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Amazing seeing this village come together Ekis. Every time I think you have reached the pinnacle you go and prove me wrong by exceeding the building that went before. I will never get tired of following this build.

I will lend Mark one of the high powered Nerf guns my grand kids have laying around here from years of filling Christmas lists. The Barrett .50 sniper rifle will fire a Nerf dart so hard that it can sting on bare skin at 25 feet! THAT should keep all of you in check................ Well at least part of the time! If that doesn't work then I also have a Nerf mortar that the youngest got last year. He spent a week making a mortar from an old mailing tube I gave him and stuff he had laying around in his room. Even though it would not really fire he had a lot of fun with it so I found the Nerf style mortar that actually fires rockets across the room. They don't hit all that hard but still get your attention when they drop on your head!

I tried a few of the "Snap Tight" kits with my older grandson when it seemed he might want to graduate from Legos which he LOVED. In his case it was Star Wars and the like so no REAL history. Even today he can relate the history and events of the Star Wars universe better than he can world, (Earth) history. He enjoyed them but never seemed to really connect. We then tried D&D type figures and in some ways he liked painting those as well. Tio be honest he was pretty good at it. Then I tried some 1/12th Halo figures, Master Chief, and a Warthog that I think was about 1/32nd or something. He was interested in building them but never finished the figure and never was interested in weathering or even painting the Warthog. A couple of years ago he passed almost all of the stuff on to his half brother who we are also raising so now other than a few probably collectable figures he is almost 100% video games and things computer related. He is turning 18 next month and our younger grandson is 13 so not much chance I will ever have true grandchildren to spoil and send home to their parents at the end of the day. Going even further back to my sons. I tried getting them interested in RC ships like I was into at the time. They liked driving them but never developed an interest in building them. Like the kids Ken mentioned they had pretty much two speeds warp and stop, (When they run into something).

Possibly a little batty in my advanced years. But it is seldom I get to look down on anyone these days.

Thanks for the "Inside" story Tom. It is astounding when you think of it, that for years almost all these multi million dollar machines did was to try and follow each other in a game of cat and mouse that sometimes would last for days on end if some of the few accounts I have read are true. Another method of locking your lifts in place until the glue dries would be to use the bandsaw and cut a slot at the bow and stern. Then you could drive wedges into these slots with the grain running the same as the rest of the hull. They would not even need to go all that deep. After the glue dries and clamps removed you will be removing almost all of the wood in these relatively narrow areas of the ship and almost all of the wedges will be sanded/carved away in the process only possibly leaving a small amount in the middle section. If I had seen this before you cut the hull shape I would have suggested that you leave a tab at the bow and stern just for this purpose and removed it entirely after the glue had dried and all lifts were solid. Dowels would have worked as well. You could also place the lifts onto another uncut plank and drive nails around the outline of the cut hull to hold it all in place until dry. Again, you need to remember that much if not all of any slight misalignment will be removed when you carve/plain/sand the hull into a rounded shape. Only the very top and bottom centerline of the center lift will still be the same as the line you have cut. Hope all that makes a little sense.

Coward!............. Looks like I'm up here all by my lonesome this time. Let me know and I can help hold the light for you.

Kind of hard to put a like on your pose Craig when you are having to side track on the decal problems but the work so far is impressive as always. Seeing the model come together and how the car looks from the inside out, it is interesting how much racing technology is there and how little street practice. I WANT one! 😭 I would at least get to drive it home before my wife killed me! But I am pretty certain I would die a happy man.

Welcome aboard Tom. Outside of the Skipjacks I have never been much of a fan of SSNs as a personal build. But I am certain that I will enjoy following your build log, especially if you include any insights your dad may have passed on to you about serving on them, "Back in the day." To me that is what really can make a model come alive. As Mark has already said, there are a couple of former rotor heads here that have followed the "Who needs wings?" credo at some point. Plus a couple who insist that flying under 500 KN in a buttoned up flaming tin can is not really flying. You should fit in easily.

Glad to hear that you are getting better Patrick. Scary stuff. Your added mini diorama goes to show something about ships that I have always found interesting. Looking at them when they are sitting high and dry in drydock they look HUGE. Seeing them tied up alongside a dock they can look large, especially when they are square rigged with all of the tall masts and long yardarms. But seeing them, (Or being on board) while at sea with no land in sight, especially in rough weather even the largest ship looks all too tiny.

I will third it. I think I have read all of them over the years. That was even before I knew that they were by the same author.

I was going to say that one of the possible odors of the time would be open sewers.😝

I believe the service ceiling is rated at 20,000 feet. I don't know what the maximum altitude may be.

I believe it. Some of the people there were not far removed from a stone age society lifestyle.

With the long history of the CH and it's use all over the world, I would be willing to bet that at one time or another somewhere in the world it has been used as a flying horse trailer. I know that one time we carried chickens on our Huey.

Outside of up front in first class with all of the windows, it is the best seat in the house! The view is fantastic and the air is fresh! Didn't you ever stick your hand out of the open window of a car when you were a child and make like it was an airplane wing in the airflow going by? Same thing only adult style and MUCH more fun.

Nice job Greg. She really turned out nicely. What is your favorite aspect of this build?

Isn't that what France is famous for?

That is where we lived, right over or just below the trees. But sometimes we would go high as well, out of small arms range.

Very handsome ship and nice clean build Chris. Congratulations

Interesting design feature. I understand the why, simple and effective, although you still had to carry the extra weight of the water even when the tank was empty of fish. But it still feels about as logical as installing a screen door in a submarine! Nice work Yves

Nice work Patrick You do realize that if you want to build a barge to go with this boat it will have to be something like the size of your car! I was surprised to see the hull design as well. I would have thought the hull would be much flatter and the bow more river boat style. This hull is much more graceful than I would have expected.

Strangely enough, I found I am somewhat the same these days. Last winter I had to climb onto my roof in a storm to make a repair on a third story drain. After I left the ladder behind and was fully standing on the wet roof I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. What a difference fifty years makes. On the other hand I think I would rather enjoy bungee jumping, hang gliding and sky diving even today. I suppose it is not the height, or even the fall that bothers me so much as the sudden stop at the end.

I once knew a gunner who claimed that he got launched out of the open door of a Huey and played at being a trapeze artist for a few klicks. I always had my doubts about the story. At least in the D and H models we were pretty boxed in and had a solidly mounted M-60 to hang onto. Even though I can remember a couple of times where I didn't get back in quite fast enough and was more hanging on than riding inside I never actually fell or was thrown out. Also like Mark says you get used to being up in the air free with the wind blowing and nothing much to block the view. After the first week or so it becomes almost routine and you think nothing of being at 2000 + feet and doing 70 Knots. It was probably more dangerous being at 100 feet and still doing 70 knots. (But also MUCH more fun). I missed it all when I got out and was grounded overnight. It's not a job, it's an addiction.

As always, your build is beautiful................ and over way too soon. Congratulations

Like EG said, and you surmised when not cleared for action, people could be pretty much anywhere, especially in good weather or when forming work parties or entering or leaving harbors. One exception could be possibly standing in front of the radar antennas. Not really considered a healthy thing by most people. Now if it was Thanksgiving and you were a turkey.................... Another place I would think would not have many loungers would be the forward main deck. Not only is it a little windy and possibly misted with sea spray even on nice days, more importantly it is pretty much in plain view of anyone, (Like the Captain) on the bridge, and some officer may get the idea you have too much free time on your hands. Work parties are of course pretty much exempt. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You are doing a fantastic job and the fact that you are putting people on deck at all is a plus.