Erik W

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

Thanks for all the likes, and kind words guys.  I appreciate it!  Al, yeah, as I said in one of my above posts, I like putting the effort into the photography aspect.  I usually build smaller models, so it's been a challenge photographing something this size at times.  And to answer your question, yes, I do all the dusty work there.  Since it's in my home office, I am constantly using a small shop-vac to clean up sawdust while I'm working, and I wipe the work surface down with a damp sponge after each time I've worked on the build.  One of the reasons I'm making all the spars before I start rigging is so I can get past the sawdust producing stage and finally not have to be constantly cleaning up sawdust.  While it looks clean, that room needs a deep cleaning soon.  Here is a closeup of how my work area looks after I put my tools away (it helps I don't have many), and do a quick cleanup after every build session.
 
Erik

This is a great build. Keep it up and I’ll keep checking in. 
 
J

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

Thank you for the comments, as always! They do help to keep the momentum  
 
To proceed with the pillars - I should first dry fit deck beams into their positions.
Laser cut beams provided by The Lumberyard in the "timber package" were surprisingly all wrong - too narrow, but way too high. Almost an inverse of the necessary dimensions. Also their arc radius is too small, compare it with the one recommended in TFFM:

Making them from scratch is an exciting little brain teaser. There are so many ways!  
I opted for a template and a mill method.
Making the template is a matter of copying the curve from TFFM onto a piece of plywood and gently shaping it.
Rocking it side to side against the light helps to highlight the curve.

The shaping is done with a router-style jig, I added small tabs to limit the rotation of the part, just in case. 
The beam is attached to the template using hot glue. Tried double sided carpet tape - it is too flexible, allowing the part to move on the jig.
But which cutter to choose from? Plenty of options!

After a set of experiments it is clear that you need two different approaches for each side of the beam.
Dremel cutters pictured here were quite bad, rubbing the wood rather than cutting it, creating a lot of force on the part.
The outside curve is best shaped with my go-to 3mm Proxxon cutter. No effort required to feed into it, it cuts like butter and leaves a super clean surface that needs just a gentle touch-up with a sandpaper. Here is the raw surface after milling (an unfinished blank is below, for comparison):

However it does not work on the inner curve - it catches the wood easily and is way too dangerous to operate, since my fingers are quite close to the cutter when feeding from this direction. Using it was like trying to feed a tiger, would not recommend.

The best was to use the rotary tool sanding drums - a courser one to remove bulk of the material and a finer one for the last few passes.
It does not catch and provides just the right amount of resistance when feeding the part. And much safer - I brushed my finger on it a couple of times and it left no marks, as opposed to the sharp mill cutter that can eat you alive.
Of course it leaves sanding marks, but they are not too bad and are easily removed by hand sanding.

Also the geometrical consistency is not great, the drum is a bit barrel-shaped. But on that scale (and on the surface under the beam) that deviation is invisible and can be adjusted by scraping it.
Now I have first 5 beams, 10 more to go!
 

 
 
But now the difficult decision is the type of wood for the lower deck structure. These first 5 beams are made out of boxwood, should I continue the entire deck in box or should I try pear instead (same as on the aft platform)? It should darker over time and be similar to the inner planking.
So far I'm thinking to keep the lower deck in lighter colour, so it would be more visible deep in the hold when the upper deck is built. Both decks would get a very minimal planking, possibly no planking at all on the lower deck.
The upper deck would be in Pink Pear, I think.
But is the boxwood too bright for the lower deck? 
Of course it is an artistic choice, but would really appreciate some comments and opinions!  
I'm really bad at trying to find the colour match, but I understand how important that is in a long run 🤓

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the woodwork on the mast.  Everything is square and lines up as it should.  The further I get into this project the more I am compulsively measuring, test fitting, etc.  It really does prevent any nasty surprises down the road.  I made the mast tree so that all the parts would fit with light press fitting, so the tolerances are tight enough to assemble it without the need for glue.  This made it easier to test fit on the mast.  I did use glue for the final assembly.  The cheeks were a bit tricky.  Being new to this ship building gig, I wasn't quite sure how all the shapes are accomplished.  I have David Antscherl's book The Fully Framed Model - Rigging a Sixth Rate Sloop of 1767-1780 - Volume IV which has some clear photos of what material to take off the mast.  Though I see a couple of areas in my photos below that need some touch up, overall I'm happy withe the way the mast turned out.
 
Erik

Thanks for the likes folks, and kind words Mike.  I finished shaping the mast over the last week.  I had planned on turning it using my power drill after sanding it to 8 sides.  I couldn't get it to not wobble when chucked in though.  I wound up just using the same "shoe-shine' hand sanding method that I did with the bowsprit.  This was time consuming, but admittedly I like the control with removing material by hand.  It's easier to not accidentally remove too much. After making the bowsprit, and now the mast, I'm getting the hang of how to do this by hand.  So I'll use the same methods for the remaining spars.  I filed the square tennon at the top of the mast, and lastly cut the sheeve in.  Surprisingly, the mast fit into the mast coat with barely any additional sanding.  It sits at the correct angle when compared to the plans.  Also, once I get to the point of attaching the mast and spars permanently, I have no idea how, or where, I'm going to be able to photograph the build in it's entirety!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the woodwork on the mast.  Everything is square and lines up as it should.  The further I get into this project the more I am compulsively measuring, test fitting, etc.  It really does prevent any nasty surprises down the road.  I made the mast tree so that all the parts would fit with light press fitting, so the tolerances are tight enough to assemble it without the need for glue.  This made it easier to test fit on the mast.  I did use glue for the final assembly.  The cheeks were a bit tricky.  Being new to this ship building gig, I wasn't quite sure how all the shapes are accomplished.  I have David Antscherl's book The Fully Framed Model - Rigging a Sixth Rate Sloop of 1767-1780 - Volume IV which has some clear photos of what material to take off the mast.  Though I see a couple of areas in my photos below that need some touch up, overall I'm happy withe the way the mast turned out.
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

Thanks for all the likes, and kind words guys.  I appreciate it!  Al, yeah, as I said in one of my above posts, I like putting the effort into the photography aspect.  I usually build smaller models, so it's been a challenge photographing something this size at times.  And to answer your question, yes, I do all the dusty work there.  Since it's in my home office, I am constantly using a small shop-vac to clean up sawdust while I'm working, and I wipe the work surface down with a damp sponge after each time I've worked on the build.  One of the reasons I'm making all the spars before I start rigging is so I can get past the sawdust producing stage and finally not have to be constantly cleaning up sawdust.  While it looks clean, that room needs a deep cleaning soon.  Here is a closeup of how my work area looks after I put my tools away (it helps I don't have many), and do a quick cleanup after every build session.
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I finished the mast and topmast.  The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated.  Mostly due to the small diameter.  With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it.  We typically gloss over any mistakes we make.  I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction.  I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast.  I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out.  It was way too long.  It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter.  Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over.  Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake.  I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side.  I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size.  Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow.  I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below).  I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. 
 
The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together.  There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another.  In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well.  Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos!
 
Erik

I completed the assembly of all 28 of the gun deck 32 Pdrs.
After some encouragement from one of our club (MSON) members I again attempted to dry rub the barrels to try and make the details more visible as they were lost in the flat black. You can see the results in the close up... the one that shows the dust!
 
The raised details (reinforcing rings, powder pan, royal cypher) are not very high at near 0.01" so I found it difficult to try and apply the dry rub to only the raised parts. So I gave up on focusing on that and focused on the results which in essence mutes the flat black and shows the detail as compared to the image in post 1741 above.
 
I added the wooden quoin handles. They are made from Pau Marfim cut and sanded down to 0.06" square strips, one end sharpened to a point and then pulled through the two largest holes on the draw plate to round them to 0.057". The end of each handle was sanded round prior to cutting them off of the strip to then glue them into the drilled hole in the quoin.
 
Now I go back to re-installing my orlop and gun decks.

Thanks for all the likes, and kind words guys.  I appreciate it!  Al, yeah, as I said in one of my above posts, I like putting the effort into the photography aspect.  I usually build smaller models, so it's been a challenge photographing something this size at times.  And to answer your question, yes, I do all the dusty work there.  Since it's in my home office, I am constantly using a small shop-vac to clean up sawdust while I'm working, and I wipe the work surface down with a damp sponge after each time I've worked on the build.  One of the reasons I'm making all the spars before I start rigging is so I can get past the sawdust producing stage and finally not have to be constantly cleaning up sawdust.  While it looks clean, that room needs a deep cleaning soon.  Here is a closeup of how my work area looks after I put my tools away (it helps I don't have many), and do a quick cleanup after every build session.
 
Erik

Hi photo Anson thanks for yours like.