BenD

It's probably "Britannia metal" Quote from Wikipedia "(also called britannium or Britannia ware[1]) is a specific type of pewter alloy, favored for its silvery appearance and smooth surface. The composition by weight is typically about 92% tin, 6% antimony, and 2% copper." Antimony is a little bit toxic... so don't eat it or breathe the dust from sanding it.

I love how the bandage made a good texture for the mouse. Really creative, I might just use that idea. Great work on the rest of the ship.

I agree with @AJohnson with the tip about drilling with a pin vice drill and using tape to help reduce damage. Fixing the damage is fairly easy, use some wood filler, sand it down, redrill the holes carefully, then paint over it again. Expanding the holes to 1.6mm you might want to start small and work your way up to that size. If you have a decent set of drill bits you can work your way up to that diameter, it helps stop the walnut from cracking up so badly. To harden the surface you can also use thin CA glue, I've also found that to help a some. Your ship is coming along nicely.

Historical inaccuracies aside, I liked the video. It would have taken ages to produce that D3 model and then make a flythrough deck by deck. Quite impressive.

The hull is now finished! It was a bit of a battle to get the photo-etch parts glued on. It's no fun when the metal parts slip out of your tweezers and get CA everywhere... Everything else went together easily enough. Sails are up next on the workbench. I photocopied the sails from the plan and cut them out so it would be easier to work with them and measure. I almost wish I could use them like this. I've been experimenting with a lot of materials and so far the best results are from cloth. I soak them in diluted white PVA and hang them to dry. After that, I iron them so they are perfectly flat. Below are two failed samples, the sail-shaped one has pencil marks and the uncut sheet has a lot of fraying. I've made more sheets ready to cut that have more PVA to keep the fraying down. I am running low on cloth, I couldn't find anything decent from nearby fabric shops. Does anyone know where to buy some good sailcloth?

With this particular polyester, you will find glues of all types will soak into the fibers as long as they are thinned enough. This includes PVA, Clear nail polish, CA, and even Shellac. As long as the glue is thin or has some type of solvent or alcohol it should work. I've done tests with PVA and found 60/40 Water/PVA will hold really well. Using PVA for holding a shape in the line will take a few coats and some fiddling. I've tried my wife's clear nail polish and found it will hold a knot really well. The only problem is it will leave a shiny spot. The best glue for this rope is thin CA. It doesn't make it brittle and if you are light enough with the application it won't discolor the rope either. It goes right into the core of the rope and makes impossibly strong knots and seizings. I've managed to use thin CA for shaping curves in rope, it's tricky but can be done with the right applicator. Bob Smith Industries line of CA is what I would recommend for this job. It's high-quality CA that doesn't leave that awful white residue. I bought some shellac from Home Depot to test it out of knots. It soaked right into the Poly rope and held about as well as PVA. It left a bit of yellowing. I have not tried buying shellac flakes and dissolving them, so I don't know how well that would work or how much discoloring there would be. That covers everything I've tried so far.

It's 100% Polyester. The thread is meant for an overlocking/serging machine. It also happens to make nice rope.

Having the varnish crinkle up like that would have killed me. I would have contemplated giving up, gone to bed, and stared at the wall for a few hours. You overcame the problem and kept going 👍 Another thing is the kit seems to have a lot of errors. How old is this kit? I wonder if my HMS Wolf is like this. I wonder if they fixed these problems because I was looking at making this kit at some point.

Look's like a lot of rope makers wanted this thread! Thank you for your orders. I've added two more E121 186 Tan spools to the store's inventory. I'm nearly out of stock on a few others. Im going to order some more today from A&E, it should take 2-3 weeks to get delivered.

Hello all, Gutermann E thread will now be available on my website: https://ropesofscale.com/collections/thread People have been asking me where to get this thread for a while. It's hard to find on the internet, so I'm going to supply it. The size most people will want is the E121 (tex 12). I will also sell other sizes, E151 and E382, for those who want them. This thread is the best for making scale rope. It's similar to using Serifil or Skala thread but with much less shine. If anyone has questions, please reach out.

I like the wood grain you painted on. No easy task and you have to essentially do the whole hull. I have the HMS Wolf on the shelf waiting for me. I'm glad there is less wood to simulate on that one. I feel like I won't do a good job of that.

Looking really good mate. Glad you like the rope. The dark drown is looking realistic, did you use matt varnish on it like we talked about?

I use Minwax satin wipe on poly. It's easy to brush some on and then quickly wipe off the excess. It leaves the wood treated beautifully and with very little shine. If you want the spray version go with #4. Minwax Polyurethane satin. There are also artists' satin and matt varnishes that work well too. They tend to be acrylic and don't bring out the colors of the wood as well.

Hi Scotty, That kit rope looks not half bad, to be honest. It has a nice tight twist to it even if it is left-hand. It would also need to be stained. I also doubt the stated size of the rope, looks more to be 1.1mm - 1.2mm, and the small one is 0.35mm - 0.45mm. I'll send you a PM and see what we can do.

Really great work. The extra activity on deck really brings it together. The sails look fantastic, hard to tell they are parchment paper.

Closure at last! Nice work on the ship. I'm surprised it survived so well being moved to a new country. Cheers

Really stunning build. I love the yellow ochre on the hull.

Oh yeah, that does look like my light beige rope! I'll be looking for the build log of the pram.

Amazing work all around! I really like the way you rigged the guns.

Welcome aboard. looks like your almost ready for the ready for the Constitution, The Fair American will be a good stepping stone.

I'd recommend using Aleene's tacky glue, or white pva. The yellow Carpenters stuff for wood leaves noticeable color stains, even when diluted.

I suspect a lot of manufactures are changing to synthetics for a very good reason and that's Price. Polyester is a fraction the cost of cotton, linen, or hemp. Someone on here might have some of the older stock and be willing to send it to you. Another option is to use the new line and brush some diluted matt varnish on it after rigging. That method work's quite well on the polyester shine.

I've got Shipyards HMS Wolf on the shelf waiting. What one did you buy? @catopower is doing an in depth log of his HMS Wolf build. I've added the link below. You can find other shipyard kits if you type in "Shipyard" in the search bar.

Looking really good mate 👍 looking forward to more. My kit is still teasing me on the shelf.

I'm back from my holiday in the Dominican. It was really hot and yes I got sunburns... 🥵 I've started processing everyone's orders. Look's like I'll have a busy week restocking.