Keith Simmons

Hi Denis,
                All I have to say is " very nice work ".       
 
 
Keep it up, matey
                               Keith

Hi Patrick,
                Amazing detail !!!!   Looking forward to more. With your ability at detail I fully expect when you get the bathrooms done I will be able to hear the flush from here...
 
                 Keep up the good work Mate,  Keith

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Hello everyone,
 
                           Finally finished my yachts so I thought I would share the results....
 
 
 
      Thanks to all those that followed along and for the many comments of encouragement.
 
 
 
       Thanks again,  Keith

Finally have the Ketch to the final detail stage.  Stairs sails and deck furniture etc....
 
 
   Thanks for looking in,   Keith

Hi all,
        
          A quick progress report on the sloop and ketch.
 
     Just a little bit more work on the sloop such as figuring a way to wire the rails, making a wheel and setting the sails....
 
     Finally finished the maple decking and started the cabin structure on the ketch.( after 3 attempts I think this is the final design, will be sure once I paint it...
 
     Thanks for looking in, have a great day,   Keith
   

Finally have the ketch hull ready for decking....Yay.....Now that's a hull....

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Hi Patrick,
i
                 Thank you so much, I do get a kick out of ship models. I have spent the last 2 weeks finishing up my last four ships, There is a stern wheeler rattling around in my head......  , plus, I realized that I am running out of room, have to post a thread titled " Does your house look like this?"  LMAO.
 
Thanks again for your encouragement,    Keith

Hello everyone,
 
                           Finally finished my yachts so I thought I would share the results....
 
 
 
      Thanks to all those that followed along and for the many comments of encouragement.
 
 
 
       Thanks again,  Keith

Hi Patrick,
i
                 Thank you so much, I do get a kick out of ship models. I have spent the last 2 weeks finishing up my last four ships, There is a stern wheeler rattling around in my head......  , plus, I realized that I am running out of room, have to post a thread titled " Does your house look like this?"  LMAO.
 
Thanks again for your encouragement,    Keith

Hi Mike, 
              I will be watching your build with a lot of interest. I am getting ready to start my version of a  scratch built stern wheeler soon. Your hull looks great....         I don't do much painting, but for the ones I have done, I use drywall compound as a filler. It seems to not affect the wood as other fillers do and sands beautifully. As for paint, I like to use gloss ( since gloss has a harder finish when dry) and then sand it till I get the satin or matte finish I'm looking
for. Then I top the paint with a lacquer finish of satin or matte depending on look I am going for. Not that this is the best way to finish paint, but it works for me.
             Looking forward to the rest of your build,    Keith

Hey, Mike, welcome back. I'm so glad to see a new log for this kit, as an American riverboat aficionado. I'll be very interested in following along and learning more about what the kit is like, as from afar it seems to be one of the few reasonably accurate steamboat kits out there.

Cathead, all done with the best intentions and thanks for your advice re Kurt and Roger.
Kurt, sorry if I confused you about the roof. I made the comments from a couple of your photos not the drawings.
 
Anyway, I have been pushing on and now have all the bulkheads on the false keel lovely and square. Not that I can take much credit for that, I had to do very little adjustment as the pieces were so well laser cut. Putting the stringers on was therefore really easy. Also the lovely people who designed this kit had the excellent foresight to mark the fairing with laser lines. If you look at frames 4 and 5 which I have not faired yet you will see what I mean. I know heaps of folk have trouble with fairing - what a shame other kit manufacturers don't help like this.
 
So I just have to fair those last bulkheads and it will be on to the job I always dread the most, hull planking.
 
Some pictures on the progress thus far.
 
 
 

Hello everyone,
 
                           Finally finished my yachts so I thought I would share the results....
 
 
 
      Thanks to all those that followed along and for the many comments of encouragement.
 
 
 
       Thanks again,  Keith

Congratulations Keith
 
Both ships are simply wonderful. It's easy to see just how much you love this whole ship-building experience.
 
I reckon you've set the bar pretty high in terms of what you've achieved so far. What's next?
 
Any hints?
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hello everyone,
 
                           Finally finished my yachts so I thought I would share the results....
 
 
 
      Thanks to all those that followed along and for the many comments of encouragement.
 
 
 
       Thanks again,  Keith

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Beautiful work Mark, 
 
                                  I want to be able to do that when I grow up....
 
            Thumbs up,   Keith

Preparation of head rails. Now it remains to properly fit the to a model.

Your welcome WackoWolf .
I continue with other details on the front part of the main deck. Catheads are already installed, so I can continue with galion.

Beautiful work, Sam. I like the background ... it gives good contrast, but doesn't distract from the subject
 
Cheers

Small update. The two Cross Trees just kept taunting me every time I looked at them so over the last several weeks I bit the bullet and remade everything with three Cross Trees. Right or wrong, short of an act of god, drinking fit or space alien invasion they are done and I am pleased with how they turned out. Next build though I really need to look into a mill, I made every part at least twice not counting the finished set with two cross trees. Chopping those half lap joints correctly was....interesting.  It did give me a chance to use my new Dockyard Micro Carving chisels. The Deep Plow worked well as a micro mortising chisel. The Skew worked well for scraping away the coat of shellac I applied to the masts to keep finger prints off. When it came time to glue the battens on I was able to scrape the finish off without gouging the wood.
 
I finished off the mast heads with card instead of soldered and blackened brass. I kept questioning my ability to make evenly spaced, close fitting brass straps. This was my first attempt at modeling with a paper product, they came out pretty good. Next time though I will choose a card stock closer to the finial color. As I was painting the white bands gray black it was quite a challenge to not get paint on the mast head. The end result looks fine from normal viewing distance, under macro or magnifying headset there is a distinct white band. Like I said though you cant really see it from normal viewing distance so I am ok with it.
 
Pictures below.