FriedClams

Beautiful model G.L. - congratulations. It has such an authentic look and feel to it. Very, very nice. And your log was a pleasure to follow. Gary

Nice to see an update on your model Jim - she’s looking good! Very nice result from the card stock caulking and I like the color contrasts of the various woods. Look forward to seeing the deck sanded and polished up. Gary

Wonderful progress on your model Keith. Splendid metal work and your approach to part making is always clever and well thought out. A pleasure catching up. Gary

Looking great G.L. The decking turned out very nice and the scarf joints in the gunwale and covering boards are a good looking detail. Always a pleasure catching up. Gary

I echo what others have already said but it’s worth repeating - beautiful cannon turnings, so clean and sharp. And I very much like the three new crew members. The painter looks like me, more paint on my clothes than on what I’m painting. Wonderful work Siggi. Looking forward to seeing the cannons cast. Gary

She coming along and looking really good Ken! Gary

Such excellent work Wefalck. The laser cut paper produced a very nice result for the lower carriage. These specialty papers and materials you are using on this model are very interesting and something I must try at some future point. Thanks for providing the details of your process. The model is looking great and your log is always an enjoyable and educational read. Gary

Sweet work on the deckhouse and the brake portion of the anchor winches. Beautiful work Keith. Gary

Hello Keith, Good to see an update on the Tennessee - it’s a nice looking model. Sorry I can’t offer anything on the mystery object. It makes me think of a tank for compressed air. Hopefully someone will come up with an answer for you. Keep at it and keep healthy. Gary

Just catching up Kevin - very nice job you’re doing here. That was a tough call on the mast, but as others have said, it would have always bugged you. She is looking sweet ! Gary

Beautiful work Ekis. Your village is really coming along - nice work. I especially like the dusting on the statue and the half-timbering looks very authentic. Such a cool project! Gary

Just catching up CDW. Your aircraft turned out great - beautiful meticulous work. Love the clean details and the paint looks terrific. Very nice indeed. Gary

Another beautifully executed tiny marvel. Very nice Javier! Gary

Such clean and beautiful work from every angle. The carvings are a true art. Wonderful. Gary

Thanks to all for the "likes" and for stopping by. Yes I know of the salt masking method, but I too have never tried it. I've seen it used often especially on 1:24 auto/truck hoods, roofs and the like to great effect. It seems like a method that would work best on larger areas. Another popular method and one that I have tried involves the use of hairspray as a soluble layer between non-soluble paint layers. This method has many variations and I have seen modelers apply it very convincingly indeed. I like using the glass cleaner method - it is effective and I feel in control of the final result. Here is a link to a forum thread (non shipbuilding) that describes the process. https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=2165.0 Thanks for the comment Wefalck. And while I’m on the subject of rust I want to share a link to the website of Martin Heukeshoven. He builds rusty, derelict autos totally from scratch and as I understand, mostly from junk. They are large models – in the 60 to 130cm range and they are absolutely extraordinary. Click on the "Museum" link to access the individual models. The Ferrari sitting on the flat bed wrecker is my favorite. http://www.martin-heukeshoven.de/ I’m providing this second link directly to his galleries page. For some inexplicable reason the link to the "Museum” (gallery) does not appear on the home page when using my tablet. http://www.martin-heukeshoven.de/galerie A finer compliment can't be made. Thank you Druxey. You wouldn’t stay with me long Moab, I’m a ruthless and unbending taskmaster. Not really. Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad you’re finding something helpful here. Thanks Ken, thanks Jim. 1:48 is a pretty nice scale to work in. It’s large enough to allow for some detail, but not so large that you feel compelled to add a lot more. So I can fudge and omit details here that I couldn't at 1:24 or 1:12. The larger you go then more is expected. Thanks for your comments and I hope you are finding something useful here. Gary

Thanks to all for the wonderful comments and input on the trawl winch - I very much appreciate it. And thanks for the likes and stopping by. Trawl Winch Chain Guard and Aux Winch Head The trawl winch has an auxiliary gypsy head that is smaller than the main head. It is driven off the main winch shaft via sprocket and roller chain as shown in the plan view drawing. The chain and sprocket will not be modeled, only the outer guard. The guard that encloses the chain is made up of two sections of sheet metal as shown below. The drawing will be used as a template for the two sections. I begin by cutting a pattern for the guard from basswood. The “sheet metal" sections will be glued to this wood pattern. I’m using aluminum cut from the sidewall of a beverage can for the guard. The material calipers to about .004" or .192” in 1:48. That is pretty stout and equivalent to about #6 gauge sheet steel, but it will have to do. I only care about material thickness because one section folds over the other and will reveal an edge being held down by sheet metal screws. I choose aluminum over something like foil because there are several places where the material is unsupported by the wood pattern and has to be stiff enough to stand on its own. Here is the aft side glued to the pattern. The aluminum had to be sanded to remove the coating that is sprayed to the inside of the can. Then the other side is glued on and the edge is wrapped over the top and sides. The thick edge is filed to a thinner profile and cap head style sheet screws with washers are placed along the edge. The injection-molded screws have a 1/8” long shank, so holes are drilled through the metal and glued into the wood pattern. The screws are actually holding the aluminum down and the material tends to behave like real sheet metal – tight down under the screws and lifting slightly between them. The color of most machine guards today is yellow – “Safety Yellow" to be exact. But in the 1920s, decades before OSHA, any color was acceptable if there was in fact a guard in place to paint. Having worked in industrial environments most of my life, I cringe to think of the working conditions of an earlier time with exposed whirling gears and spinning shafts right out in the open. How many poor workers just trying to make a living were entangled and maimed due to a single brief moment of inattention? Heartbreaking. Anyway, this chain guard will be green. Coloring the guard has a couple of steps, but each step is simple. To begin, the aluminum is sanded for tooth and then cleaned with alcohol. It is then painted with a rust colored enamel as a base and allowed to thoroughly dry over night. This base is smooth and I'll explain why I think that is important in a moment. Next, a coat of uninspiring dull green acrylic paint is applied.. A toothpick is used as a handle. Rather than using a brush or an airbrush, I used a cosmetic sponge for an uneven textured surface. These sponges have a pretty tight cellular structure and can be bought where women’s makeup is sold. After the acrylic has dried for about an hour, I wet small areas of the paint with water and give it a minute or two to soften the surface. I then start picking at it with a toothpick to remove chips of the acrylic paint, which reveals the rust colored enamel underneath. I then apply three different rust colored pigment powders that are mixed with water and brush applied individually to simulate general rusting/streaking. Black is also applied around the shaft slots to suggest grease sling. Finally, I scrub and blend the pigments (which has already been done in the image above) with one or several of the items shown below - a toothpick, artist stump or one of the excellent modeling swabs from Tamiya. The pigments I use (Bragdon) have a pressure activated adhesive component that sticks quite tenaciously when scrubbed on and doesn’t require a binder. So I didn’t apply a clear topcoat. Never sneeze into an open container of pigment. The reason I stated that the enamel base should be smooth is because it provides a textural contrast to the dabbed on acrylic overcoat. Once the acrylic is chipped off, not only does it leave a slight depression, but it also exposes a different texture layer, which emphasizes that the paint is actually missing and is not just a color illusion. Glancing sidelight shows this detail to great effect. And the uneven textured acrylic paint suggests rust might be forming just under the paint surface. These effects are not that noticeable at 1:48 but in larger scales with thicker paint and greater surface area being covered, they can be quite dramatic. The main idea is to have a base color that will not be affected by modifying a water-soluble upper layer. There are many techniques for model “paint chipping" and everyone seems to have a favorite. YouTube has videos on most of them. But if in the end the weathering turns out nasty, I can simply strip off the acrylic paint with water (and the pigments along with it) and leave the basecoat behind - ready for another go. The guard brackets are made from 1.5mm per side styrene angle with glued on injection molded nuts/washers from Grandt Line Products. Paint and pigment are applied. The aux winch head is made from 3/16” dowel, profiled with needle files, painted and penciled. Glued together. The shaft bearing drool is oil art paint. The good thing about oil is that it’s still workable days after it is put on - the bad thing is that it's still workable days after it is put on. The guard isn't glued to the winch yet so double-sided tape is used to hold it in place for the photos. The crown of the deck will dictate the final placement. I put in some brake shoe attachment point details and brackets to the underside which is impossible to see and therefore rather pointless. But they are there. I’ve left out a number of details. The most significant omission is the pinion gear and shaft that would be located a tad to one side and directly below the main shaft. It connects the bull gear to a drive source. It would be a challenge at this scale to include and would never be seen. There are a few things I don’t like about the trawl winch, but they go away when I stop looking at these close-up photos. So the winch is done and I’m anxious to move on. Thanks for looking in. Gary

I look forward to following your progress on this dory. I love these small rugged little boats and the history behind them. It looks like a terrific kit and I wish you much success in your first build. Gary

Beautiful work - every bit of it. I especially like your anchors which are so precisely and cleanly made. Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing your work with us. Gary

This model is coming along wonderfully CDW, such careful and precise work. As others have mentioned, I too like your method of painting the inside of the clear canopy from the outside - very clever. A very informative and fun build to follow. Thanks for sharing it with us. Gary

The boats turned out extremely nice Kevin. I especially like the wrinkles and creases in the fabric covers. I would say the shrouds are steel cables. I scratch built a 1941 sardine carrier (70 ft LOA) and plans of the vessel called for 1/2” steel cable for the shrouds. That boat is about the same era as your trawler - so perhaps . . . I can’t say for certain about the davit winches, but every trawl winch or mine hoist or tugger I have ever seen winds/unwinds off the top of the drum, as in the first of your two illustrations. Keep up the great work. Gary

Dang ! You know what I mean ? Superb workmanship and a wonderful result Keith - just as I knew it would be. Such a concentration of complexity in so small a package. Wonderful. Gary

Nice diorama Clare - a charming scene. Good call on the boats. Yours are much more interesting and detailed than those shown on the box photo. Does the diorama get a base or surround? Good to see you back on the Kitamaebune. Gary

Some very nice (and I'm sure tedious) work on those blocks Vaddoc. Sounds like another 1:10 model in your future. Good to see forward progress on your Deben. Gary

Extremely nice work on the woodwork Michael. As Pat has mentioned above, the grain really looks beautiful, especially now that the tung oil has been applied. Matching the grain pattern down through the individual door panels is an elegant touch. Gary

I know I sound like a broken record, but - beautiful work Keith. Gary