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AJohnson

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  1. AJohnson
    A lovely sense of achievement isn't it when you have the second planking done! Are you going to paint the good Lady Eleanor, or leave her with the natural planking showing above the waterline? Just mentioning that for the colour of the wood filler above the waterline. Great progress. 👏
  2. AJohnson
    Progress update on the sails this evening. As mentioned earlier the prototype sail, was not what I wanted for the final model but was good enough to carry on to experiment with airbrush painting to see how it would come out. I mixed some old enamels I have for plastic aircraft modelling to something I hoped would look like the classic "Trawler red/brown" sails found on those craft. I sprayed of several light and fairly dry coats so as not to soak the paper and cause even more wrinkles. Quiet happy with the results so far. Now gone on to what I hope will be the final sails that I'll attach to the "Nisha", having messed about with dilute PVA glue and spray glue; the first causes too mush wrinkling of the paper and the second is well just too messy! I settled on using glue sticks! Those of you with kids, go raid their art supplies as it worked! 😂 I didn't mention in my previous post that I am using baking parchment paper and this has a slight sheen, so I needed to apply glue to both the backing template and the thin strips that I cut. But this slightly shiny surface means I had chance to position each strip before it grabbed for good. To make sure of a good fix I then iron each sail between two sheets of cartridge paper. As I am cheating a bit and only applying 'panels' to one side of the sails; to keep them as thin as possible, I am applying the reinforcement corner patches and luff reinforcement bands etc on the opposite side so that side also has some textural interest to it and relying on the still semi translucent appearance for the panel bands to show through when the lighting conditions allow. Edgar Marsh shows "Nisha" with two reef bands on the main sail and one on the foresail (but admit I have no idea how to rig that!) so I will add these, so next update will hopefully have those and the wire edging done. Thanks all for continuing to follow and comment/like.
  3. AJohnson
    Phew, thought I had missed your log. Well when you have finished your "Nisha" put some pictures up in the "Finished Gallery" if you have chance, so we can all have a look! 😁
  4. AJohnson
    That is a lovely looking model Craig, did you do a build log I have missed, I usually hunt out the Vanguard trawler builds, you have slipped under the radar!
  5. AJohnson
    Hi Brian, how’s your Granado build going, have you attached any of the details you have been painting? The stern decorations looks nicely detailed, good painting 👍
  6. AJohnson
    Small update of progress so far making some sails, pictures below of my prototype. I am following in the footsteps of some master sail makers here on MSW using paper, and shamelessly copying them! 😆 I Started out by cutting a backing template and then gluing strips onto this to simulate sail panels and corner reinforcements using dilute PVA. Next I glued edging strips to wrap around some thin wire; this wire was spun in a drill to make it straight and stiffer than off the spool. The lessons learned so far is that I think a spray on glue, like board-mount/photograph mounting spray, might be better as the thin paper might wrinkle less - I will try this next. Also getting the wire to stay still is a challenge as you try to trap it with the edge strip, so I am going to apply a few dabs of C-A to hold it first. This sail is not going on the model, a few too many mistakes on it (a bit rough in places), but I wasn't entirely surprised as it is my first sail. But it won't be wasted, as I will use it to experiment with spraying paint on it. I'm going to try thin light coats to see if I can preserve some of the paper translucence, even with the brown/red colouring I intend to use. I was pleased the thin wire does hold a nice "blown" shape in the sail when gently bent into a curve. More instalments soon. Also thinking of adding a Trawl beam and frames, maybe even the net! But thinking on that, whilst tinkering with sails.
  7. AJohnson
    Don't worry Andy I broke those as well initially, good job there was a spare! 🤐 It s a nice touch that Chris provides spares for the little PE and smallest wood parts. He must be well aware of the voracious appetite of the "Carpet Monster" 😆 Or our collective incompetence - one of the two anyway! 🤣 Good progress again Andy, I hope to get back to my Nisha soon, been off it a bit recently, but have been reading Edgar Marsh's book on trawlers, which is a dangerous thing it keeps pointing out things I could add if my skills allow!
  8. AJohnson
    You are making excellent progress Andy 👍
  9. AJohnson
    Hi Andy, thanks, yes the colours are my own choices, though based on other contemporary models and details that mention common colours, red and plain black also options for the steam winches and dummy posts. The overall black hull seems to have been the most common appearance based upon the reference book by Edgar Marsh I’m using, but that doesn’t mean all were that. Depends if you want to see the natural wood planking, some greens and cream colours were used but less common.
  10. AJohnson
    Hi Dave, Vanguard do have optional Sail sets for their models. I am just trying out various "paper" types as an experiment, as there are some wonderful examples on MSW that look stunning. My first attempt using model a/c. tissue did not go well, think a bit too thin, so moving on to parchment now. If all fails I can get a sail set from Chris. 👍
  11. AJohnson
    Quick question to those more knowledgeable than me on such matters:- the anchor chain from it emerging out of the chain pipe, in the Marsh reference sketches appears to go down the side of the winch; where there is a ring bolt stated to be for "anchor lashing", then out to the anchor. A/. - Would the chain go around the winch whelps - or was this just used for the trawling gear? I assumed so as a chain would damage a timber winch? B/. - The anchor lashing, is that to the chain or the anchor? It is just of all the reference pictures in Marsh, the anchor when visible tends to be near the bulwarks, I assume lashed somehow to a bulwark stanchion. Also a few pictures show the anchor cable draped on the outside of the hull, I assume this was only the case when the anchor was about to be used -it looks good and workman like, but would have thought this would damage hull paint etc. pretty quickly! Made myself an anchor from a bent pin, eyelet and spare larger boat grapnel. Also finished stropping blocks to the gaff and made a template main sail. Thanks all for your continued comment/likes and following along. 😄
  12. AJohnson
    I've certainly noticed the price of kits like Diana going up a lot in the last couple of years, sign of the times generally costs are going up across the board, and hobby costs are no exception. I also would love to build a 'Heavy' frigate, though at £600 I am beginning to think that might buy a few more power tools (saws etc.) and plans to scratch build what I aspire to. My dream build would be a 1/64 version of the grand old lady from 1817 that is gently bobbing around in Hartlepool.... I'm not sure a Leda class frigate would come out in kit form these days, so scratch building seems the only way to go. The only flaw in my cunning plan are my woodworking skills! 🤣 I have two more CC kits in my stash (Snake & Endeavour) and I will see how I feel about scratch building a frigate when I get the other side of those. The first one is going to get "kit-bashed" into a different Cruizer class sloop, so that might be a good stepping stone, or put me off entirely! 😳 Then again Chris keeps tempting me with his lovely trawler kits! 😁
  13. AJohnson
    Very nice Dave, how did you make those wooden bands that border the woldings?
  14. AJohnson
    Fantastic Will! What a little beauty she has turned out to be! Well done, the shaping of the sails has really worked out well 👏
  15. AJohnson
    Update showing the correct size sail templates I made for positioning and finally fixing the bowsprit. From reference to March I added a heel rope for the Bowsprit; a knotted end in the starboard bitt round the heel of the bowsprit, fastened to the bitt near the Gypsy winch, then back around the heel to a cleat on the starboard bitt again and a coil of rope added to finish off. Also fixed and lashed down the boat, again with refence to the Marsh drawings/plans. Other little details added was a pump handle for the top of the Tow Post/Dummy and some card to represent iron straps on the tiller.
  16. AJohnson
    Yes, this was my source, MSW is a mine of useful info, lots of people out there who are generous of their time and knowledge.
  17. AJohnson
    Hi Trond, I wondered about these very same little details and was advised they were probably the additional "Air scuttles" Bligh had added for the plants in the great cabin. (See post #49 in my build log)
  18. AJohnson
    Hi Andy, sorry to hear of the passing of your Father. Happy to see you back building your "Nisha", very nice planking. 👍
  19. AJohnson
    Ah! Here is a thing, are the plans supposed to be printed on A3 (420x297mm)? as my sheets are 360x255mm which is approx. 15% smaller (maybe no coincidence?), I seem to recall Will building the Erycina mentioned the same size reduction.
  20. AJohnson
    Hi @chris watton, sorry to labour this point, I have made some temporary sails, tracing over Plant Sheet #7 and they look small on the model? I have re-measured my completed mast compared to the dimensions on Plan Sheet #4 and they match (that was my first reaction - that I had made the mast too long). Holding the Plan sheets up to the light the sails on plan sheet #7 are the same size as plan sheets #8 & #9 and the dimensions of the mast as measured on those plans (#8 & #9) are smaller than your stated dimension on plan #4... Done a rough cross check with the admittedly small plans in March and these come out bigger, I think by approx.15%. I'm sincerely hoping my plan #7 is the culprit, it is on the same size sheet as the other plans 360x260mm. Thanks
  21. AJohnson
    Thanks Chris, some may indeed may "prefer" to make their own - but it remains to be seen if I can! 😉 I shall copy the sail plan and do paper templates using your plans to see how they hang temporarily; I still need to resolve in my head the bowsprit position, so your sail plan will hopefully resolve that for me. Soon to be stepping masts and adding standing rigging etc. - Exciting stuff, seeing it come together, my frustration at seizing blocks aside (nothing to do with the kit, just me!) I have really enjoyed this build so far. 😁
  22. AJohnson
    Hi Chris, Hope you are well. Quick question if I may, the Nisha sail plans are they same size as the rest of the plans? (Approx reduced by 14% or so?) Going to have bash at making tissue/paper ones I have seen some really beautiful examples here on MSW, if all fails expect a Nisha sail set order sometime! 🤣
  23. AJohnson
    Lovely looking model, quiet an impressive Trawler fleet VM building. 👍
  24. AJohnson
    An update that has taken some doing AND re-doing! 😣 I have really struggled to re-learn tying blocks to things, having not done it for ages, my first attempts either 'slipped their moorings' of their own account (too shame faced to call themselves seizing's!) or looked so naff that I cut them off myself in frustration. So an evening trawling MSW for inspiration, tip and tricks and I came a cross a few that I have tried out this last few evenings. One I found by @Thanasis is especially promising, so I have given it a go and after making my own "Tie-fast seizing tyer" out of an old paint brush. I won't go into the method, as it is very well explained in the link below. Suffice to say I will be trying it out more to see if I can become more proficient at it. My results below, six whole blocks tied on in two evening! 😆
  25. AJohnson
    Lovely job Yves, one advantage to how you have done it is there are no blobs of C-A that can smear onto the copper preventing it from ageing or being treated to darken and/or add Verde green like effects using vinegar. (I have a Bounty using the kit tiles and I tried ageing it and have stubborn 'bright' tiles protected by my messy C-A application. - the last time I shall be doing that! - Thanks Yves for showing me way! 😁) @DaveBaxt I have had a quick look at this is readily available in the UK, just look under electrical wholesalers (like CPC / Farnell etc.) there is even a 6.35mm wide tape almost ideal for 1/64 scale models. 👍

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