Mahuna

I purchased this single-action airbrush a few years ago and have not used it (I have several dual-action airbrushes that I prefer).
 
Located in Arizona, US.
 
Price is $65 US (includes shipping - within the US only).  Payment via PayPal.
 

 
 

Hi Chuck - great work.
 
If you have a rotary tool you could try using a small ceramic stone for final shaping.  They're available in white, green, and pink.  The white stones are the finest.  All of these stones can be shaped using a small diamond sharpening stick, so you could bring them to a very fine point for getting into tight areas.  Most of these stones have 3/32 shafts, rather than the 1/8 found on Dremel, and can be found in a wood carving supply site.  They're used extensively by bird carvers and other power carvers.  I can send you more info if you want.

Anchors
 
For the anchors of Arethusa years ago Erik Ronnberg recommended I use the Model Shipways plans for Elsie he had designed and drafted years before.  They were built in the same timeframe, just a few miles apart, and shared many details of the time.  With that guidance I purchased said Elsie plans and headed over to FedEx/Kinkos to enlarge the plans from their original 1/96 scale to my 1/48 scale.  With the plans at the correct scale there were a number of details I could readily use on Arethusa.  I also try to cross reference things to Chapelle’s American Fishing Schooners, and they almost always do, as did the anchors.  Here is an image of the Elsie plans showing the anchor.

I had tried, unsuccessfully, to make them, years ago, from a stout sheet of K&S brass.  This time I decided to try making them from boxwood.  The sticks of boxwood I have aren’t wide enough to cut the anchors as complete, single entities from a strip of stock, so I chose to separate the end with the flukes from the main shank (shaft) and stock hole feature.  Here is a photo of the plans glued with contact adhesive to the boxwood strip.

Next up is a photo of those details now trimmed to shape.  I used my DeWalt scroll saw, followed by files, and then sanding sticks, to shape them.

I cut notches in the sides of the shafts on both pieces and glued small lap splice details.  I’ll admit -  this felt a bit precarious as the boxwood details felt delicate.  This photo shows them being glued together.

My most recent status is shown in the following photo.  The anchors, particularly at the splices, have been sanded smooth, and rebates have been sanded in where the flukes will be glued.  Following that is photo of the anchor chain and a finer chain after having been blackened with Blacken It (from many years ago).

Throat Halliard Cranes
 
On Gloucester fishing schooners of the late 19th and early 20th centuries the set of blocks which raise the mast end of the gaffs where secured to the lower masts with a unique iron detail called a throat halliard crane.  It is bolted to the aft side of the lower masts, found on both fore and main masts.  Its general shape is very wide U with a feature for the detail which secures the blocks, oriented with the legs of the U horizontal.  Those legs are long bolts which pierce through the mast and secured by nuts on the forward side of the mast.  The upper leg reaches over the mast head details, and the lower leg beneath.  This is one of those details I pondered over for years.  I didn’t think making them from wood would be sufficiently strong for the purpose.  I could have made them from brass wire, though some soldering would be needed and I wasn’t sure I could pull them off while still looking reasonably to scale.  This year I decided - what the heck - lets see what sheet brass I had laying around (from years ago!), and see if I could cut them out that way.  A piece of 0.072” thick was what I had on hand; A little thicker than to-scale, which would have been 0.060”, but I’m fine with that.  I recall trying to make my anchors from the same brass sheet many years ago.  I broke a lot of jeweler’s saw blades then, and dropped it long ago, very frustrated.
 
Once again - I searched through MSW and found some good discussions on using jewelers saws to cut brass.  I thank Weflack and others for those pointers!  I also found a good video on Youtube of a guy demonstrating key points of cutting brass sheet with a jeweler’s saw.  I think age also plays a part here in that I am in much less of a hurry than my earlier days, and am willing to let the saw do the work, not pushing it too hard, etc.  A key take away is to keep the blade oiled on a regular basis.  I had sprayed some contact adhesive onto the brass sheet, then secured my profile prints onto it.  I found that the oil tended to loosen the profile image over time, so I tried to just cut the inside of the U with the image adhered to the brass sheet as closely as possible.  As I went along the outside I tried cutting a little wide, knowing I could use my dremel and files to bring it back to a proper size.  I used a courser file to remove material faster, and then a finer file to smooth things out.

The second photo shows the two cranes adjacent the plan images (from the Model Shipways Elsie plans).  My cranes’ legs are a bit too wide, when compared to the plans, but I’m fine with that.  A little more clean up of the bolt portions, some primer and silver paints, and they’ll be good to go.

Blocks.
 
My prior experience with blocks was on Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s Smuggler model, which had their detailed, cast Brittania blocks, and on my Oneida model, where I used Warner Woods wooden blocks.  Both experiences were good.  One required some finish sanding and trim, along with painting.  The others required sanding and staining.
 
For Arethusa I began my blocks journey by making an inventory of the full size block types and quantities, and then finding what was available, as close to scale as possible, at 1/48 scale.
 
I first purchased my entire shipset of blocks from Blue Jacket.  They are really great looking blocks.  And I had intended to use them for Arethusa.
 
I then saw Syren Ship Model Company’s internally stropped blocks. Oh I liked the look of those!  If you look back to my posts of 2017 you’ll see I had begun making some of those internally stropped blocks.  These are great little mini-kits, and can yield some impressive looking scale assembled blocks.
 
I, again, purchased what I could, scale-wise, from Syren, and began assembling them.  To finish them I purchased the block tumbler from Model Expo.  And that is where I ran into some “issues”.  The block tumbler has a rigid central core and four wooden paddles with sand paper on them.  For those of you who haven’t worked with one of these, you place your blocks into the jar, between the paddles, secure the lid, and you attach your hand drill to the tumbler’s shaft.  Power it up and you are in business.  But - at almost every speed - my blocks came apart, beaten to pieces.  I was very disheartened, to say the least.
 
After some time I came around to ordering more of Chuck Passaro’s blocks, hoping to find a solution to the tumbler problem.  I also want to give a shout out to Chuck for trying to help a modeler out.  On the small end of my blocks, I had 1/8” long model scale singles and doubles.  His block kits stop at 3/16” long - which are pretty small if you have ever worked with them!  He tried coming up with a kit for 1/8” blocks and just couldn’t get it to work properly.  I really thank him for trying.  He even gave me a packet of his 1/8” long machined wooden blocks.  Great guy, great business - if you haven’t yet - give Syren a try.  Really nice modeling stuff there.
 
I reassembled my second set of Syren internally stropped blocks.  Before trying that tumbler again (!!!) I searched MSW for ‘tumbler’, and lo and behold there was discussion of the problems with the rigid wooden paddles of the Model Expo tumbler.  Chuck Passaro mentioned substituting just sand paper for the paddles, and Dr PR showed his mod of the tumbler, where the paddles were removed and replaced with sand paper.  Thank you guys!  I followed their lead, modified my tumbler, and voila!  My blocks stayed together and were very nicely smoothed.   By the way, Dr PR’s Albatros model is outstanding - go check it out!
 
I trimmed and glued the strops and beckets with medium CA, and then stained them with Minwax Colonial Maple.  I’m very happy with them.  I still have the pins to add and then they’ll be complete.

On the small end of the scale I tried using the 1/8” wooden ones Chuck provided, and tried making doubles from singles, but without success.  So I’ve decided to go with the small Blue Jacket Brittania ones for these.  I’ve got them cleaned and primed, and hope to get a brown tone that won’t look horrible next to the attractive, assembled boxwood ones.
 
Some things I’ve learned from making a bunch of Syren’s block kits:
 
Medium CA and a round toothpick, or a micro tip for the CA bottle, work well for gluing the pieces together. Strive, as best as you can, to align the frames perfectly on top of each other as you glue the pieces together.  Any misalignment can be corrected with sanding the exterior surfaces, BUT you’ll have to sand to the lowest (innermost set) surface to get all of the laser burn off.  If you don’t sand all the way to the last surface you’ll end up with steps and ridges - not all that attractive to my eyes.  This can result in some parallelogramming of block shape.  In the last photo you can see some of this on a few of the blocks.  Its more pronounced with the smaller blocks. Using a sanding stick hit all of the exterior surfaces, to remove the burn, and to even it out before using the tumbler. The tumbler is best for rounding the corners of the blocks. Do not glue on the strops and beckets before tumble sanding the blocks. The 3/16” blocks are pretty small and my fingers cramped constantly trying to hold them while sanding the outer surfaces (step 3, above) I found using a small drill bit helped me form the strops into clean hoops which aligned with the slots in the blocks.  I used different sized drill bits for the different sized blocks. Make a few extra in each size.  One or two may fail along the way and its good to have ready made spares. The boxwood blocks take stain well!  
In the photo below you can see, upper photo to the bottom, 9/16” doubles, singles, a triple I made from extra 9/16” kits, 1/4” singles, and a pile of 3/16” singles and doubles.  I love the way these look, and know they’ll complement the model nicely upon rigging.

Sometimes in modeling I set off down a path, only to find I did something that I quickly didn’t like.  My masts and spars are one of those things.  I had made them from basswood, and I had stained them with a minwax oil based stain (maybe Puritan Pine).  I quickly saw two things I didn’t like:  one - the color of the stain can didn’t translate to the basswood like I had thought it would, being too brown, but without a warm cast, and two - the basswood had far too much dark and light patchiness.  I stewed on it a bit, and after having seen many models here on MSW made of Costello boxwood, I thought that that wood’s tight graining and evenness of tone would be what I was looking for.
 
One build log, Mahuna’s beautiful skipjack Kathryn, showed Costello boxwood and minwax Colonial Maple mast and spars - exactly the tone and look I wanted!  If you want to see some outstanding modeling, go search it out.  Thank you Frank for sharing that.  It has the look of varnished spars I want on Arethusa.  I bought some boxwood from Gilmer Woods during the pandemic, and recently set about making new masts and spars.  I find that it’s a good thing to make masts and spars every five to ten years, just to keep one’s hand in it.  ; )  Here’s a photo of the old and new masts and spars.  I have one last small spar to complete.  I had tried doing a little mortise in the sides of my first boxwood one and split it apart, so another is in-progress.
 

 
I’ve also made new masthead details from the boxwood, replacing the old basswood ones.  On these schooners there is little to the mastheads, so that was enjoyable and fairly quick and easy to do.
 
I haven't yet stained the spars, but have done some trial staining of the boxwood and the Colonial Maple will work out fine.  
 

My goodness, where has the time gone?  As you can see by my last post, of about a year ago, I thought then that I would find time to rekindle my ship modeling hobby.  Life, of course, plays by a different set of rules.  My last true time working on my schooner details was 7 years ago.  Since then, well, life intruded.  Helping with aging parents, raising children, with their attention and activities, work, home projects, health issues..  sometimes it’s difficult to find time to do the things we enjoy.  Without going into details, I’m finally back at it in my shop (which I spent some time tidying up so that I could comfortably work on my model).  I recall someone years ago, here on MSW I think, say to a modeler who hadn’t been able to get to his modeling in quite some time that (I’m paraphrasing) ‘the model waits patiently’.  And it does.
 
I see a few of the modelers from year ago still here and active, which is great.  I also note a few older members have passed on, some who I had hoped share modeling and further progress of Arethusa with, and that leaves me a little melancholy.
 
My schooner model sat wrapped in plastic, on its box stand; my research and plans were safely stored away; my little details, and masts and spars, also waited patiently.  And this past Christmas holiday break I was able to get to it in earnest.  Some observations of mine include: I’m not getting any younger!  My eyesight is worse than before, and my Optivisor is a godsend.  Without it my work might resemble a deconstructionist thing.  My thumbs have the onset of arthritis, and that hinders tool manipulation.  And I can’t sit for as long as I had.  Such as all of those are, man it is great to be working on my model again.
 
You’ll see some posts in the near future on a few things I’ve been working at:  new masts and spars; rigging blocks; the anchors; and my attempt at making throat halliard cranes from thick brass sheet.
 
And one last thing to point out.  I have been surfing through MSW in search of suggestions on different topics.  As you all know this place is amazing.  One can find any number of helpful tips.  I’ll try to note the ones which helped me in my posts, and thank everyone for contributing to community.

Hi Gary
 
Great to see you posting again.  I think the lighting will pay dividends for you.

Hi Gary
 
I too enjoyed meeting you at the conference.  Your craftsmanship on the ship AND the workstation is superb.

Hi Gary
 
I'm very impressed with your work on the Naiad.  I'm a big fan of Ed's work and, like you, find his books to be excellent guides.  Your Naiad demonstrates their value.
 
I plan to follow the rest of your build.

No log entries in two years, but I have been slowly plugging away a few minutes a week.  I had a pretty steep learning curve silver soldering the brass fittings for the masts and figuring out how to make the mast hoops.  Rope was made with Chuck Passaro’s rope rocket.  Rigging relies heavily on John Leather's The Gaff Rig Handbook.  When the book didn't have the necessary detail, I defaulted to the advice from the Mystic Seaport staff restoring their Sharpie - "These boats were built in people's backyards with what they could make or get from their local hardware store."  I did not want to make sails and there is no rigging exerting downward pressure on the gaff, so rather than having limp rigging, I lowered the gaff as if a mainsail was about to be attached.  Both kids were with their partner’s families this Christmas, so I got to spend some concentrated workshop time and finished this morning. 
 
Next project is a case – I got some good tools for Christmas (router table, acrylic cutting table saw blade) so I should be able to build one.  I made some acrylic shelves for my display case, so I’ve got the cutting and edge polishing down, and just need to sort out the gluing.
 
Happy New Year Everyone!

Hi Chuck:
 
I look forward to following your build.  What differences do you experience between boxwood and pau marfim?  I have some castello and pau marfim and haven't discovered a major difference between them.
 
Frank

I've used cast metal bird feet in my bird carvings, and they can be bent by warming them in boiling water, then CAREFULLY bending them to the position wanted.  You might try this on your cast parts.
 
Frank

Part 5 – The Stem Knee, Keel, and Worm Shoe


 
The stem knee supports the inner stem, has a 5” square socket to support the Sampson Post, and has a mortise on each side for the foreward-most frame.  The following photo shows the stem knee drawing, which was mirrored for aligning the two sides of the knee.


 
                                  
 


A small chisel was used to cut the socket and the frame mortises into the stem knee.  Because the knee was fairly small, I used the work setup shown in the following photos.


 

 

A 5” x 5” strip was used to check the accuracy of the socket for the Sampson Post.


 

 

The stem knee was then glued in place.

 


 
The rest of the keel (aft of the centerboard slot) was installed as two pieces.  The first piece was installed at the beginning of the curve in the keelson.


 



 
The aft keel piece was formed from 3 separate timbers.


 


 
This aft piece was then glued in place.


 


 
This completed the Keelson/Keel assembly.


 


 
There is a ‘worm shoe’ installed under the keel, as a protection for the keel.  This is made from pine and is only 2 “ thick.  The following photo shows the worm shoe being installed.


 


 
The cutwater and outer stem were fabricated, but only temporarily installed at this point.  The outer stem will cover the plank ends, and will be tapered from the planks down to the width of the cutwater, so this work will be left until the planking is installed.  The profile of the outer stem has been cut, and holes have been drilled to allow the outer stem to be temporarily mounted to the inner stem.  In addition, a slot was milled in the forward face of the outer stem for installation of the cutwater.


 

 


 
The following photo shows the completed Keelson / Keel / Stem assembly, with the temporary installation of the cutwater.


 


 
And, finally, mounts were created to keep the keel assembly at the proper height from the shipway, and the assembly was mounted to the shipway.


 


 
With the assembly now mounted in place, it’s time to start making and installing the frames for Kathryn.


 
Thanks everyone for following along, and especially for the Likes and comments.

Hi Chuck - great work.
 
If you have a rotary tool you could try using a small ceramic stone for final shaping.  They're available in white, green, and pink.  The white stones are the finest.  All of these stones can be shaped using a small diamond sharpening stick, so you could bring them to a very fine point for getting into tight areas.  Most of these stones have 3/32 shafts, rather than the 1/8 found on Dremel, and can be found in a wood carving supply site.  They're used extensively by bird carvers and other power carvers.  I can send you more info if you want.

One could have a healthy discussion about the precepts of restoration. When is a replacement part, made anew, but differently, yet retaining the functionaly to  be considered an unfaithful reproduction. Well call it what you wish.  I had to scrap the replacement chainplates. During install they were so delicate that the tip which was a piece of soldered tubing attached to the plate body separated in both accounts. The stress was just too great on this diminuitive part (just about 1mm). I had to remake them much as I and others made Cheerful chainplates. You can find this in Chapter 9 of the Cheerful build log. Basically the chain plate has a tang at its top that is bent into a loop that allows connection of the lower deadeye to the chain plate. In this model there are no deadeyes. There is a looped line that passes through a shackle attached to the formed eye of the bent over tang on the chain plate and the shroud eye to adjust tension.
 
Attached photo is the reconstructed chain plate with shroud lashing installed but not tied off. Tie off is identical to deadeyes.
 
It is no wonder why they were missing on the model when I got it. I will move on from here and not look back.
Joe

Hi all;
 
An update on using freezer paper.
 
I left the freezer paper cutouts of the bulkheads on the plywood since I posted the photo (4 days ago) because I had to leave on a business trip.  When I picked them up today I could see the paper was separating from the wood and not adhering very well.  This isn't a surprise, since I expect that the wax will revert to its normal consistency after a short while.
 
The lesson learned is simple - for best results, cut the wood as soon as possible after applying the freezer paper template.  Still better than messing with glue!
 
Frank

Here are some photos of the Freezer Paper in use.  
 
First, I cut out some freezer paper in 8x11.5 sheets, and flattened them by wrapping them around a piece of pvc a few times.  When the curl wasn't so pronounced I loaded it into the printer and then copied part of a plan sheet (Mayflower by Chuck, purchased from Model Expo) and printed it to the freezer paper.
 

 
Then I cut out the bulkheads I was interested in, positioned them on a sheet of 1/32 plywood, and laid a medium-hot iron on top of them for about ten seconds - done.  I can now cut out the bulkheads on my scroll saw.  The freezer paper is adhered well enough that the saw doesn't pull it off the wood.
 

 
Hope this helps.
 
Frank
 

I'm relatively new to ship modeling, and lately have been cutting some pieces out from patterns for spiling, etc.  I started by using rubber cement to adhere the pattern to the wood, but didn't like the amount of mess and the residue left on the wood.  I've tried a few other glues, but they basically gave me the same issues.
 
My wife is a quilter, and suggested using freezer paper (she calls it the quilter's best friend):  draw the pattern on the plain side of the paper, put the waxy side down on the wood, and iron it onto the wood with a low-temperature iron.  It worked great!  Adheres to the wood and doesn't move around while working with it, then easily peals off with no residue on the wood.  A side benefit is that the pattern can be reused if desired, since the wax on the back doesn't come off on the wood.
 
Since this worked, I wondered how the paper would work in a printer.  I cut a piece to 8.5X11, flattened it by rolling it around a piece of pvc pipe a few times, then printed a test pattern on it in my inkjet printer (I don't think this would work in a laser printer because of the heat).  It worked great.  Now when I learn to use CAD and learn to loft frames using CAD, I'll be able to print out self-adhering patterns.
 
Frank

Hi Druxey - yes, finally finished.  I plan to start a new build log during January.  In the meantime, here are some photos of my completed Dunbrody model.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Bob:
 
I didn't see this review until now, but I've had this book for well over a year and it has been invaluable to me in understanding the design and construction of ships from that period.  A future project is a scratch build of a sectional model of the Dunbrody, an irish famine ship of the late 1840's.  The original was built in Canada in 1845, and from the construction plans it looks like it was built in a manner that Crothers describes in this book.  The book will be an excellent aid in the build.
 
Frank

Just wanted to make a comment on the service I've received from Jim Byrnes:
 
A few months ago I purchased Jim's table saw - I see why this is the most sought-after saw for modelers.  Being new to the use of table saws in general, I've been proceeding slowly.  I've been using the standard blade, and wanted to start using a slitting blade, but wasn't sure how to cut a zero-tolerance insert for the blade.  I also had a few questions on the process for cutting very thin planks (1/32).
 
I sent Jim an email via the Model Machines website, and received a personal email from Jim within a couple of hours.  Jim answered all of my questions and was very supportive.  Contrast this to some other sites where it took days for any answer, if one was received at all.
 
Jim's quality machines and workmanship are matched by his commitment to customer service, and he's a pleasure to deal with.
 
Thank you Jim!!
 
Frank
 
 
 
 

Hi Patrick.  Looking forward to watching you create another one of your splendid models.

Many thanks, Frank!!!  
 
No pun intended, of course.  Heheheheh. 

Hi Patrick.  Looking forward to watching you create another one of your splendid models.