NMBROOK

So putting off the scupper issue at least until tomorrow, today I filled and sanded.  And sanded, and filled.  And sanded. 
 
I am reasonably happy with the finish of the first layer, no big dips or swells, and only a few places where the filler is left to fill minor low spots.  So I went to place the first wale.
The kit provides some walnut strips for the wale, but the walnut provided in this size (1/16 x 3/16) is the most terrible wood.  All the other walnut in the kit is fine, but the 6 pieces of 1/16 x 3/16 is a completely different color (very light) from the other walnut, and it's terribly brittle and splinters badly.  I soaked a piece, and even with lots of water and heat, the edges would splinter terribly, and even after sanding it, I couldn't get the edges to clean up at all.
 
So, I dipped into the Reno wood, and since the color of the wale doesn't matter (since it's going to be black), I found some really nice 1/16 x 3/16 boxwood strips, and cut one of them to size.  The boxwood is actually harder to do the actual bend as it's a harder wood, but using water and heat, it does it just fine, but most importantly, it does it without any splintering at all, and maintains a beautiful surface.  So I sanded the piece of boxwood and shaped it. I then decided to try yet another experiment that I saw somewhere on the forums in the last couple of months, and made it black before placing it, by the simple expedient of using a black sharpie permanent marker.  It looks as good as the painted fashion pieces, was silly fast, and the black ink actually penetrates the wood.  After I get the black strake on later, I'll seal it with some clear matte acrylic.
 
So not much progress for pictures, as other than filling and sanding, all I did today was place the wale on the starboard side.

Somebody has to keep my head from expanding to fill the room Alistair! 
 
After dinner I couldn't wait until tomorrow, so I moved on to the port side.  I did a much better job of keeping the planks aligned on this side, and used no stealers or drop planks at all!  I probably should have used a single stealer at the stern, but even there, the only reason I needed one is the gap left because I accidentally trimmed the 2nd to last plank off  too narrow - I got too aggressive shaving it and broke the full width off at the stern, and didn't feel like starting over on that plank.  I thought I might be able to completely close the gap by using a section of 1/4" plank at the stern to finish, but it came up just short so there is a small triangular gap there, but I don't think it's enough to affect the second planking.
 
Here is the hull with only a single plank gap left, and the 1/4" plank section placed at the stern.  The gap that's left is exactly the same width for the entire length (pats self on back).  Well, the digital calipers could find variations, but a marked strip was on the same pencil mark for the entire length, so close enough to exact for me!

 
And a bunch of different shots showing the completed first planking, ready to move on to..  whatever is next!

 
Actually, what's next it the Wales, and inner bulkwark planking, black strake, etc., before moving on to the second planking.
 
I'll decide after the second planking whether it gets painted or not, but my plan is to leave it natural below the black strake if I can do a good enough job at the planking.

Slow progress continues on the first planking.  I managed to completely mess up my planking plan where the bottom and top planking come together, and didn't figure it out until too late to be able to close it up without using any drop planks or stealers, and ended up having to use both.  Not a terrible tragedy, but was completely due to my own lack of proper planning.  Another lesson learned.
 
I used a single drop plank at the bow because the planks just weren't working out there and the edge bends were getting too severe as they transitioned to the bow.  I did this when the first plank kinked while trying to edge bend it.  Rather than just toss the entire plank, I cut it off and added the drop plank to allow me to use a single spiled plank forward from that point for two planks headed aft.

 
It turned out ok in the end, but was a little bit bummed that I had to use it.  After that, I ended up using both drop planks and a stealer towards the stern because of how narrow my gap got before it widened out in the stern area.

 
The starboard side first layer is now complete as can be seen above, and while I'm happy with the flow and believe that this will make a great foundation for the second layer, as a 'practice' run it was a bit of a failure, but taught me some lessons about basswood planking.  I was being very careful to try to make no gaps, but as can be seen there are numerous noticeable gaps.  I believe that I was placing the planks while they were still too wet, and the gaps were formed (mostly) by shrinkage after the planks dried out.  There are also a couple planks that have some ugly gaps where I over-trimmed while spiling.
 
If this was the final layer of planking, I would need to fill & sand, meaning I would have to paint the hull.  Luckily it's not the final layer, so I can just clean up the edges around the rabbet so that the 2nd layer will tuck into the rabbet properly, and call it good.  After I finish the other side of course.
 
The port side is down to the final 3 (or 4) planks remaining (pictured in my last update), we'll see if I can figure out a way to do it without as much patchwork in the form of drop planks and stealers.  I think the port side has a better chance of working out, as it's a much more consistent spaced gap left to fill.
 

Thanks Alistair and Lawrence,
 
Also thanks to the other folks for the likes.
 
Today I made some progress with the planking, and I also have been repainting the stern fashion pieces.  I sanded them down since I was unhappy with how rough the black paint looked, and then I re-primed with thinned primer, sanded with 320 grit, primed again, sanded with 320 grit, then added a coat of thinned black and sanded once more.  After that I added about 6 or 7 coats of very thin (think - more of a wash than paint) black.  I did this over the last few days of course, and I actually did the first two primer coats before leaving on my trip.  Much happier with the smoothness of the black painted area now, although I still need to fill the gaps around the windows at some point.
 

 
The planking is progressing reasonably well, even if I'm not 100% happy with everything about it, it is after all going to be covered up later.  I really need to get better at trimming the pieces to size, as whichever end I finish with isn't getting trimmed to the right size very well.
 

 
I've got the garboard plank on the other side, but none of the other lower planking there.  Last day of my short little vacation is tomorrow, so maybe I'll finish up the first planking layer.

So as I get farther into the planking, it's becoming obvious that I needed to spend more time on the hull fairing, or rather, I need a better understanding of the plank flow when I'm placing test planks for the fairing, or something.
 
I'm getting quite a dip in the planks on both sides just aft of the bow, and the planks at the stern are nowhere near symmetrical side to side - I'll need a stealer on one side to even them out at some point.
 
Here you can see the dips on both sides where the fairing was done incorrectly.  Luckily this is a double planked project so I'll be able to fill these, but it's a bit of a disappointment to me, as I was hoping that this first planking would have been good enough to be a final planking, as a personal goal.

 
The planking if you only look at the stem area is still pretty nice though!

 
I'm still doing a fair amount of edge-bending to get the planks to come in at the stem, even spiling them to 1/2 a plank width on every plank so far, although it is getting less pronounced on this 3rd one.  The stern would require severe edge bending to get them to stay at full width, so they are getting spiled which is why I'll need a stealer at some point on at least one side, possibly both, on this upper section.

Side trip - and update not about the AVS, but my trip through the forsaken wastelands (also known as Nevada).
 
The gentleman who was divesting himself of his years of shipbuilding is doing so for multiple reasons.  Something over 10 years ago he and his wife moved 500'ish miles to a smaller house, so all of the shipbuilding stuff was packed away.  At about the same time, he took up the new hobby of writing books, and discovered that he apparently had both a taste, and talent for this, as he now has 6 books published, mostly historical biographies it appears.  In retrospect, I should have planned for another day, as the length of the journey left me with very little time to visit, and he was an incredibly nice guy.  Honestly I could have spent the better part of a day looking at the 4 models he had left (the rest having been sold when he moved) on display in his house.
 
On display he had a fully rigged semi-scratch (or heavily kit-bashed) Charles W. Morgan, a very detailed large scale model of one of the whaleboats (other than the color scheme, reminded me very much of the recently completed one here in this very forum), and two admiralty style models - the HMS Druid, and the Confederacy - both of which were from the Lumberyard plans and wood.  All four of these models were simply gorgeous, and I'm the dumbest person around for not taking my camera on the trip to get some pictures.  He began modeling in the early 70's, and the Morgan was his final completed model, in the late 90's.  He had started on the Hannah when he moved. 
 
Everything you see is what I collected and packed back to Arizona, and it was all given for free, no strings attached, although on the pay-it-forward principle, I'll do my best to pass everything along if/when I decide I don't need it.  I'll start this next weekend by taking several of the books that are duplicates of ones I've already purchased, to the new Arizona Shipwrights club meeting, and giving them to whoever wants them.
Onward to the stuff.
 
Books are always good, as well as magazines of course, especially older ones that contain so much wonderful knowledge that was used to create models back before this awesome thing called the internet.

 
A fair assortment of miscellaneous tools, most of which will be useful, and some will replace existing tools as they are higher quality.  Also included in all the little plastic containers are the left over fittings and all kinds of random parts from approximately 12 builds including cannon and carriages, eye-bolts, deadeyes, blocks, rigging, chain plates, etcs.

 
And finally, the partially completed Hannah, as well as all of the wood, plans, and instructions to finish her (in theory).  Also included is all of the left-over wood from his other builds, and I have no idea what is what.  There appear to be enough dowels to build masts and yards for about half a fleet.

 
It was certainly an interesting trip, and I'll get some use out of a lot of this stuff.  From a purely financial perspective I'm not sure the trip made a lot of sense (my car went into the shop the day before I left with an engine warning light, so I had to rent a car), although the total value of everything I have pictured here is certainly higher than the cost of the trip, and I enjoyed meeting an older and very experienced ship builder.  I don't regret making the trip, but it did teach me that as I'm getting older, making crazy long 14+ hour days on the road is something I should not do anymore if I can avoid it.
 
I started my day Thursday when I left my house around 7:45am to do a couple stops before picking up the rental car, which promptly started getting engine warning lights and shutting off the cruise control barely 50 miles out of town.  I swapped the car at the airport in Vegas, which cost me about 90 minutes probably, and checked into a hotel outside of Reno just after Midnight.  Trip home was fairly uneventful, but of course took about the same amount of time, after loading the car and visiting for a while, I left Reno around 10:30, and got home about Midnight.  Returned the rental car yesterday morning, ran some errands, and took a long nap. 
 
Now I need to catch up on laundry and stuff, and then I'll see about starting back in on the AVS.

Thanks for the kind comments gents, and for the likes everyone.
 
It's been a crazy week at work, 13+ hours Tuesday and I was actually supposed to be on vacation today, but worked instead kind of crazy, so not a lot of time spent on the AVS.
 
I did start doing the lower planking, and have now been introduced to the weirdness that is spiling.
I started out by evening up the existing planks at the bow.  I did this by measuring all over the place to determine that the top of the 1/8" blank just above the 1/4" plank was correct along the entire top (at least as far as I could tell), and then using a compass to mark the long lower side based on the measurements from the other side, as measured from the top of that 1/8" plank.  If that makes any sense at all.  After marking it, I just carefully trimmed it with a razor knife.
 

 
Seems to have worked out well enough.  Next I added two spiled planks below this, and that was.. interesting.  One side spiled completely different than the other side between those first two planks, and I think I'll have some odd cleanup to do at the stern, but the 'finished' bottom line of the two sides is oddly even, even though the spiling was completely different.  Strangeness is afoot!
 

 
I also stripped off all the black paint from the stern fashion pieces, sanded everything again, and applied a coat of primer.
 

 
I won't be touching this again until Saturday, as I'm headed to Reno tomorrow morning where I'll be picking up the entire collection of books, magazines, fittings, wood, tools, and even a partially completed Hannah model from a gentlemen that wants to get rid of his entire 30 year accumulation of ship building stuff. 
 
I guess I'll know sometime Friday morning what treasures (or not) I might be loading into the car for the long road trip home!
 
Until Saturday, happy shipbuilding! 

Today I moved on from the stern.  I'll revisit it later once I decide what I really want to do as far as trim, paint, name, etc.
 
No warship is complete, not even a small sloop, without gunports!  So today I did upper bulkhead outer planking, first layer.  I quite enjoyed this part of the project, and other than the fact that it's apparently completely impossible to eliminate all the fuzz from basswood, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
I took a ton of pictures, but when I started to edit them to post I realized that they are all really pretty much repeats of each other just on the next section, so I cut it down to just a few.
 
First section, and then with three sections completed:

 
The stern required a bit different approach, as I there is no way to get clamps on the planks, so I used some pins.

 
One of the things I may possibly have spent a fair chunk of that money mentioned earlier on, a little bit at a time, is clamps.  For the first month I was doing this new hobby, I would grab every clamp that looked like it might possibly be useful, and that I didn't already have.  Some people would say I now have far too many clamps, but I say, there is no such thing as too many clamps!

 
Cut to the chase, as it's past my bedtime now, and nobody likes a grouchy ship builder at work on Monday morning.

 
Hrmm.. looking at that last picture, I didn't get the earlier planks on quite even at the bottom.  I'll have to measure and fix that before I begin lower planking.
 
Until the next time, happy modeling everyone, and thanks for the looks, likes, and comments!
 

So the stern has been an interesting experience.
 
I continued by planking the transom with basswood, marking each plank where the window openings are so that I could open them up when all the planks were in place.  I did not trace the windows based on the marks, but rather opened a narrow opening in the center of each, and then slowly opened them out until I was happy with the window fitment and alignment in each opening.

 
After joining MSW, I read in one of the threads about stuff that could be used to make window glass, and less than a week later I was in a hobby shop and saw a bottle, so I bought it.  I finally got to use it!

 
Works fantastic.  As I started to try to get the windows placed, I quickly realized that it was going to be a pain in the rear to get the windows in without accidentally pushing them too far in, as the nice window glass that was now in place prevented me from holding onto the inside frames with tweezers.  I cut off small bits of planking basswood and glued them into the top and bottom of the openings as window stops.  Looking back I wish I'd brought them out slightly as I think the windows might look better if they protruded from the transom slightly.  Oh well, next time!

 
I first tried to place the walnut planks in a single piece, and then cutting in the window openings, but after breaking the narrow parts repeatedly, I gave up and glued the windows in, and then placed short planking sections between them.  I am not really happy with some of the gaps I've left though.  Since I used CA to place these (in retrospect, I should not have done that) because of trying to maintain the slight arch, re-doing them would be quite difficult, so I left it and will think about how to address the gaps with some kind of filler later on.

 
Next I added walnut filler pieces on the stern end of the currently placed hull planks, and put the transom side fashion pieces on.

 
I then started working on the counter fashion pieces.  My first attempt didn't make me terribly happy, it just didn't look right to me.  It doesn't look all that bad in the picture now that I'm looking at it, but I tossed it.  The mark on the planking is where the top of the wale should be later.

 
My fashion pieces seemed too short compared to the plans and photo's I've looked at, and I think I figured out what is different about my stern (or at least part of it).  Somehow when I did the walnut planking on the counter, instead of grabbing another piece of .030 walnut, I picked up a full thickness walnut plank (about .048) which made the entire counter thicker than it should be, pushing the trailing edge of the fashion piece back a bit.  I figured I'd just go with it this way, since it really shouldn't affect anything except make my stern shaped slightly different.

 
For my first 'intentional' change to a model, I've decided to 'box' the transom by adding another 'fashion piece' (for lack of knowing what it should actually be called) at the top of the counter.  I had to soak this piece of walnut for about an hour, and then I sort of steamed it by placing it in the microwave for a minute wrapped in a wet washcloth.  It was still pretty hard to get to take the bend, but it didn't splinter at all, so I'll take it.

 
As part of my change to 'box' the transom, I intend to extend the black from the black strake to all the fashion pieces and the taff rail.  I decided to paint these pieces now, prior to adding all the other planking that will butt into them, and I started with primer.  I then started with the black.  I think I need to do some research on prepping wood for paint, because I'm really not happy with how the paint looks, it's very rough compared to most of the painted builds I've seen here.  The first coat of black didn't cover well at all.

 
I ended up with 4 coats of black.  Painting has never been a strength for me in modeling, and it showed as I managed to get paint where it shouldn't go in several places.  After the black had dried, I tried to clean up the areas where I got black on the planking, but I think I screwed up and exposed more primer and fashion piece wood than I cleaned up on the planks. 
 
Oops, hit post too soon, adding pictures.
 

 
I will revisit the stern later and clean up the fashion piece painting, as well as hopefully figure out a way to do something about the gaps around the windows.  I think I'll probably sand the fashion pieces all down smooth and try again.
 
For now though, I'm moving on, as I'm kind of tired of messing with the stern.

So took last night off as I worked late and was tired, so didn't feel like I should tackle the other waterway shaping.
 
Tonight I shaped the second waterway, and then placed both waterways on the sub deck.  In the process of trying to hold one of them tight while the glue took a set (really have no idea how I would get a clamp on these, so I used CVA with CA at the points that didn't want to stay down on the deck) I managed to break my first bulkhead extension.  It didn't break all the way off, and broke right at the top edge of the waterway, so I was able to just inject some CVA between the extension and the outer planking and hold it there for a couple minutes to repair it.
 

 
I then placed the first of the transom planks using an oversized plank so that it could be trimmed down after.
 

 
And then I completed the transom planking down to the bottom of the wale.
 

 
While trimming the transom planks, I managed to break another bulkhead extension.  This one is on the quarterdeck, so no real way to repair it right now.  I'm just going to try to be very careful and not finish breaking it (like the other, it's cracked, not broken completely off) before I get the upper planking in so I can glue it to the outer planking.
 
I trimmed the basswood planks I had previously placed a little bit short of the transom planking, as the plans show that I need to add a short 'false plank' section out of walnut at the stern end of those planks as the basswood will show from the stern.  I am not going to try to place those walnut pieces right now, but will wait until I can see what is actually exposed and how best to do it.

Slow progress continues as I move on from the stern today, and begin work on the timberheads and knightsheads.  I cut out the rabbets for them to glue into, and shaped the knightsheads, but the timberheads require a wider piece of wood than the kit provides because of the odd parallelogram shape, so I doubled up the wood and glued them together.  After getting them shaped to fit, but not 'thinned' down, I decided that there was no way that these would not get broken off by my ham fists, so I drilled them for pins before placing them into their final resting places (hopefully).
 

 
At this point all of the bulkwark extensions need to be faired on the inside, but given how thin they need to be made, they are sure to be quite fragile and break, so a 1/4" wide plank is placed to bridge the sub-deck line.  Before placing that plank, the timberheads and knightsheads are faired into the outside hull shap.  Then another 1/8" plank is placed above the 1/4" plank, and now even if the fairing process of the extensions is done terribly (which I did manage on a couple of them), they won't go anywhere or break off, as they are secured by the outer planking.  Also, before the planking can begin, the stem needs to have the rabbet extended through it, as the outer planks set into it above where the false keel is.
 

 
After the bulkhead extensions were faired on the inside (no pictures, as they don't really seem like something that would show up well in photos, or be very interesting, so I didn't take any), then comes the waterways.  These pieces are laser cut walnut, and mine were quite badly laser burned and double cut for about half the length, so they are probably slightly narrow, and were a massive pain to clean up.  The outside edge needs to be beveled to fit up against the bulwark extensions snugly, and I did this with a hard sanding block without too much difficulty.  The inside top needs to be beveled as well, 1/16" in from the top edge, down to where the deck planking will meet it on the inside edge (3/64" planking).  I used a compass to mark the 1/16" line along the top, and then used a piece of 3/64 basswood planking with a fine .05 mechanical pencil to mark the inside edge.
 
I beveled the inside edge using a scalpel type X-acto blade.  After about 30 minutes I decided I really don't like the waterways.    After a bit over an hour I finished the port side, and now my hand hurts (from holding the blade - I somehow managed not to slice part of my anatomy off doing this), so the starboard one gets to wait for tomorrow.
 

 
Alistair and some others may recognize that my sequence of construction is following the Bob Hunt practicum (mostly, I'm deviating here and there), which I did decide to get and use for this build.  Not sure if I mentioned that before.
 
 

So I went with Russ and moved the middle windows up a bit, but the port outer window was still out of alignment and I couldn't really figure out how it wasn't like the other side, until I really started looking at all angles, and realized that I had managed to sand back the port side of the transom farther than the starboard.  So, I shimmed out the entire outer left transom quarter around the window frame, then took another run at it.
 
After much shimming, tearing out, trimming, re-shimming, etc.  I think it's going to stay like it is right now.
 

 
I'm not sure I can get it any better without screwing up something else, so I'm just going to finish it off in this position by adding a bit of shim above the inner-port window, and some very slight trimming around the outer port window to hold it in the current position, as it's a bit loose now.

Stern work continues.  I put a bit of wood in to patch the poop deck where I tore it up, it's not pretty, but since it will be completely covered up by planking, no biggy.
 

 
I angled the two #1 frames next to the keel with a #11 X-acto without removing them from the ship.  The picture makes it look like they are curved for some reason, but they really aren't.  Went ahead and attached the other frames using the windows for each slot as a guide as I went.
 

 
I then used a small square to establish a flat line against bulkhead R so that I knew what I needed to adjust on the bottom of each frame.  Both #1 frames were shimmed, the #3 frame with the arrow was trimmed a bit, and the 2 frame on that side was used as my 'reference' point for the line because the #3 frame on the other side matched it for height, so the #2 frame on the other side was trimmed slightly.
 

 
After that was done, I added the counter and stern filler (roughly shaped first).  Added the port and starboard fillers as well.
 

 
Moved on to placing the window frames, starting with the bottom frame.  As I got to the center I determined that to keep the frame at the same height as the outer two frames 'corner', I needed to shim both of the #1 frames.  I used 3/64 basswood, bent it using water and heat, then trimmed it, glued in place, and then final trimmed it up after the glue was set.
 

 
After all four frames were in, I test fit the windows and made some adjustments to get them aligned right (or so I thought) before moving to the upper frames.  I then sanded down all the fillers and counter to finish out the stern.
 

 
Once that was complete, I put all the windows back in for a test fit, and the macro camera shot tells the tale..
 

 
...somehow they are no longer aligned the way they were in the previous picture.  Both of the outer windows appear to be higher than they should be, although the angle looks good I think.  I decided to take pictures from some different angles after this to see if the camera angle was causing the difference between the two tests.
 

 
So now I think I'm going to lower the outer two windows slightly.  I think I can do this by simply shaving a tiny bit off of the bottom frames, and then adding thin shims to the top.  The starboard upper frame needs a shim anyway, or simply replaced, as it somehow didn't come out right.
 

It does look fine the way you built it Barehook, thanks for the photos.
 
Random mid-day non-update update.
 
Sample planks comparing wood from the kit vs. some I got from Ebay.
 

 
As is labeled in the photo, Cherry, Sapele, Black Walnut, and the kit supplied .020 thickness Walnut.  Taken with a flash.
 
Planks were cut to length, not beveled, then rough sanded, lightly sanded with 240 grit, wiped with a damp cloth, and then when dry given a single rubbed in coat of wipe-on satin poly.

Brian,
This is where almost every AVS build differs, depending on the interpretation of the plans by the builder. I ended up with the sides of my windows vertical and the angles forming an arch along the top and bottom (see pic). I also chose to round the frame edges and have them protrude out instead of being flush mounted. I think any way you do it will look good, just remember to keep the window frames identified in their laser cutouts because the inboard and outboard port and starboard are slightly different.

So yesterday I placed the inner two stern frames based on how the Bob Hunt practicum indicates it should be done, but got nothing else done as I had a long work day and an HOA meeting at night.  This evening I sat down and started trying to get the outer frames to line up in a way that they looked right, and no matter what I did, if I had one edge aligned properly and the window tight, the other edge was all kinds of out of whack. 
 
So I went back and stared at the plans for a while, and it dawned on me while I was looking at them that the Hunt practicum is wrong in this area.  He has the #1 frames only beveled to match the sub-deck, and then glued to the keel, but the plans show something completely different.  The plans show that frame #1 needs to be angled in such a way that the top and bottom of the window frames are level, meaning that the top of frame #1 needs to be narrower than the bottom, and the wing transom ends up completely flat, not angled as shown in the practicum.  But then the 'expanded transom' detail does show a slight curve, so in reality, perhaps it's a little bit of both.
So tonight ended up being a 'go backwards' night, as I soaked the #2 frames to remove them so that I could get to the #1 frames and then re-align the #2's.  Unfortunately I managed to rip off part of the sub-deck with one of the #2 frames, and all the water has made it all wavy because it's so thin.  Hopefully I'll be able to fix that after it's dried by gluing it down to blocks or the top window frame supports.
 
I left the #1 frames in place, as in looking at things, I only need to angle the outer edge where the window frame will sit, and I think I can do that with it in place, rather than trying to remove it from it's very well glued spot against the keel.
 
From last night, placing the frames:
 

 
The various plan views showing what I mean above.

 
And the destruction showing the damage to the sub-deck.  Going to let this mess all dry overnight before I touch it and try to make it right.
 

When last we saw our intrepid little boat, the subdecks had been glued, but no fairing had been done.  Since then some progress has been made in that department.
I began by doing a 'rough' fairing to see where I needed to add any shims.
 

 
Because of adding all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads prior to mounting them, I found that no shimming was needed except for about half a dozen extensions that were not going to touch the planking without causing a 'dip', or needing to remove far too much material from their neighbors.
 
Once again I dipped into the 3/64ths basswood deck planking, and cut pieces for the extensions.  I used a second piece of basswood in the clamping so that the alligator clamps I used wouldn't leave divots in the shims where I didn't think I needed to sand very much material away.  Here you can see my clamping system so that I could use regular wood glue to hold the extension shims in place.
 

 
I made some blocks to reinforce the mast mortise, and placed them.  I made them overly long as I didn't want to apply a lot of glue right around the mortise.  This is also why I added a 'shim' to the edge of them, to get more glue surface away from the mortise opening.
 

 
I cut out bow fillers to a rough size with a hand scroll saw (I see a nice power band saw in my future I think, every time I use the scroll saw I see how useful of a tool it would be where I could guide a piece with both hands or a fence) and then did all the shaping with my Dremel and a drum-sanding attachment.  Once I had them nearly right I glued them in place before the final fairing, as I wanted them fixed in place to do the final shaping against the bulkhead, keel, and deck.
 

 
I did another run with a rough (120 grit) sanding block and reduced all of the bulkheads until I was seeing 'kit bulkhead' material on all the higher bulkheads, so that my mass shimming didn't cause the hull to be too 'fat'. 
 

 
I also realized that I had never beveled the stem, so I finished that, and trimmed the excess wood from the keel that extended aft beyond the sternpost.  At some point I need to make a tiny filler for the hole where the sternpost and keel connect that was left because of the keel being the wrong length.
 
And a couple test plank runs.  Very happy with how nicely they lay all the way from the keel up to the top of the bulkheads.
 

 
Still need to do a final pass with a 250 grit sanding block, but I am going to build out the stern and get it faired up with the hull before I do that.  Looks like the stern should occupy quite a few hours to get it right.
 
Fairly amazing to think that on the Carmen I was at this point in the build within a few hours of starting, since I didn't know any better, and did pretty much none of this early preparation work!  Then again, the planks didn't lay anything like this when I started working on them.

Made some more progress today.  Weekends with no plans are pretty good for getting stuff done if I actually work on stuff!
 
Began by fairing the poop deck, which was pretty easy, just a sanding block needed here.
 

 
The notches were not correct in the sub-deck, so I had to adjust them.  The deck was too short as well, but looking ahead to the deck finishing, you end up cutting the leading edge of the sub deck off later to place a trim piece there, so I just shifted the sub-deck rearward and adjusted the notches accordingly, rather than having to trim it off later.
 
Used more pieces of the basswood deck planking material that I won't use for the build to 'clamp' the sub deck rather than using nails or pins.
 


 
Then installed the support beams for the quarter deck and the rear of the main deck.  Used a little collar pin that I think I got from Micro-Mark to hold the forward quarter deck beam in place while the glue dried.  Got them sometime after I could have used them on the Carmen because they looked like they might be pretty useful, and this is the first time I've used one.
 




 
After this, the fun part began.  Fairing the main deck.  This was quite a challenge, as the bulkhead extensions really get in the way of doing much work with a reasonable sized sanding block, and I was quite worried I'd break one off.  I ended up putting a fine grinding stone on the Dremel tool, and held it vertically using the 'flat' face of the stone (cylindrical shaped stone) to grind away on each bulkwark top, and measuring with a plank that extended most of the length of the deck.
 
The bulkhead F that I had shimmed up, I ended up completely sanding down the shim back to the bulkhead material, and then ended up shimming the other side of that bulkhead.  The best laid plans and all.  At the end I had added full shims to the top of 4 bulkheads, and half-shims to another couple before I was happy with how the plank laid from the center line out to each set of extensions.
 

 
After a lot of notch trimming, and breaking off a few pieces of the edge of the very fragile sub deck, I got it glued on, and clamped with the same 'plank & rubber band' system I used on the other sub-decks.
 

 
The odd streak near the center line of the main deck is just a dark spot in the wood.  When I first saw that on the pictures, I do admit to having a bit of a panic moment, wondering how I had a big split in the deck without noticing it.
 

 
Next I'll begin fairing work on the hull, and working on the stern transom.

Thank you Slog.
 
I've finished the reinforcement blocks finally, although I chose to completely fill the final two gaps at the bow rather than use the blocks, in order to help me see the 'flow' of the hull up there when I get to fairing.
 
While doing the reinforcement blocks, I used the opportunity to correct any minor out of square issues with the bulkheads.  I did this by measuring at multiple points along the top of each bulkhead, always taking my measurements off of bulkhead 'O' which I took great care to square up with all the stern bulkheads and the keel.
 

 
After measuring to determine if I needed any adjustments to the bulkheads, I would cut individual blocks and then fine tune them until they caused the measurements from bulkhead 'O' to be right where I wanted them, and equal on both sides.  I was having some issues where the addition of the glue prior to final fitting would actually change my measurements slightly, so I devised a technique to apply the glue after fitting the blocks in place, so that I did not need to compensate for the glue thickness on the ends of the blocks.
 
After my final measurements and test fitting was complete, I cut a 'cross' into both ends of the block with a razor saw.
 

 
I would then slightly widen the leg of the cross that would be 'outboard', and then place the block without glue, and hold it in place (if needed) with needle nose pliers, while I used a syringe to inject the glue into the cross via the slightly wider leg.
 

 
As can be seen here, the glue would flow through the cross, and would almost always bubble out of each of the other three points almost equally. 
 

 
This method seemed to work quite well, and I had no measurement changes between the final test fit, and the glued in blocks after starting this system.  After the glue had set for a couple minutes I would then use the syringe to lay a 'bead' of glue around all four edges of the block where it laid against the bulkheads.  Testing several blocks that were completely dried shows that they have plenty of strength with this system.
 
After inserting the last two spaces with filler blocks, this is where I'm currently at. 
 

 
Every bulkhead is even with bulkhead 'O'  along at least 3 points on each side, to less than 0.5mm now with all reinforcements in place.
 
Next I'll begin to work on the sub-decks braces and sub-decks for fitment, and the bow fillers I think.

Thanks Rich, and I got your message and sent him an email.
 
Alistair, thanks for the tip - I could probably use that same filler that messed up the Carmen hull so much, as it's very light colored (which was the problem with it in that scenario on walnut).  I'll do some testing with that.
 
Fairly brief update tonight, spent most of the day at a charity event so not much time on the ship.
 
I finished gluing in all the bulkheads, and I have started placing reinforcing blocks between the bulkheads.  I'm using 5/16" square basswood for the blocks.  I was going to use balsa, but it's just as expensive as basswood, so I just got basswood figuring it will always be useful to have extra basswood bits around.
 
After last nights update, I decided to do "one more bulkhead" before bed.  Yea, I'm dumb that way.  I managed to get distracted after gluing it in place and setting the blocks against it, and left it so long that the excess glue got onto the blocks and glued the bulkhead to both blocks.  I broke both sides of the bulkhead trying to get them apart.  Because the center slot was solid, and the breaks were both clean, I drilled a hole through the center of the now solid slot, drilled a hole into both sides and pinned the broken pieces all back together with a single long pin made from a toothpick.  After the glue dried, I think it's the strongest bulkhead I have now.
 

Hi Frank!  I guess that the MS kits have issues with bulkhead alignments.  Oh well, I guess they have to make it a challenge somehow, other than including the worst rigging line in the history of the universe. 
 
Some photos to catch up with my text.
 
Work on pre-cutting the rabbet prior to installing the keel.

 
Installed the keel, stem, and sternpost.  The stem had to be done twice since it shifted when I left it to dry overnight.  The sternpost required that the slot in the keel be re-made, as it was out of position.  I've read that this seems to be a common issue with the kit.  Took some sanding to get the sternpost to fit decently.
 

 
After the keel was dried for a while, I finished the rabbet.  I did this using a suggested method of using a piece of planking made up with both the basswood inner, and walnut outer plank stuck together for sizing.  Doing this I think I have a larger rabbet than is indicated anywhere in order to make it fit right.  Guess I'll find out later how it works out.
 

 
Jpett started a thread yesterday in Wood Tips reminding me that I needed to make a build board, so I chopped up a piece of MDF shelf, and made a thing.
 

 
Finished attaching all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads.  After some thought I decided not to extend the shims all the way up the extensions, as I think that will make fairing more difficult, as I won't have a baseline of the extensions to work from.
 

 
And then, I began fitting bulkheads.  Started at the rear, let each bulkhead dry for 30 minutes or so (using Titebond wood glue - it sets up pretty solid in 30 minutes).
 

 
While I was waiting on the bulkheads to dry, I chopped up a piece of maple strip and made a test decking bit to see how maple might look like if I can't get Holly in a timely manner.  I need to work on my planking techniques before I get to the real thing.  Not sure what to use for the nail holes (i.e. what to fill them with) at this point.
 

 
Apparently I also need to work on getting the subject matter into the focused area of the shot!
Plugging away at the bulkhead mounting, hope to have them all finished tomorrow.

So I do believe that you lot of scallywags in this community have completely warped my concept of what exactly a "kit" for building a model is...
 

Thanks gentlemen.
 
I did send a note to ME, but am going to move forward as if it's not going to be corrected.
 
I cleaned up all the bulkheads.  I expect that almost all of these will need fairing which should clean them up further.
 

 
Then I began test fitting, and adjusting each bulkhead.  Every single one needed to be opened up slightly either on the bulkhead slot, the keel slot, or both.  A few sat slightly high at the top of the keel and needed the slot sanded a bit deeper, and one of them required about a 1/32 shim.  Overall I think they came out pretty well, but I'm concerned about two bulkheads (and probably the one ahead of these two as well) as they do not extend down far enough.
 

 
What is the best approach to fix this?  Is it easier to sand the slot down until the bottom is good, and shim the top for the deck, or am I better off adding material to the bottom of these bulkheads and then fairing them down?  I'm thinking that adding to the bottom will be more difficult, but is probably the right approach so that I don't mess up the bulkhead extension positions (although looking at the photo's, those appear to have 'high' extensions as well).
 
Other than those 'short' bulkheads the rest seem to be pretty good.  The Carmen was a lot easier when I had no idea I was supposed to do any of this stuff. 
 

 
A good number of the bulkheads do not extend down to the bearding line.  Do I need to add material to all the bulkheads that don't extend to the bearding line, or just to the ones that break the 'flow' along the bulkheads?

So this is really much easier than I expected it to be.  I measured along the longest bulkhead from keel to deck level with a tick strip, and set my chopper to that length and cut up one of the 3/64 basswood deck planks.  This made 9 pieces of the exact same width as the bulkheads.  I threw these into water to soak for a while, and then got after it.
 
I started with bulkhead F, which was the one that had the bad laser cut, with one side lower than it should be.  It's also the '3rd' bulkhead in the previous photos that didn't reach the bearding line, so I shimmed the top and sanded it down, and then shimmed both sides of the bottom.
 

 
The wet basswood is really amazingly easy to bend.  All of the terrible time I had with the planks on the Carmen made me think this was going to be a giant frustrating mess, and instead, they just bend right around the bulkhead, no problem at all.  I went ahead and bottom shimmed G, and double bottom shimmed H.

 
Couldn't ask for anything better than the result.

 
Based on how easy this was, I'm going to use more of the deck planking (since I'm not going to plank the deck with it) and shim out every bulkhead that isn't touching the bearding line, even if it's very close.  That way I should have a much easier time fairing, as I'll not run into a low spot that makes me have to shim a bulkhead that is already glued to the keel.
Thoughts on extending the shims up the bulkhead extensions?  Is there any point to that, or will I just need to sand them all down like I did on bulkhead F already?

So I've begun the very first bits of this build, and have already run into one problem, and a question.
 
The false keel appears to be very good.  There is an almost imperceptible lift when it's laid on a flat surface, as can be seen here where the bow has a tiny gap under it.  All of the bulkheads and the false keel are cut from basswood, not plywood as some people have reported in their MS kits.

 
When it is flipped to the other side there is no gap anywhere, it lays perfectly.  When I sight down it I can't detect any deflection at all.

 
First problem.  Bulkhead F is not cut correctly.

 
I don't understand how this could happen, as I would hope that the laser cutting is a computer controlled process, and it shouldn't be able to cut incorrectly.  I would think that every single kit would come out like this if it's a flaw in the computer control plan.  When I lay this bulkhead on the plans, it's clear that the 'high' side is correct, so I will likely have to add some material to the 'low' side to correct this, but I'm not sure how I'll approach this as the height difference isn't very large.  I may try to use some of the veneer from the Carmen kit here, or else I'll cut the thinnest piece of basswood I can, and just sand it down.
 
All of the bulkheads and the false keel.

 
So far none of the bulkheads fit into the false keel after cleaning up the burns.  Either the keel or the bulkhead, or both need to have the slot opened up more in order for them to fit.  Is this typical?

 
And now to my question.  I'm working on cleaning up the lasercut burns, and leveling out the surface where it's left an angle, but I can't find a good reference for 'how much' of the burn needs to be cleaned up.  Does it need to be taken down to where there is no 'brown' at all, or is what I've been doing as seen in this picture good?