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Lou, You (and I) will ALWAYS be bad examples to our Better Half's!! So I got my brass pins in. ME had 8 and 12mm. The 12 mm are just a tad small but fit the holes. The 8s fall right through unless I rest them on the edge of the hole. I may check out some from Cornwall they have some walnut in 10mm, I am just not really looking forward to VAT. When I bought my cannon barrels they ended being much more expensive than I anticipated because of the overseas taxes as I recall. Murphy stopped by for an uninvited extended visit. I have been using Modeler 12's video of Benders technique for tying blocks to yards. In the past when I have stropped my blocks I was using Dullcoat to lock in my knots with good results. It seems to penetrate into the waxed fly tying thread very nicely. However once I started using the technique in the video my knots started failing! I have had to go back and redo every knot related to my Boom and Gaff. Almost every one has failed at least once. I am now soaking them in 50/50 white glue and distilled water. That seems to have solved things. I have one more block to tie a hook to for the Gaff Peak Halyard, that is going to be interesting trying to strop my hook back on without redoing the entire halyard from the tip of the Gaff to the ring on deck. Then I can go and retension my back stays. Murphy, I banish you to the lower reaches of Hades!! LOL! Sam

Jo, that is the joy of this hobby. There isn’t always a “right” way. But there will always be a way that works for you. You just have to find it. Good to hear you found a method. So, you’re done planking then??? Pictures?? Sam

J, good to see you back. Your Hanna HANNAH has missed you. Sam

How goes the build Jo?? Get your balsa shaved down? E-gads Tony! Community Engagement Officers??? What is it with bureaucracy's have to assign soft touchy names to everything? Assuming they do what our Parking Enforcement does here in Los Angeles they should be called Revenue Enhancement Collectors, RECr's for short. It might be hard to take a person in feathered headdress serious today, but if General Custer had taken the Sioux and Chief Crazy Horse more serious he may not have ended life looking like a porcupine. Sam

Jo, The cautions about rasps are well founded. I cant comment for the others but when I think of a "rasp" for hobby work this is what I think of: They are small and not overly aggressive. But you can still do a lot of damage quickly if your not careful. The trick is knowing when to stop and go to a finer tool. What might actually be better since you have limited experience with hand tools - something I should remind myself of more when talking to you here - is more of a coarse file. Or even the Dremmel that others have mentioned. I personally would make hash out of most anything I touch with a Dremmel. There are many here that do quite well with one. Like Mark said, "Different Strokes" Sam

Jo, Dont let Carl or I make you blush, we are just playing with each other. And as far as shipwreck, you're doing fine. In my opinion everyone should own a couple of dozen chisels and at least 5-6 hand planes, they are great tools to own. I warn you though, once you start down that path your life changes, its like many women with shoes or the Little Black Dress. You can never have enough. In fact, when my wife says to me "Honey, dont you have enough "X" " I will walk to her closet look inside at her shoe collection and say "No." Then you get to learn how to sharpen them..... They are next to useless until you learn to flatten the back and hone a good solid edge. There are as many tools and methods to sharpen a chisel as there are ways to fair a hull. Plane, chisel, file or rasp, follow the curves, take your time and above all HAVE FUN with what you re doing, "Life is Easy." Sam

👍😎 as you have seen Carl and I poke good natured fun at each other. also you are fairing (not faring) you Hull now. Be sure to spend some time in the help forums on the best way to do that. Sam

Jo, this is my whispering voice, we are a gentle bunch here, we will never yell at you. Carl is right (he does that from time to time😂😂) a good rasp should take that down with no problem. Just take your time. When you get within about a millimeter switch to some sand paper on a stick or one of those emery boards you ladies use to make your Niall’s nice.

Lou, hadnt thought of that at all. Must be getting tunnel visioned as I try to finish this!! Its been 10 years this month..........😳😳 Sam

Gregory, that is my fall back position. My schedule is always a bit erratic so at the moment I am looking at off the shelf items. I do like your idea of the dremmel as apposed to the drill motor I was considering. THat would eliminate the crushing of the lower portion of the pins by the jaws of the chuck I think. BTW, it ALL about the hokey pokey!! Sam

I wish I could give two thumbs up to Marks comment, but I am limited to one. So sorry for the distraction Captain. I will defer to you judgement on the quantity of seeds. Samson (as opposed to Son-O- Sam)

Mark thanks for the thought. That was more me thinking out loud rather than asking you if you can see across 500 miles of the US and measure my pin rails. 😀 I ordered some 8 and 12 mm brass pins from Model Expo. We will see what happens when they arrive. If I really have to I can throw the kit parts in a drill and try to sand them down to a more reasonable diameter. Sam

Mark, Vossie, I will check those out. I kind of bleeped over the metal pins at Model expo. The big question is will they fit in my pre drilled rails. Sam

Nicely done. You will thank yourself later for installing the fairlead. I neglected to do mine and paid the price with some additional unneeded adapting and improvising. Sam

Well done Captain! Scrapers and sweepers and Moldings, Oh My! Although Me-thinks you need to go back and re-count your seeds. After careful study of your picture it appears you miscounted, there are precisely 73 billion 456 gazillion five hundred and one. Sam

Vossie - or anybody else out therre, I was just looking through the links here and didnt see anything better than what I have. Any thoughts on where to go? Sam

Got a bit of build time in this week. Between comments here and some PM time I got the driver boom figured out, thanks to all. I found some stain that closely approximates the finish on the mahogany planks. They still need a bit of oil rubbed on them. The color is not perfect but by the time I get some rope coils on them you will never notice. I didnt take pictures of that yet. tomorrow or the next time I update. I think this weekend is going to entail re-tensioning my back stays, they flop around when the AC is on and my Main and Fore Stays have developed a slight sag. Very mild tension on both top masts at the heads relieves the sag but introduces additional sag in the back stays. It shouldn't take to long but will be easier now than later. I think also I may look into some different belay pins, the ones Construco provided just look out of scale to me. I think the length may be ok but the thickness seems overly fat. They scale out at 20" O.A. with about 11" above the pin rail. The fattest part though is about 4.75" thick. I may have spaced them to closely, nothing to do about that now though. Pictures or it didnt happen!

At least the first and last 3 bulkheads Jo. It will make fitting your planks so much easier. Sam

Pulling up a chair, I actually got in at the ground level. Whoo Hoo! Come on Dennis, we all know you dont sleep, or if you do yo build in your sleep. How else could you juggle so many builds at one time.😀😀 Sam

Rich, once you download the instructions Gunther referenced you’ll see how easy they are to assemble. Each sheet of 21 parts makes 7 deadeyes. I found that it is possible to reverse a face and get the relief slots reversed. A dot of wood glue is all you need. I did find I had to clean glue out from the holes before I could run my lanyards. A reamer from micro mark worked wonders without splitting the deadeye. Sam

Dennis, How about some brass tube for your tail pipe and muffler? sam

A beautiful couple, much happiness to you both. Will you wife be joining us in a build? Sam

Jo, Nothing to be sorry about. That was a great place to learn. It will never be seen. Is this the same material you will use on the hull? Most of us who stain do a work up on scrap to see what color we want and how the the wood will react with the stain.Dont stress over it, its on the inside, its going to be dark and lots more going on deck to draw the eye away. When you get ready to sand and stain the hull pop over to the finishing forums and spend some time there researching staining. It looks like you didnt get all the glue off before you stained. Also if that is bass wood, it is notorious for splotching. Some pre stain conditioner will help there. A much more friendly finish for the new finisher is Danish Oil. Here in the States a common brand is Watco. It is extremely easy to apply and on a splotch prone wood like Bass Wood or Cherry it can be a real bonus. A lot of builders here like wipe on poly, I think you can get that with a colorant also, you will need to check, or I am sure a wipe-on fan will chime in. What you wont get the above finishes is a "3 foot deep" finish like you get with a stain/clear coat film finish. Take a look at this article to get a feel for the different finishes. FYI my Enterprise is an oil finish albeit with several steps before the final oil and wax. https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/finishes/choosing-best-wood-finish We are here for you, we've all had a project go south on us. This is where the "Adapt and Overcome" parts of Adapt, Improvise and overcome come into play. You can do this. Khyber Pass??? I've been on the Donner Pass before, now those people had a rough time of it. edit One other thing, I cant recommend strongly enough, do a test on some scrap before you stain your hull. Best, Sam

Jo, These can be very helpful for sanding. https://www.amazon.com/Piece-Sanding-Detail-Replacement-Plastics/dp/B079GHS13V?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B079GHS13V Sam

LOL, Thats a lot words. Sam