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HSM

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Everything posted by HSM

  1. I've always resisted making full sails because I don't think I have ever seen them look like sails do in full scale, full of wind. Not saying it's impossible but it would take a ridiculous amount of effort to make it look good. Model material can't possibly mimic the stiffness or flexibility and the way gravity acts on full-sized fabric and rope. I do like the look of partly furled sails if made from silkspan or similar material though. They can look very realistic.
  2. If this is a legacy piece that will be a family memento of your Opa, and you can commit to finishing it off that is great! But ship model building and especially a complicated subject like the Vasa can be very daunting. We have discussed often the number of kits that are started with good intentions and then are left unfinished. Completing a legacy model is kind of like restoring a damaged one, and the philosophy there is to use as much of the original parts and techniques as possible, and for the completion or restoration to appear as if the model were made by the original builder, start to finish. Start by making the masts and see how the process goes. Evaluate how much you like spending time at it, and what chance you give yourself to see it through to completion. If you are still excited about it when it comes time to start rigging or permanently glueing your new stuff to the model then carry on! Keeping it within the family is of course the best way to go. The suggestion to start with a small model to build some skills is a very good one. Building and rigging a ship model is actually quite easy and doable for someone moderately skilled with their hands, it's just that those easy tasks have to be done hundreds of time before you are done! Perseverance is more important than raw skill. You have a long-term project, and more of a marathon than a sprint so understand that it may take a year or more. If you don't enjoy the process, or you lose steam or interest then consider having someone else complete the model before permanently altering the existing work. Perhaps there is another family member that could do it, or you could hire a professional to do the job. I have done several restorations and completed one legacy model (Constitution, from the masts-up) and I am sure others on this list could complete the job as well, if you decide to go that way. Just something to consider.
  3. I agree that compressed air is compressed air, no matter how it is made or how much the compressor cost. Everything involves compromise and you will have to give something up to get something else. Low cost, quiet operation, small size, useful for other things, smooth airflow... It's a personal preference balancing act. I generally don't buy hobby equipment (except for my Preac table saw) because they are made for hobby-sized jobs and can't be used for much else. My drill-press is from Canadian tire and takes a #80 bit, my compressor can blow up a car tire or power an air-nailer, and it works marvelously with my airbrush.
  4. I use Krylon leafing pens and love them. Have had the gold for maybe 10 years and it still flows nicely. The liquid comes out a little thick and dries with some thickness and that can be either good or bad. If you are coating something with fine detail it might soften the valleys a bit, but if it is a casting from an old mold and maybe with bubbles it fills in the imperfections and looks very good to my eye. I bought mine at Michael's craft store, but here is an amazon link. http://www.amazon.ca/Krylon-Leafing-Gold-Paint-ANK9901/dp/B003ZTNENS
  5. I loved building the Panart Armed Launch. It is a large scale, 1:17. There is minimal painting to be done so the beauty of the wood is evident, but the finished model still looks realistic without the "craft" appearance of an all-wood model. The wood is very nice and the brass cannon and swivel guns are heavy and awesome! The hull is tripple-planked on a removable former. I first saw this in Period Ship Handbook 2 by Keith Julier and fell in love with the pictures. I've built 2 of these kits and would do more. http://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/panart/ma748-mantua-panart-armed-launch-wood-ship-kit.html
  6. For CA I use toothpicks and an aluminum foil glue pot. I "fork" the tip of a toothpick with a knife and dip that tip in the glue. When it's loaded with gunk I fork the other end or throw it out and use a new one. I have a piece of scrap wood with some ~8mm holes drilled in it. I pull off a bit of aluminum foil and press it into the hole to create a glue pot. Have the aluminum big enough to fold over the edges of the wood or it will lift with the toothpick when you lift it up. Dirt cheap and makes for very controllable glue applications. Works for me!
  7. Someone recently found the concrete ship wreck shown in the Amazing Photos thread, so I thought I'd share one I've visited in person. Near Churchill, Manitoba Canada is the wreck of the SS Ithaca. Here is the Google Satellite image and Wikipedia article. If you know of a wreck visible on Google Satellite from anywhere in the world, please post it! I find these derelict hulks fascinating.
  8. Wow, the Archer stuff looks great! A little pricey, but would save tons of time and there are lots of options for shapes. Thanks for the tip!
  9. That looks very tedious gluing those little things on to a surface, but maybe I'm not understanding how they are applies... I've used small blobs of glue to simulate rivet heads. If you're careful they look very good and don't really take that long to do either.
  10. Discovery Channel here in Canada has a program called "How Do They Do It", and one of the pieces on tonight's show is on how they make rigging for sailing ships. The example they are using is the Cutty Sark. The show is 1/2 hour long and there are 3 segments to a show so the rope making part will be about 6-7 minutes long. Not much, but then again there is not much for our types on television these days :-) Interesting program if anyone wants to search for it in their local area! http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-do-they-do-it/
  11. I have a Badger Patriot (double-action, gravity feed) that I love. One thing that I do with it is after painting and cleaning out the paint cup is fill the paint cup with water and shoot the clean water into the sink, and I put my finger carefully (not to bend the needle) over the tip to cover it. This reverses the action of the air from suction to pressure, and it blows any paint remaining in the needle mechanism back into the cup. I alternate finger on, finger off, finger on...... several times until clean water stays clean in the cup. Oh, yeah..... if you have a gravity feed airbrush this may spit paint out of the cup so cover it up until you know how it reacts! This works with siphon feed airbrushes too and you will see bubbles come up from the siphon tube when you put your finger over the tip. Anything I can do to avoid disassembling that thing I will do :-)
  12. Thanks for the build-log! I am interested in this kit as well. Would you be able to take some shots of the kit contents? Like the piles of wood and detail parts, guns, blocks, etc...
  13. I've built 30+ models and never used or wished I had one. I have an old towel that I roll up on the bench and put the model on that when working on it. Consider getting into the build first and working with whatever tools/techniques you have, and then decide as you go what you need and what you don't. Maybe I'm just cheap but it bothers me to spend $$ on something that I buy and then never end up using.
  14. I had a similar problem with my Preac saw, even though the fence and blade were as parallel as I could see. Similarly to what others have done in previous posts, I put a piece of tape on the edge of the fence where the wood would contact the fence, and ended the tape before the center of the blade. This gives a bit of room for the cut piece to bend away from the blade soon after it is cut and doesn't bind anymore. You don't need much room, the thickness of the tape was enough. Also, try rubbing a thin layer of beeswax on the spinning blade to lubricate it.
  15. I print them on regular printer paper and then over-coat them with flat clear to protect the ink from moisture. It takes a few tries to get the two sides of the paper registered but the results are worth it. I find the flags look better folded to represent light winds than they do when "flying". I see my avatar is the same image, but the only one I have in larger format online is a mix of two photos (same model).
  16. Wow, that looks great! I've built this kit twice and both times left much of it natural wood, but I really like the way it looks painted too. Excellent job!
  17. Bluejacket also has the Redjacket. http://www.bluejacketinc.com/kits/redjacket.html
  18. I use Turbocad 8.2 for Windows, but I expect it is the same for most versions of the program. If you didn't know, you can copy/paste photos directly from Photoshop and probably from any bitmap program, but they must be small, around 1000 pixels or less. If you try to import larger images you can paste "something", but there is no image, just the blue boxes and other "pick-points". For scaling, you can use the XY scale and XY dimensions in the lower left corner as has already been mentioned. You can also drag one of the blue boxes in the corners of the image to stretch it, and you can hold the shift key to lock the XY dimension ratios as you scale. To put the line you've drawn on top of the image pick the line, and go to Format, and then Bring to Front. That will put the line over top of the image. Hope that helps!
  19. I use Turbocad on a PC and love it. Easy to use and very powerful once you get a bit of practice with it.
  20. I've had a Krylon Gold Leafing pen for maybe 10 years and it still flows like it was new. Gives great coverage, drys quickly and looks great! I've just added the silver pen and it works just as well. I got these from Michaels art supplies in Canada but have seen them in craft departments of other stores as well. http://www.krylon.com/products/leafing-pens/
  21. I've known about and have worked with 3-D prints in my "day-job" and agree the technology is very promising, but it's still got a ways to go. The prints are still pretty rough and need significant hand-work before it can be used on a model. In fact, I think we have one of the very few hobbies where craftsmanship will NOT be replaced by 3-D printing. Our hulls are made of wood, and there is no printable substitute for some nice Pear planking, and I doubt a printer will ever be able to do rigging.
  22. Good idea, but you still have the problem of bending the hinge-pin to mate with that... What if you were to cut two grooves in a cross-shape on the deck. One is a fore/aft groove in the deck that would just allow the "foot" of the mast to pivot, and the other is athwartships (thanks for the new word :-) in which a straight pin would sit flush with the deck on either side of the mast? The small cavity where the mast recesses into would probably be less visible than the right-angled hinge and would probably be a stronger, tighter hinge because you don't have the undesired curve of the "C" shaped hinge-pin.
  23. I use artists acrylics almost exclusively. There are literally thousands of colors and they are cheap and easy to find at any craft store. Most brush and spray very well, but others are a bit more work. It seems the difficulties I have are more color dependant than manufacturer dependant, so if Folkart's "fire-engine red" (just kidding Brian ;-) doesn't mix or spray well I'll try a similar color from anothe manufacturer. I do totally agree, bright colors on a period ship can make an otherwise great work look "cartoonish". Dull down those bright colors guys!
  24. Everyone has preferences, but I'd think short planks are more work and would give a poorer surface for the second planking. Every time they cross a bulkhead it would have a sharp transition whereas a long plank would bend at the bulkhead leaving a smooth surface. It's an interesting idea, but I'll stick with full-length planks for first layer planking.
  25. I found silver solder and flux in one package at a local railroad model store. I usually use a regular soldering iron, but have used a torch similar to the one in David's photo for larger pieces.
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