glbarlow

These are beautiful, so well crafted. I bet a bunch of Winnie builders would happily buy a set. I have no clue how I’ll mount mine and certainly don’t have the skill to make anything like this. Well done!

Not sure from the photos. The planking for Cheerful’s deck is unique in that there is a very visible curve, especially at the bow forward of midship the finished deck is a signature point of the model. If your pencil lines capture that then great. Keep in mind a pencil line is thinner that the meeting point of cut wood. A marked line doesn’t completely reflect planking.

Let’s end this thread with; ZHL are Chinese pirates. Nothing said on SOS is true when it comes to ZHL. Let’s move on.

These require a lot of fairing once installed plus the reference marks are very handy lining up the wales and gun ports. I hope your wood choice works out for you

I’d like to leave mine bright but char removal is a limited skill for me. Still looking great and glad to see you back at it.

Seems ready for second planking to me, well done!

Welcome, Winchelsea is a great project, I’m over two years into mine.

Thank you both, it was indeed both a Merry and a Happy Christmas as I hope it was for you.

I had great fun making the companionway, yours looks good pin wash or not.

Belfry I spent a long time on the belfry, lots of char removal on small pieces and tiny mitre cuts. As you can see I went a different way using black masking tape and a blackened rope pull I fashioned from brass strip. These were planned. After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to remove char from the roof and with assurance from Chuck these were often painted black on contemporary models I went that route. However I weathered my Ironwork Black paint to give it, in my char-addled mind, the look of the lead sheet the captain ordered to prevent wood rot. That’s my story anyway. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Nice to see you back working on Cheerful, it’s all looking. Great, excellent work!

Props for the tree nails, I wouldn’t even do that on my Cheerful. I’m sure it will look great.

Thank you both as Winnie modelers I’ve followed throughout my build for ideas and inspiration. I seem to being going so much slower lately, these smaller steps are equal time to the larger ones. The addition of a puppy to our house isn’t helping. 🙄🤣

Than you for noticing, I do try.

On mine the corners of the skylight are much less rounded than the coamings making the square off for the planking barely visible. As you noted, whatever works for you with your more rounded corners.

Caprails Maybe not the most exciting thing, still installing the caprail is a test determining how well I did at the very beginning building the ship's infrastructure. That work and the pre-testing and fitting I did back then (nearly two years ago now) turned out to be ok for the most part. The laser cut caprail fit the top curves of the hull, finally finishing off the last of the exposed hull. First up was the waist, a 5/16 plank fit the bill. Seemingly simple, this was a first example of early testing making it so. Originally my run of planking did not leave the flat surface between the scrolls required. It was so much easier to correct that back then than it would have been now. Way back before I started building I admired how the caprail fitted with the two scrolls and wondered how I’d manage to make that happen. Naturally Chuck has a great design starting with those hance pieces from chapter one on to the scroll moulding and friezes, finally arriving at the curves of the caprail up from the main deck to the quarterdeck, it all works together. The curved portions of the caprail are two pieces pieces glued together extra wide for good reason. First the rail narrows from 5/16 on the main deck to ¾ on the qdeck, plus there is an inward angle as the hull narrows going towards the stern. There was a lot of sanding and fine tuning to create a proper transition up and back. Also I appreciate the extra sets of this curved piece Chuck provides, I’ll just call the first attempt a prototype. Next up was the quarter deck, first closing up the bulwarks having first painted them red then adding the cap rails. I switched to Admiralty Paints Dull Black for the rails, not sure why the name, it is the very opposite of dull. Though I had to make a few adjustments, for the most part I had a good fit matching the laser cut rail with gentle inward curve from mid-ship to stern. I always look ahead to determine what I can do now that might be easier than doing it later, the two gangway platforms are an example. They aren’t a simple fit given the angles and placement required, including the tricky fitting of a knee below. It was much easier to build and install them now than later in chapter 11 when I’d have to work around, and likely knock off knowing me, the qdeck rail. The decking for both is fitted, but not glued on, it can wait as can the rest of the gangway. Staying with the look ahead concept I elected to build the catheads and use them as guides to cut the opening in the hull to the deck called for later. A small laser cut template is provided which of course would work, I just wanted to have as tight a fit as possible and match the angle to the rest of the simulated cat tail below the beams. More importantly I wanted to get this cut made before I’d risk damaging any deck planking. The cat heads are just laying there, this is not how later they'll be mounted further out and at a much higher angle. It’s kinda cool how they make up from seven parts (including sheaves inserted in the slots) to look as one, they will stand out nicely in the final fit. The bow section of the cat-rails are added, with the catheads laying in the slots confirming a tight fit. It took me a minute to recognize the grain in the wood wasn't more char. That was followed by the remainder of the forecastle caprails. It’s worth mentioning again as I did in a much earlier post, and as suggested by Chuck and others, to use the paper caprail templates way early as the bow is being framed. Matching them up then makes installing the laser cut caprail easy now. I wouldn’t want to get to this point and find out they didn't not follow the curve of the bow. The final result of the forecastle caprail installed, again with catheads just laying in the slots. You might notice there is no windscreen behind the stove. I did fit it but decided I’d rather have a peek of the stove visible from the main deck. It's such a cool stove and much of it will be hidden by the partial forecastle decking. Note in this photo I’ve also pre-fit the breasthook though I won’t paint it until I can make a final fit after the planking is installed. An over-sized laser cut piece is provided, it took a lot of sanding to get a decent fit for my hull, including a little work on the back side of the bollard timbers. With that I’ll move onward with the balance of chapter nine. Can’t wait to remove more char, if anyone comes up with a char removing formula I’ll be first in line. Wouldn’t it be nice to dip a piece of laser cut material in a little vat and it came out free of char… By the way, while RED, my paint isn't as red as these photographs always make it out to be. Apparently my workshop lighting and iPhone combine to make everything more vibrant. As always thanks for stopping by with your likes and comments, I appreciate you’re doing so.

Exceptional paintwork on your figurehead.

Nicely done, and so many good lessons learned along the way.

Very innovative and ambitious. Nice!

I understand the grim determination that comes as we get into these details with their required micro adjustments. I have to remind myself on occasion that this is fun.

See above

Jim Sadly Jim Byrnes passed away due to an illness. His family is working out if and how they can move forward. They do have stock of the new model sander but aren’t taking other orders

Good plan on leaving spot for channels. Definitely leave that roof unglued, I sure wish I had. Excellent work and fine detail as always!

Ahh, I recall those chapter 3 days, so much to get right that pays off later. Yours is looking great. I dreaded the moulding, turns scraping is easy, it’s making the scrapers that’s the fun part.

EDIT: My bad, the false keel I was thinking of is the one I added to Winchelsea, not Cheerful. At least I was correct regarding the stem. Although of course he better described how. Just to echo Chuck. Start a build log, many will follow and help. Also identify other Cheerful build logs and the help they will bring. Being new and inexperienced, as you said, is all the more reason to maintain a log.