Oldsalt1950

Very nice work, Phil. Once painted you'll never know that surgery was performed.

Just tell the Admiral "somehow I thought it was smaller". 

Very nicely done Vladimir.

Outstanding craftsmanship, Mike !

Unfortunately, patents don't mean anything to the Chinese.

You'll be ready for planking soon at the rate you are going.

I'll just stand in the back and watch

Dave, I'll give it a try to help you understand what exactly a "yardarm" is. The outer section of a yard we all assume is the yardarm, and we are correct, but to explain a bit better, think of a person standing erect with their arms outstretched. In such a case we can measure what we call arm span, the distance from fingertip to fingertip. In this measurement we have included the shoulders. A yard is broken down the same way, and in just about the same proportions. The center section , some times worked or figured from round to octagonal or slightly bellied would be the distance proportionally from shoulder to shoulder, after that the arm section begins. The arm section of a yard is more tapered or worked to a smaller circumference just like the bones in a human arm get smaller on the way to the wrist.

Weller makes a good soldering iron. Get one with a chisel tip. 30 watts should do the job easily. You will also need to think about solder and flux. This is where things get more interesting. Try to avoid acid fluxes. Trix makes a good low melting point solder and compatible flux that should meet your requirements. If you haven't soldered before, the trick is to keep a clean tip, meaning no contaminants and not over heated. Be sure and keep the tip "tinned" meaning a thin coat of solder on it. If the tip starts getting black wipe it clean on a damp sponge or paper towel and re-tin. 

David, I don't see why it couldn't be used for rigging. It may need a bit of Bee's wax on it to knock down the frizz a bit. The question really is how it preforms over time and various changes in humidity. I also assume it could be sprayed with hair spray to protect it a bit. 

Jim

Looking really sharp, Phil.

Looks good Joe. Being you are currently the last, it will be interesting to see what you incorporate from others, and what you discard,

It is the tannins in tea that stain the sails not the tea. The acid is neutralized once the sails are removed from the tea and rinsed. If you have any concerns about the sails degrading you can go to a pet supply store and purchase a simple aquarium buffer solution that neutralizes acid in water. A simple aquarium water test kit( get the strips) can be used for this purpose. Test your tap water, record the reading, then place the sails in the water and test again to see the difference, then follow the buffer agent directions to neutralize if needed. 

Welcome aboard Mark.

I prefer black and white shots to color. Detail is revealed much better

The biggest issue with molds is heat and cleaning after a session. If you don't make a new mold every now and then , the castings continue to degrade in quality.

Very sharp!

Jim

Stunning!

Dave, as you know i am currently building ME's Rattlesnake and it has been on hold. I am placing and order with Syren for all the blocks the hearts and cleats. I am also replacing all the planking then the rope. I looked over everything and can't really say i liked what I saw that was provided in the kit. The only cast metal part I will be using is the anchor proper. It will almost double the cost of the kit but it will also make it more to scale and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, not to mention the wood is easier to shape and work with.

Jim

If you look carefully at the gun port picture you can see there are modifications. There are no hinges. They added some sort of fixture to hold the port lid in the air (the rods are visible). Changes are made during every restoration. Some to enhance viewing of certain features some to try and get back to the historically correct configuration. You can only do so much to replicate what was on Victory during her prime.

That should keep we who build her busy for a while.

Gregory dug it up. I think he's building a 1/48th scale rattlesnake for the ME plans.

Great images of the figurehead. I can work with that, thanks Gregory.

Then we builders and the delivery persons will just get a little workout on the day the kit arrives. Not a big deal really. It makes me think back to my military days where "man portable" meant anything that didn't need wheels or a truck to be moved. 

Chris, what if you broke the kit up similar to the way Chuck Passaro is doing the Winchelsea. You could even break up the instruction manual to correspond to how the kit is divided, sort of hull, deck and fittings, boats and cannons, masts spars and rigging. Just a thought. It isn't like anyone is going to speed build the Indy in a few weeks.