Keith Black

John, welcome to MSW. Make yourself comfortable and enjoy your stay.

Thank you to all for the likes, thank you for sharing my small triumph. Thank you. Phil. Brian, thank you for the compliment and the vote of confidence. Thank you, Lynn. I didn't put things away for a spell. I have to stick with working out a problem otherwise I just stew. Thank you, Glen. Mark, thank you for your support. Thank you, Roger and thank you for the suggestion. The method I'm using (securing the shroud lines with a cinch knot) isn't difficult and it's positive. There's no chance of failure unless a line is cut. By the way, I'm using Gutermann poly thread for all the lines. The only thing really missing using a cinch knot to secure the shroud lines is the shroud line tails. I'm quite willing to make that compromise achieving the results seen in the photos I posted earlier.

Lynn, very nice. I'll have to start calling you the 'Coppertone Girl'

To my dear friends and MSW family members Mark, Glen, Brian, Simon, Chief Mark, Gary, Keith, Eberhard, Rob, Pat Banyan, and Tom Black, THANK YOU! I can't say thank you enough and I am truly blessed and touched by your kindness and support. 3.0 was a success! Well, I've got one pair done, only 91 more pairs to go but who's counting! But at least I know I can do this and make the deadeyes and lanyards look acceptable. The process isn't exactly kosher but because the size is so small you really can't see what's going on. I think what I've been able to accomplish is a pretty good representation of the real thing considering the scale. The deadeyes are .48 inches edge to edge, at scale that would put the top deadeye at a sailors throat level. If the deadeye were any higher, I think it would have been difficult tying the lanyard tail to the shroud line? I didn't whip the shroud lines, it's impossible for me. I dare say Eberhard could pull it off but he's an exception to the rule. Pat Banyan shared the 'zip seizing' method of whipping. I tried it but everything is just too small to make it work and look okay. So I just used a clench knot to join the sound line to the top deadeye and to the topsail mast. As I said, it ain't kosher but it's hard to tell the difference at normal viewing distance. So now it's on to more of the same, hopefully. The fool that I am can make almost anything once. The key is being able to make the some thing a multitude of times and for each one to look the same. Again, thank you. Keith

Thank God our dear wives are willing to put up with our nonsense. Please tell your wife I enjoyed seeing her clocks and that I appreciate them very much. And also, that your ship wouldn't look near as neat without the clocks.

Brett, she looks perfect. I see you also enjoy clocks.

Kramer, that's the way I plan on doing mine.

Mark, wonderful news regarding the successful vision fix. Good to hear you were able to remove the PE friezes without damage.

Keith, great tutorial, the blocks look fantastic. Were you able to find suitable leather for the saddles?

Trond, the bulwarks were probably painted white or a light color to reflect what little light there was at night.

Brett, congratulations on the completion of your beautiful Servia model. Very well done, you should be extremely proud.

RB, welcome to MSW.

Thank you for all your nice comments (I'm humbled by your words) and all the likes. Mark, I tried half heartedly to make the wheels but I knew making .40 wheels was beyond my meager skills. Your support has kept me going this last month as it's been a month of disappointment and frustration. I got all the running line blocks attached to the mizzen and then started on the mizzen deadeyes. I wire stropped the lower topsail deadeye leaving a wire tail to be the futtock. I laced the deadeyes (creating the lanyards) off mast using my thirdhand. I set it up ( put a drop of CA on the ball joints) where I didn't have to measure the distance between the deadeyes. That worked really well and I could see in my minds eye how easy it was going to be to install the shroud lines, deadeyes, and futtocks and it was going to look wonderful. And then reality took over. Even though the wire I used to strop the lower deadeyes is soft, once placed through the top there was/is no space (because of the size) to twist the wire around the eye pen representing the futtock shackle. In the process I deformed the eye pen beyond saving and had to cut the wire tails off and replace the eye pen. I went ahead and glued the bottom deadeyes to the top leaving the laced pairs ready for the top deadeye to be captured by the shroud line. It is an almost impossible task because of my shaky hands and the small sizes. While trying to make the connection my fat fingers rode roughshod on the lanyards twisting what was nice and straight to a twisted mess. I proceeded to cut off all the top deadeyes, Now the bottom deadeyes are glued to the top so I need to rig the lanyards on mast. End of deadeye pairs, 1.0 I now had to add eye pens to the bottom side of the bottom deadeyes for the futtocks. I also had the repair the damages to the mizzen created during the 1.0 attempt. This gave me a couple of days to think. Deadeyes 2.0 was now a matter of lacing the deadeye pairs on mast. I fought the good fight, got the starboard four pairs laced and still couldn't easily capture the top deadeye with the shroud line but I persisted and I thought I had things under control till it came time to try and imitate whipping. I can't whip for beans, in fact, my thread skills stink. The dogs dinner between the top deadeye and the shroud line looked a superglue glazed booger. It was pitiful. In all the years I've worked on the Tennessee I've never wanted to give up until this past Tuesday. End of deadeye pairs, 2.0 I cut the lanyards in half, again. Repaired the mizzen damage, paint and another eye pen and while drying I had more time to think. Deadeye pairs 3.0 is about to commence. Getting the top deadeye captured seems to be the root of the problem. I've eliminated that problem by stropping the top deadeye with wire and leaving a small gap above the top eye where I can run the shroud line through the gap and tie to the deadeye. The Mizzen is drying, I'm stropping to deadeyes and hopefully in a couple of days I'll be able to post a photo of something positive. Sorry for all the words, thank you for keeping me from giving up. Keith

Yeah, but the next morning your breath gonna smell like krill. Funny all this talk about Penguins.......Wednesday night on PBS series, 'Nature', the show was about the different penguin species. Great program and timely!

Sorry, Grant, I was yankin' your chain, no penguins this expedition. I looked hard thinking I might see a black speck and claim it was a penguin but alas, none to be found.

Grant, you can't see it? Glen PM'd me and told me he added one and where to look.

All's well here, Gabe, thank you. Just trying to teach these shaky old fingers how to rig in tight quarters. It's a slow process.

Gabe, good to see a post from you! I hope all is well with you and yours. Are you able to print 1:96 figures easily? I thought I might populate the Tennessee with a few of the crew but I can't find any 1:96 US Navy figures from the 1850 to 1900 time period. If someone has a lead, please advise.

Glen, that is so sharp. Very well done. Makes me almost wanna take up cheap brandy.

Rob. welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.

Dan, welcome to MSW. Hope to be seeing you build log in the not too distant future.

Bitao, welcome back. Always a pleasure seeing updates of your beautiful work.

Simon, there are several Cutty Sark build logs and you need to study them. Below is a link to one. Rob's Great Republic is another build log you should study for rigging starting on page 16. Search, 'Great Republic, finished' You're ahead of me on rigging, hopefully I'll catchup in the not too distant future. IMHO, rigging is the hardest part of ship modeling. The amount of information one has to absorb is incredible. Then teaching your fingers how to run line in tight spaces is a mind bender in and of itself.

Glen, she's a beaut! Congratulations on getting her in successfully.