Well, I've made a start.
My first problem of identifying lath 13 was solved. The instructions describe this piece as being 3x3mm, and my only decision was which piece to use. I have 2 identical laths of these dimensions, just a slight difference in colour. Throughout the instructions there is only reference to "walnut" and "lime", so I took a punt and used the slightly darker one, "a bit more walnutty than the other walnut one"."
Since then I've mostly been sanding and filing. All the slots in the keel and frames needed widening to allow them to fit together. I also had to make the slots deeper to the top of the frames would sit true with the keel (instructions did note this would be required). And I evened out the camber on some of the frames as they were clearly not symmetrical.
A lesson learned here was that my filing "style" must have been at a bit of an angle, because I wasn't filing evenly. This meant a couple of the frames didn't sit naturally square on the keel. There was enough wiggle to make them sit square, but I was concerned about twisting the keel a little by forcing it. So I tidied these up to get them to sit better.
Frames 8 and 10 stick through the deck, but these were too both too wide and needed filed down to make them fit.
Next, the holes in the deck and slots in the keel for the masts are too small and needed opening up a bit.
So far, much the same as @Cathead's experience. There's a little fine tuning to do, but it looks like the frames all fit well and the deck will sit okay on top of them. When I glue them in I'll make sure they are all perfectly square.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Maybe.
I found this YouTube video (seems top be part 1 of three). An Italian friend has kindly translated if for me and I've attached the translation at the end of this post. If it's useful, I'll ask her to translate the other two.
About 2:40 in he starts creating a rabbet. First off, when I lay my keel over the plans, nothing lines up properly. I'm guessing this is something to do with the 1:50 / 1:64 scale discrepancy, but it makes the plans a bit useless as a template. Also, this looks like something that could go horribly wrong for a man of my limited experience, and I notice that @Cathead, @mattsayers148, and @Woodmiester12 didn't do it in their builds. @trippwj had got got passed this before starting his log. The instructions don't suggest doing it. So I think I'll give that bit a miss.
At 5:57 he cuts the deck in half to make it easier to fit the curvature of the frames. I can see sense in that (and the risks), but am wondering is it really worth doing? Again, it's not in the instructions and I don't think anyone else here did it that way. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I'll glue the bulkhead frames in over the next couple of days. My first bit of serious action. Should I do them all in one sitting, or one at a time? I was planning to use lego bricks to ensure they were perfectly square, but only doing them one at a time will really allow for that. And PVA or superglue?
Cheers
Colin
Video_Translation_1.rtf