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Thanks all for the comments and likes, always appreciated. So I tore the door off to get to the burned out LED. I did entirely too good a job anchoring that one. Really had a hard time getting to it, damaged some of my bulkhead planking in the process but I got it out. Cut the dead one out and then looked at how little wire I had to work with. Some how I had to get a 500 + degree soldering tip about a half inch away from my delicate and irreplaceable planking with out scorching it. I used some aluminum foil as a heat shield, figured that would save me from all but the worst disasters. (Living 50-ish miles from the San Andreas Fault now would be a perfect time for the Big One!) I slipped some heat shrink tube over the wires, did my best to crimp the leads and wires together and soldered away. I have found when soldering small connections like this I get better results if I use a technique from soldering the coming on stained glass windows. I use a separate flux and solder rather than rosin core solder. A bit O flux on my joint and then melt some solder on the tip of the iron, touch the iron to the joint and if your tip is set to the right temp the solder just flows off. Then I just had to pull the heat shrink tube over the bare wires and shrink it. But with what??? My heat gun is just a bit too much and I wasn't going to use a lighter. In addition to nose hair wood is also flammable I am told. I kept the foil in place and used my soldering torch on the lowest setting I could get it to run at then held it as far away as I could and still activate the heat shrink. DONE! Obligatory pictures (gotta keep You Know Who happy....) Yes the door is crooked, I noticed when I loaded the pictures on the computer. Its been reset as well as I can get it. Something is off, I am not sure if the door is out of whack or if one of my decks or more likely its the bulkhead planking is off plumb.

Lol! You're the first to notice/comment. Based on your self portrait, advice to heed? Sam

Ahoy captain! Captain Decator has asked me to leave my post on the Enterprise and drop in for a spell and report back on your fine progress on his future command; permission to come aboard sir? Sam

Augur, Edit- Augie. (The iPhone gods of Auto Correct are in a playful mood today) I am always left comment less and humbled when I visit. Taking notes for my next build. "Gobsmackingly good" I like that Mobsie. Sam

Rich crack the whip on those delivery gnomes or else you're build may take as long as my enterprise:) Sam

Rich I took it as the joke it was meant to be no worries. Thanks Sjors! It's been awhile since she looked different. The LED are going to take a bit since now I have to squeeze a new genie in.

Gives Rich the stink eye I blame it on that rodent that my life revolves around. Sam

Its a pretty cluttered desk isn't it? Mark, I hope to get the basic programming done this week. Unfortunatly I fried the LED behind the door, forgot there wasn't a resistor tied in yet. I tried to cram 9 units of Magic Light into a 3 unit containment vessel and killed the LED genie. At least all the Magic Smoke stayed in the wires. Carl, thank you, you almost got your wish for me to rebuild them when I saw how the lights and windows were lining up. Sam

Then I hope I don't grow old, I don't like pain, it hurts. Sam

Augie, Steve and Steve, thanks!! Its was really nice to actually put something on. Granted I have canons, bits, coamings and such that are all just waiting until the canons are in, but looking at the hull it was feeling like she was abandoned. Based on photos its been roughly 16 months. But who's counting???? Sam

George, I have either arthritis in my left hip or sciatica, the Dr's can't agree. Either way, if the pain I get in my hip/leg is anything like your arthritis I don't blame you one bit for finding faster and easier methods. Besides, whatever gets you the results you are looking for is what really matters. Sam

Rich, I agree. Power tools are nice but there is something to be said for quietly making shavings rather than noisily making dust. Sam

Wooo!!! Hoooo!!!!! After MONTHS of this, that and the other thing she looks different! I rebuilt some window frames this week and installed them then glued up the assemblies into some quarter badge/galleries. Last night I took the plunge and hacked open the hull to expose the LEDs that were buried so long ago when I planked over them. I set the galleries in place and carefully marked them out on the hull and started cutting. And cutting. And CUTTING. Nervous the whole time I would slip and gouge the hull. I did slip once, its a minor scratch and should rub out with a bit of dark oil. When I finally removed the planking I discovered my LED bar was just a bit too low. AS Agent 86 would say "Missed it by THAT much!!" When I laid out the replacement windows I scaled up a bit and moved everything up to the bottom of the wale forgetting where I had placed the lights. Oh well there should be enough light to light up the windows, I hope. I won't be too upset since the odds are I will only light them once or twice until the novelty wears off. Some careful scraping and gluing and something new on the hull. On Tuesday I went in to a Radio Shack near work to pick up the parts I needed to build the DC version of the PWM Flicker circuit here: http://www.radiolocman.com/shem/shem-cache.html?di=14767 Turns out this store is closing and everything is 40-60% off. Oh NO!!!!!! $$$$$$$ They had this little gadget on sale for $35 down from $75. Its an Ardiuno Uno kit. It even came with a bunch of resistors, LED breadboard precut and stripped jumpers, etc. All I have to do is download programs and install to get candle flicker for my LED. I can even add trim pots in to either globally or individually control brightness. Just have to learn a bit of programming. Or ask the programmer at work....... Anyway now its back to rigging gun carriages, I am really glad there is only 14. right at the moment I can imagine doing one of those 50 or 75 gun ships. Yikes! If all goes well I might even have some canons installed by this time next week. We shall see. Sam

To Wale or not to Wail, theres a question! Regardless, it looks like you're having a whale of a good time building her. She looks great. Crack the whip on those gnomes and tell them to get those decks squared away, we need pictures! Sam

Look real good Rich. Next time you come to the States the copper behind my stove needs to be done.

Mark, Crisp and clean like always. I never realized how big she is! Is it the camera angle or is the hull close to four feet? How on earth will you ever fit that in your bath tub?!?!?!? Sam

Thanks, two great tips. Sam

Andy, what "tweaking" did you do one the blade holder? Sam

I have also found the Chopper is useful for making stop cuts for tenons. Since the razor blade leaves a slightly angled cut I set the stop so the cut is a hair short of the mark, score, turn, repeat. The last little bit is fine tuned with a small chisel. It beats trying to mark out cut lines with a miniature square. Now if I had a mill........ Looks at "SantaWife" Sam

Mark, staticey admirals are definitely a situation of Once is WAY Too Much. And absolutely outsource the work, there is too much building and reading to be done. Carl there are reasons why she is my ex, that's just one of them. Popeye, maybe you should get one of those inflatable likenesses of your bulging forearmed nautical self and place it by her work space while in your new work room. You could even put one of those pull strings on it with some of her favorite quotes from you. Hmm that gives me an idea on how to get out of the bi-monthly house cleaning, IE; "Domestic Bliss" Think it would work? Sam

Funny, my last Admiral even a face to face conversation was full of static Sam

Even when you're not the primary care giver the Admiral comes first. Sam

Mark, Getting caught up here. Add my Dittos to the rest! She looks great. Sam

Rich, That is extremely unfortunate!!! Was that a water based paint? It looks like the wood swelled on you. I am assuming its the same paint you used on the other side, what did you do different? Maybe let it sit overnight and see what it does? If it stays like that it looks like you're re-sanding unfortunately. Hopefully somebody has a better suggestion. Sam

Those little details make all the difference. What did you use for the wine glasses? They look like maybe turned Polycarbonate or acrylic?? Sam