Jump to content
New Publication - Ship Modeler's Handbook - Temp out of stock ×

Keith Black

NRG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,429

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Keith Black

  1. Keith Black
    Glen, she's really looking swell. As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Just a suggestion if I may, if you chuck the nail shank in your drill, you can use a metal file to make the nail heads smaller as the drill spins. Another use for the poor man's lathe.
  2. Keith Black
    Thank you for all the comments and likes. Work continues populating the mizzen mast with blocks. I'm getting close but felt that an update was in order. Top most four blocks are the mizzen topgallant lifts and main topgallant brace blocks. Once again I'm drilling holes and glueing the blocks in place eliminating the need for eyebolts due to the small scale. Not a lot of wood to work with here. The preventer chain is .6 inches and was a pain in the backside getting the length correct. I've never gotten a chain length correct the first time, it usually takes three attempts and this guy was no exception. It's affixed at the point between the cheeks but is just placed in the yard where I can remove the yard and continue to work on the mast unencumbered. Blocks for the US flag and rear admiral's flag. I've tried to use graduating blocks sizes. Larger blocks on the lower areas where the loads would have been greater and then ever decreasing block sizes as I move upward where loads would be lighter. As I stated before I bought my blocks from Cornwall. They're perfectly fine for my project but they are not everyone's cuppa. If ordering the types of blocks I'm using, one should order about 20% more than needed. For those of you going the same route as myself, sort through your blocks. One, to eliminate culls and two, to sort sizes. Even though a bag is supposed to be one size, they're probably not and that's a good thing. I found that sizes were slightly smaller and larger than marked and I've taken advantage of that. It's given me the opportunity to try and portray a realistic distribution of blocks through the rigging. That's it till next time, thank you to all for looking in........Keith
  3. Keith Black
    Amen!
  4. Keith Black
    Keith, absolutely top notch workmanship. I bet your former employer rued the day you retired.
  5. Keith Black
  6. Keith Black
    Steve, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.
  7. Keith Black
    Obviously, whoever drew up that plan didn't get the memo.
  8. Keith Black
    Bruce, it looks like a man riding a griffin, the griffin's head is center of the man's stomach. The man's right hand appears to be ready to cover or just uncovering the griffin's eyes while his left hand grasps the griffin's talon. But hey, I flunked the Rorschach test.
  9. Keith Black
    I tried bifocals, not my cuppa. I've stuck with ever increasing strength reading glasses.
  10. Keith Black
    You've been doing all this beautiful work with poor lighting?! Oh, to have younger eyes again.
  11. Keith Black
    Marc, more of the same beautiful work. absolutely gorgeous. Hey, do you do model work in the TV room? If so, I don't know you do it. After moving tools and blocks down stairs to the TV room last winter, I tried for six months to get work done stropping blocks, I failed miserably. I've lost two years to Covid at a time when two years of my almost 75 years is a lot! This maybe the new normal, the price we pay for destroying the environment/habitat of numerous animal species around the globe.
  12. Keith Black
    Chris, test a piece with gloss and see if you can tell a difference. The canopies turned out really nice, all three clear as a bell.
  13. Keith Black
    Simon, great news on your recovery! Getting back to modeling the Tennessee was the driving force to my recovery of the use of my left hand after my stroke 2017. That and God's Grace. Your dad would be so proud of the job you're doing on the restoration of his model.
  14. Keith Black
    Glen, the post are .03 mm = .011811 inches. They are tiny, fragile little things that bend quite easily. I use them for various little details, in fact I find them to be indispensable and usually have a hundred or so in my stores but alas, I'm down to 33 but if I had 100 I'd send 50 of em south. Micro Mark has some small eye pins...... https://www.micromark.com/Brass-Eye-Pins
  15. Keith Black
  16. Keith Black
    Glen, this is what I've got. The seed beads measure .08 inches but........I think I've found something much more fitting, tiny etched brass eyelets (OD measures .05) from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK, see the below link. Unfortunately they are currently out of stock and I'm pretty sure they have a minimum order amount. If the etched eyelets would work for you, how many do you need for this build, 10? I'm down to seeds and stems on the eyelets but I've got loads of the seed beads and would be more than happy to send you as many as you might need. https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=etched eyelets&PN=caldercraft83505.html#SID=154
  17. Keith Black
    Glen, my dear wife once did beadwork. I'll have to go through some of the seed/tiny beads of hers that i've appropriated and see if they're smaller than the ones you have pictured. I'll get back to you shortly.
  18. Keith Black
    Glen, you might try gray knitting yarn either wool or cotton. You can also try to color the white cotton that you have with gray chalk. Oh, the balls for tops look OK but the rail is a bit meaty. Do you think you could use seed beads and run line through them? https://www.shipwreckbeads.com/Beads/seed-beads
  19. Keith Black
    You can Google the Revell plans and download them for free.
  20. Keith Black
    Glen, she's a little gem. The cotton/smoke needs to be gray, IMHO.
  21. Keith Black
    Simon, first off, I hate hearing about your medical issues, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Second, Thermopylae plans can be obtained from Cornwall Model Boats in your part of the world. I ordered a set a couple of years ago, I can't remember the scale right off hand. I think they're a bit dodgy but maybe that's just me?
  22. Keith Black
    Who's your fav golfer? I follow and root for Jordan Spieth.
  23. Keith Black
    Eberhard, incredible work as always, beautifully detailed micro work. Is the bell 2 mm as well?
  24. Keith Black
    John, thank you. As I said, I was just curious if there's a shade differences between the upper and lower running lines. Every model I've seen (which isn't all that many) has been depicted with running lines being the same color and that seems counterintuitive but as I said, would it be noticeable at scale with the exception of a new running line.
  25. Keith Black
    Bitao, the complexity is so beautiful it almost hurts one's eyes.

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...