Category: Restoration
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Replacing a mast led to replacing the deck, which led to removing the hull, which led to a plaster sea made from fence pickets and linoleum. Impatience is a powerful creative force.
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The davits are the last puzzle in the Black Falcon rework. They’re too close together, too short, and the tackle is missing. But they’re handsome pieces. Let’s not talk about the rest.
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The Black Falcon’s original figurehead went missing. The Budget and Finance Committee made a replacement figurehead inadvisable. Woman Waving from the Orion Pirates set solved everything.
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Chainwales kept the mast standing and gave Phineas Caswell his only refuge. Here’s what they are, why they matter, and how Popsicle sticks solved a problem the Soleil Royale couldn’t.
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The Black Falcon’s cannons are adorable. Historically dubious, wildly out of scale, and equipped with Flintstones wheels. Here’s what to do about them — and everything you never knew you needed to know about ship’s guns.
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Paper sails for a model ship sound simple. They are not simple. Here’s the method that actually works — and an honest account of the parts that still don’t.
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Making tapered yards from dowels with a power drill. Rigging jackstays from wire. Hanging sails without gluing them to the yard. And why the yards hang akimbo. That’s the story and he’s sticking with it.
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Deadeyes are excruciatingly fiddly at 1/87 scale. Wire, CA glue, and a consistent bend solve the problem — and produce deadeyes that are at least more convincing than the plastic ones. Probably.
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The Black Falcon’s transom was flat as a board. Phineas Caswell needed stern windows. A trip to the Lego Store in Glendale solved both problems for about three dollars.
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Need a scale grating for your model ship and don’t want to go mad? Plastic canvas from the craft store solves the problem for about two dollars and fifteen minutes of your time.
Tales of the Black Falcon 