-
A Restoration of Sorts
A terrible modeler with great ideas and no patience converts the old Aurora Black Falcon kit into something worth sailing. This is how that started — and why it never really stopped.
-
How to Easily Model a Wood Deck
Coffee stir sticks, CA glue, wood stain, and an unreasonable amount of sanding. Here’s how to replace the Black Falcon’s plastic deck with a real wooden one that actually looks like a ship.
-
Make Great Grates
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.
-
Scratchbuild Stern Windows
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.
-
Easily Make Deadeyes
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.
-
Made a Simple Yard
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.
-
How to Make Paper Sails
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.
-
All About the Guns
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.
-
Simple Chain Wales
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.
-
Make a Figurehead
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.