Bob Cleek

Oh my God! I've just spent the better part of a Saturday morning completely enthralled with your website: www.shipphotographer.com  I can't recommend it highly enough to the forum members. The photography is fantastic. I've see a lot of ship model photographs in my day, but always too few taken by a photographer who was a master of both photography and ship modeling at the same time. Your series on the Ukrainian ship modeling competition entries was humbling. I've never seen so much spectacularly fine work in one place outside of a museum. It would be so helpful to the ship modeling hobby here if more of us were multilingual. There seems to be so much ship modeling going on in Eastern Europe that we miss here because of the language differences. (Google translate is my friend, but our English language search engines seem to often pass over foreign websites.)
 
I'm sure I haven't yet seen a quarter of what you have posted on your website and I have to get on with today's chores, but I've got it bookmarked for later study. Your blog is really informative, as well, and your YouTube videos are wonderful.
 
I'm not the sort to gush over things, but I really have to say that your contributions are a remarkable addition to our craft. Thank you so much for sharing them. I can't imagine how one person could manage to have the time to put together such a great collection of ship modeling information and photographs and also hold down a full-time job as a highway engineer! Perhaps it's the synergy of having a marine archaeologist for a husband. What a great combination. You're both very lucky people!
 
I suggest the moderators consider some way to introduce and highlight your website and videos to the forumites. There's so much there of such great beauty and value and I fear many might overlook your complete body of work when all we have of it on MSW at present is one kit-build log, which is wonderful, but hardly representative of the scope and complexity of your total body of work to date.  You're unquestionably right up there with the finest modelers posting on this site, none of which, I might add, are anywhere near you when it comes to photographing their work.   

Oh my God! I've just spent the better part of a Saturday morning completely enthralled with your website: www.shipphotographer.com  I can't recommend it highly enough to the forum members. The photography is fantastic. I've see a lot of ship model photographs in my day, but always too few taken by a photographer who was a master of both photography and ship modeling at the same time. Your series on the Ukrainian ship modeling competition entries was humbling. I've never seen so much spectacularly fine work in one place outside of a museum. It would be so helpful to the ship modeling hobby here if more of us were multilingual. There seems to be so much ship modeling going on in Eastern Europe that we miss here because of the language differences. (Google translate is my friend, but our English language search engines seem to often pass over foreign websites.)
 
I'm sure I haven't yet seen a quarter of what you have posted on your website and I have to get on with today's chores, but I've got it bookmarked for later study. Your blog is really informative, as well, and your YouTube videos are wonderful.
 
I'm not the sort to gush over things, but I really have to say that your contributions are a remarkable addition to our craft. Thank you so much for sharing them. I can't imagine how one person could manage to have the time to put together such a great collection of ship modeling information and photographs and also hold down a full-time job as a highway engineer! Perhaps it's the synergy of having a marine archaeologist for a husband. What a great combination. You're both very lucky people!
 
I suggest the moderators consider some way to introduce and highlight your website and videos to the forumites. There's so much there of such great beauty and value and I fear many might overlook your complete body of work when all we have of it on MSW at present is one kit-build log, which is wonderful, but hardly representative of the scope and complexity of your total body of work to date.  You're unquestionably right up there with the finest modelers posting on this site, none of which, I might add, are anywhere near you when it comes to photographing their work.   

Hi
Thank you Chuck, for the invitation
 
The book is mainly intended for modelers who want to start in the modality of arsenal modeling, but nevertheless the more experienced modelers will find cunning that can serve them as useful.
Knowing the difficulty for the modeler who wants to make a boat, starting only with the plans, this guide accompanies the modeler from the beginning, unpacking the monograph and taking the first contact with the plans, it guides step by step to its conclusion. 
In the book the complete construction of a boat from a monograph, has been chosen the "Le Rochefort", by Gérard DELACROIX (who at the same time is the translator of this book for the French edition), because it is affordable and has all the characteristics of classical shipbuilding, the explanations about its construction are made in such a way that, whatever we apply to this ship, will be useful in our future constructions.
The reader may use the book as a complete guide from beginning to end of construction or use the explanations separately in the different phases of construction of the model; all explanations are accompanied by many photographs and 3D drawings for easy understanding.
Here we can see a small sample in a few pages of the book:
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
I hope that you will excuse my lack of command of the English language, which makes me use a web translator, is not the case of M. Gilles Korent who has done a great translation of this book.
 
Adrián Sorolla
 

I don't think that such ships are an aberration - we probably will say the same thing about today's 'hybrid' cars one day. They represent the transition from one propulsion system to another with the associated uncertainties of reliability and availability of fuel supplies (before you could coal in Aden, the coal had to be shipped there first). Having both modes of propulsion increased the safety at sea and the probability that you actually got from A to B.
 
I love this transition period (in ship-building history) because it shows the introduction and progress of engineering and the (cautious) technological optimism of the time. 

Shroud mis-alignment not fare with the Gallis Frame turned out to be a combination of two issues. 
 
1. I had the Gallis Frame over scale and much too wide. 
 
2. The Fourth Shroud was also tied too forward of center on the Fore Mast and is better fitted to the rear of the Fore Mast. 
 
I’m now in the process of correcting the width of all of the Gallis Frames and re-rigging the Fore Mast Lower Shrouds. 
 
Wanted to share my solution and thank both Voyageur and Bob Cleet for their input. 


 
As they say “it takes a village”.  Glad I found this site, the support on here is great. 👍 Later...

I just deleted my first post in this thread. I saw I'd posted twice and said basically the same thing in the same thread and I thought I was getting a bit foggy in the head! I'm no spring chicken but not that old. 
 
Thanks for clearing that up and restoring my confidence in my sanity!
 

It depends upon how thick the primer will be applied. It should be applied very thinly on a model, so I'd say 320 would be as coarse as you dare. 400 would be better. 600 is probably finer than you need it.
 
Wet or dry, doesn't matter. Dry is a lot less messy.
 
It has to be perfectly smooth. Use your finger tips to feel for imperfections. Touch is better than sight.

It depends upon how thick the primer will be applied. It should be applied very thinly on a model, so I'd say 320 would be as coarse as you dare. 400 would be better. 600 is probably finer than you need it.
 
Wet or dry, doesn't matter. Dry is a lot less messy.
 
It has to be perfectly smooth. Use your finger tips to feel for imperfections. Touch is better than sight.

As said, aside for a thickness sander, disk sander, and perhaps a sanding drum, there's little use for sanding machines in modeling. The thickness and disk sanders for modeling really have to be specialty machines designed to work to very close tolerances. The thickness sanders perform the same function as a thickness planer in full-scale woodworking and a disk sander for modeling has to have a very accurate table and miter gauge. These specialty modeling machines work to tolerances of .001 and don't come cheap. (Byrnes are really the only ones worth spending the money  on, IMHO.) Proxxon and MicroMark market all sorts of powered modeling tools, but most all are overkill for ship modeling. Modelers cut pieces with jeweler's saws, small chisels, and hobby knives and scalpels, rather than shaping wood with sandpaper. In many instances, a scraper is the better tool than sandpaper in any event. Given the size of the work, there's no need for full-size sanders. Many is the part that's been ruined by an over-aggressive powered sanding machine. Finish sanding on models is done with paper in the grit ranges of 320 to 600, which doesn't work so well with power sanders, anyway.

Shssss! Keep that under yer hat, will ya? We don't want to blow a good thing.
 
BTW, if you are in San Diego, you can run across the border and get lots of really good stuff you can't buy in California. Guys used to run down there and buy tributyl tin oxide to add to their boat bottom paint in CA. It was banned everywhere years ago because it killed marine organisms... which is exactly what it was supposed to do!  

If you haven't already, try 3M disk adhesive, sold in auto body and fender supply houses. (If they still make it. Every time I try to buy something useful her in CA, it seems they've outlawed it!) It comes in applicator bottles, "toothpaste" tubes, and aerosol cans. It's made to easily clean off sanding pads with acetone. It does get a bit tenacious when it's been sitting for a long time, though. It may be hard to come by these days, though. Everybody seems to have gone to adhesive-backed pre-cut disks and hook and loop. Cutting your own out of sandpaper bought by the 100 sheet sleeve is way cheaper than hoop and loop!

Simply use whatever serves the purpose, shape-wise and wrap it in kitchen plastic wrap. CA sticks to glass and metal just fine, so... I've never had a problem with epoxies or CA sticking to plastic wrap because whatever plastic wrap that sticks tears or scrapes off easily. I have to say, though, that I use CA as little as possible. In a lot of ways, I find it nasty stuff and expensive.

Tony,
As this is your first post, welcome to MSW!!  Perhaps you could post a little intro about yourself in the new members section.
 
Regarding your question, if the parts are wood, don't use CA.  
 
Welcome again.
 
Allan 
 

Do you have to use CA?

Simply use whatever serves the purpose, shape-wise and wrap it in kitchen plastic wrap. CA sticks to glass and metal just fine, so... I've never had a problem with epoxies or CA sticking to plastic wrap because whatever plastic wrap that sticks tears or scrapes off easily. I have to say, though, that I use CA as little as possible. In a lot of ways, I find it nasty stuff and expensive.

For what it's worth, I upgraded my table to the wider table and am incredibly happy with it.  If you are using Jim's sliding table to make cross cuts, the wider table top allows you to avoid having to remove the fence - you can just slide it all the way to the end of the table.  A nice time saver, and for me at least, reduces the risk of me losing the screws

I'd say Model Expo's going out of business is unlikely. They are the biggest outfit in the game. Many US companies have inventory clearance sales before March when they are taxed on the inventory they have on hand. The less inventory, the less they pay in inventory taxes. They stock up thereafter.  I expect that fact, plus the big surge in demand for modeling kits and materials since the pandemic "lockdown" probably explains the shortage at present. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Models, who is one of the forum sponsors, and makes great rigging line, scale blocks, and other goodies, has been lamenting that he can't keep products in stock with the present demand. Another factor is that the supply chains have been disrupted due to the pandemic. Jim Byrnes has had to stop taking orders for his modeling power tools because he can't get enough motors shipped to his factory. The kit companies are probably experiencing shortages of raw materials, as well. 

Shssss! Keep that under yer hat, will ya? We don't want to blow a good thing.
 
BTW, if you are in San Diego, you can run across the border and get lots of really good stuff you can't buy in California. Guys used to run down there and buy tributyl tin oxide to add to their boat bottom paint in CA. It was banned everywhere years ago because it killed marine organisms... which is exactly what it was supposed to do!  

I had a Unimat and I sold it, I have a Myford and I would never sell it. It is the lathe I use the most. Myford lathes are perfect to make tools and I made a lot. Proxxon is much more smaller and is also for much smaller parts.

I have a very quiet Fein shop vac that I connect to my Byrnes tools.  The OD of the Fein hose is 1 3/8" + a few thousandths - metric for sure.  The thickness sander with it's port on top I just set the vac hose into it w/o worry about the gap and let gravity hold it in place - works fine.  With the disc sander I use a rubber adapter that goes over the vac hose and slips into the sander's horizontal port pretty tight - the same with the saw that has the exhaust port as it came from Jim.  The other saw I got long before Jim provided an exhaust port - I had a club member who had a machine shop cut a hole in the side piece where Jim attaches the exhaust port that the vac hose fits into.   I had a cyclone hooked between the vac and the hose but it was big and it lives in the wood shop now.  Will get a smaller cyclone soon for the model shop.
100% of the dust is grabbed from the disc and thickness sanders.  Nothing catches the saw dust that comes off the top end of the saw blade (of any table saw as far as I know) - but it's minor compared to what comes off the bottom end and is caught up by the vac.  Just like full size saws there is a lot of sawdust that has to be vacuumed out of the saw between uses from the corners.

If you haven't already, try 3M disk adhesive, sold in auto body and fender supply houses. (If they still make it. Every time I try to buy something useful her in CA, it seems they've outlawed it!) It comes in applicator bottles, "toothpaste" tubes, and aerosol cans. It's made to easily clean off sanding pads with acetone. It does get a bit tenacious when it's been sitting for a long time, though. It may be hard to come by these days, though. Everybody seems to have gone to adhesive-backed pre-cut disks and hook and loop. Cutting your own out of sandpaper bought by the 100 sheet sleeve is way cheaper than hoop and loop!

If you haven't already, try 3M disk adhesive, sold in auto body and fender supply houses. (If they still make it. Every time I try to buy something useful her in CA, it seems they've outlawed it!) It comes in applicator bottles, "toothpaste" tubes, and aerosol cans. It's made to easily clean off sanding pads with acetone. It does get a bit tenacious when it's been sitting for a long time, though. It may be hard to come by these days, though. Everybody seems to have gone to adhesive-backed pre-cut disks and hook and loop. Cutting your own out of sandpaper bought by the 100 sheet sleeve is way cheaper than hoop and loop!

I'd say Model Expo's going out of business is unlikely. They are the biggest outfit in the game. Many US companies have inventory clearance sales before March when they are taxed on the inventory they have on hand. The less inventory, the less they pay in inventory taxes. They stock up thereafter.  I expect that fact, plus the big surge in demand for modeling kits and materials since the pandemic "lockdown" probably explains the shortage at present. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Models, who is one of the forum sponsors, and makes great rigging line, scale blocks, and other goodies, has been lamenting that he can't keep products in stock with the present demand. Another factor is that the supply chains have been disrupted due to the pandemic. Jim Byrnes has had to stop taking orders for his modeling power tools because he can't get enough motors shipped to his factory. The kit companies are probably experiencing shortages of raw materials, as well. 

As said, aside for a thickness sander, disk sander, and perhaps a sanding drum, there's little use for sanding machines in modeling. The thickness and disk sanders for modeling really have to be specialty machines designed to work to very close tolerances. The thickness sanders perform the same function as a thickness planer in full-scale woodworking and a disk sander for modeling has to have a very accurate table and miter gauge. These specialty modeling machines work to tolerances of .001 and don't come cheap. (Byrnes are really the only ones worth spending the money  on, IMHO.) Proxxon and MicroMark market all sorts of powered modeling tools, but most all are overkill for ship modeling. Modelers cut pieces with jeweler's saws, small chisels, and hobby knives and scalpels, rather than shaping wood with sandpaper. In many instances, a scraper is the better tool than sandpaper in any event. Given the size of the work, there's no need for full-size sanders. Many is the part that's been ruined by an over-aggressive powered sanding machine. Finish sanding on models is done with paper in the grit ranges of 320 to 600, which doesn't work so well with power sanders, anyway.

I'd say Model Expo's going out of business is unlikely. They are the biggest outfit in the game. Many US companies have inventory clearance sales before March when they are taxed on the inventory they have on hand. The less inventory, the less they pay in inventory taxes. They stock up thereafter.  I expect that fact, plus the big surge in demand for modeling kits and materials since the pandemic "lockdown" probably explains the shortage at present. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Models, who is one of the forum sponsors, and makes great rigging line, scale blocks, and other goodies, has been lamenting that he can't keep products in stock with the present demand. Another factor is that the supply chains have been disrupted due to the pandemic. Jim Byrnes has had to stop taking orders for his modeling power tools because he can't get enough motors shipped to his factory. The kit companies are probably experiencing shortages of raw materials, as well.