Ian_Grant

Hi Bill, As Hubac says, Heller provides fine molded lines for the ochre stripes and they do not follow the wales. But I seem to recall some inaccuracies in their locations where they meet the quarter galleries and even I think between the two sides. Best check photos of the actual ship. Are you going to frame the gunports inside with some evergreen strips? This replicates the actual hull thickness and adds "heft" to the visual appearance. I didn't see anyone answer your query about Dafi's brass etch.....yes definitely you want to blacken them. I haven't had much luck with blackener in the past (I've since learned one must pickle them first to remove oxide coating) so I painted them. I've been out of touch with your build, but now you have a new follower. 😃

Beautiful model! It's a shame to hide your first class main deck below the boats, but the boats are very nice too. Must be a huge model at the scale...😀. Love your sails.

Further to my earlier post, we now must add "dressmaker" as well as "hairstylist" to your formidable list of skills, B.E. 😁 Queen Anne looks great! Looking forward to seeing what you do about oarsmen!

Hello, I am a rank newbie as far as 3D CAD goes, in fact I have only ever used TinkerCAD. I wanted to build a small CAD file of an assembly made with structural and linear motion components from ServoCity, just to examine overall dimensions. They provide zipped "STEP" files for all their parts. However, when I download these zipped STEP files, right-click and select "EXTRACT" the resulting file is designated as an Adobe file (doesn't sound right to me) which TinkerCAD can't "see" as a valid item to import. So my questions are 1) Do I need to download some other app to extract zipped STEP files, as opposed to whatever windows does? 2) Is TinkerCAD even capable of importing mechanical part files like these? I'm hoping not to have to learn Fusion360 or equally complex tools. Thanks, Ian

I disagree with Louie; I thought Parkinson's "letter from Hornblower" was a great addition to the Hornblower genre, demonstrating his ruthlessness when necessary. And the revelation about Mr. Wellard - Wow! I agree the recent TV series was less than great. The wholesale departure from the books to ridiculous plots was irksome. I'd rather watch the old Gregory Peck movie, any time.

Lovely job on the model. Should those chains not be a little more taut though? Looking forward to more.

Beautiful model! Love your hammock netting; I recall many hours with the head magnifier stitching the nets along the thread between cranes, on my Heller plastic build. I am in awe of your workmanship..... Ian

George, Looking forward to seeing her on water. I'm contemplating my first RC build in 40 years (!?). Where does one obtain lead shot nowadays?

I'd love to see some progress shots of your "Great Eastern"..............

She looks great, Robert! Wish I could build half as fast as you, while keeping up quality workmanship too.

Wow they have great looking scale bricks - who knew? Keep up the good work Colin!

Bill, nice to hear from you. How is your Potosi build going? After poking around, I see it's actually www.hismodel.com whereas the site you quoted is completely different. Those sails do look nice, but at $300CDN I will rig bare poles as planned 🤪 My balls are seemingly not as big as Victor estimates as I have decided there is no way I am rigging 300 blocks on this model. I plan to use wood blocks for the tackle on lower yard lifts and topsail sheets, and for the braces on the lower yards leading to the winches, but for most of the rest I will just tie a knot and slide a seed bead over it to represent a block. I have some very small seed beads which are smaller than Syren's 2mm blocks, from a bead store in the neighbourhood. I just received, finally, my brass and copper eyes order so I am once again equipped to continue with Preussen. However, while waiting I started building a chess table for a nice chess set I bought years ago in Germany. I want to finish it first. Also, I want to build a rudimentary galley cross section with oars so I can test out my oar-driving setup and write the required Arduino code, before deciding whether to build an actual RC galley. All this to say it may be a while before I get back to Preussen. Unless we get a week of 40C humidex; that'll drive me indoors! For interest, if any, here are a couple of shots of the chess table in progress. There will be two drawers, one above the other, opening opposite ways to hold the chess men. The top: Cherry and maple with inlaid banding from Lee Valley. That's a 12" rule on it. The carcass with drawer slides:

Class M models are fun to sail. I encourage you to consider RC-ing her. Just need a single winch to control the two sheets and a rudder servo....

Fantastic Kevin! If you wanted you could sell this "stern kit" on the market...........

Recently (within past month) ordered 42 lpi chain from CYA. Received an order acknowledgement via email, another when it had shipped, and the order arrived a few days later. Mind you, I am in Ontario same as them.

Very nice!

Might it not be that the original purpose was to handle the jeers of the foreyard when needed? Guessing etymologically.

I fully agree with you. No need for course sheets and tacks to be hauled taut when furled. I did the same on my Victory.

Experienced husbands, upon completion of such a fine project, and with an eye to the future, would name her after their wife.

Chris, she looks great. As my father-in-law said when he saw the varnished interior of my cedar strip canoe, "You'll want to take your shoes off before you step into it". 😀

My two cents - paint the foredeck red and leave the thwarts natural. She will be stunning, whatever you decide, B.E.

We don't know; she didn't last long enough to see any severe weather 😁 How severe do you mean? As wind increased ships took in sail aloft. In a gale they might be hove to under a single staysail aft to keep her head to the wind. Are you setting her in a seascape in a storm? That would be cool!

Hello Bill, I bought Plate 3 "Channel Irons" and Plate 4 "Decks". Plate 3 provides the strops, chains and preventers for all the lower deadeyes and also the strops for the deadeyes in the tops and associated hooks for the futtock shrouds. Plate 4 provides all the hammock cranes with eyes (which you will be thankful for when you get to the hammock netting) as well as a much nicer binnacle and cabin skylight. Also a nice detail: boarding pikes and racks for the fore and main masts. I didn't use the gunlocks or stunsail irons myself. In my case there is no room to work on multiple builds. The first three years I only worked on her in the winter. After that I found myself becoming less tolerant of the heat and humidity (age?) so I started having sessions in the A/C when outside was ridiculous. I'm not a fanatic about daily progress and I might have spent some time maybe 3 or 4 days a week (guessing). Too bad Pete Coleman's "Victory" site is gone. Blue Ensign had his usual detailed build log from which I learned a lot. One warning, which will not affect you for some time: the numbering of the lower gun deck beams on sheet 6 is in the wrong order. I seem to recall the bowsprit bees port and starboard are also swapped. Looking forward to another Heller Vic build log!

I used a black Sharpie ultra fine point permanent marker between the stern balustrades then covered with matt varnish. Still looking good after several years anyway. Bill, I highly recommend you buy at least two of Dafi's etch sheets, namely those that provide the chainplates and the stanchions. You will be disappointed with those in the kit. Or, in the case of the chainplates and preventers, their absence. Be prepared also to buy after market deadeyes and blocks and thread; all those in the kit are useless. It's the finest plastic ship model around, but it is a bit of an ordeal at times. Took me five years.

I highly recommend "The Endurance" by Caroline Alexander for those interested in reading about Shackleton's greatest test.