Summer of Projects That Couldn't Be Ignored

Well, the summer's almost at an end and it certainly was a busy one around the cottage. It seemed like all we did was work on projects. Unfortunately, all of them were one's that couldn't be ignored. Some weren't too big: the septic line had to be repaired after being smashed by a fallen tree, and we had to buy a new toilet.

A new shed turned out to be the biggest project. In a previous post I explained that what I was using as a shed (an old, unusable, outhouse) had also been hit be a tree and needed to be replace. I decided to build something that I could also use for storage (we definitely needed the space) and built one 8 feet by 12 with full 8 foot ceilings. I took advantage of the concrete pad that was the foundation of the outhouse but put in additional footings for the bigger footpad.

The height and size got some of Deb's family saying it resembled a church. My brother-in-law even made a sign reading, "St Mike's Cathedral". Smartass! but I kept the sign and hung it inside. Actually, I can't be too upset with the guy because he supplied me with the windows which have been under his cottage for years. They actually came from a store that used to be on the island decades ago. What I like about them is that they hinge up. I had to build the frame for the sashes, but that wasn't a big deal, and the view out them isn't too bad either.

The design for the shed was my own. The large double doors at the front were built simply out of left over sheathing and strips of B-grade spruce. There is still some trim to be done, and the whole thing needs to be stained, but I think that's going to have to wait until next year as the next project cannot be put off any longer.

The same pair of trees that took out the septic line and outhouse also clipped the corner of the cottage. Right away, I used some roofing paper to patch over the damage, but I needed to get this fixed properly before the summer was over. Right after I finished with the latches on the shed doors this morning, I moved over to begin to fix the eave where the tree hit. I have a picture of the repair on the right. It turned out not to be such a big deal once I cut enough away to allow me to nail up some new wood. Obviously, this will get stained sometime, but no time soon.

The kids and I also began ripping off the old shingles. The place was due for reshingling anyway, so we figured we'd get that done at the same time as the repair. We concentrated on the area that took the damage from the tree, but we plan on tearing this side of the roof down to the first layer of shingles and then shingling on top of that layer. We won't have to rip off old shingles for most of the rest of the cottage because we had built a 400 foot addition 16 years ago, so that has only a single layer of shingles on top. We'll just shingle new overtop of the old here. I hope to get the whole thing done this week, just in time to head back to school where I'll get to relax. ;-)

Mike

Model Ship Update: Fortopsail

Did pretty good this week.

The first picture shows the fortopsail is now on the ship. I was able to attach the reefing lines without glue. In fact, once I put my head to it a bit, it was rather easy to knot the lines into the sail. I wish I had done the same with the forsail. There is still a bit of squaring to do (the braces have yet to be attached), so hopefully I'll be able to get all the yards parallel.

The second picture shows one of the forward peg boards, which is now almost half full. I've decided to only coil every second line (the other just being made fast and cut off) to keep this area from getting too messy. Picture three is the back side of the fortopsail.


In picture four you can see the plans showed for lines to run forward from the sails. These lines are bogus and wouldn't exist on a real ship. They would always bug me so I scrapped them and replaced them with reefing tackle, which weren't in the plans but do actually exist. One of the reefing tackles is closest to the camera in picture five.

Finally, picture six is just a deck level view looking forward towards the forcastle. I'm pretty much working aft with the rigging, so there shouldn't be any future lines in this view, unless I decide to put tacks on the sails (something else that is missing from the plans). I haven't decided on that one yet.

Cheers

Mike

Model Ship Update: Forsail

The forsail is now on - five more sails to go. I used glue to attach the reefing lines that you can see in the first picture (the multiple short lines hanging from the middle of the sail). This turned out to be a mistake because, as you can see, it stained the sail. I should have made a test first. Anyway, I'll be using knots to attach them from now on.

In the second picture you can see how various lines are fastened at the bottom of the mast. The kit's instructions had a circle of eyes attached to the deck, but I went with cleats on the mast. I'm glad I did.

The third and fourth pictures show the detail of where the yard fastens to the mast under the fortop. It's worth noting that there are still some more lines to come through this area once the fortopsail and the forgallantsail (the sails above this one) are put on. There are still several more control lines (sheets, braces and buntings) to be attached to the forsail, but that will come later.



Mike

Story Telling - Valve Style

This may be me drifting into Half Life withdrawal waiting, apparently indefinitely, for episode 3 to be released, but I thought I would put this 10 minute clip of the beginning of episode 1.

This game is now three years old, but it still demonstrates what amazing story tellers and game developers the folks at Valve are. Realize that after the first two and a half minutes, this stops being a cut scene and turns into gameplay, and there are no more cut scenes in the whole game! Within the next three minutes you are re-introduced to four characters and, through deft touches of humour and tenderness, are made to care for each of them. Hell, in most games I couldn't give a rat's ass about about any of the characters after playing the game for hours.

Not to mention the technical achievement of the interactions between Alyx, Dog and the constantly moving, first-person, camera that represents Gordon (not to mention with their environment too). In addition, the subtlety in the animations of Alyx and Dog are better than in most games' cut scenes, and remember, this is mostly gameplay.

Anyway, watch and judge for yourself.

Mike

Model Ship Update: Yards

This time, I thought I would be more detailed in the stages in preparing something to be put on the model. The ship has six yards, the horizontal beams from which the rectangular sails hang. These are all cut from apple wood doweling, but I had a bit of a problem. Whether through poor planning on my part or the kit's, I ended up with two pieces of doweling that were each just a little too short for what I needed for one of the yards. I went to the hobbie shop, but the only doweling they had was just pine or something, not even close to the same. I decided the better option would be to join together the two pieces I had.

One handy tool has been this little saw that I've used to cut all the timber.	Another was a rotery tool that I clamped in a vice to make a little lathe.
Using these two tools, I roughed out notchs in each dowel.	I then used an exacto-knife to square out the notchs.
Ordinary carpenter's glue is fine for wood on wood. I used regular super glue on everything else.	Another great tool has been this little drill set. This I used to make pilot holes for two brass pins.
The pins are actually small nails that were used extensively when planking the hull.	Clamp and let dry.
Then, using these mini wire cutters ...	... I clipped off the heads and points of the nails.
However, this still just looks like a chunk of dowel.	Sanding smooths it out and tapers the ends. (sorry the picture's so blurry)
Three coats of varnish, a little coloured MinWax wood filler, and some polishing with steel wool, and the joint doesn't look bad.	Here are all six yards. I've included a scale figure to give you how big these would be in real life (and this isn't a large ship). It's not hard to see where a lot of Canada's old growth forests went.

Mike

RIP

Model Ship Update

I haven't done anything with my model ship in about half a year. I'm not exactly sure why I dropped out of it. Part was the need for glasses, but I got those in March. Another part was certainly too much X-Box, but I think I'm back in the swing of it now. Here are some pics of the three jibs I just added. You'll likely notice the stain on the topmost jib (called the flying jib). I stained the sails in cold tea to age them, but I left a bag in the water and that part of the jib was pressed right against it. I'm not sure if it makes it look more authentic or not, but I'm kinda stuck with it now.

You can see all the pictures if you want on my Flickr.



Mike