popeye the sailor

thanks for the good word Pat........your supposed to be enjoying your holidays, but glad your poking in to see have fun! thanks for the good word Rob.....I'm still a ways away from rigging yet. I've ordered more belaying pins and 3 mm double blocks.....and I've ordered another type of ship's boats. I hope they are more correct. if not, I will go with what I had previously planned. just the idea that I want to include them is good enough for me the anchor issue is settled......I'm going to try and scratch build a pair. I looked at Chuck's tutorial for making them, and I'm sure that I can make a convincing pair. I was also looking at the yards.......plastic models are so deceiving......I was under the impression that some are movable and some are fixed in place. I'm finding different bits of information. another aspect I wanted to add was a couple of cannons.....I saw what Nenad did, and they look cool. that idea may come to fruition.....all because of me and my silly tangents. this week, I really didn't feel like mess'in with them. the trawler is still on the table, waiting for me to continue with the roof of the helm room.......the boulogne is still on the table, waiting for me to flesh out the cap rails and repair the bottom hull by the stern.......and I made the fore stanchion racks for the Thermopylae, but need ti fit them. I need to drill all the holes for the belaying pins, but I want to wait till I get the order in first. then there's the ship's boats and the davits. Tuesday was a complete bust....didn't do anything.......Wednesday, I was going stir crazy.....so I mowed the lawns. later in the day, I couldn't take it anymore, so I brought out one of the plastic models to play with, in the hopes it would joggle something loose in the idea department. I figured to play with the Jolly Rogers........since the kit has so many problems, I thought I'd just throw it together with little paint. now the Thermopylae is 1:124 scale.......the Jolly Rogers is 1:130.......one look at the cannons, and that wonderful light came on! I closed off the bridle ports to the J.R. and set a couple of cannons aside for the Thermopylae! the scale is not too far off.......no go with the anchors though, the smaller anchors are about 26 mm {still too large for my taste}. as for not painting the Jolly Rogers.....come on, who are we talking about here?!?!?! oh yea......there is paint.......the hull is a wood brown right now. I'm going to try and overlay it with a diluted wash of flat black, to perhaps get a wood finish . for all the craziness of all this, I may post a log.....but it might depend on how the wash job goes. I appreciate all your interests in this project {everyone}. when I get the parts and weigh out the options........I hope to have an update soon stay tuned!

nice looking hull......nice contour at the bow

good start on the build Hennie. I can get similar type of planking from Billing / ages of sail.......love using that increment of planking

hey there Adam! how did this one miss my radar? glad to see your making it back to the table {when you can}......you've had a few bumps with her, but she's look'in great through it all hope to see more of this fine project.....and maybe your others too

hi Piet........not to worry my friend glad you could pop in. I'm probably confusing the heck out of everybody ........working on this......working on that. I'm just glad I was able to finally fix some of the problems with this project thanks for the good word !

I use a run of the mill soldering iron.......the solder I use is for electronic work. what happened to the netting material?

nice progress.......armament and stack looks real good !

they can be a pain. when I did my Connie and the first United states, I cemented them all in place, then did the rigging part. I don't have any pictures of the Connie.....it was for my mother. they kept it by a wood stove......................yea....you guessed it. after many repair jobs and burnt holes in the sails, it was ready for scrap. here's a picture of the United States though....it'll give you an idea of how large this model is. I have the studding sails on her too, which really adds to her width. the galley quarters looks really nice........as I mentioned earlier, it's not supplied in the U.S. kit.....but I intend to put it in. don't know why.....it won't hinder anything. check out other Connie builds...there are several here on the site. you may notice {and I hope someone will chime in and confirm this} that the bridle port {the one closest to the bow stem} doesn't have a cannon in it. it can either be closed up or left without a gun port lid {I'd close it up....personal taste}. it would only be used in extreme emergency......mostly it was used as a port to access weighing in the anchor. you'll notice in this picture......there is a cannon in it. it was built back in the 90's.......long before I came here and learned all this wonderful stuff! I'm a land lubber......what did I know!

WOW! super looking ship....love the weathering I'm glad you kept at it too........

very well done Piet......neat fix you did there glad to see the 019 in your sig.......

look'in good Jesse. I tend not to worry too much about the belaying pins.........if I do paint them, I wait and touch them with a like color with the rigging. most will not be seen anyway

your getting the hang of it it looks great!

is there to be any type of fastenings done to those brackets? I'm imagining the dead eyes are attached to them.

looks very nice I've been toss'in around the idea of posting my Guillow's Dr 1 project. not as much detail as yours though. super job!

lots of other folks here on the site, are far better than I. I just like to have fun.......I've been doing this a while. if you haven't looked, dig up my log on her.....it's in the scratch build forum. you'll see how I built the model. there's also plenty of ideas you can try for your model. keep at it.........your doing fine

she looks good on the water.....very well done! I've never seen an albatros sea plane.....sounds like an interesting project.

I did spoof a bit more on my engine idea. odd......I've had these thoughts before. during one of my tinkering tangents, I made an engine block for a V8.......I was going to make a hemi engine. I put it away, and haven't touched it since. I'll pull it out again......if I can remember where I put it I had made the head for the four lunger.......drilled the impressions for the spark plugs, and drilled the holes for the plugs themselves. I have four belaying pins for the plugs, but I think they are too large......I may use the 5 mm.....may look better the engine is painted in brunswick green. the interior of the pilot house has been painted too.......in pale gray. the floor was sanded and given three coats of poly urethane already..........I don't think I'm going to go for another coat. I cut a strip of 1/32nd flat stock and wet it......it's pretty flexible. this will be the shroud for the radiator. Tulle was cemented on both sides of the cast off part. the strip was cemented around the top of the cast off piece.......the bottom will be closed off with the piece you see in the background. I needed to do some sanding......adding the 16th to the width is almost too much for the width of the room. I made up some form of frame for the engine

just as long as you know I'm not being a critic........I really want you to succeed. I'll help in any way I can. here are a few pictures of my A.G. it may give you some ideas. the rig is made up of three different size dowels. the rack is made from bamboo dowel. I made all the decals for her. you can get a good idea about the fenders and how they diminish just before the bird brackets. you'll get to make these bird cranes........they were fun to make.....very easy I still find it hard to believe that the hull was from another model...but this is what I thought of........and this is what I got do a search and look at the different trawlers there are.......you'll see some similarities in how they are constructed, and the equipment they use. don't forget the ice maker for her......

hull's look'in great Greg...the lines are showing up nice

I don't know how to tell you this without sounding like a critic, but the fore deck fenders should follow the edge of the deck and merge at the bow stem. her hull looks good....you did an amazing recovery...the bulwarks look good too

looks really good

nice planking

so it looks like you'll be moving to N. Carolina? you'll have to post some picts when you do, so my admiral can see she's been talking about moving there.............'an I said...."what...without me!!!"

great start on her history Piet.

well........what the heck have you on the build table now? if it's 'zero'......that the question you need to pose to the admiral mine would just tell me...."silly boy.....go scratch one!" but even with all my projects, and what I have in the closet......she still got me one for X-mas. it's the 'Norden' by Billings...an advanced beginner's kit, to be sure, but I think I can make it a full blown project give my regards to urmilla, and to you as well