Hello to everyone. I'm new here and already extremely grateful for the build logs and well-informed questions and answers. This is an amazing resource for a newbie.
I'm building the Amati 1/35 Endeavour, which I picked for my first build because of its scale. I am an extremely rank amateur, with a whole lot of sailing experience but no access to lathes, thickness sanders, $140 rasps and so on--sorry to sound bitter, it's actually petty jealousy--I have pretty much a home tool kit plus drill press, table saw, radial arm saw and basic modelers tools, and I'm working in a small space. I haven't dared divert from the instructions so far except to use screws instead of nails to tack the false deck on for fairing the bulkheads. And actually I don't know how well I would fair it without the deck tacked on, as others have done--anyway that's the stage I'm up to. I've bought balsa to make fillers between the bulkheads but here again I may try sticking to the plans and do without. In building the frame I left the joints quite tight, just filed a little char off, and it snapped together straight and square with the help of padded channel locks and a few judicious taps of a brass hammer. I tend to trust the model makers and the kit in putting it together as it came, and perhaps I've been lucky in having it go as well as it has. I'd say I've had to use a total of two clamps so far.
The instructions have been perfectly adequate--as long as I paid close attention-- but getting ahead of the planking (which I expect will be a tyro's ordeal) I cannot figure out what the rail is supposed to look like. The plans at Fig. 24 seem to show 1x3mm pieces sistered edge to edge then laid all around the edge of the deck, but I can't tell if they are laid on the false deck, flush to its edge, or with some overhang It seems strange (as well as unattractive, unrealistic and un-functional) to have a sistered rail. Then, it looks like I am supposed to lay a third 1x3 mm piece inside of that pair, so standing proud, with but with notches that I assume are for blocks and cleats. Anyway the whole arrangement seems so peculiar that I think I must have it wrong. Also, if I turn the hull over and lay in on the plans, it is a whole lot less beamy than the drawing, probably 3/8" in total so 3/16 on either side. This is a pretty radical departure from the design as shown but might make sense if there was a cap rail or if the sistered rail were to overhang the hull. Such an overhang would explain why the kit-supplied taffrail piece seemed, as one of the builders said, (see pic) too large. With a little overhang it would fit fine.
I know I'm getting ahead of myself but a decision as to the rail will have some bearing on the planking itself--I'm assuming the bulkheads should be perfectly flush with the false deck. I'm curious to hear what others have made of this. I think I must have something very wrong, given the rightness of the kit so far. I'd like to leave the rail, the taffrail and the bow piece bright, because that's what I'm used to, but if it's a sistered thing I guess I'll go with white paint.
Again my thanks to all for the wise advice already here. And my apologies if these questions have already been addressed
