Bristol Pilot Cutter by michael mott - 1/8 scale - POF

[dvm27]

It's always a pleasure to watch you work your magic with wood.

[SJSoane]

 

Michael, it is a joy to see your craftsmanship.

 

When I read your weather updates, I know what is coming our way down south...

 

Mark

[michael mott]

Sherry, thank you for your comment.

 

Bob don't sell yourself short your work is anything but.

 

John, not only long sleeves, but I had to put on some long pants my knees were gettin cold.

 

Denis, yes I do like making sawdust, it is good to be back at it.

 

S.os, Thanks for the compliment.

 

Greg, thanks there are so many here that keep raising the bar it is hard to keep up. I have nothing against the Joneses mind you.

 

Mark, thanks for your kind thoughts, and yes the wind is the kicker with these low temps, they were warning about serious wind chills about the Province some as low as -49 wind chill.

 

I finished the other reef comb and dropped in the sheaves they are 3/8th diameter and ebony.

 

 

The next picture shows the Lignum vitae sheave for the clew out-haul at the end of the boom. It has a 3/8 x 1/8 ball race.

 

 

 

The last one shows the rope that will be used for the adjustment I also notched the end of the boom for the Topping lift which will have a spliced eye to snug over the end of the boom.

 

 

Michael

 

[Bedford]

Beautiful work Michael, it looks like a great scale to work in.

 

I have handled lignum vitae once, at the old Sydney Maritime Museum they had a piece of about 75mm square and maybe 600mm long. It is so heavy and smooth, unlike any other wood their is. I would love the opportunity to work with a piece of it.

[newbuilder101]

Very, very nice....as your work always is!

[EdT]

Impechable, Micheal.  Love the bearings.  What is the wood?  Looks like fir? or Spruce?

 

Ed

[michael mott]

Bedford, Sherry, Ed, thank you for your very kind comments, and for the likes.  It is so important to hear positive thoughts in our daily lives, I do appreciate them.

 

Ed the wood is some clear Fir. I like to use the sort of wood that was used for many of the parts of the craft, as you know this is not always possible because of the limitations of scale and densities. The beauty of working at this larger scale is that it is possible to find some pieces of wood that are quite close grained either because they are old or grown in less than Ideal conditions. The Fir and Spruce grown in the higher altitudes is often much more dense because of the short growing season and harsh conditions.

 

Often whist chopping a log of firewood I will notice some particular fine grain and save a few pieces that can be used for modelwork later.

 

Michael

[garyshipwright]

More, I need MORE.         On the other hand I can wait and outstanding job Michael. Its always a pleasure to see your updates.    Gary

[Mirabell61]

very nice work Michael

 

Nils

[Jim Lad]

Man, but that's looking nice, Michael!

 

John

[michael mott]

Garry, Nils, and John, thank you for following along with the encouraging remarks.

 

I worked at building the boom rest at the base of the mast today. I began by reshaping a stick of very fine grained spruce firewood. I stuck it to a piece of fir with some carpet tape so that I could clamp it in the vice to plane it to shape.

 

 

Using just the block plane to start I rough shaped the stick to a sort of pear-drop type shape

 

 

Then switching to my long small chisel I cut the recess below the curve.

 

 

This was followed by a small gouge to completed the shaping, I decided not to sand the surface but to just leave the cut surface.

 

Another piece of the same firewood was used to make the top ring to fit around the mast, I glued the sections together 2 at a time without clamps but by rubbing the two surfaced together , I find this works just as well as clamping if not better in some cases.

 

 

The form piece was cut to short lengths to act as support blocks under the ring, their sides were hand sanded using the shooting board with a block of wood with sandpaper glued to it which acted like an sanding plane

 

The blocks and the two halves of the ring were then glued to the mast.

 

.

 

Walter's viewpoint

 

 

Tomorrow some parrel beads and then some more tackle. perhaps I will have a go at making the topping lift eye splice.

 

 

Michael

[Sailor1234567890]

This is a really cool project.

[DORIS]

Outstanding project. Admirable details and professional quality of your work. I love the realism of the model.
Thank you for sharing, Michael. You work is very inspirational!

Best regards

Doris

[druxey]

Lovely re-purposing of firewood, Michael!

[popeye the sailor]

neat way of replicating decorative knees........very nice & great progress!

[michael mott]

Thank you all for your nice remarks and for all the likes.

 

Today I did do the eye-splice for the topping lift it was harder to do than I expected.

 

 

 

I eneded up gluing the ends of the three strands to create a stiff end to thread under the lay.

 

 

I found that it was a bit easier to have the rope clamped to the bench and then be able to pull on it while doing the threading

 

 

Looped over the boom

 

 

 

 

 

I also sanded the top of the cockpit walls ready to start on the cap.

 

 

The first piece of wood for the boat it was 2 years ago this month that I began building this cutter, this first picture of one of the frames was taken on March 9th 2012,  it seems like it was both yesterday and years ago at the same time.

 

Michael

 

[captainbob]

Best eye-splice I've seen on a model and I love the marlin spike.

 

Bob

[popeye the sailor]

great progress Michael....such a nice scale for tying knots!  super workmanship and added detail    gee,  the ninth is only a few days away........I'll be sure to wish 'er a happy birthday then........I hope your not in for the  'terrible twos' 

[dvm27]

Last year at Mystic we were given regular rope and instructed how to make eye-splices. I daresay not one in five did it correctly. It certainly took me a couple of tries to make a passable version.  Well done!

[Jim Lad]

That looks a nice, neat splice Michael.  How are you with wire?  

 

John

[SJSoane]

 

Beautiful work, Michael, as usual. And every step makes it look even better!

 

Mark

[texxn5]

very nice Michael, she's looking good.

[michael mott]

 

When Doris, magical model maker, gives you an endorsement of approval, you know Michael, you have reached, the elite leagues of modeling pros.

Great example of the modeler's art.

 

Montani sempert liberi   Happy modeling

   Crackers   :)

Thank you Crackers, after all it was Doris that got me into the whole model boat building caper.

 

 

Best eye-splice I've seen on a model and I love the marlin spike.

 

Bob

Thanks Bob, My hope is to improve both the look and the time it takes to do it.

 

 

great progress Michael....such a nice scale for tying knots!  super workmanship and added detail    gee,  the ninth is only a few days away........I'll be sure to wish 'er a happy birthday then........I hope your not in for the  'terrible twos' 

Denis I take it you have experience the terrible twos?

 

 

Last year at Mystic we were given regular rope and instructed how to make eye-splices. I daresay not one in five did it correctly. It certainly took me a couple of tries to make a passable version.  Well done!

Greg Thanks , and I can see why it takes a few times to get it right.

 

 

That looks a nice, neat splice Michael.  How are you with wire?  

 

John

John I don't think my finger would take to kindly to getting skewered with fine wires.

 

 

Beautiful work, Michael, as usual. And every step makes it look even better!

 

Mark

Mark thanks, your commendation is greatly appreciated.

 

 

very nice Michael, she's looking good.

Texxn5 thank you for looking in and your kind remark.

 

I have been "practicing" today and made some sequential pics of this splice here.

 

 

Now all I have to do is learn how to taper the splice make some better thimbles. and make more shackles and blocks

 

Michael

 

[mtaylor]

Michael,

 

If you hadn't put the ruler in the shot, I would have thought it was full-sized.  Excellent work.

[Blue Ensign]

What an excellent 'how to' and what a fine result Michael, well done

 

B.E.

[Sailor1234567890]

Taper the splice by gradually reducing the amount of yarn making up each strand. In other words, taper each strand individually then continue the splice. It will automatically taper in. You'll often worm parcel and serve the line as well in full scale so you shouldn't even see it. Great job at that scale. I consider myself to be pretty good at splicing. Three strand is easy to me. Not sure I could do it at that scale though.  Kudos to you on that great job. 

[michael mott]

 

If you hadn't put the ruler in the shot, I would have thought it was full-sized.

 

Mark, It was much easier making the giant rule ;~)

 

 

What an excellent 'how to' and what a fine result

B.E. Thank you I am glad it is useful.

 

 

Taper the splice by gradually reducing the amount of yarn making up each strand. In other words, taper each strand individually then continue the splice.

Sailor, That sounds a lot easier said than done. I will see what I can do.

 

Earlier when I was making the bowsprit stays and creating some eyes with the shrink tube I did give the tapering some thought, and I did serve the whole area to cover the shrink tube on one of the eyes.

 

In the following picture the shrink has been served but I did not taper the strands.

 

 

The eye on the right toward the end of the bowsprit still needs to be served to cover the shrink.

 

 

One of the reasons for learning how to make the real splice is because one of the shrink eyes did come loose early on, it could be seized and only a short piece of shrink used then served and it would look Ok but it would not be as strong.

 

Michael

 

 

[Sailor1234567890]

I think you're working in a scale where it's just big enough that you can work a real splice and get the right effect and the strength needed.

[michael mott]

 

I think you're working in a scale where it's just big enough that you can work a real splice and get the right effect and the strength needed.

I thought you might say that.... oh well its just more work.  I need to keep the natives happy;~)

 

And thank you to all the people who hit the likes button.

 

Michael

[Bedford]

You are doing lovely work there Michael, I check this thread every time I log in.