Bob Cleek

Indeed. If it works for you, go for it!

I buy Zinsser Bullseye shellac by the quart at the hardware store. You can get it in pint cans, as well. (Don't buy the spray cans. That's just nuts.) When it suits my needs, I decant some into a small capped container. I collect baby food and spice jars for this purpose. I wouldn't advise storing shellac in a squeeze bottle. It's' very viscous and there really isn't any occasion to squeeze it onto anything and if you did, it would run all over everything. Once it's out in the air, the alcohol evaporates quickly. I apply it with a paint brush which I clean with alcohol in a small capped container. As the shellac is rinsed out of the brush, it dissolves in the alcohol. I use this alcohol with the shellac in it to mix with the shellac if it needs thinning. The can of shellac and a couple of small bottles is all I need.

Sad news indeed. Nothing I can say will much matter. I can only imagine the pain you and yours are working through right now.

A lot depends upon your individual preferences and the limitations of your location. Some of us have a lot of room to spread out and, most, it seems, don't. Then there's the size of the models you build, which dictates the amount of table top you need. My preference is for a relatively small primary work table and however many rolling tool carts I need to hold tools and materials. The more tools you can "have a place for and everything in its place," the less time is wasted looking for tools that "were just there a minute ago" on a cluttered workspace. I have a rolling Kennedy machinist's tool cart (expensive) and a tool cart from Harbor Freight (inexpensive) that serve me well. I can roll them next to my work table where they are easy to reach from my rolling secretary's chair which is also somewhat height adjustable. (The cheap ones at the office supply stores are great.) As for a table top, I would suggest the heavier the better for stability. A fire door (not a cheap luan doorskin hollow core interior door) on top of a couple of file cabinets works pretty well. A solid box than can be placed on top of it to raise the work surface to what I call "jeweler's bench height" at near eye level is very helpful for working on very small parts. (Jeweler's benches are very expensive, but a lot can be learned from checking them out in the online catalogs.) Adjustable ergonomic forearm rests are also quite handy for a lot of work, but the store bought ones aren't cheap and I've yet to get around to building a sufficiently adjustable one, so they are still on my bucket list. Arm rests provide stability when working on fine stuff "up in the air," like rigging. (see pic below.) I also have a couple of hard pressboard "semi-sacrificial" smaller table tops that sit on top of my work benches. I can cut them up and not mind if they get covered in paint and glue drips and other grunge. These have one inch rails across the back and sides to keep stuff from rolling off of them. They're very handy for keeping small parts corralled. I screw ferrous metal strips to the underside of the front edges of my benches where I do small work. I have a work apron into the hem of which I've sewn rare earth magnets. I stick the hem of my apron to the underside of the bench with the magnets when I sit down to work, creating a cloth "net" which often catches that little part that gets dropped and tries to disappear on the floor forever. It saves lots of time and aggravation! It also catches a lot of chips and junk that you'd otherwise be sweeping up at the end of a work session. Finally, I always install outlet strips on the front of work benches so that corded hand tools can be plugged in and used without the cords stretching over the table top from the wall behind the bench. That leaves the workspace clear and avoids disasters when the cord and the model collide. Below: Harbor Freight rolling tool chest. They come in various configurations. This is the cheapest model at a couple of hundred bucks or less on sale or with a coupon. I attach magnetic strip tool holders and magnetic paper towel holders to them as well. HF sells the paper towel holders for around fifteen bucks and the magnetic tool holders are five bucks a piece. https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-storage-organization/u-s-general-tool-storage/tool-carts/30-in-4-drawer-tech-cart-black-64818.html Adjustable ergonomic forearm supports. Costly at around $90 each. I'd love to have a couple for doing that close-in rigging work in the top hamper. For modeling, I'd be looking for ones that have more reach than the one pictured, though. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175132691344?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=175132691344&targetid=4581183927179149&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=418233787&mkgroupid=1241348861725295&rlsatarget=pla-4581183927179149&abcId=9300542&merchantid=51291&msclkid=c26ea7e8f632134640c7c56cabf27b90

Unfortunately, the photo I posted is all I have. If you enlarge the photo on your screen by holding down the "control" key and turning the wheel on your mouse, the picture can be enlarged sufficiently to read the fine print of the decimal equivalents. (You may have to open the picture separately on your screen to enlarge it sufficiently.)

Here you go. These are the instructions for the preferred 'universal " decimally scaled Keuffel and Esser 10" proportional dividers. (Also sold by other firms such as Bowen, Post, and Dietzgen.) These dividers are scaled from 10 to 110. By setting the axis at the point on the scale corresponding to the three-place decimal equivalent of the proportion one wishes the dividers to yield the relative proportional distances will be found at the points. They are set by turning the knob which operates a rack and pinion adjustment mechanism which has a Vernier scale for the third digit of the three place scale settings. If you don't have a decimally scaled "universal" set of proportional dividers, you won't be able to set any fraction you want on your dividers using the scale etched on the instrument. The smaller proportional dividers have different scaling, usually showing "lines," and "circles" scales by proportion, such as 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, and so on. For anything else, you have to set them by guess and by golly, manually, by adjusting the axis to yield a measured distance at the points by trial and error using a scale. Less expensive proportional dividers will not have rack and pinion adjustment. They will just have a slip adjustment, which is very difficult to adjust for fine settings. Don't buy cheap brass Asian "decorator" knock-offs. They are next to useless. Measuring instruments are definitely a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing. This instruction sheet is all I have handy on my hard drive at the moment. (It can be enlarged to be readable by holding down your control button and turning the wheel on your mouse.) The newer K&E Paragon models come in a case which has a metal plate on the bottom with the table of settings on it. The older models have a folding card with the same information which fits inside the case. In the last years of production, the "Mark 1" line replaced the former top of the line "Paragon" models and they cut corners on the cases and just provided the below printed instruction sheet. The table of settings give you the decimal equivalents for various ratios, as well as the formula for converting any fraction to its decimal equivalent. It also give the settings for miscellaneous ratios such as the diameter of a circle to the side of a square of equal area, the volume of a sphere to the volume of a circumscribed cube, and for navigation and cartographic work, the setting for feet to meters, yards to meters, and miles to kilometers. There are also settings for dividing a line into a set number of equal parts, and dividing the circumference of a circle into a given number of parts which may be useful in modeling capstans and ships' wheels, I suppose. The Weems and Plath navigational proportional dividers are scaled for use in navigation for performing speed, time, and distance calculations on navigational charts. There are lots of these on the used market and are still produced by Weems and Plath. (There was a huge "dump" of Russian-made military surplus navigational proportional dividers onto the internet market following the fall of the Soviet Union.) These dividers operate exactly the same as all other proportional dividers mechanically, but are scaled with settings specific to navigation. They aren't as useful for model scaling purposes are "universal" or general purpose "lines and circles" proportional dividers which are scaled to to a myriad of functions such as converting scale measurements, determining the area of a circle, dividing distances, and on and on depending upon the settings chosen. Most navigational proportional dividers will also have a scale on one leg, usually numbered from one to ten, which can be used for setting for conversions of measured distances. As the navigationally scaled dividers function the same as all proportional dividers, they can always be manually set for any spatial conversion by moving the axis until the desired ration of distances between points is achieved. For example, to double the size of a line measured, or reduce it by half, set the axis to where the points on one end are one inch apart and the points on the other side are one half an inch apart.

There's a set of finestkind Keuffel and Esser Paragon Universal (decimally scaled) proportional dividers on eBay right now for a "buy it now" price of 76.00 including shipping, which is about what a "user" pair usually go for. I've not seen them for much less than that and I watch eBay fairly closely because I collect old manual drafting instruments. Keuffel Esser K&E #440 Divider 10" with instructions READ | eBay These are 10" long with rack and pinion Vernier adjustment, scaled in decimal equivalents so any scale can be accurately set without guesswork. You can get smaller rack and pinion adjustable proportional dividers for less, but they are not decimally scaled with Vernier adjustment and the distance they can pick up is limited by their reduced size. Look for the top end manufacturers. As a manual draftsman, you know who they are. The junk is not worth bothering with. Treat yourself! You'll be glad you did. I can't imagine building models without one, but everybody's mileage varies, I suppose. '' (This is not a picture of the ones offered on eBay now, but is identical. See photos of set for sale on the eBay link.)

It's properly referred to as "thin shellac," not "thinned shellac.") Most canned pre-mixed shellac (e.g. Zinsser's Bullseye brand) is, I believe "two pound cut," which means two pounds of shellac flakes dissolved per gallon of alcohol. (It will thicken in the can over time if you leave it opened and the alcohol evaporates. Just add more alcohol to thin it out again.) Thin it as you please. For setting knots, I just use it right out of the can and if it looks like it needs it, I'll add a bit of alcohol to the can. (You can purchase dried shellac flakes on line in different shades of colors. The "white" or clear shellac flakes are bleached. I've never bothered with them, but if you wish, just mix denatured alcohol with the flakes to suit your taste.) For thinning shellac and cleaning brushes, etc., use plain old denatured alcohol which I buy by the gallon at the hardware or paint store. (It's sold in smaller containers, of course, but it has an unlimited shelf life and buying in bulk yields a big savings and fewer trips to the store to buy more.) It's a stock item in my shop. I use it for lots of different things (e.g. in an alcohol lab lamp for burning fuzz off of rigging line or in marine alcohol cooking stoves. Canned pre-mixed shellac runs around $28 a quart (like everything, the price has gone up!) You can buy it in pints, too, and for modeling, a pint should be good for rigging a half dozen Victory models. You can also purchase it in a three pound cut, but that stuff is twice the price. I never saw the point, since if you want it thicker, just leave a bit out and let the alcohol evaporate, or put an additional coat of two pound cut on top of the first. There are uses for very thick shellac as an adhesive, electrical insulator, and molding medium, but most of these applications are now better served by modern materials. Prior to the invention of vinyl, 78 RPM phonograph records were made of shellac. If you have any old 78's you don't want, grind them up and dissolve them in alcohol and you're good to go, although the liquid shellac will be black! )

Add my vote for clear shellac. I've used thinned PVA, which has a drying time longer than I prefer and is very difficult to undo once it's dried if a mistake is made in the rigging. I also used thinned nail polish, but it also is somewhat difficult to reverse if one wishes to do so. Thin CA spreads everywhere and is not easily undone once cured. It also can conflict with other coatings with which it comes in contact. I've found thinned white (clear) shellac has the following advantages over the other options: 1. Low cost and universal availability. 2. Also a universal sealer for wood which hardens the surface and permits sanding without bringing up any "fuzz" in softer woods (e.g. basswoood,) making it great for topcoats of both solvent and water-based varnish or paint. This means one less specialty product container on the shelf. 3. Non-toxic. Although prepared shellac is undoubtedly thinned with denatured alcohol, you're safe so long as you don't drink it. The alcohol fumes are nontoxic and less flammable than acetone fumes from nail polish. Shellac itself is actually edible and when produced in "food grade" form is used for imparting a shine to jelly beans, among other things. (Sorry if I spoiled anybody's love of jelly beans by revealing that they're coated with beetle excretion!) 4. Thinned shellac is very viscous and penetrates very well. When the alcohol evaporates, the shellac creates a hard matrix between the fibers of the thread that binds the knots and holds the shape intended. As the alcohol evaporates and the shellac "thickens," lines can be easily formed into any shape desired, which will take a hard set when the shellac is fully "dry." It takes a matter of a few minutes for the alcohol to entirely evaporate, so there's no inconvenient delay waiting for it to set, but enough working time to form shapes desired. 5. Thinned shellac does not leave a glossy finish. If a thick coat of shellac dries glossy, it is easily wiped down with alcohol to remove the glossy excess. 6. Shellac is easily reversed by liberal applications of alcohol blotted up with a bit of paper towel or a cotton swab. When softened with the alcohol, previously shellacked knots can be untied while the shellac is "wet" and soft if you wish to redo the work or adjust the tension on a line. 7. Shellac is very easily cleaned up with alcohol, so you can use whatever size brush suits your fancy and easily clean it. 8. Shellac has been proved over thousands of years to be archivally stable.

Quite possible, for sure. The US Patent and Trademark Office has an extensive patent research engine on its website, although I've never figured out exactly how to use it efficiently. I ran a general search for the number and got nothing. That doesn't mean it isn't there. There were many, many maritime patents, and lots and lots of "also rans" that never came to anything. Some are quite entertaining, If you take the time to wade through all the hits for "lifeboat," etc., you may be able to find the patent application that matches this model. Good luck!

Yes, "patent models" were once required to be submitted with every patent application. The US Patent and Trademark Office had warehouses full of them going back to the beginning of the government. They eventually dropped the physical model requirement and back in the 1970's or so, as I recall, they cleaned house, retaining some of the historically remarkable ones, which went to the Smithsonian, which once exhibited Abraham Lincoln's patent model for his "Improved Method of Bouying Vessels Over Shoals." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln's_patent The rest of the old Patent Office models were sold off to the public and snatched up by antique dealers, finding their way via the retail market to bookshelves and mantles as decorator pieces. I once had a patent attorney colleague who decorated his large patent law firm's offices with them. This could very well be an old Patent Office Model. The models had to depict the invention that was sought to be patented, so they were often partial models with the focus on the patentable aspect of the thing. In this instance, there may have been something inside the model hull that was the focus of the invention and somebody who wanted the hull pulled that out with the intention of building something else inside the hull, but never got around to it.

For much the same reason as any other work of art. If an amateur grandparent painted a picture of a subject that had been painted many, many times before (particularly a "paint-by-numbers" or "Elvis on black velvet" work,) it's probably not worth much, but, if it's a nice enough painting to look at that you'd want to hang it on your wall, then it's worth cleaning up and framing and hanging it up. It will never bring a high price at an auction, but you will always have a nice picture "painted by my grandfather" hanging on your wall to give you pleasure. On the other hand, if your grandfather was Pablo Picasso...

Yes. There were 300 copies printed in this run. Anybody who collects modeling books has surely lusted after one. They originally retailed around $3,000 each, but apparently didn't sell well at all at that price point! The few that were sold primarily went to well-endowed academic libraries, from what I've read. I've seen them offered for as little as a few hundred bucks in later years. I suspect these sets were purchased as investments which disappointed. The ads often tout them has having only having the plastic wrapping on one or two of the seven (I believe) volumes having been removed, which indicates to me the owner never looked at the whole set. I've seen photos of the bound set and have ordered individual HAMMS prints from the Smithsonian, but I've always wondered if the bound set includes all the photographic records on the survey subjects, copies of which the Smithsonian also sells, or just the drawings. This would be one set that cries out to be digitized in CD or thumb drive format for on-screen viewing and printing of plans on a large format printer. I doubt that will ever happen, though. The HAMMS and similar collections are probably big profit generators (relatively speaking) for the Smithsonian Institution.

Very clever use of the drawer front edge holes and the alligator clips! That trick just went into my memory bank for future use. She's sure coming along beautifully, Rob. Thanks for sharing. I know these build logs take time and effort.

What's not to like about that? I had good success in one instance years ago by laminating three layers of birch tongue depressors (readily obtainable in bulk from crafts stores and dirt cheap) with PVA clamped with binder clips. I used Underhill's method, later further popularized by Hahn, for angling pieces to form the rough frame shape, cutting the joints on a paper cutter, and then jig-sawing the laminated form to shape. It works fine. By overlapping the joints and tight clamping, very solid frames which will resist breakage otherwise due to short cross-grain orientation can be made. The only issue I had with it was that when finish shaping the frames on the drum sander, the PVA adhesive tended to melt with the heat of the sanding and gum up the abrasive. That was pretty easy to keep ahead of by slowing the speed of the drum and regularly cleaning with a crepe abrasive cleaning stick, but in the future, I'd look for an adhesive that was harder and less prone to gum up when sanding.

If you keep your eyes open, those Plano type boxes (originally designed for the fly-fishing people, I believe) are sometimes offered for sale at the "big box" hardware stores like Lowe's and Home Depot as "loss leaders" at greatly reduced prices.

My thread stays on the spools it came on and stored in a closed box. Laid up line is coiled in 4"-5" coils in the same fashion as full-size rope, with a half turn twist in each coil so it lays perfectly flat without kinks or hockles. This is stored in a zip-lock sandwich bag which contains a piece of card stock cut to the size of the inside of the sandwich bag which gives the bag rigidity. On the card stock is written the type of thread used in the lay up, the number of strands and direction of the lay and any other information necessary to duplicate the line stored in the bag. The bags are kept in a box similar to a large index card box, so they can be "flipped through" and the one desired easily selected. The plastic bags keep the line clean and dust-free. Easy and cheap solution.

I think this is one instance where the maxim "You get what you pay for." really applies. Your mileage may vary. Use the forum search engine and look at build logs of each brand and draw your own conclusions as to the relative qualities of the two kit options.

I suspect that on the return voyage the coopers tended to the barrels. They may well have required some maintenance after being filled and stowed in the hold. They were known to leak on occasion. Hoops needed to be set down to tighten them occasionally. Just a guess, though. I've no historical authority to cite.

It looks Australian.

Given the subject matter, I doubt the boat in the famous painting was modeled after any actual boat, but was instead a product of the artist's imagination. There are lots of close up photos online of the vessel. You may wish to take and existing British type and add the stemhead ornamentation of the pictured boat. You will find a wonderful compendium of all similar small craft in Inshore Craft: Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles, by Basil Greenhill. https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search/?hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-browser_wavebrowser&param2=13a0c110-4dfc-4d18-beab-bcd933c51603&param3=wav~US~appfocus1~&param4=d-cp12177353273-lp0-hh6-obgc-wav-vuentp:on-igUHErMLUsbnTbmZQ-ab32-w64-brwsr-ntb-ntp~Chrome~inshore craft of the british Isles~B2D7D7656EB4E5153688637C8FBF7B49~Win10&param1=20210529&p=inshore craft of the british Isles&type=A1-brwsr-~2021-22~ This book contains lines drawings of many of the entries and these should be sufficient to scratch-build a model at any scale one desires. That will require a certain degree of lofting (drafting,) boatbuilding, woodworking, and modeling knowledge that will require some study given your stated experience level. Unfortunately, the scope of ship model kits is market-driven, and, consequentially, many beautiful craft go unrepresented by kit manufacturers. On the other hand, that's what makes well-done scratch-built models so appreciated and valued. A "dollhouse scale" 1:12 miniature of the boat in the painting, including the pillows, candles, lantern and such (available from dollhouse supply catalogs) would be quite an interesting model. It does look like someone has actually built a full-size replica of the boat in the famous painting.

Jaager's historical narrative certainly seems accurate. I'd add the theory, as to European manufacturers particularly, that packaging may have been a factor in their favoring plank-on-bulkhead hull construction. Carving hulls out of large, flawless, prime basswood blocks meant that the manufacturer had to pass the cost of all the waste wood to the customer and had to box the solid hulls in larger boxes. The plank-on-bulkhead models eliminated much of the expense of the carving waste and the expensive machinery to do it, reducing the materials to some thin ply, dowels, and strip wood. All of that could be packaged in a smaller flat box that took up much less volume when shipping the European kits to the Americas and meant more available space on retailers' shelves. Those who recall the old Model Shipways "yellow box" solid hull models will be familiar with this difference.

She's certainly coming along nicely, Rob! Great work at such a small scale. I've never seen a better job on a coppered bottom at this scale. You've achieved a compellingly realistic effect. Anybody who undertakes to copper a bottom at this scale should take a close look at your work.

Those are "radius" or highway/railroad curves. They were primarily used by highway and railroad engineers to lay out fair curves of various radii when planning highways and railroads. They are, as marked, segments of circles with the radius indicated on the individual curve. Lyman's Radius curves are distinguished by the clever way they stacked up and stored, but are otherwise identical to any other make of radius curve. You use them by using the curve edge to draw a segment of a curve with a radius of the indicated length. They come in handy for large radii curves and eliminate the need for a long beam compass and the large drawing table required to accommodate, for example, a 48" radius beam compass. They are handy in ship modeling for determining deck and cabin top camber at various stations on a hull without doing a lot of math to adjust for the width of the deck at the various stations. You can just find the curve that matches the camber for one station (which is all that is given in most plans) and then fit it to all the other stations. (Draw a line as wide as the deck at the subject station indicated in the plans, generally the widest at the deck or sheer line, and draw a perpendicular line as high as the camber height in the middle of the deck width line. Then, by trial, find a curve that touches the two ends of the deck line and the top of the camber height line and use that curve to lay out the deck camber at every station.) As a practical matter, the camber on larger vessels at smaller scales is so small as to be negligible, but if you are building smaller vessels at larger scales, such as yachts and small working craft, the camber each deck frame is often a significant detail.

There's nothing wrong that I can see in using India ink to blacken rigging thread. That said, an inadvertent drop or splatter of India ink landing on the model could ruin your whole day, no? I'd suggest applying the ink off the model, rather than applying it with a paintbrush directly above your bright finished decks. The common technique is to put the India ink in a small straight-sided bottle, like a pill bottle, for example, containing the India ink and sliding a piece of wood the width of the inside of the bottle with a slight "U" notch cut into it down into the bottle just short of the bottom with the string to be colored run around the bottom of the wooden piece and held in the center of the wooden piece by the "U" notch. The wooden piece holds the thread down in the India ink as the length of thread is pulled up out of the bottle. The "dry" uncolored thread is drawn into the bottle by pulling the "wet" side of the length of thread. You can devise your own method of wiping the excess India ink as the "wet" thread comes out of the bottle, if need be. The length of string can then be hung up to dry. India ink is very useful, but wicked stuff. When the bottle says "Permanent," they mean it. You want to be careful to keep it where you want it and nowhere else.