popeye the sailor

I'm working with a new drill bit........slow speed I think will be my best defense when I start the hole. just got done with the work week......felt like hitting the table, but figured I'd better mow the lawn. we're going to have one day of nice weather tomorrow {we had one today, but I was at work}, and then it goes down hill......chilly and rainy first, I gotta replace the bad piece...then I will drill the others. man! I wanna get paint'in thanks for the comments.......I hope to get a little further on this one.

yup...that would have sent me scream'in out of the room they look awesome!

great looking model Danny

hello Brian.........there is a cap that fits over it.......then there is a small structure that sit on the cap. it appears to be a vent of some sort.... I will be assembling it likely in the next session. it was a bit of work, but I like this pattern........too bad the last of these decks will be straight planking. thanks for the good word..........and thanks all for the likes

thank you good sir I already glued them all on though.....but I'll sure try that with the one I will be replacing

I started to assemble the hull towards the end of September. it was actually a very nice treat to find out what the box looked like......I never knew, since I didn't have nay luck the first time I searched. I knew Billing's made a kit of this vessel.......I was even more surprised that there were two kits, instead of one. the kit I'm using, is another old........older kit of the Nordkap. makes one wonder how many of these kits are still in existence, for billing to sell the fitting kit for it. rest assured that there is plenty of building fun to go

looks very good Glenn

you'll find that some kit have parts that appear to be a little out of scale. how the kit is designed, and what the manufacturer keeps in stock as far as fittings go, are just two of the factors. if they had chosen to design this kit in a larger scale, there wouldn't have been as much of an issue. I also mentioned about the thickness of the plywood used to assemble the frame........they could have gauged it down to 1/8th and the construction of the frame would have been strong enough. looking through the logs, you'll see folks replacing parts for something that either more to scale, or looks more like what would be seen on the actual vessel. sounds like you've everything in hand if you find smaller anchors, let me know......20 mm was about the smallest I found too

thanks OC.......once I do all the other stuff, band it, and get a coat or two of lacquer on it, the wood grain should show up nicely. thanks for the good word thanks Pat this one has been in the works for a while now.........do you mean the one I just started? no matter........it's still a treat to kow your following along

chill you guys.....your mak'in me hungry 'an I just ate. for what it's worth.......I don't put anything on my seafood......I want to taste it WOW! your moving quicker on 'er now, or is it me?!?!? both masts.........look'in sweet! 👌

see.....now wasn't that quick with the system I use, I can import the pictures, size them down by 30%, and set them up in a folder. after I'm finished posting them, they go in the main folder for the project, to be stored on a memory stick. the ones I use are 32GB, so there is plenty of room. anyway.........I got half of the deck done. I trimmed it and cut out the stair wells...I still need to do all the slots and holes. then I started on the other end, in a reverse pattern. I had to stain a couple small bunches of plank strips to get the job done. all the edge trimming is done, the single stairwell is done, and I went over the deck with another application of stain to get rid of the nicks. I do around the stair wells and holes later, when they are all punched out. I still need to do the edge banding too........all in good time though I'm getting warmed back up to 'er. more soon.....thanks for the good word all and thanks for the likes!

hello there Mike and Michael........I can't even count how many Michael and Mikes I know I played bass with a fellow named Mike...he had a band called undisturbed earth...................and Michael, well he's my best friend who lives in Florida.......been best buds since elementary school {punched a kid 'cuz he was mak'in fun of 'em...he wears glasses}. yea.....I'm back with 'er on the table....the one in the spare room. .....all because of some spare bits of planking on the table. I was cleaning up the table, so I could do some tracing for some parts........one thing led to another. I'm hoping to get back to 'one armed paper hanger' speed.......I miss the days when a build from start to finish, took months rather than years. but it's not about speed, is it ?!?!?! I got a lot further with the planking of that deck........I'll try to get 'er up here for you folks to see. I like the way it looks enjoy you two and I hope yas follows along

I'll treasure it always

thanks Chris..........I know, I've been neglectful. even though I have a couple of projects that I absolutely need to get done, I will try to at least keep the process going......even if it's a little the admiral's happy too.........hasn't yelled at me lately I did a bit more.......update soon

the boom set up looks really nice...well done on the rigging I'm a clam chowder man myself we went to the seafood festival this year and the admiral was amazed that I didn't eat any I hung around the fried clam hut 👍

for an 'old' structure...still looks really good nice paint job.

there is a bit more to the last I didn't add last night........I must have been in a hurry. I didn't add this picture. here I did some sanding.......more is still needed. the kit came with mahogany planking, which I won't use.......I ordered some Obechi instead. most of the sheets that the part are printed on is mahogany. the deck platform is sheet mahogany, printed with the details for the planking and fixtures. this might be the reason for the problem I've been having. when I built the Nordkap, I intended to plank the deck. along with this, I would have to create parts to overlay the margins along the bulwarks. the deck platforms were of basswood......light colored wood where the printing showed up good enough to be seen using printer paper. I traced the margins and cut them from 1/16 basswood strip. logical, since I planked the deck using 1.5 x 5 mm strip. I never gave a though to thickness, or an alternative to use thin strip instead. here is a picture of the margins I made. not to confuse folks, I will toss in a picture here and there of the Nordkap build to show the differences. I keep thinking to myself that I really should redo the original log, but I've likely forgotten so much and it would be quite an undertaking to do.......it was a huge log I did a separate build log of her on Blogger....if your interested, do a search for 'seymoregutz' and you should find it easily enough. getting back to the problem at hand........there could be other reasons why I was having a hard time in trying to trace the margins. perhaps I was using a paper that wasn't as dense, as what we have now. I dunno..........I did have an idea........tracing paper. I went to the local Wal Greens, but they didn't have any. I went to the local Wal Mart.......they had paper products strewn over four departments....and they didn't have any. we asked some kid to help us, and the 'lil bugger disappeared on us! we ended up at the local Staples and bought the last pack of tracing paper they had. as for the bow and the stern.......there won't be much to see of the bow, as it's a boxed in cabin of sorts. it's mainly for storage and the mechanism for the anchors. the stern will be planked over, since the aft cabin is eliminated and will be open. there will be some major modification for the main cabin structure..........the upper decking will be gone as well. still more parts to be cut out too.....

the next step here, is to fit and install all of the deck beams. following the numbers, they were all cemented into place. two additional part were added to the stern, once the beams were dry. sanding was required to fit them into place. the rest of the sanding can be done when it's time to level the frame for the false deck platforms. stringers were added to the frame. at this time, the bulkheads were checked and adjusted to the upper increments.........53 mm from center to center. a single stringer for the bow, and two running down the sides in the slots provided. when dry, the ends were trimmed........I could leave 'em......but I like a neat job I did some sanding to level the deck frame surface....I still have a bit more to go. besides, I need to go on an errand before that happens not much more to go anyway, before I'm caught up to where I am with the project at this point. see you in the morning

by the 24th of September, almost all of the spacers were in place........the second of the two 50 mm spacers was being put into place. #6 was being cemented in place.........#5 was next.....a slow process. it wasn't to bad keeping the frame on an even keel.......I was using another part of the build slip to keep it perpendicular. there! I said it......Perpendicular..........upright!........not vertically challenged! the rest will be added to the stern stem now. #4 will sit in the notch at the beginning of the stem. I cut another spacer to aide in holding it in place and give the bulkhead a better root. by the end of the day, the rest were in place. they required no special supports to be added. looking down the barrel, all of the bulkheads appear to be fairly straight.

hello OC........this is the type of build slip that Billing Boats sells. it's really not designed for the older kits, but I used it anyway. you may have noticed the one that I assembled the keel on.......that one is home made. I used to make my own slips before I got the one I have now........one board that I have has three different slips on it. it does make life easier welcome aboard ⚓ welcome to the log CDW plenty of room

usually, I'm pretty good with reading Billing's instructions....but I almost made a mistake here. with the first kit, I didn't assemble the hull frame. this is how I got it back in 2010 I brought home a skeleton! pretty comical was the look on the admiral's face. the diagram is a bit blurry..... the increments along the top is 53 mm from bulkhead center to center. that is what I cut the spacers to. this is also what the build slip would look like, using the supplied chocks. looking at the base of the slip, is another bar with a different set of increments.......5 @ 48 mm, 2 @ 50 mm, and 1 @ 48 mm. these are the actual increments that I needed to use. bulkhead #12 was cemented in place, along with a spacer. when #11 was cemented in place, I became suspicious. lining the rest of the spacers in their places, I found that I could not fit them all. good thing I realized this quickly! #11 was removed, along with the spacer that wasn't dry yet, and cut down to 48 mm. to remedy the spacer that was already in place and dry, I merely measured and cut it to 48 mm, removing the excess piece and cleaning up the mess. #11 was cemented back in place, along with the spacer that I had trimmed. after that, four of the others were trimmed to 48 mm, and the last two were trimmed to 50 mm. problem solved. my mistake.......I proudly own it the spacers were arranged to mimic the order that they were to be used, so I wouldn't forget that either. this was allowed to dry and others were added in this sporadic time frame......this took a couple of days. this is where I was on the 21st of September

welcome to the log Channell and Elijah....I hope I don't disappoint in this day and age Channell, I would imagine there is a collector's market. although, plastic rules the roost because it holds up better to time...decals don't though decals didn't for this one either....but that's OK, I can try to make some. wood does have a shelf life...it depends greatly how the kit is stored. one of the deck halves has ripples, so I would imagine that it was likely stored in a cellar. the first kit came from an attic.....Harold assured me of it...all the sheets were reasonably flat. I have a couple of plastic kits that I should put away, but that would ruin the purpose of the kit. the one thing that would add value to a wooden kit is rarity......if I had an actual kit of the Progress, then I would be inclined to look at it's condition. naaaaaa, what fun would there be in that thanks Elijah.......it will look better once I knock the ugly duckling out of it that's the funny part of modeling.....most plastic models look OK while your building it, they just look incomplete, while a wooden kit looks disheveled until you put a finish on it....paint or clear sealer I hope you enjoy the log......who knows, it may entice you to bring out one of the old kits welcome to the log Jack

back in the day, there were no build slips for these models........the stops were supplied to make your own. I decided not to use them and use the build slip that Billing Boats later developed. at this point of the build, it fits fine.....but add the rabbits, and there would have to be modifications made on the slip. it can't be put in at the stern end due to the rudder shoe. at this point, it was time to start cutting out the parts.....the rabbits were first. the bow rabbits weren't too bad....I only had to repair one of them, but for the stern, they were a total loss. I made a pair from basswood stock, 1/16 inches thick.....they were fitted and then fine tuned later, when they were cemented to the stern stem. as mentioned, the bow rabbits fared much better. there was a small cap rabbit that fit at the top of the stem....they were replaced by 4 mm strip stock. this is not a good start........I want to use as many kit parts as possible.........for the Nordkap, I used about 90% of the original wood........one of my goals in building an old kit like this. it's not petrified wood, it's just dry beyond comprehension. being mahogany {they call it Mahonie in the instructions}, it is very brittle. while these parts were drying, I went on my cutting spree. first were all of the deck beams... some of the mahogany parts... these parts won't be needed... haven't tried to cut any of the 1/16 plywood parts.......some of these parts won't be used either when dry, the keel was put back on the slip........that's when I found out the slots weren't wide enough. rather than try and adjust anything, I just kept making sure that it sat correctly in the slip. the bow bulkheads were cemented in place first. these didn't require spacers..... once I arrived at the flat of the keel, the real fun started

it all starts with assembling the keel.......the bow stem and the stern stem are pre cut out. the keel spine is made up of two strips of pine, cut to accommodate the stems. at the base of each stem, there are the steps that the pine strips need to fit into. there is some sanding requires to get them to fit snugly. plastic wrap was laid out for the assembly to lay on as it was cemented together. to what small gaps remain, they were filled with glue. this sat for the day.

thanks for the good word John.........the admiral is as well