gieb8688

Thanks Denis.
 
Meanwhile, I got the catheads done - just had to chisel a little of the mouldings away so they would fit flat against the hull.  I added some trim strips to them as was suggested in the instructions & finished the head rail to the bottom of the cathead bracket.  Also added the bolsters to the hawse hole openings - they were not shown on the plans, but were provided in the kit & were shown in the instructions.
 

 

 
Mark

Hi all - got the other side done.  Went much quicker after all the fiddling on the other side.  I also added the PE pieces between the cheeks.  Not sure exactly what they are supposed to represent, but look like some sort of serpent.  The detail was kind of lost when painting them the same color overall, so I painted the recessed areas French blue & the raised areas yellow ochre.  The blue is not nearly as bright in person (or the yellow) - don`t know if it`s the lighting or just the way my phone processes photos
 

 

 
Thanks for looking in-
 
Mark

I'm just working from the stern to the bow, and doing the jolly boats at the monument--The hammocks are just placed in for now.

She is really looking the business, I'm just a few steps behind on the same build so your log is a great help ... keep up the fab work..

Well,1 step forward & 2 steps back.  While working on the bow, I managed to break a few strips of the bow grating.  I managed to splice in some small HO scale strips & after some paint touch up it looks ok at arm`s length.
 

 

 
 
Continuing on, I finished up one side of the head rails.  I had to cut a groove in the rails for the covering strips to lay flat, but other than that it was just a lot of filing & sanding to get everything lined up.  Now I have to do it all over again on the other side.
 

 

 
Mark 

Hi - added the rest of the cannons to the deck plus the chimney & gratings.  
 

 
Before finishing off this area, I thought I would move to the bow deck area & work on the head rails.  First thing I had to do was chisel out the top of the wales so the gratings would sit on the supports properly.  after a lot of filing to the head rail slots in the supports, they were glued in place along with the upper cheek rail.
 

 
Then, the middle & lower head rails were shaped & glued in place - this took almost a whole day to get them even on both sides.  Finally, the gratings were added.  Got a bunch more to do yet in that area.
 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 
 
 

Update - poop deck on & planked.  The cap rails were added & the carronades were finally finished & set in place with all the rigging.  The carronades are shown in the retracted position thus the lack of slack in the breech ropes.  The railings will be added later - if not, I would surely knock them loose.     Need to add a few more things & then on to the pointy end of the ship.
 

 

 
Mark

foremast shrouds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Victory is still pending.  I’ve been incredibly busy in life and haven’t had time to finish the Hannah, which only needs sails and the running rigging to be finished.

When I get done with Hannah, I really need to add scuppers.  I just realized that I forgot them on this model, which is not okay, given the amount of detail that I have attempted (and succeeded with) so far.

I added them to the Prince de Neufchatel and the Hannah, but not this one.  

Considering the Victory will be the flagship of my collection until I build something better, I owe it to myself to put forth maximum effort and exert maximum skill on this.

I am making masts for the Hannah, which means I should be getting back to Victory soon.

Thank you all for the comments and the likes!
 
The Victory is still pending being finished.  Life is busy and progress has been correspondingly slow on the Hannah.  Once I finish Hannah I will finish Victory.

Hi all –
 
Here is the finish of this restoration build log.  I begin with the cannon.  Two of the guns were detached when received, with one having a carriage made out of a completely different material than the others.  A third cannon was on a similar carriage of unknown material.  I removed it so I could work on it.
 

 
I cleaned up the old glue from all of the guns, then fashioned two new carriages from ivory.  The barrels were set on the new carriages and secured with cyano.
 

 
The new carriages were aged with coffee grounds.  Actually, they took up the color a bit too well, so the brown was sanded back a bit after the photo was taken.
 

 
When I was happy with the color they were installed on deck with PVA glue.  The originals were pinned through the rear of the carriages and into the deck, but there was no room for such reinforcement, so they will have to rely on the strength of the glue itself.  Judging from other models that I have worked on, I am confident that it will be at least 50+ years before anyone will have to worry about glue failure.
 

 
Finally, I mounted the two British flags.  The large ensign at the stern was set on an ivory staff, although it was shown detached in the client’s original photos.  He failed to bring it with him when he delivered the model, so he dropped it, and a few other detached pieces, into a plain envelope and mailed it to me.  When it came the delivery process in the Postal Service had broken the staff into four pieces.
 

 
I cut a 1/8” square piece of ivory about 2 ½” long and made it octagonal with sanding drums.  Further sanding rounded it to an approximate cylinder.  Finally one end was chucked into a Dremel with a bit of paper towel to protect the ivory from the jaws of the chuck.  On low speed the shaft was held against a large flat sanding block and turned to a cylinder.  The original halyard block and line were used to mount the flag to the new staff, which was slid into two metal fittings on the inside of the taffrail.  I also took a moment to hang the boat from the davits at the stern.
 

 
At the bow the small flag was remounted in its hole in the jib boom.
 

 
With a quick cleaning and oil rubbing of the base the repair was finished.    
 

 

 
To replace the heavy glass cover a new acrylic cover was ordered and set on the base.  Two small brass nails on the short sides were installed by drilling through the plastic and into the wood of the base.  These will prevent the cover from coming loose if anyone picks it up by the cover rather than from underneath.
 

 
The client mounted the model on a pair of heavy brackets in a prominent place in his home.
 

 
He has told me that he and his family are very happy with the restoration, as am I.  I hope you all have enjoyed the journey as well.  I can only hope that the model will last another 200 years and represent a glimpse into a long-gone world of naval history and art.
 

 
Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
 
I will be back again with some more of the models that I am building for the Merchant Marine Academy museum.  Until then . . .
 
Stay safe
 
Dan

Hello and Happy Passover / Easter [delete whichever does not apply] –
 
Thanks as ever for the many likes and compliments.
 
The next task was to repair or recreate the several fittings that were either detached, damaged or incorrect.  The most obvious was the rudder.  Here it is as received – too small, too white, and hung badly.
 

 
It was removed and examined, where I found that the brass pintles were properly pinned through the rudder, but set at incorrect angles and too far forward so the gap between the rudder and stern post was too great.
 

 
Drawing the outline of the existing rudder onto a piece of card stock I fitted the pattern to the stern post and the gudgeons.  I left extra card on the aft side and the bottom so I could draw a proposed new shape and refine it before cutting ivory.
 

 
Here are the three initial stages of shaping the new rudder.
 

 
The new rudder blank was carved out of ivory and test hung on the gudgeons.
 

 
After final shaping the pintles were transferred to the new rudder and pinned through with brass rod.
 

 
Once I was happy with the shape and how it hung on the gudgeons I gave it two dark vertical lines to indicate the joints between the three portions of the rudder blade.  This was done by drawing on the blank with a soft lead pencil, then tattooing the graphite into the ivory with the back of a hobby blade.
 

 
Once that was done I ‘aged’ the rudder with brown coffee grounds and added a bit of grey tone with ebony stain.  It took up the colors in the deep scratches that I purposely left by sanding with fairly coarse paper.  I think the combination of techniques resulted in a convincing look that matched the bone planks of the hull.
 

 
Next, on deck there was a bench for the officer of the deck which can be seen in some of the initial photos.  It turned out to be loose, so it was removed and stowed until now.  I found that it had been hollowed from one side (I don’t know why) with the opening closed with a small square of ivory. 
 

 
This little piece did not fit well, so I shaved off the edges until it did.  A drop of cyano applied from the inside secured it back in place.
 

 
The restored bench was reset on deck and secured with PVA glue.
 

 
The next posting will be the final segment of this build log.  I will write it up soon.
 
Till then, stay safe.
 
Dan

Hi again –
 
Thanks to everyone who hit the like button.  The encouragement is very welcome, as always.
 
The final bit of repair of the mast was to use a sander to make some ivory dust.  This was mixed with PVA to make a filler that was applied to the join in the t'gallant mast.and sanded smooth to hide the break.   With the structure of the mizzen mast fully repaired it was time to start re-rigging it.  I lifted the t’gallant yard and clipped it to the mast to get some idea of where the cut and tangled lines would go, and what I needed to do.
 

 
The first step was to replace the lower deadeyes for the topmast shrouds.  In the usual course they would be stropped with rope which would be led through holes in the top to become the futtock shrouds and would then be tied to the lower shrouds.  But here the futtock shrouds were already in place, although they were quite fragile.  I therefore had to rig the deadeyes to the top only and in such a way that they could withstand the stresses of the shrouds.  My solution was to rig them with metal strops with twisted stems.  I made them by folding a length of soft iron wire around a deadeye then clamping the ends of the wire in the slot of a knife handle.  Spinning the handle while holding the deadeye steady secured the deadeye in the strop and created a neatly twisted stem.  If you do this be careful not to overtighten the strop because you can split the deadeye or block that you are working on. (Been there, done that, got the apron . . .)
 

 
The stem was clipped off leaving a shaft a bit longer than the thickness of the top.  This was secured through the top with a drop of cyano which locked onto the twists of the shaft.
 

 
Once all three on a side were installed the extra lengths of the shafts were trimmed off.  In the photo you can also see one of the several small clips from the electronics store which hold the loose ends of the lines that I detached until they can be retied.
 

 
Preparing to rig the shrouds themselves I found that the mast cap was completely loose.  It could be raised on the t’gallant mast to open up the doubling so the heads of the shrouds could be more easily rigged.   The t’gallant mast was also loose.  This could have been intentional or a result of the old glue drying out.  In any event it made the rigging just a little easier.
 

 
The shrouds themselves began by turning in an upper deadeye into 0.020” dyed line.  To do this I used my medium-tech stropping jig.  It consists simply of a Helping Hands type tool with the addition of a light duty spring (red arrow) and an attached flat-nosed clip.  In use the fitting to be stropped is held in the right hand vertical alligator clip and the stropping line taken around it and trapped in the larger clip.  The line is placed under light tension that straightens the line and stabilizes it so it can be worked on easily.  To match the other shrouds on the model two small round seizings have been tied around the shroud lines about ¼” apart.  They were secured with PVA and when the glue dried the excess seizing lines were clipped off, as was the extra shroud line. This method makes stropping deadeyes, blocks, hearts, etc. very easy, regardless of how small the fittings and the lines are, since the line is held under tension at all times.
 

 
The resulting stropping is neat and tidy and repeatable.  Also, since the deadeye is not glued in it can be rotated in the strop even after the seizings have been tied.  You can put on three seizings if you want.  You can even make the crossover throat seizing if you flip the deadeye over in the alligator clip while holding the shroud lines stationary, then lace the seizing vertically rather than horizontally.  In any event the upper and lower deadeyes were laced together with lanyards of 0.07” linen.
 

 
To lace the lanyards I start by tying a stopper knot that cannot be pulled through the initial hole in the upper deadeye.  I have been asked about this before and, though it is a bit of an aside here and most of you already know the technique, here is my simple method.  To make it clearer, I photographed some cable that I spun up rather than the thin black line that was actually used, but the process is the same.  I first make a double overhand loop by taking the running end of the line around itself twice, leading to the look of the knot on the left.  As the two ends are pulled away from each other the knot deforms into the figure-8 shape in the middle.  Continued pulling results in a tight stopper knot which, like a clove hitch, has the line entering and leaving the knot in a straight line.  It only gets tighter with added strain.  It takes only a few seconds to tie the knot this way and clip off any unwanted extra line.
 

 
With the forward deadeye on the starboard side rigged the line was taken up and around the masthead to the port side where another deadeye was turned into the end of the line and laced to its lower deadeye.  The remaining shrouds on each side had a loop seized in the top and placed over the masthead.  To get the proper heights for the remaining deadeyes the shrouds were held against the lower deadeyes and small dots of white paint indicated where the bottoms of the upper deadeyes had to go.
 

 
The deadeyes were turned in on the stropping jig using the white dots as guides, The white paint was hidden with a drop of black paint, then the lanyards were laced for each one.  The resulting rigged deadeyes look neat and level at the bottom and at the masthead they look clean and trim.
 

 
The ratlines were made of more thin linen line which was glued across the face of the shroud gang.  I tried tying clove hitches, but the remaining lifts and braces from the spars got in the way and made this nearly impossible.  The result was good, and without the paper backing for contrast it is difficult to tell any difference.
 

 
Next, finally, I will complete the rigging repairs.
 
Till then, stay safe.
 
Dan

Hello and, as always, many thanks for looking in.
 
Druxey, Keith – nice names.  I like “Boneapart.”  It sounds appropriate for a French ship that has suffered at the hands of the perfidious Albions, or at least their American cousins.
 
Time to put the bones back together.  Here is how she was received.  A break at the mizzen masthead and another break in the middle of the mizzen t’gallant mast.
 

 
The stresses of whatever caused the breaks pulled out two of the topmast deadeyes on the starboard side, as seen in the prior photo, and all three on the port side.
 

 
In theory I could have pulled down the deadeyes and secured them back in their holes in the top, then redid the ratlines as I did on the lower shrouds.  However, the rats’ nest of overlapping and glued lines at the masthead was such a mess that I did not think such a simple solution would work.
 

 
Seen from the rear the various different thicknesses, colors, and even the seizing techniques of the many lines is evident.  Also clearly seen is the same mortice and tenon joint between the round body of the mizzen mast and the square masthead.  
 

 
The break in the t’gallant mast was clean, but angled.  It happened at the hole through the mast that was originally meant to represent the mast sheave for the t’gallant yard.  But in closeup it is clear that the prior restorer had run the halyard from the yard up and around the mast, then a second line was tied to this first one and taken down to the deck.  It would have looked OK in a ‘fool the eye’ sort of way, if you don’t look too close.
 

 
I tried a simple repositioning of the topmast, as I had for the main mast.  No matter how much I moved it around, and as hard as I tried to straighten it up, it would never go back to vertical.  I would have to strip off some of the rigging to release the stresses, then reposition the masthead.  One by one, starting from the top and working down, I removed each line and tried to straighten up the masthead.  The first to go were all the lines leading to the broken tip of the t’gallant mast, as well as the piece of mast itself.  Cutting the halyard, sling, and lifts released the t'gallant yard which was laid forward on the main t'gallant braces that were tied to the mizzen topmast stay.
 

 
Working down, the topmast backstays were removed.  Then the topmast shrouds, then the topping lift lines for the mizzen driver gaff were released, etc, etc.  Ultimately I had a small bowl of detached lines and ivory fittings, with other lines detached from around the mast and laid back on themselves.
 

 
This continued until the only lines left on the masthead were the strops for the topmast jeer blocks.  The jeer lines themselves were released from the belaying points at the deck so the masthead could be lifted.  Doing so revealed that there was a metal pin between the mast and the masthead running through the joint.
 

 
Loosening the jeer lines even more I could lift the masthead up high enough to completely release it from the mast. 
 

 
Now I understood why I could never get the masthead back in place.  The pin was made of hardened steel which took a bend when the mast was broken.  The amount of force needed to straighten it out in situ would surely have cracked the mast.
 

 
Instead, I replaced it with a similarly sized length of annealed iron wire.  Now, if there is ever another break, I expect the pin to bend before the ivory cracks and the future restorer can bend it back into position.
 

 
The masthead was replaced in position and secured with a drop of cyano in the mortice joint.
 

 
Next I drilled about ¼” into each side of the t’gallant mast break and pinned across the break with another length of iron wire.
 

 
The pieces were fit together and secured with cyano. 
 

 
Next I will start re-rigging the mast.
 
Till then,  stay safe.
 
Dan

Hi again to all, and thanks for the likes and compliments –
 
Druxey - Good idea.  I have broaches somewhere, but the glue was pretty hard.  I'll bring them out next time if I need them.
 
74_boni - I hope that these build logs will help preserve my experiences and techniques.  I have converted a few into articles in the NRJ and will do so again when I collect the time and mental energy.  
 
As for the model - My client just got back to the States and located a photo of what the model looked like after the 1953 restoration and before the current accident.  It is the middle one below.  So now we have three recorded moments in the life of this hard-luck model.
 

 

 

 
I will post the fourth when my own repairs are completed.
 
Dan

Hi again to all –
 
Thanks, as always, for the likes and comments.
 
Now that the mizzen stay was rigged I turned to rigging the crowsfoot.  The euphroe was included in a small envelope of loose parts that the client sent me.  Here it is, and you can see how small and delicate the original POWs made it.
 

 
Next I had to clean out the holes in the edge of the mizzen top.  This was the hardest part of this repair.  Using a piece of thin brass rod bent into an “L” I cleaned out four of the eight holes.  The last four were clogged with dried glue or finish of some kind.  For these I had to drill them out.  I first tried a hand held pin vise, but I could not deliver enough pressure for the bitt to catch and drill.  Reluctantly, and with great care, I turned to my cordless Dremel.  Without turning it on I angled it between the other rigging lines and set it on each hole location.  Then I turned it on and gently drilled through.  I turned it off before pulling it out.  The worst thing I could imagine would have been to catch a rigging line in the spinning chuck.  The damage that would have done would have been catastrophic. 
 
With the holes cleared I took a length of 0,015” linen line and dyed it tan.  I tied a stopper knot on one end and stiffened the other end with cyano, forming an integral needle.  Then it was a simple matter to lace the crowsfoot back and forth between the top and the euphroe, ending with a final knot under the top.
 

 
Once the crowsfoot was rigged I retied the double block for the main topmast braces to the stay.  Finally I tied a long length of 0.010” dyed linen line to the stay, ran it up to the blocks on the ends of the spars, back to the double block, and then to empty belaying points on either side of the deck.
 

 
Next I will have to address the double breaks of the upper mizzen mast.  Till then,
 
Stay safe.
 
Dan

Druxey - I love the smell of burning bone in the morning.  It smells like . . . like the dentist’s chair!  Or like the Marathon Man “Is it safe?” scene, one of the truly nightmare moments in movie history. 
 
Meanwhile, back in the shipyard –
 
With the mainmast fully upright and lines tensioned I continued aft to the broken mizzen stay.  It was intact from where it was seized to the main mast up to just below where the mouse and eye would have been.  It appeared to be original, so one priority was to preserve it if possible.
 

 
At the upper end the loop around the masthead had broken on the starboard side just under the top.  The red arrow identifies the broken end.  There is a section missing, so it could not be salvaged.  When I went to remove it, the line all but crumbled away.  The crowsfoot was gone completely, though some shreds of line were still stuck in the holes in the edge of the top.   The euphroe was also missing but later found in an envelope of separated parts.
 

 
Examining the other side of the break under magnification confirmed that the stay was original.  The brown tuft looks, to me, to be made of vegetable fibers, meaning linen rather than cotton.  The lines and block that tie to it are part of the main topsail braces.   They are tied to the stay, run to single blocks on the ends of the spar, back through this double block tied to the stay, and then to belaying pins at either side of the deck.   From the changes in color around and through the block I’m sure that these are replacements.  But since they are tied to the original stay, I decided not to change them, although I will paint them to hide the while sections.
 

 
The puzzle here was figure a way to splice a replacement line to the remaining original stay.  It had to be done end to end without creating too large a bulge.  After looking at the end to be spliced I decided to try unlaying some line, leaving one long strand but cutting the other two short.  This would give me a reasonable gluing surface area while minimizing bulk.
 

 
First the lover section of the stay was given a coat of MC followed by a similar coat of thinned PVA.  I knew that I would be putting some stresses on it and I wanted it as strong and flexible as I could.  Then the mating surfaces were painted with PVA and lined up with each other.  I held them in place by hand until the glue set up.  Then I gently looped and tied two thin lines around the overlap.  Tightening them clamped the splice and reduced the bulge.  After glue dried the clamping lines were removed.  Despite my best efforts I wasn’t completely happy with the size of the splice, but I could not see another solution that was any better.
 

 
 The next day I looped the new line around the masthead, clipped it back on itself and seized it together.
 

 
I released the clip and cut off the excess line.  It looked OK but was a little skewed so I moved to center it, at which point this happened!
 

 
After some choice words I realized that this was a blessing, although in heavy disguise.  I had lost a day’s work, but now I was forced to get rid of the unsightly bulge.  I cut the topsail braces off and freed the double block for later use.  Then it was a relatively simple matter to seize some appropriate line around the main mast, then take it up and around the mizzen masthead, seizing it together as before.
 

 
 The crowsfoot next.
 
Dan

Planking continues on the starboard side. While that is going on, I've been looking at some possible colors based on the note that McKay wanted to paint her green. From left to right, we have plain black with a white planksheer, Tamiya XF-26 (Deep Green), Tamiya XF-70 (Dark Green 2) and Tamiya XF-27 (Black green). While the colors are focused toward (frankly) 20th century military and cars, they are all consistent with colors described up to the mid-19th century. I presume so many greens were available because copper compounds provide easy pigments, but who knows. In any case, I am pretty sure I'm going to go with either the Deep Green or the Dark Green 2. If you were going to paint a ship green, I assume you would want a color readily distinguishable from black. Either way, I am going to put a black "boot stripe" between the cap row of the copper plates and before the start of the green (as shown below). I know that this is ahistorical, but I'm going for what he wanted to build, not what he did, so...

Thank you for the likes on the work! Just a brief update to indicate that I am still working on the ship. Hopefully things will speed up a bit now that I've finished remodeling my wife's office/craft space. Having both of us work from home has made such spaces more important. Fortunately our older daughter has been stably employed since her graduation in May, so we were able to repurpose what had been her room, even though she would have preferred we keep it as a shrine to her. There will be another brief slowdown in the shipyard when I repaint my (formerly our) home office, but it's a smaller job, so hopefully less time. But I digress.
 
Planking has begun, beginning from the planksheer and working my way down. I've only got three full strakes on one side in place, but that has pushed past the knuckle in the stern, so it will be relatively straightforward from here. A couple of things that I have already observed. I will most likely get a 1/32 square plank and even out the external planksheer once things are sanded. The first plank around the knuckle had to be cut and steam bent. I may also put a small veneer (again maybe 1/32) on the (nearly) vertical portion of the stern rabbet piece so that things will flow better. And, once again, I need to remind myself that putty, sanding and paint will cover a multitude of sins while still showing the plank definition that we aim for. The gaps and unevenness will be removed in post-processing, so to speak.
 
The blue painters tape in the last photo is covering a piece of wood I cut down to fit between and above the knightheads. That way, when I eventually turn it over to finish the planking I (hopefully) won't break the knightheads. We'll see if that actually works.
 
Thanks again!
George

Waterway and binding strake painted twice - the first color was way too brilliant (The color is more uniform than suggested in the photos below - the flash kinda blew out the color out on the top side of the photos). Filler blocks complete and installed. Last step prior to planking will be to mask off the waterway and paint the planksheer.

Completed the piece to create the rabbet under the plankseer in the stern, trimmed the pieces that provide a place to mount the planks by the center post and installed. Because of the color scheme of the ship, I installed the binding strakes. Going to try to get an appropriate light blue and 'pearl' grey to paint the waterway/binding strake, and planksheer respectively prior to installation of the timberheads. Any suggestions on either (a) specific blues to use for the waterway/binding strake or (b) suggestions for a good size for the temporary batten used to position the timberheads welcome. Those tasks and the filler blocks for the stern are what stand between me and planking at this point.
 

 
 
 

Just a brief update as it's been a crazy week. I carved the knightheads out of a piece of 3/16 by 1/2 inch wood. The instructions suggest carving the knightheads and putting a spacer in place so that the bowsprit will fit. This didn't square with either the plan dimensions or the suggestion (from the parts list) to make them from the 3/16 thick wood, so I carved them wider than called for on the plans, tapered them to fit the rabbet, dry fitted them on the keel, and then marked the path of the bowsprit (following the line of the keel). I then carved out a wider opening, in effect carving a one piece knighthead + spacer. These were CA glued in place, and I verified that the bowsprit will fit. Next will be the additional pieces that create the shape of the stern.

Update on the Flying Fish.
 
The next step was the installation of the planksheer. There are 10 pieces, 4 laser cut and six that need to be made from strip wood. The stern has two laser cut sections that completely fill in the section aft of bulkhead D on either side of the sternpost. The other laser cut sections (that include locations for the timberheads that form the main deck bulwark) run from bulkhead 15 forward to bulkhead 2. From D to 15, I used a section of 1/16 thick stripwood. It was sufficiently elastic that no steam bending was required, fitting into the slots and being held in place with CA glue. Forward of bulhead 2 (and functionally including bulkhead 2, I carved the planksheer out of another section of 1/16 stripwood, carving openings for the timberheads that define the forecastle. The remaining two pieces were a 1/16 x 1/32 section that was glued against the inner edge of the laser cut planksheer section amidships. Once in place, I sanded the top of the laser cut planksheer + stripwood section amidships to even it out (the 1/16 x 1/32 section was a bit wider than 1/16 in many locations). The last step was a bit of filler to close off some minor gaps.
 
One decision I made was to not extend the 1/16 x 1/32 strip under the forecastle. The sections are installed so that the inner edge of the laser cut planksheer segment is aligned with the inside edge of the timberheads under the forecastle, so that I could have (if I wanted) extended against bulkheads 2-B. However, I expect to put ceiling planks there, and concluded that (particularly if I want the ceiling planks to be wider than 1/32, it would look odd having the ceiling planks be wider than the planksheer. If I use 1/32 thick planks there, it will look the same. Ultimately, I just decided it would be better to cover that part with the ceiling planks.
 
Next steps are the rabbet piece aft under the planksheer and the knightheads, followed by the