Auger

Today I painted a few more windows and doors, and added some shutters to the port side of the second deck:

Second deck port side windows and doors installed. As you can see, I backed them with some card stock to give a more natural recessed look:

Break time. Need to let things dry a bit before going back and fixing the imperfections. Funny how a photo shows more than what you can see with the eyes. When I walked away, these looked pretty good. Looking at them here, I obviously have more work to do. 🤔

These are a few of my favourite things: 🎶

<edit: alright. I forgot the pin vise.>

Building up one of the spiral staircases. I glued the center post to a piece of card stock and built the steps around it. Worked out pretty well.

Dry fitting the second deck bulkheads:

Trying to keep it tight. This is going to have to sit overnight, or maybe a bit longer. I really don't want things to go, *POP!*.

I love my box of rubber bands, but sometimes the *POP* is the rubber band snapping and flying right at your face. 

Ship building is a dangerous business.

8 hours ago, Cathead said:

Are you going steal and dice up anything else from the rabbits as well? Realism, you know.

Ha-haha... took me a minute. Actually, that’s not a bad idea, but I’m going to keep it clean.

Mary sent me a couple really cool stickers.

Thanks Mary!! 😁

Found a good place for everyone to see:

Some more good music:

2nd Deck installed:

Before installing the 2nd deck, I thought it would be a good time to add some precious cargo while access was easy:

Yeah, I know, the alfalfa looks more like celery, but I think under the second deck, in the dark, it'll look alright. I stole some Timothy hay from my rabbit and diced it up.

Rubber bands to the rescue!

Thought I'd drop in for an update; I'm still planking the second deck. Here's a photo of where I stand presently with that task. Had a few clear nights over here so I've been working on the astrophotography thing as well as building a new image processing computer for same. Divided time.

9 hours ago, PeterB010 said:

Hi Auger, that's a nice and energetic start!

 

Count me in for a seat at the front.

 

Regards 

 

Peter

Hi Peter, welcome to the build!

Added some doors to the engine rooms and started planking the second deck, yeah, that's going to take a while to do.

Engine room installed.

Always something to do in the dungeon.

Funny thing is, that’s ^ always going to be in there. 😁

No, No, No!!! Don't open the door!!!

I really wish my doors would turn out like a Pringle, you know, always the same.

Personally, one thing I didn't like about this kit was the enormous hinges and nails on the double doors, so I decided to take a different approach. I backed the doors with some scrap veneer and changed the hinging a bit. I like the way it came out; didn't want people to be able to see the ply backing inside the room anyway:

Building up the engine room vent openings

23 hours ago, Paul Jarman said:

Nice job so far. Just completed This kit myself. I chose to paint it.

Paul

I would have liked to have painted it to resemble a more true to life river boat, but it's her model and she chose the natural wood look. I showed her several photos from the forum here of painted versions side by side with natural wood builds, maybe even showed her yours, but that's what she decided on in the end. 

Just plugging along with the veneer on the engine room.

Oh, and by the way, the cat's out of the bag regarding the secret build. I questioned whether she wanted a painted model or natural wood. So, I had to show her what I was doing because I'm at that pivotal point of the build where it's one or the other. She was really happy and surprised that I had so much finished already and decided that she would prefer the natural wood look for her river boat.

So, let's continue...