glbarlow

I’m glad you find my log helpful, that’s always my goal. Your Nikon 3100 should have a white balance setting, I’m a Nikon shooter as well (mine are D850, Z7, and Z7ii). Press the menu button and select the photo shooting menu, scroll down to the Whit Balance. It’s likely in Auto which is great for most things but will vary for every shot. There should be choices, I think cloudy will give you a consistent warmer look. And if not your photos look great, a perfect white background shot is hard to achieve without the right lighting and settings. It’s why my log photos are just at my workshop top with an iPhone. I only do white background for the finished photos.

Pretty standard for parts like this to be laser cut oversized in quality kits. Spacers aside not every ship is built the same and the design allows room for adjustments to account for the variations among different builders. Nice build, and likely a new speed record. Perhaps you can get more light on your nice model for the photos?

I’m sure Rusty meant BE🤣😂. I struggle with how far forward to carry the garboard every time, definitely interesting and clever to use a wider plank.

Nice to see another Flirt underway, and glad I’m past this stage on mine. Very clean work. You can reduce the blue tint by adjusting white balance to a warmer setting, try daylight or cloudy instead of auto if a camera there is a slider in edit photos if a iPhone

Thanks BE, still my favorite word even if I don’t know how to spell it. In fairness there is a US expression used by southern moms telling their kids to do something productive and quit ‘fiddling about.’ I’m quite familiar with it having heard it from my mom more than a few times.

Thanks Derek, I had to find some excuse for using the mill.

Your planking and counter turned out great. Really nice work!

I think the time for models and enamel are are all but ended, I haven't used an enamel based paint in years. The quality of acrylics is excellent, why deal with the mess and hassle of oil based paints. I finished it all off with Wipe On Poly, which is oil based, but that's wipe on, wipe off - easy.

Catheads & Bow Decoration Installation of the catheads called for a little extra work beyond just gluing in the solid parts provided. I did some filing and sanding on both to match the angle of the deck and adjustments to get them flush with the bulkhead, including notching out for the spirketting I’d added earlier. They were pretty a pretty close fit, every ship is going to be a little different and require basic fitting adjustments. In addition I finally had the chance to use my mill, in this case to add simulated sheaves. I plan to rig the anchors later using these as I’ve done for other models. I also added a cleat to the back of both catheads for the same reason. I got started using Admiralty Paints Dull Black on this model, but really prefer Admiralty Paints Iron Works Black (which looks great on wood and what I used on Cheerful). I'm not going to change course now but It's probably the last hurrah for Dull Black. Really just to use the mill for repetitive work I drilled holes through the eight wood cleats required for the hull and glued in the nails as called for by the instructions. Conveniently Chris has provided the holes for both these cleats and the smaller PE cleats in the bulwarks, they were among those I’d drilled through from outside the gunport pattern way back at the beginning. That was a nice touch and saved a lot of measuring and drilling, this design feature pays off again for the gunport tackle eyebolts and rings. Then it was time for the bow vertical and main rails - I’ve built a lot of models with this feature but this design is quite clever. The vertical rails are three pieces of PE that pass through the stem with flex points allowing them to bend up to meet the main rail. I had do a little bit of filing but it worked out quite easily all in all. Though I chose a different paint scheme this is another nice design touch by Chris and Vanguard Models. My last modification was to add an eyebolt to the bottom of the knee, again part of the anchor rigging I’ll do later. While the instructions seem to show directly installing the knees right from the parts board I instead added a 15 degree angle to the back side using, very carefully, the Byrnes Sander. I thought this provided for a better fit that is more in line with the main rail. These close ups always disclose a lot of dust and needed paint touch up, which I do after seeing the photos. My next step is to build all the gun carriages, deck furniture and belay racks anything I want painted red. My intent is a single spray painting session for the bunch. I’ve never done this as I’ve mentioned but thought it’d be worth a try with my new spray painting gear. Simply setting it all up to paint will be a task in and of itself I’m guessing, and to be clear I’m doing none of that anywhere near the hull. It will take a while. Thanks as always for your time spent visiting my log, the likes comments are appreciated. I’ll be back soon.

Other than fairing all I use is 150, 220, 320, & 400. I have never finished anything beyond 400 grit. I really like Soft Sanders with their adhesive paper, foam sanding sticks I get on Amazon and more adhesive sandpaper on small wood block I cut, 1 ¼ and 1 ¾ square by ¼ thick plus loose paper in those 4 grades. I have a tray on my bench filled with all this stuff.

Nice work on the planking!

Justin helps makes my point, thank you. To be clear I’m an avid reader, my Kindle always has multiple books and one in progress at all times. I also have a number of the key reference books, which I used rigging Pegasus to be historically accurate. A beginning modeler doesn’t need to fall down the rabbit hole of maritime research, building a basic model should be simple, rewarding, and purposeful. Building confidence and basic skills through experience of doing comes first. While I did use references to make rigging on my LN a bit more complete it wasn’t my first model and there is little gained from detailed research on this entry level model (I built it as a refresher after a very long layoff to see if I wanted to restart my building, a small investment if I didn’t.) I’m not saying research and books aren’t good, just that it’s overkill and possibly overwhelming when first starting out or for building most commercial models as is. For example I trust that Chris for Flirt & Sphinx and Chuck for Cheerful & Winchelsea have done all the necessary research needed to build a great model. As Justin said, there is a time for reading and a time for building. And…I like plans and drafts far better anyway (my ship room wall):

All my models have a brass plate with the ships name, my name, and the year I built it on the stand. Three also have the name on the stern, I think it’s your model, your call.

Yes, I ordered some boxwood from there a few years ago. What I received could best be called kindling. They finally gave me my money back but said keep the wood, it made for great fire starters. Don’t waste your money. The place to go is Modelers Sawmill at the link above. I got a large order of yellow cedar from him and it’s perfect, both the quality and the cut.

I wouldn’t be so discouraged Glenn, it looks like all you need to do is remove and replace the roof of the quarter galleries. There’s not that many pieces to the quarter gallery eve if you had to replace them all. I’m confident you can sort it out.

Thank you for referencing my log. After the Lady Nelson I’d suggest Speedy, Flirt or Duchess. Alert is just a better version of Lady Nelson, a small cutter. You shouldn’t need a rabbet on any of those and running planks the full length of the hull is the best course with all these models. If you wanted a rabbet on the keel you can sand or file the frame former to about half its width, ¼ on each side. Once you attach the keel, you have a rabbet. The simpler way is just to bevel the plank to match the angle to the keel, same concept at the stem, it works fine on these models. Garboard by the way is nothing more than the plank closest to the keel, it’s a little more challenging to fit, but it’s still just a plank. My advice is to read less and build more, these models don’t have to be complicated or researched. You can learn as you go or research along the way if that interests you. As a beginner the best thing to do is build stuff. There are plenty of logs, post your own and you’ll get the help you need as you need it.

Looking forward to seeing your Flirt log.

No one has asked this and you haven’t said. What model are you building? Expansive libraries aren’t essential or even necessary for a beginner,in most basic commercial models a rabbet isn’t necessary, you can bevel the plank to match the stem and keel. If it’s a double planked hull, go with a single plank bow to stern but watch those videos and learn how to plank properly. If you do the right planning, measuring, and tapering you shouldn’t need to cut planks in half to fit on a standard model, in fact that won’t help you learn to plank better. This advice posts can over complicate things as often as not. Frankly you haven’t provided enough information to get a clear answer so things go on tangents. What model are you building, do you even need a rabbet, as a beginner a single plank bow to stern is easier to manage that scaled lengths. Even then you need a proper shift pattern planned out, not just randomly cutting planks.

I did buy one 😌

My nautical dictionary refers to drop planks just before the bow, as you said to drop a second plank into one to better allow equal planking at the stem. Both Cheerful and Winchelsea have one such plank. I fully acknowledge most of my maritime knowledge comes from you so what do I know🤪

Are they really though, doesn’t the name say it all, and isn’t it drop planks. Could’nt resist 😂🤣😂

Good luck with that, I screw up the terminology all the time and I’ve been at this for a long while. 😂🤣

Try looking at these

They are that. Remember they need to be treated and sharp now, they don’t come ready. I love these tools, I use them a lot and for more than just chiseling.

Yes, that’s correct. I noted that in my LN log