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Indeed! I'm always aghast at the little mistakes and boo-boos on my card models until I take off my magnifiers and step back to a normal viewing distance.

This was a very handsome class of ships -- looking forward to following your build. BTW, I removed "wood" from your list of tags. It's kind of the default medium for our site.

Welcome aboard, Henry! Ooh, that sounds like a Halinski product -- that's a real feat. We have a small cadre of card model enthusiasts within our ranks.

Welcome, and thanks for the sponsorship!

Wow! That looks amazing!

Ah -- I misunderstood.

Yep, that was the essence of my previous post -- it might have been a little too subtle for some readers. 😉

Hello, Al. I'm all for making improvements to instruction manuals, though I am not personally familiar with BlueJacket's manuals. My only comment, for whatever it's worth, is that 11 x 17 is on the large size; on my small desk that would take up about a quarter of the work space. Of course that might not be an issue with some or perhaps even most other builders.

That is true, but no part of an aircraft is essential to landing it! 😝

You found them (see here)! I have not built any of WAK's kits, except if you consider some of the aircraft designed by Lech Kołodziejski that were previously published by CardPlane. I have, though, completed some ships by Digital Navy, Paper Shipwright, JSC, and Modelik -- I have a bunch of Paper Shipwright and HMV kits in my stash.

On we go. This first photo shows one of my fiberglassing boo-boos. I trimmed away the excess cloth and sanded the sharp edges smooth. Now, as far as a repair goes, I'm thinking that perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to sand down the spot level with the surrounding fiberglass and then simply fill the divot with some thickened epoxy. Any thoughts on this? I don't think that there will be any structural issues with the few spots I need to patch -- as you can see, there's already an epoxy fillet beneath this particular spot. Next task was to finish sealing the interior of the bow and stern compartments -- or perhaps that's bow and bow compartments since both ends are identical at this point. Eventually I'll have to pick one end or the other as the bow. I didn't photograph this step, as it's quite messy, since the work has to be done at very awkward angles inside the cramped compartments. Then came the interior rub rails. First bit is to finish widening the pre-cut slots in the bulkheads. I intended to do both rails today, since I was able to dry fit the first one with only half of the clamps I have on hand. But of course once I got the rail slathered in epoxy, the stuff acted like a lubricant, meaning I had to use all of my clamps to get it to stay in place. There is a lot of tension on this poor piece of 1x1 until the epoxy sets -- notice I have my temporary spreader in place. So, that's it for at least another 24 hours.

Welcome, Dennis. The Amati Lady Nelson is a perfectly acceptable first model, as it has the "three nots" needed for beginners, i.e. not a lot of planking, not a lot of guns, and not a lot of rigging. The instructions should be pretty decent, and the designer -- Chris Watton -- is a member here. Also, there are a lot of finished cutter build logs and gallery entries for inspiration and tips. Cheers!

Be sure to check this gallery folder -- might have some useful visual tips for you, Smileydent.

I have been using Rapid Fuse lately and really like it.

Such a photo would indicate that something really, really bad happened! 😆

Welcome, and good work on your model! Flirt's designer, Chris Watton, is an active member here.

Been a while since I've read the book (and BTW, back in my SoCal days, Don helped me get through my first POB project), but if I recall correctly, it's more of a survey of various techniques rather than a how-to book. If you're looking for pointers, you can start here.

I got the seams cleaned up, but there were still bits of blue tape residue visible. I decided to epoxy the seams with a wood flour/epoxy mix. It hides the remaining residue and ultimately will strengthen the seam, so why not? I didn't take a picture of this step, because it's not particularly visually interesting. Once the epoxy sets, the next step will be adding the interior rub rails.

There's no fiberglass or epoxy yet above the second strake. Everything gets a coat of epoxy eventually.

My messy fiberglass job has created a can load of extra work for myself, but I did manage to trim some more of the ragged edges today, and I also hit upon a workable method of tidying up the sharp edges and tape residue that are left over -- my Dremel tool skills have come in handy in this regard. This photo shows the cleaned-up edge I was able to get before it got too dim in my garage to continue working.

Your work thus far suggests that this project will have a fantastic end result.

The ultimate arbiter of "did right" or "did wrong" is the look of the finished product. So far, your model looks very good, especially for a first wooden ship, so I'd say that you have done mostly quite right. Keep up the good work!

Dunno -- I'm just learning about all the possible mistakes by making them! 😆 I'm not too worried though. I figure a few patches, a lot of sanding, and some paint will cover over a multitude of boat-building sins.

Welcome! We have some fans of paper models here, one of whom is me.

Well, this has really been an up-and-down roller coaster ride -- some parts go easy, others are a train wreck, a few are both in turns. Here's where I'm at now. Along with my crappy fiberglassing, you can see the trouble I have had so far with removing the tape, which I expected would be easy (ha!). The tape's purpose was to keep the resin-impregnated fiberglass cloth from sticking to the third strakes, and it was supposed to be easily removed by sliding a utility knife along the seam between the 2nd and 3rd strakes. Nobody warned me though about the trouble that results from resin pooling up along the seam and beneath the cloth (although it makes perfect sense now). In those areas, the knife doesn't slide easily in the seam, but rather wants to skate along the top of the hardened resin/cloth. Ugh. I'm having so much fun. But the next one will be easier, right?