M.R.Field

Well they are likely to be small, so a single hole and a piercing saw can be used quickly. OR, you take one cut through to the inside bits, then simply close that cut with a good fitting piece well glued in. It wouldn't even show. Martin

Done just before the rains came. The covering boards (margin planks), cut by eye on the bandsaw and cleaned up with a few strokes of a 10" 2nd cut hand file. (I also use this lovely tool on my toenails!). Then the first of the final coats of paint, the black primer, which my paint man made for me. When the warmth comes back I'l wet rub that and then spray the gloss black enamel. I'm currently dodging in and out avoiding the rain to make the upstands for the bulwarks. One every three feet if I remember right. They were the very tops of the boats frames on Vanity. I have the bulwark planks cut and can soon do the top rail in mahogany. Meanwhile there's also deck planks to saw up on my lovely new Abest saw. AND, my dear bride has today taken delivery of my anniversary present, a new disc sander to replace the old Minicraft one that has been lost somehow, but she won't let me have it till June the 9th! Martin

My airbrush of choice for simply painting rather than fancy graphics or weathering will always be the Paasche Model H. I have two. One for colour, one for clear. Bullet proof, easy to clean and with a very fine spray, what more do you want (apart from silly bragging rights!) But to paint larger objects i use a spotting gun, a small gravity spray gun meant for touching up spots and dents on small repairs.They are so cheap and beautifully made. Around £18 for a good one from your friendly auto paints shop (where I get all my paints). Martin

I have tried scroll saws, my son has several as he did scroll saw work as a hobby for a while, but I couldn't bring myself to be as harsh with it as he is. I just didn't like them. I have a second hand band saw which cost me just £12 at a Sunday Market. I then got a packet of assorted blades from ebay for £13 and am still on the first one three years later! It has cut brass, aluminium and every kind of wood and is also used for Ureol (patternmaker's wood) . I recently cut the covering boards (margin planks) of my 4 foot Vanity Victorian cutter on a bandsaw and just did a tiny amount of clean-up with a large file, making the very varying, smooth curves on both sides of the planks. I have an Abest saw to replace my dear old Minicraft one and my wife has just ordered me a disc sander from ebay, which claims to be a German make and is identical with the Proxxon of nearly 4 times the price! But if you get good with a bandsaw, you can cut a huge variety of wood and other materials and do the fiddly stuff with a jewellers' saw.B lade choice and a decent means to hold the work will ensure a clean, fast cut. with no machine at all. Martin

Roger, thanks for your response. We can get spruce, but it's very much in hobby sizes. I used to make miniature furniture and used spruce as the carcass wood, then veneered with the fancy stuff. But I might be able to find some 1/8th" sheet. Not a bad idea, actually. Thanks. Being a clinker boat, some of the planks will be a funny shape which I might not be able to get out of my available ash, so a typical 4" wide sheet of spruce from the model shop might well be the answer. Cheers, Martin

Thanks for your help, gents. Jaager, I agree about oak at least, although I don't know hickory. I have ash from my vintage car body frames. I had enough of oak's odd ways when i restored a 70 foot canal boat! I shall use the ash I have and see how that goes. As a model of a Norfolk Wherry it will be black. Wherries were tarred every three years. The bottoms were various colours, usually pale green or brick red. The upper works were very brightly coloured, right up to the mast head where a large iron figure of a girl, called a Jenny Morgan which trailed a fathom of red fabric. The masthead had coloured loops that told any wherryman who the owners were and probably who was skippering it. The sail was always black unless a new one was being stretched. Dressed with soot and fish oil they were jet black and towered over the flat Norfolk landscape. Now to get my drawings enlarged. Cheers, Martin

Hi all, having got back into my model boats after a spell with other things, I am wondering about making a proper clinker model of a Norfolk Wherry. I'm wondering which wood is best for steam bending as a double ended wherry needs some quite extreme bending and the planks will be 1/8th" thick in 1/16th scale. I have some ash from my vintage car days, which should be nicely seasoned by now. I know it bends well, but is it a long lasting wood if suitably protected? This will be an R/C model, so will be well epoxied inside and out. Martin

Ye Gods, where DOES the time go? Last year I took up model flying after wanting to do it for so long. The once distant "local" club lost their field after 30 years and moved to my village, so I had to go along. I now have a Pietenpol parasol winger and a "First Flight" Spitfire in foam board, a large high wing trainer I got from a club member for £25 and a Skystreak 32 in Depron foam I've yet to finish. I also built a slot track in the shed to test my cars that I build for myself and others. But, I haven't flown since October last year thanks to the weather and now this plague that's among us. I decided it was time to finish Vanity, so I got her out and developed a drum winch system for the sail sheets and the only way I can get steering, a small brass pulley with a cord over two smaller PTFE pulleys to the servo. Even that had to be low profile. I got the aft half of the ply deck on and am now doing the laid deck from those Venetian blind slats mentioned above. I thought I'd lost all the deck furniture until I looked in the last box on the shelf and there it all was including a lot of nice brass bits I'd forgotten I'd made! Then, tother day my ancient and much loved Minicraft mini table saw crapped itself. My dear bride immediately went on Amazon and ordered me a new one by a company called Abest at 6-57 one evening and it was here at 12-30 the very next day! AND it's superb. I can well recommend it to anyone seeking a new small table saw. Well made, toothed belt geared for power, comes with a spare belt and even a pair of spare carbon brushes for the motor. A really excellent deal for £50. So, we're back to work. Yesterday I made the margin planks ( I call them covering boards), filled the hull finally and rubbed it down and today found that expensive paint mentioned way back above and gave it a coat of the black primer. Bad weather forecast tomorrow, so she's gone away again. I also made up a U section of aluminium to act as an adjustable fixture for a skeg and bulb add-on keel, but the gentleman who makes those lovely GRP J Class hulls suggested a brass plate running more along than down, with the bulb on that, so that is what will be tried, before I go to a longer skeg which would only make life restricted on depth. I also made a foot bearing for the rudder shaft and screwed it to the keel. I made an extension to the rudder shaft which comes through the deck and ends in a nice pearwood tiller. Purely for show, of course, but it is very much part of a largish racing cutter. So, that's where we are currently with Vanity. Oh and I ordered some single ball stanchions and I have a large sheet of Cambric sailcloth for my other half to sew up for me. The Vincent 'bike master pattern has suffered endless set-backs at the hands of idiot incompetent suppliers who we have largely replaced, but has added months and months to the final launch date which with the plague upon us is not yet! When I have remembered how to post photos again, I shall do so! Nope I tried uploading and it refused to,saying "there was a problem". I don't "do" problems. Cheers, Martin

Hi folks, sorry to have gone cold on this job, but I have been doing a brass master for a 1/6th scale Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle and it's been a massive project. Yesterday I finished it and so will be doing more on the Vanity. I also had to save up a bit for servos, batteries and new R/C for her, so this fine summer I have not been able to do anything much on her, apart from the rudder arrangements, which, with the extreme angle of the rudder post are not easy! But I haven't forgotten it! Just not enough hours in the day, are there? Martin

I bought a couple of scalpel handles at the weekend from a Boot fair. I paid one pound for the two! One is an early and barely used Swann Morton and the other is a Paragon with the metric scale up one side. Both Made In England it proudly states. Otherwise I use home made knives ground from old table knives or one of a plethora of aluminium craft knives that I have been bought in sets. Failing that there's always the good old Stanley knife, which some people call box cutters. Beyond that...band saw! Martin

Well, in that case, Chuck, I think we have a deal. I am in the process of working out how many of each I need. I already have deadeyes, so it's just blocks I'll need. Probably best to stick with all 6" diameter. Actually, I've just worked out the numbers and especially the postage, make it unviable. I have to be very careful financially as I am retired now, so back to the bench, but many thanks for your time and I will recommend your excellent products wherever I can. Cheers, Martin

Crossed posts there. Very nice looking model indeed. A period of superb elegance. If you ever want to do 6" (3/8") blocks I would be very interested. I suppose I should add up just how many I will need. My problem is this is a working model, so it may be that I can't use blocks as much as I hoped because quick rigging and adjustability may be a priority. I have never sailed scale before. I have sailed almost nothing before! Cheers, Martin

Ah, I have just had a look at your website, Chuck and find that your prices are excellent, BUT you stop just short of where I need to be! I need 3/8" blocks. There were some 5" blocks used, so I might very well send off for some of your 8mm kits. Very nicely designed stuff. Lovely looking website too, which always goes down well with me. Cheers, Martin

Very nice, Chuck, but I dread to think how much by the time they get to England, what with having to pay the postman a tax bill, which I WILL NOT do. I can buy from Modelling Timbers too and they are very fairly priced for the work involved, but the numbers I need make it unviable. Here's my one, a model of a 6" block, with a turned cap, in which a hook is soldered. The cap then has its stem superglued in to a tight fitting hole. The stem of the cap has grooves turned in it to help with the glue. If that doesn't hold (although it seems to be at present), I will have to replicate Chuck's very nice ones, with the difference of having hooks in the top of some of them. Cheers, Martin

Hmm, many thanks, gents. I was unaware of the internally stropped type and they must be what my boat had. I am indeed talking about 1/16th scale, but I'm not sure I want to fiddle about with internal stropping even in that scale. I was so pleased with my system for making the blocks by a form of mass production, that to make internal frames would put that right back to square one, but then it might be that to put any load on a scale block might mean doing so. I'm not sure I have the patience to make internal frames for dozens of blocks! There are no rope stropped blocks on the boat as far as I can tell. Or externally iron stropped ones. Thanks for your input, gents. Martin

Hi all, I have just made a block using a method of my own (I assume), but it seems that most blocks used in yachts of "my" period (1880s) have an iron hook on one end. Now, making the hook and the lump it grows from is not a problem, but just how do you ensure it stays put when there's such a small glue area to rely upon? Martin

Ha! I now discover that Dixon Kemp is online , all 486 pages of it! And everything I need is there. Whether Vanity had the cordage and arrangements that are illustrated, I'll never know, but there's enough there to give me explanations. But you can't beat a book open in front of you and there are pages of lines and arrangements which on the online version are part folded and unclear. But yes, gents. If you want to know anything about yachts of that period, Dixon Kemp has it. Many thanks for your help. Martin

I have ordered a copy of Dixon Kemp's Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing in paperback from Amazon. The guys on Wooden Boat forum recommended it. I could have paid £450 or 147 or 57. I got this one for £12-71 from just up the road! Cheers, Martin

Frankie, oddly I have only just left that site as there was too much coming through that didn't really interest me! And then you get these, most of which I haven't seen before. I have seen a Partridge video, but not this one. Some useful stuff there for the bowsprit problem. I can never see how a gaff rig can use backstays as surely the sail will clobber them very quickly!? Many thanks, Martin

Both Marigold and Partridge are still sailing, having been only recently restored, but have differences. I have never had luck getting replies from owners, but I have rejoined Wooden Boat forum and asked there. Thanks for the reminder. I don't have endless time to wait though. The years march on and I would like to use this model. I only do boats during the summer, which over here is a short one, so researches have to be quick and fruitful. But I thank you for your interest and suggestions. Cheers, Martin

Frankie, I've had a look through lazyjacks and despite a lovely selection, nothing close enough or English enough. So I went over to Bekens of Cowes gallery and once again, nothing close enough to show any detail and they are the pictures I need. Thanks for your interest, but this period of English yachts is not at all well catered for beyond the distant "oh, how lovely" type of shot. So, as the only thing I can see shows a set of blocks, that's what it'll have to be. But were the bowsprit shrouds in those days of change wire or rope? Was the bobstay copper? I think it'll have to be guess work. With only 2 such boats still extant and those different from each other, it's a case of best guess and nobody can prove otherwise. Cheers, Martin

That surprises me! Maybe then they were used on something like Vanity. Of course there's no guarantee a modern restoration isn't using modern stuff, but I would love to use more of Modelling Timbers wonderful and inexpensive turnbuckles. I have just found some more pics of Partridge so am about to see what that has. Martin

Actually, Frankie, there is almost no documentation for yachts of this period. Since Vanity was allowed to rot where she sits in Bristol there are only 2 such yachts surviving, Partridge and Marigold and Marigold is of a slightly later era with many features considered modern when she was built. These were very different from American yachts, so I can't use them for details and finding evidence of smaller vessels of a similar style isn't easy either. What few photos exist are all quite distant, to show the whole vessel in one shot. I take your point about what MUST be there, but that doesn't help when there are widely different possibilities. I don't see a bottle screw being used on an 1886 yacht. She used deadeyes for the main shrouds for instance. Martin

Allan, I think the bottle screws would not have been around in 1885/6, so I assume the rope will have been spliced round thimbles and maybe then attached with shackles or possibly a single block for each shroud. I have no idea what a back rope is and I'm sure there were no footropes on a yacht's bowsprit. I also don't know where the line on the eyebolt goes. I was hoping someone could tell me. Cheers, Martin

Allan, thanks. I'm sure the Chappelle estate wouldn't mind if you put up a page. The yacht was built in 1885/6 as Mary, but was renamed a couple of times and her last registration was as Vanity. I dislike the name Mary, so Vanity it is. I have seen her registration in the Lloyds register, crossed out in red ink and "Became houseboat" written over the registration on March 17th 1917 IIRC. The eyebolts I mention are like these on Partridge, which is very like Vanity in period and style. Cheers, Martin