FriedClams

Terrific eyebolts Keith. I admire your heads down work ethic in producing these many duplicate parts. I’m sure it was mind numbing, but you pushed through it. Gary

Ouch! I have a thought for what it's worth. The hand wheel for what seems to be a friction brake on the dual purpose winch appears to be in spot where it would cover the deck repairs - if only the winch assembly was placed slightly to the rear of where they are on the actual boat, maybe a foot to 18". A paper cutout of the winch/hand wheel footprint could help decide if that would be an acceptable or unforgivable alteration. Gary

Beautiful work Dan - and such an ambitious project. Congratulations on its completion. Wonderful model and build log. Gary

Hello Wefalck, I've been reading your log from the beginning and have just caught up. A very interesting and educational thread to be sure. Your machine tools are great but it is your skill in using them that is so admirable. Astonishing detail at so small a scale. Very impressive and beautiful work! I look forward to future updates. But . . . . . are you sure that match stick isn't really a modified broom handle with a sponge stuck on the end? Gary

As Keith stated above - this model does look like the real thing. Nice meticulous work on the stringers and risers G.L. She is looking sweet. Gary

I completely agree with Marks’ statement above. An astonishing amount of miniature brass detail all nicely made and precisely duplicated. l really like the color and richness of the deck as well and the multiple top coats gave it a beautiful depth. Your work process is a pleasure follow. Very nice Keith. Gary

Hello G.L. Yes, the hull too will be weathered and worn to match the rest of the boat. I agree, at this point the hull does look rather clean and maybe even out of place, but that will change. My general approach to building a weathered model is to build it like I didn't intend to weather it and at the last moment changed my mind. In this case I try to imagine what the real boat must have looked like sliding off the ways for the first time - clean, tough and expertly made. Years of hard service, inconsistent upkeep and the relentlessness of Mother Nature change her appearance, but it is only cosmetic. Thanks for stopping by. Hello Tom and thanks. If in the end it turns out well, I will offer it free to one of the maritime museums here in New England if they want it. Gary

Thanks to all for stopping by and hitting the like button. Thank you so much John. Thank you Ekis for your nice comments. I’m pleased you’re inspired to perhaps give some these techniques a try for yourself, but be forewarned - weathering is addicting and the results can be unpredictable and often disappointing. Be sure to do test trials on scrap material first. Weathering can destroy a perfectly nice model in a heartbeat - no need to ask me how I know this. Thank you Hubert for your high appraisal of my work - I’m blushing like a newlywed. I’m glad you are following along and enjoying the log. I am absolutely terrible at tying knots and can never seem to remember what goes under where and over the top of which. I am lucky to get my shoes tied every morning - well most mornings anyway. Thanks for your comment Keith. As always Druxey, thank you for your comments. Gary

Thanks to all for stopping by and hitting the like button. Thanks Keith and John for your comments. Yes it’s a simple and fairly convincing technique for piles of tired looking rope. Hello Michael – thanks for the kind words. I’ve enjoyed doing the weathering on this model, but it does make for slow progress. So much trial and error involved - a lot of both. But I knew this before I started and the process is fun. And I'm in no hurry to finish. Thanks for swinging by and for your comments. Well I haven’t needed to use a microscope yet, but I do have the most powerful magnification lens snapped into my OptiVisors. Thanks for stopping in and for your nice comment Tom. I’m glad you found my build log Ken and I hope you find something useful here. Thanks for the nice comments. Hello Michael and Druxey. Yes, I have always admired Winslow Homers' work. He was quite prolific and a master at several art mediums. Here is another of my favorites by Homer from the same time period. Fisher Folk in a Dory - 1881 - Harvard Art Museums/ Fogg Museum So here is a short update on the dragger. The dory was mounted to the wheelhouse roof. It sits on wood frames and is tied down with rope attached to eyebolt rings. I tried to make the knot as small and unobtrusive as I could – I think it's called the “halfwits' hitch". Glue holds it together. I also added some vertical and horizontal grab irons to the pilothouse. It has occurred to me that most of the photos I’ve provided over the past few months have all been close-ups and small portions of things. So I took some overall shots of the model to show where it stands at this moment. The boat is 11 ¼” in length. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

Hello Maury and Mark. I built a sardine carrier that also had these offset rings in the hatch covers and wondered about that myself. The hatch covers on my model were considerably larger at 2’ wide by 6.5’ long and would have required a man on each end to lift them, but were essentially the same configuration. I think this ring placement was to keep the cover from rolling over to vertical once it was lifted. This would almost certainly happen if the rings were placed in the center at each end unless the cover was perfectly balanced which is unlikely. And I believe that rings were used instead of regular door pull type handles because the rings drop flat onto the cover when not in use and wouldn’t be crushed or broken the first time something heavy landed on it. Or I could be totally wrong. Maury your model is looking great and your log is a pleasure to follow. Very nice work. Gary

I’ve been following along on your build and enjoying watching your progress Kevin. Very nice work you’re doing here and boy she is big model isn’t she! I really enjoy these working boats - especially fishing boats. Excellent job on that highly detailed winch. Looking forward to future updates. Gary

This is a beautiful model you’re building here Bedford. And who doesn’t love a lapstrake pulling boat? 1:8 is such an enjoyable scale to work in and your metal details are really great. Extremely nice work. Oh - and your full size build is stunning and I’m sure she’s a pleasure to sail and row. Gary

This is such an interesting craft Elroy and I like the fact that you’re providing detailed information on how they were/are built. Good luck on your build - I will follow along. Gary

This looks to be an interesting build Ken. I will follow along. Gary

This boat is coming along great G.L. Good idea using a wallpaper steamer for the steam box. The framing and grating turned out sweet - very nice. And I enjoy the detailed description of your work process - thanks. Gary

Wonderful work Valeriy. I am always impressed by your splendid metal work. The wheelhouse and its details are very nice indeed. I’m looking forward to seeing how your brackets will be used. Gary

Catching up on your build Keith and enjoying observing your progress. As usual your work is well thought out and immaculately executed. Thanks for sharing your work process in detail. Gary

Thank you Vaddoc for the comment and kind words - I appreciate it. And thanks to all for stopping in and hitting the like button. Finishing up the lifeboat dory. It has been close to a month since my last post and yet I've accomplished little in that time. As you all know, sometimes life just gets in the way of hobbies. But to bring things up to date, I have finished my lifeboat dory although it is not yet mounted onto the wheelhouse. The boat shown in this posting is actually not the one I built in my previous post. I decided to build a second one to correct what I feel is a sort of heavy clumsiness in the first effort. This only became noticeable to me as I began to add color to it - and once I saw it, I couldn't un-see it. This second boat was built exactly as the first, only this time with wood sanded down to finer dimensions beforehand. So the resulting boat is a little more delicately made. Once that was done, I began the coloring process by ageing the entire boat with a very light brown/umber chalk and alcohol wash. The interior of the boat was then brush painted with a sky gray acrylic. The thwarts were painted the same gray with a touch of raw umber added to set them apart from the rest of the interior. The gunwales and caps are an off-white acrylic and sanded for wear. The thwarts were scraped revealing the aged wood beneath. And finally, dry chalk was scrubbed on here and there. The hull exterior was painted with a thinned mixture of orange and burnt umber acrylic. It was then lightly sanded. Pieces of basswood were filed, sanded and assembled into a set of oars. A wooden baler was made up. This boat will have a coil of rope thrown over the rear thwart. In order to get the rope to drape naturally, I make a mock-up and place some soupy wet string over it. The soup is “wet" water with color and glue added to it. Wet water is simply water with a surface tension reducer added so it flows and penetrates more easily. Years ago when film-developing shops were common place, I used a darkroom print making chemical called Kodak Photo-Flo for this. In the days of digital, Photo-Flo isn’t as easy to find and I now use a dishwashing machine rinse agent like JetDry instead. A quarter teaspoon per quart of water and that will last – a very long time. If you don't mind a few suds, liquid soap or windshield fluid is also commonly used. I add a speck of gray acrylic and raw umber to a spoonful of the wet water as a colorant and a drop of PVA to firm things up when dry - not so much PVA that it turns into rock and can’t be removed from the mock-up, just enough to hold its shape. I leave it in a puddle like this for a few minutes to give it time to fully penetrate, and then absorb it away with a point of paper towel. The color changes once the excess liquid is removed and the natural color of the string blends with the applied color. This process works best on cheap white/yellow string. High quality miniature rope tends to resist being colored in this way. Beckets at bow and stern have been added and everything is placed in the boat. I could have stuffed lifejackets under the thwarts but I didn’t want to add bright colors to the mix. Maybe some sort of fresh water container and another set of oars would be appropriate, but I like the visual balance of what is there now and I am a strong believer in the “sometimes less is more" philosophy. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

You're on to me Keith - thanks for stopping in. Gary

Thank you Keith - I appreciate your comment. Thanks for compliment John. Yes, it will have some wear on it, but less than the dragger itself. This boat could have replaced the original one and as such doesn't need to echo the same level of crustiness. But I don't want it to look out of place either. It's just an illusion Jim. I try to show in my log what has mostly worked for me, hoping others might find it useful or interesting. There is really nothing instructive in all my throwaways, so I don't share them. My work process is rarely smooth and easy, but I'm pleased that it comes off that way. Thanks for your nice comments Jim. Hello Druxey and thanks for the comment. This method worked out okay on this small hull, but I've had problems applying it to larger models. The force needed to keep the keel/stem in place on the jig necessitates too many strings/threads to the point where you ask yourself - why am I doing it this way? Thanks for swinging by. Gary

Very nice work Javier - and at such a small scale. Remarkable patience. Gary

Thanks to all for stopping by and for hitting the like button. Lifeboat This dory is 15’6” LOA, which translates to just under 4” in 1:48. I begin by cutting out the frame stations and mounting them to a build board. The stem is made from two thin pieces of basswood laminated together. They were first soaked in alcohol, then pre-bent and finally glued and formed over a template. The lamination eliminated the problem of kinks in the bend and the line of contact acted as a rabbet line in landing the strakes. The transom, stern knee and bottom planks are made and sanded. The bottom is cut from 1/32” sheet stock as a single piece. It is scored to imitate individual planks, then marked for frame and cleat positions. The four pieces are assembled. The bottom/stem/transom is flipped onto the frame stations, aligned and pulled down tight with thread. The holes where the threads pass through the bottom are located where bottom cleats will eventually cover them. No glue is used in placing the bottom. Next the garboards are cut. The plans provide the shape of the garboards – hallelujah! There are four planks per side to go on. The garboards (as always) are the most trying to place. The most difficult aspect of this little boat was simply its size and fragility. A number of times I had to fight back the urge of returning to childhood and smashing the thing to smithereens. After walking away a time or two, I got the garboards on by placing them simultaneously, working my way back from the stem and edge gluing them to the bottom planks as I went. This kept the stem and transom straight and it also kept the bottom centered over the frames. Both edges of all strakes are beveled and are set to provide for a slight overlapping edge - not a full lapstrake. Here is the hull fresh off the form. Because I did not pre-bend the strakes the hull tries to straighten out and in this photo looks more like canoe than a dory. Putting in the first thwart opened up the beam back to where it should be. The floor cleats are glued in and the crossed futtock frames are placed piece by piece. The seat risers go in and the remaining thwarts. The stern cleat is placed. The gunwales and caps go on and finally the breast hook. Thole pin holes are drilled and the starboard side pins are temporarily placed to see how they look. The pins are 0.02" phosphor bronze. They will be pulled before paint is applied. And that’s that. In the next post the dory gets some color, oars, a baler, becket and whatever else comes to mind. Thanks for taking a look. Gary

Nice looking kit and a very interesting vessel. I look forward to watching your progress. Gary

You’re off to great start on this beautiful yacht Jim. The extra care that you’ve taken in the fairing and lining off process is always a good investment. She’s looking good! Gary

Good to see you back at Germania Keith. I like that you're sourcing old doors for the decking material. When I think of modelers from centuries past, I envision men rooting around in the wood pile for whatever they can find that could be put to use. There is something satisfying about reusing the old for the new. It gives the model an added story and history. And your drum sander looks sophisticated enough to me. Gary