Chuck

That is quite nice. Well done.

Nicely done!!

Beautiful Rusty. I love the color and how the golden parts of the frieze pucks up the color of the carved elements . It all came together well.

Nicely done on the ropewalk. Yea you should open up the eyes so they are hooks. Just a little so you can tie the thread on one end. Then instead of four lengths of rope to be tied you can jst walk back and forth with the one length to put as many strands in as you want. Then tie iff the end. It works so much quicker. Try making 100 lengths of rope per day. Not as much fun but the results are quite consistent. Well done.

Probably pretty difficult. If you dont buy any laser cut parts you will need everything... Scroll saw, Table saw, just to name a few. If you buy the laser parts for each chapter then you will only need to mill planks from wider sheets. So a table saw like the Byrnes saw is an absolute must have.

Nicely Done. The capstan looks great. I still go back and forth about painting it. I see you chose not to simulate the caulked seems between the deck planking. its really coming together.

Nice work on the cheeks and hair brackets. Have you ever modeled those before? They are tricky and you pulled it off well. These are just like on the contemporary model. Nothing was simplified which is why you should be very happy with those results. chuck

That looks beautiful....Exceptional detail on that prototype. I wish you the best of luck with these kits. Chuck

Beautiful work Rusty.

Beautiful!!!

Looking great...the last plank is no different other than it feels really good when its done.

Great news!!! Just dont go too hot or bake it too long. It will melt your rope into a sloppy liquid goop. it works great and its actually how polyester thread is made and fixed. But on a huge industrial scale of course.

That looks very good indeed. Well done.

I think you should make one and find out....Thanks for the kind words. 😀

Thanks. I dont have a clear picture of that so I just went with wood. One could try it as it would be interesting. I havent seen that done. Actually I dont think this particular Contemporary model has railings around any of the companionways. That is also an option. Many didnt show them at all. Some only show the railings around the companionway on the quarter deck. I am not sure why but I suspect safety wasnt a priority except on those companionways that were used by the captain and officers. If a common sailor fell down the ladderway it wasnt a huge concern for the admiralty....LOL.

Moving forward... Stanchions and railing around the companionway. There are many ways to do this. Contemporary examples show wood rails....metal stanchions etc. You guys can choose once again. Painted versions are either red black or white ...even a combination of those colors. I chose wood because I dont like messing with metal work. I turned these using my dremel. Just like I do when making belaying pins. They are only about an inch long so you dont get any wobble in your dremel and it doesnt take much time to make. You only need four of these. Try your best to make them identical. I started with a 1/16" x 1/16" boxwood strip. I marked the breaks in shape in pencil on all fpur sides so I can see them as its spinning. Its basically just the center thats rounded. I leave the top and bottom square. I also shape a small ball on the very top. But you can make these as fancy as you wish. Then I painted them black and cut the bottom of each away so they were all the proper height. I pegged them into the coaming using some 24 gauge wire. The rails are just 1/32" x 1/32" boxwood strips painted black ahead of time. The segments were cut to length and added between the stanchions. I took care to get them level while not pushing the stanchions out of alignment. They are just glued in with Tite-Bond. Then I touched up the paint. Its slow and methodical work. You have to constantly check that each rail is level etc. These pieces are thin so they dont look out of scale. I see so many rails around a companionway that are so thick and out of scale. Now to add more beams and knees as I move forward...

That is just not my style. I dont like all of those little add-ons. Never did. Makes me feel like im working on a dollhouse. Its just not my thing. I am sure someone will add one before its all done. Plus I want to leave some stuff for you guys to make it your own.

1/8” thick. About 1 3/4” long. I agree with you Greg. I will be using the red capstan also. chuck

I was about to glue the column into position when I thought to check out a few more contemporary models. I was browsing through "The Legacy of a Ship Model" by Rob Napier and most of the columns were red and I really liked the look. The natural column got kind of lost which is probably why you see most them painted red or white (ivory). So I decided to paint it red....long story short and I think it looks even better. You at least now get to see it both ways and hopefully it will help you decide.

That is lookin very good. I imagine you are happy to get this messy stage completed.

Moving further forward....I needed to make one column next. All together we will eventually need 4 of these. I pondered how best to make them for a while. You see all manner of columns used on contemporary models. Round turned wood columns. Metal pillars of various sorts. Some are made of ivory, while others are left natural wood or painted red. In the end I opted for wooden pillars left in the square profile. Mostly because I know most of you dont own a lathe. But this is something you can change to your liking as well. I did manage to laser cut them to their basic shape and etch some details on both sides for more reference points. But you must still sand away the char and also use some files or even a #11 blade to shape the flat sides. In the end it turns into a respectable column. I am very happy with them. I even like that some of the char remained because it helps define the details more. These are laser cut from boxwood by the way. Finally I added that next deck beam. This is where we will start adding those with painted red sides. If you look closely I also added the knees which were called for. These will now also have there sides and bottom painted red. The column isnt glued in yet but I will do so before moving on to do more work. I will probably leave the columns natural. I am also trying to decide on the capstan.....shall I paint it red as it was seen more often on contemporary models or leave it natural? Tough decisions... But if left natural I fear it will just get lost under the deck beams and will be be very hard to tell its even there once the qdeck is planked. In the end I will probably use the red one. You can choose which ever you prefer. I also carefully opened one of the doors for this photo and also used the scale figure under the beam to show you how tight it was....not a lot of head room..LOL. Although I suspect folks were a little shorter than these more modern figures.

Yes a light coat of WOP. No warping at all. I oriented the grain up and down to miniize that which seams to work. Cedar is very stable. We shall see how it goes with cherry but I think having one layer helps that. Gluing those thin layers together is a pain and thats when I usually get warping. But a solid piece is so much more stable. Like the tops for Speedwell. I hope you get that model back soon. I would love to see some progress. Chuck

Thank you.... Do any of you guys have questions up to this point? You have been very quiet. I will continue to wok my way towards the waist at any event. Next up I have to make some columns.....and stanchions for the companionway.

Moving forward towards the waist....the one fitting on deck that needed to be done next was the mast coat for the mizzen mast. I decided to do all three mast coats and get them done. These are laser cut for you in boxwood. The mizzen mast coat is only in two layers. The thicker top layer should be rounded off on the top edge and then glued to the really thin disc which is slightly larger. The laser char was carefully removed while paying attention to keep these round. I didnt bother with the inside because this will be painted black or dark gray. Making these in layers is a great way to avoid using a lathe. I just sanded and shaped them by hand. The main and forward mast coats are made in three layers. Basically another thin layer is added on top after rounding off the TOP edge of the thicker center layer. If that makes sense. The main mast coat also has some eyebolts along each side which were added. See the plans for details. That means I can now build out that forward bulkhead next.... The center section was added first just like before but this was worked in conjunction with the panel that spans both bulkheads. See below. You want to position both and shape both to fit. Dry fit them and when satisfied glue them into position. This next part is optional because you wont see any of it. But I went ahead and did it anyway. To avoid having a gap above that cross panel once the qdeck is planked....I added some 1/16" thick laser cut pieces between the beams. The beams were placed in position only temporarily. Then the strips were glued to the top of the panel. You can see the last one ready to be glued. Then you can remove the two deck beams and it will look like this. I removed those beams so I could build out the rest of the forward bulkhead. It makes it easier to get your finger in there. You can proceed to build out the remaining panels for the forward bulkhead just like you did for the aft version. Build the doors and then add the outside pieces. See the pick below. Once done you can absolutely glue the other two deck beams into position. You can also add the 3 lodging knees on both sides. There are no hanging knees here. Sand them to fit snug and make sure they face the right way. You can simulate the bolt head pattern on these if you want. But on my model they wont be seen at all so why bother. I would use 20lb. black filament for the bolts if you want to show them. Dont forget to glue your cannon in permanently so it wont come loose. Otherwise break out the tweezers because it will be hard to work under those beams should anything come free or if you get any debris down there.

That is looking fantastic...nicely done...