overdale

Rob I have the original portholes they pulled out nicely with the flush cut pliers before I started to fill the divets, they will push back in when the painting is done.
 
I had to pop the railing on loosely to see how colour matched and I am very happy with the match. In the pictures you can see the middle lower stanchions that are painted silver and the top rail and the two outside lower sets of stanchions look close enough to pass me-thinks
 

 

 

 
That's it for today A very satisfying bit of work.
 
Michael

Yes I know but the damage is done already.....I was too trusting and very naive.
 
Maybe I should partner with them as was mentioned in another thread by one of our members    .   That is why all future Syren parts and kits will no longer be sold with plans that include laser cut patterns.  For example...my new barge kit wont have any templates of parts....on the plans.  The plans will NOT be sold separately.  Because the parts are all included and laser cut in the kit, it isnt really needed.  I will use photographs of the parts in the instructions instead.  Its a shame really that it has come to this.  I have also removed the station lines from the body plan on the plan sheet so if they want to steal the barge design they will have to do some work to figure it out.  If they are even capable.  Live and learn.
 
I also no longer sell to Russia or China.  I do get orders but I simply cancel them.   Its a real shame I tell ya.   I am very close friends with two Russian model builders in the states.  They have family back home and brought this site to my attention last year and apologized on behalf of good Russian folks who dont condone the practice.  And they admit that the issue of piracy is as bad if not worse than in China.
 
They also pointed me to another Russian site which includes a free download of my Cheerful plans,  Syren Plans and Confederacy plans along with the practicum...which isnt even finished yet for Cheerful.  You can also download many books from Seawatch page by page in RAR format.  But those guys will end up with the nastiest of virus' on their computers after downloading anything.  Really bad stuff actually and they advised me not even to try it as it gives the site owners access to their computers afterwards.   So I do get a small bit of satisfaction in knowing that if anyone actually finds the site and downloads my plans they will have some serious problems......afterwards.
 
Some people say I get too upset over this stuff and its just the way it is and although they say publicly they dont condone it....they are not all that disturbed by it.  But I must tell you....its not a fortune lost but how much money have I lost because of folks like this.....and from those who are willing to use them?  Its very serious for the industry.   It makes me want to stop even trying and hang it up.....whats the point right?  At least that is what runs through my mind from time to time.  I could get a job at Home Depot and come home after a shift and make models just to relax like everyone else.   Working 12 hours a day in the shop seven days a week to make a living as a ship modeler pays about the same thing.....it will be far less stress.
 
Maybe some folks wouldnt take it so lightly or wouldnt buy from them if they were the ones trying to provide for their families by making a living at it.  I do wish they would think about that when they hit the buy button.

Nice work Charlie,
it's coming along well.
 
Dan.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Wefalck. I actually have a beautiful pair of 10" dividers - rack and pinion, 110 division scale, with right-angled tips so that you can use the instrument parallel to your work rather than held vertically - and very seldom use them.

Nice work Charlie,
it's coming along well.
 
Dan.

Nice work Charlie,
it's coming along well.
 
Dan.

Harold Hahn built his models with an 8in table saw, hollow ground Sears blades, a Unimat lathe, and his drawings were hand drawn. Today, using his drawings that include lofted frame shapes, one could build an accurate model without buying an expensive kit. A step up would be to order original drawings from a museum source and do your own lofting. Ships have been lofted by hand for 100's of years. CAD, laser cutting equipment etc is not necessary. Based in the talent shown on this forum used to build model kits, I am amazed modelers shell out big bucks to purchase model kits.
 
Roger

Daniel,
just a suggestion for new ideas, but how about providing laser cut templates for a set of frames for different ships. You don't need to supply the entire kit, just the frame templates. 
 
A lot of people would be interested in stepping up from plank on bulkhead models if they had a reliable set of laser cut templates of the frames needed for a full framed hull.

Today I drew the deck detailing where planks, hatches, masts, windows and pivot cannon will go.

I am about to put sails on my frigate 'Boston'.
 
I don't usually put sails on but this is for someone else so i don't have a choice. They will be furled so as to show as much rigging as possible. I'm using silkspan which is a kind of tissue used to cover model aircraft as I find cotton etc. too thick and over scale.
 
Keep an eye on my build log below, and I'll put up some photos to show the progress. 
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/12369-frigate-boston-by-overdale/page-1
 
 
Dan.

I am about to put sails on my frigate 'Boston'.
 
I don't usually put sails on but this is for someone else so i don't have a choice. They will be furled so as to show as much rigging as possible. I'm using silkspan which is a kind of tissue used to cover model aircraft as I find cotton etc. too thick and over scale.
 
Keep an eye on my build log below, and I'll put up some photos to show the progress. 
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/12369-frigate-boston-by-overdale/page-1
 
 
Dan.

Lovely work Chuck, as always.
 
What a strange camera effect.  Reminds me of the old Tootsie Roll advert in Superman comics back in the day

Lovely work Chuck, as always.
 
What a strange camera effect.  Reminds me of the old Tootsie Roll advert in Superman comics back in the day

Brian,
I remember seeing a completed 'Couronne' in a local model shop window in London when I was a schoolboy back in the 70's. It was my first wooden ship model encounter and I remember being astonished that anyone could produce something so complicated that wasn't a plastic kit! 
I can't remember if it was built very well or not but it made a huge impression on me at the time.
 
Dan

Amen to that Chuck.
 
I remember restoring a whaleship model from the 1920's that had been heavily sprayed with varnish/lacquer over decades. A few lines had detached and it look a fairly simple fix but some sort of chemical reaction had taken place and virtually every other line I touched was so brittle it crumbled if I so much as looked at it.
 
I would also advocate the use of beeswax on line as it does offer some natural protection as well as keeping the 'fuzziness' at bay.
 
Dan.

I'm afraid I don't have any photos Marc.
 
 I just drew out the sail plan including stitching patterns etc. to about a third or half the actual length on the tissue using brown colored pencil. The larger the sail the more length I included up to about half the length for the mainsail.  The tissue was then stretched across an open cardboard box and washed with a dilute mix of yellow/brown ochre acrylic paint to stain it.  Then when it dried, a wash of dilute white wood glue to seal it. 
 
When dry, cut out the sail with a scissors and tie to yard. wet with a spray of water which will make the sail completely soft and furl until you like how it looks. Tie the ropes quite tightly as they dig into the sails and make the 'canvas' look heavy. As the wood glue mix dries it hardens and the sail stays in the shape you tied it.
 
Dan.

I'm afraid I don't have any photos Marc.
 
 I just drew out the sail plan including stitching patterns etc. to about a third or half the actual length on the tissue using brown colored pencil. The larger the sail the more length I included up to about half the length for the mainsail.  The tissue was then stretched across an open cardboard box and washed with a dilute mix of yellow/brown ochre acrylic paint to stain it.  Then when it dried, a wash of dilute white wood glue to seal it. 
 
When dry, cut out the sail with a scissors and tie to yard. wet with a spray of water which will make the sail completely soft and furl until you like how it looks. Tie the ropes quite tightly as they dig into the sails and make the 'canvas' look heavy. As the wood glue mix dries it hardens and the sail stays in the shape you tied it.
 
Dan.

I used silkspan for my 'Boston' sails.
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/12369-frigate-boston-by-overdale/page-4
 
Very easy to fold and probably the most convincing material available for smaller scales.
 
Dan.

I used silkspan for my 'Boston' sails.
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/12369-frigate-boston-by-overdale/page-4
 
Very easy to fold and probably the most convincing material available for smaller scales.
 
Dan.

Pretty much there now. Just bit of tidying up and a few more rigging lines.
 
Sorry about the small photos again but I will be doing a finished set of photos with a proper background so I'll try and make them bigger then.
 
 

Amen to that Chuck.
 
I remember restoring a whaleship model from the 1920's that had been heavily sprayed with varnish/lacquer over decades. A few lines had detached and it look a fairly simple fix but some sort of chemical reaction had taken place and virtually every other line I touched was so brittle it crumbled if I so much as looked at it.
 
I would also advocate the use of beeswax on line as it does offer some natural protection as well as keeping the 'fuzziness' at bay.
 
Dan.

That is something I would not recommend.   Eventually they will get brittle and break.   Its just not something you see on ship models and it would adversley effect the look and texture of the rope.

The yellow or light wood whatever you want to call it strikes me as something similar to clipper ships and pilot boats of the time. I think it was too early for the white strip that Corel's Ranger suggests, however I'm taking it off a model of Dallas from shipmodel.net also images of Dapper Tom model that I've seen. But I'm uncertain so any sources others may be aware of could be helpful in my understanding. I know the bulwarks were white and the bottom likely coppered so it's what's in between which I'm considering my options and also I'd like each boat to be a bit different. Maybe Dallas will have a green strip, Active a red strip and Eagle a yellow strip or somesuch

Les, I build these things for a living and wouldn't dream of taking on a job that didn't allow me enough time to factor in 'burnout breaks'. I never work on any project continuously. I always take a break at regular intervals and go and do something else. 
 
I learned this a long time ago at art school so don't worry, you are not alone!
 
Dan.

Thank you to all the visitors.
 
I spent the rest of the afternoon making the top units, they were sliced off some 1 1/2 x 3/4x 1/8th thick scrap channel from the scrap box. The screws are 8x32 and the top wood is 1/4 x 1/2 x 3" Jellutong.
 

 

 

 
The fracture line is visible at the moment on the dry run assembly, when it is finally tweaked ready for glue the line will hardly be visible.
 

 
Have started to do some mix testing for the bottom paint color, it is also a simple way to fill the slight indents with paint
 
Michael