Louie da fly

Hope I am not jumping in at the wrong time! I really want to do this build. I have never built a wooden ship. Been building plastic models over 60 years. How would you rate this in difficulty. I feel intimidated by the planking.

Welcome to the ranks of honest humans, DCook65
The planking essentially is the ship and is probably the most difficult single task in this or any build
Its not the wrong time to be jumping in; do you have the same kit?
If so the way to build confidence is to read the build logs of everyone else who has built this or similar kits and map out in your mind the next few steps
Then do them 

Beautiful - just beautiful.

I haven't been back to this for awhile. It's really looking good!

Connie looks very good, Andrew. I once saw a tv programme where some paeontologists built a full scale model of a pterodactyl and tried to get it to fly (as a glider). It kept on flipping backwards (stalling, I suppose)  - at the end of the programme they were going back to the drawing board, and I never found out whether they got it working properly. But its shape was very reminiscent of Connie, with no tail to speak of. Maybe you could have given them lessons.
 
Steven

That's looking very good, John. A nice methodical start to your planking.
 
 
Steven

Connie looks very good, Andrew. I once saw a tv programme where some paeontologists built a full scale model of a pterodactyl and tried to get it to fly (as a glider). It kept on flipping backwards (stalling, I suppose)  - at the end of the programme they were going back to the drawing board, and I never found out whether they got it working properly. But its shape was very reminiscent of Connie, with no tail to speak of. Maybe you could have given them lessons.
 
Steven

Just subscribed.
 
I have the wholes series - occupies a place of honour in my bookshelf. I re-read them on a regular basis.

I thank my friends for their welcome appreciation,
 
I continued laying the strips on the deck,

 
always widening the openings on the bridge, always checking the operation of the leds
 

 

 
leaving to finish the gunwale, which I will build when I have removed the frames
preparing the openings for the grating

 

 
 

 
see you next time

Nice. Looking forward to seeing more.

Once the guns were finished, I continued with the realization of the details present on the battery deck, another detail is the lever rudder that is maneuvered by the helmsman in the appropriate housing, which is a raised floor above the battery deck, the rudder is formed by two rods joined by two metal pieces at the end that stopped at the rudder rod allowed it to be maneuvered, I made the rudder and rods, later I will have to make the mechanism (the joint) that allows you to "distribute" the maneuvers to the rudder being locked on the base where the helmsman is.

 

 

 

 
To place the rods and create the "visible" details from the openings of the cannon hatches, I have to continue to enlarge and mill the internal parts very close to the lighting system, risking to do considerable damage

 

 
I started to prepare the strips to make the bridge, (I will make boards of 6m with a width of 30 cm, reported in 1/60 scale, or strips of 10 cmx5mm wide,) for the essence I decided to use some elm, these are boards that I made 6/7 years ago so well seasoned, I cut a piece and I opened them with a band saw, (seasoned elm is hard as steel)

 
the next step will be to plan them to a thickness of 5mm and with the foot with the aluminum guide make the strips 5mm wide with a thickness of 0.8mm

 

 
while on the opening I carry the "beams" with some strips that I only need to support the part made to close and delimit the openings where I will make the grating delimiting them with the jaws

 
I begin to put the strips on by putting weights on them to keep them adherent to the plywood

 

 
this is the result, now I can start laying the deck battens
 

 

 
the next detail will be the realization of the grating, for now I conclude by wishing everyone a Happy 2021 that is better than 2020 !!!
 
 
 
 

I am slowly working on riveting and in the meantime I completed rudder (comparison with the original).
 

Great subject! 
I had the opportunity to help a bit to prepare it for the winter (just a few times, it's on the opposite side of town for me..)
It was a nice way to spend a weekend, the smell of tar and the joy of helping  Great for kids as well!

With all the frames fitted and trimmed down to size I have started with preparing the rivets. It's boring. 
 
Take a bristle. Hold it close to a flame (but not in it or it will burn) until it melts to a bead in the end. Then press the bead to a flat surface to get a flat head on the rivet. Repeat some 1500 times...
 

Yeah, sounds tedious. It looks very good though!
I guess the clenched side will be a bit of a challenge, washer and all 😉 

You are right Håkan, this is the easy part. Making and clenching the roves will be even more tedious.

Time for a quick update. didn't have any spare time to build while on vacation but now everything is back to normal so finally some time to work on this model!
 
The instructions says to fit the top plank first so I have done that, so far so good. When planking I usually fit one plank per side per day. My process is fairly slow, test fit, if necessary bend it using a plank bender, test fit again, put it in hot water for a while to soften it, fit it in its place, waiting for it to dry, and finally glue it into place, wait for the glue to set and done. It takes time though so getting more than one plank a side per evening is difficult.
 
@Louie da fly, your model is stunning. I'll be very very happy if mine is half as nice as yours

For anyone interested Connie is an Australasian pelican ( pelicanus conspicillatus) and the ruff at the back of her head is a piece of cockatoo feather
 
The model has Platz planform and is controlled only by differential motor thrust.  Her big feet give a bit of stability in yaw
 
 

Thank you very much Eric, Nelson and EricWilliamMarshall for your kind and thoughtful messages, and to all the “likes”
I hesitated before posting as I feared that I would be over-communicating.  But it seemed right to let you all know what I am wrestling with at the moment.
 
This corner of Australia is gradually opening up again after COVID ( still possible that more waves are on the way) and the indoor model flying organised by our Mens Shed is beginning to happen again.  My wife strongly encouraged me to go whenever it did not interfere with owt medical.

So I feel encouraged to build and fly again!  Photo attached of Connie, my pelican whose beak is Velcro-attached for evident reasons and she flies sedately round a basketball court.
This will not slow the progress of the ship; quite the contrary.
Wanting to do any activity is good, and leads to more doing in other fields

Maybe you'll do a better job than me! Certainly there are things I'd do differently if I were to repeat my kit. 

Have added all frames.  I decided to do this from 3 to 16 the the ends.  The instructions have the under deck frames added first, then the remainder.  I felt the instruction ordered would be problematic for my square tools, hence the ordering change.  I see no obvious problems with my ordering. 
 
I had a little mis-start, as I began frame installation with the keel reverse ordered WRT the instructions.  It was not until I test fit one of the decks that I realized I had erred.  I then enjoyed a disassembly and clean up day.  Kit manufacturers, how about adding frame numbers at the keel, as well as part numbers on hidden areas of parts for un-attentive builders such as myself ?  Seems no real added manufacturing cost, and a large potential time saving for novice builders.
 
I have fitted two of the first layer decks, and am working on the other two. The larger need some fiddling/sanding to get proper fit at the frame cutouts.
 
 

Happy 2021, All.  
 
I have installed the sub-deck plywood parts (Steps 1b and 1c) .  As stated earlier, some adjustments to the precut slots were necessary.  Rather than glue the larger decks to the frames prior to frame attachment to the keel, I installed the frames (as above) and the the decks.  No issues I am aware of using this alternate sequence.
 
 

 
The mast foot assembly, prep and installation is straightforward.  Helpful are locating notches in the keel making placement obvious.
 
The deck planking was a bit troublesome.  The provided laser cut planks have thin attachments between separate pieces, and it is not obvious from the instructions if the intent is to separate all parts, then install, or just try to glue down the deck planks as provided.  Since three of the four decks lost a lot of pieces during handling, I separated the parts prior to attaching to the plywood sub decks.  This worked, but was rather tedious.  For the largest, which stayed in one piece, I separated one set of edge planks, glued the rest to the sub-deck, then adjusted the size of the edge pieces to finish coverage.
 
Adding the transverse strips (Step IIIb) is also straightforward; I cut the strips a bit oversized and will trim as either the remaining frame pieces are glued to the transverse strips, or as I am planking.
 
 

 
The inner frame is the next piece to attach, and can be seen dry-fitted above.  However, this inner frame (part 27) is flat, and the other frame tops are not at the same level WRT to each other.  I carefully measured and squared them while attaching to the keel, so am confident they are level.  In fact, there is a substantial gap between the inner frame and the top of frame 10 (below) .  The cross section provided in the plans shows the inner frame directly in contact with the top of frame 10.  It seems a consistent amount of frame should protrude above the inner frame as well, so this suggests the inner frame has a bend, and is lowest at the top of frame 10.  
 
 

 
I will be fussing with the frame top cutouts in the inner frame to get a better dry fit, while I re-examine construction looking for other assembly blunders that might explain the present situation.

Following a couple hours of working the frame tops and frame cutouts in the inner frame, I wielded the maxi-cure super glue, used the top of frame 10 as a level guide, and attached the inner frame.  I spent most of the time working on frames 6 and 12, which were too narrow to allow the inner frame to sit low enough.  
 
The image below shows the 5 parts 28 attached to the top of the inner frame.
 

 
This illustrates the inner frame is sitting on the top of frame 10 as shown in the plans.
 

 
A few more frame parts to install and the ship will be ready for planking to begin

Planking has begun.  I have shaped and installed the first three on each hull side, parts 36 thru 38.  The process has been, so far, smooth.  I did bevel the keel edge of parts 36, and have thinned the ends of all planks, which you can hopefully see in the photos.  Most time consuming was assuring the frame surface for the next plank was level with the surface of the just installed plank, as quite a few needed some material removed.
 
 

 

Good analysis. But it would seem to be a regular routine when preparing for a sea voyage that the shields most certainly would be lashed down firmly to the rail. I'm a 21 year Navy veteran with service on submarines and surface ships. And on a surface ship shields like these most certainly could protect the crew from wind and waves to some extent given their otherwise open deck arrangement. I have been through many really severe storms at sea and I can tell you that if things are not lashed down properly, people and equipment suffer damages and injuries. I did 10 years historical reenacting from F&I through Fur Trade. As for weapons, that is for a different debate.