Jackson7

With intense amounts of effort, I replaced the windows that came with the original Greyhound. All it took was creating some faux stained glass from a plastic kit, dripping super glue onto it, and cutting out tiny pieces of scrap wood to make the window panes. If anyone else plans to do something like this, I would HIGHLY recommend doing so before putting on the poop deck. Trying to move the wood into place with an X-Acto knife blade tip was extremely difficult. The result isn't absolutely perfect, but it was good practice for the more visible sections and looks right from a distance. For the next ten days, I will be taking a hiatus from the Greyhound and going on a vacation. That said, the time has come for me to break with the instruction manual. When I come back, I won't start on the deck. Instead, I'll finish all planking on the outside of the ship, then put a coat of some sort of wood oil over the whole thing. Then, I'll paint the inner deck rails and gun ports red. After that, I'll get the deck done. I plan to soak the planks in vinegar when the time comes to give them a weathered look. Finally, I'll give the deck a coat of protective oil. This strategy will ensure I don't get any pesky red paint where it shouldn't be, and I will keep the complications to a minimum while putting on wood oil. As always, if somebody has any suggestions to make this plan work better, I'd be glad to hear them.

One more day on the clown show that is the Corel Greyhound... But on this ship of fools, I am most definitely captain. Someone who worked at Corel decided to have the brilliant idea of curving the back deck of a ship that will have a flat transom. I didn't think too carefully about this special decision during previous steps. It somehow never crossed my mind. Yesterday, I realized this problem existed and fixed it with razor blade and sanding file. To do so, I had to remove the pieces that will support the transom. Thankfully, this was just in time for replacing the windows on the doors to the stern cabin. The glass dye looks great. If the blue on them seems aggressively dark, it's simply because it's reflecting the sea. The window grille will come later.

At last! Phase 3 of the Greyhound is complete. Before I move on to next steps, I need to glue new glass to the doors under the poop deck. The old paper fell off... And to be honest, it was kinda garbage anyway. I bought some fake stained glass to substitute, and early experiments have gone well. I'll make window panes by gluing some scrap wood slivers over the windows.

Thanks, much appreciated! She definitely is getting there. Greyhound is definitely a monster, and as a first-timer I think my strategy has become "measure as best I can, then sand until it looks good despite its flaws. But so far, this strategy seems to be working very well. As of tonight, I have one plank left on the inside. I've boiled it and bent it, and I plan to put it on tomorrow.

Success! Both the port and starboard side are fully done, and I'm working on the last two planks on the curved section of the bow. I have enough planks to finish covering everything on the deck and still have a spare. It was close, but all is well.

I've been busy lately. But progress continues. Two more planks to go and trimming on the starboard side. Then, I have whatever scraps are left over to plank over the inside of the bow and stern. Judging from current measurements, I'll have enough. I hope I'm right.

Hahaha, yes! While my family was in town, I asked them all to contribute to the project by each drawing or writing something on the false deck. Mom did a chicken because she has a longstanding appreciation for them. It's not like it'll spoil the look of the model

That went faster than expected. I just finished planking the inner port side. With no need for beveling, soaking, or much else for these planks, they went on very quickly. The one hard part was patching small gaps between the gun ports and the bottom plank. I still need to use an X-Acto knife to trim the gunports. But all these things are far simpler than planking the hull.

Frames removed and all sanded. Now for the hard part...

Life has been busy and progress has been slow. I covered the bow and stern with perpendicular planks for structural strength and aesthetic quality. Next step is to shave all the unnecessary frames and plank the inside rail.

When I tried to fix the first planking with patching and sanding, it was extremely difficult. But this one took just a couple hours. First, I stuck small chips of wood into the widest gaps in the second layer. After that, I rubbed sawdust mixed with glue into the smaller cracks in the hull. After that, I waited for the glue to dry. Finally, I ran over the hull with sandpaper, going from 80 grit to 400 grit. Here's the result. I think now that it's enought to look smooth, but not so much that the planks lose their individuality. However, in the course of the work I may have worsened a problem. The knee of the head is very mildly damaged, and I glued it a while ago to hold it steady. While sanding, I bumped it again and felt it bend a tiny bit. This problem gives me two options. The first is to plank over it with the veneer and hope the glue and additional structure will prove to be enough. The second is to buy more wood, then try to use an X-Acto knife or something to cut it to shape. I'll have to think about it...

Hey there, good luck on the Greyhound. As someone who started doing it as my first build, I understand just how challenging it can be. From what you've done so far, it seems like you have a far better handle on it than I do. If you have any questions, I'll try to be helpful.

Great build! I'm drawing inspiration from you for my own Greyhound.

It's official. I'm now done with the outer planking entirely. The next step is patching cracks and sanding the hull below the gunwale. For this task, I've saved a bunch of shavings and sawdust from the last several steps. If I can go through and patch the worst cracks, a final sanding should make these problems hardly noticeable.

Putting on the last two planks went better than expected. I trimmed the plank above them on the hull to shape until they fit smoothly, then attached them with glue and held them in place by hand for about 20 minutes. In the end, the bending did most of the work. Here are the pics. I still need to attach some walnut planks on the upper hull to go over the lime wood from the first planking. I'm bending the bow plank to shape right now, and the stern ones should be far easier than the hull planks. After that, I'll sand and cut at the worst parts of the hull until they look a bit more even.