druxey

Check the photos in the instructions for how the rudder should look!

If square sterned, the modlel certainly represents a fir-built vessel.

Coming along well! As for oxidation(?) I wonder whether the color change is due to air or exposure to light. Skin oils will mark wood, for sure. If a piece gets 'dirty', I clean it using isopropanol.

Those open rails were perfect for securing lines around.

Desirable residence?

Looking better and better. You might want to fill and sand the transom ends of the planks until you have a nice flush surface as well.

I make the carling scores angled and then cut the ends of the carlings to a similar angle and trim carefully until they fit flush to the beam top.

When I wrote earlier 'from the keel up' I did not mean that the keel itself was covered first; just the hull planking. Those plates were put on next to last, with a small flange over the keel/garboard to overlap the first row of hull plating. The very last was under the keel itself, with another overlap to the side keel plates.

Narrow, not short, Alan. I forgot to add; accurate markout with a very sharp pencil is also critical for success!

You need a marked out building board so that you can drop perpendiculars from the frame (or whatever) to the plan on the baseboard. I don't think there is any other way to get the frames placed exactly and symmetrically. You can see the maximum breadth line on the baseboard in the photo below.

I don't know Håkan's method, but I use miniature chisels. First, two diagonal stabbing cuts to define the two sides of the score, then shallow cuts to cut the score to depth. Once you've confidence practising on scrap, it is not that difficult to acheive.

On British Naval ships, plating began at the keel upward and from aft forward. Upper and aft edges of the plates gave the overlap. 

We feel your pain. But those beam arms were good practice for what will come above on the gun decks!

And now, a really good clean up, I think.

Just stumbled across your build log,John. Very impressive small detail!

Thanks for the reference, Siggi!

As someone else has suggested, a tarred canvas 'boot' was fitted on the outboard side of the rudderhead between it and the rudder port. It looked rather like a bag hanging down to allow the rudder to turn unimpeded. It was called a rudder coat.

Welcome aboard and thanks for introducing yourself, Mark.

A very nice trio indeed! Well done, Eric.

Please use a soft-headed hammer for the purpose!

Nice pissdales, Siggi. But I thought that they were a bit smaller than yours. Do you have a reference for their size?

Usually rudderheads were boxed in, with a slot for the tiller.

Looking lovely, Keith, and not in the least like any firewood that I've ever seen.

Having worked with padauk (full size, not on scale models!) in the past, I know how easily it can split and splinter. That you have been able to carve at scale the way you have is astonishing! When you began, I was very skeptical.

Love the dirty, oily finish! I can almost smell it.....