SkerryAmp

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
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
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!!

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
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
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!!

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
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
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!!

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)

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
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
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 after much debate with myself, ultimately losing I decided to go out on a limb and throw this out to the masses.
 
I have seen many people ask here on the forums, and I personally have been asked by friends of mine, some variation of - what is a good entry level wooden ship?
 
When I worked in the hobby store, the answer was easy – not personally having built them myself I had to go by the marketing materials and the word of the ship builders who came through.    When I got into the hobby myself last spring I leveraged that information as well as the write ups of various ships to decide ultimately on the Phantom.
 
However, after building the phantom and now working on a few other models I find myself sometimes wondering myself, when that question is asked, what is a good starter ship model?
 
I had been debating on bringing this up here, just for general conversation as I don’t think there truly is a “correct” answer, but the opinions would be interesting I think.
 
Where I kind of found myself drifting towards is that there really isn’t an easy answer to that question.  After answering it to some degree in another thread earlier today I decided what the heck, let’s bring it up and see what sticks!
 
Here is where my thoughts on the matter tend to circulate.
 
In the plastic world you have a box of parts and those parts, with zero modification, create a rough model of the box art.  You can in some cases (snap together) create something with zero tools and zero experience.  You can, of course, get more expensive detailed kits but still in most cases the parts in the box will assemble as is to create what it is you are after.  The difficulty of plastic comes in when you start adding glue or when you decide to go for it and craft aftermarket parts etc. to add to the existing model. So there is a curve, but in many ways it is a voluntary one.
 
Wooden ship models are very much not the case.   You cannot (as far as I can tell) open a wooden ship kit and create a model of the ship on the box with the parts in the box as is.  It isn’t even an option.   I remember joking about it when I opened up that Phantom.  I was staring at a bunch of wood with a handful of prefabbed parts. 
 
So this is where my thinking that there really isn’t such a thing as “entry level” model ship kits.  By default, the model ship world starts you at advanced.   I have seen people marvel at scratch building, and oh my there are some incredible masters of it that scratch build from front to back and top to bottom .  However, I think some people do themselves an injustice in not believing that they themselves have scratch built something on their ship.   Whether it is a door way, a hatch, a wheel house or a mast; everything about model ship building is about taking one thing and making it into something else so as to fit the rest of the things to make a ship.
 
I think with wooden ships you start at advanced and go up from there.  I think when we talk about “difficulty” in wooden ships it isn’t so much what you have to do, but how much of it you have to do.  The skills come with the practice of what is done; learning how to plank properly, learning how to lay a deck, rig a mast, mount a cannon etc.  The difficulty and challenge is how much planking has to be done, how much detail is in place, how many lines have to be rigged and the pattern or how many tree nails have to be done, sails etc.
 
Please do not get me wrong, I am not in any way saying that everyone who builds wooden ships are at the same skill level, trust me I look at my work and then at others and it is painfully obvious I have a way to go. 
 
What I am suggesting is that newcomers to the hobby should not steer away from things because they are “advanced” looking or complicated because in reality whether it is a small boat like the phantom or a huge boat like the MS Constitution, you are using the same sets of skills and doing the same activities just more of it on one than on the other?
 
I can see the phantom being beginner due to quicker turnaround time, easier to “get one under the belt” maybe.  But after building the phantom and realizing it may be smaller but there was a lot more to it than what I expected.   The Harriet Lane, also listed as an entry level, seems to have a level of complexity that may initially shock someone who picked it up thinking entry level in a different way than the model ship world does.
 
I have done the Phantom (a solid hull) and worked on the hull of the Willie L Bennett (planked) and the Mayflower (planked) and I personally think planking was easier than the solid hull!
 
I truly hope I am getting this question out correctly,  as I have said I have debated it back and forth so many times in my head because I think it is a more complex answer than – This one or That one.
Now, this does not include built from plans type ship building, which is a whole different ball game.  
 
This is primarily in regards to kits.
 
Maybe a lot of this comes from what my expectations were of “Starter” versus advanced.  The Phantom was a challenge, again coming from the world of pre-formed parts.
 
Having only been at this just over a year just has me philosophizing over wooden ship building in general.   Looking at the builds and the people around here just got me to thinking; there really isn’t an entry level wooden ship builder. 
 
By default it is an advanced hobby.
 
Is the advancedness of  a particular model  in the kit? 
Or in the builder?
Or in both?
 
What do you guys think?  (And if you think I am just out of control, feel free to say so – I can take it; sometimes my mind goes weird places and the Admiral has to reel me back in)
 
Thanks for taking the time to indulge my random rambling.
 
Enjoy!!
-Adam

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....

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!!!

Continuation.
The first deck bow.
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Visible on components are glued together.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Arrived a few new parts.
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

Fun with nails continues. So it looks like before sanding and blackening.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

Pre-drilled holes for nails across the inner hull already laid out.
The model is in the yard immobilized rubber bands. The entire interior trim was pretty much wet water.Model now will stand for some time to dry.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elements of the lower deck and main deck, ready.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

At the request of fellow forum MSW few more pictures.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

I dont know the words for it in Polisch or Englisch so I do it in Dutch. Onvoorstelbaar mooi!

I graduated from the internal stack to the height of the deck boards.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

Continued work.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

Elements of the box ready for mortar positions. The picture made ​​together, not glued.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

Continued work on the inner hull plating.
 
 

 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

I did board the tow mortars.
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

Continued work.
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
The whole process of this model is described at this address:
 
http://www.koga.net....php?f=7&t=45782
 
on Polish modeling forum "Koga"

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!!!!
 
 

Great Stuff!!!

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!!!!