KevinR

Hi all, thanks for having me.
 
My name is Klas, I am 44 years old and live with my wife in Sweden, on the Baltic coast. I have recently taken up ship modelling and I am currently building the HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne from Vanguard Models. In the past I have done some plastic modelling and wargaming miniature painting.
 
As a profession I sit in front of a computer or in meetings all day. I am trained as a metal machine operator, turning and milling, and started work as a CNC operator. After a few years I learned 3D CAD and worked in the design department designing cutting tools, mostly drill bits. And since 15 years I work in the Supply Chain with more boring work, but getting paid a lot more. I miss some aspects of the work I have done in the past and I been wanting to take up a hobby where I can create something.
 
I am very interested in history, naval and otherwise, and I owned a sailing boat for a number of years. 
 
I have a pretty good home office where I can do most work, however I can't really have much machinery here. I don't have a workshop, but my father in law has one about 20min away, he has a lot of tools, small bandsaws, turning tools even a CNC mill.
 
I have a lot left to do in my current project, but I am also looking into the next build. Here I would like something in a bigger scale I think. The Syren Cutter Cheerful looks incredible and I will probably try and get hold of that. The Maris Stella HMS Speedy seems interesting too.
 
The most inspiring model I have seen is the Winchelsea so maybe this would be a goal to aspire to in a number of years. 
 
Klas

Hello all, 
I just discovered this site from a newsletter put out by Rocky Mountain Shipwrights in Colorado.  I recently joined this group and many members have recommended this site. I am a first-time ship model builder, but have been building models of various types for most of my life. I chose the US Brig Syren as my first build, from Model Shipways. I looked at the description and the instruction info on the website and felt it was something I could do.  I am also a amateur woodworker, so that has helped a lot with the build. While many of the skills are new to me, I have a basic understanding of how to build things. I have actually built a small wooden rowboat in my shop.  Started this project about 2.5 years ago, and got a little sidetracked when I finally retired for good and started working in my shop everyday.  I have been back to building the model pretty consistently for the last 6 months.  Using only the model instruction sheets, I have gotten this far. I only recently discovered all these resources available.  I enjoy figuring things out for myself,  but really appreciate the info on sites like this. Looking forward to seeing and reading about other people's projects and solutions. 

Hello everyone,
 
I´m Michael and I live in a small fishing village on the Scottish North Coast. I was a sailor in younger age and still love and adore sailing boats / yachts. I found my first scale model (Revell HMS Victory 1/225) and got hooked up. I´m pretty new to scale models and therefore I have two different models in mind as the second one. There is a model of the Cutty Sark (1/96) from Revell and the 1/100 model of the HMS Victory from Heller. I want to do one or even both of them to increase my skills and then I would like to build from scratch my absolute dream yacht, a Hallberg Rassy 57. I know I need more skills for that. My wish would be to build the HR57 in a scale of 1/10 or 1/20, do you think that is too ambitious?
 
Therefore I ask you guys if the Revell or Heller models are any good to increase my skills and if those are good models at all? Also what is the exact difference between the HMS Victory and the HMS Victory Starter Kit from Heller? If I get it correct the Starter Kit includes glue and the base colours?
 
Thank you for your patience to read all this and I´m looking forward to your answers.
Kind regards,
 
Michael

The lower mast and trestle trees must be made before installing the lower deadeyes.  There are many ways to make masts and yards, including using a round dowel approximately the right diameter, turning a wood blank on a lathe or chucking a dowel into a drill and sanding it down to the correct dimensions.  A fourth technique will be shown here.  The only tools required are a caliper, a sharp chisel or plane and sandpaper. 
 
A jig is needed to hold the wood during the shaping process.  The picture below shows two types of jigs.  The top two homemade jigs only differ in the diameter and length of wood they can hold.  The lower jig was made by Hobbymill, which is no longer in business.  It is a single jig with multiple sized slots.  I prefer the security of the single size jig.  With either type of jig, the final diameter of the mast or yard must be greater than the height of the V-slot on the jig.  The practicum will give instructions for making the jig.

Before going any further, a few terms need to be defined.  The part of the mast above the trestle trees is called the mast head.  Below the trestle trees, the mast is divided into “quarters”, starting at the mast step in the hold.  “Cheeks” (not illustrated) run on either side of the mast below the mast head and provide additional strength to the mast.  The “hounds” are the upper parts of the cheeks.  Later era ships have a “fish”, similar to the cheek but located on the fore side of the mast.  The relative length and shape of these pieces vary by size and type of ship, country and era.

 
 

This ship’s main mast channels are 13’ long, 18” wide and 4” thick.  They are made by laminating three layers of 1/32” sheet together.  The middle layer’s grain is oriented 90 degrees to the outer layers for added strength.  I weighted the channel down while it was drying to prevent warpage.  In actual practice, there would be a slight taper of the channel from the hull to its outer edge, but for this project I ignored that. 
 
The fore end of the channel is located just behind the aft side of the mast.  There are recesses cut into the fore and aft ends of the channel.  The deadeye strops fit into mortises cut into the channel and a decorative strip holds everything in place.  The channel template shows the locations of the deadeye strop mortices. 

The location of the fore end of the channel was marked on the hull.  It is 2.5 feet below the rail and runs parallel to the wale.  Templates were used to get the exact shape.  I used the template from making the cap rail as a starting point and modified it to exactly fit the shape of the hull.  The openings for the deadeye strops were made by cutting shallow grooves into the channel and connecting them with a 2 mm chisel.  A #11 blade will also work.  The location of frames 4 and 6 were marked on the inner edge of the channel and 22-gauge brass wires were inserted at those spots for strength.  The fore and aft edges were rounded over but the long outer edge was kept sharp.


You may have noticed that the deadeyes are not evenly spaced.  On the actual ship, a gunport was located between the third and fourth deadeyes.  I decided to keep things simple and not model the gunport.  If you want, the spacing between frames 5 and 6 will allow you to add one.With the channel installed, a clear finish was applied to the exterior of the hull.  After the finish dried, I sanded the long outer edge of the channel to remove the finish.  This will help adhesion when the decorative strip is added after the deadeyes are installed.
 
 

Ferrus is right about the nautical jargon. Much of it is meaningless today. It originated in old European languages that no one speaks any more. Or as one fellow said "Shakespeare is impenetrable to the modern ear."
 
A good reference is Falconer's"Universal Dictionary of the Marine" from 1769. You can find it on line as a PDF.
 
Most naval jargon meant something in the day. But not everything. For example, the ship's galley smoke stack is called "Charlie Noble." This is true to this day on modern vessels. A century or two back there was this English merchant Captain named Charles Noble who was an obnoxious twit about polished brass. Everything made of brass on his ship had to be polished, and the smoke pipe from the galley was brass. Polished brass and salt spray are not a good combination, and the pipe had to be polished regularly. So Charlie's name is forever linked to the galley stack and meaningless work.
 
I can relate to this. We had an obnoxious twit XO (Executive Officer - second in command) with a fetish for polished brass on one ship I served on. He walked around with a pocket knife scraping paint off every piece of metal he found, looking for painted brass. Woe be to the bosun in charge if he found painted brass! The crew had to follow him around and paint over his scrape marks to prevent rust and corrosion.

Three years from last update, the model is properly "seasoned" by now :D.
 
Last week it looked like this:







And this is how it look currently:



Cheers
 

I think I mucked up, I thought I was starting a Build Log, but it appears this Post was in the "Introductions" folder.
So I will now try and start a Build Log here.  And I'll start again.
Introduction
Hello, my name is Wayne and this is my first Post here, I joined the group a couple of weeks ago.
I’m 74 and in Melbourne Australia. I have been on Forums years ago, before Facebook killed off many of them, I was on several RC Tank Forums.
And I’m not real sure of the protocol for posting here, please advise me if I go astray.  
I’m currently building the Billings African Queen.
And this has been a quest of mine all my life, I saw the movie as a very young boy when my parents went to the Drive In Pictures, around 1953. And I have always remembered different scenes from the movie. So I have now finally got around to building it, and with live steam. And intend to have RC for the steering, I will just let the steam engine chug along. Yea being an open launch I don’t want to have servos etc spoiling the look of the model. I hope to hide a small servo for steering under the rear seat.
Yes I have made very many different and varied models over my life, including boats, so I feel I’m reasonably capable to build this launch
And the vacuum formed plastic hull will be water tight when on the water. But I’m thinking of planking over the hull, I hope that will be OK.
And I must say, the most important tip I picked up while researching the build was to leave the top extra mounding there, not cut it off until the hull internals and deck were completed.
I have the ‘Miniature Steam Models’ plant #4034 here to go into the boat. I must thank gjdale, (Grant) for guiding me to that plant, and it looks spot on for the Queen.
And MSM are in Melbourne too.
Just ordered 2 universals, 5 to 4mm, and a brass prop from ‘Float a Boat’, also in Melbourne, and they were very helpful. Will have to see if I use the Billings prop shaft or have to buy a longer one.
Wayne
 

A reintroduction of myself, joined your group 4 years ago when I suddenly had the desire to build wooden ship models.   Watched the builds on here and youtube scared the <poop> out of me and went to the plastic world.   Armour, planes and eventually to what I wanted to do all along, ships.   Built the Snowberry, Huron and about to start the Fiume.   But that wood itch remained.   Building with PE helped build the confidence that I can do those small details.   A few months back a friend handed me a kit he was given as a gift and said "I will never build this" and I tossed it on the shelf.   Took a look the other day day and found it is the Lady Nelson, a beautiful and expensive kit.   Checked out a video on building her and quickly came to the realization that "no, I am not ready to jump straight in on that".   Lurking here and elsewhere, I have decided to start with the basics and the Shipways Dory arrives tomorrow.  Plan to do their 3 ships in the combo to see how I like building with wood and to build the basic skills that will be different than the plastic world.
 
If folks are interested in watching, when I am in the model room I stream building on Twitch.   I will be starting the Dory after 1 April (part of a group build - others are doing plastic) but in the meantime I am building other projects.   So if any new folks want to see me build my first wood ship or if experienced folks want to watch and bring their experience or if you like to just watch plastic builds or hang out while building yourselves, drop by whenever I am online - https://www.twitch.tv/bartbandy
 
Although a lurker these past 4 years, your builds and discussions have been in inspiration.   I hope to at one point get to the level to be a more active participant.   Cheers!
 

Boom and gaff are in.  Now I am tying ratlines, my least favorite part of rigging.

We had an oopsie while rigging the main braces and knocked off the dolphin striker and associated rigging.  One step forward two steps backward. A new striker is in place and waiting for the riggers.  

Hi,
 
I am coming into this from a long career of fiddling with all sorts of things including models of all types.  I am now approaching retirement and am in what my brother terms a STABLE condition (Stuff Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy).  I think its fair to say that many modellers have a stash that they do not really own....they are merely its custodian until the whole lot is released into the market again, and acquired by the next generation of optimistic custodians.
 
The local auctioneer is familiar with this syndrome and claims that he rarely sells stuff, he merely rents it out for a few years and then back it comes again.  It was at this auction house that the item that is the subject of this posting appeared.  This is the large scale (1:50-1:64) Sergal model of the Great Harry/Henry Grace a Dieu.  As it dates to 1975 or thereabouts I may well be its third or fourth custodian.  The photo shows the state that it is in.  The kits itself is complete and undamaged, bar the castings which are entirely missing.  I paid about 45USD for it.
 


 
However, the photo shows that it is in critical condition as the box is compromised with bits falling out of it.   Parts of the model were scattered around the auction house floor, behind the cupboard where it was displayed and in the store area and a search recovered all of them, bar those elusive castings and the presumed contents of three mysterious empty tubes (These are pictured - any ideas?).
 

 
This is both an impressive and rare model (production <100).  The photo below of the full scale plans with the one foot ruler show the scale of it.   As this is a waterline drawing the hull goes down perhaps another four inches.  
 

 
But it has no future in its current state, and I currently have no time to build it immediately.   Such models can be 'reboxed' in cardboard banana boxes and the like, but my experience is that their prospects of survival remain grim.  This is a pity, as it's an impressive model of a rare subject.  I would think that if the production run of fifty years ago was under a hundred we may be looking at a global population of viable examples of maybe ten or less.   Its size is its downfall, the thing is simply too big, heavy (10Kg+) and 'stuffed' for the structural strength of the box that it is in.
 
Thus, wearing my custodian's hat, I intend not to build this model and make a log of it, but to restore it to its as manufactured condition (with a box that is visually identical but much stronger) and log that process here.  In this case that means replacing all the boxes, interior packaging and castings with reproductions.  As a package design specialist I have the graphic and prototyping facilities to do this and I have already done it many times.  The photos below  shows a restored Mantua 'Astrolabe' that was literally a pile of cardboard rags and a scatter of parts in several separate locations when acquired for USD10.  It has now been restored to 'as sold' condition, and added to the custodial stash.  If I do one a year when I retire, I'll be 147 when I'm finished - Do your own math!
 

Rob 
 
 
 
     

Very brief update.  Thanks for the likes.  The kit came in Monday and I've spent the last few days re-reading the instructions with the kit in hand and clearing my work area.   I hope to have progress on the actual building later this week.  

The bit pins are 9” square posts.  The crosspiece is 8’ x 10” x 3” and connects the two pins.  It is morticed into the pins 3’ above the deck.  Shape the ends of the crosspiece as seen in the picture.  I raided my scrap box again for these pieces but the kit will contain the correct thickness of basswood to construct them.

 
I used the previously drilled pilot holes to locate the centers of the bitt pins and lightly  traced the outline of the bitt pin onto the deck.  A series of holes was drilled inside the outline and they were connected with a #11 blade.  They were enlarged with files until the openings were just large enough to allow the bit pin to pass through them.  They will not be permanently installed until later to make installing the mast easier.

This is how the model looks with everything temporarily installed.

Other than installing the channels, the hull is complete.  Next, the wale was painted.  The hull planking was masked off above and below the wale.  I used three coats of artist’s acrylic paint diluted 1:3 paint to water, sanding with 400 grit sandpaper between coats.  I remove the tape as soon as the last coat has been applied to prevent paint adhering to the tape.


 

Hi All, Nic here from Leicester.
 
I understand this is a familiar story....Ive recently inherited a model ship built from scratch by my grandfather, at least half built. He never completed it after doing the majority of the hull it seems. No idea what to do with it but I am a keen amateur woodworker albeit not a modeller. I am considering taking up the hobby to complete this fine model he's started although if someone else fancied it that would be equally fine.
 
First of all I need to work out what ship it is. My googling has not yielded anything except clarity its not the Mary Rose to my mothers surprise. He was a member of the many Rose society so I think it was assumed to be that ship early on.  
 
Is anyone able to advise what ship it is or offer any suggestions/advice on what to do next with it! maybe tips how to start this interesting hobby.
 
Many thanks,
 
Nic
 

 
 
 
 

 

Hi, I'm a Computer Engineering student with a passion for scale models of any type.
I always have wanted to do a model ship and decided to give it a try, and ended up finding this page after asking about a ship in r/Modelships.

Hi everyone.
After a rather long period of reading, I decided to sign up and introduce myself. My name is Mimmo, I'm 60 years old, I'm a retired Italian Navy veteran.
I've sailed a lot in my life; now, that I don't anymore, I sail with my imagination and models.
I find the diversity of people on this forum absolutely wonderful: a huge worldwide community. A big greeting to everyone and, as they say where I come from: "buon vento!".      

As I mentioned before, the bit pins will be glued to the “B” spacers.  I measured and marked two feet (½” scale) aft from the aft surface of Frame 4 and nine inches (3/16” scale) inboard from the spacers.  These are the centers of the bit pins.  Small pilot holes were drilled up through the deck.
 
I planked the inner bulwarks, starting at the waterway, using ten-inch-wide planks.  I applied a clear finish at this point.  The top of the bulwarks was sanded flat in preparation for installing the cap rail.  Simply turn the model upside down and sand the bulwark the way you did the base.  This also gives a fresh surface to glue the top rail onto.
 
Templates were made to determine the shape of the rail.  This is how I made these.  Masking tape was run along the upper edge of the hull planking to prevent marking the wood.  The model was turned upside down and, hugging the side of the ship, a line was drawn along the top of the hull.  Don’t forget to mark fore and aft, port and starboard.

The rail is 12” wide with a 1” overhang inboard and outboard.  I drew lines 1” (0.02”) outboard and 11” (0.23”)  inboard of the original line.  The picture shows the templated line and the overhangs.

 
I cut out the templates with a lot of extra paper on either side of them because long, narrow pieces of paper are prone to warping.  They were glued to the 1/32” wood sheet.  I use either Elmer’s glue stick or glue spray that is not water based (3M-45) to help prevent warping.  Both of these adhesives can be removed with isopropanol and scraping.  This is another opportunity to check out your scrap pile for a piece of contrasting color wood.

Cut out the rails and mark the undersurface with the side and orientation before removing the template.  Remove the template and round over the edges.  If you want a contrasting color for the rails, paint or stain them before installing.

Next up was the deck planking.  I marked the center line on the top of the frames and installed “B” spacers between Frames 4 and 5.  These will be used later to secure the bit pins.  This ship has a king plank on either side of the midline, which is wider than the regular planking, 12” instead of 10”.   I shortened the mast partners  so the planks would land on Frame 4.  Just like I did for the hull planking, I used a pencil on one edge to simulate caulking and, because of the camber, sanded a bevel into the lower edge of the other side of the planks for a tight fit.  A row of 10.5” planking was installed on either side of the king planks.  The rest of the planks will be 10” but this allowed the edges of these planks to be aligned with the outer edge of the partners.

I removed the partner to prevent it from getting damaged.  This is why it was only tack glued.  I used a four-step butt joint pattern for the rest of the deck planking. 

The rest of the planking was installed, tapering the outermost rows to fit against the waterway. 


 

Thank you for accepting me. I’m 57 from Mexico City and I’m an old novice: I started a Mamoli’s Puritan when my daughter born 16 years ago and I left unfinished in my hobby room because a worker damaged it. (I built plastic armored cars).
Two months ago I had a health problem that changed my mind about “I will finish that boat later”… so I returned and I’m facing some troubles to fix some things in the model, but I hope with the guidance I foundhere, I will finish it with aceptable quality.
 
thanks for accepting me… Antonio 

Hello modeler friends.
 
I'm joining this wonderful site. I am French, retired (former fitter). As a child, I made plastic model planes and boats (heller and revell). Now that I have more time available, I can resume this activity.
Like many here, I would use a translator...🫤
Mic

Thanks everyone.  When starting this project I wavered between a dummy hull and a simple POB cross section.  One of the advantages to this approach is that it results in a nice desktop model.  The compromise is that certain lines, like the stays, are omitted.  
 
It is time to plank the hull.  The kit contains enough 1/32” basswood sheet to plank the hull and deck.  I began the planking at the top of the bulwark extensions.  This made them less susceptible to breakage.  There are five rows of planking, followed by two rows of double-thick planks for the wale.  Below the wale, the rest of the planking is the same thickness as the upper part of the hull.  All the planks are the same ten-inch width.  The thin basswood can easily be cut with a #11 blade and straight edge.  No spiling necessary!  I put a slight bevel on the long edge of one side of each plank to get a tight fit between the planks and rubbed a pencil along the other edge to simulate caulking.  The picture shows the hull planked to the top of the wale.

The wale is made from two rows of double-layer planking and will be painted black later.  I painted the edges of both layers with an archival ink marker before installing them.  After the first layer was installed, the hull was sanded fair.

For the second layer of the wale, the exposed outer edges were slightly rounded over before painting the edges.  The second layer of the wale was glued to the first layer and the surface  was sanded smooth.  I prefer not to paint the wale until the rest of the hull is completed to prevent damage.   

The rest of the planking below the wale was installed.  Because some of the plank ends did not land on a bulkhead, it was necessary to glue a scrap of wood on the inner side of the plank to secure it to the plank above.  In this picture, the first two rows lower planks have been installed. 

After the last row of planking had been installed, I removed most of the wood below the bulkheads by shaving it down with a razor blade.  When most of the wood was removed, the model was put on top of a sheet of sandpaper and the bottom was sanded flat by moving the whole model back and forth.  In this picture, the wale has been dyed with a coat of archival ink so you can see the difference in thickness between the regular planks and the wale. 

The next  stage of construction was fitting out the mast partners, inner bulwarks, and deck.  On a real ship, the mast partners were made up from several pieces of wood.  For simplicity, I made the mast partners from single piece of cherry from my scrap box.  In the kit, it is made from two pieces of 1/32” basswood, with the two pieces oriented 90 degrees to each other for strength.  It measures 5’6” x 4’ x 3”.  The center of the mast is located 6” forward of the center point of the partners, to allow enough room for four eyebolts aft for securing the truss pendants and lifts.  It is not 100% historically accurate but compromises had to be made during kit design.
 
The mast is 17.5” in diameter at the partners and is raked aft so the opening will be oval, not round, with the long axis fore and aft.  I began by drilling a hole smaller than the final dimension.  It will be finessed later.  Remember, you can always remove more wood...you can't put it back.  Then the edges and corners were rounded over.


The waterway was made from two pieces of wood laminated together.  Because of the amount of hull curvature, I prefer to make a template and cut the outline of the bulwark onto a sheet of wood rather than edge-bend.  The template is very simple: a piece of paper which is gradually trimmed to the correct shape.  You only need one template since the two sides are mirror images of each other. The outboard edge of the waterway was traced onto the 1/32” basswood sheet and cut.

Using a compass, a line was the drawn 10” inboard and the waterway was cut out.  I prefer to make all my marks on the undersurface of the wood, where they will not be seen.  All four surfaces were sanded smooth, keeping the edges sharp.

Using the same template, I drew the outboard line on a second piece of basswood and cut it out.  A second line was drawn 4” inboard.  This was cut out and sanded but the upper-inner edge was rounded over.  The pictures show both pieces of the waterway.


The first layer of the waterway was installed and because a template was used, it fits perfectly and without tension.  After the first piece was dry, the second narrow piece was added next to the bulwark, rounded over edge inboard. 

The NRG is an educational organization, dedicated to providing our members with the knowledge to improve the quality of their model ship building.  One of the most common problems model builders have is rigging their model.  Kit instructions are poor.  Often, the materials provided in the kit are improperly sized or the cheapest that the manufacturer could obtain.  We all know that blocks are not square!  I wanted to develop a project whose purpose would be to teach ship modelers how to mast and rig a ship without having to build a complete hull.  This model is a 1:48 scale cross-section at the level of the main mast of a late 18th century British sloop of war, Swallow 1779.  To keep the size of the model manageable and eliminate the need for a building board, the hull is cut off just above the waterline.  For the same reason, only the center portion of the lower yard and the lower part of the topmast are constructed.  Also, because this is a cross-section, certain lines, such as the stays and backstays, are not included.  My emphasis will be on demonstrating techniques to improve your rigging skills.  Skills that can be used on your next project.
 
As this was developed as a teaching aid, certain shortcuts and compromises to historical accuracy were taken.  Wherever possible, I have used measurements provided by the plans and such authorities as Steel and Lees.  I apologize in advance to the master modelers who might criticize my shortcuts.  I have kept the use of power tools to a minimum.  The only thing that is outside the normal collection of hand tools is a serving machine.  The Guild hopes to begin selling this kit in the next few months.
 
The kit contains all the materials required to complete the model.  But I always keep my scrap box nearby for those times when a piece of a contrasting color wood is desirable.  I will mention those times as the build log progresses.  Also, the build log is made up from the best photographs taken from three builds of this model.  A sharp eye will notice some differences in the wood color because of that.
 
The hull is constructed in typical plank on bulkhead style.  There is a notched spine and notched bulkheads.  The laser cut sheet of one-eighth inch basswood ply also contains a template for the top and four types of spacers, A through D. 

The spine and the frames are assembled as seen below.  Frame 1 is installed with the printing facing aft.  This gave me the option of painting the exposed bulkhead after construction was completed.


 
The mast fits in the slanted slot between Frames 3 and 4.  To keep the mast vertical, support spacers are glued on both sides of the spine.  They will be sanded flush to the spine when the hull is faired. 


To prevent the hull from twisting and to strengthen it, spacers are placed between each frame.  The three aft spacers are “B”, the next one is “C” and the two foremost ones are “D”.  They are placed close to the edge of the frame for maximum stability.  The laser char only needs to be removed from the fore and aft sides so that their surfaces are flat.  If too much wood is sanded off, I glue strips of paper onto the edge as a filler to prevent distorting the hull.
 
The hull and deck were faired so there are smooth curves fore to aft.  I used a sanding block for this.  I did not fair the bulwark extensions (the thin strips of wood above the deck) to prevent them from breaking off.  This model has a significant camber to the deck.  Sanding sticks help getting into the corners.  You can see that the mast supports have been sanded down to match the height of the deck.

Next up is planking the hull.
 
 

I've decided to pause my other projects since as a result of my stroke my memory has failed in some areas.  Mostly it's working but some things are gone forever like "how to plank" while other things are coming back to me.  So, after much thought, I've ordered the NRG Planking Project.   I've downloaded the manual and am reading through it.  The kit should be here this coming weekend.