SkerryAmp

'tis just a scratch.........just a reminder to follow protocol....       good to see some progress my friend!  she's really looking good 

Thank you sir!  It was indeed just a scratch - have had and am sure will have worse - I am a klutz after all!!!

Really nice job Eric,  I like the effect of the nails through the color as yo mentioned - looks great!  I know this is your first kit - but wouldn't know it!!

I'm adding your syren to my follow list - I have one myself, sitting on the shelf and will stay there for now - partly because of other kits to get done first but mainly out of fear!!! =)

Great job - keep er going!!!

with me,  I tend to build the type of ships I like..........but since I started to go rogue with the kits,  I've gotten into modifying and scratch building.  this has been a good.....and bad thing,  because of all the crazy ideas that have popped into my head.  but,  it's led to some really cool builds.   as long as I'm having fun,  I'm happy 

Some amazing builds you mean    Keep on keeping on Popeye - your scratch builds are a thing of inspiration!

Whatever strikes my fancy - which is not necessarily a good thing as it does help to support build a.d.d  but it does make things interesting.

Perhaps it is eaiser with me to say what makes me not build a kit - or rule it out.  Size and cost.

Wow a little deja vu!   The mayflower is drying, football on the T.V  - so,  let's finish off the re-planking on the Santa Maria.  

Finished off laying the new deck planks, marking the lines, dotting the nails and then after some trials went with a 4:1 Natural / Golden Oak Deck Staining.  Much lighter, and I think much much better!!!!

(That other one was VERY dark!!)

I need to make the plank lines and nails a bit better/cleaned up and darker on the stern but will get to that once the stain dries a bit more!

Well, games are over for the night so off I go

Tomorrow is another day!

It's great to see you back at the bench, Adam.   Mayflower is looking great.  As for the blood.. as long as it's nothing serious requiring stitches, that ok.  I think every ship that's ever been built has DNA on it somewhere.

Thanks Mark,  yeah - I kind of considered the cut a "Welcome Back" present - a quick reminder of what was to come

Hi Adam, I just got to catch up on your log. I've seen the Mayflower several times over the years....your's looks better than the real thing. Nice job. Glad to see they're restoring it during the off seasons at Mystic Seaport. The ship was starting to look pretty ragged. Look forward to you joining The Morgan Club someday.

John

Thanks John,  I am looking forward to the Morgan - visiting the ship was a great experience since the only ship I have been on is the Mayflower (that I can remember that is). I was on the Conny when I was very young so don't remember much of anything,  strange thing is the Conny is closer to me and still have not made it back down.   The Morgan though looks VERY interesting now, ahem - once my current armada is caught up that is!

Using the sliders I linked we found they were a hair wide, so we had to take down each drawer and modify the back front and bottom just a hair to bring the sides in a smidgen to make up for the width.

Other versions or brands of runners may be different of course.

I have several builds going on at once but only build on one at a time - if that makes sense.  I tend to keep the paperwork, notes and what not for each kit in their respective boxes and the small parts boxes stacked up on one of bench shelves.  The wood tends to get mixed into general population and pulled out as necessary.  Some wood I have swapped out for aftermarket lumber so the originals turn into spare.  The builds themselves are lined up in a row on my top shelf with the active build on the bench.   As I hit a point where my build attention deficit kicks in I cycle one off the bench and another on.  Sometimes it is when I do a little on one and it is drying but don't want to stop building so that will cycle another one in and around etc.

WOuld have had them much further along and done if life choices didn't strand me on shore leave for the better part of a year, but they are back in action once again!

(Trust me , my wife looks and shakes her head quite often at the kits inevitably muttering a casual, understanding but meangingful "you aren't getting any more kits until one of these is done...right?"  to which I nod yes.... my nod says yes,  but my eye say....muah ha ha ha ha ha ha)

Hey All,

So one thing that I managed to accomplish while being out of pocket and away from the shipyard for so long was to tackle a problem with my workbench that had always bugged me.

The bench I had picked up was this one from harbor freight

It is a great bench if you are not familiar with it and probably one of the best purchases I have made.  The trouble I had with it was the drawers.  They don't open up quite all the way.  This leaves a very shallow access to the drawer and with small tools or fiddly bits it was too easy for things to get hung up in the back.  My hands just didn't like trying to dig around back there so it limited my use of the drawers.

This is a pic of the drawer as it comes

However, after looking over the bench and consulting with my father who I had gotten the same bench for and had the same issue, he came up with an idea that was far to simple in it's concept we both couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.

Replace the runners.

So we purchased some runners from amazon,  these runners to be precise

And when we replaced the stock runners with the above sliders...walla!!

We had full extension drawers.

They handle a nice load on the drawer, slide in and out quite smoothly and make the drawer 100% useful.  Now, there were some minor (very minor) modifications that had to be made to the drawers due to the depth difference of the runners, but a quick shave on the drawers and we were in business.

Here is a side by side for ya

Granted, not a huge discovery but I thought it neat enough and useful enough to share with ya all, maybe someone else can make use of it.

Enjoy!!

So, spent some time at the bench - boy did that feel good!

When we last left our hero there was a mast!!

Wish I could say something profound or had some really cool step by step things to share but was so happy to be working with wood again just went to it and now we have...

3....3 masts  ah ha ha ha ha

Of course it wouldn't be back to business as usual without an injury - first day back at the bench and got my thumb with the xacto - OUCHIE...but hey,  finished them masts!!!!

Bruce, your CW is coming right along and right along very nicely.   I have recently gained an appreciation for that ship and will be taking it on myself at some point.  Great to have a few logs to go by when I do and yours will be one of them for certain =)

Nice work!

Really like the look of the framed models, adds a whole new level of complexity and authenticity to.

Enjoying this build quite a bit!

nice work!

Congrats on the new work!

And planks is planks - each one is one less to be done later!!

Great Stuff!!!

I think everything is coming together nicely!

That was such a fantastic log to follow,  not only detailed work but detailed description and an incredible final project.

Congratulations on one HELL of a beautiful ship - amazing!!

Looking great Larry!   Love the colorful builds - need to find one myself someday.

The mast footing bit, while I didn't run into a footing (since the one I finished didn't have footings per say) I did have an over-sized hole for the mast and basically did what you mentioned.   Fill it a bit, insert mast - find proper rake and brace it in place until it set up.

Having a footing piece you may be able to just shim it a bit and avoid the permanency of epoxy unitl you get it just right then set it up once in position.

I still cannot wrap my head around the skill necessary to do what you are doing.  Such an incredible looking piece of work and such work going into the incredible looking piece.

Just amazing man, just simply amazing....

Continues to be an incredible project!

Love the whaleboats - they are done up very similarly to the mayflowers, you did a great job with them.  Inspiring seeing them actually go together correctly (considering mine my wife lovingly referred to as the mayflowers giant peanut.. needless to say it is not on the ship =) ).

Went to see the Morgan this past week - it was an experience and adds a bunch as I read back through your adventure building it!

Fantastic work!

Augie, ever so humble - from where I sit you certainly deserve the praise - that is such an incredibly looking model.  The detail, cleanliness and tightness is really coming together to make work of awesomeness (yes that is a word, I say so).

Carry on - loving it!!!

Really looking sharp Popeye - the color choices are fantastic and the little details are making it awesome!

Max, that build really is coming along incredibly well.  Great attention to detail and love the additions and modifications from the kit you are using to break it out of the kit build and into something truly fantastic.

I am looking forward to when MS releases the plank on frame version of this kit - may have to steal some of your ideas =)

thank you for doing this - there is a lot of information here

My pleasure;  I can't contribute much in the way of advice yet so this is my way of contributing what I can for a great site!

Thanks for the looks and the likes

Hi there! You going to be adding Aeropiccola and other defunct kit builders so that we might also seek out some old out of production kits?

I have toyed with the idea of defunct kits and companies - that would be another effort I am afraid as it is a bit more open ended and harder to track down. Not out of  the question, but lower in the priorities at the moment.  Sorry

Adam,    We all know that the only way to avoid mistakes, to say nothing of criticism, is to do nothing.  I think what you are doing is a great service to the model community and i, for one, appreciate it, expect to benefit from it and don't much care it it is not "perfect", whatever that means, since that is an entirely subjective term anyway.  Thanks for doing it.

Thanks Fred, I appreciate that!  Very much so and you are very welcome

A disclaimer in a footer on each page should free the website and developer from legal issues.

Yeah, probobly a good idea, I agree =)

Please check the entry for the "Wasa" from Billing Boats, the nation is Swedish not Swiss.

Yep - my mistake and will fix it when I get back in there, thanks!

Great job. One mistake I found: the WASA is swedish not swiss.....

Yeah, there are a few of those - I have no idea what I was thinking; will be addressing those =)

This may be a very stupid question .

I have been searching the Ship Kit Database  and every ship shows that the page is under construction

Are there ANY ships that have any real information in it???

 

What am I doing wrong??

Nothing at all, right now the details are on the main page;  those pages with the overworked cat will be where the information is moved to in order to clean up the wall of information on the search list.

Hi SkerryAmp,

 

Brilliant concept well executed.

 

I am a SQL and VB programmer so if need any help just shout.

 

Have just discoverd MSW now and your datbase was my first port of call.

 

Keep up the good work

 

Mick

I will keep you in mind =)   My first order of business when i get back to it is moving it to MVC, I think it will help maintaining and updating it much much easier!!  But definately may tap you for some database advice- not my strongest point and am sure I will run into a few what the heck situations =)