edmay

My advice would be to have a bottle of sctotch sitting next to you when your hands go numb.  It will give you fortitude for the upcoming trial of nerves fuzzy vision and a lot of bad words not fit for tender ears or polite company.
David B

gorgeous...i still can't believe you did the whole thing!.....sheesh!

Outstanding job, Sawdust !!

Look perfect

Here's how she appears now at full height....
 

 
Now I can begin focusing on completing the standing rigging....

 
 

Welcome aboard Bob,
 
This is a great place to learn and share tips and techniques.
When you're ready, feel free to start a buildlog.
If needed, you'll find plenty of advise, help and encouragement from everyone.
 
I wish you smooth sailing and happy modeling.
 
Regards,
Anja

Hello - I'm trying to get restarted in the hobby.  Started a boat in 2012 and made a few mistakes and it now sits on the shelf incomplete.  I'm going to try to finish it anyhow, noting that it is not going to be "perfect" in hopes to learn how to rig it.  
 
After that I am going to attempt my Phantom for which I have a great practicum, and also a little tugboat.  Hope to learn more from this site and maybe even make a few acquaintences.
 
Bob Dianetti

Here is a great source I have used to buy in gross (144) amounts brass nuts, bolts and washers. Explore their site for other hardware selections and tools.
 
http://jimorrisco.com/index.php

I've started the deck work now.  The first thing I did, after cutting the deck plank to size was to use a sharpy to darken in the sides and ends of the deck plank.  I also use the sharpy to sharpen up the top edges to make it look like the tarred rope is pushed into the crease between the deck planks.  I used this method with my Rattlesnake.  I don't like using paint because, IMO, it gets too messy and IMO dark glue gets messy when you have to glue the sides and the bottom where it attaches to the ribs.
 

 

 
Occasionally I had an oops with the pen.  Fortunately in this case I ended up marking the bottom of the deck plank
 

 
This was the first small portion of the deck work.  I think it came out pretty well.
 

 
Half the deck is done.  I think it came out pretty well.  I will clean it up when I sand the deck.  The black marks are just some of the black that came off with the clue.  No biggy really.

Okay I've started the deck work.  Here are my three structures.  Not much advise for you on these.  Simply follow the plans.
 

 

 

 
Yes, I chose to put in the brass wire window bars instead of painting them on the plastic I put behind them.  I had to be cautious about drilling the holes straight but I think I managed to pull it off.
 

 

 

 

 
yes, I built this structure to actually slide open and the front panel does come out.  Perhaps not practical for a model but it was fun trying to see if I could actually do it.
 

Black is probably more noticeable. My hull is all black and it shows dirt, dust, fingerprints. Was planning to do 1 more paint job on the hull sometime down the road.
 
I've switched to a foam holder which does seem to protect the hull somewhat. All in all, I think dings and nicks are inevitable.

Yes, that transform was something different.  Where I could picture the symetry from the drawings, it just didn't come out that way in the end.  At least I think
 
I have now painted the outside of the hull.  Stage 1 is complete.
 

 

 

Just getting caught up with your progress Scott. Looking good, keep up the good work..

Got in a couple of good full days of work on the outside upper walls on my ship.  Here are the pics.
 

Unpainted bow wood work.  Looks like I got lucky with the two different wood thicknesses.  I did have to soak the thicker pieces of wood in hot water to get them to bend but not really a difficult issue.  The thinner planks I had no issues with.
 

Yep, I painted the top rail black. I initially painted it the model suggested buff and I didn't think it looked right.  I looked at Niagara ship pictures from over the years that were taken by ship visitors.  I noticed that the top rail had been pained buff, yellow ocra and black.  So I opted for the black. I thought it flowed better.
 

 

 

And the unpainted sides vs the painted sides. The most difficult part was trying to paint that little lip on the thicker wood.  Small brush and a steady hand...... and of course some scraping and repainted where I goofed.  LOL  No one's perfect.
 

And finally the stern.  For some reason those back rope chocks look like they are angled down in the pic but they aren't.  I used a very small jewel's file to file down into the wood and then used a jeweler's hack saw blade, without the hack saw, to cut out the little lower wider rope area.  Then I glued the whole piece into place.
 
 

I got some cool time in yesterday..........oooo-la-la  let's play dress up       mix 'n match to see what the latest fashion trawlers are wearing this year!   I finished setting up the frame to house all four reels.   I had to drill through the smaller ones,  and with out a drill press........or anything that would help me drill square,  it was a tall order.   I did manage to do it,  with a couple of goof ups along the way,  to make it interesting.
 

 
I changed my mind about the plastic.........I only have one size thickness anyway.   I'm using the thinner frame sides and a wood base.   the holes in two 8 mm pulley reels were made larger to separate them.  I have a supply of larger brass rod for the lower reels.
 

 

 
the big problem for it though,  is that it doesn't have a gear box.   I added one in.
 

 
it droops down in the front.......mainly because it doesn't touch the base.  I cut a piece of dowel to make up the difference.
 

 
it's not exact......it still droops a tiny bit.   I would have to make a gear box for it.......wood or plastic.
 

 
I mentioned that I was thinking about making it chain belt driven.   I tried a few different types of chain that I have and came up with this.   possible color combination........gray or primer red sides and gearbox,  flat black base,  flat red reels, and flat black gears and chain belts.  any other parts ....suit to taste.
 

 
now I did look at the Mary Ann winch to get an idea of it as well.   keen to note that it only worked the gallows.
 

 
of course,  I did some extra detail on it.......reworking the gearbox with access panels.......and then making a goof with the frame {it's backwards}.   it didn't hurt it,  so I left it as it was.   paint was the bulk of the detail.
 

 

 

 
the teeth on the gears are very blunt........perhaps if I were to file them,  the chain belt would fit on them better.   the picture you see is the only one I could get....darn chain wouldn't behave.   I like the looks though.
 
 
 
 

thank you for the kind word and the likes     I got to have a bit of fun yesterday........not to mention that this week end is a vacation for me     once all this is sorted out.......the rest should be a walk in the park {Gibbs will like that   }   update in a moment  
 
Hi John.......back again?   I hope it was for fun,  and nothing medical.........your my favorite moderator,  don'tcha know!  
 
hey Nenad       it's documented that animals are easily affected by sound......the tone.   Gibbs sometimes will sit under my desk,  when I'm play'in my bass,  but will howl when I'm tuning my guitar.   case in point........I never play guitar     see what happens when you play the song 'cat scratch fever'    
      for bobtail......I might suggest country...........songs like 'I'm in the dog house now'      ba-num-bum!    thanks for the good word.......you'll like this next bit,  I think  

Nice work. Keep on. I like your style
 
My ( daughter's) cat likes opera ?!?!? When it shows idea to climb to workbench, I just turn Requiem, and it sleeps at once. What will be medicine for Bobtail when it comes, we'll see

some progress has been made....although I still need to figure how it will all fit together.   there will be shrouds on the mast, but I had to say the heck with it and relocate the eye bolts.   I made no cut outs near the mast......and the supports there were too narrow to fit them......so I located them along the outer edge.
 

 
other eye bolts and blocks were fitted as well for the boom rigging since that picture was taken.   the booms themselves got fitted with eye bolts and blocks too.
 

 

 
the winch is coming along....as mentioned.   I found that using the metal frames would be impossible,  so I made up a couple pairs from these four pieces of wood cut outs,  that came from two different kits.   one pair is 1/16 thick,  and the other pair is 1/8 thick.   the shape is duplicated from the metal frames,  and I cut them with the scroll saw.   once sanded and matched up identical to one another,  the first hole was drilled into each one.......this will be for the larger reels.
 

 
then........after a bit of figuring........the second set of holes were drilled for the smaller reels.
 

 
now,  I don't plan on using all of them........they give me enough to arrive at the finished winch.   I had made some other reels earlier........some were small {you saw those}........but I made three larger ones.   the trouble with these,  is that they are not wide enough,  so they may not get used.   if not,  I can use them for that other fishing boat........they won't go to waste      getting the measurement from the larger reels,  I made three more reels........smaller but to the same width as the larger ones.
 

 
I did set up the larger reels in the winch frames.....I used three of them here.   I'm not picturing the finished winch looking like this.......I want to incorporate some gear work in the winch.....interlocking,  or with chain belts.
 

 

 
throughout the pictures.........you can see plastic gears.  I had gotten them from a motorize stuffed holiday toy....a snowman and dog that sings Jingle bells {Gibbs loved it so much,  after it broke,  we got another one from e-bay}.
     the interaction between Gibbs and the toy is so cool...........as jingle bells is sung,  the little dog howls.........and so does Gibbs.   he's almost to the point that he can do it howl for howl.....right up to the big finish!   So darn funny!  anyway......I might be able to use some of the gears.........it will depend how they look in combination with the gears I got from Hobby Lobby.  
 
so this is where I'm at at the moment........last week was a bust.   I got a little done,  but there were too many interruptions and work has been a total bugger to get through...........have I told you that I'm REALLY starting to hate my job!  

Hello Dave, Many prayers for your family friends and township .Edwin

I have not tried Chuck's #11 knife blade for carving (yet); mainly because the type of carving I do - figures and caricatures - would probably snap the blade on the first cut. Haven't tried the new Flexcut micro gouges either; I recently got a set of the now discontinued DockSide micro chisels.  I am looking forward to trying my hand at Chuck's miniature carving project.
 
I am a self taught woodcarver. Picked up a book (see my post here)  and started reading and practicing. My first knife was the "bench" knife shown on the extreme left in photo below: I found this knife very frustrating to use and after joining a woodcarving club and consulting with some of their experienced carvers and trying out some of their knives, I switched to a style made by Dave Lyons called the Lyons knife (naturally) shown in the 2nd and 3rd photos. The design of the handle is more ergonomic and fits a lot nicer in the palm of your hand without fatiguing your hand after hours of carving. I might add that Dave's knives came razor sharp right out of the box and required no additional honing on my part - something I spent hours doing with the bench knife. Oh, the 2 knives to the right of the bench knife in photo #1 are chip carving knifes.
 

 
For finger protection I recommend the finger guards shown in the photos below. They are leather on the bottom and an elastic material on the top and come in small, medium and large sizes to fit all finger sizes. The one on the right in the photo fits over the thumb while the one on the left  fits over the forefinger
 

 
And finally I constructed a bench hook as shown in these photos, the design is shown in Ellenwood's book referenced above. The notch in the back allows the piece to be placed in a diagonal position against the side stop. The gap between the side stop and the back is to allow chips to be removed more easily.
 

 
I can get into a discussion of chisels and gouges at a later time as interest dictates.

Woodcarving is a very interesting hobby, I begin to study it.

I carved my pieces using only a #11 blade.
 

 
I also tried a few micro chisels from Flexcut.  They worked really well.  I only really used the "v" shaped one.  The important thing is to keep them very sharp.....as soon as the #11 blades got a little dull I threw it away and got a new one.
 

 
I havent done any rotary carving because I dont like the look of the pieces after using the bits. Too rounded for my tastes but only probably because I dont know how to do it correctly.   I also like the feel of the blade vs. the rotary tool.
 
But guys,  please discuss your tools and approaches here and hopefully we will have a few that will try rotary carving.
 
Chuck
 

Hello Dave, Many prayers for your family friends and township .Edwin

Hello Dave, Many prayers for your family friends and township .Edwin

Hello Dave, Many prayers for your family friends and township .Edwin