Cap'n Rat Fink

Pat -  Thanks for all of your comments throughout the survey.  I'll probably wait to add any additional comments unless there is a question to add clarity.  Just don't want to sway any input.  As for the meeting, it probably won't happen.  I tried to get Sky TV to offer coverage down your way but they declined due to lack of entertainment value and Fosters wouldn't provide sponsorship!
 
Ned & Chad -  Thanks for the kind words.  Chad, wish I lived 20 min from Gilmer...Right now I've got one of their shipments stuck on a train somewhere outside of Chicago.
 
Thanks to everyone for their "likes" and continued support.
 
Dave -  Thanks for the continuing input.  You seem obsessed and paranoid over a topic that you feel has no value.  I really have difficulty grasping that concept.
 
I know that you enjoy the discussion as much or more than the content, but I won't be responding any more.  Our philosophies are at either end of the spectrum and we will never be on the same page, but feel free to post as much as you like.
 
I agree that we are not competitors.  Not because we have our plates full, but because we offer totally different products.  I just offer mainly milled sheets and strips; whereas you offer a host of other products.  The only place where there could be any overlap is perhaps milling wood.  You don't indicate your milling specifications, but from what you have posted on MSW my approach and yours are so totally different that they are at either ends of the spectrum.  So much so that they are not even comparable.  You have a loyal customer base and you have added a lot to the hobby, especially for customers who prefer to do their own dimensioning.  The only issue that I take is when you say that you know best what is needed by your customers and more closely dimensioned products are unnecessary.
 
As you have said, your customers just take what you ship them and they are very happy with your products.  If that is the case, then why is it that a portion of HobbyMill's business has always been to provide replacement wood to your customers?  I just received 2 more replacement orders within the past 60 days where your customers were not satisfied with the dimensioning and finish of your products.  That is just not right and it validates to me my philosophy that tighter dimensioning is appropriate.
 
Thank you also for your obsession with how I run my business as a service to this Hobby and the economics lesson.  Not really sure how it fits with a quality survey?  However, you forgot to include that I used to give away product to Ohio customers and for a while I was also giving away boxwood end-cuts to customers.  Dave, I had a very successful career as president of a good sized company and then the head of a division of a public company which, I believe, afforded me both the business acumen and financial resources to run a hobby business after retiring at 52.  But thanks for your concern!
 
I understand your thoughts on the video...but you missed my point.  I believe that it is called "Paying it Forward."  That is a big portion of what this whole exercise on the survey is about...establishing some standards for both suppliers and customers that will help the hobby go forward, but you missed that too!
 
Jeff Hayes
HobbyMill

Dave -
 
Thank you for your input.  As a milled wood supplier it is your prerogative as to how you utilize this information in your business.
 
I believe that we lose sight of the fact that there are other suppliers, both current and future, who may have a different perspective on this subject, especially since this topic is a regularly posted here on MSW.  It is those future ones who I really want to foster.  Heck, we both have admitted that our schedules are full.
 
I do not control who chooses to participate and I am only affording the opportunity for our members to provide input.  The poll has only been in existence less than 24 hours over a holiday weekend, so let's give it a chance.  The benefit of this medium is that unlike a paper survey that can reach only a select few, this topic will be out there much longer and its validity will increase with more participation.  That is why I had asked that perhaps the poll threads be pinned to the top of the Wood Discussion area by one of the Moderators.
 
I will say that I am disappointed that any supplier would go out of their way to discourage input by their customer base by being critical of a survey.  I also believe that your efforts are contrary to the basic principles by which this forum was founded.  Bottom line is that I WANT customer input and I value it. Also, on a personal note, I'm sorry for your cynical approach to the thread.
 
I do agree with one of your implied points in that both of us will be retiring from this business/hobby at some point in time.  I would like to help other suppliers and/or customers to take over and provide the continued availability of our products in future years.  I've said this before that I am always willing to assist anyone to learn how to mill wood or to provide the products that we offer in any way that I can.  When I get some time, I plan to post tips on the operation of my machines and methods just as I did on the Byrnes saw.  That is only one small legacy that I can provide.  On the other hand, with your experience and new video capabilities perhaps after the Caustic project is complete you might consider posting a series of videos on wood milling.  Wouldn't that be a better legacy in contrast to the two of us arguing about who knows more about our mutual customer's needs?
 
Jeff Hayes
HobbyMill

Richard,
 
It's a sulphur yellow.  Brighter yellow than box and most woodworking stores like Rockler or Woodcraft carry it.  As Mark says, it is a coarser grain than box, but not as coarse as walnut.  Hard wood that holds edges.
 
Main uses are accent pieces and accent planking strips.  Works pretty easily as planks.  Mostly I sell planking strips or sheet stock in thinner sizes.  Sold a fully planked hull once, but I never saw the pics of that build so not sure if it was too bright.
 
Got a surplus in stock so feel free to order some before I shutdown on 12/32/14.  25% discount for MSW members.  Just ask for the discount when ordering.
 
Jeff
HobbyMill

It's just coming out really nice!!! Love the colors.
 
Mario

Thanks Mario,  I think you're right about the sheer strake being the reason.
 
I had put them on with CA, but just carefully broke them off without damage to the station itself.
 
Tomorrow I'll cut some new ones and put them on the correct side.  I just finished putting on 9-15 being very careful to face them the correct way, so things are moving along.
 
Hope to have some images of actual boat construction early next week.

VERY NICE TOM!!!

JUST OUTSTANDING STEVE!!! LIKED HOW YOU ADDED THE TRENAILS AND THE STAINING OF THE TOOL CHEST LOOKS GREAT. VERY NICE WORK ON THE TOOLS.
 
MARIO

Arrr …
It ‘as been awhile since me last update, but that be only ‘cause I ‘as been busy in the shipyard …
Occasionally …
For starters, me thwart knees now be in:
 


 
Although there was only the one vote cast (Thank you, Jesse), ultimately, CaptainSteve doth be a fan of democracy.
 
… and me Tool Chest be lookin’ like this:
 

EDIT: For those with a quick eye, the brace 'n' bit in the above pic has not yet been fixed into place
 

EDIT: Here, our Hero didst simply applyeth a thin layer of PVA glue to the inside o' his chest, and didst thence add a few pinches of saw-dust.
"Let thee glue set," CaptainSteve did addeth. "And then invert the tool-chest, tapping rapidly upon its' base to unsettle any residual traces."
 

"Incidentally", CaptainSteve didst helpfully add, "I forgetteth to mention that thee straps holdin' me saws in place I didst maketh wi' strips o' black card."
 
"Oh yeah !! An' me chisels ... well, they once was the 'legs' trimmed from a couple o' staples ... merely simple office supplies. And thee saw-blades they-selves, were salvaged from an Exacto mini-sawblade I didst breaketh just the day afore."
 

"Arr .. ye shall be needin' a rubber neck to spot me saws once the tool-box be finally a-fixed into position."
 
The hinges and trunk clasp were both made using the kit-supplied copper strip which hadst been oxidised in the blue patina purchased earlier. Our Hero didst merely cutteth a single link from a piece of costume jewelry and thence oxidised it to create the lock loop at the front o' the chest.
 
Nonetheless, our Hero confesses that he didst kinda, sorta cheat with the hinges ...
 
“Look," didst CaptainSteve most humbly admit, "Mario's hinges they be stunning !! But thee bluddy things they be no more ‘an 4mm across, so I didst thinketh unto me own self,
‘Self, why the f*** wouldst thou doest that untoeth thine own self ??’”
 
In the end, CaptainSteve didst simply fold the 4mm long pieces of copper in half lengthwise.

 
Next up, our Hero didst decideth to tackle the boat’s oars:
 
“Firstly, I didst cutteth-out and shapeth the templates supplied … “
 


 
“ … and thence didst I applieth some colouration unto them.”
 

(Yes, that doth happen to be a band of Docker Purple immediately above the oar blades.)
 
Having painted his oars, and wishing to continue the theme of creating a well-travelled and weather-beaten appearance, our Hero didst next lightly sand them back ….
 

 
And here, CaptainSteve doth sigh most heavily …
“Thusly, we dost cometh unto me latest conundrum. This next pic cometh directly from the plans … and showeth lashings upon the oars.”
 

 
Our Hero explains: “Whilst I haveth narry aproblem wi’ lashing me oars, I doth wisheth to know which COLOURATION of thread I shouldst use for doin’ these lashings!!”
Wouldst oar lashings have been tarred (black thread) … or nay (tan thread) ??

I haven't had a chance to test blackening the britannia metal yet, but I have been working on the hull. As I mentioned last time, I wanted to drill all the holes in the wales for the air ports and scupper covers now, just in case I messed them up. So, to start, I scanned the side view from the plans into the computer and used an image processing program to align the three page size pieces. I had to scan the plans in pieces as I only have a letter size scanner. To check the alignment, I exported the full image to a vector graphics program and drew a straight line on top of the reference line along the bottom of the plans. I would them go back and rotate the pieces again, then check the reference line. It took about three iterations to get the three pieces aligned nicely.
 
One thing that bothered me from the plans was that the scuppers, which are on the bottom of the gun deck, and the air ports, which are in the top of the berth deck, looked too much in line. When looking at images of the Constitution, like this one:
 

 
it looks like the air ports are a little lower than shown on the plans. So, since I had the plans now in the graphics program, I made up little symbols to help drill the holes and positioned them just a little lower at each air port location. I then printed the plans out with the symbols as three sheets, like this one:
 

 
I was going to cut and tape these piece together to make one long template, but found that I could use them separately and tape them to the hull as separate templates. I cut them out so that I had the locations of the gun ports for horizontal alignment, as well as the top of the wales for vertical alignment. I taped all three templates to the hull and lined them up where they overlapped:
 

 

 

 
I then drilled pilot holes through the templates, which you might be able to see on this image:
 

 
Then enlarged the holes using very sharp bits in a pin vice and this drill bit holder that I found somewhere online:
 

 
To clean up the holes after drilling, I first sanded them flat, then used the back of the drill bit to clean out the hole:
 

 
I used the air port and scupper cover fittings to check the holes and here are the results:
 

 

 
There sure are a lot of holes in the wales now, but they came out nicely without any tearing around them, which is what I was mostly afraid was going to happen. While testing the scupper covers to figure out what drill bit size to use for them, I found that the posts on the back of them were oblong, not round, so I filed them a little smaller and round so I could use a smaller drill size. Even so, the top of the hole can still be seen when a few of these are in place, but I can use a bit of filler later to hide them.

In post #2 of this build log I showed how I have been storing the various wood strips for this project (in golf club tubes), as well as the storage bucket for the other wood strips I have in the workshop. I was not really happy with either of these methods so I started a little research project for a better way to sort and store wood strips. I wanted to store the wood on its side, not upright and be able to get at it easily. My constraints were space and cost. I cleared out a shelf I could use for the storage rack and I wanted to keep this project under $50. I came up with two options for something I could build - one using PVC pipe, something like this:
 

 
and the other a series of trays, sort of like a stack of 2 foot long draw inserts for silverware.
 
I priced out the PVC pipe I would need and it came out to $90, so that option was out. Then I thought of cardboard mailing tubes, so I priced them out and they did come in under $50, but I would still need to make a wood frame for them. I also was not sure if open ended tubes would be the best way to store these strips. For example, how would this work with partial strips that were less than a foot long? I kept coming back to the tray approach, but realized how much work that would be to make. While looking for the mailing tubes, I came across these 2" square by 25" long mailing boxes, and knew I had found the solution:
 

 
With a little modification, I had trays that would hold the 24" wood strips nicely:
 

 

 
I could get 50 of these for 69 cents each and just stack them on top of each other. I cut a portion of the top off each one, about 16 inches, which lets me get the full strips into the box. It can hold partial strips and I can use the end of the box to write the dimensions of the strips in the box. This was a problem with the PVD approach, as I could not figure out a good way to mark the tubes for contents.
 
I made up enough for the Constitution strips first, and in a few boxes there are multiple dimensions, where the kit only supplied a few strips for those sizes.. Others have only one size in them.
 

 
I then went ahead and built enough to hold all my surplus wood strips, and still have room on the shelf for more of these:
 

 
I still have a bunch of boxes left over for future expansion and since they are not folded yet they are easy to store too. I thought about gluing the boxes up into trays, but have left them as individual boxes as it is very easy to pull a single box from the bottom of the pile like a draw. I think this rack will work out nicely for me.
 
When I was finished i was reminded of the wand shop in the Harry Potter movies. I just hope these boxes don't start flying off the shelf by themselves.
 

I made some more progress this week on the planking.
 
In preparation for adding the thicker wale planks, I measured the locations of the top and bottom of the wales at each bulkhead off the plans and used a tick strip to transfer that measurement to the bulkheads. I used the plank under the gun ports as the reference, since I could lay the tick strip up against it on the hull.
 

 

 
I then placed a batten on these lines and made sure it ran true, and extended the lines to the stem and transom.
 

 

 
After I marked the wale locations, I added the remaining two thin planks that go under the gun ports above the wales. Since the wale planks will be thicker than the planks I already have done, I wanted to get the existing planks sanded pretty well so I don't mess up the wale planks later. I gave them an initial sanding then used some wood filler to fill gaps and low areas. I am using a Latex wood filler that is very creamy and sands very well. Here I am about half way through sanding the filler off. I just keep sanding until I can see the plank edges and there are no edges of filler present. I do put the filler on pretty thick at first, but it sands off easily.
 

 
I used a fairly course sand paper to remove most of the filler, than a finer piece to get pretty close to the finish I want. In this picture, most looks good but I did put more filler on the bottom planks towards the stern.
 

 
While waiting for the filler to dry in the bow area, I started cutting and shaping the first row of wale planks at the stern. I created a spreadsheet which uses the width of the wales divided by the number of planks to give me the dimensions of each wale plank at each bulkhead. I use these measurements to trim the planks in width. At the bow and stern, the wale planks taper down to the same thickness as the planks already installed (1/16"), so for that I used a sanding block. Here is the first wale plank at the stern, which is tapered in two dimensions - width and thickness
 

 
And here it is installed with the plank in front of it. This picture also gives a good indication of the sanded upper planks at this point. I will give everything a finer sanding before I paint the hull, too.
 

 
Of course, this is just on the port side, and all has to be repeated on the starboard side, which I will do after completing the wales on this side.
 

Thanks Pete and Tim.
 
I sanded the port side some but the final sanding will be done after all the planks are on.
 

 

 
The starboard side planking is well under way.
 

 

Thanks Al and Patrick. Yes, I have so many pictures already, more than any previous whole build. These will make a nice record of what's been done and what may be hidden. Still thinking about the gun carriage color, but I have lots of time to decide. In between framing I have put together 5 of the 16 gun carriages that I need for the gun deck, although these are still pretty rough. There are a lot of steps for creating each carriage and more later when they are rigged.
 
I have been working on the dummy gun ports. These will have the dummy barrels in them with the gun port lids closed. The main concern here is to have the barrels exactly in the center of the ports and at the same angle as the real cannon barrels. I first made up the tops, bottom and sides of the ports, using different widths of 1/8" strips. I glued these in so that the rear edges of the tops and bottoms held the backs at the correct angles. Each gun port was just a bit different. I then sanded the front edges flush to the bulkheads, making sure that there was a slight curve between bulkheads to match the fairness of the hull. This is especially important near the bow, where there is a sharp curve between bulkheads.
 
Here are the sanded frames with the backs being glued in place:
 

 
And here is a simple tool I made up to center the backs. It is just a thin piece of wood that is the same shape as the gun ports glued to a piece of dowel that is the same diameter as the dummy gun barrels. The dowel fits snugly in the hole in the backs, so I inserted the tool into the gun port and slid the back piece on from inside the hull and pushed it tight to the frames, after applying some glue around the edges of the back pieces. I held it in place while I removed the tool and placed the two clothes pin clamps in place.
 

 
Here are the three ports at the bow. The one in the middle was the tricky one that needed thick tops and bottom frames to get the curve of the bow into them. The first ones I put on were too thin so it made the frame too flat. I also had to trim the back piece at an angle to fit close to the bulkhead. The front gun port needed some work too. This was actually added weeks ago when I framed the bow area. Unfortunately, the plans either were not right or I misinterpreted them. First off, in the current configuration this is not a gun port but an anchor port, but in 1812 this was a gun port from what I have read. On the plans it says that this opening is the same shape as the other gun ports, which is how I should have built it, but from the shape shown in the detailed plans, this opening comes out square. Also, the top and bottom of this port were too low in the detailed plans, so it did not line up with the other ports. So, I removed the top and bottom pieces and glued them in at the right heights, then used a file to widen the sides to the correct width. I am thinking that I will have the gun port lids on this front port but no cannon barrel sticking out, mainly because there is no room behind it to get a back piece in and to hedge my bets on what type of port this is. I did add a thin piece of wood as a backing just to block any light from coming in from behind.
 

 
Speaking of light, I got to looking closer at the ends of the gun deck and realized that some of the other bulkheads may be seen through the openings. I first thought to just paint them all black, but then came up with a simpler solution, which was to just close up the ends with some black construction paper. I think this will look better in the long run.
 

 
These are all pictures of the port side gun port frames. I am still working on the starboard side frames.
 

Thanks Patrick. I am happy with that solution, since they will be painted anyway. If I ever try to build a model in all natural wood someday, i will be in real trouble. 
 
I am going to add the vertical and diagonal knees to the gun deck walls. I am not sure if these were in the 1812 version, but here is what they look like on the current ship. There is a vertical knee under each beam and the diagonal knees meet between the beams, probably at a carling (if that is the right term). Since I won't have any carlings, I will just have them end under the spar deck planking.
 

 
I made one from some 1/8" basswood sheet to use as a template for the rest:
 

 
I made this template a little thinner than the knee I wanted, because I have found in the past that once I trace it, it gets fatter in the end, so by starting smaller, it should come out close to the right size. I used the template to trace the shape onto some basswood sheet that I cut close to the correct height.
 

 
I traced these so the curved edge was always on the short side of the blank, so I could use the blank as a handle when sanding it. I cut off the excess with a razor knife, which left a nice triangular piece that I put aside to use to make the quoins for the gun deck cannons.
 

 
I then used a Dremel sanding disk in the drill press to sand in the curves:
 

 
I cleaned up the knee with small files and some sand paper.
 

 
Then cut it away from the blank with the razor knife:
 

 
I got into a good rhythm and was able to crank each one out about every couple of minutes, so it took less time than I thought it would. And here is how it will look as a vertical knee:
 

 
The trick is getting them all to look similar, so here are the first 10 or so and I think they do look similar:
 

 
And here are 33 of them, which is getting closer to the number I need, but not there yet. And the triangular waste pieces too.
 

 
Tonight I will figure out exactly how many I need and finish making them, then start attaching them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After I took the weights off the deck pieces, one side was sticking up a little at the center line, so I fixed it by drilling some holes through the false deck into the center keel and pushing in some small nails. These will be hidden by the center deck planks.
 

 
Once I had the deck pieces flush, I cut the remaining deck planks to fill the center gap. I sanded the three pieces in each gap until they fit in the space. My hunch was right to make the gap three pieces instead of just one, as the widths all looked consistent this way. If I had to sand just one plank, it would probably have looked too thin. I marked the edges of these planks with the Sharpie and glued them in. After they dried, I sanded them down flush with the rest of the deck, drilled and filled holes for their treenails, gave them a final sanding, and stained them. I then gave the whole deck another coat of stain to blend it all in. Here they are before I sanded them down flush. The finished deck can be seen in later pictures in this post.
 

 
I started cutting the boards that will make up the tops of the gun ports with the real cannons on the gun deck. I am using the bottom of the waterway as a reference and measured down from it to find the locations of the bottoms of the top boards, using a strip of wood of the correct height as a measuring device. I also used a wood strip to measure down from the waterway to the top of the board. I cut out the boards, sanded them to fit, then used the smaller wood strip measuring device to position them the correct distance from the waterway.
 

 

 
For the bottoms of the gun ports, I need to have the inside and outside beveled to match the angle of the bulkheads. The outside I can sand in later, but there is no way to get to the inside, so I beveled the inside edges of these pieces before I glued them in. I used a block of wood that I made to the shape of the gun ports to distance the bottom pieces from the top.
 

 

 
Here you can see how the bottom pieces are flush with the inside bulkheads:
 

 

 
Wow, there is already a lot of dust on the deck. Sorry for the out of focus pictures. I need more practice taking pictures with one hand.
 
Here is one side of top and bottom gun port framing. I have to wait to finish the other side as you can see that I broke off one of the bulwark supports (again!). I almost lost this one, but found it later on the floor. I am reinforcing them as I glue them back in, probably to no avail.
 

 

 
I will be offline for a few days so no updates until next week.

Thanks Patrick. This is a tough decision because historical accuracy is important, too. In the end though, aesthetics to me are going to win out.
 
Some progress this weekend on the stern framing. I transferred the support piece outlines to the last bulkhead and the transom filler block.
 

 
I glued some small tabs along one side of these lines and let them dry some
 

 
I then glued in the supports and the tabs on the other side and slid them up to the first tabs. I checked the alignment of the stern ends using a divider to make sure they were all parallel to each other
 

 

 
I started beveling the two outside support pieces but quickly saw that if I hold them flush to the last bulkhead, the deck beam notches are too far forward and don't align with the inner support notches, and the stern uprights are also too far forward. So, I glued some extra wood to the front of these two pieces, which I will bevel to match the angles and put these pieces in the right place. I'll have pictures of that process later.
 
In the mean time, I started to frame the windows. As you can see, I used two small piece of wood that were the same height as the bottom window frames to align them parallel to the transom filler block and with each other to be all the same height. I also made sure that these frames stand a little proud of the support pieces so they will get faired along with the support pieces when I sand the supports before planking.
 

 
A lot more work to do on the stern, but it is nice having a start.

Stern filler blocks:
 
The first one of these took me much longer than I thought it would, but the second one was a lot faster. Isn't that how it always goes.
 
I first glued up two blanks to use for these. Instead of the 2" wide block that came with the kit, I used a a 1" piece of basswood that I had and glued on a 1/4" piece at the top, just to reduce the amount of waste.
 

 
I then made templates form the plans and traced the edges onto the different sides of the blank.
 

 
I cut the side profile with a coping saw, then taped the pieces back together and cut the S shaped back profile on the scroll saw. This took a while since my little scroll saw and thin blades didn't want to follow the lines nicely. But, I eventually got it cut out.
 

 

 
I then used the belt and disk sander to square up the top and side edges so they fit flush to the last bulkhead and the keel.  I used them to remove a lot of the material in the middle of the blank, and I also used my Dremel tool in the workstation with a sanding drum to get into the tighter curves. I finished up with a rounded file and some sanding blocks, and used the profile templates I made form the plans to check the overall shape of the block. I got the overall shape but the top edges were too small compared to the transom filler. Instead of remaking a whole new piece, I cut about 1/2" off the top of the blank and glued on two 1/4" pieces that were wider. After they dried, I sanded them to fit the existing shape of the blank but left the tops a bit wider than the template.
 
It was at this point that I realized that I had left the underside of the transom filler piece too long, since the stern filler piece did not fit all the way to the back edge. I flipped the hull over and held it in a keel klamper, then used a sanding block to sand the back edge of the transom filler back to the correct length. I left about a 1/16” flat area so the planking can end nicely into the transom filler. I found it much easier fitting these filler pieces with the hull upside down.  I then used the disk and belt sander to sand down the added top pieces to match the templates and flow into the original filler piece. I had to remove material in the middle of the filler to match the profile templates. For this I used the sanding disk in the Dremel tool in the workstation. I left the drum above the base so I could get the piece under the disk if I needed to.
 

 

 

 
I ended up with a nice general fit, but then I worked the edges some more with sanding blocks and the rounded file to get the edges to flow into the bulkhead R and the rabbet along the stern post. I ended up increasing the rabbet depth some with an X-Acto chisel so a 1/16” plank would fit nicely into the rabbet. When I had a good fit, I gave the whole piece a final sanding with medium and fine sandpaper. I was very happy with the way this filler piece turned out, but it took about 6 hours for make it.
 
The second one was a lot easier. I bought a few tools to make this process a little easier for this and the remaining filler pieces, which included heavier scroll saw blades with larger teeth and a small hand saw. I found this saw at Home Depot and it worked really well:
 

 
I used the hand saw to start the cut of the excess off the side profile, then the coping saw to finish it. I drew the side profile on both sides of the blank this time so I could check that I was not cutting off too much on either side. I taped the cut off pieces back on and cut the back S profile with the scroll saw with the new blades, which worked much better, especially after I increased the speed of the saw.
 

 
I then sanded the edges to the template lines. I again removed the center material with the Dremel sanding drum set up, and finished off with the sanding blocks and file. The rabbet on the starboard side was in good shape so I did not need to so anything with it. This side only took me 1.5 hours, and the two piece seem to match very well. I'll give them a final sanding along the edges when I fair the hull. You can see that the tips got pretty thin and ended up breaking off, but there is plenty of support from the bulkhead at those points, so I didn't bother to replace the tips. The pieces are not glued in yet, but will be soon.
 

 
Lots of saw dust created to make these two fillers, but it was pretty fun overall.  

Adding the bulkheads:
 
This was pretty straight forward. I had made these Lego corners for a previous build, but they were about half as tall as I needed for this one. A quick trip to the attic to find more of my son's Legos and I had what I needed.
 

 

 

 
And here they are all attached. Overall, this process took a few days as I was only adding them two at a time and letting them dry a few hours before the next two. The deck beams seem to have a nice run to them without any high or low spots. I know the sides of the bulkheads still need some fairing, which I will get to soon.
 

 
While this was going on, I started making the transom filler block. I used the supplied basswood block and cut out the templates from a copy of the plans, which I glued onto the top and bottom. I then used a disk sander to thin the block down and rough in the shape, then a variety of sanding blocks to get it close to the final shape.
 

 
I drilled the rudder hole, which is at a slight angle, by holding the filler piece in an adjustable vise and setting the angle to match the stern post angle, then hand drilling a series of small to large holes, finishing the hole with a couple of rat tail files. I used the raw kit supplied rudder to test the fit, so I left it a little tight, since the rudder stock will be sanded round later.
 
I test fit the transom filler piece to the stern, using the center line on the plans to line up with the center line of the last bulkhead. Getting the piece to be aligned horizontally was a bit of a challenge, but I used the transom pieces as guides, so that when they were level all the way across that was the right angle for the filler. I had to reduce the thickness of the filler a bit more and may still take some off before adding the transom pieces. I glued it on with white glue but did not find a good way to clamp it, so I held it in place until the glue was tacky.
 

 
I am working on the two filler pieces that sit under this piece and will have pictures when I finish them.

Some more content pictures:


Some photo etched brass parts:

I organized the blocks, deadeyes, and bulls eyes in these small containers:

For the wood strips, I used these plastic golf bag tubes that I got from my father. I had originally planned to use these to organize all the extra wood strips I had in the workshop, but I had to go to something that could handle more strips, which you can see in the picture after this one. I was pretty amazed that the strips just in this kit filled up these tubes.

What I use now to organize my wood supply in the shop:

Update time !
 
Sorry for the poor quality pictures but she 's to big to make good pictures......
I can not move her easy so I have to do it this way.....
The sails on the fore mast are also in place.
The next update will be as the sails are on the bowsprit and totally rigged.......( the bowsprit of course, not the whole ship )
Then I hope I have finished also the cradle and maybe when the weather is good I can take her outside.....( when there is no snow  )
 
Sjors
 
 
 
 
 

I'm tossing this one out.  It may not help anyone outside the States but I've spent some time on it testing it and it seems to do what it's advertised to do... find a supplier(s) for a given species of wood.   Do note that the hobby type operations, Micromark, Model Expo, The Lumberyard, etc.  are NOT part of this.  But it will lead you places you can get billets and even milling.
 
http://www.woodfinder.com/

WELL HAD THE DAY-OFF TODAY TO DO A FEW THINGS, BUT ALSO MADE A LITTLE PROGRESS ON THE CROSS SECTION TO. THIS IS A REALLY FUN SCRATCH KIT THAT ADMIRALITY MODELS OFFERS. THANKS DAVID AND GREG... I AM LEARNING A LOT FROM IT....

















 

Tim , Rusty,
  Thanks guys for your kind remarks and onward i go....
 
 



Well frames 4 n 5 are completed. I builT the square from a display type board material, the type which is used for science projects in school.....

I added 1/16" spaced horizonel lines to assist me in keeping the port n starboard sides of the frames level with the horizon..
 
"SWEETIN BULLETS TIME NOW.....

once the DEAD FLAT "0" was glued in place I went ahead and temporarly placed DEAD FLAT "01" and FRAME 01 FORE so I could mark out the locations for the 2 scores of the port n starboard sweep port sills.....

I pulled all measurements from the DISPOSITION OF FRAME drawing which I glues to a scrap piece of display board so i could stand it on end and adjust my measuring tool accordingly....

I will then remove frame "01" fore and the dead flat "01". then use my chisel to create the scores.....


ALL I CAN SAY FROM HERE ON IS """"I HOPE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!! and I HOPE I AM DOING IT RIGHT!!!""""


ALL ADVICE IS VERY MUCH WELCOMED......








 

nd a few more pic's........









 

cheers Mario.......