SkerryAmp

*Stretch* *yawn* *stretch*

After a year of hibernation, I think it is time for this thread to come back to life. Classes have just kicked back off so there is no guarantee for regular updates because classes have been demanding but working in the dry dock has proven to be a stress reliever in the past.

First, I want to make some very belated responses.

Russ, the vellum worked great; I was really happy with how it came out and a year later out in the garage and elements, it is not showing any sign warping or peeling.

Tom and Hamilton, thanks for the nice words. The chainplates were certainly finicky, they were one of the first things I had to fabricate a second time for acceptable results. I do like how they came out the second time though!

Update: 

It took about two days to clear the workbench, get it mildly organized again, and set back up for ship building.

After getting set up, I began working again last night. Most of the work from this first update is work that was completed a year ago so details might be a little scarce. Last night I drilled the #78 holes in the aft deck for the two pumps and an eye bolt that will be used later for tying of a row that will come off of the fife rail. The pumps were some of the previous work but they were cleaned up with needle files and i decided to drill a couple holes in them because they are not supposed to be solid pieces, the results are only okay but they are such small pieces that it's no big deal. They got eyebolt posts installed and then were painted black. Those items are now installed and glued in place.
 

 
With the aft fife rail installed as well.
 


Next, I noticed that the cleat on the fore deck fife rail was missing so I fabricated a new one out of boxwood and just need to glue it in place. The fife rails were made last year and were just cleaned up and then drilled with a #75 or #76 bit for the belaying pins. Chuck said that it would be impossible to drill between the two uprights but I found that to be wrong, not sure why he said they would be so difficult to drill, though mine are a little lopsided so there was some merit to his statement. I like having the extra two pins back there though.
 

Last thing I worked on last night were adding the belaying pins to the navigation lights to be handles, I drilled the holes with a #76 bit and added just a touch of glue to keep them in place. The navigation lights were fabricated following Chuck's recommendation to use paper clips for the posts but my painting job from last year is not very good so I may end up sanding then down and repainting them when I paint in the light colors. I just wanted to confirm which color goes on which side, if I recall correctly, the green good on the right and red on the left but I want to make sure before painting. Any guidance would be appreciated.
 

That's it for this update, it was great to get back to this project and I am going to try to knock out my obligations quickly today so that I can make a little Labor Day progress, stay tuned.

Groggily,

Russ and Nils, thanks for the encouragement and stopping by.  
 
I threaded the rigging lines through the holes in the cap rail to test the fit of the chain plates and was kind of disappointed.  The rear chain plates came very close to the hull sheathing and all of the chain plates had the thin part very exposed which I figured out was wrong when I looked at the pictures of Chuck's install chain plates.  Here is a picture of one of the rear chain plates.
 

 
I remade the chain plates following the process outlined in DrWatson's build log, thanks Sal for the great example to follow.  These new chain plates came out MUCH better than the first set.
 

 
Then I chemically blackened the chain plates and am really happy with the results.
 

 
I think I am going to hold off on installing the chain plates until later in the build when the masts are up and I begin rigging so that I can get the proper angle on the chain plates.  Next, I think I am going to install the belaying pins and eye bolts on the cap rail and then get started on installing deck furniture.  I also need to wipe down the deck with some wipe on poly (this should have been done earlier in the build but it got overlooked) and paint the cleats black (this should have also been done before installation but I think we can get it done without too much of a mess.
 
Hope you guys enjoyed this update!
 
 

Hey all, work has been getting done in the dry docks.  First, the fairleads have been installed on the cap rail.
 

 
The splash rails have also been installed.  I glued these in two parts to get the right bend in them.
 

 

 
The chain plates have also been coming along nicely.  I followed Chuck's instructions here.
 

 
After cutting and inserting the standing rigging line (.25mm), I crimped the loops down to hold the line in place.  The rigging line I am using on this build is not the supplied line, instead it was ordered from morope, they make really nice rigging line.
 

 
Last, I thought the kit supplied kits had way too thick of heads so i filed them down a bit, here is a picture of the unaltered vs. the filed nails.
 

 
Next, I will be installing the chain plates and start the first step of rigging, securing the dead eyes to the chain plates.

Gulf, I finally got around to making this lathe.  It is basic but I think it turned out ok... it should get the job of turning the masts done just fine.
 
Here is a picture of the completed lathe.  The base is made of a 2x6 board and another piece screwed to it with a couple 6" lag screws.  Then the rail is made of two aluminum right angle strips laid up against each other.
 

 
Here is a closer view of the drill and rheostat.  The drill is just a cheapie from harbor frieght.  I think I might change the rheostat to just a simple switch because the drill itself has a little knob on the trigger which works as a rheostat and the rheostat doesn't supply enough power until the very end of its range and then it only gives me like an eighth of a turn to actually vary the power.
 

 

 
The tail stock was just made of a scrap piece of 2x4 which I used my dremel to cut the slot for the tracks. 
 

 
The live center was made with a nail and a piece of the metal tubing I used for the mounting system for the hull.  the nail can spin freely inside the metal tube and seems like it will work great.
 

 
Last, the locking system for the tail stock is a couple nuts epoxy'd into the side of the 2x4 and a couple cut lag screws that will press against the rails on the base when tightened down.  The epoxy job got messed up a bit but I am going to go with this attempt until it fails, then I will rough up the inside surface and the nut better and re-pour the epoxy (and let it fully dry before removing the lag screw).
 

 
I am really hopeful that this lathe will work for the job it is intended for and be worth the $30 or so I spent on all of the parts and whatnot.  Eventually, I want to get a legit metal turning lathe but this will hopefully hold me over until that is feasible.  
 
Hope this helps!

Now for the progress I have made this weekend.  Man, it feels good to be building again, stress relief.  This weekend I have made the fairleads, splash rails, drilled the mast holes, made the mast coats, and made my lathe.
 
The fairleads were pretty straight forward to make, I just followed chucks instructions and cut the manila folder bases with dimensions from the plans, and bent some of the black wire that came with the kit.  Glue and paint and you're done!
 

 

 
The splash rails were kinda fun for me to make because this was the first time that I have successfully bent wood.  Here is a picture of the jig I used to make the bends.  I just soaked the wood in some hot tap water and then threw them into the jig to dry over night.  
 

 
The following day, I filed them down to the proper shape, added in the little notch and painted.
 

 
The mast holes were a little bit of a challenge to drill properly.  I drilled them using a guide I made with a piece of manila folder, stepping up in sized about 7 times in the drilling process.
 

 
Despite stepping up the drill bit diameters little by little, the larger drill bits still damaged the deck planking a bit.  This is a pic of what the deck looked like after drilling the 9/64" holes.
 

 
Because of the damage, I decided to make the mast coats from the boxwood sheet I had for the cap rail.  I drilled through the deck planking with a larger bit but still left the holes smaller than needed.  I used my exacto knife to widen the holes to the proper diameter to fit the mast coats.
 

 
Making the mast coats was a relatively simple process, I just drilled the 9/64" holes in the sheet of boxwood and cut/filed the wood until they were a reasonable diameter.
 

 
Lastly, this weekend, I finally built my DIY lathe.  I will make one more post detailing the lathe.
 
Hope you all enjoy!

Why hello again, it has been about six months since my last update and that is mostly due to not doing much building... until now!  I hope you all have been doing well.  I have made a bit of progress since my last update.  
 
First, here are pictures of the cap rail.  Basically, I used my thinning jig to thin the cap rail blank down to approximately 1/64" of an inch.  Then I just carved out the inside and, this time, it fit properly so I glued it into place.
 

 

 

 
Next, I decided to modify the eye bolts and cleats to make them closer to being in scale.  All I did for the eye bolts was take some pliers and bent the wire into a smaller loop, cut them to a proper length, and blackened them.
 

 
As for the the cleats, this was a few step process:
(from left to right)
- Untouched cleat
- Cut/file off the little tab at the bottom
- Make a center hole with an awl for drilling
- Drill an appropriate diameter hole that will fit the eye bolt wire, I think I used a #78 drill bit but don't quote me on that.
- Glue an eye bolt into the drilled hole and let glue set (These were cut first and then the eye bolts were made from the remaining end)
- File down the cleat until it is closer to scale size (I left these oversized (out of scale) a bit because I figure I am going to need some extra area on them for the rigging line.
- Cut the wire so that it protrudes about the thickness of your bulwark stanchions (Not pictured)
 

 
Here are the cleats all done and ready to be installed.
 

 
Next, I drilled holes in the appropriate bulwark stanchions (found on the plans) with the same size drill bit used on the cleats.
Here are pictures of the eye bolts, cleats, and cap rail installed.
 

 

 
That is the progress I made over the past few months.  Let me know what you guys think!
 
My next post will be the progress I made this weekend.

Hey guys,
 
Wayne, thanks for stopping in!  I just noticed we have the same quote in our signatures just with different wording, how funny.
 
Hamilton, as I mentioned in my previous post, I am so relieved to have finally finished the coppering and I agree that the build will start to move along at a better pace now.  In fact, this update has multiple mini projects which were completed.
 
Update time:
 
This update is a bit picture heavy, sorry.  Also, this update is one in which the camera shows every flaw!  Anyways, I created the pintles and gudgeons for attaching the rudder and it is now attached.  The work of creating and installing the bulwark stanchions is also finished.
 
I cut a strip of brass measuring 1/32" x 1/64" off of a sheet of 1/32" thick brass I had laying around.  Then, to create the bends in the material, I clamped about 3/16" in a set of pliers and used my jeweler's hammer to hammer it flat against the flat side of the pliers I was using.  Then, just bent the second bend the best I could in the tight space about 1/8" up the strip and snipped off.  I was happy to get to use my jeweler's hammer for this because I just picked it up at the IPMS nationals which had something like 20,000 square feet dedicated to vendors and came fairly close to my stomping grounds.  On a side note, it was mostly all plastic models in the competition but there were about 5 wooden ship models there as well, one being the MS Niagara which is a ship I will likely build in the future (debating on that being my next project).  Back on topic, here are the rudder pintles before being painted and attached.  
 

 
I then painted them black along with the gudgeons and used epoxy to affix it all to the rudder and hull.  Chuck used a piece of wire in the hinge but I figured that won't be seen and the epoxy should be more than capable of holding the rudder in place.  The full scale measurements of the pintles and gudgeons are 3" tall and 1.5" thick which seemed reasonable to me.  Everything in this picture looks horrendous!  Once I saw the picture I looked very closely and decided I may do a little touch up of the paint but most of the flaws are not noticeable to the naked eye and it definitely passes the 5-foot test as it stands now.
 

 
When I was cutting the brass strip, it created a bunch of brass dust which I thought I would save for a future project maybe to be used as gold inside a chest or something.  I don't know for sure if it will prove to be of any use but I really did think it looked a lot like gold lol.  
 

 
Next, the bulwark stanchions.  I took pictures every step of the way except for ripping the strip of wood I used for them, so there are a lot of pictures here.
 
First, I marked the locations where the bulwark stanchions will be by using a strip of 1/4" square basswood and a sharpie.  I must have screwed up a little bit on the rear quarterdecks because one side has one more than the other.  No big deal but I thought I would mention it.
 

 

 
Next, I cut small lengths of wood from the 3/64" square strip of boxwood I ripped from a 3/64" thick sheet.  These dimensions are from Chuck's practicum where he calls for 1.2mm wood and these are about 1.15mm, pretty close. 
 

 
Following Chuck's instructions, I made each one a little too long.
 

 
Next, each one was filed down to be flush with the top of the bulwarks.
 

 
Here are a couple pictures of the bulwark stanchions installed from both the bow and stern of the ship.
 

 

 
Now on to installing the cap rail, bulwark details like cleats and eye bolts, fabricating the splash rail and fairleads, and then drilling the mast holes.  I like when there are a bunch of small projects to work on, it makes the build more enjoyable for me.  See you next time!

Hey guys, 
 
Alas, the copper plating is finished!  It is such a relief to have finally finished that project.  I think it looks passable but there is definite room for improvement.  I give the guys who do a great copper job all the credit in the world, wow.  Anyway, here are the pictures of the finished project.
 

 

 
Im not sure what happened to the waterline on this side.  The line had faded almost completely but I thought I could make it out, apparently not.  The port side waterline came out a bit better, still not perfect though.
 

 
Well, I am super happy to be done with this portion of the build.  Next will be installing the rudder, cutting and installing the bulwark stanchions, and then the cap rail, bowsprit and the small details around deck level.  The build should be picking up in productivity, which will be nice considering I will have much less time for the next few months.  
 
Until next time,

Hey guys, 
 
Popping in with a quick update.  First, replying to posts.
 
Tom,  I haven't had too much trouble getting the paper off the backs of the plates, I find that most of the plates have a small separation somewhere on its perimeter where I can get my tweezers in.  Your way may be easier or more efficient but I have already cut most of my plates, I might need to do one more batch of plates to finish up the copper job.
 
Sam,  As always, I am doing my best.  This process is slow and difficult to get just right.  But I'm getting through it and its turning out alright.
 
Now for the update:
 
I have been working long and hard on knocking this copper job out.  It is very slow, mind numbing work.  It should be done in the next few days and it should definitely be done before my personal deadline of next Monday when classes start back up.  That reminds me, with classes gearing up, I may not have much time to work this semester as it is looking like a very difficult and time consuming semester.  I will get in some building where I can though!
 
As for the copper job, I have finally completed the port side of the hull with the exception of the final band at the waterline.  I am going to hold off on the final band until both sides are done and I can do a quick touch-up of the hull's paint.  At this point, what's one more coat? haha.  
 
A pic of the port side pretty much completed.
 

 
I have been using Chartpak graphic tape to line up the plates.  It works like a charm to get everything pretty even;  All you need to do is burnish the plates up to the tape and that's it.  I found that technique in someone else's build log a while back but I can't recall whose, just know that it is not an original idea.  At first, I was only able to find 1/8" which worked decent but it was a little hard to get it properly lined up.  I recently found some 1/32" and 1/64" tape at a local art supply store and they work much better.  I prefer the 1/32" out of the two and that is what is pictured below.
 

 
Let me know what you guys think.  It is far from perfect but it is coming along.

For anyone interested in the little jig I am using to cut the copper tape into plates, here it is.  This is not an original idea, I got the idea from more than one other build logs, SteveM's comes to mind but I am not 100% sure that is where I got it.
 
Pretty simple, Chuck's practicum tells you to cut the 1/4" tape into two strips of 1/8" strips and cut 1/4" lengths from those.  That seems like it introduces more opportunity for human error to compound and produce a sub par product(in my newbie hands at least).  The solution?  Cut 1/8" pieces from the already sized 1/4" wide tape.  I can see that Chuck's method would produce plates with one perfectly straight side length wise for all the plates which would be nice but this method seems to produce acceptable plates.
 
Here are the pictures:
 

 

 

 
Rinse and repeat about 1,500 times and you're done!

Ok, so I built a little table saw for use with my dremel 4000 to make the grating.  I found the plans online, if anyone is interested you can find the instructions here:
 
http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Tablesaw-Router-Shaper-for-Dremel-rotary-/
 
Its no Byrnes saw, but it did the job ok.
 

 
I cut a piece of 1/32" boxwood.  Then cut channels doing my best to keep them a consistent distance from one another.  Each cut is about 1/64" deep in the wood.
 

 
Next, cut strips in the other direction.
 

 
Here is a comparison of the difference in size.  The kit supplied strips are up top, and the bottom two sets of strips are mess ups that I was testing stain on, trying to match the color of the accent strip which will be used later in the project.
 

 
The stained and glued grate, just needs to be cut to size but I will wait a little while before doing that.  Will need to repaint the cockpit area and apply poly to all the planked surfaces.  
 

 
A reference for size.
 

Planking Progress:  Done!
 
Finally, the planking is completely done.  The sunken cockpit is planked.  I mistakenly didn't cut individual planks for the cockpit so I had to go in and cut small lines in the planks to represent plank ends.  I then tried to work some lead into the cracks.  
 

 
Here is the cockpit scraped and smooth.  As you can see, I accidentally cut into neighboring planks on a couple of the cuts.  I am a little disappointed with the results of this fix but I think it will likely not be too noticeable once the model is complete, though I will know the errors are there.
 

 
Test fitting the aft deck house to make sure everything fits well and it does.
 

 
Next, I will be trying to cut new strips for the cockpit grating.  The kit supplied grating is grossly over-sized.

Build update:
 
The aft deck is scraped and looking good.  Last bit of planking is the sunken cockpit which should not take too long.  Then, it is on to something different.  I know what you are thinking... "Thank God, the repetitive planking updates are almost over!"  lol
 
Pictures!
 

 

Hey guys,
 
David, Tom, Adam, and Richard:  Thanks for the kind words and thanks for following along.  
 
The aft deck planking is done, all that remains is the sunken cockpit decking and it will be done.  The aft deck still needs to be scraped but I think it turned out well, although not without its flaws.
 

A quick update:
 
The aft deck planking has been coming along nicely, though it is time consuming.  The planks have been bending easily without the need to do anything extra to them, thankfully.  Below are a couple pictures of the progress so far.  
 

 
Now is the time to decide whether a king plank is the way to go or just have the planks meet in the middle in a criss-cross or zig-zag fashion.
 

Hey guys!
 
Hamilton, welcome to my build log and thanks for the encouragement.  So far I have been happy with how the build is turning out, although I am probably one of the slowest ship builders around haha.  If you have pictures of your Phantom, I would love to see the finished product.  Also, if you do end up restoring yours, start a build log as I would be very interested in seeing a model come back to life after needing some TLC.  In case you aren't already aware, there will be a POB version of the Phantom coming out sometime in the, hopefully near, future.  
 
I finished scraping the fore deck and the boxwood is really showing its colors now.  I need to repaint the inner bulwarks but I will wait until I am done with the aft deck planking before doing that.  All the decking will be getting a coat of polywipe satin(I think I have the satin version).   I test fit the deck house again and it still fits.
 
A photo of the scraped deck. 
 

Progress update:
 
The fore deck planking is done and it has been partially scraped with a razor blade to smooth it out and get rid of lead and extra glue.  The area that has been scraped already looks really nice with the nice boxwood color.  Although the planking job isn't perfect, I am satisfied with it as a first attempt at any kind of planking.  I plan on just covering up some of the imperfections later with decorative items like rope coils and the like.
 
Here is a photo of the completed fore deck planking.  
 

 
Once the deck scraping commenced.
 

 
This is one of the errors in the planking.  At this scale, any gap is significant and quite noticeable, at least to the builder... lol
 

 
Next up will be the aft deck and, thankfully, that will not require any plank joggling.  Instead, the planks will be bent so that the follow the lines of the waterways.  Hopefully, this will prove easier and less time consuming than plank joggling, I cringe at those words!

My gosh, this deck planking is slow going!  I'm not sure if I approached it the right way by doing the easier inner planking first and then leaving the planks that joggle into the waterway for last, but it is working out okay.  It is just very mentally straining because every plank requires a ton of concentration to cut right and then get a matching notch in the waterway to accept it.  Like I said, it is VERY slow going.  
 
Here is where I stand currently.  I would say I am about 1/3 done with the planks that require joggling.  
 

More deck planking progress... It's time consuming but enjoyable!  I am waiting to put in the waterways and the planks that will joggle into it.  Hopefully I'm not shooting myself in my foot by leaving that for the end but I have it in my mind that I will be able to just drop in the last planks like puzzle pieces... we will see.
 

Hey guys, 
 
I started the dreaded task of planking the deck... It has been going pretty well, but it hasn't been without hiccups along the way.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the result.  It is definitely time consuming though!
 

 
In this picture you can see some error between the top two planks.  Basically I installed the plank on the top but there was a bit of a gap between it and the plank to its left.  I tore that plank out and installed a new one, but while taking out the original plank, I slightly damaged the planks below it so now there is still a little bit of gap there.  It might be something I will be able to cover up with ropes or something later on.  Or actually, it may be mostly covered up by the fore mast and the ventilator.  Time will tell.
 

 
Now to go start smoking a brisket for tomorrow's dinner... yum!

By the way, I wanted to mention that the boxwood I am using for this project is from HobbyMill.  Everything came very well milled and precise.  Jeff offered great customer service and really helped me choose the best wood for the project and I can't speak highly enough of what good customer service he provided, which is extremely difficult to come by these days.  Just to be clear, I am not affiliated with HobbyMill in any way other than being a very satisfied customer, I will definitely be using them again for future projects.
 
I started playing around with different options for adding in caulking between the planks.  First, I tried using a sharpie to color one long side and one short side of each plank.  The results weren't bad, but the marker ink seeped into the wood a little causing it to be a little less than ideal.  I was going to go with this method originally.  
 
A photo of the sharpie boards (top) vs boards with no simulated caulking.
 

 
At the time, I thought it was an acceptable result and tried to mark the boards five at a time.  
 

 

 
The results were really sloppy and the boards definitely needed to be tossed.  I have seen this method work quite well for others but not so much for me.  I'm not sure if it was because of the small scale of this project or what.
 
I then tried using my wife's sketching pencil  .  This produced good results but the lead or graphite or whatever this pencil is made out of it quite hard so it takes a good bit of time to get each board well marked.  
 
The sharpie boards are on top in this picture and the penciled boards are on the bottom.  I think the pencil makes for cleaner lines and there is no seepage.  
 

 
I expect the pencil to be a bit messy when laying the planks but a razor blade slid across the surface should clean things up nicely and quickly.

Hey everyone, checking in.
 
Thanks Richard!  Welcome to my build log.  
 
I built a jig for cutting the deck planks.  It has produced nice, repeatable planks.  Each plank is 1/16" x 30mm and 1/32" thick (Sorry for both US and metric measurements lol).  That roughly scales up to 6" x 9.5' which I thought would be reasonable in real life, although I have no idea how long deck planks ran on average.  Also, each strip of boxwood that I have produces 20 full length planks and one 11mm plank which I bet will come in handy when I need to add shorter planks for the joggling in the waterway or when I run into the baseboards for the deck fixtures.
 

 

 

 
Guide lines for laying the fore deck planking.  For some reason I could not get a good clear photo of this.
 

Hey Adam!  Good to see you lurking like the old days haha.  
 
I got a little bit of work done.  I painted the hull and deck fixtures again and for the most part, everything looked good after one coat so it wasn't too bad.  I was happy that I repainted the inside of the bulwarks too because I got a more desirable cream color that the first time.  I mixed some white paint (MS4831) with a tiny bit of bulwark brown (MS4817) and it came out nice.  I didn't take a photo of the paint job since it looks almost identical in pics to before and you will see it in other photos.
 
I installed the baseboards for all of the deck fixtures and I will lay the deck around the baseboards.  I can't remember where I found it but I recall reading somewhere that on real ships this is more or less the way they did it.  Hopefully it won't prove too difficult to get nice fitting plank boards that fit snugly against the baseboards.
 

 
I was test fitting the deck fixtures to make sure everything was nice and snug and it also gave me a good idea what it will look like once installed.  You can also see the hull paint job in this photo... just standard black (MS4830).  
 

 
A closer view.  The skylight might need a little work because that photo really accentuated the flaws in the paint on that one.  I think I can easily use a razor blade or exacto knife to trim the wood smooth and then paint over it.
 

 
Hope you guys like the pics and progress!  I think I am going to have to start the deck planking next which is something I have been dreading since before I stopped working on this build months ago.  
 
Btw, I found the camera so hopefully these pics are a little better than the smartphone ones.
 

Ok, as ZyXuz suggested, photo gallery seemed to do the trick so here goes with some photo updates.  I apologize for picture quality because we are still in the tail end of this move and I haven't located my little camera so these were taken with my smartphone and THEN resized which also hurt quality some.  
 
First, a couple photos of the new workbench and whatnot.
 

 

 
I also have these right next to my work space as motivation to complete the builds and it doubles as proof that they can be finished haha.
 

 
Here is a photo of where my hull stands at the moment.  I want to re-paint her because she picked up quite a bit of dust in the move and her dry dock time.  You can also see that I have the waterways and deck step cut to size but they are not glued in place yet.  I have some boxwood strips that I will be using to plank the deck, still trying to decide exactly how I want to go about planking it though, full length planks and then possibly marking in board ends or laying planks with like 60mm long strips of wood.
 

 
Here are my deck fixtures where they currently stand.  These may also get a fresh coat of paint but I'm not sure about that yet.  The roofs of the deck houses are all boxwood strips so they will match the deck and they are thinned down to 1/64" for scale.  The doors for the deck houses are obviously not done, I want to get the runners installed and the sliding top made before cutting them to size in order to get the best fit.  What do you guys think about color for the doors?  should they be white, stick with the wood(different from the boxwood) or I could make them out of boxwood but I don't think I like that idea much?
 

 
Also, I wanted to add in a couple pics of the way I mounted the hull to the launching ways.  I used a metal rod and a metal tube with an inside diameter slightly larger than the rod diameter.  The tube is set inside the hull and the rods are mounted on the lunching ways.  It provides for a smooth way to attach and detach the hull from the launchingway and I feel like it is sturdier than just having the rods go into the wood where they could potentially damage the hull or break through the wood.
 

 

 
Man, I really like the new posting system on this site.  Very easy to add pictures inside of the text and whatnot. 

thanks all for the kind words......yea,  we could all do without these little problems.......but,  if there weren't any,  it would be a boring hobby     {and I hear you on that Mark!} 
 
now that the smoke cleared....I finally cemented all of the other pre made parts in place.  placement of the ship's boat is next,  along with the chain boards and dead eyes.
 

 

 

 
the mizzen is dry fitted at the moment.
 

 
thanks for the like and for looking in.  I really got to get back on the Titanic.......would be nice to clear that table    it will make fore a great diversion,  while I work on the chain boards.