Sonofasonofasailor

Hi Everyone - I have some exciting news: this week I acquired SeaWatch Books from @BobF! I've been a long-time customer of SeaWatch and was sorry to hear that Bob was retiring. I reached out and after a long discussion decided that I'd step in and acquire the company and inventory. I want to thank Bob and Cathy both for allowing me to carry the mantle and build on what they have started. I promise to continue the tradition of and commitment to quality books that are beautiful, informative, and important to the ship modeling community. The first thing I will be doing is moving the store to a true e-commerce platform. This will make for a much better shopping experience and improve on the fulfillment and ordering issues that I know some have experienced in the past. I am currently in the process of finalizing the new store and will be integrating with the fulfillment center in the days ahead. Hopefully, we'll be up and running in the next week or two. In the meantime, please feel free to register at www.seawatchbooks.com to receive a 20% off coupon for when we launch. A little bit about me: Besides being Sonofasonofasailor here on MSW, my name in the real world is Mike Ellison. I have been building models since my youth starting with plastic kits (my first ship model was USS Enterprise, which I built at the age of 14). But, as is often the case with modeling, life intervened and college, professional, and family obligations took center stage for many years. I returned to modeling about 10 years ago and am a member of the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. I graduated from Syracuse University in upstate New York in 1994 with degrees in Finance and Marketing. It was here where I met my wife Caroline and we got married a few years after graduating. After starting a career on Wall St., I had an opportunity to join my father in launching and building a marketing research firm, which has grown to nearly 100 people in New York City. My father is largely retired from the business and I continue to build and grow that company. My wife and I reside in New Jersey and are soon to be empty-nesters. My oldest son is a sophomore at Skidmore College and my daughter will be going to Connecticut College in the fall. I am truly looking forward to building SeaWatch Books and continue to serve the ship modeling community. If you have any questions or ideas on how we can improve on our service, please email us at support@seawatchbooks.com. Thanks, Mike

Hi All - It is true that SeaWatch will be reopening! I acquired the company from Bob and Cathy this week and I'm so excited to get it going. I'll do a broader announcement shortly, but I thought I'd post here initially given the focus of the thread. Note that I've read through all the comments here and the first thing I'm doing is moving the store to a true e-commerce platform. This should fix many of the fulfillment issues that were discussed. I hope to have the store open in a week or so. In the meantime, go to www.seawatchbooks.com to register for a 20% off code which will be usable as soon as we reopen. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to keep SeaWatch going and I promise to continue to provide outstanding, beautiful, high-quality books and bring new titles to market! Any questions, feel free to reach me at support@seawatchbooks.com. More to come soon! Mike

Thanks! Sometimes she can be a little too curious though. 😂

It's been two months since I was able to continue as my travel kicked in post labor day, I caught a nasty cold (not Covid), and my workshop flooded thanks to Ida. But progress continues! I finished gluing up the frames this afternoon and assembled the stand. The stand took the most time due to sanding down the laser char. Though I started doing this after I assembled the stand - it might have gone quicker if I had done so beforehand. I'm using yellow glue for the frames (not CA), so letting them dry overnight before I move to attaching them to the keel. Frames assembled and drying. The stand with the laser char removed. Will stain and seal next. Tinkerbell, my first mate checking up on progress. No grog this session as I need to go workout. More to come!

This is my first build log but my fifth model (but my first r/c model). My dad gave me this kit several years ago and I'm finally getting around to it. I don't even think Model Expo carries/makes this kit anymore. So, we'll see how it goes. Today, I simply went through the kit and labled all the laser cut pieces. I started cutting out the frames, which are provided in halves that need to be glued together. I had planned to cut, sand, sort, and glue all at once till I ran out of workspace. On the third frame, I got a little aggressive with sanding off the laser char and broke the frame halves. Ugh. Decided to fix those by gluing and placing back in their cutouts, I then glued the first two frames together and decided to call it a day and go get a pint of grog. Broken Frames Glued and set back into cut outs. First two frames glued up. Finished with a nice IPA (Head High from Kane Brewing in New Jersey).

Does anyone know if you can apply dry-transfer letters to decal sheets made for ink-jet printers and then transfer the decal to the model?