AnobiumPunctatum

These two photos show an hour's work with hand and power tools on the starboard side.  I started with mallet and gouges, then I went to the Porter Cable belt sander with 36 grit, and ended with several passes with the block plane.
 

Wow Tom, that's real artisanal and beautiful work! You're a true old master!
 
I'm very much enjoying your build story and your extensive explanation.

Well Ron, you didn't have to wait very long.  I start in with mallet and gouge tonight!   Yes, I have my Winnie finally mounted on the fully completed building board, and I'm ready to start forming the hull.  It was a lot of work just to get to the starting line.  LOL   Where I'm at would be the equivalent of my fellow builders just receiving their Winchelsea kit from Chuck.  Now the real work starts.  Shaping the hull is a very long and arduous task, and very messy too.  You can see on photo 4 that I did some work on the vertical building board supports.  I removed some of its Baltic birch and added a strip of yellow poplar.  The reason for doing so is that it was much easier to make the final height adjustments on the softer wood.  While Baltic birch is a beautiful furniture grade plywood it's not so easy to sand or plane. I spent much of the afternoon making the final adjustments to the building board and was quite meticulous in getting it to support the hull exactly as designed, 1/16" off the building board's surface.  Photos 5 and 6 show this forward and aft.  The hull, resting on the supports is ROCK SOLID STABLE with zero movement.  I couldn't be happier with the results.
 

This morning I attached the temporary keel.  I first drew lines on the hull slightly wider than the keel.  This was just so I could center the keel easier when screwing it down.  Next I predrilled the holes in the keel and then countersunk them.  I also predrilled holes in the hull right before attaching the keel with 10 - 3/4" small brass Phillips head screws.

For the past several days I've been working steadily on gluing up the lifts and the other pieces that help support the model when it's on the building board.  All seven lifts are glued together, as are the bases that the horizontal arms rest upon and the reinforce pieces that are glued on them.   Because the weight is off the scale heavy I felt it necessary to strengthen the glue joint for each arm with 4 - 3 1/2" Phillips bugle head screws.  They go through the reinforce pieces, the horizontal arms, the arm bases, and 2/3 the way through lift 7.  As previously mentioned, number seven lift was done in three pieces.  That lift amidships is not very thick, less than 1/4".  I just felt it was easier to do it this way. 
 
 

Thanks for the review. I know that you are building a french frigate.
So the book is perfect. For English frigates you need another source.

Really really wonderful. There are so many details and technics, which I also can later use for my Triton project.
 
I have one question. The historical model show that the upper part of the knee of the head was painted blue. Is it your personal choice to paint this black or is there another reason?
 

Templates for the cheeks in chapter 5.....chapter 5 coming soon......I hope
 
cheektemplates.pdf
 
 

Fitting and Rigging a 74-gun Model Ship
Francis Jonet
ANCRE (www.ancre.fr) – December,2020
118 pages-color photos-diagrams
This is an updated reprint of the original book’s first printing and is available in French, English, Spanish, and Italian.
 
 
 
 
Overview:
While not part of the seminal books by Boudroit of the 74 Gun Ship series, it is an add-on that complements the series. This book provides references and how-to instructions.  Numerous images (both color photos, drawings, and tables) illustrate the items and the techniques using a minimum number of tools.  Everything included relates to construction of the 74-gun ship from late 18th to the early 19th centuries.  Do note that the first chapter is dedicated to finishing the upper works and fittings as well as what’s required to add the rigging. 
 

Contents by Chapter and sub-headings:
Chapter I – Fittings and more, Tools, Laminates, The sandpaper file, Working on the stern and stem, Making gratings, Upper deck and Poop deck breastwork, The breast rail stanchions and belaying pins, Ladders, Shroud chains, Anchors, The guns, The figurehead, The stern lantern
 
Chapter II - The Masts – Making the spars, Lower mast and lower yard hoops, The yardarms, Building the tops, Topgallant trestletrees and crosstrees.
 
Chapter III – Blocks – Preparing slats, Making the shells, Finishing the blocks
Chapter IV - Rope Work – The workspace, Theory, In practice, Serving, Particular cases for small cables
 
Chapter V – Finishing the Ropework – Eyes and mouse (stays), Shroud masthead rigging, Rope bights, The shrouds, Wall knots, Ratlings, Hammock nettings, To clap on blocks to the yards, Small block straps, The thimbles or rings, Hooked return blocks, The anchor buoys
 
Chapter VI – Making the Sails – The cloths, Tabling, Linings and patches, Eyelets, Bolt ropes, Foot ropes, Head ropes, Bolt ropes cringles, Reef point, Gaskets, Grommets, The bent sails
 
Chapter Vii – Installation of the Sails – Leading and belaying the ropes, Jibs, Staysails, Lower sails, Topsails and mizzen topsail, Topgallant sails and mizzen top gallant, Driver, Jib sheets and Installation of anchors, Finishing the Installation of square sails, Staysails sheets, Inspection of the work done
 
Chapter VIII – The Ship’s Boat – Construction method, The forms, Framing, Keel, Stem, and Sternpost, Sterns, Planking, Form removal, Stern sheets, Floor timber and inner planking, Thwarts, Stem and stern inner areas, Rudders, Finishing details
 
Chapter IX – Technical Data – Making the ropes, Shrouds, back-stays, stays, Preventer stays, bowsprit mast, Catharpins, range cleats, belaying cleats, Blocks, sheet blocks, staysail stays, bolt ropes, foot ropes, etc. Fall tackles, yard tackles, Sail tackles, anchor ropes and cables, Yard rigging, Lower sail clusters, blocks for the stays
 
Chapter X – Block Distribution – Rigging parts for the masts and for the operation of the yards, Rigging parts for the operation of the sails, Rigging parts for the operation of guns.
 
Chapter X – Return Tacks – Forecastle, Quarterdeck, Poop deck.
 
Technical Data – Tables for all of the rigging, blocks, and tackle sizes,
 
Review:
This is basically a journey, in which shows not just the author’s successes but also his failures, both of which are useful.  Every chapter details the jigs he used along with the methods, along with photos of this process which, was eye-opening to me and would be useful (with modification) of any ship of the period.

 
While there are minimal plans (you will need the monograph for the model you’re building), the appendix has much to offer in the way of tables which not only surprised me but somewhat overwhelmed me by the amount of data there.
 
The book is well-written with the photos being annotated to explain what is being done. Everything is broken down into bite-sized chunks and processes used explained.

 
Though I have no intention of building a 74, as my preference is frigates, the same techniques and tools will be very useful and save me a lot of “re-do’s” and figuring out how to do it.
 
Would I recommend this book?  Yes, very much so as it will help any builder come terms with the complicated rigging.  I’ve decided that this is one the books to keep at all times near my workbench instead of in the library.  I really can’t recommend this enough.
 

Yes. I prefer black but the carvings arent glued on permanently yet in case I change my mind.

Really really wonderful. There are so many details and technics, which I also can later use for my Triton project.
 
I have one question. The historical model show that the upper part of the knee of the head was painted blue. Is it your personal choice to paint this black or is there another reason?
 

Thanks Ron.  That’s awesome to hear.  Glad my method helped you out.  Around the holidays I got super busy and I haven’t had a chance to touch my Winnie since Christmas Eve or even really check out this forum.  I’m hoping by this weekend to get back into the swing of things and finally start the first belt of planking and regular updates.  Also a lot of builds I need to check in on.

I’m continuing to do mini-projects in no particular order - following the ‘why don’t I do that next’ plan. So:
 
Mounting the rudder

 
When I first looked at the Pintles and Gudgeons mini-kit I wondered what do you do with those. Turns out it’s another brilliant design and a simple way for attaching the rudder. Simple in concept anyway.
 

 
The first step was to paint the gudgeons Ironwood Black then dust them and the straps with weathering powder, because you know you can never do enough weather powdering. Attaching to the rudder itself was straight forward, I left the pintles long initially then trimmed it back after some test fitting.
 

 
Then came the more challenging part, attaching the gudgeons to the hull in the right place to fit the rudder and in line. After some careful measuring and marking I used a piece of brass wire to make sure they were aligned. There isn’t any forgiveness here, everything has to be in the right place.
 
I encountered a problem, I couldn’t get the glue to adhere to the hull, after several frustrating attempts I determined that glue sticking to wood with too many coats of WOP doesn’t work - I simply had let it get it too thick on the stern post. I roughed up the wood with some 220 grit, and after that no problem. I of course knew this, but sometimes in the thick of it you just want the wood to shut up and do what you tell it to do - the wood laughs. I also shouldn’t do these things at night, or maybe not at night after drinking scotch, or maybe just not after drinking scotch.
 

 
Anyway. The straps and bolts are added. I liked how drilling holes as marked on the strap, inserting wire a little long to glue it in and then cutting it near flush made for nice bolts after touching with Ironwood Black (a little touch up there to do on the hull too, oops).
 

 

 
And there you have it, my ship can now be steered should it find itself adrift in the ocean somewhere. I still think I’m going to remake the tiller, we’ll see, it’s just hanging there loose for the photo. So with that done the rudder is removed and put on the shelf to be permanently installed later, bye rudder.
 
The Catheads

 
Then, since it can be steered I figured I better be able to anchor it, so do the catheads next. That meant it was time to play with the mill again and pretend I know what I’m doing. Following the monograph I constructed the catheads in two parts. First the upright, which to fit tight against the bulwark had to be notched for the spirketting and again for the waterway. I cut both notches with the mill. While it takes the unskilled like me a bit of work and trial effort to get the measurements right, the mill cut nice and clean once I had it correct (actually it cut nice and clean when I had it wrong too). I bought a car engine feeler gauge, took it apart and used the thinest one to set a good zero for between the bit and the wood for the X,Y,Z axis. This proved pretty handy in getting a consistent starting point for the cuts.
 

 
It was fortunate I read the monograph first (not that fortunate as I always do). Before starting on the catheads, the forward pin rail has to be made and installed. That has to be sized carefully so that the cathead doesn’t impede the flow of the anchor rope through the hawse hole or restrict the gun tackle for the forward chase port, there isn’t that much room between the two. I had to do a little fine tuning on the pin rail not related to the cathead as shown here.
 

 

 
Next up is getting the correct angle on the upper piece of the cathead, hint, it’s not 90 degrees. There needs to be some upward angle to it, while also accounting for the bit of lean of the upright on the bulwarks. After some experimenting I determined 85 degrees was best (or 95 degrees depending on how you look at it). Since the Byrnes gauges don’t do notch anything less than 15 I set the angle on the sander for a smooth edge using a digital protractor. Then to get a good feel for it I set the top piece on for a look. I decided this made a great ship's crane and installed it just like shown here. Well, it did cross my mind for a second. When I know I’m going to need multiple equal sized pieces, plus several more for testing I cut a properly sized long length and cut everything from it, hence the long piece shown.
 

 
Then its back to the mill to cut the sheaves into the top piece. This is so incredibly easier and better than doing it by hand with a blade as I’ve always had to do in the past. Just cut the slots a 1.5 mm deep and drill all the way through on both ends. I added flush-cut 24 gauge wire to either side later but it doesn’t go all the way through and is just for simulation.
 

 
This little Veritas triangle, a new tool, has been coming in handy a lot for deck work, here to make sure the cathead is perpendicular to the deck.
 

 

 
Some filing at the leading edge, paint, a couple of cleats, and I have catheads. No anchors yet so the ship is still drifting, but at least they have someplace to attach one, or maybe attach Fred, their fellow crewman who drank all the grog, and just let him hang there a while. BTW, they are straight, the photo is a warped perspective due to the angle. 
 
The Seats of Ease
I struggled with the concept of this a bit. These seats are such a prominent feature of the deck. I have this vision of two crew members availing themselves of the seats, just a few feet from the helmsman. There is no cover on them (I almost added one) so I wonder, given the prevailing wind on a sailing ship is generally from either rear quarter, if the helmsman - often the captain on a ship this size - was constantly bombarded by the smell. So I almost turned them into lockers and let the crew poop over the rail. In the end I decided to stay true to Chuck’s design and accepted they’d be a topic for conversation once the ship was finished. So I began to build my two onboard outhouses with apologies to the helmsman…courtesy flush dude (which would be a bucket of water I suppose).
 

 
It seems simple, just glue together three pieces of wood, the top, one side, and the front. The thing is, again, there are a lot of angles and curves involved - plus you are making two and the two have to be both identical, level and even in  height with the spirketting since that forms the outboard side, and the width of the inboard stern frames. Here’s hoping I installed all of those equal on both sides so long ago. I started by cutting card templates (as Chuck suggests) - its kinda essential here to get the right fit. I’m sure there is a geometric name for the shape of the top, let’s just say it doesn’t remotely resemble a rectangle. I also cut a long strip 9mm wide from 1\32 sheet so that the front and sides for both seats came from the same piece of wood.
 

 
This photo is from later in the instruction. I first did the sides since everything else is based on them. The challenge is cutting the curve of the counter on the bottom, having both end up the same height and level, be the same length coming forward, and the leading edge perpendicular to the deck…no problem…who doesn’t love geometry.
 

 
And what do you know on the first try both sides are level…or maybe not on the first try…
 

 
After cutting the fronts - with the outboard side beveled to fit snug to the bulwarks, it was on to the top. There is no substitute for card templates here. I marked the measurements, tested it and remarked until I had the varied lengths on the four sides required for it to fit, the angle of the hypotenuse or something like that. I used the cross cutting table on my Byrnes saw to get precise cuts on two of the sides, there is likely some way to do it with the saw, but I opted to cut the remaining two sides with my heavy steel rule and #11 blade. It’s possible I didn’t get all this right on the first try, card stock or not.
 

 
With the pieces cut and only the sides glued in I test fitted everything, and found it’s all level and equal sized, how’d that happen.
 

 
The last step before mounting and painting is the ease part of the seat, cutting the hole, which after all the work to get two fitted tops I didn’t want to screw up. So I went slow with a small pilot hole, then a bigger one, then a round needle file, then a larger file marked with a sharpie to finish at a 4mm hole, and finally an ultra fine sanding stick to smooth it out.
 

 
I added two large cleats and 4 smaller ones then painted it by brush with thin coats of my favorite RED (again some iPhone camera distortion on the angles). The cleats come from Syren, available in multiple sizes. I had to remove the laser char (it would show through the red paint) and shape them a bit. I used the stem of a standard eyelet to pin them to the bulwark so they can take rope tension later. I also added the horse, created from 24 gauge wire. I used the eyelet portion, cutting off the stem flush to the circle, to accent the horse either side, painted it Ironwood Black and weathered it to finish off the stern - except the knees and boom crutches which are up next…maybe…
 
Pin rails and cleats

 
I finished up this phase by adding the bulwark pin rails along with the rest of the cleats noted on the plans. Turned out to be a pretty tight fit for the cleat nearest the ladder. I’m glad I checked that, I had to give it a little extra turn to allow the ladder and gun tackle to fit with room for the future lines shown on the rigging plan. It’s generally a good idea to take a look around at what might happen or be added later to make sure nothing gets in the way of something else. That was evident here and especially evident with the catheads.
 
As I noted I’ve been turning pages in the monograph and doing what I felt like doing next - at this phase, at least so far nothing has to be sequential, though that will change soon. Thanks everyone for the likes and for stopping by. I better go check to make sure the crew didn’t actually drown Fred.
 

Hi Guys and am sorry on  the slow response.  Christian I really like WNW kits and was sadden when they went out of business.  Now it seems the only place to get one is on Ebay and they are asking for almost three times the amount. I did get the Meng kit of the Red Baron plane the Fokker which I do believe comes from WNW. A good kit with lots of detail. Druxey that dust collector has been a life saver helping cut down on the dust in the shop and since all of the wood is cut in the main part of the shop should help's me keep it out of the back room were I have a few books such the swan books. In fact I have the original monogram that was sent out to the members  in chapter's. . Only thing missing from them is a autograph. Hum I wonder. Thanks Mark  I still work on plastic models and as you say it still takes me a couple of months to build on. Problem with me is I try to add  after market parts to just adds on to the build time. Hi Clay. Your very welcome sir and all you have to do is just ask. Hi Martocticvs and thank you, she is getting there.

The area between the cheeks have three laser cut layers.  They are very thin.  They vary in length.  Note below how the top edge of these three layers runs along the top of the black strake.  This might vary because I have no idea where your black strake is and if it deviated from the plans a bit you will need to get creative.  We can talk about that.  But its not the end of the world.  Hopefully you guys will read through the entire process and take more measurements before you get this far.   These pieces along with the headrails are probably some of the most complicated parts of a model project.
 
All three layers were pre bent with heat (hair dryer).  I sanded of the laser char and softened the aft edges of all the layers.  Each layer was added one at a time.  The final layer has the size and location for the hawse holes.   More on that later..

Next is the upper cheek...You should have beveled this like the lower cheek.  This one should go easier.  Note how it wraps onto the stem.  It doesnt extend above the top of the stem.  This upper cheek is also shorter on the hull as you can see.
 

You can sense the repetition....
 
Then the upper hair bracket.  Again it was designed a lot longer than you need.   Add the figure head and determine its length.   Cut it so you get a clean tight joint with the cheek.  
 

Double check your work.....do or die so to speak.   If your measurements worked out the carving should fit perfectly with a bit of room to spare between the hair brackets.  If not you could always tweak the carving so it fits as best it can.
 

Almost done now....
 
In the next photo you can see three more parts I added.   I will explain each to you but please refer back to this photo below for its position etc.
 

First is the short decorative molding along the front of the figures leg.  This is laser cut for you.  Round off the edges along its length.  Clean up the char as usual.  Its a little long and once again its best to put the figurehead in position.  Then test the fit of this molding.  Cut it to fit and glue it in position while the figurehead is temporarily in place as a guide.  It goes from the foot up to just under the skirt.
 
Next up is the bolster.  The bolster is pretty thick and laser cut for you.  Its an 1/8" thick.   This piece is too short and too thick to pre-bend.   Thats why it was layer cut 1/8" thick.   You will need to sand it to the curved shape so it fits against the hull.  You can see where it goes in that photo.  It sits between the cheeks on top of the lower cheek.   Start by sanding the back side to fit snug against the hull.   Get it nice and snug with no gaps.   The photo below shows one bolster shaped.  It will get pretty thin by the time its all shaped correctly.  Probably just a but thinner than 3/32".   It depends on how deep your cheeks ended up after your beveling and shaping of those.
 
Then shape the forward side keeping it a consistent thickness.   To finish it up round off the top edge as shown.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  Do not glue this in position.  Just make sure it fits and looks good sitting on the cheeks.  You dont want this glued on when you drill out the hawse holes.  We will be doing that next.   They would certainly get damaged. 

And then the wash cant.....The wash cant is rarely seen on any kit.  If you look at that photo you can see it temporarily tacked in position.  It sits on the underside of the lower cheek.  ....in the corner where the hull and stem meet.  It helps deflect the water and waves.   You need to sand this odd shaped piece.  Its hard to describe.  The front edge is like a knifes edge.  Sand the entire piece by rounding it off to a knifes edge along the front edge.   This will be painted black but I show it natural in the photo because you wouldnt have been able to see it.   I have since painted it black and glued it back into position.  
 
The photo below shows one of them shaped and ready for painting.
 

And here is that last picture again to show the placement of those last parts...

Now I know this looks complex.  That is because it is.   You will not see any other kit with this much detail.  Even those Chinese POF kits that everyone raves about do a rather crappy job with their headrails and cheeks.  But this is a pretty close representation to any contemporary model you might examine for an English frigate.  I know you guys can do it.  
 
I could have cut many corners and gone with something simplified and kit-like.  But I think its something you will be proud of once you finish.   Just take it slow and do lots of measuring......lots of testing.....repeat and repeat again.   Just wait till we get to the head rails....good times!!!
 

Good day. 
I celebrate a bit today with relief and satisfaction as half is planked. 12 +  on each side. Looks like modeling on steroids but it took me a while while i mastered that smoothing straight lines and bending.. I made it over 4 days in total , it took approx 1 hour to make 1 line. I made some helpers and used violin iron bender i use when making violins. I focused on 5  things, to make sure cut line are straight for minimal seams , that bent is curvy and complete so i wont press and damage plank and that contact place is firmly glued to every bulkhead so each next line follows well and planks follows lines closest possible so they are as smooth curvy without bumping  and uniform as possible.  . With violin bender i did not need to use clamps of any sort just to bend at my will on top of  160 celsius hot plate and stick there in a while. . I only needed to moisture probably 4  planks towards stern clagressive curvature . At the end i made those planks original curvy as it was difficult to bend them qithout damaging it. So it how it went.
At this point I really want to congratulate everyone who tried proper planking no matter outcome. Its harderst part of modelmaking for reason and for reason we try to mask omit or avoid it. I want to thank to Chuck to make all way into it predictable and kind of likable even. I really cannot imagine to do it without those lines.  Observing others, there is many mistakes on mine and stern part finish is not so smooth as well. There start perfect work with previous perfect sanding of l bulkheads before as now you can see mine there is bump toward stren on one side and all clean work and perfect lines you guys accomplish, but I am happy I built a confidence now that  i can finish my first proper planking ajd hull from this point kind of properly and sucessfully and that is important for me.  Also that it wont take not months nor weeks probably few days after this pause. Now fairing inner bulwarks and I think of making black line as well. Than i will start from keel up towards the rest buf i am a bit scared not sure how to manage keel plank to instert inti rabbet...well...have to check some works...
Oh another important point. I now see disadvantage of lime strips comparing to cedar not only for different shades which makes me firmly think I will go after kind of darker finish where those non uniform planks would look better than blond- ish....what do you think?   i lean towards fruity wood colours so  ordered some quality stain so i will post test samples. Looking at pics...Should i sand hull even more ? 
So its all for this week i guess, always apology for elaborate, thank you for stopping by thank you for helping and advices and stay safe!  
 
 
 
 

OK, Jim (Hatch) has put together the three mini coat kits that will be standard for the Sphinx kit, a 22' yawl (£24), 24' launch (£25.50) and 28' pinnace (£28.50). And he has done a marvellous job, I think.
 
I am hoping to have a few of each in stock next week, to buy individually, as Jim is doing a little online (PDF) build manual for each.
 
The 18'cutter is also getting a small revamp, in keeping with the new releases. The boat kits will have extensive laser cut parts, in pearwood (0.6 and 1mm), including laser cut pear oars, thwarts/stern sheets and gunwales if applicable,  and MDF bulkheads and building base. The keel for all new boats is 1mm pear, to keep the scale look, plus a PE sheet for the finer detail (floor/gratings and 'iron work)
 
A little later, I will have a 36 and 34' launch, 32' barge and 32' pinnace, and finally a 36' admirals barge, which will be suited for a larger model with the single boat on/in the waist
 

Ok, one more thing down   First layer of wales complete along with black strake. I'm glad I ripped out my first attempt and redid them. Of course they will look better covered with the next layer. Now to make things count and try to do them right. Single layer from here on in!
 
 
 

Thanks  for your help. I glued the three parts together last night. Next is preparing the cut outs for the masts and glueing the stem parts together.
You see that the bulkheads are done with another laser. The stemparts are a dream. If I remember how much work it is with my scroll saw.

When I have a gap between pieces of wood, similar to what you are experiencing, I mix glue with some fine sawdust into a very sticky paste.  I then push it into the gap and smooth it out with an old chisel.
Tom

Gluing the Lifts Together
     For the Winchelsea model there are seven lifts.  Number 7 is in three parts.  Now that they are assembled it's time to glue them up.  The first thing I do is to gather all the tools used in the process. (photo 1)  Next I carefully check the lifts to be glued together.  I make sure the surfaces are perfectly level and that they don't have any dried glue on them from an earlier lift glue-up.  When that's done I make sure the center line, number 1 station line and any lines on the ends of the lifts (inside and out) are accurate and darkened for easy visibility.  This is important because there is often so much glue that squeezes out that line visibility can be obscured.  After this is done I place the two lifts to be glued together, carefully align them and then run a #2 pencil around where the lifts meet, inside and out. (photo 2)     Glue is then applied to each lift.  I am very liberal with the glue, so I have to wait a little longer for it to get tacky.  Be careful doing this.  You don't want to wait too long because you want all the excess glue to easily squeeze out. (photo 3)     My next step, and a very important one, is to put nails into the lifts to keep them from moving when clamping.  Without them there is no way I can keep the lifts from sliding out of place.  I use 2" finishing nails for the job.  As you can see in the above photo I don't actually drive the nail through one lift into the other.   What I do is to place the nails into certain V grooves or in the corner of L shapes in the top lift and then drive the nail approximately 5/8" to 3/4" into the lower lift.  I use anywhere from 8 or 14 nails to immobilize a lift.  This step is made possible because yellow poplar takes nails so well.  The nails are easy to put in, the wood doesn't split, and when the clamping is done the nails are easily removed.  Be very careful the lifts don't slide out of place when nailing.  In this photo I completed the nailing and am about to clamp lift #4 to lifts #1, 2 and 3 that are already glued together. (photo 4)  When the nailing is complete I'm ready for clamping.  (Photos 5, 6 and 7)  In those places that I don't want marred from clamp pressure I use a small piece of plywood to protect the lift's surface.   After all the clamps are in place I remove the excess glue that squeezes out.  There is usually a considerable amount that needs to be cleaned from the lifts.  The excess glue is scraped off with a few different chisels.  I give the clamped-up lifts at least six hours to dry before gluing the next lift.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Life just got in the way for the past couple of weeks between the holidays and an amazing amount of random things that needed to be assembled around the house.  Haven't even had an opportunity to check in on this forum in a couple weeks, but finally found some time.  
 
Finished rough fairing the inside of the hull.  There's still about a 1/32" that needs to be still taken down, but all the rough edges have been removed and the final sanding can wait for a bit.
 
Moving onto the stern, I got pretty aggressive with the drum sander on the aft most frames before marking off the cedar.  There was just so much plywood to remove that taking it down gave better access to the cedar. 

 
I trimmed up the cedar around the aft most gunport and then very slowly and carefully chiseled down frame 28 that made up half of the gunport.  In the future, I wold definitely cut those frame back further and frame out the entire gunport.  Gunport 14 on both sides was remarkably time consuming trimming up and tested my patience more than an 8 year old.
 

 
4 chisel blades later, it cleaned up well.

 
Once that gunport was done, the rest of the frames fell in line pretty quickly.

 

 

 
 

 
 
In the last couple days I finally got to break out the tick strips, so I should begin planking the first belt this weekend.  I really struggled with the tick marks on the stern.  Belts 3 and 4 eyeballed up very well with the appropriate belt mark on the frames, but I kept getting an extra plank width in belt 1 and 2.  I tried dividing out 6 plank widths on belt one before realizing that I should run a batten across the frame lines (the line across the filler piece and lower counter).  The marks for the belts along the stern post were all good, but I was way off with the one on the counter.  Regardless, I'll fix the tick marks for belt one and wait until after finishing the first belt before adjusting belt 2.  Fun is about to begin.  Can't wait.

 

If you find the gap offensive you could also glue in a tapered spline of the same wood to fill the gap after the glued keel has dried. Leave it slightly proud of the surface and sand flush with yellow glue to blend. Make sure it's an easy slip fit so as not to exert pressure on the other side of the joint.

I did as Chuck instructed and I also liberally glued the joint. I did mine on a piece of tempered glass just to make sure it was a perfectly flat joint with a few weights on it as it cured. That false keel will stand on it's own when you get it together

Just glue it together.  Dont remove any char because that will shorten the keel and affect the joint fitting.  Any space created can be filled with yellow glue to strengthen the joint.