Navwar 164-ton Brig Colliers

These are the Navwar models of the 164-ton brig rigged collier. These are supposed to be typical of the small vessels carrying trade in coastal waters. Large numbers were built and they had long working lives. One built in 1785 was still afloat 81 years later in 1866.

Navwar CAT Merchant

The following is an excerpt from "Eighteenth-Century Colonial American Merchant Ship Construction" by  Kellie Michelle Vanhorn:

"Cat

Cats were developed in northern England around 1700 in response to Dutch flutes; they generally measured 250-300 tons and were used in bulk cargo trades such as coal and timber. Chapman's plans show the cat to have a broad, round stern with a narrow square transom above. The bow is bluff with a plain stem and full entrance, but the run is finer. With little deadrise and hard bilges, the hull shape is boxy and the sides are verticle, even on the smaller vessels. Chapman uses ship, snow, brig, and sloop rigs on his cats and they could all carry guns for defense."

Here is my rendition of Navwar's version of this merchant vessel. Since it was developed from the Dutch flute, I am using her as a Danish trader.

At first I intended on using the Navwar sails that came with the model and just replacing the masts. But the fore topsail was a flawed mold cast.

Looks like a pour bubble ruined the top of the sail

 I found a spare matching foremast sail set in my scrap pile but I let the Dremel tool run away while removing the topsail and ruined it too! Grrrrr.....

So back to my usual of scratch sails and masts. I chose the Langton unrated bomb sail set from my Mast Log that were about the right size.

Masts, sails and spars

 The quarter deck was flush at the stern with no bulwarks or rail at all so I had to add some wire rings for later rigging. I also lifted the hull by adding a balsa layer to the bottom.

Side shot of the hull, Stem left Stern right. The rings I had to add at the stern just visible. You will also note the wood hull extension added to the bottom to lift the hull a bit

Comparison shot with the GHQ West Indies Merchant

I'm not sure what I am going to do next. Maybe another merchant?

Navwar Foochow Junks

I put together these two Navwar Chinese Foochow junk ships this evening that I found in a miscellaneous merchant pile. They appear to have what looks like two small guns apiece. I am not sure that is what they are supposed to be, but I painted them black like guns anyway. They can then fend off a pirate or two, right?

Strelets Russian Mounted Jägers

OK, let me try this again! I deleted my first post about these little guys because they were so bad. I felt like I had lost my touch at painting troops after doing nothing but ships for 7 years. These figures had been base coated back at the end of 2012 when I received my first 1/1200 Napoleonic Naval ship models. So they have been gathering dust for all this time. I decided to finish them but after three tries, the faces still sucked in my opinion. I posted them, then within hours deleted the post. After a couple of days I remembered "The Dip!" The dip fixes everything, right? So I am much happier with this troop now.

Merry Christmas All

Merry Christmas to all! It has been a great holiday season for me because this is the first time in 41 years that I was able to stay put for the entire holiday period from Thanksgiving through Christmas and will be able to do so right up through New Years day!  No stress about trying to get things prepared, shopping, etc. So a little background first. Shortly after we built this house back in 2005, my wife bought four "Alpine Firs" at one of the local nurseries.  They were expensive but she wanted something that wouldn't get too big and fat that she could plant relatively close to the house. Turned out they weren't actually Alpine Firs, they were common Douglas firs, probably dug up from the local mountains and sold for a huge profit by the nursery (the one we will never go back to!) They were/are getting huge! Way too close to the house! So two years ago I cut the first one down and we used it as our Christmas tree. Turned out to be the nicest tree we ever had! So we cut the second one down last year and it was even prettier. This year is the third one we cut down. It was 25 feet tall! We took the top 8 feet for our Christmas tree and it turned out just as nice as the first two.

We have one left for next year that is about 16 feet now. This has actually worked out so well I wish I had been planting Douglas firs every year so we cold continue to get our own trees for Christmas.

The next thing I was excited about was to see the reaction from my oldest daughter when she saw the "Organic Steampunk" lamp I built for her. Three years ago she went traipsing through the brush to retrieve birch and alder tree sheds to make a clothes rack for her younger sister. One of them she expressed and interest in for a lamp "some day". I kept it in my shop. Later on she started liking steampunk decor, so I turned this Alder snag into a steampunk lamp, a melding of nature and industry.

Thankfully she loved it. Whew!

Now comes the awesome part. Both my girls came up with the same thoughtful gift idea for dear old dad. Nautical themed decanters with glasses. Fortunately they are enough different that they compliment rather than duplicate. I set them up in my hobby room along with the popcorn air popper I also received from one of the girls.

Well another year has almost passed. I was not a very prolific mini builder this year. Perhaps 2020 will be more productive. Cheers to all and again Merry Christmas!

Update December 26th: My wife gifted me a desk top lift for my hobby desk so I can stand up to work occasionally. I had to reorganize before I could make room to mount it. It works great!