A Word of General Encouragement for My Fellow Ship-Modelers

A.L. Thorsen said:
What I am saying here isn't a response to anyone; it's a small irritating gripe, so I'm just blowing off some steam. One of the ships I'm working on is ZHL's Le Soleil Royal. Thus far I have not needed to use any small pins that are supplied in all model kits. Now as I need one--lo and behold--there aren't any in the kit. I never heard of such a thing. Now when I first got the kit I did the usual inventory count of all the items. However, I never count the little pin-nails. I am not going to count something that tiny to see if all 350 of them are there! Every model I've ever owned comes with those little nails in abundance. Excuse my ranting, but it really miffs me that 1 or 2 dollars worth of tiny pin-nails are not in a kit that I spent almost $400 dolars for. I'm glad I have other kits--I can use some nails from one of those. There, now after blowing off some steam to my brother and sister ship modelers feel better. In the light of my experience I will no longer take the kit for granted. Andy from Kenosha.
Click to expand...
Kinda like mounting the cannon ports? Dont take anything for granted?
 
A.L. Thorsen said:
What I am saying here isn't a response to anyone; it's a small irritating gripe, so I'm just blowing off some steam. One of the ships I'm working on is ZHL's Le Soleil Royal. Thus far I have not needed to use any small pins that are supplied in all model kits. Now as I need one--lo and behold--there aren't any in the kit. I never heard of such a thing. Now when I first got the kit I did the usual inventory count of all the items. However, I never count the little pin-nails. I am not going to count something that tiny to see if all 350 of them are there! Every model I've ever owned comes with those little nails in abundance. Excuse my ranting, but it really miffs me that 1 or 2 dollars worth of tiny pin-nails are not in a kit that I spent almost $400 dolars for. I'm glad I have other kits--I can use some nails from one of those. There, now after blowing off some steam to my brother and sister ship modelers feel better. In the light of my experience I will no longer take the kit for granted. Andy from Kenosha.
Click to expand...
Hallo Andy,
Short question: What is your intention to do with these (missing) nails?
You wrote by yourself: Thus far I have not needed to use any small pins that are supplied in all model kits
Is it for fixing the first planking? Modelers have several different methods to fix them, yes some are using nails and sand over them afterwards, but other have clamps needles etc. Therefore why should a manufacturer add something for temporary works, which is used only by a handfull modelers? With this a kit would be 1 or 2 $ more expensive for things a lot of modelers do not need..... just a thought and no offence
 
Uwek said:
Hallo Andy,
Short question: What is your intention to do with these (missing) nails?
You wrote by yourself: Thus far I have not needed to use any small pins that are supplied in all model kits
Is it for fixing the first planking? Modelers have several different methods to fix them, yes some are using nails and sand over them afterwards, but other have clamps needles etc. Therefore why should a manufacturer add something for temporary works, which is used only by a handfull modelers? With this a kit would be 1 or 2 $ more expensive for things a lot of modelers do not need..... just a thought and no offence
Click to expand...
Hi Uwek--
Thank you for your response, especially regarding other methods of fixing the plank to the frame--broadening my horizons is a good thing. But I think you misunderstood the statement I made which you quoted. I did not mean that: although every kit I've ever owned had these small nails provided but I never used them; and now that I want to use them with the Le Soleil Royal they are not in the kit. What I did mean is that: every kit provides them and I always have used them; but in the case of the Le Soleil Royal I had to set it aside temporarily and get some nails from one of my other kits for use on the LSR. Now the very inexpensive price of the nail really has nothing to do with it. Wood and nails go together like glue and clamps--they belong together. I confess that in my case--since I have plenty of nails in all my other kits to use--that I over reacted. However, if I did not have those other kits to fall back on I'd be stuck. A small nail is a great way to hold the plank in place either permanently, or temporarily as the glue dries. The provided nails are certainly far less expensive than a clamp. And needles would make a larger hole in the plank than one of those tiny nails would. The main point is this: not to supply nails in a wooden kit makes no logical sense whatsoever. On a larger scale it would be like purchasing a bowling alley filled with bowling balls but no pins. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I highly doubt that only a handful of modelers use those nails; it's probably closer to the truth that the vast majority use them.
Again, thank you for encouraging me to broaden my horizons.

Andy from Kenosha
 
A.L. Thorsen said:
Many of you might think that what I am about to write is sacrilegiously blasphemous. As much as I love ship modeling, there is one part of it which I consider boring, namely, planking the decks. But I tried something different rather than applying titebond III to each plank. and glue it in--one at a time before applying glue to the next plank, etc. I applied DAP Weldwood Contact Cement to several planks, then to a large portion of the false deck. I waited about 20 minutes and then, one after another, I quickly bonded the planks to the false deck. Since it is a quicker process, there is no boredom along for the ride. So that's my plug for contact cement relative to ship modeling. Andy from Kenosha.
Click to expand...
Here is a reply to my own "brainstorm"-->by the time I finished "round 2" of the above suggestion I took a good look at the deck--the planks were crooked. Now, that's me--if you can go several planks at a time and keep the planks straight--go for it. For me, I'm better off sticking to one plank at a time using Titebond III. However, I have had good success using contact cement for both layers of hull planking, probably because I only lay one plank at a time.
Andy from Kenosha
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
i am in my 70s and fellow older builders are passing on. I found out what they thought was a valuable library or collections of journals and magazines end up as just "stuff" the family has to get rid of. I stopped and looked at the stuff i collected. Been moving a stack of Nautical Research journals from one spot to another, in boxes in storage, same with other magazines. Then i came to the realization the sheer volume and space these took up was not worth the amount of information they provided. So, i tried to sell a complete collection of NRG journals and no one wanted them, could not even give them away. They ended their days in a paper recycle bin. As far as the other publications journals and magazines , well, the articles that interested me were far and few between and any general information can be found on line. Plans are like kits at first you are interested in them and think hum? some day i might want to build that ship, 10 years later and there they still sit.
Even tools at one time i thought i could not live without an small lathe or a 4 inch table saw,, i used them on a project or two and now they sit collect rust and dust.
Click to expand...
Sounds like that huge pile of National Geographic magazines that piled up since 1967. You could cover a wall sized bookshelf with those. Wish I had been around when you were looking to get rid of those NRG mags. I would have taken them and extracted as much information as I could before building my first ship model, but that's what happened when you're the newbie!
 
A.L. Thorsen said:
Many of you might think that what I am about to write is sacrilegiously blasphemous. As much as I love ship modeling, there is one part of it which I consider boring, namely, planking the decks. But I tried something different rather than applying titebond III to each plank. and glue it in--one at a time before applying glue to the next plank, etc. I applied DAP Weldwood Contact Cement to several planks, then to a large portion of the false deck. I waited about 20 minutes and then, one after another, I quickly bonded the planks to the false deck. Since it is a quicker process, there is no boredom along for the ride. So that's my plug for contact cement relative to ship modeling. Andy from Kenosha.
Click to expand...
Planking and ratline rigging often get boring. They are tedious by nature, and that is why so few people build wooden sailing ships compared to other hobbies. I still plank one strip at a time, but I use Titebond II, not Titebond III, because it takes longer to dry, giving you more time to work.
 
Wish I had been around when you were looking to get rid of those NRG mags.

the problem was the cost of shipping them a full collection is quite heavy and you can buy a CD collection of all the journals cheaper than paying the postage to have the journals sent.
 
A.L. Thorsen said:
I would like to share something I struggle with in the hope that I could encourage you not to do what I have done in regards to ship modeling. I lost count, but I believe I have 12 or 13 ship models! Some of them have not been started. Sometimes I look at all that I have and I feel so overwhelmed that I end up not working on any of them--all day. My point is this: 2 or at the most 3 is one thing--12 or 13 is another. Besides, all that money! If I just purchased 2 or 3 I would have had quite a bit of money to purchase more needed ship modeling tools! I acted in an undisciplined way because "I just have got to get that ship model!" Grant it, due to the time element in building a ship model 2 or 3 I believe is a wise move. While one is drying from paint or glue, 1 or 2 others could be worked on. It's not unheard of for a ship model to take over a year to build (years ago it took me 15 months just for the hull work of Sergal's "Great Harry"). So 2 or 3 is a wise move. But I believe I went overboard money-wise because "I just had to have it". The money--and time--could have been used more wisely. So my ship modeling brothers/sisters--for what it's worth I hope you'll use your time and money more wisely than I have. Andy from Kenosha.
Click to expand...
I have 30 plastic models in my collection. But I moved and dont have the area I need for my airbrush etc. So they will go. I am working on a simple ship that I can brush paint in the house. I learned this lesson the hard way.
 
I binned my plastic Victory when we downsized in 2019. No regrets.
I've got the finished Longboat (6 1/5" long) and the shell of Medea (3ft long) and that's it. No kits hanging around. No more plans I will start 'one day'.
As a writer I have a large Naval History library to keep me busy when not in the shipyard. Should see me out and less mess for my son to dispose of.
 
Masters Mate said:
I binned my plastic Victory when we downsized in 2019. No regrets.
I've got the finished Longboat (6 1/5" long) and the shell of Medea (3ft long) and that's it. No kits hanging around. No more plans I will start 'one day'.
As a writer I have a large Naval History library to keep me busy when not in the shipyard. Should see me out and less mess for my son to dispose of.
Click to expand...
We are missing your Medea build... ;)
 
Jimsky said:
We are missing your Medea build... ;)
Click to expand...
It is still happening slowly but I have been having an ongoing battle with my Internet Service Provider and haven't been able to successfully upload any images. I've tried several times over the past few months, keeping images small, but the uploads always fail to complete. Nothing to do with SOS. It is a bottleneck in our community internet service which we had not foreseen and have been trying to have rectified. I'll keep trying over the next little while.
At least I can still read what is going on at SOS. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top