popeye the sailor

darn.......I didn't take shots of the starboard side. all I got is the one aft near the poop deck......all touched up. a bollard will be located near this hole.....hence, the reason why it's there. the kit comes supplied with small brass rings it cement around the holes. then they get touched up with the med green. not sure if the three under the rub rail are portholes.......if they are, I can fill them with the window maker. if anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it. I also got the dead eye problem squared away........as mentioned, to move on to the next part of the assembly. I'll have to check other info, but the instructions show four dead eye assemblies per shroud......from fore to mizzen. I may add one or two extra to the fore and main shrouds......looks like too many back stays. still think'in 'bout this. the rudder's painted and ready for the gungeons.......and I have the first two sections of the cap rails, cut and bending as we speak {they are likely dry by now}. again, I will have to get creative with the transom. once the cap rail are done, I can add everything to the deck..........that will be a really big day thanks for look'in in!

well........I didn't get all of my to do list done, but what I got done instead was just as good. I started back at it, by getting the other lavatory ship shape and ready to go. the roof is short strips of mahogany, trimmed by a little tool I am never without.........my nail clippers this is my convex clipper......I have a concave one as well. I also use the smaller ones as well. they do a great job with the thin stuff....just like a pair of nippers. they do work well on smaller diameter brass wire, but I do have to be careful.......some kit manufacturers supply the brass plated stuff {light steel}. the belaying pin trays were cut and shaped......later cemented in place on the pin rail strip. These were later stained with the light walnut, to bring them in hue with the rest of the decking, and sealed. I probably should have drilled the holes, but I still need to figure out how many to do. the kit only shows four per tray. the size of the drill is another consideration. next was to assemble the ship's wheel.....the little cabin box needed to be shaped, legs put on the front, and of course, the ship's wheel. this is the kit design......not Cyril Hume's........I looked at the pictures again later and said........oh crap! it's made now.......might as well use it. the lavatories are both done.......dry fit in place to see how they look. I want to get the cap rails going before I cement them in place. ......and then........something I was dreading to do........drill holes in the hull itself. there are holes that need to be drilled in the bulwark and three additional holes along the bow, under the rub rail. I made up a drill template for them.......nothing fancy, just three holes drilled in a piece of planking in a straight line and evenly spaced {I marked them out on the planking}. oh dear........now look what I've done. this is not good, you know! I showed it to the admiral to scare her. I got some continuation pictures in the camera still. I'll go get'em and show you this process. stay tuned!

looks really good J.......coming along great!

exceptional work Danny........there'll be a place for you, if we ever have to go back to 'em {sure beats knuckle bust'in huh!} the nuts and bolts, do they come in the kit, or did you have to outsource them? looks really sweet!

....another development in the "I can't believe this is a kit" dept. I'm in the process of doing something I didn't mention.......one of the plus things I was talking about. the kit comes with the metal strops for the dead eyes.......they supplied 5 mm, judging by eye. I decided to set up the dead eyes for the bottom set of shrouds. I know it's early, but if I do the chain plates, I should have these ready as well. they don't fit the dead eyes.......too small! they might be good for 3.5 mm dead eyes, but not for the 5 mm! luckily, I have the Amati strops that I got for the Half Moon......I'll try and use them. here is a picture of the problem. smaller than the amati strops, they don't even make it around the dead eye. I just tried one of the Amati strops.......worked fine! all I need do now, is set them up to work with the supplied anchors. I'm going back into the hall of insanity now..........should have an update soon

superb progress since I last looked in Nils........your attention to detail is impeccable!

is it self sticking? super job with it.......came out really well so, you did along the bulwarks first, and went from the keel up......is that how I'm reading the layering?

OMG....the movers came in! more super small furniture........fleshing out the room nicely, I see looking really good

really nice progress Bob........taking shape quite well

I've only build one old kit.......I started with an early Billing's Nordkap. I enjoyed it quite a bit. most of the kits I've done have been Billings.......some of my scratch builds were done by tracing the hull parts from billing's kits. I saved the parts panels. I've not seen this kit before.......I have a few vintage model site I like to visit. nice to see someone else who likes to dabble in these older kits

thanks for the kind comments and the likes. I'm in the process of finishing the other crew toilet, the cap rails {the chain plates are combined with them}, and completing the pin rails. anything else will be a plus. the cap rail alone will be quite a task in itself.......not sure I like how they want me to do it. we'll see what happens. thanks John.......that's where they're going. since the instructions have been wrong so many times, why follow them. they give the size of the wood used, but no lengths or increments......go figure. I'll use Cyril's model as my guide thanks Piet.......glad to see your following along. I may need a tip or two in regards to metal it's been so long.......guess I forgot you used to go by that name. the way the site works has changed, but the profile is basically the same......I've already made a small change myself. the flying Dutchman was also the name of a train, if I'm not mistaken thanks Pat........I'm not using the belaying pins I've shown above. they are wood and do not resemble belaying pins, as I view them. the ones I ordered will be a lot more slender, and hopefully smaller. I will use these pins for railing tops........I think they'd be perfect for decorations of that nature. sorry if I confused you......I didn't mention that these were the ones that came with the kit. the ones I'm getting will be brass.........a bit more bling

can't get over your style of paint........I could never weather that good I do it.........look at it the next day....and then fix it, because I didn't like it. I'm hopeless with it. so much jumping out at you with the P.E. really nice work

if you used 1/16 x 1/16 strip stock to box them in, and you use 1/16 for the roof, then you would do well to place them on top. but, if you used 1/32 flat stock for the roof, you could make the openings larger, and place them in flush mount, leaving them raised slightly. if you use 1/32 for the roof though, you may want to frame it a little.......it will be a bit flimsy this would be a good idea for helm floor grates too.......or even additional vents.

thanks Sjors...you fun lov'in ball'o fur you! you ought to read the log I have going on Weebly. thanks Lawrence.......the coppering, it's too bad this model is small, or I would do it. I thought about how small the tiles would be, and thought better of it. speaking of the crew's toilets, I have one of them finished. as I suspected......they will be out of scale {what else is new with this model}. it wouldn't matter which etch I used.....metal or wood, the outcome would be the same. the placement is varied as well. the instructions say to put them here: ....while the Cyril Hume model shows them here. apparently there are no ladders at the fore deck. either way, I will need to remove part of that inner rail........the pin rail that was installed when I did the inner bulwark planking. I also ordered belaying pins for this model......I ordered some 5 mm pins. I'm not sure what size these are, but I think they will dress up the poop railing and fife railings just fine this is all of them........not too many termination points. I ordered 40 belaying pins.......that should handle the extra I plan to add. thanks for the kind comments and the likes.......I hope to have more tomorrow

pretty cool idea J are you going to cement them over the opening, or cement them in flush?

OK.......I altered the title. thanks for reminding me Gary ......and thanks again Jack. I tried to figure it out earlier.......I had read about the process in other posts, but that was a while ago. I guess I'd better update the thought process instead but hey........while I'm here, I may as well show you the recent update for the log. now that the fore deck is done, the windlass and pump can be added. I went through the wood, and found nothing that resembled the sizes I needed........even for the cap rails. I bagged all the wood up........I'll use what I have in my inventory.....I'll category it later. finding suitable square stock that will fit in the slot for the pump body, and finding strip stock that will work in conjunction with the windlass, I found that the two would not fit together. the windlass has a center separating the two drums, and the width of the pump body would not go between them. so I cut slots in both sides of the pump body, so they would join together, as they both share this opening, in the center of the fore deck platform. the pump body was cemented in place first...... It's painted in earth brown, as is the side posts for the windlass. the slots I made are visible here. you can also see the center spacing I'm talking about with the windlass. at first, I thought I should have made the slots deeper in the pump body, but closer inspection showed that this wouldn't have mattered.......they are deep enough. the hole was pre drilled for the pump handle. the instructions were no help in trying to make the handle. they show small pieces of dowel for the grips.....but I have something smaller than the dowel provided in the kit. I couldn't find it, so I used a tooth pick, sanding it down even smaller after I had drilled the holes for the shaft. there was breakage, which meant multiple tries, but I managed to come up with a pair. it wasn't till after it was assembled, that I found the dowel that I was looking for {go figure}. ...it was added to complete the pump. next, I thought to create the bollards and the heads. already, I saw a problem with the heads........with the size of the wood blanks, they will be out of scale. I'll show you in a moment......the parts were gather together..... the roof curvature needs to be shaped into the heads........during the process, the capstan {or sampson post} and the fore hold cover was cemented in place. when I assembled the bollards, I had the impression that they were too far apart. I took a look at the Cyril Hume model, and his were pretty much the same spacing. So, I'll go with these, after sanding the bottoms and painting them. I have the metal etch doors that go on the heads........I had allowed about 2 mm on the blanks for the threshold and the roof line. I sanded them down more after this picture was taken. I could go further, but going too far will prevent me from using the metal etch doors. the size of them looks wrong too, as well as their position in the instruction diagrams. even with the wood doors provided on the thin panels are too large I saw something else strange about the Cyril Hume model........looking at the braces, you see the pendents and block assemblies that make up the braces, but there are no ropes from them, terminating to the deck. the model, in my opinion, doesn't have a complete rigging diagram. there are not too many belaying points along the deck. I need to change the pins as well......I'll show you those in my next update. I have other uses for them darling...............

thanks Jack........that never occurred to me. I'm on it!

she coming along great Doug..........the deck and pilot house are very well done

thanks for the kind comments and all the likes. yea, it's good to be back at the table...........errrrr, my desk I cleaned it off before the big calamity.......you wouldn't know it now. I've done a bit more........hope to have an update soon. stay tuned! thanks John........rather be modeling.....I don't get as greasy I should go back to working on cars......I miss it sometimes. I'm not sure Michael.........if I was a doughnut maker, I'd most likely get sick of the whole thing ya caught me........I'm a closet chef! haven't figured out how to bake a ship yet though.....I'm working on it yea Gary........I know......realized that after I started the log. I'm in the process of finding out how to change it......if anyone knows, please let me know

why Greg! were you holding out on us? OMG pal........you've made some really decent progress.........and quite nicely, I might add! flaunt it good buddy.......your do'in an awesome job

good to see your back gerhard........a little at a time is better than nothing

hi there! last week was a lost cause as far as getting any modeling done. I got sidetracked with my younger son's car.......it had a few things to do for inspection, along with replacing a radiator, and curing a nasty oil leak. the leak led me to replace the timing belt as well, but I'm happy to say that the car is back up and running, and the son is happier than a clam! it does my wallet good to see him smile again. anyway........as I left off, I had cemented the fore deck on the model......that was the last thing I would do to her until now. as the week past, I was becoming increasingly aloof, due to the lack of wood-urgy. to appease the inner spirit, I did a dry fit I did note that I need to finish the bottom area on the aft cabin. I also turned the hold covers so that the planks are running side to side......not fore and aft. I'm glad I don't have to remake them. I had shaped the rudder before the auto fiasco hit...it lays in wait for paint. the week ended with the model, the same way I had left it. the work week took over, loathsome as it is......in retaliation to it, I took Monday off........to be able to watch the finale of the Walking Dead.......and then into the badlands >late night<. there was a second reason, but in my mindset, I had forgotten about it.........the admiral's birthday. everything went off as it should though........I even made her a cake! she picked out the mix.........this is from a company called Krispy Kremes. they are a bakery that specializes in doughnuts...and that's exactly how it tastes........and looks! looking at the fore deck, a plan was thought up on how to run the waterways and trim. I wasn't feeling creative enough to do the outer edge, so I left it open on each side......I'll let the planking fill the open areas in. rounding off the trim for the windlass slot made planking a little weird, but it filled in alright. it was then stained and two coats of flat lacquer. it looked really dull....a little too dull for my liking, so I gave it a coat of poly urethane. I had done the main deck and the aft deck......I should give the main deck another coat. the outer edges of the fore deck was painted with a flat earth brown.....fairly close to the mahogany color. the decks are complete now. more done today, if all goes right

congratz! she looks absolutely stunning! the diorama effect really shows her off nicely! very well done

no sweat...........your doing fine. don't be afraid to experiment......ideas are born that way one thing I can say about using wider planking, is that it's safer to use planking that is double the width of the supplied planking. anything wider than that, would throw the task off........the supplied planking has been pre measured to achieve full coverage. be sure that the fit at the stem is good......and be sure to cement between the planks {that was one of MY big mistakes}. in the event that you forgot to do that, there is a solution. after the hull is planked and sanded to your satisfaction {you can do any filler work as well}, mix up a batch of white glue and water {not too thin}, and paint the hull with it, using a 1 inch brush {small brushes would take forever}. give it a couple of coats......and when fully dry, lightly sand the hull to remove any wood "hairs" that may have risen up during the treatment. this is somewhat critical for this vessel.....only, since it's not confirmed, I believe this to be a metal hulled boat, and plank lines might show in the paint. when I did my scratch build, I took both of the Billing's instructions and used them as reference. reading my log on her, you'll find that the Billing kit is not the actual Andrea Gail, but another boat called the Lady Grace. I have only a few pictures of the actual Andrea Gail......but one of these days, I'll have enough visual stimulus to attempt the real project here are a couple of articles that you might enjoy reading........one is the search log for her. http://www.downtosea.com/1976-2000/angail.htm http://www.offsoundings.com/WEB PDF/PERFECT_STORM_20TH_ANNIVERSARY.pdf http://www.gloucestertimes.com/archives/lady-grace-also-gets-harbor-berth/article_a983191f-3d1e-5b5f-9013-98b2bcd4faa1.html note the elongation of the port side bulwark and the added length to the stern.........there is a structure there to shield the reels. I didn't add them to my model......I stuck with the instructions. on the starboard side, a section of the bulwark was removable....it shows in another picture I have of her.