Jaager

I have worked a lot of Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) and it is OK for frame timbers, keel,  beams etc.  but I have not tried to scrape a mold pattern in it.
I seems a bit soft for micro detail, but that is just an impression.
I was a wood ghoul  and traded cleanup labor for the small trunk of a wind downed Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium).  I billotted and seasoned it and the grain is very similar, but the color is yellow green.
Not something that I would leave natural.  The Wood Database says that Sweet Cherry is harder.  It may carve better.
 
I think one of the many varieties of ornamental Pear (Pyrus calleryana) would work better.  Near ubiquitous street planting in some places.
 

Yes.
 
(With the caveat that narrow economy plywood,  spaced at overly wide intervals,  is a barely adequate support at best and man-made synthetic sheet material is heretical and probably having a short half life. I am not encouraging the actual use it any of it or anything large enough to be called a "nail".)
 
For the first layer of planking::  
drill a hole that is a # or ## smaller than the "nail" diameter in the plank while it is on work surface.
For cheap ply - do nothing for the nail - it should crush internally with no adverse effect.  I suspect that a nail in the middle layer(s) of cheap ply will more closely resemble a glass stirring rod in a test tube than a ten penny nail in a 2x4.  A hammer may be more force than needed.
For something like MDF, do a test. if it propagates the nail's compression to its surface or resists too much, drill an under size hole.  If it accepts the compression, let the nail be a nail.
Otherwise, drill an under size pilot hole.  For MDF, if it bends the nail, drill a hole.
 
Hold the nail in a MM 'spike insertion plier"  or curved Kelly clamp.  Next - thru a hole in its center - place a small square piece of wood scrap that covers the width of the plank  and is about 1-2 times the plank thickness on the nail.(Hitch Chock) 
Push this assembly thru the hole in the plank.  PVA glue the plank.  PVA glue will hold metal to wood against mild resistance force.  Rotational force will break it.
A light weight hammer can set the nail.  When the glue is set, split out the hitch chock.  Nip off the nail at the plank surface.  File it flush.
 
For the show layer,  I suspect that it is a thin veneer.  Any sort of nail is asking for a split.  The nails are way over size to nip - file -and leave on view.
 
For both layers. a pre-bent plank that will just lay where it is wanted when oriented to gravity is a really good idea.  
A dry heat - a curved surface  soldering rod adapter - and a rheostat to keep the heating surface's temp below a wood char or wood cook temp will melt the lignin enough to allow fiber bend and twist and then reset to hold the new shape.   Wood wants to bend with the plane of the thin dimension.  It will resist a bend thru the thick dimension. It is spilling that should cover a bend that is lateral to the plank.  If a bend is forced against the preferred dimension in a plank, it will spend! the rest of its existence trying to twist back to its natural conformation.
 
!Sorry for the anthropologic verbs, it is just easier to write that way.

Putting aside that many if not most of the build logs for OcCre's Beagle have nothing to do with how an actual ship's (or bark rigged brig in Beagle) decking looked or was laid.
I believe that most builds, the trunnels are faux.  Drill a shallow hole and fill it with a dyed glue or glue-sawdust mixture.
Unless you are sophisticated about it - most of the pins that you will have to choose from will have steel as their core material.   It will rust away, leave a hole where it was and have a wide black bath tube ring stain around where it was.  Brass pins that are scale diameter have become almost impossible to find.
I have no idea how the fad came to be, but no actual 18th or 19th century vessels had short planks with the way too numerous butts of every other strake meeting on the same beam.  No vessels had trunnels, or bolts that were only at the butt joints.  The actual fasteners for deck planking were essentially invisible at 1:1 scale  never mind @ 1:60.  The seams between each strake would be so narrow that a well placed deck @ 1:60 with just the amber of Titebond II as the seam would be close to realistic.
Wood swells across the fibers.  A plank does not get longer or shorter. An end to end butt - if placed as close as should be  would be too tight for any caulking, would never move to need it.
 
That class of USN vessels had rock hard yellow Pine decking that was 40 feet long and 10 inches wide.  The English could not strip mine Georgia's Pine forests anymore, so their planking was probably closer to 20-30 feet long and maybe closer to 6 inches than 10 inches wide and their Baltic Pine would not turn a nail.  But it was never parquet-like in its finished look..

Jamestown 1844  corvette 
There is much detail for the class on the HIC plan for Germantown.

Putting aside that many if not most of the build logs for OcCre's Beagle have nothing to do with how an actual ship's (or bark rigged brig in Beagle) decking looked or was laid.
I believe that most builds, the trunnels are faux.  Drill a shallow hole and fill it with a dyed glue or glue-sawdust mixture.
Unless you are sophisticated about it - most of the pins that you will have to choose from will have steel as their core material.   It will rust away, leave a hole where it was and have a wide black bath tube ring stain around where it was.  Brass pins that are scale diameter have become almost impossible to find.
I have no idea how the fad came to be, but no actual 18th or 19th century vessels had short planks with the way too numerous butts of every other strake meeting on the same beam.  No vessels had trunnels, or bolts that were only at the butt joints.  The actual fasteners for deck planking were essentially invisible at 1:1 scale  never mind @ 1:60.  The seams between each strake would be so narrow that a well placed deck @ 1:60 with just the amber of Titebond II as the seam would be close to realistic.
Wood swells across the fibers.  A plank does not get longer or shorter. An end to end butt - if placed as close as should be  would be too tight for any caulking, would never move to need it.
 
That class of USN vessels had rock hard yellow Pine decking that was 40 feet long and 10 inches wide.  The English could not strip mine Georgia's Pine forests anymore, so their planking was probably closer to 20-30 feet long and maybe closer to 6 inches than 10 inches wide and their Baltic Pine would not turn a nail.  But it was never parquet-like in its finished look..

Putting aside that many if not most of the build logs for OcCre's Beagle have nothing to do with how an actual ship's (or bark rigged brig in Beagle) decking looked or was laid.
I believe that most builds, the trunnels are faux.  Drill a shallow hole and fill it with a dyed glue or glue-sawdust mixture.
Unless you are sophisticated about it - most of the pins that you will have to choose from will have steel as their core material.   It will rust away, leave a hole where it was and have a wide black bath tube ring stain around where it was.  Brass pins that are scale diameter have become almost impossible to find.
I have no idea how the fad came to be, but no actual 18th or 19th century vessels had short planks with the way too numerous butts of every other strake meeting on the same beam.  No vessels had trunnels, or bolts that were only at the butt joints.  The actual fasteners for deck planking were essentially invisible at 1:1 scale  never mind @ 1:60.  The seams between each strake would be so narrow that a well placed deck @ 1:60 with just the amber of Titebond II as the seam would be close to realistic.
Wood swells across the fibers.  A plank does not get longer or shorter. An end to end butt - if placed as close as should be  would be too tight for any caulking, would never move to need it.
 
That class of USN vessels had rock hard yellow Pine decking that was 40 feet long and 10 inches wide.  The English could not strip mine Georgia's Pine forests anymore, so their planking was probably closer to 20-30 feet long and maybe closer to 6 inches than 10 inches wide and their Baltic Pine would not turn a nail.  But it was never parquet-like in its finished look..

I think it would serve you to spend a lot of time with:
The Galleon  by Peter Kirsch  - the first edition is apparently written in German  - there is an English edition - I can find no information about a possible Russian edition.
Here is a post that describes the book:
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/20489-galleon-the-great-ships-of-the-armada-era-by-peter-kirsch/
 
I think that central spine  is more descriptive than false keel for what that part is,  but it lacks in pretense.
The same applies to mold (mould) instead of frame.  The cross section units in POB are definitely  not frames.
 
KHL looks too low to be  the LWL - floating waterline  and  #2 looks too high.  
With the float waterline  - there were rules about how high the gun deck sill should be above it.  There were rules about the distance of the deck to the sill.
It was all a complex chain of proportions and relationships starting with one or two or three beginning values  - such as the length of the keel (touch)  and the breadth. 

Linen/flax   Egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen.
The currently available linen yarn seems to come from Estonia and the Baltic region around it.  They could use a much better QA system to avoid the stem junk inclusions that break the yarn during twist up.  It comes as bleached (white), half bleached (off white) and natural - which is olive green .  Natural is probably more authentic than white for running rigging.  
Linen yarn is thicker than cotton thread.
fibers -> yarn -> thread -> line ->rope        -> = "multiples twist up to produce"
 
The values for gauge are  tar pit 
Lea   yds/lb / 300
Nm  # 1000m/kg
Nec  # 840yd/lb
for all  the larger the number the smaller the diameter
The commercially available material is tricky to decipher.   Yarn sold as 40/2 Lea  is not what we hope it would be.  Instead of being two 80 Lea lines twisted to make a final line that is 40 Lea dia. , it is two 40 Lea lines making a final that is 20 Lea dia.   Except that twisting two lines does not double the the diameter - far from it - but the point is that it is not a way to get smaller diameter yarn
 
Preservative   (which is not actually what is the function)  There is too much surface area for any preservative to actually succeed in doing that.
 
Shellac
Renaissance Wax -pH neutral and devoid of traces of insect GI enzymes.
Lineco neutral pH bookbinders PVA
 
Man made synthetics will vary with what chemical chain the polymer is, but all will probably be subject to  embrittlement  by chemical reactions internal to the material - light and oxygen will speed it. 

Jamestown 1844  corvette 
There is much detail for the class on the HIC plan for Germantown.

"Stain"  can have more than one meaning as it is commonly used.
it is often used to describe any product that colors wood.  This comes from turning the verb "to stain", meaning anything that colors, into a noun.
In general two different agents are used.
 
An actual "stain" is a semi transparent paint.  If you use this on wood before using PVA, there is a possibility of the pores and fiber irregularities being filled. A weak PVA bond is possible.
If CA is used - it will bond to the paint layer.  Its strength will be the strength of the paint to the wood.
Some stain products advertise as being "penetrating".  This probably means that there is a mixture of paint and dye in the product.
 
A dye soaks into the wood. It is a clear solution of dye molecules in the solvent base,  It does not affect the surface or the pores.
There are two types of dye - water based and alcohol based. 
The water based dye soaks in more deeply.  On a piece of furniture, this can make a difference in the quality of the look.
At model scales,  the surface is too small for a deeper color to be visible.  Water base will cause wood to swell with the first application or two - sanding and or scraping is needed to fix this.
Just water can be used first, sanded and then dyed - it may save a second dye application to hide what the sanding did to the color.
Alcohol based dye saves all that. The wood does not swell and it dries more quickly.
 
A stain product makes its living by turning cheap and poor quality wood into something that looks better - to partially hide boring grain - often on open pore wood species that need a thick pore filler.
A dye is meant for high quality wood, where the grain wants being accentuated instead of being hidden.

Jamestown 1844  corvette 
There is much detail for the class on the HIC plan for Germantown.

Jamestown 1844  corvette 
There is much detail for the class on the HIC plan for Germantown.

I came across one that is 1/16"  kerf and a 10: diameter,  but @~$200 I am not sure it qualifies as being something real.
 
https://www.infinitytools.com/10-laser-thin-kerf-saw-blade-1-16-kerf

As a theoretical solution:
Coat the "very fine" sanded varnish with shellac.  A worn out Tee works for application.  Then buy a small tube of white artist's oil paint. (Blick)  You can use a color wheel to determine which other colors to get to get a believable "white stuff" layer shade.  Dilute the pigment with mineral spirits and "boiled" Linseed oil down to as semi transparent as fits your goal.  You are in GA not CA, so the organic solvents and Linseed should be in your neighborhood hardware. 
 
Oil paint for a model size surface is not like using them to coat the walls and ceiling of a closed room.
 
I find the properties of Holly to be seductive.  However, the current price per board foot that I find on line is absurdly high.  To make matters worse, they are probably burning the off-white and yellow stock that we would really  want.

I came across one that is 1/16"  kerf and a 10: diameter,  but @~$200 I am not sure it qualifies as being something real.
 
https://www.infinitytools.com/10-laser-thin-kerf-saw-blade-1-16-kerf

Post #47 photo:
What I see:
A sliding block on the front.  The block has two tightening screws to fix it on the horizontal scale on the front face.
I know that it is almost impossible to set a sliding block on a scale exactly where it is wanted if there is a single screw - especially one with a lever arm.  The act of tightening it down is a turning action that slightly moves the unit in the direction of the turn.  I am thinking that the small screw is to be used first to sort of freeze the unit by being touch tight.  Then the lever can be cranked down without it moving its housing.
 
The troubling second part is that the actual fence is fixed to the sliding block by a single screw.  It is a door hinge.  The angle of the fence to the blade is easy to adjust - just loosen the Allen head screw.  A problem is that I see no second point to stop the fence from swinging when the lateral force of the wood between the blade and the fence is stronger than what the Allen head bolt is applying.  
That right angle beam needs to extend beyond the back edge of the table.  That overhang needs a bolt that fixes it to a backside sliding unit that has no play in how it slides along its track.
 
The machine in the photo does not look like the blade can cut stock that is very thick.  This does not appear to be a machine that can do more than thin stock ripping.  Maybe it gets by because it does not cut stock thick enough to produce a serious later force. 
A Jim saw can rip stock that is close to one inch thick.  Now, I would not use it for ripping seriously thick stock - because I have a 14" bandsaw  - a machine that is designed to resaw - but I suspect that I am in a small minority that has an alternate way to resaw.
 
The Proxxon looks to be fairly substantial.  Much better than the 4" Dremel POS or an old Jarmac, never mind the Harbor Freight junk,  but it pales when compared to a Jim saw.  But, the probability is that a Jim saw is no longer an option - at least for a while  and may never again be one.   

Post #47 photo:
What I see:
A sliding block on the front.  The block has two tightening screws to fix it on the horizontal scale on the front face.
I know that it is almost impossible to set a sliding block on a scale exactly where it is wanted if there is a single screw - especially one with a lever arm.  The act of tightening it down is a turning action that slightly moves the unit in the direction of the turn.  I am thinking that the small screw is to be used first to sort of freeze the unit by being touch tight.  Then the lever can be cranked down without it moving its housing.
 
The troubling second part is that the actual fence is fixed to the sliding block by a single screw.  It is a door hinge.  The angle of the fence to the blade is easy to adjust - just loosen the Allen head screw.  A problem is that I see no second point to stop the fence from swinging when the lateral force of the wood between the blade and the fence is stronger than what the Allen head bolt is applying.  
That right angle beam needs to extend beyond the back edge of the table.  That overhang needs a bolt that fixes it to a backside sliding unit that has no play in how it slides along its track.
 
The machine in the photo does not look like the blade can cut stock that is very thick.  This does not appear to be a machine that can do more than thin stock ripping.  Maybe it gets by because it does not cut stock thick enough to produce a serious later force. 
A Jim saw can rip stock that is close to one inch thick.  Now, I would not use it for ripping seriously thick stock - because I have a 14" bandsaw  - a machine that is designed to resaw - but I suspect that I am in a small minority that has an alternate way to resaw.
 
The Proxxon looks to be fairly substantial.  Much better than the 4" Dremel POS or an old Jarmac, never mind the Harbor Freight junk,  but it pales when compared to a Jim saw.  But, the probability is that a Jim saw is no longer an option - at least for a while  and may never again be one.   

Post #47 photo:
What I see:
A sliding block on the front.  The block has two tightening screws to fix it on the horizontal scale on the front face.
I know that it is almost impossible to set a sliding block on a scale exactly where it is wanted if there is a single screw - especially one with a lever arm.  The act of tightening it down is a turning action that slightly moves the unit in the direction of the turn.  I am thinking that the small screw is to be used first to sort of freeze the unit by being touch tight.  Then the lever can be cranked down without it moving its housing.
 
The troubling second part is that the actual fence is fixed to the sliding block by a single screw.  It is a door hinge.  The angle of the fence to the blade is easy to adjust - just loosen the Allen head screw.  A problem is that I see no second point to stop the fence from swinging when the lateral force of the wood between the blade and the fence is stronger than what the Allen head bolt is applying.  
That right angle beam needs to extend beyond the back edge of the table.  That overhang needs a bolt that fixes it to a backside sliding unit that has no play in how it slides along its track.
 
The machine in the photo does not look like the blade can cut stock that is very thick.  This does not appear to be a machine that can do more than thin stock ripping.  Maybe it gets by because it does not cut stock thick enough to produce a serious later force. 
A Jim saw can rip stock that is close to one inch thick.  Now, I would not use it for ripping seriously thick stock - because I have a 14" bandsaw  - a machine that is designed to resaw - but I suspect that I am in a small minority that has an alternate way to resaw.
 
The Proxxon looks to be fairly substantial.  Much better than the 4" Dremel POS or an old Jarmac, never mind the Harbor Freight junk,  but it pales when compared to a Jim saw.  But, the probability is that a Jim saw is no longer an option - at least for a while  and may never again be one.   

Post #47 photo:
What I see:
A sliding block on the front.  The block has two tightening screws to fix it on the horizontal scale on the front face.
I know that it is almost impossible to set a sliding block on a scale exactly where it is wanted if there is a single screw - especially one with a lever arm.  The act of tightening it down is a turning action that slightly moves the unit in the direction of the turn.  I am thinking that the small screw is to be used first to sort of freeze the unit by being touch tight.  Then the lever can be cranked down without it moving its housing.
 
The troubling second part is that the actual fence is fixed to the sliding block by a single screw.  It is a door hinge.  The angle of the fence to the blade is easy to adjust - just loosen the Allen head screw.  A problem is that I see no second point to stop the fence from swinging when the lateral force of the wood between the blade and the fence is stronger than what the Allen head bolt is applying.  
That right angle beam needs to extend beyond the back edge of the table.  That overhang needs a bolt that fixes it to a backside sliding unit that has no play in how it slides along its track.
 
The machine in the photo does not look like the blade can cut stock that is very thick.  This does not appear to be a machine that can do more than thin stock ripping.  Maybe it gets by because it does not cut stock thick enough to produce a serious later force. 
A Jim saw can rip stock that is close to one inch thick.  Now, I would not use it for ripping seriously thick stock - because I have a 14" bandsaw  - a machine that is designed to resaw - but I suspect that I am in a small minority that has an alternate way to resaw.
 
The Proxxon looks to be fairly substantial.  Much better than the 4" Dremel POS or an old Jarmac, never mind the Harbor Freight junk,  but it pales when compared to a Jim saw.  But, the probability is that a Jim saw is no longer an option - at least for a while  and may never again be one.   

Cross cutting:    deck planking   and other parts where there is a max length.
 
Grattings:   the slots for the F&A boards.  If you freehand the first one to its proper width and glue a guide that is the thickness of the blade to the deck of the slide that is one slot width out, each of the following slots will be that distance apart.  The slot is likely to be wider than a the blade, the play of the known slot and the guide will allow for as many passes per slot as needed.  If you gang more than one blade until the sum is the slot width, then the guide would be the slot width instead of the blade width since no play is wanted.
 
A large block can be shaped to the pattern of the gun trucks.   If the blade can rise high enough, the individual truck sides can be sliced off as identical clones.
Just make sure that the end grain is at the front and back edges of the trucks.  The width of the original plank will determine how many sides per block.   Using the length of the plank allows for more but the grain orientation would be just plain wrong.   
 

If the only fault with the block is that the inner and outer faces come up short, a layer can be added to the block at both faces and they can be shaped.  Using the same wood ad the planking.
The species that you are using for the block body is: ?
I wonder if you might have success if the main block body is a dense species of wood?  Or even Tagua nuts?

What do you mean by "sanding sealer"?
A stain or dye should be used on raw wood.
A true sand-n-seal product is targeted at open pore wood.  This group is generally nut wood  Oak, Hickory, Willow, Pecan, Ash, Walnut - species of wood that are either not really appropriate for our uses if the wood is to be left natural.  They will work as well as any if painted.  But the open pores will need to be filled first. 
This is what a old style sand-n-seal is for.  It was or is a thick lacquer with clear when dry fine solids meant to fill the pores.
 
The wood that we should be using is closed pore and tight grained.  There are no pores that need filling and a clear top coat that is thick is best avoided.
 
If  a primer is what you mean,  there are much better products than a lacquer with pumice or a similar solid.
The gold standard is half saturated shellac.  Cut premixed 1:1 with denatured alcohol (shellac thinner/ ethanol with an emetic to avoid taxes).
You can also use 1:1 diluted Tung oil (pure - not Homer's or similar) or 1:1 boiled Linseed oil.  In these cases mineral spirits is the usual diluent.
Shellac is ready to overcoat as soon as the alcohol evaporates.  The oils will need time for polymerization before they are overcoated. 
All in all - shellac is just too convenient unless you are not in a hurry.
 
If you use a dye - and for us - at this point in knowledge - I think that alcohol based dye us best - water based dye will swell the wood - our models will not sit outside in the sun and the surface is too small for any additional depth by water to be seen.  Dye - then primer.
If you use a traditional stain - which is really a diluted wood color shade paint - shellac would go first.  The primer will make the stain/paint go farther.

Apart from the slight splintering, that fixed block looks pretty good, Alan. What wood are you using for these?

If the only fault with the block is that the inner and outer faces come up short, a layer can be added to the block at both faces and they can be shaped.  Using the same wood ad the planking.
The species that you are using for the block body is: ?
I wonder if you might have success if the main block body is a dense species of wood?  Or even Tagua nuts?

I am content with the fixed 90 degrees.  The complexity and error potential that comes with the tilt function does not balance with very slight need for an angled cut with what I do. 
 
No.  It has been passing my notice.   The tooth count on that blade has me cringing at the thought of using it to cut a shallow slot.   I have a bunch of fine tooth - zero set blades that I bought over the years that can be stacked to do the same.  I bought them before I knew that they are not the proper blades for ripping.   Thurston and Martindale  - back from when Martindale kept them in inventory.  Jim was a stock recovery savior with the bushings that get 1" ID blades adapted to fit his 1/2" arbor.
I am thinking that the MM system would skew the blade at a fixed off center angle.  A wobble means to me that the blade would move freely along the arbor as it rotated.  That might be a very bad idea to do on purpose.   A loose nut on the arbor would produce that effect.