reganJohnson

Thanks Jerry, I've moved on. I fastened the block to the dowel using this technique shown here: I used some of the very abundant black line that is in the kit, along with some black thread that came with the kit when I acquired it. My language here is horrendous, because I do not know the proper technical terms, but the hole in the block needs to be perpendicular to the direction of the dowel. The line going 'around' the block needs to be 'parallel' to the dowel. When you tie a reef knot (is that different than a true square knot?), the lines move away from the block in the same direction as it did going 'around' the block. In order to tie a knot around the dowel, you have to spin the block. That was a horrendous description. It confused me, and I wrote it! Never mind, the blocks are now fastened to the dowel just fine.

Nice work, I'm taking a lot of hints from your work on my copy of this ship. Right now, I'm looking at "Bits with puleys and blocks ready to install.jpg", and wondering what kind of knots you used to tie the blocks onto the 'dowel'? It looks like the thread goes around the sides of the blocks, but then that would mean it couldn't easily go around the dowel? somewhere there is a 90 degree twist, or am I looking at it wrong?

Does the log of the first part of this build exist, or was it lost? I'm building my very first wooden ship, and love to look at more photos and read construction stories of other people.

So today, I built two belaying pin racks, put them into the rails, and started working on the 'steps', 'stairs' up the side of the ship: I first tried drilling the holes by hand with a pin vise, but I broke one piece of wood, and was not happy with my other attempts. I then remembered (again) that I have a dremel tool in a drill press! The drill press made fast and easy work of the drilling. The holes don't line up exactly, but they're much better than what I was doing by hand! I've been wondering, what glues people use, and how they attach 'stuff'. I have some questions about the 'combing' at the back of the ship. This is supposed to be 1mm x 3mm walnut that goes on top of an existing railing. How do you get it to curve sho sharply? I would think that bending the wood would snap it in two, or the glue would never hold. Next, I'm wondering about how things like posts for railings are held onto the deck. I've taken a trick from tabletop wargaming, pinned the pieces together, and used carpenter's glue to hold everything together. Looking at the ship, it doesn't look like carpenter's glue was used to hold it together. If not carpenter's glue, what should I be using to keep it together? It doesn't look like there's a good way to fasten the steps to the side of the hull. Should I be pinning them into the hull? Will carpenter's glue just hold the wood together without much clamping? Is there a better way? Enquiring minds want to know!

been a few days, but I think I've figured out how to carve out the mortises:

Hi There, a bit of an introduction, and blatant ripoff of my first post in the new members' area: About a year ago, I read a post on facebook, from a person who wanted to give away a half built wooden sailing ship kit. I replied right away, and quickly became the proud owner of a half built Amati HMS Bounty in 1/60scale. I've never built a wooden kit, but always wanted to. I have spent most of my hobby time with model trains, tabletop miniatures, and plastic models. I believe that the kit is complete, and all of the instructions are included, but time will tell. This is the ship as I received it Opening the box and looking at the contents, and the (so far) pretty complete hull is very exciting. There are some spots of blue paint on the varnished hull and some of the deck fixtures are coming loose. The next step is to take thes magnificently made hinges, and make a mortise for the coaming (I'm learning, and trying to use the language appropriately). My next step is to try to understand how to make (cut?) a mortise, how to fasten copper hinges to wood, and how much painting I'm planning to doing. The hinges will eventually fasten the 'doorway'/entrance/something appropriate to the railing, under the coaming. Wish me luck! and, any suggestions about carving wood, what tools are needed, good reference material are always welcome!