shipmodel

Truly beautiful work, Keith - The launch and mother ship are beautiful together, and the stand is a piece of engineering worthy of any Museum of Fine Design. It has been a privelege to follow along on your journey. Dan

A really elegant sweep to the ship, Nils. Very nicely done. Dan

Thank you all so very much. I do this because I love it, and all the likes and comments from some outstanding modelers themselves are the icing on my cake. Dan

Ingenious, Chuck, and a large step forward in making construction easier using modern technology. Dan

Hello again and thanks again to all for the likes and comments. I am glad that you find my writing to be clear and the explanations understandable. Sometimes I read over what I have written and wonder what I was thinking at the time. Those are the 1 am rewrites that get rewritten the next morning. Continuing with the detailing of the bow upper deck assembly, I turned to the last of the problem areas, the complicated piece that connects the solid rails of the Lido and Sun decks, under and aft of the bridge wing. This area is one of the more intricate on the model. In addition to the rail piece, there are cantilever beams that support the wing, three triangular fillets that support those beams, and the navigation lights. Here is my first acceptable rail piece for the port side, partially finished. It had to be mounted so the 0.020” thick piece lands exactly on the Lido rail and sits exactly vertically. The side of the Sun deck was carefully shaped to make that happen with sanding blocks and files, using test pieces repeatedly until I was satisfied. Once that was done I could secure the rail piece to the assembly. The entire assembly was still unsecured at this point, so its position could shift slightly side to side since it was held in place only at the aft end where the window walls are. It had to be made immovable before I could do any final detailing here, but it still had to be removable to install the lower handrails. My solution was to build the front wall piece on the Lido deck with its passage archway, and the forward support fillet as one piece. There is a slot cut in the piece that fits over the solid deck rail and keeps the assembly from moving to either side. With the assembly fitted in place I trimmed the pillars of the rail piece and added the cantilever beams and support fillets under the wing. No one may ever see those beams, but I will know that they are there. The starboard rail piece was cut and fitted in a similar way. Here the piece is roughly shaped and fitted to the edge of the Sun deck and under the wing. With the whole assembly removed, further detailing was done, with doors, windows, and handrails being fitted using my usual techniques. The last bit of detailing for the assembly was the brass handrail across the forward face and the windows just above it. Here is another instance where there is no symmetry, with five windows to port of the center pair, but only a set of three to starboard. With all of the detailing done the assembly was removed so the PE handrails could be added to the Lido deck. The assembly was finally secured to the model and the various joints and seams between pieces were filled and sanded flush to each other. Navigation lights were constructed and secured under the bridge wings and stairways installed leading from the Lido to the Sun deck. So here is what the superstructure looks like at this stage. The symmetry is good, except where it shouldn’t be, and I think that it is starting to give a pretty convincing impression of the ship as it appears in the photographs. The next segment should finish up the Sun and Belvidere decks, which will complete the basic structure of the ship. Until then, be well. Dan

Hi again to all – Thanks for the likes and especially the comments. This is mostly a solitary activity so all contact with colleagues is welcome. The past two weeks have been pretty productive. Much of the bow superstructure and decks have been built up and fitted to each other and to the model. Although the area is small it involved some of the trickiest shaping, sequencing and fitting problems. Fortunately, I managed to solve most without a lot of missteps. The first step was to determine how everything fit together. Here is the profile view of the bow superstructures from the plans. Actually, this is an enhanced and detailed rendering of the plans, which is much more useful than the plans themselves. I only wish I had similar quality drawings for the decks, rather than just the profile. But since it is a view from the side, it does not give me a good indication of the depths and interrelationships between the various decks. Some of the questionable areas are indicated: 1) the large oval highlights a set of windows that connect the Lido deck to the Sun deck above it. What these windows are and how they fit I could not determine from this view, or from any of the plans. 2) The arrow points to an area of the Lido deckhouse that seems to be inset, but not how or how much. 3) The small oval indicates the complicated angled supports that join the rails of the two decks. And 4) at the extreme bow there is a smooth multi-deck forward face similar to the one built for the lower decks. But here, although the center of the face is angled at the same 10 degrees, the ends of the face are vertical, requiring a compound curve with an ever-changing slope. This was not an easy shape for me to imagine or construct. I turned to photographs for help. This photograph was taken from a slightly elevated angle. Using the shadows I could start to see how the decks relate to each other and what some of those more puzzling details are. The most informative view was this slightly simplified and stylized view as printed on a brochure from 1966. Sometimes the most obscure source can give the most guidance. Here it became clear that the Sun deck has long tapered wings that frame the main pool on the Lido deck. These two decks are connected along the rail with a wall of windows that shields the pool from the wind. This photo was taken by a passenger from the bridge wing. From this angle you can see that the window wall is just that, and not supported by a deckhouse or other structure. In the enlargement you can even see through the open space behind the wall to the pool area beyond it. So here is where the construction of the model in this area had reached. The Lido deck is laid and its solid railing in place. Its PE handrail will not be installed until the upper deck houses are ready for installation. Since I thought I understood the details of the window wall I decided to work from there forward, making everything fit together as I went along. A while ago I drew out pieces for the window wall based on the plans and had them laser cut. Turned out that my dimensions were off and I could not simply set each in place and glue it edge to edge on the existing rail as I hoped. Instead, I had to remove a section of the current rail and replace it with the window wall piece. This required making the piece much taller, which was done with strips of styrene top and bottom that were edge glued. The window openings were closed with clear lexan, but this was too transparent, so I gave the back side a quick pass with black spray paint to darken them without making them opaque. When glued on the effect was what I wanted. But the large dark rectangle was visible, so I painted white frames for the individual windows. At the ends of the walls a pair of PE stairways were painted, folded, and attached so their handrails were visible above the edge of the wall. These stairways then acted as stops for the Sun deck wings. I built up the Lido deck house according to the plans, but had to tweak it a bit to fit the model, as built. My dimensions and machining have been almost spot on throughout the build, but in this scale a variation of half a millimeter is huge, so small adjustments are constantly being made as needed. Here the Sun deck wings were carefully cut to fit exactly between the window walls so the walls were vertical. The deckhouse was slid out and detailed using the techniques previously explained for windows, doors and handrails. Interestingly, this is one of the several spots on the ship that is not perfectly symmetrical. Photographs confirm that the port side has 11 large windows, while the starboard side only has 8. The solid rails were cut and fitted so when the wings stopped against the stairways the two rail sections would meet. Here it is back in place. The deckhouse is still not secured to the model, and it can be slid out to work on details. With it removed I will have the clearance to install the PE railings on the Lido deck when the time comes. The various joints between rail and window sections will be filled and sanded when the deckhouse is permanently installed. As the detailing continued forward the stairways were temporarily set in place to check fit and placement. You can see that at this point the forward face is still rough and slightly oversize, and some extra has been left on the forward edge of the bridge wings for the same reason. The details of the forward face are quite complicated. In this photo you can see the line of bridge windows along the upper portion of the sloped face, and an upper solid rail that is set back from the top edge. The outermost windows go through side pieces that connect with the bridge wings, which have wind deflectors on their upper edges. Below the wings are walls with open archways and curved pieces that support the wings. The side view of the same area clearly shows that the center of the forward face is sloped but the outboard pieces are vertical. It also shows the way that the face is rounded at the top, and how it then curves up to meet the rail on the Belvidere deck. I started with the idea that the Lido/Sun decks' forward face had to be shaped as a unit, like the Boat/Superior deck face below it. To do this I used the same solution that worked in that case. That is, the forward portion of the Sun deckhouse was cut off square and glued to the Lido deckhouse assembly. Then the forward end of the Belvidere deck was cut off even shorter and glued in place. Here the forward face has undergone its initial shaping. That shaping was done, initially, on the disc sander. The disc was set at 90 degrees to the table using an engineers’ square. A 10 degree jig was constructed of scrap wood and clamped to the table. The center of the face was sanded to the slope in the center using the jig and a bit of distance to either side. Then the ends of the face were sanded using the vertical belt that can be seen just above the disc. With these points established I could employ some simple geometry to get fair curves for the top and the bottom edges. To have the ends of the face vertical while the center slopes back requires that the upper curve is flatter than the lower one. The difference was not insignificant. The upper curve has a radius of 55mm, while the lower one’s radius is only 45mm. These were drawn on the wood and the face was block sanded to the lines by hand, checking often to see that I was getting the required flat face with a constantly changing slope. Once I was satisfied with the underlying wooden structure, it was sheathed. First, the black backing of the bridge windows was painted on, then the laser-cut window piece was installed. I had drawn it as having straight edges, but the slope of the face meant that it had to be slightly curved. I made several partial cuts with a knife along the bottom edge which spread the plastic just enough to form the shallow curve needed. Upper and lower sheathing pieces were added to cover the rest of the face. The outer vertical pieces were shaped and installed, then the open windows were drilled, cut and filed into shape. The growing subassembly was still removable, which I did repeatedly as it made adding detail elements much easier. Here the aft portion of the Sun deckhouse has been shaped and sheathed, then topped with the Belvidere deck piece. That deck had planking only about ¾ of its length. The rest seems to have a similar surface as the working decks, so it was painted the same grey. Two openings for stairways were cut into the aft end of the Belvidere deck. At the forward end a solid railing follows the curve of the top edge of the forward face. That top edge was rounded, as seen in the photos, and a line of putty was laid in to round the surface up to meet the rail. Thinned putty filled the joints between pieces of the sloped face and was sanded smooth. A coat of white and several coats of clear finish made everything seamless. Ultimately that will be done for all of the joints between pieces. The final bit of work for this posting was adding the railing pieces around the port side bridge wing, including the wind deflector on the forward side. I will continue the detailing of this assembly in the next segment. Until then, be well. Dan

Hi Riccardo - Thanks for the compliments, especially from someone who knows the problems in this scale. To answer your question, the deck planking is simply printed on my ink jet printer onto acid-free art paper. After overcoating with clear finish it is glued down to the subdeck wherever it will show. Margin planks and stairway headers are cut from single strips of the paper. Dan

Greg, Denis - Just found this log and am blown away like everyone else. I have the books but not the plans. Can I still purchase the image set when it is done? If so, I know what I want for next Christmas. Dan

Thanks Keith - I give lots of credit to modern optometry. I'm actually 20/400+ in both eyes, which I'm told qualifies me as legally blind. The first thing I do in the shop is put on the Optivisor, and the last thing is to take it off. Dan

Hi to all – I hope everyone had a good holiday season, as I did, but I am glad to be getting back to the workbench. The first new piece of work is actually an upgrade of an earlier detail. On the bow working deck there are four winch control handwheels mounted on the deckhouse. I modeled these with 1/16” discs punched from sheet styrene. With a marker I inked on the circumference and two crossed arms. The result was acceptable, but hardly exemplary. Good guy Hexnut came to the rescue again. He was the one who did the designs for the 3-D printed funnel cages mentioned earlier in the log. Now he found some photoetched handwheels in 1.5mm diameter and was generous enough to send me some. I painted them black while still on the fret, then clipped them loose and mounted them on the control stand. A much improved look. Thanks again, Bob. Returning to the main construction sequence, I used the usual techniques to detail the Lido deck. Margin planks were installed where the planking ended at the bow and stern of the deck, while the brown baseboard was laid on at the bottom of the solid deck rails. At the aft end the two stairways that go down to the Superior deck were fit and secured with PE railings around the openings. The same was done at the bow. The PE handrails were not installed yet. I learned from experience that the deckhouses and other upper details had to be almost complete and ready for installation before the rails were put on. Doing the rails too soon guaranteed that I would damage them while working on the next level deckhouses. Here at the level of the Lido deck things start to get quite complicated. There is a separation between the bow area superstructures and those aft, under the funnels. I looked at the plans and photos of the bow and saw that there are numerous complex shapes, overhangs, angled connections from one deck to the next, and other difficult elements that all have to blend seamlessly into each other. This is especially true under and around the bridge wing, as you can see. I have to admit that I chickened out. I put the bow area aside and worked on the simpler aft structures. These consist of the wedge shaped main auditorium with its busy and crowded roof, together with a taller, narrower structure under the two funnels. In the middle of the funnel superstructure is an open area protected by large windows on either side. Here is the auditorium roof enlarged. There are four cross-trusses of different lengths. The three long ones have six lightening holes, while the short aftmost one has only two. All have numerous triangular supports. Two solid beams run fore and aft across the trusses, with wide covering strips that end in angled swallow-tails. The model auditorium was built up as usual with sheathed basswood. But the roof was reduced in height to only a 0.03” sheet with an edging of 0.01” x 0.04” strip. On top the locations for the beams and trusses were laid out from the centerline. A strip of frosted tape was put down first to avoid marking the centerline on the roof. Once the layout was done the tape was removed and the centerline with it. Using 0.02” x 0.10” strip the trusses were cut to length and tapered towards their outboard ends. The six lightening holes of 0.045” were drilled into each long strut and two in the short one. 0.10” tall I-beams were cut to fit between the trusses and capped with 0.125” wide strips, painted the grey roof color. Swallowtail ends were ground into the aft ends of the covering strips and feathered onto the roof. Triangular supports for the struts were cut from 0.01” thick strips to match the height of the trusses. The outboard ones are barely 0.02” tall. They were stood on end and delicately secured in place. Various hatches, fences, and other elements were identified from the plans and photographs, then cut and fitted as needed. These included some buttresses for the building walls. These were originally triangles, but later trimmed back to give more clearance for walkways on deck. Overall, I think I pretty closely matched the photos of the ship. After the photo was taken the small marks on the roof were overpainted with roof grey. The funnel deckhouse started as basswood lifts with an added 0.03” layer to match the height of the auditorium. The middle windows were laser cut to my design by Charlie Zardoz. (I’m starting to feel a bit like Blanche Duboise) The cutting process works pretty well on plastic, but the edges tend to be a little melted and fragile. My heavy hands broke out one vertical frame, as you can see. The window units were reinforced with a layer of clear lexan affixed with white glue. Then each vertical was further supported by a tapered pillar. The exterior was sheathed as usual, including the forward faces which angled back 10 degrees to match the bow superstructure. Doing this area would have been pretty easy if it were one surface, but the photos show quite clearly that the lower half sticks out just a bit more than the upper half, but then they both fair smoothly into the vertical sides. Time, several discards, a few jiggers of bourbon, and it was done. PE doors and ladders were installed per the photos. Handrails were put on, but after looking at them critically I did not like the look of bright brass here, so they were painted white, as they were on the ship. Here the auditorium and funnel deckhouse have been dry fit where they will live on the Lido deck. The one thing that draws my eye is the larger door, outlined in black, near the forward end. It should not be a surface mount, but inset, like many of the doorways on the decks below. Unfortunately, I missed this detail when building the deckhouse. The black outline is an OK work-around, but I will probably go back and cut in the doorway properly. Hopefully I can do this without doing major damage to other details. Next I will have to figure out the bow structures. Hopefully they will turn out as well as these. Until then . . . Be well Dan

Hi Ben - Those videos were excellent. They really show that you are achieving a lifelike movement. I had a strange thought while watching. To me it looks more like he is using a pole than a paddle, and I have a recollection of a woodcut illustration of Charon poling across a narrow stream between Purgatory and Hades. Do you plan to set him in a diorama, where he could use a pole, or will he go in open pools where he would have to paddle? Dan

Keith - If I could have hit the 'like' button a dozen more times I would have. What a great idea with the magnets as clamps. I will definitely use that the next time it fits. And that envious gnashing of teeth that you hear is me after seeing your shop. Looking forward to seeing a launch that will be the equal of all your other brilliant work. Peace and Smooth Sailing to all Dan

Hi Ben - Your build is fascinating, and so innovative. I am learning a great deal from how you are working all of the various materials together. Can't wait to see Charon in action. To answer your question - paddling is done with the arms alone, facing the bow; rowing is done using a fulcrum (oarlock, thole pin, or just a hole in the bulwark) and is usually done facing the stern. Happy Holidays to you and yours. Dan

Hi Tom - You are doing excellent work on the yards and booms for the Connie. Love how the irons came out. One small point - the name of those extended sails is 'studding sail', not 'stunning sail'. The confusion is easy, since the sailors' contraction was spoken and written as "stun'sl". I don't know how the word slid down the alphabet, but it may have had something to do with all those English dialects and accents mixing in the early Royal Navy. I'll keep watching and enjoying your progress. Happy Holidays to you and yours. Dan

Hi to all who are following this or just looked in - Thanks again for the compliments and likes. Here is a quick segment finishing off the Boat and Superior Decks. After installing the railings last segment around the Boat deckhouse piece, I added handrails of polished brass. Like the ones done earlier on the forward face of the Promenade deck superstructure, these were made from 0.11” brass wire. Here, though, I left them bright, rather than painting them white. Close examination of photos of the ship tell me that they should also be painted, but when I did that they all but disappeared. Leaving them bright adds a visual touch that I quite like. To install them, the wire was first rolled between two hard surfaces, the workbench top and a thick sheet of hardwood. A few passes back and forth and all of the kinks disappear, although a bit of an arc sometimes remains. I line up one end (the right end because I am right handed) where it belongs and secure the first ¼” by touching a toothpick with thin cyano under the wire. The glue is spread along the wire with the tip of the toothpick and held in place until it sets. I pull the wire to the left with my left hand and adjust until the next half inch or so is correctly positioned, which is then glued as before with the toothpick in my right hand. This continues until I reach a doorway or the end of a wall. As mentioned before, the Boat Deck is taller than the other decks. I think this is to allow a greater ceiling height to the Promenade Deck lounges and other common spaces. This then raises the doorways, which have to have two steps to reach them from the deck. They were made by layering 0.03” strips of different widths together and cutting off a length of steps that fit the entryways to the doors. The brown base was marked around the perimeter of the deckhouse which was carefully positioned and glued down to the model. Handrails were installed around the perimeter of the upper railing in preparation for the installation of the Superior deckhouse. Here it is set in place to judge the line of the handrails. Using the same techniques, the Superior deckhouse got a bright brass handrail and a brown base before being installed. At their aft ends both houses got margin planks wherever they crossed the deck planking lines. I also fabricated and installed the pair of stairways leading down from the Superior to the Boat deck, along with their PE railings. I think I am getting the hang of these techniques, and Franklin seems to agree. With both deckhouses installed, I turned to the joint forward section of the decks which I had cut off earlier. The first step was to adjust the disc sander to an angle of 10 degrees, as measured from the plans. The forward face was sanded smooth and blended around the corners to meet the vertical sides. The aft face was not completely hidden, and I had the separation kerf to fill, so a flat piece of 0.020” plastic was glued to the aft face of the piece. The height was set to match the uppermost solid railings, but between them the sheet was cut down to deck height. The exposed edge of the plastic will be covered later. A large sheet of plastic was spot glued to the middle of the front face of the piece, then wrapped tightly around it. The lower edge was marked and an upper edge was estimated with a generous extra allowance. This piece was easier to work with once it was cut from the larger sheet. The piece was glued in sections to the wood, taking care to press it tightly to the form with an overlap all around. The lower edge was trimmed and sanded flush with the bottom of the wood, as were the overlaps at the back. The top edge had to have a step in it. Where it met the solid railings of the deckhouse it was 44 scale inches tall, but the forward edge was higher to protect the passengers. This forward edge also features a wind deflector like the lower one made earlier. Here you can see those details, as well as the pencil markings for the decal windows to come. The piece is not installed yet. Here the windows have been installed and the surface cleaned up of pencil marks, dings, smudges, etc. Several coats of clear matte finish have been applied to secure the windows and protect the piece. The brass handrail and the brown base have been added, along with a dark box between the windows that shows up in the photos, but which I have no idea as to its purpose. At this point the piece was glued down. A margin plank will be added on deck around the forward edge. Here is a centerline shot that was used to check symmetry and placement. Although not everything is 100% perfect, I don’t see anything that I have to rip out and redo. So here is the current status of the ship. I would like to say that the tricky parts are done, but they are just starting. There are angled railing supports, pierced windows, cantilevered decks, and three swimming pools with ladders and elaborate slides. But all that is for next year. In the meanwhile, best wishes for Healthy and Happy Holidays, and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year to all. Dan

Hi all - Keith, John, Ken, Tom and Nils, thanks so much for the compliments, and thanks to everyone else who clicked the 'like' thumb. It has been a bit rough at times, but it looks like it is coming out pretty well now that I have worked out most of the techniques. The hardest part seems to be not messing up work previously done. Bent railings and detached decal windows are the most common. Two steps forward and one back. As usual. :-)) Dan

Hi Gaetan - No, sorry, the vacuum system will not work for an assembled or partially assembled model. It is a process like vacuum-sealing food. The wood billet is placed in a plastic bag partially filled with the stabilizing liquid, whether cyano, resin, or other. Then the remaining air is sucked out and the liquid is forced into the pores of the wood. This works only for a solid piece of wood. If you put the model into a bag and evacuated the air, I think you would be in great danger of collapsing the model. Actually, the process for stabilizing an assembled model would use pressure, rather than vacuum. If anyone wanted to, they could submerge a model in a large container of the stabilizer, seal the container and raise the pressure inside. As before, the pressure would force the liquid into the pores of the wood. But I, for one, would not want to experiment using something that I had worked long and hard on, or something as beautiful as your ship is. If you have seen any episode of the knife making show, "Forged in Fire", you have seen stabilized wood, and even stabilized pine cones, used for the handles of the blades that they make. Please don't risk the terrific work that you are doing. I am really enjoying following along in your build. Dan

Hi all – I hope everyone is recovering from a happy Thanksgiving, or Autumn festival of your choice (John, do you still call it Autumn down under, or is it Spring?) Now that the boot topping and working bow deck were done, I went back to figuring out how to best work on the deckhouse details for the Boat and Superior decks, which had to be done separately because the setbacks were so narrow, while at the same time their bow sections had to be worked on together because their sides were flush. Here is how the decks stacked up last September. I drilled and screwed them together to rough out the bow sections, but this was not as repeatable as I needed to work on the flush surfaces. I decided that the only way this would work was to carefully cut the bow section off each deckhouse. It protrudes a little athwartships, so there is a natural separation point. I marked out a line perpendicular to the centerline using some basic geometry then cut along it, slowly and carefully, with my band saw. The rough edges from the cuts were smoothed with a disc sander. I glued the forward pieces together and will shape and fit them out later. The two deckhouses are stacked together but remain unglued. Now I turned to the railings around each deck. In the first photo you can see how the solid railings are surmounted by a wooden handrail supported by single flanges that lead down to the deck. There are no crossbar railings at all. The base of the railing has a brown margin at the deck. The handrail is fairly high to keep passengers from falling over. Judging from the postures of the passengers I estimated that this is about 44”. That is, 36” for the solid rail, and another 8” for the handrail. The closest I could get to this configuration was on the photoetch (PE) fret from Gold Medal Models. On their ‘Merchant Ship’ sheet there are two lengths of 1-bar railing which have only the top handrail and bottom base rails with no cross rails. The rest of the railings are 2, 3, 4 and even 5-bar. I bought three sets, despite the cost, but six lengths would not be enough for the whole model so it was saved for the most visible areas. But where the back of the railing was hidden by an upper deckhouse, I used 2-bar PE. To get a consistent handrail height above the solid railing I cut two tapered strips of 0.02” plastic and slipped them through the PE under the handrail as spacers. 0.02” is 7” in scale, so when the strips rested on the solid railing the handrail was just the right height above it. The PE was carefully positioned and clamped in place with smooth-jawed electrical clips. The above photo was taken while I was working out the method, so I just used some excess 4-bar railing, but the technique worked as well with fewer crossbars. Here is what the setup looked like from outboard. With a section held in place, small drops of thin cyano on a toothpick were touched to the PE to hold it to the solid railing. When the glue was dry the spacers and clips were moved along and another section was done. Tension was maintained during the gluing process, and the result was a very straight, consistent handrail. Here it is with the Superior deck house set in place for contrast. When the cyano was fully dry the entire length of the railing was overpainted with white glue. I like this double security. The cyano gives the joint strength, while the white glue gives it some flexibility and shock absorbing qualities. Having worked out the method, I turned to the tricky section of railing around the stern deck. Not only did the railing have to curve, but the railing leaned outward a bit. This conic shape meant that the PE would have to bend in three dimensions, which it cannot do. I ruined the first length of the scarce 1-bar railing trying to make it bend. Ultimately I had to carefully cut the base rail every other section and work slowly and carefully around the curve. I learned from my mistakes and the second fitting of handrails here was satisfactory. For the brown base of the railing I cut narrow strips of acid free art paper, soaked them in dilute white glue, and laid them around the perimeter of the rails. This not only matched the photos, but hid some uneven spots caused by the cut base rails. Using these methods the railings were installed around the perimeter of the Promenade and Boat decks. Next segment will cover the final detailing of the Boat deck house and its installation on the model. I will try to get it posted before the holidays. If I do not post before then, a healthy and happy Holiday Season to one and all, and a very good New Year. Dan

Hi Adrian - That is some beautiful, careful work that you are doing, and using a method that I haven't seen before. Do I understand correctly that you are plating the inside of the hull? Dan

Beautiful, as always, Keith. Dan

Hi Charlie - She's coming along nicely. The pivot circle for the carronade is a difficult piece, and you have done it well. On the deckhouse, I don't know what you mean by "The back will be raised a bit so the little guy can go in." It looks good to me. The companionway hatch cover will slide forward on a pair of rails, which will give the man the room he needs to go down the companionway steps. There were probably a pair of doors that closed off the aft end of the deckhouse when not in use. Something like this - Hope that helps. Dan

Hi Charlie - Putting on my shipwright's cap, here's my two cents: The 'flashing' is not so much to keep water out of the galley as it is to stabilize the chimney coming off the stove. It would need some support as it goes up through the deck, and a strong metal plate secured to the grating would fit the bill. Any sort of wooden support would get too hot, I think. When it rained, the tarp that appears in one of the Mamoli photos could be used (although I am a bit wary of relying on a detail from a model where the gratings do not have a solid perimeter). As for the direction of the top of the Charlie Noble, pretty much any orientation is OK, since they turned to stay out of the windstream. Use your best artistic judgement. In the real world, sideways to the wind was probably best, since it would pull the smoke most strongly up the chimney, like blowing across the top of a straw. They just had to be sure not to face it into the wind, or the smoke would be blown right back down. The carronade and pivot mount are coming along nicely. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Dan

Maury - The new rudder looks great. Sorry if my post had you doing extra work, but the improvement is noticeable. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Dan

If you trust your skill in softening the pieces, could you try to stretch them a bit? This would lengthen them and also flatten the arc. Does that make sense for the kit? Dan

Marc - Very nice solutions to the fitting issues. As has been said, those few slight kinks in the run of plans and wales will never be noticed behind the headrails and rigging. Well done! Dan