Mike Y

Kurt, for the next few years it would be still in the building jig, at least until I plank it and install some deck framing. Too risky to remove until then, the hull will get skewed and frames will go out of alignment. When in the jig, the keel is hanging in the air, and the hull is fixed in place by gluing frame tops to the jig. For example, you can see it on this photo: https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/7297-oliver-cromwell-by-mike-y-148-1777-pof-hahn-style/&do=findComment&comment=436953

But if we just speculate and throw ideas around - I was thinking about a small building slip, like it was in real shipyards (wooden blocks and slippers under the keel). And a tiny supporting structure (not sure what is the name of it) on the planked side of the hull, that follows the shape of the hull underside. No supports on the bare-frames side. To make it work and avoid tipping over, planned to use magnets - one glued in between the frames, hidden under the planking, another is embedded into the supporting structure.

Here is an example from the maritime museum in Hamburg. With magnets, there should be enough support even without these tall vertical timbers that "hug" the entire hull.

This is just a plan so far, but since magnets will be totally invisible - I will glue them in strategic places just in case, maybe they will become useful later.

Magnet mount will also make it very easy to get the model out of the case, which necessary to show the model where two sides are very different (I will leave one side fully bare, and one side fully planked).

Totally agree re knife, but secondary bevels are typically for chisels and plane blades - they have a larger contact surface when sharpening.

And there are way too many sharpening methods, all of them yielding a similar quality results So many personal preferences! 

Carl, Grant, Lou, Brian, thanks for the comments!  They are all passed to the Builder In Charge, and stimulate her to learn English faster, to be able to use The Internets and communicate with other people. She will have enough opportunities to see the rude and shady sides of the internet, but it is good to show the bright and kind communities as well!

Lou, please do not use this log as a reference though, I am doing some shortcuts where needed, not following the instructions precisely (just looking into the pictures). So, as you see, some mistakes were already made. Phoenix is the same kind of construction, as I understand - so it is a really good kit, hope you will like it!

Thanks everybody! I hope the recipients of the gifts will appreciate them. And promising myself "no more side projects until the display case is finished, and then - work on the internal planking of the hull!"

Kurt, I sliced the first log into small planks, planning to plank the "floor" of the display case with them, in diagonal pattern. This wood is too soft and grainy to be used on a model (no surprise), but I hope the colour will look good. Haven't tried to apply finish to it yet, the thin planks are drying and waiting for their turn. 

21 hours ago, Gaetan Bordeleau said:

Also it would be difficult to recreate a perfectly aligned bevel each time.

That is what the jig is helping to solve. I have a simpler Veritas sharpening jig, but even a simpler version works perfectly. The sharpening time decreased significantly. 

It significantly reduces the surface that needs to be sharpened. Instead of a full surface of a blade contacting the sharpening stone, only a tiny strip in the front contacts it. Hence sharpening takes much less time. 

Rough sketch, red is the part that is actually sharpened and contacts the sharpening medium:

Maybe there are more benefits.

Going back to the Oliver Cromwell's case - the last set of sticks is done. These are the top ones, that are a bit tricky.

These pieces are right on the viewing angle (or a bit above), so I tried to make them as thin as possible. A the same time, they should not sag.

To make them stiffer, I added a boxwood strip that joins them tightly, adds a bit of T-profile and ensures proper alignment:

LED strip is mounted on a 45 degree angle, facing the inner side of the case:

There would be two strips running in parallel, one on top of the case, one in the bottom. Testing both:

The strips are pretty high quality, so hope it would be ok!

Planning to finish the glue-up and assembly after the holidays

This log was quiet for a while, but I have a number of excuses:

These are various Christmas gifts The "4-in-a-row" game took a lot of time to make (especially without a drill press):

This is a turned pen & pencil set (spalted olive and wenge), made for my father who loves writing. In a click-to-open box (two kinds of walnut, swiss pear inside, brass pins):

Magnetic key racks. They are made of a pretty interesting walnut plank following the grain pattern , one ended up looking like a fish. This was not the intention, but this fish was just hiding there  Milling the magnet slots was quite tricky, because the "wall" thickness should be around 0.5-0.8mm to make sure the magnet is close enough to key ring to hold it securely, and walnut is quite fragile on that thickness. One tiny measurement mistake - and the whole thing would be ruined. I ruined one, made a mistake when counting mill rotations:

Two other surived:

And some cheese boards are also cut following the grain, kinda fish-like as well:

Are you sure it is not basswood? Sounds similar, so these words could be confused. On your photos it looks like basswood or similar - cuts easily, but quite fluffy and soft. Even adding a profile / moulding to it is hard on our scale, if you look for a good result.

Lou, the deck is pre-cut, with individual planks cut off, but the entire deck is still tied together by few connecting tabs.

Out of the box it also have a pretty consistent gaps between the planks that should look nice. 

The planks are actually separated, these lines are cut all the way through the wood (very thin wood though):

Kit designer made a really nice thing - you can disassemble the deck and glue each plank individually, or you can just treat it as one big part, gluing the entire deck in one go.

We will try to do exactly that, the end result will be better and the satisfaction would be higher. Daria will need to show a lot of patience to fine fit the deck so it sits without any gaps, and this patience would be rewarded by a beautiful deck in one go. Otherwise it will take at least a few months, and the result would not be as good (spacing, alignment, glue squeezing out, etc).

Thanks for the comments!

The scarf joints were already laser cut in the kit, so we just managed to not break them

Mumin, ha, that is a nice catch! Hard to imagine how these could be used for forming, considering the curved shape. Anyway, they look interesting enough comparing to the other side, which is just plain and have no "notches". 

Amalio, are you applying any finish? Oil? Varnish? It looks like a natural wood!

This pen drill is nice, but still too long for confined spaces (like inside the hull).

Is there anything better than this ugly hack I was forced to make using the cheapest parts available?

I am pretty sure that there are smaller motors available, and batteries could be wrapped around it, keeping the body short.

Would be probably easier to keep them on the angle that they already have from the factory (since these are fancy chisels, chances are they are properly sharpened already), adding a secondary bevel of 2 degrees or so.

Changing the angle will require to remove a lot of material, and the reason is unclear

Fantastic curves!

Heh, thanks for the comments, she is blushing as usual

So far the nail polish does not prevent her from building, so hope these two aspects will co-exist later in her life. You never know until you try!

Toady we worked on some really fiddly bits - "waterways" made of super thin veneer. The kit have some truly impressive laser cut details (even scarf joints are represented, and the deck planking is quite realistic), but the details are sooo thin.. 

There was some "sanding to fit" and removing the laser cut tabs. None of the parts got broken!

Fixing the scarf joint with a masking tape, cutting off unnecessary tape with xacto blade:

Fiddly bits prepared for glue-up:

Gluing together - extra pair of hands if very helpful, we can apply twice the amount of glue before it starts to dry! 

Waterways in place. Next is the deck that should be sanded to fit between those:

The progress is very slow - we are making lots of Christmas gifts, this year more or less nothing is bought in stores (apart from materials and components for the gifts).

But there is some quality increase - Daria insisted that I let her use Dremel (sanding drum mode), and proved that she is capable of controlling it with a steady hand. I was so proud! It was a fairing of an inside curve, not a very easy thing to do, requires accuracy. She did it perfectly, I am a happy dad

Dremel Micro is very balanced, so even a child can control it without a lot of efforts. 

The end result looks pretty ok:

31 minutes ago, ragove said:

Does anyone know the size of the nuts and bolts included with this jig? I wanted to substitute some thumb screws, wing nuts and some longer bolts.  I thought they were #10-32 but that doesn't seem to work. I am guessing that they are metric.

The theory sounds plausible, considering that the jig is designed and/or produced in Poland

Hmm, the downdraft table sounds like a great idea! Thanks Rusty, off to make some sketches, will try to integrate it into my table top. Be right back!

Black tissue paper, perforated with a sharp blade for better glue penetration and reinforced with boxwood treenails worked fine for me, no joints ever came apart (and I did some tests, could not break them by hand). But without perforation and/or treenails it would be really weak indeed.

Nice to see you finally making sawdust!

Great log, and a very impressive model! Love the wood selection and colours, finish, well, everything!

Looks fantastic when finished and in the case, you definitely have a really good taste!

It was a pleasure to read, and I definitely picked up few useful methods. Thank you!

Taking it very seriously - sometimes I was getting a sour throat and some coughing after sanding pear. Plus a layer of fine dust around the "workshop" (which is in the corner of the living room). Being in the corner also means that the airflow and natural ventilation is quite bad. During a summer I am trying to sand on a balcony, but that is not always possible. 

So I started using medium level respirator masks, they do make a difference: http://www.axminster.co.uk/jsp-typhoon-fold-flat-valved-respirators-ax956169

But then I also bought a vac. Not a shop vac (these beasts are ungodly loud, my neighbours will be really upset), but a decent household grade vac with a "silence" in its name: https://www.clasohlson.com/se/Dammsugare-Bosch-GL-40-ProSilence-BGL4SIL69D/44-1868

To make sure that neighbours are not disturbed - I typically put it on an anti-vibration rubber mat.

It works great! The power is more than enough for all my tools, and I rarely crank it up to maximum (because of the noise when the airflow goes through a small dust port in some proxxon tools). It typically runs on some medium speed. 

After a year of active use, there is no sign of dust getting inside the vac mechanisms - it is clean as new, everything is trapped in a bag and HEPA filter.

The bag lasts for quite a long time - most of the volume is taken by shavings from planer or hand planing, and these I usually swipe away and vaccuum what's left. The main job if the vac is to capture a fine dust that would otherwise end up everywhere in the room and inside your lungs. So far I only used three bags, which is nothing.

Since it is quiet - I always use it while sanding, just placing the vac hose next to the piece. The airflow is very good, and all that nasty tiny particles are sucked right in. 

This year I was also doing a lot of small-scale woodworking, cutting a lot of wood on a maximum capacity of my tools. That produced way more dust then cutting tiny bits for the model. And the vac shows no sign of issues.

Also I forgot the last time I wiped the dust from the surfaces around the table. There is no fine dust in the air anymore. 

So do we really need a shop vac, if we are talking about ship modelling? Sounds more like a tradition, or a bad experience with cheap vacs that overheat and die after 30min of running. Modern household vacs are doing the same job, while being smaller and way quieter.

Fiddly bits! Amazing!

Switched to scalpel blades for cutting based on multiple advices on MSW, and never look back.

Though Excel blade #10 is just perfect for scraping! Just the right profile and stiffness. Lasts forever for scraping, no nicks. I have a feeling that after scraping in one direction there is a burr on the edge of the blade - then you just scrape in another direction and it works great  Alternating directions also moves the burr from one side to another.

It is a relief to know that you are not leaving the hobby! Hope that means that Speedwell model and a book is coming sooner?

And I am lucky to have some hard currency - PE set for the Swan class  Guess it will only grow in value over time!