Kevin

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her
 
 

good evening everyone
 
been quiet on the building front last few days, life got in the way and i have a new project, my mum gave me all the family albums that she has for safe keeping, they are all pre digital, so loosing them would actually mean loosing them, i have started to scan them into my Pc, done 500 so far, about 4000 im not interested in and another couple thousand i will be doing over the next few weeks
me with dad in 74 on Christmas leave during my trade training and  must be 75 to prove that i did used to build fly things

Have a look at a company called CAF the Enterprise is a fully open build in 1/48 they are a sponsor of this site and link is in my build logs and also on home page

good evening everyone
 
been quiet on the building front last few days, life got in the way and i have a new project, my mum gave me all the family albums that she has for safe keeping, they are all pre digital, so loosing them would actually mean loosing them, i have started to scan them into my Pc, done 500 so far, about 4000 im not interested in and another couple thousand i will be doing over the next few weeks
me with dad in 74 on Christmas leave during my trade training and  must be 75 to prove that i did used to build fly things

good evening everyone
 
been quiet on the building front last few days, life got in the way and i have a new project, my mum gave me all the family albums that she has for safe keeping, they are all pre digital, so loosing them would actually mean loosing them, i have started to scan them into my Pc, done 500 so far, about 4000 im not interested in and another couple thousand i will be doing over the next few weeks
me with dad in 74 on Christmas leave during my trade training and  must be 75 to prove that i did used to build fly things

good evening everyone
 
been quiet on the building front last few days, life got in the way and i have a new project, my mum gave me all the family albums that she has for safe keeping, they are all pre digital, so loosing them would actually mean loosing them, i have started to scan them into my Pc, done 500 so far, about 4000 im not interested in and another couple thousand i will be doing over the next few weeks
me with dad in 74 on Christmas leave during my trade training and  must be 75 to prove that i did used to build fly things

good evening everyone
 
been quiet on the building front last few days, life got in the way and i have a new project, my mum gave me all the family albums that she has for safe keeping, they are all pre digital, so loosing them would actually mean loosing them, i have started to scan them into my Pc, done 500 so far, about 4000 im not interested in and another couple thousand i will be doing over the next few weeks
me with dad in 74 on Christmas leave during my trade training and  must be 75 to prove that i did used to build fly things

Have a look at a company called CAF the Enterprise is a fully open build in 1/48 they are a sponsor of this site and link is in my build logs and also on home page

well she made it back into the mancave, but the stagecoach must be completed first, i have promised myself

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her
 
 

I am told I will receive the printed material (plans, manual and box label) on Friday, so all Sphinx orders will start to be shipped from Monday.
 
This is well over three times the weight of any previous kit!
 
And thank you, I still cannot believe I sold out of my first batch! I am working on the second batch, but will not get the PE until late next month, as Italy seems to close down in August.

well she made it back into the mancave, but the stagecoach must be completed first, i have promised myself

I do like these lanterns, it wasn't until James took some real close ups that I realised the detail was there, door hinges, handle, and open vents around the upper canopy cylinder.. 

Wow, Chris's website shows the 1st run of the Sphinx is sold out.  Must be some sort of record. Congratulations to Chris and James. Long may the Vanguard line prosper. 
 
Malcolm   

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her
 
 

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her
 
 

thank you mark
 
thank you OC

good evening everyone
thank you for the comments, i got the Enterprise out of storage, did a lot of contemplating, and thought i need to finish something, I have very little to show for this year, other than the display case, im aware its not a race but that’s me so the coach continues
 
both sides are now pretty well covered, and the wrapping of the ends is going on, a lot of sanding is required
the final couple are with the seats just placed in for now to see how she looks
 

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her
 
 

thank you mark
 
thank you OC

thank you Mike

good evening everyone
 
i have a problem (or maybe i am the problem) is the doctor still around?
 
my desire to get on with the Enterprise is making me want to put this away, which is a shame, does anyone else suffer from that, or is it that i am spoilt for choice, 
 
anyway i did a few bits but moved on the the soft furnishings
 
the coach internal has to seats either end and a bench through the middle 2 + 3 + 2 and two up top 
 
these were fun to make up, but the nail heads do detract the final finish, i am trying to dull them down

 

good evening everyone
 
i have a problem (or maybe i am the problem) is the doctor still around?
 
my desire to get on with the Enterprise is making me want to put this away, which is a shame, does anyone else suffer from that, or is it that i am spoilt for choice, 
 
anyway i did a few bits but moved on the the soft furnishings
 
the coach internal has to seats either end and a bench through the middle 2 + 3 + 2 and two up top 
 
these were fun to make up, but the nail heads do detract the final finish, i am trying to dull them down

 

.Good evening everyone
 
with my summer break i am starting another wagon, 
 
Taken from Wikki
 
Stagecoaches were familiar vehicles along the main roads of the East and the South before the coming of railroads in the 1830s and 1840s. Even as the nation's network of iron and steel rails grew larger and more comprehensive, stagecoach connections to small and isolated communities continued to supplement passenger trains well into the second decade of the twentieth century. However, stagecoach travel was most difficult and dangerous across the vast expanse of the American West, where it attracted the most attention. In large measure that was because of the inordinately great distances involved and the Herculean effort required to maintain regular service across the region's dry and sparsely populated landscape.
Stagecoach lines in the East tended to connect preexisting centers of population, and passengers took regular meals at the established inns and taverns along the way. Nothing of the kind existed in the West in 1858, when John Butterfield undertook an overland stage line connecting St. Louis and San Francisco by way of El Paso, Texas. The route also ran through Tucson and Los Angeles, but neither was more than a village of a few hundred residents at that time. A federal contract paid the stage company $600,000 a year to carry U.S. mail across the continent, and that money helped subsidize way stations at regular intervals, where, in the absence of existing settlements along most of the proposed route, the coaches could change draft animals and the passengers could find food. The Butterfield organization spent nearly a year getting everything into place to support semiweekly stagecoach service.
When Butterfield's Overland Mail Line opened for business on 16 September 1858, the 2,795-mile journey between San Francisco and St. Louis required approximately three weeks of hard traveling, and that was during the best weather. The coaches kept moving all through the day and night except for brief intervals at way stations. Stagecoach fare did not include the cost of meals, which at an average price of a dollar each three times a day for three weeks might effectively add 50 percent to the cost of a through ticket. Sleep had to be obtained aboard the rocking coach.
Antedating Butterfield's line, a stage line connected San Diego and San Antonio in 1857 with semimonthly coaches. Even earlier, in 1849, a stage line of sorts connected Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. But these earlier carriers were not as ambitious as the Butterfield line, nor were they run with the attention to detail that a large support structure demanded.
In the spring of 1861, with the threat of Civil War and Texas's secession from the Union, the transcontinental stage line moved north. Following the central Over-land Trail, it stretched through the future states of Wyoming,
Utah, and Nevada. Again the Overland Stage Line had to spend a small fortune to build the support structure required for regular operations across the sparsely populated corridor. The long transcontinental journey remained as rigorous as before.
The transcontinental stage line attained its greatest geographical reach under the leadership of Ben Holladay. In the mid-1860s, lines of the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company extended west from the Missouri River steamboat landings in Kansas and Nebraska to a hub in Salt Lake City. From there additional lines served outposts as distant as Butte, Montana, and The Dalles, Oregon, where steamboat connections to Portland were available. Incurring heavy losses in 1864 and 1965 during the Native American unrest that sometimes prevented overland stagecoaches from running, Holladay in November 1866 sold his interests to Wells, Fargo and Company. Wells, Fargo operated stagecoaches along the transcontinental route between Salt Lake City and Sacramento, California, where steamboats connected to San Francisco. Holladay subsequently acquired and built railroad lines in Oregon.
Railroads generated a great deal of excitement all across the West. As the tracks of the first transcontinental railroad extended east from Sacramento and west from Omaha in the late 1860s, stagecoaches served a shrinking gap. That gap closed when railroad officials drove a last spike at Promontory, Utah, in May 1869 and trains linked California with the rest of the United States for the first time. The era of stagecoaches along the central Overland Trail was over, but thereafter various smaller stage lines linked transcontinental trains to distant outposts. Until buses became popular around the time of World War I, many a road-weary stagecoach continued to meet passenger trains and provide transportation to remote villages in the West. The term "stage" was commonly used to describe any coach, wagon, or sleigh used as a public conveyance. In the 1860s, the heyday of stagecoach lines, the Concord coach, handcrafted in Concord, New Hampshire, by Abbot, Downing and Company, became the quintessential icon of transportation across the frontier West. The first Concord in California, transported aboard a clipper ship that sailed from New England around Cape Horn, inaugurated service out of San Francisco on 25 June 1850.
The familiar egg-shaped body of the Concord coach was renowned for its great strength and its ability to keep passengers dry while floating them across flood-swollen streams. Because the inevitable twisting of the coach body on the rough terrain could easily shatter glass windows, it had only adjustable leather curtains to keep out the dust, wind, and rain. The heavy body, often weighing a ton or more, rode on thick, six-or eight-ply leather belts called thoroughbraces to insulate it from the constant pounding of the wheels over makeshift roads. Nevertheless, the swaying made some passengers seasick. Mark Twain aptly characterized the Concord coach as a "cradle on wheels."
Not all stagecoaches were of the familiar type. Vehicles called "celerity" or "mud" wagons were much lighter and cheaper than Concord coaches and, because they had no springs, offered a much rougher ride. They were primarily used on lines where passenger and express traffic was too light to justify the expense of Concord coaches.
A Concord coach could accommodate as many as nine passengers inside and another six or more on the roof, though no one in a crowded coach rode in comfort. In an age renowned for its propriety and formality, perfect strangers, both men and women, might have to interlock knees in the cramped space of the interior or rest a weary head on another's shoulder. Some passengers passed the long hours of an overland journey by drinking themselves into alcoholic stupors, while others organized or participated in impromptu songfests. One common form of entertainment was to shoot at the wild animals, such as antelope and prairie dogs, visible from coach windows. Some passengers probably whiled away the long hours worrying about Indian attacks, even though attacks and stagecoach holdups were both infrequent. The violence associated with stagecoach travel in the West was for the most part an exaggeration fostered by dime novels, Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and Hollywood westerns.
Each stagecoach passenger was allowed a maximum of twenty-five pounds of baggage, which rode in a large rear pouch called a boot. The U.S. mail typically rode in the front or rear boot, although, as Mark Twin recalled from personal experience in Roughing It (1872), a large load of mail might be shoved among the feet of passengers. Any express shipments, often gold and silver, rode close to the feet of the driver, a skilled horseman who handled the team of four or six draft animals from a seat atop the coach. Sometimes a special messenger accompanied express shipments to guard them from bandits. On occasion a stagecoach might carry a shipment of produce, such as fresh apples from the orchards of Utah to remote towns in Idaho and Montana.
Twain's personal account of overland stage travel in the early 1860s is evocative and true to fact. However, the 1939 Hollywood epic Stagecoach, directed by John Ford and featuring a young John Wayne, probably did more than anything else to foster modern perceptions of stagecoach travel as both romantic and dangerous. Louis McLane, onetime head of Wells, Fargo and Company, the most famous name in overland stagecoach travel, wrote to his wife in 1865 about artistic depictions of travel by coach, "I thought staging looked very well to the lithographer, but was the devil in reality." Many hearty travellers who crossed the West by stagecoach in the late 1850s and the 1860s surely would have agreed.

good evening everyone
 
most of the outside cladding is done now and i have been doing a lot of sanding on her today
 
what do you call the box the crew sit on, well what ever it id called, work has progressed on that as well

the side panels are leather (well simulated) and this confused me for a while, the material is used to cover both sides of the wooden pieces and pulled across the open area, so why not make it one piece
 
quite a lot still has to be done before i can put this into place, and yes i keep looking at the enterprise, worrying myself on where to restart on her