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Thanks Bob, glad you enjoyed the humor. Jon, I'm right there with you. I thought about the process of tying off to an eyebolt that was already on the bulwarks and agree it would be far more than difficult. Best to attach the breaching lines and then insert the eyebolt. I plan to build a mock up to get everything just right prior to installation. I'm still sticking with the eyebolt/ring configuration. At 1/76 scale, the double eyebolt can be pulled off, but at my scale, to make it work and look good, you would have to be close to actual scale and that is just not possible. It will hardly be visible anyway, so I'm going to settle. looking forward to doing the guns, although with 30 of them, I know it is a lot of work ahead of me.

Thanks Jon, its the first I've seen. I figure if you're going to build something like this, you have to have fun with it. I think I figured a good solution to the breaching lines. The instruction manual that came with the kit gave the following diagram of a "typical" configuration for the 24 pound guns. It shows the breaching line attached to the bulwarks with an eyebolt and ring. That's not the current configuration but certainly plausible and much easier to do, so that is what I'm planning

A few more details to show. I purchased a set of 3D printed table and chairs. The detail on these things is absolutely amazing. Certainly nothing that could be done by hand at this scale Of course I couldn't help but throw a few nautical maps on the table. I thought about getting a 3D print of the sideboard, but turned out that was going to cost quite a bit for someting that was hardly going to be visible. So I set about making one myself. The result wasn't too bad. I took aphoto prior to staining to show the details a little better Unfortunately, after making this lovely little piece, I found that my calculations were off a little and the piece sat about 2mm too tall. So I had to trim off the feet and shorten the mirror just a little. Again, since this will be barely visible in the end, no one will know the difference. After staining, I had hoped the door details would show through, but with the dark mahogany color, the black lines were barely noticeable, so I cut out some raised panels and drawer faces to add to the front. To make the mirror, I used aluminum tape, the kind they use on AC duct work. Here's the final look It looks a little empty just sitting there, so I'll have to think of something to set on top of it. Here's a couple photos of the forward cabin with furniture in place. Naturally I had to bring some life to it and so I put some characters in as well. The captain is looking at the map, which by the way is a shrunk down copy of the east coast around Martha's Vineyard in the early 1800's. And of course since I was having fun painting little people, I figured I need to have someone in one of the most important places on the ship At least now, people looking at the model will know what those little "L" shaped pieces are for. I figured before I get the rest of the deck too filled up and busy, I better take care of the gunports and knees while I still have room. I got started installing all the eyebolts needed for the gun tackle. The 1/32 eyebolts supplied in the kit are way out of scale, so I used #16 fly hooks. These are actually still a little bigger than they should be (0.016" hole), but anything smaller will be difficult to attach anything to. I had originally planned to use two eyebolts, one on top the other, with a pin for the breaching lines, but quickly realized this was not going to work as everything gets too bulky and it will be impossible to try to tie to. I'm going to have to think about that one a little bit.

Absolutely beautiful work. Your use of the aluminum jig was very clever

Thanks guys, greatly appreciated. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Thanks also to all the likes and smileys.

I've slowly been working on the Captain's quarters. I got all the windows cut out of the doors and installed the styles for screens. I used .020" round styrene and painted them using Vallejo Air "wood" paint. This was trickier than I thought because the styles had to be just the right length. For the door knobs I used Tichy Train rivets, .020" and a touch of gold paint. Here's a pic of the forward bulkhead and the inside of the aft cabin I had wanted to have some of the doors open, but there is such little clearance at the top, I decided this would be too difficult/ Next, I started on some of the furniture. The beds were cut out using the laser. The wood I used for these was maple veneer, which is .020" thick. In hindsight, I wish I had stuck with the persimmon. The maple is a bit softer and didn't seem to hold its edges well. Still it turned out pretty nice. If you look close in the photos, you can see the filigree carving in the footboard of the bed. I painted the bed covers grey thinking they probably would have been simple wool blankets. The dressers were actually multi components. The body was a solid piece of wood to which I glued the back board and the drawer faces, which again were cut with the laser. All the furniture was stained using VallejoAir "Mahogany". Although this is paint, it is so thin that it actually goes on like a stain. The last piece was the rudder box. This also was cut out using the maple veneer and the laser. I cut a block of wood using stock basswood and then attached the sides, top and the raised panels individually. I bought some HO scale furniture for the table and chairs in the forward cabin, but they're not painted yet. Also working on the sideboard. All that is yet to come

Thanks Greg for the explanation. It was on Meshy 6. I'll give the Meshy 4 a try and see what happens. It's only $15 a month and they give you half off the first month, so cheap enough to try if Meshy 4 doesn't work.

Hi Chuck, Just recently read through this post and have given Meshy a try. Really amazing. I created the image but when I try to download the STL file, it takes me to a page to upgrade my subscription. How do you download the file in the free subscription, or do you have to have the paid version to actually download files?

She's a fine looking ship Jon. I'm definitely considering leaving off some of the spar deck, not sure I'll do both sides. I know most of what I do on the gun deck will only be known by me and God, but I will have some photos to show and it's the enjoyment of doing it....right?!

Hey Jim, Hang in there. Those galleries are tough. You did a fine job on the transom. Nice paint work. This model is a bit like eating an elephant, but you just keep going one bite at a time. Just keep it fun

So, I wanted to wait until I was a little further along, but just had to share some of my progress. I plan to put a fair amount of detail into the Captains quarters and the wardroom, and to start off I needed to construct the bulkheads. I wanted to include the panel detail and thought of several ways to do this. I finally settled on a fairly easy approach that I feel turned out pretty good. I used the Navy plans from the museum website and made templates for all the bulkheads and the pantry walls. Using my laser engraver, I set the power down really low so that it just etched the surface of the wood and didn't cut all the way through. Once all the details were traced out, I just gave everything a nice white wash. The areas that cut by the laser soak up the paint and the lines stay visible. I know the actual panel molding is white and these lines are very dark, but it makes everything much more visible. Here's a few photos showing the original tracing and the bulkheads just dry fitted I've just started cutting out all the screens on the doors, and some of the doors will be cut out so they can be installed in an open position. Lots of other details planned. Of course I'm already thinking of how I'm going to make any of this visible once the spar deck is in place

Nice job Gregg, Murphy always seems to screw me over, but it's a great feeling when things work out right. Can't wait to see what you do with the deck

Next up is the Captain's quarters

Before adding too much more to the deck, I wanted to get the waterways in place. I had decided early in the build not to make the waterways as an individual piece. I had seen where many builders before me (especially newbies like myself) had trouble deciding where to put the waterways so the deck was properly positioned. I decided to take a different approach that solved this problem and made things very simple. For the most part, the only part of the waterway that is actually visible is the chamfered edge that is cut at a 45o angle. My solution was to plank the bulwarks all the way, then once the deck was in place, insert a triangular piece where the waterway should be. Using the midship plans from the museum website, I determined this triangular piece should be 7"x7" I couldn't find any molding pieces that were triangular in shape, but I did locate some quarter round that is .060" (1/16"). Although this is slightly smaller than it is supposed to be, it was close enough, and at 1/96 scale, it is very difficult to tell the difference between the quarter round and 45o. The other added advantage of doing it this way is that the piece can be painted prior to installation and thus provides nice crisp lines.

Quick update on my typically slow progress. I finished all the stanchions along with handrails. I put these together as individual assemblies that I intended to then just drop into the holes. Unfortunately, a couple of the holes were a little tight, which was easy enough to enlarge a little. The big problem was the lower stanchions. The holes I made in the solid hull were the same size as the hatches, and of course the walls were straight up and down. This was fine for the ladders, as I angled them such that the ends were even with the hatch. However, because of the angle the stanchions are at, they extended beyond that. Since these are not really visible at all, I could simply bend them forward enough to fit and tighten up the handrail from the top. If I had it to do over again, I would have just made the holes bigger. Since the holes get covered up by the deck and the holes cut in the deck can be made the same size as the hatch, the larger hole underneath would allow more room. here's how everything turned out: Main hatch Aft hatches It was alot of work for a tiny bit of detail, but I'm pretty happy with it

Hey Jim I would second everything Tim said. However, I'm guessing you already glued these down. In that case, I would suggest very carefully filling the gap with DAP plastic wood. its a pretty good product that takes stain well. Once you fill the gap, you can go back with a scribing tool or toothpick and scrape out the scribed lines that accidentally got filled in (there will be some) Once the DAP material dries, a very light sanding followed by another coat of stain and the gap should all but disappear. Of course, you can just live with it. As Tim said, the gun deck is mostly obscured and what looks like a glaring defect right now, will hardly be visible later. Good luck with those galleries

Hi Mustafa, As with the rest of your model, these look really sharp. Keep up the great work, really enjoying watching your build

So I have been slowly working on all the hatches for the gun deck and finally got everything finished. As mentioned before, everything was made from Persimmon wood I got off my property. To make the shot racks, I used #24 fishhooks for the eyebolts and 28 gauge wire. The shot was supplied in the kit and looks to be just ammo shot, 2mm in diameter. These were given a coating of flat black paint. For the ladders between the spar deck and gun deck, I plan to make from wood, but for the ladders going from the gun deck down I went ahead and used the cast metal ladders provided in the kit. I followed the paint scheme outlined by @Force9 which gave a pretty nice wood look. I still plan to add the stanchions and hand rails, so these are just dry fitted for the photo.

Hey Jon Yes it does take a little finesse to work with the finer threads. The seizing line I used was 0.01" diameter, which I guess is still a little large by comparison, but I do believe it will work with even finer thread. In the end, it is a matter of what you are comfortable with. Either way, you have a job ahead of you. Good luck and keep up the great work

I found the original post

Thanks Jon, I think you're right. Making such tiny hooks and then trying to tie them onto a block is going to be maddening, if not impossible. I like your idea of inserting the hook directly into the block. Should still give a nice look and will be hardly discernable from any distance. Regarding seizing, I'm sure you have seen this, but thought I would reiterate here. I came across this tool and method for seizing lines. I've tried it myself and it works very well. Takes a couple practice tries to get used to, but I quickly got the hang of it. Here's an example from when I was practicing The knots are very strong. Of course, I would still reinforce with a little glue. The loop at the end is easily adjusted after seizing by pulling the loose end through before trimming everything up and gluing. Here's the method I made the tool from an old paint brush. Just ground off one side of the ferrule after removing the bristles. The only modification I made was not bringing the seizing line back through the seizing loops (step 3). Instead, I just came back through the loop created at the end. You can make different size tools for different size lines using different brushes. I wish I could give credit to whomever posted this originally, but I can't remember where I found it Hope it helps

Nice job Jon, those look perfect. I'll soon be working on my gun deck guns. Wondering if I will be able to do as well at my scale.

Thanks Jon, I guess I would have to agree with your final assumption. Seems they would have had something. Besides, it's a nice detail

You can use dry transfer decal paper that can be purchased at most hobby stores. When burnishing, use light pressure. The decal should only transfer to the raised details