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Making steady progress with the copper plating, 4 rows completed and 177 plates fitted.
 
Apart from the time it takes to shape the copper plates to the waterline its not taking to much time to fit the plates, and I'm not getting high the glue fumes as yet.
 
 
 
 

Ok some pictures..  I have finished backstays now the missing part arrived a few days ago and had it prepared....
 
And of course.......   I did a clean up and the part turned up, i knew that was on the cards!!!!
 
Any way, top sail halliard fitted also, preparing parts for bowsprit guys... 
 
 

some more rigging done

...

Haven't quite got the hang of the picture thing!
 
If anyone out there can tell me how I can narrate an individual picture with a caption either before or after I would appreciate it.
 
Thanks,
 
Darrel

Bluenose Log #5.
 
Sorry for the extended gap in my build log.  We’ve been on holiday, with a wedding in Germany and a visit to the Holland, Belgium and Normandy.  Now back to work!
 
Prior to decking the quarter deck I ran into a slight dilemma.  The bulkhead extensions on the quarter deck had seen better days.  Some were gone and others were mere shadow of their former self.  I pondered for two days about how I could remove the stanchions and replace them with new 1/8 inch bulkhead extensions.  I really had no choice.
 
I removed all of the stanchions at the top of the bulkheads.  Obviously you can’t just glue stanchions back on without some additional support.  I reasoned that if I installed the waterway planks spaced exactly 1/8 of an inch apart and just resting on the bulkhead I might have a chance of creating enough glue area and support when I lock the stanchions in with the nibbing strike.  To my surprise it worked!  I aligned them correctly to accept the last two outside hull planks (Bulwark).  I’ve bumped them several times during the aft deck planking effort and none has given way.  I know this is almost a cardinal sin, but I got away with one.
 
The aft deck planking was somewhat more complicated due to the requirement to taper each plank in order to accommodate the deck taper to the stern.  I started out trying to carve the taper into the plank.  The small scale of the planking strips made it almost impossible to maintain a consistent taper.  I resorted to lining out the taper in pencil from the midpoint at the plank end up about six inches.  I then used a single edge razor blade to chop off the excess to form a consistent and true taper.  I edged each tapered plank with a soft lead pencil, but some of the simulated plank calking didn’t show up very well after much scarping and sanding.
 
Below you can see the decking effort about half way to completion. 
 

Seems like all I am doing is making too many mistakes folks....is there any rule that says we can make this what we want it to be besides what its supposed to be....anyway, I'll post some pics after putting them on my HD ....thanks for following all.
 
I thought i would add something to this since she is not turning out too well...Mmmmm, just don't know. Constructed a detailed railing around the upper deck (only have one side complete, but not painted), wondered if there were any thoughts...since I am having trouble figuring the bow out.
 
I think I goofed some where....
 
John

Hi guys and gals. I wanted to show my progress on this Bireme Greek Warship the past few days.
 
First, I had to do some painting on the topside merely to show a progressive schedule I hold myself accountable for. I need to see a progressive advancement to feel as if I am actually accomplishing something. Not sure why, but that’s how I work.
 
Secondly, I have caught some mistakes; i.e. using too much glue (so instead of the glue applicator I now use a paintbrush), slow but it looks better; I don’t know how I did this but my calculations for the bow was like way off. Don’t know what I was thinking…
 
So for the bow I have had to cut away some planking and replace @ the CL of the bulkhead, where now I do not have 1 continuous piece of planking all the way through the hull from stem to stern in some areas as shown in the pictures.
 
I am learning though. Actually, I have discovered with a mixture of water & wood filler at very thin doses works well on the inside of the hull as a filling agent to cover minor and small defects. Not sure if that is actually legal or not but I did not want this baby to go to the scrap pile just yet.
 
I then sand the hull down with 400# sand paper (again, hope that’s OK), then with a #0000 steel wool to give it a flat shine and reduce any grit caused by the wood filling agent I created.
 
Once complete with the hull’s bow I will do minor aesthetics throughout the hull and then…tackle the beast, the stern, or prow…wish me luck…
 
BTW, the instructions on this thing are quite minimal…a good kit for the most part, but one must know some woodworking skills as well as a small bit of Marine Engineering, but truly, nothing major. I just like to sound as if I know what I am talking about…(DOH?!).
 
See ya’ll next time! Have a great night! I am learning folks.
 
John E (Auvergne).

Good morning friends,
 
I wanted to give you an update on my Bireme Greek Warship. It is coming along good (I am thinking), but as we all know it is not complete until the painting is complete. That is why I am making this post at this time.
 
Even though she is not complete and I have much work still yet to do I decided to paint her upper deck. I have decided to make her my own paint design. This is the only difference I will make and try to keep her anatomically correct in her historical value. (Though I have not done much research with the exception of what I have learned from Arthur and others.
 
I hope this meets with everyone and your satisfaction.
 
Have a happy day of modeling.
 
John E

Here following is the better photo of my progress.

Hello Folks. I am hoping to be in the proper place for this kit build. Don't wish to be booted out. This is my first kit after 40 years of work, work, work. Now it's time to enjoy my passion. Please be delicate, I'm not an ol' salt just yet. I know, not a pretty photo or my layout but I'll get the hang of this. Thanks all!!

Hi Greg, 
thanks a lot for your nice commen!
 
 
Hello everybody,
 
in the meantime, the mast spars are cut, even ground for the foremast, also still made some blanks. 
Then soldered together a few parts. 
 

 

 

 
 
Halfway up the lower mast there is fixed a platform for large signal lamps. 
 

 
 
Then I build a mount which is attached to the lower mast and to be hooked onto the large hooks. In these 
large hooks are later suspended the excess cloth from the pin rails in large loops. 
 
For the production, there was a bit of soldering for the holder and a small auxiliary structure for the hook.
 

 

 

 
 
Bye Joachim

Now it's to the mars of the foremast. 
At the front of the mars a radar system is housed, which is protected by a tubular structure (was a sh ... soldering), before that, hangs a position light. 
The attached at both sides on the Mars  there is a black metal bracket with three belaying pins for the uphauls of the top three yards. This is at the Amerigo somewhat different than other sailing ships in recent times.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Bye, Joachim

The next part ist the saling of the foremast. On the platform of the saling are jibs on both sides of boom mounted which serve to spread the backstays side. 
At the end of the boom two small rollers are mounted over which the backstays are performed. In the model, the rollers have a diameter of 1 mm. 
And so does it look:
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
So far for today
 
Bye, Joachim
 

Three stairs installed and four to go. I've been working on these stairs for over a week now and what amazes me is. when my ship is finished, with full rigging and sails, I doubt anyone will be able to look down those hatches. Oh well! I'll know.

Well, I am still working on the contract in Houston each week so my build is slipping. Once I am in a routine I should be able to get some time in on weekends.
Meanwhile, thought I would update on my battle with tree nailing. I just about decided that, after trying to follow the suggestions of half a dozen members, it was just not going to work for me. I was about to put the drawplate up on EBay and go back to using filler when I thought... one more time.
So, here's what I did... and darned if it didn't work.
 
I used 4" bamboo skewers. they are round and pointed on both sides. I had tried smaller toothpicks but they kept breaking... too weak. I took the skewers and cut them in half leaving about 2" per pointed end.
 
I then clamped the drawplate to my worktable
 

 
 
I gently... very gently hammered the pointed end of the skewer into the drawplate. When I reached the final hole size on the drawplate, I used so soft a touch that it almost felt as if nothing was happening. On that final hole I tapped from 15 - 25 times just to go that mm or two. Just a whisper...
 

 
First, I was sure to use the correct side of the draw plate (which goes against all logic). I needed a thickness(... er thinness??) that was created on the smallest hole on the drawplate (MM's). After a lot of experimentation with going from the hole that was the size of the toothpick and working my way down, I found that I just needed to start at a hole about three sizes up from the final one I would use since I was not doing a complete draw, just the end and pull out the way it went in. Saved a lot of wasted time.
On the first couple of passes I found it best to only go a tiny bit. If the end you thin is too long, it will break when you tap it in subsequent holes. In fact, if you tap and the pull out you will see a little ridge where the wood builds up. This seems to strengthen the toothpick for the next reductions. Remember, you are pushing (tapping) not pulling in creating the treenail so the dynamics are different in how the wood handles.
 
You can see in the following picture how I stopped part way and left a "bulge" of wood at each reduction before continuing. And, that I only thinned a very small amount of the tooth pick.
Note: if the thinned end starts to bend while tapping, just get rid of it and start another, once it starts to bend it will be a pain to finish and a bear to push in the predrilled tree nail hole.
 
 

 
I continued on this way until I had a bunch. the picture below has about 10 minutes worth of work.

 
Pushing them into the predrilled holes in the planks was fairly easy as long as you went straight down into the hole. I could actually feel it snap into place for most of them. I watered down the white glue just a little to get it to slide in better. Then let the glue dry and trim.
 

 
I found this was a pretty quick and painless process. Of course 95% of the toothpick was waste, but they are cheap enough at the market that I didn't spend time re-sharpening and reusing them.
 
My first try came out looking decent.

 
I had prefabricated the deck as a way to get around some earlier construction mishaps. I think the ideas was good but the execution was bad. Should have measured a heck of a lot more before putting glue to wood. So I am doing it all over again. (the picture doesn't show the aft part of the deck where I screwed up...to painful to admit.)
 
This is, in fact, where motion stopped about a month ago when I got talked into taking another assignment. I really forgot how work interferes with your personal time
 
Anyway, since I have to do this again anyway, I am going to experiment using other types of wood, both darker and lighter than the planks, to see how they look once finished. It should be easy enough to use this method with almost any small diameter wood as long as it has a point. Even small square strips should work. I like using the natural color of wood but could stain the tree nails before gluing if that works out for a better look.
 
Well, that's it for now. Monday I am back to the airport.
 
Richard

I have re-built my capstan to make it a bit smaller and improve the workmanship.  I’ve kept the hex shaped design, however.  The result is a definite improvement.  I decided that the scale doesn’t matter as much as the look and feel of the piece.  The rest of the deck furniture is also completed, but not glued.  (I’m afraid the furniture might get in my way during the rigging phase.)  Also, I still have to mount the final 4 guns.  Once that is done, I’ m thinking of having a ‘launch’ party.

The last 4 guns have been rigged and installed.  That completes the work on the hull, except for some items used for rigging, such as the channels and sheet horse.  Also, I didn’t add the bow sprit bitts since that determines the final angle of the bow sprit.  So I’m going to have a little private launch party and begin on the bow sprit and the rest of the rigging.

So I completed the spars today! Now on to the rigging. Sorry the photos did not come out better but I arranged them on the butcher paper that I used to paint them on. Starting top right is the Spirit Sail Spar, below that are the forward mast Spars. The main mast spars are the set in the middle. The left most set are the mizzen mast with the two spanker spars above them.

The last of the ships guns have now been added and fully rigged with the carriage guns set in the most forward bow chaser position, as can be seen the new captain has arrived and is overseeing the fitting out.
 
I did order walnut dowel to replace the birch dowel in the kit except the 10mm dowel which will be painted and is not warped, it came today and it is of much better quality plus some .25mm black thread for the ratlines all from Cornwall model boats who are also very quick to send out any orders.
 
Bow chasers rigged


 
Carronade rigging

 
Captain in charge

 
All ships guns now fully rigged




 

Next job has been making up the remainder of the fore deck fittings. Firstly the belfry to which I fitted a non kit brass bell, the bitts, and gratings, plus the stove chimney with added smoke deflector and hinges, and lastly the breast beam rails.
 
Belfry

 
bitts and breast beam rails


 
gratings

 
stove pipe with mods



 
 
 

Another update - been slowly working on the shrouds & stays.Topmast shrouds & mizzen stays done.I know the rigging is a bit dark but I prefer the look of the dark standing rigging.The running rigging will be much lighter.
 

 

 

 
/Mark

A small update - finished the lower shroud ratlines on the starboard side.I like to give them a slight natural looking droop.
 

 

 
/Mark

I finally got all the planking done. It was quite a learning experience for the first time doing it.

I've got to this point But this is where it gets a little tricky . I tried tapering the ends of the plank but still finding it difficult to get the center to bend to the form. I'm going to try soaking the planks and pinning each one to the form. hopefully it will take the shape and dry that way.