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mikiek

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Everything posted by mikiek

  1. mikiek
    Elijah - like Bob said, the little items are what turn a model into a ship. And even though they are small they can still have details. Check as many period pictures/paintings as you can. Get a feel for how the work was done on board. You may find you can add (or remove) items for more realism.
  2. mikiek
    Just curious Bob - do the nails stay in or are they just for holding in place?
  3. mikiek
    Dave - good thought on cleaning the electrode tips. I need to get some backups. Those things seem to break real easy.
  4. mikiek
    That and of course how clean all the parts are. Including the container used to soak them. I've always gone with glass jars for that. They don't absorb much.
  5. mikiek
    Thank you Elijah. It is almost a relief to have that behind me.
  6. mikiek
    Darrell - I have the deadeyes down. At least I did. There are some already installed on my mast tops. If I can just remember how I did them. Hopefully there are notes in my log too. It's the other pieces that I was trying to get away with not soldering, particularly the the one that mounts to the hull. I was also hammering 26 gauge wire. I'm OK with the look, just hoping that hammering them would close the end loops enough to hold. But while I've got you, the 26 guage was for the largest chain plates. Did you go thinner for the smaller ones? I really don't feel comfortable using 28 or 30 guage wire for this process. I have my doubts as to the durability when some tension is put on them. Also the plan is not real clear on the next plate up from the hull mounted one. It sort of looks like it just hooks into the upper loop of the one below it. Not really fastened.
  7. mikiek
    Mark, Dave - OK you talked me into it. I do have a resistance unit. It's rather frustrating. The pincer electrodes (like in Dave's pic) work only about half the time. The rest of the time it does nothing. Can't figure out what's wrong.
  8. mikiek
    Bob and Don, thank you! It is a real mile stone in this process. Don, it's almost an illusion. The ship only carries 20 guns. Relatively speaking, that ain't many when compared to a ship o' line. I guess it's because they are all out on the main deck rather than below on a gun deck(s).
  9. mikiek
    The pix don't look a lot different than the ones from last week. But I am calling the deck finished now. All the parts made and mounted. I will still do a final compare with the plans to see if I overlooked something. My thanks to Darrell for leading the way on the galley pipe. Was not sure how to do that one. Soldering brass strips to the brass pipe was quite annoying. Tried a mini torch at first. Get one soldered. Go to do the next one and the heat would melt the solder on the first one. Had to break out the resistance solderer. It took a while to get each strip in place with one of those third hand things. Then get the electrodes touching without knocking everything off. But the solder was quick and did not affect the other pieces. The little cone piece on top was made by turning a piece of wood. Actually my first attempt using a lathe for anything other than rounding square sticks for spars. I did some reading on galley stoves and it appears that early pipes were made of wood not metal. Not so sure about during the Niagara period. If it is wood then I probably have the pipe painted the wrong color. I know the top area would have been black from soot. Channels and chain plates are next. I've posted a question about that here. Feel free to add your 2 cents worth on that. Well here she is.
  10. mikiek
    Channels & chain plates and I will be ready to start rigging. The Niagara plans call for 0.016" material for the largest chain plates. Even thinner for the smaller ones. I don't have any brass rod that small (0.02 is my thinnest) and my calipers are telling me that 0.016 would be about 27 gauge wire. That's pretty darned thin. While there may be a few of you out there that could, I doubt if I could do any type of soldering on that - to close loops, etc. I did take some 26 gauge wire and wrap it around some nails and came out with the proper shape piece - just wire with a loop at each end. I then hammered it a bit which of course widens the wire and seems to close the loops somewhat. This is my first build so my first rigging too and what I don't know is this. When the rigging starts how much stress is actually put on the chain plates from standing rigging? Granted in real life there would be a lot. But in our modeling? Will the hammered loops be sufficient? Here's a sample part.
  11. mikiek
    Aw man! You're spoiling it for me. I'm counting down the years, months, days, minutes
  12. mikiek
    Funny how we all have different experiences with products. I have used the Blue Jacket product with very good results.
  13. mikiek
    That stinks Mike. I hope you get some resolution soon. I am working this kit in between some others. Got the frames laid and the first strake of planking on. It was rather difficult. Quite a few folks opted for spiling the planks. I have gone with the instructions and am trying to bend them. Including edge bending. Also had Crown replace the kit supplied wood with pear. I suppose that might be why the plank bending is more difficult. Don't give up the ship!
  14. mikiek
    Thank you Julie! This kit seems to have a lot of detail packed into a rather small hull. All having to do with her intended use.
  15. mikiek
    Pix are very unforgiving!!! The slightest spec of dust looks like a boulder. The slightest splinter looks like a tree trunk and gouge looks like a ditch. Frankly, I've found that's the best way to do a once over on a new piece of work.
  16. mikiek
    The build just gets better and better looking! Had a cold front here today - low=60F/hi=80F Brrrrr
  17. mikiek
    Good luck Mike. I hope the book helps you more than it helped me.
  18. mikiek
    Very well done Scott. I remember trying to do those bars - it was a nightmare. Or perhaps you have more patience. That little flip up slat was no fun either. Best of all you did the real coamings. When you get the deck around that it will be more realistic.
  19. mikiek
    I definately will put a finish on them. Problem is I keep finding little spots I missed or chipped off. I'd like to get those cleaned up first.
  20. mikiek
    1:64 figurines were purchased here. Set of 6 different figures. Only downside I have run into is painting them. The blue in the pic is after 4 coats and it still chips easily. Maybe enamel rather than acrylic?
  21. mikiek
    Can't believe the progress you have made Bob. Someday I will have that kind of time.
  22. mikiek
    Key word "presumed"
  23. mikiek
    Don, Darrell, Elijah - thank you for checking in and for your feedback! I am still a little uncertain about the pins but I am telling myself they will likely be 80%-90% covered by rope so I have some wiggle room. I prefer the smaller ones but the others should suffice, I was able to find the 1:64 figurines online - same scale as the kit. They are pewter and have been painted. I don't plan on mounting them permanently but they are a help in realizing the scale. In the interest of time, the original builders took some serious shortcuts when building supports for the deck. Several common practices are believed to be omitted. But still sturdy enough for the one battle this ship was intended for. I believe the Browns used the same techniques when they built Eagle on Lake Champlain a year later - a build they completed in something like 40 days.
  24. mikiek
    Thanks jdbondy - I will order some of both. Good timing too, as I will begin rigging Niagara in the next week or two.
  25. mikiek
    I thought this evening I could post that the deck is finished but I jumped over to Darrell's log and remembered I still had a galley stack to make. Also, in mounting the fife rails I had to take the pump off, and have not replaced it. Always something! Fife rails were built to plans but the cross pieces seem rather wimpy to me. I have my doubts as to whether they will take much of a load. I did run some thin CA on the underside but it didn't seem to help. Plans also called for them to be 'natural' in color, which I did, but I am not overly thrilled with that. Of course with my historical version there would have been few frills - even painting would probably be only out of necessity. Well the deck is more complete and I was about to move on to the channels and chainplates. Plans there call for 0.016" rod for the largest chainplate pieces. Again, this seems very wimpy. The smaller ones are supposed to be 0.010" - yeah right. And neither were supplied in the kit. The smallest rods I have are 0.020". I'm going to make a couple of test pieces and see how they look. I am definitely not going any smaller. I would appreciate your comments on the belay pins. I while back I posted about running out of the small kit supplied pins. I order some more but they are a little bigger and shaped differently. I ended up using the small pins on the fife rails and the larger ones on the bulwark rails. Here's the almost completed deck. It's getting rather busy. Hard to imagine a crew running around. Speaking of crew

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