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catopower

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Everything posted by catopower

  1. catopower
    Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Robbyn, to answer your question, as Elia points out I have a couple build logs here that have been on hold for a bit or moving very slowly. Mostly, I've got a couple projects that I'm doing for other people that I've had to bump to the front of my project queue. I just got tired of not finishing anything, so I pushed the longboat to the front since it was so far along, but it's been in the works since the kits were initially released. Elia, as I just mentioned, I've got a couple other projects that I'm actually working on for other people. Also, I'm doing a couple out-of-the-box kit reviews for Ships in Scale magazine, and that's actually been a nice distraction. I just finished one that should show up shortly, and then I've got another one or two others I'd like to do in the coming months. It's all a good thing, but it is slowing down these other projects, particularly the Saginaw, on which I'd hit some snags. The Yacht America is actually pretty far along and I was thinking about making some progress on it. If I get it far enough along it'll naturally call on me to finish it. So, stay tuned. Clare
  2. catopower
    Done! In a marathon late night session last night, I finished my longboat. I tied the last of the rope coils into place, glued the handles on and officially declared victory. I just couldn't go one more day saying that it should be finished by tomorrow. I'll post a full set of pics in the gallery shortly. I ended up not including the grappling anchor as the casting seemed too big for the model, especially after looking at Chuck's prototype which has an anchor I really like. Perhaps in the future I'll fashion one that's smaller, but it seemed unnecessary, so I left it out. Also, I did flub the location of the flag halliards and put them on the port side instead of the starboard side as given in the instructions. That didn't seem like it was critical, so I left that as well. Here's a final pic with more to be posted in the gallery shortly. This started out as a kit that I thought was "nice" and ended up being a really fun and challenging build that tested my skills, taught me a few things, and turned out to be a pretty sweet looking model. Chuck did a wonderful job on this kit design I have to say. I'll be building a case for it in the near future, but at least it's under a dust cover now. Clare
  3. catopower
    So near, yet, so far... Every time I think "Okay, I should have this project done tonight or maybe tomorrow", tonight comes and goes, tomorrow hits and ends and, and again it's "okay, I'll defnitely have this project done tonight, or maybe tomorrow..." But, seriously, I think I can say that I will have this project done by tonight! Or maybe tomorrow. No. Tonight, I think. I have an event to go to this afternoon, but I have lots of time before I have to leave. And, I'll be back shortly after dark and have time to work on it tonight. All that's left now is to rig four blocks with hooks and rig the jib and staysail halliards and rig the backstays, for which the pendants are already complete. The anchor is rigged and ready to seat with its coil of rope. Oh, and then I just have to tie off the flag halliard. As long as I don't break anything (crossing my fingers here), all should be okay and I can permanently fix the tiller and the handle for the windlass into place. Here's what it looks like now... Almost there! Clare
  4. catopower
    Congratulations on completing your longboat build Robbyn. You've done a terrific job. Your completion is inspiring me to get in gear to finish up my own longboat project. So, now I'm busily trying to get caught up. It should be very soon and I'm only hoping it will turn out as nice as yours. Well done! Clare
  5. catopower
    Hello Shlhawk, That's a very good question and the funny thing is that I have been actually faced with exactly the same issue regarding HMS Victory and paint. I am building a model for someone and I'm trying to figure out a way to build it without paint. But, I don't like the way the ship looks without paint. Or at least the way the completed kit might look if I build it without paint. Personally, I think the bias for no paint on a model is just a bias. It's all personal opinion and my own is that paint can frame a model quite nicely and create a contrast that can make the wood on a model stand out. Most ships never looked the way an all wood finish model looks, but that's fine if that's what you like. I'm thinking I'd like to build the Victory with natural wood tone for the yellow bands and for the area that would normally be coppered and then where it's black, I'd like to paint it. Then, that makes it easier to paint the stern galleries which might look a bit odd unpainted while using the kit supplied parts, at least to me. In my experience, when someone asks what people think about a topic, they usually have something in mind and are looking for some encouragement to follow their own ideas. If you feel your model should be all natural, then that's the way you should build it, and if you think it needs some paint, then don't worry about it and go ahead and paint. There should be plenty of examples of both on MSW. As for my case, I need to figure out a way to convince the owner that we'll have a great looking model with my limited paint scheme plan. So, unfortunately, I can't follow my own advice and just do it the way I want. But, good luck and regardless of what you decide, I'll be looking forward to seeing your build here on MWS, Clare
  6. catopower
    Hi Robbyn, I feel your pain! Or rather, I felt your pain when I went through the same thing. Your model is looking great. Quite a challenge! Nice job, Clare
  7. catopower
    Thanks Chuck, I'm now at the point where I'm starting to wonder if I should have stopped early and had a nice un-rigged longboat model. Addling blocks to the mast and all, I already managed to snap the mast at one of sheave holes. It's repaired now, but I worry it may be a little weak. I'll have to be extra careful adding all the rigging. Still moving forward though. Clare P.S. I'll email you the latest newsletter, but the SF club isn't nearly as interesting as the San Diego group!
  8. catopower
    Hi Scott, I have that book too and love looking through it. Like David B I was fortunate enough to visit Dr. Arnold Kriegstein's home to see his collection. Simply amazing models and, as has been said here, all done without power tools. Put's my own ship modeling work to shame... Of course, so do so many great ship modelers on this site. Clare
  9. catopower
    I'm determined to finish this model up in the next week or so. During the week, I finished the gudgeons and pintles, and finished making the windlass and handles. Yesterday, I added the thole pins. The windlass is made from square stock basswood. I considered making this from boxwood but the basswood worked well enough. The hardest part was creating the holes for the handles. I drilled, poked with a pointy #11 X-Acto knife and got them about the right size. Finally, I just pushed the handle into each hole. The square section of the handle kind of evened out the square opening. It's not perfect, but I think it's about the best I'm going to do, at least this time. The thole pins were kind of interesting. I'm not much of a jig maker, but this time, I ended up taking a piece of brass and making a drill pattern so that all the thole pins are spaced a consistent distance apart. Last thing on the rudder were the decorations. Again, mine were printed on decal paper. I realized at some point that I had used clear decal paper instead of white decal paper. The problem with this was that if the decals are placed directly on wood, the color are very subdued. This wasn't a problem with the friezes at the gunwales as I had already painted these areas white. For the rudder, I found that I had to paint white ovals where the decals were to be located. After these dried, I added the decals, which looked fine. For the handles for the rudder and the windlass, I gave up trying to make a decent looking set out of basswood. Instead, I just took some boxwood strips and made these. They are the only use of wood on the model that is not basswood. Clare
  10. catopower
    Hello Bob, I just added my build log to the group and dropped in to take a look at your build. You've done a beautiful job and I'm intrigued by the departures you've made from the kit. Very interesting! I can't wait to see what comes next... Clare
  11. catopower
    Thank you Bob, it's good to be here... finally! I have to say, I originally thought the kit was just okay. But, over the course of working on it, and yes I took the long slow route, I've really come to love the way this model looks. You know, I'm tempted to do another one. If I did, at minimum, I'd try adding nails at the frames or at least simulate it. Of course, I'd better finish this one... and maybe some of those other projects that are just sitting around waiting for attention. Here's one more photo taken at the Good Sam Showcase of Miniatures in San Jose, CA a couple weekends ago. The South Bay Model Shipwrights club was given 1/2 a table to set up a display, so I brought my Mary Taylor model and this "in-progress" model. I'd made a simple base and stand for it in time for the show. I think that little bit of work on it made me realize I need to get it done. Here's the longboat displayed next to a couple 1:350 models done by Patrick Moloney, one of the other members of the group. And, the in-progress longboat up close. I made the base from a piece of cherry wood I had. I seldom use the router table I bought a couple years ago, so it was nice to have a quick job to do here. The posts are actually brass tubing over a thinner brass rod. The inner rod actually stops about 1/2" from the top of the tubing and small brass rods were fit into the keel of the longboat that fit snugly into the tubes. Works well and allows me to remove the model to work on it. I have other models where there is a fixed rod that fits into holes in the keel, but it is too easy to miss the holes when mounting the hull. The result is small dings to the keel or hull. This way, the model keeps clear of the stand until the ends of the fixed rods in the keel are fit into the tubing of the stands. Clare
  12. catopower
    With this installment, I'm about up to where I was on my other build log. I've done some work since then, but I'll leave it for another time to update the log here. As you can see in these photos, I've added the floorboards, risers, platforms and stern seats. I used Chuck's technique for scribing the moldings and was really happy with how they turned out. The wood is all treated with a 50/50 mix of Golden Oak and Natural stains. The paint was my own mix of acrylics. I know the brighter red is more authentic, so I chalk up the darker color mix to artistic license. In the fourth photo, if you look carefully, you can see the light shining through the thin planking above the waterline. Finally, I did start the metal work here, shaping the kit provided brass and using the "Brass Black" solution that Bluejacket sells. I find that I get better results using their product than with A-West's "Blacken-It" product. Anyway, the blackened brass was then given a clear coat and glued into place. Clare
  13. catopower
    Here are the photos from my second installment of the build, following up the planking with trimming the framing. Now we jump ahead a little because I didn't take any photos of the process of painting and applying the friezes. As with others, I found the printed friezes in the kit didn't fit my model. Chuck was nice enough to provide reduced size friezes, but I found that even then they were still too big. But, with the files that Chuck provided, I could simply reduce them myself to get something that would fit nicely. In my case, I reduced the art to 95% and it fit great. The next problem I encountered with the art was that my printer wasn't producing something that I found satisfactory. It's a good printer, a Canon 780, but adjusting the color just didn't work well enough to suit me. I also tried different kinds of paper, but still not happy. Finally, I remembered I had some Testors brand decal paper and I tried that. Worked like a charm and I was very happy with the results. The color looks good, though different from the original art, and the decals are nice and thin. Clare
  14. catopower
    I'd had a build log for my 18th Century English Longboat going on another site, but it's time to post it here with my other build logs. I started this kit back when the item first came out. I'd been working on some scratch projects and I thought it would make a good diversion to pull out and work on now and again. It's been "in progress" though for so long and far enough along now that I'm ready to put all my effort into finishing up this model. I've had a great time with this kit and I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. It's pretty rare for me to build a kit without changing things, but so far I've pretty good about not fooling around with changes and just building the model. It's not as nice as some of the fabulous work I see in some of the other build logs. But aside from skill issues, I like to blame any faults on my desire to keep this as a tinkering model to bring out now and again when I need a break from another project. I'll begin here with a photo recap of the project. Again, this began around January of 2012 (I think that's when I got the kit – it's all kind of a blur now...). As you can see, I had a little trouble with the bending of the basswood at the bow, particularly dealing with the third plank up from the garboard. I also had enough trouble with the edge bending that the planks weren't all laying flat. So, I sanded to compensate. As a result, there's some REALLY THIN planking there. In a later photo, you might see the light shining through it. However, I did manage not to sand all the way through and the planks look pretty even. Clare
  15. catopower
    Is it appropriate to wish everyone a Happy Trafalgar Day then?
  16. catopower
    On a different note on ordering products from Ancre Books, a friend and fellow ship modeler followed up my discussions of the new book I bought from Ancre by ordering a copy of fourth book in the 74-gun Ship series. He had the first 3 books and just needed the fourth. When he received his order, he discovered that he'd been sent the entire series instead of just the one book he needed. He only got charged for the book he ordered. So, if anyone in the U.S. is interested in getting 3 of the 4 books. Let me know and I'll pass the word. He's looking at selling the books and sending the money to Ancre. The books are brand new and cost around $300, but you'll end up saving a bundle on the shipping since it's all domestic shipping. Clare
  17. catopower
    Hi Andy, Your model is looking great. It was a pleasure meeting you recently and I'm anxious to see your progress updates! Clare
  18. catopower
    Hi Jay, Glad to see you haven't given up on ship modeling after all. Sorry you didn't come to our little gathering in Vallejo. It was a nice get-together and I got to meet a couple more ship modelers in the general vicinity. Hope I wasn't bugging you too much to attend, but I really wanted to meet the man behind the beautiful model! I'll be looking forward to following your updates. Nice job on those windmills too! Clare
  19. catopower
    Hi Popeye, Your build is looking great regardless of the whole caprail issue. And on that, there is one of the dangers of having photos of an actual ship or replica available. If you didn't have those photos, you might be perfectly happy! And as far as kits and those "Oh, Sh**" moments, as Bob put it, I've been working on a scratch project and seem to have a lot more of those moments than ever before. You just can't escape them no matter what... Clare
  20. catopower
    Thanks for your thoughts John, Cap'n'Bob. I agree that red will look nicest and create a nice color contrast for the paddle wheels. The illustration with the red paddle wheels would have been how she looked pre-war. My build, being 1870, the year she was lost, is post-war, so maybe red makes sense there too. I have some Tamiya Bright Red, which when sprayed onto a surface just looks plain red and seems good. A darker red is probably less accurate, so I'll try this and see how it looks. I'll get the hubs of the wheels done first and give it a shot. Thanks, Clare
  21. catopower
    Hello Ed, I'm watching you build with a great deal of fascination. The Young America is one of the subjects I have considered for a future build, but certainly nothing remotely close in detail to what you are doing here. I'd figured on sticking to plank on solid hull at a smaller scale and using the Crothers plans or the Chapelle plans (for the hull) and using some high resolution scans of photos I'd gotten of the Young America. Some of the poop deck detail, like the small cabin at the forward end is a bit confusing since the various sources don't agree. I'll definitely be watching your progress to see what you come up with. I'm not sure if I'm ready to handle the POF work that you're illustrating in this build. It's just fantastic work. However, I have been considering getting your books and taking on the Naiad build. Thanks for posting here in such great detail! Clare
  22. catopower
    And, I should add about the handspike/capstan bar question... Clearly capstan bars have to be stored somewhere and the bulwarks seems to be the place, so I will definitely add those. I'm thinking that hand spikes should be stored similarly. Probably, at 1/96 scale, handspikes and capstan bars won't look any different, so I just have to make a mental note as to which are which and where to store them. That ordnance instructions e-book should give me an idea of how many hand spikes are needed per gun. So, I'll just plan on putting an appropriate number of "poles" in various locations. As to what is actually shown in the photos, I'm not sure since both capstan bars and hand spike I think are usually tapered a little and have more of a square cross section at the heavier end. Those bars in the photos look round and straight. And then where were boarding pikes kept? Would there be lockers for those perhaps? Questions, questions... Clare
  23. catopower
    So, the next issue coming up now is going to be the proper color for the paddlewheels. A lot of civilian ships appear to be painted red. The USS Powhatan, which served in the Pacific around the same time as Saginaw, appears to have been painted black on most models. Also, Japanese woodblock prints of Perry's arrival, while stylized and not detail accurate, probably have the color right and show the wheels as black. I do have one color illustration of the Saginaw in her original configuration that shows red paddlewheels, but I don't know the history of this illustration. If the paddlewheels were red, I would expect them to have been painted with red lead. The problem I have with that is that red lead is a color that most people don't see anymore and it's actually more of an orange red. It's not particularly nice looking on the model. So, I'm trying to decide, if I use red and, if so, if I should use a little artistic license and use a darker shade of red so that model looks nice. Or, I could try to be color accurate and use a red-orange. The other option is to go with another ship of the time and paint the wheels black. Not sure yet, but will have to decide soon. Undated illustration of the Saginaw in her 1859 configuration. Model of the USS Powhatan. Clare
  24. catopower
    Mark, you rock! What was particularly interesting was an e-book link in the Civil War Talk forum you posted at the end there. Interesting discussion about handing pivot guns, but that e-book "Ordnance Instructions for the US Navy, 1866" that was an incredible find! 100+ pages of all the details about handling boat howitzers, the maneuvering of pivot guns, what everyone's job is at the guns, organization of boarding parties and small arms... everything. I've got a ton of fascinating reading material now. Thanks for the info! Clare
  25. catopower
    Thanks for the ideas about those bars John and Cap'n Bob. I think I originally dismissed the possibility that they could be capstan bars because they seemed too light. Also, on the Nipsic, that boat gun appears to be on the Quarter Deck, which I figured was probably officer's country and didn't seem like it would be a place they would store capstan bars. Plus I wouldn't think there'd be a capstan that far aft. Unless perhaps those particular bars are actually hand spikes for use on the boat gun pictured. I suppose I should see if I can track down a deck plan or more photos of the Kearsarge to see if there is a capstan somewhere fairly close to where the bars are pictured. Thanks again, Clare

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