popeye the sailor

the best solutions seem to come from sitting back with a beverage, to ponder. I'm sure you've thought of something to do with the cork .......that is, unless it's plastic I used to follow car modelers quite a bit.......they have some cool methods for seat coverings. great progress Bob!

I still love the way she looks a couple of your photos show the shape of the hull very well.......contour lines are very well done! your dry fit is a feast for the eyes!

very nice work Nils......sails are looking splendid!

could be Augie......I'm following the instructions. who ever heard of using instructions to build a scratch built model......that is.....unless you drew them up yourself I shouldn't laugh......it's probably been done before I'm using what's left of a old tube of Testor's red...I do have two fresh tubes, I bought for the Titanic. I also have the liquid cement in the applicator bottle {black}, but I don't use it too much. more door work is going on.......

thanks Matija........I have a few sub assemblies done........when they are all in place, then the build will really look like I've gotten somewhere! glad you like the build! thanks George.......evergreen is one of the biggest suppliers for HO scale train materials and supplies. I was looking through the display they have at our local HobbyTown.....they even have structural parts.....girders and trusses. love to do a tanker somewhere down the road! another product is Plastruct, also found in most hobby and craft stores. they too have just about anything you can think of...square stock.....solid round stock .....hollow round stock.......angle, quarter round, half round.........I can go on and on. I usually go to Hobby Town, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, A.C. Moore......just a few of the places in my area. doing a search might produce more, even places that specialize in decorative moldings for doll house and such. if I remember correctly, I even recall seeing the old Ambroid company......name changed to Northeastern scale lumber is still around.....haven't looked in lately, but they did supply wood sculpted moldings. I'm sure you'll be able to find what your looking for thanks for the good word!

I tried not to leave too much clearance.......I'll take it up with some thin stuff. by the time I get back to it, the cement should be fully cured. the other thing I was thinking about, was the doors......the one on the pilot house, and the one on the main deck bulkhead. now that I have an indented area to work with, I'll see how this is going to flesh out. it starts with 3/16 square stock, to make the door jams. then the door itself. with this one, since it is inset, I won't put a threshold at the bottom. it's already there. I had cut out the window........this square was traced onto the blank and later cut out. believe it or not, this was pretty easy to do.......I had the thought that the blank might break free or something worse. the door was put back in place. at the bow, under the small cap, there is a black box-like object, in the plans. I'm thinking it's some concept of a windlass / winch for an anchor........but there is no mention of an anchor in the plans or kit. I added it in anyway. I started to do some detail work to the dash......but more important, id that the railings are now being cemented in place. I'm figuring to do the over spray touch ups as I go along. ....meanwhile, back at the doors....... I should make two of these......one for inside the pilot house, but this one is slated for the main deck bulkhead. the door part is cut out. the window has been cut out, and the jams have been installed. I have a very neat idea for the window........tell ya more when the process gets there

Yesterday was a time thing.......when I started.....was good, but when I went to the glue part, I had to play the waiting game. {I guess I forgot how slow styrene cement can be at times} cutting the strips I needed was OK........once I found my Utility knife! I knew i had put one in my tool box! rough the sides out and cement the parts together........ then made a couple other parts that I will be needing......again, once they are dry, I can begin shaping, like the one I did in the foreground when I had removed the railings......I saw again what happens when one paints round parts. I had to touch up the undersides of them. by this time, I had the pair of stabilizer boom brackets shaped out.......a bit more refinement to get them to look more alike. the hole that needs to be drilled in them was figured out and done sadly, I have to wait till the main part of the trawl rig is in place before any more can be done with this. .....call it incentive to get my butt in gear!

thank you very much for the wonderful comments gentlemen! now that the major paint work is done, I thought to put a dry fit together, but of course, I'm getting side tracked at this stage of the game......it's better to simply cement everything in place rather than play 'dress up' the work on the pilot house is in full swing, and I've also got a few other sub assemblies in the works as well. thanks to all who hit the like button as well ! thanks George......it's not me anymore......the build is in control now! I may try my hand at being creative, but when I add it to the build, it magnifies it. it's like I said.......when I thought of this vessel when I made the hull for the Boulogne.....I never imagined that it would turn out as well as it has. took a little to get to this point, but it is worth it! that's OK Piet........the floor will most likely be very hard to see in it's entirety......the blotch doesn't even come close to what I did to it last night. I touched up bare spots around the pilot house, and primer spattered onto the floor! end of the world......not likely. I put the brush in the bottle of dirty primer.......and brushed down the floor got rid of them pronto.........by blending them into the floor. I already had a coat of semi gloss on the floor......the whole process seemed to make it look better........and it didn't harm the floor either! I agree.......ya gotta love this color combination! I'm going to see enough of it though, when I get the Holiday boys painted

Patrick.......you are quite the 'micro maniac'.......your pack'in quite a bit of detail in this little hull! looks awesome!

looks awesome John......very nice 'plank planning' indeed! love the shape of the hull

it was a broken day at the table.......kept getting pulled away.......and then having to go for the dreaded hair cut. death for the living when the admiral gets together with 'the girls' {I'd rather be cooped up in some stuffy craft shop} Tuesday night, I did get a chance though to fix the stand, so the hull could be put on without scratching the keel....just stuffed some felt in the slots. ...not a flattering picture, but there she is. as mentioned, the pilot house is the next point of interest, since it need to be in place to continue the trawl assembly. I had mentioned these wide strips of mahogany, that I have. I'll use a strip to do the floor. I really should use a different glue......white glue is water based......and we all know what happens to thin wide wood when water is applied.....curling! very hard to work with! I also found another bottle of paint that had met it's maker. the caps have this plastic cone in it.......I suspect it gives the cap a very poor seal. previously, I tried working with brass to make some of parts I'm going to need. I found that I'm poorly set up for that at the moment, so I'm going to settle with making the parts from sheet styrene. I'll see how this works for me the second bottle of 'dark ad gray' was good....so I painted the dash it's base color. I don't think the interior will have the visibility factor.......but I'll do a little in there anyway. the floor is finished......but not as well as I would have liked......not to mention the white glue blotch in the middle...which I failed to adequately clean up. looking from a few angles......only snippets of the floor will ever be seen....so the heck with it. I gave it a coat of semi gloss.....I may give it another to bring the sheen factor up....it will hide it better. I also cemented in the blank for the entrance.......I knew I had cut the opening a bit too large, but I had some bone headed idea about counter-sinking the door .......to add demention {if that's a word}. but it turned to dementia........and equated to nothing more than an indention. go figure.......and then the thought about a window kicked in.......... I still have those planks strips that I had ripped {thickness-wise} with the scroll saw. I painted the best parts and threw the rest away. ....and that's when the camera tried to lie to me.......think you know someone this long.....and they try to stab you in the back! I had painted the stabilizer booms.......when I took the picture, it tried to tell me that I had not painted one side, on one of them. OK......I'll give you the benefit of the doubt......bad light and angle.......white is such a suck - up! here is a better picture.....I hope I'll see what I can do today.......it's snowing again. may have to run out and buy some new shovels...my son broke the home made 'pusher' shovel.......the shaft was made from 1 1/2 inch round stock. I made it to push the loose stuff down the driveway, after the 'first wave' shovels had remove the bulk of it. it wasn't made as a 'digger' shovel......and that's what he was doing......broke in three pieces. oh...well!

hard to say without measurements of the sill. I would suggest making a few test steps and see what would fit the bill

nice case.........great finish to a wonderful build!

thanks Carl......yea, right now, the cellar is less than sufficient......had to bring her up to warmer temps. I got to my week-end {which is four days long}.......I hoped to get to something today, but clean up took longer than expected. after that I was too pooped humidity is not good for lacquer......turns it white the problem you had might have been too little thinner, or there was a suspension issue with the lacquer......which points to poor batch quality. I used it extensively when I worked in the cabinet shop. we had a batch one time that was so bad, it would catch fire five mins after being sprayed on a rag! it can create it own heat source if not made properly. in those days we got it in 55 gal drums........today I work with 1 oz bottles.........big difference hopefully, a better table day tomorrow........thanks for the good word!

Carl said it was palatable....so I tried it............don't do it

love the deck Frank........now THAT is a weathered deck, if ever I saw one! if there is a mistake......I can't find it......I'm too busy looking into the collage of colors super job!

Wow......I am so sorry that I didn't see this build sooner! what a ride it took you on! absolutely splendid workmanship...lots of good stuff here to be found. even with the problems you faced, you build this fine looking vessel.....my hat is off to you!

pictured with the deck frame is so cool! awesome progress!

double planking is imitation of the original planking....mostly done with thin strip of decorative woods over lesser woods like basswood or Obechi. with earlier kits, Billing's used to supply mahogany for hull planking.......sounds kinda nuts to me, since it can be a harder wood to work with. I'm not an accomplished hull planker either, but I strive to be able to do a single hull planking, rather than the double planking to refine the finish. some kits even instruct you to do a double planking. to me it seems like a waste of good wood......if you can do a satisfactory job with the first planking.......why do a second? stains do a good job with wood color and texture. I may be wrong.......but I think Carvel is a type of ship, and not a style of planking. there's traditional planking, where planks are butted against one another in mated strakes, and clinker planking, which is overlapped strakes. I'm sure there are other types and methods, but I haven't run across them yet I was sorry to read that you had problems with your first build,......I am glad though that you haven't given up and are starting over this is such a cool subject, and I wish you better luck this time around

just catching up with your build Jerry......you've definitely made some very nice progress! looks really sweet!

just checking in John.......and man! what progress you've made! she's looking awesome....well done on the masting the cooker really stands out on the deck.....sweet!

kits are funny like that Ron.........but you seem to be doing quite well in getting the job done she's looking great!

stern framing looks excellent Augie! your skills are really shinning with this build

nice start on the rigging Dave.........I wonder if this same set up would pertain to the Half Moon as well ?.?. very well done!

no worries Patrick......I'll not give up the ship got a bit of clean up to do outside with the snow and all, but I'll be at the table. I do have the one picture of the prop going on........didn't have to glue it or anything......the paint will do just fine {almost couldn't get it threaded on} I was looking at the stand, trying to figure out what made the scratches the first time around. this Billing's paint, when it dries, is a pretty hard finish.......I've not seen this before. the hull has been upside down for well over three days now........it should be fully cured.