Bob Cleek

Not to worry. No two wooden boats are ever exactly built to plan, even those built to be exactly the same for class racing under exacting measurement rules. There are always small discrepancies, not only from boat to boat, but also from side to side of the same boat. It is not unusual for a boat to have a "faster tack," because the slight differences between the port and starboard sides affect the speed of the boat when on that tack. As noted, nobody will notice. It's a major accomplishment just to finish a kit. I don't know if there are any verifiable statistics, but if the ratio of started to finished build logs are any indication, you've already beat the odds against you. Nice work!

The torch will do fine to anneal small brass items, as will a gas stove burner. Get a pair, or better yet, a set, of long locking soldering tweezers for such purposes. They will come in handy for soldering, as well. Amazon.com: Fiber Grip Tweezers Jewelry Hobby Craft Soldering Fiber Grip Cross Locking Set Bent and Straight Tip 5 PCS By JTS : Tools & Home Improvement (I picked this set because it shows a variety of soldering tweezers. I don't know what the quality may be, but the price seemed quite reasonable.) While you're at it, in the soldering department, and for a lot of other tasks, especially rigging, I'd highly recommend acquiring a Quad Hands "helping hands" device. There are many cheaper Asian copies on the market now, but the original is still the professional industry standard and worth the few additional bucks. (Better materials, stronger magnets, and better clips.) They come in many sizes and configurations. Suit yourself. QuadHands® - Helping Hands Tool See: https://www.amazon.com/vdp/4c85a9f99b434f8c86151188ebcdf63b?ref=dp_vse_ibvc0

Excellent photos! I'd bet these are the only photographic evidence of the rigging of early steaming lights available on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter. It speaks well of your "eye" for critical details. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were judging a model that portrayed such a detail, I'd certainly give it high points and "extra credit" for that!

Very thin veneer for non-structural planking is hard to source in my experience, at least and there's always the difficulty of working with the grain of wood that has been peeled from the log rather than sawn from it.. It's one thing if the plank is going to define and support the shape of the hull, but on a solid hull, that's not necessary and, consequently, the planking stock can be paper thin and cut with scissors, even, if one wishes. That will permit "planking" in scales well below 1:48 in size. The way it's done is to take a nice heavy plane, a #5 and better a #7 if you are lucky enough to have one, (or make do with what you've got.) Sharpen the iron well and set it properly to take a paper-thin shaving and then run it down the length of a nice clear plank edge (with the grain, not against it) and plane yourself a nice even curl of wood. Then take those curls, unroll them, and iron them flat with a clothes iron and cut your planks out from those flat ribbons of nice wood with the grain all running in the right direction with a scissors or a scalpel blade and a straight edge. Then glue those "planks" to your solid hull and nobody will ever be the wiser that you didn't spend a lot of time assembling frames and bulkheads and fairing plank edges and so on. I learned this trick reading the late Gerald Wingrove's book, The Techniques of Ship Modeling. He was working in quite small scale and he even devised a way to stack up razor blades separated by washers bolted together to create a cutter that could be run down the edge of a plank of wood so that a number of evenly spaced razor cuts would be made in the face of the edge of the plank. They he would plane the edge of the plank and the shavings would be simultaneously cut at the same time and all of the same width with one stroke of the plane.

I've had the same experience exactly and my 12 year old grandson "doesn't feel comfortable" in my workshop building "because it's dusty and full of spider webs." (I think the kid needs to do some time in "Grandpa's Boot Camp!") The schools now have what they call "Maker's Spaces," which are sort of shop classrooms where they are supposedly able to "make things," but I haven't seen anything being "made" nor any manual arts skills being taught. They also have "robotics shop," which is perhaps more technologically up with the times, but seems to only be about assembling prefabricated LEGO subassemblies and playing with radio-controlled cars in a different context. What's more disturbing to me is that kids my grandson's age don't seem to have any desire or interest to build anything. No "forts" or treehouses. No coasters. No working on their bicycles. Just no creative drive. Their interest is consumed by computer games (perhaps as our hobbies now compete with our own screen time... touche'.) "Reality" doesn't have to be "virtual," but it seems for them, it is. If they want something, their instinct seems to be to find out on line where to buy it. But then again, I had a father-in-law who used to call the Yellow Pages his "tool box" because he was "manually illiterate" and always hired somebody to everything. Who's going to teach them "righty tighty, lefty loosey?" How will they ever learn to sharpen an edge? (I gave my grandson a small pocket knife and my daughter had a conniption fit and took it away from him because it was "dangerous." Don't ask me. I still haven't figured out how to gracefully mention to someone in a wooden ship modeling forum that they are pushing their chisel against the grain!

Okay, the Sheldon Cooper reference sent me to Google. (I don't watch TV sitcoms.) This is what Wikipedia says (in part) about Sheldon Cooper: Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph.D., Sc.D, is a fictional character in the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory and its spinoff series Young Sheldon. The adult Sheldon is a senior theoretical physicist at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), ... He has a genius-level IQ of 187. (In The Big Bang Theory, ... In Young Sheldon, his mother says that he has the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, though neither is known to have taken an IQ test.) However, he displays a fundamental lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of humor, and difficulty recognizing irony and sarcasm in other people, although he himself often employs them. He exhibits highly idiosyncratic behavior and a general lack of humility, empathy, and tolerance. These characteristics provide the majority of the humor involving him, which are credited with making him the show's breakout character.[10][11][12][13] Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon's personality is consistent with autism spectrum disorder (or what used to be classified as Asperger's Syndrome.)[12][14] Co-creator Bill Prady has stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to Asperger's,[14] although Parsons has said that in his opinion, Sheldon "couldn't display more traits" of Asperger's. ... Sheldon is characterized as being highly intelligent, but he tends to display childish qualities, such as extreme stubbornness and meanness. It is claimed by Bernadette that the reason Sheldon is sometimes mean is because the part of his brain that tells him it is wrong to be mean is "getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain".[29] However, in season 8's "The Space Probe Disintegration", Sheldon tearfully admits to Leonard that he is aware of how his behavior comes across. Sheldon frequently states that he possesses an eidetic memory (although his powers of autobiographical recall are more like hyperthymesia) and an IQ of 187,[32] although he claims his IQ cannot be accurately measured by normal tests.[33] He originally claimed to have a master's degree and two doctoral degrees, but this list has increased.[34][35] Sheldon possesses a mastery (and extensive knowledge) of various subjects ... (he is a well-known railfan and a fancier of model trains) ... Although his friends have similar intellects to him, his eccentricities, stubbornness, and narcissism frequently frustrate them. ... He dislikes gifts, because the "social convention" in his view creates either a debt or burden on the receiver of the gift which will not stop until one of the two involved in the "gift-relationship" dies leaving the other either in debt or with an undue surplus.[56] Sheldon also does not take drugs, not even legal ones such as caffeine, due to a promise to his mother, and is hypersensitive when he accidentally consumes them.[57][43] However, it has been shown that alcohol often causes Sheldon to loosen up significantly,[6] although it will also cloud his judgment on occasion. After drinking alcoholic drinks (both deliberately and accidentally), he has done things that he would never do while sober, such as singing out loud,[58] mooning an audience full of people,[27] confronting Wil Wheaton,[59] leaving wildly inappropriate voicemails after "drunk dialling" Stephen Hawking, and affectionately slapping Amy's rear.[60] After consuming caffeine in the form of coffee or energy drinks, typically on the rare occasions that he has to work beyond his normal working hours to meet a deadline, he acts in a hyperactive, erratic manner. In response to criticism from his friends that he is mentally ill, Sheldon often retorts, "I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested"; which his mother has confirmed to be true, once while wishing she had gone through with a follow-up examination. Both the character and Parsons' portrayal have received widespread acclaim, and is often cited as the main reason for the program's success by both critics and fans.[87][88][89] James Chamberlin of IGN wrote: "It's hard to imagine what The Big Bang Theory would be if it weren't for Jim Parsons' great portrayal of Sheldon Cooper".[90] Matt Roush of TV Guide stated that "there's a spark of divine inspiration in Jim Parsons' uproarious Sheldon Cooper".[91] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that: "Parsons is doing something rare on network TV: making intellectualism admirable, even heroic". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper If there was any intention of comparing me to Sheldon Cooper, that would be grossly unfair and I would have to strenuously object. I only have one doctoral degree.

You're welcome. It was a pleasure to share something of interest to me that I would not have thought anybody else would have cared about. Writing the above got me to thinking and doing a bit of googling. With respect to your question about how oil lamps were set at the masthead, I found a matching Tung Woo masthead light, which would be used for powered vessels, for sale for only $500, reduced from $600! (A little rich for my blood. I'll pass on completing my set at the moment!) These have round fairleads on the sides through which lines are run that enable them to be set with a halyard and turning block at the masthead. The lines through the double fairleads keep the lamp from twisting around when it is set aloft. https://www.nauticallights.com/copper-masthead-lantern-tung-woo-small/ This requires a bit of convoluted rigging: a permanent messenger halyard to haul up the lamp and the bight of the double ended "side control lines" running through the fair leads to the masthead aloft. The two falls from the fair leads would then be hauled and belayed port and starboard, at the rails, probably, to keep the light in place. This would, however, eliminate the need for anybody to go aloft to deal with the lamp. I also found a matching Tung Woo stern light, which sold on an auction site I've never heard of, for only $38. Now, I would have liked to have found that deal so that I have the sailing light "trifecta" in my "collection." (The prices of this stuff is all over the place.) At least the next time my wife starts in on "my collections of junk around the house," I can now show her the $500 asking price for one of these running lights and assure her that she will be able to get rich selling all "my collections of junk" when they finally slide me under the main brace.

I probably should have put "collection" in quotation marks. It's not like "my collection" is all that impressive from any historical standpoint. It's just that after a lifetime of sailing, I've got a lot of "artifacts" in my shop and around the house. Whenever my wife starts grousing about my "old stuff you're never going to use again," I always tell her it's part of one of "my collections." Indeed, I do have real collections, and then there's just "stuff that I don't want to part with." Forty years ago, I lived like an Ewok in a California coast redwood forest and we'd lose our power a half dozen times a winter, sometimes for a few days, so we'd always have oil lamps throughout the house, most not being nautical and what my ex-wife didn't take with her are still around. My marine oil lamp "collection" presently serves as bookends on my library shelves and at my age isn't likely to ever see sea duty again. I acquired the running lights back in the 1970's when I worked as a salesman for the premier classic yacht brokerage on San Francisco Bay. We brokered the sale of an Alden schooner and they were at the bottom of a pile of junk in the lazarette. The buyer didn't want them and they were on their way to the boatyard dumpster, so... Thank you very much! Picking up goodies like these was one of the perks of the job. A few years back, I was puttering around and had a batch of "CLR" (Calcium-Lime-Rust remover - good stuff!) mixed up to clean out some showerheads, I impulsively tossed the starboard light into the bucket to see how it would do removing the rough copper patina built up on it. Obviously, it worked, but I never got around to doing the port one because I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to put the starboard one out to weather to a more even verdigris patina, or clean it up to match the "old penny" finish of the starboard light. The lamp bodies are made of copper. The bails, the "port" and "starboard" badges, and the lamp are made of brass. Tung Woo - Hong Kong running lights: The chimney tops open to access the oil lamp: The reflector slides off the lamp burner for ease of polishing: Below is my anchor lamp made in the US by Perkins Lamp Co. (Later "Perko.") It has a Wedge burner, which was a common off-the-self wick burner. These were manufactured and sold by Perko, (which is still in business,) until, I believe, around 1975 or so. There's one on eBay at the moment that they want $300 bucks for. Some idiot drilled a hole through the oil font in order to electrify it, which ruined it for use as an oil lamp unless the font is patched. Unfortunately, a lot of nice brass and bronze marine lamps were turned into decorator table lamps over the years and you'll pay hell to find the right ones for a classic yacht restoration job these days. https://www.ebay.com/itm/374442771684?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338678874&toolid=20006%26customid%3Ds%3AGS%3Bgc%3A81e12fb7ba20160d1a064b8bd197e985%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A1&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3A81e12fb7ba20160d1a064b8bd197e985%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2&msclkid=81e12fb7ba20160d1a064b8bd197e985 There's no doubt that an LED lamp will put out more light than a oil lamp and you don't have to fiddle with cleaning, filling, and trimming the wicks, but it's quite remarkable how much light a correctly trimmed oil lamp can put out and I believe they still meet current navigational signal regulations. I always enjoyed the ritual of lighting my oil anchor lamp as the sun went down when I was spending the night "on the hook." I bought this lamp in the early seventies from a now-long gone chandlery that had then been in business on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf (before the wharf became a total tourist trap) for over a hundred years. A friend was the manager there and it was "new old stock" they wanted to get rid of. I think he gave it to me for around fifty bucks, which was at a good discount, but that was still real money in those days, for a kid like me, at least. I kept it and the saloon overhead trawler lamp when I passed my Giles Vertue to a new owner after having her for over 40 years. It's more of a "memento," than part of a "collection." This is a 360 degree light hung in the forward rigging. On the bottom edge (clearly seen in the lower picture) were two bails for attaching a downhaul line. This lamp would be run up on the forestay with the headsail halyard. The downhaul line would be secured so that the lamp would remain vertical and not swing in the wind and also be used to pull the lamp and attached halyard back down to the deck when removing the lamp. The oil font holds enough oil to feed the flame for a night's worth of light while the boat was at anchor. It's about eight or nine inches tall and made entirely of brass. It's quite stunning when polished up, which I haven't done in years, obviously. It was always my practice to remove any lacquer that was applied to quality marine yellow metal to keep it bright and then to polish it regularly. There's quite a difference in appearance and the lacquer degrades after a time and tarnished spots and scratches appear all of the piece. A regular quick rubbing with Nev-R-Dull or Brasso keeps bare brass looking sharp.

Not at the moment, but I'll take some and see if I can post them tomorrow.

Do the instructions say anything about bending those planks? They can be heated up with a clothes iron or hair dryer on high and then quickly (while still hot) bent and held in place for a minute or three. They will hold the bend when they cool. That should save a lot of hassle with rubber bands and tape if ever the occasion might arise again.

"Running lights were an innovation that came first with steam boats, which ran fast and silently, causing collisions with sailing vessels. "In 1838 the United States passed an act requiring steamboats running between sunset and sunrise to carry one or more signal lights; colour, visibility and location were not specified. In 1846 the United Kingdom passed legislation enabling the Lord High Admiral to publish regulations requiring all sea-going steam vessels to carry lights. The admiralty exercised these powers in 1848 and required steam vessels to display red and green sidelights as well as a white masthead light whilst under way and a single white light when at anchor. In 1849 the U.S. Congress extended the light requirements to sailing vessels. In 1889 the United States convened the first International Maritime Conference to consider regulations for preventing collisions. The resulting Washington Conference Rules were adopted by the U.S. in 1890 and became effective internationally in 1897. Within these rules was the requirement for steamships to carry a second mast head light. The international 1948 Safety of Life at Sea Conference recommended a mandatory second masthead light solely for power-driven vessels over 150 feet (46 m) in length and a fixed stern light for almost all vessels. The regulations have changed little since then." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_light Directional port and starboard running lights were customarily carried in the forwardmost mast shrouds just above the deadeyes or turnbuckles where they would not be obscured by overlapping sails. The white stern light was placed on the centerline above the rail. In earlier times, as early as the mid-seventeenth century, naval vessels sailing in convoy would show stern lights so the following vessels would be able to know where they were. At anchor, a 360 degree white light was hung in the rigging forward of the foreward-most mast, usually run up a stay using the headsail halyard. RMS Campagnia and Lucania, Cunard sisterships launched in 1892 and 1893, were the first fully-electrified transatlantic steamships. They were required to carry duplicate sets of running lights, one above the other, one electric and one oil burning, because the authorities did not trust the electric lights! Curiously, the Hong Kong port authorities required oil lamps to be carried and shown by all vessels in the harbor well into the 20th Century and these were required to be those made by a Hong Kong family of coppersmiths. When you arrived in Hong Kong, if you weren't carrying a set of these lights, you had to purchase a set from the customs officers. I have port and starboard examples of these lights in my collection.

Not to mention polishing the brass, especially on a naval vessel. In fact, in my own personal experience with marine oil lamps, it isn't generally possible to light an oil lamp outdoors if there's any kind of breeze. They weren't carrying Bic lighters in those days, either. They'd have to take the light from a source with a taper and then light the wick with that.

It would seem to me to be a lot more cost effective and save a labor to simply paint with a higher quality paint and forget about additional clear coatings. The more coatings you apply to a model, the more detail you destroy. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.

This is another example proving that there is a direct correlation between weight (mass) and accuracy in stationary power tools. This is what often makes buying used "old 'arn" power tools a wise investment.

I forgot to mention that you will also need a shipwright's or planker's bevel gauge. This a small, flat gauge for taking up and transferring bevels in boatbuilding and planking. They're about 3" long for full-size boat building and will probably benefit by being somewhat smaller for modeling. Their small size make them suitable for taking up bevels in tight spaces. This 3" one is sold by the WoodenBoat (magazine) Store for ten bucks. It's the only "store boughten" one I know of. A 3" Bevel Gauge - Small Boats Magazine (smallboatsmonthly.com) Most "boatyard mechanics" simply make their own from a piece of strip shim brass or even an old hacksaw blade (which has the convenience of a hole already drilled at either end) riveted together. If you want to get really fancy, you can make one that has two outside faces between which the "blade" swings like a pocket knife, and can be pocketed when not in use without the pointed edges snagging on your shop overalls.

I don't have the plans available to me, so I can't be positive, but I believe they are referring to the "rolling" bevel of the lapstrake plank "lands." (The plank "lands" are the "faying surfaces" or faces where two adjacent lapped planks touch and, when wet, swell to make the hull watertight. For this reason, they must be very accurately fitted against one another without gaps... in real boat construction, at least.) By "the gain seating nicely" they probably mean that the plank bevels fit perfectly against each other to form their "lands" against each other. The term "gain" is not used in the instructions you quote as I've heard it (properly) used before, but it seems they are using it to refer to the plank lap bevels generally. If so, this wouldn't be the first time model kit instructions exhibited a certain lack of nautical illiteracy. Properly, a lapstrake plank "gain" is a rabbet of progressive inclining depth cut at the hood end or ends of a run of lapped plank so that the hood edge of the plank overlap is progressively reduced so that it no longer stands proud at the hood end(s.) (Always on a "sharp" bow and sometimes on a transom stern.) On this model, from the pictures I've seen, at least, since it has a transom bow and stern, the gains are omitted at both the bow and stern transoms which may have been an attempt to simplify construction for modeling purposes at the expense of a more elegant, and actually less complicated, construction detail. Perhaps somebody who's built this model and is familiar with the instructions will chime in and give you a more certain answer. Maybe they instruct the builder to just run the plank ends to the transom edges, cut them flush, and fill the voids between the plank lands and the transom edges with putty or something. Laying out the bevels in the transom edges to accommodate the lapped planks without gains would seem to me to be a lot more work and difficulty. Lapstrake planking showing riveted laps and plank lands. Note that only one plank per overlap is beveled. Here's a picture of a lapstrake plank with what is properly called a "gain" cut at the hood end (on the right hand edge below) to reduce the plank overlap edges (and on the left hand side is a regular land bevel.) The gains are cut in both plank faces to a maximum depth at the end of the bevel equal to one half the plank thickness so that when the two planks are fastened at the lap with the gains the planks total only the thickness of one plank . A couple of photos of correctly planked sharp-bowed lapstrake planked boats. Note how the gains (which are relatively short in one instance and long in the other) cause the lap edges to progressively reduce to nothing at the hood ends in the stem rabbet. It's a subtle, but essential, detail in sharp-bowed clinker-built boats. Now, this YouTube video on lapstrake planking is probably going to cause you to glaze over, or become completely intimidated, but to the degree you can wrap your head around it you will find planking your model much less difficult. There are many shortcuts between building a full-sized boat and a model and putty and sandpaper can cover a multitude of fitting errors, but to the extent these can be minimized, your model will benefit. See: Ep 18 - Planking (part 2): Bevels + Gains - Bing video Yes, that's exactly what it means. If your plank land bevels aren't accurate, the planks are going to have that much more width to the total overlap and they are going to spread amidships. This means also that as the overall length of the curve segment of the hull is thereby lengthened, the presumably correctly shaped laser-cut kit planks are going to be too short to span the entire length of the boat (unless they left you some extra length at either end to cut flush to the transom faces.) Building a lapstrake planked model at 1:12 scale well demands good accuracy in cutting all the bevels. Moreover, errors in shape and bevel of parts tend to be cumulative and only more bedeviling as the build progresses. One maxim in modeling, as in real boatbuilding, is that it is always better to rip it apart and do it over again correctly than it is to try to ignore measurement and fitting errors. In the case of a kit build, it should be no problem to go to the hobby or craft store and buy a piece of thin sheet stock and cut a new plank that will fit correctly and well worth the investment in time. If parts aren't fitting, and particularly so with planking, you have to ascertain the cause of the problem, be it errors in lofting or in fitting the parts that have been done before. When working in smaller scales, it is possible to slap on a lot of putty, spackle, or plastic wood and sand a hull fair and when it's painted up well, nobody will be the wiser, but at 1:12, particularly with a "clinker-built" (lapstrake) hull, such errors are much harder to cover up. For planing beveled lands and for many other modeling tasks, you will find a small plane of great value. If you are really flush and want to treat yoursef, you can buy the top-of-the-line Lie Nielsen #101 bronze violin maker's plane, which is their version of the old Stanley #101 "modelmaker's plane" for $125.00 (Lie-Nielsen No. 101 Bronze Violin Maker's Plane (highlandwoodworking.com) Or you can buy an original cast iron Stanley #101 on eBay if you can find one for not too much money. (They are now collectables but can be had for $20.00 to or $30.00.) There are also decent copies of the cast iron Stanley #101 made by Kunz for around $29.00: Amazon.com: KUNZ POCKET PLANE COMPACT BLOCK PLANE WOOD CARVING WORKING No.101 by Kunz : Tools & Home Improvement and even a Kunz copy of the otherwise super-rare old Stanley #100 "Squirrel tail pocket plane" that is the #101 with a handle which permits pushing the plane with the palm of hand for $26.00. (I have no idea why it costs less than the "tail-less" model! I love mine.) (Amazon.com: ROBERT LARSON 580-2200 Kunz Pocket Plane Raised Handle : Everything Else) If not that, the current Stanley sheet metal framed model #12-101 "trimming plane" can be had retail on Amazon for $12.00 and on eBay for $5.00. (stanley 12-101 plane - Bing - Shopping and Vintage STANLEY 12-101 Trimming Plane New Old Stock - Original Package | eBay)' This all may be more than you ever wanted to know about planking or planing, but, if so, perhaps it may be of interest to some other novices who come across it. Have fun with your build!

Nicely done and in record time! Now on to the next one... a scratch-build? Something from one of John Gardner's small craft building books? It's just my opinion, I think there is an overabundance of large Seventeenth and Eighteenth century ships of the line models and a dearth of simple small working craft models in this world. The small craft models look a lot better on a home bookshelf, as well. You will build better models in the future as your skills develop, as have we all to one degree or another, but this one will always have a special place in your heart, I'm sure.

I second Druxey's suggestion. There's never any certainty with any of this, so experiments off the model are recommended, as always. Natural cordage shrinks when it gets wet because the moisture causes the natural fibers to swell which tightens the lay. The line becomes slack after being wet because the moisture causes the rope to tighten and stretch. Afterwards, it stays stretched until re-wetted. You should test a section of your laid up rigging line to see if simply applying the shellac before trying to first soak the line in hot water will alone shrink it sufficiently. The shellac soaking into the twisted line may be tighten the line sufficiently on its own and, if so, when the alcohol evaporates, whether the shellac will have sealed your rigging from further moisture and will have cemented the twisted fibers tightly together and sealed out further moisture being absorbed. If that doesn't cause the line to shrink sufficiently, I'd test it with an application of boiling hot water and see if that shrinks the cordage tighter. If so, I'd put the model somewhere the humidity was low for a day or three and then apply a generous amount of boiling hot water and let it soak into the rigging. Cotton should shrink in hot water, even if the cotton has been "pre-shrunk." Your twisting up the rope should cause it to tighten in any event because as the cotton fibers soak up the water, they will expand and your twist will tighten as the fibers become larger. Let the water dry (a hair dryer should speed things up if you are careful) and then apply thinned clear ("white") shellac (most canned shellac can be applied right out of the can.) The shellac should soak into the rigging and "set" the cordage, also sealing it so it will not absorb moisture in the future. The shellac should not change the color any nor should it be visible when dry. When attempting to shrink rigging, and particularly standing rigging, work on each side alternately rather than both sides simultaneously. This will permit one side's taking up before the other and should prevent a sudden over-shortening on both sides that could cause the rigging to over-tighten and pull loose or break if too tight. And again, experiment with these techniques before you attack the model's finished work with any of them. We're just making it up as we go and free advice on the internet is often worth less than what you pay for it. Let us know how it works!

That's not at all surprising. You've definitely got what Jaager calls "a serious model scroll saw!" The DeWalt DW788 has consistently been ranked a "best buy" in the annual tool reviews. I'd say it's at "the bottom of the top" in quality and features and "at the top of the bottom" in price. In other words, it's a fairly priced tool that does what it's supposed to do. It's definitely a quality tool. Nobody that I know of makes a less expensive double parallel-link arm scroll saw. I've never read a complaint about it in the reviews. That said, it retails for close to $400, so I wouldn't put it at all in the same class as the $100 to $200 "Big Box Store Specials" from the Bejing Patriotic Peoples' Export Power Tool Collective. DEWALT Scroll Saw, Variable-Speed, 1.3 Amp (DW788), Yellow, 20-Inch - Power Table Saws - Amazon.com

Excellent point and I think an important one to emphasize. Many of the lower-end scroll saws are lightly built low-powered models designed for the "crafters' market" and aren't intended to hog through thick sections of hardwood. When selecting a scroll saw, I think it's important to spend a lot of time reading the reviews and being aware that there are definitely two distinct ends of the quality spectrum when it comes to scroll saws. If one is choosing a scroll saw model on the basis of price alone, you may well be buying an expensive door-stop.

"Old 'arn?" Are you talking about the early 1950's cast iron King Seeley-built Craftsman "jigsaws" that ran off of a stock Craftsman cast iron capacitor-starting 1/2 or 3/4 HP motor? (This was in the days when these machines were called "jigsaws" and the hand-held gizmos were called "saber saws.") Definitely built to "take a lickin' and keep on tickin". I inherited one of these beasts from the original owner, my father, and I'd say they are quite workable for relatively heavy work, but are definitely "bucking broncos" that have to be seriously secured or they'll bounce all over the place. I bolt the stand of mine to a heavy solidly secured workbench and now only use it for detail work on a scale somewhere between my 14" Delta bandsaw clone and my 14" Sakura which had a list price of around $600 and I was able to purchase barely used from a fellow for $100. Note that ~75 year old cast iron Craftsman has a mechanism unseen in today's scroll saws. The blades' vertical movement is driven by a transmission below while the top of the blade is tensioned by an air piston spring-dampening mechanism to which the top of the blade is attached. The upper arm can be easily removed by unscrewing the crown nut at the rear of the upper arm. This then permits a single ended saber saw blade to be attached to the lower drive mechanism and the saw to be operated as a stationary saber saw.

Bare wood, especially softer woods like basswood, should be sealed before applying any other coating and particularly so when using water-based coatings which will raise the grain of the wood. The easiest sealer to use on models is plain old clear (sometimes called "white") shellac thinned to around a "two pound cut," (Which is the consistency of Zinsser's "Bullseye" brand canned shellac.) This dries very quickly, won't raise the grain, and sands easily. (It will eliminate the "fuzzies" that occur when trying to sand soft woods.) If painting, for minor imperfections and filling pores, use any good "sanding primer." As mentioned, there are several major brands. Interlux is a high-quality marine paint line with which I am quite familiar but there are other sanding primers on the market. This sanding primer, "basecoat," or "sealer, depending upon the manufacturer's nomenclature, contains additives which make sanding easy. The additive can be anything from "whiting" (chalk or talcum) to microspheres. ("micro-balloons.") (If you have microballoons on hand for mixing epoxy fairing compound, you might want to experiment with adding them to regular paint or shellac and see if that works for you. Always test any coating system on scrap wood before applying to finished work to make sure it will provide the results sought.) I have found using water-based acrylics are not as suitable for fine finishes because the water can raise the grain and the softer synthetic coatings are more difficult to sand. If one is seeking a matte clear wood finish, I'd simply use clear shellac which will fill fairly well if applied in multiple coats. A thick shellac coating will end up glossy, but the gloss will easily sand off in the end to as fine a finish as one might require using fine sandpaper (300 grit or finer) and/or hand-rubbing with rottenstone and pumice. https://www.bottompaintstore.com/interlux-prekote-quart-p-33277.html?campaignid=283850993&adgroupid=1258941293687119&creative=&matchtype=e&network=o&device=c&keyword=&msclkid=ac4ac711ef191c683eefa323e6f0a1be&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google Shopping 2020 January- Bing&utm_term=4582283435435465&utm_content=Shopping-Catch ALL If you have some serious divots, surfacing putty is the necessary coating. It is a paste about the consistency of toothpaste that is thinned with acetone. It can be applied with a putty knife and can be thinned to a desired consistency. (It will harden in the can quickly if the lid is left off the can for appreciable periods. Adding a small amount of acetone to the can after use and storing the well-closed can upside down overnight will reconstitute the paste to a softer consistency without a lot of stirring. This material is sort of like drywall "mud." It hardens very quickly and can be sanded easily in a half hour or so. If a surfacing putty is used, the surfacing putty should be overcoated with the primer after it's been used. It's somewhat porous and if a gloss finish is applied directly over it, there is the tendency to create a 'flat spot" where the gloss topcoat was unevenly absorbed by the surfacing putty. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=interlux+surfacing+putty&adgrpid=1342504259915083&hvadid=83906731284955&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=43893&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83906856471787%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=4123_13164389&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_6qak90lgdy_e

Oh yes, a "surface height gauge," as it seems to be called here on our side of the Pond, is a very handy thing to have, as your post has very well illustrated. In recent times, the simple "manual comparitor" models seems to have become less common. Most marketed now have the capacity to measure with a digital readout to a high level of tolerance and some even have provision for a cable connection for a CNC input. These guys cost two or three grand! The simple model you have is one of those things I'd love to snag at a garage sale, but I haven't seen one in a long time. Alternately, I use my dial indicator stand with a sharpened rod inserted in the hole for mounting the "clock" or I just take a suitably-sized block of wood and shim a sharp pencil on top of the block to the desired height and slap a piece of tape over it. Not what you'd call "highly accurate," but, as they say, "close enough for government work." (Beautiful photos on your post, by the way! I'm sure a lot of the newer modelers will find your information very helpful!

Very nice model and a very appropriate setting for it! Let's hope they get her in a case and out of that sunny window soon! (UV can fade paint and cause deterioration.) By the way, there isn't any type of membership charge for the Model Ship World forum. Welcome! Given the quality of the Fitzgerald model, I'm sure a lot of people here would be interested in seeing photos of your brother's other models. He was obviously a very skilled craftsman.

Growing up a kid's bike ride from Gjoa when she sat in her dry berth at San Francisco's Ocean Beach in Golden Gate Park, as shown in the postcard above, and with a father who worked in the maritime industry as an accountant for Dollar Steamship and American President Lines, I was quite familiar with her and her history and never passed up a chance to check her out up close. Even in the mid-fifties, she was sadly neglected and pretty well stripped bare, although they did get around to building a cast iron fence around her. As you know, when she reached San Francisco, the local Norwegian community, which was strongly connected with the sea (and known locally on the waterfront as "squareheads,") acquired her and dragged her up on the beach. This was in late 1906 and the devastated San Francisco was in the midst of rebuilding after the Earthquake and Fire in April of 1906, so that was quite a remarkable feat in terms of economic priorities. At that time, the area was sparsely populated sand dunes running a few miles inland. There she sat ashore, facing the setting sun and the Pacific Ocean a few dozen yards from the breakers. That exposed location was hard on the wooden boat and she got little care, but it seems they threw a coat of paint on her every so often, at least. Money was short and, as time passed, Amundsen's accomplishment came to be underappreciated. I'm sure that her boats were gone in a flash. They certainly weren't around when I was a kid, although I read somewhere that after the War in 1949, the year I was born, they'd done some major work on her. They'd built an iron fence around her, but the high school kids used to jump the fence and climb aboard with a few six packs, break in, and party on her, at least until the cops got wise to it and started chasing them off! I was out of town when they hauled her off to Norway in the early seventies, so I missed watching them move her. I was glad she was brought home to where she and her crew would be more appreciated. It seems they've done a complete restoration on her, as she certainly deserved. It looks like you have a good handle on modeling her. I look forward to following your scratch build!