KurtH

Looks like your arrangement for the sternpost and rudder will work. Best wishes for success!

According to the instructions, a piece representing the keel is to be glued to the bottom of the hull carving. I did not shape my hull in such a way that the keel was a part of it. The stern post, keel, and stem with stem knee are all to be added after the shaping of the hull is completed. I wish I had taken a photo of the hull before adding the stem, but here is a pic of the hull showing the added stem and keel. You cannot see the stern post, but it is there: Having fallen into the trap that I described at the beginning of my log, I cut a large notch out of her stern and glued in a block, and worked from there. Unfortunately, I failed to get the shape right. It looks nice but it is not as accurate as I wanted. It is too sharp below the waterline, especially at the bows. Looking at the photo of Lawrence Arnot's build which appears on the title page of the instructions, I see that he did not get it right either. His is too bluff. If I were in your position, I would contact BJ to see about the possibility of getting (buying?) a new carved hull, but that is because I do not see a way of adding enough material to correct your problem. I am not that experienced, so maybe someone can suggest a solution for you. Perhaps Nic at BJ can suggest a better remedy.

A model to be very proud of!!

Wonderful work all around!!

Having completed the basic structure of the stern and quarter galleries, I thought that it might be a good idea to take the rails from their sheets and position them as well as possible on the stern without gluing them, referring to the illustrations available from the instruction book and other builds, to make sure that all components will coordinate properly. It is important that the stern rails and quarter gallery rails line up precisely. I see in the instructions that the upper stern rail sits immediately beneath the windows. I found that if I put it there, it will not cover the gap between the stern fascia and the upper counter. I also found that if the lower rail sits over the gap between the upper and lower counter, that the corresponding rail on the quarter gallery will sit too low to allow enough room for the PE decorations. Accordingly, I have filled both these gaps to allow myself maximum flexibility when the time comes to install these rails. There is quite a bit of filling and fettlin' to be done on the aft side of the lower quarter gallery finishes, but I think i will do that during the next phase when a good supply of diluted filler is at hand. The next step is the drawing of the water line. I looked at various devices for doing this and decided on the Vanguard version as it holds the pencil more firmly and has a scale printed on it which saves a lot of guesswork. If I had been smart I would have decided this before and ordered it along with the boat kits saving quite a lot on fees, but there it is. The next phase involving filling, sanding, and painting of her bottom will likely take some time. By the way I am considering a 50-50 diluting ratio for the filler. Am I right? I am also considering an off white - Vallejo Ivory in this case rather than the bright. Keith Julier in his books "Period Ship Kit Builder's Manual" recommends Barley White. I checked it out on line and found that it is a bit too dark for my taste. I have bright white paint, so if do not like how the off white looks, I can always repaint it.

Actually, if you took those parts out of their bag, laid them out and photographed them, they might look familiar to me after all. I am sure Nic would be glad to help you out. He is always so helpful.

I did a scan of the grates provided by BJ in my kit. You can see why I say they have round holes to represent the spaces between the battens. They should be square, but they are closer to being in scale than the strips I used. As I said, If I had to do it over, I would use these. The brass PE parts in your picture do not look familiar to me. Perhaps the kit has been updated since I bought mine.

Gratings consist of strips of wood interlocking together leaving square spaces between them. The PE gratings provided by BJ had round spaces instead of square ones. I ordered grating strips from Model Expo which fit together egg crate style, similar to the cherry ones now offered (#MS0332), but larger. There is a photo in the post to which you refer which shows one of the strips, and and assembled grating. These are out of scale, and if I had it to do over, I would have stuck with the PE ones even though they do not really look like grating. I believe that I still have those PE gratings. If you like, I can photograph them and post them, but I believe you have these, and can see for yourself that the spaces are round instead of square.

Thank you Mark! Murphy's law is a factor in much of what we do.

Work on the quarter gallery continues: 1. Quarter gallery patterns and quarter gallery berthing patterns. 2. Quarter gallery patterns 45C are shaped then glued to the underside of the lower part 45 to act as a bearing to which the berthing patterns will be glued. 3. Quarter gallery berthing patterns glued in place. Next up, the lower finish: 1. The MDF lower finishing patterns. 2. These patterns are glued together while holding them in place against the hull. 3. The assembled parts shaped and glued in place. I think I will leave them unfinished in case further refinement of the shape is needed when the rails and ornamentation are installed.

1. The outer transom and upper counter fasciae. 2. These fasciae glued in place. Having done a test fit of the rails, I have decided to attempt to fill the gap between these two with a strip taken from one of the wood sheets. 1. The inner (89) and outer (158) quarter gallery window patterns. 2. The inner pattern glued into place. I had to alter the lateral curve of the aft panel behind the windows to make it flush with the outer edge of the transom due to the error described in my previous post. It may look a bit odd to the observer who knows exactly what the gallery should look like when viewed from certain angles - disappointing but not catastrophic in my opinion. 3. The outer pattern glued into place. 1. The quarter gallery upper patterns. A scribed line is thoughtfully provided to aid in the shaping of this piece which becomes the roof of the gallery - yet another "leg up" by Chris Watton to maximize success of the build. 2. The quarter gallery upper pattern shaped, taking into account the altered curve of the window patterns, then glued into place. By the way, what looks like inadequate paint coverage in the wales is actually light reflecting off the grain of the wood.

Thank you Mark! Very much appreciated!

Nest up, the preparation and installing of the quarter gallery components: Beveling the outboard and aft edges of these patterns and the upper surface of their tabs allowed them to fit snugly and conform the the angle set by the spacers. Be sure to leave a space of 1.6 mm between the outboard corner of the lower part 45 and the outboard edge of the transom fascia. You may need to file the spacer back a bit to allow the space. This will accommodate the inner quarter gallery window pattern (.6mm) and the outer quarter gallery window pattern (1mm) so they will lie flush with the transom fascia edge so that the lower window rail will stand proud of the edge and stick out aft a bit so that it can be joined to the corresponding transom rail, presumably by a miter joint. If you do not want the upper gallery window rail to stand proud of the transom outer edge, you will need to allow 2.5 mm of space between the aft outboard corner of the upper part 45 to allow for the inner window pattern (.6mm), the outer window pattern (1mm), and the rail (.8mm). I did not pay sufficient attention to these details here, and am now paying the price for that as I struggle with fitting the window patterns, as will be seen in my next post. Next I painted the starboard wales. After having masked them off with 1/4" masking tape, I brushed on a coat of Vallejo Matt Acrylic Varnish followed by three coats of Vallejo black. Unfortunately, due to lack of proper ventilation facilities, I need to use water based products in my modeling, and avoid spray painting. As you can see, this exascerbated the grain rise already caused by soaking and handling during the installation resulting a a fairly rough surface. I tried using 400 grit sandpaper to smooth things out in the captain's cabin and nearly obliterated the engraved detail in the process so that is not an option. Fortunately, the model looks better at a normal viewing distance than it does in this photo. I anticipate that the same thing will happen on all painted engraved parts of the model. I am hoping the the addition of that wonderful PE decoration will distract the viewer's attention rendering the problem less noticeable.

One thing that I forgot to mention is that my hull was and is asymmetrical, being wider relative to the center line on the starboard side than on the port side. Yours may or may not have this problem, but I would suggest checking for that just in case.

Welcome to the very small but courageous Bluejacket Connie builders. Mine was my first wood model kit, so it was a true baptism by fire. If you followed the plan for the cutting out of the hull profile, I would like to recommend that you test fit the PE transom provided by BJ before you plank the hull. You may find that the upper transom portion of the piece hangs out in space, and additional material may need to be added to the lower counter to correct the problem. A diagram of the cause of this problem appears at the beginning of my build log if you are interested. Also, if your carved hull is like mine, it has a counter clockwise twist to it, causing the sternpost to cant to starboard, and the stem to cant to port. My apologies if you are already aware of these issues. Best of luck with this build. I will be following your build with great interest. I am fascinated by the creative and resourceful solutions modelers bring to these challenges.