Hey Jim!
Well, I guess I don’t have to ask “How’s it coming”. It seems like you have a good flow going and I won’t bother you with more than "Can’t wait to see her with the masts set!
Not rigged, just set! That hull looks audacious! Before you set the Manila or Hemp rigging is when you polish everything in place! That’s how I did it. At least one end was fastened in place and a tweezer turned into a little hook held the other end-Polished the daylights out of stuff!
Hi TB!
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, they do look nice all polished up but those tiny belaying pins are hard to hold and polish once installed. I usually polish them before installing. They also say to put a coat of varnish on them to keep them from rusting. In all my years of using them, I never saw one rust. They went back to their original dull finish but never rusted. I used a ton of them on my R/C boats and they got wet but never rusted. Unless it takes another 50 or so years to rust???[;)]then I’ll never see it[;)].
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hey Fox!
You are so right. I just always put a clearcoat on them to protect them from what might be in the water. My vessels are run mostly in the river, because the parks here in New Braunfels, TEXAS, say My boats would “Disturb the Wildlife” . A mad Goose can do more damage than I can!
I hear you TB! One of our old sailing sites is sort of down in the valley. One day the cops showed up and said “There isn’t any trouble but I have to tell you that there has been a complaint made. A person in one of the houses behind you said that “your sails are blocking my view of the lake”. If she calls again, I’ll take care of it but this was just so you guys would be informed.” Other complaints came in about all the noise. We went to the township meeting with my sailboat and showed them there were no motors in them except the servo to let out the sails. I had my PT 109 too with 2- 12V motors. I turned them on to show them how much noise they made. “Complaint dismissed.” Chased away from another site for “chasing the fish” because they hadn’t caught anything all day. All kinds of BS. Some people can’t stand to see others having a little fun with their hobby.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hi everyone!
Sorry for the lack of updates on the Bluenose. The reason is that life happens and a few things came up that kept me away from the bench. Well, the most present happening is that every year, a small number of the homes in our development are singled out for new flooring. I think a lot of you know what happens next. Our home looks like we are moving. Everything is boxed up and ready to be stored in the garage when the floors are ready to be installed and the workers can move the furniture around as they install the flooring. My loft, that I just finished re-arainging, is all in boxes to be stored iin the garage. Sooooooo, I am out-of-business until the flooring is installed. The one good thing about all this mess is that the carpet monster will be gone forever and replaced with a light grey laminate flooring. My chair will roll effortlessly instead of constantly bogging down in the plush carpet that is on the floor now.
The process for this undertaking has already begun. We’ve picked the flooring and now they will decide how much of it they will pay for. We already had to change our pick for the downstairs as it cost too much and they wouldn’t pay their portion as it would have been too high. So we picked a less expensive flooring and it’s now their turn. Will have to wait to see if our choice is in stock in the warehouse or not. If not, it will add more time to our upsidedownness. Then we will see how long it will take for the installation start to finish.
I will be back at work on the Bluenose ASAP. Fingers crossed that I can get them to do the loft first. With my luck, it will be the last to be done. This sitting around and not being able to get some work done on the bench is very frustrating. Think I’ll go down to the range and take it out on a few targets. See yall soon. Have a great weekend.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hello Jim!
Having to box al of the stuff up sure brings modelling to a halt… But maybe you can use this opportunity to sort your stuff, maybe even find something interesting and long forgotten in it - hope dies last, as the Germans say it.
But I also wanted to write about another thing I learned from the Germans… When I was working there long time ago we moved from the office (with carpeting on the floor) to the workshop (with smooth resin floors) to make some experiments on some prototype cars and we took our chairs with us. They really were gliding over these floors, those chairs… And then one day an occupational safety and health inspector visited us and said we have to get other wheels for our chairs - ones especially made for resin floors. Those were “braking” the chairs and it made sense - on a resin floor it’s easy to inadvetently push the chair with carpet wheels, the chair glides away, and you “sit on air” and fall on the floor and can potentially badly hurt yourself - so please be careful here!
Good luck with unpacking your workshop again and have a nice day
Paweł
Hi Pawel!
Before I retired, my office had a very smooth floor and I just barely moved my feet and the chair would move. I loved it. When we moved to this home, I never got used to trying to move my chair. Had to reach under the seat and lift-and-walk with it. My wife never got used to hearing the thumps on the floor every time I moved. She keeps asking “Are you OK?” I had a habit of not just setting it down either. I either just dropped it or gave it an extra shove. It’s kind of heavy too. It’s large with all kinds of adjustments. Found it on trash day on someone’s lawn. Beautiful chair but the upholstery was torn. No problem as the wife is and was a seamstress all her life and after we got married, we both took upholstery classes at the local college at night as an add-on to her window treatment business. We tore it down, added some new foam to the seat and back, picked out a nice piece of fabric for it and it turned out great. I know for a fact that the chair will outlive me.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
That’s a good case of recycling! I hate to throw away good stuff!
OK! Good news. The new floors are down and my room was first to be done. It was done on Tuesday. The floor looks great. Moved, uh slowly lugged about 1/2 of the boxed-up stuff back up on Tuesday night. Got the furniture and shelves set where I want them and started unpacking. Been unpacking ever since. Still have about 8 or 9 boxes left in the garage that have to go up. Think I’ll call my stepson and grandkids (19 & 23) over to “Help” get them up there. In the meantime, I’ll get all the models out of the garage and up on the shelves. Really miss being able to work at the bench anytime I want. More good news! This is definitely the last time for this. I am definately too old (83) for all that heavy lifting and all the up and down steps. Thinking about a chair lift for the steps or one of those new easy installed elevators advertised in AARP. Hhhmmmmm.
Will be back to work on the Bluenose II as soon as I can get all the stuff out of the boxes and back where it should be.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Got almost all of the unboxing done and put sort-of where I want it. Got word friday that management decided this week it was time for the yearly inspection. Worked all weekend and today to make it presentable so it poses no problems for me. They are coming 9:30 Wednesday morning. Hopefully, by 10:00 I will be sitting at my workbench working on the Bluenose II. That is, as long as the world doesn’t come to an end or some other ungodly disaster happens.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hi everyone! Well, the entire workroom project is finished and I can get back to work on the Bluenose II.
Thought I’d post a few pics of the hobbyroom before I show the Bluenose progress. We decided to do the stairway ourselves. We just had the floor people remove all the wall-to-wall rugs from the stairs. After they were finished with the whole house, we started on the stairs. I rough sanded the stairs then started filling all of the staple and nail holes. Another sanding. More filling. More sanding. Sound familiar? Two coats of white primer, two coats of flat white then two coats of white enamel. Step pads installed then the runner was stapled down. FINISHED!
New item by Jim McGrath |
Now, at the top of this georgous staircase is the “Hobbyroom”. First is the basic “ThunderRoad” flooring. Great name, right?
New item by Jim McGrath |
Now, the Hobbyroom.
New item by Jim McGrath |
New item by Jim McGrath |
New item by Jim McGrath |
OK, enough of the workroom.
The hull and the deck of the Bluenose II is completed and now it’s time for the masts and rigging. The Main mast and Foremast hole bases were missing soooooooo I scratchbuilt them. Completed and installed the Crosstrees. Started making the various blocks and tackles and installing them. The topmasts were tapered on my proxxon lathe and the mast trucks were installed.
New item by Jim McGrath |
New item by Jim McGrath |
I hope this works as it is one of my many tries to post photos instead of links. It looks like it is working but I won’t know for sure until I hit the enter button and it does enter. If it doesn’t, I’ll try, try, try until it does.
Stay safe.
Jim 
Well!
You certainly impressed me(Made me jealous actually) with the Room. Now I suppose you’re going to do it with the Model. Well, what’s your rush?
Hi TB!
My wife gave me the answer to that question a few years back. She did a 6"x6" needlepoint of a turtle riding a bike. Underneath the picture, it says “Over the hill and picking up speed”. Does that answer your question?[;)]
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hi Jim,
I just see black rectangles. Apparently Gary sees more than I do.
Bill
Sorry. I’ll try to send the pics again. I think what I need is a very patient IT expert to sit down with me and teach me how this $^&$@$%& machine works. My wife tries but I guess I just push the wrong buttons and she looses patience with me. Oh well, here we go again.
Workroom photos.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RMRmU7CZfYobMgY78
Bluenose photos.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GyokYNEAKzfwDLMv9
Hope it worked.
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
Hi JIm! Lol!Lol! Loved your come-back. Leave it to wives, huh?
Uh Yuh Yuh, you got that right driver!
Stay safe.
Jim [cptn]
OK, I got back to work on the Bluenose. Started on the standing rigging. While putting the blocks on the stays, I thought I would be running out of line, and I was right. Good thing my wife has quite an inventory of all kinds and colors of thread for her business. Got more than enough now.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WCtK68qGwW97TfhW8
Completed the 1st 18 stays and started rigging the ship.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QgFuGjkVZRgzcG1cA
She’s starting to look good as I keep adding the stays.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yEjdG6feSZgi478N8
As often happens to us old fouggies, we often get to visit doctors, get stuck with needles and put into large round machines that make a lot of noise. Well, that’s what I’ll be doing the rest of the week and next week. Just trying to see if a small problem is going to turn into a bigger one. So, I’ll keep in touch when I can. Don’t think I’ll get much done on the workbench.
Ya’ll stay safe now, ya hea!
Jim [cptn]