Peter,it's very easy for me to sit here and blithely hoist a massive project onto your and Rob's shoulders, and not have to do any of the heavy lifting. These ideas always sound SO cool when somebody else has to execute them.
Interesting fact, here She just happen to be doing some research for her father, Michael Mjelde, for his, then upcoming book, Perusing websites, when she came across our endeavor on MSW. She contacted me and we set up an appointment with Mike. The happiest, gittiest day of my modeling life.
I think that is correct concerning the BlueJacket plans.
Rob's being modest. None other than author Michael Mjelde, who's been single-handedly researching McKay's final clipper for six decades, has declared Rob's 1:96th scale, entirely scratch built Glory of the Seas the most accurate reproduction of that magnificent ship! That is exactly the lofty goal we set out to achieve and in all humility I believe we may have exceeded expectations.
Not to sound self serving, but, as you put it...the goal was to create the best recreation of Glory of the Seas as possible.......with that being said...humanity steps in and when that happens error is always introduced.
Bill,.
Your representation of the naval hood and cutwater look spot on and gives me a good visual understanding of how they should be constructed.
Bill, Thanks! I'm honored by your compliment. Now you can see why it's been so frustrating to see these spectacular Flying Cloud replicas that have so missed the mark when it's come to what Rob and I now refer to as "the unique McKay bow."
Bill, you're welcome. Do yourself a favor and look closely at the bow from Glory of the Seas. You'll see that, unlike decorative headboards or trailboards, McKay's navel hoods are actually integral structural extensions of the ship's hull. The naval hoods do an amazing twist from upper concave hull configuration to arriving at a combined point where they both overlap the underlying cutwater. The cutwater is itself an extension of the stem to which it attaches. Where others have made their mistakes is by completely discounting this inventive arrangement is by misunderstanding McLeans Scottish description of a "plain bow."
The commonly used decorative headboards or trailboards, were missing entirely.....making her appear *naked*, and McLean's observation of her having a, "plain bow.", meant just that....but if you are not a student of those design elements on Packets and clippers of the time....you will, make the grave assumption, that so many have made. Not to mention....if you have not fully researched,(as Rich and I have done), the particulars of McKay's Secret implementations, and he himself has claimed.......you would not have the remotes idea of the significance or, lack there of, of said structures.
Rich...this is the best rendition I have seen of the Angel of Flying Cloud.. Every one I see presented by model companies is holey unacceptable. Short, squat, clumsy looking and way to large.
