Keith Black

"Training Ship Beautiful Journey" ? If that's it, it's a beautiful name and a vessel we should all hope to travel aboard.

Pat, I put a couple of hours of effort into making shackles with no success. I got one that sort of resembled a shackle at 16 inch scale. The ones I tried making at 6 inch scale looked like twisted dead gnats. Pictured is a .153 inch block (18 inch at scale) that I stropped. A natural becket occurs when the wire is formed around the block (opposite the hook end) that I've tied the line to, this maybe as good as it gets? I have thought about putting a simple ring through the becket, I'll make up a test piece and see what that looks like. Roger, thank you for the heads up regarding the NRG shop notes. I need to invest in both volumes. Thank you to all for the comments, likes and stopping by.

CC, welcome to MSW. It would be nice if you started a build log even though you're half way through the build.

C.C. Rider?

Kramer, please attach photographs and not HEIC downloads. Thank you.

How bout a little hint, just one tiny little bitty hint....

Chris, she really is beautiful. Are you going to give her a name?

Lynn, looking a SkiBee's build log post #14 and this his photo, I think you're good to go. Their instructions seem to be lacking in clarity, probably a good idea to follow SkiBee's build log closely. Nothing like a little excitement right out of the gate.

Pat, how big was the average shackle used back then, six inches? That's .05, at .05 my fingers don't wanna cooperate. I've made a couple at larger scale just messing about but have never tried to seriously make a shackle at .05 inches, that just makes my head hurt. But hey, I'll gladly come over to your site and cheer you on whilst you make em. I thought long and hard about PE hooks but after seeing them in use I'm not convinced. There is a company that makes hooks that are drop dead gorgeous but they be kinda spendy. And heck, I've got to make some of this stuff or they're going to want me to remove "scratch" from the title.

Rob, have you thought about acrylic paint?

Bill, welcome to MSW. This might get you going till you can get an english version of the instructions. It's in German but the pictures are large. https://mandys-hobbies.de/bounty-von-constucto-1110/#Liebe_auf_den_ersten_Blick

David, you had to be using the photo to layout your grating (and spot it is looking at the photo) because your rendering is much different than the drawing. Had I only the drawing to go by, I would never have come close to your grating layout.

Once they simplify it to Etch a Sketch ease of use, count me in.

Lynn, something is amiss. Would you provide a photo of all the hull pieces. Disregard photo request, Druxey discovered the problem.

David, understood. I went to Eberhard's photos and looked at the grating, it doesn't match the drawing.

Tony, nice to meet you. It's always nice when one of the family comes back home.

David, you seem close to a solution so the following may not be applicable but there maybe something to be gleaned starting with Keith's post # 707, page 24.

Mark, see Doris's post # 434

Brian, it's not so much what I want to do next, it's more of a knee jerk reaction to the many task that seemingly all need to be done at the same time. Pat, I'm using wire to strop so that makes things a tad bit easier. Hooks are a pain in that I can't manage to be consistent but I'll have plenty of opportunities to get better. Shackles, at 120 we don't need no stinking shackles. That'll be one of those don't look too close items. Thank you to all for stopping by and the likes.

Lynn, glad to see you're getting stowed away here in your new digs. Great idea calling Model Shipways about the tools required to build the Pram. Speaking of the Pram, she's cute as a button. I'm excited about your next steps in model ship building and wishing you success.........Keith

Rob, they attach just to the rear of the martingale/dolphin striker as seen below. They might be optional but if they were you would think they wouldn't show them in their finished model literature.

Sorry I'm late but I just got to this stage.

I'm adding three photos of individual blocks to better show the resulting coloration as the photos in the first post didn't do the end result justice. Thank you, Mark, Tom, and Tony.

I'm currently all over the board on this build, bouncing from the yards to the blocks and back. First, my apologies for the poor photos. My lighting stinks as is evidenced in the photos. I purchased all my blocks as making them is beyond my tool capabilities. All the blocks purchased were "boxwood", in reality, probably not but they are/were yellow. On a model where wood species are highlighted along with exacting carpentry boxwood blocks don't look out of place. Of course, the very best looking blocks are those scratch built by the builders. To my eye, a model ship with a painted hull etc, etc, boxwood blocks just don't look right, to me. I hope that statement hasn't offended anyone, as I said, "to me". I knew that staining the blocks was going to be a time consuming bloody mess and I was 100% correct. I first placed all the blocks of each category in a plastic container as shown. I then poured Minwax Red Chestnut oil stain # 232 in the container till the blocks were completely submerged. I let the blocks soak submerged for eight hours. I then poured off the excess stain into another container. I then poured the remaining stain and blocks into a clean container. Patted the blocks with a paper towel and swirled them about with a long bristled craft paint brush. I let them dry for 24 hours and then transferred them to another container. I then poly coated by dabbing small amounts of poly with a long bristled brush till all were completely coated and then let them dry for twelve hours. For the deadeyes, once the poly was dry I washed them in a diluted mixer of black acrylic paint and water and let them sit till dry. All the blocks that are to be used have been stained. What's shown is just a portion of the total amount of blocks. I estimate the could be as many as 300 plus blocks used to complete the rigging. Top row left to right; Single, single, single, and heart. Middle row; Bullseye, deadeye, deadeye, and violin. Bottom row; Double, double, and triple. I placed an untreated deadeye that will not be used next to each pile to show the before and after. I still need to chase the holes in each block. Thank you to all for the comments and the likes and to all for looking in.

Nicely done, Kevin.