mikiek

I know this thread is a bit old now but I wanted to update on the hammer used with the punch set. The small metal one supplied with the set was beating up the end of the punches. I recently got a rawhide mallet for some metal working and it works great for the punches. It's longer and slightly heavier than the original so it take a few less whacks to punch thru brass.

Question for you guys - I see that a lot of you spread a layer of filler on the deck and then sand it off. I'm questioning the need to do that. There are very few irregularities (high/low spots) and I believe sanding will take care of what there is. Is there some other reason for the filler?

Thank you Don. I'm waiting too. However I think I am going to do as much as a can - structures, etc. - before I permanently install it.

Drum roll please! After beginning nearly 2 months ago planking the deck is complete!!! I knew something big was about to happen when the 4" clamps would not reach from a newly laid plank to the other side of the deck. Kinda like when you see a seagull after days on the open water. Overall I am pleased - or maybe that's relieved. There's still some sanding to do but I think it looks good. Next I'll have to start working on the stain. I made a sample deck and tried some Golden Oak stain on it. That seems to be what a lot of folks use. I'm not crazy about it. On the boxwood it makes the planks look dirty - at least in my eye. I think the look I liked best was when I wiped the deck down with a damp rag. The boxwood darkened slightly but not as much as with the stain. I may play around with just using a matte or satin lacquer with no stain. All in all I am very happy with the approach I took - doing the decking separate from the boat. In full disclosure, this was not my idea. It came from the Niagara practicum on the shipmodeling.ca site. As a newbie, it just made me feel more comfortable doing it that way. I'm a lot more confident now and could go either way on the next build. Fortunately the Niagara design allows for this. I described the early steps in previous posts, but essentially you copy the deck plan (full size) and then glue a frame on it, including cross beams right behind where each bulkhead would be. Then you just start gluing planks to the frame. One nice thing about this method is you glue a plank right on top of the plan, so you can see exactly what shaping you have to do for each strake. You can see this in a few of the pix below. Somewhere along the way I picked up a Veritas miniature block planer and it was pure joy using that. Of course the frame and cross beams would sit on top of the bulkhead edges. Not really what you want as that would elevate the entire deck. So you make an indentation in the keel right behind each bulkhead. There's a pic of that. I used the 13524 butt-shift pattern - thank you Ulises for the great database article. As mentioned before I don't care for the butt scribing, so all planks were cut to scale 20' when possible. I marked the long and one short edge with a MarksAlot for the caulking. I didn't have any issues with the ink running. You can see on some of the pix, I nibbed the bow planks. I plan on trying to make a nibbing strake around the deck edge. So I suppose actually I'm not completely through with the deck. The practicum shows a way to do this. It looks like a lot of work, but I like the result. We'll see how that goes. Looking back, there were some trying times. Just the sheer monotony of it all. I am really glad to get this one over with! (Sorry, for some reason the Attach Files thing put the pix in reverse order)

Thanks everyone - SpecialShapes has what I am looking for. I hope they don't mind a small order. What I need is under $10.

I will probably get around to buying one of those fly holders when it gets time to rig. But for my current problem I don't think it is the answer. I usually paint a lot of parts at one time, so I don't see a single holder helping much. Plus I imagine a holder would cover some area of the part so I would still need to paint twice. Pins seem like they would work well for wood. Not so sure about the small brass parts.

I recently bought one of those assorted brass strip packages - K&S. There was one 3/32x1/64 which I have mostly used up. I would like to get more but can not find it. There are a few .01x" thickness strips available but the narrowest is 1/4" wide - much wider then I want. I'm still pretty new to the metal working side of this hobby so I don't know all the options. Is it reasonable to think that I can find sheets with the thickness I want and then cut strips that narrow? I don't really want to grind down 1/4" strips to 3/32". I also would like to avoid buying another assortment package - there is a lot of pieces in there I will never use. Any other choices?

Duff - I was having the same idea about pins. They're cheap and I can deal with many parts in one painting session. Plus they leave almost no footprint on the piece.

For painting small pieces (airbrush or by hand) I have been using the alligator clip on a skewer things. I'm getting less and less happy with them. They can literally crunch some pieces and at best they leave a spot where the paint didn't go meaning I have to sand and paint that spot after everything dries. I don't like double work. I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions for an alternative

Thank you Elijah! That's good of you to say. Welcome aboard. There is still a LONG way to go....

Once again, I procrastinate with my log. I HAVE been working on Niagara every night. I'm just getting frustrated and end up making it a short night. Decking is taking forever. I feel like I'm hitting a wall there. Hard to stay motivated. I am working on other items - masts, the port bulwark - just to stay busy. It's hard to judge whether I need a good kick in the rear to get moving again or I need to take a break for a while....... Man was that depressing or what?

Jaager - Perfect! Thank you! jbshan - I think I'm doing the same thing. I plane the square stick down to proper size (still a square), taper that and then mark and sand the octagon. I was having problems sanding level, smooth surfaces. After a little adjustment, the jig allows me to sand away. The top surfaces of the jig stop me from sanding too far or getting crooked. I've tried sanding and filing completely by hand, but my "flat" surfaces always end up a little rounded or one edge is higher than the other. I probably just don't have the technique, so the jig keeps me under control.

For #1, I completely forgot about styrene. Easy to cut, shape, more durable than wood. One problem solved. Would still like to know what material was used back in the day.

Hi Everyone - I'm working on the Niagara masts and have a few questions. This is really the first time I've looked at the mast plans closely. 1. Plans show quite a few chocks (masts & spars) most are less than 1/16" tall. I'm debating whether to use wood (easy but would damage easy) or brass cut from strip (would take longer but more durable) 2. Plans show sheaves in the masts - even one in the skinny end of the top gallant. At 1:64 scale trying to do something like that ain't gonna be easy. Suggestions? 3. I've got the main top assembled, cheeks on the main mast and was going to glue down the top. The main cheeks provide an 11* angle. The main is also tapered. How in the heck do you get the top horizontally squared with the mast? I was just going to "eyeball it" but I'm afraid even a slight variance will come back to bite me when I start the rigging. 4. The plans keep using "P/S" i.e. chock P/S, cleat P/S . What is P/S? I also made a jig that helped me with cutting octagonal sides on a tapered stick. There are plenty of pix showing a 90* notch taken out of a long piece of wood. You drop your square (maybe round too) stick in and file the side facing up. My problem with that is I would need quite a few different sized notches for the various sized masts and spars and a tapered stick presents some problems. Below are some pix of my solution. Maybe everyone does this but I SWEAR I didn't purposely steal it. It has helped a lot as I have all my masts shaped using just the 2 jigs - one small & one large. All you do is tighten or loosen the nuts on the ends so one end is a little wider than the other. You put the fat end of your tapered stick in the wide end of the jig. With a little adjustment, the side of the stick facing up will be parallel with the top of the jig. Then you can file or sand from one end to the other. The springs in between the wood pieces of the jig keep them from moving once they are adjusted. Not scientific or calibrated. You still must adjust by eye, but I do a lot of that anyway. You can see in a few of the pix, I get nice sharp edges.

Hey John - you mentioned scoring the pieces at the bend. What do you use for that? Mark - I'm working on some metal work for the mast. Took your advice and heated up the strips first. WOW! What a difference. The strip is amazingly pliable now.

Taking a break from decking, I have begun cutting and shaping the masts for Niagara. I'm using square boxwood strips, trimming them down and shaping them per the plans. As a general rule, should I assemble the masts with fittings and metal work on the side and then install the completed mast to the boat? Also, just wondering about the order of assembly. I have 4 of the mast parts shaped and ready. It's been real tempting to do the metal work, fittings, etc. and installing it all. I would really appreciate hearing from you guys on things like order of assembly, things to do , things NOT to do. Anything that might help me get it right the first time.

Stockholm tar - I'm still at the construction phase so dropping them on the spanker mast is easy. However, I do like your idea of metal loops instead of the laser cut wood ones in the kit. I have a mini torch and silver solder coming this week. I believe I will give that a go.

Great explanations from both of you. Thanks! I got to thinking about those loops and came to the same conclusion. As a kid I used to sail a Sunfish, and the boom and spar were attached to the mast via loops. As the MS kit has no sails and I don't intend on adding them, the loops will just lay at the base of the spanker mast.

Hello folks - I hope everyone made it thru the holidays OK. Been hard at work on my kit - and I FINALLY have something completed. I have so many tasks going on right now, decking, building cannons, building masts (from squares), planking the other bulwark. Also several new tools were recently delivered - lathe, rivet head punch kit, drill press - so I have been trying to learn those as well. It's probably too much to be doing at one time, but it's the way I am. But I am excited to say I have actually completed a piece of work - the yawl. I have a few pix below. A few highlights: I did the inner frame pieces with styrene strips. I could never get wood strips to set flush to the bottom. I tried soaking them, heating them, using 2 pieces instead of one. Nothing worked for me. The styrene worked great and since I elected to paint the inside I think they look pretty good. I added a few metal parts that were not called for in the plans. I was dying to do something with the rivet heads so I added some metalwork to the transom & tiller. I like the overall appearance but I'm thinking they may be slightly out of scale - a bit too large. I do think the rivet heads have a lot of potential for other metal pieces. Let me know what you think. I have been struggling with getting small metal (brass) pieces colored. I love the blackening effect. I learned early on that the stuff rubs off so I began adding a coat of matte varnish on top. Still for small pieces it's tough. Any glue of the surface prevents blacking - you can see in my previous post. I finally broke down and painted them. Yesterday, some Tamiya acrylic paints were delivered, one called Dark Iron gives the brass a nice color. I have some updates on the masts I have made but no pix yet so I will hold off for now. Let me know what you think on the yawl - positive or negative.

The MS Niagara plans show all the masts "looking to port". This killed me right off. I translate that to mean looking towards the port side from starboard. The problem was all the deck angles were backwards. So what that really means is looking towards the starboard side from port? Sort of a rhetorical question. The plans are showing me the port side of the masts. My real question also pertains to this side view - whatever side it is. Since there is only one view - and it is a side view - when I see cleats and other items mounted, is it a given that the same items are also on the other side? I see no notes to that effect in the plans. Just came up with another. The plans for the spanker mast show "12 laser cut hoops mounted". Mounted to what? I can slide them on the spanker but then what? Are they loose? Glued? More to come I'm sure. Seems like this portion of the plans are really lacking - at least for a newbie.

Sounds like just the ticket John. Beautiful metalwork! Thanks for sharing. The other thing that has caught my eye is something they call a forming bezel. They come in various shapes - round, square, triangle. I've found both the pliers and the bezels on Amazon.

Gee - time sure flies by. I have been at it (the build) every day but slacking on logging my progress. Well, I am still decking, but that gets old and error prone after putting down too many strakes in one sitting. I will say I believe I have enough side tasks (maybe too many) to keep things rolling along. The ships boat - the yawl - is about ready for assembly. I decided to go with Carvel planking rather than lapstrakes. This was my first stab at any sort of planking so I decided not to get too complicated. What to use for the inner frames (or even to add frames) was a deliberation. I could not get wood strips to bend well so I ended up making some styrene strips that laid down pretty well. Since I had decided to paint the inside rather than stain this worked out pretty well. I recently picked up a punch & die set for making rivet heads. Have been doing some playing around with that. Actually I needed some pins to attach the carronades to the planksheer so I thought this might be an opportunity to get creative. I glued some of the rivet heads to some thin brass rods - no easy task. They came out looking pretty good. By chance yesterday I came across a post with a link to all the fittings on AgesOfSail.com . More pins there than you can shake a stick at. I feel a little foolish now. But it was fun anyway. As mentioned gluing the rivets to a rod was pretty tough. Setting them down perpendicular took some work. I used medium CA for glue. That ended up fouling up the blackening - it won't blacken where glue is on the material. Guess I'll end up painting those. You can see in the pix. That also got me wondering - how crazy is all this? I spent probably 2 hours to make 18 pins that NO ONE will see. Hmmm. Also in the works is the fore top mast. It's pretty well shaped. I am debating whether to sand it to round by hand or try my lathe. I just received a 4 jaw chuck so I am anxious to use it for something. I'll try to size that up tonite. If my hand work has made the mast too crooked I'll have to wait for the next mast. Below are a few pix.....

This is just my sheer ignorance in the metal work world. I was bending some 1/16" brass strip into a U shape, or more accurately a 3 sided square. In this application each side was about 1/8". I was using a needlenose plier and a small hammer to try to get decent 90 degree bends. The result was fair but could have been better. So what I am wondering is if there are some type of shaping forms that I can use to hammer brass strips on. Some square rods, circular, and maybe even triangular - probably a set with various sizes. I have plenty of brass rods & tubes but I doubt beating brass on brass is going to work. I'm sure there is something out there but I don't know what to look for. Let me know how you guys do it.

That's perfect! It will give me a chance to use the new rivet punch set I got a few weeks ago.

That's a good read Spyglass. A little off topic for this forum but while we're talking about it - the kit does not supply any type of pin for fastening the carronade to the planksheer. I don't mind making something but it would be good to know what it looks like. Something fancy? Just a piece of wire? Happy Holidays everyone!