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Not a bad idea, Dan.   The problem isn't the material.. it's the size.  Something I just need to work through.

I am not 100% set on all furled sails, being wishy-washy!
I ordered some silk span as well as Antscherl's pamphlet on making sails from silk span. I made my stretcher board, mixed my paint and got going.
Deciding on what color I was shooting for stumped me for a bit until I looked around our shop and found a roll of canvas. The boss wasnt too keen on my cutting a piece out of a brand new roll so I grabbed our PPG paint chip book, found a color that I felt was close and wrote down the number. Paint chip books can be hard to get so I didnt want to take the shop book home. Since Home Depot sells PPG paint it was a simple matter of tracking down the right chip and taking a couple home for matching.
I am not great at matching colors but I feel I came pretty close, this is just a tad warm but should go well with the other wood tones.
 

 
The pamphlet instructions say to make a very thin wash and build up the color slowly. I found a 3" taklon brush worked well.
After that a bow pen was used to draw in the seams. This is going to take some practice, the pen wants to be moving as soon as the paint starts to flow and then you have to keep a consistent speed to have a uniform line. I expected to get two or more sails out of this piece. It is hard to see in the picture but the bottom half came out better than the top half:
 

 
The next step is to cut strips out of another sheet that has been painted and "glue" them down with artist matte medium. Hopefully I will have that done during the week.
 
Sam

We will be here when you come back Mark.
Sam

We will be here when you come back Mark.
Sam

Thank you...appriceate it

OK this next move may prove fatal to the Pinta build...I really hated the look of the lower hull with the clinker effect, so I figured since I was gonna tone the lower hull anyway to closer match the finished pics of the kit cover sheet I'd attempt a fix...so each step was filled with ca to harden the edge, allowed to dry, and attacked 180 grit!!  
 
Once I got the hull fairly smooth, fairly being the operative word, I mixed some paint to closely match the keel and rudder tones and slapped it on...I didn't want to totally cover the bottom just cover the bare spots and tone the rest  so a lot of wiping the excess and applying thin washes ensued.
 
Is it 100%...not even close but my hope is to distract the eye enough to make the clinker effect not as noticeable, hoping once the rest of the ship's details go up the hull won't be such an eye catcher.
Thx for your time and attention...Pics follow
 
Sanded hull (some of you are thinking 'Is he nuts'  well, ya, kinda)

Color ready to mix...burnt sienna, raw umber, and yellow ochre

the test (close enough)


Done ( I know still looks kinda crappy)

Well that's it for now, I may get more done this afternoon, the Admiral has a bingo game to attend so I'll be left to my own devices
 
 
 
 

Ron,
Getting reacquainted with your build. As always outstanding work! Why, over the years watching you build, have i thought this is a much larger build???? Well done indeed.
Sam

Continuing with the pedestals--
 
I now cut two new paper templates using my card mock-ups as a guide, folding the paper in half and cutting them out so they were true mirrors.  Using the new paper templates, I then cut some scrap wood templates-
 

 
 
After cutting the keel slots, I could put these on the hull, and refine the cradle arms--
 

 
 
And importantly, check the keel drag--
 

 
 
Using the wood templates, I could support the hull right side up, and check the drag again, and the general look--
 

 
 
I checked for vertical plumbness.   I needed a shim under the port foot, and adjusted both the cradle arms, and sanded the pedestal bottom to correct this.  The clothes pins are just for some additional stability so the hull doesn't topple forward or aft--
 

 
 
Once satisfied with the scrap wood templates, I used these to cut out the final pedestals.   In adjusting the drag, and the vertical plumbness, the bottoms of the scrap wood no longer were exact matches to each other, and I tried to account for this in cutting out the final pedestals.  It may not be obvious, but looking at the scrap templates you can see the difference in the cradle arms to account for the port side of the hull being unplanked (the right side as we are looking at the templates)--
 

 
 
Any remaining differences I could easily sand away after clamping them together--
 

 
 
After sawing, chiseling, and filing the keel slots, I could then I set the hull on the pedestals, and refine the cradle arms--
 

 
 
Check the drag again--
 

 
 
These are now getting close to the final shape--
 

 
 
Some fine tuning of the cradle arms is still needed, and the pedestals themselves look just a bit chunky to me--not sure whether it's the sided thickness of the pedestals, or the thickness (molded dimension) of the cradle arms.   I will live with them for a while before making any changes, as I don't want to take too much off now and regret it.   Once I'm satisfied, or after another round of adjustments, I'll drill the holes for the mounting bolts, and ebonize the pedestals.
 
Ron 

Hi Martin,
 
Credit for the clamps goes to Ed Tosti (Naiad, Young America builds here on MSW).  In post #19, of his Naiad build log, and in Volume 1 of Naiad from Seawatch Books, he explains how to make them.  The book has a bit more info including a drawing, but I think you could figure it out from the build log post.  I had some extra maple, and had to buy the threaded rod, a tap for that, and a dowel for the handles, but they were inexpensive, and relatively easy to make.   I'm not sure what else I would have used (that I own) for the channel gluing, they were perfect for that.
 
Ron

Continuing with the chains,
 
I improved my procedure a bit.  Thread is better for temporarily holding the deadeyes in their channel slots--
 

 
 
This is more secure, easier to arrange, and allows better visibility for checking and gluing the molding--
 

 

 
 
I have only made enough of these clamps to do one channel at a time, so I'm working my way around the ship.  You can see in the next photo that I am also getting ready (pin holes drilled) to glue the boarding steps on the port side.
 
You will also see that I have not glued the carronade breech rope through-bolt locations on the port side, as I did recently with the starboard side.  Having made up the pieces many years ago and stored them away, I have now somehow lost a few, and don't have enough to complete the port side.  I will have to make up some more.   My backstay chains have to be blackened (that's one reason they are not getting attached now, with the shroud chains), so I will blacken the new breech rope bolt ends with them, and that will be next.  --
 

 
 
Looking at the starboard side, here are four phases of the channel/chainplate fixing, and you can see those breech rope bolt ends I mentioned, one at each lower corner of the gunports--
 

 
 
Ron
 
 
 

A small update--
 
Work on the chainplates has been very frustrating, and part of the reason for my snails pace.  Figuring out a way to attach these wiggly things without going crazy took a few tries.
 
After marking the varied angle locations with a string fastened to the point of the mast where the shrouds will come down, holes were drilled in the wale for the lower preventer plate bolt.  The preventer plate was then pinned and epoxied into the hole--
 

 
 
Using the upper preventer plate hole as a guide, the upper pin location was drilled into the wale.
 
Then, the chainplate-deadeye assembly was attached at the same time the upper pin was epoxied into place.
 
Following that, the deadeyes were held in place in their slots in the channel with strips of masking tape attached to the mast--
 

 
 
And the channel molding glued on--
 

 
 
At this point the tape can be removed to check and make sure the fit is good--
 

 
 
You can see my pencil notes on the "Tosti" clamps reminding me which holes were to be drilled for tapping, what size drill, and which were only drilled part way into the wood.
 
 
Ron
 
 

Well, finally a small update:
 
I have been working on filling in some details on the hull, before finishing the channels and chainplates.  Here are some of them.  On the right is one of the Main Tack Chesstrees, to the left of that are a couple of the rub rails (not sure of the name), and the rest are rough blanks of the boarding steps.  A profile has been scraped along the length, and these are in the process of being filed and shaped around the ends, and the width reduced, and then the hand holds will be filed--
 

 
 
Here is the Chesstree glued in position--
 

 
 
And the rub rails--
 

 
 
The boarding steps have been shaped, fixing pins glued in, and the ones which will be attached to the wale have been "ebonized" to match the wale--
 

 
 
Here the pin holes for the boarding steps are being marked, started with a pin, and drilled--
 

 
 
The boarding steps are just dry fit here--
 

 

 
 
They will be glued (epoxy at the pins), and then all these pieces will be wiped with Tung Oil Finish to match the planking and wale.
 
The model is looking very dusty in these photos.  I should probably spend some time cleaning.
 
Cheers!
Ron

Well, I have to follow the sage wisdom of Clint Eastwood... "A man's got to know his limitations".  After being in denial for a couple of weeks, I'm accepting that as a reality.  The eight small cleats at the rear of the quarterdeck are  beyond me at this point.  Tiny little critters and I've gone to serious magnification and also ran through all my tools on hand for working with them.  Even spent time at the local hobbyshop looking for the right tools.  Just too tiny for me.   
 
So... I'll leave the holes for them for now.  Maybe in a week or two, I'll have some inspiration on how to manipulate them or worst case... fill the holes and paint.  
 
Time to turn the page and carry on.

Hi All,
 
I think I can call the skeleton complete. I have to agree with the other comments about the bulkheads being flimsy (bass wood), so I did what others have done and stiffened them up making sure the keel was straight. I’m also glad I did not precut or shape any of the bulkheads for planking. You can really tell the difference just handling it. 
 

I finally finished the gunwales! Now i can move on the the superstructure 
more than met my eye!

J,
Sorry to hear you are having some issues. Hope to see you back at it soon.
Take Care,
Sam

I'm doing alright......I have my days........still get the tired legs and the usual aches and pains,  but that nasty sore is gone on my heel.  it doesn't stop me though........
 
I forgot to congrat you Egilman.........glad to hear that your diagnosis is tipping in your favor    I hope more goes your way!
 
the JU 87A is more labor intensive than I thought..........I have only finishing touches to do to the JU 87G 1.  the canopy is a pain.......the frame detail is nothing but raised lines,  and I'm making a dog's ear out of it.  I'm just going to even it out and be done with it.  next one I do,  I think I will go by way of the mask!

Wow, once again I have started something. and this time after being gone for two years!!
Popeye, looks like it is working out then??
Everybody take care of your health, its the only one you have.
Best,
Sam

Well Done!

Well I think I am done - this is the my final result
 

 
It has been a fantastic Experience and one which I hope to repeat in the future. Needless to say, when I do get another ship to build I will start a build log and share the journey. I honestly don't think I would have - or even could have - completed the build without the advice and support of this group. Thank you all very much, your support has been greatly appreciated.

Manic,
I agree with Cathead,, feed speed or bit quality, that is a pretty small profile, my guess is the bit was dull. Mahogany likes to burn when you rout it, your bits have to be SHARP. Listen to the motor, if it sounds like it is struggling, slow down. Watch your shavings, they should look like miniature planer shavings not sawdust. Also sometimes it is best to take your cuts in steps, (this is a small profile my guess is with the right router bit combination one pass is fine) Set your router to maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the final depth and then readjust for the last pass. It could also be the router; how much HP is the motor? If it a small trim router that could be a problem too. More passes. The burn marks should sand out.
Sam

Just getting caught up on your log, I had not realized you had started another build. Good work on the anchor. It is looking good so far.

Just catching up and following along, Dave.  What you did for the anchors says you'll be fine bashing this kit into shape.  

Ok Lad, let’s get this thing going, I want my ship built!
 

Man these things are tiny. I seriously doubt my painting abilities. 😳

That answers a question I had about the material of the skeleton.  It appears to be basswood.
  It would be a bit of a  pain but maybe worth it to double or triple those bulwark extensions before going very far in the build.
 

 
Particularly the bulkheads for the quarterdeck, I-M.. 
If you do any reinforcing for the midship bulkheads you have to take into account where some of the gun and oar ports  will be.