popeye the sailor

sounds like a great idea

neat ........you made the repair look even better nice progress too Oc........I think your closing in on the home stretch! looks real good !

hey gang! again....late to the party! that's a neat little cannon you built there........my word....even come with a few shells rafters beware!!!!! at least I'll get to see the Jeep.........it's like a ship you know........'cuz it's all in how you outfit her off to a great start

I got it part right....she is 'grand', isn't she I've got two boys...........best not to listen either .......either that or hide your tools!

nice detail

there's progress finally on the Memphis Belle.............should have the update up soon

I see your well under way with this one looking really good so far! congratz on your daughter's birthday

hello Ferit.........thanks for the kind comment and I hope you follow along. even though this is just the hull, there still a lot to be done yet thanks Phil for the info.......I'll check it out. I do tend to spend more time at the table rather than the drawing board, but I do try some things on the computer. one of the experiments I have going on is with recreating the Danmark hull. I have some odd parts from the kit........I hate to throw them out { I got them quite some time ago}. so I took the instructions and blew the diagrams up. at 150% the diagrams match the scale within about 1/8th {I think the actual number would be 153%}. it was good enough for me and I have assembled a hull frame, but I haven't gotten around to fare it and try the parts. I would also like to scratch build a larger scale Gothenborg. I have the model {and the instructions}.......the original model has damage from a couple of falls....not sure if it's salvageable. if I did it, I would be outfitting it with cannons.......the original kit doesn't have cannons. I have the parts panels for quite a few of the kits that I've built.........it make it easy to replicate hulls

your usual standard of workmanship Dan........awesome! the loco looks really good........just as much detail as your larger one! may you be able to go further.

you did a superb job Robert...........but only a glimpse of the wheelchair........need one more picture here the only thing I see, is that LT. Dan should be up on the mast, rather than the trawl rig.......but that is a very small suggestion. your presentation is fantastic.......actually looks like a lobster trap. you really did a great job with Jenny.........the weathering and the overall looks is awesome! for anyone who has seen the movie, they would think of the movie right away upon seeing it! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐!

looking through build logs, you'll see how folks deal with planking. planking with whole strip is probably the hardest way to do it, since tapering will need to be done to some degree. scale planking is better, because your not having to deal with the entire length. the planks are cut to lengths that are with the scale length of the model.......this takes some figuring out. to make this approach easier, I tend to cut the planking two, to three bulkheads long and stagger the butts. using this method, the plank can be shaped the way it will fit on the model, keeping with a fairly straight line. it is common to find that the bow and stern, in relation to coverage, is not as wide as the mid ship. so, to equalize the number of planks it takes to cover the hull, tapering needs to be done.........making the plank narrower on one end.......the ends that terminate at the bow or stern stem. you will see that some folks like to 'band' their hulls, to better isolate the field that they are focusing their planking. one can get a better job of it....they fill in that area and then move on to the next.......and so on. the only real drawback to scale planking, is the bending that needs to be done at the stern.........depending on the ship your modeling, the bow planks may need to be fashioned, but the stern is much more critical due to the counter. the contour is hard to navigate, while keeping the line at the same time. the type of wood is also a consideration.......softer woods will conform better than harder woods. I know it sounds like a redundant comment, but it relates to how different folks plank their hulls. some will use a hot iron to aide in bending planks......some will set them up in jigs and allow them to dry. I do the latter........but I also do my planking with the wood damp as well. where I use Obechi { a soft wood}, dampened, it is quite flexible and conforms with hardly any instances of splitting or splintering. being damp, I feel that the glue bonds better to it, because the glue is better able to absorb into the wood. planking can be fun.......I recently planked two hulls. I gotta laugh, because even though the two hulls were the same, I could not plank them the same way....the second one gave me fitz! this not only accounts the wood I used on the second one, but how old the wood was....very hard to work with petrified wood don't rush to the filler....sand the hull first and see what you have to work with. most of the time, you may need only a little filler here and there. your doing some good work.......I'm glad to see your back to the table.

I haven't had too many kits that mentioned it.........I found out as a young lad. a very rude awakening. your brain is Ok Mark........it come from my modeling in a cave all my life. I say tomato.....others say tomato {short A}.

WOW! you have made some really good progress since I last looked in! she is a very well detailed model....that's for sure the lighting must have been a nightmare.........but well worth it! very nice

fitting that you put her in a case Chris..........she's a stellar looking model! very nicely done ........congratz!

it will be with no weight in the nose you have to know my meaning.

nice........and to think that everything stacked on top will have to be in sync........ this is gonna look awesome!

...and this will catch her up to date........this was done on the 20th........the starboard side. I did get a couple pictures of the process. the sanding stick on the slip is 10 mm wide. the hull is a lot more defined than when you last saw her. with this done, the mahogany was run along the top. there is a gap at the bow.........I'll just fill it with filler and sand it later. in fact.......there's filler on it now. so......here she is. I'm glad I didn't throw the parts out...it was worth the gamble. I see a lot of potential here......I'm already getting ideas. thanks for look'in in........I hope to have another update soon

thanks god the transom came out OK so this will bring her up to snuff.........the 15th of May. I've done some more filler work, as well as sanding, but these next two updates concern the assembly of the gun ports. as I mentioned, they will be 10 mm X 10 mm..........amounts to two strakes high. simply......spaced ports with short segments of bulwark. I ran a 2mm strip of mahogany to cap them off. what also can be seen, is that the aft cabin is defined. there will be a companionway entrance, and I may add some portholes or windows.......gotta go higher and build it up. I also need to adjust the posts too........good firm base for the cap rails. still a bit to do before I can plank the deck.

May 8th..........I am done! I've done quite a bit of sanding too..........the rasp lived up to its name. it took down a lot of the high spots and shaped the counter / stem relationship. from there, it was medium grit sandpaper, later switched to a finer grit. still more to go..........it can be seen that there was a bit of a problem on the starboard side. I tried to fix it, but there was no other way, but to cut it out. it will have a copper bottom, so it will be hidden. more sanding was done in the meantime........a little filler and shaping was done. dusting the hull off and cleaning up the mess, I thought it rather neat to do a comparison with Cloey. ohhhhh....there's the RASP!!!! she still need a bit more work, but I'm quite happy with how the hull came out

John.......I just told the admiral what you asked me..........her answer was "too many if you ask me! " I look at it this way.......I'll be spend'in the rest of my life finishing them all I'd better be around till a ripe 'ole age, 'cuz I even have a stash that I haven't even started {I'm reminded of this often}. anyway......it's April 30th........I've stopped on cloey till I get this one planked. the hull looks like a three legged dog....it's gonna take a lot to whip it into shape. it's a good thing I have the 'rasp'........hopefully, I have a picture of it somewhere. it's a ten inch 5/8 dowel, with some really aggressive sandpaper adhered to it.......my own design by the seventh strake of Obechi, the planking was well onto the rudder stem. there are five strips of this mahogany left, so I though to get rid of them.....two on each side. as I'm going along, I've also been sanding......mainly to get a head start early. the rest will be done in Obechi. this does seem to take on the looks of a interesting hull planking............almost pretty.......in a sense. this is temporary, as it might get stain, but likely will see paint. I have a hard time arriving with a hull that doesn't show glue blotches afterwards. surprising that I haven't had any more instances of delamination.

so, by April 25th, I was able to move forward with the port side planking. the mast boxes that I had made for Cloey, were made for this model as well....they are in place. now at five strakes below the 'mahogany' band. along the way, additional fairing is being done, to insure the run of the planking. it has been hard to maintain the line.........at this point, the planks met one another at the stern. I think they call this 'herringbone'........I'm going to let it run like this down the counter, as it will leave a very small area to close when the planking run onto the rudder stem {the terminology escapes me}. this is also the repair of the transom. the planks now are being eveningly laid.......port and starboard. it can be seen how the planking is closing in on the rudder stem. closed sufficiently, the hole can be drilled for the rudder stem to enter the counter. I need to do the same for Cloey

hello John........how many...........hmmmmmmmm........I think I've lost count too I will take a census....a big thing at the moment here in the states I'll have to get back to you on that.......I'm sure others are curious as well. basically, this started to see if the parts could be used........I really hated to toss 'em out. I think that when I get to where I am now with the hull, most will agree that the hull is a keeper. glad to have you look'in in

I got back to planking the hull on April 22nd.........added another four strakes to the starboard side. I have been using a small block of pine board to help with terminating the planking at the stern. it fits on the deck and is thick enough to prevent damaging the transom planking. I'll let ya know ahead of time, that it was short lived............one slip later, and the transom wall was broken. ....not that it wasn't expected......oh well! I'll fix it later. the #2 bulkhead looks to be too narrow....I had to shim it. actually, it's the #3 bulkhead.........too wide...........making the hull too rounded as it heads towards the bow. this is about the time when I started to make metal parts for the masts....also a tracing of the bow deck. in the last picture, it can be seen that I used the Dremel to bring down the #9A bulkheads........too much there as well. this hull was turning out to be harder to plank, than the Clotilda hull....... in this picture, it shows the first defined gun port....four more to go on the port side. two thing to note here, is that the extra transom bulkhead boxes the deck platform in leaving a space......that will be covered with deck planking. the other thing is that I trimmed the bow bulwarks to the third post.....I may need to scab in some extra wood to center the gun port. well....it's time to run the errands..........I was able to post as much as I did......and I managed to wolf down two tuna sandwiches I think there are four more sessions to go before the log will be up to date. more to come........

we had a good walk.......the admiral suggested we wait a while for the store, to give my foot a rest...........OK! I can add more to this log! bouncing back from Cloey and other projects, on the 18th of March, I was back to continue. by now, I've added three strakes to the port side, and was adding the same on the starboard side. this wood is tough to bend.......I'm not sure that I will be able to do the entire hull with it. in the event that I don't........I can rest easy knowing that this ship will have an armor belt I had to do a double take here........ it appears that there is a gap mating these strakes to the bow stem.........I looked at the hull........it is not the case {I may have adjusted them......not sure}. completing this, I moved on for a bit........but on April 2nd, I was back to planking the hull further. I decided to use 1.8 X 5 mm Obechi to raise the bottom bulwark sill. the pictures are a bit blurry.......not too bad, but it shows the mast holes were drilled, and in checking the cannon height, it is OK there is sufficient drop. {any closer than that.....you might want to hand out the muskets and swords } I know this is a different approach in creating the gun ports......bear with me. at the bow, there is to be a fore deck, so building up the bulwarks can be done here. the windlass will be set up much like the Clotilda, if this works out as I hope it will. the stern winn be built up as well, a aft 'poop' deck is in the plans too. going fine so far, but I was soon to shoot myself in the foot! I was so bent on getting the transom boxed in, that I planked it.........as far down as I could. little did I realize, that in planking down around the counter, I would need to clamp the planking. not having the transom planked was essential...... the open field on the sides will be spaced for the ports - five on each side then.......a problem occurred.......the bow stem lamination was splitting apart! it was an easy fix though........some glue was tucked into the separation and both sides were flanked with a piece of wood.......might come in handy when gammoning the bow spirit

March 12th...........was when I finally got back to her {the Agillis}. the hull frame has fully set and cured by now. the deck platform was repaired....the bits that broke off were trimmed and fitted back in place. at this time, the bow bulkhead {or is this the Knighthead}.......I'm not sure, but as it will work for the Clotilda, the sill produced from the addition of this part, will provide the seating for the bow spirit. the sill I speak of isn't shown here yet........the plank strakes that will run along the decklines, will define the sill. I will be adding the chock at the tip of the bow stem to give the angled lift to the bow spirit. I may need to drill a hole through the bow part, to allow the spirit to run through it. I do plan a fore deck, so perhaps I can get away without having to do it the original part #10 was cemented to the ends of the deck platform, leaving the overhang in the center {which is curved}........the new part #10A was cemented to it, taking up the overage. this bulkhead was also slanted slightly to give a slant to the transom. between all this, some fairing was being done........a head's up from dealing with the Clotilda hull. some of the bulkheads are not exact to contour....if you catch my meaning after these parts had dried, it was time for the real fairing process.....a lot of it! my arms were like spaghetti after! down towards the keel, there was more to be done, but I wanted to get the deckline and bularks defined.......something about those posts dangling in the breeze worried me. getting the upper end of the hull faired, the hull planking started at the deckline. I want to use as much of the original wood as I can...some of it was useless anyway....it was warped and twisted. this stuff looks like mahogany, but is hard as nails. I'm sure that after adding a few strakes of this, the hull will be solid at the bow stem, the sill I spoke of has now been formed {more on this later}. I didn't get a picture of it, but looking at the stern in the pictures above, it can be seen that I added the parts #9A to interrupt the large gap between #9 and part #10 {more on that later too}. to help support the deck platform, I added bits of wood underneath. the idea here is to insure that these two strakes are flush with the platform.......I kept some of the camber some testing was in order to see where to put the gun ports....something I've never done before! I shouldn't mention it, but I will have quite a few cannons from the Connie kit I have. they do look a little out of scale, but look close enough for the model......I used the bow chaser from the United States kit to check the height of the gun port. I got the bow chaser from the Connie kit as well....unassembled, but after all......I'm playing with the deckline set, now to set the bottom lip of the gun ports. to figure this out, I needed a stand in........Cloey will do the honors. positioning the cannons up to the bulwark, it appears to be around 4 mm to 5 mm would be good, to allow the cannon to have sufficient drop. now, I plan to size the gun port 10 mm X 10 mm.....seems to be a good size to me the bulwark strakes for Cloey are 1.8 mm X 5 mm...good food for thought. for what I need.....there is an abundance. I'm sure you're wondering.......what's with Connie? still in the planning stage, but I assure you, it will be interesting nutz........off to take Gibbs for a walk, and I'm sure the admiral will want to run the errands. bee back in a bit with more .......still much more