco built by the Saunderson Gifkins Tractor Company and is dated around 1912 The gas tank is some .005 thou styrene wrapped around a block of Poplar the gas cap is a watch winder from the stock of watchmaking bits that I acquired from an old friend. The battery will be located in the water tank that was also used as added weight for traction. it is 7/8th scale and set up for 45mm track gauge, the loco will be using a LocoRemote control system that uses my phone to control it. That pretty much sums up the last year and some of my rabbit holes. Michael

You know Tom I find that I drop Candles all the time! What an interesting project, I am sure that you Uncle will be very happy with the model Cutter when you have finished. I like the yellow Cedar it has a nice mellow look and I love the smell of it. Nice work on the floor grate. Michael

Greg Thanks for the kind words, yes the maple is really pretty. Tom.... Oh dear you have asked about a couple of my rabbit holes... The structure behind the Plaid Box is the backdrop of a model railroad layout that is built to 7/8th to the foot scale, It is a section that ostensibly is inside a locomotive factory. That will have a gantry crane and a loco being built. Sort of 1896 time frame. Based on the Crewe works and the narrow gauge tramway serving the works. I will post some pics in the non ship area. The "Y" is a small narrow gauge hospital layout based on a hospital in Quebec that had electric trains in the corridors. I will add those as well. Michael

First a bit of sorting here are a couple of shots this morning, time to put away some of the rabbit holes. then rearrange the cabinets and work surfaces. Easy passage now around the benches with better access to the cutter also set the bowsprit back out. Picking up where I left off with the cabin interior will take a day or two to get back into the swing of things (doors, cupboards etc.) I need to sort out how to lock the parts together inside the hull, a bit like putting ships in bottles really. Big pieces that have to go through a narrow opening in the right sequence. Now for some fish and rice for supper. Michael

True I echo these sentiments. Michael