About catopower

Ship modeling since 1993.

Amati Swedish Gunboat Build – Part 4

Posted on April 8, 2017 by catopower

Member Clare Hess shares the latest update on the building of a Swedish Gunboat from a kit by Amati Model of Italy.

Well, I did not end up finish this model for the IPMS show in San Jose in March. I decided to set it aside to let others in our build group catch-up, though I know that two of the members are at least as far along as I am. Anyway, I had work to do to for my display of Japanese boats, which ran from March 1st through the 31st.

Then, last weekend, we had a ship modelers’ get-together again at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. It’s been the usual 3 months since our last gathering and it was good to see the fellow ship modelers and their projects again.

Only one other member of the Swedish Gunboat Project group brought his model, but he’s new to ship modeling and pressing ahead. I originally thought I would just wait for the other two members, who have been too tied…

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Model Gallery Updated

Posted on March 30, 2017 by catopower

If you take a look in the Model Gallery, you will notice a number of additions. Check out the Dragoon and the Dorade, both by Paul Reck. But, there are a lot of other interesting models by the membership to inspire you.

All the images shown are of models built (or restored) by club members. I’m now working to get more photo contributions from the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights membership.

All photos are from currently active members. Come join us and provide photos of your completed model and we’ll post them!

HSPMS Maritime Museum Warehouse Tour Follow-Up

Posted on March 7, 2017 by catopower

On Thursday, March 2nd, members of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights got an opportunity to tour the facility where all the big stuff belonging to the San Francisco Maritime National Park are stored. The trip was set up and organized by Paul Reck and R. Karnell of the Park Service, who gave the tour.

This was a rare and unique opportunity to see what’s stored away in the enormous San Leandro warehouse. Some of it was there in preparation for use at Hyde Street Pier, like the C.A. Thayer’s and Balclutha’s spars. Other items were there waiting for restoration. Other’s still were just being stored there to protect them from deterioration, in the hopes that they will be displayed or worked on at some time in the future.

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AL’s Independence – Headrails and Rigging

Posted on February 19, 2017 by catopower

Clare Hess updated the build log for his colonial schooner kit, which is based on a kit from Artesania Latina, but heavily modified with upgraded woods such as South American boxwood, pear and beech wood, and with aftermarket blocks, cannons and carriages.

Ship Modeler

Yes, I’m finally getting around to wrapping up the Colonial Schooner Independence. I’ve worked on it here and there, but hadn’t made any blog posts about in quite some time.

The last task that I was concerned about was to construct some headrails from scratch. Mostly, this is one of those tasks which is painful, because the brain says it’s painful. In actuality, it wasn’t that bad, but did take some mental work to wrap my head around where to even begin.

I found some examples that were more complex and finally found some that were simpler. I made sure that the images of those simpler ones became embedded in my brain. So, here’s what I came up with…

I used castello boxwood for these, starting out by cutting them from thick sheet stock. Then, I cleaned them up and carved away the excess in such a way that it kind…

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HSPMS Newsletter and Meeting – February 2017

Posted on February 14, 2017 by catopower

The next meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights is coming up quickly, Saturday, February 18th aboard the ferryboat Eureka.

Naturally, the sunny weather we’ve been enjoying in the San Francisco Bay area is coming to an end, and the forecasts call for a couple days of rain. However, they show a break in the weather on the weekend. Let’s hope they’re correct!

Models from the January meeting.

In the meantime, here’s the latest issue of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights Newsletter for February for your reading enjoyment.

Click to access hyde-street-2017-02-news.pdf

Note that we’ve got an outing coming up on March 2nd to the Maritime Museum off-site storage facility where we’ll see LOTS of stuff not normally accessible to the public. Now’s a good time to join the club!

HSPMS.ORG

Posted on February 4, 2017 by catopower

For all those would-be blog followers who have a hard time dealing with our WordPress URL: hspms.wordpress.com, there’s good news! As of now, this site is officially HSPMS.ORG.

After having to deal way too many times with club members asking the question, “What’s our web address again?” we spent a little money to upgrade our site. New, simpler address, more storage space, and no more goofy ads!

screen-shot-2017-02-04-at-12-11-14-pm

This is still a WordPress site, so you can still follow it like any WordPress blog, and you can still reach it using the old URL, so no need to worry about broken links. Pass the word and the address along to your ship modeler friends – now it’s easy! Ω

HSPMS Newsletter for January 2017

Posted on January 14, 2017 by catopower

The new newsletter has been posted on our Meeting Notes page, which you can always access from the menubar above. But, to make things easy, here’s a link to the pdf document for your reading enjoyment.