gjdale

That's just lovely Mark. Any chance of some more close ups of the duplicator in action?

Great work, as always, Augie.

Just beautiful Karl!

Mark - outsource the yard work!

Jack, Nice to see an update from you and your frames are looking great. At least by being a little behind, you have avoided the trap that both Mobbsie and I fell into with the gunport/sweep cutouts! Don't worry about pace - it's not a race but a mutually supportive build. The routine is that Mobbsie races ahead and finds all the traps, I come along and re-learn the same lessons, and then you get the benefit of both our mistakes! My recovery is going well, thank you. I hope to be able to finish assembling the shell room this weekend, though I'm still not allowed near power tools - have to wait until I'm off the pharamceuticals for that!

So, Vulture has now been cat-scanned? If Ziggy were a Labrador Retriever, it would also have been lab-tested! Glad to hear no significant damage all round Danny. Pets are wonderful companions but they do try our patience at times.

Al, If you google the term clump block, you'll find both definitions and pictures. jbshan has it pretty much right in his answer above. A block is a very different beast to a deadeye. If the instructions are calling for a three holed clump block, then I'd suggest using an ordinary triple block (ie a regular block with three sheave holes side-by- side, not in the triangular pattern of a deadeye). Triple blocks are fairly readily available, including through Chuck's Syren site, or can be scratch made quite easily.

Great work on the margin planks Mobbsie. The colour of your deck planking is a great choice too!

Now that's REALLY nice work Bob. I love your rope coils too - they are very realistic in appearance.

Lovely work Mark, and chuffed you should be.

Just brilliant Daniel. You really make the ship come alive with your figures.

Very nice Boyd - I really like your interpretation in this build. As for time / speed of build, just remember that it's not a race and there are no deadlines to meet. 3 years would be a very fast build in my books (says he who took 19 years for this ship).

Great work Ian. I am constantly amazed and impressed by your engineering ingenuity, and your ability to work out the "how to" as well as the "what". Your log is always an education that I thoroughly enjoy. Thanks for sharing so much of your thinking and processes.

Great start Mobbsie - a lick of paint makes thecworld of difference.

Fascinating project Wefalck - I'll be interested to follow your progress on this.

Hi Charlene, Another warm welcome from "downunda"! Looks like you've made a great start already. As far as you saying that Jerry is not always right goes, as a husband I can assure you that these days I find myself more often certain than I am right! I hope you enjoy your build and the camaraderie of this great community called MSW.

Excellent work Ken. Your meticulous attention to detail, and your experimentation, are both paying off in spades.

Beautiful job Augie. She really is starting to look as flash as a rat with a gold tooth!

Yup, wot they said!!! Reading your updates never fails to put a smile on my dial Danny!

Nice to see an update Sjors, she's looking magnificent (with or without dust )

I'll be pulling up a front row seat as well to watch you work the "Mobbsie Magic" on this one!

Many thanks for all the well wishes guys. A quick update - yes, from my hospital bed! Everything went well today - was in recovery by 0930 and in own room from 1300. Doc has visited and is well pleased. Physio have been and had me up standing and walking up and down on the spot already. Nursing staff all excellent. Oh, and some real quality pharmaceuticals too! Food has been excellent and I've just had the worlds longest pee (one litre's worth), which I proudly delivered standing up!!! (I know - it's a real boy thing!) Doc says hopefully released on parole over the weekend, or Monday at latest, all going well.

My horse just returned from his gallop and reports that you're model looks great, even without his blinkers on! There are many who would be well satisfied to have made your "mistakes", Skip. If the number of mistakes we make is a measure of our learning, then this is a pretty darned erudite group here! I just had three goes at making the shell room on my model, before being satisfied with the results. It's a very well-educated shell room now!

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and all the likes. I had hoped to post a bit more of an update tonight but a couple of things got in the way............ Firstly, having proudly displayed all of my component parts in my last update, when I went to assemble them I found some small but significant errors in the milling of the shell room pillars. Long story short, I didn't take enough care in setting up the mill and because I cut all 18 pillars in one continuous cut, there were enough differences between one end and the other of the cutting line, that when assembled the bomb racks between the pillars looked like they'd been for a run ashore on pay day. That then gave me the impetus to also re-make the floor support beams - those incorrectly drilled holes were still bugging me. So I re-made everything...........................................twice! Yep, managed to bugger up both the milling and the floor beams on the second attempt. Fortunately, it was a long weekend and rainy - no other "distractions" in sight! So after measuring 37 times, and aligning the mill to within a cat's whisker of its life, I went for attempt number three. What was that about "the third time is the charm"? All I can say is that Jeff Hayes (of HobbyMill) must have believed in this as he supplied enough raw material to allow a third attempt! Thanks Jeff!!! Don't know what I would have done if I'd botched it a third time. Anyway, a test fit of all parts revealed a good match all round. I then needed to await delivery of my new "bombs", which arrived today. The size looks right, but they have a shiny finish, which I will probably spray with Dullcote before using. So unfortunately, no photos for now. I will take a few during the final assembly and finishing process and post with my next update. That, however, will be a few weeks in coming as I've been consigned to the knackers yard to get some replacement body parts. I'm going into hospital tomorrow morning for a hip replacement operation. I had the first one done about five years ago, so I'm no stranger to the procedure, or the recovery process. I do know two things for sure. Firstly, I'll be in less pain afterwards than I am now, and secondly, I'll be enjoying some quality pharmaceuticals for a little while! That of course means no model building - unless of course you were interested in seeing some rather unique maritime interpretations.................. I hope to be back in the shipyard in a limited capacity in 2-4 weeks, but will have to await both surgeon and Admirals approval first. And of course, you just know which of those is going to be the more difficult to obtain!!! In the meantime, I shall continue to live vicariously through all of your logs.

Hi Ben, It depends on the look/feel you want to achieve. If you want a very smooth and/or polished look on the unplanked area, then work down/up (?) to a much finer grit (say, 600). You'll find that once you've got the shape faired properly with coarser grit, the following grits will be much easier as they aren't forming the shape - they're just removing the scratches from the previous grit. Personally, I'd go to 220 where you're gluing planks, and 600 for the unplanked area - but in the end, it comes down to your own preference.