David Lester

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Looks like you're in great shape. Those chisels (and the skill to use them) are ideal for this job.
David

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Hi Matt,
You'll find a couple of things like this throughout the build where the plans don't seem to line up with reality exactly right. I had a bit of trouble with the profile of the counter and another area where you will find this problem is the side galleries. They aren't especially difficult to build, but the piece that is the roof of the gallery is too short as shown on the plans. I debated what to do and in the end decided to make and add a filler piece at the aft end of the roof. It's about 1/8" if I remember correctly. I decided I wanted the front end of the roof to line up more or less where I thought it should in relation to the gunport that it's very close too. Overall though, I agree with you that it's a pretty nice kit and it gets easier as you find the "work arounds" for these little issues. 
Davdi

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Hi Matt,
The notches on the bow blocks are a pain to do, but there is another approach that I discovered and it works well. Make the blocks about 1/8" too short, then make a new piece 1/8" thick with the same profile as the top of the block and cut the notches into this separate piece. After the notches are cut, just glue it on top. That way you'll get very crisp edges on the notches. The picture below shows what I mean.
David

Thanks Brian,
I'll do a little experimenting and see what I can do to improve the appearance of my pictures. I've been reducing them in size to 650 px x 488 px and then choosing "save for web and devices." This takes them way below the 2mb size maximum. I'll try reducing them less next time.
David

Hi Dave,
Your planking is looking great. I really like the look of this ship. For some reason I'm always most drawn to the American ships of this era. With your attention to detail this will be a really beautiful model.
David

Hi Don,
I've been following along with interest.
 
I noticed your comments about balsa vs basswood. I prefer basswood regardless of the price. I ordered some balsa for my Constitution filler blocks, but quickly abandoned it. I find it hard to carve, despite its being soft. It tends to break off in chunks unless you're very careful. I went back to the basswood which isn't hard to carve and gives pretty nice results.
David

Thanks for the likes all. With all the crazy time at work this week, I did manage to get some therapeutic time in the shop. I glued the new bow pin rail in place and added the belaying pins.
 

 
I also glued the baffle plate that I punched from copper sheet to the galley stack. I glued two pieces of wire to the sides of the stack, touched up the paint, and glued the stack into the hole in the deck. It is hard to see in the pictures but if you look really closely to the third picture you can just see the wire.
 

 

 

 
I then made three ladders. One will go in the open hatch I left aft of the open waist, and the other two will go in the open waist openings at the bow. I first made a jig for the table saw from some scrap plywood and basswood strips. There is a thin strip of wood on its side in a slot that sticks out a bit from the plywood base, and a slot for the saw blade that is the distance between steps from it.
 

 

 
I used it to cut a slot, then place that slot over the raised piece to cut the next slot, until I had seven slots in each side. I have two boards as guides for the ladder sides, at the same angle but in opposite directions for the two different sides. Here are the results:
 

 
I then glued strips into the slots for the steps, sanded the ladders and gave them one coat of oak stain.
 

 
I will give them another coat of oak stain and add hand rails and ropes before gluing them into the openings. Next up are the binnacles.

Thanks Brian,
I'll do a little experimenting and see what I can do to improve the appearance of my pictures. I've been reducing them in size to 650 px x 488 px and then choosing "save for web and devices." This takes them way below the 2mb size maximum. I'll try reducing them less next time.
David

Hi Don,
The trellis turned out well. Thanks for asking. I used a plan I've had kicking around for a long time. It's a pyramid freestanding trellis, technically call a "tuteur", but that seems a bit too lah-di-dah, so I'm just calling it a trellis.
David

Hi Don,
I've been following along with interest.
 
I noticed your comments about balsa vs basswood. I prefer basswood regardless of the price. I ordered some balsa for my Constitution filler blocks, but quickly abandoned it. I find it hard to carve, despite its being soft. It tends to break off in chunks unless you're very careful. I went back to the basswood which isn't hard to carve and gives pretty nice results.
David

Hi Dave,
Your planking is looking great. I really like the look of this ship. For some reason I'm always most drawn to the American ships of this era. With your attention to detail this will be a really beautiful model.
David

Hi Matt,
You'll find a couple of things like this throughout the build where the plans don't seem to line up with reality exactly right. I had a bit of trouble with the profile of the counter and another area where you will find this problem is the side galleries. They aren't especially difficult to build, but the piece that is the roof of the gallery is too short as shown on the plans. I debated what to do and in the end decided to make and add a filler piece at the aft end of the roof. It's about 1/8" if I remember correctly. I decided I wanted the front end of the roof to line up more or less where I thought it should in relation to the gunport that it's very close too. Overall though, I agree with you that it's a pretty nice kit and it gets easier as you find the "work arounds" for these little issues. 
Davdi

Thanks Brian,
I'll do a little experimenting and see what I can do to improve the appearance of my pictures. I've been reducing them in size to 650 px x 488 px and then choosing "save for web and devices." This takes them way below the 2mb size maximum. I'll try reducing them less next time.
David

Hi Dave,
The mast top is just basswood. It all gets painted white and gray. For my camera, I've been using my Nikon Coolpix which is a very little camera with a zoom lens. It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I bought it in Venice (Italy) after my old camera bit the dust our first day out.
 
When I was posting at LLS it seemed I needed to reduce the size of the pictures substantially which is what I have still been doing here by force of habit. Maybe I don't need to. I'm still having trouble getting a clear focus for up close pictures. Maybe I'll try my ipad; I haven't been much in the habit of using it for taking pictures, but I'll give it a try next time.
David

Hi Dave,
The mast top is just basswood. It all gets painted white and gray. For my camera, I've been using my Nikon Coolpix which is a very little camera with a zoom lens. It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I bought it in Venice (Italy) after my old camera bit the dust our first day out.
 
When I was posting at LLS it seemed I needed to reduce the size of the pictures substantially which is what I have still been doing here by force of habit. Maybe I don't need to. I'm still having trouble getting a clear focus for up close pictures. Maybe I'll try my ipad; I haven't been much in the habit of using it for taking pictures, but I'll give it a try next time.
David

Hi Don,
I've been following along with interest.
 
I noticed your comments about balsa vs basswood. I prefer basswood regardless of the price. I ordered some balsa for my Constitution filler blocks, but quickly abandoned it. I find it hard to carve, despite its being soft. It tends to break off in chunks unless you're very careful. I went back to the basswood which isn't hard to carve and gives pretty nice results.
David

Hi All,
Here are a couple of pictures of what I've been doing lately. As I mentioned earlier, while I was contemplating what to do about my deck, I worked on the main mast top which you can see below. When I got back to the deck, got it all stripped down and refinished, I began to add the details back in. I'm working on the gun carriages. As you can see I've become overly cautious about getting glue on the deck again, so I am masking it like crazy, exposing only the areas where the carriages sit. I'll work my way through the whole process like this, and like a surgeon, only expose the immediate area that I'm working on, whatever that might be. Knowing me (and quite unlike a surgeon) as I remove the final bit of masking tape I'll probably drag my sleeve across the deck having just inadvertently dipped it in some glue. But I try not to let me mind go there.
David

Hi All,
I'm still just barely started on deck and hull details, but nevertheless felt like a change of pace, so I started shaping the lower masts. I was curious to find out how well the styrene would work for the chafing fish. I find that styrene very unpleasant to work with generally and it seemed to me that the .03 sheet would be very resistance to bending around the masts. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked like a charm and wasn't even too hard to do. The secret is to do it in stages and to hold it in place with large paper clips and leave it for a long time. I often make the mistake of thinking CA glue is instant, but for something like this it needs to set for quite a long time.
 
I first applied glue only to the lower narrow part of the piece and clamped it in place. Then to the centre only of the upper wider section. Then to one side of the wider section and finally the other side. That's four separate steps to the process and for the one mast it was actually five as I needed to give the extreme outer edge on one side another gluing and clamping.
 
I sanded the edges and once it's all painted it should be just fine.
 
As always, thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

Hi All,
Here are a couple of pictures of what I've been doing lately. As I mentioned earlier, while I was contemplating what to do about my deck, I worked on the main mast top which you can see below. When I got back to the deck, got it all stripped down and refinished, I began to add the details back in. I'm working on the gun carriages. As you can see I've become overly cautious about getting glue on the deck again, so I am masking it like crazy, exposing only the areas where the carriages sit. I'll work my way through the whole process like this, and like a surgeon, only expose the immediate area that I'm working on, whatever that might be. Knowing me (and quite unlike a surgeon) as I remove the final bit of masking tape I'll probably drag my sleeve across the deck having just inadvertently dipped it in some glue. But I try not to let me mind go there.
David

Hi Matt,
You'll find a couple of things like this throughout the build where the plans don't seem to line up with reality exactly right. I had a bit of trouble with the profile of the counter and another area where you will find this problem is the side galleries. They aren't especially difficult to build, but the piece that is the roof of the gallery is too short as shown on the plans. I debated what to do and in the end decided to make and add a filler piece at the aft end of the roof. It's about 1/8" if I remember correctly. I decided I wanted the front end of the roof to line up more or less where I thought it should in relation to the gunport that it's very close too. Overall though, I agree with you that it's a pretty nice kit and it gets easier as you find the "work arounds" for these little issues. 
Davdi