Weekend work: not a heck of a lot, to be honest.
Let's see. Last week John told me I needed to sand down the first three frames near the bow of Blue Toon. Got that done on the weekend. On my worklist for tonight is to mark the spots on the frames where the top of the first plank will sit. I need to have that done before I go to John's tomorrow night, because the plan is to start planking tomorrow, assuming my frame sanding has been done to John's satisfaction.
On all the other models I have on the go, I did zilch this weekend. The weather was nice and the playoffs are on, so I spent the days outside with the kids, and the evenings watching hockey. I'll try to be more productive this week.
Monday, 6 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
MTB work: I picked up a couple 550 motors last night from a friend. They're destined for the MTB model, and should really make it skip along. I have all the pieces for the wheelhouse of the MTB ready to go right now, and will begin assembly soon. I spent a bit of time this past weekend coating the inside of the hull with epoxy to strengthen and waterproof the hull. I got about half done and will do the rest this weekend, time permitting. I also need to place an order with Cornwall Model Boats, for props, shafts, couplings, and rudders.
Blue Toon work: I had a bit of trouble with this one this past week. While working on it, sanding the frames to shape in preparation for planking, I hit the hull against the table, snapping off one side of one frame and cracking another. Much cursing followed. I lost a lot of time because I had to glue the cracked frame, and glue and brace the broken frame, then let everything sit while the glue cured. On Tuesday I took the hull over to John's thinking I was ready to plank, but he says the three frames closest to the bow need more work, so we spent our work time making hull planks. Assuming all goes well this weekend, we will begin planking Blue Toon this Tuesday evening.
It was somewhat of a frustrating week with little visible progress.
Blue Toon work: I had a bit of trouble with this one this past week. While working on it, sanding the frames to shape in preparation for planking, I hit the hull against the table, snapping off one side of one frame and cracking another. Much cursing followed. I lost a lot of time because I had to glue the cracked frame, and glue and brace the broken frame, then let everything sit while the glue cured. On Tuesday I took the hull over to John's thinking I was ready to plank, but he says the three frames closest to the bow need more work, so we spent our work time making hull planks. Assuming all goes well this weekend, we will begin planking Blue Toon this Tuesday evening.
It was somewhat of a frustrating week with little visible progress.
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Monday, 22 April 2013
Weekend work:
Not an awful lot of work got done this weekend. Here's a summary:
On Blue Toon: I did some more work, lofting the frames. No sense it posting a picture of that as you'd never be able to spot the difference from last time;
On Bluenose: On this project that my wife will start, I've traced the bulkheads onto some 3mm plywood. The real Bluenose has something like 68 frames. This model has about a dozen bulkheads. I'm thankful for that;
On RCNS Whistler: I don't know where Traplet got the RCNS bit. It should be HMCS, and since it's a Restigouche-class model, we've decided that it will be re-named HMCS Terra Nova, since that ship has a history here, and I've seen it myself here in Halifax. This is a very simple off-scale model with a flat-bottomed hull and very little topside detail. Yesterday, I cut out the bulkheads (five of them) and the transom, as I don't want my son using the razor saw and X-Acto knife. Then, I cut some 1/4" strips out of a piece of 1/4" sheet balsa, to be used as stringers. We'll begin construction after work/school today, and this time he'll be doing all the work. Pictures when we've made some progress;
Another of my kids has a model of a Viking boat that he got for Christmas, and when he saw me working with his brother on the Terra Nova, he suddenly decided the Viking boat needs to be built right now, and asked me to help. The wood for this boat is absolutely horrible, so a good deal of labour was expended for little progress, but I'll post a picture of it later on;
On everything else, I got nothing done.
Oh, and on Sunday afternoon I was asked "Dad, when are you going to build the N-scale train set for us?"
The fun never ends.
Not an awful lot of work got done this weekend. Here's a summary:
On Blue Toon: I did some more work, lofting the frames. No sense it posting a picture of that as you'd never be able to spot the difference from last time;
On Bluenose: On this project that my wife will start, I've traced the bulkheads onto some 3mm plywood. The real Bluenose has something like 68 frames. This model has about a dozen bulkheads. I'm thankful for that;
On RCNS Whistler: I don't know where Traplet got the RCNS bit. It should be HMCS, and since it's a Restigouche-class model, we've decided that it will be re-named HMCS Terra Nova, since that ship has a history here, and I've seen it myself here in Halifax. This is a very simple off-scale model with a flat-bottomed hull and very little topside detail. Yesterday, I cut out the bulkheads (five of them) and the transom, as I don't want my son using the razor saw and X-Acto knife. Then, I cut some 1/4" strips out of a piece of 1/4" sheet balsa, to be used as stringers. We'll begin construction after work/school today, and this time he'll be doing all the work. Pictures when we've made some progress;
Another of my kids has a model of a Viking boat that he got for Christmas, and when he saw me working with his brother on the Terra Nova, he suddenly decided the Viking boat needs to be built right now, and asked me to help. The wood for this boat is absolutely horrible, so a good deal of labour was expended for little progress, but I'll post a picture of it later on;
On everything else, I got nothing done.
Oh, and on Sunday afternoon I was asked "Dad, when are you going to build the N-scale train set for us?"
The fun never ends.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
So, now I've got even more projects on the go.
A bit over 20 years ago, my wife (this was long before we met) decided she wanted to build a model of the Bluenose. She bought herself a kit, built the hull, then Real Life interrupted and the model got set aside. I recently mentioned to my modelling friend John that this Bluenose hull was sitting around in my basement, and he asked me to bring it over. This afternoon, I dropped by John's house with the whole family in tow so John could look at the hull. Long story short, the hull is shot. It's been sitting for so long that the planks on the hull - which weren't properly fastened because the hull wasn't finished - have come loose, and repair is too difficult. John's advise was to start anew, so to that end, he gave us some templates to use to make new frames and a keel. My wife has said she'd be interested in building the model, but not alone. She wants me to help.
Also, my youngest son, who is 8, said he'd like to help build the model, but shortly afterwards said he'd like to work on something easier first. So, I went through my stock of plans at home and found the plans for RNCS Whistler, a semi-scale Restigouche-class destroyer model from Traplet. Info can be seen here:
http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12247/rcns-whistler
Before supper today, I ran down to my local hobby shop and bought a good supply of balsa to start building the Whistler, which we'll start in a couple days after I have a chance to copy the plans so we can cut out the frame patterns.
So in addition to all the kits I have on the go myself, I now have two more to help with. Great fun, but I have to wonder if I'm ever going to get anything finished.
A bit over 20 years ago, my wife (this was long before we met) decided she wanted to build a model of the Bluenose. She bought herself a kit, built the hull, then Real Life interrupted and the model got set aside. I recently mentioned to my modelling friend John that this Bluenose hull was sitting around in my basement, and he asked me to bring it over. This afternoon, I dropped by John's house with the whole family in tow so John could look at the hull. Long story short, the hull is shot. It's been sitting for so long that the planks on the hull - which weren't properly fastened because the hull wasn't finished - have come loose, and repair is too difficult. John's advise was to start anew, so to that end, he gave us some templates to use to make new frames and a keel. My wife has said she'd be interested in building the model, but not alone. She wants me to help.
Also, my youngest son, who is 8, said he'd like to help build the model, but shortly afterwards said he'd like to work on something easier first. So, I went through my stock of plans at home and found the plans for RNCS Whistler, a semi-scale Restigouche-class destroyer model from Traplet. Info can be seen here:
http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12247/rcns-whistler
Before supper today, I ran down to my local hobby shop and bought a good supply of balsa to start building the Whistler, which we'll start in a couple days after I have a chance to copy the plans so we can cut out the frame patterns.
So in addition to all the kits I have on the go myself, I now have two more to help with. Great fun, but I have to wonder if I'm ever going to get anything finished.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Some progress this weekend. In spite of being busy with hockey and such, I managed to find some time to work on both Blue Toon and Jane Burnyeat. No pictures of the latter, as all I did this weekend was work on building frames, but here's a picture of how Blue Toon looks now, and the latest picture of the MTB, with deck attached.
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