Bob Cleek

''one of the advantages of a pure pulling boat is that one avoids registration fees, high "oil spill" insurance costs, and the like''.
 
NOT if you live in the UK!
Everything from a paddle board upwards is regulated, requires registration, licencing, insurance...lalala...

What Kurt, the air brush guru, said. 
 
It depends upon the level of your modeling skill. There's little point in putting lipstick on a pig. When you're ready for an air brush, you'll know it. If you aren't an accomplished brush painter, that will be sooner, rather than later, as your skill grows. Most of the masterpiece models displayed in museums were build before air brushes were invented, but they knew how to paint with brushes in the old days. The learning curve is much less steep with an air brush.
 
That said, don't throw out your brushes just yet. A brush in the hand of an experienced painter can do just about anything an air brush can, and then some, while the same can be said about airbrushes. Each have their unique capabilities. I'd expect most serious modelers use both with equal ability.

Once he gets going he will join MSW as a member so he can get to know his customers.  I will keep giving updates.

What Kurt, the air brush guru, said. 
 
It depends upon the level of your modeling skill. There's little point in putting lipstick on a pig. When you're ready for an air brush, you'll know it. If you aren't an accomplished brush painter, that will be sooner, rather than later, as your skill grows. Most of the masterpiece models displayed in museums were build before air brushes were invented, but they knew how to paint with brushes in the old days. The learning curve is much less steep with an air brush.
 
That said, don't throw out your brushes just yet. A brush in the hand of an experienced painter can do just about anything an air brush can, and then some, while the same can be said about airbrushes. Each have their unique capabilities. I'd expect most serious modelers use both with equal ability.

Just a guess, but it may be that adding a soldering process to the manufacturing process may have required a large investment in OSHA-mandated air quality protection equipment or something like that. The safety and environmental regulations have added large costs to many manufacturing processes that were taken for granted. For example, commercial spray painting requires a spray booth and "VOC scrubbing" exhaust systems these days and that has added a lot to the cost of a spray paint job. Given what are probably Sherline's profit margins and limited production, the wire nuts were a much less costly option.
 
And to avoid any accusation of thread drift here, I'll mention that one of the advantages of a pure pulling boat is that one avoids registration fees, high "oil spill" insurance costs, and the like.

What Kurt, the air brush guru, said. 
 
It depends upon the level of your modeling skill. There's little point in putting lipstick on a pig. When you're ready for an air brush, you'll know it. If you aren't an accomplished brush painter, that will be sooner, rather than later, as your skill grows. Most of the masterpiece models displayed in museums were build before air brushes were invented, but they knew how to paint with brushes in the old days. The learning curve is much less steep with an air brush.
 
That said, don't throw out your brushes just yet. A brush in the hand of an experienced painter can do just about anything an air brush can, and then some, while the same can be said about airbrushes. Each have their unique capabilities. I'd expect most serious modelers use both with equal ability.

Just a guess, but it may be that adding a soldering process to the manufacturing process may have required a large investment in OSHA-mandated air quality protection equipment or something like that. The safety and environmental regulations have added large costs to many manufacturing processes that were taken for granted. For example, commercial spray painting requires a spray booth and "VOC scrubbing" exhaust systems these days and that has added a lot to the cost of a spray paint job. Given what are probably Sherline's profit margins and limited production, the wire nuts were a much less costly option.
 
And to avoid any accusation of thread drift here, I'll mention that one of the advantages of a pure pulling boat is that one avoids registration fees, high "oil spill" insurance costs, and the like.

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

I did some research for a model of Sand Pebbles. That led me to the prototype of the movie prop boat, USS Villalobos, (PG-42,) which I'll share briefly below. I believe the plans for USS Villalobos may be available from the U.S. Navy Museum.
 
The USS San Pablo of Sand Pebbles movie fame is a fictional ship built for $250,000 as a set for the movie by Vaughan and Yung, Hong Kong, and now located on the Pearl River, PRC. (The triple-expansion engine used in the movie was, IIRC, an ex-Liberty ship engine located in a Seattle museum and not the engine which would have been on the patrol gunboat portrayed in the movie.  The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Villalobos (PG-42) captured in the Philippines by the US Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. She was added to the Navy roll as a prize and operated thereafter, together with the former Spanish ships Elcano, Quiros, and Callao. 
 

 
USS Villalobos. Note "sampan" shallow draft launch alongside.  (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09042.htm, see also:  http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/120904203.jpgI) expect this small boat may have been a locally sourced auxilliary. In this era, captains had authority to acquire such non-standard vessels on the vessel's account. Here it would have made sense, given the shallow waters in which the Yangtse Squadron operated. There were no "standard" USN "sampans," or square-bowed small craft at that time, other than hard-chined flat-bottomed small work boats designated as "punts," which came in a 12' and 14' version. (See: Standard Designs for Boats of the United States Navy: Specifications, Schedule of Material, Weights and Cost, USN-GPO 1900) The photo is of a much longer, and perhaps more elegantly-shaped boat.
 
Were one to want to model a sampan similar to the one in the photo above, the place to find detailed construction drawings would be The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtse, by G.R.G Woorcester (reprint - US Naval Institute https://www.usni.org/press/books/junks-and-sampans-yangtze)
 
Note that the launch in the movie still is much smaller and would likely not have been used in USN service at that time. 
 
 See: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/san_pablo/demise_sanpablo.html and https://industrialhistoryhk.org/j-h-vaughan-an-american-shipbuilder-in-hong-kong-by-york-lo/ (which has links to a youtube video of the construction of the movie vessel and a model of it) for further information on the movie prop boat.
 

 
 

No. The procedure you have mentioned would create a big mess. Do some experimenting before you commit to any approach and draw your own conclusions. You will find that while thinned PVA will stiffen thread somewhat, wetting it again will do nothing to change that after the PVA has cured. If you want to dissolve PVA, you can do so by soaking in isopropyl alcohol, which will soften the PVA in the thread and leave you with sticky thread to work with which makes no sense to me at all. 
 
I don't see the need to shellac all fiber rigging. i use it when I want to "set" a knot that may potentially come undone (especially if the bitter end is cut off close to the knot, in which case i cut off the bitter end after the shellac has dried. In addition to using shellac to "set" catenaries to shape and to make reefing points lay naturally flat against sails, I also shellac coils of rigging line which I want to hang naturally as the prototype would. (Round "donuts" of coiled line on belaying pins look really stupid.) Others, like Eberhard, use thinned cellulose nitrate lacquer, which I believe the British call "nail varnish," which behaves pretty much the same as shellac, but thins with acetone instead of alcohol. Having used both, my own preference is for shellac, which is inexpensive and easy to work with and serves also as my all-purpose sealer on all bare wood. Shellac is about as impervious to moisture as any material available. Its archival qualities are also well-proven. Which of the two to use on rigging is, I believe, simply a matter of personal preference. 
 
I routinely used beeswax to eliminate the fuzz from rigging lines for some time, but abandoned it in favor of simply passing the line through a flame quickly to singe off the fuzz. (A technique called "flame finishing" in the thread industry. You will see some thread described as "flame finished" on the label. This means the thread has been "de-fuzzed" during manufacture.) I found the beeswax tended to prevent the shellac from soaking into the thread and risked imparting a slight gloss shine where the shellac dried on top of the beeswax. As mentioned, beeswax is also acidic and seems to catch dust easily. "Flame finishing" works very effectively and the modern polyester threads, such as the mentioned Gutermann Mara brand, have little, if any fuzz and appear to have been given the imprimatur of knowledgeable museum curators as to their archival longevity, in Europe, at least. 
 
Druxey is correct that beeswax is used by leather workers to lubricate sewing cord and was used by others generally to lubricate thread. This became essential when sewing machines came into use and the friction of the thread passing through the eye of the needles created so much heat that the thread would burn (or melt with synthetics) and break unless it was lubricated. Modernly, most all thread is sold pre-lubricated (or "pre-finished" as the term is used in the trade,) so there's no reason to need to use beeswax to lubricate it.
 
As you are new to the craft, I would strongly urge you to experiment extensively before you try anything on your model. All experienced modelers do this. Experiment on scraps that can be easily discarded thereafter. Your model is the last place you want to "try out new techniques." Always test paints and varnishes for finish and color suitability, and compatibility with any underlying coatings, before starting to paint your finished work. Rather frequently, a color won't be just right or a paint will do something unexpected, like wrinkle or "orange peel" or just bead up and not stick or dry when applied on an incompatible underlying finish. You'll save yourself a lot of grief by testing beforehand.

Well, the past three days have been quite challenging. I realized that I needed to add other structures at the bow before adding the inwales.
First was a small fore deck. The plans did not show the plank layout, but one of Eberhard's photos helpfully did. The deck is supported by several narrow beams.
 
Next was the challenge: a massive breasthook in three parts. The two arms are over 5' 0" long and it has a separate cross-chock. The port arm went easily and fitted around the toptimbers nicely. However, the starboard one took six attempts before I finally got an acceptable one. As the cross-chock was let down over the arms I made this in two layers. 
 
Now finally on to the inwales!
 

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
 
Do not use a buffing wheel chucked into a drill press! Odds are the drill press chuck is held in the quill with a Morse taper which is not designed for side loading. If the wheel is used with any significant pressure, which you will need, the Morse taper will probably come loose (unless it's rusted solid) and cause the chuck to drop out of the quill and possibly cause serious injury to the operator. (Din't ask me how I know this! )
 
Use a six inch or larger solid tightly spiral-sewn cotton or felt buffing wheel mounted on a proper horizontal shaft. Use emory compound (usually black or dark grey) or Tripoli (usually reddish brown) for aggressive buffing. There is also a compound made specifically for stainless, which is fine, as well. When done with the basic buffing, switch to a canton buffing wheel, which is made of a stack of cotton that is loosely sewn, or not sewn at all, and use white rouge compound. (Never use anything but white rouge on the wheel you use for final buffing.)  It will take a long time to bring the shine up. If your buffing wheel gets too full of polishing compound, it can be renewed by gently applying the toothed edge of a hacksaw blade to the wheel's edge to scrape off old compound. Make sure the saw blade is held in a saw frame so it cannot cut you if it catches on the wheel.) Work on one small area at a time until it's done. (If you go all over the sheet, you'll give up long before the whole sheet comes up to a good shine. When it's all shined, wax the sheet with a quality non-yellowing wax. 
 
When working with metal sheet on the buffing wheel, wear leather gloves and exercise extreme caution never to present the edge of the metal plate to the wheel in such a way that the edge of the plate can be caught by when wheel and be knocked out of your hands. Serious injury can result. Always be aware of the wheel's direction of spin when presenting the piece to the lower edge of the wheel when it is spinning downward to be sure the edge will not catch on the wheel. A face mask is a must, and a shop smock is handy, because this is a dirty job.
 
Again, it will take a long time, but you eventually will have a stainless plate with a mirror finish. This is not a job to attempt doing by hand or even with a Dremel tool.  Stainless is hard stuff.
 
Here's a good video how-to-do-it. The safety instructions are very good. Don't underestimate a buffing wheel. It can be a dangerous machine.
 
 
 

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
 
Do not use a buffing wheel chucked into a drill press! Odds are the drill press chuck is held in the quill with a Morse taper which is not designed for side loading. If the wheel is used with any significant pressure, which you will need, the Morse taper will probably come loose (unless it's rusted solid) and cause the chuck to drop out of the quill and possibly cause serious injury to the operator. (Din't ask me how I know this! )
 
Use a six inch or larger solid tightly spiral-sewn cotton or felt buffing wheel mounted on a proper horizontal shaft. Use emory compound (usually black or dark grey) or Tripoli (usually reddish brown) for aggressive buffing. There is also a compound made specifically for stainless, which is fine, as well. When done with the basic buffing, switch to a canton buffing wheel, which is made of a stack of cotton that is loosely sewn, or not sewn at all, and use white rouge compound. (Never use anything but white rouge on the wheel you use for final buffing.)  It will take a long time to bring the shine up. If your buffing wheel gets too full of polishing compound, it can be renewed by gently applying the toothed edge of a hacksaw blade to the wheel's edge to scrape off old compound. Make sure the saw blade is held in a saw frame so it cannot cut you if it catches on the wheel.) Work on one small area at a time until it's done. (If you go all over the sheet, you'll give up long before the whole sheet comes up to a good shine. When it's all shined, wax the sheet with a quality non-yellowing wax. 
 
When working with metal sheet on the buffing wheel, wear leather gloves and exercise extreme caution never to present the edge of the metal plate to the wheel in such a way that the edge of the plate can be caught by when wheel and be knocked out of your hands. Serious injury can result. Always be aware of the wheel's direction of spin when presenting the piece to the lower edge of the wheel when it is spinning downward to be sure the edge will not catch on the wheel. A face mask is a must, and a shop smock is handy, because this is a dirty job.
 
Again, it will take a long time, but you eventually will have a stainless plate with a mirror finish. This is not a job to attempt doing by hand or even with a Dremel tool.  Stainless is hard stuff.
 
Here's a good video how-to-do-it. The safety instructions are very good. Don't underestimate a buffing wheel. It can be a dangerous machine.
 
 
 

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
 
Do not use a buffing wheel chucked into a drill press! Odds are the drill press chuck is held in the quill with a Morse taper which is not designed for side loading. If the wheel is used with any significant pressure, which you will need, the Morse taper will probably come loose (unless it's rusted solid) and cause the chuck to drop out of the quill and possibly cause serious injury to the operator. (Din't ask me how I know this! )
 
Use a six inch or larger solid tightly spiral-sewn cotton or felt buffing wheel mounted on a proper horizontal shaft. Use emory compound (usually black or dark grey) or Tripoli (usually reddish brown) for aggressive buffing. There is also a compound made specifically for stainless, which is fine, as well. When done with the basic buffing, switch to a canton buffing wheel, which is made of a stack of cotton that is loosely sewn, or not sewn at all, and use white rouge compound. (Never use anything but white rouge on the wheel you use for final buffing.)  It will take a long time to bring the shine up. If your buffing wheel gets too full of polishing compound, it can be renewed by gently applying the toothed edge of a hacksaw blade to the wheel's edge to scrape off old compound. Make sure the saw blade is held in a saw frame so it cannot cut you if it catches on the wheel.) Work on one small area at a time until it's done. (If you go all over the sheet, you'll give up long before the whole sheet comes up to a good shine. When it's all shined, wax the sheet with a quality non-yellowing wax. 
 
When working with metal sheet on the buffing wheel, wear leather gloves and exercise extreme caution never to present the edge of the metal plate to the wheel in such a way that the edge of the plate can be caught by when wheel and be knocked out of your hands. Serious injury can result. Always be aware of the wheel's direction of spin when presenting the piece to the lower edge of the wheel when it is spinning downward to be sure the edge will not catch on the wheel. A face mask is a must, and a shop smock is handy, because this is a dirty job.
 
Again, it will take a long time, but you eventually will have a stainless plate with a mirror finish. This is not a job to attempt doing by hand or even with a Dremel tool.  Stainless is hard stuff.
 
Here's a good video how-to-do-it. The safety instructions are very good. Don't underestimate a buffing wheel. It can be a dangerous machine.
 
 
 

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
 
Do not use a buffing wheel chucked into a drill press! Odds are the drill press chuck is held in the quill with a Morse taper which is not designed for side loading. If the wheel is used with any significant pressure, which you will need, the Morse taper will probably come loose (unless it's rusted solid) and cause the chuck to drop out of the quill and possibly cause serious injury to the operator. (Din't ask me how I know this! )
 
Use a six inch or larger solid tightly spiral-sewn cotton or felt buffing wheel mounted on a proper horizontal shaft. Use emory compound (usually black or dark grey) or Tripoli (usually reddish brown) for aggressive buffing. There is also a compound made specifically for stainless, which is fine, as well. When done with the basic buffing, switch to a canton buffing wheel, which is made of a stack of cotton that is loosely sewn, or not sewn at all, and use white rouge compound. (Never use anything but white rouge on the wheel you use for final buffing.)  It will take a long time to bring the shine up. If your buffing wheel gets too full of polishing compound, it can be renewed by gently applying the toothed edge of a hacksaw blade to the wheel's edge to scrape off old compound. Make sure the saw blade is held in a saw frame so it cannot cut you if it catches on the wheel.) Work on one small area at a time until it's done. (If you go all over the sheet, you'll give up long before the whole sheet comes up to a good shine. When it's all shined, wax the sheet with a quality non-yellowing wax. 
 
When working with metal sheet on the buffing wheel, wear leather gloves and exercise extreme caution never to present the edge of the metal plate to the wheel in such a way that the edge of the plate can be caught by when wheel and be knocked out of your hands. Serious injury can result. Always be aware of the wheel's direction of spin when presenting the piece to the lower edge of the wheel when it is spinning downward to be sure the edge will not catch on the wheel. A face mask is a must, and a shop smock is handy, because this is a dirty job.
 
Again, it will take a long time, but you eventually will have a stainless plate with a mirror finish. This is not a job to attempt doing by hand or even with a Dremel tool.  Stainless is hard stuff.
 
Here's a good video how-to-do-it. The safety instructions are very good. Don't underestimate a buffing wheel. It can be a dangerous machine.
 
 
 

Try successfully finer grits of polishing compounds applied to a motor driven rag wheel.  If you’re not familiar with them they come in sticks that are held against the spinning wheel to load it up. You will need a new wheel each time that you change grits.
 
Your shop must be free of any carbon steel filings shavings etc. that can contaminate the wheel or the part that you’re polishing.  These will leave rust booms on your polished surface.
 
Stainless steel isn’t really stainless. A cleaned surface will form a microscopically thin corrosion film that prevents further corrosion. This corrosion film is what gives it its characteristic grey color.  Once polished, you would have to provide some sort of coating to prevent this film from forming
 
There is also a process called electropolishing that is sort of the reverse of electroplating.  That’s all that I remember from my stainless steel  pipe fabrication days. You’ll have to look up the process.
 
Roger
 
 

A front surface mirror eliminates the gap that one sees between the half hull and the mirror's reflective surface that in a std mirror is on the back side.  The front surface mirror is fragile and easilly scratched but once you see the difference the care is worth it.  Front surface mirrors are expensive but a good source is scrapped copy machines - there are places that take these machines apart and sell the parts - mostly in major cities.

The sheave on deck permits a gang of seamen to haul on the line as it extends across the deck. Obviously, only one or two men at a time can pull a line down without a sheave because there isn't room for more to get a hold on the line. 
 
When the line is hauled through a deck sheave or turning block, the line is brought up to the front of pin rail and a half-twist is made in the line and cast over the pin and pulled tight. The remaining bitter end is coiled with the coil held in the left hand. When coiled, the right hand reaches through the middle of the coil and grasps the bitter end of the line where it comes off the pin and a a suitable length of line being made between the coil and the right hand, that length is pulled through the center of the coil and a half-twist made in it, which is thrown over the pin so that the coil is hung neatly from the pin. 
 
When line is let go, it is a simple matter to lift the hitch off the top of the pin and lay the coil on deck, then cast off the first half hitch on the pin, and the line will pay out neatly from the without kinking or fouling.
 
Many books and manuals will depict a method of taking multiple turns around a belaying pin before hitching the line to the pin. While there is a method of taking an initial turn before hitching in cases where it is feared the weight of the load may make it difficult to cast off a single hitch on the pin, in practice, it's not a problem that's often encountered, as a horizontal pull of the fall, (called "sweating the line") will make losening the single hitch easy enough if the size of the line and the size of the pin are properly matched. Unnecessary turns around pins, cleat, cavels, and posts are the hallmarks of sloppy seamanship. All belaying should be done in a uniform fashion, as well, since one crewmember may tie off and another let go. In a blow and a heavy sea in the middle of the night is no place to be trying to untie "black" knots tied by some lubber!

Actually, when it comes to butt joints, even with butt blocks, it's proper to install them in a spacing which keeps them all as far apart from each other as is possible. The butts are inherently weak points which are better spread as far apart as possible and there are various classic "butt shift schedules" which you will find in any wooden boat or ship building text.  I have seen in many modeling books the practice of butting planks on a frame. However, in full size construction practice and its related literature, I've never seen planks butted on a frame to be a recommended practice. The butt block is a far stronger and better construction method. Modernly, of course, epoxy adhesives have made face-scarfing plank stock a viable alternative, eliminating the plank butt issue entirely. In all my years mucking about boatyards, I've only encountered one vessel, a 63' staysail schooner, which, oddly to everyone's eyes, had her planks butted on her frames. She was originally launched as the Mavoureen Mary and was renamed Landfall a few years later. She was designed by Edson Schock for the actress Maureen O'Hara and her husband. and launched in the early 'thirties. She's had a good long life and is still around, last I heard. When I last saw her in the mid-seventies, the was undergoing frame and planking repairs which were occasioned, according to the yard crew, by the fact that her planks were butted on her sawn frames. They attributed this oddity to the fact that, for some reason, she was built by the Boeing Aircraft Company! Boeing of Canada did build yachts early on, an offshoot of their seaplane manufacturing subsidiary.  
 
Gotcha! In fact, the Venetian gondolas are intentionally built with an asymmetrical hull. They do move to one side if left to their own devices. The purpose of this oddity is that it compensates for the opposite tendency when the gondolier sculls with his oar on only one side of the boat. This design feature is unique to gondolas.

Kurt's comments about airbrushes in general is spot on.  I am confident his preferred Badger lineup works well.  
 
To be avoided at all costs is any discount "no name" offering...they will fail for certain in a short time with no hope to repair.
 
I myself started using Paasche airbrushes back in 1975....important to me has been ongoing availability of parts...I have both single action Pasche "H" airbrushes as well as double action "V" and "VL" Paasche airbrushes.  They are my main roster of daily users although the newer Paasche "Talon" has a lot going for it.
 
There are more precise and more expensive airbrushes, but for my use I have found the Paasche line to be solid performers and rugged over time.
 
While I now own nearly a dozen Paasche airbrushes, one of my favorite "go to" units is the first one I bought...it is somewhat like the proverbial axe that has had three new heads and four new handles over the years...but the basic body and works of the airbrush is still the same.
 
When using newer acrylic paints like Vallejo my airbrush of choice has become the newer Paasche Talon...it seems to handle the thicker acrylic paints easier.
 
I know air source is a whole different discussion, and I don't want to derail this thread, but for what it's worth I use a Co2 tank....one refill lasts me several months, and with the humidity here in North Carolina I prefer to work with the Co2 as propellant so I don't have any of the typical problems associated with humidity.  Others will find air compressors work well for them, but I started with a Co2 tank and have  had zero problems...beside, since it is silent I can airbrush late into the night without disturbing the Mrs.

Butt blocks are used where frames are widely spaced. With narrow spaces the butts were always on the frames themselves.