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You are a true Master Craftsman. I can just imagine what you build. Please show us. Your carving tools and box is amazing to see. Keith

Ahoy Mates Looking to cast some fittings in resin. What would be the best resin and rubber and mold release to get started for casting parts? The parts are some trim work around windows that I have to make ten of. I have a master completed,it's 1/8" x 1/4" x 1 1/4" overall size. Thanks Keith

Have read that some kits are comming out with MDF material instead of plywood. Is it good or bad? How is the mdf to work with? Can you use screw clamps in MDF? Ant warping or other problems with it,like formaldahide smells? And what kit amkers have switched to using MDF? And why? Thanks Keith

Trying to find decorations and Frieze's for my Roayl Caroline Panart build for the areas and decorations that the kit doesn't have. Are there any decals or frieze's that are made up in strips for use in the craft hobby's? Or in jewlery? That You can use on ship builds? Thats ahead of time for your help. I do have the Frieze downloads that Chuck had here for the pinnace model. Keith

This might be your problem. Heating up the metal too fast,before the flux can melt and create the covering to protect the copper from oxidizing. You might have better luck with 50% silver solder-cad free,wire 1/16" dia.-no flux. Use water based white silver soldering flux paste. Sand the surfaces to be soldered clean. Hold them together in the possition to be soldered. Coat liberaly with the flux paste. With a low flame-heat up the parts slowly. The flux paste water will boil off,leaving a white layer. Continue heating up-adding flux to cover the parts,when the flux is clear,you are near soldering temp. Try this out on prctice parts until you can heat up the copper with flux,and getting it up to heat without causing oxidation on the copper,only clear flux is what you are working to have all over the parts to be soldered. Then when up to temp,just touch the patrs with the silver solder wire,that has been dipped in flux,and the parts should melt the solder. Be sure to use gas welding glasses,so that you can see what you are doing in the intence light of the torch. Practise ,practice,practice-you will only get the right combination from doing it until it is natural for you. Try to get someone who knows just how to do it,to teach you and show you wnat is right and wrong. Keith

Hello As a retired Tool and Diemaker I bow to your skills sir. You are truely a Master at machining and most impresively in minature machining. At the watch making levels.I have patience but your level is truly wounderful to see. I just hope that people around you can let you know just how good your work is. So much for the CNC button pushers now machining parts. These are the real skills of a great trade,and have all but gone away now in the modern world. Those who have never machined parts or designed progressive die's have no way of completly knowing just what you are doing here. Or just how hard it is to do. Only with God given tallents can you get to this level of work. No training can get you to this level of mastery. It is sometimes hard to see this kind of work when you know just how much time and work it takes to acomplish.I have been in the amchining and toolamker world my whole life. I am second gereration toolmaker,who was trained by my Father and worked with him for over 25 years,and was working in the trade for 44 years. You are the master my Friend. Keith Keith.

Hi David You might want to try using Testors Dullcote Laquer brush paint. It also comes in gloss. I use this over most of my paints. Works great straight onto basswood and boxwood. It will darken it a little ,and bring out the grain in the wood. Try it out on the wood to be used,look at in in natural light also to see what it realy has for any color. Have used it over Tamiya Acrylic paint with no problems,only watch out for it might pick up some pigment from the acrylic. I use one bottle for just over wood and others for over colored painted areas. Sands easy,you can also scrape it down level if filling in the grain or seams. I have been able to put down many coats in several days time. Depending on the humidity of the air. Great for sealing wood before painting with enamels and acrlyic's. I love the dullcote over decks and other wood areas. Seals them,dries fast to the touch in about 20 minutes. Can be sanded and even buffed to get a shine after drying a day or so. Or just leave it flat.Shrinks down well after drying. Try it out. Better than waiting for varnish to harden up. Hope this helps some. Keith After this ship it's onto my 1/48 build of the laser cut Mary Rose and finishing up my 1/80 Jotika Mary Rose,which was used for the frame outlines of my laser cut 1/48.

Hi David Here's where I am right now on my building of the Caroline. Planking the decks now with boxwwod. Keith

Hi Guys I did not intend to start a spirited discussion on the subject of the planking. Chuck,I will have to get out my Confederacy kit and look up your instructions on the planking. Since I did my Virginia Sloop and completed it a long time ago now,I just was about to strt planking on my Royal Caroline and have found all of this out now.Well back to your plan instructions Chuck for now. Looks like I have a lot of figuring out to do now. Thanks to all. The nibbing and the margin planks were fun to do.Now I have the hooked and taper planks to tame. Keith

Hi Chuck Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to do the "hooked" and tapered planking that was used in this time period? Or a book that has the "rules' standards as to how this style of planking was done? The quest for knowledge never ends. Just the hard drive and book collection gets larger. Thanks Keith

Hi David I am building this kit also. Here's a photo of my hull with the first planking on it. I have changed a lot of the kit.Made a new stern with it now being curved. I just wish that the brass figure decoration castings were not from 30 years ago along with the etched plates. You build a nice model and then have to put this stuff on it. I will be leaving these off and trying carving some myself. Good work David. Keith

Hi Brian I do not know just what to say other than I nibbed mine like the plans and in the book that I have Modeling an Armed Virginia Sloop of 1768 by Claton A. Feldman. I would say that Chuck is most certainly correct in what he says that they were used later. I am working on a Panart Royal Caroline kit build now along with a 1/80 Jotika Mary Rose and a 1/48 Mary Rose that I had laser cut. I asked about the planks because I had seen it done both ways. You can see photos of my Sloop on our blog at woodenshipclass.blogspot.com . It's back in the blob a ways,but there is a couple of close photos showing the deck and the nibbing I did. On the Sloop,it looks great,even if it is wrong. It's a toss up as to what I would do if I were you now. It was my first nibbing and I considered it a real challange to get the fits close. I did the planking in .040 basswood x .250 wide. Let me know what you end up doing. Keith

Rookie question here-What was the established deck planking patterns for the Royal Navy around 1760? And what type of nibbing pattern was used for the end planks and waterway? Is there a book that has these details for this time period,and maybe others that I could get? Thanks Keith

Hi What are the round parts on the "T" pins that you clamp down your fiish planks with? And where can I buy some? Thanks Keith Your Planking looks great on your Armed Virginia Sloop. Here's a photo if mine.

Hi Just finished the first planking nad need to fill in some gaps and low areas after sanding and scraping before planking with my finish second planking. Need to know what would be the best wood filler to use. I am not going to paint or stain over this filler,just gluing my finish planking down on top of it . Thanks Keith

Hi Here's a photo of my Model Shipways Gunboat Philadelphia 1/24 scale that I planked using 1/32 Red Oak veneer glued onto 1/32 basswood for all of the decking and hull planking. I first splied the plank shape in the 1/32 basswood. Then after getting the shape for the plank needed,I roughed up the mating sides of the basswood and oak veneer (the red oak veneer that I was using had a cloth backing to it,so I scratched cross hatch patterns with a xacto knife blade point,so that the Titebond would have something to hold onto. I tried to glue the veneer without this"roughing" but it would just not hold onto the basswood). I then glued them together with the TiteBond and clamped the glued plank to a straight steel surface,so that the ply will dry flat. Both woods curl when you put the Titebond on one side only. Then after an hour I would unclamp the "ply" ,trim off the 1/16" larger Oak veneer to the basswood plank shape and then glue it onto the bulkheads. When you cut out the red oak veneer to glue onto the splied basswood plank,make the oak cutout about 1/16 to 1/8" larger than the basswood plank. After gluing them together,go around the mating edges and make sure that you have a fillet of titebond around the smaller edges of the basswood. If you do not,there might be gaps in the glued edges of the "ply" after you trim the oak veneer down to the shape of the basswood. Like said above,you have no room for sanding down a hump that is not the shape of what you want,but getting the type of wood and grain that looks better than what is normaly used for planking makes the effort well rewarded. I won 1st Place in our Regional IPMS show this September with this model. I bought my Red Oak veneer from my local WoodCrafters staore. The sheet was 3' X 4" and cost me a grand total of $45.00.

Hi John Here's a photo of my 1/80 Mary Rose's main gun deck. The Jotika kit has made it flat,so I put a deck above it with the crown and sweep that the upper decks have. I planked it with basswood and on the frames ,I reshaped the knee areas on the plywood frames from just a square upper deck support,to the correct knee shape. I reduced the thickness of the ply frame down to 1/8". The reshaped ply,now in rising knee form was then covered with 1/32 walnut veneer. I then stained them with Minwax Golden Oak stain. Keith

Hi and Merry Christmas to ALL- I am building the Jotika Mary Rose. Wanted to know on the deck planking,how even was the surfaces from plank to plank? Where they made to be a tiotal flat surface from plank to plank? Or were they uneven ,say a little like 1/4" between them randomly? I know from the Trust books on the Mary Rose and their plans that are based on the wreck itself, that the planks for decking that were recovered that they were in areas made in random shapes,but that the majority were straight planks,but of different widths and lenghts. But I was in question as to the thicknesses of the individual planks to each other. Thanks Keith

Looking at the numbers of clamps that I have for building now. Just wanted to know how many you might have? My total is: Kant Twist clamps-26 total ranges in clamping size from 1" to 10" Machinist Parrellel clamps-10 total from 3" to 6" "C" clamps - 12 total- from 1" to 14" plastic clamps from Model Expo small 20 total 1/12" large 10 total 2 1/2" plastic bar clamps 6 total 6" Today ran out of the plastic clamps-small in clamping up parts that I was veneering,so I have ordered another 1o0 to add to the growing collection. I keep them in drawers seperated by type and size. Keith

I guess we could say that you are just a "little screwie" with this posting. Thanks for the charts. Keith

Hi Alistar I also use Dulcoat and realy like it on decks. You can get a nice smooth finish and rub it down to any dull of gloss finish you want. And it goes on smooth if you have the right brushes as you stated before here.Here's a photo of my just completed Union Picket Boat Number 1 kit by MSW. I used Testors Dulcoat as overcoat and Model Master enamal paint for all color paints. Keith

Here's a photo of my Philadelphia build. Keith

Hi I would start by cutting the keel between each frame and then debonding the keel section from the frames one at a time.Make a new keel and a new lineup jig. You need one that will have a center bar going in line with the keel about deck level so that you can center up each frame on center to the keel up at the deck level. At the keel you can center with the notch that is in the frames,but you could have an outer bar on each side (making sure that they are equal distance from the centerline) and have them out from the frames,so that you can measure the gap between the frame and bar. Then you can adjust the frame until it is centered between the bar and equal distance on both sides. Bottom line is that you need to be able to measure the frame to the keel at the top and bottom,and make sure that they are equal distance to the center. You can not have a tight enough joint at the keel that insures that the frame will be centered at the top. You have already proven that with your frames and keel now. It's a lesson that all of us go thruat least you had not put your whales on or planking or deck. Keith

Hi Larry As has been said many times before-You are the Captain and it's your ship to build as you want. I am finishing up my build on a MSW's Union Picket Boat-which can be seen on our building groups blog site- woodenshipclass.blogspot.com .I was going to paint the hull black like the real one was but have decieded to leave most of the side opposite of the spar torpedo unpainted to show how the planking was done. I used this build to practice on my planking and it came out very nice looking. So I do not want to totaly cover up all of the work with black paint,just like doing an Admiralty type build showing off the frames. So if there is an area that you realy excell in-show it off,if only for yourself. Most people who do not build do not have any idea how much work and effort goes into what all of us do in building models. From picking a subject,research for the building,time,money and work and hard learned skills to achieve the finished model. It is nice to be able to see what you have worked so hard to build. And not have but only a small part showing for display upon finishing a model. Keith

Hi Fletch How about tacking the strips in place with the gell CA in small places,then use super thin CA with a small aplicator and just flowing some in between the strips and the hull? I have also used styrene strips onto wood before and had problems with it taking long for the CA to hold if there was not a very tight fit,what I came up with was a clamping system that wouldjust have a small point that would touch and hold the styrene strip in the center,holding it down onto the wood. Then I flowed thin CA down the crack on the side of the strip and wood hull. I then took a Q Tip with CA accelerator on it and ran that over the side where I had put the CA glue. I also etched the back of the styrene strip with the tip of my axacto blade so the it was rough,and would give the CA something to hold onto. Smooth plastic surfaces sometimes do not hold CA glue well. Try some of these and find out what will work for you. Keith