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Love your encouragement, Roger! BTW: As a cabinet maker we refer to sawdust as "man glitter"! Of course, with so many ladies entering the field, that political incorrectness just might get me sued.
Full speed ahead!
Teddy
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Hi Chris!
Thanks so very much for the sage advice. As to being anywhere near a modeling club, I'm at least three hours south of anywhere like that -- Portland, Oregon. I live in Roseburg, Oregon, which is pretty much timber and ranching country. The young folks here have nothing to do with hobbies such a model building. If they're not glued to their smartphones, they are getting into trouble with drugs or whatever. We did have a hobby shop some eight or so years ago, but it folded due to lack of interest. Two years ago, our Walmart quit selling the few models and modeling accessories they had altogether due to lack of interest. From what I've gathered, at least in these here parts, building models is a lost art no one around here cares to resurrect.
Teddy
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Ah, life in the sticks -- I'm well acquainted with it! I grew up in Humboldt County, California, which as you may know is hours away from anywhere. I moved here to SC from Mariposa County (home to Yosemite NP), and the nearest big cities were Merced and Fresno, which aren't exactly bastions of maritime culture.
Cheers!
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G'day to you as well, Mark, from a well-wisher who could only dream of one day visiting the wonderful Land Down Under!
The issue of building logs appears to keep coming up. I've never keep a log nor seen how it's done, but what everyone seems to be saying, they're readily available to view and learn how to keep. I've always been pretty much a hands-on kind of guy, rarely planning ahead or anything, and that's quite unusual in my trade as a cabinet maker where blueprints are pretty much how one goes about getting things done. Things just come to my in my head, and I get started, piece by piece. I try to figure out cut and material lists ahead of time, but if it's something I'm building for myself, I rarely get that far. I just dive right in.
Thanks so much for your encouragement!
Teddy
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Danny~
You've been most encouraging! Thank you.
I wasn't quite a skilled or talented as you to build anything like those Revell 36-inch models right off. My first model, Mayflower, was a small Revell kit. Many more small ship model kits followed before I was daring enough to take on Cutty Sark. My story on beginning Cutty is interestingly much like yours! My mother and I were browsing a local hobby shop in the Los Angeles area (where I lived when growing up) when I spied the Revell Cutty Sark model sitting on a high-up shelf. Price then was $13 US. I begged my mother to buy the kit for me, but she told me I must either save my allowance or possibly God would provide the money. I was extremely disappointed, believing I would never be able to save up that much money.
As we were leaving the store, I spied a $10 bill on the sidewalk right outside the store! I handed it to my mother, but she told me the right thing to do was to bring it into the hobby shop and give it over to the clerk until it was rightfully claimed. Problem was, the money was on the sidewalk between the hobby shop and another shop, so our dilemma became which shop and which clerk, and who, in Los Angeles, might be honest enough not to pocket the money for themselves. Just the same, I handed the money over to the clerk. When I did, he unexpectedly reached up to fetch the model kit off the top shelf and hand it to me asking, "Do you have another three dollars?" which I did.
To this day I've wondered if my mother didn't plant that $10 bill somehow for me to see!
Was your Charles W. Morgan a Model Shipways kit? Was it overwhelming for you to open the box as I did, seeing all those discombobulated strips of wood and packaged metal fittings? How did you move past that feeling?
I purchased a vintage copy of a planking book online several weeks ago. I suppose once I work up the courage to finally dig into building a wooden model, I'll learn by doing as I always have in the past.
My questions about brittle wood in my older kits still puzzles me.
Ted
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Hi Ted,
"To this day I've wondered if my mother didn't plant that $10 bill somehow for me to see!"
Yeah, seems a little odd eh
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My Charles Morgan was a Artesania Latina kit, back in the day when they were a fairly good company making good kits - predating the Asian-made ones. The instructions were no better than most kits - they expected you to know the basics of wooden kit building, which I didn't, so yes it was a rather daunting looking task at the time. But as I love a challenge I jumped in head first
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You needn't have wasted your money buying a planking book - all the info it contains and more is available FREE on this site. Have you seen THIS article? (click on the link) Open the appropriate section you want.
Similar thing with Hobby Shops - they are nearly all on-line now. I buy nearly everything I need on Ebay.
What were your questions about "brittle wood"? If you can't bend dry planking strips without snapping them straight away, then it's most likely too old and will need to be replaced. Soaking them in water may help.
Danny
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Mark~
Thanks so much for your encouragement! It never occurred to me that the wood in older kits might become brittle over time. I guess as a cabinet maker, I should've known. Should I open the box now and see even though I cannot start anything else until I complete my current Revell Constitution build? How would I test the wood without damaging it to see if it's still suitable to work with? If it is brittle, could I place the pieces in a steam box such as the one we cabinet and furniture makers use to steam bend wood?
Teddy
Mark