Bob Cleek

The twisted wire method of making eyebolts pictured above works wonderfully for small eyebolts. I find, however, that as the wire size increases, the twisted shaft's diameter increases as well and can easily require a drilled hole much larger than you want on your model. (Sometimes too large to work on a slim spar, making them too weak and likely to break.) Really, what you will find easier, and useful for many purposes, is a jeweler's round-nosed pliers such as Allan pictured in his post above. They are not expensive at all, although I'd urge you to buy the best tools you can afford because they will last you a lifetime and these will get used a lot. They come in various sizes, some with very slim points. They are also made with stepped points which will ensure that you easily make the same sized diameter loop at each step. And, last but not least, there are pliers which have a round point and a concave anvil point for making perfectly half-round bends which are really handy for making hooks: Having the right tools for metal work is pretty important. This last tool is really what you want for eyebolts that are open. Cutting the "twisties" may work, but you'll probably end up with twisted shanks that are too fat and you don't need them, anyhow. Check out online jeweler's tool and orthodontic instrument retailers. You can get these various pliers for as little as five or six bucks apiece, on up to fifteen or twenty bucks in brushed stainless steel for the fancy ones. "He who dies with the most tools wins!"

Be sure to save the box and packing materials. You will need them for sending it back. Tubed quality artist's oils and acrylics properly thinned as they have recommended are fine for airbrushing and also for brush painting. They are intended to be thinned as the user requires. While you may have to acquire the skill to mix colors which perfectly match 1942 Wehrmacht armor paint as opposed to 1943 Wehrmacht armor paint, as some require, tubed paste artist's colors are far less expensive than the small containers of model paints and particularly so the small premixed bottles of "airbrush paint" for modeling. The tubed colors are also far less likely to dry up on your shelf.

The distinction between primer and sanding undercoat is often overlooked. Primer is thin and soaks into the bare wood surface. It can be thinned paint or shellac. I prefer shellac as it is thinned with alcohol and dries quickly to a hard coating that sands easily while penetrating the wood well. For those using water-based acrylics, you should not use a water-based primer on bare wood because the water will raise the grain on the bare wood surface. For this reason, among others, my standard primer is shellac. (Which is also cheap and readily available!) Applying repeated coats of thin primer will take much longer to fill grain and other imperfections, as will applying repeated costs of finish paint. Sanding undercoat is a huge time-saver. Also note that filling imperfections with sanding undercoat has its limitations. It isn't intended for filling a 1/32" gap in planking. For that use surfacing putty (sometimes called "fairing putty",) which is a peanut-butter consistency acetone-thinned material similar to sanding undercoat that is used for filling larger imperfections. Surfacing putty should be covered with primer or sanding undercoat after sanding fair and before applying any finish paint because it may absorb some of the later-applied coating and create a visible difference in the later coat, often a "flat finish" that sticks out like a sore thumb on a gloss finish coat. Once primed, a sanding undercoat is used to fill the small imperfections and grain. This undercoat paint is relatively thick and contains a fair portion of talc (chalk) which is what thickens it so it will fill the low spots and makes it very easy to sand. The undercoat, when fully dried, is sanded smooth. If some imperfections remain, another coat is applied and sanded again, and so on until the surface is perfect. Close examination under good light is preferred, and for final examination running the fingertips lightly over the surface is recommended because your fingertips are more sensitive for judging smoothness than your eyes. Only after the surface is prepared in this fashion, should one apply the finish coats thinly until the desired finish is achieved. Oil-based sanding undercoat can be covered by water-based finishes because it is sufficiently flat to provide a mechanical bond, although if one is using a water-based finish coat, it's safer to use water-based sanding undercoat. Oil-based paint and varnish are preferred for fine finishes due to their more durable harder surfaces which are easier to sand and polish. However, many prefer acrylics for their faster drying time and other more user-friendly qualities. ' And the one rule that must often be followed and is rarely mentioned is to always, always, always, test every paint or varnish you are going to use on a scrap of the same material you are going to finish before you start applying it to the finished workpiece! This may be difficult for the impatient, but the additional time taken will ensure you avoid tremendous grief. Finishing is sometimes a mysterious process. Sometimes the smallest differences in the mixing of materials, their age, or the ambient environment can result in a failure, usually in adhesion or drying. It's often difficult to know why and frequently unpredictable. It's far better to know that before you've an applied incompatible or defective coating to an entire hull or to small, detailed parts that are nearly impossible to strip and start over on.

Using heat from a clothes iron or other suitable device, bend your toe rail to shape first, then glue it in place.

Similarly, I use a old drafting stool like the one below that I scored at a garage sale: The adjustable height tables are a valuable thing to have, but my main concern these days is providing for a solid base for my hands and forearms to ensure steady manipulation. There's a world of difference between rigging "in mid-air" and rigging "with your elbows on the table." I'm currently considering one of the adjustable arm rests like these made for computer users: I'm thinking that mounting these on a bar adjusted to fit the user's sitting or standing height with a lift table behind it, would work well for "getting in close" to do rigging while providing forearm and wrist stabilization. Has anybody any experience with these?

Quality linen thread isn't being manufactured as much as it used to be and is indeed difficult to obtain today. However, interestingly, hemp is making a significant comeback in the fiber industries and, for all intents and purposes, is nearly indistinguishable from linen (flax) in it's properties. Hemp thread is now being produced and sold, and although it hasn't become widely available, it's becoming moreso. Look for it online. Amazon.com: Coats & Clark Extra Strong Upholstery Thread, 150-Yard, Hemp Given that linen is unavailable, Chuck reports that at least one major museum has gone over to Gutermann's Mara polyester which they feel has acceptable archival qualities for use in rigging ship models. See: Gutermann Mara 100 Poly Wrapped Poly Core Thread - Tex 30 - WAWAK Sewing Supplies Anything other than these two aren't isn't being widely considered better for ship model rigging. Check Chuck's rope-making posts in the "More" section in the forum masthead. There are lots of discussions regarding thread to use for ropemaking. In any event, all the custom-made cordage for modeling is better by a long shot than anything any of the kit manufacturers I've seen are putting in their kits.

Yeah, but it's so annoying when you get sticky dried jelly and mustard fingerprints on your shiny copper bottoms!

This could be somebody's lucky day! US eBay has a complete set of Copenhagen curves by a company I've never seen before, but a curve is a curve. The listing ends today and there's only a couple of bids. It's at $51.00 with free shipping! If anybody wants a set of Copenhagen curves for a bargain basement price, this may be your chance. The short listing time probably means a lot of people haven't noticed it yet. Martin Copenhagen Drafting Curves | eBay

Good news and good luck!

I'm sure somebody on the MSW forum would be thrilled to obtain a set of Copenhagen ship's curves. Don't let the 25 post requirement scare you off. The moderators may hate me for saying this, but all you have to do is take a look at the completed build logs and post "Beautiful!" twenty-four times! (You've already done your first post here.) You'll enjoy the beautiful pictures, too, for sure! Like Druxey, I already have my set of K&E Copenhagen ships curves in a wooden box, together with another wooden boxed set of K&E "radius curves," sometimes called "railroad" or "highway" curves, these being two different measuring systems for fixed radius curves, one based on the distance of the curve across the segment and the other based on the chord across the segment. (The K&E radius curves are marked for both "highway" and "railroad" use.) I also have all the "French" and "Engineering" curves that were produced and sold by K&E. (Yes, I'm both a "user" and a "collector." "He who dies with the most tools wins!") I mention this because there are different types of drafting curve sets for different purposes. The one most sought after by ship modelers and naval architects, which has not been produced for some time in its complete form, is the "Copenhagen ship's curve" set. (There are other types of "ship's curves," as well, but not sold by K&E.) Thus, it will be important for you to note which boxed set of K&E curves you have. There was a complete set of K&K Copenhagen ship's curves offered on US eBay which has just expired: VINTAGE DRAFTING WOOD TOOL BOX W/ COPENHAGEN SHIPS CURVES 50+ | eBay This eBay listing will make it possible to identify the curves you have, if you are not certain already which type they are. If your set contains curves that are all regularly shaped segments of variously sized circles, it's the radius curve set, also useful for some modeling tasks (e.g. determining deck cambers) but the radius curve sets are more commonly seen than the now somewhat rare Copenhagen ship's curves sets, which are selling on the second hand market for much more money. (Yes, a full boxed set of Copenhagen ship's curves currently sell in the hundreds of dollars, but they have a history of very reliable appreciation in the marketplace.) Their shapes are mathematically generated so that when used as designed in conjunction with each other, perfectly fair curves of any shape can be drawn with them. If one needs to draw frame shapes and sheer curves from incomplete lines drawings or a table of offsets, these are the tools you need, short of a sophisticated CAD program and the skill to run it. (And using curves is much faster than CAD programming, too!) See the eBay listing for photos of all the variously shaped ship's curves. This is the boxed set of radius curves: RADIUS RAILROAD CURVES METRIC COMPLETE SET 55 PCS EXCELLENT L@@K!!!!!!!! | eBay Pity those who aren't old enough to have taken drafting, or "mechanical drawing," in high school. It's really an essential skill for serious scratch-building ship models. CAD has replaced manual drafting in most industrial applications, but it's beyond me how anybody can really master CAD without understanding the basics of manual drafting. It seems sort of like learning to type without knowing how to spell, if not read! If anybody wonders how to use drafting curves, this YouTube video shows how: Drafting Tools 101 - Learn How to Use French Curves - Bing video

I'd suggest you check out the subject on YouTube where you will find a lot of instructional videos addressing full-sized boat building. If you can understand that, modeling construction becomes quite simple. Look for videos that address "carvel planking" and "lining off." "The marks, the planking fan, the tape" are all about how you must develop the shape of the cut piece of planking stock that will fill the space on the frames that you want that particular plank to cover when bent around the shape of the hull. Chuck's planking method cleverly uses heat to radically "edge set" (bend the plank stock across it's wide dimension) the plank. That can't be done in full-size boat building because the full-size plank stock cannot be bent that way. Fortunately for modelers, the thin stock we use can be bent with heat. The curve of the edge of the plank still much be cut to match the curves of planks above and below it before it is bent overall to lay fair where that plank is supposed to be. If you have specific questions, please ask them in detail. I'm sure a lot of forumites can answer them and walk you through a plank or three until you get the hang of it.

AYC isn't always devoid of visible figuring. Sometimes, it also will have knots. What if frequently seen in the context of modeling is highly select AYC. Great stuff for a lot of purposes, but for modeling, specific pieces should be selected for modeling use. See: https://www.wood-database.com/alaskan-yellow-cedar/

The kit is a very well done perfect recreation of the contemporary model, but the contemporary model has some issues with its rigging, or so it would appear to a sailor's eye..

Some use either high quality oil or acrylic tubed artist's paints, conditioning these for brush or airbrush application. These are far less expensive in the long run and generally don't dry up. You do have to sometimes mix your own colors, of course. Many prefer pre-mixed bottled colors, of course.

Yes, mainly because these air turbine-driven handpieces also feature air and water cooling options for the burs. The old dental engines had no cooling provision, so the extreme heat generated by the grinding was a significant contributor to the pain of the dentist's drill.

Absolutely correct. They are simply air turbine-driven dental handpieces packaged for use by jewelers and carvers and priced about the same. They aren't cheap and they require routine maintenance, primarily regular cleaning and lubrication. They operate at very high speeds, with make them great for dental work, but not so much for other applications. Their largest drawback for modeling work is that they trade speed for torque in their operation, much like a low torque high-speed internal combustion engine does on a vessel with a low pitched prop as opposed to a low speed high-torque steam engine with a high pitched prop. They take a lot of small bites at high speed instead of a few larger bites at slow speed. For modeling work, including drilling holes, sanding, buffing, and grinding metal parts and such, they are far better than a heavy, clunky Dremel tool, primarily because they have a smaller, lighter handpiece. At slower speeds, they stall out. Similar in size and capability, but far lower in price (remember you have to buy a suitable compressor to run the air turbine handpieces,) are the electric micro-motor handpieces. These suffer from the same drawbacks in terms of high-speed and low torque issues, although they are not as finicky about cleaning and lubrication as are the air-turbine handpieces. More expensive electric micro-motor units are available for professional applications, too. Most run on 12 VAC micro-motors and so have very light and thin power cords to the handpieces, which do not interfere with the operator's range of motion when in use. Even if you have a steady hand and don't mind "high speed - low torque tools, if you plan to work with plastics or even metals that melt at low temperatures, the ultra-high speed handpieces may not be suitable because the high speed can cause heating that will melt the plastic or metal you are working on and also tend to then gum up your burs and abrasive disks. The Foredom flex-shaft system is preferred over these high-speed, low-torque tools because it does offer greater torque and power at lower speeds. They are also nearly bulletproof, although the shafts require lubrication now and then. The big advantage with Foredom is the wide range of specialty handpieces available, including powered micro-chisel handpieces. These have long been the industry standard for jewelers. On the downside, the flex shaft isn't as flexible as one might wish and that can be fatiguing. Lastly, and most desirable according to the experts, are the "old-fashioned" (but still made) "dental engines." These are favored by many "old school" dental labs for making dentures, bridges, and crowns. They are the belt-driven Rube Goldberg articulated-arm dental drills some may remember from the dentist's office when we were kids. These dental engines can be slowed down to rather slow speeds without appreciable corresponding loss of torque and that permits fine work with maximum control of the handpiece. I believe they have a faster top speed than a Foredom flex shaft with a max speed of 45,000 RPM. The dental drills generally have collet-held standard 3/32" shanked dental drill burs and mandrels in a myriad of shapes and sizes. As with the Foredom system, handpieces with Jacobs chucks can also be readily sourced, or 3/32" shanked chuck or pin vise adapters can be used for 1/8" shank burs and small drill bits. One significant feature of the dental handpieces is that there are many specialty handpieces which provide features like angled drives that permit getting into places no other drill will. (E.g.: making drilling trunnel holes on ceiling plank an easy task. Remember, they are designed to work inside a patient's mouth.) These things are a lot like lathes and mills. You buy the basic machine and then can easily spend the same amount again on tooling! That said, when we're talking about dental equipment, the quality is such that it's going to last long enough for your grandkids to be using it. Keeping a close watch on eBay for used dental equipment will turn up lots of used dental lab and dentist's office equipment of this kind. A used dental engine can be had for a few hundred dollars or less. For the whole range of what's available new from one of the major manufacturers of these tools, see: Handpieces - Buffalo Dental Manufacturing Co. Inc. There are lots of others. As it turns out, I scored a brand new Buffalo Heavy Duty Bench Engine and handpiece the other day on eBay for seventy-five bucks. Retail is around $750 for the motor and arms and another $200 to $300 for the handpiece selected. Amazingly, it was being offered as a "non-operational steampunk decorative piece!" (Sometimes eBay's algorithms screw up and stuff gets listed where you'd least expect it and is overlooked.) Careful examination of the photos revealed it was in pristine condition. After a quick call to the manufacturer, which confirmed all parts were available for that model, I figured it was worth $75 to try to make it run. When it arrived, it took me about five minutes to realize it was of recent manufacture, had never been used at all, and was in brand new condition, but only missing its belt, a pulley sheave (wheel,) and its motor brushes, with one brush holder socket broken. I have no idea how the seller came by it. So, once I get the parts ordered and received, I'm good to go. My Foredom flexshaft may be gathering dust soon! My new Buffalo Dental Manufacturing Company Heavy Duty Bench Engine:

As for the proper name of the referenced splice, the lengths I see people go to avoid calling this splice by its proper name in written works never cease to amuse me. It's understandable, I suppose, but "talking like a sailor" goes with the territory. The etymology of the name is glaringly obvious if you think like a sailor. There's only two customary uses for this splice, one being to receive the "button" or "knob" (not the "cascable," which is the entire section of the length of the gun aft of the base ring) and to secure a lifeline made up of multiple splices around each of the outer ends of the bars of a capstan so the capstan can be manned in heavy weather. You're not a real "salt" unless you can call it by its proper name without sniggering. Yes, Flemish coils were only seen when laid down for "dress ship" inspections. So said my retired USN master chief bosun's mate mentor long ago. Flemishing was a temporary thing. Once the ship's dress was struck, they were returned to their proper stowed coil configuration. There are a number of good reasons for this. First, they are something to trip over and that's never a good thing on deck. Second, the line does not run free from a Flemish coil and the line tends to kink and tangle if one tries to let a line run from a Flemish coil. Laying a Flemish coil up in the traditional fashion, by laying down the first few turns and then turning the "pad" to coil the falling part around the "pad" until it ends with the bitter end, tends to kink the standing part with the resulting twists. Line left Flelmished on deck for long periods of time will cause the sunlight to weather the line on only one side, causing uneven deterioration. Lastly, in any sort of seaway, if running water is taken on deck, the Flemished line floats up and all over the deck, tangling and often ends up flushed and running out of the scuppers and freeing ports. Now, that's not "contemporary" authority, but I'm betting the reasoning was no different in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries as it was in the Twentieth.

"Rolling and tipping" is for sissies! Real painters brush or spray. But that's a story for another night. We're not talking about painting acres of topsides here. Seriously, though, the key to a good finish is conditioning the paint. This is much more than just thinning it, although the addition of thinners (paint thinner or turpentine, acetone, etc.) can go a long way to improving consistency of what comes out of the can. Proper conditioning is dictated by interrelated environmental variables such as temperature and humidity. Perhaps the most important consideration is the speed of drying. If the paint dries too fast, brush strokes (and roller stipple) will not have time to "lay down" sufficiently and yield a uniform thickness on the painted surface and "maintaining a wet edge" will consequentially be much more difficult, leading to even more dried brush strokes on the dried surface. Penetrol (which is now difficult to source in environmentally "woke" jurisdictions that have outlawed it due to its VOC content,) is basically raw linseed oil. (Not "boiled" linseed oil, which isn't boiled at all, but rather contains added heavy metal driers that accelerate the polymerization of the oil binder in the paint, causing it to "dry" faster. A dried coat of paint is simply pigment bound by polymerized oil following the evaporation of the solvent thinners.) Along with the temperature of paint when applied to the surface, the proportion of driers to oil in the applied paint dictates how fast it "dries" and a greater proportion of oil to driers increases the drying time and, thus permits brush strokes to "level" and disappear. Ideally, the object of conditioning is to yield paint that levels adequately before drying and dries as soon after leveling as possible. Many manufacturers of modeling paint offer proprietary "retarders" that slow their paints' drying time, "accelerators" that speed it up, and "thinners" that thin their paint. If that's true in your case, use the paint manufacturer's proprietary conditioning products and follow their product instructions for best results. Thinners (volatile solvents that thin the oil,) on the other hand, primarily regulate the viscosity of the paint, making it easier to spread. Over-thinning, however, will reduce the gloss of the coating (not a problem with models so much) and dilute the pigment load of the paint, thereby reducing its ability to "cover" differing underlying colors (which can be a problem in modeling.) Moreover, the volatility of solvents varies. "Hot" solvents are more volatile and evaporate quickly, such as acetone, while other solvents are less volatile and evaporate less quickly, such as mineral spirits. (And one must beware of modern "green" and "ordor-free" substitute thinners which may be incompatible with some oil-based enamels! Just because they may work for cleaning brushes doesn't mean they will work for thinning paint properly. Testing is always advisable before diving into painting the workpiece.) Conditioning paint is one of those things that's easy to teach by the "show and tell" method, but not so easy to teach with written instructions. It's not all that complicated, though. It's like baking a cake. A half hour of instruction by a knowledgeable painter would be time well spent for anybody who wants to achieve good painted finishes, particularly with oil-based enamels. While a good brush is a joy to use, (and remember: natural bristles are for oil-based paints, synthetic bristles are for water-based paints) a poor finish is far more often the fault of the paint and the painter than it is the fault of the brush. Within reasonable limits, it's generally more the skill of the craftsman rather than the quality of his tools that determines the quality of the finished product. Multiple thin coats produce the best finishes. Don't expect to get the perfect finish with a single finish coat. Generally, a properly prepared (smooth) and primed and base-coated surface will require a minimum of three rather thin finish coats to "cover" sufficiently. Sand those brush strokes "smooth as a baby's bottom" and give it another coat. Repeat until perfect.

A half liter Gflex kit should be more than sufficient for a single coat on that model, but perhaps not for two. To be on the safe side, I'd get a liter, although, if you run out, there's no problem applying more to what you didn't have enough to cover, although coats are best connected within a couple of days to ensure a molecular, rather than a simply mechanical bond between the two. (This is especially true of CPES epoxy sealer. Read Smith's instructions.) The catalyst and resin have very long shelf lives, so you can always put any leftovers to good use. Mix it in small batches and use a flat surface to mix it. I use a shallow tray lined with tinfoil. When the job is done, I simply discard the tinfoil. Beware of exothermic reactions. These cause a batch of epoxy to "cook off" when the heat generated from the chemical reaction of the mass of mixed catalyst and resin begins to accelerate the curing process and the process runs out of control, getting hotter and hotter until it starts flaming. A flat mixing container spreads out the surface area of the epoxy mixture and permits it to dissipate heat. Fill a paper cup full of the stuff and you can have problems. You can mix some additives together without any problems and not others, but those you can are relatively obvious, like a thickener with a color additive. Always refer to the WEST System instruction manuals which are online. They will provide instructions on everything you could ever want to know about WEST products: Epoxy Instruction Manuals - WEST SYSTEM Epoxy Check to see if there are any contraindications to mixing the additives you are intending to use together. I'd be inclined to apply the two you mention separately, the fairing additive first, and then the barrier coat. Barrier coat goes on fairly smooth and is hard to sand. Fairing additive sands like butter, but if applied in a "peanut butter" consistency, it won't be smooth and will require sanding to fair it. Mixing the two isn't likely to produce a "waterproof easily sanded" surface. I'd be more inclined to expect you'd get a harder-to-sand surface that wasn't waterproof. But, again, check the manuals. I'm not completely familiar with the installation procedures for your kortz nozzle, but I would say it would be best to fair and coat your hull before installing the nozzle because 1. epoxying and sanding is a messy business and working around the nozzle would be a huge pain, if possible at all, and 2) the fairing and coating process will add thickness to the surface of the hull and yield the final dimensions to which the nozzle will have to be fitted. Good luck with it! And again, consult the WEST System manuals on line! Don't guess. Using epoxy coatings can be mastered by anyone who knows how to follow "cookbook" instructions, but if one ignores the instructions, it can quickly turn you into a "mad scientist" with an out-of-control experiment. I'll also add that you should probably "start small" and get the feel of the stuff as you go along. Mix a small single "pump" batch and apply it on a piece of scrap wood and let it cure, Sand that and apply your barrier coat and see how that works out on the test piece. Don't use your hull to learn on. When you are comfortable, mix no more epoxy than you can use before it starts to cure too much. You can always mix more as you need it, but if you mix a big batch and it "cooks off" before you're done working with it, that epoxy is wasted and the stuff isn't cheap, as you know.

Yes, most paint requires "conditioning" before use. It's generally too thick "right out of the can." Additionally, paints that come as part of an "everything you need to build this kit" package, including paint, notoriously often contain paint that has sat for so long it's become much too thick, if not entirely dried up! The proper solvent will depend on the type of paint. Manufacturers of "model paint" will often have a proprietary thinner, retarder, and accelerator for their products. Check the manufacturer's instructions.

I'm always amazed by the features of an iPhone. You could spend your entire life discovering the tricks it will do and never catch up with the Apple programmers creative upgrades. It's really too bad they don't sell these things with an instruction manual! (I suspect there's an app for that, too!)

For example, consider Syren's Medway Longboat. It's not exactly a "beginners" model, but an attentive, determined, careful builder who can follow instructions (or ask Chuck Passaro, the kit designer here on MSW) can build quite an impressive model of an Admiralty longboat that is identical in all respects with the contemporary model at the Royal Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Syren's website makes the instructions available. The link is halfway down the page: Medway Longboat (1742) (syrenshipmodelcompany.com) Chuck's instructions make all the difference in the world. As far as I've seen, only Syren and Vanguard have produced models with instructions that make it possible for an entry-level modeler to succeed if you follow them step by step. There's no reason your first model has to end up looking crudely built if you take time and follow good instructions. You'll find many here at MSW who have "gone over to the dark side" and scratch-build spectacular works of art over a period of years after spending the better part of a lifetime studying and researching their subjects. Without that knowledge, which takes time to acquire, it's impossible to build a kit model that looks like the (professionally built) picture on the kit box without extensive "kit bashing" and replacement of stock parts and materials with after-market upgrades. You'll get there soon enough, but you aren't likely to take any wrong turns starting out with something like the Medway Longboat kit which really does make it possible for a dedicated beginner to build a model any modeler would be proud to display. In my opinion, the best way to learn is by building a challenging, sophisticated kit that has good instructions, rather than a "dumbed down" "beginner's kit" with inadequate instructions.

"Nylon" and "polyester" are somewhat generic descriptions. There is a range of characteristics in each that can affect their suitability for modeling. These characteristics include the tightness of the lay, the material's inherent resistance to degradation from UV radiation, the behavior of the material in relation to the ambient humidity, whether UV inhibitors have been added, and the color of the material, among other things. You'd need a degree in chemistry to sort it all out. In this instance, the cord is made for stringing beads and the beads will cover the cord, so it might not be treated with UV inhibitors. You'd have to have the data on the particular chemistry of the specific nylon or polyester material to be able to judge which offered the better archival qualities. Given the amount of labor that goes into properly rigging a model, the choice of rigging material is probably not the best area to be taking chances. Stick with what others have found to be suitable for the job.

OUCH! I'd have given him that in a hot minute if I'd known he'd take it. It was listed at a "buy it now" price. I didn't see any "or best offer" on it. Not that he hadn't spent money on some stuff I wouldn't ever have any use for. (Thank you, MicroMark and Model Expo! ) and there really wasn't anything in there that I needed, but I sure could have kept everything I thought I might have a need for and made money selling off what I didn't. It's a sad thing that he collected everything he needed, and they bad health interrupted it all.

You certainly won't go wrong with a Rope Rocket, I had the opportunity to buy my PL4 new at half price from a fellow who found he had no need for it. I'll mention in passing that somewhere I recall recently reading where Alexey Domanoff moved from Belarus to Poland. If so, his EU customers may find the cost of his products, considering shipping, taxes, and customs duties, if any, may have changed significantly. Similarly, shipping, taxes, and customs will likely increase the cost of Syren Rope Rockets to EU customers. I'm not sure exactly what the governments' "bite" will be for you in Spain, but it seems US modeling products are sometimes prohibitively expensive for EU modelers, if the discussions of the subject on this forum are any indication. Check out Chuck's tutorial videos if you haven't already: