shipmodel

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

Thanks again, gentlemen, for your praise !
 
@Keith Black: A Preiser set of unpainted figures, in N-scale, will be the starting point for making the crew. Lots of carving, sculpting and micro-surgery, I expect.
 
@shipmodel: I had been toying with the idea of using such monofilament, but I don't like its sort of light translucency (which would require painting) and I am not sure, whether simulating chain by double-twisting the material would work with this material. Perhaps I should give it a try with thermosetting the twists with my hot-air gun.
 

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

Hi Mark - 
Happy that you are back and even happier that you are healthy.
Excellent drawings.  They really give a good idea of the interior structure of the ship.
 
Dan
 

Hi Mark - 
Happy that you are back and even happier that you are healthy.
Excellent drawings.  They really give a good idea of the interior structure of the ship.
 
Dan
 

Hi Mark - 
Happy that you are back and even happier that you are healthy.
Excellent drawings.  They really give a good idea of the interior structure of the ship.
 
Dan
 

Hi Mark - 
Happy that you are back and even happier that you are healthy.
Excellent drawings.  They really give a good idea of the interior structure of the ship.
 
Dan
 

I thought I would share my method for making deadeyes.
 
I made a bunch a long time ago for the main and fore shrouds, and half what I needed for the topmast and topgallant backstays.  They were about 5mm and 4mm respectively.   I made them using a method described in Underhill's book, and it worked out fine.  The little jig is very fiddly to make.  The method is shown from post #184-198 in this log. 
 
However I now need 32 topmast shroud deadeyes at 3.5mm, and 12 more of the backstay deadeyes at 4mm.   Partly because of the smaller size, and partly because I have better tools now, I wanted to try something that might be more precise.
 
This first batch is the 3.5mm set.   I turned a squared piece of pear down to 3.5mm, and then scored it on the lathe with grooves for the futtock plates, and cut-very slight cut off grooves to help with parting them off with a saw.   While the dowel was still on the lathe, one by one, I smoothed and rounded the outer edge, then cut it off.  I didn't take pictures but here is the result--

 
You can see they have one smooth side, one rough side, and a groove.  (Noticeable on one of the deadeyes standing on edge.) 
 
Next I drilled a hole in a piece of scrap wood just under 2mm thick (the thickness the finished deadeye needs to be), filed the hole to to 3.5mm diameter, and glued it to another piece of scrap wood.  This has a smaller hole drilled through it centered on the larger hole--

 
A deadeye fits very snuggly in the hole, the rough side slightly proud--

 
The rough edge is filed off flush with the surface of the wood--

 
I filed the one shown below just a bit more with a smaller file after taking the photo--

 
I then marked by eye the spots for the holes to be drilled--

 
And drilled them on a mill.   I wasn't great at locating the drill precisely at the marks, so I tried drilling a couple by hand.  I could get the drill in the mark very easily that way, but at that small size, my accuracy (keeping the pin vise vertical) wasn't good enough. 

 
 After some practice with the mill, I could locate the drill above the punched markings more quickly and pretty accurately--

 
The deadeye is then pushed out from behind--

 
And the flattened surface is rounded off with a file--

 
Here are two finished--

 
It took me about 5 before they started looking good.  The first few had problems with my marking of the holes with the right spacing, as well as the stated problem with hand drilling them.   I started with one spare, so I'll ponder whether the first are okay to use, or if I have to turn a few more blanks.
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Hi Siggi, Druxey and Mark - 
 
I am greatly enjoying your discussion.  To add my two cents -
 
The one consideration that has not been mentioned yet is how the gun would act during recoil.  If the rope is fixed around the cascabel, either by a loop and a seizing or by a cont splice, then if the gun is anything but exactly perpendicular to the bulwark, the shock of the recoil will be taken up unevenly, leading to a torque on the rear of the barrel, which could not be good for the gun or the gunners.  In extreme cases I guess it could overturn the carriage.  Leaving the breaching rope to run free, whether with a loop or without, would even up those stresses.
 
Dan
 

Hi all - 
 
Well, the second coming of the Queen Anne's Revenge is done - finally - and will be on its way to North Carolina on Friday.  
 
There are some minor differences between this one and the first (i.e. chains for the lower deadeyes rather than straps were discovered underwater, so they were changed on the model).  But overall, they are very similar in both technique and final appearance.  I did plank the entire lower hull before putting on the white stuff, which eliminated the earlier hairline cracks from the movement in the wood of the framing, but very little else.
 
Here are some of the finished photos.  The blue flags are Post-It paper to warn of where the bowlines for the sails are.  They are well nigh invisible without them.
 
All questions, comments and critiques are welcome.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 

Hi all - 
 
As mentioned during the build of this model of the Queen Anne's Revenge, I have been tasked to do two models of the ship.  One for each of the museum's locations - Raleigh and Beaufort.
 
I have been working steadily on the second edition, but not done a build log, since almost all of the techniques used, and the results obtained, are identical.  Below are some progress photos.  The hull is complete and fitted out.  The masts and all of the standing rigging is done.  I am turning the spars as I listen to the Masters.
 
The only significant technical difference is invisible.  I had a good deal of trouble with the lower hull in the first model.  Despite lots of glue, doweling, and wood hardening, there were some hairline cracks that developed between hull crescents caused by humidity changes that would not go away.  To eliminate the problem, the entire lower hull of this model was fully planked and pegged.  I have not had a repeat of the issue.
 
Sharp eyes will note one or two differences between the two sisters.  I took the waterline and wales up about 10mm to more closely match the profile of the Advice Prize plans, rather than Budriot's Mercure.  It lays out much better for the headrails, hawse holes, and quarter badges.  The museum requested that all of the guns, not just the port broadside, be run out, so they were set and rigged ready for combat.  Finally, the underwater archaeologists have located some of the chain plates for the lower deadeyes.  Rather than the solid straps found with other French ships of the period, they are metal loops and backing plates similar to those generally known on English ships.  Accordingly, they were made up from iron wire and secured with nails into the hull.  
 
I will post some more when I get closer to completion.
 
As always, feel free to comment, question, or critique it.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 

I have considered Daniel’s chains, T_C.  Unfortunately, I don’t think their length will cover the span that I need to reach the middle band of wales.  It’s okay, though, making my own is a worthwhile learning experience.
 
So far, I’ve made the 5MM, fore and main deadeye strops.  I just completed the 3.5MM backstay deadeye strops.

Below are the rough strops before filing away excess solder.  Above are the cleaned-up strops.  I have adopted a method described by R.C. Anderson, where the join overlaps and is concealed beneath the channels.  I’m reasonably satisfied with these.  Now that I have a new pair of nippers, I will get busy making the other links, although I still need to make 4MM deadeye strops for the mizzen chains.
 
I wanted to do something more familiar and fun, so I’ve started re-locating the trunnions for the main deck battery.  To the left is the stock trunnion location, and you can see that the cascabel overhangs the carriage end to an excessive degree.  To the right, I’ve shifted the barrel forward to where it should be:

This process begins by shaving away the existing trunnions, and making a simple marking gauge to locate the new trunnion position:

I use an awl to make a starting depression for the drill, otherwise the bit will just skate across the rounded surface.  First, I chuck the bit in a pin vise to get a better bite on both locations.  Then, I can chuck the bit in the Dremmel and drill though one side at a time:

A short length of .035 styrene rod is fed through the barrel, and a spot of liquid plastic cement, on the underside of each join, secures it.  On my marking gauge, I inscribed a line indicating the projection of the trunnions from the barrel side.  A pencil mark on the overlong trunnions gives me a reference to nip to.  I clean the ends with a file, and voila:


Corrected trunnions!
 
Ultimately, I will add either paper or foil cap squares to the visible, detailed guns.
 
Thanks for stopping by and looking in at This Old Project!

Hi Marc - 
 
I finally am getting your updates, and love what you are doing.  The gun carriages look fine, and no one the wiser.
As for making chain at 1:96, even the old "scratch built" rules allowed for purchased chain.  (I have extra chain in really small sizes if you need some).
If you are talking about deadeye chainplates, then you are on your own.  You might be able to take larger size chain and squeeze the links into thinner, longer shapes.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan 

Thanks, belatedly, gentlemen ...
 

Well, some traveling and struggles with tiny and flimsy parts caused again a long delay until this update …
 
Installing the ship’s boats
 
This detail was the most dreaded of all, due to the flimsy character of the parts. The davits had been produced a long time ago, as were the blocks for the hoisting tackle, and, of course the four boats.
 
There are no pictures, except the very first photograph of SMS WESPE that indicate the arrangements for the boats hanging outboard on the davits. While it seems to have been a quite common arrangement on smaller warships of the time, it was already noted in reports by captains of Prussian gunboats ten years earlier, boats in such a position are prone to be carried away by seas of even moderate height. So, quite early on barrings and boat skids had been installed on the WESPE-class boat and the davits lengthened to lift up the boats. For this final arrangement, various images are available.
 
Somehow, the boats must have been prevented from swinging in their hoisting gear. A typical arrangement would have been a spar lashed across the davits and the boats pulled against them with cross-wise boat ties. In the absence of other pictorial evidence, this is what I opted for. There were, however, still some detail questions open: were those ties strips of heavy canvas or braided rope-work and did the spars have bolsters around them to prevent damage to the boats? For the latter questions there are examples of both option on photographs and (contemporary) models. 
 
I recently visited again the Maritime Museum in Stockholm, which reminded me of a possible solution on a model of the same period. The boat-ties seem to have been heavy canvas and had triangular rings at their ends. They are attached to an eye at the top of the davit, run around the boat, then around the opposite davit, and are hauled taught with a tackle of blocks hooked in between them. No bolsters on the spars.
 
I decided to leave out the tackle and just use a lashing between the rings to tighten the ties. The lashing will be difficult enough to access behind the boats.
 
Boat ties arranged on a package of book-repair tape
 
The triangular rings were fashioned from 0.15 mm tinned copper-wire wound around the tang of a triangular file with 1 mm sides. The windings were cut open with a scalpel. The ties themselves are narrow strips of a special kind of material: a kind of very fine silk-paper tape with a backing of a thermos-setting acrylic glue. This material is used in book repair for instance. Brand and other details can be seen on the photograph. The 1 mm strips were cut with a new no. 11 scalpel blade and folded in two. The material is slightly tacky which is helpful when aligning the halves and inserting the rings. The glue was set with the help of my hot-air soldering gun set to 110°C as per instructions. The halves were pushed together using a tool as used in the old days to rub down transfer lettering. The ties were painted in Vallejo ‘hemp’. 
 
Boat ties in detail
 
It took some tries to work out a workable sequence for installing the davits, spar, boat-ties and boat-tackles, considering also the difficulty of access. Eventually the ties were fastened to the davits and the tackles hooked into the latter with the loose end already belayed to the clamp on the back of the davits.
 
Davits fitted out and ready for installation on board
 
The davits then were inserted into their sockets and fixed with a drop of white glue. Next the spar is lashed to the davits. Then the ties were arranged in preparation of the boats and the lashing is reeved. 

Davits ready to receive the boat.
 
The davits are now ready to receive the boat, which is slipped in and the tackles hooked into the respective rings on the boat. The ties are now pulled tight, so that boat rests against the spar.
 
Boat stowed in the davits.
 
Overall, the installation of the first boat went reasonably well. However, it is hanging a few millimetres too low. The boat’s keel should have been level with the bulwark handrail. Somehow, I didn’t manage to make the close-hauled tackled as short as it should have been. Also, the hooks on the blocks are a tad too long. Not 100% satisfactory, but I am not going back two steps to remake the blocks and tackles and all. Let’s assume the crew hasn’t done such a good job in stowing the boats and the officers haven’t noticed it yet …
 
To be continued ....

Hi Ken - 
 
She looks like she is coming along nicely.
I like the developing shape of the hull form.  She should look sweet when you get to plank her.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Good late Tuesday evening everyone.  Way overdue for an update.  I have been working on the rudder. 
 
First off I changed my workbench.  I always stand to work, mostly from habit.  And when you are trying to do microwork your neck gets cricky.  So I had the genius idea to raise a portion of my bench by clamping on a I-shaped extension which I normally use to hold carvings.  Worked great, and I taped some paper on as a clean work surface.
 
And as you can see I got my ceramic stone with little metal pegs; way better than the bricks I was using. 

I tried silver soldering in the house tonight and no appreciable smoke or flames.  So in moderation it seems ok to work indoors.  Also the garage is in the 30s at present.
 
Last time I made a test gudgeon which went pretty well.  This time I made a test pintle.  Here is my setup.  Putting the ceramic brick onto a real brick provided more than adequate heat isolation; nothing caught fire.

I've lived in fear of soldering for ages and it seems to be laughably simple.  Sand the parts with 200 grit, soak briefly in 99% isopropyl alcohol, handle with tweezers afterwards, make sure the metal parts to be soldered are touching, apply a dab of silver solder/flux paste, heat in little circles around the part being soldered, and after 3-5 seconds the paste melts and voila! its stuck together.   This was my second successful attempt, of 2 attempts. 
 
Here is my pintle threaded onto the gudgeon held in place with finger power on the kit's rudder.  I have to deepen the mortises the pintles sit in; they are too shallow and the pintle protrudes too much.

But the hinge works freely.  A small step forward.
 
Here's the kit rudder held against the hull to check space between the sternpost and the rudder.  Too wide at present.
 

And here's my holly rudder (the bottom part isn't trimmed flush yet), which I think looks pretty good.  Like the rest of my build I used pencil to accentuate the individual planks. 

 
The kit plans show the rudder made of 4 large planks and a thinner backing plank, which is what I did.  Later I checked Dr Feldman's book and saw he made his rudder from 7 planks (!).  I think he drew or scribed them but regardless too fiddly for my tastes; I'm sticking with what I've built.

Thats where I'm at.  Desperately trying not to screw up anything where I have to remake then entire rudder so taking it slow.
 
2 other notes.  One, I bought the Micromark fine chisels for the carving class I went to.  The gouges were, sorry, utter crap, but I had been using the chisels and liked them.  Not anymore.  The steel is really soft so the ends bend too easily.  When I tried to resharpen them they formed a long thin burr that flopped about and refused to come off.   Too expensive to throw out but basically useless.  I do really like the length and shape of the handles though.

Second, in my mad pursuit of soldering excellence, I purchased the below book on the recommendation of a post on this site.  Its a mixed bag- the author has made some amazing models of insane complexity from sheet and tube brass; beautiful eye candy.  But 99% of the book is showing step by step advanced construction; it assumes you already know how to solder.  So if you are looking for an intro book this isn't it.

Thats it for tonight.  Next up is brass blackening, a subject that seems to be as controversial and full of competing advice as soldering.  I can no longer remember what system I used for my little 18th century whaleboat but all my results had spots and flakiness.  I ended up using black paint which worked fine but I want to push the envelope.  Dangerous chemicals here I come.
 
thanks for reading;
 
Cisco
 
 

Hi Marc - 
 
I finally am getting your updates, and love what you are doing.  The gun carriages look fine, and no one the wiser.
As for making chain at 1:96, even the old "scratch built" rules allowed for purchased chain.  (I have extra chain in really small sizes if you need some).
If you are talking about deadeye chainplates, then you are on your own.  You might be able to take larger size chain and squeeze the links into thinner, longer shapes.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan 

Back in July I lost momentum on working on the hull of the model. Happily, one of the distracting projects was deciding to work on a carved version of the transom carving, shown above. This decoration was added to the schooner after its refit in the year 2000 time frame. I don’t know who created the carving for them.
 
In the off season, the carving hangs on the wall at the skipper’s house. I took a picture of the carving hanging on the wall in the winter of 2022. Its actual dimensions are 5 ft 9 inches across and about 2 feet in height. Its approximate thickness is 3 inches total. At 3/16” scale, this will translate to a total width of just over 1 inch.
 
I was able to take an image and reduce it to the appropriate scale, then I used tracing paper to copy the outline of the shield, pennant, and eagle. This was then transferred to a piece of boxwood about 1/8” thick. To be safe, I transferred the pattern to two pieces of wood in case I screwed something up along the way. So far, though, the backup piece has not been necessary.

This and other pics that look like it were taken through the viewpiece of my microscope. The traced pattern is evident, and I have already started working out the right side of the eagle, shield, and pennant.

Now both sides are getting worked out.

This photo shows some relief involving the body and legs of the eagle.

Now jump forward substantially, and lots of details have been worked in. Dots on the pennant indicate where the stars will be. The talons haven’t been worked out yet.

As predicted, the carving has a maximal dimension of just over 1 inch.

This is my microscope setup. Thanks to Margie Buckingham, widow of Doug Tolbert, who offered for sale this articulating microscope!

A jeweler’s ball vise is essential for this kind of work.

And now I am carving out the stars from the surface of the blue area of the pennant. The talons have also been defined.

Painting is now under way. The blue is much too electric, so I added a small amount of black paint to it. White paint has been dropped into the recessed stars. I was warned that the paint may obscure the surface details of the eagle, but I was pleased with how it turned out.

I have darkened the blue paint. Much better.

And now I have carved away some of the splotches of paint that were on the backing wood.
 
So after about 45 hours of work, it is pretty much finished! When the time comes to mount it, I plan to very carefully carve off the wood from the backside of the piece. The piece and its backing is glued to a separate piece of wood that is clamped in the vise. Rather than soaking the piece to free it from the other piece of wood, I plan to gradually carve it free. I will wait to do this step until it’s time to mount it because the freed piece will be exceedingly fragile on its own and I don’t want to risk damaging it. The workpiece started out as a 1/8” thickness piece of wood, and when I am done carving off the backside it will be around 1/16” in thickness. Wow.
 
I am happy to report that I have regained momentum on the rest of the model project, so I should soon have a new post that is about the covering boards.
 

Hi Marc - 
 
I finally am getting your updates, and love what you are doing.  The gun carriages look fine, and no one the wiser.
As for making chain at 1:96, even the old "scratch built" rules allowed for purchased chain.  (I have extra chain in really small sizes if you need some).
If you are talking about deadeye chainplates, then you are on your own.  You might be able to take larger size chain and squeeze the links into thinner, longer shapes.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan 

Hi Marc - 
 
I finally am getting your updates, and love what you are doing.  The gun carriages look fine, and no one the wiser.
As for making chain at 1:96, even the old "scratch built" rules allowed for purchased chain.  (I have extra chain in really small sizes if you need some).
If you are talking about deadeye chainplates, then you are on your own.  You might be able to take larger size chain and squeeze the links into thinner, longer shapes.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan 

Hi Marc - 
 
I finally am getting your updates, and love what you are doing.  The gun carriages look fine, and no one the wiser.
As for making chain at 1:96, even the old "scratch built" rules allowed for purchased chain.  (I have extra chain in really small sizes if you need some).
If you are talking about deadeye chainplates, then you are on your own.  You might be able to take larger size chain and squeeze the links into thinner, longer shapes.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan 

Time to start building the deck structure, which will help solidify the sides of the hull. I had been thinking about installing temporary spalls, but the shape of the hull seemed very stable without them and it didn’t seem to change much when I was fitting the deck beams at the point of maximum beam.
 
I made a pattern template for the curvature of the beams to match the camber of the deck on the actual ship. On one of my visits to the Mary Day, I strung a string from one side to the other at the point of maximum beam, secured with tape to a stanchion on each side. I then dropped the string on each side until it barely touched the deck in the centerline, then measured the height at each stanchion. The rise in the centerline was 4.5”. I then used the method described by Chapelle in his Boatbuilding text to draw out the appropriate curve on cardstock. Which is challenging to do at this small scale. This was then transferred to a piece of wood for additional stability.
 
Some of the beams were made with Castello boxwood, while I started to splurge with some English (Buxus) boxwood for some of them so I could see if it was noticeably different from the Castello. The pattern was transcribed onto stock of appropriate thickness, for both the upper and lower surfaces of the beams. Multiple pieces of appropriate length were created, and the center point on the curve was also transferred to each piece.

The joint of each beam with the planking and each beam shelf was often very complicated and called for a lot of trial fitting. Trimming at each end was very gradual and symmetric in order to try to preserve the position of the centerline marks.

There were multiple facets of the joints that had to be trimmed in a symmetric fashion, as the beams articulate with not just the beam shelf but also with the frames themselves.

This beam is almost completely flush with the sheer strake.

A lot of work just to install the eight deck beams, and that was after I decided to neglect some beams normally found near the stern.

These Castello beams have their center points marked. There is a fine thread strung from stern to stem, and it appears that they don’t quite line up. The difference is about 1/32”. I am thinking that the stem may be leaning to one side a tiny bit.

Next up are the carlings that make up the support for the deck houses. This will be my first opportunity to cut joints. The plans indicate dovetail joints, but I decided to cut square joints.

Marking off the joint locations and cutting the carling to length.

The microscope was a huge help in cutting these joints.

This joint actually has a bit more of a gap in it than I was shooting for. But overall they made for a very rigid deck structure, and it was a very satisfying process.

Time for the ledges. In the areas of the deck that are to remain unplanked, all of the ledges will be installed. But in the areas to be covered over, I decided to install every other ledge.

This particular carling was a lot of work, with ten joints in it. Each had to be placed accurately, so that the ledges would stay parallel and would articulate properly with their corresponding frames.

Due to all this trial and error, I set the model right next to where I was cutting the joints under the microscope so I didn’t have to keep getting up from the microscope and go back to the workbench.


Each ledge was of course unique, as they had to be of the proper length, they had to have proper camber, and they had to be notched on the underside to articulate with the beam shelf.

Port and starboard side surrounding the forward deckhouse is done. Also installed are coamings for a forward hatch, as well as the mast partners.

Now moving towards the stern, with all but one carling trimmed to length and installed.

All carlings cut to length. But not glued in place yet, until I was satisfied with how everything articulated.

In order to make sure that I painted all interior areas that would be visible following deck planking, I covered the entire deck with the exception of the area that would remain unplanked, then visually inspected the interior. Fortunately it looked like everything was covered.

Pretty happy with how the frames have turned out.

Painting this area accurately will be tricky, since I will want the exterior surface painted accurately, but the cut surfaces of the planks will need to be brown.
 

All beams, carlings, and ledges were dry-fitted to make sure everything is shipshape. Then, the ledges in the area that will be exposed were removed and everything else was glued into place.

Before painting the areas that would remain exposed, I addressed cutting down these two bulkheads at the stern to appropriate height. The more forward of the two was marked using a template of the deck camber.

The excess was carefully chiseled away to allow for a fair run of planking as dictated by this batten.

Painting of the exposed deck structure was then performed. The beams and carlings were painted, sanded, and re-painted while in place. The ledges were painted to appropriate smoothness prior to installation.

The unpainted ledges indicate where the planking will cover.

 

All painting and installation is complete.

 
Several spalls were added to two forward bulkheads to provide support for the deck planking in the bow. This area was also sanded with coarse sandpaper in an effort to start the deck fairing process.
 
That was very satisfying! And even more exciting will be when the deck planking begins to take shape. But at the same time, I am obsessing about fabricating the covering boards, which are very complex and delicate in shape. Next post!
 

I’ve become somewhat stymied in my chain-making experiments, lately, as one of the tips of my Xuron PE snips snapped off, while cutting soft annealed wire (28 gauge).  Maybe I’m using the wrong tool here, but should the tip really snap off after such relatively light use?  Is there a better tool in the Xuron range for 1:96 chain making?
 
Anyhow, that’s all on hold until I buy better/more appropriate tools.  In the meantime, I just wanted to make some progress doing anything, so I finished detail painting the main deck gun carriages.

I appreciate all reasonable advice to correct the implausible/impossible carriage trunnion mounts.  After much hemming and hawing, during my phase of no progress, I have decided to let this one go in the interest of keeping things moving onward and upward.  I am satisfied enough that I spread the trucks, and I will re-position the barrel trunnions themselves, so that the cascabels don’t overhang the back of the carriage to an unreasonable degree.  Good enough for this go-around the May-Pole.

I have blacked-out the truck axles and the glue blocks underneath all visible carriages.
 
One other incorrect detail of my model that I would like to better understand the “why for,” is the rake of the channels.  I have chosen to back-sweep the forward and aft edges of my channels:

This just feels intuitively correct to me.  To the contrary, though, all credible monographs show a slight forward-sweep to the fore and aft edges of the channels.  What is the logic behind the design?