gsdpic

Well the extra spare time I was hoping for did not really come to be, at least not as much as I had hoped. But I will say the "Texas Penguin" was a hit with the recipient. I've continued with the planking. I now have 9 planks on each side (not counting the garboard and broad strakes) with six more to go. The planks are requiring a fair amount of edge bending right in the middle of the hull, leading to more clinkering. I think I have some wider basswood around and might try spiling a few planks instead of edge bending the kit supplied strips.

Maybe you could consider staining the deck a bit darker to reduce the contrast? But it does not look that sloppy to me, and I think a lot of the deck will be hidden in the end.

Yay the Carrera GT is back and looking great in that yellow paint! There's something about that enamel yellow paint that just makes the body look more like metal instead of plastic. And interesting to note that one bottle was not quite enough for the 1/12th scale car. That might be useful info in the future, for example when I paint that MFH 1960 Corvette kit that I just ordered.

Wow definitely tight confines for the engine and exhausts. Interesting how the exhaust for the rear most cylinders actually goes forward before curving back.

Glad you got the subdeck applied, and the painting looks good. As mentioned, I have this in my stash. If you can't find the instructions, I can probably scan them in and send the files to you.

Thanks for the call out. Those interested can see the gallery of my build by following the link in my signature. I did not do a build log. Mine was something I ordered off the web during the pandemic and the color choices mostly came down to what rattle can paint I had on hand. It was something a little different to build but came together well and fairly quickly. As I recall, I just spent a few weekends working on it.

Looks like you are pretty well along in this build. There is (at least) one other build log of this kit here, by @Greg Davis. It is a bit hard to tell but it looks like he glued the control wheel to the inside of the frame instead of over the frame. Look at post 100 on page 4.

Are you attempting to upload an apple HEIC file? In the past, it was possible to upload those files but the forum software would not display them. But it seems like some time recently it changed so that the upload was blocked with "error 200". I've not experienced this but it came up in another build log I follow. You need to either convert the pictures from HEIC to JPG or change the setting on the phone to take JPG to begin with (the setting is something about using most compatible picture format).

Thanks Glen. I guessed you'd like it, given your soft spot for penguins appearing in build logs! And yea, it is just two pictures of one penguin, not two penguins. It is destined to be a birthday gift for a dear friend who is a fan of penguins and who is in the process of moving away from Texas. Your comment helps reassure me that she will like it. I'll find out in about a week.

And again, a bit more progress. I now have those 8 planks that I tapered attached to the hull, four on each side. So I now have done a total of 6 planks on each side (not counting the garboard and broad strakes) with 9 more to go. I re-evaluated the tapering and things still look mostly on track, though I might need to taper slightly more than I have been from the last bulkhead to the transom. Also, from the stem, the space remaining on the starboard side is ever so slightly greater than on the port side so I need to compensate for that as well. I have not been doing any soaking or steaming of the planks, though I have been using a heat gun/hair dryer to apply a little bit of edge bend to the front 6 inches or so of each plank. A few planks, especially on the starboard side, still have a fair amount of "clinkering". I hope I am not depending too much on filler and sanding to get a smooth hull, we'll see. Here's what it looks like now. Obviously I will clean up the junction of the planks with the transom, maybe put on some sort of "fashion piece" to hide the end grain. That's it for the update on the sloop, though I mentioned another project. I am quickly approaching a milestone, the second anniversary of my retirement. If, like me, you watch too many youtube videos about retirement leading up to that milestone, you will surely hear the phrase "retire to something, not from something" as well as the related idea that the "to something" might be many different somethings that you want to try out to see if you have a passion or aptitude for that something. Anyway, for me, one of those somethings is wood carving. It is not clear yet if I have passion or aptitude for it, but I've now completed 5 or 6 carvings, mostly little dogs or birds. Below is the latest example. Most people realize that Texas is a vast and varied landscape, with many, many different geologic features and climate regions. However, most people, including most Texans, do not realize that out in the vast, sparsely populated areas of west Texas, there are.......penguins! Yes, that's right. Below is my depiction of the extremely rare Texas penguin. And yes, just like with ship modeling, the macro photography and bright lights reveal some places that need a bit of touch up, sigh. I also realize now there is no indication of scale here....he's about 3 inches tall.

Yes, some, if not all of the AL kits have all the documentation on a CD. You should also be able to download it from their web site. Go to the main page of MSW, to the list of sponsors, including AL. Click on their logo to go to their site then search for your kit and look for a link to instructions, which should also include a list of parts. When I built an AL kit (the sopwith camel) I copied the instructions to an iPad and used that to look at them while building. It was still a bit awkward, always fearing that I had glue or paint on my finger before touching the iPad, but I can certainly understand why they do it. Good luck with the build.

Nice start, I'll follow along. I have this kit in my stash. I was inspired and very impressed by @Katsumoto's heavily bashed build of this kit and knew I wanted to try it some day. Then late last year I realized that this kit was no longer shown on OcCre's web site, as if it had been discontinued. But I found that Ages of Sail still had it in stock so I bought one for the stash. Not sure when I will attempt it. As for the deck, maybe it would work to first just glue and nail down the center line of the deck along the spine. Then once that glue dries, work from the center out to the edges. I know you said you tried something similar but you did not mention any glue or letting it dry. Putting nails into the edge of plywood is not the most secure way of fastening something, as you found out when you tried to bend the edges down.

Wow, very neat and tidy results, especially for a first boat, though I presume you may have other modeling experience. Hope to see you take on and document something more challenging. Any plans for what's next?

Ok, time for my weekly "I got a little bit done" post. I've actually been working on a separate project involving wood and am nearing completion on that. Perhaps I'll show it here when done. And in another week or so I should have more free time for about two weeks. So, I hope that progress speeds up at least for a little while. I am still a bit puzzled by the tapering of the planks. As mentioned the instructions give some measurements to use for tapering but as far as I can see, the table does not indicate which end of the plank is for the bow and which is for the stern. I can guess, but am not certain. I also measured the bulkheads myself to get an idea of the tapering but with so few reference points/so few bulkheads, it leaves a lot of uncertainty, especially regarding the amount of taper between the stem and first bulkhead or between the last bulkhead and the transom. So, I've mostly just decided to wing it. One other note.....the kit provides a thicker basswood transom piece and a thinner mahogany transom piece, both laser cut to the same size. If I were doing this kit again, I'd cut about 3/32" off of the sides and bottom of the basswood piece and then mount the mahogany piece on it, leaving a bit of an overhang to butt the planks up against. Ok, so the bit of progress....first, a picture of tapering the planks. I just clamped together 8 planks then used a small plane to shave off some of the edge on both ends of the planks. The planks start out at one quarter inch wide and by my measurements need to be about 0.2" wide or slightly less at the ends. The next picture showing that I've attached the two full width planks below the sheer and one tapered plank on one side of the boat. I'll keep alternating from side to side with these 8 tapered planks and then reassess where I am at with the tapering requirements before tapering another batch of planks.

Look for photography "CTO filter film" or "CTO filter gel". CTO is (I think) color temperature orange. You can get it in varying strengths (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, full, etc) to adjust how much affect it has. In photography, it is used to warm up the light from flashes and strobes. Here's an example from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Transparent-Photography-Colored-Flashlight/dp/B0DB8CV8MY/ref=sr_1_10?crid=1TLZ9JT93EEHP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x0wTrENnH-2vuwJlVYDhS-un3odqtXIV6wNY_PGochC0diU2uC8BKnx_arZWnWG9Q91MmggcYRwC9q_pKqp4Ad3slkOlV8g8u32aGBXO9q0MKtS2QS1bMHQs0usGxOFc4RIUbNlxfZAzGvZ_BXFNmdHZ2UfMJgiFAMIWmkepIQPgfhQIJ0tqkA2XvGO4yAW1U2Fu7H6OHAmA0V1TkvZa4krowKNwvpIgb2xiT-t_6io.K5-wDVyk_QTNtgA3r_Y61cJ0wnFNE2dasjN-ShlLgWA&dib_tag=se&keywords=cto+filter+film&qid=1740919732&sprefix=cto+filter+film%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-10