EJ_L

If you are not needing the hatches to be functional, card stock can be easily cut to resemble hinges. Use small wire for the barrels at the hinge and paint all black. Bolts can be simulated by dimpling the card stock. I've done this on many a door and hatch and they turn out good.

Thank you everyone for the kind words and likes. To try to answer the rigging questions, for a plastic model I've done what O.C. has said and inserted metal rods for strength and/or used wood instead. On wood models, I'm still figuring it out... 🙄 What I've learned that does make a difference is that you will often have to readjust the tension of the lines as rigging progresses upward. Either leaving lines loose or under temporary tension is recommended so that the lines can be undone and tightened as needed. Also, work in balance. For every forward stay placed, install an aft stay and the same port and starboard. For example, do not tighten all the starboard shrouds before the port shrouds or the will pull to the side and straitening it back out once it is tight can be difficult. Instead, work it from both sides one pair at a time. Do this for the top and topgallant masts as well. Once all the masts are in place with their stays and shrouds, then all the lines can be tensioned to balance out. Where I still struggle is with the running rigging, particularly where it has blocks that attached to the forestays. On a real vessel, the stays would be heavy and under enough tension that the pull force from the running rigging would not pull them out of line. On a model however, those lines are nowhere near heavy enough to resist the pull of the lines as they pass through blocks or the more complicated crows feet. To get the rigging to look correct, remain tensioned and not pull out place is a balancing act that I have not yet mastered. In short work in balance and be prepared to rework the lines as you progress. And if anyone else has suggestions, please share!

A word of advice with planking, it is usually advisable to work both sides at the same time. Reason being that when installing the planks, they can pull the bulkheads out of alignment fore and aft. If the sides are worked together, any misalignment can be caught earlier and more easily corrected if the opposite side is not fully planked which locks all the parts into place. Some people recommend going plank by planking opposite each other, I usually go in bands. With where you are in the build, I would recommend evening out the opposite side around your gun ports before proceeding further. Then you can do another band and swap back and forth between the two sides keeping progress even. This method is also helpful on the second planking for keeping the number of strakes even and the same size on both sides. This becomes very noticeable where the sides come close to each other at stem and stern.

Mizzen and main fore stays in place.

Nice planking work. Good to see you still at her. We understand about life taking priority over modeling. No worries on update delays, we will be here waiting.

Looking fantastic! The end result is an excellent simulated wood. Truly impressive.

More rigging going up. The bowsprit has been set and gammoning in place. Set the forestay which will likely be the last piece of rigging on the foremast for the time being. Next up I will fall back to set the stays and shrouds on the main and mizzen masts.

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW! Beautiful carving work!

I'm definitely interested in a POF cross section. As Mark said above, I think it would be a great stepping stone to scratch building POF models and allows for a lot of custom details and a wide range of useful skills.

Foremast shrouds have been fitted and temporarily tensioned. None of this has been secured permanently yet but I need to have them in place for spacings and the fitting of other items. Working on ratting down down the spritsail topmast shrouds. Once they are done, I will fix the bowsprit to the hull with gammons and will be able to start fitting the fore and main stays.

You could indeed take it that route and paint them though, the CA does have the same effect on paint as it does stain. It simply seals off the material that whatever goes on top, becomes a smooth and glossy spot. I've learned that the hard way. Hopefully, you may be able to sand away the excess with needle files to allow for either stain or paint to go down. As to the color, I would imagine a dark brown to black shade would look appropriate for the tops if you were to paint them.

Your obsession is amazing! haha! Seriously, if you can pull off those QGs as you have drawn them, that will truly be an incredible work of art! I've been loving watching you pull it all together and am looking forward to seeing how the physical modeling happens.

Well done! Smart bundling a lot of wood together to allow for shaping of many supports at once. It might have been easier to stain them first before gluing. I know that can create some extra work having to sand the glue edges back off for bond but, I have found that the staining/finishing applications are easier when the parts are separated.

Tom, the round top with railings were common practice until the around the start of the 18th century. That is when they slowly began to change over to the more commonly seen squarish tops with the rounded front corners and no rails or only the one aft for rigging. When exactly the changes started is hard to say as with most nautical changes, they were slow and happened over decades. The reasoning for the changes had to do with sail clearances and operation. Here are a couple of pictures I pulled off google search real fast this morning showing the round tops on the Vasa and the Kalmar Nyckel.