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Bad news guys, I am afraid that Doris will no longer continue with her presentation of her modeling on our site. I went to the modelforum.cz to view her Royal Katherine build log and found a quote (July 14, 2019) where she has said as much. Apparently she was expressing her frustration there at having to repeatedly respond to the same questions over and over even though she had provided many detailed photo tutorials previously. She is apparently on several different modeling forum sites at this time and wanted to cut down on the time spent on them to devote more of her time to actually working on her modeling projects. Personally, I think that she is looking for more guidance for her from the sites. Unfortunately for her, she herself seems to be the authority on the subject and there are few out there that know more about the subject than her. However if you want to continue following her work, (with the availability of the translation programs) just go to the modelform.cz website and you can follow her there. I am saddened by this news as my wife and I can't help but appreciate her artistry and find that I continue using some of her techniques. Still, I wish her continued success on her modeling.

Rather than a drill, I just used my drill press set up as shown below. I used a drill gauge to hold the lower end of a slightly oversized dowel in place and chucked the upper end in the drill press. That's how I formed all the masts and gaffs for my MS Phantom. Worked like a charm for me and I didn't need to buy another power tool.

Jim, this particular painting brings to my mind the old phrase "See how she scoons." Once said to be the origin of the name schooner. Scoon was an old time word meaning to skip across the water. I think that most of your paintings seem to bring out an emotional response in the viewer, as this one does for me. Keep it up!

Well, I guess that I was not kidding about the time involved to get back to this ship. The spray booth project ended up taking much longer than I thought and then holiday projects came up, but now I can finally get back to it. This posting is a bit out of order as I needed to stage some of the illustrations after the fact but this is the gist of it. Working once again on the launching ways, I finished drilling the rest of the holes for the bolts in the support blocks and gluing down several that came loose when being drilled. The brads representing those bolts needed to be blackened, but since the only part that would remain visible was the heads, I thought why blacken the whole brad? Using a length of scotch tape laid down sticky side up flat on the bench, the brads were stuck in place with just a small portion of the head projecting beyond the edge of the tape. Then another piece of tape was stretched out sticky side down over the first strip. The next step was to form the strip into a coil as shown below. Using a plastic dish with some previously used brass black that had a bit of fresh mixture added to it, the coil was set into the dish with the brad heads down as shown and set aside for about five minutes for it to work its magic. Removing the coil from the mix, it was set on a paper towel to soak up the excess and let it sit overnight to completely dry out. The next day, the remaining brads were pressed down with a nail set into the drilled holes. A small hammer and the nail set were then used to set the brads until the head was still just visible. So the ramp is ready to be drilled for the mounting bolts. Way back on post #42 I installed two LED lights for both ends of the open hatch and drilled a hole in the hull for the wiring to run to the switch and battery components. Changing my approach now to this problem, I decided to run the wires through the keel and hull support blocks rather than the far side of the hull so it would be less visible. So, I’ll just fill-in that hole in the hull. At this point I discovered that the mounting bolt and wiring hole locations through the keel should have been done before the deck beams were installed as it was not possible to get a drill of such a small diameter (the keel is only 9/64” thick) in a long enough length to pass all the way through the ship and through the ramp, but once again hind sight never really helps much. Luckily I had this battery powered screwdriver/drill made by General with a very slim profile with a lot of torque for such a small tool. Inserting my small 3-jaw keyless chuck for a rotary tool with a 1/8” shank into the tool that I picked up from Micro-Mark, I put a 3/32” bit into it and found that I had just enough space for it between several of the beams. With clamps at both ends of the keel for balance the ship was placed on the ways in its approximate final position. I picked the gap between beam numbers 11 and 12 and drilled through the keel for the LED wiring. With a thin brass tube inserted through that hole, the ship was shifted just enough until the tube could line up with the center of one of the support blocks and it was given a light tap to mark the position. Replacing the tube with the drill the hole was extended through the ways. Once the hole was finished, the brass tube was reinserted to hold the ship in its final position. The gap between beams 13 and 14 was sufficient for the drill so it was chosen for the first bolt hole. With a pair of dividers I set the distance from the center of the support block with the wire hole to the center of the closest support block that would line up for the bolt. The dividers were able to transfer that distance to the inside of the hull and the hole was drilled there. Actually drilling the hole was fairly simple as the drill was easy to keep centered since the hull seam made it easy to align the bit and the centerline of the beams helped to align the upper portion of the tool. The fact that there was so little space between the beams also made it easy to stay perpendicular to the keel. For the second bolt hole the technique was somewhat different as the divider couldn’t mark the location inside the hull. I picked the gap between beams 2 and 3, then located the closest support block to that space and marked on the keel where it lined up. Drilling from the outside was a bit more trouble as there was no flat area on the seam to set the drill. So, I filed a flat spot and used an awl to give the drill a place to start. Keeping the thinness of the keel in mind I carefully drilled a hole with a 1/16” bit perpendicular to the keel through to the inside of the hull. Now that there was a hole to guide the larger bit, I enlarged the hole from the inside of the hull with the 3/32” bit. While I was locating the LED for the skylight the decision was made to install LED lights inside the two rear shelter houses. The three of these LEDs were now all temporarily taped in their positions. So, now I will be installing a total of five LEDs to run through one battery and switch. The wires are not long enough to pass through the hull and into the base were the switch and battery will be placed and thus need to be spiced with another section of wire to make up the difference. The splice will remain inside the hull with just the wire extension running into the base. Joining the wires is fairly simple. I just need to gather up all of the black wire leads including the extension wire, twist them together, apply some solder, and slip a section of heat shrink tubing over the joint to protect it. Then all of the red wires need to be joined together similarly. A section of heat shrink tubing will protect the two lead wires where they pass through the keel and base. Once the ship is anchored permanently to the launching ways, the finish connections can be made in the base. For now they will just be taped out of the way.

I was reading about your shop remodel and realized that all of my outlets were on the walls except for my main modeling table which has a power strip mounted on the right leg of the bench. I hadn’t thought of doing it on my heavy duty bench until I read Bobs’ remark. So I went down to the shop right away (before I could forget) and installed a power strip on the right side to remedy my omission. I have had problems previously with cords getting in my way, and was surprised that I didn’t think of it myself. I may install one on the left side later if I find the need. Being wheelchair bound, every piece of equipment in my shop is on casters to make it easier to clean the shop when necessary. (And to chase down some of those small items that always seem to dissapear underneath, where I can't reach them!!)

There was a five part article in the now out of print Ships In Scale magazine running from the Jan/Feb 2012 issue to the Sept/Oct issue by Robert N. Steinbrunn where he did a highly modified version of that Smuggler kit from Bluejacket Ship Crafters. I would suggest that you get a hold of those issues that are available from the NRG store on disc or flash drive. If nothing else it will show you just what is possible with this medium. From this shot of the article below you can see some of the remarkable details that he added to this kit that made it a truly museum quality model.

Welcome To MSW. And just where do you have enough room to display that monster?

Steve One advantage that I can see (having done most of my ships with the bread and butter method) with the POB method would be that you don’t have to constantly try to keep track of station lines to check the fit of the hull profile templates, as the frames do that for you.

Welcome to MSW. Lots of inspiration here to help with just about any question you may come up with.

Welcome to MSW. Most of us here started with plastic models in our younger days including me, but I at least went for plastic ships over cars. The complexity of the square riggers drew me that way. I have a little more experience with woodworking than most, as both my father and his father were very much into it and I inherited many of their tools and to a lesser extent their skills. I would suggest that you pick a simple wooden ship model with minimal rigging to allow the use of some of your wood skills and get the feel for working with the miniature size of things. If all goes well you may find yourself hooked on the hobby and be anxious to move on to something a little more challenging. As you yourself have pointed out, this hobby involves a lifelong learning curve, so don't bite off more than you can chew right away or you may loose your interest quickly.

That's quite impressive but, unfortunately beyond my skill at 1:96 scale.

While the detail on your version of this sub is quite spectacular, my father would probably just shudder to see it. In 42 he had to risk the dangerous Atlantic crossing on a troop ship to England. Their convoy only lost one ship, but he was on deck to see it go down. When his trip started he was apprehensive to be sure, but with a little over half of his journey remaining after that, the fear factor really went through the roof. He said he never felt so defenseless in his life.

I myself, would be very happy to be able to make either version! Those are great looking hooks, where do you get them?

Yes, there are quite a lot of poor quality tools out there, especially on the WEB. This quote sums up my view of why it persists. “As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.” – Dick Cavett

I would like to see the size of the saw that made those cuts!!!!!

I got back in the shop today to work on the booth once more. First off, I tipped it down onto its back once again with the catches locked, being very careful this time since it is getting a bit top heavy now. Unlatching the top panel, I tipped the top panel open and reattached the Plexiglas window. All the screws were driven in tightly and then backed off about a quarter turn so it could still expand if it had to. The top panel was latched closed now. As I said, the booth is a little tippy in this position, so I placed a board across the far side with a half-gallon container of paint for a counter weight since the added weight of the light would make it more so. Once safely balanced, the light fixture was reattached. So, at this point I thought it was time for the acid test. I tipped the booth upright again, routing the light chord around to the side and plugged it into the power strip. The power strip was plugged in and crossing my fingers, I turned it on. Eureka!! It all worked. There was ample light to work with (as you can see here) and as the fans amped up, the draw proved to be quite satisfactory. So I guess that all that remains to be done now is to decide which rolling cart will be used. I will try using it to see if the height above the floor needs to be lowered for me or not. The cart that it is sitting on right now has the advantage of having storage drawers on one side, but it will be harder to shorten the legs than the other one which has no drawers. I think that I may also need to work out an exhaust duct system, although I plan on wheeling it outside on the driveway to use it. Of course if it’s too cold or raining out that might prove to be a little inconvenient.

I think that I have come up with a solution now on how to install the draw catches. Since the particle board is so prone to splitting, I will need to reinforce the edge of the top panel to mount the hook portion of the catch. A search ensued for some metal angle to use as a mounting plate. I found a suitable piece of aluminum in my scrap pile that would need quite a bit of trimming. However, since the admiral just bought this new coping saw with a special hack saw blade for me that I was anxious to try out anyway, I decided to use it. Here is the section of aluminum angle that the component was cut from. The first step was to cut a 1 ¼” long section off of the angle. As there was only one inch of clearance for the top of the plate on the left end, this latch was done first to test out my solution. The two irregular edges were then cut off to give the angle two flat surfaces. Once the angle was cut and filed smooth I needed to drill two holes in the vertical legs to match the holes in the hook piece for some small bolts. (I don’t have any tools to tap holes in metal so I had to use the bolts instead.) Then one larger hole in the horizontal leg was drilled for a heavy ½“ long screw. Here is the angle with the needed bolts, flat washers, lock washers and nuts along with the screw for the top and the hook. Once the hook component was assembled it had the nuts and bolts projecting from the backside. So now they needed some clearance holes bored into the edge of the top panel. Once the clearance holes were bored, the component was held in position and I drilled through the hole in the top of the angle into the particle board. The heavy screw was then driven in to complete mounting the upper component of the draw catch. Now all that remained was to install the lower component of the catch. As I mentioned earlier, the foam weather-strip has to be compressed to half its thickness so the top panel will seal it evenly. So, before I could locate the screw holes for this part I used a C-clamp to pull it down. Setting the bottom component in the latched position, a piece of tape was stretched over the mounting plate to hold it in place. The catch was taped up out of the way and the locations for those screws were marked. Once the mounting plate was secured, all the tape was removed and the latch was tested to confirm that, it would in fact work as planned. Since my experiment worked out so well, I made a duplicate for the right end. Since I had plenty of clearance on this end I mounted it on the front face of the booth. So here is the booth as it stands now.

I have a pair of draw catches to install that will pull the top panel down to compress the foam weather-strip and seal the plenum. Unfortunately installing anything with screws into the edge of particle board simply splits it when pressure is applied (I tried that already), so I’ll need to come up with another method of attaching the catches. Today I took the Plexiglas window upstairs to my desk/bird playground to install the tear-off tapes. I cleared off a space to lay the window down flat and since you need both hands to apply the tape I used a piece of double sided tape under each end to keep it from shifting around. Because my window is wider than the tape, I had to use two pieces of tape overlapping each other roughly one inch down the center. While trying to do this operation, I have one suggestion on how not to do this. If your tape is on one of these useless dispensers, get rid of it and just use the tape directly from the roll. It may work on taping packages, but it just got in the way here. I stretched out the first piece of tape aligning it by eye just inside the holes on the edge. Securing the left end of the tape an inch or so beyond the end of the window, I stretched the tape while still on the roll about an inch or so beyond the other end being careful not to touch it down on the window yet. With my left hand I smoothed the tape down onto the window from left to right trying to eliminate any air bubbles as I went. (Not as easy as you think!) Once I had the whole length pressed down beyond the right end, the tape was folded back on itself forming about a one inch tab at the end. I repeated the steps above with the overlapping piece of tape, but the end of this tab was wrapped around the previous tab at the end. This will allow me to pull just one tab to remove both pieces at the same time. I placed three more layers similarly over the first one and trimmed the ends of the tape off on the left with a box cutter. To make it easier to separate the different pull tabs I decided to cut some different colored pieces of post it notes and tape it to the various tabs. Oh, and one more suggestion. Once you have removed the window from the booth, make sure that you are putting the tape on the correct face of the Plexiglas or your screw holes will not line up properly when you reattach it to the booth. (Don't ask how I know this!)

I sense that the completion of this project is finally in sight. Since I already had the booth on its backside, I wiped down the top edges of the panels and the self-adhesive backed foam weather-strip was applied. One thing to keep in mind while applying the weather-strip is to keep the backing tape on until just before it is pressed down because everything sticks to it, much like fly paper. Any dust or even oil from your fingers will reduce the effectiveness of the adhesive. When I applied it, a small portion of one end was exposed and pressed in place. Then with one hand used to lightly press it in place and keep it aligned with the edge, the other hand keeps pulling the backing tape off as you go along. After it’s in place I go along the entire tape length with a smooth tool handle, the foam is firmly pressed in place. The method works quite well for me. The top vinyl filter channel was given a double strip to keep it from twisting when installed. Since the foam needed to be compressed to half its thickness, the stove bolts would be under a bit of stress, I thought I would give the slotted end of the bolts a little more purchase with a washer. However, since this end of the bolt went into a countersunk hole, a flat washer wouldn’t work. The washer was fairly thin, so I made a sort of tool and die arrangement to make the washer conform to the hole. Drilling a matching hole into a ¾” piece of oak complete with the countersink for the die, a matching bolt was set into the die hole with the flat washer in place. Taking a one handed sledge hammer, I simply pounded the bolt down into the die until it conformed to the shape of the countersink. Seven more washers were made up similarly. Eight of the bolts, complete with washers were now placed in the booth with the threaded ends projecting from the backside of the booth. Tipping the booth back upright, a difficult job for one person to handle, reattaching the top panel, began. First off, the foam needed to be compressed to half its thickness to allow the projecting ends of the bolts to align with the hinge holes. Placing the bar clamp next to the hinge on the end, I tightened the clamp until the two bolts aligned with the hinge holes. The next step had me puzzled for a bit, namely how to tighten the bolt when I could only reach one end of the bolt at a time by myself. I solved this by clamping the nut in the jaws of a small pair of vise grip pliers. Now I was able to reach inside the booth with a straight slot screw driver. With the resistance provided by the weight of the pliers, I was able to tighten the bolt. This method was repeated for three hinges, but the last hinge was a slightly more difficult problem, in that the plenum framing would not allow me to reach through the booth to reach the bolt with the screw driver. Once again I used the bar clamp to align the bolts with the hinge and loosely installed the washer and nut to keep the foam compressed. Tilting the booth down on its backside once again, the top panel was allowed to drop down leaving me access to the inside of the booth and the slotted end of the last two bolts. I tried several methods of doing these last two bolts but was unable to keep the bolt from turning with the nut until I sort of discovered by accident an easy way to do it. Inserting a nut driver in my impact driver, I set it on the nut and kind of goosed the trigger several times. To my surprise, it actually worked. Apparently the combination of the twisting motion when combined with the impact motion kept the bolt from turning in place and it tightened it down quite solid. I could have saved a bit of hassle if I had realized it would do that with all the bolts! Oh well, live and learn. Tilting the booth upright again, I took a photo of its current status.

Well, time to start sanding down the top edges of the booth panels. Glue has set and all of the tape “clamps” have been removed. Taking a three foot long length of a straight edged 1 x 4, I glued a 12 inch long piece of 100 grit sandpaper to opposite ends of that boards’ edge. The center portion was covered with a section of heavy manila envelope approximately equal in thickness to the sandpaper. Then resting the center section on the top of the baffle panel and the sandpaper on the two raised panels, I just kept sliding the center across the baffle until the sandpaper ground the rear and right side panels down to equal heights. That was the area with the most to even out, the rest was simply using a sanding block and a straight edge to check on the progress until it was all evened out. This whole sanding operation only took about an hour to do, so I was happy that I decided to do it this way. Tipping the booth upright, the top panel was mounted by ripping several narrow pieces of 1/8” thick hardboard to use as spacers and I set them on the top edges of the panels. The top panel was then placed on top and clamped down with a bar clamp to secure it. Using the hinges as templates, the new locations for the bolts were marked with an awl and the holes were drilled. The holes were counter sunk on the inside of the booth with an overlong 3/8” drill bit as the new brace and the filter channels made it too difficult to get my drill in position to use my counter sink bit. The booth was unclamped and top panel was then removed. All of the unpainted parts of the booth were then given two quick coats of paint and left to dry overnight.

Hold the phone there dummy! What was I thinking? Why try paring down the tough particle board when it’s much easier to add some softwood shims that can then be lightly sanded down even? Having a large surplus of 1/16” thick basswood strip wood in various widths, that’s just what I did! I took a long flat metal bar and laid it along the top edges of the booth to locate and measure the problem areas. The biggest discrepancy occurred where the top edge of the baffle panel sat a hair over 3/32” above the right side panel and about 1/16” above the back panel. The back corner of the left side panel sat about 1/16” shy of the top of the joint with the back panel, so I can use a tapered shim there. The back corner of the baffle was actually a little low also and needed a bit of shimming. I took a length of ½” wide 1/16” thick basswood and glued it to the top of the right side panel for the first of two layers to go there. Not having any edge clamps available, I resorted to taping it in place. The low corners of the baffle and the left side panel were also given short lengths of tapered shim to correct those areas and were glued and taped down. You can see here that the front brace was also depressed a bit, and while there is no concern of air leakage there, if left shy the top panel would not sit flat. So that needed to be shimmed too. A single layer of the 1/16” basswood sufficed to shim up most of the errors, and an extra layer handled the remaining areas. A second layer of 1/16” shim was now added to the right end panel and applied. The back panel and brace were then done similarly. Now with all areas shimmed and taped down, I just needed to set the booth aside for the glue to set up for 24 hours or so before starting sanding operations.

Just a quick note here. Now that the hinges are correctly attached to the bottom side of the top panel, the hinges need to be re-attached to the back panel. Since the weather-stripping came in ¼” thickness rather than the 3/8” that I ordered, I was a bit concerned about the air seal at the top of the booth. So I checked the fit of the top panel and found that some of the top edges were a little too uneven for my taste where the panels met. Since the weather-stripping is so thin now I don’t think that it would be able to bridge the gap enough, so I need to trim down those high areas. The most efficient method available to me would have been my belt sander, but I don’t think that I would be able to handle that anymore from my wheelchair. (Not to mention the clouds of saw dust that it would produce!) Edge trimming ½” particle board will take some ingenuity on my part keeping the edge square and smooth by hand without breaking up the edges. I guess that I will have to think on that for awhile.

Continuing my rainy day posting. While contemplating my next phase of the build, I discovered while reviewing post #20, that the hinges were placed in error on the top side of the top panel, which in itself was not a big deal as far as the placement of those holes, but it caused another problem elsewhere. The original idea was to have the pivot point of the hinges half the thickness of the compressed weather-strip above the top edge of the back panel as shown in post #19. That was to prevent the weather-striping along the top of the back panel from being displaced when opening the top of the booth. Since the hinges were used as a template for drilling the holes on the back panel, those holes were now 5/8” too high. OOPS! Flipping the top panel over to expose the correct side of the panel, the Plexiglas window was removed and set aside for installing the tear off sheets later. The hinges were then temporarily attached to the bottom side of the top panel and the outline of the hinges was traced onto the panel as shown here. Since this will now be the inside of the booth, I decided that making the hinges flush with the surface would improve the air flow. Taking the hinges off again, I took out a fresh sharp blade and put it into my scalpel handle to go over the marked outline several times. I took a ¼” wide wood chisel and gave it a good sharpening. I roughed out the majority of the material with that chisel and one of my small modeling chisels. I then finished up with my Dremel tool mounted in a homemade router attachment and smoothed out the bottom of the recess to the proper depth. Since the screw holes in back panel would no longer line up, those holes needed to be plugged. I took a length of 3/16” square basswood, rounded off the corners, coated with wood glue and tapped it into those holes until the far end was slightly beyond flush with the inside of the booth. I cut off the remaining length on the outside slightly proud of the outside face. This was repeated for all of the remaining holes. Once the glue was allowed to set, the remaining ends of the plugs were sanded flush. A quick dab of paint and no one is the wiser. The recesses for the hinges were also given a coat of paint to seal the particle board and the hinges were reattached to complete the repairs. The inside of the plugs were also painted and a heavy coat of paint was applied to the seam of the vinyl brackets to give me a tight air seal around the filter assembly. The final item to be completed today was painting the light mounting boards sealing all joints to completely eliminate all the extraneous light at the joints.

Since it's raining today looks like I get to work indoors again today, so back to the shop. I ripped down some of my scrap ½” particle board into several 1 ½” wide strips to make the mounting board for the light fixture. These were then cut to length, tightly butted together (to screen off any extraneous light) and screwed into place with some ¾” Philips flat head wood screws. I set the light fixture in the opening and used the pre-drilled holes in the brackets as a guide to locate and drill 7/64” holes for some ½” long 9/64” Phillips round head wood screws that were then driven home. The lines were redrawn inside the booth to mark the face of the vinyl filter brackets. I ran a bead of glue where the vinyl bracket would seat to help seal the gap somewhat. Before the glue could set, the vinyl strip was placed and I drilled five 7/64” holes into the bottom of the booth for some more of the ½” long 9/64” wood screws to draw it down tight. Using four screws apiece, this procedure was followed for the two vertical vinyl brackets. Once the vinyl brackets were all installed, I did a test fit for the rest of the filter assembly and was satisfied with the fit.

Not much accomplished today, but I managed to get the brace painted and attached. Not sure how much I will be able to do on the booth for a bit, as I need to get started on preparing for the holidays which includes the Xmas displays. Here is the current status of the project.