Have you you heard?...

Headphones always make my head itch, but it was worth it for a few hours of the most fabulous music today.  Weather iffy, couldn't think of any modelmaking to do, so I borrowed Chris's very basic headphones and while she watched the usual Sunday diet of Jamie Oliver and people with huge fortunes "Escaping to the Country", I went on youtube and listened to Gentle Giant, Leisure Society and Brand x.
I feel so much better now.

Time is never wasted when spent listening to really great music.  And the above 3 mentioned are great. In different ways.  And all three are probably rarely listened to now, as then.

Leisure Society are the modern band, that the wonderful Guy Garvey of Elbow brought to my attention on his late Sunday night radio show (as was).  The track Last of the Melting Snow struck me as possibly the best song written in the last 20 years.  Simple, beautifully written, played and sung.  I can never hear too much of it.  They have about 4 albums available, most of which is on youtube.

Gentle Giant were a prog rock band from the 70s. 3 brothers and some others playing everything from whimsical to heavy via madrigal, but always incredibly complex.  If you like a challenging listen, GG are for you. Never mind the "too-many-notes" pseudo complexity of Mozart or the mathematical challenge of Bach, GG will show you complexity of thought as much as musicality. Each plays a whole range of instruments with equal aplomb and inventiveness.  You think it reached a crescendo?  Think again.

Brand X will simply knock you into a cocked hat and clean out again.  The musicianship of the sometimes changing line-up never failed.  Phil Collins on several of the albums drums as well as any drummer you will ever have heard and SO much better than anything on Genesis or his solo albums.
Unbelievably complex and tight, he made all tracks with no overdubs. Percy Jones' bass playing on an instrument he made himself was always exemplary, especially his playing of jazz on a Fretless.
Morris Pert on keyboards is always creative, yet complimentary to all the other musicians.  John Goodsall's guitar can take you somewhere you didn't think possible.

I have always seen music as a frame in which I expect all corners to be filled, preferably squeezed.
The above will have you seeing the frame as bulging.

All you need is youtube.  I won't recommend single tracks because they're all equally good.  Just type in the bands and click on anything, but be prepared to spend longer than you expected.

All finished...

Here's the Heather Bell model with all its bits and bobs.
Except the exhaust and cabin chimney!  How could I forget those?

The weather won't allow painting with self-etch at present.

Now, what'll I do next?...

One more day will do it...

The model of Heather Bell now has a finished back cabin/engine 'ole with all doors shown open, hatches and runners, etc.

The cross beams and stands and the mast are all also done, but sitting safely in their relative boxes.

But the engine (a Lister JP2) and its gearbox are done (visible through the engine 'ole doors), as is the back cabin stove

One more day should do it...

Nearly there now...

The Narrowboat model now has a finished fore cabin and a back cabin/engine 'ole with doors open and hatches.
Also gave the hull its very distinctive half round buffing strips.

Now working on the engine and interior of the back cabin, then floor components of the frames, stands and monkey plank and that'll be it almost done. Paint?...in the lap of the weather Gods there!

More pics when it's all done.

Heather Bell in miniature...

I have been working on a model of Heather Bell, the 1937 wooden working boat on which we lived for a while from 2003.  I thought it would make sense to use model railway scales as it was most likely to end up on a model set-piece.
There was also a chance a friend might take a mould so the model could be used as a basis for others, like the butty it would have towed sometimes or another wooden boat, built by the prolific Nursers, like HB, but a bit different.  It is made in 4mm-1ft scale and is therefore 280mm long.

Here's the progress so far:-

Made from 60 thou. styrene sheet, with detailing in other thicknesses.  The bow is planked in

styrene sheet, too, but inevitably required a small bit of filler as these bits move a little while the solvent dries.  The bow of these old wooden boats is a lovely shape and that deserved to be shown as well as possible. It's what sets them apart and is so often badly done on other available models.  Not that I would buy a kit anyway!

To my surprise, this all only took three afternoons, 'twixt chores and shopping, etc.  I rarely get going before lunch!

The boat has its correct lining plank, gunnels, internal sheeting called sheering, internal keelson and engine beds.  Being full hull, so that it can be viewed as if empty, a hole will have to be cut in the baseboard to take it.  Accuracy has its price!

Today, because of the foul weather and lack of sleep thanks to a very nervous Shar-Pei called Alfie, I still got the shape tidied, the forecabin and back cabin made, the half round rubbing strips on and have started cutting out doors for the engine 'ole and back cabin's interiors to be seen.

The half round is made by scraping round styrene rod to a half round section and sticking on in their positions.  They make all the difference and I will take more pics tomorrow if the light allows.

Clear the decks...

Well, after 2 years on and off, I finished the De Havilland Dragon Rapide master.  A large and complex model which goes away tomorrow to La Belle France.  The fiddly bits took a long time to set up and make.

These were the last parts needed.  Interplane struts, wheels, tyres, etc.

Also a longish running job, modding a Ferrari 312b F1 car that has languished as an almost generic model for a while, but finally the client decided what version he wanted and that is now done and delivered.

This more or less clears away what was started and paid for before I retired.  From now on I will be doing stuff just for me and hoping to help others with their modelmaking.

That includes a model of our old boat, "Heather Bell".  I thought it would be a bit of a fiddle, but it is almost done after just three afternoons!  More of that when I get some pictures.

In the meantime I sanded down the Marblehead yacht ready for epoxy on what turned out to be the last warm day of the year.  No epoxy work in this damp air, alas.

Chris won me a set of vintage sails for the yacht. Professionally made by the ex Secretary of the august Birkenhead Model Yacht Club.  Perfect period correctness.

Another change...

Finding model flying to be too expensive and too seasonal in a country where half the year is winter,
I have tentatively returned to model boats, with which I have always dabbled.

Some time ago, my dear, late friend, Ken Cooper, gave me a lovely old Marblehead yacht.  He'd found it in a loft of a big house once lived in by Tommy Sopwith, aviator and sailor of the English America's Cup yacht that came closest to beating the Yanks.  Ken had put a nice laid deck on it and hatches. He'd also clearly intended it for radio control as there was a typical modern tiller arm on the rudder post.
I had intended running it as a Braine steered model a la its pre-War roots, but, realistically, it would never get sailed as I have no access to a lake round all of which I can walk and free sailing demands such a pond.  So, with apologies to Tommy Sopwith and the traditionalists of Marblehead racing, I shall fit the boat out with R/C, ensuring I can get it back from the reeds, by never going near them.

The lovely lines of a Pre-War Marblehead.  50" long and 800 square inches of sail area.

Much more recently, I was given a bare, very early GRP yacht hull.  My old chum, Peter, had it under piles of junk where it had been for maybe 40 years.  All he knew was that it had been modelled on a design by Uffa Fox, the famous yacht and dinghy designer, but I could find no evidence of such.

But this week I placed pictures of both models on the sailing section of the American based R/C Groups forum and in no time received the news that the early GRP hull was a 1/12th scale model of the famous Dorade Ocean Racer and that the Marblehead was a "halfway" point 'twixt Madcap and Pocahontas, 2 very competitive designs of M boat.  The Dorade won its first race in 1931 and is still winning against fleets of much newer boats. Even in 2013 it won the Trans Pacific race outright! The Uffa Fox link was that her lines drawing had appeared in a famous book by Uffa Fox, but she had been designed by the equally famous Olin Stephens.

So, Super 60 fuselages were hung up in my son's loft and the 2 boats brought home from their overstay up there.  As I left, he gave me the mast for the Marblehead.  It just about fitted in my car.  Indeed, I have no idea how these boats will ever get transported anywhere when the deck fittings are all on and the masts fully rigged.  Peugeot 206CCs are small!

I have a huge collection of electric motors, so I will be using one to make a sail winch for each boat. I see no point in spending a fortune on a sail winch servo when a geared motor and a drum can be made so easily.

Rigging?  Haven't got a clue, so a cheap book on the topic is on its way to me as I type.