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Welcome back Robbyn. Sorry to hear about the Pneumonia, that more than sucks. Happy to hear your on the mend. But now the hand?!?!?!? Its not the same hand you cay a couple of years ago is it? Take care of it, we will be waiting. Sam

Thanks everybody! Its always appreciated. Lory, thanks for dropping in. Yes we are/were all newbies. I still consider myself a newbie - this is my first build although its been 5 years in the building, lots of start and stop in my world. Absolutely stick with it! you mentioned sanding, do you have a build log up? Russ, do you happen to know if the smaller wheels were simply to give additional elevation, or does it somehow help control recoil? I can see where the smaller wheels might place more weight in the rear causing the recoil to want to go through the deck instead of straight back. Carl, I have had the lathe for a while now, its been at work. I brought it home a few months ago both to force the company to stop asking me to loan it to others and also to do my masts and spars. As you can see I havent got to those yet. I keep finding other mini projects to extend my build time. I think I might be able to set a world record for prolonging a build. Sam

Woo Hoo! Assignment is done and now back to building. I discovered the other day my rear trucks are 0.020" oversized. Insert appropriately colorful Longshoreman vocabulary here. I almost said I will live with it but they are very close to the same size as the front trucks. I didnt want to make all new parts since I am getting low on Manzonia but didnt feel I would be able to cut them down cleanly by hand. What to do. What to do. Back to the wood lathe and make a new cutting tool........ I used the back side of the front cutter and now all I need to do is reverse the tool. With 1:51 being such on odd scale I most likely will never use this tool again but its there if I need it. I might work for 1:48. Then I needed a way to hold the truck firmly and centered to the tool. A couple of weeks ago I tried to make an arbor to spin the truck and cut a small chamfer on the edges. That failed when I discovered the #2 screws were the same size as the axels. I salvaged that and turned my trucks down. Some broke, more have an imprint os the hex head, but many of them are usable. I may still have to cut some new parts, but I wont have to replace all of them. Sorry for the blown out back grounds on some of the pictures, I was shooting against a concrete driveway and was too lazy to set up a backdrop for this. Making a new cutting tool The finished tool An arbor to hold the over sized trucks In use The result. Based on the drawings here at MSW, the new and improved trucks are 0.005" undersized, I can live with that. Now to figure out a jig to make the bolts that hold the trucks together. Not sure if I can pull this one off since I dont have an indexing head. I have lots of scrap trucks to play with though. Thats it for now, Sam

Rich, First the wheel looks great. Dont you love/hate it when somebody can make something look so simple like color match? As far as the hoarding, I think there is a bit of that in every modeler. You (and probably every builder here) would have loved the bone yard we just cleared out a few months ago at work. 75'x250' of Treasures-In-Waiting. Metals and plastics, foams of all densities, electric gear motors, pumps, generators. You name it, we probably had it back there or could have modified something into what you were looking for. It was a hoarders dream. Sam

Does cabinet and furniture scrap qualify? I have a 20'x20' two car scrap box then. Sam

Very nicely done! Right now my scrap box is a small tupperware container that also double as a clamp rack. I have managed to keep my scraps small by forcing myself to go through it before I cut into fresh material. Its growing though as I make far more mistakes than successes..... Sam

Paul, I am another member of the Constructo "cant bend the color miss-matched wood." The others are right, wider planks and cut them out. Hobby Mill or the Lumber yard can help you out with some wider planks if you want Manzonia, otherwise Russes suggestion of the hobby store.

If others scrap rope doesnt work, could you take some fine sandpaper and and see if that wont fray the rope a bit? Sam

Carl, we will be here when your ready. Great to hear from you again. Sjors, I cant agree with you more. Sam

I think your past the pretty good stage Russ. Sam

LOL! Thanks for the compliments. As far as supplying to others, I will direct everybody to a post several pages back where I reminded Robbyn about a mantle for my parents fireplace I started in High School..........My dad got tired of the wait and passed on, mom gave up and bought her own and my brother installed it. That was one of the first things he pointed out to my better half when she (me?) committed the grave tactical error of meeting the family. Rich, finishing up a job this week, hopefully I can get back to work over the weekend, might have a couple of assembly pictures for you if you are still noodling about how to assemble yours. Carl! Its been a long time, does this mean your building again? I will have to drop in and see. Augie, see my above disclaimer on manufacturing. Brian no need to apologize, we all build to our level of satisfaction. Master Builder??? Thank you very much, but I feel I have quit a ways to go before I deserve that title. Thanks all for the likes and comments, hope to be back to building in the next few days. Sam

Rich, They are kinda thin on direction arent they? I hope the parts supplied with your kit are better milled than mine were. As far as assembling them, you need a way to cut many parts the same length, the way you did your gun ports looks like it worked for you. That might be a start. I am at the same point with my build at the moment. To clamp everything together I was considering a nice straight pice of wood glued/ screwed down and a small wedge glued far enough away that you can get your ladders in place. A second wedge would be used as the clamping force, you will have to make sure everything is nice and parallel when you clamp up. A much easier way would be a set of machinist parallel clamps - I just dont own any myself. The wedges will work if you dont want to wait/spend the money on tools. Dont spend money on tools?!?!?! who am I kidding? We are all tool junkies here. Have fun, your past tells me will find your solution and work through it. Sam

Two weeks and thats all you have to show us????? Joking of course. That looks to be a lot of very fiddly work, well done! Sam

Rich, Been following quietly lately, She is looking great. For your bowsprit, if there is enough play you could pin it like your davits. Or through "bolt" it by drilling all the way through and inserting some treenails or brass pins. And epoxy rather than wood blue glue (stupid I Phone)i would think. Sam

Russ, its good to see you getting some build time in. Great work as always, will the recesses be windows? Sam

windows look great Sjors, Cant wait to see the galleries. Sam

Or happy opportunities to improve. Sam

Door and windows look very good Vivian! Glad to see you able to work again, even a little. Sam

Thank you for the kind words and taking some of your precious little time back to visit all of us Bindy! We have missed you. A new avatar, you never told us your a model! As far as "how its done" I cant speak for others, but that's how I did it. Most likely there is an easier way. My mind typically finds the more difficult path from A to B. I am please with the results so far though. Hmm 'Break Time," after today thats going to be non-existent for the next week or two. Build wise not much to show. I have drilled the holes for the belay pins in the cross piece and started on my new scratch built ladders; Constructo......? Since I do not have decent lighting in my garage any power tool use is done during the day, so today I am finishing the last cutter for the trucks, I might even get them all cut out. I dont plan on talking any "breaks" till I finish the machine work, so I shouldnt break any more bits or taps................Who am I kidding??? Sam

Take your time and heal Vivian, we will wait. Sam

Robbyn, Sjors, THank You! Much appreciated. Now I just have to find time to work again. I start an assignment next week that will take up msot of the next two weeks and I need most of the weekend to prep I think. Good to see you back Robbyn, we have missed you. Sam

D@mn fine build Augie! I have been missing a lot it appears. I am going to squeeze into the last row here and watch for a while. Sam

Robbyn, nice to see you back. Enjoy your trip. Sam

Looks good. Dont let the Admiral see that razor knife on the bed. Sam

Rich, she looks good! It appears that the Mahogany is behaving better than the Ayous did? Sam