John Gummersall

HardeeHarHar You bring up an interesting point as to whether there is enough room to add "stuff" to make it look interesting. Below is a shot I took early in the build showing what is inside. Inside you see two benches and a ladder. As is, not a lot of room to add stuff... However, if you decided to open it up, you would have to be creative and modify the benches to allow access to the bow and stern sections. In addition you would have to expand the floor sections to reach the box and stern. There is where the model is not very realistic as you see,,,, no access to bow and stern sections. Not shown here, but the final pictures show ballast weights that from inside are dropped when the ship wants to rise to the surface. Without access to the bow and stern sections, there is no way to release the ballast. So, if you open up the full ship allowing free access from bow to sterns, there is plenty of room to get creative with some flooring, small figures, buckets, stools etc.. Whether you open it up or not, this is a fun quirky model to build, looks good, and is a good break from some of the longer "marathon" builds. As I call it,.,,,,, a quick win.

Robert952 I just used Minwax Wipe-on Poly - Clear Satin.. I mainly use it because it is applied with a rag instead of a brush as normal poly. As such the finish is really smooth with no runs. Also, even though it is listed as satin, as you can see there is still a slight shine to it. To me just enough. To me wipe-on poly is a great way to get a good smooth finish. But you have to use a number of coats as each coat is very thin. I think I have 5 coats on this model. I am not sure what wood is comes with the morel kit, but it's not basswood. It is some other type of slightly colored wood. As such for me no stain was required just applied the poly over the raw wood. The 5 coats of poly also darken it up slightly despite the fact that it is "clear satin". If you have not used a Wipe-on Poly you really need to try it. It works great. One more point,,,, I have not tried this but wipe-on poly is really just normally polyurethane thinned to about 1/2 strength. So if you already have some polyurethane and have some paint thinner or turpentine, you could make up yourself a small batch of "home grown" wipe-on poly and try it on a test sheet of wood. Just make sure that you only use paint thinner or turpentine if you have oil based polyurethane. If you have water base polyurethane you will need to thin that with a water based thinner.

The metal straps (actually paper) have been glued to the hull. For the four rings that go on the outer straps, the instructions call to make the eye bolt and rings out of the .6mm wire. Not sure I had the talent to make a good ring but I gave it a shot, and to my surprise actually made from pretty fair circular rings out of the wire. Not as hard as I thought. Fiery pipes attached but not fully strapped in yet. I ended up using one 1.2mm pin to pin the fiery pipe supports to the hull. I figured since they were being glued to the varnished hull, they might need a little more support. Closing in on the end.... Ballast weights have been attached at bow and stern and the rudder attached. To get the steering line into the holes in the stern, .6mm line was used and the hole in the hull was increased to .9mm. From there the line could be inserted (poked) into the hull by a 28 gauge wire with a drop of CA glue on the end. Worked far easier than I thought it would. Fiery pipes have been fully strapped in. All that is left are the oars...... Once inserted I am calling it..... I have totally enjoyed this build and as I mentioned earlier is a nice break from the year long marathon builds I have done in the past. Kind of like a reset before I start my next marathon build - Chaperon Sternwheel Riverboat. There are not a lot of areas to customize this boat, and features like the flooring, benches, and ladder inside the hull are not even visible. If I ever built this one again (and I have thought about it) or for someone who wanted to do a lot of custom work, one idea would be to open up a portion the hull and show the inside of the ship. From there one could do all sorts of custom stuff inside of the hull. Might be an interesting build. Final pictures are below..

Not a lot of progress today,,, only have a short time to work on it.. Today was the installation of the side ladders (or that is what the manual calls them). To me they look like large "hand holds" between the hatch and window. Here I used the 1.2mm pins as they seemed to be the correct size. Port Side Starboard side The oars, fiery pipes and fittings, rudder, and ballast weights have previously been completed. Plan to add then on in the next few days. At that point I will "call it"... done....

Have completed sanding and a couple coats of wipe-on poly. Hatch cover still need a little work as it got a little scraped up sliding the metal framing over the hatch. A little sanding and more wipe-on poly should do the trick, I have also added the metal framing around the hatch cover, windows, and parts in the bow/stern. Port Side.... Here I used the nails supplied with the kit for around the window. The nails around the oar ports where the 1.6 mm nails as the kit supplied nails are just too large. Starboard side.... Same as on port side. Kit supplied nails around the window and 1.6mm nails around the oar ports Stern view... Here even smaller nails were used (1.2mm) around the steering line ports and ballast port Bow - again 1.2 mm nails used around the ballast port Top view showing the nails around the hatch. Here the large kit supplied nails were used

Still have some final sanding to complete, but the hatch panels have been installed. Without the issue of the windows getting in the way, the panels could easily be trimmed on the bottom and sides to match up pretty well. As mentioned earlier, in hindsight, and for those that follow me, I would suggest you dig out the hatch top and bottom panels so that the window are completely imbedded into the binding. Windows sunken into the binding is far better then having the window even with the binding. The panels (and bindings too) will take some (shall we say) "customizations" and not having to worry about the sunken windows make the job a whole lot easier. But if you still have an issue,,,, do like I did and glue the windows to the panels and then you will not have to worry about them getting in the way as you trim things up. You just have to trim the glass to only be slightly larger on the top and bottom so that it does not get in the way of the bindings. You can have extra glass on the sides for a better gluing surface. Stern view Bow view And a couple side views

I mentioned earlier that I was pretty sure when the glass windows (currently mounted to the top hatch bindings) was going to get (shall we say) "interesting" when trying to line it up with the lower hatch bindings. Turn out it was "interesting" but in a way I was not expecting. Turns out the glass windows on the upper binding fit pretty will when it was joined to the lower binding. The "interesting" part was getting the hatch panels lined up. Trying to get them lined up, on the bottom with the hull, and on the sides with each other. turned out to be a challenge. Main problem was the fact the the glass pieces were inserted into the top and bottom bindings. In my case I only fitted them into the inserts to where I thought they were fully inserted (flush) into the bindings. Turns out my pieces was a little warped and it stuck out just a slight amount from flush. This prevented me from getting the bottom and sides of the panels lined up for a good fit. I fiddled and fiddled with it but the inserted glass pieces really hampered my ability to trim the the panels for proper alignment. I finally gave up and decided instead of inserting the glass panels into the binding, to just glue the glass to the actual panels. Below shows the panels glued to the inside of the panels. This way I could properly fiddle (trim) the panels and the bindings without worrying about the inserted glass panels getting in the way. Only thing you have to deal with is the width of the binding as it overlaps the panels. Note below the glass panel is just below the lower window. Any lower and the lower binding would hit the glass. From this point the side panels could be glued to the top binding and attached to the hull. From there the side panels could be easily adjusted to get a good alignment. All you have to worry about is correct fit on the sides and bottom. The top of the panel will be covered by a brass band, so if you need to "fudge" the top of the panel does not need to line up exactly. In hind sight a better way would be to over insert the glass windows into the bindings, but that would involve trimming the already attached lower binding and I felt just gluing the glass to the panels was and easier solution. Easier for me that is... A better skilled builder probably would have a better solution. Below shows the side panels glued to the top binding and hull. With the glass glued to the side panels it should not be a problem trimming and inserting them for a good fit. Famous last words,, we will see how easy it will be when the glue dries and I attempt to put in the panels. 🙂

The last plank was finally installed and a rough sanding completed. Still have to work with the window sashes some to clean them up too. As noted before, I would suggest you resist any sanding during planking until the windows have been installed. I addition, put a small rag into the open hatch on top. With the windows installed and the rag on top this will keep the sawdust from sanding out of the hull. Port Side Aft or read end Starboard side Bow or front end

HardeeHarHar It is truly refreshing to have what I call a "quick win" model to build. Defiantly needed a break from the marathon year long builds. I recommend it to anyone who wants a "reset" before taking on the next marathon. 🙂 Back to the build,,, Worked on a few more items today... Inserted the windows and sashes. The sashes still show a little bit above the hull as they have not yet been sanded. But they are in. Here we are dealing with some of the very small parts I listed earlier. I found stabbing the sash pieces with the exacto knife is an easy way to position them in the window. Stab mark will not show and much easier than trying to position them in the window with an tweezers,,, even a very fine one. Later on when the metal frame is inserted, these windows will look pretty good. Port Side Starboard side Started working on the fiery pipe bindings. Two larger ones are completed and the two smaller ones not quite done. Note the 1.6mm brass pins inserted into the larger ones. They will go into the smaller ones too. I may put the 1.2mm pins into the smaller ones as even these see a little large for the part. I mentioned earlier that the rudder, Window sashes, and fiery pipe fittings are really small. Two small tweezers and a vise to hold the part are really helpful. One thing I did not mention, ( and all experienced modelers know this)... and that it these small parts tend to easily get lost. Often they get lost getting cut out of the brass sheets, and other times they get lost as you are trying to work with the part. And if you drop it on the floor... forget it. Don't waste your time looking for it. For some reason the floor just eats them up never to be found again. 🙂 Everyone probably has their own way to deal with small parts, but I have found the best way for me is to have a towel on my lap. Even though I am working over a table, when those part fling, they fling a long way. And if they fling in your lap (without a towel), again you will never find it. Is it in your lap, on the chair, in you shoe, or on floor? It is just gone. I can not tell you how many times, the part has ended up in the towel on my lap. A true lifesaver. Now onto the top hatch windows..... I am just getting started but I know this is going to get ugly. Below I have glued the glass windows into the top binding of the hatch. That is the easy part. From here this has to be inserted into the bottom binding of the hatch. What are the odds those four windows will easily line up with the slots on the bottom binding? And then the top hatch side panels have to lined up and installed. The bottom part of the panels have to line up with the curve of the hull and the top part of the panels need to line up with each other and the top binding. With my limited building skill and variations in the wood, this is going to be (shall we say) "interesting". Fortunately there is a strip of metal that goes around the bottom of the hatch and another strip that goes around the top of the hatch (just under the top cover). Between these two metal strips hopefully they will cover up a ton of sins. We will see what happens.. Looking at the glass below they look pretty dirty. Not sure but seems the camera picked up a reflection or something. To my eye the windows look pretty clear... just not in the picture below. ugh

Completed the four stern section 1/2 planks on the top of the hull (highlighted in black). First dry fitted the four 1/2 pieces as I assumed they would not all fit. Since there was a gap at the bottom of the hull, it makes sense there would not be enough room for the last plank on the top of the hull. Since I did not want one skinny plank showing on the top, I sanded down a little of all four planks. End result is not noticeable. I guess the moral of the story here is that early on in the build I did not line up the initial frame planks as exactly as I should have. I strongly suggest you spend some time when installing the initial frames that hold the bulkheads together. If you spend some time on that part you will not end up as I did with a gap on the bottom that had to be filled and some sanding of planks on the top. Would have completed the four bow section 1/2 planks on the top of the hull, but I discovered I inserted two of them in the jig backwards. Thus they were bent the wrong way. The two planks were soaked again and are now back in the jig - hopefully bending the correct way. I am sure I will have the same issue as the stern planks and will have to sand a little of each before inserting into the hull.

Justin, Thanks for you support. I appreciate it. Moving on with the planking up towards the top hatch. You might have noticed that I have not been planking in the order specified in the instructions. The instructions call to lay a few key planks around each side window and then around the top hatch. After that then fill in the gaps with the other planks. To me that is just asking for a number of small gaps between the planks that will later need to be filled with sawdust putty. As you saw earlier, I started in the middle and worked my way to the bottom with one larger board at the bottom. That to me was a better solution. I used the same approach planking my way up to the top hatch. Stopping with two planks to go on each side before the hatch ( as pictured below). I then could dry fit that last two planks and decide what to if the planks did not fit even with the hatch. In my case, the last to planks fit with only some very minor trimming around the hatch. So I did not have any planking issues as I had on the bottom of the hull. Below show the last two planks around the top hatch with only the smaller side planks to go. Hopefully the smaller side planks will not have any issues. Side windows were assembled earlier in the build, but could not actually be installed until after the planking was complete. I figured this would be a good time to dry fit them and make sure they could get fully inserted into the hull - while I could still get my fingers into the hull. With some minor trimming the windows were fit but will be removed until hull is complete, sanded, and varnished.

HardeeHarHar Thanks for your comments.... Progress is going along rather quickly,,,, and fun too... I decided on this build as I needed a break from the year long marathon builds I have done in the past. Wanted a quick win... And this is defiantly it. Kind of gets me ready for my next marathon already on deck - Chaperon Riverboat.

Bottom plank completed... It is a little larger then the other planks but I think it is a better look than trying to fill the gaps with sawdust filler. I was correct in my earlier assessment of my skill.... It did take me two attempts to get it right. As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of spare wood in the left over planking sheets to create a few more planks. Now moving on the complete the planking at the top of the hull. I should have mentioned this earlier, but try to resist the urge to do any sanding until the planking is complete. If you start sanding before the hull is filled in, you will get saw dust into the interior of the hull and that will be hard to get out. In addition, before I do any sanding I will fill in the windows and top hatch with a rag to keep out the sawdust. But as I say,,, that comes later after the planking is complete.

Wlell, Thanks for your comments,,,, As for Model Motor Cars, I learned about it from other modelers. I have not built any of their model cars. I mainly use it as I have with this build - to get very small bolts. It is amazing the really small parts they carry. Planking the bottom half of the hull is almost complete,,,, Port bottom half of the hull Starboard bottom half of the hull Earlier I indicated the planking was very accurate and matched up the lines exactly on the bulkheads. As the planking when on there actually was a few deviations in the planking to where some did not really match up with the bulkhead lines. One option is to stay with the bulkhead markings and later fill with sawdust putty. Other is to continue the planking without gaps and "fix" the issue at the last plank - on the bottom of the hull. I choose this 2nd option. To me one larger gap at the bottom is better than having several planks on the hull with Sawdust filler. Note below the gap for the last plank is a little larger than the last plank. At this time, the easy (and maybe smart) option is to just lay the plank in the middle of the gap and then fill both sided of the plank with sawdust putty. After all, this is the plank on the bottom of the hull, and when the model is mounted, no-one will see the filler. But what would be the fun in that? After all "why do something easy when you can make it hard." I decided to make a custom plank that will completely fill the gap. This plank will be a little larger than the other planks, but there will not be the sawdust putty filler. Take your choice as to how to fill this gap. To me a little larger plank (on the bottom of the hull) is the way to go. There is plenty of extra wood from what remains of the planking sheets to form several planks if needed. At my skill level, it may take me a couple attempts to get it right. Will show the result of my attempt after I complete the plank

Going with supreme overkill, I made a slight adjustment to the jig used to bend the planks. Again this is totally uncalled for and way overkill as the jig works great as it is, but it was easy to do and I think it helped getting a better bend. Note in the picture below the top plank in the bender as intended. Note the plank ends (in green) do not follow the curve exactly. By inserting a spare 1/16 scrap piece of planking at each end of the jig, as shown the other planks, allows for a smoother curve. Just put the wet plank into the jig and then insert the 1/16 scrap piece of planking at each end until dry. Repeat for each plank that is to be bent. Again,,, really overkill and not really required.. Continued on with other stuff as the planking continued. Inserted the plugs (shown earlier) into the fiery tubes. They are really to install. Completed the rudder hinges. Glued the insert (mentioned in earlier update) and ready for installation on the rudder. The wire shown in the picture is temporary and just to help with alignment. One thing I should have mentioned earlier is that until the flooring is covered with the planking, it is very vulnerable to breakage. Working with the planking required a lot of adjustment getting the planks lined up correctly and rubber bands attached. Easy to forget the flooring is exposed and easily broken. In my case it was only cracked and did not break into two pieces. A simple patch below the broken flooring did the trick and is not noticeable. Did I mention the flooring was really easy to break? Two more later breakages where patches were required. I might suggest before you start the planking to support the under edge section of the flooring all around the floor. Will be hidden but could save you some tears during planking... Started looking at the supplied nails intended simulate bolts. They are OK for bolts around the hatch and windows, but are way too big around the oars, ballast, and steering lines. Below shows what the supplied nails would look like around one of the oar fittings. It overwhelms the fitting. I had some left over 1.6mm and 1.2mm bolts from other builds and they seemed to fit much better. Unfortunately the ones I had on hand were chrome would not look correct. I ordered some 1.6mm and 1.2mm brass bolts from Model Motercars that should show up next week.

While the planks were drying I starting working on the etched brass sheets. Like some of the wooden parts,,,,, some of these brass parts are really small. Do to the size, it takes some time to cut out each part, trim off the nubs, and somehow keep from loosing any.. Somehow all seems to have survived the trimming. On to blackening,,,, There are about as many theories on blacking brass as there are modelers... Everyone has their favorite. I use Novacan Black Patina. It is something folks who make stained glass windows use to blacken the lead between the glass. I have found it works great on brass at 1/2 strength. Below is the result. The two green circles show the above brass part that gets folded four time to form the two rudder hinges. Needless to say,,,, a pair of very sharp tweezers are in order here. I should have included a ruler in the picture. Picture just does not do justice on just how small and fragile each part really is. First section of window planking is complete. I wanted to start out slow as I was not sure just how accurate planking was. I figured around the window was a good place to test out the accuracy of the planking. I have to say, all the planks were right on the marks. It really was easy. Planking should speed up at this point now that I know planking is accurate. Never had a model before where planking did not require a lot of sweat and occasional nasty words. Hopefully I have not spoken too soon and the rest of the planking will be uneventful.

Began soaking the planks in the supplied jig... I have to admit, that seems like a pretty neat idea since the hull is so symmetrical. No spiling and shaping is necessary. I am sure I will end up having some "adjustments" but with each plank being so similar the the location of each plank is marked on the bulkheads, this hopefully will be an easy and fun planking.... I know is the past, at my skill level anyway, the words "easy" and "fun" were never seen in the same sentence with "planking". While my planks were socking and drying in the jig I worked on a few other items.. For the cabin lid, it is the same drill as with the fore and aft frames to where you glue the two halves together. Again they suggest using four wires to line up the holes. I did that, but as I said above, it seems it would be much easier just to eyeball the four holes and then insure the inner lid was centered on the outer lid. Here is where I got a little lost,,,, On the outer lid, the handles will cover up the holes, but on the inner lid the holes remain. I assume they would want you to fill the holes with filler. Instead, I just took some old pins and stuck them in the holes. Kind of look like bolts. You decide what you want to do,,, wood fuller or bolts. Pins inserted from the lower lid temporarily sticking out the top. Looking at the lower lid after the pins have been trimmed. Final view of outer lid Started work on the paddles... Using a file they trimmed up OK The inner edges of each plank was beveled before soaking. Instructions did not mention it, but with other ships I have built there is always caulking between the planks. Caulk lines are not shown on the finished model, but what ship of this era did not have caulk lines? Thus, right or wrong, I used the "side of the pencil" process to blacken the side of each plank. First plank applied,,, Hopefully will be able to apply more than one plank a day, but I wanted to start out slow around the windows as I am not sure how precise the planks will be. Ideally I would like to be able to have a little filler as possible,,, so minimum gaps if possible

Next come mounting the stairs in the model. Instructions say in bold print to not mount the stairway in the wrong direction. It should be mounted toward the bow of the boat. Problem is, at this stage it is not really apparent which direction is the bow or stern. They supply the following photo. No explanation, but there is a red circle on the top of the hatch support. It points out on one side of the support there are little notches... Looking at the way they have the ladder mounted, I can only assume the notched part of the hatch structure points to the bow The aft fore frames are made up of two circular pieces. In order to get the pieces glued in the correct position, they suggest using the supplied wire temporally through the holes to line up the pieces. Turns out the holes are too small for the thinnest wire supplied in the kit. Rather then expand the holes, I had some 22 gage wire so I used that instead. I am not really sure the wire is necessary. One could just by sight line up the holes. Even using the wires, you still have to line of the outer (smaller) disk in the middle of the larger disk, so the wires are not a true indicator of correct position. Below shows my use of the wires to line up the holes.... Again,, I think that was somewhat of a waste of time. As I mentioned above, note the inner disk is larger than the outer disk. The list line of this sections says "After the glue is dry, handle the edges of the frames in draft following the engraved lines". Something was defiantly lost in the translation to English. What that really means in bevel the large inner ring to better accept the planking that will eventually run the length of the hull. After a few coats of rub-on poly we are ready to start the assembly, I ran a file quickly over each opening in each frame,,,, just to make the fit a little easier. Basically each frame went into place with only a little bit of "persuasion". Once it place it was very solid. Below is a picture showing the final assemble hull. The red circles show the notches on the hatch structure the depict the bow section. The circles in green show the inner disk that has been beveled. It is no longer larger than the outer ring and the angle is similar to the angle of the frame going into the end pieces. And a few more final shots of the progress

Yvesvidal, I like the rope on the 3D print technology model..... I may consider that, when I get to that point....

The center part of the hull construction goes pretty straight forward. Parts all fit together very well (surprisingly well). Instructions call to bevel the upper and lower jambs and the cabin frame walls following the engraved lines on these parts. It also cautions not to over bevel. I assume this is done to provide a better gluing base for later planking or parts. Problem is the bevel line is so small (about the thickness of a hair) that about all it would take is one swipe with a sanding stick. To me not really work the effort of over beveling, so I skipped the beveling at this time. I assume (hope) there will be time later in the build when the planks are installed to bevel if really needed. At that time I would then know the exact amount of beveling to do. Next it was on to the lower port and starboard windows sashes. Here is where the parts get really small. There are four very small pieces that frame each window sash. Two pairs for small tweezers are defiantly in play here. Not sure how these were etched into the wood sheet without burning the part. Did I say before that these sash border parts are really small ? 🙂 After gluing the four small pieces around the border of each sash there will be some trimming of the acrylic that will be between the two sash pieces of each window. When putting in the acrylic be sure you have clean hands. Acrylic smudges easily. With a little patience the window ended up OK, In the category of "do as I say and not as I do".... the windows are made of four very small borders (shown above) that hold in the acrylic sandwiched between the two sashes. If you plan to stain or put poly on the model, apply it on before you assemble the sashes. In my case I did not do that so I had to get a small paint brush and paint on the poly being careful not to get on the acrylic. Would have been much easier had I applied the poly before I assembled the sashes. Stairway is next,,,, again no big deal as the parts all fit great. Be sure to practice how you are going to insert the rungs before you actually start gluing them in. Main issue here is keeping previous rungs in the stairway as you add each new rung. This take a little patience here too, but if you go slow all the rungs will go into place.. Next come the two seats into the center part of the hull. Pieces just fall into place - no big deal

Just completed the Philadelphia Gun Boat. Took me just about 1 year at the speed I build, so I wanted to take on a simpler build, or what I call a "quick win". At least I hope it will be a "quick win". Then again it all depends on what you call "quick". This build will be one of those painfully slow logs. I work on models in my spare time, so please bare with me as this will be a slow log. I will start right out and say I am somewhat new to ship building and not an expert builder by any means. Maybe average at best but I enjoy the builds and have fun along the way. With that in mind I will start the process I have always been interested the the Secret Vessel "Morel". It seemed like such a quirky fun model - A wooden submarine ? I read a few other build logs and they builder seemed to have a lot of fun with the build so I thought I would give it a shot. Starting with the box contents,,,, Korabel must have some very precise laser cutters as some of the are really small. Seems like pretty good picture diagrams of the build In addition there is an 8 page pamphlet that contains instructions, part numbers, and depicts part locations on each wooden sheet. Seems very clear.

Awning structure is complete. As I mentioned previously, what should have been an easy task is made difficult by the existing rigging. More than once some choice words where spoken when I banged the rigging trying to get the awning battens positioned. At this point here is where I am going to "call it"... complete. Attaching the sails would normally complete the build, but I am not sure add much to the model. And beside, I like the bare wood look. Adding cloth sails folded up under the oars, to me (with my skill anyway) would not be a good look. Below are some final parting shots (pictures) .... It has been a lot of fun,,, especially for someone with a whole lot to learn about building model ships.

Decided to redo some of the rigging.. Just too many thick lines. I removed some of the thicker lines to where now only the Lower Shrouds, lower forestay, and lower backstays are rigged with the thicker line. All other higher rigging was replaced with the thin rigging line. Both halyards remained the thicker line as I figured the thicker line would be easier on sailors hands raising/lowering the sails. Starting working on the oar rack and oars. Pretty straight forward,,, that is if you follow the directions... Directions call for the first 1/2 of the oar to be square and then rounded off going into the blade. Foolish me, I just assumed I knew what an oar looked like - that being round all the way from the handle. Did not notice the first part was supposed to be square until I had finished them... But,, to me an oar should be round... You decide how you like your oars. And how they will eventually look on the boat Started working on the storage rack... Not much to it. Model does not include anything to put into the storage rack. Rather then just leave it empty hanging from the awning structure, I figured maybe put some simple poles... Just to have something. A more experienced modeler would probably build some kind of weapon to tool to go into the storage rack,,, but our crew just put poles in the rack. and how it will eventually look hanging from the awning structure. Next was the awning beams and stanchions. Instructions call to cut a notch in each beam and stanchion to better interlock them together. On the actual boat that was done to insure a strong joint, but in my model world that just was not going to look right. I practiced on some spare wood cutting notches and joining two perpendicular pieces of wood. I just could not make it look good. Main issue is trying to get the two notches to match up completely. If it is not exact, it just did not look right. Thus I took the easy way out and just glued the awning beams directly on top of each stanchion. I suppose not realistic, but a whole lot easier and looks much better that if I had attempted to notch each beam and stanchion. The additional 1/8 inch height on the awning did not really matter anyway. On to the battens... Instruction say the battens are installed last as it would be very difficult to do the rigging with the battens in place. That may be, but with the rigging in place, the battens are no easy task either. Especially the two enter battens down the middle of the boat. Since the oar rack (1/2" wide) is mounted on these two center battens, you have to get these battens exactly 1/2" apart. The also have to run very straight from fore to aft or they will really look off when sighting down the boat. This is not easy task with the rigging in place positioning them one at a time and gluing in place. I found the easiest way to insure a perfect fit is to assemble the two battens along with the oar rack off the boat. This will insure the oar rack will fit exactly between the two battens. The oar rack will hold the two battens together. That way, when the glue dries, just pick up the structure and glue it on the awning. Below shows the process. There are two temporary spacer pieces of wood at each end to insure the correct spacing Remaining shots show close up of some of the rigging.... Not that I am any kind of an expert on rigging... I HATE RIGGING.....just do not have the skill or patience for it.. and it shows in my build 🙂

a few more shots showing the deadeyes beginning rigging and hull . Beginning the ladder rungs and belaying pins. This is my first model with ladder rungs (or rat lines for that matter). With my fat fingers and lack of skill, it was a trying task. I ended up first gluing the ladder rungs to the shroud and then added the lashing lines. Below is a look at the final ladder shroud. One point to note is the ladder rungs start out like the pattern diagram cut-out, but as they goes up the mast the rungs gets more narrow than what is shown as a pattern on the cut-out. If the shrouds hang straight from the Main Top no way can you avoid the ladder getting more narrow than the pattern on the cut-out. One idea that I think I like is to cut the ladder rungs the exact size as on the pattern diagram cut-out. Not only is that easier than trying to measure each rung, but this will insure the ladder rungs are the proper size. If this is done, the shrouds will widen some up to the futtock rung before they start getting wider as they go down toward the deck. Next model I have that has wooden rungs on the shrouds,,,, I may give this a try and see how that looks... Here is where the realists will roll their eyes... You might note I put rigged the ladder rungs on the port shrouds. The directions call to put them on the starboard shrouds. I did not realize this until I has 5 or 6 runs strung. Could not really see a reason to remove them as (other then not being true to the design) and rig them on the starboard shrouds. In the school of "do as I say and not as I do"..... you probably should rig them on the starboard shrouds. 🙂 A few shots of the lower forestay spreader around the canon. A few shots of the spaghetti of lines at the mast top. Not sure I agree with my decision, but for whatever reason I choose to use the white line for the main yard lift and top yard lift. I chose the thicker tan lines for the shrouds and forestay, and the thin tan line for the main and top braces. As you can see at the mast top, it is getting a little crowded with lines... Before you start your rigging, give some real thought as to what line is used where. And a couple shots showing progress to date... Note on the port side I only have two belaying pins... Not sure what happened, but after painting them, as I was taking them off the board, one fell off the paint platform. I even saw it hit me on the way to the floor.... But after that, it was not to be found... It is not that small, but it just vanished,,,, Anyway,,, I sent a note to Model Shipway telling of my fate, and they plan to send me one. Their replacement policy really is nice.

I wanted to point out a little confusion (on my part anyway) as to where to tie down the main halyard downhaul. The instructions say ,,,, "Attach the main yard halyard and the downhaul as shown". What is shown (or kind of implied) is the main yard downhaul going to a cleat on the mast. Problem is, the position of the four mast cleats. The two foreword mast cleats will be used to cleat the main yard lifts. One of the back mast cleat was used for the main halyard, leaving the last cleat on the back of the mast for supposedly the main halyard downhaul. Problem is this is not in a very good spot for the main halyard downhaul. Main halyard downhaul cleat really need to be on the front of the mast. Since it seems extra cleats have been provided (or at this point I think there are extra cleats), I added a cleat for the main halyard downhaul on the front of the mast. It shows in the picture below. I may regret this decision later on, but for now it seem like the logical position for it. Also rigging of the deadeyes have started,,,,