David Lester

The bulwarks continue with short unpainted pieces in between the gun ports working upward. The excess wood that protruded into the gun port spaces were filed and sanded off. The bulwarks are no completed yet, but I will be taking a break for Thanksgiving week. The following week I will out of commission beginning that Wednesday as I prepare for lower back surgery which will require the services of two surgeons performing separate specialty tasks. I’ll spare you the details but suffice to say, I’m going to be poked through the front side as well as the backside. I don’t know how long recovery will be. The doctors re-assured me they do this all the time and they are confident of a successful outcome.

I got my feet wet over the weekend on the starting of the rigging the lower foremast shrouds. All in all, it went pretty well. My plan is to finish the lower formast shrouds by the weekend. I used my (quik stik) to set my mast. It works well and lets me tweak the mast when necessary. My deadeye spacer is working well. I made all my line with the Byrnes Ropewalk. I chose cotton thread. All my line is tied with actual knots. The knots are then set with diluted white glue. The cotton thread lets the glue soak in. Once everything is set and the way I like it I trim off the whiskers. 

This is the current state of the project. After a few redo's and a fairly steep learning curve, I've decided to do spiling for the planking. I know this is not usually done on a first build, but after reading/watching many tutorials, I've finally gotten my head around the spiling operation and think it's a better way to go on the whole. I've gotten my first spiled plank on the port side under the wale in this pic. I'm kicking myself for not duplicating it for the starboard side before I got it glued on. I'm going to make them in pairs from now on. I am currently using the tape method for spiling, but may switch to the compass method or probably use both. The garboard plank and the one next to it were installed before I had decided to go the spiling route are off now because of the gap where a stealer would be needed. I can make that area much prettier now. And for everyone that feels this is too much for the first planking, I say I want to learn this method and get good at it -  so what better way than to practice. 

[NOTE:  for some reason the pics below were saved in reverse order.  Just a note because I reference them below in the order I uploaded them -- but they are shown in reverse order]
 
One of the issues with this kit is the way the instructions are laid out, and how things are sequenced in them.  There is basically a section of the instructions that references the picture book, and then another section that references the plan sheets -- and they overlap!  So it's necessary to be careful to look ahead in two instruction sections plus the relevant plan sheets and the picture book, to avoid making a mistake in the step at hand.
 
Case in point is the small deck shown here, which I planked a few days ago (picture in an earlier post).  Now the instructions have me adding a very thin cabin structure, and what wasn't clear to me is what color it needed to be on the sides.  If I just went by the instructions, I'd glue the bare wood, and then discover later on how to paint and decorate it -- or whether it should be painted at all.  The pictures in both books (there is one that shows deck fittings, but not ALL of the decks) don't show it clearly, and if you had to guess from those you'd say that maybe you leave it bare wood.  But of course that couldn't be the way the real ship was built.  So after searching several times through the instructions and plans I found a section much further on that talks about mounting this cabin structure on the deck and painting it white.  The instructions actually read in that sequence, but you'd figure that a modeler would paint first.  The tricky thing is that the cabin is so thin that it would be really hard to keep paint off the side of the deck, or you'd have to mask. 
 
So once I figured that out, I decided to paint first and then glue on, which still requires careful cutting of the wood pieces and fitting them (using clips to hold in place) before painting and then gluing.  The pics below show the loose pieces cut and painted, drying, then a side shot of the cabin structure, and then what the cabin structure will look like on the main deck (although there are PE decorations to go on it).
 
Good result, but a note that this kit requires more cross-referencing and reading ahead than other kits I've built.
 
Regards,
David

I am getting close to completion now. I am still rigging the quarter davits, but I have also started rigging the whaleboat on the aft davits and the three anchors - two at the cat heads and one on the starboard anchor brackets. I have the starboard quarter davit completely rigged, and just need to add the metal brackets to the top davit brackets. I have the port quarter davit mostly rigged, but still need to add the davit blocks and lines, and the rope coils and metal brackets.



For the aft davits, I first added the davit blocks and tackle lines through the sieves on the davits, then hung the whaleboat on them using the ring bolts in the boat. I made gripes from some black thread I had, as these are straps, not ropes. This was the closest thing I had on hand to simulate these. I made larger hooks and seized them to one end of the gripes, then measured the lengths and seized a thimble to the other end. I tied a smaller line through the thimble, which I tied to cleats on the davits.
 

I still need to tie off the davit lines to their cleats, which I am keeping pressure on with the alligator clips. In the process of doing this, I hit the boom a little too hard and popped the seizings on the topping lifts and boom sheet block. I was able to re-seize the starboard lift line around the boom, and I think I will be able to do the same with the port one. I had to re-strop the boom sheet block, which I will tie around the boom, so overall not too much rework. I may still end up re-rigging the topping lifts depend on how the repaired ones look.
The two bow anchors are installed using a line that runs through the anchor ring and is tied to a cleat on the bulwarks. Inside the bulwarks, there is a line that wraps around the fluke of the anchor and is tied to two ring bolts on the waterway.

The starboard side anchor has a bracket with eye bolts that the anchor will be tied to. I seized two lines to these eyebolts to tie around the anchor, and a similar line will be used inside the hull to hold the anchor fluke in place. I have the anchor hanging off the hull until I can tie it to the bracket.

After these items are installed, all that is left is to make and add an 1812 US flag and do a final clean up of the model. Of course, there is still the case to make too.

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. I spent a lot of time yesterday (raining all day, couldn't rake leaves) working on the lettering for the stern. I don't know what the decorative "f" in the centre is property called; whether it's simply a decoration or some old-fashioned contraction for "of". In any case it presented a bit of a challenge to duplicate. There is an elaborate "f" in the special characters section of Word, but it wasn't quite right. In the end I downloaded this image from Google:

 
Then I doctored it with Photoshop and the result isn't too bad:

 
 
 
The next photo shows my lettering above the lettering on the actual ship:

 
And finally, on my model:

 
I also finished the skylight:

 
Using sewing thread for the rods worked quite well. Because it's so fine, I was able to get the same number of them in place as on the ship. For the bottom portion, I had stiffened the thread with CA glue, but for the upper portion, I tried it without adding the CA glue and it actually worked a little better.
 
I am now working on a number of small details to the hull - portholes, etc before turning the hull upside down and staring on the copper plating.
 
Again, thanks for likes and comments.
David

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. There are so many details to be added to this hull, that it's almost paralyzing figuring out what to do next. I've been playing around with some of the deck structures.
 
The "houses" at the stern end and the "head" have to be let into the bulwarks and rail and this is a bit tricky. I knew I had to use templates, but even creating them seemed problematic, so I built the templates up from components with a new piece at each point where the profile changed and taped them together.
 

 
I then made a decent one piece template.
 

 
Then I fine tuned the one-piece template.

 
And finally, the piece itself.

 
I used a piece of 1/32" sheet material for the back and then faced it with 1/32" x 1/16" strips. (The blocks in the picture held in place by the clips are just spacers to help me locate the rail.)
 
Here's the powder room ☺️ fitted to the bulwarks (just placed temporarily at this point.
 

 
Many thanks for looking in, likes etc.
 
David
 

Hello All,
Thank you all very much for checking in, comments, likes etc. I have a bit of progress to report. The keel is assembled, bulkheads added, mast slots readied and bow blocks and counter installed.
 
In the past I've been a bit negligent about preparing the slots for the masts at this early stage, but this time I've looked after it and I think it will pay off. I added shims to the slots to hold the masts more or less at the proper angles. It's a lot easier now than trying to measure the angle when the deck is filled with furniture etc. which is my usual m.o.
 
The bow blocks were easy enough to do, but for some reason I had a hard time with the counter. I normally have no trouble reading and understanding the plans when they are showing in two dimensions how something will look in three dimensions,  but some reason I couldn't wrap my head around how this one was supposed to look. It took a couple of tries, but I think I now have an acceptable result.
 
The stern blocks are almost finished and ready to add.
David

Looks beautiful Dave - what a nice little project this one is.

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. There are so many details to be added to this hull, that it's almost paralyzing figuring out what to do next. I've been playing around with some of the deck structures.
 
The "houses" at the stern end and the "head" have to be let into the bulwarks and rail and this is a bit tricky. I knew I had to use templates, but even creating them seemed problematic, so I built the templates up from components with a new piece at each point where the profile changed and taped them together.
 

 
I then made a decent one piece template.
 

 
Then I fine tuned the one-piece template.

 
And finally, the piece itself.

 
I used a piece of 1/32" sheet material for the back and then faced it with 1/32" x 1/16" strips. (The blocks in the picture held in place by the clips are just spacers to help me locate the rail.)
 
Here's the powder room ☺️ fitted to the bulwarks (just placed temporarily at this point.
 

 
Many thanks for looking in, likes etc.
 
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. There are so many details to be added to this hull, that it's almost paralyzing figuring out what to do next. I've been playing around with some of the deck structures.
 
The "houses" at the stern end and the "head" have to be let into the bulwarks and rail and this is a bit tricky. I knew I had to use templates, but even creating them seemed problematic, so I built the templates up from components with a new piece at each point where the profile changed and taped them together.
 

 
I then made a decent one piece template.
 

 
Then I fine tuned the one-piece template.

 
And finally, the piece itself.

 
I used a piece of 1/32" sheet material for the back and then faced it with 1/32" x 1/16" strips. (The blocks in the picture held in place by the clips are just spacers to help me locate the rail.)
 
Here's the powder room ☺️ fitted to the bulwarks (just placed temporarily at this point.
 

 
Many thanks for looking in, likes etc.
 
David
 

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. I spent a lot of time yesterday (raining all day, couldn't rake leaves) working on the lettering for the stern. I don't know what the decorative "f" in the centre is property called; whether it's simply a decoration or some old-fashioned contraction for "of". In any case it presented a bit of a challenge to duplicate. There is an elaborate "f" in the special characters section of Word, but it wasn't quite right. In the end I downloaded this image from Google:

 
Then I doctored it with Photoshop and the result isn't too bad:

 
 
 
The next photo shows my lettering above the lettering on the actual ship:

 
And finally, on my model:

 
I also finished the skylight:

 
Using sewing thread for the rods worked quite well. Because it's so fine, I was able to get the same number of them in place as on the ship. For the bottom portion, I had stiffened the thread with CA glue, but for the upper portion, I tried it without adding the CA glue and it actually worked a little better.
 
I am now working on a number of small details to the hull - portholes, etc before turning the hull upside down and staring on the copper plating.
 
Again, thanks for likes and comments.
David

Good Morning,
I have now finished planking the hull. I hesitated to include this picture, because it looks so bad, but here it is nevertheless.
 
I'm not a very good hull planker and I'm always glad to have that part of the build behind me. This hull is single planked, and there is supposed to be a sharp line along the top edge of the wale, with the planking below the line thicker than the planking above the line. I could not seem to maintain a consistent lip along its length and it completely disappeared at the stem. To solve the problem, I first sanded the area of the wales flush with the upper planking and then applied a second layer of 3/64" walnut that I had left over from a previous kit. I planked down only as far as the point where the copper plating begins (which is quite high on this ship.) I feathered it out and applied filler. It is now well sanded and sealed with some poly. I know it looks awful at this point, but it's actually a smooth, solid and reasonably symmetrical hull with a very nice crisp line along the wales. I think it will look just fine once some black paint and copper plates are added. I know my planking skills would never allow me to build a model with an all natural finish where every plank is on full display like so many of you can do so well, but as long as I stick to paint and/or copper finishes I should be ok.
 
So now, for me, the hard part is over and the fun part begins.
David

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. I spent a lot of time yesterday (raining all day, couldn't rake leaves) working on the lettering for the stern. I don't know what the decorative "f" in the centre is property called; whether it's simply a decoration or some old-fashioned contraction for "of". In any case it presented a bit of a challenge to duplicate. There is an elaborate "f" in the special characters section of Word, but it wasn't quite right. In the end I downloaded this image from Google:

 
Then I doctored it with Photoshop and the result isn't too bad:

 
 
 
The next photo shows my lettering above the lettering on the actual ship:

 
And finally, on my model:

 
I also finished the skylight:

 
Using sewing thread for the rods worked quite well. Because it's so fine, I was able to get the same number of them in place as on the ship. For the bottom portion, I had stiffened the thread with CA glue, but for the upper portion, I tried it without adding the CA glue and it actually worked a little better.
 
I am now working on a number of small details to the hull - portholes, etc before turning the hull upside down and staring on the copper plating.
 
Again, thanks for likes and comments.
David

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. I spent a lot of time yesterday (raining all day, couldn't rake leaves) working on the lettering for the stern. I don't know what the decorative "f" in the centre is property called; whether it's simply a decoration or some old-fashioned contraction for "of". In any case it presented a bit of a challenge to duplicate. There is an elaborate "f" in the special characters section of Word, but it wasn't quite right. In the end I downloaded this image from Google:

 
Then I doctored it with Photoshop and the result isn't too bad:

 
 
 
The next photo shows my lettering above the lettering on the actual ship:

 
And finally, on my model:

 
I also finished the skylight:

 
Using sewing thread for the rods worked quite well. Because it's so fine, I was able to get the same number of them in place as on the ship. For the bottom portion, I had stiffened the thread with CA glue, but for the upper portion, I tried it without adding the CA glue and it actually worked a little better.
 
I am now working on a number of small details to the hull - portholes, etc before turning the hull upside down and staring on the copper plating.
 
Again, thanks for likes and comments.
David

Good Morning,
I've been working away at this and that. There are so many details to be added to this hull, that it's almost paralyzing figuring out what to do next. I've been playing around with some of the deck structures.
 
The "houses" at the stern end and the "head" have to be let into the bulwarks and rail and this is a bit tricky. I knew I had to use templates, but even creating them seemed problematic, so I built the templates up from components with a new piece at each point where the profile changed and taped them together.
 

 
I then made a decent one piece template.
 

 
Then I fine tuned the one-piece template.

 
And finally, the piece itself.

 
I used a piece of 1/32" sheet material for the back and then faced it with 1/32" x 1/16" strips. (The blocks in the picture held in place by the clips are just spacers to help me locate the rail.)
 
Here's the powder room ☺️ fitted to the bulwarks (just placed temporarily at this point.
 

 
Many thanks for looking in, likes etc.
 
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)
 
There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.
 
 
 

 
The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.
 

 
Stern details finished -

 
I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.
 
(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 
The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 
I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!
 
 
The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.
 
This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.
 
Again, many thanks for comments and likes.
David