crazypoet

Sorry to have missed you!

It’s fun seeing the Picket Boat and CSS Albemarle side by side...

The work i’m Seeing here, pretty much across the board, is simply stunning

Hey - you already posted most of the best stuff!

I took a deep breath and entered it - boats, transition steam... will be on the table in about 15 mins... i know most of the flaws - be gentle with me!

With that gorgeous Lanc on the table, it's at least going to be easy to find y'all! I printed up some LSM tags for anyone who wants to proclaim their identities, and I'm about to print a pair of table tags for us. See y'all 'round lunchtime, Picket Boat in-tow

Some iPhone closeups...

Calling this done...! At least for the moment I have a couple of buckets that still need a finish coat and handles, and two cases of carbine cartridges the need stencils... But those won’t be done before I hit the road for Chattanooga in the morning, so this will have to do. Overall i’m happy - I like the new rigging on the stack much better, and the base came together nicely. i still need to take some decent photos - so it has to survive the trip to the show. These will suffice for the moment though

Sweet! That gives me hope for my own future NMF builds...

CATCH-22!!!

Finish coat of poly drying on the base and a good start towards the replacement rigging for the mast the kit approach was just an eyelet stuck in the gunwale. I went along with that because I was focused on other areas. The longer I thought about it, the less I liked it (and I was equally unhappy with the knots I used). so. New approach - iron plates and rings, with sleeved cables. I don’t know if it’s any more or less accurate - no records exist - but it should look better and i’m a lot happier with the idea. plates filled, primed, drilled and ready for a coat of liquid graphite, and the first new cable, also ready for graphite.

Disaster avoided - some careful trimming, sanding, and switching to a different poly seems to have done the trick. A few slight ripples where things really went pear-shaped in the first round will be mostly covered by the boat stands, nameplate and suchlike... i can breathe again, and finish the last details. i noticed yesterday that the rigging lines to the stack had gotten a bit slack in the two years since I first installed them, so have have to re-do them. I’m taking the opportunity to improve the look of the tie-downs while i’m at it - I never liked the kit approach, and this gives me a chance to scratch that particular itch. The rigging pic below is the “before” look. Assuming I don’t break anything else in the interim, i’ll post the “after” shot later today...

I think we have a theme going here...!

be careful what ya ask for!

Ya know... I might just!

Distressing discovery! It seems that oil-based polyurethane does not adhere to the film used by my dry-transfer decal maker. The (dry) first coat started to peel right up under just the weight of the brush as I added the second coat. And of course it’s a *large* section of the base dammit If I can’t get it all to come off clean, I may be doing a *very* short-notice redo of the base... gotta love those “huh! Never seen it do **THAT** before” moments!

I saw this - it’s beautifully done

When Kelly’s team in their Sherman arrived at the town and faced three tigers (dressed-up t-34s were used in the movie)

That’s a hell of a dust rag!

I’d love to see any of those Delta-winged darlings given the attention they deserve!