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It looks superb! The upper deck is where I really applied the plank fan. Much more fanning needed there...But it doesn't look like you can do anything wrong!

Hi Maurice That old penny colour can be naturally achieved...It's holding strong on my Fly and has improved further with age. (Must get back to it - finish that ship). Your Harpy and the copper is looking very good.

Hello Francois It is great to see another trabaccolo underway! I have been absent from my work on this for months; family, work, travel and, more recently, a leg injury (broken kneecap) which makes it very hard to get down my steps into my building place. I'm a bit ahead of you but not by much. As you say, the interior planking is a real challenge when working between the frames. Yours looks very clean, cleaner than mine. I was a bit more casual as so little of it will ever be seen. When my kneecap is better, I will get downstairs and get on with it. It is a great subject, a stunning kit and Marisstella's support is fantastic.

Stunning work Cisco! This is turning into the bench mark for an unpainted AVS. My route, painted, was an easier way, but yours will turn into a much more admirable outcome!

The biggest mistake that I sense with breeching ropes in models is enough slack in them to let the recoil position to allow for reloading. The movie, Master & Commander, shows it. You can't reload if the barrel is still sticking out of the port. Where the bolts are is less relevant IMO. An overly tight rope is a worse mistake!

No stains. The planking for the upper deck is matai - a New Zealand native species of red pine. I used a veneer sample to do it. Super thin. I think it is nice to distinguish this element. The main deck is holly I think? (I can't remember). The rest is straight out of the box. The main deck, which once looked white, has turned yellow/brown over time and looks better for it. Everything was just clear finished.

Agree with CiscoH. The deck needs to be an arch for the stern plus the finishing planking layer. Don't mean to hijack but you kind of want it to look like this in terms of shape:

It really is such an extraordinary kit! I'm feeling very tempted to try but will finish what I have on the bench first.

Those windows look very good to me! So much better than my effort with the kit supplied ones and even the wonkiness of my effort doesn't bother me anymore.

I'm just a scalpel - number 11 blade - and sandpaper guy. Hasn't let me down on six hulls to date.

On the topic of work lights. I have a Hadrill Horstmann Pluslite English industrial angle poise from the 1940s. It was for reading maps so has a foldout magnifying glass. It is endlessly adjustable and perfectly counterweighted. The multiple arms are chrome plated. If you can find one, I highly recommend but they are very rare. They are beautiful to look at in their own right.

I'd like to see you finish it Ryland! I actually enjoyed the next phase - masts and rigging - much more than I expected. Now it is gathering dust in our dining room - I clean it every year and I still get a kick out of looking at it.

I recall all of these issues. It's the nature of the thing. Keep going and it'll iron itself out in the end.

Wow. I'd never really thought about CAF until I saw this. It looks like an incredible kit. Will be following!

Thanks. Didn't mean to hijack this topic but it all pertains.

On a similar matter...if I was a 19th century cargo ship carrying barrels as cargo would I carry barrels vertically in the hold or lie them on their sides? I'm building a trabaccolo and want to populate the hold with a cargo of barrels.

Great to see you back at TEV Wahine. I'll never forget the day when I saw this ship lying side down off of Fort Dorset. It terrified me. Then I'd steam past it on other inter-island ships as it crumbled. They took years to clear it. Terrific to see that it might float again!

I'm an architect by trade. I have always loved drawing and model making. I have made many models of buildings that I designed both in physical form and on the computer. It allows me to to test the aesthetics of what I am designing. Computer modelling is now very sophisticated with programmes like Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, Enscape and SketchUp and physical modelling has been supplanted by 3D printing. So the use of the hands in architecture is now confined to a keyboard. Having started and spent the majority of my career on a drawing board with a pencil, I miss the physicality of drawing and building cardboard models but marvel at what we can achieve on the computer. I made plastic models when I was a kid. Took a break in my teenage years and returned to it in my twenties. Since then (I'm now in my sixties) I have always had a model on the go be it a building, a plane or a ship. I'm always driven by the aesthetic of the subject. So for a while it was the crazy racing planes of inter-war years and then the equally crazy planes of WWI. I also enjoy researching the history of the things I make. Wooden ships have the most appealing aesthetic for me. They are, unlike my architecture, curved and flowing. They are imbued with history and become beautiful objects in miniature. Why do I make physical models? Mostly for meditation, partly for using my hands on something other than a keyboard, partly for learning the history of the subject and finally for the challenge of assembly. I can't say I completely prefer wood over plastic but I certainly like the greater sense of challenge in turning a bundle of wooden strips into an object that curves and flows. I also prefer the smell of wood! It is the making more than the outcome that drives me to keep modelling but I do like the object that is created and knowing it came from my hands.

I'll keep an eye on this too! I did two of these kits - you can see them in my HMS Fly log - and they are very good as is VM's support. Fiddly but perfectly doable with care. They are very fragile at certain stages of the build.

Hi Can't figure out how I missed this log! A wonderful looking build and I like your alternative colour scheme. One day I'll get back into my HMS Fly but I am diverted to a Trabaccola - a very different subject - at the moment.

One of the unusual aspects of the kit is lining the interior. This is well in hand - torture for planking strips - and access between the frames to sand and correct is really tricky. Almost all of this won't be able to be even seen. You wonder why you bother - but you do don't you? Loving this kit!!!

That makes my search skills look pretty bad...😶 Found some at my local hardware store. Brush on and not wipe on but I'll give it try. Thanks!

That is really impressive! Especially when we see your thumb and realise how small these windows are. The alignment of the outer windows with the stern was also my problem - the kit supplied windows that go there end up looking crooked. I didn't try to fix that but it remains a vague irritation every time I look at the bum of my AVS.

Hello Miniwax Wipe on water based Poly is a favourite here on MSW. You can not get it in New Zealand for reasons I don't understand. You can get oil based Miniwax products here but not water based - I can't figure that out. Is there anyone who is willing to assist me by selling and shipping to me - at my cost of course - this product? Thanks.

I actually really enjoyed making your wooden ship boats. It was a challenge that I relished. Until one of them gets hoisted onto HMS Fly, they are now casually displayed little models and undisputedly made of wood - except for the brass bits...which are painted to look like wood. That said, if I had to make another one I'd go for a 3D print - they look fantastic!