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Hi Richard, Just the second layer, if only to get the practice of planking as described above. Regarding the wood, look at the grain. It is huge so way out of scale. For the scales we use, most builders find that a tight grain wood looks better and is easier to spile or hot edge bend. Alaskan cedar, castello (my favorite), steamed pear, maple, or even basswood or poplar (you may find the last two to be too soft). Holly for decks is a great choice. If this has your head spinning, not to worry, there is time before making your next choice of model. I will take the route that if one has nothing positive to say, say nothing. Before you buy another kit, do look at the kit build logs and the photos in each build. You will pretty quickly see which kit brands are growing in popularity due to good quality and which brands have been declining or pretty much disappearing over the past few years due to a lack of quality. No matter the brands you consider, research and study contemporary models (and plans) that match or are similar in size and era to your next vessel choice, if available. As has been discussed here at MSW there are thousands of photos of contemporary models and plans, many of which are easily found on the RMG site. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections There are about 3000 plans at the Wiki Commons site as well, including 800 or so high res plans. These might help you make a decision on which ship is next. Allan

Hi Richard, I realize you are probably going to paint the planking to hide it, but to learn proper planking techniques, maybe consider removing the planking below the wales and start over after studying the primer on planking here at MSW and the four part video YouTube series by Chuck Passaro. It will serve you well down the road. We all fully realize what you have now is a kit thing as OcCre has never had a clue (or worse, does note care) on how a ship was actually planked and they stick you with what is possibly the worst wood available for the task, but it can be fixed. If not this go round, hopefully the next time.😀 Allan

Mysock Do take Mark's advice on the three vessel series designed by David Antscherl. You will learn proper techniques while honing your skills. The complete set is not too expensive and you do not need a shop full of power tools. Also consider starting a small library of books as you move along. There are hundreds, but probably a half dozen that will serve you well. If you ask you will get lots of feedback on these based on years of experience from the members here. Study the build logs here at MSW before spending your money and wasting your time on poor quality offerings. There are several good kit makers, and a lot that are not. Look at the photos in the logs of the vessel you choose then do some research on it including comparing them to contemporary plans and photos of contemporary models which are often available at no cost. If you have not already done so, read the forum here on Piracy so you do not unwittingly spend your money on stolen property which unfortunately is abundant and readily available. Allan

Costas Welcome to MSW. Take Bruce's advice, it is good. FYI, you have 5 IMG attachments on your post. I could not get any to open. Take a few minutes to study the How to Use forum at the top of the page to learn how to attach pictures, etc. Allan

Gets some really good reviews for those that like CA. You are testing so should find out if it is for you. I would give your test pieces a few days or even longer before committing to something that you want to last many years without failure. Gets some not so good ones as well. Here is one of the less than 5 star reviews. I bought this product in hopes that it would be a good alternative to conventional CA glue. Granted, it has its place, but its more of a "white" glue, than a fast curing modeling glue. I loved the applicator that came with it, it really puts the glue right where you want it. Would have easily given it 4-4.5 stars except for one thing, drying. In an environment where I had perfect temps, and low humidity, even after 36 hours, even the slightest excess glue around joints remained gummy. Areas that needed sanding, quickly clogged sandpaper. I will continue to use it in areas that will be practical just to use it up, but I doubt that I will be buying it again. Instead, I might experiment with some of the more popular wood glues, diluting them a bit for extra penetration.

The method shown here obviously works very well. There are also great step by step details in the multipart video for making silk span sails by Tom Lauria and in the booklet by David Antscherl available from SeaWatch for $5. There are slight differences but the basics are the same in the last two choices. Allan

Hi Ron LOVE your sails. It is so nice to see these instead of cloth sails that never look right unless at 1:24 or larger. I have never had an issue ripping the silkspan when marking out the cloth seams so this comment made me curious. I trim the tip of an acrylic pen such as those from Liquitex, to a 2" scale size and go from there. I choose a color that is slightly darker than the color of the painted sail and they work out really well. (I would not try it for scales smaller than 1:64). Thanks for sharing your methods in detail. Allan

Welcome to Model Ship World Martin. You have made a great choice for a first build, congratulations!! I hope you start a build log when you begin your model! Nejsrdecnejsim pozdravy Allan

I totally agree with you Keith. Consider the hundreds, if not thousands of models at Preble Hall and RMG for starters. VERY few fully rigged models have sails. Not a big deal for schooners and similar vessels, but I think sails take away/block all the intricacies in the rigging and hard work that went into it for square riggers. Mine is obviously just one more opinion for our models of today, but the old masters seemed to have agreed. Allan

Daniel The sails in the OcCre kits and a number of other kits are cloth and there is no cloth that is to scale at 1:48 or smaller. You would need a thread count of about 2000 to match canvas. 1200 count exists for fine linens and does not look that bad, but you cannot sew seams to scale with a machine and it would be very difficult to do by hand. Consider that the cloths (panels) on most sails for the 17th -19th centuries were 24 inches wide and the seams had a 2 in overlap. The outer edge seams were a little bit wider plus there was the bolt rope and reinforcing panels at the corners and other places. Lees shows typical sails that will help you a lot. For making sails there is a great YouTube video on making sails from silk span by Tom Lauria as well as the great booklet by David Antscherl available for $7 or $8 from SeaWatch books. I found that a combination of the video and booklet work best for me, but both have great how-to information that you can try to see which works best for you. There have been a lot of posts here at MSW on making sails from non-woven materials like silk span that will help you as well. To be sure, there are good looking cloth sails on models, but they are far from being to scale if that is a consideration for you. If being to scale is not a concern, by all means use the kit materials. For a comparison the below may help see the difference between what another member here called the OcCre door mats and a sail . The sketch does not show all the reinforcing patches, but these can be found in a number of sources. Allan

Your build continues to be an inspiration. You commented a while back Did Keith ever finish? Clearway's model really is very nice but I hope you are going to make your own sails instead of using those out-of-scale things from the kit. Allan

Makes sense Phil, just as the cross jack carried no sail but was needed for the spread of mizzen top sail. Allan

Good to have another Allen on the membership roll. We have a bunch with a variety of spellings, just need one from France (Alain) to round things out. Allan

Thanks Mike, much appreciated. For 1:12 scale they seem pretty reasonable. But at 1:48 they are gigantic with the head is 3.3" and the flat to flat on the nut is 4.5". Allan

I do not blame you at all. Chuck Passaro has had incredible success with Alaskan cedar. Hopefully there are suppliers for this species in strip and sheet. Allan

Hamilton, GOOD FOR YOU. If you do replace the wood provided by the kit, which is a GREAT idea, you have the luxury to choose from a number more appropriate species that will lend themselves well to spiling or edge bending ala Passaro and replace all the walnut which is usually brittle and almost always porous rather than tight grained. Allan

Hi Mike Are the nuts 1mm outside dimension or are the screws 1mm diameter? 1mm is nearly 2" at 1:48 scale so larger than probably would be appropriate if being to scale is a consideration. Allan

Greg and Druxey Pins in two sections? I looked through TFFM with no luck, then voila, there it was described in book The Fireship Comet. Will be giving it a try next time I need belaying pins. Thanks again!

Would the high quality tubed acrylic artist colors work well in this device if they were thinned? No more worries about brush strokes if it does!!! Thanks for posting the info on this unit EG.

Makes sense to me.😀 Thanks USS Frolick

I just did a quick search and found a source in the United States and another in Canada for taps and dies down to 0.0118" diameter which is UNM 0.3 thread. This would be the equivalent of about a 1/2" bolt at 1:48. Would this be small enough for your project? There are probably comparable sources where you live if you are not a resident of Canada or the United States. Allan

I am with you Greg. Some of the best entertainment I remember was after fishing and docking our boat we would stroll to the public launch ramp and would just sit with a beer a watching folks back their boat trailers to the ramp. One guy had cards marked 1 to 10 and rated each attempt and held them up so we would then cheer or jeer as appropriate.

Are you running the Dragon's Back in Wales next month? Our youngest son and our daughter in law (both 47 years old) are running it this year. 200 miles of agony in my opinion. I like your idea of a cigar and pints much better. Give me any good pint and an H. Upmann and the heck with running. Cars (or even horses and mules) were invented for a reason you know.😀 Allan

I believe he was referring to the galleries as there was no round house on the Surprise being only a 6th rate.

Doug, Take a look at a few photos of contemporary models when you have a chance. The gratings invariably are set up as in the sketch above. Also, keep in mind that the head ledges usually have some rounding, often steeper than the deck beams. Not so much on the lower decks, but more so on the upper decks. One pic is below from a contemporary model at Preble Hall as an example, as well as a sketch we did for volume II of Euryalus showing the rounding of the head ledges.