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Thank you Sjors. I hope your extra hours are winding down soon. We always enjoyed the extra money when working extended hours but always happy when it ends. Thanks for the details John. Seeing the pictures made me move seeing her in person a higher priority on my wish list.

John, I just reviewed your pictures again as well as your notes. You mentioned the ship was a reproduction. Do you know if they used any of the recovered timbers from the original ship in the rebuild?

Good morning John, I've never seen a 3" rope other than pictures, I bet it's heavy to handle. I do not recall seeing anything in the Niagara kit but between Morope and Chucks rope I'm sure I'll find something suitable. I recall seeing some rope wrapped around wire somewhere which may work well but I'll need to review my notes to find it again. 3 inches is 0.046" dia. at scale - I just looked and seen that Chuck has 0.045. Hello Edwin, thank you!!! It's turning out ok for a second build. I'm pretty satisfied with her but like most builders I can name every single error that most people would not even see

Thanks for the rope size info. I would have guessed incorrectly and missed by a mile. The black anchor rope looks much bigger than 3"...

John, I'll take a close look at all of the photos and save many of them to my iPad so I can reference them at the workbench. I'm sure they will be a great help. An initial quick look shows the anchor rope detail is what I needed. George, thanks for the compliment and for following my build.

Since my last update, I've made the following items; Captains Quarters, Companionway, Salon Skylight and Bilge pump. All four items are sitting loose on the deck, close to where they will be mounted, except for the bilge pump. The pump has a wire sticking out of the bottom and I have yet to locate and drill the hole, so for the photos below it's sitting over a mast hole. This is the first time I sat the pump on the deck and it looks a bit too large for the scale, but I'll ck it out closer before mounting it, I hope it correct... I tried the "typical corner joints" for the cabins as detailed by the drawings but the scale, soft basswood and my skill level simply did not work well for this type of detail, so I simply made alternating butt joints for all three cabins. I found black 0.010 mono-filament cord to use for the window bars and I used the clear plastic from a DVD case for the glass. I'll probably hold off mounting the above until I finish the gun coils and gun jack-screws so I have plenty of room to access the gun area. Fife Rails are next on the list, along with the stern davits and catheads. I'm really procrastinating on making the jack-screws due to their being so darn small and such a pia to make, but it WILL happen, just not sure when...

Good morning John. Your a good friend to take so much time taking and posting pictures - thank you! I'm anxious to see them. I have no doubt you would produce an excellent Niagara if you decided to build her. The biggest obstacles for me was the scale being so small and the issues with basswood. Both of these items will help drive my decision on my next build selection. When time has permitted, I've been working on the deck structures. I've just completed the three small cabins and water pump but still need to mount them. I'll look them over one more time before I glue them to the deck and take pictures for an update. Enjoy your trip and be safe!

Great picture John! Thanks for sharing.

Hi John, Thanks for the offer. I would love to see a few photos showing how the anchor rope is routed and stowed. Now if you can just convince them to lower and raise the anchor while you take pictures.... Again, I really appreciate your offer to take pictures. Seeing the Niagara in person is on my to-do list.

Mark, Thank you for providing a detailed and articulate review.

Hi John Sorry to hear about your BIL health issue but happy to hear he is doing better. Enjoy the rest of your journey and be safe.

Thanks Adam! I like the results I get with the airbrush over the hand brush. I just do not have the patience others have for lots of thin hand painted coats

Have a safe trip and enjoy the fishing!

Hi JCT, Welcome to the Niagara club. Looks like your off to a good start. The hull hole cleaned up well. I stopped keeping track of my errors :)

Thanks Popeye! I'm getting close to going vertical.

Thanks George!

She looks great Augie. I also thought the wheels were wood and they looked good!

Thank you Edwin! It's been an enjoyable build.

It's been a while since I posted any progress and I planned on having more work complete before doing so but now seemed like a good time. I have to clean up the shipyard to set my reloading equip back up to help out a friend so I'll take a short break from the Niagara build. Since my last post with pictures I've completed the following: All twenty guns assembled and mounted to the deck​ Rigging blocks and tackle attached to the guns but rope coils need added to nineteen and jack-screws are needed for seventeen.​ The tiller rigging has been added. My tiller angle is too low, but I may just leave it as is. I also plan on adding rope coils for the tiller, positioned aft of the most aft guns. I installed the starboard and port pin rails plus belaying pins and if you look close you can see the tension rods under each pin rail. The stove smokestack has been assembled and still needs some clean up from painting. I did not like smokestack provided with the kit, so I made this up up using brass, wood, tape and styrene, plus CA glue to simulate fastener heads on the plate surface. As she now sits. Need to add rope coils and maybe raise height of tiller handle You have to look close to see the rail pin tension rods. I used 0.017" dia wire. I wanted to use smaller to scale it better but could not find any locally. Sitting loose over a mast hole due to dowel sticking out of the button Bashed (with primer) next to OEM provided smokestack Sitting loose over the mount hole My painting is pretty bad. should have used the air-brush.

Ken, you stole my idea on the stack :) but I doubt my effort will look as nice. Your build looks great!

She is a masterpiece Popeye!

Augie, she can certainly be defined as eye candy...

Hi Popeye, I'm trying to catch up with your build. My first statement is WOW, I'm impressed! The detail is amazing/ It will take me a few days but I'll catch up eventually.

Thank you Sjors, but your rigging and build looks great!

Hello Popeye, Thank you. I hope to finish the rigging on the port side today or tomorrow at the latest.