Ian_Grant

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.

Was interested, and came across this at Royal Museums Greenwich. Kind of pricey though. Maybe they have other drawings? https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/lines-plan-of-ss-great-eastern-1858-j8703

She looks great, and a perfect crown! I guess we can add "hairstylist" to your long list of skills, B.E. 😄😉

She is looking great Chris! Reading here about roof straps etc I thought people might be interested in my personal history of roof topping canoes: 1978 Tercel Roof had rain gutters. Bought four foam pads shaped to fit round gunwales and two tie-down straps which hooked on gutters at Canadian Tire; total cost about $26. 1989 Accord Wagon By then car roofs had no gutters. Had to buy a set of Thule bars and four mounting "blocks" custom for the vehicle which clamped on above windows; total cost about $400. 2004 Sienna Van Bought in 2003. The base "CE" model came without roof rails and we were told that they could not be added as "the CE is structurally different from the LE" 🙄. Had to buy an "LE" just to be able to mount a canoe on top. Total extra cost about $4000. Just to rub salt in the wound, the very next year the CE had roof rails too. They must have lost some sales but too late for us. 😒 I can hardly wait for our next vehicle buy.

BrunelRussell, I'd love to see a build log for the Great Eastern; hope you start one!

My God!!! Cat bites are always potentially infecting but your cure looks much worse.....hope it heals quickly. A few years ago I just shaved the skin off the end of a finger tip on a table saw; it took years for the nerves to feel normal again. (Amazing how the fingerprint whorls regenerate!)

HAHA!! It certainly does; haven't seen that stuff for forty years 😀 I take it you too are retired from the high tech industry 🤪