Bob Cleek

All you really need to know about shellac is that it is an organic resinous material that dries hard and is soluble in alcohol. It comes in a range of shades from clear ("white shellac,") which is bleached, and shades of orange through dark brown. It is most easily bought premixed in pint or quart cans. It can be thinned as needed. Mixed shellac is designated by the "cut" expressed in pounds, that being one pound of shellac flakes to one gallon of alcohol is a  '"one pound cut." It's safe and easy to use. Out of the can, it is the consistency of water and will soak into bare wood as water would and dry with a flat finish. Additional coats will build in thickness and yield a glossy finish which can be hand-rubbed down with fine sandpaper, steel wool, or a Scotch-brite pad to knock the gloss off.
 
Any alcohol-soluble dye, stain, or coloring can be added to shellac. Given that alcohol mixes well with water, I'd expect even water colors might work to color the alcohol. To give you an idea of how shellac behaves with coloring additives, India ink is simply thin shellac with lamp black or some other black pigment added. 
 
If I were you, I'd experiment before putting colored shellac on a finished model, of course, but I'd also consider applying a stain or dye to the bare wood first and then to apply clear shellac over it, rather than trying to get the color into the shellac first.
 

I've lost count of how many half-full bottles and tubes of hardened glue I've thrown out.  

I've done a little Dave, using spirit based stains (dyes,tints). I've also used the stain on it's own but diluted with denatured alcohol.
 
There are only two three types of wood in my Bounty Launch, the knees are basswood, the thwarts footwaleing cap rails and windlass are Tasmanian Oak and the rest (including the quarterdeck) is Paulownia:
 

 
 

Ditto. Very true. And both stain and dye will soak into end grain at a far greater rate than side grain. India ink (essentially thinned shellac and lamp black) will work well to mimic ebony on close grained hard woods, though.

Yes I love these small workboats as well but I am really partial to smaller open wooden craft.
 
I will rig her with furled sails but there are two other options.
 
Here is an Alfred Brownell model of another "Block Island Cowhorn".  It is rigged without sails.  And also without a topping lift.   Many if not most of these small boats did NOT have a topping lift.   I have developed plans with a topping lift but it would be very easy to omit it but more difficult to model and show the boom in position without gluing it or pinning it.  Normally it would be just left on deck as it was a workboat and they were sloppy unlike disciplined navy sailors.  This model also shows the leeboards which I may also include.
 

See how sloppy the decks were on these.  The boom was removed from the mast so it could be brought in and left on top of the thwarts.  The wharfs were very crowded and this made it easier to cram more fishing boats in there.  Notice how they were stacked two deep in the wharf.
 

Plans will include rigging and masting with and without sails...
 
Including a separate sheet with sails drawn with patterns for full size sails AND furled options which are made shorter so they look in scale when furled.
 

 

 

 
Another very interesting way to display these models is rigged without sails but with the bolt ropes for the sails.  It creates a nice outline where the sail would be.  This enables you to model it without the topping lift.  Just like on the actual boat, the bolt rope on the sail raises the boom to its proper height when the sail is set.
 
This model is from around 1900 and is in the Mystic Seaport collection.
 

 
Although the twelve boxwood kits in 3/8" scale will be given away for FREE at the show and here at MSW,  if there is enough interest I will certainly make more but only out of Yellow Cedar.....This may even allow me because of the personal expense to me on those 12 boxwood kits;  to increase the scale to 1/2" on the any production runs, but they wont be part of the limited edition of 12 signed kits.   But I am aware that there is not as much interest in these as your usual warships...but I can sometimes tire of those and this is a refreshing project for me to fill those gaps in-between while working on Speedwell.
 
A nice painting of a block island boat showing them in use...
 

AND an early photo of the same type but used as a pleasure boat or yacht.  No topping lift on the photo.  Note why they needed a leeboard....which there were typically 3 lengths from bow to stern on each side.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

I am getting closer .....mass production of CNC blocks...I apologize for my lack of inventory for so long but we are perfecting the process.  I havent had blocks in stock for months.  It shouldnt be long now.  I want to be able to bring you the best CNC blocks possible at a ridiculously low price.   A lot lower than you might even imagine.   My rope is the cheapest available for the quality and lengths available.   I am hoping to do the same with some superior blocks in Boxwood and Swiss pear.  Automated so I can concentrate on my ship model projects like Speedwell.  I cant tell you how long and hard this R&D process has been.  So many experiments and so many failures.   Successes are few but we learn from every failed batch made.   I wish I could explain what goes into figuring this stuff out.  Lots of time and lots of money.
 
Hot out of the oven before polishing and tumbling.  Sorry for the lack of inventory but it will be so worth the wait it I promise.
 


 

Almost 50 years ago I built an exposed frame POF model of a New. York Pilot Boat.  This was a hull model only (it was fitted with stump masts).  Materials; pear framing, keels, etc., boxwood planking, holly decking.  I had a local auto paint supply shop make up quart of matt lacquer that I sprayed with an airbrush.  The finish did not change the appearance of the wood and it has darkened noticeably with age.
 
Roger
 
 

The good news is that nobody knows what Columbus' ships looked like exactly. All we know is that they were a "type" of vessel and precious little is known of what those "types" actually looked like in any great detail. Your kit is only the kit designer's approximation of what he thinks it might have looked like, so you are free to do a bit of creative "approximating" yourself. If you wish, you can take a couple of thin rectangular strips of wood (about the thickness of a deck plank) and of a size suitable to cover the holes of the oversized eyebolts Mamoli provided and glue those over the "damage." You can make them so they fit right up against the side of the rail and transom and perhaps have rounded corners on the inboard corners. That will look like a "pad" commonly placed on decks to reinforce things like eyebolts (which may well have never been in use on any of Columbus' ships in the first place.) They will also give you more "meat" to drill into and glue your much smaller and correctly-scaled eyebolts. Your smaller eyebolts can easily be made by twisting some fine copper or brass wire around the shank of a suitably size drill bit. The twisted end will enable the glue to hold much better, too.
 
When judging the scale of fittings, it's always helpful to use a "manikin" to judge size. It doesn't have to be fancy. At the most basic, just take the scale of the model and then  draw a scale stick figure on a piece of card stock and glue it to a little block of wood so it stands up. Figure about five scale feet tall or a smidgen more. (People were smaller in those days.) You can then place your "little man" near where you are working and get an idea of whether the parts you are making "look right." Of course, a pair of calipers and a good rule will serve as well, but when estimating, I find the manikin is a helpful tool. If you do this, I expect you will see that the kit eyebolts are about the size of small automobile tires! 
 
When you drill your holes for the new eyebolts, take care to be sure your bolts are placed exactly as indicated on the plans. Don't trust yourself to "eyeball" placement. Measure and be exact. It may be helpful to make a small pattern out of paper or card stock and draw a straight line where you want your eyebolt holes and then mark equally spaced points on that line. You can then put the pattern over the deck where you want the eyebolts and mark the points where you want to drill by pushing a map pin or awl into the wood to make an indentation to start your drill bit. On your first effort, the eyebolts ended up here, there, and everywhere. You don't want to repeat that on the second try. 

Finished off the plankshear and am test fitting some trim.   
 
Rob

Next……I stained the decking and will wait to dry before I add any trim work…..such as the monkey rail cap and the weather deck(forecastle) rail head.   
 
Rob

Did a bit of work today……. beginning with the remodel of the bow and concave section up to the forecastle.   This had to be meticulously had created.   Blending the sharp below water angles to the more blunt concaved angle beneath the forecastle deck.
 
Here are some images of each side after I made the mod………a bow shot and a few others.
 
Rob 

The propshaft has a proven simmerring seal. There is no evidence of a leak there. I do expect some leakage where the lines to the rudder go through the hull, especially with motor in reverse. But some grease keeps it out pretty well.
 
thanks for all the likes, I’m starting to think of the automation of the Davit now….!

Ditto! Lovely as they are, we really have more than enough models of warships from the Age of Sail. For too long, modelers, and kit designers, have overlooked the rich history of and abundant information about inshore working craft as modeling subjects. I should think such boats would be a rich vein to mine for a model kit designer because they are of a size which permits the portrayal of rich detail at large scale while, at the same time, producing a model small enough to display in a home smaller than an English manor house.
 
I anticipate this will be a valuable building log. 

Ditto! Lovely as they are, we really have more than enough models of warships from the Age of Sail. For too long, modelers, and kit designers, have overlooked the rich history of and abundant information about inshore working craft as modeling subjects. I should think such boats would be a rich vein to mine for a model kit designer because they are of a size which permits the portrayal of rich detail at large scale while, at the same time, producing a model small enough to display in a home smaller than an English manor house.
 
I anticipate this will be a valuable building log. 

Ditto! Lovely as they are, we really have more than enough models of warships from the Age of Sail. For too long, modelers, and kit designers, have overlooked the rich history of and abundant information about inshore working craft as modeling subjects. I should think such boats would be a rich vein to mine for a model kit designer because they are of a size which permits the portrayal of rich detail at large scale while, at the same time, producing a model small enough to display in a home smaller than an English manor house.
 
I anticipate this will be a valuable building log. 

Thanks guys...
 
Here is a look at one of the plan sheets.   To show the boat and what it would look like with sails.  This is the rigging plan.   

 

Ditto. Very true. And both stain and dye will soak into end grain at a far greater rate than side grain. India ink (essentially thinned shellac and lamp black) will work well to mimic ebony on close grained hard woods, though.

Ditto. Very true. And both stain and dye will soak into end grain at a far greater rate than side grain. India ink (essentially thinned shellac and lamp black) will work well to mimic ebony on close grained hard woods, though.

Ditto. Very true. And both stain and dye will soak into end grain at a far greater rate than side grain. India ink (essentially thinned shellac and lamp black) will work well to mimic ebony on close grained hard woods, though.

Ditto. Very true. And both stain and dye will soak into end grain at a far greater rate than side grain. India ink (essentially thinned shellac and lamp black) will work well to mimic ebony on close grained hard woods, though.

Absolutely! I'm a Californian and I can attest that getting "banned' materials here is something of an art form. Fortunately, Nevada, a decidedly environmentally unfriendly jurisdiction is just across the border about 200 miles away.  

The material safety data sheet ("MSDS") is the first stop in checking out any material. This stuff is safe for kids to eat. Some of us learned this firsthand in kindergarten with the paste version.  See: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wc-prod-pim/Asset_Documents/Elmer's Clear Glue SDS.pdf
 
I learned in early childhood that whatever made my mother yell, "That could put your eye out!" was probably was the most fun. I've always applied a corollary to this principle to materials in my workshop: if somebody says the material is hazardous or environmentally unfriendly, I assume it is the better choice for the job than the "safe and sane," "environmentally friendly," or "green" options that have been "dumbed down" for use by people who can't be trusted not to eat or drink the stuff. . 
 
 
 
 

I used Fiebing leather dye to stain rigging on my last rigged model-good stuff.
 
In my experience conventional wood stains do not work well on the hard close grained woods that we ship model builders like to use.  They are actually more like translucent paint.  After retiring, my father started a business restoring antique furniture.  He made his own stain-  oil based artist pigments mixed in linseed oil.  This is pretty much the same formula used in commercial stains.  Water based stains would use a water soluble pigment and water.  In both cases, the surface tension of the ingredients interferes with absorption into the wood.
 
I believe that a better choice are the various dyes available.  The chemists in our  group can explain how these work.  In addition to the Fiebing leather dyes, a wide selection of wood dyes are available from specialty woodworking houses.  A bottle would probably stain a whole fleet of models.
 
Roger

When it smells, than it is good and works  🤪
 
My father was a chemist (and I am a half-chemist too) and he taught me early on respect for chemicals, but not to have fear ...

The material safety data sheet ("MSDS") is the first stop in checking out any material. This stuff is safe for kids to eat. Some of us learned this firsthand in kindergarten with the paste version.  See: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wc-prod-pim/Asset_Documents/Elmer's Clear Glue SDS.pdf
 
I learned in early childhood that whatever made my mother yell, "That could put your eye out!" was probably was the most fun. I've always applied a corollary to this principle to materials in my workshop: if somebody says the material is hazardous or environmentally unfriendly, I assume it is the better choice for the job than the "safe and sane," "environmentally friendly," or "green" options that have been "dumbed down" for use by people who can't be trusted not to eat or drink the stuff. .