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Thanks for looking in everyone. Yes, Greg, those fashion pieces gave me fits. As I recall, I made them four times. Hopefully the starboard side won't take as long!

I have finally finished installing the rivets on the port side. As these would have been hand forged, I used square copper wire fit into a size 77 hole. After all the wires were inserted, the hull looked like a porcupine on a bad hair day. In the photos, I have started to flatten the heads using a flat file and rotary sanding disc on the Dremel. Once all the heads were flattened, I finished up with 400 grit sandpaper. Once the sanding and filing was completed, I put a coat of Watco's on the finished side. After both sides are completed I will add a second coat and then paint the wale. Over time, as the pear darkens, there will be more of a contrast between the castello above the wale and the hull below.

Bite your tongue, JD. Maybe next time. 🤔

Oh, we are all a little nuts.

It is wonderful hearing from you. Sorry to hear of your real life problems. Wishing you the best in 2021. Hopefully you will be able to resume Kingfisher soon.

It has been a while since the last post. Putting all the bolts in the planks is a right royal pain in the you-know-where. At this point I am half-way through one side. Once the side is done, I will put up some photos.

It isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last! 😁 Seriously, Stephen, I am more than happy to answer any questions about the half-hull kit. Let me also encourage you to join the Guild. The quarterly Journal is a good source of modeling information as well as maritime history. And as Ryland says, members receive a discount on all the products in the store. But the Guild is much more than that. It is an organization comprised of like-minded individuals who want to promote and enhance our hobby of model ship building.

Take a look at this post to show you how to set up a build log, Richard.

Richard, where is your build log?

Bob, I never said boiling. I said low heat. It heats the saucepan and the water adds weight to prevent tipping. Back when I was a teenager I used a curling iron all the time...on my hair. Got burnt more times than I care to remember. But we all have our unique techniques.

Might I suggest various diameter sauce pans instead of the rolling pin. It is much easier to secure the plank to the rim of the sauce pan with clamps or bull-dog clips than to a solid surface, such as the rolling pin. This works well for me. 1. Secure the end of the plank to the rim of the sauce pan. 2. Put a few inches of water into the pan and put the pan on low heat (this will warm the plank without much risk of getting burnt). 3. Gently bend the plank around the pan with one hand while using a hair dryer in the other hand to supply more heat and airflow. 4. Overbend the plank to compensate for springback. 5 Once you are happy with the curve, clamp the other end of the plank to the pan, turn off the heat and come back when it is completely cool. Whenever you are trying to bend a strip of wood, test bend it first to see which direction it is "happier" bending. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of splintered wood.

Your water stain is probably a glue stain. If so, it has most likely soaked into the wood. Why do you heat the plank after gluing? Is it possible to remove that plank without damaging the surrounding planks? If you used white or yellow glue, isopropyl alcohol will dissolve the glue securing the planks to allow you to remove and replace them.

May I also suggest you take a look at the other Swan class builds. Putting spacers between the toptimbers made the hull quite solid. In particular, check out Dan Vada's Fly.

Dan, never worry about pointing out an error. The drawing in Goodwin's Alert is wrong...no confusion there. Thanks for the reference. I will try and get a copy.

That is part of the beauty of this craft (no pun intended). There is always something more to learn. My only regret is that the incorrect information will still be out there for someone else to take at face value.

Lesson learned, sir.

Thanks for the article, Greg. He obviously did not follow Goodwin's drawing. Happily, I only had four rows completed. They are gone now. I used so little CA to apply them that with some sanding, no glue marks have been left behind.

Thanks, Kurt. I will ask Coleman at the meeting tomorrow night.

That was really bad, druxey. I guess that I should not have relied on just one source. I have not found any other sources that confirm Goodwin's approach. Thank you, Dan for bringing this to my attention. In a way this is a blessing. Those little copper circles are a pain to install. I just hope I can remove them (and the adhesive) without causing any damge. To say that I am not in the mood to replank the upper four rows would be an understatement.

Great work, Ben.

So what I am doing is wrong, if I understand this correctly. There would only be a square copper head visible on the outside of the hull? Is Goodwin incorrect in his depiction of interior and exterior roves or was that technique specific to Alert?

Druxey, then what is on the outside? I have drawings showing roves both under the bolt head and internally, where the bolt is clenched.

Greg, the bolt is only 0.5 mm (scale 1") in diameter and the rove is 1.25 mm, so their rivets would be significantly oversized. I will definitely try not to achieve step 6. But if I act strangely at the Annual Meeting, you will know why.

All of the holes for the bolts have been drilled. I then gave the hull a final sanding with 400 grit. Time to start the process of installing the bolts and roves. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, think of a rove as a washer, preventing the bolt head from digging into the planking. The process (so far) is as follows: 1. make the roves, 2. attach the roves, 3. sand the roves, 4. insert the bolts 5. file the bolts 6. go batty from doing this several thousand times. 1. I tried several different types and thickness of copper to make the roves, including self-adhesive copper designed for printed circuit boards. The self-adhesive copper worked perfectly until, on a trial piece, the adhesive failed with application of the finish. It might have worked with acrylic finish but I have never used one that I liked. So I decided upon 0.002" copper sheeting for the roves and 16 gauge copper wire for the bolts. This fits snugly in a #77 drill bit hole. All my holes were drilled with resharpened carbide drill bits. You need a steady hand because any twisting will cause them to break but they drill a consistently sized hole. I get mine at Drill Bit City. They run about $1 apiece. The roves are made with a 1.25 mm hole punched typically used in the jewelry industry. Mine were purchased at Rio Grande. https://www.riogrande.com/product/swanstrom-1-25mm-hole-punching-pliers/111785 2. I tried various adhesives to attach the roves. Medium viscosity CA worked the best for me. To prevent bleed onto the wood, I dip the back of the rove onto a drop of CA and then wick the excess off on a piece of paper before applying it onto the hull. Once they have dried, I pierce the rove for insertion of the bolt. 3. Next, I use 400 grit sandpaper to gently sand over the roves. This smooths out their appearance and lets me know which ones were not securely attached. The first picture is before sanding and the second is after. 4. I hardened the copper wire by stretching it and then inserted it into the hole. The fit is tight and only a few holes needed supplementary adhesive, in this case PVA glue. 5. Even though I used a side cutter, the end of the bolt needed to be filed flat. In the following picture, one can see all of the steps. From left to right, sanded roves, bolts, filed bolts and unsanded roves. The effect of filing is subtle in the photo but is more obvious in real life. 6. What you see here took three hours. So if you don't hear from me for the next month, you will know why.

Sorry to hear about the accident, Stuglo. The idea of even owning a full sized table saw scares me. I also opted for a band saw to slice sheets off my billets. A lot of wood gets wasted because of the tooth marks but I still have all of my fingers.