Bob Cleek

If you haven't already, you might want to check with Midwest Products. I believe they discontinued their model kit line, but are still very much in business and may have a copy in their files.
 
Email: info@midwestproducts.com
Phone: 1-219-942-1134
Toll Free: 1-800-348-3497
Address: 400 S. Indiana St. Hobart, IN 46342
 
 
There's a copy of the plans you are looking for listed right now on eBay for $2,95:  https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=midwest fantail launch ii&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-34002-13078-0&mkcid=2&keyword=midwest fantail launch ii&crlp=_5057&MT_ID=&geo_id=&rlsatarget=kwd-77447026886641:loc-190&adpos=&device=c&mktype=&loc=43893&poi=&abcId=&cmpgn=395409860&sitelnk=&adgroupid=1239149811198381&network=o&matchtype=p&msclkid=8d8eceba2aa71eea1a68adb8976cb278
 
 
 

Just did a quote for shipping to South Africa this morning,  a saw and sliding table,  $616.00,  UPS has gone wild.
 
Jim
Model Machines
 
 

Had to set the nearly completed mast in place to see the overall effect. It’s a bit forward in its rake but no matter.  Here is a few images. 
 
Rob

Like this:
 

As Jaager said, "It takes a library." The subjects you've listed are extremely broad and vary over the centuries and from geographic area to geographic area. There really isn't any single book, or even several books, that cover it all. Each model you build, if you are serious about it, will require some degree of research. I'd suggest you identify the specific vessel in which you are interested, or the era and type of vessel, and begin your research there. For example, if you are interested in American clipper ships, you'd want to obtain a copy of The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, and Details by William L. Crothers, an excellent volume that covers the subject in great detail. https://www.amazon.com/American-Built-Clipper-Ship-1850-1856-Characteristics/dp/1635617332 It will not, however, be of much help if you are interested in mid- to late-18th Century British warships, you'd want to have a copy of David Anscherl's The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780. https://www.amazon.com/Fully-Framed-Model-Sloops-1767-1780/dp/0975577212/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1659827783&refinements=p_27%3ADavid+Antscherl&s=books&sr=1-1 If you stay with the hobby any length of time, you can find yourself with a library of hundreds of books, many out of print and hard to come by, and acquiring such a library can become "a hobby within a hobby." (And modelers, or their widows, sometimes offer entire libraries of this type for sale when the modeler no longer has a use for them.)
 
Fortunately, today "there's an app for that." Google is your friend. A tremendous amount of information is available on the internet, some as raw material, and some in forums such as MSW. Also, there are many of the old classic books, now in the public domain, which have been scanned and can be downloaded, such as George Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging (1848) (https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Biddlecomb.pdf) and David Steele's The Art of Rigging (1896)  https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf , both of which are available in the "Articles and How Tos" section (https://thenrg.org/resource/articles) of the NRG's "Resources for Ship Modelers" on the "Resources" section of the MSW forum. (https://thenrg.org/resource) This section of the forum is full of materials that will likely go far in answering many of your present questions.

This thread dates back to 2015, which I believe was before Jim Byrnes began offering the crosscut sled for the Byrnes saw. While the cost of a Jim Saw and sled is far beyond the "Choppers" and the Horror Fright chop saw, Byrnes Model Machines has the bases covered here also, and again by orders of magnitude more accurately and more efficiently. (Albeit that the price of the Byrnes quality is also greater by orders of magnitude, but you get far more than you pay for with Byrnes tools.) I may be stating the obvious here, but I can't resist giving a plug to the best collections of products out there.
 

After reading up on the Bollard/Capstan Equation from my college physics course of yore, I'd have to agree with Bob. It doesn't take many turns to create a large hold-force. With Bob's Belay Pin technique, it looks like there are the equivalent of about two turns (one on bottom and another on the sides/top) so the simple half-hitch knot can restrain maybe 200x to 2,000x more force than it normally would.
 
And I had fun reading all the posts. Learned a lot about Robins, too. 🙂
 
Jonathan

Put the arc welder away and use a gas torch to weld with if you must weld, be better to braze the joints. From the net; A brazed joint is made in a completely different manner from a welded joint. The first big difference is in temperature – brazing does not melt the base metals.
 

Try hobby shops or online retailers that cater to model airplane builders. Silkspan is used to cover stick-built model airplanes. It's what they paint the dope onto.

You sure can't beat the price if you only have very occasional need for it. My major concern, however, would be keeping the nozzle working correctly. It appears to have a rattle can nozzle and we all know how those can go south. (Yes, always turn the can upside down and spray until just gas comes out before putting the can back on the shelf.) The advantage with an airbrush is that you can clean them and always be assured of perfect spray performance and be able to adjust the shape of the spray "line." (Well, almost always. ) Given the price, it's sure a good way for somebody to taking their painting to the next level. 

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

Perhaps now's the time for somebody to set up some kind of internet platform that connect airline travelers and shippers together. I could easily be wrong, but it seems to me that somebody flying on a commercial flight from the US to Australia to easily add a box with a Byrnes Saw and sliding table to their luggage allowance, paying for overweight, if any, and get it there for a lot less than $616! Then again, on a per mile basis, I'm sure shipping the same package across the US would be every bit of $100, so perhaps not. Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but I can't help but think the corporate capitalists have seen the "recovery" from the pandemic as "open season" on charging as much as the market will bear to make up for lost time. I heard the fuel companies' profits for the first half of the year were the highest in history.

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

If our mother didn't think it could "put your eye out," it just wasn't fun.  

You sure can't beat the price if you only have very occasional need for it. My major concern, however, would be keeping the nozzle working correctly. It appears to have a rattle can nozzle and we all know how those can go south. (Yes, always turn the can upside down and spray until just gas comes out before putting the can back on the shelf.) The advantage with an airbrush is that you can clean them and always be assured of perfect spray performance and be able to adjust the shape of the spray "line." (Well, almost always. ) Given the price, it's sure a good way for somebody to taking their painting to the next level. 

You sure can't beat the price if you only have very occasional need for it. My major concern, however, would be keeping the nozzle working correctly. It appears to have a rattle can nozzle and we all know how those can go south. (Yes, always turn the can upside down and spray until just gas comes out before putting the can back on the shelf.) The advantage with an airbrush is that you can clean them and always be assured of perfect spray performance and be able to adjust the shape of the spray "line." (Well, almost always. ) Given the price, it's sure a good way for somebody to taking their painting to the next level. 

As Jaager said, "It takes a library." The subjects you've listed are extremely broad and vary over the centuries and from geographic area to geographic area. There really isn't any single book, or even several books, that cover it all. Each model you build, if you are serious about it, will require some degree of research. I'd suggest you identify the specific vessel in which you are interested, or the era and type of vessel, and begin your research there. For example, if you are interested in American clipper ships, you'd want to obtain a copy of The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, and Details by William L. Crothers, an excellent volume that covers the subject in great detail. https://www.amazon.com/American-Built-Clipper-Ship-1850-1856-Characteristics/dp/1635617332 It will not, however, be of much help if you are interested in mid- to late-18th Century British warships, you'd want to have a copy of David Anscherl's The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780. https://www.amazon.com/Fully-Framed-Model-Sloops-1767-1780/dp/0975577212/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1659827783&refinements=p_27%3ADavid+Antscherl&s=books&sr=1-1 If you stay with the hobby any length of time, you can find yourself with a library of hundreds of books, many out of print and hard to come by, and acquiring such a library can become "a hobby within a hobby." (And modelers, or their widows, sometimes offer entire libraries of this type for sale when the modeler no longer has a use for them.)
 
Fortunately, today "there's an app for that." Google is your friend. A tremendous amount of information is available on the internet, some as raw material, and some in forums such as MSW. Also, there are many of the old classic books, now in the public domain, which have been scanned and can be downloaded, such as George Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging (1848) (https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Biddlecomb.pdf) and David Steele's The Art of Rigging (1896)  https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf , both of which are available in the "Articles and How Tos" section (https://thenrg.org/resource/articles) of the NRG's "Resources for Ship Modelers" on the "Resources" section of the MSW forum. (https://thenrg.org/resource) This section of the forum is full of materials that will likely go far in answering many of your present questions.

As stated above it takes a library, albeit a small  one to get started.  Great advice has been given above.   I highly recommend Goodwin's The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War and Brian Lavery's The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815.  For rigging, there are several, but the best by far, and I think many would agree, when it comes to explanations and accuracy, is David Lees' The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860. 
 
There are also free sources that are useful.
The formulas in Lees' book for sizing masts, spars and lines have been put into a spread sheet by the late Danny Vadas and available here at MSW in the Articles data base.  It is spot on except for the period from 1670 to 1711 where he did not use the right initial formula so everything is completely wrong for that time span and should not be used.
 
To learn how to properly plank ships of that era the 4 part You Tube Video by Chuck Passaro and the article Primer on Planking by professional ship modeler and author David Antscherl, both of who are members here,  which can be found here at MSW in the Articles data base are hard to beat.  
 
Even if you are kit building, these articles and books will help you immensely.  
 
And there are thousands of free low resolution contemporary plans and photos of models on the RMG Collections site as well as free high resolution versions of nearly 1000 of these (along with about 2000 low res) on the Wiki Commons site.   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich
 
It is all part of the journey and should be a most pleasurable one.
 
Allan
 
 
 
 

As Jaager said, "It takes a library." The subjects you've listed are extremely broad and vary over the centuries and from geographic area to geographic area. There really isn't any single book, or even several books, that cover it all. Each model you build, if you are serious about it, will require some degree of research. I'd suggest you identify the specific vessel in which you are interested, or the era and type of vessel, and begin your research there. For example, if you are interested in American clipper ships, you'd want to obtain a copy of The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, and Details by William L. Crothers, an excellent volume that covers the subject in great detail. https://www.amazon.com/American-Built-Clipper-Ship-1850-1856-Characteristics/dp/1635617332 It will not, however, be of much help if you are interested in mid- to late-18th Century British warships, you'd want to have a copy of David Anscherl's The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780. https://www.amazon.com/Fully-Framed-Model-Sloops-1767-1780/dp/0975577212/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1659827783&refinements=p_27%3ADavid+Antscherl&s=books&sr=1-1 If you stay with the hobby any length of time, you can find yourself with a library of hundreds of books, many out of print and hard to come by, and acquiring such a library can become "a hobby within a hobby." (And modelers, or their widows, sometimes offer entire libraries of this type for sale when the modeler no longer has a use for them.)
 
Fortunately, today "there's an app for that." Google is your friend. A tremendous amount of information is available on the internet, some as raw material, and some in forums such as MSW. Also, there are many of the old classic books, now in the public domain, which have been scanned and can be downloaded, such as George Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging (1848) (https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Biddlecomb.pdf) and David Steele's The Art of Rigging (1896)  https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf , both of which are available in the "Articles and How Tos" section (https://thenrg.org/resource/articles) of the NRG's "Resources for Ship Modelers" on the "Resources" section of the MSW forum. (https://thenrg.org/resource) This section of the forum is full of materials that will likely go far in answering many of your present questions.

As Jaager points out, it does take a library.
 
If like many forum members, you are interested in Nelson era sailing warships, an oldie but goodie is Longridge’s The Anatomy of Nelson’s Ships.  The book is greatly enhanced with George Campbell’s excellent drawings.  The book describes construction of a model of HMS Victory so it blends modelmaking techniques with Victory’s anatomy.
 
Roger
 
 

It takes a library.  It helps if you specialize as to era and ship type i.e. wood vs steel   sail vs steam
 
To dip your toe in:

Historic Ship Models
by Wolfram zu Mondfeld
 
Neophyte Shipmodeller's Jackstay
by George F. Campbell
 
The CD sold here covering the back issues of three journals  have much information.