cdrusn89

The hull and interior deck furnishing are essentially complete. I still need to add six 3mm single blocks that are part of the sheet tackle for the three foremost head sails that are going to eyebolts on deck just aft of the forward most pin rails. These are shown on the rigging drawing but all the drawing shows is the blocks sticking above the caprail - no way to tell how they are attached to the ship. So I will put eyebolts in the deck and pendants on the blocks so they will be above the caprail. The channels are all cut, slotted and painted so they are next along with the deadeyes and chainplates. There are six deadeyes (smaller 4mm size) on each side (three each on the main and fore masts) that appear to be attached to the caprail. The drawings says "Plain padeye fisher 135". I can only guess what a "plain padeye" looks like and the AJ Fisher catalog is no help as there are no padeyes listed and the Fisher 135 is missing - 134 and 136 are there; 134 is a cleat and 136 is a boat davit, I am going to cut some small squares out of black laserboard and call that a "plain padeye".

Since I am working my way aft I decided it was time to add the bowsprit. Hopefully I can keep from snapping it off while adding them rest of the "deck furniture". In addition to the bowsprit and the associated reinforcing piece down the side I added the bolt heads (square this time) to the catheads and the reinforcing piece. Also two hatches, the capstan and the eyelets that lead to the chain locker(s). While trying to accurately locate where the fore sheet bitts should go I discovered that while the drawing is correct (if you read it very closely) I had built the main and fore booms using the single drawing as a template and did not notice that the sheet blocks are in different locations. Now they are correct but it seems like there could have been separate drawings for the fore and main booms rather than "hiding" the differences in the dimensioning.

I guess it is time to start installing some of the "stuff" I have been working on for what seems like a long time. I decided to start at the bow and work aft. First up was the cat heads. Not much drama but you have to be careful when cutting the bulwark to avoid it being too large. I have marked the cat heads for installation of some more plastic bolt heads which are shown on the drawing. The bitts also require some surgery to the deck edge and the timberheads so the bitts will stand up vertically. I have not installed the eyelets to lead the anchor chain to the chain locker because I used the two provided in the kit to clean up the holes where the chain passes through the forecastle to the anchors. The basswood hull material will just NOT take a splinter free hole. I have more 3/16" eyelets on the way and will get to them shortly. Just to be on the safe side, the towing bitts by the forward hatch are just sitting there at the moment so they will not get in the way of drilling the eyelet holes.

Thanks Rick!😀 After sleeping on it last night I decided that the brass backing links I re-purposed from a different Corel chainplate package were too over scale and looked for alternatives. I set up a little jig (two pieces of .039" piano wire set vertically into a 2 X 4) and tried making the backing links out of 24 gauge annealed steel wire. Actually I tried 22, 24 and 26 gauge wire but decided 24 gauge was "best". Here are the selected chainplate and the two alternative backing links. I made the replacement just a bit shorter (assuming I can replicate the length more or less exactly - yet to be established) so it will (in theory) hit the waterline the same as the drawing shows. One down and 21 left to go.

Back to the present. I got all the stern rail and bow splash rail completed and touch-up painted so I decided to take some whole model pictures. And some with what deck furniture is ready for "prime time".

It turns out I have several choices for replacement chainplates. Not sure why or when I got these but when looking through the various "fittings" sites i sometimes buy "stuff" "just in case". It would seem I must have visited the site with chainplates more than once as these all look like they are from the same vendor. I shortened and rebent the kit provided chainplate and drilled two holes (not very well) and that is second from the right. The other three are different sizes of the same design (from Corel I think). On the far right is a potential replacement backing link (suitably blackened/painted) because while the drawing says 22 required the kit only contains ten per the parts list. Any of the Corel chainplates are going to require an upsize in the deadeyes. The two on the left use 5mm and the one on the right 6mm. The kit "large" deadeyes are 5/32' = 4mm (3.968mm according to my converting calculator). I am going with the shortest of the Corel chainplates. I think I have just enough room to bend it down after it clears the molding strip since the channels will be mounted below the cap rail. The backing link is going to have to be on top of the chainplate but I do not see any other solution.

While waiting around for the pin rails which were just installed to get "set" I started looking ahead to the channels. Here is the picture from the plans for the channels/deadeyes/chain plates for the main mast. And here is one of the kit supplied chainplates with a deadeye mounted using 26 ga wire (no mention in the instructions of how the deadeyes are supposed to be attached). I measured and my waterline is within 1mm of where it is shown on the drawing so it would seem that unless I want the chainplates and the backing link down to the turn of the bilge I need to find anther solution. Presently looking through the "parts bin" to see what is available and considering how the supplied chainplates could be modified to be used.

Stern mid rail and timberheads in place, masked and ready for seal and paint. Top stern rail has been painted (ocre) and is drying now - probably will need second coat. Transition pieces also in paint drying mode - will definitely need a second coat and probably a third. Bow splash rail pinned in place and has been left to dry over night. Plan to remove (carefully) and seal and paint before reinstalling. Looking for the material for the upper rail as what came with the kit is "lost in space" and I want something a bit wider (to allow my usual set of errors to be more or less correctable) anyway.

The wheel house now with the Caldercraft 24mm brass wheel which is about 2mm bigger than the Britannia cast wheel provided with the kit. The instructions with the Caldercraft wheel say to paint it walnut but after getting all the nice detailing I did not want to hide it under paint so I just painted the "handles dark brown and will leave the rest brass. I probably also need another coat of black on the upper "housing" and clean the CA off the wheel face - don't want to do too much with the CA solvent as that is what holds the whole thing together..

I saw from the drawing that there is supposed to be a curved piece of the stern rail that meets the cap rail to make the transition from the stern rail height to the cap rail. No mention of this in the instructions that I can find. Clearly (to me) there is no way to make 1/16" basswood bend 90 degrees in 3/16" (the height of the stern mid-rail). At least none of the basswood i have will do that; I tried. So I thinned down some 5/16" wide basswood so that it took three pieces to get to 1/16" thickness. Then I built a little jig to hold them in place after soaking in hot water. The jig is below but I used clamps not masking tape to hold them while drying. After they were dry I used 60/40 PVA/H2O to bind the pieces together and then taped them back on the jig to help keep the shape as I noticed they tended to want to unbend a bit if left "unrestrained". I need to paint them orce to match the main deck cap rail then cut them but not until I get the stern rail completed. I also completed the forward fife rail, or at least the forward portion. The drawing shows "legs" under the parts that extend aft of the pin rail but I think I will wait until the fife rail is installed to add them as they will be very vulnerable if they are added now. Here are all the remaining deck items after one coat of Vallejo matt varnish (except the fife rail which is just out of the picture to the right).

I got the qdeck planked and two coats of WoP. If I had it to do over again I would start at the edges and curve the planks to follow the cap rail. Then they meet in the middle starting at the stern and extending probably about a third of the way forward. As it is I had to make three very sharply pointed pieces on each side. If I had started on the sides the pointed pieces would have been covered, at least partially by the wheel house and associated grating, which, by the way is not mentioned in the instructions either.. I also planked the forecastle using my "best judgement" on how to deal with the unusual shape. it has one coat of WoP now, more to follow. i had to resort to filling in the outboard pieces with sawdust as the space that was left was too small (for me) to be able to cut a very tiny piece and somehow get it into the opening.

While trying to figure out how to plank the forecastle I decided to work mon the qdeck. Having learned while doing the main deck that graphite from darkening the sides of the planks to simulate caulking is messy, I applied masking tape over the cap rail. The main deck cap rail had to be repainted it was so messed up with graphite (not to mention a few dings and scrapes). So here are the king planks and "end plank" in place ready to start the "real" planking.

Here is the main deck planking with one coat of WoP. I clearly could have done a better job at color matching the pieces but with a few more coats of WoP the differences will be reduced (I hope). The hatch covers are just sitting there to provide some idea of what the main deck will look like when finished.

Main deck planking is complete but I will spare you a look at the "mess" while it is being cleaned up in preparation for the Wipe-on-Poly. After doing the main deck I looked at the quarterdeck and forecastle. the qdeck looks like it should not present any problems as it is almost rectangular with a few rounded corners. I am going to use one of the 1/8" wide plonks across the front so I won't have a bunch of plank ends under the deckhouse. The forecastle on the other hand presents quite a challenge and the drawing is no help. The drawing seems to show that the forecastle is one, roughly triangular shape. The reality (as you can see below) is there are two extensions that run aft down either side for about 15mm (5/8"). If I plank it as the main deck with simple fore and aft planks there are going to be some really short, funny shaped pieces on these extensions. To avoid this I am thinking of running three rows of planks along each side of the forecastle (I think I can get the 1/16" X 3/32"boxwood to make that bend without pre-soaking or heat. Might be hard finding some way to hold them in position while the glue dries. I might have to resort to CA. With the three edge rows done then I can cover the rest of the deck (not that there will be much left) with planks running fore and aft. Anyone have another idea (run the planks athwartships?).