gjdale

Hi Augie, I've been off the air for a while as we were "sans Internet" while in Venice. On the way home now, laying over in London overnight before the long haul back to Oz, and finally had the opportunity to get another MSW fix. Your Confed is looking great - lots of progress since I last checked in! Those pen sanders really are the ducks guts. I have the Proxxon version (to overcome the power supply issue) and used it extensively when I was doing the re-build of my Victory stern. An absolute must have in my opinion.

Fabulous work Dan / Peter. Congratulations on a truly outstanding build.

Just found your log on this one Ed. Like many others, I enjoyed and learned so much from your Naiad log that I will be sure to follow this one through as well.

Yep, big improvement Sjors. Well done for doing the re-do!

Great to hear you solved your little problem there Robbyn. Just an observation on ratlines and glue - you don't need to wait for the glue to dry on one set before moving on to the next. I used diluted white PVA on mine and had no problem doing it this way.

Very nice start Albert. I'll certainly follow along with this one.

Okay, made it! Lucky I reserved a front row centre seat for this one!

Count me in for an OSS (with tilt option). I already own the table saw, disc sander and draw plate, and will shortly be ordering a thickness sander. The rope walk is also on my "to-buy" list. I'd order an OSS from Jim the moment it was available (so you'd better be making it with a 240v motor option! )

Nice progress there Sjors. Hope "the company" appreciates your productivity during your sick leave :P

Wonderful job on the carving Sherry - just beautiful. If that didn't give your confidence a real boost, then I'm sure all the positive comments you've received sure did!

Welcome home Ben. I look forward to seeing more updates soon.

Nice work on the shrouds David, and well done for having the courage to take them off and re-do them.

Hi Mobbsie, I've been offline for most of the week as the place we were staying in Dorset had no Internet and no mobile phone coverage! I was going through a bad case of MSW withdrawal by the time we left. No shipmodelling, but did manage a visit to Portland Bill while we were there (on one of only two days in the week that the lighthouse is closed to visitors ) We're in Florence (Italy) now and I just received another dose of kultcha with a four-hour tour of the Ufizzi Gallery and Vasari Corridor. Time now to put the feet up for a while and catch up with all my MSW friends. Thanks again for a great weekend at Chatham, Portsmouth and Chateau Mobbsie!

Welcome home Andy

Very nice Rusty, as always.

OK, they got me! I arrived at Chatham station (UK) to meet Mobbsie for our tour of Chatham Dockyard, and was delightfully surprised to be met by Sjors and Anja as well. What a wonderful surprise it was too. We all had a great day at Chatham Dockyard where Mobbsie had arranged a private viewing of the model collection. What a treat! We were like kids in a candy store! Then we all came back to Mobbsie's place where his Admiral (Christine) had prepared a delicious roast dinner. We all ate and drank and told tall tales and true, amid much laughter. Had the opportunity to inspect Mobbsie's work first hand - and I have to say it looks even better in the flesh than in the pictures he has posted. Sjors has already posted a few pics, but here is one of all of us. I'm the one looking like Santa Claus minus the red suit! What a great example of the power of this forum, to bring together people from all over the world, and on meeting for the first time it's like we have been lifelong friends. Thanks Mobbsie for arranging it all, and thanks Anja and Sjors for making the effort to come over for the weekend. And of course, thanks to Admiral Christine (C-in-C Home Fleet) for your gracious hospitality.

Looking good Augie, And I have to applaud your approach to the log and the 'family' atmosphere. No Moose were harmed in the making of this post!

Nice work on the windlass Mick.

Great work Mobbsie, I'll be around to inspect it in person tomorrow!

Just getting a quick fix before the day's activities Sjors. Just enough to keep me going. Man, this MSW addiction is tough!

Thanks all for the good wishes for our trip (and the kind words regarding the blocks). We're one week into the trip now, and to keep things ship modelling related, we did visit the Musee Nationale de la Marine in Paris. Very interesting and some great models. I took lots of pics for you know who, but as I don't have the ability to resize them from the iPad, posting them will have to wait until we get home. So far in the last week, after leaving home on Monday morning, we spent a total of 22 hours flying time, one day in Hong Kong (to break the flight), arrived London on Wednesday and spent the day walking around Winchester (UK), Thursday went to Oxford (UK) for the day, caught the train to Paris from London on Friday, did a three hour night time tour of the Louvre that evening (best time to go - far fewer people), Maritime Museum and Eiffel Tower on Saturday, Palace of Versailles on Sunday, Montmartre today followed by a Night Photography tour, from which we've just returned. Tomorrow is Notre Dame and Musee Rodin, then it's back to London on Wednesday. We are exhausted, but have been having a ball. Only two downers so far. Managed to get my pocket picked on the Metro train, despite taking precautions. Fortunately, they only got my ready use cash (about $100). Second (and by far the greater tragedy) was allowing the Admiral to choose the restaurant that night. Neither of us speak French and she unwittingly (or so she says) managed to take us to a vegan restaurant of all things! She is still laughing about it..........I'm not!!! When I say that I am a carnivore, I'm being polite about it! Fortunately, some of the food we've had since has restored my gastronomic balance. The Admiral has had restaurant choosing rights suspended until further notice. If it doesn't bleed, it's not going on my plate! Second Shipmodelling link - Photography tour was also about learning how to use the camera properly, so hopefully I'll be able to take better pics in the future, especially since we're doing more of these in both Florence and Venice later in the trip. I'll try not to turn this into a travel log, but if I can make any tenuous maritime / ship modelling links, I might just drop in a line or two - assuming I can find the time and energy. At the rate were going that's looking more likely NOT to be the case!

Hi Bob, I just followed Sjors in, out of idle curiosity just to see what he'd do next. I'll grab some popcorn and pull up a seat next to Sjors, just to make sure he behaves himself. This should be a very interesting build to follow.

Glad to hear you're feeling better Sjors, but shame about the w#%k thing!!!! Looking forward to seeing the new shrouds and ratlines.

A belated Happy Birthday Kevin. I'll be dropping off your present with Mobbsie next weekend. Nice work on the Mizzen. The ship is looking great.

Very nicely done all round Danny. And another great tutorial to boot!