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Roger,
 
Great suggestion for Toledo and good point about University of Michigan football. They are playing at home on Oct 15, 2022 and away on Oct 22, 2022. It is about 55 miles from Toledo to Ann Arbor.
 
As a current Buckeye, and member of the Shipwrights of Central Ohio, I applaud consideration of Toledo as a potential site for the 2022 NRG Convention. Great town and fantastic Museum. Can't agree more that Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands offer wonderful venues as well.

Looking great.  There will be time in the not too distant future that you will really miss that uncluttered deck.

Roger,
 
Great suggestion for Toledo and good point about University of Michigan football. They are playing at home on Oct 15, 2022 and away on Oct 22, 2022. It is about 55 miles from Toledo to Ann Arbor.
 
As a current Buckeye, and member of the Shipwrights of Central Ohio, I applaud consideration of Toledo as a potential site for the 2022 NRG Convention. Great town and fantastic Museum. Can't agree more that Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands offer wonderful venues as well.

Roger,
 
Great suggestion for Toledo and good point about University of Michigan football. They are playing at home on Oct 15, 2022 and away on Oct 22, 2022. It is about 55 miles from Toledo to Ann Arbor.
 
As a current Buckeye, and member of the Shipwrights of Central Ohio, I applaud consideration of Toledo as a potential site for the 2022 NRG Convention. Great town and fantastic Museum. Can't agree more that Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands offer wonderful venues as well.

Helli,
 
You didn't do all of this work in 5 days??? Your slacking off. Just kidding of course.
 
Your log caught my eye since it was evident that you would be downloading a ton of content in a short period of time to catch up to your year and a half building process. Getting all of that fresh content all at once is great for a viewer. That will definitely keep me checking in often.
 
And let me repeat.... your work is superb.

Looking good Tom.
 
If you ever get the North East Ohio Area in early spring, give me a hollar. The Steelhead fishery in the Lake Erie Tributaries is first rate. I know of a hole or two. The walleye fishing in the lake is good anytime, especially this year.
 
You could also take in a visit to the Niagara in port in Erie Pa. Worth the trip.
 
 

The assembly line continues..... looking good.

Helli,
 
You didn't do all of this work in 5 days??? Your slacking off. Just kidding of course.
 
Your log caught my eye since it was evident that you would be downloading a ton of content in a short period of time to catch up to your year and a half building process. Getting all of that fresh content all at once is great for a viewer. That will definitely keep me checking in often.
 
And let me repeat.... your work is superb.

The assembly line continues..... looking good.

Mike,
 
Hey friend,
 
I have been lost at see for a while, but found my way back to my Niagara and catching up on my friend's builds. Your Enterprise looks great. I admire your courage to include sails. 
 
Now that I am working from home, I will find time to finally get my ship finished.
 
Looking forward to chatting with you.
 
 

Mike,
I think I am following you, and I agree. Your plan to lay steelers near the deadwood should bring your stern planking back into pattern. And, since this is a double planked ship, what you learn here should give you great input for the final walnut veneer. Is the walnut as wide as the 6MM planks? That is pretty hefty stuff.
 
Looking great.

Looking good Mike. That looks like a real challenge without a rabbit.

Mike,
 
Hey friend,
 
I have been lost at see for a while, but found my way back to my Niagara and catching up on my friend's builds. Your Enterprise looks great. I admire your courage to include sails. 
 
Now that I am working from home, I will find time to finally get my ship finished.
 
Looking forward to chatting with you.
 
 

Like Jan, all of my photos, some of which rotated, were taken by my I-phone after a manual correction prior to uploading. When i finished my build log in April of this year, I perused my log and don't remember seeing any alterations for what that is worth.
 
Thanks James for making the corrections. I will take care of the rest of the photos.

Like Jan, all of my photos, some of which rotated, were taken by my I-phone after a manual correction prior to uploading. When i finished my build log in April of this year, I perused my log and don't remember seeing any alterations for what that is worth.
 
Thanks James for making the corrections. I will take care of the rest of the photos.

Thanks James,
 
Check out post #16 from my Niagara Build log for example. Nearly everyone of those photos randomly rotated. You can access the log below. Many of my posts now have altered photos.

James,
 
I hate to beat a dead horse, but something caused many of my photos on my log to rotate. They were all true when i initially loaded them up and I am familiar with the suggestions made with Matt and Greg. I routinely open all photos in an editing program and make some minor change just to lock in the proper alignment.  All of these photos over the years were properly aligned. Now, something changed within the month. 
 
Sorry to bother everyone

Tom,
 
I twisted rope coils by gripping the end of the rope with tweezers, soaking them in the glue solution, and turning them by hand on a glass plate and leaving them on the plate to dry. I then scraped them off with a razor blade when dried. If you get the right combination of glue and water, the solution will be tacky enough to keep the coils tight while they dry. You might also need to dab the coils with a paper towel to remove excess glue. 

Tom,
 
I went back into my log and found a more detailed explanation on entry #163 if that helps.

Tom,
 
I twisted rope coils by gripping the end of the rope with tweezers, soaking them in the glue solution, and turning them by hand on a glass plate and leaving them on the plate to dry. I then scraped them off with a razor blade when dried. If you get the right combination of glue and water, the solution will be tacky enough to keep the coils tight while they dry. You might also need to dab the coils with a paper towel to remove excess glue. 

​Rope Coils
 
​I decided to clean up the deck of all of the loose tackle ropes and create rope coils.  I perused this forum for techniques and found a bunch of different approaches.  I pretty easily discarded the notion of rolling the existing lines on the deck. They will not stay rolled without a solution of water and glue, and the deck is not the place for that mess.  Besides, the intricate locations for the lines made it nearly impossible anyway.
 
I therefore decided to roll them off the ship.  I used a 50/50 solution of white glue and water.  I thoroughly submerged a 3 inch piece of rope, using inverted sharp point tweezers to grip the very end.  I rolled the rope on a glass plate.  I found that as long as the rope stayed in the small puddle of glue solution, it would stay down on the glass, and it would allow me to roll the rope and stay flat.
 
Extracting the tweezers without pulling the inside rope end out of the coil was a challenge. I accomplished it by using the back end of an x-acto knife and slipping it gently between the two ends of the tweezers and holding the coil down as I pulled the tweezers away.
 
I also learned that you CANNOT touch the coil until it is completely dry - and I mean 5 hours dry. The watered down solution takes forever to dry, and it is so sticky, any attempt to touch it before so simply ruins it. Patience, patience, patience.
 
By the way, I will say again that the Syren rope is an outstanding product. It rolled very well.  The kit supplied rope was too stiff and would not stay rolled, even when soaked with the glue/water. Of course, I ran out of rope again, and will be placing another order to replenish my shipyard stores.
 
Laying them on the deck wasn't easy either. I placed a medium drop of medium CA on the deck, and carefully positioned the end rope of the tackle in such a place that made it look like it merged into the coil.  I then dropped the coil down on the end of the rope. Not always an easy task with all of the enclosed places.
 
What I reasonable thought would take an afternoon took most of three days. Here are some photos of the finished product.

Tom,
 
I twisted rope coils by gripping the end of the rope with tweezers, soaking them in the glue solution, and turning them by hand on a glass plate and leaving them on the plate to dry. I then scraped them off with a razor blade when dried. If you get the right combination of glue and water, the solution will be tacky enough to keep the coils tight while they dry. You might also need to dab the coils with a paper towel to remove excess glue. 

FINISHED!
I spent the weekend cleaning off dust and touching up paint in preparation of placing the Niagara in its glass enclosure. While I designed the case with an option of removing the ship, it will not be an easy process, and I don’t have plans on doing so. So sealing it away knowing I will not be able to work on it, or tweak something, was a tough moment.
This was a great project. I give credit to the folks at Model Shipways for putting together a great kit. This was my first wooden ship build, and I would recommend the Niagara for any first timer.  There are easier kits out there (and a lot more harder ones) to cut your teeth on, but the Niagara is a good choice. It is reasonably priced (I bought mine at a half off sale). The instructions and plan sheets are good overall, and if followed, will produce an end product you will be proud of..
The kit lacks expensive wood, and some critical parts, but again, for the price, it is still a good purchase. With the exception of the hull planking, I swapped out all of the basswood lumber and laser cut parts with hardwoods (cherry and holly mostly). Those parts that the kit requires the builder to engineer and produce tested my model skills and have made me a better builder. I have seen the term kit “bashing” when someone “goes off the plan.” I guess I did this with this kit, but I can’t say I bashed it, I would rather say I enhanced it. Thanks Model Shipways.
I also have to give credit to Chuck Passaro and his Syren products. I used his rope, blocks, hooks, and hearts for all of the rigging. These products make any ship look great, even for us amateurs.
I also give credit to Model Ship World and my fellow Niagara builders. I would never have purchased this kit, let alone make the effort to build it, without the wealth of information and full color pictures available on this site. Builders like Bahamas Diver, Xken, Patrickmil, Greatgalleons, Mikiek, and others who sailed the lakes with their Niagara Builds were inspirations and great teachers. My project would have sunk to the bottom of Lake Erie without their guidance. They had my back.
I can't forget my fellow members of the Shipwrights of the Central Ohio modelling club. The long drive to our monthly meetings is always worth the trip. Great knowledge, experience and fellowship. Thanks Bill for everything you do for our club
And finally, to those of you out there that stopped in to see this project and lent advice and words of encouragement. As I am sure you all know, getting an “atta boy” from an experienced shipwright is energizing.
Here are some final photos as I mark my build log officially FINISHED.

Tom,
 
Glad to see that you are safe and found some time to knock out some carronades. Nothing like some mind engrossing carronade rigging to take you away from the stress of the day. I forgot what a spanking newly rigged carronade looked like. They look fantastic.

Great progress. Good decision on the ladders