cdrusn89

This is the vanguard 1/64 scale 18' Cutter 3D printed hull and associated "inerds" (after two coats of WoP). I painted the entire hull with a gray primer then several coats of Vallejo Flat White on the inside. The outside is still gray but will be sprayed white when I do the final white coat(s) on the hull. It was not cheap but beat the devil out of trying to fashion one from a solid wood block (not supplied) as the kit instructions suggest.

Port side bulwark in place and glue drying. I dry fit the bulwark using clamps on every timberhead and a piece of decking to get the 1/16" spacing between the bulwark and the hull at each timberhead. Then I measured and cut the bulwark to the correct length and refit everything, added PVA to the ends where the bulwark meets the hull and returned the clamps there then painted 60/40 PVA/H2O onto each of the timberhead bulwark joints. Hopefully this will be strong enough to hold things against the stresses caused by slightly deforming the bulwark piece to conform to the sheer of the hull. It does not naturally want to maintain the 1/16" spacing. Once I am satisfied that this is going to "work" it is back top the starboard side.

Out of the total 42 port side timberheads 21 are now "installed", not yet glued although that is the next step. The process (somewhat refined after the mis-located holes on the starboard side) is: Locate where the hole needs to be based on the timberhead location marker and just a very bit short of half way across the 1/16" X 1/8" "waterway plank. Then I used an awl to make a fairly deep "divot" where the hole needs to be. A #65 drill bit in the divot to start the hole A #55 drill bit (I wanted something about half way between the #65 and the 1/16" bit) to make the hole bigger - discovered going directly from the #65 to the 1/16" sometimes the 1/16" wandered a bit, especially if I forgot to un-reverse the drill before starting the hole. A 1/16" bit marked with the hole depth (blue Sharpie on the bit) Test fit a timberhead - if the hole is too small re-drill with 5/64" bit. Here is the hull now with the case of character on deck. Now the challenge is to get the bulwark glued to the timberheads while maintaining the 1/16" scupper gap. Could be a slow moving process but I want to get one side of the bulwark installed before moving to the other side. Don't ask me how I know but it is not very hard to snap one of the timberheads off with a causal movement. Best they be glued to the bulwark before moving on.

And now for the "big problem". When I laid out the main deck for the timberheads I marked every other location 3/8" on center as where one of the doweled timberheads would go. When it came time to drill the holes for the timberheads I first used a awl to mark the spot, then a #65 drill bit to mark a good "starting point" and then a 1/16" drill to make a hole large enough (hopefully) for the timberhead to fit. Somehow I got it in my mind that the hole needed to be just a very tiny bit inboard on the 1/16" X 1/8" "waterway". That would work fine if the bulwark was supposed to be outboard of the existing hull but that is NOT the case as I figured out when I tried to fit the bulwark to the installed (but not glued) timberheads. Imagine my surprise when things did not look correct and I realized that the timberheads were more or less 1/16" to far outboard for the bulwark to match up as required. So what to do? I initially tried to widen the holes inboard a bit and sand down the timberhead to keep it inside the existing hull (marked by the 1/16" X 1/16" spacer at the outer edge of the hull - added to keep the scupper slot at deck level). That was only of limited success so I finally gave up, removed the timberheads that were not stuck in the holes, glued in 1/16" dowel or cut-off toothpicks to the holes. Cut everything as close to flush as possible then sanded down the bumps". Here is what a section of the starboard side looks like now. I am inclined to leave "well enough" alone, at least for now. I plan to shift the doweled timberheads to the "other" set of locations and most of these "mistakes" will be covered up by the non-doweled timberheads. At least that is my story at the moment. I managed to recover 6 of the doweled timberheads so it looks like back to the Dremel tool lather to make another dozen or so. I will work the port side before going back to the starboard. Maybe I will learn where the holes need to be - I think just a hair outboard of the centerline of the 1/16" X 1/8" waterway but will drill one and check (this time).

Well said Chris. Here is what the first side of the deckhouse looks like after planking and a touch up painting to better disguise (but not completely hide) the planking seams. Yea, the one slide needs a touch up also. I am kinda at a lose on how to handle the corners. If it were on land I would some styrene angle that looks to be about the correct size but have no idea how the corners were handled onboard. Would hate to do something CLEARLY (to others) incorrect. Any thoughts?

I got tired of working the hull and all the little pieces of timberhead (and I made a big error I need to correct). So I turned to something I thought would be easier - the deck house. What is supplied is a block of wood more or less the correct dimensions. The windows and doors are "left to the student" using strip wood although none of those provided are designated for that purpose. Not having any faith in by ability to make windows out of 1/31" X 1/32" strips I chose to buy them from Northeastern Scale Lumber. Here is one part of what will become the six windows, three on the port and starboard sides. They have had one coat of Vallejo flat yellow so far. I sanded off the sills and outer framework, cut the mullions out of one side and added .020 phosphor-bronze wires to the side without the mullions and cut a piece of 1/32" thick sheet wood painted white for the sliding shutter and here are the first two: A little paint touch-up and I only need four more. Actually this window "type" will become nine of the ten windows turned vertically or horizontally and with or without the sliding shutter. I plan to plank the sides of the deck house with Northeastern Scale Lumber O Scale 1 X 10s which at 1/64 are about 1 X 12s. I also plan to plank the exposed areas of the hull on both ends where, especially at to bow, the "milling machine" left it pretty rough. In fact I should probably start on the aft end so that I don't end up with a discontinuity where the hull "becomes part of the deck house". I should not end up with two narrow planks one atop the other.

Booms, gaffs and trestle trees are in the "to be installed later" box. Now back to the hull. I marked a batten every 3/8" (center-to-center spacing per instructions) then clamped it to the edge of the deck and marked the deck area of the hull - rinse and repeat on the other side. I decided (being a belt and suspenders kinda guy) that I would used the doweled timberheads at every other location. By my count that is 21 on each side. Here are the first 21 letting the paint (on three sides only) dry. The decking material is due here today (per USPS) so the next step to install the 1/16" X 1/8" "waterway next to the 1/16" X 1/16" strip at the edge of the hull and then start drilling holes". In the meantime I have 21 more doweled timberheads to fab.

All the booms and gaffs are ready to "go". Next up are the timberheads which ave to be glued onto the deck to help locate the bulwarks which were removed (as option 2) and need to be reinstalled and the gaps filled/sanded/etc. before striking the waterline and painting the bottom. The instructions and drawing do not agree on the timberhead dimensions - instructions say 1/16' X 3/32" the drawing says 3/32" square. I am going with square as I have that size boxwood "in stock". I am going to use boxwood as at least 10 of the estimated (by me) 40 timberheads (per side) that have to have a "doweled lower end" and be seated into holes in the deck. I can chuck the 3/32" square boxwood in my Dremel handpiece, clamp it in my small vice and then turn a circular end on each piece of boxwood then cut it to the required dimensions. Here is my first attempt. I tried to get a better picture using the 2X feature on my iPhone but the site refused to download the picture for some reason but using the 1`X lens is "okay". Only nine more to go. Which brings up the other issue. There is no decking on the hull at the moment except a 1/16" X 1/16" "spacer at the outboard edge of the deck so that the scupper slot will be even with the deck. I am going to plank the deck the old fashioned way. My plan is to start the deck planking with a 1/16" X 1/8" piece and drill the holes for the doweled timberheads in that and then complete the deck planking AFTER the bulwarks are installed and fared in and the bottom has been painted. I am not interested in trying to cut notches to go around the doweled timberheads.

Glad i noticed this first - the peak halyard block is on the wrong side.Yikes what was I thinking? Possibly I was looking at the main/fore gaff drawing which DOES have the block on the wrong side - or is it just my eyes? Anyway it has been fixed and I will have all the blocks on the same side for the fore and main gaffs.

I have gotten the booms as far as I can go at the moment - still need the "chatting block" on the underside of the jaws to sit on the boom support. Will take some "fiddling" to get it as shown on drawing. So on to the gaffs starting with the mizzen since it only has three blocks instead of four like the main and fore (I am not counting the 1/8" block on a short pendant on the main and mizzen as I am not sure I am going to rig all the top sail downhauls since I intend to have to gaffs down sitting atop furled sails. So the drawings shows 5/32 (aka 4mm) double blocks for the throat halyard and two (on mizzen) or three 5/32" single blocks along the length of the gaff for the peak halyard (in combination with the blocks on the mast). So far so good. But the rigging table (on the drawing) calls for a 5/32" triple blocks but it is not clear from the table where the triple would go and the drawing appears to show doubles on the gaff and the mast. Also there are no triple blocks listed on the bill of materials so I am going to assume that the peak halyard arrangement is doubles top and bottom with both ends belayed to the pin rack (per the rigging table). So here is the mizzen gaff with the blocks.

Since the trestle trees have to go on before I can dd the bands and blocks the the lower masts I took another look and noticed that I had not added the bolsters to smooth the transition of the shrouds over the cross trees. I looked at the material list and it shows a 1/4" half round piece for the bolsters. Half round? In all the previous models the bolsters were quarter round not half. And 1/4" seems awfully big since the cross trees are only 1/8". Maybe you are supposed to split the half round piece. Not what I had in mind so I rummaged around and found some quarter round styrene which has the additional advantage of already being white. So I added them to the cross trees. I probably need one more (thin) coat of white , to clean out the pass throughs for the back stays and add the eyebolts and deadeyes (which should arrive this week - they were shipped yesterday according to USPS) and these can go on the masts. That is a piece of the supplied half round which is clearly too big. Maybe cut in half with a very thin kerf table saw blade...

Mast coats - the ones for the fore and main masts supplied with the kit are too small. Before I wasted any time trying to make them fit I ordered two 3/8" ones from Bluejackets. Imagine my surprise when they too are too small - about .05" too small (.325" instead of .375"). I tried to make one fit but it more file work than I was willing to try and when compared to some another mast coat from my parts bin (also in all likelihood from Bluejackets) the new ones are really plain. So I hatched a plan to make my own based on the boom bases I was forced to build from scratch. This time however I drilled the hole for the mast to fit through without worrying too much about getting it exactly centered (turns out al least for me that is not as easy as it might seem). With the hole for the mast drilled in the subject material in this case four pieces of 1/32" boxwood with the grain direction alternating with each piece - I did not have any more 1/16" boxwood readily available sooo...) I fitted the blank onto a short piece of 3/8" dowel that I had previously determined would be a very tight fit. Here is what I mean. Then used a compass to draw the needed outside diameter - 3/32" in this case. If you are following along turn the piece over on the dowel so you can see it while it is mounted in the drill press. Like this: A few passes with a 80 grit sanding stick to get to the correct diameter and then rounding off the outer edge and you have it. Here are the three wooden mast coats (or mast boots as they are sometimes referred to on the fittings web sites), one Bluejackets that I filed out to fit the mast (in center) and the other two were supplied with the kit and older version of the Bluejackets (I think) mast coat I am going to paint the mast coats white as well as the mast sections below the boom base.

With the trestle trees ready for installation I started looking at the eyebolts (12 required) necessary. There are spreader lifts at each mast and that is what the eyebolts are for - to anchor the spreader end of the spreader lift. The spreader lifts are tensioned by deadeyes. Therein lies the most recent disconnect between the materials supplied and the drawings. The list of materials shows 1/8" and 5/32" deadeyes but the rigging drawing lists 3/32", 1/8" and 5/32" deadeyes. For the spreader lifts the drawing 3/32". 3/32" is about 2.3mm which is really, really small. I do not know of a source for deadeyes that small and doubt I would be capable of using them (need really steady hands). I can get 3mm, 4mm and 5mm from Syren. They are 3-D printed so I would not have to worry (hopefully) about the holes not being particularly symmetric. The "problem" that I have found is that at least the "boxwood colored" ones are too yellow for my taste so I am going to order them in imitation Swiss Pear. That ought to be closer in color to what was supplied with the kit. But that means another 5-7 days delay in getting the trestle trees installed as I want to have the deadeyes attached to the eyebolts before they are in the trestle trees.

With the first jaw now dry (hopefully) it is time to figure out how to get the second jaw on, hopefully directly across the spar from the first one. My first attempt was to use a clothes pin with one side of both jaws sanded back so they would engage the spar while the outer jaws held the spar jaw. I didn't work out too well and the clothes pin spring was not strong enough to make me think it would be really secure. My second attempt was to place the first jaw in the vice and then carefully sand a flat on the upward facing side of the spar hopefully parallel the the vice top. I had sanded a flat on the side of the spar for the first jaw. With the existing jaw positioned in the vice jaw with 5mm or so of the outboard end of both jaws visible outside the vice jaws I used a medium clamp (they are medium sized to me) to hold the jaw to the spar. It takes some finesse to get the clamp on correctly but it is relatively easy to see (and correct if necessary) the alignment along the spar. A few drops of PVA on the area to be joined and this should work unless the mating surface of the jaw is not more or less flat.

The hull is in the paint booth getting the flat white applied. I am using Testors spray paint. I agonized over the paint choice for awhile. For the out hull spray is great (I used the Testors spray paint on the hull of HMS Sphinx and it looks good. On Sphinx it was the lower hull that was white not the upper so I did not have to address how to paint the upper bulwarks, timber heads etc. Testors sells the same color white in a bottle. It is enamel so it takes forever and a day to dry but it is the only way I can see to get the same color as the spray (my air brush abilities leave much to be desired). I have tried using two different "whites" and it is really hard to get them within an acceptable range of the same color. So while the hull is "otherwise occupied" I painted the tops and the spars (okay I missed one but all will get a second coat shortly) Here are the lower masts Still some touch-up needed. I also added one side of the jaws to the booms and gaffs. I am working on a jig the help get the second jaw attached without breaking off he first side. More to follow.

Waiting for the next (and hopefully last) hull filler to dry i worked on the trestle trees and such. I scanned in the applicable portion of the drawing with the details of the "trees". I printed out the portion scanned. Don't bask me how I know but it pays to be cognizant of the default scale setting on the printer you are using. Mine defaults to "fit to paper" which will cause no end of problems if not corrected to 100%. Anyway with the correctly scaled drawing I used double sided tape to hold the various pieces of material in place while the medium CA set up. The kit provided list of materials shows 1/16" X 1/8" material for the cross trees but the drawing shows 1/32" X 3/32". I met them half way using 3/64" thick X 1/8" for the "floor boards" Here are the trestle trees (aka fighting tops on war-of-war ships) ready for the "paint shop". And yes I did check that the rectangular mast tops will fit between the trees.

I am still "toying" with the idea of planking the deck "the old fashioned way but I need to lay in a supply of whatever wood I decide to use if I go that way. I have enough boxwood (I think) but it is 3/64" instead of 1/16" I am n ot sure the lost 1/64" would be noticeable (since it would only be at the outboard edge but it would make getting the timberheads installed since that is exactly where they would go. So to make planking a possibility I test mounted the hull in the Amait carrier and drilled the holes for the fore and main masts using the 25/64" bit as recommended.m I actually HAD a 25/64" bit much to my amazement and it appeared to be in original condition. I am waiting for Amazon to deliver my new white paint before I can start painting white on the spars so I started to look at the boom rests. The instructions say to use 1/8" stock and drill the appropriate sized hole (3/8 or 5/16) and then file/sand to round. Having tried to drill big holes in soft wood (with generally unsatisfactory results) I decided to make my own plywood from two pieces of 1/16" boxwood and then "follow the instructions." Here is the fore mast boom rest and example of the starting point. Getting the 3/8" hole in the center of the marked outer perimeter was not as easy as I had hoped. The fore boom rest is on the mast while I add the supports. I have scotch tape on the mast so the boom rest can be removed when all four supports are in place. I have hopes of putting furled sails on all the masts so the boom rests will come "later".

Thanks Rick. I have the last coat of Wipe-on-Poly on the spars now. Next step is to get the cheeks added to the lower masts and start painting white. Speaking of white paint - there will be a considerable amount of white going forward so I took a look at my white paint inventory. I have a 17ml "bottle " of both the Vallejo 70-951 "white" and the 70-919 "cold white" neither of which is likely to be enough to paint all that needs painting. I tried ordering more of either but the prices (~ $7.00 for one "bottle" plus a delivery charge) were out of sight (can't be tariffs yet?) so instead I ordered the Vallejo "Premium Color" White (62.001) which comes 60ml to a bottle (I ordered 2 - they will be here tomorrow (4/5)) so that should be all the white I will need. Here are the spars now "ready for action" Not easy to see much difference from the last picture but trust me they are all getting smoother with each additional sanding and coat of WoP. I also have the hull ready for it first coat of grey filler/primer. The sharp eyed can see several screw heads showing in the keel. I am building some jigs to allow me to use my Amati "holder" to host the hull once it is ready. I need to make sure the keel is "well and truly laid" as they say and will not pull off the hull since the "tabs" that will mate with the Amati holder are attached to the keel (and hopefully through to the hull as well). I got all the boom and gaff jaws "completed" (aka the bolt heads installed and belaying pin holes drilled).

I mentioned previously that I was going to use box wood instead of the supplied basswood for the boom and gaff jaws. I used the previously mentioned technique (it sounds better than scheme) of gluing the jaw outline to a piece of boxwood that is actually two pieces glued together. The disc sander does a good job of shaping both pieces at once with only a minimum of hand work afterwords. Turns out, if left overnight 70% isopropyl alcohol will weaken the PVA glue joint enough to easily pry the two pieces apart. So now I have the jaws for the fore and main booms. The drawing shows three bolts on each side used to attach the jaws to the boom. I would guess that by 1875 iron working was reasonably advanced and they probably had large square (maybe hex) headed screws (or maybe bolts) to attach the jaws. Rather than use steel wire or monofilament fishing line (I have used both) to simulate the bolts I used some small, plastic bolt heads I happened to have on hand. Here are the first two sets of jaws with the bolt heads in place. I had to drill the holes larger than technically necessary because there is a very short "stem" on the bolt and getting them in a smaller (I used #66 drill) was very difficult (for me). I used a small. hammer to tape the bolts in and then brushed on some WoP to act as a sort of glue. Hopefully the bolts will survive installation on the boom. I am going to take these two sets "all the way" to boom installation before committing this method to the other four sets of jaws. Speaking of the other jaws - the drawing does not have a plan view of any of the gaff jaws only the boom jaws. Luckily I noticed that the gaff jaws "horns" are 5mm longer than on the booms. This allows the boom to be at an angle to the mast. I had to extend the horns on my copies of the drawing to use them as templates for the gaff jaws. Just one more of the "little things" that make this kit not something for a beginner.

Today was "spar" day. I got all the gaffs, booms, yards and such completed. The top masts were the hardest. The very top segment is 1/16" diameter the entire length and then there is a "gilt truck" on the very top. I spent almost an entire hour last night creating that segment on the fore top mast and figured there must be a easier way to reduce the 3/16" diameter dowel to 1/16". I have a desk top drill press that I have used on occasion to turn masts but never anything this delicate. It works best when there is plenty of extra length in the dowel as chucking the dowel in the drill press will usually mess up the part in the jaws. When necessary I used masking tape on the portion in the jaws if it was needed to get the spar the correct length but that is a last resort as it can make the dowel kinda wobbly which is not good - it leads to the dowel snapping off (don't ask me how I know. Here is a spar (probably not a top mast - (I think this is the jib boom) chucked up in the drill press with the table adjusted so a small portion of the dowel in inside the table opening. I put my left hand on the bottom end of the dowel to keep it steady and used an 80 grit sanding stick to take material off the dowel as the drill press turned at about 1500 rpm. I still had to be really careful with the top masts and rather than going all the way to 1/16" I stopped between 3/32" and 5/64" and then finished off with 220 grit by hand. It still took all day to get the other two top masts, three booms, three gaffs, the foremast topsail yard, the jib boom and the staysail boom ready for varnish (and then paint). The tape you see in the picture below is to keep the varnish (Wipe-on-Poly warm satin) off the areas that will be painted white.

I have been "at it" for the better part of three days now. Unfortunately I seem to be "all over the place" doing a bit here and there without any noticeable "real" progress. First the hull - I sanded it down per the instructions fabbed the stem and stern post and added them along with the keel. I also refashioned the stern in accordance with the drawing. I am not sure why the "carving machine" did not do it but it is done now - more or less.I mixed up so Good Filla (from the bag of dry) and applied it liberally to the joints on the stem and stern post to cover up the small (IMHO) gaps that my imperfect technique let between them and the hull. That is still in process. I noticed a seam between the two pieces of wood that were apparently glued together to form the block that was fed into the carving machine. I do not know if it will show through after the sanding sealer but decided not to take a chance and mixed up some pretty runny filler and spread it over the joint on the port side, let it dry, sanded it off and wiped the hull down with mineral spirits. Here is what it look like now. (please ignore the unsanded filler at the bow and stern). I also fabbed the rudder and installed it. I looked at the rudder supports supplied with the kit and determined that I had placed the rudder to close to the stern post to use them. My bad but in my defense if I move the rudder any further back the rudder post will be very close to the stern/transom seam. So I rummaged around in the parts locker and found some Syren hardware and used that instead. Here is the rudder on the starboard side. As you can see above the port side is "next". The difference in the "bolts" seems to be what clippers I used since they were different between the top and bottom set. It won't matter as they will all be painted green. I fabbed the three lower masts and booms. Although they are not all cut to the required lengths yet they being prepared for paint/varnish before adding the "hardware". The three lower masts have one coat of ipe on Poly satin - the booms are unfinished. The sharp eyed will notice a seam in the lower foremast (left most tall one) in the square section. As it turns out this will be under one of the mast bands so will not show (and the upper line marks where to cut it for length). I broke off the top section when I was tapering the lower mast with the squared section chucked in my drill press (poor mans lathe). I forgot to steady the mast when the drill press turned on and SNAP went the mast. I squared off the two pieces, center drilled both pieces and pinned them together clamped to a ruler to keep them straight and carefully dabbed on some medium CA. After looking at the material provided for the boom jaws I decided to switch to boxwood which I have some left over from some previous project. To try and make sure the two sides of each set are "identical" I glued the plan of the jaw to a appropriately sized same piece of boxwood and glued another piece of boxwood behind it. I plan on using my disc sander to get really close to the final shape and then finish off "by hand". When I am done I plan to soak the two pieces in isopropyl alcohol to break the glue bond. I have 99% isopropyl alcohol due here tomorrow (ain't Amazon useful?) since the 70% you can get at Walgreens is apparently much slower to act. Here are the jaws for the fore and main booms getting the glue dried. I found another issue with the kit - the mast coats provided are way too small for the main and fore masts which are 3/8" diameter at the deck (according to the drawing). I measured them and they are about .055" to small. They are probably 5/16" rather than 3/8". I have the correct size ordered from Bluejackets. I also decided I did not like to two cast metal stairs supplied. I had some remnant stairs left over from Sphinx that are narrow enough but way too long. Hopefully I can get them cut down and replace the metal ones which I think I would struggle to make look "good".

While waiting for glue to dry I studied the drawing (besides two sheets mostly dealing with rigging there is really only one sheet) to see what "things" were going to be needed that at least so far I have not found on the parts list or included with the parts. First item are turnbuckles - 8 required (four for jib boom stays, 2 for bowsprit stays and two for martingales). no mention in parts list or included. Second item - hatch coamings - there are four cargo hatches but all that is included are four 3/16" thick rectangles of various dimensions. Here are two of them on the drawing. Not much to go on and the instructions are almost silent on the subject "Glue the hatch covers on the hatch bases, seal and paint." No hatch covers are included or identified in the parts list. Third item - mast caps, 3 required. There is a drawing of one mast cap on the drawing but none supplied and no material identified to fab them on the parts list. And the drawing shows a mast cap with two round openings but what is needed has a square and round opening. I ordered an assortment of mast caps from Bluejackets as trying to fab them seems in the "too hard" pile since they appear to be readily available and I am generally lazy. I am beginning to get the idea that these kits have been sitting around for awhile - it got here (MA to FL) in 5 days so it must have been "on the shelf" or whoever is minding the store does not have much to do and all (or at least most) of the parts are "on the shelf".

The drawing shows how large to make the rabbet for the bulwark so I made all four. Here is one - I might add that basswood is not very good at holding a sharp edge. There appears to be some confusion (at least I am confused) about how large the bulwark should be and when it is installed. By my measurement it should be 7/16" but the drawing shows 9/16. That is the total height of the bulwark on the original hull but now there is a 1/16" piece on the hull which will be deck level and a 1/16" gap for the scupper slot soooo. I appears that the inner bulwark (that is what the instructions call this but as far as I can tell it is the only bulwark) cannot be installed until the timberheads are there to give it the proper shape and those come after the decking is installed. At this point I am ready to put the sanding sealer on the hull and see what "issues" remain before installing the keel, stem and stern post which are the next steps in the instructions.

Given that the kit included a "bag of pieces' I thought it prudent to see if all the pieces listed on the parts list were included. I concentrated on the bag with pieces 6" or shorter. I have plenty of basswood pieces if one or more of the 24" pieces is missing or (heaven forbid) gets damaged during construction. Since I would have to "mark them off the list" I thought it a good idea to identify them for ease later on. and indeed everything is accounted for. On to the preformed hull. The instructions say to sand the entire hull exterior with medium then fine grade sandpaper paying attention to the rudder skeg and stem to reduce them to 3/16" to match the keel dimensions. That was not too difficult as there were only a few "blips" where the machine left a dimple that had to be sanded out. In my dream last night I actually thought about actually planking the hull. It would be an interesting activity as the curve at the bilge is much sharper than anything I have attempted before. I will have to think about that some more. Now to the inside of the hull. Although the instruction say that the bulwarks are 3/16" thick I found them to be a bit thicker - more like 1/4". The instructions offer two options - 1) sand the bulwarks down to 1/16" thick and then cut a 1/16" slot from one end to the other for the scuppers. Wow - that sounds like a lot of work and I doubt I could make a thin slot like that look acceptable. 2) Draw a line 1/16" above the deck and remove the bulwarks down to that line (after sanding them to 1/16' thickness), cut a rabbet in the hull just outside the focsle and poop and install a new 1/16" thick bulwark leaving a 1/16" slot above the remaining 1/16" bulwark for the scuppers. I thought it would be easier (for me) to cut the bulwark down (no sanding required) all the way to the existing deck level and the add a 1/16" X 1/16" strip to form the outer edge of the decking (which I also considering doing the "old fashioned way"). It adds another "joint" on the hull but I doubt I could leave a consistent 1/16" "lip" while removing everything above. Here is the hull with one half of one side bulwark removed. One side completely removed. And with the "filler strip" added. On to the other side with a bit less trepidation.

I was not very good at math - indeed the kit is 1/64th scale which will make it easier to substitute a Vanguard 3D printed life boat instead of making one starting with a rectangular block of wood as the instructions suggest. Although I did not specifically point it out the kit contains ZERO laser cut pieces (except for the laser engraved deck planking sheets). Quite a contrast to the Vanguard HMS Sphinx which I just finished which (except for the hull planking) had ZERO strip wood pieces. I guess I will be doing it "the old fashioned way" to quote an old commercial from Smith Barney (I think).