Bob Cleek

IMHO That guy in the video has his blade way too high for cutting 3/4" stock. Scary high. Don't go by me, though. "Your mileage may vary."

If the model is going to remain indoors and is plywood, you don't have to use a strand matrix for strength at all. No need for fiberglass cloth. WEST System epoxy, thickened with sanding filler, can simply be trowelled on the surface and then sanded fair, much like auto body filler. In that instance, it is used like drywall "mud," but it cures to an epoxy, rather than a plaster.

Far be it from me to rain on anybody's parade, but...

There are a very few specialty suppliers that do sell finish-quality dimensioned scale lumber and they are becoming fewer every day. The economics of the business are such that the market really isn't sufficiently strong for anybody to be supplying dimensioned scale lumber in any species other than balsa or basswood and perhaps thin birch plywood, none of which are prime finish woods for modeling. Add to that problem the fact that there aren't a lot of straight lines on a ship and the reality becomes apparent: those who are working with fine woods aren't buying their wood pre-milled. If you're lucky, you may find some cherry stripwood, but that's about it. Everything you see used by the really good modelers on the forum is being milled from larger billets by the modelers themselves. The silver lining to this cloud is that there's a lot of very interesting and suitable wood out there that's going for amazingly inexpensive prices because nobody wants to mill it commercially. A modeler doesn't have to limit themselves to boxwood or pear, although it's very nice if one can afford caviar. The municipal dump piles are full of exotic species in sizes one can throw in the trunk of the car for free, if you mill it yourself.  That does require an investment in power tools. Sometimes a local cabinet shop will oblige on a custom order basis. Other times the local trade school wood shop ma be open for adult school projects and tools are available there. Bottom line, though, if you are looking for fine woodworking species suitable for modeling, you will have to mill it yourself these days and that will require more than a drill. 

33 minutes ago, kurtvd19 said:

Fiberglas used with epoxy resin will give a glass smooth surface.  Hardly any odor.  West System 105 epoxy resin and 206 hardener will work perfectly.  Check https://www.westsystem.com/

WEST System has an extensive manual online. It contains all you need to know about their products. Be aware that epoxy is a material that demands close attention to the manufacturer's instructions for use, though. This is particularly so with measurements of resin and hardeners and application temperatures. Use in a well-ventilated area if indoors. Run fans to keep air circulating from inside to outside. Don't make yourself crazy about hazmat issues. Just follow the instructions. Wear nitrile gloves. Some folks are sensitive to contact with uncured resin and hardeners. Continued exposure can exacerbate sensitivity. 

WEST makes a selection of additives to control the properties of the resin mix. One you will find very useful is their sanding additive (essentially microballoons.) This will make a cured epoxy coat sand like butter for a perfectly smooth surface. (Don't let some dork talk you into using sawdust to save a few bucks!) 

If at all possible, I'd advise you find a professional boatbuilder or auto body and fender guy to do it for you. There is a learning curve and being in the middle of a glass layup isn't' the place to discover the curve is getting ahead of you! 

On 8/14/2020 at 8:04 AM, Charles Green said:

Bob Cleek/Painting Book:

 At the end of the article you cited, an up-coming book by Kyle Kolbe, "Artists Oil Color Miniature Painting Handbook" is mentioned.  Did this book make it to print?  I haven't been able to locate it.

All I can find are references to Kolbe's "forthcoming" book. I guess it hasn't come forth yet. His blog piece (link above) is widely cited, however, and I found it pretty comprehensive. 

19 hours ago, mtaylor said:

John,

I'm curious.  Did you try the "reconstituted" paint?  

I'd tend to think it wouldn't work because, even if you ground up the hardened paint very finely, you'd have a bunch of dried binder mixed in with the pigment and when you tried to reconstitute that,  you'd run into problems. Once an oil binder polymerizes, or an acrylic binder cures, I don't think that process can be reversed.

I have a copy of Steele's Elements and it's on line for free, as well. (It may even be on the MSW "more" section of the forum.) My copy is rather small, as I recall. (I haven't looked at it in a while and I've got a rather large library and an ever-smaller memory!) It's definitely worth buying. David's edition may be an "elephant folio" (large size pages), though. that would be nice for seeing the detail.

I'm lusting after David's editions of C.P. Kunhardt and Dixon Kemp's classics. These are never around on the used market and when a rare one comes up, it's super expensive. There are several reprints that have been published, but all of these are only excerpts of the original, not the entire original volume. Only Shellback's Library has the "real deal." 

If you are inclined to scratch building and particularly building small craft and yachts, The Shellback's Library has lots and lots of books full of plans of such boats.

I'm glad to hear the news! David is a really great guy and his catalog is a real treasure. Now that I know he's up and running, I'll have to take a look at what I might want to treat myself to next. He has classic books that aren't obtainable anywhere else at extremely reasonable prices. These aren't cheapo photostatic copies. They are real books. Check it out: http://www.dngoodchild.com/

Free yourselves from the tyranny of "model paints." They are a huge rip-off when you consider what the paint costs to make, package, and ship. In most instances, I expect the manufacturer's cost of the bottle is more than the cost of the paint and, yes, those partially used little bottles dry out before you get around to using them up.

There's a radical alternative. It takes a bit of a learning curve to master, but the basics are easily acquired and, for ship modeling purposes, the basics are pretty much all you need to know unless you want to get into really sophisticated weathering techniques which are, themselves, easier this "old fashioned" way. Do as the fine artists of old did. Mix your own paints. You will have complete flexibility in terms of consistency, flow, drying time, color and hue and save a considerable amount of money otherwise wasted on dried up little jars of what they pass off as paint these days. You won't have to grind your own pigments and mull them, though. That's done for us when commercially produced artists' oils, turpentine, and a bit of Japan drier are used. With the limited pallete we use in ship modeling, you won't need to buy a lot of different colors, either.

Here's all you need to know: https://figurementors.com/limitted-palette/the-science-of-oil-paints-with-kyle-kolbe/

8 hours ago, shipman said:

For that price it would be cheaper to get some craftsman to make them or make them yourself.

Ain't that the truth!

6 hours ago, shipman said:

Your comment suggesting someone would do us all a favour and make clones. Hasn't this forum got strong views on such things? Shame on you.

Ha! Being as nobody's making them anymore, as far as I know, I don't think it would hurt anybody's bottom line. (There was an outfit in Argentina that reportedly took over manufacturing them after Emco quit, but I don't think they ever did much of anything with them.) Besides, I doubt there's anything on the Unimat that is patented or copyrighted save, perhaps, the brand name. They haven't been built in going on fifty years. A lathe is a lathe is a lathe. What made the Unimat SL's such good machines were their accuracy and quality of construction. After WWII, there were a lot of unemployed German and Austrian machinists available to direct their energies to building things like Unimats instead of the Reich's war industries. They all started retiring right around the time Emco quit producing Unimats. (Coincidence?) The stuff I'm talking about is all generic, such as collet holders. The Unimat has a threaded spindle, but nobody makes a compression collet holder with the threading to match it. Hence, if you want a Unimat collect holder and a half dozen collets, you'll have to pay somewhere between $700 and $1,000 or more for them. 

9 hours ago, shipman said:

Both motors are fine and remarkably had new brushes installed. All up and raring to go!

Nice collection! Now you can auction off your first-born child for money to buy tooling on eBay!  Great machines. For all  the crap the Chinese copy and sell cheap, I can't imagine why they haven't started selling Unimat SL clones. They haven't been in production since the 1970's and the attachments are getting so scarce now that they bring insane prices. Still, they are real gems if you can manage to put together a well-tooled one.

Just a note on the off chance you weren't aware, the older U90 motors like you've got there on yours and which now run around $175.00 on US eBay, are not "continuous duty" motors. They are designed for intermittent service. You can look up the details in the Unimat manuals on line, but, as I recall, they are rated for something like a maximum eight minute run time at which point they should be turned off and allowed to cool for an equal amount of time. They don't have an overheating disconnect switch and if they are run too long, particularly under load, they will burn out. The newer U-100 motors (plastic case with orange colored slide switch) are "continuous duty" rated. They run about $235.00 and up on US eBay. 

13 hours ago, glbarlow said:

adjust the exit side of the fence away from the blade slightly

13 hours ago, glbarlow said:

This is all it takes to prevent kickbacks in my experience

I believe that the Byrnes Saw fence has a very slight taper on the back half of the fence built into it already for exactly this purpose. 

Micro-saws like the Byrnes saw, being smaller, are, I suppose, in theory at least, less dangerous than full sized table saws, but only by degrees of magnitude. Beyond that, I'd go so far as to say the smaller saws are even more likely to cause injury, albeit less massive injury, because they pose exactly the same risk of injury occurring as the full sized saws, but, being smaller, they invite operator error more readily. It's easy to pontificate about power tool safety and that tends to go in one ear and out the other. They say the table saw is the most dangerous power tool, but that's only because there are more of them and this leads completely inexperienced people to attempt to operate them relying solely upon their intuition. "You simply plug it in, turn it on, and feed the wood into the blade. What could be easier? What could possibly go wrong?"

Ninety-nine percent of table saw injuries are caused by operator error. These machines don't just jump up and bite you. If you are "experiencing kick-back effects," it's not the saw's fault. It's your fault because you aren't using the tool correctly. (Don't ask me how I know this.) That's as close as I'll get to a safety lecture here, but I can't stifle myself when I hear comments like "I just bought my first table saw and..." followed by a description of a problem that is directly ascribable to extremely dangerous improper operation of the machine. 

Please don't mess with any power tool and especially a table saw of any size without getting proper training in its use and particularly in all safety procedures unique to that particular tool. We've all heard Norm Abrams go through his little "safety mantra" on TV ("... and remember this, always wear these: safety glasses.") and then watched him operate his table saw, reaching over the blade and sawing without using push sticks or guards in place. "Lucky Norm" still has all his fingers, but I've got at least four professional woodworker friends who don't.

To answer the question,"Does anybody know where there's a good tutorial?" hey, YouTube is your friend. Just watch as many table saw safety and how-to-use videos as you can. You'll find something useful in every one of them. Follow the instructions and you will avoid injury and produce much better work, as well.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+a+table+saw

I'm getting a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that these are the "Byrnes Saw" of chisels. I think I may have to start squirreling away the bucks to buy a set without the purser noticing!  

Are the figured wood handled ones a special order or does he have some sort of catalog? 

She's certainly coming together nicely. Lovely model!

A "gun tackle" is any single-purchase tackle. Two single sheave blocks with the top one having a bail at the bottom. The line runs from the bail down to the lower block and back up and through the upper block with the fall coming down from there. So-called because they were commonly attached to each side of gun carriages. 

2 hours ago, Maury S said:

Bob, I thought the topping lift might be a special case (similar to pendants which seem to be tarred down to the point of a tackle being attached).

As the saying goes, "Different ships, different long splices." It's a matter of taste and there are no hard and fast rules. I suppose one could serve and tar the standing part of a topping life, but why would they want to? The tar would get all over the sails, for one thing, and it would just be an unnecessary job to keep up. 

5 hours ago, SpyGlass said:

Just a point - I dont think the lines with baggy wrinkles are topping lifts.

I think they are "lazy jacks" a pair of lines  run so that a sail can be dropped quickly and still stay under control between the lines.

Baggy wrinkles on those make a LOT of sense.

All the vessels I have sailed on with jacks have had a separate topping lift but I can see no reason why they shouldnt be used as topping lifts - except you aint going to get the baggy wrinkle through a pulley!  I think US practice does use the same lines for both more often than this side of the pond

However baggy wrinkles are mostly on standing rigging where a sail rubs at some points of sailing.

The lines pictured in my post are definitely topping lifts. Lines are sometimes spliced into topping lifts, the line running down and around the boom and back up to the topping lift on the other side, allowing the topping lifts to serve double duty as support for lazy jacks. However, at least on the western side of the Pond, lazy jacks are rarely seen on gaff-headed sails because the gaff boom, being lowered between a pair of topping lifts, keeps the sail under control when being lowered. Lazy jacks are more often seen on jib-headed sails for this reason. On smaller jib-headed sails, the topping lift is often just one line run from the masthead to the end of the boom, in which case lazy jacks made up of lighter cordage are more commonly seen. I would expect that lazy jacks were less common on large naval vessels where there were "many hands to make light work" of handing the sail. The conventional wisdom favors less weight and windage aloft and, certainly, less chafe on the sails.

Standing rigging "stands." it doesn't move to operate the vessel. Running rigging "runs" or moves, often through blocks, to operate the vessel. 

A topping lift is running rigging and would likely not be served and tarred because it has to run through blocks to operate. It would be the same untarred color of the rest of the running rigging. Baggywrinkle is commonly found on topping lifts, though. The baggywrinkle prevents the topping lift from chafing the sail. I don't know for certain when baggywrinkle came into use, so if you are modeling an early vessel, you may want to do more research on that point.  Here's all you need to know about it:   http://www.scottmckittrick.com/2019/02/18/baggywrinkle-or-whats-that-fuzzy-stuff-on-the-ship/

 

That depends upon which way you want the grain to run: vertical grain or flat sawn. The planks should not crack if you use heat to bend them. If they do, it's likely that you are simply bending them beyond their limits of elasticity and cutting doesn't have a whole lot to do with it.

Beautiful work, as always. This is such an inspiring build log!

Now you've got me going. I can't for the life of me understand how that half-bulkhead drops down to cover the stairwell in the deckhouse. I suppose it could easily be broken down and set in place, but what about the round newel post? How does that fit flush into the sole? And it's got to weigh plenty. That gas strut, if that be what it is, seems way too small. Stranger still, when it's down, the stairwell is closed. One would have to go forward to another hatch and then work their way aft. That steward bringing the coffee and cocktails certainly can't be happy about that folding stairwell hatch! Obviously, in a vessel as well-conceived as this one, they must have done it right, but how do they do it?

You might also want to investigate liver of sulphur gel, which is available from most all jewelry supply houses.

This may, or may not, be obvious, but in the off chance it isn't, do a bunch of tests to determine what effect you will get from any stain. Use decking scraps. You can always darken stains, but you can't lighten them. If you are going to get an effect you don't want, better to get it on a piece of scrap wood than on the deck of a model!

Wefalck, Jaager and Allanyed have the best solution. Experience begins when you start doing it. It's not as difficult as you'd expect. Fruit trees are good. I also have found ornamental shrubs quite suitable, species like privets and similar hedges. Pick forked branches of suitable size and shape. For modeling purposes a pair of pruning shears are perfect. Make small cardboard patterns of the parts you want to make. They will come in handy to match up against the forks and "bents" as you cut them. When you get them home, scrape off the bark (a potato peeler often works well for this if the bark is thin,) let them dry a few weeks in a warm place. Thin stock should dry quickly. After that, lay the crook on a flat surface and plane the two faces flat to the molded dimension you want. Then trace the shape of the piece from the pattern you made and carefully cut it out with a jeweler's saw or scroll saw, if you have one. 

It isn't just for looks that this method is best. It also, by far, results in the strongest parts. 

Now's the time when you might consider fashioning some sort of "prophylactic" for the bowsprit rigging. I usually find or fashion with duct tape something suitably "boxy" out of cardboard that will enclose the bowsprit and bows. It's more for preventing accidents than preventing damage after the accident occurs. Even just a big "box" there is enough to remind the mind that it is to be avoided. Without something of the kind, it is very, very easy in an inattentive moment to collide with, or have something snag onto the bowsprit rigging while reaching across the bench for a tool or walking past in the shop. Bowsprits are really susceptible to such damage and it can often have catastrophic "chain reaction" consequences to other parts of the rig. 

(Don't ask me how I know this.) 

26 minutes ago, Gregory said:

Is there a chance the paint will bleed into the wood and not just show up on the edge?

I would definitely coat the wood with a thin coat of shellac to prevent absorption of black paint into the wood. (It would probably be less of a problem if you sprayed the black paint, but why take a chance?)