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mikiek

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Everything posted by mikiek

  1. mikiek
    I ended up getting a brush set made with taklon bristles and a filbert cut. They seem to be well regarded for acrylics and wider coverage.
  2. mikiek
    Darrell - I started with a jig for the holes - just a small sheet with 4 holes drilled from the plan specs. The idea was to set the sheet edge on the waterway, line up a port midway point and then drill thru the holes into the bulwark. I quickly found several problems: 1. The hole in the waterway inside the ports (where you are supposed to pin the carronade) were not always well centered 2. The waterway has some slope in it from bow to stern so my template wasn't always square with the port edges. In the end, I used the template to drill the top 2 holes after I had centered them by eye. That gave me a uniform spacing at each port. The bottom holes I did by eye. I hindsight a template would be best as it holds the drill bit right where it needs to be. I got burned a few times on the lower holes (where I drilled freehand) becuase the bit wandered a little as it was first cutting the wood. That acrylic paint is harder than you think. Drilling was a little difficult because the pin vise barely fit between the bulwarks. That puts your vise and hands in an awkward position to drill. I broke 2 bits in the process. Coming up pretty soon is drilling the holes for the hawse pipes. That's supposed to be a 1/8" hole drilled at a slight angle thru inner and outer bulwark. Trying to figure out how to hold the hull and drill and then get the bit to come out on the back side right where I want it.
  3. mikiek
    Darrell -The classic method has you cutting a V shaped groove into a sheet of wood that's maybe about 1" thick. If you are starting your mast from square you drop the square into the groove and sand the corner that is exposed. Then you rotate your square 90 degrees and sand the next corner. This can work well however you end up needing several grooves cut a various depths for different sized squares. I didn't like having all the grooves so I made a jig to help sand/file octagons in a mast. I have 2, one for larger squares and one for smaller. I posted it here at MSW With the ability to adjust the ends you can actually do a tapered octagon, just close one end a little more than the other. A big improvement would be to get the adjustments metered somehow. I just did everything by eye, but my masts came out OK.
  4. mikiek
    I admire your precision on the small bowsprit pieces. Very uniform, good sharp edges!
  5. mikiek
    Lots of little things going on now and I imagine that's the way it's going to be for a while. Getting the deck fitted out with items from the honey do list. I did decide one thing this evening. Obviously the most bang for my builders buck would be to install the binnacle, pump, fife rails, etc. But I think all that would get in the way of fitting all the pieces on the bulwarks. So I will do the bulwarks first starting at the waterway and working up. So with that in mind I am starting tasks like eyebolts for carronades, cleats, etc. There's more stuff fastened to the bulwarks then you first realize. I even had pinrails ready to install but decided to get everything underneath them done first. Pics will be somewhat boring but they are a record for me down the road. I did finally glue the chock rails. They have been lying around forever. Since my handrails were a little crooked (see earlier post) the chock rails didn't lay very well at first. It took some reshaping to get the flush Also, the tail end of the deck did not seat flush against the planks on top of the transom (don't know the proper term) so I pulled out the Byrnes and shaved a strip and used that to cover the gap. Some odds and ends Eyebolt holes
  6. mikiek
    Trial side, Display side - 1st, 2nd . There were some times I even did 3 strakes on the trial side before doing the display. Always be thinking ahead. Not just next plank, but next strake, even the one after that.
  7. mikiek
    I did order some but I will try painting as well. Tamiya has a Deck Tan that would probably look pretty good. The thing I haven't figured out yet is it appears the kit supplied brass pins are 2 sizes. Both about 12mm in length but a few are quite a bit thicker. The materials list didn't differentiate so I don't know if there are really supposed to be 2 sizes or if it is just poor manufacturing tolerances.
  8. mikiek
    Thanks David - that site was helpful. I imagine pins from various sellers are pretty much the same, but it is reassuring to see all the dimensions. I made the order with them.
  9. mikiek
    Doesn't sound corny in the least. I had the same experience, made a few comments to that effect. She felt heavier and looked bigger. I too use the Eclipse airbrush and agree, out of the box the .35 needle is purposed more for detail than coverage and I really didn't want to change that. . Iwata does offer a crown tip that helps give a wider pattern.
  10. mikiek
    I do not want to use the brass belaying pins that came with the Niagara kit. I see wooden ones available on several retail sites being sold as something like "Wood Belaying Pins - 6mm" . I am assuming the 6mm is length? There doesn't appear to be any options regarding diameter and just from the site photo most of the offerings appear to be a lot thicker than the brass pins I have now. I do realize it's probably just a generic photo, but I am wondering about the diameter. Is it just understood that you will need to sand the pins down to whatever thickness is required?
  11. mikiek
    I imagine the flattening technique requires some practice. However, it could be a big improvement over what I did for the few carronades I have completed. I was cutting a wide strip to a rough shape with metal shears and then grinding it down. The pieces came out OK but no 2 look the same. Your woodworking skills are already shining. I'm excited for that and look forward to seeing what you do as you progress. I know at least a few of Team Niagara have very little (or in my case no) woodworking skills. Any tips you can provide in that area will be well received. Keep it up.......
  12. mikiek
    Darrell - it looks fantastic! I like your idea of doing the margin plank first in your planking. Also the plywood base. I used a frame and it caused me some additional work. I'm sure you got a much better fit than I did when you finally dropped it in. Also, what a great idea for the carronade front bumpers. I need to look into that. Flattening wire is a technique that has been used for years. We have a good fleet of Niagaras in various stages. I'm sure we'll be able to help each other out.
  13. mikiek
    You are always welcome Darrell! I still like doing the deck outside of the hull. The big caviat - not all hull designs let you do it. Working the bulwarks, hull and rails was MUCH easier. So many times during hull planking I was able to reach down and grab the hull from the top of the frame. Very easy and accessible. In fact the day after I glued the deck I still found myself reaching down to grab by the top. Fortunately, the deck is boxwood. A lot harder than basswood. I made the switch early on. What you see now is about 20-30% basswood and the rest boxwood. It would be hard to ever use basswood again for anything that needed to be sanded or shaped. Last nite I needed an odd piece of strip to make pinrails. I had the basswood strip from the kit but could not find a similar one in boxwood. The basswood looked a little shabby so I put it back and decided to cut a boxwood strip to size. I have seen the wood belay pins at several sites. Thank you for the warning about size. I will measure twice. I will check out your build. We can all learn from each other.
  14. mikiek
    How cool is that? Just need to find my Natural color. Perfect! Argh! They don't make one in Natural I think I can apply with one of my detail brushes or a Q-Tip.
  15. mikiek
    I started making the pin rails last nite. No big deal there, but I am wondering about the actual pins. The materials list states Belaying - 120. I had apparently opened the packet and dumped the pins into a small container. Looking at them now, it appears there are 2 sizes. The majority are small. The larger pins are maybe 1/32" longer with a slightly fatter grip. I'm having difficulty trying to determine if there are truly 2 sizes (with 2 different purposes) or if it is just poor manufacturing. Also, the pins are brass. Not sure if those would be left that way, blackened or should I find some replacement wood pins? Edited: Now from the historical perspective I would think it likely that wood was used. Seems like in general that was the case. Also, I imagine metal and metalworkers were at a premium in Erie. Probably easier and cheaper to set a couple of guys in a corner somewhere with a pile of scrap branches and let them whittle away.
  16. mikiek
    The alignment tip is a great idea. I really like the decks I've seen that showed color variation in the planks. What I was concerned with was having to sand thru the existing stain in spots to remove some small spots of paint. Then when I spot stained, the "bald" spot gets it's single layer back but any surrounding area would get it's 2nd coat. So I end up with a darker circle around where I sanded. Sounds like at places where the paint spots are I need to sand the entire plank not just the spot. It also sounds like I better make up a little bit of decking and try on that before the real deck. The Natural stain didn't seem to darken much the first time so hopefully it won't be a big problem now.
  17. mikiek
    Good to hear from you! As Bill says, the first one is the killer. And it is the one you MUST get right because everything else follows that. Here's a thought for when you start spilling or try other tough tasks. A practicum I have states "choose your display side" and then do all your experimenting on the opposite side. For most displays you'll have one side facing the viewer. Put the experimental side to the rear. Do your first spile on the experimental side. Learn from that and then do the display side.
  18. mikiek
    Thanks to all for the kind words. Yes there is a paint spot on the deck. Actually one of many. I'm having a little bit of deck installer's remorse. Thinking I should have sanded it down and varnished before installing. Would have been a heck of a lot easier then. Speaking of that, if anyone knows, the deck has been stained but not finished. If I do some spot sanding can I then "spot stain"? I thought I read somewhere that multiple coats of stain keep darkening the wood. If I sand some spots and have to go all the way to the wood will restaining the area look good? Or will I end up with stained spots?
  19. mikiek
    That would be annoying. Oh the things we come up with! Just so I have something to look forward to, how many bazillion of those blocks do we have to make? Seriously, a good start. Is that Domanics serving machine?
  20. mikiek
    Thank you Don & Joel. She is beginning to look more ship-like. Joel, yes I will be painting them. Just having a hard time deciding between neon green or orange Seriously, I am already creating a lot of touch up work - the bow rail, fashion pieces, I'm sure there will be more. Should probably start a list of items so I don't overlook something.
  21. mikiek
    Brian - here is where the showing off starts (if you can call it that). I started going down my list of items that need to be made/installed on and around the hull - my "honey do" list. There were some things that would make the deck more deck-like. The grates have been made for some time but I did not want to glue them down until the deck was installed. Another item was to glue the chock rails at the bow. I started looking at this and realized that the hand rail is not lined up on center. The joint where the starboard and port rail meet was a bit to the port side of center. I wasn't about to tear that off and redo so I ended up sanding the center over to starboard a little. Sounds confusing, but I think you can see what I mean in the pic. Had to do some appliance replacements yesterday including the dishwasher. This is the silverware basket from the old one. Might make a good tool holder. As you can see, you put put items in it from the top or the sides.
  22. mikiek
    Very weird - I seem to have lost a post. It was about making the fashion pieces for the stern and installing the deck. The fashion pieces ended up being 2 parts, both made from a 1/4"x3/32" strip. There was a bit of chiseling and carving out to get a good fit - the reasoning behind the larger sized strip. I left some overhang at the transom. Don't know if this was done on Niagara but I have seen it on other ships. I have also installed the deck. With all the shrinkage and swelling I have seen it go thru in the past months I decided it was time to make it permanent. It went in without any real issues, the only hard part was I had to hold it down while the glue set. No way to get clamps in there. There's a few small gaps between the nibbing strake and waterway. I'm thinking the best way to fill those would be white glue with some of the red paint. I would prefer to use filler, but given that all the painting is finished and I would have to sand down the filler and risk scuffing the paint, I don't see that as an option.
  23. mikiek
    Ehh - not a big deal. If I recall I just put the masts in the boat, squared them off and then eyeballed the cheeks.. If your tops are done, you can set them on the cheeks to verify. Use white glue to glue the cheeks and wait a minute or so. By then you won't have to hold them but can still slide them around if you need to.
  24. mikiek
    The mast surface where the cheeks will be glued is square at that point. You can make that angle almost anything you want and just sand the cheek edge flush . Don't forget the masts are raked. I believe the cheek angle is done so that the tops will be level instead of taking on the angle of the rake. Pardon the cobwebs the masts have been sitting on a stand for months now.
  25. mikiek
    Was playing around with the deck and fitting it into the hull. First off remember that everything lives in a garage that is not climate controlled most of the time. I remember back when I was shaping the nibbing strake I had it sized so the deck dropped in but it was a pretty tight fit. A few days later I was horrified when I dropped the deck in again and it fell right in. There was a lot of space around it. Had no idea how I was going fill the space. Seems like over the months sometimes it drops in, sometimes not. Right now it doesn't - not even close. All I can figure is the weather? It's warm and very humid now. Back when I was building the deck it was cool/cold and relatively drier. I suppose there are more paint layers on the waterway now, maybe a little thicker there. It's really weird. I'm going to bring it into the house tonite and see what happens tomorrow.

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