Bob Cleek

Sorry to hear that Mihail is suffering from the sanctions imposed on Russia. At least it sounds like he's not drafted and freezing his butt off in a foxhole in Ukraine. It saddens me to see that sanctions designed to twist the arms of governments too often hurt the little people who have no say in what their governments do.
 
Micro-carving tools are easily made from tool steel or even broken drill bits. You won't need a lot of expensive tools. Just a propane torch, a hacksaw, and some small files and sandpaper. (If you have a woodturning lathe, you can get fancy with handles, but any old piece of dowel will work.) YouTube has many tutorial videos on making micro-chisels and carving tools. Search YouTube for "how to make micro-chisels" and you'll find lots of these. Below is one of the best.
 
 
 
 
 

Time to come over to the dark side, guys! She wouldn't be a daunting task to scratch-build a model of her. Why wait for a kit? You can do it. The complete plans are available on line for free, even in TIFF format, so they can be enlarged for modeling use.  These plans were made as part of the Historic American Engineering Record ("HAER") Available from the Library of Congress on line.: Title Sheet - Schooner C.A. THAYER, Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA | Library of Congress (loc.gov)  
 
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No matter how you cut it, cutting the rolling bevel in a planking rabbet (sometimes called a "rebate") is a tedious process that takes some thought and care. You will find lots of theoretical instructions in boat building and modeling books about how to do it using the information that may be developed using lofting techniques. The exact angle of the rabbet can be developed for any point along the rabbet's length from the lofting (or lines drawings) and from that the rabbet, back rabbet, and bearding lines can then be developed and drawn or lofted. These varying angles define the shape of the rolling bevel that forms the rabbet. In small craft and model construction, there's an easier way to cut the rolling bevel without reference to the drawn or lofted the rabbet lines at all. Experienced boat wrights dispense with a lot of the lofting by "building to the boat," as  they say, rather than "to the plans." With the planking rabbets, this means that the angle and depth of the rabbet at any given point along the rabbet is developed using "fit sticks" and battens to define the rabbet lines and the bevel's rolling angles. It's easier done than said.
 
What you do is frame out your boat or model. Take care, as is always necessary, to fair the frame face bevels. This requires setting up the frames and sanding the faces so that a flat batten laid across the frames in a generally perpendicular relation to the frames, as well as at lesser angles, will always lay flat against the frame faces. (You may need to place temporary blocking between the frames or otherwise secure them well so they don't wobble when you sand across them.) Your frames should be cut and set up as in full size practice, with the corner of the outboard-most side of the face precisely cut and set up on the section lines such that when fairing wood is removed from the forward side of the faces of frames forward of the maximum beam and from the after side of the faces of the frames aft of the maximum beam. The accurately cut frame corner, the forward corner on frames aft of the maximum beam and the aft corner of frames forward of the maximum beam, is the reference point for fairing your frames. Use one batten for marking the faces of the frames and another, with a suitable sheet of sandpaper glued to its face, or a manicurist's emory board, to sand the excess off the faces until they are fair. The batten used for marking is chalked with carpenter's chalk and rubbed against the faces of the frames to mark the high spots. Where the colored carpenter's chalk transfers from the marking batten to the frame faces is where the frame face is too high and needs to be sanded down some more. When the marking batten lies flat in contact with all the frame faces, transferring chalk to the entire frame face, the frame faces are fair.
 
Now, with your frames faired, take a small stick of wood the same thickness as your planking and cut across at the ends perfectly square, which is called a "fit stick," and place it against the face of a frame and slide it down until the lower back corner of the fit stick (the inboard corner) rests against the keel. Accurately mark the point where the corner of the fit stick and the keel meet. This mark is where your bearding line is at that point.
 
Then take a second fit stick and place it on top of the first with the first in the position it was in when you marked the bearding line point and slide it down over the first fit stick until its lower back (inboard) corner touches the keel and mark that point. This mark is where your rabbet line is at that point.
 
Make these two marks at each frame. Spring a batten between all the upper and lower marks on the keel and draw lines through all the marks. These lines will be your bearding and rabbet lines. Extend them out as far as they will go, but, for the moment, they are relevant only for the span from the forward-most frame to the after-most frame.
 
Now, at each frame, with your two fit sticks stacked as when you marked the lower rabbet line, take a knife or chisel and using the lower edge of the upper fit stick as a guide, cut into the keel at the same angle as the face of the bottom edge of your upper fit stick, i.e. with the flat of your blade against the edge of your lower fit stick. This cut should be as deep as your planking is thick. (This first cut can be easily made with a small circular saw blade on a rotary tool if you know what you're doing. Mark the blade face with a Sharpie to indicate the depth of cut.) Cut down to the point of the rabbet cut you've made from above so that you end up with the back rabbet face of the keel at a right angle to the rabbet line cut.  Test your cut with a fit stick, which, when the rabbet section cut at that frame is done, should lie perfectly fair on the face of the frame with its bottom edge fit perfectly into the rabbet you've cut. Because the angle of your rabbet is defined by the lower edge of the top fit stick and it's depth by the thickness of your planking, there's no need to worry about where the back rabbet line is. You'll develop the back rabbet naturally when the two lines you are cutting to meet at right angles at the bottom of the cut.
 
Now, you simply "connect the dots" or rabbet "notches" you've created at each frame by carving out the wood in the way of the rabbet and bearding lines between the frames to form a continuous rabbet with a fair rolling bevel.
 
The stem, deadwood, and stern post are a bit trickier than the sections where the frames are set up on the keel, but the method of marking them and taking the rabbet angles off of fit sticks is the same and shouldn't need much further explanation. The main difference is that a batten of the same thickness as your planking is place across the frame faces, rather than perpendicular to the frame faces, and extended to where its bottom inboard edge touches the stem, deadwood or stern post and is marked there for the bearding line, and then another fit stick batten is placed on the first to find the rabbet line. You will find a chalked marking fit stick batten to be handy again in fairing up the dubbing on the wide deadwood rabbets. These techniques are a lot easier to learn by doing than to explain in writing. 
 
On a real vessel, cutting the planking rabbets is a very exacting process because the ease of caulking and the watertightness of these seams are dependent upon the perfect fit of these faying surfaces (where the planks and keel touch.) This isn't a big consideration in a model. What's important for a model is only that the visible rabbet lines and the planking are fair and tight. If the angle is off behind the planking and a bit too much wood is removed, it makes no difference because a sliver can always be glued in place to raise the plank to where it has to be and the rest filled with glue, or if too little is removed, the plank face can be sanded fair after it's hung. (The latter being the less preferable. It's generally better to remove wood from behind the plank than from the plank itself.)
 
This may seem like a tedious exercise and it is, but doing it correctly will make your planking a far easier task, particularly in hull forms where there is considerable twist in the planks at the ends. A final word of caution for the modelers with a machinist's background: This is a hand job. You won't find a way to do it more easily on your mill. Many have tried to devise some sort of jig which would permit cutting these rolling bevel rabbets with saws, routers, or other power tools. As far as I know, and those I know who know a lot more about it than I do, nobody's succeeded. Don't waste a lot of time trying to figure out what nobody else has been able to accomplish. I expect that it could be accomplished, in theory, at least, with very sophisticated CNC technology, but would probably take a lot longer to program and set up than doing it by hand will.
 
This video of full-sized construction illustrates the method described fairly well:  
 
 
 

Time to come over to the dark side, guys! She wouldn't be a daunting task to scratch-build a model of her. Why wait for a kit? You can do it. The complete plans are available on line for free, even in TIFF format, so they can be enlarged for modeling use.  These plans were made as part of the Historic American Engineering Record ("HAER") Available from the Library of Congress on line.: Title Sheet - Schooner C.A. THAYER, Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA | Library of Congress (loc.gov)  
 
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As you probably know, artists' oil paints are formulated to provide the maximum drying time in order to provide the artist with a paint they can work with, moving it around on the canvas for as long as it might take them to complete a painting. Artists oils generally use raw linseed oil (also called "flax seed oil" under which name it can be found in any health food store.) ("Boiled" linseed oil is raw linseed oil to which driers have already been added to speed up the drying process.) The proprietary driers you are using, such as Liquin, do speed up drying time, but nowhere near as much as would be desired for regular painting rather than artists' oil paints. You want the more powerful stuff, generally sold in hardware and paint stores as "Japan drier." Follow the mixing instructions on the Japan drier container. Think of your artists' oils as "concentrated paint, just pigment and linseed oil, which should be considerably thinned with turpentine, mineral spirits, or acetone, (depending on the user's preference... like a barbecue sauce recipe) and Japan drier to speed the polymerization of the linseed oil base. By adding the correct amount of Japan drier, one can accelerate the drying time of an oil paint as much as is desired. It appears from the manufacturer's literature that Liquin is only intended to modify the artists' oil paints within in the much narrower spectrum of drying times required for classic artists' oil painting techniques, rather than for fast drying times appropriate for modeling.

Hi sir,
 
I do a lot of soldering using Tix solder for strong joints that will not be under a lot of stress. It has a low melt point but is extremely strong.
https://www.micromark.com/Tix-Solder-Pkg-of-20-Three-Inch-Sticks
 
I use a silver based solder for joints that will be under potentially a lot of stress.
https://www.micromark.com/Stay-Brite-Silver-Solder
 

 
I have found that taking a small piece of apporiate (for need) and pound it flat. I then cut a piece to cover the expected solder
joint and place it between the properly cleaned sides to be solder. Clamp the solder between the ends and apply a small amount of flux and heat. Clamping can be tricky as you want to hold the pieces but not create a "heat sink" that will prevent proper heating. Usually not a problem when using a Torch.
 









 
I use a combination of Restrictive, Iron and Torch all for different approaches and techniques.

I hope you find this helpful.
 
Barry

I use 'easy' grade silver solder paste from a syringe but applied with a needle for tiny components and succesfully use it on 0.2mm brass wire.
The paste is sticky and once in place doesn't blow off with the torch.
Obtained from a jewellers supply shop.
 
Slog

As you probably know, artists' oil paints are formulated to provide the maximum drying time in order to provide the artist with a paint they can work with, moving it around on the canvas for as long as it might take them to complete a painting. Artists oils generally use raw linseed oil (also called "flax seed oil" under which name it can be found in any health food store.) ("Boiled" linseed oil is raw linseed oil to which driers have already been added to speed up the drying process.) The proprietary driers you are using, such as Liquin, do speed up drying time, but nowhere near as much as would be desired for regular painting rather than artists' oil paints. You want the more powerful stuff, generally sold in hardware and paint stores as "Japan drier." Follow the mixing instructions on the Japan drier container. Think of your artists' oils as "concentrated paint, just pigment and linseed oil, which should be considerably thinned with turpentine, mineral spirits, or acetone, (depending on the user's preference... like a barbecue sauce recipe) and Japan drier to speed the polymerization of the linseed oil base. By adding the correct amount of Japan drier, one can accelerate the drying time of an oil paint as much as is desired. It appears from the manufacturer's literature that Liquin is only intended to modify the artists' oil paints within in the much narrower spectrum of drying times required for classic artists' oil painting techniques, rather than for fast drying times appropriate for modeling.

I followed up on your introduction of Liquin.  The Liquin fine detail has one characteristic that is counter to what a model ship wants.  It is a gloss product.  The original Liquin is low gloss - which is not great - but better.  The increased viscosity in the light version is produced by the clear carrier solution.  When it evaporates, most of what produces the increased viscosity is gone?  By using tubed artists oils, the concentration of pigment is under your control.  An increased pigment concentration would have an increased viscosity that remains after polymerization.  But now that I think on it:  impasto is not a good approximation of an adzed planking surface.

As you probably know, artists' oil paints are formulated to provide the maximum drying time in order to provide the artist with a paint they can work with, moving it around on the canvas for as long as it might take them to complete a painting. Artists oils generally use raw linseed oil (also called "flax seed oil" under which name it can be found in any health food store.) ("Boiled" linseed oil is raw linseed oil to which driers have already been added to speed up the drying process.) The proprietary driers you are using, such as Liquin, do speed up drying time, but nowhere near as much as would be desired for regular painting rather than artists' oil paints. You want the more powerful stuff, generally sold in hardware and paint stores as "Japan drier." Follow the mixing instructions on the Japan drier container. Think of your artists' oils as "concentrated paint, just pigment and linseed oil, which should be considerably thinned with turpentine, mineral spirits, or acetone, (depending on the user's preference... like a barbecue sauce recipe) and Japan drier to speed the polymerization of the linseed oil base. By adding the correct amount of Japan drier, one can accelerate the drying time of an oil paint as much as is desired. It appears from the manufacturer's literature that Liquin is only intended to modify the artists' oil paints within in the much narrower spectrum of drying times required for classic artists' oil painting techniques, rather than for fast drying times appropriate for modeling.

Not sure that shellac over oil is such a good idea. Keep in mind that it takes days to months for the lineseed-oil to fully polymerise, depending on how fat or lean you applied the oil-paint. Until then volume changes of the oil-paints can/will occur. Shellac per se is brittle and a pure shellac varnish may crack. That is, as pointed out above, varnishing is normally done months after applying oil-paints and these varnishes are normally mixtures of different resins that show a behaviour more similar to that of polymerised oil-paints.
 
Apart from the fact that indeed one can simulate wood grain quite nicely with oil-paints, I wonder why mix paint systems and use oil-paints at all? I think the wood planking can be simulated well with acrylic paints and then one can use acrylic varnishes to achieve the desired surface sheen.
 
If it was me, I would either use all acrylics or oil-paint and a varnish from a reputable artists' supply house. Three different paint systems over each other calls for trouble, keep it simple. 

Yeah, the third one in the picture is very smooth and dried well. The Golden MSA spray is easy but expensive. In addition, shellac is very good with lacquer spray. I'll apply matte transparent lacquer spray over the shellac layer at the very end of the building. I won't forget to test it before I apply the last spray.  
 
In addition, I've read some strict scoring standards regarding scale model contest. When judges of model contests grade scores, they also check the wood grain pattern because it sometimes makes an inappropriate scale effect. For example, large and complex wood grain patterns of the cherry wood POF model are a penalty. It is a reason senior modellers are looking for non-grain woods such as boxwood and pearwood. It might be too quick to be picky about my materials, but several inexpensive plywood based wooden model kits I've built frequently showed odd grain patterns that didn't look well. "The builder's model" scheme is my favorite. 😎

At scale model viewing distances, wood grain isn't going to be apparent. 
 
I'd suggest you also try putting a coat of shellac over your oil paint wood color, let it dry well, and then hand-rub it for a very smooth surface. The tests will be the best proof, but I think that the alcohol solvent in shellac will have no effect on the oil paint beneath it, while the mineral spirits in even a traditional varnish may soften the oil paint beneath it unless the oil paint if well-cured.

At scale model viewing distances, wood grain isn't going to be apparent. 
 
I'd suggest you also try putting a coat of shellac over your oil paint wood color, let it dry well, and then hand-rub it for a very smooth surface. The tests will be the best proof, but I think that the alcohol solvent in shellac will have no effect on the oil paint beneath it, while the mineral spirits in even a traditional varnish may soften the oil paint beneath it unless the oil paint if well-cured.

Henry, Richard,
It turned out the problem was self inflicted. I used the smallest thread on hand (DMC Cordonnet #100), which was way over size. The solution: separate the 3 strands that make up the #100. I have no idea if these are the right size, but at 1:60, they represent 8.5mm dia rope. This looks a whole lot better.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Regards,
Grant.

I'm not entirely sure what you refer to as serving.  Serving is sort of an outer covering applied to rope to keep the wet out of the strands.  It is part of a system of coverings; worming, parceling, and serving.
 
Seizings, on the other hand, are what is used to join two ropes, or two parts of a rope together side by side as in forming the eye at the top of the shroud pairs.
 
I don't know what scale you are working in, but seizings were traditionally made using marline or other small stuff, so you will want to use the smallest line you can find. On my 1:100 scale model I am using fly tying monofilament.  A typical round seizing was 7 or 9 turns followed by one less riding turns over them and then two crossing turns around the whole and between the two parts of the rope. The end of the seizing line was secured with a knot or hitch around the crossing turns.
 
When putting the seizings on the masthead eyes for each shroud pair, the seizings should be put on so that the seizings do not overlap the one below.  The idea was to prevent the seizings working (friction) against each other. The first seizing will come just below the bolster. The bolster is a piece of quarter round moulding on top of the trestle tree to ease the bending of the shroud eye over the top.
 
To seize in a dead eye on the lower shroud there are three seizings. The first is called the throat seizing and it lays horizontally and holds the parts of the shroud together over the top of the deadeye. No crossing turns are used for a throat seizing.  The second seizing is called the middle seizing and it is a round seizing clapped on midway between the deadeye and the end of the shroud. The last seizing is called the end seizing and is clapped on just below the end of the shroud.  There is also a whipping put on the end of the shroud to keep it from unlaying. Sometimes the end of the shroud is leathered (capped).
 
Regards,
Henry

You got hit by the outer edge of that canister shot.  I was aiming at the general sort of inquiry we get -
 
We in absolute agreement on this.    

 

Thanks to Bob Cleek's idea, I began antifouling work. A mineral spirit, which is the best for enamel, didn't work, so I'm using lacquer thinner, which is stronger. The lacuquer thinner also removes acrylic paint base, but the coated paper hulls bear it well, fortunately.
 
Also, thank you for your concern for health. I have a fan-ventilation paint booth and am wearing a big gas mask. It is the best way to protect myself in the given situation.
 


I found appropriate oil varnishes. The second picture shows exactly same surface that happened to the hull. I bought a new cheap lacquer spray from a different company, and I guess a different ingredient caused the issue.
The first picture is a Golden MSA lacquer spray, which is the most expensive one. It works just as well as my old, cheap lacquer spray can from different company. 
The third picture is a Zinsser dewaxed shellac liquid. It also made a durable surface with no issues.
 
This is only 12 hour short term test. I'll be watching how they're changed.
 
 
It is a bit off topic. I applied shellac to any wood parts before I applied an oil based gel stain. I believed that the wood conditioner would make surface more flat, so I could paint it more uniformly. In my opinion, the method of applying shellac is determined by the purpose of the painting. I want to remove the grain pattern on a wooden model, so I use shellac as a wood conditioner. If someone wants to show explicit grain patterns of raw wood, shellac isn't good choice. Making furniture is most likely the case in my thought.

I think he wants to stain the wood and then put a high gloss lacquer over it. Not something I'd advise, but any stain would have to be applied before any shellac. No?

Yes, we do agree that shellac works well as the last layer of the coating system. 
 
I mentioned stain because I thought he was working on real wood and not card. My mistake. Stain could go over shellac, but it wouldn't look the same as stain on bare wood. This is because the grain structure of the bare wood absorbs the stain at differing rates and enhances the figuring of the wood. Shellac can do this to a certain extent (especally a darker shellac,) but if the shellac is put down first, it soaks into the wood and any stain will only uniformly darken the workpiece. I agree using shellac before a dye would be a bad thing for the reasons you stated.
 
My use of the work "stain" wasn't careless, it was just wrong, since I thought it was wood to which he was applying the finish instead of cardstock.
 
The ship modeling world would be a better place if we could just convince our colleagues to only use shellac and artists' oils and avoid all the "better living through chemistry" that seems so fashionable these days. Not likely we'll live long enough to see that happen though.  

Yes, we do agree that shellac works well as the last layer of the coating system. 
 
I mentioned stain because I thought he was working on real wood and not card. My mistake. Stain could go over shellac, but it wouldn't look the same as stain on bare wood. This is because the grain structure of the bare wood absorbs the stain at differing rates and enhances the figuring of the wood. Shellac can do this to a certain extent (especally a darker shellac,) but if the shellac is put down first, it soaks into the wood and any stain will only uniformly darken the workpiece. I agree using shellac before a dye would be a bad thing for the reasons you stated.
 
My use of the work "stain" wasn't careless, it was just wrong, since I thought it was wood to which he was applying the finish instead of cardstock.
 
The ship modeling world would be a better place if we could just convince our colleagues to only use shellac and artists' oils and avoid all the "better living through chemistry" that seems so fashionable these days. Not likely we'll live long enough to see that happen though.  

Yes, we do agree that shellac works well as the last layer of the coating system. 
 
I mentioned stain because I thought he was working on real wood and not card. My mistake. Stain could go over shellac, but it wouldn't look the same as stain on bare wood. This is because the grain structure of the bare wood absorbs the stain at differing rates and enhances the figuring of the wood. Shellac can do this to a certain extent (especally a darker shellac,) but if the shellac is put down first, it soaks into the wood and any stain will only uniformly darken the workpiece. I agree using shellac before a dye would be a bad thing for the reasons you stated.
 
My use of the work "stain" wasn't careless, it was just wrong, since I thought it was wood to which he was applying the finish instead of cardstock.
 
The ship modeling world would be a better place if we could just convince our colleagues to only use shellac and artists' oils and avoid all the "better living through chemistry" that seems so fashionable these days. Not likely we'll live long enough to see that happen though.  

I think he wants to stain the wood and then put a high gloss lacquer over it. Not something I'd advise, but any stain would have to be applied before any shellac. No?

It's difficult to tell from the photo exactly what's happened to the finish, but from what I can see and you've described, it appears that the spray lacquer employed a very "hot" solvent which reacted with the oil paint, "skinning over" (drying quickly on the surface with greatest exposure to the air) and when the lower level of the lacquer dried, it "shrunk" and created the "crackle" finish on the drier top of the lacquer coat. Such problems are almost always the result of incompatible coatings with different drying or adhesion characteristics. 
 
It may also be a function of the incompatibility of the acrylic basecoat and the oil paint over it. Some reaction between the "hot" lacquer solvent and the oil paint causing the oil paint to soften may have resulted in the oil paint being pulled away from the acrylic base coat as the oil paint dissolved by the lacquer solvent shrunk when the solvent evaporated.
 
The different result you had when you tested the coatings on the "coating paper" may have been due to the paper's porosity or surface flexibility permitting the lacquer solvent to evaporate without creating tension between the lacquer and the lower coating layers.
 
Another possibility, and this is a wild guess, is that the drier you used on the oil paint reacted with the lacquer solvent, causing the lacquer to dry more quickly than it should have which caused the crackling in the lacquer.
 
This is all speculation, of course. It would take a chemist to evaluate the compatibility of the various coatings used. Generally speaking, "water and oil don't mix," and water-based acrylic paints and oil-based paints and lacquers shouldn't be considered compatible in any event.
 
You may be able to remove a fair amount of the lacquer and oil paint using lacquer thinner to soften it and wipe it off. Similarly, you may be able to remove the acrylic coating with alcohol or some proprietary acrylic stripper. In any event, a gentle scraping and careful sanding down to bare wood is in order. From there, it depends upon the finish you desire. High gloss finishes are usually avoided on models as the high gloss destroys the impression of reality and makes a model "look like a toy," as some have described it. If you wish to darken the wood, as you apparently tried to do, the proper coating schedule would be to apply an oil based wood stain to the bare wood. Thereafter, the wood could be coated with an oil based varnish and after that had dried well, hand rub the varnish with pumice and rottenstone until the desired level of low gloss was achieved. Alternately, a "wipe on" polyurethane finish containing stain might also be used, but only after testing this on the same wood species with which you used to plank the hull.
 
I'm sorry to see the problem you've encountered. Unfortunately, there's a certain degree of alchemy involved when dissimilar coatings are used, particularly when modern synthetic coatings are used. You just never know what you are going to get. Myself, I entirely avoid using "rattle can" spray coatings and water-based coatings on models because I've had similar difficulties to what you've experienced when I've done otherwise. Fortunately, the damage can be undone with a bit of work.
 
 

I've lost count of how many half-full bottles and tubes of hardened glue I've thrown out.