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gak1965

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  1. gak1965
    Yep. I was planning to use your method, suitably adapted to my tool arrangements.
  2. gak1965
    First build update of 2022 (and it is really weird to be typing this. First Blade Runner taking place in 2019, and now we are in the year of Soylent Green - yikes). Anyways, a bunch of mostly small additions that nonetheless consumed way more time than I expected. First up, as planned I mounted the starboard pinrail. I then spent the next several days making the carriage house skylight, which consumed a vast amount of time. The skylight is hollow (I built up 4 sides, then put two hollow rectangular frames and a central beam that make up the top of the skylight. I cut sections of clear glass that fit into the frame, and then added pre-painted muntin bars to create the four individual lights. Finally, I set three 24 gauge brass wires to represent the protective bars over the window panes, edged the base in stained decking, and mounted it on the carriage house. I also made and installed the eight bitts and the four mooring chocks on the main deck. On the forecastle, I added the nails that support the catheads, the spray rail, and the four pads that protect the deck from the anchor flukes when the anchors are stowed. Less visible are the three pinrails on the forecastle, one at the bow, and the other two flush with the deck between the forecastle and the WCs. I decided to mount the anchors as if they are being recovered which I think shows them off a little more interestingly than if they were simply lashed to the deck. I connected the anchor chains to the archor using a brass loop, stropped a double block with a hook and rigged the blocks on the catheads. Seen from the bow, the anchors look thus: The ship as a whole now looks thus: Pretty soon it will be time to fabricate the taffrail and start on the chains and deadeyes, marking the transition from hull to rigging. I mentioned before that I was doing some experiments with the ship's boats. Here is the painted boat. The left side has the detail made with Tamiya tape, the right with copper tape. My personal view is that I like the less "in your face" version with the Tamiya tape, and that the Tamiya XF-1 "flat" white is not nearly flat enough. The final version needs to be a lot less glossy. But, I think that with Tamiya taped details, better white paint, and a gunwale painted some contrasting color (likely some brown) the castings will be just fine when turned upside down. The two boats that are right side up will probably also need to have a canvas cover to hide their deficiencies, but I think that will be fine. As always, thanks for the likes and for looking in. Soylent Green is People! I mean Happy New Year 2022. Stay safe out there. George
  3. gak1965
    Yep, I saw Rob's post and am going to do pretty much the same thing, subject to variations in our shop tools and success or failure with said tools. I don't plan on doing red iron bands, but it does work on his Glory of the Seas @rwiederrich
  4. gak1965
    If I do it again for more than about 50 holes, I think I'd make two or three of the hole patterns, as the "drill" hole gets larger over time and you get some more variation. Alternatively, I might line the drill hole with some brass tubing which I think I can get at the right size. A better way, of course, would be a drill press with a compound worktable with precision x and y translation 😃. Not likely to happen anytime soon, however.
  5. gak1965
    Actually, I think you are ahead of me. My next big items (other than the naval hood, cutwater and figurehead) is the taffrail, which you've already installed. While I'm doing that, I've ordered a small wood turning lathe, and I'm going to start experimenting on the fore and main mast lowers since they were fished on the Fish and I've never made anything like them. Happy New Year! George
  6. gak1965
    Hello all, Well, the end of the year is upon us, and I hope that the new year treats everyone better than 2021. A final update before the calendar ticks over. I made and installed the gooseneck vents. You can see the pieces that I cut to turn into the vents and the subset that are made in the photo below I made a small jig to ensure that the holes were properly spaced, and after drilling them with my pin vise, I glued them in. Next are the pinrails, which are approximately 14 inches long and made out of 3/16 by 1/16 boxwood. I made a jig for this too, so that as I drilled there would be pressure to keep the wood from splitting. In order to ensure that the spacing stayed the same I glued a piece of wood on top of the space that the pin rail was fed through with two holes 1/8 of an inch apart, aligned so that the holes were parallel to a l is me 1/16 of an inch from the outer edge. I drilled the right hole, slid it to the left and inserted a belaying pin in the left hole, drilled in the right, letter the pin, slid the wood to the left, reinserted the pin, etc. That generated two pinrails. After staining, I installed the port side pin rail, the starboard will need to wait until tomorrow. I don't plan to put in the pins in until after the chain plates are installed, and I can align the locations better. Finally, I've started an experiment. I don't love the ship's boat castings, so I am trying two ways to improve their appearance. In both cases, I'm trying to make it look more like a lap straked hull. On one side I've used Tamiya tape, on the other 5mm copper tape. They are being painted with a couple of layers of white paint. Both already look better than the casting after 1 coat. I will show an example when they are done. Lately, it doesn't feel like a lot of progress is being made, because I've been putting in details that don't change the overall look all that much, but here is a picture of the ship as of last New Year's, and progress has definitely been made. Have a safe and happy New Year! George K
  7. gak1965
    It could be as simple as how steep and wide the ladder is and the need for easy access. The destroyer I was on had pretty steeply angled ladders (it was more like climbing a ladder than a staircase) and you needed the rail to move quickly up or down. Otherwise you'd need to put your hand on the sides or the next rung and risk getting stamped on. Merry Christmas all, George K
  8. gak1965
    Nice! I know this is going to sound a bit strange, but I love the details on the chain navels, particularly how you went to the trouble of including the chain that ties it to the deck. Sometimes it's the small details like that that really make a model pop!
  9. gak1965
    Thanks! I scratch built the ones up to the poop, and I'm still trying to decide what to do about the gangway, carriage house and forecastle ladder, all of which are narrower than the poop ladders. The available castings are actually moderately okay, but I wonder if they are going to look out of place in comparison to the two wooden ones I've already built. A Merry Christmas to you and everyone else looking in. George K.
  10. gak1965
    It's been a busy week, so I haven't had a ton of time to work on the ship. However, I've done a few things that are vaguely interesting, so a brief update. First, I built the railing that goes on the carriage house. It's built of 24 gauge brass wire. The stanchions have a loop made at the top that I threaded onto the railing and then soldered in place, giving the joints the appearance of a ball joint, which is what I was trying to do. It was then painted, trimmed and glued into place I didn't like the anchor stock castings, so I scratch built wooden ones, with blackened brass strips to represent the iron work. Finally, I worked on the area around the foremast. Step 1 was blackening some chain that I purchased from Bluejacket that is a more reasonable scale for the anchor chains. I then used the wire that I put in the place to route the chain through the hawse holes, the chain keepers and over the windlass. Before I did that, I made the guides into the chain lockers by wrapping blackened brass strip into an almost complete circle. This was mounted in front of the main house, leaving a small opening for the chain, and I drilled a hole inside the circle made by the strip. Once I had the chain over the windlass, I put some of it in the drilled hole, glued it in place, and made the cover with a circular section of copper tape, which sat on the port like the metal lid it is. Finally, as with the main fife rail, I cut the stanchions off the Britannia castings and scratch built a new fife rail which is painted to match the main fife rail. You can see all of this in the photo below: A couple of questions for the cognoscenti. I've assumed that the belaying pins in the 1850s would have been of wood. Am I correct? The pinrail is coming up soon, and the plans say it should be bright. So far, all of the pins on this ship and the Niagara have been on painted pinrails, but if the wood is bright, I need to paint all of those brass pins some color that isn't completely out of whack with the bright color. Alternatively, I suppose that I could paint the pinrail some sort of brown color and color the brass pins at the same time. Another question is the spacing. It's not clear from the plans if the pinrail had holes unformly across it's entire length, and only filled the ones that were needed, or if there is a set of holes/pins that follow the (approximate) pattern shown on the belaying plan (i.e. the main pinrail has two sections around the main and foremast with closely spaced pins, and a couple of pins in specific locations. Has anyone who has gotten further figured that out? As always thanks for looking in and the likes! I realize I've been at this slightly more than a year, and this is post number 201. Hopefully, by this time next year it will be complete. Regards, George K
  11. gak1965
    More deck furniture. First, the patent steering gear. Not particularly visible, but I did put the emergency tiller and the connection to rudder post in. Next, a couple of additional items on the carriage house. I mounted the doors to the storage areas, and then promptly covered up the doors with ladders. Didn't love the castings and while the ladders are not exactly perfect, they are better and in place. Finally, the main mast fife rails, pump and vent around the main mast. The fife rail castings were a mess (and needed to be drilled for the pins) so I cut the stanchions off the casting, made a wooden fife rail and painted the whole thing. The pump casting was surprisingly okay, painted it black with some gold on the outer edges of the pump wheel for some contrast, and mounted the whole thing on the main mast pad, with a bit of blacked brass strip to simulate the mounting points for the pump axles. Working on replacing the anchor stocks and planning out how I'm going to carve a 3/4 inch flying fish! As always thanks for the likes and for looking in! Regards, George K.
  12. gak1965
    Three of them will be upside down, so at least their deficiencies will be less visible. I need to see what a BlueJacket one looks like before deciding. Maybe the boats in the davits will be off doing something and not around...😀
  13. gak1965
    They look very nice which, much better than the casts from MSW. Looks like some more purchases from BlueJacket or scratch building some replacements. Thanks! George K
  14. gak1965
    Rob, I've looked through the log to try to find the if you mentioned it, but haven't found it. Are the ship's boats scratch, kits from Model Shipways, castings from BlueJacket or something else? She is looking fabulous! George K
  15. gak1965
    I've been doing a lot of different things but not ones that have massive impacts on how the ship looks writ large. With that said a couple of updates. First, I put the ship on its build board. A standard Dremel cutting wheel did in fact cut the brass posts nicely, although as you would expect the brass got very hot in the process. So here is the ship (with some of the other things completed) mounted. Because there is going to be a lot of paint around the ship for the foreseeable future, I wrapped the board in Saran before pushing the screws through. Once I'm done, I'll just pull it off. As I said, I've done a variety of detail work. As you can see, I discarded the water tank, and scratch built a new one. Here are a set of photos that show its construction and placement: In the next photos you will see that I've built the ladder on the cabin, put the boat supports in place, added the pads around the fore and main masts, installed the capstans, several of the vents, the boomkins, and a number of the deck mounted eyebolts. The eyebolts that are supplied are way to big, and I've replaced them with 0.75 mm eyebolts (that's about a 3 inch eyebolt at scale), but they were leftover jackstay eyebolts from the Niagara and I need to buy more. I also blackened some chain for the boomkins and some brass to make hinges. You can see the ones I put on the store hatch, and in one of the photos you can see the start of making hinges for the two hatches that mount next to the carriage house below the poop deck. I'm going to keep working on these details while planning out the cutwater and naval hoods and then carving the figurehead. As always, thanks for the likes and looking in! Regards, George K.
  16. gak1965
    They were all one size, I'm afraid...
  17. gak1965
    Happy Thanksgiving all! Just a quick update. I've been working on some smaller details. The first is the stores hatch on the stern. I put some spare stained glass material one of my kids left behind to fill the openings, and then put in the bars and the split ceiling: Next, the binnacle cabinet. When you see the last two photos which include the Britannia casting for comparison, you will see why I chose to scratch build a replacement. The first pic shows the back, sides and the framing for the place where the compass sits, the second shows the completed but unpainted version next to the casting, and the final photo shows it painted with the bell. The plans say to make it bright, but the combination of the small parts and the wood I had available argued for paint rather than leaving it bright, so I went with the color of the coamings. Finally, a couple of views of the ship, the first with only the stores hatch in place, the second showing the stores hatch, the binnacle, and the two pads I put in place, one on the carriage house that has the round hole for the mizzen mast, and the other on the main deck for one of the capstans. Thanks again for looking in, for the likes, and the encouragement! George K
  18. gak1965
    Glad to see you back! Quick question about the gaffs. How did you make the hinge? Is it articulated or rigid. Everything looks fantastic! George K
  19. gak1965
    Good luck! You should post a log...
  20. gak1965
    Wow. Is your kit the solid hull or the POB? My understanding is that the transition happened in 1979 (ish), so right about the age of your kit...
  21. gak1965
    Thanks for the complement! i probably give MSW too much grief, as I like their kits (this is my third one, after all). The wood is decent, the non-Britannia fittings are actually pretty good and the plans are excellent. I also like that they are kind of “semi-scratch”. I feel like I’ve now scratch built enough that I will be able to tackle the next project, a scratch build of RRS Discovery. i wonder if the problem here is the scale. 1:96 is just going to be harder to do well than 1:64, the scale of the other two MSW ships I’ve done. The bulk of the castings in those other kits were fine, but they were also larger and more symmetrical (gun barrels, anchors, life rings, and the windlass barrel on PoBII). Some might have benefited from simplifying, e.g. casting only the windlass barrel,and not bothering with the water tank and anchor stocks, which are easy to build. Regards, George K
  22. gak1965
    Thanks! I am still hoping to sail on the real one once the pandemic abates and they start up again on Lake Erie.
  23. gak1965
    Thanks! I don't have a table saw and this one is now moot, but worth checking when the Fish is done. The hardest part was that only one branch of the small hardware chain we use stocked large enough sheets to meet the needs of the case, and even then it was only on stock sporadically.
  24. gak1965
    Yeah. Somehow there is this crazy expectation that real life was sepia toned in the past, when, if anything, color choices were often much more bright/garish. Athenians would be disappointed at all of those unpainted lintels on our federal buildings, Civil War soldiers went out and fought in red and blue Zouave uniforms, and through much of medieval Europe there were (generally ignored) sumptuary laws to keep the lower classes from dressing up too much. I mean, look at the Vasa for goodness sake.
  25. gak1965
    Okay, continuing with the deck furniture before tackling the cutwaters, naval hoods, and (yeek) trying to carve a figurehead. I've finished the water closet/storage/belowdeck entry structures forward (I'm sure there is a proper name and hopefully someone will be able to provide it). As with most of structures, I built them in place, using 1/8 square stock to make two of the corners defined by the coaming. I also mounted two small bits of scrap against the bulwarks to anchor the outer edges of the bulkheads. The bulkheads were built up, painted, and then trimmed to fit in the locations as required, and I built some corner fascia using 3/32 square stock that sanded to shape with my dremel. The hatches were all premade, excising bits with an Exacto knife to make the panels. Each hatch used 1/32 square stock to make the jambs and the lintels, and then the whole hatch unit was installed. The capstan bars were made from 1/32 square stock, embedded into their racks, and the racks mounted on the forward side (although they are next to impossible to see). The ceilings were made from 1/16 square stock (the same stock I stained for the deck months ago), joined, shaped and then glued into place (I'm holding the starboard side one down to let the glue cure in the upper photo). So, a couple of views of the completed units: While I realize that this is probably inauthentic, I couldn't help myself make the following for the hatches to the water closets: Childish, I know, but you need to have some fun in life. So this is what the ship looks like overall now from the stern. I've also mounted the rear hatches to the carriage house (for some reason I hadn't done so yet). So, I have one more hatch to make, and then I pretty much need to get this thing on its display board because it won't be much longer before I no longer want to set this upside down. I used wipe only poly for the cherry base board, which now looks fabulous, so that is done, however, a couple of questions to folks out there. I have three nice brass pedestals from BlueJacket, but they have very deep slots, so without some kind of change, there will be a gap between the keel and the bottom of the slot. Question, do people generally prefer to put some kind of spacer in the pedestal (i.e. a pice of wood the fills the gap, presumably painted brass) or do they try to cut the tops of the pedestals down so that the keel hits the bottom of the slot? If the latter, do you try to match the curve of the hull, or just cut off the top? If either of those, what is actually necessary to cut brass? I am not swimming in precision power tools (most of what I have is from the days when I was building play structures for my children (i.e. great for treated, dimensional lumber, not so great for precision miniature work); all four of the wooden ships I've built or are building were made with a single power tool - a dremel. Does Dremel make anything that can realistically cut brass? Thanks for the help, for looking in, and for the likes! Regards, George K.

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