hollowneck

To avoid distortion (and for safety's sake!), make an outer plaster of Paris two-piece jacket with the joint at right angles to the split line in your RTV mold.

Making the kit's gangways. As is clear here, a wooden ship modeler can never have too many clamps (or have too much money). BE CAREFUL with these two-part pattern pieces. They require adroit clamping (after applying regular TiteBond to the thicker etched pattern, not the thin pear one). The edges will peel apart unless you clamp all along both sides - and at the ends. How do I know this? Don't ask. I had to re-glue the first one which opened-up.
 
I'm nearly ready to mount the ship's chains and deadeyes. First things, first: stain all the deadeyes in the color "Chestnut." Admittedly, this is a subtle color change from the provided oak-colored deadeyes. However, this color is a more accurate representation of actual pulley blocks and deadeyes of the era that were often made from English chestnut. Imagine that! English chestnut for His Majesty's Royal Navy.
 
I'm also looking waaaay ahead for accurately-sized belaying pins when it comes to rigging. These puppies are sweet! I'm going with the slightly larger ones after testing them in a sample bitt piece. Ten pieces at 9mm - anything else here you need to go to Google Translate. From Russia, With Love, I say: Falkonet. Like Vanguard, this relatively new kit company (as well as offering numerous pear bits n' pieces) also specializes in Awesome. 
 
Last photo here: the saw I use for the cathead and MDF chain pump surgery.
 
 

Ahhhh, yes. Gotta read the fine print.
Evergreen can be everyone's Friend. But it begs the existential question: "Grasshopper: do wood and plastic go together?"
Thanks, Ken.

Alright, alright...a good time to talk about whether to "Admiralty" or Not-to-Admiralty. I made my decision early-on but I suspect some builders of this kit will get well into their builds and then encounter the dilemma I faced early-on: which PROVIDED deck pattern to use?
 
The Vanguard kit provides this choice, which, to my knowledge is a first:  go "scratch," and go barebones with a thin ply fitted deck piece, or toss this item into your scrap bin and choose the nicely laser-etched - and thinner - maple pattern for both weather decks (foc'sle & quarter).
 
Here are a bunch of photos to illustrate how I approached "fixing" (upgrading) my decision to go with the very kool "etched" (laser engraved) decking.
 
The preferable decking patterns (.061 vs .071 thick for the ply version), have the "reveal" punch outs burned into the pieces. These are quite objectionable if one wants to use these for a fully-decked model - like me, for Camilla. I arrived at a remedy that I think works reasonably well.
 
First, sand off some of the residual char on the surface areas around the cutout lines (both deck patterns) - you can't miss this. The lasered lines will still remain prominent, but that's o/k....because...
 
You'll next fill the laser cut lines with stainable wood filler. This stuff is magical IMHO. It's STAINABLE, pilgrims. Which means it can take on a pretty good amount of color you'll apply to it. In this case, my MinWax Weathered Oak stain- which another photo shows as being quite grey at application. Don't panic, grey is good. Let it soak into the wood (Maple has decent open grain). The grey will subside slightly after you wipe off with a soft cloth. If one has made mental visual notes of the actual color of wooden decks on replica sailing ships, this will make good sense without going overboard (pun intended!) on ""weathering."
 
Carefully sand off the stainable wood filler residue after it dries - which is about 30 milliseconds. Cap that Wood Filler stuff or it turns hard as a rock in a few minutes. Use your fingers to apply it; fingers are good. I use these genetically - inheirited digital applicators all the time for aliphatic glue (TiteBond) and various fillers. This technique doesn't work as well with CA however...😂
 
Next comes the fun part: I use a crazy sharp stainless awl (one of my favorite bench items) and carefully (repeat, CAREFULLY) re-scribe the etched lines in the deck patterns - including all the planking lines, the butt end lines and....wait for it: the individual trunnel representations. I also scribe plank lines along the full length of the punch-out pieces (both deck patterns, BTW). The reason I do all this is that I want the deck patterns to ABSORB the stain I'll apply after all this minutiae - by slightly breaking through the wood surfaces - so the offending reveal opening lines are diminished. Note this word: diminished. These lines are not going to disappear entirely and hence, my next "fix" to make these unfortunate cut lines disappear, well, almost.
 
I'll add scratched, gratings of pear (from Russia's Falkonet kit company) near the quarterdeck front hatches which are presented open (since there are no provided kit gratings to add here). The tiny Falkonet grating piece I have on-hand is slightly out-of-scale, but acceptable to me because these "cover-ups" are going to be rather small anyway, lying next to the small coamings. These scratched pieces - that will not be entirely out of place - will cover-up the etch lines at one end of the deck. And at the far end, my added carronades (four- yet to be acquired) will cover-up the other set of cut lines, depending on where I mount them. By the time all the other deck candy and rigging is added - including belaying pins, the kit's kool detailed binnacle, a nice helmsman's wheel and rope coils - nobody will hold out a pointing accusatory finger and say to me: "Hey! what happened on the deck here?"
 
At least that's my post-build fantasy, and I'm sticking to it. Obviously, this is an irreversible decision as soon as I commit to adding deck furniture to the patterns...photos to come.
 
More pics later, maybe this weekend. 
 

 
Two ways to go: use the etched maple pattern (left) or scratch-plank the plywood one (where you'll need to glue the reveal punch-outs first).
 

 
The sublety of the staining: this is coat #1. After it dries, I'll add another. After 2 coats, it's diminishing returns on the effect of staining.

 
Brush it on liberally, it'll soak in: then wipe it off and apply another coat after thoroughly drying.

 
The "magic" filler and one of my secret weapons -  my scribing awl.


 
"A-ha!" New ventilation covers for the open hatches; they'll lay askew alongside the coaming openings, both sides and cover-up the offending laser etch lines for the quarterdeck punch out reveals.
 

 
Voila! A cover-up placed over the reveal etch lines. These are two of the kit's cannons in position for a visual check; I'll add proper carronades to the quarterdeck in good time.
 

 
Mein typical glue selection for a build; guess which one I use with my fingers?... The matte medium is used as an adhesive for most of the small P/E decorative pieces (upper bulwarks). Dries fast, most importantly, it's invisible when dry. However, be aware it is also a slightly flexible material post-drying.

Making the kit's gangways. As is clear here, a wooden ship modeler can never have too many clamps (or have too much money). BE CAREFUL with these two-part pattern pieces. They require adroit clamping (after applying regular TiteBond to the thicker etched pattern, not the thin pear one). The edges will peel apart unless you clamp all along both sides - and at the ends. How do I know this? Don't ask. I had to re-glue the first one which opened-up.
 
I'm nearly ready to mount the ship's chains and deadeyes. First things, first: stain all the deadeyes in the color "Chestnut." Admittedly, this is a subtle color change from the provided oak-colored deadeyes. However, this color is a more accurate representation of actual pulley blocks and deadeyes of the era that were often made from English chestnut. Imagine that! English chestnut for His Majesty's Royal Navy.
 
I'm also looking waaaay ahead for accurately-sized belaying pins when it comes to rigging. These puppies are sweet! I'm going with the slightly larger ones after testing them in a sample bitt piece. Ten pieces at 9mm - anything else here you need to go to Google Translate. From Russia, With Love, I say: Falkonet. Like Vanguard, this relatively new kit company (as well as offering numerous pear bits n' pieces) also specializes in Awesome. 
 
Last photo here: the saw I use for the cathead and MDF chain pump surgery.
 
 

Thanks, druxey.  I will add them.

The bollard timber heads have been remade.  As I was making version one, I knew there was something wrong but could not figure it out.  As druxey stated, the inner and outer (athwartship) faces of the bollard head runs parallel to the keel. I have made an opening in the sheer rail for the timber rather than gluing it on top, as I did in version one.  A thin piece of boxwood was bent around a dowel and used to fill simulate the bollard timbers alongside and below the bowsprit.



Treenails in the grating were simulated with a punch.  A pencil was twisted in the depression to represent the treenail.  Bolts made of blackened brass wire have been added to the bowsprit step, bitts and anchor lining.  Mast wedges for the fore and main masts were made up from four smaller pieces of castelo, glued together.  These were turned on the lathe.  The opening was made using a mill with a rotary table since I did not have bits the correct diameter.  The multiple wedges were simulated with an 11 blade.  The skylight was glazed with sheet mica.



Most of the external details (other than the channels and deadeyes) have been finished.  While it was still safe to hold the hull upside down, I installed the horse shoes, ribbons and gudgeons.  The horse shoes and ribbons are left over from the photoetch sheet once sold by Admiralty Models.  Recesses were carved in the stem, sternpost and keel for them.  The pintles and gudgeons were made from brass square stock, strips and wire.  They were silver soldered and blackened.  I used the method shown in TFFM.  The sequence is shown in the diagram.  First the brass rod and strips are cut to length.  Next, slots are filed into the brass rod to accept the strips.  They are soldered and the face of the rod is shaped.  A hole is drilled near the front.  For the pintles, wire is inserted into the hole and soldered in place.  Once I was sure that the rudder could be unshipped, I removed it for safe storage.   Question: would a ship of this size have a spectacle plate or would some other way to secure the rudder been used?  There is no spectacle plate shown on the plan or the model.

Alright, alright...a good time to talk about whether to "Admiralty" or Not-to-Admiralty. I made my decision early-on but I suspect some builders of this kit will get well into their builds and then encounter the dilemma I faced early-on: which PROVIDED deck pattern to use?
 
The Vanguard kit provides this choice, which, to my knowledge is a first:  go "scratch," and go barebones with a thin ply fitted deck piece, or toss this item into your scrap bin and choose the nicely laser-etched - and thinner - maple pattern for both weather decks (foc'sle & quarter).
 
Here are a bunch of photos to illustrate how I approached "fixing" (upgrading) my decision to go with the very kool "etched" (laser engraved) decking.
 
The preferable decking patterns (.061 vs .071 thick for the ply version), have the "reveal" punch outs burned into the pieces. These are quite objectionable if one wants to use these for a fully-decked model - like me, for Camilla. I arrived at a remedy that I think works reasonably well.
 
First, sand off some of the residual char on the surface areas around the cutout lines (both deck patterns) - you can't miss this. The lasered lines will still remain prominent, but that's o/k....because...
 
You'll next fill the laser cut lines with stainable wood filler. This stuff is magical IMHO. It's STAINABLE, pilgrims. Which means it can take on a pretty good amount of color you'll apply to it. In this case, my MinWax Weathered Oak stain- which another photo shows as being quite grey at application. Don't panic, grey is good. Let it soak into the wood (Maple has decent open grain). The grey will subside slightly after you wipe off with a soft cloth. If one has made mental visual notes of the actual color of wooden decks on replica sailing ships, this will make good sense without going overboard (pun intended!) on ""weathering."
 
Carefully sand off the stainable wood filler residue after it dries - which is about 30 milliseconds. Cap that Wood Filler stuff or it turns hard as a rock in a few minutes. Use your fingers to apply it; fingers are good. I use these genetically - inheirited digital applicators all the time for aliphatic glue (TiteBond) and various fillers. This technique doesn't work as well with CA however...😂
 
Next comes the fun part: I use a crazy sharp stainless awl (one of my favorite bench items) and carefully (repeat, CAREFULLY) re-scribe the etched lines in the deck patterns - including all the planking lines, the butt end lines and....wait for it: the individual trunnel representations. I also scribe plank lines along the full length of the punch-out pieces (both deck patterns, BTW). The reason I do all this is that I want the deck patterns to ABSORB the stain I'll apply after all this minutiae - by slightly breaking through the wood surfaces - so the offending reveal opening lines are diminished. Note this word: diminished. These lines are not going to disappear entirely and hence, my next "fix" to make these unfortunate cut lines disappear, well, almost.
 
I'll add scratched, gratings of pear (from Russia's Falkonet kit company) near the quarterdeck front hatches which are presented open (since there are no provided kit gratings to add here). The tiny Falkonet grating piece I have on-hand is slightly out-of-scale, but acceptable to me because these "cover-ups" are going to be rather small anyway, lying next to the small coamings. These scratched pieces - that will not be entirely out of place - will cover-up the etch lines at one end of the deck. And at the far end, my added carronades (four- yet to be acquired) will cover-up the other set of cut lines, depending on where I mount them. By the time all the other deck candy and rigging is added - including belaying pins, the kit's kool detailed binnacle, a nice helmsman's wheel and rope coils - nobody will hold out a pointing accusatory finger and say to me: "Hey! what happened on the deck here?"
 
At least that's my post-build fantasy, and I'm sticking to it. Obviously, this is an irreversible decision as soon as I commit to adding deck furniture to the patterns...photos to come.
 
More pics later, maybe this weekend. 
 

 
Two ways to go: use the etched maple pattern (left) or scratch-plank the plywood one (where you'll need to glue the reveal punch-outs first).
 

 
The sublety of the staining: this is coat #1. After it dries, I'll add another. After 2 coats, it's diminishing returns on the effect of staining.

 
Brush it on liberally, it'll soak in: then wipe it off and apply another coat after thoroughly drying.

 
The "magic" filler and one of my secret weapons -  my scribing awl.


 
"A-ha!" New ventilation covers for the open hatches; they'll lay askew alongside the coaming openings, both sides and cover-up the offending laser etch lines for the quarterdeck punch out reveals.
 

 
Voila! A cover-up placed over the reveal etch lines. These are two of the kit's cannons in position for a visual check; I'll add proper carronades to the quarterdeck in good time.
 

 
Mein typical glue selection for a build; guess which one I use with my fingers?... The matte medium is used as an adhesive for most of the small P/E decorative pieces (upper bulwarks). Dries fast, most importantly, it's invisible when dry. However, be aware it is also a slightly flexible material post-drying.

Work has been progressing slowly on Swallow.  The next item to work on is the armament.  Swallow carried fourteen 4-pound cannon and twelve 1-pound swivel guns.  There are no commercially available guns that are the correct size so it was necessary to make them.  I intend to make one of each gun and then cast them in pewter.  I have never done any metal casting before, so this could be interesting.  The basic shape of the guns was made on the lathe.  Then, using thin strips of tape, I made the reinforcing rings.  The monograms are from Syren.





I made a simple casting box from scrap basswood.  I glued a piece of paper on the bottom to keep the clay from sticking to the table.  The next step was to embed the cannon half-way in clay (I used Sculpy).  Once the piece was secure, I transferred it to the casting box, added air vent sprues and made depressions in the clay with a square rod to facilitate registering the mold halves.  There is also a spout at the barrel muzzle for pouring the molten metal into the mold.



Unlike casting plastic or resin pieces, a high-temperature silicone rubber mold is required.  I used Mold Max 60 by Smooth-On.  The instructions recommended using a vacuum to remove air bubbles but I had no access to one and compensated by constantly tapping the mold box until the rubber had set.  The picture shows the cannon attached to the rubber and freed from the clay.

The next day, I liberally coated the mold and gun with Vaseline to prevent sticking and poured the other half of the mold.  I waited another day to unmold.  For a first attempt, I am pleased.  Even the monogram is visible in the rubber.  One of the problems with a flexible mold it that it can be easily distorted.  I used four parallel jaw clamps to gently hold the two mold halves together.
 



 
 

Thanks for the comments and the likes.  The wale has been painted and the decorative strip applied.  The wale has five coats of very dilute artist's acrylic paint.  The strip was painted before installing on the hull.  The steps were installed next.  They are not shown on the plan so I placed them where they are located on the model.  The profile of the step was made with a scraper and the ends were shaped with files and sandpaper.  The step overlying the wale will be painted black.  Sorry for the sawdust between the steps.


At this point I ran into a problem that I have not completely resolved.  When you look at the bow section of the plan, you can see that the bowsprit is lashed to a stem head.  There is a little decorative carving on it but most importantly, it appears to be rotated to starboard and the lower end of the stem head protrudes into the stem.  Also, the stem rises above the rail.  These are the reasons I initially decided that the bowsprit exits the ship on the port side of the stem.  When I lined everything up, nothing made sense.  The stem would need to be cut back severely on the port side to accommodate the bowsprit and the leading edge of the stem would need to flare  because of the rotated stem head.  The plan shows that there is no flare.  The three photos help illustrate the problem.




I did a search of all sloops plans in the RMG built between 1750 and 1820.  There was not a single one with the configuration shown on the plans.  The closest I found was Weazle 1799, built twenty years after Swallow but also built at Dover.  On this ship, the top of the stem is shorter and the stem head does not show any rotation.  My guts tell me to place it in the midline but I am willing to hear anyone's opinion on this.

 
 

Your idea that: "There is a little decorative carving on it but most importantly, it appears to be rotated to starboard and the lower end of the stem head protrudes into the stem." is, I think, misinterpreting the  plan. The head knee is central and let in with a shallow scarphed mortise on to the stem head. The shading at the tip of the knee is indicative only of the carved detail. The bowsprit is centered between the two bollard timbers. There is a minimal shallow groove centrally on the breast hook for the bowsprit. I suspect that the stem head proper was cut down and is either shown before it was revised or is erroneously drawn. If the bowsprit were offset, it was more frequently done to starboard, not port. The only reason to offset a bowsprit was to run it inboard past the mast, as on a Revenue cutter. In that case, it would never be lashed to the knee of the stem as shown.
 
Other opinions?

What plug? Nice progress, Toni! My only comment is that I interpret the shaded are at the tip of the knee as being shaved away to a blunt point as seen from above. If you can do that, the carving will look even nicer. Oh, and don't forget the shallow notch for the gammoning. See the Weazle draught.

Good progress there, Toni. It's difficult not to knock a chip or two of paint off during construction, but I'm sure it will clean up nicely in the end!

Looking lovely, Toni. However, might I point out that the bollard timberheads are extensions of the bollard timbers themselves? This means that their athwartship faces are parallel to the keel, not at right angles to the sheer rail. That way they have a bearing face on each side of the bowsprit.

Nice job on the pintles and gudgeons, and the bollard timbers look much improved!
 
As the position of the upper pintle strap is about where a spectacle plate would be, I suspect that there was simply an eyebolt through the tip of the strap on each side for preventer chains. This is just a conjecture, though.

Hello, Toni. The whole boat looks beautiful. I hope you don't mind me asking, but the problem I see in the stern of a ship is that the hull plate presses directly on the stern plate. But you have a "tag" at the end (name unknown, allow me to call it that) . Was this part of the ship designed this way or was it added for its beauty?
 

That is a very practical detail, called the fashion piece. It is actually part of the framing of the stern. It is rebated two ways, one to end the bottom planks into and the other way for the stern planks. The reason is that if that were not there, the plank ends would be exposed. Water penetration quickly causes rot. 
 
There are other places in a ship where the end grain of wood is protected for the same reason. This is a detail most ship modelers are either not aware of or choose not to show. It is a difficult piece to model, as the rabbet for the bottom planks keeps changing angle. Toni has done a fine job of it.

Thanks to everyone for the likes.
 
Thank you, druxey.  Your explanation was much more explanatory than anything I would have said.  The fashion piece was a pain to fabricate because of the compound curves.  But by following the little-bit-at-a time approach, I ended up pleased with the result.   As you can see in the picture, the model does not have a fashion piece.  In fact, the aft ends of the hull planks are unusual; typically the lapstrake would have gradually diminished to a smooth surface.
  

Alright, alright...a good time to talk about whether to "Admiralty" or Not-to-Admiralty. I made my decision early-on but I suspect some builders of this kit will get well into their builds and then encounter the dilemma I faced early-on: which PROVIDED deck pattern to use?
 
The Vanguard kit provides this choice, which, to my knowledge is a first:  go "scratch," and go barebones with a thin ply fitted deck piece, or toss this item into your scrap bin and choose the nicely laser-etched - and thinner - maple pattern for both weather decks (foc'sle & quarter).
 
Here are a bunch of photos to illustrate how I approached "fixing" (upgrading) my decision to go with the very kool "etched" (laser engraved) decking.
 
The preferable decking patterns (.061 vs .071 thick for the ply version), have the "reveal" punch outs burned into the pieces. These are quite objectionable if one wants to use these for a fully-decked model - like me, for Camilla. I arrived at a remedy that I think works reasonably well.
 
First, sand off some of the residual char on the surface areas around the cutout lines (both deck patterns) - you can't miss this. The lasered lines will still remain prominent, but that's o/k....because...
 
You'll next fill the laser cut lines with stainable wood filler. This stuff is magical IMHO. It's STAINABLE, pilgrims. Which means it can take on a pretty good amount of color you'll apply to it. In this case, my MinWax Weathered Oak stain- which another photo shows as being quite grey at application. Don't panic, grey is good. Let it soak into the wood (Maple has decent open grain). The grey will subside slightly after you wipe off with a soft cloth. If one has made mental visual notes of the actual color of wooden decks on replica sailing ships, this will make good sense without going overboard (pun intended!) on ""weathering."
 
Carefully sand off the stainable wood filler residue after it dries - which is about 30 milliseconds. Cap that Wood Filler stuff or it turns hard as a rock in a few minutes. Use your fingers to apply it; fingers are good. I use these genetically - inheirited digital applicators all the time for aliphatic glue (TiteBond) and various fillers. This technique doesn't work as well with CA however...😂
 
Next comes the fun part: I use a crazy sharp stainless awl (one of my favorite bench items) and carefully (repeat, CAREFULLY) re-scribe the etched lines in the deck patterns - including all the planking lines, the butt end lines and....wait for it: the individual trunnel representations. I also scribe plank lines along the full length of the punch-out pieces (both deck patterns, BTW). The reason I do all this is that I want the deck patterns to ABSORB the stain I'll apply after all this minutiae - by slightly breaking through the wood surfaces - so the offending reveal opening lines are diminished. Note this word: diminished. These lines are not going to disappear entirely and hence, my next "fix" to make these unfortunate cut lines disappear, well, almost.
 
I'll add scratched, gratings of pear (from Russia's Falkonet kit company) near the quarterdeck front hatches which are presented open (since there are no provided kit gratings to add here). The tiny Falkonet grating piece I have on-hand is slightly out-of-scale, but acceptable to me because these "cover-ups" are going to be rather small anyway, lying next to the small coamings. These scratched pieces - that will not be entirely out of place - will cover-up the etch lines at one end of the deck. And at the far end, my added carronades (four- yet to be acquired) will cover-up the other set of cut lines, depending on where I mount them. By the time all the other deck candy and rigging is added - including belaying pins, the kit's kool detailed binnacle, a nice helmsman's wheel and rope coils - nobody will hold out a pointing accusatory finger and say to me: "Hey! what happened on the deck here?"
 
At least that's my post-build fantasy, and I'm sticking to it. Obviously, this is an irreversible decision as soon as I commit to adding deck furniture to the patterns...photos to come.
 
More pics later, maybe this weekend. 
 

 
Two ways to go: use the etched maple pattern (left) or scratch-plank the plywood one (where you'll need to glue the reveal punch-outs first).
 

 
The sublety of the staining: this is coat #1. After it dries, I'll add another. After 2 coats, it's diminishing returns on the effect of staining.

 
Brush it on liberally, it'll soak in: then wipe it off and apply another coat after thoroughly drying.

 
The "magic" filler and one of my secret weapons -  my scribing awl.


 
"A-ha!" New ventilation covers for the open hatches; they'll lay askew alongside the coaming openings, both sides and cover-up the offending laser etch lines for the quarterdeck punch out reveals.
 

 
Voila! A cover-up placed over the reveal etch lines. These are two of the kit's cannons in position for a visual check; I'll add proper carronades to the quarterdeck in good time.
 

 
Mein typical glue selection for a build; guess which one I use with my fingers?... The matte medium is used as an adhesive for most of the small P/E decorative pieces (upper bulwarks). Dries fast, most importantly, it's invisible when dry. However, be aware it is also a slightly flexible material post-drying.

Alright, alright...a good time to talk about whether to "Admiralty" or Not-to-Admiralty. I made my decision early-on but I suspect some builders of this kit will get well into their builds and then encounter the dilemma I faced early-on: which PROVIDED deck pattern to use?
 
The Vanguard kit provides this choice, which, to my knowledge is a first:  go "scratch," and go barebones with a thin ply fitted deck piece, or toss this item into your scrap bin and choose the nicely laser-etched - and thinner - maple pattern for both weather decks (foc'sle & quarter).
 
Here are a bunch of photos to illustrate how I approached "fixing" (upgrading) my decision to go with the very kool "etched" (laser engraved) decking.
 
The preferable decking patterns (.061 vs .071 thick for the ply version), have the "reveal" punch outs burned into the pieces. These are quite objectionable if one wants to use these for a fully-decked model - like me, for Camilla. I arrived at a remedy that I think works reasonably well.
 
First, sand off some of the residual char on the surface areas around the cutout lines (both deck patterns) - you can't miss this. The lasered lines will still remain prominent, but that's o/k....because...
 
You'll next fill the laser cut lines with stainable wood filler. This stuff is magical IMHO. It's STAINABLE, pilgrims. Which means it can take on a pretty good amount of color you'll apply to it. In this case, my MinWax Weathered Oak stain- which another photo shows as being quite grey at application. Don't panic, grey is good. Let it soak into the wood (Maple has decent open grain). The grey will subside slightly after you wipe off with a soft cloth. If one has made mental visual notes of the actual color of wooden decks on replica sailing ships, this will make good sense without going overboard (pun intended!) on ""weathering."
 
Carefully sand off the stainable wood filler residue after it dries - which is about 30 milliseconds. Cap that Wood Filler stuff or it turns hard as a rock in a few minutes. Use your fingers to apply it; fingers are good. I use these genetically - inheirited digital applicators all the time for aliphatic glue (TiteBond) and various fillers. This technique doesn't work as well with CA however...😂
 
Next comes the fun part: I use a crazy sharp stainless awl (one of my favorite bench items) and carefully (repeat, CAREFULLY) re-scribe the etched lines in the deck patterns - including all the planking lines, the butt end lines and....wait for it: the individual trunnel representations. I also scribe plank lines along the full length of the punch-out pieces (both deck patterns, BTW). The reason I do all this is that I want the deck patterns to ABSORB the stain I'll apply after all this minutiae - by slightly breaking through the wood surfaces - so the offending reveal opening lines are diminished. Note this word: diminished. These lines are not going to disappear entirely and hence, my next "fix" to make these unfortunate cut lines disappear, well, almost.
 
I'll add scratched, gratings of pear (from Russia's Falkonet kit company) near the quarterdeck front hatches which are presented open (since there are no provided kit gratings to add here). The tiny Falkonet grating piece I have on-hand is slightly out-of-scale, but acceptable to me because these "cover-ups" are going to be rather small anyway, lying next to the small coamings. These scratched pieces - that will not be entirely out of place - will cover-up the etch lines at one end of the deck. And at the far end, my added carronades (four- yet to be acquired) will cover-up the other set of cut lines, depending on where I mount them. By the time all the other deck candy and rigging is added - including belaying pins, the kit's kool detailed binnacle, a nice helmsman's wheel and rope coils - nobody will hold out a pointing accusatory finger and say to me: "Hey! what happened on the deck here?"
 
At least that's my post-build fantasy, and I'm sticking to it. Obviously, this is an irreversible decision as soon as I commit to adding deck furniture to the patterns...photos to come.
 
More pics later, maybe this weekend. 
 

 
Two ways to go: use the etched maple pattern (left) or scratch-plank the plywood one (where you'll need to glue the reveal punch-outs first).
 

 
The sublety of the staining: this is coat #1. After it dries, I'll add another. After 2 coats, it's diminishing returns on the effect of staining.

 
Brush it on liberally, it'll soak in: then wipe it off and apply another coat after thoroughly drying.

 
The "magic" filler and one of my secret weapons -  my scribing awl.


 
"A-ha!" New ventilation covers for the open hatches; they'll lay askew alongside the coaming openings, both sides and cover-up the offending laser etch lines for the quarterdeck punch out reveals.
 

 
Voila! A cover-up placed over the reveal etch lines. These are two of the kit's cannons in position for a visual check; I'll add proper carronades to the quarterdeck in good time.
 

 
Mein typical glue selection for a build; guess which one I use with my fingers?... The matte medium is used as an adhesive for most of the small P/E decorative pieces (upper bulwarks). Dries fast, most importantly, it's invisible when dry. However, be aware it is also a slightly flexible material post-drying.

Ron, the thumb drills are sold by Micro-Mark, thru Amazon. They're in the fine print in that ad as the brand. And yes, Evergreen can be your friend for details.😁

I just realized I forgot to upload a photo for the hand pump after I added the scratched spout. You can also see the larger square spout on the chain pumps body; this one is 3/16" square so you can see that the hand pump spout is less than 1/8" square! Getting that round hole on center so it wouldn't break through the side of the square stock was nerve-wracking! I had to grip the tiny piece with a tweezer clamp when I drilled it.
Ron

Thanks, Mark. I'm going to try and show as many tools and materials as possible as I continue. I know this helps me when I read a log.
We all use different tools and approach building tasks in our own ways, so seeing how something is achieved is just as valuable as why it was done.
 
My next post (perhaps tomorrow) will be about how I approached solving a problem that had me in a slight dilemma. It's about the option that this kit offers for not making it as an Admiralty-styled ship model. Sneak preview shown here...
 
Ron

oops, forgot this pic.
 
This photo shows (background) the scratched waterway with a couple scupper holes. You can also see the added pear lining piece on the base of one gunport. On the cannon, tompions will be affixed to most, with added release ropes threaded thru the gunports. These are made from toothpicks and tiny brass "eyelets." I'm certain the actual mechanisms were more complex than this...🤫 I have since removed the char on the carriage axles after someone noted this...(thanks, Chuck).
 
Important edit: You'll see the breeching rope is mounted to the cannon's cascabel BEFORE attempting to rig the eyebolt hardware into the corresponding holes alongside each gunport. This process makes mounting the cannon so much easier to accomplish. I don't do training tackle on my cannon (or trussing tackle, the upper eyebolts over the openings). There are modelers of this era who do add this embellishment and it can be impressive. For me, adding fiddly 2 mm blocks with .12 dia. proper rigging rope is beyond my patience level, especially for rigging 20 cannon (14 of which won't even be seen!)...
...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
 
Ron
Technical note: all my log photos thus far are taken with my old iPhone 6, for convenience (2016?). Not great resolution with any of them, but it does the job.

I know, I know. Most scuppers of the era were made from lead.
 
But in my workshop the EPA has been looking over my shoulder lately, so I made Camilla's scuppers in a more environmentally and human-friendly material.
Ron