genericDave

Well, it has been a long time.  I wish I could say I've made tons of progress, but it has been a crazy few months.
 
Back in January, I was on a roll.  After finishing the winch assembly, I jumped right into chain plates.  The Bluenose has 20 chain plates, so I decided to prepare them all at once.  I cut strips of brass and made a jig to help my get the holes drilled on my little Proxxon drill press.  
 

This worked really well, and very quickly I had 20 brass strips with decent looking holes and filed tips.
 

 
These were then painted black, and I started the process of installing them.  This required drilling some holes in the main rail and creating a 'slot', being careful to make sure I stayed on the outside of the bulwarks.  I attached the deadeyes (after staining them) using wire.  I got through all 10 on the quarter deck.
 

This all happened within a few days of my last post.  Before starting in on the chain plates for the fore deck, I decided to take a week off.  Then disaster struck.
 
We have a service that comes and cleans every other week.  For years, they have cleaned around my work bench.  This time, they decided to actually clean my work bench.  The remaining 10 chain plates were lost.  I'm guessing they got 'wiped' onto the floor and vacuumed up.  This was incredibly demotivating, and I decided to take another week or two off.
 
Fast forward a few weeks, and we were starting a remodel of our house.  This included all new floors (I've wanted to replace the carpet in my office/ship-building-room for a while so I stop losing tiny pieces in the carpet).  Since they needed to replace all the floors, I had to pack up my entire workbench for over a month.  The ship was carefully wrapped up to protect it from dust (our entire house was covered in dust for weeks), and stored in one of the 2 rooms that wasn't being touched - a bathroom.  It was a little unnerving to have my ship sitting in a bathtub for weeks, but it survived.  I decided to hold off on starting the build back up until ALL the remodeling was done in order to avoid issues with dust.  The whole process took about 2 months.
 
So finally, today, I have everything set back up.  The workbench is unpacked.  Power tools (mill, drill press, scroll saw) are back in my make-shift shop (a walk in closet in my office).  I'm ready to dive back in and re-make those 10 chain plates.
 
During this break, I crossed the 1 year mark on my build.  I thought I'd be further along by now, but I've kept detailed notes on my progress and I see where the time went.  Since future builders of the Bluenose may stumble across this build log, here's how the last year went:
 
Build started April 1, 2016. Framing (keel, rabbet, bulkheads, fairing, stern blocks) - 16 days. Planking the lower hull (up to the deck) - 28 days. Planking the bulwarks, scrapers, transom - 11 days. Planking the deck - 24 days. Cleaning up the hull (hawse pipes, mooring chocks, etc) - 6 days. Painting the hull - 68 days. Rails (main rail, buffalo rail, monkey board) - 34 days. Hull details (rudder, name plates, scroll work) - 41 days. Deck structures (cabins, hatches, companionways, etc) - 28 days. Aft deck details - 4 days Fore deck details - 4 days Machinery (engine box, countershaft, windlass, hoisting, etc) - 31 days  
The first big stall came with painting, which took over 2 months, mostly driven by waiting a week or so between coats.  The second big stall has been my chain plate disaster/remodel.  
 
So, here I am, 1 year into this build, ready to dive back in.  I have just a few things to knock out (chain plates, anchors, dories) before I start building the masts, which obviously leads to rigging.  My best guess right now is that I have 8-12 months left.
 
I'm excited to finally be able to work on the ship again, and I look forward to being able to post an actual update with progress!
 

Well, it has been a long time.  I wish I could say I've made tons of progress, but it has been a crazy few months.
 
Back in January, I was on a roll.  After finishing the winch assembly, I jumped right into chain plates.  The Bluenose has 20 chain plates, so I decided to prepare them all at once.  I cut strips of brass and made a jig to help my get the holes drilled on my little Proxxon drill press.  
 

This worked really well, and very quickly I had 20 brass strips with decent looking holes and filed tips.
 

 
These were then painted black, and I started the process of installing them.  This required drilling some holes in the main rail and creating a 'slot', being careful to make sure I stayed on the outside of the bulwarks.  I attached the deadeyes (after staining them) using wire.  I got through all 10 on the quarter deck.
 

This all happened within a few days of my last post.  Before starting in on the chain plates for the fore deck, I decided to take a week off.  Then disaster struck.
 
We have a service that comes and cleans every other week.  For years, they have cleaned around my work bench.  This time, they decided to actually clean my work bench.  The remaining 10 chain plates were lost.  I'm guessing they got 'wiped' onto the floor and vacuumed up.  This was incredibly demotivating, and I decided to take another week or two off.
 
Fast forward a few weeks, and we were starting a remodel of our house.  This included all new floors (I've wanted to replace the carpet in my office/ship-building-room for a while so I stop losing tiny pieces in the carpet).  Since they needed to replace all the floors, I had to pack up my entire workbench for over a month.  The ship was carefully wrapped up to protect it from dust (our entire house was covered in dust for weeks), and stored in one of the 2 rooms that wasn't being touched - a bathroom.  It was a little unnerving to have my ship sitting in a bathtub for weeks, but it survived.  I decided to hold off on starting the build back up until ALL the remodeling was done in order to avoid issues with dust.  The whole process took about 2 months.
 
So finally, today, I have everything set back up.  The workbench is unpacked.  Power tools (mill, drill press, scroll saw) are back in my make-shift shop (a walk in closet in my office).  I'm ready to dive back in and re-make those 10 chain plates.
 
During this break, I crossed the 1 year mark on my build.  I thought I'd be further along by now, but I've kept detailed notes on my progress and I see where the time went.  Since future builders of the Bluenose may stumble across this build log, here's how the last year went:
 
Build started April 1, 2016. Framing (keel, rabbet, bulkheads, fairing, stern blocks) - 16 days. Planking the lower hull (up to the deck) - 28 days. Planking the bulwarks, scrapers, transom - 11 days. Planking the deck - 24 days. Cleaning up the hull (hawse pipes, mooring chocks, etc) - 6 days. Painting the hull - 68 days. Rails (main rail, buffalo rail, monkey board) - 34 days. Hull details (rudder, name plates, scroll work) - 41 days. Deck structures (cabins, hatches, companionways, etc) - 28 days. Aft deck details - 4 days Fore deck details - 4 days Machinery (engine box, countershaft, windlass, hoisting, etc) - 31 days  
The first big stall came with painting, which took over 2 months, mostly driven by waiting a week or so between coats.  The second big stall has been my chain plate disaster/remodel.  
 
So, here I am, 1 year into this build, ready to dive back in.  I have just a few things to knock out (chain plates, anchors, dories) before I start building the masts, which obviously leads to rigging.  My best guess right now is that I have 8-12 months left.
 
I'm excited to finally be able to work on the ship again, and I look forward to being able to post an actual update with progress!
 

Hello all! This will be my build of the Continental Gunboat Philadelphia. A brief history of her is taken from the model shipways website. 
 
"Launched in August of 1776, the gunboat Philadelphia is the oldest American fighting vessel in existence. Part of the American fleet commanded by General Benedict Arnold, she sank on October 11, 1776 during the Battle of Valcour Island against the Royal Navy on Lake Champlain. She remained sitting upright in the cold waters of the lake until she was raised in 1935. Today, she’s on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., complete with 24-pound ball that sent her to the bottom. "
  Length 26-3/8”
Width 13-3/4”
Height 24-5/8”
Scale 1:24 (1/2” = 1 ft.)
 
The actual gondolas built by Benedict Arnold were armed with two nine pounders, one twelve pounder and a few swivel guns. Arnold's gondolas were around 53 feet long with 15 1/2 foot beam and 2 foot draft. 
 
An overview image from the website is the following. 

The first few steps were pretty simple. I removed the parts I needed for the keel, stem and sternpost and glued them together. The keel was very straight with no noticeable war page. I sanded most of the laser char off. 

The pieces of wood that form the rabbets are pretty simple to carve. I just used an Xacto blade and a sanding block. There are also the visible parts of the stem and sternpost a which get narrower towards the ends. I have yet to make these rabbets at the bow.
 
That's it for now. Thank you for looking in! 
 
 
 
 
 

I do all the painting I can with an airbrush (I'm horrible at hand painting), and I've run into the same problem.   I use the tape method you described many times.
 
Another technique I use quite a bit is to drill a small hole in the bottom of the piece and glue in some thin brass rod.  I leave the rod long, and use that to hold the piece during painting.  Once painting is done, I trim the rod down.  Often I leave a little bit of the rod and use it as a 'post' to help secure the piece more firmly on the ship.  I also have a few small pieces (4x6 inches) of that generic white acoustic ceiling tile you find in a lot of offices - it makes a great board to stick pieces into during painting.  (The brass rod I glue onto the piece kinda acts like a push-pin.). I bought one ceiling tile at a hardware store several years ago for under $5 and have just been cutting small pieces off as needed.
 
I normally flip the ceiling tile over and use the unfinished 'back', and lay some wax paper over it.

I do all the painting I can with an airbrush (I'm horrible at hand painting), and I've run into the same problem.   I use the tape method you described many times.
 
Another technique I use quite a bit is to drill a small hole in the bottom of the piece and glue in some thin brass rod.  I leave the rod long, and use that to hold the piece during painting.  Once painting is done, I trim the rod down.  Often I leave a little bit of the rod and use it as a 'post' to help secure the piece more firmly on the ship.  I also have a few small pieces (4x6 inches) of that generic white acoustic ceiling tile you find in a lot of offices - it makes a great board to stick pieces into during painting.  (The brass rod I glue onto the piece kinda acts like a push-pin.). I bought one ceiling tile at a hardware store several years ago for under $5 and have just been cutting small pieces off as needed.
 
I normally flip the ceiling tile over and use the unfinished 'back', and lay some wax paper over it.

I do all the painting I can with an airbrush (I'm horrible at hand painting), and I've run into the same problem.   I use the tape method you described many times.
 
Another technique I use quite a bit is to drill a small hole in the bottom of the piece and glue in some thin brass rod.  I leave the rod long, and use that to hold the piece during painting.  Once painting is done, I trim the rod down.  Often I leave a little bit of the rod and use it as a 'post' to help secure the piece more firmly on the ship.  I also have a few small pieces (4x6 inches) of that generic white acoustic ceiling tile you find in a lot of offices - it makes a great board to stick pieces into during painting.  (The brass rod I glue onto the piece kinda acts like a push-pin.). I bought one ceiling tile at a hardware store several years ago for under $5 and have just been cutting small pieces off as needed.
 
I normally flip the ceiling tile over and use the unfinished 'back', and lay some wax paper over it.

Here is the fix

I had the same thought.  I knew that I had to install a couple of horn timbers in that area and thought that the blocks would interfere with them.   I just had a good look at the drawings and realized that the filler blocks wouldn't have got in the way.  I think I may do that now just to help with reinforcement and prevent future issues.

Great suggestion, where were you twenty minutes ago?????

When I added the strips I noticed that there were "new" gaps.  I'm sure they will go away once I get the fairing finished but it seems now I just have more material to remove.  Also, perhaps someone can answer, the drawings show the fairing line on each bulkhead.  I didn't use that because it wasn't used in Bob Hunt's practicum.  Should I have scribed the lines and cut the bulkhead to the lines to start the fairing process?  I mean, it's too late now to do that but curious for next time.

I then started doing some sanding.  Of course I tried to be gentle but disaster struck

 
So I glued the piece back with CA glue then reinforced it with carpenters glue.  I'm wondering if maybe I should have used some 5 minute epoxy.  This is the second time I've had problems in this area

I'm wondering what is the best way to fair the hull without breaking any more parts off.  I try to be gentle but then I find eventually I get too aggressive. 

I started fairing the hull and noticed some large gaps between the a couple of the planks and the bulkhead.  I added some filler pieces but got thinking after that maybe I shouldn't have done it until after I finished the fairing.

 

Yes Steve, you can't start a build without a shout out to Lego 

I've installed the bulkheads and the sternpost.  Some of the bulkheads were very snug and I had to do some sanding to get them to fit properly.  They went together quite nicely.
 

Haven't made a lot of progress.  I added some bracing over the joints of the keel, market the bearding and rabbet lines and started cutting the joint.  It's going fairly well.  I got one side done but will give my hand a rest before I start the next side.
 

 

I went down to my shop tonight to grab something really quick, and well, one thing led to another.......
 

 
So, from reading other logs I knew that the aft section of the false keel was delicate.  I still managed to break it.  Luckily it didn't snap off, it was just a fracture, so I applied a bit of CA and was back in the game again.
 

 
After that, I figured it was safer to sand the laser char with the keel on edge.
 

 
While sanding the middle keel, I guess I got too aggressive and, once again, I fractured the part
 

 
More CA and everything was fine.  I think I was lucky that nothing completely broke off.
 
I wan't happy with the fit between the aft and middle bulkheads so did additional sanding (carefully) to get them better in line.
 

 
I then used a generous amount of carpenters glue to attach the three sections and added some weights.  I'll let them cook over night.
 

 
 
 
 

This is my second build.
 
I received the Bluenose kit just before Christmas.  The Admiral "suggested" I put it under the Christmas tree.  So on Boxing Day I did an inventory.  All parts were present and accounted for.  However, one problem I had was that one of the dowels was badly warped.  I emailed Model Shpways and had two replacement dowels in about 2 weeks.  Excellent customer service.  All the wood was sorted, organized and stored in cardboard tubes.  I laid the plans out flat to try to get the folds out of them.
 
I plan on following Bob Hunt's practicum from Lauck Street Shipyards for the most part but will also be using the MS instructions manual plus other build logs on this forum.
 
I also purchased the book Bluenose by Brian and Phil Backman. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965.  According to MS it was a major reference for the kit.
 
Right now I am cleaning up my workspace and getting everything prepared to start this build.
 
I will be pre-occupied over the next few days but hope to get started later this weekend.

Jerry,
 
Congratulations on the build!  It looks great!  Selfishly, I'm little sad to see that you've finished . Your regular updates and progress really helped to me motivated during the slow time on my own build!  Can't wait to see what you tackle next!

I've got a dedicated drawer in my workbench for scraps.  I probably toss too much stuff in there, but it comes in handy.  I also toss any misc. jigs I make from wood in there when I'm done.  I've been able to repurpose a number of them.  I've realized that I reach for wood from the scrap drawer before I reach for the kit's material, and I've been finding that I often have a little piece that will work better than the kit provides (especially for all the little buildings on the deck!)
 
Unfortunately my drawer is a wire mesh material, so I'm constantly fighting the tiny pieces of brass that slips through the bottom of the drawer.

I've got a dedicated drawer in my workbench for scraps.  I probably toss too much stuff in there, but it comes in handy.  I also toss any misc. jigs I make from wood in there when I'm done.  I've been able to repurpose a number of them.  I've realized that I reach for wood from the scrap drawer before I reach for the kit's material, and I've been finding that I often have a little piece that will work better than the kit provides (especially for all the little buildings on the deck!)
 
Unfortunately my drawer is a wire mesh material, so I'm constantly fighting the tiny pieces of brass that slips through the bottom of the drawer.

The winch machinery is complete, which finishes up all the stuff that is permanently mounted to the deck.
 
The jumbo jib boom crutch was built from the kit's laser cut parts and some wood strips.
 

 
I ended up having to add some CA glue to the joints at the top - they were flexing too much with just PVA glue alone and I was concerned they would break during painting.  Some wood filler was used to clean up the joints between the posts and the knees.
 
As I did with the windlass, I decided to break with historical accuracy a bit on the colors and finishes.  I'm making the mounting brackets and handles brass so they stand out a bit, and I'm going to paint the end caps on either end of the winch's main bar white to match the ones on the windlass.  I think all of these would have likely been black metal on the ship, but making them look a little different will make the details stand out more on the model.
 
The kit ships most of the parts for the winch already assembled on a metal rod.  I completely disassembled these so I could paint things separately.  
 

 
I started by gluing the mounting brackets in place.  I used a scrap piece of brass rod to ensure they were properly aligned during installation.
 

 
Then I installed the winch's bar.  I reattached one of the end caps, then slid the bar through one of the brackets.  Next I slid the larger and smaller gears on, then slid the bar through the other mounting bracket, trimmed it to the right length, and installed the other end cap.  Finally I glued on the clutch assembly below the main gear.  The winch's metal rod was left unpainted during installation since sliding on those pieces would have stripped the paint anyway.
 

 
With everything in place, I finished up painting and installed the pawls and control bar.  I kept the bar simple.  The plans show multiple pieces, but I made it out of one piece of brass rod that was bent around the rod.  The end caps were painted white except for their gears, which were painted black so they would stand out.  The mounting plates for the pawls were painted white simply because I felt they stood out too much when painted black like the pawls themselves.  The whole thing was then glued to the deck.
 

 
The control bar was added to the top of the engine box.  Again I used a brass rod so it would stand out.  I didn't plan ahead well enough, and there was nothing but empty space inside that hole on the engine box, so I didn't have anything to seat the bar into.  Instead I simply glued the bar to the side of the engine box hole.
 

 
The final step was to connect the winch to the counter shaft assembly.  The plans suggest doing this with some thread, but I wanted to use an actual chain.  My wife owns a jewelry business, so she was kind enough to give me a few inches of very tiny scrap chain.  I felt a little bad because the chain is actual silver and I immediately dunked it in black paint.  I'll consider it a sacrifice to the model ship building gods.
 
Installing the chain was a mess.  I'm not thrilled with the results.  If I had it to do over again, I would have built the chain back when I made the windlass, and glued the chain around the counter shaft's gear before it was mounted to the deck.  Trying to get the chain wrapped around that properly, and getting glue applied, was a real challenge once everything was fixed on the deck.
 
Overall, I'm content with this batch of work, but I don't think it turned out as well as some of the the other pieces on the deck.
 

 

 
This completes my 'machinery' phase, and finishes up the stuff that is permanently mounted to the deck.  I still need to do the anchors and dories, but since those are 'portable' on the actual ship I'm treating them as a separate project.
 
First I plan to make and install the chain plates since I think putting those in after the dories are installed will be trickier.

The winch machinery is complete, which finishes up all the stuff that is permanently mounted to the deck.
 
The jumbo jib boom crutch was built from the kit's laser cut parts and some wood strips.
 

 
I ended up having to add some CA glue to the joints at the top - they were flexing too much with just PVA glue alone and I was concerned they would break during painting.  Some wood filler was used to clean up the joints between the posts and the knees.
 
As I did with the windlass, I decided to break with historical accuracy a bit on the colors and finishes.  I'm making the mounting brackets and handles brass so they stand out a bit, and I'm going to paint the end caps on either end of the winch's main bar white to match the ones on the windlass.  I think all of these would have likely been black metal on the ship, but making them look a little different will make the details stand out more on the model.
 
The kit ships most of the parts for the winch already assembled on a metal rod.  I completely disassembled these so I could paint things separately.  
 

 
I started by gluing the mounting brackets in place.  I used a scrap piece of brass rod to ensure they were properly aligned during installation.
 

 
Then I installed the winch's bar.  I reattached one of the end caps, then slid the bar through one of the brackets.  Next I slid the larger and smaller gears on, then slid the bar through the other mounting bracket, trimmed it to the right length, and installed the other end cap.  Finally I glued on the clutch assembly below the main gear.  The winch's metal rod was left unpainted during installation since sliding on those pieces would have stripped the paint anyway.
 

 
With everything in place, I finished up painting and installed the pawls and control bar.  I kept the bar simple.  The plans show multiple pieces, but I made it out of one piece of brass rod that was bent around the rod.  The end caps were painted white except for their gears, which were painted black so they would stand out.  The mounting plates for the pawls were painted white simply because I felt they stood out too much when painted black like the pawls themselves.  The whole thing was then glued to the deck.
 

 
The control bar was added to the top of the engine box.  Again I used a brass rod so it would stand out.  I didn't plan ahead well enough, and there was nothing but empty space inside that hole on the engine box, so I didn't have anything to seat the bar into.  Instead I simply glued the bar to the side of the engine box hole.
 

 
The final step was to connect the winch to the counter shaft assembly.  The plans suggest doing this with some thread, but I wanted to use an actual chain.  My wife owns a jewelry business, so she was kind enough to give me a few inches of very tiny scrap chain.  I felt a little bad because the chain is actual silver and I immediately dunked it in black paint.  I'll consider it a sacrifice to the model ship building gods.
 
Installing the chain was a mess.  I'm not thrilled with the results.  If I had it to do over again, I would have built the chain back when I made the windlass, and glued the chain around the counter shaft's gear before it was mounted to the deck.  Trying to get the chain wrapped around that properly, and getting glue applied, was a real challenge once everything was fixed on the deck.
 
Overall, I'm content with this batch of work, but I don't think it turned out as well as some of the the other pieces on the deck.
 

 

 
This completes my 'machinery' phase, and finishes up the stuff that is permanently mounted to the deck.  I still need to do the anchors and dories, but since those are 'portable' on the actual ship I'm treating them as a separate project.
 
First I plan to make and install the chain plates since I think putting those in after the dories are installed will be trickier.

Main Rail
 
The main rail is complete!  
 
I ended up using some sheets of 1/16" basswood and tracing the curve of the hull onto the sheet.  I used those lines to draw out the shape of the rails, then cut it out so I had one long piece that ran the length of the ship.  I added in the joint to match the stern piece that was previously installed, then worked my way forward.  
 

 
Since I was using a single piece to make the rail, creating the scarf joints for the individual sections was easy - I just cut the sections apart in the shape of each joint.  I also added in the wider 'ledges' that will hold belaying pins, based on the plans.
 

 
Each side was done separately, just in case the curve was slightly different.
 
Once all six sections were cut, they got sanded down, primered, and painted.  Once they were glued in place, I used a metal file to make sure the joints were even.  I used a little wood putty to clean up the joints and fill any gaps, then did a final coat of paint.
 

 

 
On the color...the plans call for white on the main rail.  My research indicates the rails were almost certainly white (although a couple old b&w photos might show that the rail was black at some point...or those could just be misleading angles).  So I know that white would be more 'historically accurate'.  But, I've seen a lot of models that use black for the main rail, and I really like the look.  So I went with black.  At least it was a conscious choice
 
 

Paint Complete and Deck Staining
 
After weeks of masking, painting, waiting, sanding, and repeating, my Bluenose is painted!  It was very, very satisfying to remove the multiple layers of masking tape that I had piled on over the last month.
 

 
There was a good deal of touching-up required, especially on the waterways and bulwarks.  Those had been airbrushed early in the process, but there was some bleeding, so I touched those up by hand.
 
I still need to do some final touch ups on the yellow and white stripes on the outer hull, but I decided to ahead and get the deck stained first.  I went with a darker shade than originally planned on (kind of a last minute decision), but I'm really happy with how the deck turned out.
 

 
Hopefully I'll get those stripes on the hull cleaned up this week.  
 
I'm still debating if I should go ahead and get some poly on the deck now, or wait until later.  
 
The entire hull was airbrushed, and I decided on the specific colors after doing some tests on a large piece of basswood.
 
For black, I used Model Master's Flat Black (I know that 'midnight blue' is more historically accurate, but I didn't think I would be able to get a good shade of that).  The red portion of the hull was Model Master's Insignia Red (probably not the 'right' shade of red, but it was the one I liked the most).  For white (both on the stripe and on the bulwarks) I used Humbrol Flat White.  The yellow stripe was Model Master's Insignia Red (which wasn't my plan, I was going to use Humbrol Trainer Yellow, but grabbed the wrong bottle without realizing it).  The grey was Model Master's Light Grey.
 
After I get things cleaned up with the stripes, I still need to put some kind of clear coat on top, but I'm not sure what I'll use yet.
 
I'm excited to get things moving again!  
 

 
 

It's been a little over a month, and I've made some progress.
 
Bulkhead Extensions
 
I trimmed the bulkhead extensions back to make them fit the size of the stanchions.  This went fairly quickly as I built a little jig to aid in cutting the extensions at the right depth.
 

 
The sternpost got installed pretty easily.
 
Bulkheads
 
Next up was gluing in the bulkheads.  This too went pretty easily with the aid of a variety of clamps, machinists squares, and angle braces to hold everything while the glue set.
 

 
I decided to go ahead and add support struts between the bulkheads.  Being my first POB build, I didn't trust myself to be delicate while fairing, so I wanted the extra support.  I had some 1" x 1/4" wood lying around, so I used that.  I measured the exact space between each bulkhead and cut individual pieces to fit each spot.  This took a couple days.   I made a bit of a mess with the glue, but all this will be hidden by hull and deck planking so I'm going to spend time cleaning it up. 
 
When I finished, I realized that my process (do one side first, then the other) had caused a problem.  I had introduced a bend into the keel because the first side I did was a little too snug, and the second side was cut later (so it locked in the bend).  If I had done both sides at once for each bulkhead, i could have avoided this.
 
Since all the supports were firmly glued in, I fixed the problem by cutting the supports between 2 bulkheads on each side.  Since cutting removes a bit of wood (due to the thickness of the blade), this gave me some squish room to relieve the pressure causing the bend.  I got the keel back in alignment, and re-glued the struts one side.   The other side (which now has struts with a gap in the middle) will just be filled in with wood putty so I don't have to keep looking at a reminder of my mistake.   It looked messy, but the keel is straight and the struts are solid.
 

 
Next up I faired the bulkheads.  I thought it went fine, but I later realized I didn't do a very good job.
 
Great Beam and Waterways
 
The practicum I'm loosely following suggests installing the outermost waterway to use as a guide for positioning the first plank.  This makes sense, but the practicum skips over installing the 'great beam' - it never installs it at all.  The deck planking (and waterways) would need to be on top of the 'ledge' created when you install the great beam.  So I deviated a little and installed the great beam, followed by the waterways.  I went ahead and installed all three waterway planks on the fore deck.  The quarter deck only has one waterway strip - between the stanchions - and I wasn't sure I'd get a smooth curve with all those little pieces.  So I went ahead and installed what will become the nibbling strake, then put in the actual waterway, matched to the curve of the nibbling strake.
 

 
Finally I moved on to planking.
 
Planking the Hull
 
One of the reasons I chose the Bluenose was that the plank layout is fairly simple and doesn't require some of the complex techniques required by other ships.  Also, the hull will be painted - so I can fix any mistakes with filler.
 
I started at the deck and worked my way about halfway down.  Then I put in the garboard strake and worked my way up from the keel.  I did both sides at the same time (install a strake on one side, then the matching strake on the other side) so that I could keep both sides uniform.  I also decided to use individually cut planks, per the instructions, rather than using full-length strips as the practicum suggests.  I did this only so I could get some practice with cutting and installing individual planks and maintaining a consistent pattern with the joints.
 

 
I'm satisfied with how it turned out, but I discovered my fairing was pretty poor.  There were some planks that didn't butt up nicely because the bevel on the bulkhead wasn't straight enough.  I had some trouble with the curves near the stern around the top of the sternpost.  Good thing this hull will be painted.  Filler to the rescue.
 
With both sides planked, I went through a few sanding rounds then generously applied wood filler as recommended in the practicum.  The practicum (and some build logs I've seen around the internet) show a LOT of filler being applied, then sanded away.  So, I did that.  Fortunately I only did one side of the hull (I wanted to see how it went before I did the other side).  I don't need anywhere near that much filler.  I ended up removing 95% of the filler.  It took days and I went through a TON of sandpaper.  On the other side, I'll use considerably less wood filler, which should make sanding it back down go a lot faster.
 
I've now got one side of the hull filled and sanded.  There are some touch-ups needed, but I'll come back and do those after I fill and sand the other side.
 

 
Next step is to fill and sand the other side and do another pass to clean up any remaining issues with the planking.