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Good callout Chris. Agree with you 100% and I had sealed the rudder with WOP and used painters tape for this exact reason. The problem arose from drilling through the pintles into the rudder and capillary action pulled the thinned paint down into the grain under the WOP. I could probably do some spot sanding to minimize it, but it's not very noticeable to the eye right now and will become even less noticeable once the AYC darkens. I changed my workflow for the gudgeons to avoid this in the future and will cover in the next update.

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These are my top two right now. I will go with one of these which is quite conservative for what the actual color schemes were back then. The brighter and gaudier the better for these owners. They really wanted their sloop to stand out on the river.

Yeah....and now to make 1x2,3mm strips from that 😄😄😄, needs some patience. Vahur

Nice to see it in such a rough version!

Thanks guys…lots of choices for colors. You have to remember that these Hudson River Sloops were very colorful. I am also gravitated towards the versions with fewer colors but that would not be how it was painted at all. In fact the Sloops that were built in Nyack NY were probably the the most gaudy and colorful. Its quite the dilemma for me. This is an actual “portrait” of one that is very famous. Way too many colors for my tastes but maybe it will grow on me. Simple black will probably not do at all.

Post 9 Completing the Flags. As a precaution against ink run, I give the flags a final spray coat of Matt Varnish. 9062 Before this dried the flags were manipulated to hang limply and the folds secured using silk thread. 9067 I decided on the ‘limp’ look because it adds colour to the barge without overpowering the display. The final test is how they look in place. 9075 9084 9079 9088 9087 Fairly happy how they look, so I’ll put them aside and continue fiddling with the hull. B.E. 18/08/2026

Some really nice A quality European maple and alder arrived today. Should be enough for some period:) Br Vahur / Hobbymill.EU

Welcome aboard!!!

Buy Lower Manhattan online | BlueBrixx

It looks very neat! Nice to see the stern develop 🙂

Exceptional work!

Before I discovered Vanguard models, my "buy" finger had been hovering over the 63,181 piece Notre Dame. At about £2500, it's not one that's easy to justify "popping it into the stash for a rainy day". And yet, and yet......

That's some nice custom work! It turned out great 🙂 I love the warm colors of the shellac, really nice👌

I like the neat rigged set-up off the guns, nice work!

Freeing PortsOriginally, I had planned to surface-etch the lids and the frames on the inside of the bulwark. The drawings for the masks were ready, but I never got around to actually etch or have the parts etched. Since I now have the laser-cutter, these parts were cut from printer-paper (80 g/m2 = 0.1 mm thick). With a width of the frames of only 0.5 mm, the surface-etched rivets may not have come out anyway. The same for the rivets on the hinges of the lids. At least not with my somewhat primitve home-etching arrangement. If I had etched the parts from 0.1 mm nickel-brass, the overall thickness would have been reduced to a more correct 0.05 mm (= 8 mm for the prototype) The lids have no latches to lock them and the ports no bars across them to prevent items or people being washed overboard. This makes their construction simpler. Papers, even the smoothest ones, alway have a certain surface-roughness, at least compared to the bakelite of the bulwark. Therefore, the chosen paper was soaked in wood filler and spread to dry on a thick glass-plate that was covered in cling-film. The latter allowed to remove the paper without it rolling up. The surface was then smoothed with very fine steel-wool. The lids were cut from the thus prepared paper, but it needed several trials to find the right cutting parameters in order to arrive at parts of the correct dimensions. This is a disadvantage of such simple laser-cutters and their software. As the material is practically free, this is only a nuisance, but no other loss. Also the etching may not work out right in the first go, which may mean a considerable loss of money and time, if the process had been outsourced. Laser-cut lids for the freeing-ports Unfortunately, it does not work for very small parts with the paper prepared as above. It turned out to better for the very small parts, including the frames, to cut them from unprepared paper. Perhaps I should switch to dark paper. Due to its lower albedo (reflectivity) it absorbs more energy from the laser. Unfortunately, all the coloured papers I have come by so far are quite rough on the surface. I cheated somewhat for the freeing-ports. As I was afraid that I would not been able to cut them out cleanly and evenly, I abstained from it. Also, the bakelite-paper used for the bulwark for reasons of stability would have had a scale-thickness of 64 mm, when looked on from the side. Therefore, frames and lids were glued flat onto the inside and outside of the bulwark respectively. I hope one will not notice this too much, once the stanchions are in as well. Frames and lids were glued on with zapon-varnish. Little laser-cut rectangles of 0.3 mm x 0.5 mm were stuck onto lids to simulate the hinges. Installation of frames and lids To be continued ...

Almost 14.000 pieces! That's a serious amount, will be nice to see this build 🙂

Keel and stern parts - Update #7 The handful of parts for the keel and stern post were simple to add. The fit was very good (as always this speaks to the high production quality) but it helped to clamp these parts and to tape them down. This light pressure ensured they stayed tight against the false keel until the glue had dried. The stern counter was an interesting part to deal with as it had to be shaped into a concave. I’ve not had to do this on a model ship before so I deferred to the instruction manual which suggested soaking the part for 90 minutes in warm water and then binding it to a glass jar/can and leaving it overnight. This was my first attempt: A jar of raspberry jam and resistance bands... When test fitting I found this jar had been too big and it induced too shallow a curve. I ended up using a can of shaving gel about 5cm in diameter instead. The result was slightly tighter curve and a part that fit nicely. Good shaping meant that light pressure applied with few strips of masking tape was sufficient to hold it lightly in place while the glue dried. Bevel the edges where these two parts meet so they fit tightly together.

Hi again all, another challenge for the more experienced and/or knowledgeable of you. John Fincham (1854), page 322, writes that the crank of the yardarm irons fitted to the fore and main topsail yards were made to ship and unship. This is confirmed by Lees page 14 who writes that from 1834, the outer were detachable (but see later comment). In HMCSS Victoria, this would definitely have had to be done before hoisting the yard. I am assuming this meanty the strap (including the ferrule ) and hoops would remain in place, and only the crank and fixed ring being unshipped. Was this simply to make stowage easier, as once rigged and the yard hoisted they would remain in place until the yard was lowered to the deck again. The real question though; how was the crank secured in place? The hoops and a bolt kept the strap in place, but if the crank and ring were unshipped and shipped was it a simple slip fit? This would just beg for it to eventually fall out? None of the contemporary authors nor internet searches has elicited an explanation as to why, or to how this was done. However, Lees does take a different approach showing on page 16 that only vertical part of the crank and the ring were detachable (makes more sense). The crank vertical arm was held in place with a forelock (key/pin). I would greatly appreciate if there is any other information on the subject please. cheers Pat

Thank you so much 🙂 It's a hard decision. There is quite a big difference in price between DoK and Adder. I think DoK has more intricate parts and more careful painting is required. The rigging also looks like it is more complicated on DoK. Adder is also one of @Chris Watton 's more recent designs so it includes a handful of features that make the build a bit easier which I've noticed are missing on the DoK (which is one of his earlier designs). For me, Adder has been a fun build and it's working for me as a stepping stone towards the bigger ships. I hope to tackle Surprise one day!

Welcome

Looks like a great set. Will be following along.

Reobrix - The Clock Tower THE CLOCK TOWER

Good Morning Talking to @Jim H we were discussing non ship builds, centre pieces that made a satement without the mess, i decided to go for this, three days from ordering it arrived from Germany postage free yesterday, i knew it was large but the size of the box still took me by surprise at over 21KG

THE CLOCK TOWER Build Big Ben with Reobrix and Feel the Power of London's History!