Stevinne

Problems with the glue notwithstanding, those are some very nice looking ratlines.

Very nice work.

Very nice. Welcome aboard.

Definitely sign up for Model Expo emails - they frequently have sales, so the emails will alert you. I agree with the recommendation to start with some of the Model Shipways starter kits or something like the Phantom. I'd also recommend picking up the book "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini, which does a good job of laying out all you need to know for building a first kit.

East Carolina University is very involved in the survey of the Queen Anne's Revenge site. They would probably be worth looking into.

There is a very nice Mary Rose build log on another site by a member named Graham who also bashed the kit to bring it more into line with the Anthony Roll. He is nearly complete with his and it is looking very nice.

Very nice. Congratulations!

I've thought about printing the name of ships in white letters on a black background using clear laser-jet decal paper to. Since the printer doesn't print white, that would allow me to place the decal on a brass strip, allowing the letters to be in brass surrounded by a black background. I have not tried it yet.

Yes. She has a small bed and is the first dog we've had that actually enjoys sleeping in a bed. She ties herself in a tight knot and likes having a padded wall she can rest against. Lucky for us, she also seems smart and was able to pick up house training in just a few days.

That's the same technique they used on a lot of the gold materials found in King Tut's tomb. I saw an exhibit of the items many years ago and the coolest part was that once you got up close, you could see the impressions left on the gold leaf by the fingers of the people who applied it. As for the support brackets on the galleon, I'd think that's the manufacturer deciding it would be easier to provide cast pieces instead of carved wood.

I haven't had much time to work on the ship for the past couple of weeks. The pressgang brought aboard a new shipmate. She's still a grass-combing lubber who can't hand, reef or steer and requires a lot of attention and our free time, but she's fast as a whip and will surely play havoc with the bread room rats (and the squirrels outside, though she's not really much larger).

Instead of a rabbet, you can bevel the inside of the underside edge of the plank. I have done that in the past and it gave a nice, tight fit. I do the same thing with the front edge of the plank, again so it lays nicely flat against the keel. Are you starting your planking at the front of the ship, working backward? That allows you to get a good, strong attachment first, and once you achieve that then you can work backward. My preferred method is to bend the plank to shape as much as possible and then use CA glue on the front of the plank, and the first pair of bulkheads while I paint and the bow filler blocks with wood glue. I attach it, hold it in place until the CA grabs and dries and then apply pins to hold it into place while the wood glue dries up. Once enough time has passed I then move on to attaching the rest of the plank in a similar fashion, doing a couple of bulkheads and allowing for drying time. Once all is dry, I then break out the wood glue again and use the opening in the hull from the missing planks to paint some wood glue on the bulkheads to reinforce the CA. I let that dry. I use the same technique on subsequent planks, with the only difference being that I paint the top of the plank with wood glue and push it up tight against the upper plank to both ensure a snug fit and allow the glue to solidify the hull. Frank Mastini's "Ship Modeling Simplified" offers great advice on planking (and just about everything else for someone starting out in the hobby).

It's been a while since I've posted, but I have been at work, slogging through attaching the ratlines. This is my first galleon build, and this ship has six shrouds on the lower foremast and seven on the mainmast. That compares to four on each for my Constructo Enterprise and Le Reynard cutter - so lots more tying of very small knots. Once I was done, I painted the whole assembly with diluted carpenter's glue to help keep the knots together. Futtock shrouds are next.

A shame. I'd been thinking about this kit as a future build somewhere down the line, since I also thought the scale would be a good fit in my house. One good thing about following build logs is being forewarned.

You're right about the futtock shrouds. My plan is to do the ratlines on the lower shrouds and then attach the futtocks. In retrospect, perhaps I should have completed the lower shrouds, ratted them and attached the futtocks before I moved on to the topmast. That would have prevented another issue I had with the topmast shrouds, which was the lower deadeyes twisting as I rigged the upper deadeyes. Oh well, live and learn.