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Don, What Dan shows in his photos is the correct way for English ships. The forward joint is a simplified version of a boxing joint meant to tie the keel to the lower stem which takes stress in all directions at that point, thus the design. What is not shown is that this joint in full size ships is tabled as well and the vertical surface was actually angled slightly, similar to the keel scarphs. The tabling will be hidden when assembled and for our scales of models, they are not adding anything unless the builder would like to give it a go for their own satisfaction. Allan

Drag I am enjoying following your build thank you for sharing. Regarding the straps, I agree with you regarding epoxy, but as you have already painted the hull you will be gluing to the paint regardless of the type of glue that you choose to use, rather than gluing to the wood unless you scrape off the paint. I would try the epoxy, but also drill the straps before installing to take bolts. Small brass nails work well as bolts and are pretty close to scale at 1:48 or even 1:64 and add a touch of realism. I have found brass nails with the shank at about 0.018" diameter and the head about 0.03 so they look pretty good because they are not overly large. I recall seeing that some folks use brass or copper wire to make small bolts and peen them over to form a head but I find this extremely difficult at our scales without marring the surrounding wood. Allan

This is somewhat of a repeat as the various points have come up in various posts in a few forums, but I recently saw photos of sails for a schooner model that were beautifully sewn on the edges and along the panel seams. If this had been a scale of 1:12 or larger they would be close to scale, but as the scale was 1:48 they were grossly out of scale and, for me at least, ruined what was an otherwise very nice model. I know this comes up quite often but there is a solution to get sails that are close to scale and I hope it is worth repeating for those that may want to try something that may add to their repertoire. The smallest common sewing machine thread that I could find and measure was a little under 0.01" in diameter. I wrapped 125 turns on a steel rule in a 1 inch spacing to get the diameter. At a scale of 1:48 this would be about over 3/8" inch diameter thread. At 1:64 it would be over 1/2 inch diameter and at 1:96 it would be over 3/4 inch in diameter, all of which are rope sizes rather sewing material. The tightest spacing on a modern home sewing machine yields about 25 stitches per inch which is having each stitch 2 inches long at 1:48 and 4 inches long at 1:96, again also too large to be realistic in regards to scale. The seams on the panels are typically 2" wide and 4" around the periphery of the sail, that is 0.04" and 0.8" at 1:48 and 0.02" and 0.04" at 1:96 scale. The thickness of duck canvas varied with the types of sails, but 15 ounce canvas was one of the common sizes. This is about 0.06" thick so scale sail material should be about 0.00125" thick if at 1:48 and 0.0006 if at 1"96. Even the finest cloth that I have found so far, with a sufficiently high thread count to look like the threads spacing are close to scale, is 0.008" thick, thus far out of scale as well. In contrast, some folks, myself included, have been working with silkspan, a nonwoven paper for making sails. With two coats of acrylic that I used to get the right color and strengthen the material, it is 0.002" thick, much closer to scale compared to 0.008" for 1:48. The sails can be set up full or furled. Adding reef points and tying off to mast hoops and spars or booms is not a problem. I add a small dot of tubed acrylic that I mix to match the color of the thread where the line goes through the sail and it is very strong when a hole is punched or drilled through these small dots. 2 inch seams for the panels were made with an acrylic paint marker pen slightly darker than the color of the sail itself. The tip of the marker was shaved with a scalpel to a little under the 0.004" for 1:48 scale that I needed as it does expand a bit when charged with paint. Silkspan is not as strong as cloth, but with one or two coats of diluted tubed acrylic paint, it is surprisingly strong. Hope this gives some members a few ideas on making sails that are closer to scale. Allan

Phil, As to thermodynamics and priorities I sailed on many ships with steam turbines and up and downers and I drank Scotch. I still drink Scotch but I don't know of any ships using steam these days. Dart, I love the photos of the Mary G. Powers that you posted. I have no idea why the boom is arced but maybe if the rigging is removed it would be straighter. I for one would like to know more on this one. Allan

Usually the sticks are made of birch so maybe some member has tried using this species and can give you the benefit of their experience. Allan

Welcome Desal Your model looks quite nice!! Hope to see more of your work in the months ahead. Allan

George, Regarding the hound and cheeks, the configuration depends on the year and probably the nationality. For British war ships the cheeks extend to the top of the lower mast and the hounds and bibs to the underside of the trestle tree. There are excellent drawings of this area for 1640/60, 1660 up to 1773, 1773 to 1800, and for after 1800 on pages 3 and 4 in Lees' Masting and Rigging English Ships of War. The drawings on these pages also show the rubbing paunch, front fish, mast head battens iron rings and wooldings. Another thing in these drawings is that they show the mast itself is not round in the upper portion, both below and above the trestle trees. Allan

All the adjectives have long since been exhausted, so all I can say is that your posts are like Christmas is coming ever week or two rather than once a year!!! Allan

Druxey, don't know about those in the 18th or 19th century, but could name a few from around the world in the 1960's that I heard about from friends. 🤪

Michael, It is not advisable to post email addresses as the moderators have mentioned numerous times in the past as it will be spammed. Allan

Phil, Kudos for doing so much homework to get things right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mfJn604GT4 Allan

Dave, Regarding the rope, it sounds like you are talking about the strops around the blocks. Assuming the scale of your Amati Bounty is 1:60, and the cannon are four pounders, these would all be single blocks about 6" long so they would be 0.10 inches long (2.5mm) You can use the following formula to get the size of the strop, assuming it is about the same size as the line that runs through the block. There is a lot more to it, but for this scale, it is going to be pretty close. The length of the block is about 8 times the width of the sheave hole so the rope would be less than 3/4" diameter for a 6" block. 0.75"/60 = 0.0125 diameter. 20 gage wire is 0.03" so triple the diameter you need. 28 gage (AWG) is 0.0126 so pretty much dead on. This is single strand. I suspect darkened 28 gage single strand would look realistic but if you really want to twist wire into rope of the proper size you would probably need 32 gage or perhaps smaller for a three strand rope-like finish. I am looking forward to seeing your end results as this sounds like a solution to keep in the files for future use. Allan

If these cannon are from the 18th century, if you want realism, they should be black and the carriages either wood or red in color. The trucks can be the color of wood as well or I have seen these painted black at times. Allan

Michel, I think the rings on the masts are too many to be wooldings which were usually made of rope. Even large vessels had fewer wooldings than the drawing shows. I wonder if the drawing is wrong and these should be wooden mast hoops to which the foreside of the sail is tied so it can be lowered and raised. If these are wooldings, the gaff would be difficult or impossible to lower without it getting hung up at each woolding. See the photo below and you can see the wooden mast hoops on the P of B II. Allan

John (Dr. Jeckyl) Do you know what the wire is made of? The reason I ask, is if the coating can be scraped off so it can be silver and/or soft soldered. Thanks Allan

Dave , Liver of sulfur is good on copper, not on brass in my experience. The big advantage is that it can be watered down and applied to the piece after it is in place without discoloring the wood. Do look at Ed Tosti's Young America build log as he describes its use in some detail with good photos. I would like to know if anyone knows of a blackening agent that will blacken copper and soft solder as well as brass and silver solder. Allan

Dave, I prefer copper to brass if at all possible You can blacken it AFTER it is installed so you are not scratching/rubbing off the blackening, be it paint or Jax or any other blackening agent when handling, twisting, etc. Once the part is in place you can blacken it with liver of sulfur. Be sure your copper is uncoated so you will not have to clean it with acetone or pickling solution or some such. Look at Ed Tosti's log on the clipper Young America and he explains using it. I tried it and I am completely sold on it. There are times when brass is better if a stiff piece is needed as it is much harder than copper, but I use copper whenever possible. Copper also is easier to soft solder and it will be very strong, where as I prefer silver solder when I do use brass. Just as a FWIW, I am using soft solder paste and silver solder paste rather than hard pieces of solder. Much easier. Allan

Swann Morton for sure. Do a little web search on XActo versus Swann Morton blades and you will see that most, if not all, comments from those that have used both vote for the scalpels from SM. Allan

Another good reason not use CA when PVA or Epoxy can be used. Never had this problem with either in 45 years. 😀 Allan

Whether or not you are putting sails on the model, for the lower masts, if there are boom saddles, these can go on first. Next make and slip the mast hoops onto the mast and they will all rest on each other loosely on top of the saddle for the time being. Next up are the trestle trees, hounds, cheeks, bibs and bolsters if they are present. If there are iron bands and battens they can be put on as well. I am guessing there are no wooldings as there are mast hoops that need to go up and down the mast, but if there are any around the cheeks, they can go on beforehand as well. Cap and cross trees can then be added as well as any eyebolts and blocks that hang from the cross trees and trestle tress. You can make and fit the top masts at this point as well, but they should not be set permanently in place until after the lower masts are stepped and the shrouds, swifters and lower stays, if present, are in place. All that is really needed is to look at what goes on these masts and add them in any order that will not prevent the next item from going on. Allan

If you have not run the line through the hull and want to represent the lead lining, you can paint a grey ring around the hole. It will not be noticed if you are building to a small scale, but if you are building at a large scale, it is a nice added touch of authenticity. Allan

Dave, One way is to glue together the outer ledges and battens on all four sides as these need to be a solid line, not with openings against the coamings or head ledges. You can then add dots of glue to the end of each grating ledge then glue in in place followed by gluing in the battens. If your build is a kit, the gratings may be mistakenly made of ledges and battens that are all notched but the assembly can be the same and will look fine. If you prefer to assemble everything dry you can then use artists' matte medium which dries clear and is waterproof rather than soaking the entire grating in a batch of glue and water which may cause it to distort and lose its rounding athwartships. Just brush it on the underside, but if a little comes through onto the top it can be sanded off once dry, but be careful not to flatten out the rounding. The sketch below is rather simplified but shows what I mean, I think :>) Allan

Try a test piece joint for this to see if you like it. My preferred method is that I mix a small drop of black acrylic paint with PVA carpenters' glue, just enough to make it dark grey or black, but not enough to negate the purpose of the glue itself. It leaves a distinct black seam and does not weaken the joint. If any has seeped out it can be scraped and then sanded. Black tissue like that found in craft stores is very thin but shows the line well and is porous enough that the glue penetrates and does not significantly weaken the joint in my experience. Allan

Ron, Thank you but while Chapelle is great and my "go to" book for schooners, he shows where the downhaul goes on the aft end of the gaff itself but nowhere does he show where it is belayed. He gives two choices for the main gaff downhaul or vangs , but not the fore gaff. I think I would be okay that it is the same rigging for Bluenose, but I don't see the downhaul on any of the rigging drawings I could find for her. I was hoping that with many Bluenose models built by members here, someone will have information. Allan

I have spent well over an hour going through books and drawings but cannot find any information on where the fore gaff downhaul or vang is belayed on any appropriate Gloucester fishing schooner that might apply to Ernestina/Effie M. Morriseey 1894. I have the information for the main gaff, but not the fore gaff. Any help will be very much appreciated. Allan