vaddoc

Ending of the story here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-49397838 There is in St Neots a miniature train, that children can ride on. The people of the club are very enthusiastic and actively continue work on it. Unfortunately, recently it was also vandalised but the community supported the train club and raised money that covered the damage. Vaddoc

Power tools make modelling more accurate, maybe faster (as you start undertaking more tasks). They need space, solid work benches and some dust management system. (vacuum, filtration, masks). I also find my scroll saw, disc sander, and drill press the most useful, they are permanently plugged in and used constantly (scratch building). Dremel rotary tool also, but less. I built my own disc sander quite easily spending very little, 200 mm (8 inches) is I think the minimum, as you can only use half of it.

Thanks Bob I honestly do not think it is veneer. I bought from a well known high quality source and it is almost certainly sawn timber. At 2 mm thickness it is unlikely to be veneer and maple veneer is not really used very much. I think that either the tree had a hard childhood resulting in grain abnormalities or I stored it improperly. I ll thoroughly wet a sheet when I find the time and compress it, maybe it will flatten. I ll post the results

https://www.classicboat.co.uk/practical-advice/jib-traveller/ The inhaul is just a simple rope attached to the bowsprit traveller, no purchase/blocks needed. The wise books say it is not actually needed too much as the jib will push the traveller in, it is the outhaul that is more necessary. This is a subject a researched very recently. (for small boats only) Vaddoc

Looking good Patrick!

Another quick update! As family is away enjoying the summer, I found the opportunity to do a bit more work before I join them in a week's time. I attached the fittings for the bob and whisker stays using brass pins and CA glue. The thread is there just to show the lines, it will of course be replaced by ropes, blocks and shackles. Then the chainplates went on. I would like to somehow have a couple of brass belaying pins attached to the back of the gooseneck. I am not sure how this would work but in the meantime I silver soldered two simple belaying pins

Try the water based polyurethane Valejo, not as tough as the enamel Humbrol but much easier to use and overall does the job well. No brush marks at all, no special skills needed, just slap it on! Amazing self levelling properties

Agree with Wefalck. Probably needs more thinning and more stirring but matt Humbrol is more difficult to apply than gloss and satin . Also do not go over the same area with the brush, trust the varnish. I think you need too thin much more

Well, a bit of progress today despite a temperature of 38C. No need to convert to F, it is a lot! Firstly, I ordered replacement drills (plus a few extra). You can never have enough drills. Then, I worked on the boom and gooseneck. I could really use some micro tools for carving as it was tricky to sit the arms to the boom. The outcome was not as nice as I hoped but I can live with it. It moves extremely smoothly but still needs a bit more work.

Yes! Closing the case, they slipped out a bit and got caught. All broke in a fraction of a second!

Many thanks to both This is left over wood from planking my current boat. I may have made a slight mistake calculating how much I needed! However I liked maple very much so will use in planking a future boat.

Dear all I have quite a lot of very nice maple sheets. They started off very flat and ended up massively warped. Any suggestions if these can be saved and how? I am thinking soaking for a couple of hours in water and compressing. Vaddoc

Time I think for another post Life has been very busy and certainly not boring, in between massive storms ("supercell" storm), earthquakes, minor home flooding etc. I have been working on the boat but had no time to post and also managed to loose some photos. I have a new phone though so photo quality should now be better. I invested a lot of time and effort and perfected my block making method. I made lots of components and I will be making blocks of various sizes and configurations on demand. Then, I decided to clean my garage. And as soon as I finished, I decided to completely reconfigure it and clear all unneeded stuff. I ll post a photo later but it now looks much better. It did take 3 days though. I also decided to add (when I can afford it) more lights, about 10000 lumens on top of the existing ones, this should make things easier. Then, in a clean tidy garage, I started working on the gaff. It actually took a lot of work but I think came out fine. Still needs a few more components but the gaff jaws are ready. Both the saddle and the brass fitting pivot freely. Progress is very slow but the finish line is getting closer, can't really be more than a year or two away... In the mean time, could I get the prize for breaking the most drills in a single day?

Beautiful Patrick. Your fleet is wonderful. The last sailboat you made with the cutaway section looks so fragile I would hesitate to even breath near!

So elegant lines, a very large boat that looks as light as a ballet dancer. Very nice work Keith!