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Fair American 1:48 by Model Expo

Namabiiru said:
Anyone know a good source for 2mm blocks? Syren seems to have stopped selling ropes and blocks, and Dockrard’s smallest blocks are 2.5mm.
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My hat is off to you Nama, 2mm blocks are about the size of small birdseed. I'll have to deal with them that size too before long. Like Kurt said try Dry-Dock Models.
Actually 2.5mm is the smallest I have ever worked with.
 
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Namabiiru said:
Thank you, Chuck. One would think from the inconsistency of my first few hooks that I was doing it jig-less, but I am actually using a jig. It still took a while to work out a system, but now they are coming out quite consistent, with only about one in 15 going in the trash bin.

The jig is simply a short length of guitar string (very stiff, but very thin) and a 0.5mm drill bit inserted parallel to one another in a piece of acrylic, with just enough space between them to fit the brass wire I am using for the hooks.
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Namabiiiru! I wish I had the skill and patience to set up a jig! I only asked because I make mine one-at-a-time ROTF True story. And I thought your's looked good!

Blessings.
Chuck
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
I buy them from Zoly at Dry-Dock Models & Parts. I use their 1.5mm single and double sheave blocks for gun tackles.
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The smallest I saw was 2.5mm, but I’ll take another look—maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.
Daniel20 said:
My hat is off to you Nama, 2mm blocks are about the size of small birdseed. I'll have to deal with them that size too before long. Like Kurt said try Dry-Dock Models.
Actually 2.5mm is the smallest I have ever worked with.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Daniel! It was Chuck that inspired me to give it a try, not to mention gifting me with some (I assume) surplus blocks.
The Gavel said:
Namabiiiru! I wish I had the skill and patience to set up a jig! I only asked because I make mine one-at-a-time ROTF True story. And I thought your's looked good!

Blessings.
Chuck
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Necessity being the mother of invention, I needed jig because I had no tools small enough to attempt it by hand. As far as patience, the jig is a huge time-saver since I can knock out about 2 hooks per minute with few wasted attempts.
The Gavel said:
I was just on Dry-Dock (ran out of 3mm ebony deadeyes :eek:) and they have blocks down to 1.5 single sheave.

Blessings.
Chuck
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I’ll take another look. Old eyes may have missed them.
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
I buy them from Zoly at Dry-Dock Models & Parts. I use their 1.5mm single and double sheave blocks for gun tackles.
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I see where I went wrong: DDM only has pearwood blocks down to 2.5mm. Boxwood blocks, listed separately, get as small as 1.5mm.

Need to think about how I want to resolve this dilemma.
 
Namabiiru said:
I see where I went wrong: DDM only has pearwood blocks down to 2.5mm. Boxwood blocks, listed separately, get as small as 1.5mm.

Need to think about how I want to resolve this dilemma.
Click to expand...
Boxwood has such a tight grain that it will not take stain easily, so matching the color of the pearwood blocks may require you to paint them. If you do paint them, open the sheave holes with a micro drill bit so you can get the line to pass through the block. Harden about 12mm of the end of the line with some CA to so the line itself becomes a needle. I remove excess CA from the line by running the end between my pinched thumb and fourfinger. The line will form a thin, hard needle but them you have to get the glue off your fingers. It's worth it though, because fighting a the fraying end of a line to get it to go through a tiny block is very frustrating, and you can't use a wire threading tool on the smallest of blocks. If you try, you will split the block in twain. <-- I get to use this obsolete, fancy word for the first time, showing my age. Don't hate me. :D
 
Got the deck laid finally and rough-sanded.
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IMG_7480.jpeg
A couple of joints are not as tight as I would have liked, but overall I’m rather pleased. In order to get the gun ports looking right, I needed to lower the guns, which I accomplished by sanding the deck planks to about half their original thickness on my homemade thickness sander. It didn’t do a perfect job, but worked better than I had expected.

For caullking I used artist’s pastels. Although I like how it turned out, the pastels are pretty messy to work with, so not sure I’d recommend it.

For the rivet-counters (are they treenail counters here?), yes, the planks are longer than any tree could ever hope to grow, but doing them as full-length planks added some simplicity and I think the deck will be busy enough when complete that the length of the planks will not really be noticable.

Need to experiment with finishes, but that will have to wait until we get back from the States.

If you’re wondering about the clamps on the bulwarks, those are holding a small strip of hull planking I needed to add in order to raise the top of the bulwark about 1mm to ensure the gun ports came out right.

I’m still not quite happy with the consistency of the waterways so I need to come up with a way to sand the bevel down some. Custom sanding block should do the trick.

That’s all for now. Hopefully, it doesn’t take me so long for the next update.
 
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