texxn5

Decals seem to be a challenge of their own.  If you succeed Dan you'll have to share...who knows it could be a new business providing the club members with "ready made" miniature decals......

Thank you for the comments Sjors, I'll try to keep providing pictures....I like them too.

Hello Captain, I hope all is well in one of my favorite parts of the world...I love The Netherlands. Been there a number of times... I sleep wierd hours, since I am now faced with working on these damn floating things we all are trying to replicate. I tried to banish them for a couple of years, and they still manage to creep back into life again...doomed I suppose. Yes, it is now 12:30am here in sunny Texas, and is currently around 60 degrees F., Tomorrow should be in the 80F..range, so Spring is here. Been building a lot over the last few days, and should finish the Main mast on my Constitution tomorrow....I have provided you pictures if you haven't looked.....Sir.....lol....I do realize how it is important to show progresss to my superiors.... I shall now retire for the evening, since my watch os over...By the way, thank you for your interest......

Hi Scoot,

Well, yes I started a log on this. I also have one on the Revell Constitution which I am seeing headway to finish soon. I work between the two as time permits. I have started the Morgan, but not much more. Actually you are probably farther than I am. Have you started your log? I have not purchased planking pins yet, I like the way your's look. Where did you get them? Looks good so far. Keep it up, and I want to follow yours too.

What's the calendar thing??? New here --- sorry...

Good for you Daniel, I don't even know how to think about bottles....except to drink them.....

Thank you, greatly appreciated. It's very nice to know that I'm not the only idiot on the block, and that there are many more people that also do this same insanity....many are more anal than I am on perfection....lol....

Ahhh, ok, well, at least I'm a ways off from doing this yet, so I'll explore this before I need it...thanks for the ideas Popeye, I'll check them all out.

yeah, overall I'll have to try to tighten some lines once I get my hands out of it.  Some have been knocked loose and reattached.  I think I can tighten up everything as it progresses farther. 

Sorry Popeye, you lost me on the skin overlay with the computer printer. Not sure what or how you are referring to????? I am not familiar with how to make inkjet decals, even though I have heard of them. Any references or instructions from you would be appreciated....

Nice build, I'll be looking forward to your posts and pictures. The lights would make a nice addition, unfortunately, I'm way past this at this point. Some thing I would do on mine if I could, is to use a wood planked main deck. It really would imporove mine, however, once again, too late. I think I would use a frame under the deck, and then plank the deck actually not worrying about the gun deck below since it is really hard to see, especially once the yards and Studding Sail Booms are rigged. Anyway, just my opinion. Good luck, and it really looks good.

John

After looking all of this over, I am now really glad I decided to run the footropes, stirrups, and blocks on all of the yards at the same time. As I recall from the time I quit working on this three years ago, this was the point of "burnout" as I had started the foremast and worked for 2-3 days straight with few breaks to complete it, then I was faced with starting on the yards again with the tedious footropes etc., after stopping then, and now with the help of this forum I am now going to stick with this until I get it finished, which is ultimately the completion of a 44 year project. On a different subject and veering off course for a moment, last year I finished the restoration of my original car, which I had new as a Senior in High School in 1967....it is a 1967 Plymouth GTX, one of only a few to have survived...she is now Concourse quality and still all original. Sorry for being briefly offcourse....lol

Now for mounting the Main Top Gallant yard. Things should get quicker on the next two yards since there are not as many lines to run..

Finishing up with the Halyards

Parts of Saturday and Sunday. Trying to get all lines done before moving up the mast.

OK, here's the update photos from the weekend.  Ran the Topsail Halyards last.  Now ready to move up the mast for the Top Gallant yard.  This is Friday and part of Saturday.

I haven't worked with the wire on this ship. I can see where there could be problems with kinks though. I never got my footropes to lie correctly, so I started trying to glue them to the stirrups, this works great until you hit one with fingers or tweezers. It does however, lie better than if loose, and I intend to go back and reglue them when I finish with the masts. Augie what words of wisdom can you share with the fleet?

Oh, thanks for the tip on the Clear Coat, I can see where that would be very important.

Hadn't thought about those, I'm pretty sure I know what you are talking about.  Seems like Hobby Lobby sells them in their drafting/art supply section.  Any suggestions as to actual size?

Wow, JP, that's quite a collection of photos. I saw something that I wasn't sure of and perhaps someone can have some suggestions. How do you manage to get such good scale perfect white lettering for the ship's name on the stern and the forward sides? I don't know how to make decals, and I'm not sure they would look right anyway.

Thanks JP, I'll check it out.  Glad it's on this site so I don't forget where I saw it.

You know Andy, I think Augie might have started something here using the wire for stirrups for the footropes.  Man that would have been easier and faster and I would have done that to mine except when I learned about doing it, it was too late since I had completed the foremast.

Yeah Augie, I think we get our moneys worth on these things.  I'm looking forward to moving on to the wooden ships.  Plastic gets frustrating because of it's fragile nature...I think.  It's rewarding though because of "instant" detail with minor screw ups...lol

Oh, I wouldn't say I'm faster by any means. I really can't get that much done in a day. I too have problems balancing out the lines. I found after a few builds on this thing, that perhaps starting at the foremast going one yard at a time gave me more working room...what an oxymoron...working room on a model ship..this seems to be working ok, it still gets congested , but at least I don't have un rigged yards in the upper part of the mast to get tangled up in until I have to. I have been hanging one yard at a time, then rigging the lines below the next one until I have to actually have the yard above to start attaching to. So far so good. It takes me a good hour to rig some lines, and then I have to study them to see if I like them, then move to the next. Your's looks great, thanks for keeping up with the pictures.

Today has been rigging lifts, leech and bunt, and halyards. Will post pictures tomorrow. Goal is to finish the Mainmast tomorrow. Slow progress, but progress to say the least.