palmerit

Thwarts (seats) dry fitted. They’ll be glued in place later, after painting the interior. Not sure if I’ll paint or stain the thwarts or just seal them.

Finished the gunwales and added the risers.

While I found the Half Hull an interesting model and it exercised a different set of modeling skills - and gave me a good appreciation for how hulls can be planked - it is quite different from the other kits I've attempted. My attempt wasn't a complete success by any means.

Check to see if you might have a part sheet in your box that has a map of the parts. I'm building a Midwest model (made by Model Expo too) and discovered that the instructions were quite different from the actual layout of the parts on the sheets and only then realized that there was another sheet in the box that in addition to having a parts list at the top had a map to a couple of the laser cut sheets at the bottom. I also used the wrong knee when building the Pram. Good practice to undo some glue and try again. It's definitely a skill you'll use again - and just know that you can do it with a bunch of alcohol (if using PVA) or acetone (if using CA) with a few applications and some patience is a good skill to have. Also learn from my mistake and be careful using a scalpel or other sharp blade to remove a glued piece - on my Smack I had to remove a piece and it removed all at once and a blade went into my hand (just barely escaped with just a nasty scar without needing stitches).

I assume since you have a selfie that you’ll be sending that to Model Expo to get a credit towards a future purchase.

A note for future Ranger builders: (Below are screen shots from the instructions.) One thing I did not fully appreciate when fairing the hull was how much sanding needed to be done on the triple-thickness pieces at the stern end. As I noted above, I ended up having to unglue the first (interior facing) bulwark to sand some more. But I still didn't sand them enough. I now see with close inspection of some of the photos in the instructions how much those triple-thickness pieces are sanded down - it's nearly sanded down to the thickness of a single piece at the far stern end of the ship. I was certainly conservative in how much I sanded off assuming that surely it could not mean sanding through an entire piece, let alone nearly two pieces. I only really discovered how much I still needed to sand off when I attached the two transom pieces and saw (unlike the photo in the manual) that the piece did not reach the outside of the hull (as shown in the photos). It was then I realized that I had sanded a fraction of how much needed to be sanded down. I'm learning to look ahead, but this was something I missed. I'd recommend future builders take out those transom pieces to help guide how much you really need to fair the stern around the transom. I ended up adding some wood filler (filler, sanding, some more filler, sanding) to try to mimic having the right shape of the transom pieces. I'm not with my model so I'll try to post the end result later when I can. Especially since these pieces will all be painted, filling and sanding (or adding a new piece of wood, filling, and sanding) will work fine and barely be noticeable.

Completing the bulwark and gunwale.

Lee Valley Veritas micro tools have been recommended (also not cheap): https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/tools/brand/veritas/miniature-tools

Adding the first part of the gunwale.

I (and others) often recommend Vanguard Models. The Sherbourne is a great kit. They also have a bunch of fishing boats, most of which are for beginners (I’m doing the Ranger now). They’re a little more expensive than some others but the instructions and materials are great. Chris Watton says he barely makes a profit on the Sherbourne kit. I’ve also done the Model Shipwright series (Dory, Pram, and Smack). They’re a nice collections. The construction of the Occre kit is I think going to be more similar to the Vanguard kits - in terms of its planked hull and rigging.

Added the outer bulwarks. Never enough red clips.

After losing pieces in the rug, I put a new crisp white drop cloth under my work area. Makes it easier to find pieces and keeps the rugs safe (not just from glue and paint but also from when you stab yourself in the hand with a razor blade and bleed all over yourself).

In the Model Shipways version of the Smack, I also had trouble with the Britannia metal garbage fittings they provided. Thankfully, the metal cleats that came with that weren't quite as awful as the ones you showed (I had to do a bunch of filing and reshaping because they all looked like different pieces). But there were some other metal fittings that were used in the rigging (that had a hook on one end that attached to an eyebolt and a hole on the other end that accepted a tied off piece of rigging - don't know what they are called) that had holes way to small to accept any rigging line supplied with the kit and after I tried to bore the hole out a bit to get the line through and added to the rigging the piece came apart in my hands. You'd think they would have discovered 3D printing by now. Are there third party vendors that sell quality cleats and fittings like that? Who is your "hobby supplier"? I know you can get great rope and blocks from places like Syren. I haven't seen a place where I can replace poor metal fittings for cleats and other parts.

Released the Dory from the build board and sanded areas that needed to be flush.

Added the pear 2nd layers to the stem, keel, and stern.