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Glen McGuire

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Everything posted by Glen McGuire

  1. Glen McGuire
    Fantastic job painting that coat of arms! Not sure how you managed to do that so well as the picture does not do justice to how very small the details are. How interesting that you have a backward N on the transom!! Mine was correctly oriented. So you have a true, visual palindrome! That adds a bit of intrigue and mystery to your model!!
  2. Glen McGuire
    Glad to have you looking in, Pat. I always appreciate your insight.
  3. Glen McGuire
    Don't forget your slide rule, Ian! 😀
  4. Glen McGuire
    @Keith Black - you had asked earlier about Shiloh and his transition from bull to steer. So in further research on this project, I discovered that Shiloh and the subject of my build, Zheng He, have something in common. Zheng He, sadly, was captured as a prisoner of war when he was a youth and castrated (as was customary at the time). But instead of a virtually painless band like Shiloh got, Zheng He lost his parts with a sword. Yet another reason why I am thankful to be living in modern times!
  5. Glen McGuire
    Regarding the warpage, how recently was the wood purchased and where did it come from (was it in a sealed bag that you just opened before install)? If the wood had a higher moisture content when you got it and then it dried out in your low humidity, that could potentially cause the warpage. Guessing like everyone else!
  6. Glen McGuire
    Keith - Very few of us can even begin to imagine the pain and heartbreak that you have endured over the past couple of months as well as the difficulty of doing those things that have to be done in the aftermath. As Dave said above, all of us in your MSW family are with you and hoping to do what we can with our blessings and prayers.
  7. Glen McGuire
    I've been pacing the floor for weeks waiting for an update! 😃 It looks fantastic so far, Grant! Very clean and crisp. I also remember having a war with that slot in the bottom of the hull to get the keel to fit properly. Looks like you got it to fit very nicely. Well done!
  8. Glen McGuire
    The patrol boat (or scout ship depending on the reference source) is complete. The mast is dry fitted for now and you will notice there is no hinge. I'm going to try something different this time. My plan is to secure the hull inside the bottle and then insert the mast with sail into the hull. Since there are no stays, and the ship is small and will be so close to the mouth of the bottle, I think I can pull it off. I've still got some thinkin and figurin to do on how to handle the small amount of rigging. But lots of time to figure that out as this will be the last of the 3 ships to go in the bottle.
  9. Glen McGuire
    Now on to the sail, which I believe gives the junk boat its signature look. The sail itself is red shirt cloth with a thread bolt rope attached to the edges with fabric glue. For the battens, I put a bamboo skewer into the drill lathe and smoothed it down to a 1/32” diameter.
  10. Glen McGuire
    Some additional work on the ship. Thanks to @Keith Black for astutely pointing out that my ship had no way to load the crouching tiger cannon. The patrol boat picture I’m using as a model looks to have a small platform protruding from the bow under the cannon barrel. So I added that. Of course, I also had to add cannon balls on a tray behind the cannon. I had a hard time figuring out what to do for the oars. Although I try to use wood for as many of the wood things as possible, the oars are just too small for me to whittle down. So I ended up using some small brass nails (more leftovers from the Alabama kit). I put the head of the nail into a vise and smashed it down. I think they came out reasonably well.
  11. Glen McGuire
    Amen!!
  12. Glen McGuire
    Rich - Thank you for sharing your manuscript in advance. It is very well written and provides a fascinating glimpse into the incredible depth of research that has gone into this build. I found the section about the Athena figurehead particularly interesting. So much investigative work just to confirm a small detail like Athena’s flowing drape actually forming an open loop! Remarkable. Congratulations on such fine work, Rich. I look forward to seeing the publication in its full printed "glory"!
  13. Glen McGuire
    Yes Mark, out on the ranch and thinking about ship modeling. Is that sad or what! Now if I could only find a use for barbed wire and cow patties...
  14. Glen McGuire
    Referring back to my picture of the patrol boat, the deck fittings are pretty sparse. Looks to me like there’s a cannon mounted on the bow, some quarters rearward, and that’s about it. I did a bit of research on cannons of the early Ming dynasty. They used one called a “crouching tiger” which is shown below on the right (cool name for a cannon). When I was giving my longhorns their yearly vax a couple of weeks ago, I got the idea that the hollow needle (18 gauge) just might make a good cannon barrel. So I cut a piece out of the middle to give it a try. Then I used some photo etch sprues for straps and mounted it on the bow. For the quarters, I did my best to carve out a little shack with a traditional Chinese roof and its upswept corners. Crude but passable. I think.
  15. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Keith! I wish I was better at wood carving. Then I could carve one of these out of a single piece. But I have much better luck with layers.
  16. Glen McGuire
    Here's where I'm at so far with the patrol boat build. I'm doing another laminated hull. All layers are basswood except the middle one for the rowing platforms. It's a piece of .015" thick oak veneer I got from a site called "Cards of Wood."
  17. Glen McGuire
    While waiting for the epoxy resin to fully cure, I started work on the ships. The smallest one, the patrol boat, is first. Not surprising, I’ve found a variety of illustrations of what it may have looked like. So with full artistic license, my patrol boat is going to combine a few things from different versions. The basic profile I want is the ship on the left in the pic below. However, it’s supposed to be an 8-oar boat so I’m going to add the rowing platforms from the middle image. Side note - I could not figure out how the rowing platforms worked until I found the image on the right. That must have been so much fun to stand out there and work those oars during rough seas!
  18. Glen McGuire
    Please educate this Texan that has never been up that way, what is a "scoff"?
  19. Glen McGuire
    Hey Roger, thank you for the suggestions. I agree with your Chicken Soup philosophy and will try all those ideas after full curing.
  20. Glen McGuire
    Little Shiloh is well on his way to becoming a steer as we put the band on him 2 Saturdays ago. He walked a little bow-legged at first but he's doing fine now. His momma and I gave him some TLC after the traumatic experience!
  21. Glen McGuire
    I was thinking more of a "smoke from cannons" effect. NOT! The liqueur was $17 so not too bad. Not sure if it's any good or not but a friend promises there's a bunch of nice drinks you can make with it. The only problem with starting over is I'm not sure what I'd do different to keep it from fogging up again. I'm thinking that after the resin is fully hardened, I could just wash the bottle out? It appears firmly secured to the bottle and I wouldn't think soapy water would bother it.
  22. Glen McGuire
    I decided to start with water in the bottle this time, using the same Easy Cast epoxy resin that I used for the Aurora and Independence builds. The shape of the bottle made it more of a challenge to get the resin in place evenly across the 3 bulbs without slopping it up the sides, but with a friend's help it worked out ok. For some reason, however, the bottle fogged up shortly after I got all of the epoxy resin inside the bottle. That did not happen the other 2 times. I used a small fan to provide ventilation, but after 2 days the bottle has not cleared up any. I don't know what caused the fogging since I did everything the same. Maybe it was the weird shape of the bottle? Regardless, now I've got to figure out how to clear it up.
  23. Glen McGuire
    I'm totally lost on this soup discussion. But hey, at least we're not talking about penguins for a change! 🙃
  24. Glen McGuire
    Seriously? OMG that is gorgeous!!! Thanks for ruining my day while I look out my window at cow patties and fire ant mounds! 🤠 I gotta start planning my trip over there.
  25. Glen McGuire
    Welcome aboard, Daniel! Visiting the Swiss Alps in on my bucket list!

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