Dziadeczek

As you noticed, Imai is long gone, unfortunately... 😞 Replaced by another Japanese kit maker, Woody Joe - check their offer, perhaps you'll find something interesting for you. Many years ago I built a model from Imai - their "Osyoru Maru" (Oshoro Maru) - a brigantine, research vessel from the Hokkaido University's department of Fisheries. I got this kit as a gift from a friend from Japan. Cute little project, very well designed and easy to understand, even though the instructions were only in Japanese. Recommended for a beginner with some experience with his hands.

I don't know D. Dressel's book, but I first learnt the planking technique from the brochure by Jim Roberts "Planking the Built-Up Ship Model". Basically, after you VERY PRECISELY! installed the wale and the garboard strake (make sure they are perfectly symmetrical on both sides of your hull), you proceed to determine the runs of your battens (very thin temporary glued wood strips). If you chose three spaces (two battens), that's OK. Very important is that they run symmetrically on both sides, along the entire length of the hull, and equidistantly to each other. In other words, the spaces between the battens should be the same, and not like you say, one is 52 for the top space, 66 for the middle and 52 again for the bottom space! All spaces should be 52 (or something else, in your case). Reposition the battens. I assume, these measurements are for the edge of a middle frame/bulkhead, the one that is the bulkiest. Do the same for the remaining bulkheads, taking precise measurements in between the lower edge of the wale and the upper edge of the garboard strake, taken with either a strip of paper or dividers, and then divide the distance into three to obtain the width for each ellipsoid space - for the corresponding bulkhead/frame. Do this for ALL frames, make a pencil mark on each frame and finally connect them all into a curve delineating the run of your batten. It is easier to do it, than to explain it... 😬 This method is foolproof, if you do it precisely. Hope this helps, Thomas

When I took this pic, there were no sails hoisted, hence the absence of a foresail tack on the boomkin.

I am not sure if this helps, but...

I built my first ship model more than 30 years ago - Billing Boats "Norske Love" only with Elmer's Glue All white glue and today it sits there, still intact. My latest, scratched French 74 guns after Boudriot, I built using Titebond Original. I'll let you know after another 30 years. 😁 I think, both are good for wood, at least for our purposes. Titebond II and III are for waterproof applications, II - for water resistant and III - for waterproof (if you are building a floating model, for RC etc.)

I don't know much about the Hemingway's Pilar yacht, but in my opinion, if you intend to completely cover the hull with planking, either wood will be OK. Especially, good quality plywood, like Baltic plywood has great stability. If, however, you want to only partially plank your hull (Dockyard style model or similar), you do not want to show the layered edges of your bulkheads made from plywood, and in this case - use solid wood, any of the hard fruit woods will suffice, eg. cherry, apple, pear, plum, but also maple, birch, beech, etc. If your pockets are sufficiently deep, go full blast for boxwood or even some, more exotic species, peroba, etc.

dupuytren's contracture treatment - Google Search

I heard there is non-surgical treatment for this as well...

Do this: Make sure the strip lays on the entire width of the edge of each bulkhead. If not, sand this edge a little more until flush. To help determine further, mark (smear) the bulkhead's edge with a pencil and see that this marking disappears after sanding. Or leave laser burns there intact and use them as your guide instead of pencil marks...

An exquisite workmanship! I regularly see your updates on the Polish Koga forum. Everybody, keep in mind that this is a paper (mostly) model! Hats off! Thomas

Tiziano's fabulous model was an inspiration for my French 74 guns 1:48 I finished a year ago. With everything (masting and rigging) it took me almost 20 years to build it! (But then, I am a slow builder...). 😁

Were pintles and gudgeons of the rudder also covered with this "white stuff", or left unpainted? I have seen models with both. Thomas

A forgotten relic with a modern price.

I meant to say, you did not do the spiling process properly - your planks look rectangular all the way (the same width along their entire lengths), so sooner or later you run out of space for them on the hull and ended up with those triangular empty spaces... Also, in order for your planks to fit at the bow and the stern, you have to either pre-shape them off the model (using for instance cardboard templates, or edge-bend them to follow the curve in those spaces. Like this modeler did here (post # 26 in this link - check his video).

chuck passaro planking - YouTube

I am in the middle of building my own version of a planetary ropewalk, (in addition to my old standard ropewalk I built about 30 years ago). I heard that this type of a ropewalk has several issues in terms of evenly twisting of ropes and tension of strands that have to be carefully adjusted. I'll let you know how my own behaves, after I finish it. Thomas

please read my two previous posts As I mentioned, when I twist a 4 stranded rope (with no core), sometimes the strands jump over others, sometimes the twists are a bit irregular, uneven, in places individual strands collapse into this empty space in the center of the rope - end result, the rope looks bad. I am trying to improve the overall results, and I am slowly inching toward my goal, but I think I have to fill this empty space with a core to make the rope even. I don't know if I will be able to use a thin wire for that, or just a thinner 5th strand mounted in the center. I will try both. In the meantime, I attach a pic with two ropes I made today from 4 strands each with no core. Their thickness is about 1 mm (1/64 inch). I used some cheap cotton I had handy at the moment. Back to the drawing board... 🤔

My ropewalk has the possibility to twist 4 stranded ropes (as well as 3 stranded ones) and I tried many times to twist 3 and/or 4 stranded ropes on it. The 3 stranded ones come perfect, but the 4 stranded not so - for the above mentioned reason. So, after drilling a center hole through the cone (where the grooves meet) and inserting a thin wire through it, I noticed that such a 4 str. rope comes very ugly - the strands get excessively twisted, form many small knots before they decide to twist around each other to form a rope. At the same time, the central core (wire) wants to rotate in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation of all strands, but because it is only loosely inserted in between the strands, this rotation gets uneven and in bursts. So, the whole rope comes out terrible. There has to be a different, perfect way of suspending the core wire which has to be very straight, like all thread strands, and only than the whole thing can form a rope. The reason I wanted to make such a rope (with a center wire) is, that the wire core would allow me to form more natural ways of sagging of certain ropes on my models rather than all of them stretched straight...

Did anyone try to twist a 4 strand rope with a central core (either out of a thinner thread or a thin wire)? I have an old ropewalk I build long time ago, similar in principles to a ropewalk by Phil Krol (see attachment), but my cone (traveller) is suspended on two fishing lines extended between centers, instead of a small cart on a rail, so I can extend the distance between both centers easier, depending on the max length of this line. Like in the design by Russ Long from Ship Modelers Association - Ship Modelers Association - Tip of the Month My ropewalk doesn't have a second rotating center that forms ropes in the direction opposite to the 3(4) twirls, instead it has a fishing twirly that spins freely, thus forming the rope. I am thinking about adopting my ropewalk to making a 3 or 4 strand ropes, BUT WITH A CENTRAL CORE (thread or wire). I had mixed results twisting a 4 strand ropes (some are better, other not so good), until I found out that the reason for this is the fact, that with 4 stranded ropes there is a slightly bigger empty space in the middle and the strands tend to collapse into it, - so to speak -, resulting in uneven twists. I want to fill that space with such a core. I already drilled a center hole through the cone and tried to insert there a length of thin wire, but the strands tend to twist around it excessively resulting in a very ugly rope. I also noticed that the central wire tends to rotate spontaneously on its own, opposite to the rotation of all strands and would have to be suspended absolutely perfectly to do it freely (which is impossible, I am afraid). I remember there was a discussion on this exact topic on the now defunct Seaways list, but I lost this topic, unfortunately... Is such a modification of my type of a ropewalk even possible? What do I have to do? ropewalk by Phil Krol.pdf

This is how these details look like on the bark "Star of India" in San Diego.

Here are my struggles with photoetching (that in the end, turned out successfully): Photo Etching - do it yourself - Metal Work, Soldering and Metal Fittings - Model Ship World™

I follow the method described once by Fr. Bill Romero. First prepare yourself the sides of your ladder, then prepare the steps. Assemble temporarily the sides like it's shown on the pic, in the shape of a letter "A" (at an angle that is twice the angle between your ladder and the side of your model), placing a drop of white glue at the tops of the sides. Place drops of glue at the bottoms of the sides and temporarily glue them to the horizontal piece, shown here as "scrap wood". Place your 'triangle' on the table of your miniature table saw (Preac, Proxxon, or like), the side with "scrap wood" facing the fence of your saw and make slits in the sides to the depth equaled half the thickness of your sides. Use an appropriate spacer to make subsequent slits to make sure your slits are equally distanced to each other. Now disassemble the sides from "scrap wood" and from each other. Glue all steps into the slits in one side of your ladder and after the glue dries, glue them to the other side. Alternatively, instead of cutting slits in the sides, glue to them equal size 'rhombs' (parallelograms) of the same piece of wood as your sides, making sure you keep spaces for your sides to be glued in later on. - drawing A. (Don't mind the numbers on the scan - they refer to his model only).

I always glue ONE plank interchangeably on each side of a hull at a time and proceed the same for the remainder of planks. I prebend the wet planks off the model so that they almost fit the shape of the hull, nothing forceful! I only place ONE layer of planks, no second coats necessary.

Amazon has several draw plates, their prices ranging from inexpensive to quite pricey. Notice that the holes in the plates are drilled not simply through, but their profile is conical. Which means that on one side of the plate each hole is bigger (base of the cone) and on the other side it is smaller (apex of the cone). The same plate can be used for pulling through a soft metal wire, as well as drawing wood. You insert a wire from the base side (larger hole) of the plate and pull it through the apex (smaller hole). With wood you do it from the opposite side. In other words, to make a thinner wire, you squeeze it through the plate, but with wood, you shave it (apex side has sharp edges). From my own practical experience with a draw plate, the best wood is prewetted bamboo (skewers from grocery stores), because bamboo has long and strong fibres that can withstand pulling with forceps. Other wood tends to break more easily. If you want to use something other than bamboo woods, like fruitwoods, or boxwood or similar for your treenails, use rather treenail cutters from Vanda Lay Ind. - he used to make them in 3 sizes, later on only 2 and finally, as far as I know, stopped making them altogether. Possibly you can still get this gadget on Ebay or similar sources.

Jewerly equipment suppliers have various draw plates.