popeye the sailor

I wanted to sand and round off all the ends........but that didn't happen. another day the bow rub rails are in place. I showed earlier, that I had done a little ad-lib to the stern transom. I was looking through the assembly plans, and there are some rub rails, that are to go there too. I will need to think of a different way to arrange them, since I added those two pieces of 1/8. here is how the bow looks. I did get to round off the port side rails at the bow........this is how they will look. I still have some of that half round.......perhaps I can dress up that bow stem we'll see.... the new additions really change the look of the boat.

after that debacle.......and allow it to dry, I thought I'd do stuff that was a little less tedious. the bow rub rails were measured and cut........the dash for the pilot house was assembled, and this small locker, that locates on the bow deck was assembled. the 'square 'o matic' was set up on the main table to make the locker. the lid for the locker seems too small........so I gave it a bit of a filler board. I'll create some form of hinges and a handle for the lid. doing a dry fit on the deck, in front of the pilot house, I noticed it doesn't sit flush up to it. I gave it a back.......the plans don't show one.....none supplied. those three sets of 3/16 square pieces, pictured above, are the rub rails.......I started to put them on. while I was doing that, I created a sill for the pilot house dash to sit on. the separation along the windshield was also filled and sanded........it's a nasty looking gap. you can see I already tried to sand it down.......filling and sanding was a better alternative. in the end, the dash was cemented in place. painted........this will look OK. I'm also looking at the box that the pilot house fits in......for some reason, the opening is wider. I'll need to address this

of course, things had to rain on my parade! Thursday was a nice day.......so I did all the stuff I needed to do on the car. I also got to spruce up the garage, so I can do some painting in there. Friday morning was good........but it got too busy in the afternoon, so modeling was hard to come by. I did a bit more on the Boulogne between all that went on. the frame of the trawl rig is assembled now. it wasn't easy assembling it either......centering the upper parts with the bottom parts. they kept wanting to fall over....but I managed to get them to stay put. there are two cross bars that connect them together......the lower one and the upper one. the lower one was first......making sure they were both even with one another was hard to gauge. setting up my ruler made it a lot easier......and to make sure they were perpendicular on my desk, the bases were clamped down as well. things took a turn here, 'cuz when I went to fit the top cross bar, I found that the tops of the uprights were off. I ended up removing one side and changing the angle of the beveled end, that connects them together {the top and bottom uprights}. after putting it back together and trying again to fit the top cross bar......it looked much better. sanding will be required to smooth edges and such.......but this is the basic frame of the trawl rig. this is the stern view.

finally I got to catch up on your log! I tried to do it yesterday, but the darn revolving door kicked in, and we were in and out for the rest of the afternoon. wonderful progress on the coach......love the interior really nice! yours looks good to Mike!

way too cool Patrick........way too cool! Martha Stewart would be proud

browsing around, I saw your project here........looks mighty nice!

look'in super Greg.....very nice indeed!

hey there E.J.......sweet look'in ship you've got here! been mean'in to pop in here to see her

the hatch looks good.......and some amazing work on the compass. very nice

glad to see the back problem is getting better....best of all....glad to see you back! good your making progress.

gotta say Greg.......you really have good hand on this build.........you've done it so methodically. very well planned. good thing the stanchions have little holes......I can just see you winding the thread around each one {talk about Chinese water torture}. I've been doing it with thin wire.......what a pain! rigging and such is awesome......and the added armament looks great!

WHOAAAA! clean up the cobwebs and dust! at least all the pictures are still here.......I thumbed through the log. it's been a while since I last worked on the project. I was gonna pull out the other fishing boat....but that needs paint. I'll wait till I can set up in the garage...late spring and it's a wet one so far. this one is not far behind in that respect.......add a few things and she'll be good to go. I thought........rub rails.......but first, I gave the hull a good going over with the sandpaper. the split in the bow stem was fixed......the plywood had separated. there's also an area that I'm going to fix. I pulled out the diagram of the side profile and laid out the main part of the rub rails. I still have to round off the ends, as I've done with other vessels. I recalled using the metal pulley blocks, when I did the Andrea Gail. Billing's was out of stock, so I did try my hand at making them from scratch for another project. it worked out well....but, in ordering the belaying pins for the Thermopylae, I saw them......so, I got a package of them. they come ten to the pack, and they do require assembly. the rub rails for this boat was fun to do......there are some at the bow I still need to add. next update. I need to see what I have for the cap rails........I have the pair for the bow. now.......perhaps with time that has past.....I can arrive at a solid solution to solve my 'pain in the deck'. it doesn't look bad, but it has some buckles in it. with what I learned with the U.S.S. United States deck work, I should have run a pair of 1/8 strips parallel underneath.....it would have thwarted it from happening. we'll see what I come up with as always.......thanks for looking in.

thanks Bob OK........so my cross trees don't make me look fat........GOOD! my first attempt at making them {it wasn't on this build}......I'm not too happy with. if I ever get back to said build, I might change them. the day did not go as planned.......... I had left the bow railings on the desk, in the event during the week end, I felt up to some play time. I didn't. so, the day began with getting then done and out of the way. one of the railings.....I forget which one, had a pin that was out of place. in trying to fix it, the pin broke.....so a new one was cemented in it's place......that is, after filing down the stub of the old one. the first strand was strung on, when I realized I would not have enough to do the aft railings. getting a short length of light cord from the garage, a fresh bunch of wire strands was extracted. both railings were strung and cemented.......I found a pair of tweezers that do the trick with straightening out the rungs.......these actually came out looking better. I may be getting used to this lilliputian modeling after a bit more tweaking, they were given a coat of paint. I made a special sleeve to keep the wire in.......I kept out two for the aft railing. capping off one end of a plastic tube, it works perfectly. the bollards need to be prepped and painted. in assembling them, the pins to insert them in the base, are too long and stick out the bottom. they need to be filed down first. once filed, they were stuck on a piece of tape, that I had laid out. the lonely one on the right broke, so the base needed to be replaced.......good thing I have the extra parts panel, that I ordered from Cornwall.....I have the part to fix it. you can see how flimsy the bases are.......made of that thin stiff plywood. why that particular material was chosen, is anyone's guess. the panel I'm talking about can be seen at the beginning of this log.......if you recall, the parts for the structure in the background, is on the same panel. I started to make the fife rails........and the bow fife rail....but I got distracted.........I began thinking......... I wanted to do something on the trawler.........but that wasn't it I was befuddled something that will make a lot of sawdust ....... looking at my desk.......I don't know where I had left off I know I had the bow rail somewhere..........

good to see you've been back to the table! great progress, but sorry to hear you've hit a snag. hope it isn't serious welcome back!

looking good Frank!

thanks Tom

hope you enjoyed your trip talking to you, I realized that I never used these parts.......thought I'd show you that there are alternatives.

well then Greg.......I guess I'd better fix the exhaust on that thing! thanks for the good word, my friend.......and thanks for the likes. this is just the bare bones of the masts.......there's more to be added to them. as you can see........it was late. I barely finished trimming the tops. they needed to have planking added to them. they said to use the 0.5 x 3 strips........I used the .75 strips {they might even be 1 mm thick}. leaving a slot for the shrouds to run through, they were planked to the ends, leaving a gap between them. once dry, they were trimmed using the toe nail clippers. this wood is really brittle.......the mizzen gave me some grief, but I fixed it. are they called cross trees or crojacks.........always knew them as the cross trees {Revell's fault}. Well.....anyway, I hope they aren't too big.......based their size according to the caps. the mizzen is fixed and sanded.......they're all fitted on the ship. still gotta finish the rub rail stripe.......and make the rest of the deck furnishings. I think this is the direction of the day.

there are models out there, where proper research has depicted the layout of this ship. but then again, as more details are known, there are none that are exact. the model manufacturers won't put that kind of time into a kit.......time and cost effectiveness rules the roost there. however much time we choose to put into our models, will dictate how much detail we add to them. looking at other build is a good way to see the differences in the deck layouts........in the end, put them all together and add what you see.

seriously nice work Tom. I see the vacation charged you back up in fine shape

WOW! that looks sweet!

I finally put together the pictures from Friday.......figured I'd add them in with today's. bad thing is......I wasn't very diligent with the camera. I had cemented the boom on the bow spirit. after it had dried, I cut some thin strips of brass, and added collars to the assembly. at this point, I began to work on the masts, since I was playing with them. double checking the height......guess it's OK.......I matched them to the diagram of the sail plan. after a bit of whittling to the upper end the tops and the trestle trees were cemented in place. I thought I had a picture of them in place on the model.......but I guess I didn't. I had done a few other things before I knocked off for the evening.......making up part of the bow railings, and adding the second step to the fore and main mast. I need to finish them, of course. the work on the masts continued by adding the second step to the mizzen mast. to add the third step to the masts, I had to make the cross trees. no measurements, no numbers....I'm pretty much feeling this out.......just going by the diagrams in the instructions {and there are only two to follow. for the third step, I found that I was one cap short........must have used a wrong one somewhere, 'cuz there's one in the parts box. I have some of that thin stiff plywood, that the kits supply {a parts panel}, and I made one. it can be seen in the picture. the cross tree to the left has not been trimmed yet.......I left the fore and aft bars long...no sanding either. the fore and main mast were assembled at this time......the mizzen cross tree still needs to be made. the mizzen was assembled and plank slats were added to the tops........these need to be trimmed. by the time I finish this update, I should be able to trim them......if it isn't too late, I'll post a picture of the masts.......ready for paint and brass.

the frame looks great Bob. the curve looks like it carried over from the sides........shimming it will take care of it. you'll fix that ...no sweat!

you could let a few trucks drive over it.......that might do it yea......that's pretty serious.......and you already done it once. hope the parts get to you quickly good time to trace and cut all the parts from plywood.......then you'd have two hulls! double the fun! can't help it........insanity has it's virtues, Vincent

you know more knots than I do very nice rigging Michael!