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Alfons

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Everything posted by Alfons

  1. Blue Pilot, I am very glad to learn that you like my work, thanks for the nice words. Building the Blue Jacket Smuggler kit is a pleasure, you made an excellent choise. There are very few pre cut parts in the kit, when I think of it, the only part that comes shaped (rough) is the hull itself. So the possibilites to apply your own touch to the model are wast. The supplied wood is of excellent qulity, as are the drawings. You might want to consider not using the supplied deck veneers, as you perhaps have seen in my log, I tared the sheets to pieces and rebuilt the deck with the correct curvature. The result turned out quite OK, the only thing I regret is not having created the planing butts. Sadly, my Schooner i tucked away in a box since some time, we moved to our new house a year ago and I still havent set up my working bench. Family life is also taking its time. But I will be back, trust you me! I am looking forward to following your bulid log! /Alfons
  2. Good to see you back Russ, and nice work. My Schooner is still tucked away, awaiting me finding time to rebuild my workbench. /Alfons
  3. Thanks Gerty. I hope to be back working on the Smuggler during the spring. We are moving to our new house shortly, so I am planning to set up a more permanent ship yard as soon as we have settled down. /Alfons
  4. Here is challenge for you Tim! Place your PT-124 in a diorama, i.e at full speed in the sea, with the exploding Japanese destroyer as a background poster. I would imagine that creating the water in a realistic way would be quite a challenge. /Alfons
  5. Hi Lawrence. I really enjoy following your progress, and to try to help you out every now and then. My detailed knowledge of fishing schooners from the early 1900 is quite limited, but I will try to answer your question based on how I completed my deck. My waterways are made from 1 mm thick plywood. This way, I was able to achieve the quite complex shape of the plank. The plywood sheets are really hard to work with though. Based on the fact that water on the deck actually needs to be evacuated via the waterways and then through the scuppers, I wouldn't use a thicker waterway compared to the deck planks. I am not sure that this is historically correct, but I am quite happy with my deck anyways. Perhaps some of the more knowledgeable members can comment this as well. Keep up the good work. /Alfons
  6. Hi Lawrence. No worries, I am always happy to help you out. The width of the deck planks are about 2,5 mm, the waterways are varying over the length of the ship, but the size is roughly 4 mm. As for the deck planks, they came from a sheet of shrived veneer, which I then cut plank by plank. This method produced planks that are almost identical in terms of width. Furthermore, each plank is somewhat chamfered along the edges, which gives a nice look ones painted and sanded (with fine steel wool). As said before, the only thing I regret is that I didn't introduce planking butts. /Alfons
  7. Hi Bob. I am so sorry, using my IPad mini, I managed to hit the wrong button and gave you a "dislike"!!! That was absolutely not my intention, and I cant find a way to change it. Any of the moderators that can help me????, I would hate it if the dislike stays. Again, sorry Bob, your schooner turned out absolutely beautiful. /Alfons
  8. Hi Lawrence. Thanks for the kind words. Before the actual planking of the bow area started, I carefully measured and marked the centreline. Secondly, I made the two water planks, without any cut outs for the stepped planks. The water planks were then dry fitted to the deck. Then I laid the deck, plank by plank, starting from the centreline. When I came to the first stepped plank, it was cut to the correct shape, and a similar cut out was made to the water plank. Having completed the planking, the water planks were removed and painted white. The deck were sanded and painted to its final color, and the water planks were glued in place. As always, continuos and careful measuring helped me to achieve a nice results. I also made sure that all the planks were similar in terms of width. The only thing I regret is that I didn't do any planking buts. The would have been an excellent addition to the level of detail. You will find a few pictures in the beginning of my log, I am sorry that I don't have any more of the detailed progress. Thanks for dropping by. /Alfons Ps. Your HMS Victory looks even more fantastic with the addition of a crew, a true masterpiece.
  9. Hi Frank. I started planking at the waterways and worked my way inboard. The outer plank fits perfect to the waterway, and any flaws at the deck center will mostly be covered by the deck structures. /Alfons
  10. Jamie, I am glad to have you back, welcome! For a while I thought we lost you. Sorry to say that I have not made much progress since you started your "vacation". Like you, I have the hull packed away since my last move, the little progress I make are small pieces, not requiring to much logistics and space. Steve, thanks, I am glad to be able to help. Lawrence, thanks. In my experience, the simplest things are often the most useful! I am sorry that I cant contribute with to many updates and pictures, as for now, I cant seem to get the puzzle of life to fit all my interests and comittments /Alfons
  11. Hi Steve. I can fully relate to your concerns about the build taking lots of time. I try to tell myself two things. Firstly, everything I learn during the Smuggler build will be valuable in the future, so it makes sence to develope my techiques as far as possible. Secondly, my finished model will not be judged (mostly by myself..) according to how fast it was completed, but rather how detailed and crisp the ship actually turned out. Futhermore, in my case, rushing things always brings trouble. As for the jib boom, have a look at the following pictures. I made a fixture to which the boom was taped down. I then made a mark at the center of the piece and drilled down the holes with my Dremel. Following that, the piece between the two holes was cut away, and the slot was trimmed using a very small and round file. Hope this helps you out. /Alfons
  12. Nice work on those deck structures Russ, keep up the good work. /Alfons
  13. Thanks John, I am glad you like my work. I agree, here are a few pictures showing when I made the scuppers for the Smuggler. The result is not perfect, but acceptable I think.
  14. Greg, thanks! Steve, I am looking forward to see your pictures. The one reason why I didnt install the bow sprit and jobb boom yet is that the complete model becomes so much more fragile once this is done. I am in a situation were I need to handle the model as soon as I work on it, mostly because of my 2-year old son and his "hands-on interest" in my progress Secondly, I dont really see a reason for installation just yet, as I still have some work left to do to the hull (sticker with ships name), and deck (additional fittings). Doghomer. Thanks for your interest in my build. I remember working with the bulwarks to be rather complicated. In my model, I did not remove them, but used my dremel and sanding blocks to achieve the right thickness (roughly). The hight of the deck also required quite some sanding as I can recall. You are correct, the bulwark supports are not set into the hull, but rather supported by the bulwark itself. I have seen other builds of the Smuggler, were people did remove the bulwarks completely, then built them up plank by plank after completing the shaping the the deck. This seemed to complicated for med, but the results were stunning. Next complicated step in my experience were cutting the scuppers. Cutting scuppers will really prove the shape of your deck, as the hight of the deck will be visilbe also on the outside of the hull. /Alfons.
  15. I have no idea, some kind of syntetic fabric. Worst case, I will have to spend some time (and glue) to achive a scale like shape. In my opinion, one of the sweetest things with our hobby is the fact that you can spend hours thinking of different materials, techniques, tooling, etc., to achive your desired result. And then, even better, to share this with your fellow builders her on MSW My plan is to use styrene tubing for the cork floats, cut to pieces and sanded to shape. I am quite sure that your nets will look perfect Steve, and I am looking forward to see the results. Yesterday I made yet another barrel, only 3 or 4 left now (I will use 4 in total, 2 closed and 2 with visible salt in them). /Alfons
  16. Elia, once again you prove to be a most valuable source of information and inspiration Thank you. Challenge accepted, I will make my masts and spars "the right way"! It will take a while before I can start though, but now it doesn't feel like a potential holdback anymore. I fully agree with Michael as well, a big problem I had starting from a round dowel was to find points of reference, especially by the square section at the top of the main mast. Keep up the nice work. /Alfons
  17. Bob. I simply went to my local fabric store. They carried quite a few different kinds (and colours) of suitable fabric. I am not quite sure about the english name, perhaps "bridal veil" is an appropriate denomination. Someone also advised me to search for "Japanese hair net". The material seems to be some kind of plastic. Here are two pictures. I will go with the fabric to the left, which in my eyes looks more like an actual fishing net. The color for the seine net will be grey, and for the dip net black. The only downside is that the material appears to be rather stiff, so I expect folding the net in a credible fashion to the deck will be a challenge. Nils. Thanks for the nice words. I did not watch "The Boston Man" yet, will try to find it Thanks for dropping by. /Alfons
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