Project Merlin

[Pr.Merlin]

Paul

Your back catalogue is outstanding, nothing is more impressive than beautifully finished and designed wood furniture. I am sure this new project will be equally impressive. In any case I intend to follow along.

John

Thanks John - very kind of you to say. Much appreciated.

[Pr.Merlin]

Wow Paul had a look at your previous projects. Superb both in execution & design.

Take it they are full scale 1:1 :tongue-out3:

Laurie

Thanks Laurie. :smiling: Yes, they're all full size pieces. Most of them were commissioned.

[Mickc1440]

Hi Paul and welcome to the group. Fantastic looking project you've got there, I especially love the support for the staircase

[Pr.Merlin]

Having just had a look at your work, I think "wood butcher" is a bit harsh, lol maybe a Wood surgeon..... I think I would say fine cabinet maker.

Having the access to it I would have thought popular a good choice of wood with its fine and smooth grain. but then I am not so much a wood butcher, more like the guy you send trees to to be slaughtered. !

:smiling: I'm a tree hugger. I'm a bit rusty now, although I have recently made a piece for home from my new little hobby 'shop. I worked with poplar years ago and yeah, it would be excellent for this build. I'm still undecided. I did go to TP this afternoon and their 25x25 was awful, so I didn't buy any.

[Pr.Merlin]

Some very nice cabinet making there Paul!
Pete

Thanks Pete - much appreciated.

[Pr.Merlin]

That is outstanding work a modern day chippendale.

Haha, thanks Paul. What a chap old Tom was. I've always been a huge admirer. I've been lucky enough to have seen and touch some of his majestic furniture (incl. Junior) and it's pure magical. Stunning.

[Pr.Merlin]

Hi Paul and welcome to the group. Fantastic looking project you've got there, I especially love the support for the staircase

Hi Mick, thanks very much. Yep, the stair is going to be interesting to make. I wish I knew what I did with the work-in-progress photos from the old incomplete model years ago. The staircase in that one was pretty much complete, although slightly different to the ones above.

[Pr.Merlin]

Howdy.

An update - although progress is slow.

I've been undecided about various elements of the build and after much dithering, I have made some very important decisions. :smiling:

I wasn't sure whether to make the main frames using a hardwood or softwood. I have now decided on a softwood - a premium Scandinavian Redwood. I am also making the model to a scale of 1:15 instead of 1:12, purely for working space and where the model is going to live once she's complete. This means the actual finished size will be approximately 1150 long (gable-to-gable), 700 wide (fascia-to-fascia) and 650 high (base-to-ridge).

Another part of my dithering was construction; whether to craft traditional joints or not. I am going to craft most of the joints using traditional methods - albeit on a much smaller scale - indeed, very fiddly. Most of the structural joints will be a variety from the traditional draw/bore mortice & tenon family. I was also undecided with the King Post arrangement. I have now changed this slightly too. In all, there are approximately 173 traditional joints to make in the 5 frames with several other joints to follow. I shall be more detailed on these during the actual build - hopefully without boring anyone.

I have also found several suppliers I didn't think existed! One in particular, is a company who make all the masonry components required in a scaled model build - from the common house brick to a ridge tile - astonishing! I'm sure you guys already know about such places, but I'm a newby to model making. The bricks are actual bricks, made from brick material - clay, sand, lime etc. The same applies to other materials as well - flag stones, roofing tiles, ceramics and so the list goes on. I was blown away by what these guys make. I will however, still make the roofing tiles from 2.4mm oak construction veneer I already have in stock. This might be as a shingled roof or I might paint them to replicate a tiled roof - dunno. :thinking:

Anyway, not much to see right now, but here are a few photos and an intro to my home hobby workshop which I fitted out almost a year ago. It's very small but doable. I've already made a sideboard from this 'shop and as it's off the dining room, I have plenty of space for dry/glue assemblies.













Here is the footprint base cut from 18mm plywood.



And the 25x25 PSE Scandinavian Redwood. Finished size - 20.5x20.5mm - replicating 300mm sq oak posts etc.



The workshop drawings.









And the Workshop Rod drawn onto the wall for marking-up all the components. Photo not very clear.



I have also bought a new backdrop in dark olive for when I start taking WIP and finished photos. I stupidly left my previous backdrop in the old workshop down in Dorset.

That's my update for now. Not much I know, but it is a start! :thumb2:

Cheers.

[Tim Marlow]

Wow.....again. This one is going to be fun......

[Pr.Merlin]

Wow.....again. This one is going to be fun......

Thanks Tim. Yeah, I can't wait to get going with it. :smiling4: :thumb2:

[yak face]

Impressive stuff paul , its going to be a fascinating watch . As a former wood butcher myself I can appreciate the skill youve got to take this task on . Some lovely looking chisels and planes there too . Cheers tony

[boatman]

AN a belated welcome from me also i dabbeled in wood a bit making my scratchbuilt tiger hull but nothing like you are doing this will be fantstic again welcome Paul
chris

[Guest]

Wow Paul quite a layout. A man who like to know where things are & keep it tidy. Man after my own character.

Laurie

[JR]

Paul.
A truly beautiful catalogue of your work, I can appreciate the skill and amount of time in both designing and making them.

[Pr.Merlin]

Impressive stuff paul , its going to be a fascinating watch . As a former wood butcher myself I can appreciate the skill youve got to take this task on . Some lovely looking chisels and planes there too . Cheers tony

Thanks Tony. :smiling: Yeah, it's been a while apart from making a sideboard last year. Once the workshop was fitted out, it was great to clean up the old bench planes and get reacquainted with them. I also have a 200 year old panel plane (maker unknown) with rosewood inserts. I bought it as a restoration project years ago, but still not restored it. A cool little project for the future.