Tomculb

Very nice work on your Spray build. Especially nice to see it done by a fellow Washingtonian. It's always fun to see other builders' unique interpretations of a model I've built, and your build log was no exception. Congratulations on a job well done. You mentioned difficulty finding model paints anywhere nearby. The situation isn't much better here in Spokane, and I virtually always buy things like paint, additional wood, alternative fittings, tools and the like online. Not ideal, but there really isn't any alternative on this side of the state either.

Thanks George for your comments and photos. And kudos for taking on a scratch build of Discovery. I will be following closely. Glad to see that there are more photos than I had found of Discovery; they should be helpful to those of us working on Endurance builds. The photo you posted of Discovery is interesting, as the base of its foremast (and presumably the other two masts) has both a spider band (similar to that found on Endurance) and a more traditional fife rail. I have yet to find a photo of Endurance that shows a fife rail or a pin rail, which is puzzling. I’m hoping that someone will soon show me that I just haven’t looked hard enough.

Keith, what you describe about bringing the anchors aboard sounds very credible to me. You're a little farther along in your thinking than I am, but I had also reached the conclusion that a halyard from the foremast would be needed and that a davit alone wouldn't cut it. Josh, my wife is visiting her sister all this coming week, which means I'll be home alone with much more time to devote to my build than usual. With some luck I'll have those anchors installed and another installment posted by next weekend. 😀 Tom

Some odds and ends . . . I built the steering enclosure using OcCre’s laser cut pieces, painted it dark brown, and found a slightly lighter brown for the ship’s wheel . . . a different color for no particular reason I can think of. Keith @clearway and Josh @theoracle09 have done a great job building and showing the steering mechanism, but for the most part I have tried to model Endurance before she reached the ice. I may be wrong, but it seems likely to me that the enclosure was built to protect the steering mechanism from the elements, which would include salt water, and that once the ship was trapped in the ice, and certainly after the rudder broke, that structure’s wood was better used elsewhere. But maybe that’s all rationalization for being a little lazy. Following the lead of Keith and Josh on their builds, I built a smokestack for the galley, which was located in the deck house. For the vent at the top, I used one of the fittings supplied by OcCre for the two misplaced (IMHO) smokestacks it would have you place in the aft corners of the lower deck (see discussion at the end of post #12 of this log). Again, being a bit lazy, I opted for the simple approach, and declined to emulate the beautiful metal work done by both Keith and Josh. OcCre provides for five pinrails, two on each of the bulwarks port and starboard, and one at the bow. It supplies nice looking wooden-appearing belaying pins, but I don’t think they look much like those used on Endurance, at least as they appear in the following photograph. Those belaying pins appear to be more like metal spikes. I had some brass belaying pins I purchased for and didn’t use on a previous build, and I decided to use those, being more authentic and likely easier to wrap rigging line around. In the final photo of my last post, I showed the bow pinrail lying on top of the rail caps and painted dark brown, as OcCre envisions it. But after looking at the Frank Hurley photo above, I made a new pinrail, painted it white, and glued it in more or less flush with the tops of the rail caps. I made the new pinrail by laminating two 1/32” thick strips together, with the bottom one extending slightly beyond the ends of the upper one, to be glued to the underside of the rail caps. I painted the brass pins a lighter brown (Tamiya's Flat Earth). Also, I had to cut the belaying pins a little shorter; otherwise they reached all the way down to the deck, which would make securing any line around them much more difficult. You'll also see that I have also assembled and painted the anchors. The bulwark pinrails need to be glued edgewise to the bulwarks, and that seemed a little flimsy to me, so I added a 1/16” square piece to the bottom of each one to provide a larger gluing surface. Also, the forward pair of pinrails each straddle a bulwark stanchion, meaning I needed to add short strips of wood so that there would be a surface to glue the full length of the rail to. As an aside, I don’t recall seeing any pinrails along the bulwarks in any of the photos, which makes me wonder how they secured running rigging that was not secured at the bases of the masts. If anyone has seen such a photo, I'd like to see it. I’m thinking that I won’t want to glue the deck house in place until after I have secured running rigging to these belaying pins, as there will be little space to work with the deck house there. Looking at the Hurley photo above again, I saw other changes I am working on at the bow. First the catheads are tapered, and they do not meet in the middle as depicted by OcCre. Also it appears that they run through a break in the caprails rather than under them; that is the way Josh did it and I like the look. Second, in the photo there is a small davit lying on the deck. I think I’m going to bend some wire and turn it into a pair of anchor davits, rigging them in place of the rigging OcCre shows going through the outer ends of the catheads. Endurance doesn’t appear to have had any rigging running through the catheads. Modern ships have their anchor shanks running up through a specially shaped hawse pipe, but that wasn’t the case on Endurance and earlier ships. I have always wondered exactly how ships’ crews brought their heavy anchors aboard, and once aboard, how they were safely stowed. Maybe I'll have a better idea once I have made and installed a pair of anchor davits.

Very nice work Josh. And perhaps best of all, you sound really pleased and happy with the end result, something to be deservedly proud about.

On to the deck cabin, with too much text and then some photos . . . I refer to the deck cabin as such because I haven’t come up with a better term. Some refer to it as the “Ritz”, but as others have pointed out, that does not appear to be correct. In his book, Ernest Shackleton describes new crew quarters, built “‘tween decks” to provide better protection from the elements at the onset of their first winter. I assume those quarters were built below the deck cabin, but I don’t really know; they may have been further aft. In any event, in Shackleton’s words, “The new quarters became known as the Ritz.” In these posts and other's in @theoracle09's log, Josh and Craig discuss the various ways the decking was extended around the deckhouse and between it and the deck behind it. Apparently the carpenters were kept quite busy on this ship. OcCre’s laser cut roof piece has small bridge decks on either side most of the way forward on the cabin, and two narrow extensions of the cabin’s roof deck back to and part of the deck aft. I decided (as did Josh) to go with OcCre’s design, with one exception. It seems clear (in the picture below and others) that those two planks were not extensions of the decks they connected but were separate, probably easily removable, planks or gangways lying on top of those two decks. So my first task was to cut off the extensions of the laser cut roof and fashion my own two planks. I made the planks from 1/16” strips, stained the same as the decks, and enclosed by veneer strips painted white. This would probably be a good time to explain something about measurements I refer to. OcCre, being a Spanish company, supplies wood cut to metric sizes. I have a large supply of wood left over from prior builds, and since almost all of my prior builds have been by American manufacturers, that supply of leftovers is almost entirely imperial. When I get a new build, I’m not very careful to keep the new wood separate from the old, and sometimes when I pull out what I think is a 1/16 by 1/8 strip, it may actually be 1.5 by 3mm. Having lived my entire life in the US, I think in terms of imperial measurements, even though intellectually I think the metric system is far better. The four sides of the cabin are laser cut, and they fit together nicely. Both longer side pieces were slightly warped inward, but that was easily remedied by gluing 3/16” square strips to the inside. The next bit of kit-bashing I did was planking all four sides of the cabin, consistent with the real ship; adding some trim around the roof and along the deck, and enlarging the portholes, painting the inside surfaces black. OcCre supplies six photo-etched brass doors, to be painted and affixed, one on the port side of the cabin, two on the starboard side, one on the aft end, and two on the bulkhead aft of the cabin. Based on the plans I downloaded from the Ernest Shackleton website, I determined that OcCre got it right, with one exception . . . there was only one door on the starboard side of the cabin. I painted the brass doors with Tamiya’s flat brown, added tiny nails painted black as door knobs, and glued them in place. The photo below shows some items I have placed on the foredeck. None of those things have been glued in place yet; in fact, the skylights and the deck house are also only dry fit. Securing running rigging at the base of the mainmast, and to a lesser extent to foremast, will be a lot easier without the deck house in place. Or perhaps I’ll rig the lines that terminate at the base of the mast before installing those masts. An issue for another day . . .

While I am nowhere near as far along as you are Josh, I do find myself looking ahead pretty frequently, and I have the same question you do regarding the connection between the gaffs and the masts. I too was thinking of crafting some jaws and parrels, but after Keith's and Craig's input, I don't think I'll do that. Back when I was still working on my last build I came across the Shackleton Museum's large scale Endurance model, and it got me excited about Endurance as my next build. Imagine, a model of that scale to guide me through my build! But the more research I did, especially Hurley's photos, the less excited I became about the authenticity of that particular model, and I have seldom looked at it since starting this build. Mr. Greenwood's build is an entirely different story. Imagine how thrilling it would be to have a model you built end up in a museum in a place as central to the history of the ship as South Georgia Island!

Digressing a bit . . . Several weeks ago, a question was asked here as to the authenticity of OcCre’s rigging of this ship, and @Jim Lad posted the suggestion quoted above regarding Robert Scott’s Discovery. Finally a couple of days ago I spent a short time searching the web to see what I could find out about Scott and his ship. Unfortunately I didn’t find (yet) anything helpful there to modeling Endurance, but the story I found is nevertheless fascinating. The two most helpful sources I found were a site maintained by the Dundee Heritage Trust and a site entitled Cool Antarctica. Discovery left for Antarctica in 1901, from the shipyard in which she was built in Dundee, Scotland. Like Endurance, Discovery became trapped in the ice and spent two winters there. Unlike Endurance, she was not crushed by the ice, and two ships found her after her second winter. With the help of explosives, she was freed from the ice, and she eventually made it back to the UK. Ernest Shackleton was third lieutenant on that Antarctic voyage. After a long career in many capacities, Discovery became a museum ship, back in Dundee. The second picture below is a screenshot of a Google Maps street view of Discovery as she is now Dundee. My wife and I spent some time in Scotland this past summer, and had I known then what I know now, there is no doubt we would have gone to see her. One thing I did learn concerns the appropriate terminology for these ships . . . Discovery is rigged as a barque; that is, the foremast and the mainmast are square rigged, with fore and aft sails on the mizzen. Endurance was a barquentine, with square rigged sails only on the foremast, and all other sails rigged fore and aft.

Great work Josh on the cap rail and the stovepipe. I guess I first saw the latter in @clearway's log and completely forgot about it. Another fun bit of kit-bashing I can look forward to. And Keith, going back to look at your log, I see that you get credit for noticing the windows and curved roof of the aft companionway. Josh, I feel somewhat embarrassed when this past Thursday on my log I lamented the fact that you were no longer posting on your log anymore, when in fact two days earlier you resumed posting. I look forward to following you.

And I meant to add . . . I look forward to more posts on your log. Life does get in the way sometimes.

Thanks Josh, both for the kind words and for the very helpful tip.

OcCre supplies laser cut pieces to construct a companionway in the bulkhead just ahead of the wheel. It has a flat roof with a sliding hatch. In his Endurance log, @theoracle09 (Josh) posted a photo (post #32) that shows a structure with windows, a slightly curved roof, and no sliding hatch. Post #33 by @iMustBeCrazy (Craig) has the photo zoomed in and shows these features more clearly. I decided I wanted to do what Josh (and presumably Craig) did, and I scratch built a structure more consistent with what that photo shows. As I did with the large skylight, I glued a strip of acetate on the back side of the windows and painted the inside white. One topic of discussion in Josh’s log (post #42) was whether the companionway has one door or two. Craig added a couple of additional photos and a drawing, in support of the view that there were two doors (OcCre’s view too). While the second of Craig’s photos clearly shows two doors, I think the first photo shows that at least at one point in time there was a single door. With that as my rationalization, I took the easy route and opted for a single door. The door is simply a slab made from 1/32” thick strips glued together edgewise, with additional, narrower, such strips for the trim. The door handle is a tiny nail, painted black. In retrospect I fear the entire structure is too tall, but I'm willing to live with that (since it is now firmly glued in place). It's about the size of what OcCre's would have been.

Thanks Josh. I wish you were still posting your log, showing me the way 😃. I assume you've realized that available time is finite, and as between writing and building, you choose to build. Good choice.

About a year ago, I finished my build of Model Shipways USS Constitution cross section. A link to my blog is in my signature block below. I found it to be a lot of fun and a bit challenging at times. No question planking a cross section hull is pretty simple (unless it is a cross section of the bow), but the rest of the build provided lots of varied opportunities to learn. The mast and rigging (especially rigging) took me the better part of a year to complete (but I'm not a speedy builder). All of my builds have been (and always will be) great learning experiences, and my Connie was no exception.

The skylight between the smokestack and the mizzen mast is easily assembled from laser cut pieces. OcCre also supplies a thin piece of acetate to simulate glass in the windows. The photographic instructions have you paint everything inside white, but I chose to paint the walls white and the floor black, to simulate some depth below. I also painted the hinge black rather than leave it as exposed brass as OcCre would. The rest of the skylight is painted flat brown. OcCre also has you surround the base of this skylight and the ones I describe below with what I think (IMHO) is an oversized, unrealistic looking, trim or combing. I used some 1/16 x 1/32” (or a metric equivalent) veneer to make the combing around my skylight. There are two somewhat unconventional skylights, located fore and aft of the deckhouse. Unconventional in that they look like raised hatches with windows on the walls. Here (again IMHO) OcCre again overscales things a bit, with large combing and a thick roof piece with deck planking added on top. Given the small size of these things, I chose not to add any combing and to eliminate the separate (laser cut) roof piece, laying the planking directly on top of the walls. Stain on the roof planking is the same I used on the deck planking. The Frank Hurley photo below shows a large companionway structure leading to a ladder or stairway leading below decks. From what I have read, I think that was added after Endurance got stuck in the ice. The plans I have referred to several times in this log do not show any such structure. Instead they show another skylight, similar to but smaller than the ones described above, on the top of the deckhouse. OcCre supplies laser cut pieces to build this structure, but I chose to scratch build another skylight that conforms to the plans. In the photo below it hasn’t been glued to anything yet, as the deck house hasn’t been built yet.

For the rudder, OcCre envisions an extension of the keel on which the bottom of the rudder rests, along with a shaft or pin extending from the extension up into the rudder and around which the rudder pivots. The plans I’ve posted previously (from the National Library of Scotland and the Ernest Shackleton website) show a more conventional pintle and gudgeon arrangement, and that is what I have chosen to model. I previously posted that I built my model with no such keel extension. What I noticed only upon zooming in on the plans, after my rudder was fully installed, is that there was also a very small keel extension (much smaller than OcCre's) that may have had a pin in it. I might be able to add that after the fact, so to speak, but I'm not at all sure it would be worth the effort. The kit’s rudder is laser cut, to which I needed to add a small block of wood so the rudder would be long enough to reach the bottom of the keel. To simulate pintles and gudgeons, I cut and bent pieces from a 1/16” (I think) strip of brass. I cheated a bit and made no effort to model pintle pins inserted into the gudgeons. To make this arrangement a little less fragile, I ran a tiny pin through the bottom pintle and the rudder post. Fortunately it isn't visible. One thing I find interesting is that it is clear from some Frank Hurley photos that the real rudder was simply a thick slab, with no hydrodynamic-friendly shape or taper like you would find on a more modern rudder. Were they just not concerned about that kind of thing a century ago?

Quite some time ago I ordered a few fittings from BlueJacket, and more recently I did some things with them. First is a two blade propeller like the original ship, and unlike the three bladed one provided by OcCre. I added some length to the shaft with a very short piece of brass tubing, so that the prop is in the middle (fore and aft) of the space provided for it rather than right up against the back of the hull. Second I installed a more genuine looking capstan than the oft-criticized wooden one provided by OcCre. Capstans typically have removable bars that crew members bend over and push as they walk around the thing. Photos indicate that Endurance’s capstan had holes for such bars, but I haven’t seen any photos showing the bars stowed nearby as they typically would on a ship with a capstan. My conjecture is that the capstan was steam powered (ditto re the windlass) and that the bars would be used in an emergency but not stored conveniently nearby. And now (drum roll please) . . . exhaustively researched and exquisitely detailed (😀), this is the windlass no one will ever see. I bought two windlass drums from BlueJacket and glued them to a block of wood that bears little resemblance to a real windlass. I had previously blackened some of the kit-supplied chain with Casey Brass Black. Using the thread that’s been hanging out of the hull’s hawse pipes for months now, I carefully pulled the chain through the anchor hawse pipes and holes in the forward bulkhead, wrapped it around the drums, and fed it down the chain holes installed in the deck many months ago. I had finally fully consumed the bottle of Blacken-It I bought at least 20 years ago, and learned that that product is no longer manufactured. With help from these boards, I discovered the Casey product, and it worked just fine. The first photo below was taken with my iPhone without any after-the-shot touch up. It best resembles what can be seen with the naked eye. With the second one I used one of Google Photos' enhancement features. Looking at the latter photo I realized that I got the thing a bit off center when gluing it in place. Fortunately no one looking at the model from a normal viewing distance will ever notice. Close up pictures can be pretty annoying sometimes. 😀

A few weeks back I was perusing these boards thinking about possible future builds when I came across this beautiful build of OcCre’s Beagle by The Gimps Chimp. Chimp put together a very simple but highly useful build cradle using pipe insulation (see post #101 of his build log). I bought a 6 foot length of 1” insulation at Ace Hardware for less than $3, easily cut the lengths I wanted, and built my own cradle. I tried gluing the pieces together with both CVA and CA glues and nothing worked very well. In an exchange of private messages with Chimp, he suggested a hot glue gun. I bought a cheap one of those in the school supplies section of Target, and it worked like a charm. As does the build cradle.

Good question Bobcat. The question of whether much of anything on this model is “authentic” is an elusive one, both because there is so little of the Endurance story that is about the ship (as opposed to the amazing endurance and rescue of the crew) and because substantial modifications were made between the time the ship left England and when it was crushed in the ice. There are quite a few photographs out there that show rigging, but not in a way that you can tell much about how the ship was rigged. I haven’t checked, but my guess is that the standing rigging is probably (or at least should be) pretty authentic, because it is clearly shown in the plans I copied from the National Library of Scotland’s website (see post #10 above). I have less confidence in the running rigging, in part because my research has disclosed virtually nothing about it and in part because the way some things are rigged by OcCre just doesn’t ring true for me. I’m no expert, but I have been aboard quite a few museum ships and as a young adult I spent many years sailing and racing smaller (up to 35’) sail boats. While I’m sure my build is not as far along as yours is, I have looked ahead a bit at the rigging plans and I find the following a bit troubling: As others have noted, much of the running rigging ends at eyebolts in the deck surrounding the base of the masts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the running end of a sheet or halyard tied to an eyebolt. As Josh found searching photos (see the last photo in post # 41 of his log) of the recently discovered real ship, at least one of the masts had a ring of belaying pins around it, which is very common on sailing vessels of this era and older. I plan to put belaying rings around each of the masts. In a couple of cases (JT43 & 66 on the model’s rigging plan), the sheets for the jibs are tied to chainplate/deadeye assemblies. I’ve never seen that done on a sailing vessel. Virtually all running rigging aft of amidships is secured to an eyebolt (in many cases, eyebolts to which blocks are attached). I haven’t yet determined what I am going to do there, but I assume I’ll figure out a way to secure all running rigging to a belaying pin or a cleat. The kit doesn’t supply any cleats, but I intend to buy some. Bottom line is I don't think there is much out there that is helpful, but while that may be a curse, it is also a bit of a blessing . . . you can do with the rigging pretty much what you think looks authentic, and no one will be in a position to criticize.

The lower white rub rail is considerably shorter than the upper one, but it presents its own challenge, due to the curvature of the hull. At the stern, it mostly hangs below the hull, glued to the hull on the upper surface of the 1/16 x 1/16” strip. But at its ends, a couple of inches forward, it is glued to the hull on the inside surfaces of the strip. Using my Dremel, I beveled the strip so that its upper, close to horizontal, surface in the middle becomes its inner, pretty much vertical, surface at the ends. Viewed close up, my limited Dremelling skills are pretty evident, but from a viewing distance it doesn’t look too bad. The upper rub rail’s glue residue seen in the first photo below has been cleaned up.

Thanks Kenny. I hope you enjoy your build as much as I'm enjoying mine. Next project was the Endurance name and star on the stern and the trail boards at the bow. These are photo-etched brass parts, painted black in the case of the name and white in the case of the trail boards, then sanded to remove the surface paint in the case of the raised letters and the raised trail board decorative elements. I was dubious as to how well this would work, but with little effort it worked flawlessly. Gluing the name and the star to the stern was not particularly difficult. OcCre has you paint the star white, but looking at one of the photos of the actual ship when it was discovered a couple of years ago, the star appears to be brass (or bronze) identical to the letters, so that is how I did it on my build. Gluing the trail boards to the bow was difficult, given the abrupt fold where the stem meets the hull. Minuscule differences in the location of that fold made a big difference in where the aft end of the trail board ended up on the hull. Unfortunately the aft end of the starboard trail board ended up noticeably below the aft end of the port one and below where I wanted it. I didn’t really notice until I looked at the two bow on. That is not how the model will usually be viewed when completed, but still I’m inclined to try to remove the starboard one and do a better job of placing it when I glue it back on. I didn’t get a picture of the discrepancy, and the photo I took of the port one didn't come out very well.

There are two rub rails painted white, one which runs around the full length of the hull and wraps around the stern, and a second one half an inch or so below that one that runs just around the stern. Anyone who has followed other Endurance blogs on these boards knows what I’m talking about. For the upper rub rail, the instructions have you cut a 150mm length (about 5”) of 2x2mm stock to bend around the stern (using whatever combination of heat and water you prefer). The kit includes several 2x2 by 600mm (almost 24”) strips to complete the rest of the rub rails. I decided to take a different approach and bend an entire 600mm strip, so that the necessary joint on each side of the hull between strips would be at a point where little bending occurs. I think this was a good approach, but it was a little hairy gluing 2 feet of 2mm square stock to the hull all at the same time. Before gluing it on though, it seemed to be more difficult than it should have been to get the stern section to bend the way I wanted it to. Last spring I mentioned that I found the hull planks unnecessarily difficult to bend, and I ended up planking most of the hull with 1/16” strips rather than the supplied 2mm strips, the former being a little thinner. Those strips proved easier to bend; however, the difference in thickness was so small I questioned whether that was what made the difference. Fast forward to this rub rail, and I wondered whether I should try 1/16” square stock I had on hand for the rest of the rub rail. I tried it and the bending process was much easier. It then occurred to me that I was probably using two different kinds of wood. In my experience, American kit manufacturers generally use basswood. I had read somewhere that some European manufacturers use lime wood, but I couldn’t find anything which told me what kind of wood OcCre uses in its kits. According to some posts I found on these boards, lime wood is considered to be superior, since it is a harder wood, with less “fuzz” than basswood. In any event, I found the basswood to be easier to use, and I will use it exclusively when I get to the lower white rub rail. If you look closely enough, there is a noticeable difference in thickness where the aft and forward parts of the rails join, but it’s very difficult to see from anything like a normal viewing distance. Backing up a bit . . . the instructions are supplemented by a couple of dozen or so YouTube videos, which haven’t been particularly helpful to me and which I have not referred to very often. But I did take a look at the video which shows the installation of this rub rail. The video, which has no narration, shows sticking a couple of narrow strips of wood of appropriate width to the hull with some sort of putty (bubble gum?😀) to assist in positioning the rail for its entire width. When rigging a model I like to use diluted white school glue to secure knots, and I gave that a try with these little strips of wood. I was very cautious not to use too much of this diluted glue, so much so that at first they popped off the hull at the slightest provocation. Using a little more glue worked perfectly; they stayed in place as I was positioning the rub rail, and when I wanted to get rid of them, I was able to pry them off without leaving behind any trace of having been there. This may be my last post before I get evicted from the shipyard, the shipyard becoming a guest room for the holidays. We have the great fortune to have both kids home for Christmas, our daughter and her husband and our son and his long time girlfriend. Happy holidays everyone.🎄🎅🎄

Glen, I just stumbled upon your build, and it is truly amazing. It also brings back some wonderful memories. My parents spent their last few decades living in Hawaii, and as a young adult I lived there 18 of those years. At some point, my dad, a life-long sailor and a great admirer of the Polynesian voyagers, bought the completed model pictured below. I think he found it in Hawaii, but it might have been in French Polynesia. In any event, I was lucky enough to inherit it, and it now sits right beside my work bench. My years in Hawaii included the initial voyages of Hokulea, the first modern replica of these amazing vessels. One of the greatest thrills of my many sailing adventures was sailing several miles offshore on my Hobie 16 (along with maybe another hundred other boats) to greet Hokulea on her return to Kaneohe Bay, at the end of her initial voyage to French Polynesia and the island of Tahiti. That was in the mid-70s, and I still remember it almost like it was yesterday. Again, congratulations on a great build.

There are rub rails on either side of the bow, running the length of the forward deck a little bit below deck level, made from 2x2 mm stock. The instructions have you install them before painting the hull, which isn’t a bad idea. I don’t always follow instructions. I found bending these strips to fit the sides of the hull to be challenging, since they not only bend in and out, and up and down, but they also twist a bit. The starboard one popped off twice after gluing, needing to glue it to the hull a third time before it stuck. An aside here . . . I use TiteBound wood glue almost exclusively on my builds. The smallest bottle I’ve seen holds about 4 oz., and the bottle I was using still had about 1/3rd left. It occurred to me that maybe I should see if TiteBound has a shelf life, and sure enough, the website says you can determine how old it is and whether it needs replacing by entering a code number stamped on the bottle. The number was too smudged on my bottle to be readable, but I did see advice on a couple of websites that the glue should be replaced after about two years. I have no idea how long ago I bought the bottle I’d been using, but I have no doubt it was way more than two years ago. I bought a new bottle, and that is what I used on my third try on the starboard side, and the first and only try on the port side. Unfortunately I apparently wasn’t paying much attention to placement on the port one, because after the glue was very dry on that side, I compared the two, and the port side rub rail droops noticeably when compared to the starboard side. Maybe someday I will pry the port one off and reposition it, but I am reluctant to do so for fear I’ll cause a greater mess in the effort. At least things look good where I used a short piece of 2x2 mm and a lot of sanding to bring the two rails together at the stem.

My progress on the build is moving well ahead of my progress on this blog. I have some catching up to do here. The caps on the bulwarks and the trim on the outer edges of the upper deck are made from 2x5 mm strips, painted brown. That seemed pretty straightforward, but proved to be a little more challenging than I expected, since all those pieces are slightly curved. I started with the bulwark pieces, forcing the curve by clamping them to the bulwarks. After everything had dried, I realized that I hadn’t lined up the caps to the bulwarks very well, and especially on the port side, it didn’t align very well at all. More recently, while apparently manhandling the hull without sufficient care, the port side cap popped off (after these pictures were taken). I have not glued it back on yet but I'm glad that's the one that didn't stick. I moved onto the upper deck trim, and this time used some water and heat to pre-bend the strips. Here of course there was no way to use clamps to force some bend when installing them on the ship, but pre-bending took care of the problem. The lower edge of the part of the hull with all the portholes is framed with a 2x2 mm black strip, basically a rub rail. The instruction’s photographs show this piece running in a continuous line with the lower deck bulwarks caps, but on my build that part of the hull runs a couple of millimeters below the bulwark caps. It took me a while to figure out the discrepancy, but here’s the reason. That part of the hull, with all the portholes in it, is a supplied laser cut piece. After gluing that piece in place, I planked it with veneer and painted it white. If you do as OcCre contemplates and plank the entire hull with veneer, the instructions show using a single strip running as described above, running continuously below the bulwarks cap and covering the lower few millimeters of what I painted white. I didn’t add a veneer layer to the hull as other builders did (see builds by HakeZou, Clearway and theoracle09; and hey Keith and Josh, where did you go?). When I framed the area with trim, what I framed was what I had painted white. Not a big deal; I’m perfectly happy with it as I did it. The instructions have you install a veneer strip (1x4 mm, painted black) immediately below and running the length of the lower deck bulwark caps. I'm not sure there was anything comparable on the real ship, but I installed it anyway figuring (as I am now confirming) it would help with installing the white rub rail. Because of the jog (exhaustively) described above, I used two 1x4 strips on each side instead of one. As an aside, I don't know a lot about photography, and all of the photos I've posted were taken with my iPhone. I first two pictures above showing a significant amount of deck reflect most accurately what I see when I look at my build. But many of the photos I've posted had a more orange tint to them, like the last two posted above. If the latter showed more deck, you'd see a stark difference. Obviously different lighting makes a difference, but I haven't figured what lighting gets me pictures more like the former ones. I have fooled around with Google Photos editing tools, but to no avail.