glbarlow

I really appreciate the comments. My standards for myself are too high I guess, the damage and repairs to the stem plus using lower grade planks on the bottom necessitated painting it white, it already has the first coat. I’ll probably regret it later.

Glad you did the test and it works out. I may have to make the Thickness Sander my next toy...I mean tool... The minor variations in plank thickness become a bigger deal when planking, especially single planking. Good call on that.

Next up were the wales, pretty straightforward, so much so I forgot to take a photo. I lined up a 3mm plank with the top of the king plank followed by a 4mm plank below it as per the instructions. As I did with the planking, and maybe a little more important here, I beveled the inside top edge of the lower 4mm plank, testing and sanding as needed to get a tight fit with the 3 mm plank above. Except I didn’t entirely follow the instructions. The fashion piece per the instructions is added later in the build by removing enough of the wale for it to fit. I chose instead to use some blue putty to temporarily hold the fashion piece in place long enough to draw a line along the bow facing curve after lining up the stern facing to match the counter. I then cut the wale planks to that line and installed the three pieces as a unit, to me this is easier than cutting away the wales later. I filled any gaps, easy to do since it will be painted black, and sanded it all down. There are boom crutches added later to meet the top of the fashion pieces completing the stern, those I’ll fit and add later. There is nothing better than Tamiya tape for masking. Done right there is little concern about paint running where you don’t want it to go. I chose Admiralty Paints Dull Black for the wales. I did invest in an air compressor and air brush which I’ll use for some things, but I still really prefer brush painting for most of the work, I like the look. Plus I know how to handle a brush, the air brush might end up painting a lot more than the ship in my untrained hands, plus so much masking... In between paint coats on the wales I finished up the rudder and tiller. The provided two piece tiller seemed a bit thick and straight to me so I rounded and thinned it on the lathe then gave it a light curve using my bending station. In this case I didn’t touch it with the iron, just held it close and let the steam do the heating - it is pretty fragile and I didn’t want to over-do it. Admiral Cochrane, visiting Flirt from his sister ship Speedy seemed to approve of the test-fitted modification. Following another coat of WOP the wales are complete. I like adding WOP as I go, the boxwood drinks it in almost as fast as I put it on. One of the many benefits is it makes painting easier. After the WOP dries (overnight generally) I buff it out with a soft cotton cloth and lightly sand any surface being painted with 400 grit paper. The WOP gives the paint a nicely primed surface, much like a painter uses Gesso on canvas before the first stroke. The paint isn’t absorbed by the wood and the paint has a nice finish once dry. Another benefit is it makes removing any mis-applied paint easier. I use my smallest mini-chisel or dental scrapers to gently scrape it off. It’s important not to attempt this until the paint has dried an hour or more, don’t wipe or scrape it while it’s wet. I’m scraping it off the coats of WOP, not the wood itself so I don’t damage the wood in the process - a little touch up with the WOP and I’m back to even. While I’m really tempted to not paint the lower hull white I’m kinda compelled to because of the damage I did and the resulting repairs to the stem, so it’s likely good bye to the pretty boxwood and the decent job I did planking. As always, thanks for the likes and comments - they are always appreciated.

Have you done a test to make sure the glue will hold the plank to the bulkheads with the white gesso painted on?

I like your thinking on making this model more than just assembling the pieces. Chapter 8 of Chuck’s Winchelsea details this same forecastle area, it may provide some helpful insight.

Common Gutterman 50wt sewing thread is fine and all that’s needed for serving rope on the Servo-matic. One of those things that doesn’t require overthinking.

You can’t learn until you start. This is a beginner kit and a good one to start with. Jump in.

A motto to live by😂half the fun was sorting out how to hold it tight with all that stuff.

sometimes fixing it is half the fun, I’ve exceeded my quota with this stem though. I hope too. And while I think I’ve fixed it, the stem will now be painted black above the waterline (and white below it)….

Thank you, I appreciate the comment.

Unfortunately I built it over ten years ago, I don’t recall. I’m sure I did it the same as the quarterdeck.

I planked the quarterdeck bulwarks, same as the main deck, and painted red ochre. Your model looks great, you’re doing fine. There is no reason to overthink thinks or feel apologetic about your work. This is a hobby with vast differences between skill levels and experience, all supporting each other. Have fun, enjoy, make a mess, break things then fix them. Cannons are a bit of a pain, no reason to expect identical coils, they wouldn’t have been on a real ship. I intentionally made mine a little messy on Cheerful.

So, per the instructions the stem isn’t installed until after the planking is completed. I, as it turns out unfortunately, installed it much earlier than that. I actually had to in order to correct a slight warp in the frame, I needed the keel installed straight for planking, that part worked. The stem however has broken off 4 times now. This last time I got serious about it, once again gluing it back on with Titebond and a tight clamping process, hopefully for the last time now that all planking is complete. Following the build order for this model probably a good idea. Modeling is as much overcoming problems as it is building.

All I do is an acetone bath followed by a distilled water rinse then into the blackening solution back in a final distilled water rinse. I set up the them all up in a row and move the brass (with tweezers or tongs) from one to the next.

Good idea on the companionway beam supports. I also broke the tab on the false deck.