mikeaidanh

You guys are starting to embarrass me.  But if you want to give credit where credit is really due you should be talking about my wife Donna who is actually the owner of the company. 
 
 For those of you that don't know we started Model Machines about 10 years ago on a part time basis.  Just the two of us,  no other employees to worry about. At that time we were both working another full time job at a design and manufacturing firm in Orlando that I was part owner of.  I was head of the machine shop with 3 other partners and Donna was hired as the controller.  The company was in bad shape finantially when we hired Donna and in a year or so she brought the company back from the edge and made it a profitable business again.  Donna has a 4 year business degree from the University of Indiana and there isn't a lot she doesn't know about the business world.  What she doesn't know she makes it her business to find out.  When we started Model Machines she did all the research to get the company up and running and also thought up the name of the company.  She does all the taxes,  pays all the bills,  does all the paper work and keeps everything running smoothly.   I design all the machines and make all the parts,  do the assembly and ship them out. 
 
When you call us with a problem or an order more than likely you talked to her and 99% of the time she can take care of your needs whether it's replacement parts,  lost screws, diagnosing an electrical problem, delivery times or just how things work.  She is on the ball and has you covered.  She is the one who emails you when your stuff ships,  calls you when your address has changed and generally makes sure you get what you need when you need it.  If it was my job to do all that no doubt we would be out of business a long time ago.    She is the boss.  
 
And to this day it remains,  just the two of us.
 
regards
Jim Byrnes
Model Machines

Hello friends,
completed Upper-Deck  equipped, including Longboat half as a cross section model.
Regards Karl      
 
 
 
T e i l  4 9

Welcome to the Topsail Schooner "Eagle" 1847 build log,
 
Moving ahead with the spars, sails, and running rigging, key points include:
 
Sail & spar installation sequence:
>>> Jibs and fore staysail (with fore stays)
>>> Main sail, main gaff topsail, 34 star ensign
>>> Fore sail
>>> Fore top sail and Eagle pendant
 
Rigging setup:
>>> Standing rigging (fore stays, main stays, shrouds, backstays, and ratlines)
>>> Jobs and fore staysail
>>> Main sail, main gaff topsail, 34 star ensign
>>> Fore sail, fore topsail, and Eagle pendent
 
Pete Jaquith
Shipbuilder

I have just bought a pair of these and wondered if anyone out there has experience of them.
 

 
They come from the jewellery making world and are termed loop making pliers and are quite well made.
the "jaws" will produce loops of 1.8/2.7/3.5/5.0/7.0/8.5 mm .
 

 

 

 
It is likely that the larger jaws will be of limited use but I found making the loop shown to be very quick and easy to form as the plier grips the work as well as forming the shape.
 
Mike.
 
 

I have just bought a pair of these and wondered if anyone out there has experience of them.
 

 
They come from the jewellery making world and are termed loop making pliers and are quite well made.
the "jaws" will produce loops of 1.8/2.7/3.5/5.0/7.0/8.5 mm .
 

 

 

 
It is likely that the larger jaws will be of limited use but I found making the loop shown to be very quick and easy to form as the plier grips the work as well as forming the shape.
 
Mike.
 
 

Here is my take on drybrushing: You have to think of two spectrums of the condition of the paint you are using. One spectrum is the degree to which the paint is either wet, right out of the container, or dry, where it is set up and hardened. The other spectrum is how much paint is on your brush, with one end of the  spectrum being a fully charged brush ready to drip paint, the other being a brush that has given up all it has to give in terms of leaving a paint mark on a surface.
In order to drybrush a surface you should have a solid base coat of one color already on the model and the color you are drybrushing over this should be different in terms of tone or vibrance, usually this color is a lighter color.
Your brush should be a crappy brush, one that has seen the last of its days as a pointy neatly bristled brush. What you want is an ugly mop of a brush a signpainter would forsake, one  with bristles like a bad hair day.
You want to get to the far end of each of the spectrums I mentioned above. You want some paint in the bristles of this brush but you don't want that paint very wet nor do you want very much paint charging up the bristles. 
You get to this happy place by dipping your brush then wiping the brush on some scrap material, you wipe this mopy brush around on a scrap of cardboard or something until you got 80 to 90% of that paint out of the bristles.
When the brush is hardly leaving any paint marks your just about ready to drybrush on the model.
The feeling you want is that feeling you get when you have a used up felt tip magic marker that is out of ink, you can't write your name  with it but you could still ruin a white linen tablecloth if you pressed hard enough.
THIS is the brush you now drag across your model. Depending on where the brush exists straddling both of the two spectrums ( and it will be shifting on these spectrums as you use it) you will see for yourself how hard you need to press and in which direction you need to brush. Lightly at first and brushing in one direction, pressing hard and scribbling in all directions at the end when the paint is all but gone. Its this last stage where you get the best drybrushing effects as the paint is only adhering on the higher points of the surface you are scumbling over.

I have the cordless Dremel 7.2 multipro. I like it because its really light weight, it only has two speeds though. Good for beginning a ship, but not good when doing details. It sure as heck beats filing and sanding for hours on end.

That looks nice and rusty!
 
Thanks Keith.

Harlequin,
 
I echo your sentiments. The RNLI flag still flies at half mast at the old lifeboat station. May it ever do so.

Keith,
 
I could not copy the link due to the lpeg. can you try again please as i am particularly interested in this topic.

Cheers Eamonn.
 
I believe there is dark medicine that is good for pain. Maybe I'll have some.
 
Mike.

Early April '14
 
Must make bit more progress before an enforced break in proceedings so time to fake the furled sail, attach it to the lateen yard and rig both to the mast.
 
First the sail was marked out on the material. The kit was short on material so this sail will look ok as presented but would not set correctly if one were to try.
 

 
The edges that are to cut have been sealed with dilute PVA.....
 

 
....and the cloth is cut.
 

 
The seams are sewn in on a sewing machine and the bolt rope is added.
Because the sail will only ever be displayed furled I am only adding bolt rope to areas that will be seen. This is to make the attaching of the sail an easier task.
 

 

 

 

 
In this last image ageing and dirt have been added to both sail and yard.
 
Now the sail is attached to the yard.....
 

 
....and the yard to the mast.
 

 
Now that all the rigging is in place some rope hanks are needed to finish off the belays. My method of fixing belays, for what it is worth, is to pass the line under tension through the belay pin hole then use the pin to lock it in place. Leaving a short length of line below the pin allows for future tensioning. The belay is then completed by hanging a shaped hank over the pin.
 

 

 
The larboard boom cradles are fitted and the boom stowed. This repeated starboard side. 
 

 
The anchor is made but not stowed......
 

 
...and the boat hook.
 

 
Thats it for now. Just a few final up to date images and then I am off to the MSW Sick Bay (see) for month or two. Whilst laid up I shall ponder the Panart Gun Deck kit that is awaiting my attention and think about the Sloup Coquillier that I hope to scratch build after that.
 

 

 

 
 
Bye for now,
 
Mike.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

At 1:16 I have used 5mm black round head map pins. They do need dulling but to their credit they come with their own fixing spike.
 
Mike.

Back again at last but with a good deal of progress to log.
 
I have just finished repairing this build log and my HMS Surprise log and I would like it known that i would prefer not to have to do that again! A complete pain in the fundament!
 
The following images will illustrate progress on general hull fittings, mounting the large cannon in it's final position, hanging the rudder and  making the tiller and rigging it.
 
Hull fittings…..
 

 

 

 

 
Tiller….
 

 

 

 

 

 
Big cannon…….
 

 

 
Rudder and tiller…..
 

 

 

 

 
Mast is tapered and top rigging sheaves fitted…...
 

 

 
Rigging the cannon…..
 

 

 
Fitting the mast….
 

 

 

 

 

 
Making the lateen yard…….
 

 
Temporary fitting of yard…..
 

 

 

 
That is all for now. The next task is to make the sail and then finally rig the yard.
 
After that things will be on hold for a while as I am having knee replacement surgery on April 15th.
 
See you next month!
 
Mike.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Back again at last but with a good deal of progress to log.
 
I have just finished repairing this build log and my HMS Surprise log and I would like it known that i would prefer not to have to do that again! A complete pain in the fundament!
 
The following images will illustrate progress on general hull fittings, mounting the large cannon in it's final position, hanging the rudder and  making the tiller and rigging it.
 
Hull fittings…..
 

 

 

 

 
Tiller….
 

 

 

 

 

 
Big cannon…….
 

 

 
Rudder and tiller…..
 

 

 

 

 
Mast is tapered and top rigging sheaves fitted…...
 

 

 
Rigging the cannon…..
 

 

 
Fitting the mast….
 

 

 

 

 

 
Making the lateen yard…….
 

 
Temporary fitting of yard…..
 

 

 

 
That is all for now. The next task is to make the sail and then finally rig the yard.
 
After that things will be on hold for a while as I am having knee replacement surgery on April 15th.
 
See you next month!
 
Mike.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The price is good for the UK. This may be from one of the German firms that advertise on Amazon uk.
 
From Germany direct it's €114, or about £96 without P&P -- which is normally about £10 to the UK and arrives within two days by courier.
 
Have a look at SAT Berlin http://www.satberlin.de/en/PROXXON-machines/Table-top-tools/PROXXON-MICRO-woodturning-lathe-DB-250-NO-27020.
 
If you check the Amazon site and it is from a German firm, then you'll end up with a European 2-pin plug either way.
 
There's a few of us who've been using the German firms for Proxxon as the costs are so much lower and the service has been excellent to date.
 
I've been using this lathe and like it very much. It's worth getting the 4-jaw chuck if you're going to be making stuff from square stock.
 
Tony

Well done Tony,
 
Keep spreading the word. Buy Proxxon from Germany and deprive the rip off UK companies of their excessive profits. I do not believe that one can defend conversion of Euro retail prices to GBP plus an additional markup to arrive at the GB retail price. I would love to know how much the UK companies pay in Euros to import these items.
 
I agree with you that the standard of service is excellent. I began buying from TBS-Aachen after a UK company could not be bothered to sort out a problem with my order.
 
Mike.

I'd strongly recommend buying Proxxon from Germany where their tools are much cheaper and the postage only about £10. Thus SAT Berlin has this scroll-saw brand new for under €300, or about £246. You can see it at http://www.satberlin.de/en/search?xdbbaf=42c4f656601170b92acef002b0c865bc&keywords=ds%20460. TBS Aachen have it for €309.
 
There's a few of us in the UK who've been buying Proxxon from Germany this way, and the experience has been great -- next-day delivery (or within two days), excellent customer service and good communication. There's no customs duty or VAT as they're in the EU. The only slight difficulty is that sometimes they ship with a European plug, but that's a very small problem and costs little to fix.
 
Tony

Back to the build log.
 
The skids are fitted to the lower hull and, somewhere out of site, the wales a some trim strips are being painted.
 

 

 
It is now time to paint the outer hull. Firstly masking off......
 

 
.......in preparation to using this.
 

 
Various stages of painting.......
 

 
...first the primer then the top coats.
 

 

 

 
Initial hull paint job completed.
 

 

 

 
The figure in the last image is a bit tall for the period at c6ft 4ins but he is useful for assessing the position of items that would have been handled by the crew.
 
After spray painting I found the finish to be too even and smooth so a further coat was applied all over by brush. The hull will be further "weathered" later on.
 
The next round of jobs should see all the remaining exterior hull fittings in place before hanging the rudder and moving on to masting and internal rigging.
 
More anon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Back again after Christmas and other interventions ! Time to progress this build a little.
 
I left off before the holiday when starting to fit the thwarts so finishing that job comes first.
 

 
I then got sidetracked by the arrival of a Carrs kit so needed to try that out.
 

 

 

 

 
Back to the thwarts and fitting all into hull...
 

 
....including the mast support structures.
 
]
 
All done.
 
 
Having recently acquired a micro shaper the next task was to use it to produce knees, thole pin blocks and the two bow fairleads.
 
First the knees.
 
The shaped timber has been sliced into twenty four pieces and....
 

 
...they are glued together in pairs to a piece of dowel....
 

 
..and then glued to the thwarts as seen here.
 

 
This image also shows my ongoing attempt to "age" this build a little as I want it to represent a working boat rather than a pristine model. I am using water colour crayons and spit at present but fully expect to add other techniques as time goes on. In passing, if any reader has experience of "ageing" a model I would love to have your comments.
 
Next the thole pin blocks. The piece of timber on the right was machined to profile then sliced into twelve pieces and finally drilled for the pins.
 

 

 

 
And finally the two fairleads. The piece of machined timber on the left in the image above was sliced into two pieces, drilled, slotted and cut to shape.
 

 

 

 
Various other small parts have been made and fitted…….
 

 

 
....and the large gun and it's carriage is almost complete. 
 

 

 

 
The big gun will not be finally fitted until later in the build. The next task is to complete the outer hull fittings and then start on the paint job. Once that is complete then the fun of rigging and fitting out can begin.
 
More anon.
 
Mike.
 

Back to the build log.
 
The skids are fitted to the lower hull and, somewhere out of site, the wales a some trim strips are being painted.
 

 

 
It is now time to paint the outer hull. Firstly masking off......
 

 
.......in preparation to using this.
 

 
Various stages of painting.......
 

 
...first the primer then the top coats.
 

 

 

 
Initial hull paint job completed.
 

 

 

 
The figure in the last image is a bit tall for the period at c6ft 4ins but he is useful for assessing the position of items that would have been handled by the crew.
 
After spray painting I found the finish to be too even and smooth so a further coat was applied all over by brush. The hull will be further "weathered" later on.
 
The next round of jobs should see all the remaining exterior hull fittings in place before hanging the rudder and moving on to masting and internal rigging.
 
More anon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Back again after Christmas and other interventions ! Time to progress this build a little.
 
I left off before the holiday when starting to fit the thwarts so finishing that job comes first.
 

 
I then got sidetracked by the arrival of a Carrs kit so needed to try that out.
 

 

 

 

 
Back to the thwarts and fitting all into hull...
 

 
....including the mast support structures.
 
]
 
All done.
 
 
Having recently acquired a micro shaper the next task was to use it to produce knees, thole pin blocks and the two bow fairleads.
 
First the knees.
 
The shaped timber has been sliced into twenty four pieces and....
 

 
...they are glued together in pairs to a piece of dowel....
 

 
..and then glued to the thwarts as seen here.
 

 
This image also shows my ongoing attempt to "age" this build a little as I want it to represent a working boat rather than a pristine model. I am using water colour crayons and spit at present but fully expect to add other techniques as time goes on. In passing, if any reader has experience of "ageing" a model I would love to have your comments.
 
Next the thole pin blocks. The piece of timber on the right was machined to profile then sliced into twelve pieces and finally drilled for the pins.
 

 

 

 
And finally the two fairleads. The piece of machined timber on the left in the image above was sliced into two pieces, drilled, slotted and cut to shape.
 

 

 

 
Various other small parts have been made and fitted…….
 

 

 
....and the large gun and it's carriage is almost complete. 
 

 

 

 
The big gun will not be finally fitted until later in the build. The next task is to complete the outer hull fittings and then start on the paint job. Once that is complete then the fun of rigging and fitting out can begin.
 
More anon.
 
Mike.
 

Back again. After a longish break some further progress has been made. But first the colour scheme and roughing it up a bit!
 
It is my belief that these hard working boats would have been maintained in top working order but not as "tiddly" ( R.N term but probably universally understood. ) as the ships boats that ferried captains, admirals and other upper echelon types to and fro. To this end I have "dirtied" the interior of the model somewhat, excluded glossy finishes and adopted the muted ochres and black paints of the period. I do not intend to apply bright coloured hull highlights or stern embellishments. 
 
This image shows the boat interior after fitting all the ribs and stringers and the stern benches,
 

 
The mounts for the small cannon and other small additions.....
 

 
Next job was the gunnel capping. The instructions in the kit call for this to be applied in sections but I decided to trace of the actual shape from the model onto sheet timber. The outer curve was then cut on the band saw and the inner curve scribed from it before cutting and final sanding to shape on a belt sander. The two curved section, two quadrant sections and two straight sections were then glued to the hull.
 

 

 

 

 
The final piece of gunnel capping required a curve over a short length in 3.5mm timber. I snapped my first attempt so laminated three sections of 10mm x 1mm which worked well and when sanded and sealed will not be detectable under a coat or two of paint.
 

 
The next task was to build the framework that supports the main cannon and to fit this in place. Care must be taken here as this framework, thwart No.3 from the bows,and the mast step are all closely interdependent for position. The frame and the cannon itself are fun to put together.
 

 

 

 

 
Number three thwart and a section of mast are placed but not fixed.
 

 
Then the cannon framework is offered up, shaped where it meets the forward gunnel capping and then the No. three thwart can be adjusted in position.
 

 
Now the other thwarts can be cut and shaped and their positions established.
 

 
Central supports for the thwarts must be fitted before they can be secured and the mast step needs to be completed.
 
Thats it for now. More soon......I hope!
 
Mike.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Further progress on the inner hull.The floors are now finally fixed in place and the ribs are being shaped.
Note the high tec plank bender; new employment for old curling tongs and a "clamp" made from parcel tape.
 

 
The ribs are pre painted before fitting.
 

 

 
Fixing the ribs to the hull. I used CA for this job as devising curved surface clamps to use with PVA seemed likely to cause headaches. Kiss principle.
 

 
The .7mm x 7mm dome head pins at each rib junction are purely decorative but they do enhance the look of the hull interior.
 

 

 
All in place. Just some cleaning up to do.
 

 
More anon.
 
Note. Other buiiders of this model will have noticed that I am not following Panart's colour scheme. More about this later on.
 
Mike.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Back again after Christmas and other interventions ! Time to progress this build a little.
 
I left off before the holiday when starting to fit the thwarts so finishing that job comes first.
 

 
I then got sidetracked by the arrival of a Carrs kit so needed to try that out.
 

 

 

 

 
Back to the thwarts and fitting all into hull...
 

 
....including the mast support structures.
 
]
 
All done.
 
 
Having recently acquired a micro shaper the next task was to use it to produce knees, thole pin blocks and the two bow fairleads.
 
First the knees.
 
The shaped timber has been sliced into twenty four pieces and....
 

 
...they are glued together in pairs to a piece of dowel....
 

 
..and then glued to the thwarts as seen here.
 

 
This image also shows my ongoing attempt to "age" this build a little as I want it to represent a working boat rather than a pristine model. I am using water colour crayons and spit at present but fully expect to add other techniques as time goes on. In passing, if any reader has experience of "ageing" a model I would love to have your comments.
 
Next the thole pin blocks. The piece of timber on the right was machined to profile then sliced into twelve pieces and finally drilled for the pins.
 

 

 

 
And finally the two fairleads. The piece of machined timber on the left in the image above was sliced into two pieces, drilled, slotted and cut to shape.
 

 

 

 
Various other small parts have been made and fitted…….
 

 

 
....and the large gun and it's carriage is almost complete. 
 

 

 

 
The big gun will not be finally fitted until later in the build. The next task is to complete the outer hull fittings and then start on the paint job. Once that is complete then the fun of rigging and fitting out can begin.
 
More anon.
 
Mike.