egkb

Fits like a glove! Beautiful and precise work, Mark!

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

Thank you for the encouragement, Steven and Michael. And thank you all for the likes! 😁
 
I continued some more with the quarter gallery construction. Some scrap wood was inserted to create the 1/16" step since my planking was too low. 

Some scrap was also used to fill in the larger gap between the upper counter and transom:

The other smaller gaps were filled in using filler:

The quarter gallery counter was then planked, sanded, and painted black:

I next worked on the mouldings. I used masking tape to act as spacer between the top and bottom mouldings. I applied tung oil once the glue was set.

The mouldings for the quarter gallery counter were first bent then glued in position:

Here are some photos of the initial steps completed:



 
 



All the bulwarks have also been sanded to a maximum of 5/32" at the top and 7/32" at the deck level. Glad to have this part done with!!

.


I am thinking to paint the interior of the great cabin white, as well as the light frames. So I will start planking the bulwarks at the stern before continuing on with the quarter gallery.

Thank you for the suggestions and comments 🙂
 
The main reason I chose not to go ahead with the brass letters is that I wanted to try out new techniques. And I read somewhere (I can't remember where though!) that ships before 1800-ish had the ship's name painted on. Also, the brass letters looked a bit small on my model's counter. So as Werner pointed out, I based mine on Hahn's lettering when it comes to sizing. 
 
I took all of your suggestions and tried them out. I changed the font slightly by decreasing its height. Looks a lot more proportioned to my eye now!
 
The first technique I tried was printing the white letters on a black background. This resulted in perfect lettering (of course!) but.. the black printed background did not match the acrylic paint in texture. So I tried different solutions like matte medium, but later learnt that printer ink is water soluble since everything smudged. I could have tried a matte fixative but I wanted to try out other techniques before going this route. 

Next, I tried to cut out a stencil on label paper. The paper just tore since the letters are so small to cut precisely. 
 
Then, I thought of printing out only the outer borders of the letters, then painting the surrounding black by hand. This resulted in a lot of brush strokes going in different directions which were clearly visible. Maybe this idea may have worked if I sanded inbetween each coat, but I wanted to try out other ways before doing more trials with this method.
 

 
I also considered painting individual letterings (as panels), but as Eric pointed out, I was not too sure how to go about the uneven surfaces. 
 
Lastly, I considered purchasing the Roman R.R. Gold letters, but I was not too sure how to align them properly to have the proper kerning.
 
So...... 
I thought I would try out the the painting technique again that I used previously before diving deeper with the other techniques.
 
For this trial, I took more a lot more time with rewriting the letters on the white graphite paper (this time with a compass point for more precision) and even more time with each brush stroke when painting within the graphite marks. I applied 2-3 coats of white paint. 
 
I think it looks much better than before, and does not have the "funky" look that my previous attempt had. The decreased text height may have also helped with this. Any comments on this trial would also be appreciated. I think I am now tempted to glue this on (but I'll do it after I sleep on this decision!)





 

Thanks all for the generous comments! Werner, I wish I had thought of planking it separately. I think the overall process would have been easier than to plank on the model itself, and I would have avoided this mistake.
 
So... I managed to fix the counter area without too much of a problem. Truth be told, I enjoyed the process! Makes me believe I'd love to do a scratch POF build some day.
 
First, the location of the curve was marked using a compass where the width was set to two plank widths:

Then, the curve was scored lightly using a sharp chisel. After I got the general line, I progressively used a bit more force for a deeper score.

The two bottom most planks were then removed, as well as the hull planking below the scored line:


Here, I noticed the portside wale was not extending all the way to surround the counter planking. So I marked the location of where the wales need to end:
 
I then planked, treenailed, and finished the planks with tung oil:

Here, shims of wood was used to extend the wales:


I sanded it to be the same thickness of the wales and then filled it with glue mixed with sawdust. I also scored the wood to follow the run of the wale planks:



Depending on lighting, I can still see a very faint line where the two woods meet. But I think it will be harder to spot once more details come in.
 
Lastly, I glued in the moulding strips. I had to bend these similar to how I bent the counter. Once bending, the mouldings became flat, so I used a scraper again once the wood was fully dried, and I used the metal bit of a compass to widen the lines. 

Here are some photos after the surgery:




I am still deciding whether to paint this section blue. For now, I am leaning on the current finishing with tung oil. 

So I entered my first ever Model competition this weekend with Seydlitz & Zeppelin. Did OK. Best in show and best ship and best ‘what if’ for Graf Zeppelin 

Well, they say that wonders never cease so, believe it or not, I actually sat down at my modeling table and made a little progress on the Pen Duick. The Artesania Latina plans and instructions are pretty much useless after you finish the hull and, eventually, I lost my motivation to keep at it. I'm still not sure how I will figure out the rigging but I'll give it a go. My plan is to keep chipping away at the Pen Duick and also start building the Flirt at the same time. I figure that working on the Flirt and the Pen Duick at the same time will balance things out for me when the Pen Duick gets too frustrating.
 
I finished adding the hatches and the cockpit to the deck today. The only problem I had was that the tabs on the coamings around the cockpit did not line up well with the holes I had previously carved in the deck as per the plans. The walnut coaming is old and hard so they wouldn't flex much either. Eventually, after some careful filing, I managed to get them to sit flush on the deck without breaking them but there were some small gaps showing in the deck next to where the tabs slotted into the deck.
 
I use Titebond Quick & Thick as my primary glue. So I made a slurried mixture of the glue with some sawdust from the deck planking strips and used a dental tool to carefully fill in the gaps. It worked great and I'm happy with the way the cockpit and hatches look on the deck.
 

 

 
 

 
 

I'm calling this one officially done.  I originally bought this model as a stepping stone to learning how to build plastic ship models with PE sets so that I could do the Hasegawa Shimakaze kit some Justice.  It was a good model to learn the ropes on.  
 
Now, I'm just about done with the Shimakaze, but wanted to put it in a water diorama setting.  So, I pulled out the Hatsuzakura and did my first waterline diorama setting.  For the base, I used insulation foam board from Home Depot that I cut using a Proxxon thermocutter.  The frame is basswood that I purchased from National Balsa in the widths and thickness I thought would look ok, which I then cut, sanded, and stained (on my next one, I might reduce the height of the base by a 1/4").  The sea was made using the crinkled aluminum foil technique, coupled with using Liquitex heavy gel gloss acrylic medium, and cotton for the white sea spray/wake.  I'm pretty happy with how it all came out, though would probably do the wake a little differently next time.  
 
Figures were a combination of resin figures from FiveStar and NorthStar.  The nice thing about them is that they are already fairly three-dimensional, unlike the PE ones you see from places like Eduard.  I saw one model where the builder used Eduard but built up the figures using glued-on cornstarch, but that seemed like a bit too much work for this go around.
 
Thanks for all the interest and help on this log.  Really appreciate it!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Pantry and necessary
 
These two structures at the stern are clearly marked on the Admiralty drawings but there is little detail about them so I have relied on imagination and judgment to guess how they were built. 
 
The model build has two stages to it. First is making a foundation structure from ply and bits of scrap wood, second is planking the external surfaces and making a roof. I used kit deck planks (split down to 2mm wide mostly), and the roof is ply and paper painted to look like tarred canvas. The hinges and bolts were paper and oddments of wire and brass. I also tied off the ropes from the stern port lids to small cleats that I made from wire. 
 

Ply structure for the pantry
 

The pantry, with a padlock to keep thieving hands out
 

The necessary, with a simple latch to keep the door closed
 
One other little job was to drill holes in the bulwark waterways for scuppers. I put one at the bottom of the step at each end of the captain's cabin and one further forward. A short length of grey plastic pipe, 1.5mm outer diameter, is a push fit into the holes and represents a lead lining. 
 
George

Stern port lids
 
I have now built and fitted the port lids to Whiting. I built them as separate inner and outer layers which I glued to the ply core of the transom. The outer layers have horizontal planks and the inner layers are vertical - my guess for a simple and strong method of construction. I glued in etched brass eyes near the bottom edges, inboard and outboard, and tied some fine thread to them with bowline hitches. That was an exercise in patience and use of tweezers. The hinges are represented by strips of black paper with a short piece of wire at the joint. 
 

The holes below and outboard of each lid are for small cleats where the inside ropes will be belayed when the lids are closed
 

The outboard ropes will be tied to the inboard cleats for neatness and so they don't go overboard. (When the ports are open I imagine they would be belayed to the cleats.)
 
George
 

Breast hook
 
I have finished one little job which is to fit a breast hook in the bows. We know it exists because it is mentioned in the letter that accompanies one of the Haddock drawings but I have based its shape and size on what I have seen elsewhere so that is a guess. I also put in holes for belaying pins in anticipation of needing lots later. 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29694-zaz6118-schooner-haddock-drawings/?do=findComment&comment=846466
 
Construction started with a paper template and I carved the shape from 1.5mm ply. It needed a shallow groove to fit over the bowsprit and the wing tips had to be bent down (after a soak) so they would go under the gunwale. 
 

 

Breast hook under the gunwale and over a temporary bowsprit
 
Stern ports
 
Current job is to make the lids for the stern ports. There is a separate discussion about this https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27728-chase-gun-port-lids/?do=findComment&comment=883753
I am planning on top hinged, outward opening lids though there is not much information about any sorts of lids. 
 
George

Hi All
 
Firstly thanks for all of the comments and you were all correct!  The wood stayed discoloured, it was very very brittle and the bend on the former was insufficient.
 
So having learnt I started again but this time simply using water and heat as I have always done in the past funnily enough.  I also made the former more of a curve and I also introduced the frames camber onto it as well.  It all went well and there are a couple of pictures below.
 
I have also made the third breast hook which fits into long notches that need to be cut into the deck clamp.  This hook is different to all of the other four as its profile is not flat.  It has an angle across its width which mirrors the angle of the deck.  Once I had worked out the cutting sequence it actually wasn't too hard to make.  I just had to replace the templates often as I ended up having to cut them off during the machining.  Again there are a few pictures below which I hope explain better what I have done.
 
So a bit more progress and thanks once again to you all
 
Mark 

So I tried tightening up the lanyard on the deadeyes and for some reason they didn't tighten - then I looked at the bowsprit and discovered I had a problem. Way back on the first page of this build log (17 October 2018) I had to glue the bowsprit together.
 
 

 
Trouble is, I used PVA (white) glue which is flexible. When I tightened up the lanyards, the bowsprit bent at the join.  Wish I'd taken a photo - but here it is after I removed the lanyard.
 

 
I cut a chunk out of the bowsprit each side of the join and inserted a piece of wood to support it (using CA, not PVA).
 

 
I got the best colour match I could, but it wasn't perfect (though not as bad as it looks in the photo).
 
And here it is with both sides joined
 

 

 
Smoothed off
 

 
It droops a tiny bit at the join,
 
 

 
but I can't see I could have done a better job with all the constraints involved, so I'm satisfied enough with it.
 
The only problem is that when I sanded it smooth it took the dark "aged" surface off the bowsprit. So I'll have to get clever and do a bit of colour matching. I'm currently thinking of using water colour paint.
 
Steven

Well, I finally got sick of staring at the card mockups for the superstructures, and decided to have a crack at making them in styrene (or HIPS - High-Impact PolyStyrene) to be precise. I bought a shed load of this when I semi-scratch built my HMS Cottesmore, and it's been sitting tucked down the back of my boat desk since then.
 
I printed the CAD designs I'd put together - the original idea was to photo-etch it - and pritt-sticked the design onto the plastic. The shape was then cut out in two levels. The arches in 0.5mm plastic, and the main sides of the superstructure in 1mm.
 
I tried to make the corners with styrene tube cut into quarters (as difficult to do as it sounds!), and quickly decided it wasn't going to be accurate enough. So I then purchased 3.5mm quarter round evergreen styrene to fit into the corners. A base was designed that would help give the structure strength, make sure it was square, and act as the floor inside the cabin.
 
I've been through a few x-acto blades, and I'm never going to rival the masters on this forum, such as @Hubac's Historian, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I'm hoping to put a black and white floor in and part-opened doors, along with scale portholes, which I may well need to photo-etch, as the ones I've seen to purchase look to me over scale.
 
Here is the progress so far...
 
Cutting out the parts...
 

 

 

 
And assembling them - this took two attempts as the first attempt ended up warped. I took it apart and assembled it more carefully, ensuring that the base plate was glued evenly. NOTE: The base plate needs to be raised off the deck a little for two reasons. One the deck curves from fore to aft, and two, because there is the king plank on the deck that passes through the cabin underneath the floor.
 

 

 

 
And a shot of the Barque as she stands - apologies for the quality of this shot, but the lighting was awful. I'll try and get some better ones soon.
 

 
Aft cabin next, but that's one for another day.
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Here is a view inside the housing over the main ladder way to see the bucket and rags. 
 

 
Skylight
 
The skylight (called companion on the Haddock drawing) starts with a coaming that has a sloping top. I made it from 0.5mm planks because the thickness is visible. The light at the top is from a piece of acetate on which I had scored lines to show where the framing bars would go. These are from plastic strip, 20thou (0.5mm) square section that I glued on with CA. 
 

Components for the skylight
 
Scuttle to bread room
 
I guessed that this would be a box hatch which has a solid lid over the opening; a grating would let in water and that is not good for the ship's biscuits. I made it from offcuts of walnut in two main parts. One is a lower coaming frame, the other is the lid that sits on it. I made the lid very slightly smaller to accentuate the join between the two. 
 

Components for the scuttle to bread room
 
Final picture today shows the skylight and scuttle in position. 
 

 
George

Housing over main ladder way
 
I want to anticipate questions or comments about the name of this structure which is now often called a companionway cover. Falconer's dictionary describes a companion as 'a sort of wooden porch placed over the entrance or stair-case of the master's cabin in a merchant-ship'. The Admiralty drawing for Haddock describes the skylight in the deck above the commander's cabin as the companion. So there is little agreement about the name for this glorified shed that kept the water out of the main ladder way. 
 
As mentioned in the previous post I designed my own shed and used experience from designing and building a band stand at home, together with pictures and current practice. What comes out from this little project should look reasonable and be justifiable but it does not link to a contemporary record and is mostly from my imagination. 
 
The design I chose has hinged doors at one end (starboard), a sliding roof section and a fixed roof. The roof panels pretend to be covered in canvas and tarred. The sides and doors are from vertical planks on a timber frame, and I have made guesses about bolts and hinges and handles, and rebates and overlaps to keep out the water. 
 
The photo below shows the main components. The vertical planks are about 2x0,5mm and are split down from deck planks in the kit. I edge-glued them together and then added the frames. The doors were made in the same way but with more elaborate framing. The roof panels were from 1.5mm ply which came from the frets in the kit. 

Main components for the shed - two sides, back end and coaming
 
After assembly I painted the inside white. Most of the outside is stained a walnut colour except for the rails that support the sliding roof. I assumed that these would be worn fresh and gave them a pink stain. The sill in the doorway is also pink from wear. The roof panels were painted grey and I deliberately made it blotchy to simulate worn, tarred canvas. The hinges for the doors are black paper and the bolts are odd bits of etched brass. 
 

The shed with doors and roof glued open
 
The ladder was trimmed to shape and glued into the hatch. Because of sloping floors and sides and different 'verticals' it sits at a small angle. The shed then goes over it and I allowed enough deck inside the door for a sailor's foot before he starts to descend on the ladder. At the back of the shed there is a small covered area of deck and I put a bucket in there and will probably add a bundle of cloth, ready to mop up the water when it gets in. 
 

Shed installed on deck
 
It's only a little shed but I don't think it would have taken me much longer to build a full size one. 
 
George
 

I am taking a small break from Confederacy, so thought this would be a nice time to catch up on Pickle.
 
The lower deck area is now planked after painting the surrounding bulkheads black. I was not too worried about tolerances with the ends of the planks since a lot of this would be hidden. After sanding, I applied 1 coat of WOP. If I were to do this step again, I would probably have decked the area before gluing the base in place. It would have made it so much easier to sand the planks!

I am deviating from the plans a bit by installing two strakes of main wales as opposed to one. I did this since the bottom wale strake will be inline with the top of the counter (as shown in the circled area). 

Next, I installed the garboard strake and then lined off the hull in preparation for planking:

I used scraps of wood in the middle of some bulkheads to secure planks since the bulkheads are spaced too far apart. Next time I will consider a build with closer spaced bulkheads for an easier time planking.


I was also looking at schooners and cutters from the Royal Museums Greenwich website for some inspiration and ideas. The 1:24 contemporary model of Harriet (1843) caught my attention.  I wish more photos were available showing details of the various parts. The forward side of the model looks so good!

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66775

Well, the poor old Great Harry has been languishing while I've been working on the nef, but now I've been able get back to her. I hope she's not too upset with me.
 
I've been puzzling over whether it's best to add stays first, or shrouds as all the texts seem to say. Seeing as the shrouds aren't standard anyway (when I first built the model I didn't know they looped around the top of the mast, so I just glued them to it just under the top and I also didn't know about cross-trees and trestle-trees),  whatever I do will be a sort of bodge - but not visible unless you're really looking for it.
 
There's some uncertainty about whether the stays were each kept tight with a pair of deadeyes, or pairs of blocks or hearts - I went with deadeyes. In fact I'd already made two pairs of way back when I built the ship - one pair for the main, and one pair for the fore - and I was planning to re-use them. Comes the time - I can't find them no matter how hard I look. Turned the whole workshop over - nothing! It must be those aliens again.
 
So I decided I'd have to make new ones.
 

 
And wouldn't you know it, just as I finished, the old ones turned up!
 

 
But the new ones were nicer anyway, so I kept on with them.
 
However, for the main I might as well put the stay on now and add the shrouds later. I drilled a hole in the floor of the top each side of the mast, then looped the stay through them. (I did the same for the foremast as well).
 
      
 
At this point I made a mistake that I later had to go back and correct on all the masts. I tied the stay off in a loop at the top. What I should have done was to leave it loose for the time being, and only tie it off when I had the lower deadeye in place, and could work out the right position for the upper one. Fortunately I had enough loose cord that I could cut it and start again.
 
So here's the lower deadeye for the forestay.
 

 

 
For the mainstay I had to make a wide  "loop" that passed each side of the foremast with the deadeye at the after end. I drilled two holes in the front face of the upper forecastle to take the loop, just above where the bowsprit comes out.
 

 
And here's the loop and the lower deadeye:
 
        
 

 

 

 
The loop passes under the bowsprit (not sure if this is correct, but it seemed to be the right thing to do) and the two ends joined together with a fake splice. The splice would probably be at the other end in the real world, but no-one will ever know - except you guys, of course.
 
And here, finally, is the forestay with its deadeyes (lanyards not yet tightened up).
 
       
 
And this is how I made sure the upper fore shrouds were taut - again, no room in the floor of the top for holes to do it properly, so I glued all four together at the upper end and glued the assembly to the mast just under the top. Once the glue was dry I threaded them through the railing of the lower top in the most appropriate places and hung a miniature clothes peg from each one to tighten it and glued it at the lower end. Then cut them to length once the glue was dry.
 
     
 
Unfortunately, despite all the wonderful work henrythestaffy did 3d printing tiny deadeyes for me, after a lot of thought I've decided that trying to add them here is just too fiddly to be feasible. They would be minuscule and there's no way you could thread a lanyard through them, so I'm leaving them off.
 
I'd also been agonising over how I was to do the futtock shrouds, but reading through R.C. Anderson's The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast 1600-1720 I discovered that although from about 1620  "the deadeyes were connected to the lower shrouds by means of ropes called "puttocks" (later called futtock shrouds)" this was because "as soon as topsails began to be relatively large sails, it became impossible for the tops to stand the strain which would come on them if the deadeyes were fixed to them and them only." 
 
But in the early-mid 16th century, the time of the Great Harry, topsails were quite small, so there was no real need for the reinforcement provided by futtock shrouds. And checking on the only two contemporary pictures of her - from the Anthony Roll and the painting The Embarcation at Dover 
 

 
 

 
there's no sign of them! So I won't be fitting them.
 
Steven

Forestay and fore topmast stay added. I really should get on to those bowsprit guys, but I've not been looking forward to trying to thread through the netting 🤪.

 
And of course the brackets for the chimneys when folded down 😁

Looking forward to seeing the treenail result.. I'll be adding them to my next build (Sherbourne)
 
Eamonn
 
Nice Deck Work BTW I'll have to get my Tung Oil out again and experiment.. Doubt I'll get your result though 😃

I finished planking above the wales. I was not too sure on how to go about the last plank, so I just used a thin piece to fit the bulwarks.
 

I finished planking the first layer of the wales and black strake. I also had to fix a small discrepancy in the starboard last gunport sill. It was placed 1mm higher than the opposite side, so I filed it down and painted it again.
 
BTW, next time I will remember to put masking tape on the keel and stem, I keep accidentally scratching it with sandpaper!!!
 
Here, I overbent the wood to account for spring-back:

Lots of progress since my last post! I glued in all the bulkheads and finished framing all the gun ports and uprights. I had to modify some of the kit's parts for me to accommodate the framing (incl. the stern and bow areas as shown here):


For the stern gun port uprights, I used some scrap wood and glued to the bottom piece:

I forgot to take a picture of them glued (since I messed up their placement a few times and had to unglue), but here is where they are installed:

Next, I used a batten to locate the gun port sills:


Then, the sills were glued in and the upright locations were marked. This was done by transferring the locations from the laser cut sheet onto a paper then to the hull:
 



Then, I glued in the uprights. Scrap pieces of wood were glued on the sides of the upright to provide some more support. Not the prettiest thing but it works 😉









Next I will begin decking the lower deck and paint the gun ports

I finished treenailing (using drawn bamboo through a drawplate) and gluing the keel/stem onto the bulkhead former. Before gluing these in, I prebent and glued a strip of pine on the former as this will help in tucking in the planking onto the stem. I also created a small rabbet onto the stem to serve the same purpose. I then applied tung oil onto the keel and stem. I may try using wipe-on poly for the planking and decking for a bit of contrast, but let's see how it goes as I progress through with the build. So far I am liking how the wood looks with the oil.
 
Here are some pics showing this:






And here are some pictures with the bulkheads dry-fitted:



I'll next start gluing in the bulkheads, begin decking the lower deck area, then will start framing the gun ports

While I slowly progress with my Confederacy build, I decided to make a start with the HMS Pickle. I chose to build this small model as it will serve as a nice break from the big Confed ship. 
 
I plan to use Alaskan Yellow Cedar for the Pickle, so this will make it somewhat of a scratch build. I will not be copper plating and will only paint some areas of the ship (depending on how my planking goes!). @michael mott was very kind and generous to provide me with the wood and also took the time to mill the strips for me using his table saw. Not to mention all the invaluable modelling tips he provided which I will share as I progress through this build.
 
I labelled this as an 'experimental build' since it is my first time scratch building a lot of the items, and also will try to experiment by not strictly following the manual and the provided plans. From what I have read on other logs, the plans are not accurate and are instead based on Pickle's sister ship. Also, I could not find accurate plans of the schooner on the National Maritime Museum. Based on this, I will predominantly use Chuck's practicum on the Cheerful and also Dubz's Sherbourne and Dali's Cutter Alert as guides to for this experimental build. I may also purchase the following books as I progress with this build:
"The Colonial schooner" by Harold Hahn "Rigging fore-and-aft Craft" by Lennarth Petersson  "The cutter Alert" by  Peter Goodwin  
I also plan to frame the gun ports (as Chuck did for his Cheerful) instead of using the provided laser cut sheet. This way, I can have a single layer of planks across the hull and bulwarks. 
 
As always, any comments, tips, and guidance will be greatly appreciated! 😁
 
So now to the build! I made a small start to the ship where I first cut out out the stem piece from a sheet of the cedar. The small second stem piece in the tracing in the figure below was cut out from a different section of the sheet so a different wood grain can be seen.


I used HB pencil between the joints (on one side of the joint only) to simulate the caulking:

I then planed down the surfaces using a jig that Michael generously made for me (which I have shown later in the post). This made the surface incredibly smooth (much smoother and nicer than what sandpaper would have accomplished). I also marked the location of the bobstay which I will drill when drilling out the holes for the treenails.

The first keel piece was then marked and cut out:





Now for the planing jig! Instead of using a thickness sander, I used a planer and this jig Michael built for me:

The thickness of the wood can be controlled using different widths of white plastic railing, and can be further finetuned by inserting strips of paper beneath the wood. I am fascinated by how accurately I can achieve different thickness of wood using this jig. And each piece is almost as smooth as glass! 
 
Next, I will be tapering the bulkhead former, treenailing the stem and keel pieces, and then gluing the whole assembly together.