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kgstakes

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Everything posted by kgstakes

  1. kgstakes
    What I've done if I want to stain basswood and I've only done with when I want to do a light stain (rolltop desk for example). I've use a polystain. It's a polyurethane that has a tint or stain in it. Multiple coats will "darken" the wood slightly but it's basically the same color. What's nice about using a polystain, is that you don't have to use a conditioner on your wood. It'll work on other wood species just as good but I've found it very useful for basswood. Lighter colors work better than the darker ones. I agree if you are going to use just a stain and then a varnish or lacquer, you need to put a conditioner on your basswood parts so that the wood doesn't steak or get to dark in some areas. If I'm going to clear coat the wood project, I like to use a marine varnish because I like the "amber tone" it gives the wood. I've only used a water base clear finish once and really don't like it. No life to the wood, looks very plain to me (in my humble opinion). Anyway, that's my two cents worth on finish basswood.
  2. kgstakes
    Would like to know if anyone is or has used this brand of tool organizer(s). They have many different types and styles of organizers. My work bench needs some better organization and just looking at options. Picture showing one of their organizers.
  3. kgstakes
    Holy cow you do some nice work !!! I was looking at the way you were doing the sides and thought what a neat idea of covering the sides with the "wallpaper" but then I realized you not only did that but you casted all the details to put on the model!!! amazing and you are my friend an artist and skilled ship modeler. Then I followed a little bit farther and your building up the cannons with their ropes !!! Have to ask, do you fly fish too? Tying all those Knots and such to make it look correct, I'd would have to double up on my magnifiers !!! Great job overall well done.
  4. kgstakes
    Drone Flight at night Barnesville Junction Video.MOV
  5. kgstakes
    What’s kinda funny is that I’ve had the layout for a few years. And decided to build a shadow box to put it in. Both ends come off. So if needed I can slide the layout in or out or even make another section with another shadow box and mate them together to make a larger layout. i thought it was a neat idea
  6. kgstakes
    The only time I’ve used them is on buildings which are Ho scale and the foot print is about a 3”x4”. I don’t use them to stain the whole model just parts of it like a floor or part of a wall, things like that. Yeah I agree, bigger project like a ship or even a bigger building sure use a pint or quart. Just another way of coloring wood, just like India ink and alcohol mix . Places for it and places not for it. I’ll use what ever I need to get an affect I need or want. Makes it fun and interesting what you can come up with and use to accomplish an affect you’re looking for.
  7. kgstakes
    Just curious if anyone else has done this or used them. What I use to stain my wood or even to "weather" the wood is minwax touch up pens. Fairly inexpensive, and really really easy to use and you can stain just a piece of wood or part of it and you can go over the same piece with different colors to get an "aged" or "new" look that you want. Just wondering if anyone has used them. I use them a lot on my wood structures, even if I'm going to paint them I will first treat it with some stain and then if I want a peeled paint affect, the stain will show through as worn wood under the paint.
  8. kgstakes
    As I’ve been reading many builds I see some of you are model railroaders as well. I’ll keep this short and sweet. i wanted some way to keep my railroad from getting dusty and also a better lighting system than just room lights. I want to operate at “night time” as well. Here was my solution — a shadow box.
  9. kgstakes
    I’d leave it the way it is. The only people that will notice or comment on that small part of the car, are the people you point it out to 😀. Honestly, never noticed it till you pointed that out to me. Had to go back and see what you were talking about. As for the extra part oops but don’t worry about it. Looks great the way it is. I’ve found that if I go back to fix something I make it worse than if I never touched it. Leave it the way it is. we all know where we could of done better but man that car is perfect in my mind. Again, great job !! Impressed to say the least.
  10. kgstakes
    So basically paint everything that needs to be painted but tone the colors down a bit. Basically what I would call “light weathering”. Still see the colors but “faded just a touch”. Am I understanding you correctly? More or less?
  11. kgstakes
    Like I do on my model railroad layout. See picture
  12. kgstakes
    This isn't a kit. I took full size plans and scaled it all down to 3"=1' made my own materials list. Followed the plans (somewhat) and basically built it from scratch.
  13. kgstakes
    Here is the finished Roll Top Desk. Questions?? I'll try to answer them and include photos.
  14. kgstakes
    Then comes the handles and cubbies inside (make what you want). Finish sand everything and stain and finish to suit. I will mention here that all of my tenons I used a sled on my table saw and made multiple passes to get the size tenon I wanted. Dado set would be nice. Anyway, here is a picture of my sled on my table saw. Love to put the video of how I do them on here but not sure how or if we can.
  15. kgstakes
    Next comes the tambor. Luckily when I was working in a cabinet shop and done a few full size ones for myself, I knew how these tricky things go together. To make the tambor, I would route a bullnose on a large piece of wood and then set my table saw up to rip the piece off the thickness I wanted for the tambor pieces. And do this over and over and over and over, you get the idea until you have enough strips for the tambor plus a little. Then take some (for the model) some very light cloth. spray contact adhesive on it and lay out all the tambor pieces and spray the back of them as well. (tip: tape all the tambor pieces right side up and then flip to spray contact adhesive). When you can touch it and not "sticky" very carefully lay the tambor pieces on the cloth and use a roller to get good adhesion. then trim to fit and there you go. (more or less). Should of taken pictures of this whole operation but I'm sorry I didn't. Just the finished result.
  16. kgstakes
    At this point, you pretty much have a completed desk. Almost.
  17. kgstakes
    Next the the desk top itself. No pictures of it just glue stock up and size and then round over the edges and same as all the others (bullnose). Then comes the tricky part. And I'll admit, it took me a few attempts to get something to work and that is the sides of the roll top. Not pretty in these pictures but when working with small curves you have to do what you have to do. Besides, in the end most of the "ugly" is hidden with the inside frame work for the cubbies, etc. Also, at this time I made up the back upper panel as well. The panels in the side panels do set in dadoes.
  18. kgstakes
    Next is the drawers (which I'm sorry no pictures of how I built them but I'll try to explain it. The sides and front all have a dado on the bottom edge to accept the bottom. Then the sides have dadoes to accept the back and the drawer front has dadoes on each side to accept the sides. Glue it up and slip the bottom in from back and just glue at the very back of the bottom piece. Floats in all the other dadoes. I have sense made a jig for my table saw to do box joints and that is what I use to build my drawers, boxes, etc. from now on. Will included a picture of the box I made with box joints so show that as well.
  19. kgstakes
    Next is assembling the drawer stacks for the back panel and front "skirt" (the curved piece in front that you put your feet under) -- where you sit. The back of the drawer stacks (outside) panels have a dado down the back to accept the back panel. Sorry some of these pictures have my other 1/12th scale miniatures to show the scale of the desk. Have to mention here, before assembly, I routed all the edges that would be shown to form a bullnose (complete round over edge). Hope that makes sense.
  20. kgstakes
    Next is assembling the drawer stacks. The frames in one of the pictures are to separate each drawer and to keep them from tipping when you open a drawer.
  21. kgstakes
    Next is gluing all the panels and frames for the panels together. No glue for the panels they just "float" in the dadoes.
  22. kgstakes
    First thank you all for commenting on my desk. Greatly appreciated. Some asked if I would do a build log on how I built the desk. I have pictures of some of the steps I did to build it but I also have a short video of how I did the mortise and tenon joint on my tablesaw (proxxon -- I know, may be a bad word here but I've been very happy with mine and it's done almost everything my big tablesaw can). Anyway, getting off track. First pictures are of the stiles and rails for the drawer stacks and the back panels.
  23. kgstakes
  24. kgstakes
    Had a challenge from an ole schoolmate to build a rolltop desk. At the time I was posting some of my 1/12 scale furniture on face book. I want to share a few pictures of the rolltop desk I built. I had plans for a fullsize desk so I just scaled it down to the size I wanted. 1/12 scale I felt was too small to do all the dadoes and mortise and tenon construction I wanted. Took me 86 hours to build. I have many pictures of how I built the desk if you want I can do a build log if interested let me know. KG (Kurt) P.S. Which brings me to all you, I wanted or needed another challenge and I never built a ship before so here I am. Learning something every time I come to this forum. Thank you all.
  25. kgstakes
    Thank you !! To everyone on helping me the paint colors for my model. Greatly appreciated. I've also found that artist tube paints are the way to go for my model railroading as well. Those pre made colors can be great for certain things but you all are right mixing your own colors is best. I just didn't know what some of the colors were like that Judea Bitumen never seen or heard of that color before. Also, thought well if the kit says to use this or that color might as well my those colors. But holy cow OcCre paints are expensive. I will definitely look into getting those books and also look up the other information everyone suggested. Thanks again. KG (Kurt)

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