RossR

I love the base you built. Looks fantastic.

I have had much better luck with a collet type vs a chuck. My chuck pin vise wasn’t very expensive, so a higher quality chuck may work better than what I experienced.

I have made some slow progress over the last month or so. I have secured most of the deck features both on the top deck and the lower decks. I have glued the ballast pieces that you see here to the bottom of the hold. I will add the remaining ballast after everything else is complete as it will not be glued in place. I assembled the main mast up to the cap. Based on where I plan to display this model, I am only building up to the cap on the main mast, without the main yard. For the top I added a piece of 1mm x 3mm limewood around the edge to conceal the plywood edge. Then I added the ribs to the top and the braces underneath the top. Then the main mast was assembled and the top was attached. Then the shrouds were attached. The first should is served for the entire length. Otherwise they are only served at the area that wraps around the mast. Next up will be the ratlines and futtock shrouds. I considered leaving the futtock shrouds off. The issue is the cross Section only has four of the main shrouds. I suspect the actual number would have been at least 12 and maybe more. I will have to condens the area were the futtock shrouds attach to the futtock stave compared to how the would be attached on a full model. This will not look realistic, but I think the model will look better with the futtock shrouds.

The quality of your rigging work is incredible. I will be building US Brig Syren soon and I will use your build as the standard I try to achieve. I suspect I won’t quite match your quality, but thank for giving me something to shoot for. great job

Nice job on the planking. Looks great. Definitely worth the time you put into it.

Thank for sharing all the detailed steps. This is really helpful to us that are still trying to figure out proper planking.

I am considering trying the cotton rope from ropes of scale for the ratlines on one of my current builds. The website says they apply watered down PVA to the rope. Does anyone know if this rope works well with all of the clove hitches needed for the ratlines. I had a hard time getting the clove hitches to hold with polyester rope on a previous build.

I assume what you have are the 2mm x 5mm lime wood strips, If so that seems like a pretty thick addition to the bulwark. Be sure any cap will still cover it. A lot of Occre kits also use some 5mm x 0.6mm sycamore. Not sure if Polaris does, but that might be a better option for the inner bulwarks if you have any.

I used to think I liked adding sails because of the extra rigging details that came with the addition of sails. Seeing the level of detail you are adding with out sails is really eye opening to see what can be done without sails. I have the US Brig Syren on the Shelf, and your rigging has me really excited about that build without sails. Great work and thanks for sharing. Sorry If I missed it in an earlier post, are you using rope supplied with the kit or purchased from Ropes of Scale or Syren or from somewhere else?

You did a really nice job on your support columns. Mine got a little skinny on the round part.

It is what I had on hand, so I tested it and liked the result. If I like the result why is it better to stay with one paint system? you understand the chemistry better than I do, just curious why.

I have used shellac over water based acrylic paint with good results. I usually use the FolkArt brand craft paint. Available at the big box craft stores. I am sure it isn’t the highest quality paint, but it works well for me.

I like adding as much rigging detail, but worry my sails cover up much of it or detract from it. Love what you are doing? How are you adding the leech lines, what is the sail end attached to? similarly do you have the bunt lines just drop below the yard the back up through the block to the belay pin?

I will be starting my half hull in a few months, really appreciate the level of detail you are sharing, plus the tip on using card stock. Keep up the good work.

I don’t have experience with it, but I think Renaissance Wax might be worth looking into.