Bob Cleek

Personally I prefer a soldering torch, and different temps of soldering paste. The paste comes in a syringe and you only need a tiny amount, you heat it up with the torch and it will eventually do its thing. Although a soldering torch doesn’t have any kind of temp control, well they make different variations of soldering paste for that problem as well, so you can have a low temp medium temp and high temp, with the difference being how long you have to hold the torch to the paste. I took a small wood cabinet and bolted it in the ground against the wall, I then laid bricks on top of that creating a “soldering table” as I call it. I also used a small Stanley bench vise with soft clamps to hold my work, that way I can hold what ever I’m soldering with clamps or my hand or both while I apply heat. Like everything else this all requires practice, I break joints all the times, as long as I use enough paste with enough heat and clean metal I never have issues. 
 
Bradley 

There are advantages to using silver solder. There's a quite a lot of difference between silver solder and the solder they sell for electronic soldering. Silver soldering takes more heat that the "rosin core" solder sold for electronic soldering. Silver solder provides a much stronger joint, for one thing, but is not 'gap filling." The parts to be silver soldered must be actually touching when soldered. Silver soldering is the province of jewelry makers and modelers. Anybody who does any amount of jewelry making or model soldering usually ends up with a Smith Little Torch or an equivalent. (Warning: There are counterfeit Smith Little Torches being sold on eBay and elsewhere that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are sold for much less and are reportedly no different, although there are complaints about "fit and finish." Buy from Smith directly, or from a reputable jewelry supply house to get the real deal.) These torches can be run on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or mapp gas, as one wishes. The disposable gas bottles are cheap and widely available. They work best for modeling purposes unless you are doing a lot of soldering, at which point one might want to move up to a larger gas tank available from welding supply stores.
 
This is the state of the art tool for the jobs we do on models. There's no need to pay extra for a large selection of tips. The basic tip is fine for modeling purposes. While the real Smith Torch kit is more expensive than butane brazing torches, it is far more capable in terms of heat output because it's running on oxygenated gas mixtures and the heat can be very precisely applied where you want it.  The Smith Little Torch is one of the "industry standards." For my money, I'd go with the Smith torch rather than buy a lesser one that may prove a disappointment. There's lots of content on these torches on YouTube. Check it out.
 
See: https://www.millerwelds.com/-/media/miller-electric/imported-mam-assets/spec-sheets/2/d/e/ge200-the-little-torch-kit.pdf
 
 

There are advantages to using silver solder. There's a quite a lot of difference between silver solder and the solder they sell for electronic soldering. Silver soldering takes more heat that the "rosin core" solder sold for electronic soldering. Silver solder provides a much stronger joint, for one thing, but is not 'gap filling." The parts to be silver soldered must be actually touching when soldered. Silver soldering is the province of jewelry makers and modelers. Anybody who does any amount of jewelry making or model soldering usually ends up with a Smith Little Torch or an equivalent. (Warning: There are counterfeit Smith Little Torches being sold on eBay and elsewhere that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are sold for much less and are reportedly no different, although there are complaints about "fit and finish." Buy from Smith directly, or from a reputable jewelry supply house to get the real deal.) These torches can be run on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or mapp gas, as one wishes. The disposable gas bottles are cheap and widely available. They work best for modeling purposes unless you are doing a lot of soldering, at which point one might want to move up to a larger gas tank available from welding supply stores.
 
This is the state of the art tool for the jobs we do on models. There's no need to pay extra for a large selection of tips. The basic tip is fine for modeling purposes. While the real Smith Torch kit is more expensive than butane brazing torches, it is far more capable in terms of heat output because it's running on oxygenated gas mixtures and the heat can be very precisely applied where you want it.  The Smith Little Torch is one of the "industry standards." For my money, I'd go with the Smith torch rather than buy a lesser one that may prove a disappointment. There's lots of content on these torches on YouTube. Check it out.
 
See: https://www.millerwelds.com/-/media/miller-electric/imported-mam-assets/spec-sheets/2/d/e/ge200-the-little-torch-kit.pdf
 
 

There are advantages to using silver solder. There's a quite a lot of difference between silver solder and the solder they sell for electronic soldering. Silver soldering takes more heat that the "rosin core" solder sold for electronic soldering. Silver solder provides a much stronger joint, for one thing, but is not 'gap filling." The parts to be silver soldered must be actually touching when soldered. Silver soldering is the province of jewelry makers and modelers. Anybody who does any amount of jewelry making or model soldering usually ends up with a Smith Little Torch or an equivalent. (Warning: There are counterfeit Smith Little Torches being sold on eBay and elsewhere that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are sold for much less and are reportedly no different, although there are complaints about "fit and finish." Buy from Smith directly, or from a reputable jewelry supply house to get the real deal.) These torches can be run on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or mapp gas, as one wishes. The disposable gas bottles are cheap and widely available. They work best for modeling purposes unless you are doing a lot of soldering, at which point one might want to move up to a larger gas tank available from welding supply stores.
 
This is the state of the art tool for the jobs we do on models. There's no need to pay extra for a large selection of tips. The basic tip is fine for modeling purposes. While the real Smith Torch kit is more expensive than butane brazing torches, it is far more capable in terms of heat output because it's running on oxygenated gas mixtures and the heat can be very precisely applied where you want it.  The Smith Little Torch is one of the "industry standards." For my money, I'd go with the Smith torch rather than buy a lesser one that may prove a disappointment. There's lots of content on these torches on YouTube. Check it out.
 
See: https://www.millerwelds.com/-/media/miller-electric/imported-mam-assets/spec-sheets/2/d/e/ge200-the-little-torch-kit.pdf
 
 

Actually, all rope was thinly tarred when manufactured. Repeated applications of supplemental tar for maintenance purposes made the cordage darker. I have never heard of bolt ropes being tarred after manufacture. To do so would get the tar all over the sails and handling them in the ordinary course would become rather messy, I'd expect. Bolt ropes were treated as was running rigging. Standing rigging, on the other hand, was routinely tarred to preserve it. Bolt ropes would be the same color as running rigging. As is the case, hemp cordage is darker, tending towards brown, than sisal ("Manila") cordage, which is lighter tending towards golden. I'm guessing hemp running rigging would have been in use in 1790, but there are many far more expert folks in this forum on the subject of Admiralty practices at that time.

There are advantages to using silver solder. There's a quite a lot of difference between silver solder and the solder they sell for electronic soldering. Silver soldering takes more heat that the "rosin core" solder sold for electronic soldering. Silver solder provides a much stronger joint, for one thing, but is not 'gap filling." The parts to be silver soldered must be actually touching when soldered. Silver soldering is the province of jewelry makers and modelers. Anybody who does any amount of jewelry making or model soldering usually ends up with a Smith Little Torch or an equivalent. (Warning: There are counterfeit Smith Little Torches being sold on eBay and elsewhere that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are sold for much less and are reportedly no different, although there are complaints about "fit and finish." Buy from Smith directly, or from a reputable jewelry supply house to get the real deal.) These torches can be run on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or mapp gas, as one wishes. The disposable gas bottles are cheap and widely available. They work best for modeling purposes unless you are doing a lot of soldering, at which point one might want to move up to a larger gas tank available from welding supply stores.
 
This is the state of the art tool for the jobs we do on models. There's no need to pay extra for a large selection of tips. The basic tip is fine for modeling purposes. While the real Smith Torch kit is more expensive than butane brazing torches, it is far more capable in terms of heat output because it's running on oxygenated gas mixtures and the heat can be very precisely applied where you want it.  The Smith Little Torch is one of the "industry standards." For my money, I'd go with the Smith torch rather than buy a lesser one that may prove a disappointment. There's lots of content on these torches on YouTube. Check it out.
 
See: https://www.millerwelds.com/-/media/miller-electric/imported-mam-assets/spec-sheets/2/d/e/ge200-the-little-torch-kit.pdf
 
 

I use 2 part epoxy designed for coating fishing rod guides. Mix together then add very small amount of enamel paint. Place oven bake paper under window frame and apply mix. When dry, peel off oven bake paper and you will get realistic looking glass - concave or convex shapes can be achieved depending on how you apply mix. I usually use a toothpick. 

Unfortunately, the knowledge of how to maintain a fine French polish on a piece of furniture is totally lost on the homeowners of today. The same is true of hand-rubbed finishes on varnish and oil-based paints. 

There are advantages to using silver solder. There's a quite a lot of difference between silver solder and the solder they sell for electronic soldering. Silver soldering takes more heat that the "rosin core" solder sold for electronic soldering. Silver solder provides a much stronger joint, for one thing, but is not 'gap filling." The parts to be silver soldered must be actually touching when soldered. Silver soldering is the province of jewelry makers and modelers. Anybody who does any amount of jewelry making or model soldering usually ends up with a Smith Little Torch or an equivalent. (Warning: There are counterfeit Smith Little Torches being sold on eBay and elsewhere that are indistinguishable from the real thing. They are sold for much less and are reportedly no different, although there are complaints about "fit and finish." Buy from Smith directly, or from a reputable jewelry supply house to get the real deal.) These torches can be run on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or mapp gas, as one wishes. The disposable gas bottles are cheap and widely available. They work best for modeling purposes unless you are doing a lot of soldering, at which point one might want to move up to a larger gas tank available from welding supply stores.
 
This is the state of the art tool for the jobs we do on models. There's no need to pay extra for a large selection of tips. The basic tip is fine for modeling purposes. While the real Smith Torch kit is more expensive than butane brazing torches, it is far more capable in terms of heat output because it's running on oxygenated gas mixtures and the heat can be very precisely applied where you want it.  The Smith Little Torch is one of the "industry standards." For my money, I'd go with the Smith torch rather than buy a lesser one that may prove a disappointment. There's lots of content on these torches on YouTube. Check it out.
 
See: https://www.millerwelds.com/-/media/miller-electric/imported-mam-assets/spec-sheets/2/d/e/ge200-the-little-torch-kit.pdf
 
 

Here's another cheap tool: "Pizza savers." Yes, that's what they are called in the trade. They are those white plastic things that look like round tables with three legs that they put in pizza boxes to keep the top of the box from contacting the melted cheese on the pizza and making a mess when it's delivered. 
 

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_saver
 
These make great "painter's points." A painter's point, which are often pyramid-shaped, but can have other suitable shapes, are used to hold a piece of work that needs painting up above the level of a table so it's top and edges can be painted without coming into contact with the bench top that it's being painted on. These "pizza savers" work great for this purpose. Just turn them upside down so they are standing on the round part and you'll have three pegs sticking up to support whatever you need to paint. Use three or four or more to support your work, of course. So, grab 'em when the pizza comes. In short order you'll have a box of them in the shop to use whenever they're needed. 
 
Store-bought painter's points: No need to waste the money on them anymore.
 

Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will be dumbfounded by those wire springs on clothespins. They'll keep finding them with their metal detectors, but there will be a raging debate over what they were actually used for.  

And don't forget those mini bamboo skewers at the supermarket, good for all sorts of stuff including trunnels and the ever-present Starbucks skinny wooden stirring sticks.

That, my friend, is what they call salesmanship!   

That, my friend, is what they call salesmanship!   

I have switched from solid solder/ soldering iron to paste solder and a small torch with a fireproof pad, all available from Rio Grande jewelry supply.  To me it is easier to join the small rings and eyebolts.  By the way, Rio Grande is a great source for tools and some materials.  They charge for their (large) catalog, but it's worth it.   They have a great selection of files and pliars, for example.

In case you were asking what the modeler gets out of a more expensive kit, I'd say the answer is, "It depends." The very expensive kits generally contain better instructions, more historical accuracy, more detail, more complexity, more castings, and better quality materials. Mind you, though, that I have never bought a very expensive kit model. In my mind, it's something of a "Catch-22." I'm convinced that there are far more kits sold than are ever built. I really don't know why many modelers "build a stash" of un-built or half-built models. That said, buying a model you intend to build before you will have time to build it may make sense if the price is right, but, frankly, for some it appears to be something of a hoarding disorder. Few beginning or even intermediate modelers have the skill and experience to do justice to a $1,700 model. (And I'm sure somebody will say, "I do!" which is exactly why the manufacturers keep churning them out.) Those who have the skill and experience (not to mention the tools and machinery necessary to supplement "what comes in the box" of any kit to even begin to match the glossy colored picture on the kit box) will generally have long since abandoned assembling kits for building models, anyway. Kits have their place. They are ship modeling's "gateway drug" and some of the less challenging high quality kits (e.g. anything from Syren) are the very best way to gain skill and experience and at the same time end up with a beautiful model if it's done well, but it's generally the newer modelers who lust after a Victory or a Constitution and if ship models were restaurants, Victory and Constitution would be McDonald's and Starbucks.
 
As for the value of the finished product of an expensive kit, I doubt there are many who would pay $1,700 for an assembled ship model kit under any circumstances unless they were really conned into paying that much. In any event, people who are not knowledgeable collectors don't pay $1,700 for anything to set on their mantles and people who are knowledgeable collectors have no interest in paying much of anything for a model that is not a scratch-built historically accurate unique one-off example made by  a known top modeler to state of the art archival standards. (And more often than not such models are commissioned directly from the modeler.) 
 
Fine models are like fine art in terms of their value to those who might buy them. Kit models appeal to some who build for their own satisfaction alone, and that's fine, but unless they are done with a high level of skill, they are pretty much in the same category as paint-by-numbers oil paintings. They may look like the Mona Lisa if they are really done well, but most are just "Elvis" on black velvet in terms of monetary value.
 
By these comments, I certainly don't intend to denigrate those who build kits. I've built many, as everyone has over the years, but given the limitations of selling ship model kits as a business model, particularly with the inroads made by foreign "pirates" who steal the kit designers' intellectual property, it appears to me at least that the way the ship modeling game is trending over the long haul, the momentary impetus provided by "pandemic boredom" notwithstanding, is increasingly towards scratch-building a far less numerous output of unique "fine art"-level models. Kit manufacturers are struggling to realize a profit and the "aftermarket" vendors of pre-milled wood and fittings have been dropping like flies in recent years. Maybe that's why the smart kit fans all have "stashes," come to think of it!  
 
P.S.: If you want to see what can be done with a relatively simple quality model that's not particularly expensive... if you add after-market blocks and rigging line, etc., check out this beautiful job: 
 

That, my friend, is what they call salesmanship!   

Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will be dumbfounded by those wire springs on clothespins. They'll keep finding them with their metal detectors, but there will be a raging debate over what they were actually used for.  

Here's another cheap tool: "Pizza savers." Yes, that's what they are called in the trade. They are those white plastic things that look like round tables with three legs that they put in pizza boxes to keep the top of the box from contacting the melted cheese on the pizza and making a mess when it's delivered. 
 

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_saver
 
These make great "painter's points." A painter's point, which are often pyramid-shaped, but can have other suitable shapes, are used to hold a piece of work that needs painting up above the level of a table so it's top and edges can be painted without coming into contact with the bench top that it's being painted on. These "pizza savers" work great for this purpose. Just turn them upside down so they are standing on the round part and you'll have three pegs sticking up to support whatever you need to paint. Use three or four or more to support your work, of course. So, grab 'em when the pizza comes. In short order you'll have a box of them in the shop to use whenever they're needed. 
 
Store-bought painter's points: No need to waste the money on them anymore.
 

Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will be dumbfounded by those wire springs on clothespins. They'll keep finding them with their metal detectors, but there will be a raging debate over what they were actually used for.  

Here's another cheap tool: "Pizza savers." Yes, that's what they are called in the trade. They are those white plastic things that look like round tables with three legs that they put in pizza boxes to keep the top of the box from contacting the melted cheese on the pizza and making a mess when it's delivered. 
 

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_saver
 
These make great "painter's points." A painter's point, which are often pyramid-shaped, but can have other suitable shapes, are used to hold a piece of work that needs painting up above the level of a table so it's top and edges can be painted without coming into contact with the bench top that it's being painted on. These "pizza savers" work great for this purpose. Just turn them upside down so they are standing on the round part and you'll have three pegs sticking up to support whatever you need to paint. Use three or four or more to support your work, of course. So, grab 'em when the pizza comes. In short order you'll have a box of them in the shop to use whenever they're needed. 
 
Store-bought painter's points: No need to waste the money on them anymore.
 

Here's another cheap tool: "Pizza savers." Yes, that's what they are called in the trade. They are those white plastic things that look like round tables with three legs that they put in pizza boxes to keep the top of the box from contacting the melted cheese on the pizza and making a mess when it's delivered. 
 

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_saver
 
These make great "painter's points." A painter's point, which are often pyramid-shaped, but can have other suitable shapes, are used to hold a piece of work that needs painting up above the level of a table so it's top and edges can be painted without coming into contact with the bench top that it's being painted on. These "pizza savers" work great for this purpose. Just turn them upside down so they are standing on the round part and you'll have three pegs sticking up to support whatever you need to paint. Use three or four or more to support your work, of course. So, grab 'em when the pizza comes. In short order you'll have a box of them in the shop to use whenever they're needed. 
 
Store-bought painter's points: No need to waste the money on them anymore.
 

Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will be dumbfounded by those wire springs on clothespins. They'll keep finding them with their metal detectors, but there will be a raging debate over what they were actually used for.  

And don't forget those mini bamboo skewers at the supermarket, good for all sorts of stuff including trunnels and the ever-present Starbucks skinny wooden stirring sticks.

Here's another cheap tool: "Pizza savers." Yes, that's what they are called in the trade. They are those white plastic things that look like round tables with three legs that they put in pizza boxes to keep the top of the box from contacting the melted cheese on the pizza and making a mess when it's delivered. 
 

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_saver
 
These make great "painter's points." A painter's point, which are often pyramid-shaped, but can have other suitable shapes, are used to hold a piece of work that needs painting up above the level of a table so it's top and edges can be painted without coming into contact with the bench top that it's being painted on. These "pizza savers" work great for this purpose. Just turn them upside down so they are standing on the round part and you'll have three pegs sticking up to support whatever you need to paint. Use three or four or more to support your work, of course. So, grab 'em when the pizza comes. In short order you'll have a box of them in the shop to use whenever they're needed. 
 
Store-bought painter's points: No need to waste the money on them anymore.