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Slowhand

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About Slowhand

  • Birthday 08/09/1956

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Dartford, UK
  • Interests
    Modelling , small boat sailing, rock music

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  1. Travis, thanks for nice comments, yes I am not going to do one long plank. I am not rigorously doing a regular butt shift but I am going to put vertical strakes which will hide the lack of pattern. I like lights on yours.
  2. What is the scale of your model? I visited the Golden Hind a couple of years ago and remember planks being 8” / 200mm or so wide. So for a 1:50 scale 4mm would be good. If I can find the pictures I took will post them.
  3. Glad you’ve resumed your build log . Your Santa Maria was one of the best builds I’ve seen.
  4. Finished the planking above the wales, but looked too light, I had tested samples of African walnut with a coloured Danish Oil and it looked perfect just about dark enough. Coating the ship with this oil and what a disappointment every blemish, wood glue stain was revealed. Lightly sanded down and reapplying no better, tried staining with medium oak no better. Everything had to come off, continuing without being happy with the hull would be a killer. Looking at my San Martin, covering with mahogany and finishing with diluted poly u varnish has aged well so that’s what I did. Going for the chunky finish using the grain and the texture of the planking to give an old galleon look. Looking on the bright side I can remove planking on hulls and decks quite easily and redo.
  5. Well, any denatured alcohol you buy in the UK is coloured with Methylene Blue so not much use for craftwork. This takes me back when doing my PhD used Methylene Blue and Rose Bengal as photo-sensitisers to produce singlet oxygen in solution.
  6. Thanks that’s really useful saved me some time and expense. In the UK you used to be able to buy absolute alcohol 100% when I was working but you needed a Home Office License so that’s out. Liberon sell Shellac in different colours so I may try a light one.
  7. Thinking about this IPA isopropyl alcohol is readily available as Tamiya acrylic paint thinner, I imagine it’s ability to dissolve shellac flakes is the same as meths, it’s an alcohol after all (X-OH).
  8. I saw a very nice planked deck of the OcCre Albatross. Can’t find the post now. The lime planks had been finished with Shellac and the slightly different grain on different planks had been high-lighted . Buying Shellac flakes, orangey ones in particular is quite easy but the methylated spirits is more difficult, much of it has blue dye added. Then I read that ‘sanding sealer’ which you can buy in UK has the same purpose and can be used to French polish. In fact I have some in my shed😊😊. I wonder if they are the same or is it worth making the effort to make my own Shellac?
  9. After a few weeks with my new Proxxon Table saw toy, I am confused about the mitre ruler and fence. There doesn’t appear to be an easy way to cut a length a distance of 10mm from the blade. Positioning the fence at the 0mm mark on the ruler doesn’t place the fence right next to the blade, even adjusting the sub mm knob. I suppose I can use a steel ruler to place the fence 10mm from the centre of the blade but it makes the fine adjustment thumb wheel a bit of a gimmick. Stop press - changed blade to a 0.5mm kerf and fence is much closer to blade when at zero position. 😄😄 Awaiting digital callipers as ageing eyesight makes viewing the gauge harder and specs add distortion. Going old is great 😢😢
  10. The Guillow's kits are intended to be flying models, powered by rubber bands. Some people even modify then to take electric motors with moving control surfaces. But once you start infilling them with balsa or covering them with sheeting they become way too heavy to fly.
  11. The decking looks good a nice variation in shades of wood used for the planking
  12. Steven, I carved the profile in the lime by hand with a bit of sanding and in couple of hours ready to slice up with the saw repeated for a two more profiles. Kiln dried lime so the very best quality. Surprised how clean the cuts were as to me the blade looks looks quite big with a kerf of 1.5mm. Got a bit carried away making brackets but galleons of that era looked quite ornate, expect Spanish to be similar to Dutch and Venetian. Painting curtesy of Rijk Museum, Netherlands.
  13. Been awaiting arrival of my new toy a table saw, intended to use some walnut wood turning pen blanks for brackets for stern balconies. Too hard and carving by hand with gouges set my tennis elbow off. Some dried cherry proved too difficult to carve as splinters kept breaking off so back to my old friend lime. Carved effectively a small architrave and sliced it with the Proxxon.
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