Charles Green

Tell us the wood type and dimensions.

FriedClams: Up to this point, I have been one of the quiet followers of your fantastic work. The quality of it has made me reluctant to ask of this: The tires on your vehicles - Have you considered creating a flat spot on their bottoms' to give the impression they are weighted?

To expand on Bob's comment: Should this brush perform like the knock-off it is, others will have to follow. You will find yourself sneaking up, at wasteful cost of time and money, to the brush you should have bought in the first place. Even if the knock-off sprays like you think it should, you will be forever asking yourself if the "real one" could do better. You may find the needle is too soft to resist bending, or the threads at disassembly points for cleaning don't hold up. Pride of ownership is not based on hollow emotional feelings. It comes from demonstrable performance and the saving of time and money. Think of the time to redo the finish on your model due to poor performance of the brush. The real deal is worth owning.

Roger Pellet mentioned oil in the wood; a common characteristic of tropical hardwoods. Wiping the surface to be glued with acetone just before the glue is applied will solve that problem.

wefalck: Le salaire de la peur - The Wages of Fear, was redone, stateside, in 1977 by William Friedkin. The title that time was Sorcerer. It starred Roy Schieder, Bruno Cremer, Victor Manzon, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou. Critics didn't like it, but in its Sorcerer iteration, it's the best action movie I've ever seen. In addition to poor reviews, coming out the same week Star Wars premiered, it faced crushing competition for movie ticket dollars. Also, Friedkin directed The Exorcist. Sorcerer's title suggested some sort of extension on that theme. Viewers looking for that didn't get what they were expecting. The film did poorly at the box office. There are truncated versions of it and other copies with poor video and audio quality. A "director's cut" version is available. I recommend it. The movie's theme revolves around violence but outside of events that form the film's story, it's not a violent movie and it doesn't follow the formulaic structure of typical "action movies". There are no car chase scenes, no sex; just four bad-guys trying to get out of a real bad situation.

In reference to post #12 - Bob Cleek mentions the burning of worn-out ships in order to reclaim their metallic components. In two of his poems, Robert Service mentions vessels made on-site by miners on the Yukon Trail in the late 1800's. From The Trail of Ninety-Eight: We built our boats and we launched them. Never has been such a fleet; A packing-case for a bottom, a mackinaw for a sheet. Shapeless, grotesque, lopsided, flimsy, makeshift and crude, Each man after his fashion builded as best he could. The greed of the gold possessed us; pity and love were forgot; ...Partner with partner wrangled, each one claiming his due; Wrangled and halved their outfits, sawing their boats in two. Then, in The Ballad of the Northern Lights: We poled and lined up nameless streams, portaged o'er hill and plain; We burnt our boat to save the nails, and built our boat again;

In machine work, a "drift fit" describes class of fit between a shaft and hole. At least it did while I was active in shop work. I can't recall the tolerances, but a considerable amount of force was required to achieve a drift fit. Descriptive terms for other fits include: loose, running, drive, shrink, etc. It looks like these terms have been replaced. Now fits are separated into classes identified by Roman numerals. I will guess a "drift" in this case was a galvanized iron rod, driven in an undersized hole and held by friction, rather than by clenching or with a nut. In these times, a drift is a tapered tool, a wedge essentially, used to remove a tool held in an arbor by a taper fit.

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David W: MSC Industrial Supply has a variety of slitting blades with 5/8 arbor holes. MSC requires an account - Contact info only, and $25.00 minimum order.

David W: Search MSC and McMaster Carr for "slotting and slitting blades"; very narrow kerf blades, some with 5/8 dia. arbor holes. There are quite a few from 2" to 4" dia. but I wonder if your arbor carriage will raise enough to bring these small dia. blades above the table. All of these blades are high tooth-count, with no set, made for cutting one type of metal or another. They are designed for use with coolant. They will work for shallow slots/cuts in wood, but a little heat from too much friction will cause them to warp. In your search, filter out the solid carbide blades; $$$$$$! HSS blades with 0.6299/10mm and 0.630 arbor holes are around $50.00. One advantage of using small saws for small work is they allow you to get close to see what is going on. For small-work on your table-saw, you will have to cut dedicated, zero-clearance throat-plates for these blades. If you can find a used PREAC saw, they are designed for two to three-inch dia. slitting blades.

The Colour Blue in Historic Shipbuilding from Antiquity to Modern Times by Joachim Mullerschon, provides a focused, historical view on the maritime and naval use of that color and a generalized history on ship paint and painting practice. It covers all this in 172 pages of text. FYI: This book is an historical overview - not a concentrated study on the Royal Navy's painting practice nor that of any other individual nationality. From this and other sources, my short answer to your question is, not much definitive information concerning it is available. Areas of Mullerschon's text describing Royal Navy painting practice are punctuated with qualifications e.g., unfortunately, no further details, if, also, or, "standardization was not achieved", "official paintings...showed red instead of blue, while the strict order was to keep them black.", etc. Painting practices from other nationalities through the 18th century read the same. An exception comes from paintings, mosaics, models and ancient texts depicting painting practice of the pre-Egyptian through the Roman period. My impression is, together these sources (along with recent archeological discoveries) provide more veracity to that era's painting practice than can be said for what came much later. The book is very well illustrated with photos of contemporary paintings and models from around the world from all eras, along with photos of period, modern models and full-size reproductions. Most of the photos are unique, having been taken by the author. In your case, from all the sources available to you (and Mullerschon's would be a good one) - Pick one with acknowledged credibility and go to work!

Varieties of heating irons shown above are used for dry mounting of artwork and photographs. Art supply and framing businesses are good sources for them.

Welcome Scratchie: Along with myself, both sides of my family are from Minnesota: Motley (near Brainard), Parkers Prairie (near Alexandria) and Minneapolis. Most are still in the state. I graduated from the U in '76 - Forestry. I've been in Idaho for 30 + years but still look forward to visits to Minnesota.

3/16 vs 5mm; the difference is on the order of 1%. In a side-to-side line up of several 3/16 blocks, a 5mm one in the mix may be discernable, but I wouldn't go as far as to say this difference would throw things out of scale. Can't comment on the hole size for the lines.

Poop, as a descriptive term for excrement, appeared in the mid 1700's. I have two sources that take the origin of 'poop deck' back to the Roman times: Eh, What's That You Said? Jargon of the Sea, by Don and Johna Marshall, and Origins of Sea Terms, by John G. Rogers. From them: The French poupe comes from the Latin puppim, the after-part of a vessel. Puppim was derived from puppis; a doll or image. Romans, and their predecessors, mounted a sacred image or doll/idol at the stern of their vessels. From another source I cannot recall, the idol or image was kept in a small enclosure. From that source, the enclosure was the puppis. So, from these sources: from a puppis kept at the stern, to the stern being named puppim, to the French Poupe describing a stern deck.

My Dad was Army, in the Pacific. Unable to see beyond the horizon, he always felt better when the 'Cats' were around.

Look for a source of ply and MDF that stores their inventory flat. Buy and start with new flat pieces. If no one in your area stores their sheet stock flat, ask permission to cherry-pick from what is available. Flattening warped sheet with battens, sheet that will be the foundation of your build, should be a distant 2nd choice. Even when starting with flat sheet stock, using battens to keep them flat is a good idea. Screws into MDF is not a good idea for commercial or residential building construction. I will hazard a guess it is against code. Screws through MDF, into a solid substrate, is acceptable.

Lester: The current issue of the Nautical Research Journal, Vol. 67, #3, features an article detailing a model of the Great Harry, Henry VIII flagship: an English ship from the same period as your model. The article's subject is as accurate a depiction of that period's practices as current scholarship and the builder's research allows. The Journal is the publication of the Nautical Research Guild, this site's sponsor. Each issue has something of interest for any ship modeler. The Carnegie library building back home, made of cut stone with molding and cabinet work of oak, was an imposing structure to me as a kid. Once inside the library's heavy oak doors, my attention would go immediately to a model ship like yours, set high on top of cabinets, impossibly out of reach. The model was thick with dust and had oxidized to a uniform brown color. Obviously, it had never been touched since placed there. That didn't stop me from wanting to see it up close. It was a romantic, exotic thing. I wanted to examine it, handle it. As I came through the doors, the librarian would always catch my gaze as it went to the model. She would wait for my attention to come to her. Our eyes would meet; mine with hopeful, even pleading expectation of personally experiencing the model - hers with 'don't even think about it'. My hopes were dashed every time I went to that library, as I'm sure were the hopes of any other kid like me.

Lester: The replies forthcoming may not seem kind, but they will be honest and come from people, more knowledgeable than me, who know from what they speak. To begin with my two cents worth: The model is pleasant to look at, but it is unrepresentative of any historical vessel. It resides in the category of 'dust catcher'. Your work to restore it may give you pleasure, but no amount of work will elevate the model from that category.

Andy: Just finished the .303 video. Thanks a lot!

As far as I know, the Wellington, as well as all other WWII British warplanes, were armed with .303 machineguns while German warplanes were shooting at them with 20mm cannons. The M2 .50 MG was nearly ubiquitous on US warplanes. With Lend-Lease and US production behind them, why did the British stick with the .303 MG?

To be brief: All woods outgas acetic acid fumes. The normal process of organic decay produces it. Oak and bass wood are at the top of the list. All PVA wood glues outgas the same fumes as does common acrylic. All nut/seed finishing oils do the same. Ventilation is a must for enclosed displays. Display cabinets with glass or special, non-outgassing acrylic glazing are to be preferred. The only glue that does not outgas acetic acid fumes and is strong enough for assemblies is hide glue. The only finish that is safe is shellac. For items kept in storage, museums have resorted to powder-coated steel.

USA tool maker, Starrett, makes steel rules graduated in 1/48 inch. Six-inch-long, part # C601-6; 12-inch-long, part # C601-12. Front and back, top and bottom of the rule make for four graduated edges. One edge is graduated in 12ths, 24ths and 48ths. The others give measurements in 10ths, 20ths, 50ths and 100ths; 16ths, 32nds and 64ths and lastly, 14ths and 28ths. They will be very well made and surprisingly expensive.

The material, fit and finish of a display case are all are on display as much as the model inside. Good work can't come cheap. Frame shops minimize cost by standardizing molding profiles, running long pieces for supply and cutting to length as a job requires. The downside: this anticipates need and requires maintaining inventory. As for glazing: Tru Vue sells acrylic and glass sheets for archival display purposes. They offer a variety of types covering a wide range of costs. Take a look at their web site and click on the "Products" category. In comparison to common acrylic, their "Optimum Museum Acrylic" is really amazing when viewed through. It's also really expensive, but there is no way around it. It has an indefinite lifespan, is anti-reflective, anti-static, scratch resistant, does not out-gas, UV blocking, it's flat - no ripple distortion - a problem lesser quality acrylic does not control, and it's thinner than standard acrylic. This property minimizes refraction error while reducing weight. I was told, by a third party, the scratch resistant coating will stand up to steel wool - It will not - But it will stand up to any common, non-abrasive cleaning method. The anti-static property does lengthen the time between cleanings. "Anti-reflective" vs "Anti-glare": Anti-glare is achieved by slightly frosting the panel's surface. This will inhibit viewing of fine detail. Not so with anti-reflective treatment. Applied surface treatments to inhibit scratching and reflectivity will not allow glue-joints unless the treatments are removed. The surface adjacent to the glue joint must be masked off. Then, the surface treatment on the area to be glued is removed with abrasive.

This post may be moot, but at around $1,200.00, Cameron's Model 214 Precision Drill Press will deliver what you are looking for without question. In order to drill and space holes in measurements of 0.00X inch, the drill press's runout and alignment must be at least an order of magnitude smaller. And the machine must be rigid. You may be able to get by with machines of lesser quality - put emphasis on "may". When drilling into a part with several stages of work already done on it, trying to do work beyond the tolerance of the machine risks ruining all the work done before. Options are to start over and try again or settle for less. Cameron sells vises, X-Y tables and many other accessories compatible with their machines and other small drill presses.