KingDavid

Zamuel,
 
Keep in mind that you are building a model representing a vessel built in 1578, not 1788 when rules were better established. As you probably know, two ships bracketing your time period have been salvaged and excavated- Mary Rose, sunk in 1545 and your Vasa in 1628. The deck planking on these early vessels looks very haphazard by later standards with very short planks, varying widths and the presence of "drop strakes" (a wide piece of planking abutting two narrow ones).
 
Today, Naval Atchitects treat deck plating as a major strength element to resist longitudinal bending of the hull girder, but this was not the case in the 1600's and before. The many elevation changes caused by the many short decks fore and aft would have limited the deck's effectiveness as a strength member had builders at the time even understood the concept. The need for some sort on planking rules in the late 1500's were, therefore, not necessary, and probably not understood.
 
As your Revenge kit is undoubtedly a reconstruction of a historic vessel for which no plans exist use the kit materials to develop a pattern that looks convincing. No one can say that you're wrong.
 
 
 
Roger

FLY IS COMPLETED.
 
I finished the H.M.S. Fly today -- competed pics are in the Completed Kits Gallery.  Just a couple of samples here.
 
I wanted to see what the lifeboat from the upgrade would look like, so I built it and liked it, so installed it on the ship.  I made some mods to it, including using real wood planks down the side at the gunwales, vs. paint.
 
A couple of kit build notes from my most recent work:
 
I added some fine thread braces to the stays the crow's feet are attached to, to keep the crow's feet tight.  Important as the stays are pulled up by the rigging and need some counter-balance. I ran out of 3mm and 5mm blocks, and 3mm deadeyes.  Fortunately, I had leftovers (plenty) from the Amati Revenge kit, so I was OK, but a caution to other builders.  I didn't lose more than 2-3 of each on the floor. Now a break from kit building while my wife and I go on a Greek Islands cruise.  When I return in late September, I'm going to tackle the Amati Titanic, and I'll create a detailed build log for that as I don't see much on this site.
 
Regards, and Happy Labor Day to the Americans,
David

Looks great David.  I’m impressed not only with the build, but also how quickly you can progress at such a high level.  My Pegasus will be done by 2025 😳

Foremast crow's foot rigging is up.  As I was snipping the last loose piece of crow's foot, I managed to commit the ultimate rigging sin and snip the crow's foot too.    😫  All of the "feet" are one long continuous line.
 
So I spliced the last lead and saved it.  You can see the splice if you zoom in on the second picture and look at the leftmost "foot".  But it's hard to see with the naked eye, so all's well that ends well.
 
Regards,
David

All shrouds are now up.   😂  I think I've been seeing ratlines in my sleep.
 
Now on to other rigging, in between some business trips coming up this week and next.
 
Regards,
David

I haven't posted in a while, because I have been traveling and also busy with some business.  But this week I was able to do the mizzen lower shrouds and finish off the lower shrouds, futtock shrouds and ratlines, so here's a picture of that.
 
Regards,
David

Lower main mast shrouds and ratlines now done.
 
Regards,
David

Continuing to work on shrouds.  When I did the foremast shrouds, I followed the approach noted in the drawings (see below), which is certainly structurally sound and is probably how shrouds were "hung" off the mast on the real ship.
 
The issue I had was twofold:  alignment of the deadeyes when fixing the second deadeye in the loop, and more important, creating the proper alignment and spacing at the top.  I really had to struggle to get separation and not have the shrouds cross approaching the top of the lower foremast, and the alignment I had on the foremast was marginally OK, but not what I really wanted.
 
So for the main mast I went back to the approach I used on the Revenge, which is to rig the shrouds one at a time, fixing the alignment and tensioning at the top with CA gel.  I'm much happier with the results.  See below, including two pics with white paper behind the shrouds so the alignment up to the mast is easier to see.
 
Regards,
David

1:64 H.M. Cutter Alert 1777
Vanguard Models
Catalogue # VM-01
Available from Vanguard Models for £180
 

 
 
The Alert, built in Dover by Henry Ladd and launched on 24th June 1777, was the largest class of cutter in the Royal Navy. Alert originally carried ten four-pounder carriage guns and six to twelve half-pounder swivel guns. She was one of fifteen cutters built for the Royal navy between 1777 and 1778. Smaller cutters were often purchased or built by private yards and then purchased by the Navy, but Alert was purpose built from the keel up.
 
In February 1778, Alert docked at Plymouth for an overhaul, to which some alterations were made to her hull and the ten four pounder carriage guns were replaced with twelve six pounder guns, raising her broadside weight by 30%. The guns were changed because six-pounder shot was more commonly available and, of course, they were more effective. Because of the increase in ordnance, the crew of the Alert was increased from sixty to eighty men, and recommissioned under a new commander, Lieutenant William George Fairfax. In May 1778, Fairfax was promoted to Commander and Alert was re-classed as a sloop to comply with Admiralty requirements. (Although always remained cutter rigged)
 
On 17th June 1778, the Alert, in company with the frigate Arethusa, spotted and intercepted the French frigate Belle Poule and the armed lugger Coureur, with the latter overhauled by the Alert and surrendered, returning to Spithead after the action with her prize. On 8th July of the same year, whilst on an independent deployment, searching for the enemy fleet, Alert was taken by surprise and captured by the French frigate Junon. Alert is reported as lost without trace on 15th December 1779. Alerts sister, Rattlesnake lasted a little longer, being wrecked on the island of Trinidad on 11th October 1781.

The model kit of the Alert is depicted after her refit with twelve six-pounder guns and a full complement of twelve half-pounder swivel guns, giving an ordnance total of twenty-four guns. Although not stated in the records when researching, it is possible that the upper bulwarks were fully planked, rather than having the open drift. The decoration that adorns the upper sides and stern is optional, as it is unlikely that the original vessel, when in service, would have had such decoration. This is inspired by the two paintings of the vessel by Joseph Marshall, which formed part of the George III collection of ship model paintings. It is possible the decoration would have been painted on during launch day, or if a prominent (Royal) figure visited to review the fleet.
 
The kit


H.M. Cutter Alert 1777 is the very first kit from Chris Watton’s own brand label, ‘Vanguard Models’. Of course, you will have heard of Chris’s name from kits released under the Amati (Victory Models) and Caldercraft/JoTika companies, as well as some magazine part-work stuff etc. I’ve bbeen watching this project come together both on and off Model Ship World, and the sort of effort that goes into producing a model kit. Vanguard’s new kit comes in a reasonably large box which is adorned with photos of the completed model, and some profile illustration too. Guess what? I got kit #001!! I’ll not claim any preferential treatment though! Lifting the lid and the first layer of bubble-wrap reveals a personalised customer letter and also a MASSIVE A3-size instruction manual which is spiral bound. We’ll look at this again a little later. 
 
Fittings

A neat little labelled box contains all of the fittings for Alert, carefully kept in one place, and very professional-looking too. Cutting the tape tab reveals a series of labelled bags. Everything in this kit is also labelled in the same way and easily cross referenced against both the parts inventory and during construction. It really does appear to have been made as intuitive and easy to follow as humanly possible.

The fittings are generally a mix of either resin or white metal. In the first pack we have the large winch which is cast in resin. This was originally intended to be white metal, but the quality of the parts was poor, so a new part was 3D designed and cast in light grey resin. Only a little clean-up is required to push this into service on Alert. Also in resin is the smaller windlass for the topsail bitts. The anchors are cast in white metal, and these look great. Very little preparation will be needed before they can be used.

More white metal fittings are supplied for the twelve 6-pounder cannon and the twelve half-pounder swivel guns. I would give these a clean-up with a file and some steel wool. Another pouch is supplied for the cannon shot.

One of the next packs contain steel pins for assisting with the first layer of planking. These look very nicely made and are sharp, with nothing malformed. It could be an idea to pilot drill the plank before using these, so as not to split any of the MDF frames or the planks themselves. The next two packs contain deadeyes and deadeye sheaves. The quality of these is very good, and definitely some of the nicest I’ve seen recently.

Three more packets contain two sizes of single block and one size of double block. Again, quality is evident here.

In the last three packets in the fittings box, you’ll find triple blocks, parrel beads and also the mainstay ‘mouse’.

 
Rigging

A zip-lock wallet contains six spools of very high-quality rigging cord in natural and black colours, as well as a sleeve of thicker natural thread which I think is for the anchor cables. This latter is handmade by Syren in the US, so you can be assured of its standards. Also note how each spool is labelled and inventoried so you won’t accidentally use the wrong cord when rigging.


 
Timber strip
Onto the timber strip. This initial release of Alert contains boxwood for the deck planking and pearwood for the hull. This sort of timber isn’t normally found in kits, with the recent exception of Master Korabel’s Avos kit’s XS Edition. It certainly is very welcome to see, and the standard of timber is excellent. I do believe that Chris will be releasing a slightly cheaper version of Alert with Tanganyika instead of pearwood and boxwood. Chris hopes this will retail for around £155 and is actually the same as he used in the prototype model you can see on the box lid and the photos in this review. All timber strip is packed into thick, sealed plastic sleeves, and clearly labelled so you can cross reference with the inventory to make sure you are indeed using the correct wood for the specific task.










Timber standards are high with a nice uniform colour per batch, no coarse grain or split ends and fuzziness. 
 
Sail cloth is supplied too, just in case you do indeed want to display in this manner. The material is provided as sheet, and you will need to use the drawings to draw out the shapes on the cloth and cut/sew. Sails aren’t really for me, but the option is there, should you want to display her in all her sheets to the wind glory!


 
Sheet material

Now we come to the sheet material. There are two thick, clear sleeves containing laser-cut material. This first sleeve holds all of the main constructional elements plus something rather unusual for a kit like this, and that’s a clear acrylic display base! 


The base is a simple but attractive slot-together affair whose parts just need to be gently removed from the sheet. They are also covered in a protective film that makes it look dull in my photo. Rest assured that the material underneath is crystal clear. To assemble this, you could either use an acrylic cement such as Tensol, or an epoxy that will also dry clear. One such product that comes to mind is from HpH Models in the Czech Republic. You can of course use Cyano glue, but make sure it’s the odourless variety so it won’t cloud the clear plastic.






The constructional stuff here comes in two sheets of 3mm MDF and one sheet of 2mm timber, all nice and warp-free. On the MDF, you’ll find the false keel, bulkheads, inner and outer bow patterns, stern planking and securing patterns, and the ship’s stove flue. The timber sheet contains the lower deck pattern (constructional element), and stern frames (middle, inner, outer). Laser-cutting is nice and neat with almost no localised scorching. It wouldn’t really matter either way though as these parts will be either hidden or bevelled. 

Our second sleeve of parts are all laser-cut from timber, with no MDF. Here, we have a combination of 3mm, 1.5mm and 1mm sheet material, containing parts for absolutely everything else timber-related on Alert, from gun carriages, hatch coamings, keep parts, cap rails, transom rails, tiller arm, trestle trees etc. You name it, it’s here. There are a few parts on the 1mm sheet which are hanging by only a few tabs due to the relative fragility of the tabs on a thin sheet, but all parts are perfectly fine. This material isn’t too rigid either, so those parts that need to be curved, such as the transom, will do so without any problem whatsoever. 






 
Photo-etch

The inclusion of photo-etch in models these days is almost de rigueur, and Alert is no exception. Three frets are included in 0.2mm, 0,4mm, and 0.6mm bare brass, and all as good as any such material that I’ve used in any of my magazine and book work over the last 10yrs. As well as the obvious and intricate outer hull scrollwork embellishments, you’ll find metalwork here for the bowsprit and masting, cleats, windlass parts, stanchions, rudder gudgeon and pintle brace, eyebolt rings, deck grating, anchor ring, rigging components, and even a neat nameplate for the clear acrylic stand. All parts should be nice and easy to remove with them being held with thin, narrow tabs. A jeweller’s file will be needed to clean up any nibs remaining from the tabs. 










 
Instruction book

This is epic in size! Printed in colour on thick paper stock in A3 size, the manual us spiral-bound instead of just being stapled. This means it will be easy to turn pages over, and the size is good for the eyes for those of us of whose youth has long since slipped away. The manual is 56 pages and begins with a side and upper elevation drawing of Alert, followed by a history and building tips/suggested tools and materials list. A full inventory is then supplied, along with images of the various sheets and PE frets. As the timber elements aren’t numbered on the sheets, you are advised to number each yourself before removal from the sheet. 


 
 
Construction sequences are given in photographic form with crystal clear English explaining everything along the way. All illustrations are also clearly annotated where required. The photographs are interspersed with more drawings of the vessel in various profiles, clearly showing the task at hand. A good example of how comprehensive the instructions are is the inclusion of a deck plank showing the planking format and the shift between the planks.



 
When it comes to masting, drawings are supplied for this with accompanying dimensions and diameters. As I always find masting the most frustrating task, the drawings are a big help and clearly mark out the plan of attack. Excellent rigging illustrations are also supplied, showing everything clearly, including seizing, ratlines etc. A guide to exactly which rigging block to use is also provided. No guessing like on many of the legacy kits that got so many of us started in this hobby. As also mentioned, sail plans are supplied so you can make and add these from the cloth that’s provided.


 
Conclusion
What a great start to Chris’s new venture, Vanguard Models. He does keep telling me that he’s learnt so much from this that he will change in future releases, but he does sell himself short, dramatically. If you know of Chris’s work from his previous designs with Amati and Caldercraft, then you will know his own personal style comes through in attention to detail and design approach. This is a gorgeous kit that will present many hours of fulfilling bench time. Materials quality is what what we have come to expect from high-end kits. All in all, a fantastic package!

 

 
My sincere thanks to Chris Watton for getting this out so quickly for me to feature as a review here on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click this link at the top of the article.
 

 
 
 

Well....
 
This post is over three years overdue! Two new jobs, one house purchase and move, wedding and an early first baby. Quiet really....
 
I am taking the late shift on feeds whilst my wife gets to bed early. So while baby Edward is napping I have two hours to kill each night.  
 
Really struggling with space to build Hood until my workshop gets done so time to unpack the Snake build and get it finished off finally. 
 
Tonight is is going to be spent re-sorting all my bits and pieces and trying to find all the wood, dowels, styrene strips and tools that have been packed up. Small shopping list needed also!
 
Kitchen table is dual role!
 

Most welcome Sir Henry!
 

Now all 3 crows feet are up -- hard to see in this pic.
 
Regards,
David

All the stays are now up.  Some run close to the mast and shrouds so you have to look for them.
 
Regards,
David

The yard lifts are now up, so from here on to the final stage of rigging, then mounting & done.
 
Regards,
David

So here we were after adding a few more planks on both sides, making sure we were now fully with the program and the planks being added were fully aligned with the universe before moving to the next.
 
I've now reversed order and have the garboards in on both side and am planking downward from there.
 

 
Rick, had no issues with twist. What I adid was sweep upward those four final planks at the stern such that the garboard ones, if taken to the rudder post, would be two planking widths above the keel. That leaves stealers simple and at the bottom corner of the keel. I will do something similar with the final planking.
 
I just bent the planks sideways for my sweep, twist over that length doesn't take much force.
 
 
 
Finally had to move to concave tools to cleanup theses planking sections. I guess some people leave that entirely to the end, I cannot
 

 
And here we are fitting, gluing, and cleaning up the final plank on this side. 
 

 

 

 
By the way I really like that flat and concave Veritas detail palm planes for this. Almost perfect combo of small footprint and precision and control with it in your palm. Clicky to go see how unhappy your wife is going to be.
 

 
 
And here we are basic side view, which can best be called pedestrian.
 

 
On the other hand, I'm very pleased with the what is the real purpose, which is establishing the final shape of the hull and after careful work here I'm very pleased with the shapes and the symmetry. Almost perfect fair curves.
 
Fit into the rabbets all the way around also is good.
 

 

 
As mentioned lines look good.
 

 

 

 
Then last step for the evening was cleaning up the stern counter for the planking it needs prior to final hull planking. Since those ends were under considerable tension at gluing this was the one place I was using lots of glue and accelerator to set a good hold quickly. I shouldn't have, at least you should never do that however tempting on anything you'll have to fiddle with later.
 
So endgrain reinforced with gobs of glue... where is my rotary tool?
 

 
Then finalize with a good medium-sized file.
 

 
All done ready for planking.
 

 
That's going to help me get used to the boxwood, first place I plan to use it tomorrow is here on this nice simple straight planking area.
 
Then since he'd been on his head for a while I decided to let him sit on his feet overnight. Starting to look like a cutter.
 

 
 
 

To a modeler, the whole world is his tool.
 
Wait that didn't work.
 
To a modeler, the whole world is just a bunch of tools. 
 
Crap that's even worse.
 
The world is a tool and the tools of the world make... the modeler.... CUT! I'll come in again.

Finished the lower fore mast.  It's just dry-fitted in the picture.  Lots of detail and blocks to attach.
 
I really like this kit, but one thing I don't much like is the instruction to dye natural thread black when a small diameter thread is needed.  The reason given in the manual is that black thread gets brittle when glued, but there was plenty of it in the Revenge kit, which is a later Amati Victory series kit.  So I'm using the leftover thread from that kit when I need thin black.
 
Regards,
David

Finished the bowsprit and went ahead and did the bowsprit yards and mounted them.  The only rigging on the bowsprit so far is the yard lifts.
 
I thought the bowsprit was the most complicated block/deadeye assembly I have encountered so far in modeling.
 
I also included a shot of the full foremast, which I completed since my last post.
 
Regards,
David

All deck fittings and gunport doors now done.  Next step is masts, yards, and rigging.
 
Regards,
David

Deadeyes and chainplates installed on the channels.
 
Regards,
David

Update :
 
made a sequence I was a bit anxious for all the time, drilling the holes for the 14 gunports.....hoping that the hull planks would not fringe out...
Solution : I bought a 8 mm diam. hollow tube drill with diamond splitters around the cutting edge and used this with my electronic hand-drill at appr. 2000 rpm....
first I made a small jig to set the vertical centerline and to find the mid position between the bulwark supports. On the outside bulwark I fitted / clamped a bit of scrap ply, flush contact with the hull planks in that area. Sigh of relief , it went well, wonderfull sharpedged holes
On the battle side the guns have a few degrees over horizontal, with upward pionting barrel. On the non battle side there will be shield plugs inserted with lions head decore from the outside bulwark. Those guns will be retracted with barrels pointing upward and stropped, out of action, just below the upper bulwark rail.
 
Think that the smaller holes for sticking the sweeps through can also be made in this way for clean cuts....
 
Nils
 

just before cuttung the gunports into the bulwarks

 
 

the 8mm diamond splitter tipped hollow drill
 

the clamp holds the little jig on the inside as well as the ply counter-plate on the outside planks
 

 
 

battle side, the gunbarrel can be set to point ot horizontal and  sightly upwards
 

non battle side with closed gunports (here shown without the larger  decore rings). The plug shields are removeable
 

here gun retracted from action and barrel pionting upward
 
 
 
 
 

I have produced a video record of Caldercrafts HMS Granado comprising 47 individual films that run between 5 to 15 minutes. I hope you find them useful. This is the first. Once you tage follow ypu can access all the other videos.
 

 
There are also a set of three videos on how to build the display case. The first is
 

 
Finially there ar a few videos on Power tools

More the merrier But I've seen your build, the only ideas you're going to get from me are wood choices ;-)
 
So anyway I got to cut a planking rabbet for the first time this evening, and I have one side done and will finish the other tomorrow. Will go much quicker tomorrow; since I'd never done this and as you folks have seen I'm a heavily armed modeler with eleventy zillion tools, I briefly tried a series of options before I settled on what was a very good solution (for me),
 
However first, I've been looking at my Admiral Paints Ensign Red and thinking it's (on scale 0-255) hue is about 3, saturation is 255, value 255. In short about as absurdly bright as modern chemistry can make red paint and it simply is not conceivable to me that that's an accurate color. I posted a question about it over in the paints forum. will see what they say. In the meantime decided to try out their red ochre. Although it's probably too orange, it has a saturation and value much more in line with what I would expect from 18th century ship paints.
 
It's the fashion pieces we're talking about now, I'm about to add the upper bulwark strips that glue to the outer fashion pieces, so from here they just get more inaccessible and I decided I wanted to paint them now. First I hit them with a couple coats of a clear flat sanding sealer and smoothed down all the MDF fuzz.
 

 
Then gave it three thin coats of the Admiral red ochre.
 

 
I just wish the hue was a less orange.
 
Marking rabbet. Notice my stem piece glue line was really not good on this side, not sure how but at least it's straight. Very disappointed with that, may have to fix it.
 

 

 
As noted tried a few tools briefly but closed in on this- a small square end mill in my Nakanishi turning at 40k RPM to rough out and just one riffler file to finish. I'm not sure I would try this with a Dremel, way too bulky and heavy with way more runout and vibration. Also this is a good quality and relatively new end mill, so there's almost no resistance from the wood allowing a very light touch.
 
Only trick here is having the end mill be orthogonal to the end of the frame to cut the right angle and smoothly transition between those angles along the run. I did not come anywhere close to trying to cut it in one pass, this was very light touch slowly working down with lots of shallow passes, I find this rotary tool easy to control but it's a rotary tool which means you still can completely screw up your work in zero seconds flat so slow and careful is the watchword.
 

 

 
This is what the stern looked like after the rotary tool work.
 

 
And this particular riffler file is perfect for this application. I wish I could point you to the set I have but Otto Frei has changed the Gardon-Vallorbe riffler set they carry and the choices are a bit different. My set's made by GV and was about the same expense and I will growl at you if you get close to them.
 

 

 
Still not perfectly straight but well within limits for first planking and I know I can make the second perfectly straight with just a bit more work.
 

 

 
Remember the plan is separate rabbets for each planking layer due to thin keel and thick planking, that's why the rabbet at the stern ends well short of the rudder post.

I figured out that it meant .6mm. No idea how, but I did.
 
Anyway that stem piece took way longer than I thought it would, but it's done. And for some reason took lots of photos so you get to see every step.
 
First I said in the previous update that I'd used lots of filler to get a reasonable shape at the stern, but forgot to show what I mean - as you see for me at least, the edges of that bulkhead were completely covered and as I said that bulkhead needs to be at least 1/8" talleer for it to be correctly faired where planks would touch the entire edge.
 

 
And another miscellaneous thing, this stuff is great. Advertised as the product the British Museum uses to preserve its collection. I use it constantly. It's what I use on all my tools, both handles and to preserve the steel and for plane bottoms. I've also used it over wood finishes or as the only finish on wood and I always like the results.
 
Unlike most paste waxes it has no silicone so you can use it in your wood shop without silicone contamination screwing up every finish you do for the rest of your life.
 

 
Ok so the little walnut bit is what we need to replace along with another piece going where the mitre-looking edge is, so I grabbed one of the other cocobolo strips I planed down other day.
 

 
I cut a piece from that strip long enough to make the all of the pieces I need. Here is another reason it's good to have sharp full-sized planes around, they make it trivial and quick to get a perfectly square and straight and clean edge.
 

 

 
First two pieces, marked to get drilled for carbon fiber pins.
 

 
Before I could glue them together though, had to drill the five holes (thanks for pointing that out Rick) holes for the deadeye connected to the forestay. I then took a 90 degree stone-setting bur and beveled the holes as I assume the real ones were, no way they'd run an important standing rigging element over a sharp corner. I just held the bur in my hands, it's a good quality jeweler's bur so it's sharp and just a little pressure and a few spins is enough.
 

 
Now with 500% more holes.
 

 
Glued.
 

 
Unfortunately we have a problem, wood blew out between upper right two holes on this side. Which is annoying since it was drilled with another cocobolo piece backing it. Have to fix it, too obvious.
 

 
Step 1 curl a little shaving up off another piece.
 

 
Cut it off, grab our fine tweezers with the carbon coating that makes them very grippy.
 

 
Use tweezers to place on glue and hold down.
 

 
Sand down, all fixed.
 

 
Here I've made the third piece and am test fitting it with the upper bulkhead strip that has to fit into this piece. You can see I have to trim the inside a bit, groove still not wide enough.
 

 
Once that was fit, put my CF pins in and glued and cleaned up the third piece.
 

 
Now we have to fit this to the ship and the stem ending that is at an angle, marking for the rough cut.
 

 
We have a good fit. The big gap between it and hull is intentional, it was easier to make it this way and glue a piece on than trying to cut a big notch in a cocobolo piece.
 

 
After I added the little extra piece I needed, I flushed it with the other piece on the disc sander.
 

 
Fit looks good now.
 

 
Test fit with bulkhead strip.
 

 
And now glued and cleaned up.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Tony. I've never bought ship fittings but it seems a real crapshoot considering the fairly random number of sizes offered by any manufacturer vs what size they should be considering the plethora of ship scales from manufacturers. I did find these guys making bronze thimbles that look pretty realistic but I haven't figured out what size mine should be yet. 
 
I did figure out a way to make them, though, but the basic requirement is telescoping tube. If you can get tubes small enough you cut the thimble-sized one in half lengthwise, giving you a nice long c shape. Make a thimble-opening shape to wrap it around, and wrap it on that form with open side out, using the telescope-fitting rod to make the bend and prevent the c shape from collapsing. 
 
Thanks for the compliments Pat, I try
 
Only a couple photos, as noted not feeling well and all I managed was gluing on the keel and sanding it down. And I only remembered to take a couple pics.
 
As I mentioned, I already broke off the kit top piece, not good kit engineering; no matter which way you point the grain that piece is going to be very weak made out of one piece like they do. So I will make a replacement in three pieces and I have to take a look at the upper bulkhead planking strip fit before I decide what order I'm going to put them on.
 
Here it has its pins added. Normally for something like this they'd be twice this long, but being at a 90 degree angle to each other meant they had to be very short to get them in the holes on the ship without snapping the stem.
 

 
Because of my pins and the fitting work, as I hoped I could just CA on the pieces with no clamps, starting with the sternpost and then the keel itself. Only mild complication was the stem where I needed a little help to ensure straightness so I clamped a piece of brass on the keel that was nice and straight to give me a reference line when hand-clamping the stem.
 

 
And there they are all glued on and ready for level sanding.
 

 
And we could do the final profile also, here it's being checked against the little piece of balsa I was using as a template. For those less experienced making stuff, it generally makes more sense to make your template out of something harder than your work as you can clamp it in place then sand your work quickly down to that. But I knew I was very close already in this case so I made my template out of something quick, if I'd had card stock within reach I'd have used that.
 

 
And now all level-sanded on both sides and profile done, time to attach deck.
 

 
As for the little carbon fiber rod sticking out of the keel, the sun was in my eyes, the check is in the mail, the guy was already dead when I got there, I DIDN'T DO IT