JLong

You're probably right about the re-warp potential - I hadn't considered that. Being that this is my first model, I'm not familiar enough with different woods and how/when to use them. I hear Boxwood is a good material. I may take you up on the offer to steal dowels when I come visit - looking forward to meeting up again.

Continuing to progress on the Fair American Model Ship: I set to work on the Foremast next. The first attempt at shaping this went well to start, then got worse and worse. The rod of 1/4" basswood was slightly warped to begin with. I tried to compensate by roll-sanding the high spots, in an attempt to round it out. This did NOT work. The end tapered too short and too narrow, and it created an oval cross section, instead of circular. Irrevocable! So I tried again with a new piece. However, I only had so much in stock, and what was left, was warped too - Badly. I needed to save the rest for the Main Mast. I spent 2 weeks trying to straighten it. I soaked it and weighted it - nope. I hung it off the edge of the workbench, and hung weights to counteract the bend - nope. I soaked it and clamped it in the high spots - nope. It...would...not...straighten. If I couldn't get this warp out, I'd have the same issue as before - a wobble as I sanded the mast down, creating an oval shape. I gave it one last attempt. I soaked and triple clamped it to the bench, and had one end suspended off the bench. Then I hung some weights until all the daylight I could see underneath disappeared. Left it there for 2days. This was as straight as I could get it. It isn't close to perfect, but manageable. There's still a 'stitch' at ~10in mark. Has anyone else experienced this with the masts, and if so, how did you rectify the warp? After setting that straight, I finished shaping it as close to the plans as I could. I messed up the square end near the top. I thought it was square, but under close inspection of the plans, it's rectangular. I need to slow down and take my time again, and not hurry to make up lost time. Next was the top. I've seen other models with the tops having slats and a rim, and not just a flat board. I also completed the cross and trestle trees. I measured each of the slats and spaced them as evenly as I could. Then I traced the pattern onto a piece of detacked duct tape, and placed them each where they belong, for staining. I stained the slats and the rim with golden oak stain, then CAREFULLY panted the top flat black. I wanted the rim to stand out, so I used a fine tip black sharpie to 'paint' the edge without ruining the stain. It worked! I left the slats long on the inside so I can sand them flush later. I know its not in the plans, but I love the look. One cool little Christmas gift I got from my aunt was a ''small tool rolodex'' - it spins! Love this thing. So that's where I'm at now. I need to glue the top, and start on the next piece. I feel I'm back in the swing of things of modeling again - I'm having fun. More progress soon - Jason -

Finally back to work on the Fair American Model Ship. Yeah, it has been many months since I posted. I underestimated how much time a new house takes up. Then holidays, then work, and house stuff, and work. After 3yrs in, I sort of used the new house as an indication I needed a little break from the model. So after a little hiatus, here's what I've managed to work on.... The Spritsail yard wasn't too bad. I am still using my "roll the rod on the desk, and file in the other direction to shape'' method - The lathe I have isn't long enough to spindle the end, so this is the long way. After that I decided I needed a break from masts, and would focus on the deadeyes and chain plates for a change. I went through several methods - shape the chain plate from brass strips - too tedious; twist wire around, then bend it to shape - too flimsy. Finally I ended up on using fine needle nose pliers and bend by eye. I made one to scale, then the others to match. They don't look to bad. Next came the dead eyes. I measured the approximate spacing between the loop and the dead eye, and used the old block rigging-block,with some drill bit-pins to bend wire around. This ''looks'' similar to how the instructions show, so I went with it. After wrapping the loop, I can slide the whole thing off the pins... Then trim the ends as close as possible... The finished product isn't bad. That's one! Now the chain plate and deadeye hook to each other well. I need to wait until the masts are up to line up the deadeyes at the proper angles, as per the instructions. The foremast is foremost, obviously. That's next up, and since the lathe I have is small, I'll need to shape by hand. I don't want to mess this up. More progress pictures soon. Happy New Year! - Jason -

Had a good time hanging out, talking ship with you as well, Cisco. The longboat you brought was a very pretty model. The waterway on the Fair American was a pain too. I didn't feel skilled enough to scarf the waterway, plus mine didn't come with one at all. Yours looks really nice! I especially like the clamped-down wedge approach - I wish I thought of that. I ended up soaking mine for few hours, and then clamping it to bulkheads, while still wet. Kinked horribly at the bow. With the sanded down bulkheads, attaching the main cap rail later might cause you some trouble. Are you planning on pinning it, or simple glue? Keep up the good work - Jason -

Set up shop in the new house - ready for more work on Fair American Model Ship: Moved into the new house pretty smoothly. Only 9,997 boxes to go! The ship survived the move intact!!! I placed it on my wife's lap as we drove to settlement - I couldn't prevent her from breathing on it, but hey. Finally got the basement set-up for ship modeling - bought a new wood top work bench, which gave me some elbow room. My grandfather's small lathe and milling machine DO take up a lot of space, even in the back corner. I still may move some things around, but this is a good working area for now. The peg board has helped, gets many of the tools off the table top, so I'm not constantly pushing them on the floor, accidentally. A year ago, or so - during Google searching, I came across some Fair American plans, showing the sails. http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/0PLAN1C.html I am planning on adding sails to my model, so this will be a great ''overview'' of size and shape, and rigging. The plans, once downloaded, are in several tiny sections, which I printed and taped together as closely as I could. These are what are hanging around the workbenches now. I'll be soon working on the Bowsprit and other masts - finally. I'm looking forward to meeting up with @CiscoH this weekend, to sharing shipbuilding tips and stories! More updates in coming month, I hope. - Jason -

Nice job on the planking. Can't believe you're going to do a second planking - one was painful enough for me! I like your approach of planking the transom heavy, then trimming back to a clean line, as you described. I started at the transom, and worked forward; Stern planks weren't as tight/clean as yours. How did you bend them so neatly? One suggestion - after you finish sanding, you should consider sanding. Definitely have to hang out and swap savvy sanding stories sometime soon. Jason

Bowsprit work on the Fair American model ship. This might be my last post for a few months, as I'm moving in a few weeks, so won't be set back up and working for a little while. As mentioned before, I used my grandfathers little lathe to work on the bowsprit and jib-boom. There wasn't always enough space between the chuck and the spindle to fit the whole mast, so I could only do so much with flipping around, before resorting to by hand. I didn't want to chuck finished sections and risk marring them to access the other side. - disappointing. So, I started by marking out sections of the mast, and measuring dimensions on the plans. I kept shaping and tapering until the blends were perfect. After filing the aft end to a square, I created a 45deg block that I'd wedge against one side of the square so the corners were facing up. Now I can file down the corners to make it 8-sided. This is how my brain works, so that's how I approached it. I got the diameters on the plans to within 0.005in of size by calipers. Close enough! The Jib-boom was tougher, because its a smaller diameter. I went as far as I could with it on the lathe before it severely wobbled, and did the rest by hand. My technique was rolling the shaft with my fingers one way on the table, then dragging a file the other way to cut. Back and forth. Kind of like rolling Play-Do as a kid. This worked pretty well, actually. I bought some really fine grit sanding pads of 1500 and 2000, I think. The instructions say to "take as much care with finishing as your abilities allow''. So I wanted the finish to be as glass smooth as I could get. The Gammoning Cleats were a pain. They were so small, they kept splitting during shaping. Therefore, I had to oversize them to make them ''work'', and file them down a little more, once glued. I glued the Bees on upside down the first time - I was rushing today to finish them. I was lucky they weren't ruined in the process. But I fixed them, and they look okay. I always tell other modelers to go slow, take your time; I need to follow my own advice. The forward Cap I made by hand too. The small one included in the laser cut pieces, wasn't correctly sized. The Jib-Boom isn't glued in place yet, just here for looks. Because I'm moving, this is as far as I'm going with the build for now. I don't want to assemble it, and have it break off during shipping/boxing or something. I'll probably quintuple bubble wrap the pieces and physically walk them to the new house, for fear of them breaking in the car. I'm dreading moving the ship. So many hours of work. I might end up sitting in the passenger seat with it in my lap, while my wife drives to the new house at max speed of 8mph. This will be a true test of my marriage. I know where my priorities SHOULD BE, but my brain isn't convinced. Here's hoping everything moves well and intact. I'm excited about setting up ''shop'' in the new house. A fun new SCARY adventure awaits - anchors aweigh! - Jason -

Cisco, I'm jealous you got to go to ModelCon. I didn't even know that it existed - so bummed I missed it. Its worth it to go slow on the planking - You're getting close to the end! Mine only took 6 short months to complete. I had to get creative with clamping too, just as you have. Build a thing to hold the thing that supports the clamping thing, from the other side and not run into anything else. As far as glue goes - I use Tite-Bond Wood Adhesive (medium). 30-45sec drying isn't bad. All the planking, and structural framing, I used Elmers Wood Glue. To each his own, of course. -Jason-

Dave, I had a similar issue with my Fair American build. I did all the tapering of bulkheads before gluing to the hull. During fairing, one or two bulkheads were short, or ''heavy'' as you have experienced, though not as dramatically. Laser cutting is only so good. I use the plans as law, and when possible, build to plan and not as-is. My fix was adding some 1/32 plank to thicken bulkhead areas that were low, then sanded back to fair the best I could. Wood filler also helped tremendously. You're doing a great job very early on with addressing the issues with the hull. Keep up the fine attention to detail and quality! I can't wait to see more of your progress -Jason-

Its been a while since I posted, lot of life happening this entire month. Sold a house, searched for houses, bid on houses, bought a house. I've started working on the Bowsprit, as time allows. I'll have pictures soon, but now working on packing the house up - we'll see how far I get. - Jason -

Deck furniture for the Fair American Model Ship I pretty much installed all furniture at one time. First, the Ladder. Because of the proximity to the aft cannon, I decided to move it a little more midship. As a result, I had to shave off the bottom of one leg for the thicker deck pad - oh the little details! The steering wheel went in afterwards. I wrapped rope around the axle, and stiffened the ends with glue so they'd feed straight down into the rudder line holes, as it would a real ship. I spent a lot of time early on with building the Binnacle. I was pleased to see it in place on the deck, finally. Then came the pumps. They also turned out pretty nicely. And then I messed up. I had previously added pin rails to both the Main Gallows and Riding Bits. They looked similar. I accidentally drilled holes in the deck for the Bitts, instead of the Gallows - obviously not the same spacing or placement. Grrrrrr. So the holes had to be filled in with toothpick dowels and sanded (badly). The Gallows will semi-hide the mistake, but I won't forget it. So it sort of hides the holes in the shadow; its not too bad. I'm a little worried about the glue/pins holding, once rigged. The last thing I want is for the ropes to pop the gallows off in the middle of rigging. Seems important, so I'm hoping it'll hold. However, I should have made the rail more inset into the Gallows, because now it is dangerously close the the main mast. The mast may lean back a bit at a 92deg angle, but it'll still be close. Not real sure what I want to do here. Maybe omit the center pin, and drill a relief 'arc' in the middle of the rail??? Thankfully the Capstan and pawls went in fairly easily. I might add a bundle of spokes tied up nearby on the deck, just for 'decoration'. The Fore Gallows, with cleats and the Riding Bitts were next. For some reason, I feel the Bitts and rail should be taller, but were made according to the plans. The Fore Bitts were last. I didn't add the Bowsprit Bitts yet, because I want to be able to test fit into the mast before mounting to the deck permanently. I don't want to risk damaging the Bitt just yet, so that'll have to wait. However the rest is complete! It'll be some time before my next progress update. I want to spend extra time on the masts to get them built correctly. I'd like to use my grandfather's jewelers lathe to turn them down. We'll see how that goes. - Jason -

Finishing the cannons on the Fair American Model Ship: Was busy this last month will selling the house, and looking for new ones, and vacations away, and this annoying thing called life! After dedicating some down time, I got all the starboard cannons rigged now - for some reason, I had more difficulty with hanging the breech lines and blocks this side. I centered all the barrels as close to the middle of the gun port as possible. They're not all perfect. Tacked all the coiled ropes to the deck, and we're done. The deck furniture is next on the list. I started with the bell on the Fore Gallows. There was no clear depiction of how this is attached, so I fashioned my own dowel and wire ''hanger''. Apparently with the castings, what I thought was flash was actually the ''handle''. During cleaning and sanding, I scrapped this little detail, and it's gone now. I might later add a thin rope to simulate a ring-cord. Another learning moment - study the plans carefully, before starting any work. Anyway, I mounted the bell. This will be installed on the deck later The rest of the deck furniture is next up. More progress coming momentarily... - Jason -

Cisco, you're doing a really nice job on the planking. I had similar frustration with planking around the transom. Even with a ''smooth'' curve filler block, it's still a lot of bend. I would say the majority of my planks splintered in that region, but thankfully they sanded smooth afterwards. I want those narrow tapered long clamps you use - those would have come in SO handy during my build. What are those? In any case, clamping the planks is still a challenge - never enough room! Keep up the good work -Jason-

Rigging the cannons on the Fair American Continued... More than expected, this has been tedious work. I prefer to prep everything ahead of time, then do it all at once; But again...tedious. So far I am halfway done the cannons. Before starting, I'll take a small smear of glue on the end of the rope to stiffen it. Originally I didn't do this, and they shredded trying to get through the holes. This method works better. The double block and single are gripped on reverse action tweezers and hemostats. I have to be sure to feed the rope through the innermost hole, then thread through to the outer one. This way the rope ends up on the outside. Then reverse it for the opposite set. I leave the rope long a few inches, so I can coil it afterwards. Wrapping it around the end of a pin vice has worked well. While it's on there, dab with some glue to set, then pry it off the end before it fully dries. It makes a relatively satisfactory coil. I'll probably snip the end of the rope close to the coil, since the end is stiff with the glue, and doesn't look right. Because I didn't attach everything to the bulwark eyebolts first, I need to attach things now...the HARD way. Breech lines first. First, some tiny iron rings were fed through the end of the breech lines, above the seizing, then tacked temporarily with glue so they don't fall out. Then I carefully ''hung'' the loops over the inner eyebolts, and closed the rings with fine tweezers. Not completely successful every time, so some glue will keep them from falling out. The seizings on the breech lines turned out really neat - I'm happy I took extra EXTRA time to do them. Now that they're done, I can move on to the outhaul tackle. A similar 'tack' process ensued with the blocks - hang one end, glue tack, then hang the other, glue tack in place. I really wish I knew early on, to space the eyebolts for the blocks wider apart. Even with the guns pulled back a bit, there isn't much length between blocks to see the ropes. Another learning moment for the books! To show off the double blocks a little better, I'd turn the hooks such that the holes are facing up. It may all be smashed in there, but I'm pretty happy with the overall look of all the rigging here. Once everything was in place, I'll pull the gun carriage back a little bit, and smear some glue on the rear wheel, and attach to the deck permanently. Same with the coils - Once I'm done with all the cannons, I'll tack them to the deck too. As of right now, I am just about done the port side cannons. I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll get the starboard ones done too. Again, I'm very happy I took the time to do seizing and more accurate knots for everything. It may not be visible to a casual observer, but I know its there. And so, I'll keep plugging away at it! More soon, - Jason -

Thanks for the kind words, Dave. She's really coming along now. Frustrating and challenging though it has been, I'm enjoying the authentic ''look'' of things too.

More progress on the Fair American Model Ship: Now that I have the blocks for the cannons done, I can focus on the breech lines. According to the picture in the instructions, the ends of the breech lines look triple seized, after looping through the eyebolt. While this would be nice, I don't have access or room or enough rope to do this. Instead, I plan to add one seizing to an empty loop, feed it through the rings in the cannons, and then add rings to the loops, to ''hang'' on the eyebolts later. Somewhere along the way, I came across a nice diagram of how to seize a rope: For the interest of time, and my own sanity, I won't add the riding turns in step 5; just one set of turns. I made one dummy breech line, and estimated I need about 2.563in between loops, to reach the eyebolts, and wrap around the cannon, as shown in the instructions. I added 0.5in to each side for loop length to grab to, so 3.563in total. I cut breech rope to 3.625in for safety. I seized with the same fine tan rope from last time, since I still had some left over. I dabbed the ends of the breech rope with glue to keep from fraying, so when I grab with hemostats, they won't shred. I hooked one end of seizing line in the middle, as shown in the diagram to start. Tacking with a blot of glue to keep it from falling out helped a lot. Then I could start the turns. After a couple, I grabbed the end with reverse action tweezers, and hung it. Another blot of glue here, helped tack it in place before frapping After one frapping, another glue tack.... And the second frapping... I'd finish with an overhand knot near the loop side. I tried to ''hide'' it inside the loop, but that wasn't easy, so it was tied a little to the side. Finished with glue to set the knots permanently, and trimmed the ends as close as possible. That's one. I couldn't imagine trying to do three of these each side, so one is enough for me! I completed the 14 total breech lines, and now I have everything I need to rig the cannons. Finally! Could I have just simple knotted the loops? Sure. But I wanted the look of actual seizings, so this is what I did. Next up, I hope to get the cannons fully rigged More progress soon. - Jason -

Fair American Model Ship: Rigging, stropping, seizing oh my! I've now started, and taken weeks to painstakingly make the blocks and tackle for the cannons. I've never done any of this work before, so all of this is new. I was surprised to find little information/pictures around techniques of stropping and rigging hooks to blocks. I had to really dig to find anything. Much of what is to follow is based on what others have done, then finished and modified to what I think looks good. I had seen one modeler create a jig to help aligning the block and hook for stropping. I did something similar. As stated earlier, I bought some small gage steel wire, and I used that to hand bend the hooks, using some super fine needle nose pliers - that came first; I only needed 56!!! I used the .012in black rope provided in the kit, to tie a tight overhand knot at the bottom of the hook., then slid it down the first ''pin'' on the jig. The hole in the single block came next. After a dab of glue on the top of the block and knot, I pushed the knotted hook down to the block, with long ends for tying. Another dab of glue on the sides so the rope sticks, temporarily. Then, a simple over hand knot, pulled tight, and more glue again. Let it dry for 30sec, then trimmed the ends. The finished block looks pretty good. However, of course I forgot that the manila rope was supposed to be in there too. At least it was good practice! So now that I remembered the manila rope, I can 'tackle' that - haha. Before the overhand knot, I added a blot of glue to the bottom of the block and 'tacked' a loop of manila .008in rope - this will keep it in place where I want it. I did the black overhand knot now, and dabbed with glue. Now I'm going to need to seize the manila rope. I grabbed the ends with hemostats, they worked pretty good. Luckily, from my first plastic model kit, I had plenty of super fine tan rigging rope left over on a spool; this will work perfectly for seizing. I used an ''insert fancy nautical term here'' knot, and pushed it as close to the overhand knot as I could, for neatness. It took several practice ties, to get the right technique and length correct. Added dabs of CA glue to lock all the knots in place, then trimmed the excess as tight/close as possible. Again, several weeks of making 1 or 2 single, then 1 or 2 double blocks per night, as time allowed. I made sure there was enough line length necessary for coiling later on. I ordered more .012 and .008in rope, so I wouldn't run out later. I know there is debate around 2x singles or 1x single and 1x double for the cannons. This is my choice. From my perspective, using 2x single blocks, gunmen would need more effort to run out the guns after firing. Using 1x single and double, the effort required to ''pull'' would be halved. I have seen other modelers rig a few cannons at the time, then work on something else in between, to break up the monotony. I like to do everything all at once, hence I am doing ALL the blocks and rope first, then rigging the cannons at one time. I don't want to have to set things up for stropping and rigging back and forth - I'll just do it all at once. I am currently still making up ropes for the cannons. I probably should have kept the eyebolts off the bulwarks, and rigged them first, but I don't want to pull them out now. I'll ''feed'' the ropes through the cannon rings, and hook the hooks and rings to the eyebolts with needle nose pliers. REALLY hoping that won't cost me later. I'll share pictures of the rest of the rigging next. I'm having a lot of fun doing this part, and it's looking really good to me. I'm KNOT kidding. - Jason -

Salty, I sort of like the idea of using alcohol to release the door, and possibly move it. That might work really well. Once, I get to the rigging, that's the area I'll start at. I'll know right away if I need to move it, as you describe - Thanks! I've made some painstakingly slow progress on the tackle for the cannons. I'll update on that soon too. - Jason -

Hi Chuck. Thanks for following along. Impressive, that you're working on the FA again. How far along are you? So far for me, it has been quite rewarding. Looking back where I started, and going through all the planking, and bow work, and now up to the cannons: A very fun project. I enjoy the fine details required for this model. I plan to print out a paper build log, to hang next to the mounted model, once finished - sort of a little story of the ship build. I have seen reviews, and comments from other modelers, that the Fair American is not a recommended ''first build''. The instructions start out really good, but sort of fade out in necessary detail as you progress; especially the rigging detail, or lack there of. I haven't quite decided how I'll do the stropping of the deadeyes yet. I bought some smaller gage wire, for the block hooks, etc - I think I might use that for the deadeyes and chain plates. We'll see when I get there! - Jason -

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Lot of ''Life'' going on in between there. Apparently the gun carriage images didn't process, but when I viewed them, they were showing fine. Very puzzling. I am reposting the same thing again, hopefully these pictures will process correctly: Progress on the Fair American Model Ship: Started work on the cannons. I've seen a lot of discussion on the layout and rigging of the cannons from many modelers. My plan is/was to do all the rigging shown in the instructions, including two outhaul tackles, since there were two eyebolts behind each cannon. In the plans, it appears the cannons are slightly tapered towards the front, but the pieces in the kit create parallel frames. I'm all about building things as-shown, but with all the rigging and barrels and everything else, this is a minor detail I can ignore. The gun carriages in the instructions didn't really make sense to me - I wasn't sure why the carriages needed to be built this way, if the kit supplied them already. I started with the carriages, gluing them with the quoin beds made from scrap walnut planks. Gluing was tough, as the pieces didn't want to stay glued, and the 'axles' broke off very easily. I made sure to file down the axles to allow the wheels to slip on without breaking. I made everything in batches. The carriages and the quoins, using upside-down duct tape to hold them. Although other modelers mention the pins are too small for the quoin/gun carriage, I felt they looked to scale, so I went with them. In hindsight, I should have made the quoin taller, to match the height of the cannons turned out to be, after in the gun ports, but I'll live with it. Flat black paint worked well for the guns themselves, just took 3 1/2 coats to get there!!! I knew that each gun carriage would fit into the gun ports a little differently, so I decided to number each one so I knew where they were located (forward/aft port/starboard) For the caps/straps, I used left over brass strips (gudgeon/pintle). I would form them over a small broken drill bit as shown - seemed to work pretty well. Afterwards I'd paint it black. I bought some 1/8" brass rings, and extra eyebolts for the carriages. I ended up bending many of them by hand, since there were so many needed. The carriages were stained, and the eyebolts/rings are left unpainted. Again, I like the look of the brass, with the stained wood. Its my model, and you can't stop me! Each cannon is now in place at each gun port. Another hindsight moment, was wishing I had moved the door more toward the middle of the house front, so the cannon doesn't impede it. As stated before, I'm keeping the deck furniture off until the cannons are fully rigged - I need the room! After so many weeks on the cannons, I'm pleased with them. They were fun to build. The rigging is next. I have been looking forward to this for a while. I've never made blocks or hooks or tackle or stays or halyards or clue lines. The magnifiers I got for Christmas are going to help tremendously! I hope to have progress photos of the rigging progress/process soon. - Jason -

Progress on the Fair American Model Ship: Started work on the cannons. I've seen a lot of discussion on the layout and rigging of the cannons from many modelers. My plan is/was to do all the rigging shown in the instructions, including two outhaul tackles, since there were two eyebolts behind each cannon. In the plans, it appears the cannons are slightly tapered towards the front, but the pieces in the kit create parallel frames. I'm all about building things as-shown, but with all the rigging and barrels and everything else, this is a minor detail I can ignore. The gun carriages in the instructions didn't really make sense to me - I wasn't sure why the carriages needed to be built this way, if the kit supplied them already. I started with the carriages, gluing them with the quoin beds made from scrap walnut planks. Gluing was tough, as the pieces didn't want to stay glued, and the 'axles' broke off very easily. I made sure to file down the axles to allow the wheels to slip on without breaking. I made everything in batches. The carriages and the quoins, using upside-down duct tape to hold them. Although other modelers mention the pins are too small for the quoin/gun carriage, I felt they looked to scale, so I went with them. In hindsight, I should have made the quoin taller, to match the height of the cannons turned out to be, after in the gun ports, but I'll live with it. Flat black paint worked well for the guns themselves, just took 3 1/2 coats to get there!!! I knew that each gun carriage would fit into the gun ports a little differently, so I decided to number each one so I knew where they were located (forward/aft port/starboard) For the caps/straps, I used left over brass strips (gudgeon/pintle). I would form them over a small broken drill bit as shown - seemed to work pretty well. Afterwards I'd paint it black. I bought some 1/8" brass rings, and extra eyebolts for the carriages. I ended up bending many of them by hand, since there were so many needed. The carriages were stained, and the eyebolts/rings are left unpainted. Again, I like the look of the brass, with the stained wood. Its my model, and you can't stop me! Each cannon is now in place at each gun port. Another hindsight moment, was wishing I had moved the door more toward the middle of the house front, so the cannon doesn't impede it. As stated before, I'm keeping the deck furniture off until the cannons are fully rigged - I need the room! After so many weeks on the cannons, I'm pleased with them. They were fun to build. The rigging is next. I have been looking forward to this for a while. I've never made blocks or hooks or tackle or stays or halyards or clue lines. The magnifiers I got for Christmas are going to help tremendously! I hope to have progress photos of the rigging progress/process soon. - Jason -

Thank you for the kind words. That's an interesting little history there. I'm not exactly sure of the origin of my name, but for me, it certainly refers to the length of time I've spent on this build! And, I'm located in the Delaware Valley, so maybe there's something there.

Still plugging away at the Fair America Model Ship, with a very tiny hammer and chisel: Looking at all the castings for deck furniture, the quality was not great. Plus, I wanted my model to have a more authentic feel, so I opted to build these pieces from scratch, using some remaining wood. The Binnacle had the most time in, after the Capstan. I wasn't really sure about how to build it properly, but from a distance, it won't look too bad. Maybe my next ship will incorporate to-scale dovetails and pull-out drawers ;-). In the end, it didn't turn out too bad, and I'm proud of the work. Next up was the Bitts. Ultimately, I put in belaying pins, as needed for rigging sails so I put those in later. Bitt.... By Bitt ... The Capstan took a lot of pieces to complete, but I got it done. Adding little wedges to simulate the finished rings, then sanded them down afterwards. I decided that I would keep the overall shape hexagonal, since it is what is shown in the plans The ladder was a fun piece. I only built one for opposite the door of the quarter deck. Turning to the pumps, they were a little tricky. I used a small dowel on the inside, then wrapped with little planks to mimic a barrel. The handle was just similarly shaped, as best I could. Difficult to see, but I added a little pin (from left over eyebolt brass) to attach the handle. At one point before gluing, it pumped! Once everything was built, I went ahead and stained them all. It looks a little red from this lighting angle, but in actuality it is a MinWax Pine. You may notice by now, a repeating pattern with upside down duct tape. It has been invaluable for holding pieces and not losing them on the floor, which happened often enough as it is. Folding one side down to remove the sticky, and provide a grab spot helped a ton. With the added bonus, that you won't ever see the bottom of these parts, so no loss if it's not painted or stained. I know it's not supreme quality craftsmanship, but it is certainly better than the castings. I'm happy with the results. Once the Gun Carriages are finished and installed, I can place all the furniture on deck; I want to make sure I have enough working room for the guns first. That's up next! More updates and progress soon, - Jason -

Continuing to work on the Fair American Model ship: The inner bulwarks needed some touching up, so I added a black trim line just under the rail. I'd seen another modeler do this, and I think it looks pretty good. Using some painters tape made the job a bit easier. My trusty ol' black Sharpie worked fine for me. I added some toothpick ends as dowels for the pin rails. The rails are ~1/32'' thicker than the plans show, but I felt that since these will be load supporting with rigging later on, they needed to be beefier. The gallows and pin rails all got sanded and stained before installing. I know the color scheme is supposed to be red/black, but I prefer stained wood better. This will also be true of the deck furniture, which I intend on building later. The belaying pins look nice. I also want to put sails on my model, so I'm going to need more pins for that rigging, so I ordered more from Model Expo. With all the eyebolts on the model, I quickly ran low. Since the stems of most of them don't need to be very long, I cut and saved the remaining stems. I went about and bent my own eyebolts from the stems. Could I have just bought more? - yes. But I didn't mind learning/teaching myself a new skill. The other thing I did was build a Mainstay Padeye. I wasn't going to use one of the eyebolts, as it is out of scale, and I don't feel it would offer enough support under tension. You can see the one I made is more to scale, and the wood stem will glue and grip better than a smooth brass would. Building tiny furniture is next on the list.... - Jason -

Thanks Tom. I had a similar thought about a different screw size, after the pedestals are in place. That's probably what I'll end up doing. Thanks for the kind words. I've really enjoyed the build so far and many learnings along the way. I'm sure once I get to the rigging, I'll have tons more questions. - Jason -