GuntherMT

I've never done serving (yet), but everything I've read indicates that it is done with a much smaller rope or thread around the larger rope. Watch the video from the Alexey on Youtube - http://youtu.be/o5gZQRN6yoU?t=7m22s You can see in the video how he uses what appears to me to be thread, or possibly very fine rope.

Those masts look really thick. Do they stay that diameter?

I don't think you can really plank based on the plans, as your specific hull will never be exactly like the plans so the plan planking scheme won't match it. Instead, look in the planking sub-forum here and there is a sticky with a bunch of different planking tutorials, all with excellent information in them. Each plank has to be cut and shaped to lay correctly. It's nice (and I certainly have been trying on mine) to get them to match up nicely at the stem, but ultimately, keeping the surface good for the 2nd layer is more important. Once you are done filling and sanding, if the 2nd layer of planking has a good smooth surface that allows you to make a great 2nd layer, then the first layer has done it's job!

Chuck's practicum is what is available for download on Model Expo's site as well.

I've only done the single build so far, but I found it helpful to have the belaying pins loose when I was doing the rigging, as it was much easier to properly loop the rigging rope around a belaying pin without the other pins in the holes next to it. I would belay a line to a single pin, and then secure it with glue, and the fact that the line was properly belayed around the pin and glued has the pins pretty securely placed - I'm not worried about them coming out at least. Just need to be careful not to block off the next hole with the rigging line.

Good to see this moving forward. If I can help you with anything don't hesitate to ask. I've probably got quite a lot of photo's that I didn't post in the log, so if you are having problems with something I could very well have a picture that might (or might not) be helpful.

I've never done a solid hull, but Model Shipways (Model Expo) allows you to freely download the instructions for their kits in .pdf format. The solid hull kit "Sultana" has a practicum as well. Follow this link - http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=MS2016 Under the photo's, there are some tabs - click on the "Documents" tab, and you'll find the instructions and practicum chapters. Good luck!

Thanks all. Was a pretty good weekend, even though I had to work about 9 hours today on a Sunday. I finished the replacement spirketing plank, and it came out pretty good, and I think I got the scupper shaping even better on this one, so all's well that ends well. I got sidetracked (shocking, I know) and played with the holly planking sample again. I drilled out one of the lines of tree nail locations to .031" and made some bamboo tree nails and placed them. I'm glad I tried this, but they stand out way too much, so I won't be using them on this deck. For a darker deck, like boxwood, these might work ok, but I'm not sure I like the dark 'spots' they seem to have, so I'll try using some regular wood of some kind next. Next up was gun port sills. When I got to the point of doing this, I realized that at some point in the build I've managed to screw up, probably way back at the deck fairing, as the spirketing plank is not at an even height along all the gunports. In one case it's very far off and I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about it. The starboard side wasn't nearly as bad as the port, so I started on the sills there. I decided that I could use the sills themselves to 'fix' the problem with the spirketing plank not matching up to the gunports correctly, by installing the sills to the outside of the outer planking instead of just installing them between the outer planks and the spirketing plank like you are supposed to. I began by taking a 1/8" x 3/32" piece of basswood and cutting it to the proper width for each gunport, and then using small files, shaping the piece into an "L" shape to fit into the gap between the two layers of planking while also extending outside of the outer layer of planking. Once placed, the sill is both too high, extending above the spirketing plank, and too wide, extending outside of the outer plank layer. I then filed/sanded the outside down to match the outside planking layer, so that it's the right width, but still too high. Then, I filed the sill down to match the top of the spirketing plank, leaving it fit to the port, and making the top of the spirketing plank even with the outside planking. Did this for all 4 ports on the starboard side. As none of the ports on the starboard side are terribly out of alignment with the top of the spirketing plank, this worked out quite well, but the port side is worse, so I'm going to have to think about what is going to happen on that side to even things out. One port in particular is low (or the plank is high) by 1/2 the height of the spirketing plank (so about 1/16"). I may be able to lower the spirketing plank a little bit by sanding it down to take up part of this discrepancy, and sort of blend it in well enough that it won't be noticed later.

For future reference, Model Expo's web site is terrible at showing the prices until the very last step where you are confirming everything after putting in your payment method, as that is where they apply the discount. On the main page, when you click on the "Specials" section, it currently shows the Connie at $299 still and gives the code to use when you land on that screen. So you can apply the code at any step in the process, but the discount only applies right at the end.

Thanks everyone. I created a Flickr album of all the ships that were entered into the contest, and you can look at them if you are interested here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128316399@N05/sets/72157649024073426/ All of these are plastic (except for the Carmen). The other sailing ship was made by someone who actually reads this forum, although I don't remember his handle here as I'm terrible with names. His ship took 2nd place in the non-out of box ships. The little tiny ship took first place, which befuddles me.

So today was a pretty good day. The model show was fantastic. So much amazing skill on display, and the venue was just as good, with some awesome warbirds on display. I took 470+ photo's. I got a very nice surprise at the end of the day. To be fair, there wasn't much competition for out of the box, but it made me happy anyway.

The club just started and at the moment it's 6 of us. I'm the young whippersnapper of the group and the only one with a real job, the rest are all slackers without any visible means of support. If I had found all four pieces of the plank when I first tried to glue it then it might have come out ok, but after I had already glued the wrong pieces together and broke them again, I didn't try to fit in that 'lost' piece when I found it since I'd sanded the bad glue section to make it smooth and in the process had made it quite a bit thinner than it started out. Another round of gluing and sanding would have just been too much I think, so I tossed it at that point and made a new piece. I fitted it last night actually, and it came out very good, possibly even better than the first one, and I managed to do it without breaking it, so that's a plus! I'm heading to a model show today (which is where I expect to see Frank). This will be the first model show I've ever been to, and I think I'm going to stop by the office and grab the Carmen and enter the show just to see how that entire process works (it only costs $4 to enter a model, so hey, why not), and what sort of things the judges look for and comment on, etc. I figure it will be a learning experience. As a bonus the show is held inside the CAF museum hanger, so I'll get to see some cool warbirds at the same time!

Thanks Frank - I'll chat with you tomorrow, I may come by after you get back from vacation and take you up on that for getting the cherry planks to size for the aft deck.

If you look back near the beginning of this log, I had a mis-cut bulkhead. I submitted an inquiry through the MS customer service form/link thing on a Sunday night. The following day (Monday) they responded and said they would replace it. The following Monday I received a brand new bulkhead sheet (not just the bad bulkhead). --------- So I figured out why the spirketing plank break looked weird/wrong where my glue repair failed. When I was measuring a new one, by laying the old broken parts on it, I came up way short, so I started looking around, and realized that the first plank didn't break into 3 parts, it broke into 4 parts and the last piece was shot across the room. In any case, I cut out a new piece and it's soaking now. I probably should have cut the scuppers before the wetting bending, but I sort of forgot, so I'll do it tomorrow night.

Yes Keith, they did a great job replacing the mis-cut bulkhead. If I figure out that I need this wood later I'll drop them a note.

So I got home and unclamped it, and as I feared the 'odd' break didn't glue very well. I went ahead and sanded it down smooth at both breaks, but the odd break ended up with a slight kink, and as soon as I tried to test fit the plank it snapped at that break again, so I'll have to fashion a new piece. This isn't a huge deal, except that the kit doesn't actually supply the walnut I'm using for this purpose, the plans show a different size of walnut, so I'm afraid that I'm going to now be short three pieces of this walnut I'm using for something else. It might actually be the poop deck planking walnut, in which case it's probably not a huge deal, as I'm seriously considering planking that deck (more of a roof really) with cherry. Oh well, I'll deal with that hurdle when I come to it.

I haven't got the faintest idea Dale. The black is some kind of a coating, and when you cut the wire the end shows the copper, so I assume you could solder it, but the black coating probably wouldn't do well in the area of the solder, but since I haven't gotten into the soldering part of this hobby yet, I don't know. According to this page - http://www.firemountaingems.com/shop/zebra-wire it's made by using 7 coats of a colored enamel.

Keith - I did glue and clamp it. I won't know until after work this evening if it's useable. One of the breaks was quite clean and I think will be fine, but the other did something really strange, not even sure how to describe it, but the pieces didn't fit together at all, so I'm not sure how it will come out. David - I guess it's times like this that I pay for not drinking!

Alistair certainly set a high bar for first builds with this one. It's really not fair at all.

I certainly can't promise the same service, since I only have the single point of reference, but when I ordered my wire I just ordered it with whatever the standard shipping was. They shipped it the next morning, and I had it 2 days after I placed the order.

Tim - for just a few dollars a spool, I just got one spool of every size from 18 guage to 30 guage from here: http://www.firemountaingems.com/shop/kw1cmbm09c626lt-zebra-wire--blacks-search?itemsperpage=20&sortby=bestmatch I figure I'll never need to search for black wire again except for specific uses that require something harder possibly.

Nicely done Alex!

Just beautiful paint work. Thank you for the explanation on how you did that, as I had no idea that you could use the interaction (or lack thereof) of the different types of paint to achieve this sort of result, and the results are stunning.

Thanks for the kind words. So last night I clamped the piece for the port spirketing plank in place and kept is soaked for a couple hours, and then this morning before leaving for work I wet it again. This evening I worked late, but wanted to finish this plank, so I marked the scupper locations and unclamped it, and it held shape beautifully, so I went ahead and clamped it in the vice and cut all the scuppers in and shaped them. I then added the beveling and rounded the upper inside edge and sanded everything and it looked really good. I test fit and it dropped into place perfectly, so much so that only one spot even needed a clamp to hold it against the waterway. Woo! So I pulled it out, and being the nit-picky person I am got out the 320 grit sandpaper for one final sanding to get the finish perfect before gluing in place. Just as I was about done, the sandpaper 'caught' on one of the scuppers, and.... Welp.. Oh well, I'll cut a new piece tomorrow and start over on this one.

Thanks for the feedback gents. I hope to not need anything like 'filler' for gaps in the deck, I was only using filler to plug the tree nail holes to simulate them. Treenails are one of those things that I think are something everyone will have a different opinion on as far as visibility goes. While the photos from Keith show treenails that are all but invisible, there are photos from the Endeavor in Australia that show the exact opposite: While I don't want glaring black treenails, I think I want somewhere in the middle. I may use this exact same method, but simply use larger holes, as I think that would come close to the visibility seen on Dubz Syren, which I find visually quite appealing. While they aren't high contrast with the deck, they do add a detail that I think really makes the overall effect striking. As for the Holly, both Holly and Boxwood are incredibly nice woods that I really like. Since the spirketing planks are going to be painted, I almost made them out of Boxwood, but I ended up using the Walnut out of laziness, as the correct size was already cut for me. Jeff was kind enough to send a few extra pieces that he probably ended up with after cutting my planks that are less than full length with a rough end, so I chopped up a couple of those for my fake deck sample. The lengths of the individual planks are obviously cut way too short to get the butt-shift pattern visible on such a small sample to play with the look. Depending on what sort of look I'm going for, I may use Boxwood for deck planking in future builds, if I want a more muted tone. Off to work, thanks again for the feedback gentlemen, I value your opinions and ideas as I progress further into this hobby. Have a great day! Edit: Forgot to include - the photo above is from this post by hornet - http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8317-to-treenail-or-not-to-treenail/?p=246825