Bob Cleek

The moral of the story with acrylic coatings is "Ya gotta dance with the girl ya brought ." All acrylic coatings are capable of producing a good scale finish with an airbrush. Some claim to be useable in an airbrush right out of the bottle. Depending on many variables, including the size of the airbrush needle, "your mileage may vary." I'd risk saying that at some point or another, any brand of acrylic coating is going to need some conditioning, even something as simple as thinning it a bit if it's thickened in the bottle over time. As explained, some thin with water, some with alcohol, and some with both. There are a lot of YouTube videos addressing conditioning various brands of acrylic modeling coatings and they are a good place to start researching the brand(s) of paint you intend to use. When you find a brand that you prefer, for whatever reason, stick with it and your experience working with that brand of acrylic coating will grow as you become accustomed to it. There comes a point where you just have to experiment and develop the experience to use the brand you choose. 

Well, your in luck with a whaleboat, since they were pretty much only two colors, black and white. Sometimes the inboard was painted gray, but that's just black and white mixed together. (Some carried a brightly colored sheer strake for long-range identification from the mother ship, as well.) 
 
Any of the modeling paints would be fine. Seal the wood with clear ("white") shellac and then paint. Some use a sanding basecoat and then a finish top coat. The sanding base coat will permit a very fine finish which is required for the proper scale appearance. 
 
Review the painting section of the forum. It's full of good information on the subject.
 

Beautiful job! Clever solution!

Beautiful job! Clever solution!

Beautiful job! Clever solution!

The moral of the story with acrylic coatings is "Ya gotta dance with the girl ya brought ." All acrylic coatings are capable of producing a good scale finish with an airbrush. Some claim to be useable in an airbrush right out of the bottle. Depending on many variables, including the size of the airbrush needle, "your mileage may vary." I'd risk saying that at some point or another, any brand of acrylic coating is going to need some conditioning, even something as simple as thinning it a bit if it's thickened in the bottle over time. As explained, some thin with water, some with alcohol, and some with both. There are a lot of YouTube videos addressing conditioning various brands of acrylic modeling coatings and they are a good place to start researching the brand(s) of paint you intend to use. When you find a brand that you prefer, for whatever reason, stick with it and your experience working with that brand of acrylic coating will grow as you become accustomed to it. There comes a point where you just have to experiment and develop the experience to use the brand you choose. 

Well, your in luck with a whaleboat, since they were pretty much only two colors, black and white. Sometimes the inboard was painted gray, but that's just black and white mixed together. (Some carried a brightly colored sheer strake for long-range identification from the mother ship, as well.) 
 
Any of the modeling paints would be fine. Seal the wood with clear ("white") shellac and then paint. Some use a sanding basecoat and then a finish top coat. The sanding base coat will permit a very fine finish which is required for the proper scale appearance. 
 
Review the painting section of the forum. It's full of good information on the subject.
 

Lucky you! My stash of Floquil has dwindled to nothing at this point. I loved everything about Floquil, including the aroma, except for the Dio-sol thinner. It was pretty costly and I ran out of it before I ran out of the paint I had on hand. I never had any problem using it. I still think it's the best modeling paint ever. I mix my own from tubed artists' oils these days, but I still miss Floquil. I see where some are trying to sell old stock on eBay for as much as sixty bucks a bottle!  What made Floquil so good was the incredible fineness of their ground pigments.
 
For those who never had the opportunity to work with Floquil see: Floquil Paint | Paul Budzik
 
I've heard that Tru-Color paint, a relatively new brand, claims to be the replacement for Floquil, in terms of accurate colors, at least. I've yet to try it. It's not widely distributed in hobby shops... then again, nothing is widely distributed in brick and mortar hobby shops anymore. See: Tru-Color Paint | When You Need Tru-Color (trucolorpaint.com)
 
 

The moral of the story with acrylic coatings is "Ya gotta dance with the girl ya brought ." All acrylic coatings are capable of producing a good scale finish with an airbrush. Some claim to be useable in an airbrush right out of the bottle. Depending on many variables, including the size of the airbrush needle, "your mileage may vary." I'd risk saying that at some point or another, any brand of acrylic coating is going to need some conditioning, even something as simple as thinning it a bit if it's thickened in the bottle over time. As explained, some thin with water, some with alcohol, and some with both. There are a lot of YouTube videos addressing conditioning various brands of acrylic modeling coatings and they are a good place to start researching the brand(s) of paint you intend to use. When you find a brand that you prefer, for whatever reason, stick with it and your experience working with that brand of acrylic coating will grow as you become accustomed to it. There comes a point where you just have to experiment and develop the experience to use the brand you choose. 

Beautiful job! Clever solution!

If you want a motorized ropewalk, Alexi Domanoff makes a good one: https://www.shipworkshop.com/  He's in Poland. No problem with shipping to the US from the EU. He provides great service and support. He has a range, from simple to complex machines.

Lucky you! My stash of Floquil has dwindled to nothing at this point. I loved everything about Floquil, including the aroma, except for the Dio-sol thinner. It was pretty costly and I ran out of it before I ran out of the paint I had on hand. I never had any problem using it. I still think it's the best modeling paint ever. I mix my own from tubed artists' oils these days, but I still miss Floquil. I see where some are trying to sell old stock on eBay for as much as sixty bucks a bottle!  What made Floquil so good was the incredible fineness of their ground pigments.
 
For those who never had the opportunity to work with Floquil see: Floquil Paint | Paul Budzik
 
I've heard that Tru-Color paint, a relatively new brand, claims to be the replacement for Floquil, in terms of accurate colors, at least. I've yet to try it. It's not widely distributed in hobby shops... then again, nothing is widely distributed in brick and mortar hobby shops anymore. See: Tru-Color Paint | When You Need Tru-Color (trucolorpaint.com)
 
 

Lucky you! My stash of Floquil has dwindled to nothing at this point. I loved everything about Floquil, including the aroma, except for the Dio-sol thinner. It was pretty costly and I ran out of it before I ran out of the paint I had on hand. I never had any problem using it. I still think it's the best modeling paint ever. I mix my own from tubed artists' oils these days, but I still miss Floquil. I see where some are trying to sell old stock on eBay for as much as sixty bucks a bottle!  What made Floquil so good was the incredible fineness of their ground pigments.
 
For those who never had the opportunity to work with Floquil see: Floquil Paint | Paul Budzik
 
I've heard that Tru-Color paint, a relatively new brand, claims to be the replacement for Floquil, in terms of accurate colors, at least. I've yet to try it. It's not widely distributed in hobby shops... then again, nothing is widely distributed in brick and mortar hobby shops anymore. See: Tru-Color Paint | When You Need Tru-Color (trucolorpaint.com)
 
 

The moral of the story with acrylic coatings is "Ya gotta dance with the girl ya brought ." All acrylic coatings are capable of producing a good scale finish with an airbrush. Some claim to be useable in an airbrush right out of the bottle. Depending on many variables, including the size of the airbrush needle, "your mileage may vary." I'd risk saying that at some point or another, any brand of acrylic coating is going to need some conditioning, even something as simple as thinning it a bit if it's thickened in the bottle over time. As explained, some thin with water, some with alcohol, and some with both. There are a lot of YouTube videos addressing conditioning various brands of acrylic modeling coatings and they are a good place to start researching the brand(s) of paint you intend to use. When you find a brand that you prefer, for whatever reason, stick with it and your experience working with that brand of acrylic coating will grow as you become accustomed to it. There comes a point where you just have to experiment and develop the experience to use the brand you choose. 

The last model that I painted was a scratch built 1:32 scale rigged Longboat.  I needed three major colors; Dark Brown for the outside of the hull, a dark red, and a color called “drab” I also needed an off white for below the waterline.  I decided to paint the model with acrylic paints that I mixed myself.
 
I started with quality acrylic colors, sold in tubes at a local craft store.  A large cheap tube bought from Walmart had particles of pigment  so coarsely ground to be unusable.  I squeezed a blob of each color needed onto a piece of glass and mixed them with a palette knife, adjusting the shade until it looked right.  I spooned the mixed color into an airbrush jar and added some acrylic  Matt Medium.  I thinned the mix with ordinary tap water.  I have a single action Badger Airbrush that sprayed the paint without a problem.  Given all of the problems with commercially mixed colors posted above, this approach worked well for me.
 
The model that I am building now has large areas of soldered brass.  It will be painted with Floquil paints.
 
Roger

Thanks Bob! It has actually turned out to be quite functional just for the table top and working on Winchelsea. I just ordered some shop wheels that are low profile that will also give me a bit more outboard stability when rotating the top to the lathe function. It is well balanced and stays at rest when the locks are open but there is quite a bit of rotational imbalance when it is rotating to the lathe function.
Joe

I made a Josonja acrylic paint case with cheap materials.

Acrylic paints are complex emulsions with either water, or alcohol or a mixture of both as solvents. They may also contain surfactants as emulsifiers. Emulsions are very delicate things and can easily break down when using the wrong solvents, resulting in curdling with resulting clogging of the airbrush for instance. In such cases they also do not form the cross-linked network of acrylic molecules that form the paint layer.
 
It appears that Vallejo uses a relatively simple system that can be diluted with water, dito. for the German Schmincke paints. I do not have experience with products of other manufacturers.

Some soak, boil, or steam their wood, and it's a matter of style, I suppose. There is a range of "bend-ability" among various wood species, but from a scientific standpoint, it's the heat that softens the lignin in the wood, permitting it to bend without breaking and to harden in the shape it's bent when the lignin cools. Steaming or boiling the wood only serves as a medium for applying the heat to the wood. In full-size construction, steaming is used because it is the best method of heating a full-size plank or frame timber, not because the wood needs to be wetted. It's absolutely true that a wet piece of wood may well shrink when it dries. There's no reason it needs to be wet, as illustrated by Chuck Passaro's planking tutorials.

Allan's advice is worth reposting in full. If you require some sort of clamp to hold a plank's shape while the adhesive you are using takes hold, that plank hasn't been properly shaped and bent. That may often be more easily said than done, but there's no way around it and trying to overcome defects in plank fitting any other way will certainly be more work and perhaps grief than if the plank is properly shaped before it is hung. 
 
I'd only add that if your plank is properly shaped before it is offered up to the framing, use of an electric plank bender or the equivalent to apply heat to the plank at the point of attachment will speed the evaporation of the PVA's water-base and hasten the PVA's taking hold. Care must be taken not to scorch the plank face, of course.
 

 

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.  

The rag can be dipped in water and it works just as well without the mess of cleaning up the sticky linseed oil and rottenstone and/or pumice left after hand rubbing. I never use anything but water when hand rubbing finishes.

Glad Tidings' frames are 1.75" x 2.5". At 1:24 scale, they'd be .073" x .104". If you are building a fully-framed model, it would seem very unlikely they could be "cut out like 'typical' frames." The frames would have no strength where the grain ran out across the frame and they'd break easily at that place. On the other hand, it would be possible to mill .073" x .104" strips of one of the "more bendable" modeling wood species and fit them into place "hot," as in full-size construction, and tie them onto the battens with thread or thin wire. They'd then cool and take the needed curve in place against the battens.  One of the advantages of steamed frames, in addition to their light weight, is that they are twisted when bent into place so that fairing the frame faces is in large part unnecessary. 
 
You could cut bulkheads out of plywood for a plank on bulkhead or plank on mold build, but it's very difficult to get any sort of fastener to hold plank in plywood endgrain and it doesn't do well holding with adhesives either. To avoid grain runout weakness, I have had success with making molds out of laminated pieces of birch tongue depressors, which can be bought in quantity from craft stores. The tongue depressors are cut at angles to achieve the shape desired without encountering grain runout. The lamination joints are staggered so that they don't occur on top of each other. As I recall, a lamination of three tongue depressors is about a quarter of an inch thick. The tongue depressors are about an inch wide, so you can cut the joints (I use a paper cutter) to yield a rough laminated shape and then saw the frame out of that. This method requires careful fairing of the bulkhead edges, of course, but it's much easier than using plywood where every other lamination is 90 degrees to the other and so is endgrain.

Glad I was able to answer your questions. I wouldn't say that a "fully framed" model isn't possible and a "Navy Board style" partially-planked model of Glad Tidings would be quite nice. Given her relatively small size, the model at 1:24 would be 30" long allowing a lot of opportunity for detail or 1:48 scale would give you a 15" model that wouldn't chase you out of the room when cased. You will have to put a lot of effort into setting up molds and laying off battens to create the "basket" for forming your steam-bent frames. You would then have to remove the battens as you planked from the sheer down to the waterline, then remove the molds and replace them with steam-bent frames, and then install the stringers, clamps, and shelves. After that you could install the interior furniture and the deck beams over that. Any one of the good practicums on fully-framed construction like Tosti's or Antscherl's with show you the way. You will also find a good treatment of "basket" construction in Underhill's Plank on Frame Models, Vol. I. This won't be simplified kit model construction, though. You will have to steam your frames in place in the basket and then tie each to the longitudinal battens in order to form a fair framing system to which you can fasten your planks. 
 
If you like the looks of Chapelle's Glad Tidings, a hull from the Smithsonian's collection that Chapelle customized as his personal yacht, you might want to take a look at some of R.D. ("Pete") Culler's designs. These are published in a number of study plans books he wrote, as well as full plans drawings sets available from Mystic Seaport. Pete Culler's Lizard King, a Baltimore Clipper, is a favorite of mine. Lizard King has built up frames which would be easier to build a model around than steamed in place frames like Glad Tidings'. She also can carry a fore course and rafee fore topsail and/or a main topsail.
 
See: Chapter 55: Baltimore Clipper Schooner Lizard King - Pete Culler on Wooden Boats: The Master Craftsman's Collected Teachings on Boat Design, Building, Repair, and Use (zoboko.com)
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

I've seen lots of drifts in my day and I've never seen one that was "a longer bolt with different diameter sections... ever. They are just "big nails" without heads or even sharp points to speak of. (Often one end will often have its sharp edge hammered round so it won't hang up when being driven.) They are  driven into a tight hole in pairs at opposing angles. It's the opposing angle of the fastening that keeps the joint from separating in tension. They were a very common type of heavy fastening method in the days of wooden ships.
 
Below: A piece of a shipwreck with nails and a drift rod through it.
 

 

 
Sunken hulk with numerous iron drifts in structural timbers revealed by decay of the surrounding wood. The large number of drifts driven into large vessels was the reason they burned worn-out ships for their fastenings back in the old days. There was a serious amount of scrap metal in those old wooden ships.