Gabek

December 30 - January 1
Standing Rigging
 
I was excited. I broke out the thread from the kit and, with 3 days to the 27th anniversary, was positive that a few feet of string and a couple of knots were not going to be a problem. And I'm quite sure that the veteran modellers here might be chuckling at me right now. This being my first model I had no idea what I was getting into. The instructions of course, were no help whatsoever.
 
The standing rigging seemed to be straight forward. I had read enough to understand seizing and, thinking about how to wrap thread around another piece of thread, another hobby of mine came to mind: fly tying. The small tools made for tying bits of feather, fur and other materials onto a hook seemed to be just perfect for this job. I first made some jigs out of some stiff steel wire to hold dead eyes in the fly vice for seizing the shrouds and to make consistent eye-splices. These worked quite well, in my opinion, and I managed to quickly prepare most of the standing rigging.
 

Tying an eye, not a fly.
 

I used black lacquer from my fly tying supplies to glue the seizing
 


Pull the wire out and the eye is free.
 
Not thinking ahead enough I had to scramble to colour the lines black. Most stores were closed. I ended up dipping them in a ziplock bag with a few mLs of black acrylic airbrush paint I had on hand. To spread the paint on the thread and to remove the excess I fashioned a little squeegee from a clothes pin with some foam glued in the jaws. I hung the lines to dry with spring clamps on the ends to keep them stretched.
 
I have always been amazed at pictures and drawings of the maintop on ships and how well thought-out the arrangement of the shrouds and stays were. When it came time to install the rigging on the Swift I tried to keep in mind which arrangement would make sense for mutual support.
 

The foretop on the Swift. (Ignore the wire jig for now)
 
Installing the shrouds and stays went fairly smoothly. I was not happy with having the forestay attached to a ring on the jib boom with just an eye splice, so I made a thimble with some thin brass shim. I was rather pleased with the result.
 

 
I think I made a small mistake on the shrouds, though. I was researching every step of the way and most of the literature showed that the tail end of the shrouds should face forward when seized to the upper deadeye. When I ran the halyards for the first few deadeyes I made sure that I did this, but it just didn't look right. I did a bit more snooping and found a picture showing the tail ends facing aft. So, I switched all the work around. After I finished tying all the halyards I happened upon another book (don't remember which one) that outright said the tail ends should face forward. Well, I just wasn't going to change them again. I was running out of time if I wanted to be finished New Year's Day. Next model I'll make sure they're done right.

December 28-30, 2013
 
I was now pushing myself to try and finish the model for New Year's Day so things were happening fast and furious. With the masts stepped and sail hoops made I next went on to install the gaffs. As I threaded the parrels into the jaws the string was a bit too snug to fit and it actually tore through the wood, ruining the hole. Drat. I glued a small wedge of mahogany over the hole and later sanded it back to shape. Drilled the hole again and used a thinner thread for the parrels. This time the hole held..
 
While the glue was drying on this patch job I prepared the lower dead eyes by wrapping the chains from the kit around them. I must admit I was nervous about getting a tight fit and a nice, 90 degree bend on the wire. I concentrated on pushing the brass hard against the dead eye as I worked it around 360 degrees. To make the bend "crisp" I used a pair of hobby pliers without teeth and, holding the wire at the right location, bent it by hand over the side of the jaws of the tool. I was actually surprised and pleased at how smoothly this went.
 

 
I followed Mastini's method to mark the location and set the angle for the chains by taping the shrouds in place first. I then used a sanding cord to make notches in the channels for the chains. Holes were drilled in the flattened part of the chains, I shaped them to the curve of the ship and I drilled holes in the hull for the pins. When, as I was about to attach the eighth and last chain...
 
...the flattened tab snapped off.
 
Great. At first I thought of soldering the pieces back together but didn't think it would be a good joint. I ended up using some brass shim stock that I bent like the blade of a shovel around its handle. To avoid possibly overheating the brass and discolouring it I used epoxy to attach the new tab. Once the epoxy set I filed it down, shaped the tab and installed the last chain.
 

The broken tab and its replacement
 
 

Right after the epoxy set.
 

Cleaned up with a file
 
 

Installed.

December 25-27
Sail Hoops
 
It was really bugging me (just like it did for Themadchemist on his Swift) to put brass rings for sail hoops. So I used a modified version Edwin Lief's method to make wooden ones - I soaked a piece of light-coloured veneer in water for a few hours, blotted it dry and coated one side with waterproof wood glue. I tightly wound it around a 3/8" foil-wrapped dowel and used masking tape to keep it firmly in place. I stopped wrapping after three complete winds of the wood. After one day I removed the tape. The glue was holding but the wood still felt a little damp so I let it dry for one more day.
 

 
The layer of aluminum foil allowed me to slide the wood to the end of the dowel, but I did not remove the veneer roll. I used my mini table saw with the rip fence set to 1/16" to cut disks off the end. I wanted to see if I could do this without the table saw so I used a hand-held razor saw and a miter box for a few cuts. I found that I could easily cut disks by hand as well. After a bit of shaping and sanding with a sanding pad I gently pushed the dowel portion out of the centre of these disks, separating it from the veneer hoop. For the most part the aluminum foil came off very easily with just a little help from an awl or tweezers. For a couple of the hoops I had to take a file to remove a little bit of foil that was left behind. Next time I try this method I'm going to spend more time tapering the leading and trailing edges to reduce the amount of sanding needed to make the inside and outside edges smooth and the hoops an even width all the way around.
 

 
I gave the hoops a coat of varnish and slid them on the masts.
 
As I was admiring my work my oldest son came into the room and I proudly pointed out the hoops. He asked, "So, are you going to stain them?"
 
?!
 
I was so caught up in making the hoops that I really hadn't noticed that they were almost white! I was actually after a warmer shade that would resemble pine, not alabaster! Ah well, they were already varnished and I really didn't feel like making more. Sigh.
 

 
 
In this kit the scuttle butt was just a barrel to be glued to the deck - which I just couldn't believe. So, a bit more research and I found a few good photos of USS Constitution's scuttle butt AND BobF's post right here on MSW: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2900-barrels/?hl=%2Bscuttle+%2Bbutt#entry80571 I made a stand out of mahogany strips and decided to copy BobF's rig. To simulate the scuttle I just glued a small rectangle of veneer in place. I thought long and hard but I chose not to paint the barrel hoops - I thought that it might stand out too much and detract from the model.
 
 

August 2013
Assembled the display base.
 
For over 25 years this ship bounced around in a box. I moved 4 times, it was taken back and forth to the cottage and, throughout it all, it was sitting on an assembly stand that I had made out of a scrap piece of oak and the wooden 'sprue' left over from the sheet the bulkheads were cut from. Only a few months ago I switched to Micromark's foam stand and the oak was sitting with my stored wood.
 

(The "chunk" in action as an assembly stand)
 
Now, the unbelievable was happening...I was ready to install the hull on a display base! And, for the first time in over 25 years, it dawned on me that this kit didn't come with a base!
 
At this point I realized that I just had to use that chunk of oak that had been the companion of this model for all this time. I had taken up relief carving as a hobby and, inspired by a book in which a ship modeller carved the base to look like waves, I envisioned a rippling water surface under the ship. I didn't want rolling waves because the Swift didn't have sails, just little ripples as if it was at anchor. (So, now I'm thinking of having an anchor cable over the gunwales and strung through the base to simulate this.) I also toyed with the idea of embedding the keel into the wooden waves but decided against it. While still trying to decide how to attach the model to the base, I took out my gouges and carved waves and ripples into the oak. The waves don't look exactly how I wanted, but they will do. (Note: basswood is much easier to carve than red oak!) I cut the board to size on the table saw with a slight bevel. Sanded and varnished, the base looked ok.
 

 
After mulling for several weeks and checking out brass and wooden options I eventually settled on wooden craft barrels for the standoffs. After determining the placement of the stand offs I drilled holes through the oak and, using forstner bits, drilled counter sinks into the base so the barrels would sit just a fraction into the waves. How to actually fasten it all together was a problem. A dado in the top of the barrel would hopefully keep the keel in place. I was having a hard time finding screws that were slender and long enough to attach through the base and barrels into the keel so I decided to use a two-tiered connection. First, drill through the barrels and fasten them to the keel with 1" screws that were deeply set into a larger countersink. Second, large diameter t-nuts in the bottom of the barrels would let me use machine screws through the oak. The t-nuts would have to be inserted first, so I chose a size that would allow me to insert a screwdriver through it to fasten the screws.
 

Top, bottom and the bottom of a barrel with the t-nut installed
 

Bandsaw cuts and a utility knife helped make the dado for the keel.
 

 
Before the actual assembly of the base I installed the rudder. I predrilled holes in the hull using the gudgeons as templates and then affixed them with brass pins that I cut to about 3/16" in length. A drop of cyano was applied to each pin before pushing them in.
 
The idea of drilling in to the keel was making me sweat bullets. I needed to make sure the pilot holes I drilled were centred, straight and plumb, so I used the occasion to buy a drill press for my Dremel. I used reusable electrical tie wraps to level and secure the model to the foam base and set it under the Dremel, where I had marked the depth of the pilot hole on the bit. Thinking of that fast moving bit and how rapidly it can remove material, I got nervous about going off centre and drilling through the side of the keel. So, I actually turned the chuck by hand to drill these holes. Thank goodness this worked. I probably should have searched MSW a little more for advice on how to do this next time. I'd be happy to hear what you folks do.
 
 
The final assembly of the base actually went very smoothly. Screwed the barrels into the keel, then screwed the base to the barrels.
 

Cabins
The cabins had been built and have been sitting in the kit box since 1993. In general, these builds went well. I was able to get a nice, tight fit between the cabins and the deck by laying sandpaper on the deck, essentially using it like a sanding block, and moving the cabins back and forth. The only real fly in the ointment was that I began running out of the walnut veneer strips. Because this was early on in my model building experience I really didn't know where to purchase more and only managed to find some mahogany strips at a toy store that sold doll houses. (Now, I know the shops in town and have a stack of all kinds of veneer on hand and the tools to cut them to size). I went ahead and finished the companion covers with a mix of mahogany and walnut, thinking that the difference wouldn't be noticeable. Wrong. I considered trying to remove them or just rebuilding the cover but never did. Ah, well.

I also should mention that I decided to build the doors based on the Fort William replica ship I saw in 1987. (Mentioned in a previous log entry). One of the pictures showed raised panels on the cabin doors, which were different from AL's instructions. Whether historically accurate for a Virginia pilot boat or not I was going to add this detail.



[Photo from period replica]


A couple of things that I did do at this time were to add the hinges and cover the all the bare edges of the plywood that was used to build the cabin. These edges, frankly, looked ugly. I was very happy that I did the edging. It gave the cabins a much more finished look. I only wish I had seen Popjack's build log first and got the idea to make these in a dark contrast. The colours of his Swift look great: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1765-swift-by-popjack-artesania-latina-virginia-pilot-boat-1805-older-version/page-7?hl=swift I plan on painting the Harvey model that I started, largely on how his model looks.

While the cabins look ok the hinges, however, look huge and a little out of scale. I tried to give them a little bend to simulate the hinge joint and pin. Not entirely happy with the look.


[Darn ugly hinges, mixed wood on the companionway covers]

The cast metal ventilation funnels from the kit did not look like pipes because the funnel end was flat. To make them look like they could actually carry air I drilled into the funnel by hand using a fairly large bit inserted into a hex driver. The tip of the bit made a cone shaped hole and, I think, looks ok. I spray painted the funnels flat black and attached them to the cabins with cyano. BUT, when I varnished them later they took on a gloss finish. Historically, I'm guessing they would have been flat but, being ventilation and not a chimney, would they have been painted to protect them from rusting? And, would the paint have been glossy? If anyone has some insights on this I'd be happy to hear them.



So, the cabins were done, and it was time to install them. And this is my 'encounter' with cyano. In general, I have found cyanoacrylate glue to be a big con job. Anything I have tried to 'super glue' together has pretty much fallen apart. (Of course everything I don't want joined, like my fingers, stick like crazy.) I spent weeks researching the best method to attach the cabins and, because I had already varnished the hull, my worry was about the bond. I was pretty much convinced I should use epoxy but, literally, at the last minute I decided to use a gel formulation of CA that was supposed to give me few seconds before it set. I knew that I wouldn't have much time to manoeuvre the cabins so I found my landmarks on the deck and practiced placing them several times. Big moment came, I took a deep breath, and squeezed out a nice bead of glue on the bottom of the fore cabin (I love the newer bottles with the easy squeeze sides). I lined it up and touched it down to the deck and it INSTANTLY adhered a fraction of a millimetre too far toward the bow. I tried to give it just a little nudge but no way, it was secure. So much for a few seconds. I'm sure that nobody will be able to tell but just under the coaming there is a thin sliver of black that is actually the opening to below deck. Nuts! I was terrified to try the aft cabin now. Practiced that even more. Even so, it ended up just the smallest amount off the deck line I was trying to hit. At least both cabins are square to the deck and don't look off-kilter. The speed that the glue took hold and how firm the joint was totally surprised me. Sure, when I wanted the glue to give me some play it doesn't, and when I need it to be fast it isn't.

I learned my lesson and, for the mooring bits, I inserted brass pins underneath and drilled register holes in the hull to make sure they would be glued exactly where I wanted them. Those went smoothly.

Wow...and I mean WOW.  This rehabilitation is coming along beautifully.  Painting is doing its job...that hull planking was the result of frustration trying to bend veneers to a complex 3d shape, which can't be done.  All your colour choices are fine.  Black and white are  covering up the "booboo's" nicely!
 
The lantern is exquisite! Please tell us how you made it.  I never thought of rigging one on the mast.  So, I started pouring through all my books and so far I could only find how they rigged a stern lantern on the mizzen top of a British frigate in Petersson's Rigging Period Ships.  I think you could try installing yours on the flag mast somehow if you wanted.
 
Keep on trucking!
- Gabe

 
 

Wow...and I mean WOW.  This rehabilitation is coming along beautifully.  Painting is doing its job...that hull planking was the result of frustration trying to bend veneers to a complex 3d shape, which can't be done.  All your colour choices are fine.  Black and white are  covering up the "booboo's" nicely!
 
The lantern is exquisite! Please tell us how you made it.  I never thought of rigging one on the mast.  So, I started pouring through all my books and so far I could only find how they rigged a stern lantern on the mizzen top of a British frigate in Petersson's Rigging Period Ships.  I think you could try installing yours on the flag mast somehow if you wanted.
 
Keep on trucking!
- Gabe

 
 

"Which I'm coming, ain't I? Spilled the whole bloody bottle, Mark did - whole thing wasted, never a drop tasted! Poor Ol' Killick's gotta clean the mess,  again."

Well, somehow 2 1/2 years have flown by since I last did any work on this... so long in fact that when I came back to have another crack at it, I realised to my horror I'd thrown out the original parts! 
 
That said, the process of remaking them today has been educational and I've made some real headway. I realised that I'd been approaching the build by trying to crack a nut with a sledge hammer... This time, rather than trying to sand down the frame parts, I gently carved away the excess with a nice sharp xacto blade.. The walnut was lovely and soft and as long as I approached inside curves from both directions and took it steady, it was surprisingly quick to get a whole frame made. It's by no means perfect, and I'm expecting to remake this frame when I've made some more... but it's certainly teaching me lots. 
 
So... here are the pictures of my first full doubled up frame. It's the dead centre frame. I tacked it to the keel with a little carpenters glue to see how it looked and even the process of doing that made me realise quite how fragile this is going to be when i assemble it until I get the horizontals in.
 

Hi,
I'm reposting my build from 2009. Unfortunately my thread was lost and I do not have photos from the build anymore. I plan to continue on this project. Here are some photos with current status. The wood used is beech and it will be only wood use on this, no colors only matt varnish. So far I have build all the frames and plank half outside of the hull. I do have also some inner planks in place. 

Great topic...and one I am going to address on my Triton cross-section. At 1/96 scale I am not even going to attempt a nail pattern! I am using a book and photos of HMS Trincomalee a lot as reference. Here's a decent shot of the copper showing different colours and the visibility of the nails.

 
Clear skies,
Gabe

Hi,
I've managed to make a bit more progress......
I did a dry run with the skid beam assembly fitted to the quarter deck to check the height the supports needed to be trimmed to. This turned out to be a couple of mm shorter than the drawing on the plan. I came up with this aid to help remove the correct amount from each end and then sand the ends square.

 
The companionway guard rails could now be completed. I opened out the holes in the end stanchions so two threads could pass through, using one to 'serve' the other.

 

 
With the steam trunk fitted, plus the galley chimney (shown on the plan but not mentioned in the instructions!!!) it was time to fit the quarter deck.
 
The rear third of the deck glued in place, the weights used to hold things together while the glue dried giving the appearance of an 18th Century container ship.........

 
The skid beam assembly has been painted as have the various brace bitts.
 
The front of the deck, including these, was then glued onto place.

 

 

 

 
Next task - assembling the beakhead bulkhead prior to fitting....
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

**Chapter 11 - Main Mast**
 
Hello fellow mates,
 
It's been a while since my last update. I've been in preperation for our new home. just a few more months, and then we move. 
So, my spare hours are slim so to say. 
I've started with some construction work on the main mast. Unfortunately a few pictures seems to got lost somewhere during the proces.
 

 

 

 

 

 
So, the main rope which is provided with the kit is of a light colour. I do not like it and changed it into a darker colour by staining it.
I just used a normal woodstain for the job.
 

 

 

 

 
I'm not in heaven with all the wires and knots....but I'll manage...
 

 

 
An overview of the workplace....
 

 
Starting with contruction of the main yard...
 

 

 

 


During my work, my son and little friend of 3 years old, wanted to help out. So we got a block and placed it onto the yard. 
He was very proud and continued to play with his trains and told his mother he helped daddy with his ship! These moments are gold! 
 

 

 

 


So, this was it, until next time. Stay tuned and please leave a comment if you like!
Peter

Anytime you need the plans, Keith, just let me know.
And thanks for the kind words about my build! 😳
Kind regards,
Gabe

Anytime you need the plans, Keith, just let me know.
And thanks for the kind words about my build! 😳
Kind regards,
Gabe

Gabe
 Thank you for the offer but from the amount of information available on the internet and build logs here, I think I'll be fine. Should I need to take you up on your offer, thank you again. 
 Your build is fantastic! I wish someone had taken half the effort with this one as you did with yours. An absolutely beautiful job........Keith

Hello Keith,
 
There are a whole lot of Swift logs on this site that can help you.  This was my first model and first build log, too.
 
I still have the plans and ‘instructions'(you'll understand why I put the scare quotes when you read the logs 🤣).  I could mail them to you if you’re interested.
 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe
 

Hello Keith,
 
There are a whole lot of Swift logs on this site that can help you.  This was my first model and first build log, too.
 
I still have the plans and ‘instructions'(you'll understand why I put the scare quotes when you read the logs 🤣).  I could mail them to you if you’re interested.
 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe
 

The learning process continues , a few pics of the process , nothing new as i have used the other excellent build logs as a guide  . a few lessons learned , at this scale 1:48 the pencil method of caulking i think is not thick enough and will experiment on the upper deck for improvement , and may even consider treenails ?? although the chances of building a full ship at this scale are small, learning new skills was the whole idea , and would like to thank those involved in it,s planning and conception ,it certainly has opened up a whole new side to the hobby !!    Next lesson learned is to keep everything as square and even as possible from the beginning to save time and work later on !!!  Next is unless u have the proper tools and skills buy your wood as premilled as possible , in my case i,m having a few probs continually resetting saws and remembering settings , but maybe thats just me . On the subject of wood , i have found pear and cherry a real pleasure to work with compared to some of the kit stuff which i was used with , and will deff use them in future  . One other point is i changed my glue type to a fast setting variety but think i have overdone it and will change back to a slower set , 
last pic shows a simple way of shaping  the wales , worked fairly well but needs refining . As usual my report would read , doing ok but could deffinately do better , all i can say is i will try ???

Just a few pics to show progress and lessons learned .  Main lesson is that scratch building is very diffrent from kit,s in that accurate measurement and calculation become a lot more important . I neglected to construct a proper build frame and late on in the build discovered a 6 mil difference in width at front and back as can be seen in the last pic dipite my efforts to work with it . So i have decided to waste no more time on what will always be a flawed build . Dispite this i would recommend any potential scratch builders to give this section or similiar a try before attempting something large as i have learned a few valuable lessons along the way . eg caulking at this scale is different from my usual 1:64 or 1:72 scale .  Good news is i have now started the full Triton build and have already got the build board sorted ,, see lesson 1 learned !!!   .I hope to start a build log soon but am slowly trying to get my head round the cant frames etc before i publish to many mistakes 

Cannons
Turning the cannons started with a drawing that was way more intricate than it probably needed to be (but resulted in a nice finished product). My guess is I was stalling as long as possible before I HAD to use the lather and actually turn them.
 

I came up with this wacky setup to measure distances on the lathe, and although it worked I think I'll find a better way of doing it when the day comes to turn cannons again. 

Then it was just a matter of turning them. The first couple were scrapped but then it became a pretty easy process once you got it down. It was nice only having to have two really good ones.

 
 



Drilling out the trunnions was done with a simple little jig, although getting the offset requires them to be pretty snug so they don't try to turn.
 

-Chad
 
 

Railings, Catwalks,
 
Well, it's been a while (again), but some work has taken place and hopefully I can put this baby to bed over the next month or so. It's funny how, as a parent, you think you'll get more free time as your kids get older, but it generally seems to be the opposite that happens. Oh well-they're only young once and soon enough they'll be rolling their eyes at me!
So the first thing I took care of was the railings. I've had them made for quite some time, but was hesitant to install them until I figured out how to cover the exposed section on the rearmost frame. It's been bugging me for quite some time and finally stumbled upon one of the Triton drawings that gave me a clue.  I took a little artistic license and came up with this (this and rails were made of Indian laurel)...

 
Once that was done, it was time to start on the brackets. The two problems I encountered while making these were cutting thicker brass sheets, blackening them. I used something a bit thicker to add a bit of structural integrity, but didn't feel like sitting there scoring a strip for a half hour (cutting made it curl and bend toward the cutting side). The solution was scoring the strip on the edge of the sheet to the right width a few times with an exacto and a ruler, then bending it off with a pair of cheap welding pliers from harbor freight. Now, they're cheap for a reason- I needed to file the edges so I didn't mar the brass, but after that worked well. I think at some point I'll cut up some thin rubber strips and glue them into the jaws. Finally I just gave a quick file to cut side of the brass strip and that was that. I decided to solder the brackets, which was a pain without a set of helping hands- so i'd suggest one of those little bases with the alligator clips on them to avoid frustration with this. The second problem was blackening. This thread pretty much sums up my ineptitude without going into it here. The short story is I stink at getting Blacken-It to work and ended up painting them. I wanted to stay away from paint, but the finish with the powder black model RR paint I used looks fantastic. I ended up painting over the bands on the mast also because it looked so good.
Next were the catwalks. i wanted to make them off the model so I could caulk them the same way as the deck. If I did it by laying the planking on the brackets, I was pretty sure I would ham-fist it and break something. The challenge is finding a way to make a gap between planks from end to end but still have it all connected without seeing. The answer ended up being using a slitting blade to add a very small batten to the back. I started with the three long planks and added the battens where the the brackets would be It would be tough to see anyway, but just in case...). Unfortunately I sometimes lack foresight and forgot about the rest of the planks to follow, which is why in the second photo you can see all the other battens. Once the three long planks were battened, I made the next plank and slit them, then added the batten, then rinse-and-repeat fro the next two planks. When it was all done it was waxed, then caulked the same way as the decks (done in maple).
battened, pre-caulking..

back side showing battens...

caulked..

I actually made the edging (Indian laurel) first, so that was probably a bit "cart-before-the-horse," but pretty straight forward. They're made of three pieces then glued together. It's worth noting that I probably gave myself the second "best' cut with an exacto blade (brand new, even!) during this step. I'm glad my wife is a nurse and was able to get me to stop hopping around like a little girl, but was quickly followed by a stern look and a declaration of my future demise from my tools. Moral of the story-be careful.

To install them, I wrestled with what to do with the "open" side of the model-I didn't want a full catwalk, but I also wanted to make it's presence known. I settled on only the edging, which i really like the look of. I'm still not sure if I'll do guns on that side, but if I do it will give a full view of them.
Other than that-the mast has been secured, so the "well-mod" is officially completed, and added the ringbolts for the gun tackle. So really it's only ladders and guns now...let's see if i can get in under 5 years

Planking
The thick stuff was done with apple and the center planks laid in cherry. Trennels were done in the corresponding wood.

Outer planking was done in apple with apple trennels. I still have a bit of cleaning up to do, but everything was oiled with pure tung oil, which will protect the wood from staining when the caulking is added- similar to the procedure I used with the decks. I started the spacing using metal shims, but then after about the second planked moved to eyeballing it. Probably a dumb thing to do, but it came out pretty good. The moulding was done with the ole' scraper trick where the profile was ground out with a dremel on an old razor blade. This was a lot easier than expected. –Chad

19. Anchor Stock Planking
 
I decided to give anchor stock planking for my wales a go instead of the four basic strakes in the plans. I used Peter Goodwin't book on the English Man of War for most of the information. There was a fantastic write up on lengths and just general information on them. So far I've found this book a great investment and a good sidekick to the cross section. 
The very fist thing I learned is that just winging it on a tablesaw will just give you a heap of ebony scrap and leave you a couple bucks short from having to replace it.  So once I got rolling I started by drawing out a template to get sizes and angles. I figured that each plank will have to be pretty exact for them all to fit together nicely, so this was a good starting point. Unfortunately I'm a computer idiot so yes- that is an  actual picture of a drawing .      Next I cut up some ebony making sure all the planks were exactly the same size, specifically 4.5 inches long- which is really important. Then I went about making a jig for the tablesaw that would slide against the fence and cut at the correct angle. I find pictures better than trying to describe- so here's what I came up with. I will not that keeping all the planks the exact size was important to make sure they fit snugly in the jig and didn't bounce around while cutting.        From here everything was pretty simple. The only other note would be that I found ebony is some nasty stuff. It gets all over the place and chips easily, so I tried to give everything a once over to make sure the cuts didn't take any extra. Also, since everything is enclosed in the jig when making the initial cut the triangular piece left over tries to shoot down between the blade and the table, which caused some problems the first few times. I aleviated the situation by using a footpedal to stop and start the saw and stop right before cutting all the way through and just breaking the little triangle off...      I would then just pop it back in the jig and finish that side. Afterward, I just turned it around, made sure it was seated in the jig against the left side and repeated. This was when a footpedal came in handy since I used a pushstick to hold the piece in place.      From there it was just repeating until I had enough (about double whats in the photo for both sides)      After this, fitting them to the frames was simple. Since each side only has 1 full anchor stock and the rest were partial, it was just cutting most up to fit them here and there, but because of the exactness in making  them they all fit well. This can be seen in the photo. which needed some glare to actually see where all of them join!      So once the wales were done and I was contemplating the deck beams, I gave wales, hold and frames that will be seen a coat of wipe on poly. On a separate note- I didn't realize how bad the photos of the hold were (I think my camera is on the way out) until I went back and looked, so here's where I stand now.. -Chad          

Hi.
Finally decide update my topic with couple picture. 
I have not done much.
But that's better than nothing:)