Dr PR

1. If you will be using a hand held pin vise DO NOT get carbide bits. They are very brittle and break with the slightest twist. These are for use in milling machines, drill presses and PC board fabrication machines. High speed steel bits are good for pin vises. Most of the bits I have seen with thick shafts and narrow cutting ends are carbide and are designed for automatic drilling machines. 2. Whatever you get, be sure it will hold the smallest bits (#80, 0.0135 inch, 0.34 mm). I have two of the types with removable collets and they will not hold the tiny bits. I bought a set of four pin vises with the "collet" as part of the body. The smallest closes down to virtually zero diameter and holds the smallest drill bits tightly. The handle is a simple knurled cylindrical shaft that can be chucked into a drill press. The handle is hollow, and allows long bits, wires, needles, whatever, to be held by the pin vise. I don't recall where I got them, but the set wasn't very expensive. Almost certainly made in China. 3. These things are useful for holding anything small. In addition to drill bits I have used them to hold needles, pieces of wire with hooks in the end to help with rigging, and short pieces of jeweler's saw blades. Here is a photo of the smallest pin vise holding a piece of a jeweler's saw. I needed to make a cut with a very narrow kerf. Having multiple pin vises means you can use one to hold the thing you are working on and another to hold the tool you are using. Or you can have multiple sizes of drill bits ready to use without changing collets. 4. The only drawback I have found with the hollow tube handle pin vises is that they do not have a finger rest on the end of the handle - just the end of the hollow tube. This is a bit uncomfortable when using a finger to press the tool as you are turning it to drill holes. I have thought about making one - perhaps adapting the rotating finger rest from one of my other pin vises that has multiple collets. Bit this hasn't been a big problem.

Whatever you do, test it first on a scrap piece of cloth!

I made a mistake in something I said in the previous post. Actually, I have not seen all the boats that were ever built, nor have I studied all the many ways builders built boats. So I don't know that real boats were not planked as in the model. But I do know the ship model community dogma holds that every plank be tapered perfectly, stealers should always be made the "right" way. There isn't much allowance for the fact that no two vessels were ever built the same way. I have finished shaping the planking on the hull. I used a file to take down the higher spots and remove any glue smears. Then I sanded with 150 grit followed by 320 grit. This was followed by a rub down with #0000 steel wool. The planking follows the curvature of the bulkheads nicely. The next step will be one of those "high pucker factor evolutions." The instructions say to remove the bulkheads from the planked hull. The bulkheads are made of MDF and that material is very soft and flakes easily. So I anticipate no problems breaking the bulkheads into pieces and removing most of them. But they are glued to the planks. I used glue sparingly where the planks fit against the bulkheads, and spread glue on the plank edges so they would be glued together. For extra measure, after the planks were in place I spread more glue along the seams on the inside of the planking. But still, with planks only 0.6 mm (0.024 inch) thick, the potential for disaster is evident. Wish me luck! Before sanding the hull I applied a layer of acrylic sealer. While this was drying I jumped ahead in the instructions and assembled the rudder. It has a central 0.6 mm wooden piece and two flanking photo etch brass parts with nice detail. I used CA gel to attach the metal parts to the wooden center as recommended in the instructions. The straps were bent at right angles to the rudder to fit the transom. The lower straps will need to be bent back along the planking after the rudder is glued on. If you look at the photos of the stern and transom above you can imagine how the rudder will fit on the boat.

A while back someone (don't remember who know) posted pictures of metal anchors from an old model kit that had started crumbling into dust. I hate it when that happens! If your anchors survived the toxic and corrosive bluing process they will probably stay intact for quite a while. But maybe you should handle them with gloves. Gun bluing contains some pretty nasty heavy metals.

Shipman, The boat will be painted inside and out. You are correct - this planking isn't the way real boats were built. In fact this is one of my complaints about some of the ship kits being sold today, with instructions to slap the planks on without tapering and just chop them off at an angle where the lower planks curve up to meet the horizontal upper planks. I measured the gap between the garboard strake and the top plank, and then tapered the remaining nine planks with the intention of having equal width ends both fore and aft. But as I explained I didn't actually taper the first few of these planks enough, and that didn't leave room for the remainder to have equal tapers. That was my mistake. However, these planks are only 0.6 mm thick and have normal wood grain. And as the end tapered narrower and narrower they were much more prone to bending and breaking. I guess I just was reluctant to push my luck and didn't taper them enough. I did break one of the 22 planks while shaping the taper. I considered hooking those next-to-last two planks, with the last plank shaped to fit between them. But if you follow the rest of the construction you will see that all but the bottom of the bulkheads will be removed and fake ribs will be added. So when I was finishing the planking I didn't know where the ribs would be to place the planking joint. I was FAR more concerned to get the planks bent so they fit tight to the bulkheads. With only 0.6 mm of wood there isn't much to be sanded away to smooth the hull if an edge stood proud over a neighboring plank. Sanding a hole through the planks would be a far greater problem that the pointed planks! With the experience I have gained from this build if I built another of these kits I think I probably could taper all of the planks correctly. But if the thing is going to be painted, why bother? **** I guess I should explain my "philosophy" for model building. No matter how hard we try and how much time we spend we can never achieve totally accurate parts at modelling scales. For example, many people serve the threads we use for ropes in order to create the appearance of a served rope. But how many modelers actually worm and parcel the rope before winding the service? And when people make their own "ropes" how many actually start by creating the smaller yarns, then winding them into intermediate threads of scale width, using alternate cable and shroud lays, before winding these into the scale ropes? When I build a model the main purpose is to learn how the real things were made, and the second purpose is to make a scale replica that represents the appearance of the real thing. Some people want to try to replicate the entire structure of a ship, making each scale part and carefully piecing them together, even though little of it will be visible in the finished model. I have tried this, and it brings satisfaction to the modeler that is has been done successfully. But there is still a limit to what can be done at scale. Look at my USS Oklahoma City CLG-5 CAD model for an example. It was done at 1:1 scale, and contains just about every detail visible on the outer surface of the ship down to 3/16 inch (0.1875 inch or 4.76 mm) diameter rivet heads. Probably half of the 220,000+ pieces are fasteners. How would you make a 3/16 inch diameter rivet head at 1:100 scale? They would be 0.001875 inch (0.047 mm) diameter, and you would have to place thousands of them. I started modelling the actual frames and internal structure and realized it would be millions of pieces. It took 14 years just to model the exterior - I wouldn't live long enough to model the entire interior! So we have to accept limits to the accuracy of our models that are imposed by the scales we work at. Where you place those limits is up to you. In this case I just want to get the damned thing finished with an acceptable appearance (to me) and move on!

I have been finishing the hull planking. Here is an example of a plank that has been shaped to the hull by bending with the planking/quilting tool. The front and back were clamped in place on the hull. The straight plank didn't want to fit in place. But after it was wetted and heated several times it bent into shape with all the necessary curves and twists. Then when it was glued into place no clamps were needed. I have used this technique here and on the MSI hull, and it is far better than trying to bend the planks off hull on a jig. That may curve the plank, but it won't give it all the necessary twists. The hull itself is the best "jig." This is the hull with all but the last two planks in place. And I do mean last two planks - there are no spares! However, if you break a plank and need another you could make one from the excess wood on the 0.60 mm pear sheet. I shaped the planks two at a time, tapering both ends. The planking came out fairly symmetrical on both sides. However, as you can see here, I didn't taper the first few planks quite enough. By the time I got to the last three per side it was clear that I wouldn't be able to run all three to the bow and stern. I shaped the two planks on the side of the opening that you see in the photo to fill the gaps at the bow and stern, and fashioned a short pointed piece to fill the gap. The last plank finally fit into place. If you look closely at the Vanguard kit instructions this is how they finished the planking - with the short pointed piece. I certainly am not disappointed with the planking job. This is pretty thin wood and I worried about breaking the planks as I trimmed, filed and sanded them into shape. They fit the shape of the hull tightly and after sanding and painting it should look really nice. One interesting thing about the laser cut planks is that they have a trapezoidal cross section instead of rectangular. This is because the laser burns a narrow "V" cut. Consequently, the planks are somewhat tapered for fitting around the curved bulkheads. Still, I did file away some of the char on the inside of the plank edges to get a tighter fit. I put the narrowest side on the inside against the bulkheads. When I came to the last (pointed) planks, on one side the plank dropped between the neighboring planks without trimming at the middle widest part. On the other side I did have to file away some of the char to get the plank to fit between the other planks. All in all, up to this point the kit has gone together without much trouble.

BCD, It sounds like you may be talking about thimbles - they have a single hole through the piece and a groove around the edge for a line to attach. I bought some 2.5 mm "single hole deadeyes" from Ages of Sail (AM4280/25), 20 per package. Here is a photo of one of these in the sling for the yard.

First, that little bit of short plank would never have been noticed by anyone else if you had never mentioned it. Your "repair" came out very nice. Don't let it nag at you. There are more important things to "worry" about! Second, you can bend just about anything that is flexible over the bulkheads to see how the fairing is coming along. A thin strip of plastic will work as well as a plank - cut a strip out of plastic packaging or some other scrap. It just needs to be thick enough to be a bit "springy." Even heavy cardboard will do. If you rub a pencil over the edge of the bulkheads you can see the results of sanding. Be sure you do not sand away the pencil from the "high" edge of the bulkhead. You don't want to take away too much wood or you will end up with a "dent" or low spot in the planking. Although it is nice to get a wide flat surface for planks to glue to, you really don't need the entire width of the bulkhead. So leave the little bit of the pencil mark on the high edge to reassure yourself that you haven't sanded too much. When you bend the test strip over the bulkheads is should fit "naturally" against every bulkhead. Play around with it and you will see what I mean. If the edge of a bulkhead is too low you can always glue a scrap piece of planking to the edge and repeat the fairing. Put extra time and effort into getting the bulkheads faired so the test strip fits with a nice smooth curve. After you start planking it is too late to get it right!

Mark, Bad news! Rest up, sit back, relax and enjoy spring. It's gin and tonic time, and you only need one hand for that! Tendons can do strange things. About 15 years back I was tucking a cover between pillows in the couch when there was an audible "snap" and a finger in my left hand stopped working. The tendon broke and I couldn't control the outer two digits. I could feel the broken ends beneath the skin. Bummer! I looked in my medical books and several on-line medical school hand medicine sites and they all said the same thing - splint it and wait. I bent some sheet brass to make a frame for a splint and wrapped it in gauze. I taped it to the finger and changed the bandage every day. A couple weeks later the finger started working again! The broken ends of the tendon grew back together. It is still working as good as new - except for a slight lump under the skin where the ends grew together. So give your hand some rest and it will recover. And then get back to the Lynx! We all would like to see it finished!

I am working on the ship's boat. It is a Vanguard Models 1:64 scale 18 foot cutter. At 1:48 it will be a 14 foot cutter. It is just the right size to hang from the stern davits. Rather than post the process in this thread where many people won't see it I am posting the build in a separate thread: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/38319-18-ft-cutter-by-dr-pr-vanguard-models-164/?do=findComment&comment=1095898

Planking is continuing. I am tapering the planks to try to get fairly uniform widths at the bow and stern. So far it has been pretty easy. If the wood seems to be especially dark at some places it is because I am using my planking tool to shape the planks in place on the hull. The tool is hot enough to scorch the wood, but this will sand off when I do the final finishing. I wet the planks with water and then heat them with the tool. They bend and twist to the exact shape of the hull. Then when I glue them in place I don't need to clamp them except at the very bow and stern to hold them while the glue sets. After the glue has set I reheat the planks to melt and reflow the Titebond glue. It hardens again when the planks cool. It is this process, when the planks have not been wetted with water, that the planks get scorched.

I have only used water to clean brushes with the acrylic "hobby" paints that I use. I have been doing this for years and there is no paint build up on the bristles. Of course, I never allow the paint to dry on the brushes. I wash them immediately after painting. But as Wefalck says, there are different types of acrylic paints, and some may need a solvent other than water.

Mark, Apparently it was common practice to nipper the parts of the lanyard together - see Lever page 9 Fig. 76. He says a round turn might be taken over the lanyard between every cross turn. This could give the appearance of a seizing around the parts of the lanyard. Nippering and alternate round turns would be pretty complicated at small scales, so just a series of round turns (like seizing) could be used. This was early 1800s American practice. I don't know if it was common elsewhere and at other times. Petersson (Rigging Period Fore-and-aft Craft, pages 23, 82, 85, 90) shows examples of the end of heart and eye lanyards being wound around the bulk of the lanyards a few turns between hearts/eyes with the ends of the lanyards secured to one strand of the lanyard with a seizing. These things would occasionally need to be tightened, and winding the end of the lanyard around the parts between the hearts/eyes provides a place to stow the extra length of the lanyard.

I found this discussion interesting. I began painting (artistic) seriously about 65 years ago. I was a student for years with artists of our local art guild. I learned from them how to care for brushes. I used oils mainly, with some watercolors and tempera. For my models I used lacquer/dope and enamel. More recently I have been using acrylics. I have always used sable brushes with all types of paints. I have some camel hair but I don't like it. For throw-away jobs (glues, etc.) I just buy cheap whatever brushes. Never leave brushes standing in solvents. NEVER! The liquid will wick up inside the ferrule. This causes the wood to swell, and that opens the ferrule so eventually it will fall off the handle when the brush dries. I wash brushes with the solvent used in the paint. I have never used a detergent or soap - not even with acrylics. I wipe as much paint off as possible with paper towels. Then I dip the brush in solvent and wipe it on a paper towel. I repeat this until no pigment bleeds from the brush. Then I let the brush air dry. Many of my brushes are at least 50 years old (some maybe more than 60 years) and are still in good condition.

Tim, The MSI was very crowded. It was quite a change going from a 112' ship with a crew of 22 to the 610' cruiser with a crew of about 1200!

Why?

Tim, Thanks for the tip. I had noticed that the transom wasn't very strong. In fact, the first time I glued it to the keel I used a minimal amount of glue. It came loose (only the glue failed, no wood was broken) while I was fairing the bulkheads. I reattached it with a substantial amount of Duco Cement. It should be a bit stronger now that the top planks are glued to it. But I will use care while working around it. While I was fairing the bulkheads I placed a piece of wood between the last 2 mm MDF bulkhead and the 1 mm pear C14 bulkhead to prevent the thin bulkhead from twisting and breaking. I'll see if I can rig something similar to support the transom.

I started fairing the bulkheads in preparation for planking the hull. This was pretty straight forward, and bulkhead C14 faired in with the transom and other bulkheads. At the bow the filler blocks were shaped to match the first bulkhead. Next I started planking the hull. The hull planks are laser cut in the 0.6 mm pear wood sheet. There are 11 planks per side and that should be just enough, with no spares. The first planks to be installed rest on the shoulders on the bulkheads. These are the upper most planks when the hull is right side up as it would float in the water. I immediately encountered another problem. I shaped the forward end of the first plank so it would fit into the rabbet groove cut into the keel at the stem. I finished shaping the entire plank with no problems. Then I put drops of Titebond glue above all the bulkhead shoulders and put the plank into position, pushing it into the rabbet. I wasn't pushing hard, but the thin pear wood broke. I was wary of this thin wood, especially at places cut across the grain. I knew this was prone to breaking along the grain. Obviously I wasn't careful enough! When I make things of wood this thin I use plywood. The alternating grain layers makes it much stronger and less likely to break. The solution was to glue the broken pieces together with Duco Cement, wipe off the wet Titebond glue, and wait for the Duco to harden. Fortunately it sets pretty quickly. But in the mean time I had supper. After a couple hours I started adding the first planks again. The planks were shaped to fit the hull by painting a drop of water on the planks and then holding them in place on the hull while I heated them with my plank bending/quilting iron tool. These thin planks bent mostly to shape with a single pass. I repeated the wetting/heating two more times just to be sure. Then the planks held their shape without any additional force. I put a drop of Titebond glue on each bulkhead above the shoulder. The plank was longer than necessary and the end protruded beyond the transom at the rear. I used a small rubber band to pull the aft end of the plank tight against the transom until the glue dried. The rubber band wasn't very tight - only a slight pull was necessary to keep the plank in place. The forward end was held in place by the rabbet groove in the stem. The garboard strakes were the next to go on. I filed and scraped the inboard sides to fit to the keel. The planks were wetted and bent with the planking iron to twist the fore and aft ends to conform with the curvature of the bulkheads. Again, after heating the planks held shape. I painted Tightbond on the bulkheads and along the keel piece. Clamps held the ends to the keel. In the middle I used another clamp to hold the plank against the bulkheads. The assembly was pretty strong. I removed it from the base and painted more Tightbond into the inside space between the planks and the keel. I made no attempt to taper the forward end of the garboard strake before attaching it to the hull. When the glue dries I will place another plank alongside and mark where it curves over the garboard strake. Then I will trim the garboard so the plank fits tightly to it.

John, Things are pretty small at 1:192 scale! I have had difficulty with the small pieces at 1:48! You are doing a good job.

This morning I decided to begin fairing the bulkheads on the cutter as a way to avoid having to tie more ratlines on the schooner. What started off as a simple task turned out to reveal a problem. I installed the 1 mm pear bulkhead C14 according to the instructions. You can see in this photo that the bulkhead tabs fit into the holes on the MDF base, with no gap between the bulkhead and the base. But when I started fairing the bulkheads part C14 was far out of alignment with the other bulkheads and transom. There was no way that the surface of C14 would align with the inner surface of the planks. This would be very visible in the finished model. The first plank is supposed to fit against the "shoulder" on the bulkheads. The red line marks the line of these shoulders, and the shoulder on part C14 is obviously way out of alignment. You can also see how the notch in bulkhead C14 does not fit into the notch on the keel, and the gap is about the same length as the difference in alignment of the shoulder. Not as noticeable is the misaligned angle of bulkhead C14 and the notch in the keel. C14 should be tilted back a bit more for the keel to fit deeply in the notch in the bulkhead. Fortunately the Titebond glue is water soluble. I "painted" a couple drops of water on the joint between C14 and the keel, and in a few minutes the glue softened and I was able to remove C14 from the keel. I had to remove the assembly from the base to do this, but it plugged back in place easily. You can see from the glue residue (left arrow) that the bulkhead had not fit all the way into the notch in the keel. The slot in the bulkhead (right arrow) is long enough to allow it to fit deeper into the notch in the keel. This problem really is "much ado about nothing!" With a minor adjustment of procedure the parts fit together perfectly with no modifications. First I fit bulkhead C14 into the notch in the keel as far as it would go (upper left arrow). When the assembly was plugged back into the base the tabs on the bulkhead rested against the surface of the MDF base (lower arrow). The tabs were not aligned with the holes in the base. The bulkhead also fit onto the keel at the proper angle. The shoulder on bulkhead C14 now aligned perfectly with the shoulders on the other bulkheads (red line). When the glue sets on C14 again I can resume fairing the bulkheads (in the meantime I guess I will have to tie more ratlines). Initial results show the surface of C14 where the planks will attach is in correct alignment with the surfaces on the transom and other bulkheads. Problem solved! I hope any other problems that may arise are as easy to fix!

Here is part two of the cutter build. The 2 mm MDF board contains a base for the assembly and the bulwarks. I used a hobby knife to cut the small tabs that hold the laser cut pieces in the carrier board. They came out easily. Each piece is labeled so it can be identified in the instructions. The instructions are clearly written and easy to follow. The first step is to assemble the bulkheads on the base. The bulkheads have tabs that fit snugly into holes in the base. The positions on the base are labelled with the corresponding bulkhead number. THE BULKHEADS ARE NOT GLUED INTO THE BASE. Most of the bulkhead pieces will be removed after the planking is in place so you don't want to glue them to everything! Next you must remove the keel, transom (stern bulkhead) and bulkhead C14 from the 1 mm pear sheet. I departed from the instructions a bit here. They say to put the keel in place on the bulkheads and then glue the transom onto the keel. But I could see there would be a restricted work area for gluing the transom in place if the keel was positioned on the bulkheads. I wanted to attach the transom at right angles to the keel, and the laser cut pieces fit together a bit loosely. I glued the transom onto the keel first, clamping it in place until the glue set. For this I used Duco Cement because it forms a very strong bond with wood and sets fairly quickly. I ran into the first problem when I was fitting the keel onto the bulkheads. Each bulkhead fits into a notch on the keel. The slots in the bulkheads that fit over the keel were a bit too narrow and did not want to slide into place. The MDF has very little strength and can fragment easily so I did not want to force things. The pear keel measured 1.06 mm with my calipers, and I just happened to have a small file that also measured 1.06 mm! I pushed the file edge on into the slots in the bulkheads to clear out some of the char and get the slot sides parallel (the laser cut is actually somewhat "V" shaped, and that is probably why things were a bit too tight). After a little shaping with the file the keel fit into the bulkheads slots. Things were still a bit tight but that is good. The instructions tell you that you will have to "joggle" the pieces a bit to get everything to go together. You must start at one end and fit the keel into each bulkhead one at a time. I found that rocking the bulkheads fore and aft a bit helped the keel find its place. Eventually you will get all the bulkheads in place on the keel. Each bulkhead has a rectangular cutout. The bottom of this cutout will line up with the top surface of the keel adjacent to the bulkhead (top and bottom relative to normal boat orientation when floating). Keep working the keel into the slots on the bulkheads until all of the surfaces are lined up. After the keel is in place the instructions say to paint the joints between the bulkheads and keel with glue. They recommend Titebond I or II wood glue. I have Titebond Original Wood Glue - I don't know if this is type "I" or not. I have never used Titebond before but it is the choice for many of the members of the Forum. I have been using SigBond aliphatic resin for much of the schooner build and for my MSI build. While the glue was setting I removed the two bow blocks (C11) from the MDF sheet and shaped them as shown in the instructions. Then they were glued in place at the bow. These will form a surface for the planks to glue to at the bow. These steps prepare the framework for planking. Next the bulkheads will have to be faired (shaped) to the run of the planking.

I need a small boat for my Albatros topsail schooner build. I have made small boats from scratch before and it is a lot of fun. But back then it was the only alternative - there were no small boat kits. This time I decided to use one of Vanguard's small boat kits. The 18 ft cutter is the smallest they make. Rather than bury this kit build in the log for the schooner where most people would never find it, I wanted to start a log just for this kit. I asked the forum administrators where to post this build log - there is no section for general small kits like these boats and boat fittings. I was told to put it in with ship kit builds, in the appropriate period. I asked Vanguard what period this boat would have been used and it was used from about 1785 to 1815. So it could have gone into the 1751 to 1800 log. NOTE: This kit is carvel built (the hull planks fit together edge to edge), forming a smooth hull. May's The Boats of Men-of-War says the British started making boats called "cutters" in the first quarter of the 1700s. These were all clinker built (the edges of the planks overlapped), creating a lapstrake hull. In fact clinker built construction became known as cutter built, regardless of the type of boat. But between about 1800 to 1820 the Admiralty ordered all cutters to be carvel built like this kit. After that the Royal Navy went back to clinker built cutters. I have no information about what other navies or commercial vessels used for cutter hull planking. My 1815 schooner model is 1:48 scale, and I need a boat about 3 to 3 1/2 inches (76 to 89 mm) long to hang under the stern davits. The Vanguard 18 foot cutter is about 3.4 inches (86 mm) so it is the right size. At 1:48 it will be a 13.5 foot boat - think of it as a 14 foot cutter that has shrunk a bit over time. I looked in W. E. May's The Boats of Men-of-War and the basic cutter design appears to be the same for all cutters of the 14 - 18 foot length. So I don't plan to try to rescale any of the pieces. The kit comes in a small plastic bag. You have to go to the Vanguard web site to find the instructions in a PDF file. It contains a 2 mm MDF board, a 1 mm pear sheet and a 0.6 mm pear sheet. These are laser cut. A 0.36 mm brass photo etch sheet contains many small detail pieces. After reading through the instructions I decided to prepare some of the photo etch parts first. Four of the pieces are deck and gratings The instructions tell how to make simulated wood grain paint for the deck boards but I painted them with the same brown I used on the bulwarks of the schooner. Two small pieces fit together to make the boat anchor. The instructions say to glue them together but I soldered them. They make a very nice anchor! The mast bracket is a very small piece that must be bent to fit one of the thwarts. I used Birchwood Casey Brass Black to blacken the anchor and mast bracket. I will be building this a bit at a time to take a break from rigging the ratlines on the schooner.

I use small spring clamps to hold blocks, hooks and lines. They are about 2 inches (50 mm) long and have rubber coated tips - you see them in a lot of builds here. I have a two-arm gadget with rotating alligator clips, and I clip an arm of a clamp in each alligator clip. This allows me to position the ends of the clamps close together the right distance. For stropping a block to the rope I first wrap the rope around the block and add a small amount of diluted white glue to glue the rope strop around the block. Then I clamp the block and rope into one of the clamps. I pull the two ends of the rope into the other clamp to hold them in place. I tie an overhand knot around the rope with small thread to pull the rope strands together tightly. Then a small drop of Duco Cement (or CA if you prefer) is worked between the rope strands with a needle point. The thread is wrapped around the rope strands for a few turns and tied off with another overhand knot to create a seizing. I usually wet the seizing coil with diluted white glue. After the glue dries I trim the loose ends of the thread and rope. To strop a hook to a block I first put the block with the rope strop around it in the clamp as before. The hook is placed in the other clamp with the eye facing the block. I pull both ends of the rope through the eye of the hook, fold them back over the clamp holding the block and tape them there. Then I make a seizing between the hook and block as described above. I make eyes in the ends of ropes the same way as I strop blocks, but without the block. NOTE: If you are using polyester rope the seizing alone will not hold the rope and prevent the end from pulling back out of the seizing. White glue or shellac will not glue the polyester rope strands together. You can use a drop of CA (cyanoacrylate) to glue the rope strands together, but it dries too quickly and creates a lumpy seizing. I prefer Duco Cement (nitrocellulose in acetone) because it cures more slowly (20-30 seconds), allowing you to wrap a tight and neat seizing.

Murphy is always standing by to give us another leaning experience!

Jo, You are learning! Welcome to the club!! I found it easier to install the waterways/margin boards all around and then nib each plank/margin board as it is installed. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=605072 You also need to decide what the planking pattern will be before you start planking. Planks end at frames, so you need to know the frame spacing. Then you need to decide on the planking pattern - how many planks cross the frame between the places where plank ends meet. Sorry, but this is a simple idea that is hard to explain. If you have the ends of two planks butted together at a frame, how many unbroken planks are laid down on that frame until the next two planks butt together at the frame? One in three? One in four? Nibbing is pretty easy until you get to the outer most planks - these are long and tapered between ends and require careful fitting.