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Ahoy Mates I have used files that were "sharpened " with acid. They are fine for soft things like balsa,but the acid thins out the "teeth" and anything harder just dulls them very afst. Lesson learned-Buy good ones to begin with and treat them like I was told by a Master Tool Maker-my Dad when I was old enough to start using his files at home. Keep them clean-brush the teeth out with a BRASS BRUSH,and DO NOT PUT THEM AWAY IN CONTACT WITH METAL OBJECTS_LIKE OTHER FILES. He had drawers with wooden drawer with wood dividers that only one would go into each slot. O)r have a leather or canvas roll up with slots for each file,so that they are protected. Treat them as what would be the way a chef stores his expensive knives. In a roll up. That way when you buy an expensive file that could last you years if you use it as it should,it WILL. Cheap chinese or other low grade files are just what they are-cheap. But even those should be handles this way. And they too will last longer,but not like high grade ones. I now use diamond files for a lot of my model work. The thing I like about them is that they can be used in any direction,where as files cut in one direction,except ofr some types. High grade files are not easy to find these days except for quality tool stores. When you find the style and maker you like,stock up on them for future use. Because you never know when they might not be for sale any more due to closure of the maker or the place where you buy them quits carrying them due to lack of sales with competion of the crap cheap ones. There are many styles to chose from. Learn which ones will be best for you and write down what works best for you,and where to buy them. I have files that are over 60 years old,and still use them. Yes they do get dull,but making models is not like filing on D2 tool steel each day. One trcik you can use is that if you are filing aluminum or steel,take some stick of chalk,yes what you use on a black board to write with,and load up the file teeth with it before you use the file. This will prevent the teeth from loading up solid with the material you are filing,and make it easy to clean after use. It will also prevent chips from loading up and marking the metal you are filing. And NEVER OIL A FILE! or put WD40 on one. This will only make the file slide over what you want to cut. If you are worried about the file rusting,keep it in a temp controlled area,where there is not a lost of humidity where temp changes will cause moisture to condense on the metal surfaces. A unheated garage is not a good place to keep files. And do not wipe your hand over metal that you are filing on,your hand oils will be just like putting oil on it. But if you do,clean it off with a degreaser before filing again. After learning this from my Dad over 50 years ago now,it has been one thing of many that he was totally right about. The money you would spend on acid and neutralizer and gloves and containers to acid sharpen your cheap files will be better spent on good files to begin with. And you will not be in any danger from use of acid,and then you have to dispose of it safely. Just but good files to begin with. Keith

Ahoy Mates This is my "epic model" starting with the Caldercraft Jotika 1/80 Mary Rose 1545 kit. Using it as a starting point and under 4 years of off and on work and scratch building 90% of the final model.With a Mary Rose library section now on the shelves here at home. The kit was not epic for sure. I have yet to see an "EPIC KIT" as what I would call it. My standard would be: Good planking wood in the kit-boxwood,swiss pear,cherry. Not the standard crap that's in all kits now being sold up to now. Sorry,but true. Have wide enough strips for spieling of planks on the hull. Not just narrow ones that have to be bent and twisted like a pretzel for the hull shape. If not,just make a "short kit" in planking where the buyer buys his own planking wood,with a kit price reduced for not including this wood. Goes for deck planking also. PE parts that are of the quality that can now be made-more than just the flat shape with maybe just rivets details-PE like what is made for other modeling areas-3d cutting with multi level etched details,and brass that is thicker to scale and not of soft hardness. Up to date scale details- either resin cast or CNC made and 3d printed for carved details,or more than the cast brass blobs that kits have had for the past 50 years now. Or investment cast brass parts-stay away from white metal. NO High density MDF-use multi high quality plywood for frames and non showing keels,with boxwood or other hardwood for keel that shows. If MDF is proving to be great-Please show me how and why it is! Laser cut details like what Syren does now. For me no small scale models-1/64 or 1/72-must be 1/48. I have not seen the kits from Croatia yet,but they look great and are much closer to what could be an "Epic KIT" I am just tried of seeing other areas of modeling advance in using new ways to make kits and increase the quality and details ,and not in wooden ship models except for Syren and Chucks detail kits and "short kits". Sorry if I have been too blunt and opinionated IMHO. Keith

Ahoy Mates Looking for this Sergal kit of the Henri Grace a Dieu. Please contact me in a PM here about the kit if you have one,or where I can get one. Will reward you for being a finder of the kit. Just finished my Mary Rose and would like to have the Henry to go along with it.

Ahoy Mate Your work is that of the God's. I just wish that I could see your work in person.I just wish that you would shrink them down to 1/48 scale and make resin castings of them for sale. I have a 1/48 one that needs carvings like yours. I like others who have skills that do not include the outstanding carving skills of yours have to settle for the Pan Art brass castings that look like blob's and bad ones at that to decorate our hulls. I just wish someone like you would help us mortals out by selling resin cast copies of carvings for thsi ship model like those you have created. My hat's off to your mastery of carving and building. Keith

Ahoy Mate What I would recomend is the Model Shipways kit of the Gunboat Philadelphia or another flat sided boat kit with a flat bottom . It's a flat bottom hull with simple curved shape on bow and stern. !/24 scale,so it's not small,making it easier to work with. Basic building tasks can be learned on this ship without the problems of lots of hull planking. Covers the simple rigging. It has great instructions that go step by step. The Latina kits do this also,but their planking wood is crap and the hull shapes are not for a beginner. A beginner needs to have success in building,and a typical shaped hull is not the way to start out. I have seen too many hulls with just a couple planks on them where the beginner stopped out of frustration . most of the planking on this kit is flat,the hull framework is great because of it being a flat bottom.and the wood in the kit is right for the beginner. Basswood. This kit is a GREAT Starter kit,I would stay away from the other kits listed above,sorry guy's. Look at it from not knowing anything about building,then look at the wood type,hull shape,instructions,skills needed to make it. You need to crawl before you walk,and a flat bottomed kit in 1/24 scale meets this need. I had not worked on a wooden ship kit since 1974 when I joined this group at our local hobby shop. I joined them when I saw that they were building this kit. I am so happy that I could start again on this kit because it allowed me to get back into wooden ship building.Even with all my skills,I could not see starting on a hull that needs intermediate skills to start out with. But the kits listed there are more advanced than what a beginner should start with,and be able to complete without having problems. I have been building for 55 years now,a tool and diemaker and have passed on my building ways to our group. This kit was right for all of these guy's. This kit can be built at the level you want. Our building group had 8 guy's,most had little or no wooden ship model skills and little ship modeling experience and they all got them completed. Check out our group's blog site at www.woodenshipclass.blogspot.com You can go back and see all of our builds in progress over the last 4 plus years. Sorry if I have been blunt about this,but sometimes we tend to forget how basic a first build should be. Keith

Ahoy Mates Pickels is high on Cat Nip plus he was going around in circles trying to catch the damn red laser light that I tease him with. And mostly because he hates the damn Santa Hat!!!!!!!. But other than that he's a very happy cat and ruler of the house here in Troutdale. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL!!!!! And use CA only when you have to. PVA is better on your model and health than CA. My sisters horse Wyatt says to stay away from the hide glue also for reasons I do not have to explain here,and in memory of his parents. Ho Ho HO LOL Keith

Ahoy Mates Since I am now sensitive to CA-it causes me to have symtoms like I have hay fever,I also just use CA to stiffen the ends of thread and with material that PVA can not hold. It was a great change in my building quality of the rigging and how the thread looks after it has been glued. I also use flat varnish to hold knots. I use transparent Titebond and Titebond II. The transparent Titebond has a more flexible when it hardens,and is almost clear. Then only problem I have is with black thread and how the silvering shows if you do not water it down enough. It causes holding problems since there is not the same thick glue to start with. Sometimes I just use the regular thick glue and then touch up the silvered area with flat black ink or paint,and then cover with flat varnish. But it always beats the problems with brittle,stiff and glass like surfaces that CA can create on the thread and where you use it. With the PVA,it still shrinks down into the thread when it dries,which CA doesn't. It doesn't harden as fast as CA,so you do not build as fast,but that's a great thing since you end up looking and thinking about what you are doing and have done. Remeber you are doing this for enjoyment not a speed building race. Just try doing the same knots and rigging with CA and then PVA and really look at the end results. You decide- it's your build and you are the one who knows which one you like best. And PVA is easier to debond with just rubbing alcohol . Merry Christmas and Happy New Year form Pickels and Keith

Ahoy Jerry They can change the scale easy to 1/36,so what would you want? Keith

Ahoy Mates I have been getting some 3D printed parts for my builds and have been asked by the designer as to what modelers would want made in 1/48 scale. What would you want printed that you would buy? Thanks Keith

Ahoy Chuck It's like a lifetime ago-40 some years ago when I started out learning how to file and polish form die's at work. It just takes lots of just doing. You will get a feel for it just like in your planking skills.And develope your own ways and steps and final finishing mediums. It's easier with steel because you have material that has no grain to deal with. You might try scraping with very small knife blades. Just like you make your moldings ,but in shaped areas and corners. I use small dental scrapers for my plastic models and they work great on wood. It just is that the photos show up everything your eyes do not see. Keith

Ahoy Mates Just received some 3D printed parts for a scratch build I will be making of my Dads ship he served on in 1942-43 in Greenland. The Albatross Class Minesweeper AM72 USS Bluebird in 1/96 scale. I purchased USN navy figures,Lewis air cooled macine guns and a 3"50cal Dual Purpose single Gun mounT. I have read some ways of cleaning and painting 3D printed parts but want to know if any body here has experience with these type of parts. And whats the best way to paint them,and which paint to use. Here's what they look like. It's hard to see the fine details of the figures since they are in frosted white color. Keith

Ahoy Steven Well,Pickels and I were unable to comp-lete the ship for the show. Just too much work to be done and little time,so I just said forget it for this year. Right now I am remaking some of the last couple weeks rigging work that I had hurried thru. Now I can take my time and not build for a show,but for me. There's nothing worse than building for a show deadline,and I will never do it again. My last builds that ended up in a show and entered had been finished long before the show,and during the build I did not have a contest in mind. It's better to take the time it takes to do your best work. Keith .

Ahoy Mates Thanks for the help and here's what I worked on over the last two days and nights on the Lateen yards on the Mary Rose. Keith

Ahoy Duff and Brian Thanks for your replies. I have to finish the rigging by Friday because the Mary Rose is being entered in our Annual Contest. Now I can finish up this part of the ship. If there is contrasting information please post it. Thanks Keith

Ahoy Mates Setting my lateen yards for my Mary Rose for the Mizzen and Bonadventure mast's.Being that I have never rigged a lateen yard I want to know if they are set inside of the shrouds,which limits the angle to which they can be set from just fore and aft, or should they be set at an angle outside of the shrouds? Have looked thru my reference books ,and they do not show exactly where they should be. Here's photos of how I have just set them on the masts now on the Mary Rose. The Jotika kit finished model photos show them inside the shrouds like I have set them now. They are just set there,nothing is lashed down,I want to find out before I start to set the lines on the cleats and pin rails. I have not routed the lines to the correct belaying points either. Thanks ahead of time for your help. And is there a reference book or site that shows clearly how they shoud be set-the lateen yards . Thanks Keith

Ahoy Mates A lot of my toolmaker tools are now being used in my shipyard.Diamond files,radius gauges,scribers,height gauges,dial calipers,angle protractors,dept gauges,toolmakers square,squares,pin vises,toolmakers vices,Bridgeport Milling machine,12" lathe,surface grinder,unimat lathe,transfer punches,shim punches and die. People asked me when I retired if I was going to sell off my tools. Hell no I said,I still have models to build. I am lucky that they were purchased over the last 48 years now,and I would hate to have to start over and buy some of them now. Just my Starrett Toolmakers Square cost's over $350.00 now! And I use it all the time on my ships. I also have all of my Fathers Toolmaker tools to use. He taught me the trade and we worked together for 18 years before he retired. He then did wood carving making figures and then chip carving before he passed 6 years ago. I use quite a few of his tools in my model building. Plus his wood carving tools. I just wish he was still around to do his excellent sharpening of them. Using all these tools in model making gives me the feeling that I am still working on die's,except they are 99% wood now. I use all the skills that I learned in toolmaking in my model making now. And have always loved doing both since I grew up with my dad teaching me how to build models and later how to build and design die's. Keith

Ahoy Mate I have their 1/72 German Torpedo Boat resin kit,they are expensive by they are very detailed and the only ones being made. I like the half hull type for space requirements. I remember that one member of our modeling club made up a submarine diorama that had the ocean surface with what he stated as a 1/35 scale Typhoon Class Russian at periscope depth. He had a base that was only 4" X 8" with the ocean surface made out of resin with the periscope sticking up 3" ! The rest was underwater! Or under the base he would say with a smile. I just wish they had other types of submarines. I do have a 1/72 resin kit first type Holland submarine kit that was made a decade or more ago by Bluewater Navy. Keith

Ahoy Mates Here's whatbasswood for the deck planks,boxwood for the hull planks and swiss pear for the gun port line planking and the lap planking on the upper hull looks like on a Mary Rose build in 1/80 looks like. I have done it in admiralty style to show down thru the decks to the main gun deck. I have the main deck cross beams in boxwood and the smaller beams in swiss pear. The finishes are a Minwax oak for stain and Testors Dulcote to seal all the surfaces. Keith

Ahoy Mates I have been working on my Mary Rose now for about 3 years now,and will complete it in the next 3 weeks. I have a show to enter it in as a deadline. But there have been times when I was fed up with the build. That's when I would find a small sub build for the Mary Rose that was different from what I had been working on to break the negative feelings that had built up from the stress of building. You do two things,work on something different and make up and complete a new addition to the big build. And just look at it as a new small kit. I often use rigging and yards as subjects for these little "kits" > There's lots of yards to make and plenty of blocks to seize . Keith

Ahoy NO ON THE BABY WIPES!!!!! They contain oils that would only damage your model. Try to find a museum with a qualified conservator and get second opinions before doing ANYTHING to your model. Take your time in finding out what to do. And first do an area that's not clearly visable,so that you can try out the cleaning process on a very small area,and then let it age for a while to see if there are any adverse aftereffects to what you have done in cleaning. Take your time in researching out the information and those who can help you. Make sure they are documented people in cleaning artifacts. Just remember that you want to do it the correct way the first time,and not to end up with something that's worse than what the condition is now. I just wish I had this task to do now that I am retired. Keith

Ahoy Newbie Boy ,now you want to start out on two of the biggest models that there are? WRONG,do not go there. For your first build these are not even in the same universe that you are in now. I would recomend the Model Shipways Gunboat Philadelphia 1/24 kit to start out with,and here's why: First,the odds of you completing it are better than even,while the Surprise and Constitution completion odds are NONE! Second_ It's a simple flat bottomed shaped hull with a bow and stern shape that you will be able to make and learn from. Third- It's a large scale that will allow you plenty of room to work on the rigging but still have lots of things to learn and be succesfull at. That is VERY IMPORTANT for your first build. Learning and success without being so simple as to be boring,which this kit is not. Fourth -Great kit and instructions and plans and not too expensive. And most important-You will have fun building it because it will challenge you without defeating you! Look up our building groups blog at www.woodenshipclass.blogspot.com and see back in time how our group built our Gunboats. You have to crawl before you walk,and this kit will take you along in a very rewarding journey in starting out in ship model building. Do not by the first ship kit you like before you have the learned skills to finish it. I would say that maybe 99-95 % of all first wooden ship kits purchased NEVER GET FINISHED,and end up in disapontment and the fate of the closet top self until they are either sold at a garage sail or thrown out years later. Keith

Ahoy Mates Regarding wooden ship model contest's,who holds them and what are their rules? As far as IPMS shows they used to be limited to only plastic models or some high percentage of plastic used in the model. The latest rules are stated as "material that is appropriate " which does not exempt wooden ship models. Our local IPMS club changed their name from Oregon Historical Modelers Society to Oregon Modelers Society since their are now more car builders and other types of modelers in the club. And I know that there are standards established for museums models. Keith

Ahoy Use whatever works best for you. Most of the time whatever you use other than wood to start out with gets painted 99% of the time anyway,and who cares what's under the paint. And I have used wood, brass plastic and steel for wooden parts that I ended up painting to look like wood in the end. And the result was that if I did not tell what it was made of,all thought it was WOOD! In our building group our founder and owner of the hobby shop could not stand that I was using evergreen plastic for parts on my wooden ships instead of brass. We argued about it,I said that since it was painted black ,that if I had not told him otherwise,he would have assumed that it was made out of brass and either painted or blackened. After about 3 years and beating him in contest's for those years,he finally is quite about the subject. It's your shipyard. Keith

Ahoy Mates Just wanted to know what types of glues you use when rigging in black rope other than CA that will not "silver" when dried? I have tried diluted PVA glues with a range of results. From being unseen when dry to being white-"silvered" air under the glue when it's dry. I use Titebond for my Tan Syren rope with no problems,but the black is different for some reason unknown to me. Where the tan will take to the Titebond with little effort,the black doesn't want to hold onto the glue and dry the same as the tan. What do you use,and how do you use it? And what should I be doing different for the black rope that is not the same as for the tan and light rope? Thanks Keith