Bob Cleek

The torch will do fine to anneal small brass items, as will a gas stove burner. Get a pair, or better yet, a set, of long locking soldering tweezers for such purposes. They will come in handy for soldering, as well.  Amazon.com: Fiber Grip Tweezers Jewelry Hobby Craft Soldering Fiber Grip Cross Locking Set Bent and Straight Tip 5 PCS By JTS : Tools & Home Improvement (I picked this set because it shows a variety of soldering tweezers. I don't know what the quality may be, but the price seemed quite reasonable.)
 

 
While you're at it, in the soldering department, and for a lot of other tasks, especially rigging, I'd highly recommend acquiring a Quad Hands "helping hands" device. There are many cheaper Asian copies on the market now, but the original is still the professional industry standard and worth the few additional bucks. (Better materials, stronger magnets, and better clips.) They come in many sizes and configurations. Suit yourself. QuadHands® - Helping Hands Tool
 
See:  https://www.amazon.com/vdp/4c85a9f99b434f8c86151188ebcdf63b?ref=dp_vse_ibvc0
 

 
 
 
 

Do the instructions say anything about bending those planks? They can be heated up with a clothes iron or hair dryer on high and then quickly (while still hot) bent and held in place for a minute or three. They will hold the bend when they cool. That should save a lot of hassle with rubber bands and tape if ever the occasion might arise again.

Excellent photos! I'd bet these are the only photographic evidence of the rigging of early steaming lights available on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.  It speaks well of your "eye" for critical details. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were judging a model that portrayed such a detail, I'd certainly give it high points and "extra credit" for that!

Very thin veneer for non-structural planking is hard to source in my experience, at least and there's always the difficulty of working with the grain of wood that has been peeled from the log rather than sawn from it.. It's one thing if the plank is going to define and support the shape of the hull, but on a solid hull, that's not necessary and, consequently, the planking stock can be paper thin and cut with scissors, even, if one wishes. That will permit "planking" in scales well below 1:48 in size. 
 
The way it's done is to take a nice heavy plane, a #5 and better a #7 if you are lucky enough to have one, (or make do with what you've got.) Sharpen the iron well and set it properly to take a paper-thin shaving and then run it down the length of a nice clear plank edge (with the grain, not against it) and plane yourself a nice even curl of wood. Then take those curls, unroll them, and iron them flat with a clothes iron and cut your planks out from those flat ribbons of nice wood with the grain all running in the right direction with a scissors or a scalpel blade and a straight edge. Then glue those "planks" to your solid hull and nobody will ever be the wiser that you didn't spend a lot of time assembling frames and bulkheads and fairing plank edges and so on.  
 
I learned this trick reading the late Gerald Wingrove's book, The Techniques of Ship Modeling. He was working in quite small scale and he even devised a way to stack up razor blades separated by washers bolted together to create a cutter that could be run down the edge of a plank of wood so that a number of evenly spaced razor cuts would be made in the face of the edge of the plank. They he would plane the edge of the plank and the shavings would be simultaneously cut at the same time and all of the same width with one stroke of the plane. 

Very thin veneer for non-structural planking is hard to source in my experience, at least and there's always the difficulty of working with the grain of wood that has been peeled from the log rather than sawn from it.. It's one thing if the plank is going to define and support the shape of the hull, but on a solid hull, that's not necessary and, consequently, the planking stock can be paper thin and cut with scissors, even, if one wishes. That will permit "planking" in scales well below 1:48 in size. 
 
The way it's done is to take a nice heavy plane, a #5 and better a #7 if you are lucky enough to have one, (or make do with what you've got.) Sharpen the iron well and set it properly to take a paper-thin shaving and then run it down the length of a nice clear plank edge (with the grain, not against it) and plane yourself a nice even curl of wood. Then take those curls, unroll them, and iron them flat with a clothes iron and cut your planks out from those flat ribbons of nice wood with the grain all running in the right direction with a scissors or a scalpel blade and a straight edge. Then glue those "planks" to your solid hull and nobody will ever be the wiser that you didn't spend a lot of time assembling frames and bulkheads and fairing plank edges and so on.  
 
I learned this trick reading the late Gerald Wingrove's book, The Techniques of Ship Modeling. He was working in quite small scale and he even devised a way to stack up razor blades separated by washers bolted together to create a cutter that could be run down the edge of a plank of wood so that a number of evenly spaced razor cuts would be made in the face of the edge of the plank. They he would plane the edge of the plank and the shavings would be simultaneously cut at the same time and all of the same width with one stroke of the plane. 

I've had the same experience exactly and my 12 year old grandson "doesn't feel comfortable" in my workshop building "because it's dusty and full of spider webs." (I think the kid needs  to do some time in "Grandpa's Boot Camp!") The schools now have what they call "Maker's Spaces," which are sort of shop classrooms where they are supposedly able to "make things," but I haven't seen anything being "made" nor any manual arts skills being taught. They also have "robotics shop," which is perhaps more technologically up with the times, but seems to only be about assembling prefabricated LEGO subassemblies and playing with radio-controlled cars in a different context.  What's more disturbing to me is that  kids my grandson's age don't seem to have any desire or interest to build anything. No "forts" or treehouses. No coasters. No working on their bicycles. Just no creative drive. Their interest is consumed by computer games (perhaps as our hobbies now compete with our own screen time... touche'.)
 
"Reality" doesn't have to be "virtual," but it seems for them, it is. If they want something, their instinct seems to be to find out on line where to buy it. But then again, I had a father-in-law who used to call the Yellow Pages his "tool box" because he was "manually illiterate" and always hired somebody to everything. 
 
Who's going to teach them "righty tighty, lefty loosey?" How will they ever learn to sharpen an edge? (I gave my grandson a small pocket knife and my daughter had a conniption fit and took it away from him because it was "dangerous." 
 
Don't ask me. I still haven't figured out how to gracefully mention to someone in a wooden ship modeling forum that they are pushing their chisel against the grain!

I've had the same experience exactly and my 12 year old grandson "doesn't feel comfortable" in my workshop building "because it's dusty and full of spider webs." (I think the kid needs  to do some time in "Grandpa's Boot Camp!") The schools now have what they call "Maker's Spaces," which are sort of shop classrooms where they are supposedly able to "make things," but I haven't seen anything being "made" nor any manual arts skills being taught. They also have "robotics shop," which is perhaps more technologically up with the times, but seems to only be about assembling prefabricated LEGO subassemblies and playing with radio-controlled cars in a different context.  What's more disturbing to me is that  kids my grandson's age don't seem to have any desire or interest to build anything. No "forts" or treehouses. No coasters. No working on their bicycles. Just no creative drive. Their interest is consumed by computer games (perhaps as our hobbies now compete with our own screen time... touche'.)
 
"Reality" doesn't have to be "virtual," but it seems for them, it is. If they want something, their instinct seems to be to find out on line where to buy it. But then again, I had a father-in-law who used to call the Yellow Pages his "tool box" because he was "manually illiterate" and always hired somebody to everything. 
 
Who's going to teach them "righty tighty, lefty loosey?" How will they ever learn to sharpen an edge? (I gave my grandson a small pocket knife and my daughter had a conniption fit and took it away from him because it was "dangerous." 
 
Don't ask me. I still haven't figured out how to gracefully mention to someone in a wooden ship modeling forum that they are pushing their chisel against the grain!

Very thin veneer for non-structural planking is hard to source in my experience, at least and there's always the difficulty of working with the grain of wood that has been peeled from the log rather than sawn from it.. It's one thing if the plank is going to define and support the shape of the hull, but on a solid hull, that's not necessary and, consequently, the planking stock can be paper thin and cut with scissors, even, if one wishes. That will permit "planking" in scales well below 1:48 in size. 
 
The way it's done is to take a nice heavy plane, a #5 and better a #7 if you are lucky enough to have one, (or make do with what you've got.) Sharpen the iron well and set it properly to take a paper-thin shaving and then run it down the length of a nice clear plank edge (with the grain, not against it) and plane yourself a nice even curl of wood. Then take those curls, unroll them, and iron them flat with a clothes iron and cut your planks out from those flat ribbons of nice wood with the grain all running in the right direction with a scissors or a scalpel blade and a straight edge. Then glue those "planks" to your solid hull and nobody will ever be the wiser that you didn't spend a lot of time assembling frames and bulkheads and fairing plank edges and so on.  
 
I learned this trick reading the late Gerald Wingrove's book, The Techniques of Ship Modeling. He was working in quite small scale and he even devised a way to stack up razor blades separated by washers bolted together to create a cutter that could be run down the edge of a plank of wood so that a number of evenly spaced razor cuts would be made in the face of the edge of the plank. They he would plane the edge of the plank and the shavings would be simultaneously cut at the same time and all of the same width with one stroke of the plane. 

The torch will do fine to anneal small brass items, as will a gas stove burner. Get a pair, or better yet, a set, of long locking soldering tweezers for such purposes. They will come in handy for soldering, as well.  Amazon.com: Fiber Grip Tweezers Jewelry Hobby Craft Soldering Fiber Grip Cross Locking Set Bent and Straight Tip 5 PCS By JTS : Tools & Home Improvement (I picked this set because it shows a variety of soldering tweezers. I don't know what the quality may be, but the price seemed quite reasonable.)
 

 
While you're at it, in the soldering department, and for a lot of other tasks, especially rigging, I'd highly recommend acquiring a Quad Hands "helping hands" device. There are many cheaper Asian copies on the market now, but the original is still the professional industry standard and worth the few additional bucks. (Better materials, stronger magnets, and better clips.) They come in many sizes and configurations. Suit yourself. QuadHands® - Helping Hands Tool
 
See:  https://www.amazon.com/vdp/4c85a9f99b434f8c86151188ebcdf63b?ref=dp_vse_ibvc0
 

 
 
 
 

Excellent photos! I'd bet these are the only photographic evidence of the rigging of early steaming lights available on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.  It speaks well of your "eye" for critical details. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were judging a model that portrayed such a detail, I'd certainly give it high points and "extra credit" for that!

Excellent photos! I'd bet these are the only photographic evidence of the rigging of early steaming lights available on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.  It speaks well of your "eye" for critical details. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were judging a model that portrayed such a detail, I'd certainly give it high points and "extra credit" for that!

Excellent photos! I'd bet these are the only photographic evidence of the rigging of early steaming lights available on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.  It speaks well of your "eye" for critical details. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were judging a model that portrayed such a detail, I'd certainly give it high points and "extra credit" for that!

The torch will do fine to anneal small brass items, as will a gas stove burner. Get a pair, or better yet, a set, of long locking soldering tweezers for such purposes. They will come in handy for soldering, as well.  Amazon.com: Fiber Grip Tweezers Jewelry Hobby Craft Soldering Fiber Grip Cross Locking Set Bent and Straight Tip 5 PCS By JTS : Tools & Home Improvement (I picked this set because it shows a variety of soldering tweezers. I don't know what the quality may be, but the price seemed quite reasonable.)
 

 
While you're at it, in the soldering department, and for a lot of other tasks, especially rigging, I'd highly recommend acquiring a Quad Hands "helping hands" device. There are many cheaper Asian copies on the market now, but the original is still the professional industry standard and worth the few additional bucks. (Better materials, stronger magnets, and better clips.) They come in many sizes and configurations. Suit yourself. QuadHands® - Helping Hands Tool
 
See:  https://www.amazon.com/vdp/4c85a9f99b434f8c86151188ebcdf63b?ref=dp_vse_ibvc0
 

 
 
 
 

The torch will do fine to anneal small brass items, as will a gas stove burner. Get a pair, or better yet, a set, of long locking soldering tweezers for such purposes. They will come in handy for soldering, as well.  Amazon.com: Fiber Grip Tweezers Jewelry Hobby Craft Soldering Fiber Grip Cross Locking Set Bent and Straight Tip 5 PCS By JTS : Tools & Home Improvement (I picked this set because it shows a variety of soldering tweezers. I don't know what the quality may be, but the price seemed quite reasonable.)
 

 
While you're at it, in the soldering department, and for a lot of other tasks, especially rigging, I'd highly recommend acquiring a Quad Hands "helping hands" device. There are many cheaper Asian copies on the market now, but the original is still the professional industry standard and worth the few additional bucks. (Better materials, stronger magnets, and better clips.) They come in many sizes and configurations. Suit yourself. QuadHands® - Helping Hands Tool
 
See:  https://www.amazon.com/vdp/4c85a9f99b434f8c86151188ebcdf63b?ref=dp_vse_ibvc0
 

 
 
 
 

You can probably use the gas stove to get brass to cherry-red heat, but holding it safely while doing it would be the issue.

Thinking ahead to the annealing brass steps… does anyone know of by any chance I can use my gas stove burners or do I need to buy the butane torch? I did already order a soldering ceramic tile, the kind with tiny holes on it.

Not sure if this is appropriate to this discussion, but here is the halyard of a (yes, I know, lateen rigged) dhow being pulled horizontally, which I think illustrates Dr PR's point..
 

Steven

Indeed, these are very useful and enlightening discussions. This is, where the enduring value of MSW is. It's good to be able to put dates on the lighting rules, particularly when one is interested in mid-19th century subjects. I wonder, how quickly these rules were in practices adopted in areas with predominantly regional traffic, say the Baltic and skippers were struggling to make ends meet.
 
On the subject of steamer-lights, below a couple of images from 1979 (the colour of the slides had degraded, so I turned them into B/W images) of the steam-tug RELIANT before the NMM in its unfathomable wisdom decided to scrap her. RIP.

The light was guided by two stays in front of the mast. I think there was a crane for the stays at the top of the mast and they were hooked into eye-bolts in the deck, set tought with small bottle-screws. There was also a small block in the top for the halliard, but I don't have any images for the belaying point of the halliard and the down-haul.
And the stern-light on a bracket rivetted to the engine-room casing:

More images of her here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/reliant/reliant.html.

I found the whole debate fascinating, which probably means that I too am blessed with Shelton’s traits.😀 

When I started down this lantern rabbit hole I didn't realize I needed to pack a lunch, I thought it would be a pretty simple affair. But thanks to those  who contributed to the discussion on lantern usage, I've learned their use was far from simple. I now know why lanterns are not included on model ships of this time period. Knowledge is scarce and justification is limited. 
 
 I may try to figure out how to rig a lantern at the foremast head and let it go at that and blame morning watch tardiness for it still being aloft. I'll need to modify one of the lanterns I have even though its scale size (36 x 18 inches) it too large by a third. But I have other immediate task like rope coils and stropping deadeyes to be detained for a lengthy period of time on something that wouldn't have been there in daytime operations. 
 
 Thank you again to all for taking the time to add to this discussion and for following along......Keith 

Well, just imagine it.
 
Which sails would be set would depend upon whether or not the wind was blowing and, if so, how hard and in what direction. simple as that. There could be no hard and fast rules. In the 1500's, for sure, it could take weeks or months to await a favorable tide and a fair wind to escape a harbor.
 
Given the limitations of many harbors and the risks imposed in trying to sail large ships in tight quarters, I would expect that the majority of ships were towed out of the harbor far enough that they had a wide berth to work far enough off shore to set sail to their best advantage. In the 1500's, towing was accomplished by oarsmen in small craft rowing so as to tow the boat toward the open sea. Sometimes these small boats were the ship's own boats which were taken aboard once  the ship was under way. Other times, the small boats were supplied by shoreside companies that provided such services for a fee. In fact, most of the U.S. tug boat companies like Crowley and Foss got their starts in this fashion.

Okay, the Sheldon Cooper reference sent me to Google. (I don't watch TV sitcoms.) This is what Wikipedia says (in part) about Sheldon Cooper:

 
 Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph.D., Sc.D, is a fictional character in the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory and its spinoff series Young Sheldon.
 
The adult Sheldon is a senior theoretical physicist at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), ...
 
He has a genius-level IQ of 187. (In The Big Bang Theory, ...  In Young Sheldon, his mother says that he has the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, though neither is known to have taken an IQ test.) However, he displays a fundamental lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of humor, and difficulty recognizing irony and sarcasm in other people, although he himself often employs them. He exhibits highly idiosyncratic behavior and a general lack of humility, empathy, and tolerance. These characteristics provide the majority of the humor involving him, which are credited with making him the show's breakout character.[10][11][12][13] Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon's personality is consistent with autism spectrum disorder (or what used to be classified as Asperger's Syndrome.)[12][14] Co-creator Bill Prady has stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to Asperger's,[14] although Parsons has said that in his opinion, Sheldon "couldn't display more traits" of Asperger's.  ...
 
Sheldon is characterized as being highly intelligent, but he tends to display childish qualities, such as extreme stubbornness and meanness. It is claimed by Bernadette that the reason Sheldon is sometimes mean is because the part of his brain that tells him it is wrong to be mean is "getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain".[29] However, in season 8's "The Space Probe Disintegration", Sheldon tearfully admits to Leonard that he is aware of how his behavior comes across.
 
Sheldon frequently states that he possesses an eidetic memory (although his powers of autobiographical recall are more like hyperthymesia) and an IQ of 187,[32] although he claims his IQ cannot be accurately measured by normal tests.[33] He originally claimed to have a master's degree and two doctoral degrees, but this list has increased.[34][35] Sheldon possesses a mastery (and extensive knowledge) of various subjects ...  (he is a well-known railfan and a fancier of model trains) ... Although his friends have similar intellects to him, his eccentricities, stubbornness,   and narcissism frequently frustrate them.  ...  He dislikes gifts, because the "social convention" in his view creates either a debt or burden on the receiver of the gift which will not stop until one of the two involved in the "gift-relationship" dies leaving the other either in debt or with an undue surplus.[56] Sheldon also does not take drugs, not even legal ones such as caffeine, due to a promise to his mother, and is hypersensitive when he accidentally consumes them.[57][43] However, it has been shown that alcohol often causes Sheldon to loosen up significantly,[6] although it will also cloud his judgment on occasion. After drinking alcoholic drinks (both deliberately and accidentally), he has done things that he would never do while sober, such as singing out loud,[58] mooning an audience full of people,[27] confronting Wil Wheaton,[59] leaving wildly inappropriate voicemails after "drunk dialling" Stephen Hawking, and affectionately slapping Amy's rear.[60] After consuming caffeine in the form of coffee or energy drinks, typically on the rare occasions that he has to work beyond his normal working hours to meet a deadline, he acts in a hyperactive, erratic manner.
 
In response to criticism from his friends that he is mentally ill, Sheldon often retorts, "I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested"; which his mother has confirmed to be true, once while wishing she had gone through with a follow-up examination.
 
Both the character and Parsons' portrayal have received widespread acclaim, and is often cited as the main reason for the program's success by both critics and fans.[87][88][89] James Chamberlin of IGN wrote: "It's hard to imagine what The Big Bang Theory would be if it weren't for Jim Parsons' great portrayal of Sheldon Cooper".[90] Matt Roush of TV Guide stated that "there's a spark of divine inspiration in Jim Parsons' uproarious Sheldon Cooper".[91] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that: "Parsons is doing something rare on network TV: making intellectualism admirable, even heroic".
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper
 
If there was any intention of comparing me to Sheldon Cooper, that would be grossly unfair and I would have to strenuously object. I only have one doctoral degree.
 
   
 

In my experience, at least, the irony is that shaping a solid hull (or stacking up a hollow "bread and butter" hull) takes a whole lot less time and work than building a POB or POF hull. Having cut my teeth on the old Model Shipways "yellow boxes," and Blue Jacket, and Marine Models solid hull kits, I couldn't agree more that they would almost be seen as 'scratch-builds" today! As the story goes, the manufacturers picked up some of the government surplus gunstock duplicating carving machines after the War and used those to shape their kit model hulls on a mass production basis. Those machines did a pretty accurate job. There wasn't a lot of need for checking shapes with a template if you had an eye for a fair shape. All many needed was just a surface sanding without the need for carved shaping, other than the stem, keel, and bulwarks which were left thick (to prevent damage in shipping, I suppose.)
 
I surely agree that there was little difference between the old pre-carved "kits" and scratch-building. All they provided that was not "scratch" were the cast metal fittings and the machine carved hull. Everything else, e.g. rigging thread, dowels, strip wood, that came in the old kits were just materials scratch-builders today buy piecemeal. What you were really paying for in the old kits were the plans and instructions and the perhaps exaggerated implied promise that anybody could build a model as good as the prototype in the photograph pasted on the end of the box.  Back in the day, it was assumed (although not disclosed in the advertising) that someone building a ship model knew a fair amount about their subject matter and in order to build a good model that knowledge was a prerequisite. The level of detail in the old plans and instructions presumed the modeler's knowledge of basic seamanship and nomenclature. Other than Underhill and Davis, available from specialty mail order houses, modeling tutorials were hard to source and the internet was decades in the future.
 
I think those of us who straddle the ship modeling kit generation gap will agree that the biggest difference modernly is that the level of general competence in the ordinary manual arts has dropped to the bottom of the barrel. Wood and metal "shop" and "mechanical drawing" aren't taught in high schools like they used to be. Relatively few younger people have woodworking skills beyond those required to assemble something out of an IKEA box. (Speaking of which, I expect today's kit manufacturers also appreciate the "knock-down" characteristics of POF and POB technology of POF which minimize shipping and warehousing costs.) Moreover, the power tool industry has convinced us all that their expensive machines are essential to produce high quality work all at the expense of the acquisition of skill in the use of hand tools which can usually do the same job at a much lower cost when employed by a skilled user. 
 
The spectacular open-framed "as built" and "Navy Board style" models certainly have their place, but for the modelers who have yet to attain the highly refined level of skill necessary to build them, solid hull models, or "laid up" "bread and butter" hulls should not be overlooked as an option in building a fine model. Kits have their place, if for no other reason than to serve as the "gateway drug" for the modeling hobby, but it's a quantuum leap from LEGO to building a fine traditional ship model, and it should be. Not everything should be "dumbed down" for consumption by the masses.

Such an interesting topic on solid hull building. Bob Cleek hit the nail on the head with the lack of manual skills taught in todays schools. I asked my grandson about  his courses in high school and asked him if he has ever had a shop class or mechanical drawing class and he said "what is that"? It's disturbing to me to hear that.
 
As a new modeler, I chose my second build, Bluejackets Smuggler, which is a solid hull kit.  Every step of the way has been a challenge, from becoming reacquainted with blueprints,  to using old drafting skills with old tools learned 50 years ago in high school, to which tools work the best for shaping. Measuring and laying out stations, finding the centerline, becoming frustrated with mistakes but learning from those mistakes. Slowly figuring things out. This to me is the beauty of creating something. I may want to plank the deck on Smuggler, just to learn another skill. We'll see. I'm  learning something new every day from everyone here. At my pace, I should be done with Smuggler in about 5 years...
 
 
 
 

Okay, the Sheldon Cooper reference sent me to Google. (I don't watch TV sitcoms.) This is what Wikipedia says (in part) about Sheldon Cooper:

 
 Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph.D., Sc.D, is a fictional character in the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory and its spinoff series Young Sheldon.
 
The adult Sheldon is a senior theoretical physicist at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), ...
 
He has a genius-level IQ of 187. (In The Big Bang Theory, ...  In Young Sheldon, his mother says that he has the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, though neither is known to have taken an IQ test.) However, he displays a fundamental lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of humor, and difficulty recognizing irony and sarcasm in other people, although he himself often employs them. He exhibits highly idiosyncratic behavior and a general lack of humility, empathy, and tolerance. These characteristics provide the majority of the humor involving him, which are credited with making him the show's breakout character.[10][11][12][13] Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon's personality is consistent with autism spectrum disorder (or what used to be classified as Asperger's Syndrome.)[12][14] Co-creator Bill Prady has stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to Asperger's,[14] although Parsons has said that in his opinion, Sheldon "couldn't display more traits" of Asperger's.  ...
 
Sheldon is characterized as being highly intelligent, but he tends to display childish qualities, such as extreme stubbornness and meanness. It is claimed by Bernadette that the reason Sheldon is sometimes mean is because the part of his brain that tells him it is wrong to be mean is "getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain".[29] However, in season 8's "The Space Probe Disintegration", Sheldon tearfully admits to Leonard that he is aware of how his behavior comes across.
 
Sheldon frequently states that he possesses an eidetic memory (although his powers of autobiographical recall are more like hyperthymesia) and an IQ of 187,[32] although he claims his IQ cannot be accurately measured by normal tests.[33] He originally claimed to have a master's degree and two doctoral degrees, but this list has increased.[34][35] Sheldon possesses a mastery (and extensive knowledge) of various subjects ...  (he is a well-known railfan and a fancier of model trains) ... Although his friends have similar intellects to him, his eccentricities, stubbornness,   and narcissism frequently frustrate them.  ...  He dislikes gifts, because the "social convention" in his view creates either a debt or burden on the receiver of the gift which will not stop until one of the two involved in the "gift-relationship" dies leaving the other either in debt or with an undue surplus.[56] Sheldon also does not take drugs, not even legal ones such as caffeine, due to a promise to his mother, and is hypersensitive when he accidentally consumes them.[57][43] However, it has been shown that alcohol often causes Sheldon to loosen up significantly,[6] although it will also cloud his judgment on occasion. After drinking alcoholic drinks (both deliberately and accidentally), he has done things that he would never do while sober, such as singing out loud,[58] mooning an audience full of people,[27] confronting Wil Wheaton,[59] leaving wildly inappropriate voicemails after "drunk dialling" Stephen Hawking, and affectionately slapping Amy's rear.[60] After consuming caffeine in the form of coffee or energy drinks, typically on the rare occasions that he has to work beyond his normal working hours to meet a deadline, he acts in a hyperactive, erratic manner.
 
In response to criticism from his friends that he is mentally ill, Sheldon often retorts, "I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested"; which his mother has confirmed to be true, once while wishing she had gone through with a follow-up examination.
 
Both the character and Parsons' portrayal have received widespread acclaim, and is often cited as the main reason for the program's success by both critics and fans.[87][88][89] James Chamberlin of IGN wrote: "It's hard to imagine what The Big Bang Theory would be if it weren't for Jim Parsons' great portrayal of Sheldon Cooper".[90] Matt Roush of TV Guide stated that "there's a spark of divine inspiration in Jim Parsons' uproarious Sheldon Cooper".[91] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that: "Parsons is doing something rare on network TV: making intellectualism admirable, even heroic".
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper
 
If there was any intention of comparing me to Sheldon Cooper, that would be grossly unfair and I would have to strenuously object. I only have one doctoral degree.