Bill97

No Marc. Mine is perfectly straight along the keel. Oh no Ian! I already have it glued together. Tell me again what you are talking about. Maybe I can still try to do it with halves together.

I am going to airbrush so I plan to glue the halves together, putty and sand the joint along the keel, sand fc some of the wood grain, then prime and paint. Now that I have the gun ports framed on the inside I should be good to glue the halves together.

Opinion question here. Do you put your two hull halves together before priming and painting, after priming but before painting, or prime and paint both after gluing halves together?

Thanks my friend.

You ever have one of those days when you say to yourself “I have to get my self organized”? I have model building materials equipment stuffed everywhere in my ship room. Paints are not easily identifiable. Storage cabinet is just disorganized. When ever I need something I know the general area it might be but I still have to look for it. Today is the day to get my self in order. Before I seriously get into my SR I have to improve my work area.

Thanks Popeye2sea. I think it looks so much better with those cut out and moved back.

Did you just use an x-acto knife to cut out the sections?

Again doing long range study. Cutting little pieces of Evergreen to glue around the gunports get a little old (can’t wait to start working on the cannons 😕) so I take a break an study other stuff. I noticed most builders cut out the openings in the side galleries and fabricate a floor for each deck. Popeye2sea you show a good photo of adding the removed section s to the side of the bulwark. I want to do the same when I get that far. Would you care to tell me what you did? How you made it look as if it was designed that way?

Thanks ScottRC. You won’t need any skills in cabinet joinery if you do what I did. Only special cut is the 45 degree angles to make the top. Exactly like making a picture frame. The rest of it is just straight cuts and dados. As I mentioned I was able to use my table saw for the dados because my blade kerf is wide enough for the Optix I used. If you went with wider Optix you probably need a router table or adjust your table saw fence after your first run so you could make second run to get the dado the width you want. I went with 1/8” Optix strictly for price. In this design the thickness is irrelevant except for the math part of it (dado width, dado placement, etc.). There is no pressure on any of the panels. If you think you might set heavy objects on top once finished you should go with a thicker panel for the top per chance it might sag. The only issue with the narrower Optix is they are more flexible than the thicker. This is not an issue for the four sides but when you or attempting to put the top back on, after having it off for whatever reason, the tops of the four sides can be a bit aggravating when trying to get all four into the dado in the underside of the top. The smaller cases I have made for my other ships are not as aggravating as the monster I made for the Victory. The side panels (2) are almost 4 feet long. You can imagine how much bowing in and out they can do when you are trying to get them plus the two sides to line up in a straight line dado so the top will set on the four uprights. And you are attempting this on the bottom side of the lid. Needless to say on my Victory case a few not church words are uttered when putting the lid back on. Once the lid is back on after a few choreographed minutes it is perfect and the thickness is irrelevant. But for the savings on the thickness I can take the frustration. The smaller case I made for my Constitution is less frustrating to take lid on and off.

It was on Facebook thus morning.

Same here Ian on economic version. On a ship note, what would the furled sail type description be for the two lower sails on each mast in this picture be, if this is an actual way sails would be occasionally kept? It does not look as if clews are attached. I like this because it gives just the hint of sails without being overpowering.

Ok my friends now that I have my Victory safely in her case I can seriously get into my SR. Today I burnt up my credit card ordering a bunch of stuff I am going to eventually need (paint, thread, solder, etc.). I also got back to framing the inside of each of the gun ports. Upper deck done and now the slightly larger Evergreen for the Middle deck. Also started removing the moulded waterline on the hull halves

Ian that is absolutely beautiful. I will honestly say your skill level is way above mine! Your dovetails on the drawers are perfect. I cheat and use a dovetail router jig. 😊

Here is my living room with cabinets I made on each side of the slate fireplace I tiled. Our woodwork and trim is white so I painted the cabinets white as well as the TV cabinet I made. Other areas of the house include raised panel wainscoting, which was tricky and hardwood flooring I laid when I had a younger back 😊. Also added a picture of a drawer unit and jewelry box I recently made for my wife. I don’t make nearly what I used to do. Back in the day when I was making extra money to get kids through college and nieces and nephews need wedding gifts I spent a lot of time in the wood shop. Not as much anymore.

Thanks Marc.

Ian that is beautiful. Very impressive! Did you make the legs? Love the inlay on the top. I made a backgammon table for a client years ago using different species of wood veneer for the long narrow triangles that make up a backgammon board. We will need to share a few other project photos, even though we risk having the monitors kicking us off because our subject matter is off topic! 😊

Ian this cabinet is my most recent project before the display case. Fits nicely in the ship room and holds a lot of my supplies. Everything stained the same color. You can see my SR box slides perfectly under the cabinet for easy access.

Thanks Dr PR that gives me piece of mind. Have been waiting to practice until I got to the bottom of it.

Ian that looks excellent. You have an excellent set up. I envy what you have. You may have noticed that my wood working area is my two car garage. My previous home I was able to take over my garage as a permanent work shop where I had table saw, drill press, band saw, lathe, router table, etc. and just about every smaller tool like biscuit joiner, sanders, drills , etc. At that time I made many pieces of furniture for family and for sale. When I moved to our new home in 2005 this committee has restrictions deed that vehicles must be parked in the garage at night. So as a result my shop is much more portable. Large wood working equipment needs to be moved back into storage space, small equipment put away, and project set up on permanent work bench. Sweep up and pull vehicles in at night. As I have gotten older I have cut back on amount and size of projects and sold some of my larger pieces I rarely used like my lathe which took up a lot of room. A dust collection system would be great because after a month or two of building there is dust on top of cabinets, shelves, and everywhere. My garage is attached to my house so the door enters directly into the house. You can imagine the wife’s attitude about tracking dust into the house as I go in and out while working or from the car into the house when I pull a vehicle in. 😬 Would have to do some space management if I tried to add a system.

Ian here are a few extra pictures that help explain.

Ian all my cases are built using the same process. There are no screws, nails, or anything like that. It is just the wood and clear silicone. The top lifts off and the front panel lifts out for easy access whatever you are displaying. I will try to explain the process but will probably need to follow up with additional pictures. I read somewhere that the interior size of my display case should allow for 2” of open space all around the ship, length, width, and height. So I measure the length of the ship and add 4”, the width of the model at it’s widest point and add 4”, then the height and add 2”. That give me the interior dimension of my display case. For the Victory that was huge! From that point you have to use basic math to determine all your other measurements depending on the thickness of your glass or plexiglass. I use 1/8” because it is the cheapest and in this case the glass thickness does not matter. Once I have the box measurements and glass thickness I can prepare all the parts. The uprights and top framing are all true 1”x1” oak. Not the 3/4” you actually get with 1” lumber. It was hard to find so I actually bought 1” thick oak stair treads at my local (Lowes, Home Depot,etc) and ran them through my table saw to get 1”x1” lumber. Then Ian, as you said I do run a dado down each board on two adjoining sides so my plexiglass will ultimately make a corner. I place my dado 1/4” in from the exterior edge and 1/4” deep. The good thing when I use 1/8” plexiglass I can just use my table saw to make the dados since the table saw blade is 1/8”. I do the same dado in my base. One quarter in from edge, 1/4” deep and width of your glass. The uprights need to be 1/2” shorter than the plexiglass because you will go 1/4” into the base and 1/4” into the top. So with all that determined you can figure the sizes of your wood and plexiglass. You cut, dado, and mitre the four pieces of wood to form the top which will have a rectangle dado on the bottom that will slip over the tops of the four plexiglass sides. When finished you will have 1/4” free plexiglass rising above the uprights that will go into the dado on the underside of the top and then he top will rest on the uprights and easily lifted off. For assembly I use clear silicone. I sometimes use blue painters tape in case I have squeeze out at the dados. To make the top I put a bead of silicone in the four interior dados, a bit ow wood glue on the corner mitres and then carefully squeeze it together to form the perfect frame. I also use some kind of clamp to hold it together while the silicone and glue drys. Once the silicone drys you have a perfectly framed clear piece of plexiglass. The silicone and glue hold it together fine with out hardware. For the back and sides I do the same thing. Silicone bead in dados in the back and sides of the base ( not the front). Also silicone in the adjoining dados in the two back uprights and just the dados in the front uprights that face the back. Then all you do is put a bit of wood glue on the bottom of the four uprights, press the plexiglass and dados together, and you have a three sided box with no front or top. Your front base dado needs to line up with the dado in the sides of the front uprights and you should have 1/4” bare plexiglass extending above the uprights all the way around. Once you clean everything up and ready to go you simply slide the front panel in with no silicone because it remains free for easy removal, and place the top on with the four sides of 1/4” plexiglass fitting into the underside dado in the top. Anytime you want to access the model you simply lift off the top and slide up the front panel. There is no pressing on any of the joints and the physics of the box once the top is on holds it together firmly. Ian I hope this makes since. It is not difficult if you have the needed carpenter tools. This time I made the base into a coffee table type thing but usually it is just a base that sets on a shelf. Same process with the actual piece of wood that forms the base.

Thanks Ian. I honestly should put your name in there as a co-builder! 😊

Gentlemen she is in her new home with flood lights just like the real thing. Daniel I hope you don’t mind but I used part of your text on the first page of your build. Late summer 1805….. for the the little sign I included. I debated which way to have her facing and decided the stern of the ship, of course, had to be the first thing people see when they enter the ship yard! Thanks again so much to all of you who made this fantastic journey possible! Now to officially start my SR!

Allan I have an additional solder question if you don’t mind. I noticed on the information about Solder-it that is nontoxic. I had not even thought about solder being toxic. I guess the solders containing lead or considered toxic? If so, would that be from the fumes that might come up or lead residue that could be on your fingers if you were to transfer them to your mouth? Very interesting. I just want to use safe soldering practice if that is the case. By by the way, did you have any issues with Ivan? Number of friends and family in the Ft Myers and Tampa area. Some did not fare well others came out OK. Bill

Rokket you might want to check prices of Plexiglass or other names of same product. That is what I have given in to using do to the expense of tempered glass. Unfortunately during Covid the price shot up because of the demand for safety between people. Hopefully once this pandemic is far behind us the price will come down. Plexiglass is softer than real glass so it can scratch but unless you plan to display in a museum a small scratch on the glass is no big deal.