Jonathan_219

Just plugging along working on the details of the sides plus I've started on the bow and stern pieces. Everything is pretty much going according to plans, I just have lots of clean up on the gunports, railings etc. I decided not to paint the scroll work on the bow pieces just like I didn't on the stern badge, it just seemed like I'd lose too much detail. One place where I had to really fix things up was the main deck gunports. Since I had a gap in the side pieces to make everything fit at the bow and stern the windows didn't line up with the side paneling that goes on the deck sides so I had to make some covers for the internal sides of the gunports to cover up the gaps. I also put in a piece on the bottom of the gunport opening, there were three pieces there and the edges didn't always line up exactly. I decided to have the piece go from the lower 4mm plank that goes against the deck up to the railing, that just looked better to me in the dry fittings I tried. I drilled holes for the cannon eyes before gluing them in place. Hopefully the 1x2mm wood I ordered will arrive soon, the only place I could find it in stock was overseas so it's taking a while, understandable with the current situation. It's landed in the states so I'm hoping the slowest part is over but not holding my breath. I'm a bit blocked on some things that I can do till I get that so I've been working around doing other things. There's no shortage of things to do.

Side Details and Decoration: I've been working on one side, I haven't touched the other side yet and everything is going pretty much as planned. The paper patterns add an incredible touch of detail to the kit and look amazing. I am running low on 1x2mm walnut but that's my fault. I've added some in places where the instructions don't call for it and if I have two pieces that don't fit together as well as I'd like then I just slap some 1x2 in there to cover the fault. I still have some more work to do on the first side but thought I'd post progress. I've ordered some more 1x2 and hopefully it will be close to a match for my existing pieces. Xodar, I'll give the soaking another try before I try and bend those last couple of pieces, so far I haven't had much luck but noticed you said soak till they sink and I may not have been soaking them long enough. I've been getting some significant splintering when I (slowly) work the pieces into the desired curve, I'll make sure I let them soak till they sink before trying again. Reading your experience with breaking the bow piece was my inspiration for trying to be careful and I made it for a little while. I'm just too clumsy to make it last.

Deck Sides, Lower Wales and breaking things: I've almost finished the interior sides of the decks and pieces that go inside. Everything has been straightforward except I don't have a way to bend the 1x2mm strips to the curves on the final stern bulkhead yet. I've experimented with some things like soaking in hot water and just gluing and forcing and nothing has worked yet, I may try the soldering iron method next. The curves on this piece are significantly greater than the others and I'll just have to keep experimenting till I find something that works for me. Painted and installed the lower two wales on each side. I tried using black stain for the wale but it wasn't nearly dark enough, I felt the look required a solid black wale to contrast with the hull so I spray pained the wales. My original plan for the wale that has the change and angle was to cut close to a 45° angle matching the angles in the plans but when one angle is greater than 45 and one less then the width, or distance from edge to edge across the angle is different and therefore it doesn't match up width so it looked poor. I had to just use a straight piece and then cut the bottom off to match the bottom (and top) of the wale coming across. Wasn't exactly what I wanted but it worked. Other than that the first two wales were pretty simple, I did use my longer 5mm strips or the included strips would have been maybe 8-10mm short. I'm sure that's due to some poor fitting of the basic structure when constructing that part. Working on the details near the bow I broke the bow piece of the keel that is in front, it was just moving my hand and my forearm caught it and pop. At first I thought since it was a clean break it would be really simple to glue back in place but I had a really hard time with it but finally got it glued in place and it was difficult to tell that it had been broken. Next morning I started working in the same area and broke it again exactly the same way. This time I decided I wasn't going to try and glue it back in place till the other pieces in that area all get put in place, I felt that every time I broke it it would just get weaker and after the second time I didn't trust myself not to do it again. I had been so happy that I hadn't broken that piece and then did it twice in less than 24 hours. Oh well. The installation of the wales really makes the model pop. I'm really looking forward to starting to add some of the detailing that's coming up.

Sides Installation and planking: After getting the 4 bulkheads in place I started working on the sides. There was a lot of small adjustments to be made to get the best fit I could and there's about a 1.5-2mm gap horizontally between the two side pieces in what seems like the correct positions for them to me but I've decided to go with that. I suspect that this is at least part of the reason why the provided 5mm strips weren't long enough to cover bow to stern without splicing, in several places it's just the tiniest bit short so the extra length and possibly a bit of extra width where I didn't get things tight could explain it. I did decided to order some longer 5mm strips from the same place I bought my ship hoping that they'd be close enough to match once stained and I ended up needed those for several planks if I didn't want to splice. Since the other planks would be continuous it seemed to me that just having a couple with splices would look out of place, it's also hard to keep the curves of the planking even with a break in the plank so I'm glad I ordered those longer planks. Once I had the longer planks the planking itself was pretty straightforward. For some reason when I started I thought I'd just use pieces between the gunports but it was immediately obvious that the preferred solution for me was to run a single plank across the length of the gunports and then trim away. A lot of that has to do with keeping the consistency of the curve and just being smooth. Since I had all the extra planks that made the decision simple. Once the planking was done and the gunports trimmed out I gave the new planks their first coat of stain. I'm pretty sure it'll get at least one more and immediately after staining it I can see a little difference between the lower areas I stained earlier and the new areas. I'm hoping that will be fixed as the new coat dries and going over everything with another coat. Lots of detailing in the deck and railings areas coming up and I really enjoy that part so looking forward to it.

Attaching Bulkheads: I've glued on the 4 bulkheads, started working on the pieces that attach to the sides of the bulkheads and started test fitting the sides and making the adjustments that I'll have to do for them to fit properly. Everything is going pretty much to plan and I'm really enjoying this part of the build as things start to come together. As I've been test fitting the sides I have wanted to see how the last stern bulkhead will fit together with the sides so I've started working on it and as I do more test fittings I'll decide if I want to glue it in place before the sides. The instructions put the sides on first and then the stern bulkhead but for some reason it seems like it's working better for me if the bulkhead is in place first so I'll see as everything comes together. The rather large gap on the sides between the frame and side pieces is one of the things I'm correcting as I'm test fitting the sides and I've managed to pull it into place with some regluing and careful trimming. Hopefully it will all work into place. The picture includes some test fitted parts as it really helps me to visualize everything a couple steps ahead plus it's nice to see how it's starting to look.

Second bulkhead and paper touch up: Finished the second bulkhead just like the first but one thing I did discover that might be useful to others is a way to touch up the paper patterns if you get a slight flaw, which was always a white or lighter spot than the rest. I have had a couple of very small white spots show up in the patterns where I tried to remove some glue that had dried too much. The only colors I've had to do that in were the red and the green but I had the advantage of a full set of color Prismacolor pens so I thought I'd see if I could touch them up, they were very tiny but if a flaw can be fixed why not? For the red I found that Peach PM-170 worked perfectly and for the green Apple Green PM-167 also worked perfectly. These colors look much lighter than the colors in the patterns but they work. A tiny touch of the fine marker on a white spot and it disappeared, couldn't even tell where it was. Pretty sure these can be ordered individually but looking online I'm not sure the fine tip is still like the one in the picture, my pen set is probably 10 years old, I was a little surprised that they still worked but they seem to be fine. Anyway if you ever need to touch up the paper it can be done and won't show.

Bow Bulkhead decoration and door: The bulkhead was a challenge, mostly gluing the wood strips across the face. The curve required, especially in the top two, made getting them in place and holding them while the glue dried tough. I tried wood and CA glue but the CA glue attempt popped off with just a touch after I had it on so I went with wood glue, it gives more time to get things in the proper place but have to balance getting enough glue to hold it in place without getting so much that it oozes out everywhere on the sides causing cosmetic issues. I did find that any small blobs of glue that popped out the side didn't have to be removed immediately but I could get them with one of my dental tools and the glue would just roll off the paper as long as it wasn't completely dry. That gave me some time to hold them in place long enough for the glue to set but not so long I couldn't get the glue excess off. I tried getting clamps on but moving my fingers off let the wood move and break whatever bond had been forming setting everything back so I became the human clamp for a while. It looks like the other three pieces to do now all have less arc than this one so I'm hoping I will be able to get in place easier. The stern bulkhead look like it has a lot of curve and I'll have to think about that, I had even tried pre-bending the pieces but that didn't seem to work with the wood it has for this (Walnut). The door is all spray painted, I used my dental tool again to remove the paint from the ribs in the doors. I added the touch of red on the sides as that area seemed to want some more detail and I wish I could have figured out how to do something with the detailing on the top arch but it seemed like it would take some freehand and I'm strictly a tape and spray painter at this point. Now that I've figured out a process I'll probably batch the rest of the doors. One note for anyone not to this point on this kit yet, I made a mistake trimming the brass door frame, there's a two level decoration that's also in the wood frame and I thought the second level part was part of the excess connecting material so I trimmed that off. It left me with either cutting the whole thing off or leaving half of it missing, I decided to take the whole thing off but will be careful not to maim the door frame on the next one I remove from the brass assembly. I thought about trying to paint the front of the wood frame in that area the same color I painted the brass and I'll see about that, I may still do it.

Thanks for the heads up on the metal, if I decide I want something there I'll probably do a plastic sheet which I've done before. The holes are tiny enough on this window that I don't thing having something there is a big deal although maybe I'll think differently as more of it comes together.

Thanks for the idea on the windows, no idea something like that existed. The frames are metal but I think it would work the same way. I'm not sure I could even get to those windows without tearing some things apart but I'll give it some consideration.

Quarterdeck and forecastle deck planking and Helmsman Canopy: Finished planking the forecastle and quarterdeck and glued the forecastle deck to the ship, All went as planned. Can't say the same for the Helmsman Canopy all of which was due to my clumsiness and bad decisions. When I was gluing the four sides together I was having trouble getting them to stay square while the glue set enough to hold things in place so I decided I'd put a clamp to hold it steady. As soon as I released the clamp (spring loaded) the pressure broke the front side with pieces sproinging everywhere. I looked and looked but never found the upper arch which holds up the roof so I had to make a new one, I did find the piece that came out of the hole in the front section so it had the right curve and all I needed to do was cut a piece the right width and glue it in place. The piece broke as I was cutting it out but it was a clean break that could be glued back together so I proceeded to move forward. I think I broke that piece at least three more times but I finally got enough roof structure to give it some strength and surprisingly if I didn't know what had happened I don't think I'd be able to tell. The instruction say to use 1x2mm wood strips to do the corners and roof but in the pictures they look suspiciously like 1x3mm stripe, at least on the roof so I decided to use 1x2 on the corners and 1x3 on the roof. The 1x3 in the kit is Walnut and it's much harder than anything I've worked with before but it seemed to go OK and when I stained the roof it looks really good, not sure if you'll be able to tell in the picture but there is a lot of nice coloring in the wood now and I like the look. I haven't decided whether I'm going to put a base around it or just glue it straight to the deck, it's another one of those things I'll consider before pulling the trigger and there's a lot to do before it matters. I also went back and did the bases for the two small swivel cannons on the quarterdeck and they went in with no issues.

Quarterdeck planking and Lanterns: I decided to put the center deck plank on the quarterdeck before gluing it in place, that piece is so critical to my deck planking and I didn't think it would cause any issues putting it in place first. Now I wish I had planked out from the center over the hatch openings before gluing in place it would have been so much easier to trim everything up nice and neat and I don't think it would have affected getting the quarterdeck in place. The quarterdeck is a tricky one with the last bulkhead at an angle, getting everything in place to drop down requires some pushing and pulling. I did fewer dry tests just because I didn't want to have it snap while moving it in and out so I did a couple and then went with it. The lanterns are pretty tiny but thanks to being extremely nearsighted I could work on them without any real issues. I've put four of them in place above the gun deck (can see a couple in the picture) and I'm holding on to the other as I figure out where I want to put them. The quarterdeck is about half planked and I should be able to finish that pretty quickly.

Main Deck, Stern Bulkhead Windows: Planked the main deck just like the others and glued the three deck pieces in place. Dry fitting the quarterdeck and realized I needed to get the stern window piece in place to check the fit so I went ahead and completed the windows and glued them in. I placed small strips on the back side of the bulkhead to give the windows something to rest against and that also eliminated any light coming through the tiny spaces between the window grates and the frame so two birds with one stone. On the main deck I decided to cut the cross pieces in the hatch opening and just place the cover piece on it later, at this point I thought I'd stay consistent with that. I also realized that the hole in the quarterdeck for the whipstaff will prevent it from going so far to one side that it could slip out so I don't need to create anything to make sure that doesn't happen. One time when dry fitting the quarterdeck every time I'd try to get one side down the other side would pop up and I finally saw that I didn't have the whipstaff in the hole and it was pivoting on it, it's a lucky turn that I didn't break it because I was pushing it pretty hard. Everything seems pretty straightforward after fighting with the hull planking for so long, deck planking is a breeze. Looking forward to getting the quarterdeck on and planking it.

Gun Deck Finishing and Rudder: I finished installing the rudder and it was just like the instructions stated, no issues. I have found out since that if the Whipstaff goes all the way to one side or the other that the tiller arm can come out from it but it's easy to put back in by just going all the way to one side again. I may try to see if there's a way to put a stop in place to prevent that from happening once that deck is covered up as it could be a real pain to put back in if I couldn't grab the Whipstaff securely. I did have to cut a piece out of scrap to bring the end of the keel to the same level as the back of the stern deck so the rudderpost could sit flush against the back but I'm pretty sure that was just a relic of me not being precise enough earlier on. Just glued it on and sanded it back to fit flush with the planking. In the pictures the pins I used to attach the hinges to the rudder are still brass and I think I'll probably end up touching those up with black paint but I thought I look at it for a while before deciding. The cannons and deck coverings for the gun deck were straightforward with one exception. When doing test fits of the cannons in the default build the cannon pointed so high up that it often was touching the top of the gunport and I didn't like that so I cut short pieces of some old lime wood that was 4x1.5mm and placed that in the carriage where the butt of the gun rests to push the back up 1.5mm and the front down a bit. That gave, to my eyes at least, a much more pleasing angle for the cannons to poke out of the gunports. I scotch taped a cannon to each carriage and then was able to eyeball the position as I glued each carriage in place. I just placed most of the cannons to get a look at things and to take a picture before removing the cannons and starting on the next deck.

Hull Planking Bottom done: I've been working through all the issues I've had planking, especially near the bow and I'm sure that most of the issues have been caused my my lack of experience with hull planking. Everything else so far has been something that I feel that with a few tools, patience and attention to detail I can complete without knowing too much going in. That's certainly not true with hull planking, every plank you position and shape affects every plank that comes after that and I just can't visualize what's going to happen so I have gone astray several times. I've broken pretty much every rule getting finished but kept hoping that as long as I had fairly tight fits it would all work out in the end. There were a couple planks in particular where they got narrow and then wide and then narrow again before going back to full size that I'm sure would never be on a real ship, but it is what it is and I was able to finish. I sanded a lot as I was planking just to make sure that I wasn't completely off so once I got the last plank in final sanding wasn't bad. I need to continue the planking up a bit higher but I wanted to stain what I had so I'd know if it was all going to work out and so I added the stain, Special Walnut. The keel is a dark walnut so there's a nice contrast and since I'm not planning to paint below the waterline I'll have to decide what color I'll stain the rudder and rudderpost. Since the rudderpost looks like an extension of the keel I'll probably stain it to match the keel, but I haven't decided what to do with the rudder yet. I'm really looking forward to doing something that isn't planking for a bit.

Thanks Steven, I'm sure the pieces at the right angle will show that way once stain is applied but I'm hoping that the Hawes? coverings over the anchor holes will cover that up. I can't find in the instructions where it tells me to put them on or which pieces they might be but they're clearly visible in the pictures of that area. Hopefully I'll get lucky and it will cover my mistake.

Picture of the bow planking at the bottom. The bow planking has certainly been the most difficult to get right. Adding to this difficulty was that the plank did not reach all the way to the keel on my first second plank (lower wale plank). I decided not to try and splice but to add a couple of pieces at a 90° angle to the planking, I thought I had seen something similar to this somewhere but I'm not too sure about it after it's all done. I haven't trimmed these pieces yet as I'm not sure exactly where they'll stop since I probably need to add a piece to cover up a small gap between the deck planking and the hull. I think I'm too far in now to change much now but hopefully the rest will fall in place as I work to the bottom. As you can see from the picture the second planking is going ok. It's not as perfect as I'd like but I think when I do a final sand and stain it'll be acceptable. There are still times when as I'm adding the plank I just can't get it to completely butt against the previous plank leaving a slight space between the planks. I've been gluing the first 15-20 mm at the bow starting where the plank touches the keel and then working back to the stern in 100mm or so sections. I built a small rig to try and help cut the tapers on the planks as trying to cut smoothly just hand holding a ruler was pretty much impossible for me. I used some of the wood from the kit to create a channel that the plank would lay in to keep it from moving side to side and then I clamp the plank strip and the ruler. I also added a couple stops for the ruler to rest against to create the same taper on each piece. I calculated the taper by measuring the distance between the top and bottom areas of planking at the widest spot and several spots moving to the bow. Even with the rig cutting a smooth taper is not easy and I'm sure some of the issues I'm having with meeting the previous plank perfectly are from imperfect cuts. I do try to sand any waves out of the cut and trim and sand the back corners to help get that tight fit of each plank. The instructions say to carefully fill any spots before painting as painting is a lot less forgiving than staining and I hope that's true since I'm planning on staining and I'm sure there will be some spots that have tiny gaps even after final sanding. At this point I'm continuing to work on finishing the second planking on the hull and then work up to all the parts I can do for now.

I'm going ahead and starting the second planking even though I don't really have a complete plan for where each plank will go. I prefer to have everything worked out before I start but I just can't get my head around how everything will work out, especially at the bow. I've started with the plank under the wale at the top and also at the bottom with the garboard plank and will start working both up and down mirroring sides and always doing the matching plank on the second side after placing the first one. Once I get a couple of planks down I'll start working out how many planks will fit in the center and where they will all go and how much tapering will need to be done using methods that I've read in multiple resources. I went back and added the gunport frames on the gun deck as I had skipped that earlier. Nothing special but I did use my small file to try and take off as much of the carbon as I could and then I stained the frame and the corresponding cutout in the side panel so no raw wood will show. I also added the keel before starting the planking and that was very straightforward as well except when I finished the first piece which was the bow piece about 8-10mm of the triangle join at the end had broken off. I looked everywhere for it but it was gone so I wen't to the piece that the keel was cut from and made a replacement from it and sanded and stained it in, looks good and if I didn't know it was there I would probably never notice it. Working through the second planking will be slow as I trim the back corners of each plank and hand fit every piece until it lays up against the previous piece with no gap showing. I'm using some medium flow and drying CA glue for this second planking except sometimes at the very ends if there's a curve in the end then it seems like it takes wood glue to hold that piece down. So far I haven't had to soak the wood and I'm trying to avoid that as I don't want the wood to swell a bit and then shrink down as it dries and have it leave a gap between the planks. I will see how this works as I get deeper into it.

While I research and consider how I'm going to do the second planking I've gone ahead and finished the stern planking and bottom of the deck that sticks out over the sides. I think I remember somewhere in the instructions reading that the bottom could be planked and I can't stand the thought of that sitting there with no covering. This also gave me a chance to test the colors I plan to use on the hull on a slightly larger area than just a single plank. I'm using the Minwax Wood Finish Penetrating Stain and I've been using Ipswich Pine 221 for the decking and I used Special Walnut 224 on the hull as a test. It took two coats but I got the shade I was hoping for and I believe this will do for the rest of the hull. I could decide I want a slightly darker result and do one more coat but I think I'll look at this for a while and see if I like it. On my monitor at least both colors have a little bit more of a reddish tint than they do in real life, YMMV.

I use a Letraset Tria art marker that just happened to be laying around. It has a pointed tip on one end and a flat angled tip on the other end. I hold the plank and run the flat edge down the edge and then run it back the other direction, one side at a time. I found by adjusting the pressure on the plank I could somewhat manage how thick the lines were. I was just lucky one of these was laying around, the rest of my family are artists.

First Hull Planking: Finished the first hull planking but haven't finished with sanding or doing some of the filling I'm going to have to do. This was pretty challenging and I've been steadily doing 2-4 planks a day, alternating sides, doing a plank and then doing the corresponding plank on the other side. Fist thing that stood out to me was starting at the top and working down seemed really awkward, the other ship I build started the planking at the bottom and worked up which made more sense to me. I ended up with some pretty unusual shapes near the keel and had to force some of the planks into unnatural positions. I've seen where some people do the second planing working from both the top and bottom and meeting in the middle and I think that's what I'll probably do but I'm going to be going though a lot more information before I start so I could change my mind. I understand why you have to start at the top to make the flow of the planks match the wales but that seems to make the bottom pretty problematic, it certainly did on my first planking. The bow on this ship also seems like a challenge as as the planks go around the curve they naturally tend to go up since the top of the plank has a slightly longer path than the bottom. I also felt that the lime strips used for the first planking were very "splintery" and largish splinters would often try to come up when bending even after an extended soaking and pre-bending to get them flexible. The bow is where I'm going to have to do more sanding and filling to get everything ready for the second planking. My goal was to get more experience and to have a good smooth surface for the second planking and I think once I fill a couple of spots and finish sanding I'll have that. I'm going to have to completely rethink the pattern of the planks, especially near the bow. One thing I have decided is that if I do another bulkhead planking, and I hope I get that chance, that I'm going to get some hull clamps, I've seen several different types and there has to be a better way than the tacks and tape. The tacks help keep pieces you're gluing from moving side to side but don't stop the plank from having one edge twist up. I'm pretty sure some of my issues were inexperience and trying to force the wood to do something it didn't really want to do but I think sometimes you're just going to have to do that. I'm pretty cautious about the second planking after reading the other build logs and seeing some of the issues others have had with it. Since I hope to stain and varnish the entire hull I really need to have a good clean surface when I'm done. I've ordered some medium drying CA glue in hopes that I can hand form and fit each piece first and then CA glue it into place, wood glue seems like it will take too long to dry but the CA glue requires that everything go in place right the first time. The wood in my kit for the second planking is Tanganyca, same as the decking, and I'm not sure how it's going to take some of the extreme curves required near the bow. I've been reading the challenges John Maguire had in his build and hoping to learn from what he did to get the wood flexible enough to go where I need without coming apart. So far planking the hull has been the least enjoyable part for me, mostly due to how concerned I am that I'm getting it right, sometimes it seems like you don't realize that things are going in a direction where you're going to have a problem further down the line and honestly I'll be glad when the second planking is done to satisfaction, I'll feel like I've passed a milestone. It seems like planking the hull is the place where my inexperience is hitting me the most but I'll get through it and move on.

After much sanding, shaping, fitting and re-fitting I've managed to get the three lower side pieces onto each side of the hull. This has been the trickiest part so far for me, especially the bow piece. It didn't want to lay flat across the curve of the deck and bulkheads and I had a heck of a time getting it in place. The biggest problem for me was holding it in place while the glue dried, the pins didn't seem to do much to keep them from moving and while I could use some clamps and tape to hold the two side pieces down there just wasn't much place for that on the bow section. I ended up just gluing one or two bulkhead points at the top first and then just gluing one more spot on the top at a time and letting it's glue dry before moving to the next point and then doing the same on the bottom, just holding it in place however I could; hands, tape, binder clips, whatever. It came out ok but the bottom of the bow piece right next to the keel pushes out more than I would like, I'm going to see where the first planking sits in relation to it and then decide what to do about it, there's not much to glue to there so I might need to put a block or two in to give the planks something to sit against, I'll just have to see. Next comes the planking which is the scariest part for me, I do like the fact that it's double planked so it gives me some more practice and the second layer should always have something inside it to glue to. At this point I'm pretty sure that I will not paint the hull but stain and varnish it so I'll need for the application to be very good to give it the look I want.

Rear Gallery Deck, Ladders, Helmsman Platform, Doors: Everything here was pretty straightforward. I did feel that the doors looked a little plain so I added some additional detail. I took some 1mm Balsa sheet and cut it as thin as I could and then sanded it down to make planking to go on the doors (picture below) and for the helmsmans platform I ended up planking all the external surfaces with 2mm walnut and then staining it before installing it. I did touch up the doors after the picture was taken where the black paint had come off while working with them and exposed the brass. Of the 4 eyelets (pieces 227) I lost 2 and had to replace them, I hope there are enough spares or I stop losing things. I glued everything in place and set the forecastle deck in place in preparation for starting to shape the bulkheads, I feel like this is going to take some time and I know that the better I get the shape now the easier the hull planking will be so I'll be taking my time and trying to get this as good as possible before moving on.

Rear Gallery Deck Decking: This deck was considerably more challenging to lay down the decking compared to the earlier decks, it's on the ship which complicates things and there are all kinds of angles and tiny pieces to work with. I also had to leave a channel for the sides (parts 51) to sit in later which brought about the biggest decision I had to make. When placed on the ship the two sides extend about 3mm beyond the stern window pattern (part 118) and there's nothing indicating whether or not to extend the channel for that 3mm extension. The instruction pictures don't seem to show a channel there and double checking the positions of the sides as closely as I can it seems that they are in the right place and do extend. My first thought was to make a channel for the sides to the length of the part in the kit but I finally decided to go with the picture in the instructions and have the first transverse deck plank cover up that space, I'm hoping that when I go to place the sides if they still extend I can remove a little at the bottom over that plank so it will sit down firmly in the channel and if for some reason the sides don't extend then I don't have a channel in the decking that isn't filled in with a wall. From looking at the pictures I started out thinking this decking would take 2-3 times as long as the previous decks but it was probably closer to 8-10 times as long but I enjoyed working though all the challenges that popped up. I still have to make the ladder to finish up this step and then on to the bulkheads and doors.

Thanks Jeff, that makes sense. I have left the whipstaff free or at least the long piece that will eventually come up from the rudder. I tried looking it up and I'm not sure if "whipstaff" refers to just that piece coming up from the tiller or it includes the pivot box that holds it in place as well, doesn't matter in the big picture but it's nice to understand the terminology and know I'm referring to the same thing as someone else. To that point the shafts I was worried about falling out were the two shafts made of 2mm dowel that hold the pivot box in place and allow it to swivel back and forth and I didn't make that clear. The instructions say to glue the round pieces to the end of them but there's nothing I could find that prevents those two pieces of dowel and the end caps from just falling out. I ended up gluing them so hopefully that will be ok. It's amazing how much your picture looks like what I have right now and I've gotten a lot of great information from reading your log. I hope I can make my kit look half as good as yours.

Deck Supports and Whipstaff: The deck supports, parts 6A,6B,7A and 7B just didn't look very good when hand fit into place on my ship. They look pretty good in the instruction pictures so I'm not sure why the bottom didn't line up correctly for me but there was a huge gap between the support column and the decking. I felt like I had a good replacement for the columns in my toothpicks but the hole in the deck was still a problem. Luckily I found an old balsa square piece of 4mm x4mm x 20 inches laying around that almost exactly fit the hole in the deck. So I took the balsa and pushed in in the hole and marked it. Cut it off and with a little shaping I had a piece that would sit exactly flush with the deck and fill the hole. Stained the balsa dark because I felt if I tried to match the deck it would never match so I just thought of it as part of the column. With the holes plugged I moved forward with the toothpick columns. When I used the toothpick columns on the deck below I had a hard time getting them positioned since there's so little contact so I decided to drill a hole in the support beam for the column. Once that was done I just cut the toothpicks and then hand placed the support beam and made sure I had the column the correct height to make a flat deck using a straight edge. One all four were made I just stained and glued in place. Parts of the whipstaff instruction were confusing to me. I don't understand what would keep the shafts from falling out. The instructions are very precise saying on put glue on the shaft and the dowel or shaft so there's nothing to keep the shaft from falling out and the whipstaff falling down so I put a very tiny amount of glue on part 92 to keep the shaft from falling out, I'm hoping that if it has to come out I can get in there with an exacto and cut it loose easily. With that done the rest of the assembly was straightforward.