CPDDET

If you go the route of the cradles as I did, let me know. Using the contour gauge for this purpose is a bit tricky. I'll pass along some tips.

Welcome! You will find friendly people here and lots of help.

The first challenge was to figure out how to flip the ship over so I could design the cradle. Luckily I had a piece of balsa wood that was spongy enough to friction fit in the mast mounts. Then just mounted the ship upside down in the keel vice. Since I made the error of not prepping the keel/hull for mounting bolts I decided to use dowels to strengthen the cradle assembly. Using a profile gauge, I managed to copy the hull in two places and make cradles out of basswood. Then test fit the cradles on the hull. Using double stick tape, I mounted the basswood cradles on the walnut base and double checked the fit. Picked up a piece of walnut and used the basswood pieces as a pattern to mark the walnut and cut them on the scroll saw. Then drilled holes in both the base and cradle pieces I glued wood dowels into the base and glued the cradle pieces to these Then drilled holes in the base of the cradle pieces to accept dowels that I glued into the keel Then put 3 coats of wipe on poly on the finished piece. Now it’s on to the bow sprit.

If your going to stay with this hobby don't buy tools till you need them and then buy the best you can afford. This is the advice I got years ago and it's done well by me.

Repainting the hull went pretty smoothly. I used larger pieces of tracing paper and blue painters tape for masking. Then used my airbrush to repaint. I decided not to extend the yellow stripe over the chainplates as I wanted this detail to stand out a bit. Did a little brush work on the chainplates to finish them up, so that part of the build is now finished. I had planned on moving to the bow sprit next but decided that now was the time to get the ship mounted to a base. I already had a nice walnut base and brass standoffs but, do to ANOTHER beginners error, I neve prepped the keel / hull for mounting nuts / screws. So I've decided to build some type of cradle for the model. Going to have to get creative here as I need to secure the ship upside down to work on this step. Ill keep you all posted as that progresses.

I will add that Sherline customer service is very good. But again, I'm not familiar with Proxxon so can't comment on theirs. It may be just as good.

You might want to compare the available accessories from Sherline and Proxxon. Don't know much about Proxxon but Sherline has a wide range of accessories for it's mill. I find the Sherline sensitive drilling attachment very useful, among others.

I have a Sherline and have been very pleased with both the quality of the mill, variety of available add-ons and great customer service.

Installed the starboard side chainplates today. I used the 3 tools pictured here: a 1/32 drill bit mounted in a pin vice, a #11 knife and a 1/32 PCB drill bit. I received a set of the PCB drill bits for Christmas but haven't used them much as they seem to screw themselves into material rather than drilling a hole and clearing the shavings as a regular drill bit does. If you look closely your can see the difference between the bit in the pin vice and the PCB bit. While I'm not familiar with the correct names of drill bit parts, the PCB bit is more like a screw. But I found it works rather well when used as a file in this application to elongate the drilled holes. I started out by drilling 1/32 holes for each of the 5 chainplates and then used the PCB bit and #11 blade to elongate them. Wanting a strong bond to the hull, I sanded off a section of paint so that the chainplates would adhere directly to the wood instead of the paint. I used CA to attach the chainplates to the hull and added some small nails to simulate bolts. These small nail heads probable won't be very visible once painted but I thought they were a nice detail, even if only I know that they are there. This is the forward starboard side. This is the aft starboard side where I had to be a bit more precise with my drilling. The slot for the chainplate needed to go through the monkey rail, stay on the outboard side of the the monkey board and then through the main rail. Once I finish up the port side I will re-paint the hull.

👍 very nice work!. White paint would have helped to brighten the space but I really don't know if it was actually used.

Looking good!

Great idea on using the tape. Looking forward to seeing your progress on the spars. Not yet sure how to stain / varnish mine as I approach that step.

Took forever but all the chainplates are finished and ready to install. Now just have to work up the courage to mark the locations and start drilling the holes for them.

You can use a piece of tape with the size written on it around 1 piece and band them together with a rubber band.

Not sure exactly what you need help with here. Separating by size could be as easy as measuring the width and thickness of the "sticks" / planks? Perhaps you meant something else?

You will often hear most people on this site say, "Buy the best tools you can afford". And I agree. If this is going to be a long time hobby for you, I can recommend a pin vice set by Starrett. Not cheap but very well made and sould last you a lifetime.

The kudos are well deserved

Excellent scratch build, Pat

They look great against the copper plate. I've often struggled over consistency in my model when it comes to metal work. All blackened? All natural brass color? Mixed?

Just a thought. Did you consider blackening these pieces or coating the brass to prevent discoloration?

Crisp, clean and nicely detailed. Very nice work, Pat.

I find a good bourbon worked wonders. 🤪

Thanks Pat, slow going but forging ahead.

In order to assemble the chainplates, deadeyes and deadeye strops I needed a way to hold everything in alignment. So time to build a jig. Using one of the deadeyes as a template, I marked the 3 holes and drilled through the wood base. Since these holes needed to be as straight as possible, I did them on the mill rather than free hand (a drill press would work nicely as well). Then ran 3 straight pins through the wood base from the bottom with a touch of CA and clipped off the excess length of the straight pins. This allowed me to drop each deadeye over the pins and hold it in place. To help keep the deadeye, strop and chainplate in alignment, I added a piece of scrap wood and sanded it down to ½ the thickness of the deadeye. After placing a deadeye on the pins, I added the strop and laid in one of the chainplates Used a straight pin to further align the pieces Then used a pushpin through one of the predrilled holes in the chainplate to help hold that steady. Then it was just a matter of removing the straight pin and replacing it with a .8mm bolt Threaded on the nut and trimmed off the end of the bolt One down and 19 to go!

That will be the best beer I've had in 2 years! LOL