jud

Like your 25 cent opinion Dave.
jud.

wefalck, how do you get along with 2 bits, 4 bits or 6 bits ? Most in this country will give you a blank look if you start using that method of describing coinage, yet many were using that method when I was younger..
jud

Modelet's Myrphy law: if particular piece is more smaller and more complicated, be sure that there are much more than a several of them
 

Been looking at those combo  Shear, Break an roller presses. Harbor freight has one for less than $400 that will shear and bend 30" wide 20 Gage steel, rollers are 1 1/2" so that is as smallest size you can roll anything, be it wire or sheet. Do know where one is that was never used. The owner passed on, but I have been avoiding descending on his widow like a vulture, but boy, he had a lot of nice tools and machine shop equipment.
jud

Like your 25 cent opinion Dave.
jud.

wefalck, how do you get along with 2 bits, 4 bits or 6 bits ? Most in this country will give you a blank look if you start using that method of describing coinage, yet many were using that method when I was younger..
jud

Like your 25 cent opinion Dave.
jud.

Jud, for two bits I'll jump in. Just remember there are two kinds of countries in the world. Those on the metric system and those who have walked on the moon (PURELY IN JEST!)
I like both systems.
 
Dave B

wefalck, how do you get along with 2 bits, 4 bits or 6 bits ? Most in this country will give you a blank look if you start using that method of describing coinage, yet many were using that method when I was younger..
jud

Imperial was fine growing up, but did not like the fractions even if working with them is not a problem to me. Then I learned about using decimal feet, which is my preference today, like it for the same reasons noted about the advantages of the metric system, base 10. Have no trouble with metric other than  today when working on equipment when both metric and imperial sizes are use for fasteners on the same machine, autos being the worst, need two sets of tools to work on many of them. Converting some plans I received a few days ago to cad, WW2 design so feet, inches and fractions of an inch are used, they get converted to decimal feet quickly.
jud

Been looking at those combo  Shear, Break an roller presses. Harbor freight has one for less than $400 that will shear and bend 30" wide 20 Gage steel, rollers are 1 1/2" so that is as smallest size you can roll anything, be it wire or sheet. Do know where one is that was never used. The owner passed on, but I have been avoiding descending on his widow like a vulture, but boy, he had a lot of nice tools and machine shop equipment.
jud

Imperial was fine growing up, but did not like the fractions even if working with them is not a problem to me. Then I learned about using decimal feet, which is my preference today, like it for the same reasons noted about the advantages of the metric system, base 10. Have no trouble with metric other than  today when working on equipment when both metric and imperial sizes are use for fasteners on the same machine, autos being the worst, need two sets of tools to work on many of them. Converting some plans I received a few days ago to cad, WW2 design so feet, inches and fractions of an inch are used, they get converted to decimal feet quickly.
jud

The French use metric now, but in my clock repair days, old French movements were stamped with the pendulum length - in Pouce & Ligne.
 

Been looking at those combo  Shear, Break an roller presses. Harbor freight has one for less than $400 that will shear and bend 30" wide 20 Gage steel, rollers are 1 1/2" so that is as smallest size you can roll anything, be it wire or sheet. Do know where one is that was never used. The owner passed on, but I have been avoiding descending on his widow like a vulture, but boy, he had a lot of nice tools and machine shop equipment.
jud

Well I went and bought me a rolling mill so I would not have to pester a friend who had a bead roller I have used. Used for what you ask?  A rolling mill purpose is to flatten soft wire, brass, copper, soft mild steel, even aluminium. The rolls are adjustable so one can get different widths and thicknesses for each gauge of wire. The flattened wire can then be used for a number of things like, mast bands, straps. hinges and more.
The rolling mill I purchased is one of their economy models (lowest cost ) and weighs 50 plus pounds. It is about 8.5 x 8.5 x 12" with handle.Granted you can make alot of flatten wire in a short time and will not have to use this tool often. But hey you know how us model builders like "Toys=Tools " Here is a sample of flattened wire. Here are some bands I have made for a project.

My old ship the USS John F Kennedy CVA-67 is to be a museum in Newport, RI within the next year or so. I was stationed for her 2nd cruise in 69 to the Med. At the time, the newest and the biggest. She was retired in 2007 as the last oil burner. She was supposed to be nuke, but McNamara cut the funds so she was converted to an oil burner. She never was right, always had a list to stbd and had to keep enough fuel on board for ballast to keep her level. Museum is a better option than our sister ship the USS America CVA-66 she was sunk and is now a reef off of Florida.
 
John (EM2)

I removed the forward spar deck supports today and it looks like I caused no damage other than a gun port lid being knocked off (already glued on again). I will paint the bulwark when I mix the same color for the underside of the beams. As expected - I lost 1 pound of sweat carefully guiding the Dremel cutter blade so close to the gun deck and its rigging. With this step behind me I am now free to finalize fitting the partially completed beams to the model and then place the beam side supports (knees), paint the structure, and then work on securing them to the underside of the spar deck waterway lip. I hope to get the camboose and the manger finished as these other elements are taking shape. I will be adding a cable messenger as well.
 

In another accident, the NOTS RUR-4 Weapon Alpha rocket-boosted depth charge projector misfired, with one warhead falling back onto the 01 deck and killing a seaman below
  Called Hedge Hogs, the modernized Fletcher's had two mounts on the 01 lever just under and ahead of the bridge wing near where 40MM twins once resided, it was the gun crews from the 3" 50 Mounts between the stacks that maned the Hedge Hogs during ASW operations. The USS Ammen fired two racks  of live Hedge Hogs during one exercise, 2 at a time, one Port and One Starboard, I was a crew member of the Starboard mount. One of those Hedge Hog's propelling charge was bad,  it did not deliver a full charge and spewed unburned powder all over the deck. The Spigots Racks were rotated outboard, which allowed the the thing to fall outboard of the ship, didn't miss by much, but it missed. Being live, had it hit, it might have gone off in spite of the built in safeties in the fuze. I trusted those built in safeties then, learned later that they did fail.  Had one fail when a 40 MM projectile exploded  just clear the bore, WW2 ammo in RVN. The case was also split which resulted in  broken  the extractors. I shifted guns, a twin mt and only using one gun, and continued firing our support mission. You guessed it, USS Harnett County, the advar shows the gun mount, it was the right gun.
jud   

The answer will be different between those who served aboard, those who restored, visitor with interest or family member that had been aboard then the general public. The general public, having no personnel or family member with interest in the vessel will usually choose cheap and seldom will visit a museum ship unless they were killing time and she was handy. The ships I rode were WW2 vessels, all had been mothballed and returned to service when the need was there. Today's Navy should not sell any ship for scrap, if not needed, they should go through a yard period to bring them up to service standards and then mothballed with all the equipment, spare parts etc. aboard that are required to operate the ship, keep them whole and together for at least another 20 years, then consider turning her over to a museum, upgrading if the hull is sound, if not, strip her of equipment to be made available to the fleet, then make a reef out of the hull.
jud

The answer will be different between those who served aboard, those who restored, visitor with interest or family member that had been aboard then the general public. The general public, having no personnel or family member with interest in the vessel will usually choose cheap and seldom will visit a museum ship unless they were killing time and she was handy. The ships I rode were WW2 vessels, all had been mothballed and returned to service when the need was there. Today's Navy should not sell any ship for scrap, if not needed, they should go through a yard period to bring them up to service standards and then mothballed with all the equipment, spare parts etc. aboard that are required to operate the ship, keep them whole and together for at least another 20 years, then consider turning her over to a museum, upgrading if the hull is sound, if not, strip her of equipment to be made available to the fleet, then make a reef out of the hull.
jud

“...Sobbing, Sam took another step..." 
 
This time, without "sobbing"
 

 
C-plans analyze finished, all drawn elements incorporated in my sketch 
 
Now, harder part - photos, all of them - researching, spotting, recognition and locating eventually missing deck content. All my photos are organized in several folders:
 
DECKS with subfolders ​FORE DECK MAIN DECK AFT DECK ​MASTING AND RIGGING (for now without sub folders ) OUTSIDE with subfolders ​BOW BOARDSIDE STERN Problem is in fact that, even main content of singular photo matches it`s containing sub folder, it is quite sure that in background or in corner of some photo you can notice and find something interesting somewhere, so all photos have to be carefully seen. Particulary Lou`s set of photos
 
Addendum
 
Now is 21:45 PM, and all the images are viewed, all hekping plans I have are also researched, and my drawing sketch had minor update
 
Couple of remarks
 
On some pictures you can find buckets here and there. On some pictures, anchor chain enters chain pipe, on some it is packed next to fore hatch. It is sure I can not find all eye-bolts and similar parts on main deck, but rigging will show if anything miss. Also, spare masts and yards are presented in different combinations. On some pictures, can be found big ventilation pipe next to fore deck. Also hatch covers are changing their look. There can be found to more davits: One pair at fore deck - anchor davits, which are not presented now on CS. Also one davit can be found for board side stairs, I assume that it is movable, but I will not make it, because I decided to make variant with full sails, when board stairs are not in function
 
So, I printed my sketch drawings in 1:1 scale on 9 sheets of A4 format, ready to be put together and hanged on door surface in shipyard before my working bench
 

 
If somebody is interested, I`d be glad to share and can send him my email my AI or pdf files with sketch of main deck contents
 
Let`s go to shipyard
 
 
 

I found this article about 1918 Thorneycraft Seaplane Lighter interesting. A far cry from what we have now.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/468761/Last-remaining-World-War-1-aircraft-carrier-lovingly-restored

David B
 

Harnett County LST 821, on a reef in the South China Sea, used as a Philippine military outpost in a increasingly disputed area. Advar is aboard her, 67 or 68 in one of the RVN delta rivers. Other ships I rode, USS Ammen DD 527 and USS Helena CA 75 ended up as scrap, Don't know what happened to the other 2 LSTs or the ships I was aboard for training.
jud

Is the Crain going to still be there tomorrow? Lightboy, USS Clark County LST 601

Thanks Chris and John and for all the likes everyone. At this point I am still looking over the Revel gun deck, the furniture I added, and the best way to fit the beams. I have a plan to secure them better and we will see if it pans out. I have started to think about the color. Although I would love to give this a wood grain look  I believe it will contrast too much with the rest of the build which is chocolate brown. So 2-tone is now my first choice - off white sides and under beams to match the bulwark and brown to match the build on the top of the beams. I am cautiously approaching the need for surgery to remove the Revell spar deck supports as mentioned above. I do not want to rush THIS step and trade it for a MISSTEP.
 
@Chris
Have you continued to progress on your build? You had a great start and I would love to see some of your solutions to this model. "One piece at a time, sweet Jesus" (he sang to the tune of One Day at a Time...