grsjax

The Proxxon is a fine saw but limited in size.  If that is all you will need it is a great pick.  However for about half the price ($155 from Amazon) you can get the Skil 3386 9" band saw that will be much more capable.  Just my preference but I like to get a tool with more power and capacity than I need so that in the event I want to do more demanding projects I will have the tool available.

A table top bandsaw sounds like what you are looking for.  The offerings out there range from excellent to awful so do your homework before picking which one you want to go with.  Price isn't always the best indicator or value.  Look for good used ones.  Many people do not realize that a bandsaw needs to be tuned up before it will do precision work and get frustrated resulting in selling a near new saw for a low price.  For fine work you can get blades down to 1/16" and even a small saw should be capable of handling a 3/8" blade for ripping.

Check out a beading tool catalog.  Lots of small tools for holding and working on beads make great tools for working on blocks and deadeyes.  Jewelry and watch making tools are probably in every ones modeling tool chest already.

Not to high jack the thread but those are not windows but decorative panels.

Cherry looks good on hulls but has a reddish tint so may not be what you are looking for.  Stained basswood can look very nice and if you can find a good straight grained walnut it looks great.

Yeah, I figured before reading your post that the saw was better than 20 years old because they stopped making them some time ago. I've been looking for one myself, but can't find one any where. A friend of mine had one and loved it, ut again, he made mods to it to make it acceptable to what he was doing with it.

 

 

mike

Keep checking ebay.  They show up from time to time, sometimes are real low prices.

Thanks Mark

I did finally find an explanation of the terms aft and fore contours.  These are the line of the stem and transom in the x-y plane.  Not sure if that is correct.

I will check out the article.

I have recently started messing about with Delftship and have a question.  In the offset table it asks for aft and forward contour lines.  Not really sure what this is supposed to be.  Can anyone illuminate this for me?

An easily portable DIY surface plate can be made from a piece of granite counter top.  It will not be perfect but for model building use is more than adequate.  Check with someone that does kitchen renovations to find a piece of granite.

Don't know about the value but it looks like a nice kit.  If the wood has been stored in a heated space all this time the wood has probably dried out to the point of being brittle.  This may cause you some trouble when it comes time to cut and fit the pieces.  You could try re-hydrating it with warm water or using dilute white glue to soak the wood.  The glue will help to strengthen the wood and make it less likely to split.

Phosphoric acid is a common one.  Probably other chemicals as well.

I find building the hull, particularly the back bone and frames to be what I enjoy most.  Rigging can be interesting and challenging but I see it more as work than pleasure.  Painting is my least favorite activity.

Dremel makes a router table that is cheaper but does not hold the tool as securely.  Here is a link to a DIY router table made from plywood.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/87681

Any of the MS kits will have excellent instructions.  The "Willie Bennett" is an excellent introduction to model building.  For a less ambitious build try one of the Midwest apprentice kits, level one or two.  Good instructions, make a good display model and are not going to break the bank.  I believe the Midwest kits are no longer manufactured but can be found on ebay all the time.

A final thought.  Look for something that interests you and do not start with something that has a lot of rigging required.  Rigging can be the most frustrating of operations and the more you have to do the more likely you will decide not to do it.

Lusci's book is available in English here; http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=,,0mGmG7PqYlcv9692zyzdax,6U_1466387445_1:418:2041&bq=author%3Dvincenzo%2520lusci%26title%3Dlusci%2527s%2520ship%2520model%2520builder%2527s%2520handbook

Can't help you with the plans.

Box, pear and apple are the premier woods for all parts but expensive and sometimes hard to find.  Low end is basswood for everything.  Works well but has its own problems.  I like cherry as a good all around wood that is both available and affordable.  Maple is also an excellent choice.  Walnut can be a bit difficult to work with as it has a somewhat open grain but looks really good.

I would go with maple for framing and decks, cherry for planking.

Old kits are worth what someone is willing to pay for them.  Sometimes you will see a kit on ebay go for a high price but other times you will see the same kit go unsold for a long time even if the kit is priced low.  Only way to know for sure is to list the kits and see what happens. 

One thing to look at are the plans in the kits.  A good set of plans suitable for scratch building might be worth more than the kit.

What I do is clean with acetone or alcohol to remove grease, oil, etc.  Dip in vinegar to etch and then use blacken-it or similar product.  The blackening gives a good surface for paint adhesion but can darken light colors.  If you don't want to blacken the parts leave in the vinegar longer to give a good etch to the surface.  Rinse with clean water and either use acetone for fast drying or lay on a paper towel to air dry before painting.

There are some steamboats in the HAMMS collection but I believe they are all late 19th, early 20th century.  The National Archives probably have some drawings of snag boats and push boats used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the western rivers.

Wow, Gerhard, that's a new one for me. Recently, reading a book on the Ottoman Empire, I found a maddeningly vague reference to the British army using steamboats to transport troops and supplies up and down the Tigris & Euphrates rivers during WWI. Would have loved to know more. I really only know anything about American vessels, and only so much about that. So much history, so little time.

I believe the boats used by the British on the Tigris and Euphrates were the Insect class gunboats as well as barges and other local craft that were available.  I can't remember where I saw it but there was a book on the the first world war in Mesopotamia that has several pictures of the British boats on the rivers.

Just picked up a Billings Boat Viking ship model kit.  This is an older kit and Billings may have made some changes but the box it came in was terrible.  The model was fine and the instructions were the typical Billings mix of good drawings and poor directions but the box was inexcusable.  It was a flimsy box that only opened from the ends.  A flimsy box was bad enough but only opening from the ends was worse.  Any time you need to get a part out the box you end up taking everything out because you can't see what you are looking for.  How much trouble would it be to use a decent two piece box?

Look up Woody Joe kits on a Google Search.  Clare Hess has had a couple of build logs on these kits.  Can always be more kits -  but didn't know if you were aware of these kits.

Kurt

I saw the build logs for the Woody Joe kits and they are great kits.  However they represent a small selection of small water craft from one area.  I would like to see some from other areas.  Korea, Vietnam, China, India, Arabia, all have interesting ships that you rarely if ever see models of. 

JohnE has a good point about Euro ships but an even bigger lack in the market are Asian ships.  The ships of Asia were amazing pieces of technology.  Some were as long as 400 feet and they sailed long distances.  Be nice to see some of the Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other Asian ships represented in the market.

Small to medium size work boats and merchant vessels.  Preferably POF.  something that has not been done to death already.  Fishing boats from anywhere, small sail and steam merchantmen that worked the small ports rather than the big ocean freighters like clippers and downeasters.  The work a day steam boats that far out numbered the big show boats.

Better plans and documentation, better quality wood, cast fittings that are well made, no plastic unless there is no other way to do the job, models of boats that were real or at least conform to what a real boat of the type and time would look like.

Depends on the ship and type of gun.  Guns may have been made of iron or brass (actually bronze) and a ship might have both kinds aboard.  However it was common practice to paint guns black to make maintenance easier.  Bronze guns are a bear to keep shiny in a marine environment and unprotected iron will rust quickly.  I am sure there were captains that insisted on keeping all that bronze nice and shiny but most would take a practical approach and keep them painted.