grsjax

I have a lot of scrap wood left over from projects.  I find that if the piece is big enough to handle easily I keep it.  Really small stuff gets tossed.  Also if I find that I am accumulating a lot of one type of material, like the left overs from kit laser cut sheets, I tend to throw out the less useful bits.  No rules, just do what works for you.

Depends on what you define as a trawler.  Billings Boats makes a couple of nice kits and Laughing Whale (now owned by Bluejacket) used to make a couple but not sure if they still do.  Soclaine makes some sailing trawler kits.  Not sure about other makers.

I have a lot of scrap wood left over from projects.  I find that if the piece is big enough to handle easily I keep it.  Really small stuff gets tossed.  Also if I find that I am accumulating a lot of one type of material, like the left overs from kit laser cut sheets, I tend to throw out the less useful bits.  No rules, just do what works for you.

No problem to find lead free solder these days.  Most are tin based.

I have a lot of scrap wood left over from projects.  I find that if the piece is big enough to handle easily I keep it.  Really small stuff gets tossed.  Also if I find that I am accumulating a lot of one type of material, like the left overs from kit laser cut sheets, I tend to throw out the less useful bits.  No rules, just do what works for you.

I have a lot of scrap wood left over from projects.  I find that if the piece is big enough to handle easily I keep it.  Really small stuff gets tossed.  Also if I find that I am accumulating a lot of one type of material, like the left overs from kit laser cut sheets, I tend to throw out the less useful bits.  No rules, just do what works for you.

I have a lot of scrap wood left over from projects.  I find that if the piece is big enough to handle easily I keep it.  Really small stuff gets tossed.  Also if I find that I am accumulating a lot of one type of material, like the left overs from kit laser cut sheets, I tend to throw out the less useful bits.  No rules, just do what works for you.

Got the wood de-barked.  Used a 1" chisel as the trunk of the tree is fluted and a draw knife will only hit the high areas.
Painted the ends and cut a few pieces to see what it looks like.  Found some insect damage and staining under the bark.  Wood is nearly white (sort of a very light cream color) but still pretty wet so probably going to change color a bit as it seasons.  I will cut out the stained areas for pen blanks.  A friend of mine is a pen turner and I send him pieces of interesting wood.  Very hard wood.  Might make a good substitute for holly.

My neighbor cut down an old meyer lemon tree and gave me the wood.  Just got it so it will be drying for at least several months and I don't know much about it.  All I could find on the net was that the wood was hard and fine grained with little or no figure.  Anyone have any experience with lemon or citrus wood in model making?

Got the wood de-barked.  Used a 1" chisel as the trunk of the tree is fluted and a draw knife will only hit the high areas.
Painted the ends and cut a few pieces to see what it looks like.  Found some insect damage and staining under the bark.  Wood is nearly white (sort of a very light cream color) but still pretty wet so probably going to change color a bit as it seasons.  I will cut out the stained areas for pen blanks.  A friend of mine is a pen turner and I send him pieces of interesting wood.  Very hard wood.  Might make a good substitute for holly.

Saturday, October 22, 2016 - The plans  
Plans are grouped into two (quite large) sheets, scale 1:1
01 - 20161021_163929.jpg
The first sheet, whole image . .
02 - Falkusa1.jpg
. . and here the second sheet, more useful than the first one to see and plan how to preceed in building the hull
03 - Falkusa2.jpg[/img]
Some detailed images of the plans, they are clear and well done and every component is correctly numbered.
A image from sheet #1 . .
04 - 20161021_163953.jpg
And a couple of images from sheet #2 . . 
05 - 20161021_164028.jpg
06 - 20161021_164052
A final clarification: the construction of this model will take place while I'm staying at my daughter's house in Calci (Pisa). As I explained when I was working on the Viking ship, considering the limited equipment I have in Tuscany, I opted to purchase a kit rather than planning a scratch build; this in hope of having less need of the materials and the tools I keep in my workshop in Cinisello (Milan). On the other side, when I'm living in Milan, I will be mainly working on the Brick HMS Guadelupe.
Cheers, Jack.
 

No problem to find lead free solder these days.  Most are tin based.

My neighbor cut down an old meyer lemon tree and gave me the wood.  Just got it so it will be drying for at least several months and I don't know much about it.  All I could find on the net was that the wood was hard and fine grained with little or no figure.  Anyone have any experience with lemon or citrus wood in model making?

No problem to find lead free solder these days.  Most are tin based.

Saw Frame 
 
I have this saw frame, and to say it's an improvement over standard frames is like saying wagyu beef burgers are an improvement over 1960s school cafeteria burgers. It's much, much lighter. With the cam saw tensioner, it's way faster to change blades and tensioning them doesn't require jamming some pointy steel corner on a normal saw frame into your hand.
 
 

  Knew Concepts Cam Tension Jewelers Precision Sawframes   Also if you don't buy real jeweler's saw frame blades, do so immediately. They're not expensive (~$20 for 144) and are an order of magnitude better than ones you get in hobby stores.     Nakanishi Brushless Micromotors   Like the flex shaft was a step up over standard Dremel, these are a major step up from any Dremel or Foredom rotary tool. I have the previous model, and it is so smooth and quiet that it has to be turning >10k before I can even hear it or feel it while holding the tool. They're just outstanding tools, making any rotary task easy and fun. They're hiding pricing for some reason, the basic kit of control unit and standard handset should be around $600.     Nut Files   These are unfortunately only available in a few fixed sizes, but if the sizes work for you, they're the perfect tool for creating ad-hoc precies grooves, they are specifically designed to create exact size, perfectly smooth grooves with no further processing - the grooves they are intended for are at the top of the neck of stringed instruments, and if they're not perfect bad things happen.       You can find them at Stew-Mac, LMI, or other luthier supply places.     Hackle Pliers (clamps)   These are used by fly-tiers to hold onto rooster neck feathers (hackle feathers) to wrap them around dry flies, they simulate legs. From a ship modeling standpoint, they are excellent little clamps that come in a number of styles with clamping strength from medium to pretty serious squishing.   The style of the ones to the top left are quite strong, and generally I use some sort of clamping pad to protect the work. The ones lower right are not so strong, and with the wider contact area are really excellent for clamping small bits of wood together.       JS Stockard unfortunately doesn't make it possible to isolate them, you have to start here at the list of companies and check out each one. That's not necessarily a bad thing through, because while you're there you should also check out the precision scissors, the thread bobbins, tweezers, and pliers. They're all excellent quality, there is no such thing as crappy fly-tying tools, at least not from any mainstream manufacturer.   And also my understanding is that fly-tying thread is the #1 choice of some of the better very small scale builders (bottle ships and the like).

No problem to find lead free solder these days.  Most are tin based.

Solder makes great fittings if run through an Italian Pasta maker ( The kind with 2 rollers and a crank ) first to flatten it. It's easy to form and drill too ;
 

 

Being naturally a cheap guy I look for interesting kits, materials and tools used or on sale.  I have picked up some amazing bargains from eBay and garage sales.  All depends on what you want.  If you have your heart set on a particular kit you are probably going to have to bite the bullet and pay the going price for a new one or wait a long time to find it for sale on eBay cheap.  Same goes for tools.  Over 40 years of looking for deals I have accumulated a pretty good workshop but I didn't spend a great deal of money on it.  Same for my stash of models.  I have some very expensive model kits that I picked up cheap.  Cheapest way to go is to get plans and build scratch using found materials (salvaged wood, etc.) and building your own specialized tools.  For me that is part of the fun and interest of the hobby but I don't expect it is for everyone.

Oh Mike, 
 
Your first sentence would get me into a whole lot of trouble, with consequences! The rest of your post, oh dear, the consequences do not bear thinking about.
 
Keep bailing
Martin

Being naturally a cheap guy I look for interesting kits, materials and tools used or on sale.  I have picked up some amazing bargains from eBay and garage sales.  All depends on what you want.  If you have your heart set on a particular kit you are probably going to have to bite the bullet and pay the going price for a new one or wait a long time to find it for sale on eBay cheap.  Same goes for tools.  Over 40 years of looking for deals I have accumulated a pretty good workshop but I didn't spend a great deal of money on it.  Same for my stash of models.  I have some very expensive model kits that I picked up cheap.  Cheapest way to go is to get plans and build scratch using found materials (salvaged wood, etc.) and building your own specialized tools.  For me that is part of the fun and interest of the hobby but I don't expect it is for everyone.

Being naturally a cheap guy I look for interesting kits, materials and tools used or on sale.  I have picked up some amazing bargains from eBay and garage sales.  All depends on what you want.  If you have your heart set on a particular kit you are probably going to have to bite the bullet and pay the going price for a new one or wait a long time to find it for sale on eBay cheap.  Same goes for tools.  Over 40 years of looking for deals I have accumulated a pretty good workshop but I didn't spend a great deal of money on it.  Same for my stash of models.  I have some very expensive model kits that I picked up cheap.  Cheapest way to go is to get plans and build scratch using found materials (salvaged wood, etc.) and building your own specialized tools.  For me that is part of the fun and interest of the hobby but I don't expect it is for everyone.

Being naturally a cheap guy I look for interesting kits, materials and tools used or on sale.  I have picked up some amazing bargains from eBay and garage sales.  All depends on what you want.  If you have your heart set on a particular kit you are probably going to have to bite the bullet and pay the going price for a new one or wait a long time to find it for sale on eBay cheap.  Same goes for tools.  Over 40 years of looking for deals I have accumulated a pretty good workshop but I didn't spend a great deal of money on it.  Same for my stash of models.  I have some very expensive model kits that I picked up cheap.  Cheapest way to go is to get plans and build scratch using found materials (salvaged wood, etc.) and building your own specialized tools.  For me that is part of the fun and interest of the hobby but I don't expect it is for everyone.

Harold Hahn built his models with an 8in table saw, hollow ground Sears blades, a Unimat lathe, and his drawings were hand drawn. Today, using his drawings that include lofted frame shapes, one could build an accurate model without buying an expensive kit. A step up would be to order original drawings from a museum source and do your own lofting. Ships have been lofted by hand for 100's of years. CAD, laser cutting equipment etc is not necessary. Based in the talent shown on this forum used to build model kits, I am amazed modelers shell out big bucks to purchase model kits.
 
Roger

I was curious if you are a budget modeler or one with no limit.  I was poking around the net today already thinking of what to build after the Bluenose.  I decided to perhaps build Amati's HMS Pegasus. Then I saw the price and for me it would be close to $1000.00.  I figure that is way too rich for me and I'm not yet willing to sell the Admiral or deck hands.
 
So what do you consider to be a reasonable budget for models.  I understand that we all have different financial backgrounds.  I mean, if I had a few million in the bank then I wouldn't be writing this post.

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