Kenchington

Apologies for an irrelevant aside ... but you did mention lighting and artistry: Back some 20 years ago, I was aboard Kruzenshtern when we came to anchor off Rostok (Germany) in a misty twilight, waiting to enter the port for their "Tall Ships" event. Then a three-master emerged silently, half-visible through the darkening murk. Like that, it would not have needed much imagination to see her as a ghost ship. Then her anchor was let go, her sails hauled up with bunt and clewlines ... and someone flicked a switch, instantly illuminating lights on every mast and yard, so transforming the "ghost" into a fairy dream-ship. Magical! I didn't have my camera at hand and it likely wouldn't have captured the effect anyway. But a challenge for any ship-modeller more interested in art and lighting than miniature precision. Trevor

You've done a wonderful job with her, Bill. Congratulations! Trevor

Step 48 (first "48", rowlocks) advanced, Steps 42, 43 & 44 (spars) commenced With daylight for aid, I got the brass rowlock-pad protection on. First thing was to drill the rowlock holes down into the inwale (previously, they only passed through the pads). In a full-size boat, the holes would need to pass right through, so that a length of cord or light chain, attached to the rowlock, can hang down inboard, preventing loss of the rowlock but allowing it to be unshipped when not in use. That's great but drilling so deep risked damage to the sheerstrakes, so I only went far enough to accommodate the kit-supplied rowlocks. Placing the photo-etched brass protective pieces wasn't hard. I impaled each one in turn on the point of a bamboo cocktail stick, touched a tiny dab of CA to each end of the brass, inverted the boat, put tip of stick into rowlock hole, flipped everything upright, assisted gravity in getting the brass into place, then gently pressed it down. The only trouble was when I had too much CA, letting the brass swim around before the glue caught. I then left the glue to set before getting onto the hard part. Each of the four brass plates needs two nail holes drilled. (OK after the first one: That time, I drew the drill back too vigorously, it caught in the brass and pulled the metal off its glue. Back up and try over ...) Then each of 8 0.6mm nails had to be picked up with forceps, snipped for length, placed in its hole, lined up ... and pressed home. I think I snipped twice as many nails as I placed, though where the others went, I cannot say. Anyway, the job was done and adds some nice, shiny brass to the model: Rowlock (technically a "crutch") only inserted temporarily, as I don't want it causing trouble until the rigging is finished. While the CA was setting, I got the three spars out of their basswood sheets. The mast is in two halves that have to be glued together, back to back: Lots of clamps and yellow glue -- yellow for strength and because the edges where it might ooze out will be sanded for char anyway. Once the two halves were united, they formed a spar with rectangular section. That will need to be taken down to square, including the tapering towards head and heel, matching the laser-cut sides -- all before taking off the corners (making it "eight-square") ad rounding off. The boom has its own complications which can wait for later. I did begin work on the yard (which the instructions bizarrely call a "gaff"). Its lower edge needs to be straight, to receive the straight-cut head of the sail, but its upper edge can taper from the slings towards either end. I just gave it straight tapers. The basswood stock was thicker than the laser-cut piece was wide, so the spar started with a rectangular section throughout. I have shaped the upper and lower surfaces into half-rounds but, so far, I have not tried to reduce the thing to circular. Strength and stiffness would be better with some depth to the section. later, I'll take another look and see whether I like what I have. I might sand more. Enough for now! Trevor

Heavy rain today, but not complaining: It's the same system that coated much of Ontario with ice, bringing down power lines and cutting power to many. It's passing to the north of us, fortunately for me, though not for those living around the Gulf of St.Lawrence. And hard on anyone making their living at sea, as ever. And for me, more rain now means more water in the well, come July and August!

Steps 36 & 37 (first metal parts) completed, Step 40 (display stand) advanced While waiting for a chance to get serious with my replacement tiller, I have pushed ahead with other steps in the build. For one, the pram needs an eyebolt in the middle of the bow transom (for towing, hauling onto a trailer or whatever). The inboard end of that bolt bears a plate to anchor the lower end of the forestay. Although the instructions make no mention of it, the kit includes a length of brass rod pre-bent to form the eyebolt. It also has the rigging plate as one item on a sheet of photo-etched brass. The model-builder is required to cut off a short piece from a (kit-supplied) length of 1/16" brass tube, to serve as an imitation "hex nut". The cutting went easily, following a recommendation (found here on MSW, not in the instructions) to insert a 1/32" brass rod into the tube, then roll it under a craft-knife blade. However, I did need to bell the end of the tube with a jewellery reamer. That also came into use to slightly enlarge the bolt-hole in the rigging plate. When ready for fitting to the model, the three pieces seem tiny: The instructions call for the eyebolt to be set into a slight groove around its bolt-hole, thus sinking the bent end out of sight -- the groove to be formed by pushing the blade of a very small screwdriver into the wood. That didn't really work for me but I did bed the bolt down nicely, none the less. Getting the plate and the tube-as-nut over the end of the bolt was challenging, but mostly because of poor lighting and poor eyesight. Once all was ready, it just needed a drop of CA glue, then the "nut" pushed home, while keeping the plate aligned with the pull of the future forestay. A few minutes for the glue to set and the end of the bolt could be clipped off. All looks OK: Next up were the two chainplates ("stay plates" in the instructions), inserted into the slots previously sawn in the inwales. I don't know whether oiling the wood caused the slots to close up or perhaps I was just too scared to saw far enough. Whatever it was, the slots were way too small. Once I accepted that and sawed them longer, the chainplates (photo-etch pieces identical to the one for the forestay) fit easily. The problem is with the kit-supplied nails. As other MSW build-logs have noted, Model Shipways should provide their 0.7mm nails with this pram kit but they actually pack it with a supply of much larger nails, as in: That's one of the chainplates (larger hole for the shroud, smaller for the fastening nail), with the kit-supplied nail above. No way that will go through the hole intended for it! To the left is an alternative nail that came with a rather nice Amati pin-pusher that I picked up at my local hobby store, but even that is too large. Below it is a 0.6mm nail from a supply I ordered in from Dry-Dock Models. (Those readers in the USA can go to the source and get extra nails from Model Shipways. I don't fancy the unpredictable delays at the border just now, with our respective governments edging into a trade-war!) The Dry-Dock nails proved OK in diameter but had to be clipped to half the length, lest they go right through the side of the boat. Holes have to be drilled for the nails, of course. I thought that it would be a huge challenge to line up the nail (in its drilled hole) and the hole in the chainplate, while both were embedded deep inside the inwale. In practice, I pushed a mounted needle (i.e. a point set in a handle) into the drilled hole, used that to ream the hole out a bit, then jiggled the chainplate until the needle found the right hole. Pull the needle out, insert the stump of the nail, add a drop of CA glue, push nail home and all was well. Just needed a little bend of the chainplate to align with the future position of the shroud: I tried moving onto the rowlocks (in Britannia metal) and the protective plates (photo-etched brass) that go on the pads seen in those two images. It proved too difficult without daylight, so that must wait for tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have been pushing ahead with the display stand. That is needed sooner rather than later, as the model needs elevated support once the (projecting) rudder is in place. I'm still waiting on the weather, so that I can spray another coat on the baseboard but I have made up the supports: The top pieces are kit-supplied and shaped to match the hull (needing only a little bevelling, after removing char). I decided to paint them, so that they are distinct from the boat itself. I toyed with the idea of a metallic finish but decided on less-prominent white. The kit includes a 1/4" dowel for the supporting pillars but the instructions suggest acrylic rod and I figured that would be nicer. Its also turned out to be very easy to work. Whichever material is chosen, there have to be slight flats where the wood supports fit over the rods. The acrylic yielded very easily to a file. After the first flat began to take shape, I laid it flat on top of a box, then worked the file on the other side of the rod, parallel to the box-top -- flipping the piece over every few file-strokes, until the supports just fit over matching, equal flats. I suspect that would have been much harder if done in wood. A dab of CA and tops were glued to rods. They do need a little care to ensure that the horizontal axes of the tops are perpendicular to the length of the rods. One annoyance yet to be faced is that the laser-cut holes in the baseboard are much larger than 1/4". As I have some adhesive-backed metallic-copper tape on hand, I am wrapping enough of that around the bottom end of the acrylic rods to make a firm push-fit. Most will be out of sight, down in the baseboard, but I'll add a final neat turn to give a flash of colour. That, however, must wait on the weather for outdoor spray painting, then the fitting of the supports to the baseboard. Still have to do the tiller etc. (Step 35), the rudder, with its metalwork (Steps 38 & 39), the oars and rowlocks (Steps 45 to 48 ... the first of two "48s") -- and then it will be on to the sailing rig (Steps 42-44, 48-57). Trevor

That was my choice and it is working for me: Dory finished and pram well advanced now, with the lobster sloop waiting. But be warned: The included tool set is very basic and you will certainly need to add to it. I'm sure that I could have been more economical, but I have already spent much more on tools than on the combo kits themselves. Trevor

Mark, It's a bit difficult figuring out what is going on without a side view of your model. The top view shows your "beakhead" (which the builder of the prototype probably called a "gammon knee" -- in full-size construction, it was a knee-shaped piece, bolted to the forward face of the stem), so I think it is there and probably as prominent in side view as would be expected. So I think that the problem is that the planks that form the bulwarks (starboard and port) meet too far forward. Your illustrations show the internal framework of the model with three pieces projecting towards the stem (labelled "12" and "21" in one image). I suspect that you have to bevel those until the bulwark planks meet on the centreline of the centre framework piece (#12) and in contact with that piece. It looks like you currently have a gap there, with parts #21 (one per side) not bevelled enough. That may be wrong. I'm only trying to interpret your images. But that's what it looks like from here. While I am writing: I'm new to the world of wood models of wood ships, but the community seems to have developed a terminology all of its own that does not always line up with the terms used by the men who built the full-size prototypes. As I am reasonably well versed in the latter, I can get very confused by some postings on MSW! But that doesn't mean that the model-builder's terminology is wrong, just different. In full-size (wooden) shipbuilding, a "false keel" is a sacrificial piece put onto the bottom of the keel to protect the primary structural timber from wear, tear and worms. That's not what you meant in your post, of course. The "keel" is the longitudinal piece at the bottom of the whole structure (usually straight and made from one tree whenever possible -- though it never was in a large ship). That may or may not be replicated in a kit. There is, of course, no equivalent in full-size ships to the centreline, backbone structure typical of plank-on-bulkhead models (which would obstruct use of the internal space of the vessel). There is no term for something that doesn't exist. I think that what you were referring to was that centreline backbone. I've seen it called the "keel" or "false keel", here on MSW, both of which confuse me (though I'm leaning to cope!). Maybe there is some other term that a significant proportion of model-builders use. If not, this forum would be the best place to forge some agreement on what it should be called! Trevor

IF I try (and it's still a big "if"), I would tie it in a fine thread around a dowel, then slide the finished Turk's head off the dowel and over the end of the tiller. That's the easy part. Taking the slack out of the weave until it was tight around the tiller would be the challenge. A simple Turk's head (like the one illustrated), tied in cord around a 1-inch dowel, is easy. Working in thread around a 1/8" diameter model tiller, with a longer knot? Maybe worth trying? Have to make the tiller first. So far, I have thinned down some scrap jatoba, producing crude 1/4-inch stock. But trying to whittle a tiller out of that with modelling tools very quickly taught me why we work in basswood! I'll need to get busy with coping saw and Dremel, both its cutting and sanding attachments. It won't be quick but plenty else in the kit to keep me busy. Trevor

There is a very large (maybe unlimited) family of knots called "turks heads", basically regular inter-weaving of (usually) a single length of cord to make a tube -- normally formed around something solid, like a tiller, (though you can make turks-head bracelets if the material is stiff enough and there is someone in your life who would wear one!). They are hard to describe, so maybe an image extracted through Google:

They are different boats, modelled at different scales. The Model Shipways one is a 15ft dory (dory sizes being measured as length of bottom, not overall) at 1:24. A 15ft dory is a two-man boat and towards the large end of banks dory sizes. In the 19th Century, they were used in halibutting, while the cod fisheries used smaller dories. I'm not sure but that may have changed before the end of the Canadian dory-schooner fishery in 1963. The Midwest dory is modelled at 1:12 and looks to have a 13" bottom. If so, it represents a 13ft prototype, suited to the banks cod fishery or else fishing along the shore, but still a two-man boat. It also looks to have much stronger sheer than the Model Shipways one, so a different design within the same overall family. But, either way, yours is coming along nicely, Palmerit! Trevor

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mark! Mine is likely to be the most unique tiller, to date, for any build of this pram kit. Whether it merits more than uniqueness, time will tell. No progress on it today, however. (Not because of anything to do with models: I had to instal a new kitchen stove and advance work on a little table I have been building.) Still, that gives me a chance to explore some of the issues that have led others to grief over this step in the kit's construction. The pram has a tiller/rudder arrangement that, in the full-size prototype, is really very clever. When all is in place, the rudderhead is firmly locked inside the end of the tiller. Yet at the extreme end there is a (probably bronze) bolt, hooked into a slot in the rudder. Raise the forward end of the tiller and the bolt can drop out of the slot, allowing the tiller to be unshipped in seconds, after which the rudder can be lifted inboard too -- a very useful feature when bringing the boat to shore. Another, and very necessary, feature is a tiller extension, allowing the helmsman to steer while sitting on the windward side of the boat, where her (or his) weight will counterbalance the heeling effect of the wind in the sail. When a gust hits, the helmsman will need to throw his (or her) weight to windward, while putting the helm down, so that the boat can luff up towards the wind -- spilling some of it from the sail. Without either an extension or the arms of an orangutang, it's not possible to do both at the same time, so our intrepid sailor would likely to be in for a swim. Unfortunately, re-creating all of that at 1:12 scale is challenging. According to the instructions, the completed tiller, with its extension, should look like: That's the tiller itself made of three pieces, with the slot at the left to fit around the rudderhead, and the extension pivoting on a brass rivet. There's a cross-piece handle of brass at the end of the extension and a larger brass rivet to hook onto the rudder. The instructions say that all three pieces of brass should be cut from the 1/16-inch rod supplied with the kit. Previous build-logs seem agreed that only the one at the rudder end of the tiller should be in 1/16, those at either end of the extension being in 1/32 (also supplied with the kit). So that's what it is supposed to look like. But what it looks like is downright ugly. Maybe it's a practical object, though its ergonomics are poor, but it's just a steering stick, not worthy to be called a "helm". More on that theme in a moment. Meanwhile, the parts the assembly is to be made from are tiny: That shows the main tiller piece (released from a 3/32-inch sheet), the two side pieces (still in their 3/64 sheet) and the tiller extension (with a spare, as the first attempt is almost certain to go wrong!), laid out over a 1-inch grid. Three of the five holes needed for the brass bits are laser-cut. The other two have to be drilled -- one of them side-on through the 3/64-inch thickness of the extension. {Note that the instructions call for a 1/16 rod to be passed through a hole drilled in a 3/64 piece of (soft and friable) basswood. Since 1/16 is 4/64, that was never much of an option! Even passing 1/32 brass through 3/64 basswood can't be easy.} The ends of the brass piece that hooks to the rudder, and also those of the pivot for the tiller extension, have to be tapped with a hammer until they mushroom into neat heads. That much is explained in Step 35 of the instructions, along with the rest of the tiller construction. OK, maybe. But many of us coming new to building wooden ship and boat models may have some experience of woodworking but often little of metalwork. I knew the word "anneal" and knew that it had something to do with metal, but I did not know what it meant, nor why it was needed. The kit instructions do explain annealing (though only briefly) but they do so under Step 38, which explains construction of the rudder gudgeons. When I first read through the booklet, I thought that annealing was something only applicable to the rudder hangings. From previous build-logs, I don't think that I'm the only one to make that mistake. It was only when I read of the frustrations of hammering hard brass rod, inserted in a miniature tiller, that the truth slowly dawned: The rudder's metalwork needs to be annealed too! It's really no wonder that constructing the tiller has caused more angst than most other steps with this pram kit. MSW comes to the rescue, however, and not only on the annealing issue: Amidst the build-logs on this site, one part of the solution is offered: Don't make the tiller out of basswood but replicate the parts in something tougher! Obvious once it has been suggested. Taking that route then opens other possibilities. For one, our little pram would readily be sailed single-handed, when the solo sailor would want to sit astride the midships thwart. (Sitting in the sternsheets would mean that his (or her) body weight would cause the stern to squat, ruining the balance of the boat.) To get the end of the tiller into a comfortable place for the helmsman to hold, while sat on the thwart, its main piece should reach about 3.5 inches forwards from the rudder, not the 2.5 of the kit-supplied piece. That's the ergonomic problem addressed. As to aesthetics: I'm going to resist the temptation to get lyrical about the ethos of going to sea in small sailing boats. Suffice to say that on any sailing vessel the helm, be it tiller or wheel, is the point where a human hand connects with the boat (or ship) and guides her in the dance with wind and water. It is the point of command, not just of an officer commanding a helmsman, but of a human will commanding the vessel. Not for nothing are ship's wheels decorated with polished brass, while tillers are adorned with turks heads (which only pretend to be there as hand-grips!) or even carvings. In that vein, our little pram deserves better than the boring, straight stick provided in the kit. It deserves side pieces that merge into the central piece, not ones hacked off with simple bevels. It deserves a tiller that, although necessarily square in section at the rudderhead, transforms into a rounded section. It deserves at least a ball at the end, even if 1:12 turks heads would be a bit much. And maybe a splash of colour -- a contrasting wood, certainly, maybe the tiller's tip dipped in white paint or even gold. So that's the plan: A longer, more elegant, more robust tiller and matching extension, constructed from a colourful hardwood, with freshly annealed brass. And I haven't entirely given up on the idea of a turks head grip too. Trevor

Nice and neat, as I would want it in a full-size boat. Ideally, I would have the edges of the boards follow the smooth curve defined by the intersection of horizontals drawn across the floorboard battens and the curved faces of the garboards. Next best would be a straight (but angled) cut across each board, approximating to that curve, followed by cuts at right angles to the length of each board but forming a regular series. But at full-size, I could get into the boat with a tape measure, place each board, measure, cut, place again and repeat until satisfied -- then nail or glue the first board, double check the next one and so on. It's much more difficult with bits of 1:12 basswood flipping about inside a scale hull. I could (and should) have persevered anyway but I didn't. Not worth ripping them out and starting over though. Just something for others to learn from my mistake. Next will be the tiller and that will give me scope to draw eyes away from the floorboards!

That's while setting up the rigging. The 19th-Century manuals of seamanship provide more detail on how that was to be done. What they don't seem to give us is any clarity on how heavily tarred was the rope that the lanyards were made from. (Some of them go on about left vs. right lay and the reeving of the deadeyes, such that the twist imparted in the shroud by stretching it was countered by the twist imposed by asymmetry in the deadeye/lanyard system.) Fishhooks' original question was focused on Victory, as she was in 1805. The ship's present refit is attempting to restore her to that point in her evolution, with research going all the way to examining surviving fragments of old paint layers, for guidance on the colours. McGowan's book presents the previous (1980s) major refit, including the decision to use black polypropylene rope for the standing rigging and a non-black version for the running gear (but without comment on the lanyards). I expect that somebody has thought about the best colours of rope to use in the current work. But I don't know how best to access information on what decisions have been made, nor why.

I agree. Though I'd not be dogmatic about what was done in 1805.

The really messy job is tarring the shrouds and I've never done that. (The nearest I came to it was tramping around one of Kruzenshtern's capstans to hoist a Russian cadet who had been lowered too far down the rigging he was tarring. Happier times.) But the mess on your hands when going aloft also comes from the shrouds because you should never, ever hold the ratlines. They have a very nasty habit of breaking at just the wrong moment, when a firm grip on the shroud will save you from embarrassment. One did fail on me, the very first time I went aloft (on a dubiously authorized climb, at age 13) and I have not needed to be told again. Trevor

Not much to report today and that not good. I did get the floorboards in, though the result is not pretty: I should have been much more careful about matching the lengths of adjacent boards, cutting them diagonally of necessary, so that their corners aligned -- maybe something for those thinking of building this kit to consider. Also, there are supposed to be narrow gaps between the boards. There were, at least forward of the thwart, when I shaped them. Maybe the basswood expanded when painted with water-based acrylic. However it happened, I had to squeeze in th forward boards and sand the edges of the after ones before they would go in at all. On the positive side, I got to try CA glue. I hate the hardware-store version and always get into trouble with it. But I figured that gluing painted wood to oiled wood probably needed something other than white glue. As it was out of sight, under the boards, I gave hobby-shop CA a try and it worked well. Gives me more confidence moving forward with some of the trickier challenges to come! Trevor

Every ratline I have climbed was tarred to a black shade (remembering that even brown-looking hemp and manila rope typically contain some tar) – aside, that is, from those that were black plastic, masquerading as tarred hemp. I think that rigging lanyards have typically been made of tarred rope also, though I'd not swear to it. Oddly, none of the contemporary texts that I can immediately place my hands on seem to say what was tarred and what not. Trevor

Steps 27 (Daggerboard), 28 (Rudder, round 1) and a beginning on Step 34 (Floorboards) {The instructions skip from Step 28 to Step 31 with no #29, nor #30. To compensate, there are two Step 34s!} The pram has a long, narrow daggerboard that would be a swine to sail with. I had a boat with a similar configuration once, though it was a metal plate rather than wooden board, on a boat that the previous owner had converted for sailing from a trap skiff. With a traditional rig that would not function as hard up on the wind as modern racing sails, there was often a temptation to luff up too close. Then the rig lost power, the boat lost speed, the daggerplate failed to generate enough side force, the boat made excessive leeway ... and the water flow over the high aspect-ratio plate stalled, just like the flow over a plane's wings when flying too slow at too high an angle of attack. Result was a complete failure of the dagger-late to provide any lift and the boat just went sideways! A low aspect-ratio centreboard would have been much better. On the other hand, the narrow daggerboard does make construction of a watertight case relatively easy. And that case is needed so that the board can be withdrawn, simply by lifting it clear, when not needed or when approaching shore. For the model, the kit provides the board in one, easy piece. However, it is laser-cut on the same sheet as the components of its case and thus is as thick as the case opening is narrow. To get it to slide through the case, the board has to be sanded thinner. The instructions say to go on sanding until the board is a loose fit, so allowing for a future coat of paint. As mine will be oiled, that was less of a concern. Once down to size, the instructions call for the trailing edge (along as much of the length of the board as will protrude below the keel plank) to be tapered. There is no suggestion that the leading edge should be anything but blunt. That, however, would encourage stalling. Ideally, the daggerboard would have an aerofoil section but that's hardly practical in a pram (though fast catamarans and foil-borne boats do have that refinement). I compromised, rounded off the leading edge and extensively tapered the trailing one, while leaving most of the board flat. With the board itself shaped, a cap has to be added at the top, to prevent the board simply dropping through its case, while forming a handle for lifting and a cover to stop water sloshing up through the case. I glued a piece of scrap onto each side, then whittled two other pieces to fit in the narrow gaps (forward and aft) between the side pieces. Another time, I would probably put on one side piece and add larger end pieces, then sand those flush with the board and add the second side piece. Whichever way it is done, the cap can be trimmed for length and width, sanded flush on top, the edges softened and bevels worked on the underside to give a finger grip when lifting the board. Nothing very difficult in any of that. The rudder is also provided as one piece. Step 28 only covers its initial shaping, probably because the instructions expect it to be painted before its metal fittings are added. But the shape is complex and should be much more developed than the ugly version presented in the instructions. In profile, the leading edge of the rudder is straight from above the transom to the bottom tip of the skeg. It then angles back like a swept wing, before transforming into a curved trailing edge. That leads to another angle back up to the transom, then straight once more to the rudderhead. All that needed char removal, of course, but so did two tiny notches, one each side of the rudderhead, where the tiller will fit. I thought I was doing OK until the thinnest piece of wood snapped off. I will wait to see how the tiller goes before attempting a repair. Aside from char removal, the instructions call for three areas to be shaped. They want the straight leading edge below the lower pintle to be sanded to a half-round section (which I did) and the curved trailing edge to be broadly tapered on both sides. The "swept wing" leading edge is to be left square, according to the book. However, I went much further, shaping the whole of the rudder that will be below keel-plank level, into something approaching an aerofoil section. Finally, the instructions also call, very unclearly, for some shaping near where the pintles will fit. As I don't intend to paint, I have deferred that until I better understand the size and fit of the pintle straps. The end result of those various tasks looks like: Today's remaining effort went on the floorboards. There are 6 that span the supporting battens (previously placed on the bottom planks) abaft the daggerboard case, four more forward of that and two pairs of little ones on each side of the case. The laser-cut pieces are generously sized -- so long, indeed, that they sit on the garboards rather than the battens. I tried sanding them until they were just clear of the planking, while their outer ends formed a neat curve. I tried and tried but the more I tried the bigger mess I made. So I just set the draughting compass to the width across the battens where each board will go, added an arbitrary 5mm and cut the board square at that length. (The floorboards are so thin that they could be cut with a craft knife.) The space available for these floorboards depends on just where the various frames ended up. The six from daggerboard case to sternsheets were too wide to fit my pram and so had to be narrowed a bit. Those who paint their model prams are encouraged to leave the floorboards as bare wood, giving a pleasing contrast. To get something of the same with mine, I am finishing the floorboards with the clear satin acrylic provided with the kit. When I did that with the oars for my dory model, they came out very pale. I'm hoping that the effect with the pram will be something like scrubbed pine, whereas the oiled wood looks more like varnished pine. The acrylic is drying now, so I'm not certain how it will turn out. I'll rub down the raised grain tomorrow, put on a second coat, then glue them in place on their battens. And that will bring the build up to completion of the instructions' Step 34 -- both of them. After that, the really tricky tasks will begin. Trevor

Thank you, Mark! I'm reluctant to try a second oiling. I find that the first one tends to seal the pores in the wood, even if it is less than a thorough soaking. Then any extra oil sits on the surface. Not a problem if you can polish the piece but that wouldn't be an option with the interior of the pram. As for the stand: I've never been good with spray cans. The white on the flat of the kit's baseboard went on too thick and now has picked up marks, while the primer still shows around the edges. Too late to separate it from the hardwood plinth, so I'll have to mask that and try again. I won't spray in the house and, even with spring coming on, it's hard to find an hour when the outside temperature is up and the humidity down! Trevor

Then I hope it proves helpful!

It's a very rewarding kit but, be warned, it is a whole big step more challenging than the dory! Finished the hull of my pram yesterday and now trying to find a way to make the floorboards go in neatly. Then it will be a leap into metalwork. Trevor

Congratulations on finishing! If it makes you feel any better, I gave up on the thole pins and used pieces cut from bamboo cocktail sticks instead. You did a much better job. Trevor

Thank you, druxey! And thank you also to all who have "liked" my log contributions! Trevor

Today, I finished the fixed wooden structure of the pram (if the floorboards can be ignored for now). That's steps 23, 24, 25 and 33 of the instructions (though I still have to work on 27, the daggerboard, and 28, the rudder). Step 23 has been sending shivers up my spine since I first read the instructions. It involves creating a slot through each inwale, adjacent to the sheerstrakes but without piercing those critical pieces -- each slit later taking a chainplate for securing the lower end of a shroud. The instructions say that this operation should begin one foot (1 inch at scale) abaft the hole in the mast step. It does not say whether that is abaft the centre of the hole or its after edge, nor whether the measurement should be along the centreline (probably) or perhaps following the sheer line. I figured that the really key thing is that both chainplates should be equidistant from the centre of the bow transom, lest the whole rig look askew when the model is finished. It is also necessary to place the slots clear of where the rowlocks for the forward thwart will go. In practice, all that lot fell into place quite easily and I could mark the spots. Next, we are told to drill through the inwale, parallel to the sheerstrake but without cutting into it, using a #72 bit. An internet search turned up an extensive table of drill sizes, which stated that a #72 has a diameter of 25 thou, meaning 0.635mm. The bits that came with my kit are metric. The 0.7mm proved detectably larger than the saw blade to be used in the next task, so I drilled with the 0.6mm instead. Rather to my surprise, the hole appeared where it was required, without harm to anything else. Then we are told to insert a #15 saw blade into the drilled hole, enlarging it into a rectangular slit (before reversing the saw and tidying the other edge of the slit). The #15 in this case is an Exacto #15 blade (which my local Great Hobbies conveniently had in stock -- none being provided amongst the tools that came with the model). The #15 did not want to go into a 0.6mm hole until that had been expanded a bit with a knife blade but then worked like a charm: (Confession of guilt: That's a posed photo, after the slit was cut.) The instructions call for the slot to be made "scale 2" long" but, as has been noted before on MSW, the supplied chainplate is only about 1/16 inch wide (meaning 3/4 inch full-size), so a slit of around 1.5mm would be enough. That job done (and feeling a glow of quiet pride at having achieved the seemingly impossible!), nothing could go wrong. Step 25 calls for creating four pads, from the remaining stock left over after creating the floorboard battens, those pads serving reinforce the holes for the rowlocks. (I know that I've seen identical pads on a full-size lapstrake boat somewhere but I can't think where!) Each of the four pads involves marking off three 1/4-inch lengths of the stock, finding the centre point of the central third, drilling a hole there (with a #55 bit, according to the instructions, I used 1.6mm to aid fitting the rowlocks), before shaving the outer thirds into long bevels, then cutting the pad free: I was unhappy with one if the drilled holes, so made a fifth pad and discarded the bad one: The four that I kept were glued to the top of inwale and sheerstrake (not the rubbing strake). The instructions say 1' 6" aft of each forward thwart frame. I made it 1.75-inches at scale instead, as a foot or so of space from an oarsman's backside would make for very cramped rowing. For Step 24, anther piece of the left-over floorboard-batten stock needs to have one face bevelled to match the rake of the transom (using the bevelling guide one last time). A half-inch length of that gets tidied up and then glued at the very bottom of the transom (immediately above the ends of the bottom planks), its bevelled lower face parallel to the waterline, while its upper face is perpendicular to the transom. That will support the lower rudder hangings in line with the upper ones, despite the step between the lower and upper transom pieces. With that, all of the wooden structure permanently part of the hull was finished, so I left the glue to set for a few hours while working on a quite other project. When building the Model Shipway's banks dory, I painted it in the expected colours for such a boat. But I wanted the thwarts to look more like bare wood, so I tried soaking them in tung oil, then drying. That worked quite well, though the oiled basswood dried to a tone little different from the buff paint of the dory's hull. Oiling did produce a nice satin finish (reminiscent of a golden varnish) without raising the grain or otherwise calling for sanding after its application, hence it could be done in the nooks and crannies of a boat's interior. With that experience, I decided to oil the pram throughout. After a final sanding and clean-up, I just brushed on the tung oil, applying all that the wood wanted to soak up. Did the interior first, let that dry for a bit, then the exterior. I'm happy with the outcome, at least as it is now: Time will tell whether the wood darkens too much or even that the oil dissolves the glue! Daggerboard, rudder, tiller and floorboards still to go, before I have to learn some basic metalwork techniques -- and that at a miniature scale. And the rig to follow, of course. Trevor

Thank you for your kind words, Mark! Curiously, Smythe included "seat" in his "Sailor's Word Book" but only as a name applied to some oddly shaped mountains, such as Arthur's Seat, outside Edinburgh. But he defined "thwart" as a "seat" for oarsmen! Then again, Smythe seems to have been amused by nautical terminology, rather than being a careful lexicographer. To me, a "thwart" is something that you sit on which spans a boat athwartships (meaning side-to-side). Something that you sit on which runs fore-and-aft is likely to be a "side seat" (unless it is a side deck, with the distinction sometimes unclear), while I would not use either term for the seats that surround a cockpit nor for something running along the centreline of a boat -- like the centreplate-trunk's cap that I sit on to row my own plaything. But that's just me. While I have my copy of Smythe off the shelf, I see that he defined "stern sheets" as the whole area of a boat abaft the aftermost thwart, which area he says is "furnished with seats for passengers" ("seats" again!). The pram's instructions use "sternsheets" for the seat itself but I'd trust Smythe on that one: As an Admiral in Victoria's navy, he had been seated in the stern sheets of many boats. Trevor