catopower

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

The next step in construction of the Tosa Wasen kit is to add the deck boards. This part of the build turned out to be a lot tricker than I'd expected. This is an area where you really want to take your time, and it's easy to want to rush through it.
  The deck boards serve as a deck to walk (or sit) on and work on, but they are also designed to be removable, allowing the fisherman access to storage space under the deck. This allows the deck to be kept clear and free of clutter, making for a tidy looking boat.     Beam supports glued into place. The beams are sanded to fit, but I left them unglued, so they'll remain removable. Ledges are then cut to length and glued to the beams for the deck boards to rest upon.     The deck boards themselves are rather interesting in that they are made such that almost no two are alike. Each one can only fit in one location, with the possible exception of the boards that cover the live wells in the center of the boat. But, given that there are many boards, it would seem to be something of a puzzle trying to figure out which one fits where. To make the positioning more obvious, there are two lines scribed into the top of the boards.       The lines form a sort of an arrowhead with the point at the front of the forward most board, and each compartment has a 3 or more deck boards covering it, with its own arrowhead pattern scribed on it. This makes for a quick recognition of the order of the deck boards and also makes it easier to keep from mixing them up. Note that at least one deck board of each set has a square notch cut into one edge that serves as a finger hole to make it easier to pull up the board.             The kit supplies the deck boards as laser-cut pieces, which look they'd make it easy to put them into place. However, in order to allow some variation between models, these parts are cut over-sized, so they have to be sanded to fit. This turned out to be a far trickier than I'd expected, as the Japanese cedar is pretty soft, and really wanted to avoid small gaps between boards. In fact, I used every scrap piece of cedar that I could find in the kit in order to finish the deck boards.     If you're building this kit, Proceed Very Carefully here     The next step was to scribe the patterns into the deck boards. I found it easiest to take each group of deck boards which are part of the same pattern set and marking the endpoints on the first and last board, then scribing them all together as a group. I lined them up against a straight edge to keep them in alignment.   This was pretty much the last of the difficult work. There is one more step that was a little tricky, but in a completely different way, and that was the next step. For those following along with the kit instructions, this is step 33. This involves the construction of the covers for the cargo compartments in the bow and the stern of the boat. If you haven't built the model kit yet, I would suggest doing this work in steps 17 and 18 before the compartments are decked over. It would just be a lot easier.         I'm not positive why the kit has you build the compartment covers now instead of earlier in the build. Possibly, it's because the real boat would probably be built in the order shown in the kit. That would be okay, except that trying to reach in with your finger and thumb to get the covers into place without knocking parts into the compartments is pretty difficult.   The kit includes a small pair of wooden tweezers that you're instructed to build for handling those compartment doors. In the long run, these will be necessary in order to be able to remove or replace these doors without damaging the wood.     Clare

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

Here it is, the final entry on the Tosa Wasen build.
 
I took a little time figuring out the knots used for the anchor, which had a Japanese name. Also, I wanted the model to represent an Edo period boat, though I couldn't find any information of the exact age of this design. In fact, this small fishing boats of the Tosa region were built to the needs of the individual and there were many boat builders, so there were probably many variations.
 
But, the model is done and I'll figure out how I want to display it next.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As you can see, with the Ro in place (the long sculling oar), the model is quite long. With it in the stowed position, it's 2' long. With no masts, it will fit easily on a bookcase shelf, unlike most of my other models.
 
This has been a really interesting build and great kit for those who don't want to go as far as using Douglas Brooks' drawings and the information in his book to try to scratch building a traditional Japanese boat. I think this is about as close as you're ever going to get in a kit. Still, I'd recommend reading his book while building this kit, to really get the fullest experience. 
 
I plan on bringing this to the NRG Conference in San Diego this Fall. So, hopefully, ship modelers who don't get around to trying out this kit can see it in person. But, if you're interested in building this kit, don't wait. Here again is the contact info for buying the kit from the manufacturer who seems very happy to sell to faraway customers, payment via Paypal.
 
Email Mr. Tanimura at: Thermal-Studio
Website: Thermal-Studio (remember the boat kit is not listed – They manufacture glider kits)
 
If you contact Tanimura-san, please say hello for me. 
 
Also, be sure to check out Mr. Toshihiko Shibafuji, who assisted with the design of the kit:
http://wave.ap.teacup.com/wasennfunadaiku/
 
Hope to see some more of these in build logs here on MSW soon. (Yeah, I'm thinking about you, Bob)
 
 
Clare

I started this at work during my coffee breaks while I was building my Greek Bireme at home. I'm almost done planking the hull next is wood putty for the imperfections then sand it all smooth.

Coming along nicely Clare. Really well done

Thanks for making my future build easier.
 
Bob R.

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

The next step in construction of the Tosa Wasen kit is to add the deck boards. This part of the build turned out to be a lot tricker than I'd expected. This is an area where you really want to take your time, and it's easy to want to rush through it.
  The deck boards serve as a deck to walk (or sit) on and work on, but they are also designed to be removable, allowing the fisherman access to storage space under the deck. This allows the deck to be kept clear and free of clutter, making for a tidy looking boat.     Beam supports glued into place. The beams are sanded to fit, but I left them unglued, so they'll remain removable. Ledges are then cut to length and glued to the beams for the deck boards to rest upon.     The deck boards themselves are rather interesting in that they are made such that almost no two are alike. Each one can only fit in one location, with the possible exception of the boards that cover the live wells in the center of the boat. But, given that there are many boards, it would seem to be something of a puzzle trying to figure out which one fits where. To make the positioning more obvious, there are two lines scribed into the top of the boards.       The lines form a sort of an arrowhead with the point at the front of the forward most board, and each compartment has a 3 or more deck boards covering it, with its own arrowhead pattern scribed on it. This makes for a quick recognition of the order of the deck boards and also makes it easier to keep from mixing them up. Note that at least one deck board of each set has a square notch cut into one edge that serves as a finger hole to make it easier to pull up the board.             The kit supplies the deck boards as laser-cut pieces, which look they'd make it easy to put them into place. However, in order to allow some variation between models, these parts are cut over-sized, so they have to be sanded to fit. This turned out to be a far trickier than I'd expected, as the Japanese cedar is pretty soft, and really wanted to avoid small gaps between boards. In fact, I used every scrap piece of cedar that I could find in the kit in order to finish the deck boards.     If you're building this kit, Proceed Very Carefully here     The next step was to scribe the patterns into the deck boards. I found it easiest to take each group of deck boards which are part of the same pattern set and marking the endpoints on the first and last board, then scribing them all together as a group. I lined them up against a straight edge to keep them in alignment.   This was pretty much the last of the difficult work. There is one more step that was a little tricky, but in a completely different way, and that was the next step. For those following along with the kit instructions, this is step 33. This involves the construction of the covers for the cargo compartments in the bow and the stern of the boat. If you haven't built the model kit yet, I would suggest doing this work in steps 17 and 18 before the compartments are decked over. It would just be a lot easier.         I'm not positive why the kit has you build the compartment covers now instead of earlier in the build. Possibly, it's because the real boat would probably be built in the order shown in the kit. That would be okay, except that trying to reach in with your finger and thumb to get the covers into place without knocking parts into the compartments is pretty difficult.   The kit includes a small pair of wooden tweezers that you're instructed to build for handling those compartment doors. In the long run, these will be necessary in order to be able to remove or replace these doors without damaging the wood.     Clare

Thanks, Druxey. Always good to know you're out there!
 
Sam, looking forward to it whenever you're able to get to it. 
 
 
Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas. For me, it was a short break, and now back to work and projects!
 
I recently made contact with the manufacturer and sent him some links to my blog and MSW posts. Next thing I know, someone from the Tosa Traditional Japanese Boat Society reached out to me and also there is a post on Facebook. Here's a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tosawasen/?pnref=story 
 
I tried to link to the actual post, but I don't see an easy way of doing that. But, in any case, I found the guy who actually drew up the plans for manufacture, Toshihiko Shibafuji. He studied traditional Japanese boatbuilding with a master boatbuilder, Mr. Hiromitsu, and it also turns out he knows Douglas Brooks, who I already know. So, it seems that the circle is complete!
 
 
As for the model, it was time to paint the bottom of the hull. The finish of the hull bottoms changed a bit over time. But, what we see as common for the Edo period would be black paint.
 

 

 

 
 
While I was at it, I went ahead and added the splash rail. The joint where the two piece meet and also the bottoms of the pieces had to be beveled to fit properly.
 

 
 
Here's another view...
 

 
 
Finally, I built the well area. This was pretty straightforward, though I did start to run into little discrepancies in part alignment, which is going to happen on kits with pre-cut parts. Also, a reminder that it's REALLY easy to over sand the kit's Japanese cedar. 
 
The bottom of the boat will be comprised of covered compartments. So, beams and ledges will be added to seat the deck boards / compartment covers. The well section is the tallest compartment. 
 
Here, I'm adjusting the position of the ledge that I'm gluing into place on one of the well partitions. I used wood from the sheet of deck covers as a guide for exact positioning of the ledge. This assures that the deck covers will be flush with the tops of the partitions.
 

 
 
Here's the completed well area before deck covers and fitted into place. Note the ledges glued to the hull.
 

 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

While I'm at, I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures of some of the accessories included in the kit.
 
These include a bailer, a small paddle, and a pair of wooden seats.
 
 

 
 

 
 
These were a fun and easy part of the build and add some life to the model. In earlier pics, to get them out of the way, I just put them into the compartments under the deck.
 
 
Getting close to the finish now. Should be done in the next one or two posts...
 
 
Clare

The next step in construction of the Tosa Wasen kit is to add the deck boards. This part of the build turned out to be a lot tricker than I'd expected. This is an area where you really want to take your time, and it's easy to want to rush through it.
  The deck boards serve as a deck to walk (or sit) on and work on, but they are also designed to be removable, allowing the fisherman access to storage space under the deck. This allows the deck to be kept clear and free of clutter, making for a tidy looking boat.     Beam supports glued into place. The beams are sanded to fit, but I left them unglued, so they'll remain removable. Ledges are then cut to length and glued to the beams for the deck boards to rest upon.     The deck boards themselves are rather interesting in that they are made such that almost no two are alike. Each one can only fit in one location, with the possible exception of the boards that cover the live wells in the center of the boat. But, given that there are many boards, it would seem to be something of a puzzle trying to figure out which one fits where. To make the positioning more obvious, there are two lines scribed into the top of the boards.       The lines form a sort of an arrowhead with the point at the front of the forward most board, and each compartment has a 3 or more deck boards covering it, with its own arrowhead pattern scribed on it. This makes for a quick recognition of the order of the deck boards and also makes it easier to keep from mixing them up. Note that at least one deck board of each set has a square notch cut into one edge that serves as a finger hole to make it easier to pull up the board.             The kit supplies the deck boards as laser-cut pieces, which look they'd make it easy to put them into place. However, in order to allow some variation between models, these parts are cut over-sized, so they have to be sanded to fit. This turned out to be a far trickier than I'd expected, as the Japanese cedar is pretty soft, and really wanted to avoid small gaps between boards. In fact, I used every scrap piece of cedar that I could find in the kit in order to finish the deck boards.     If you're building this kit, Proceed Very Carefully here     The next step was to scribe the patterns into the deck boards. I found it easiest to take each group of deck boards which are part of the same pattern set and marking the endpoints on the first and last board, then scribing them all together as a group. I lined them up against a straight edge to keep them in alignment.   This was pretty much the last of the difficult work. There is one more step that was a little tricky, but in a completely different way, and that was the next step. For those following along with the kit instructions, this is step 33. This involves the construction of the covers for the cargo compartments in the bow and the stern of the boat. If you haven't built the model kit yet, I would suggest doing this work in steps 17 and 18 before the compartments are decked over. It would just be a lot easier.         I'm not positive why the kit has you build the compartment covers now instead of earlier in the build. Possibly, it's because the real boat would probably be built in the order shown in the kit. That would be okay, except that trying to reach in with your finger and thumb to get the covers into place without knocking parts into the compartments is pretty difficult.   The kit includes a small pair of wooden tweezers that you're instructed to build for handling those compartment doors. In the long run, these will be necessary in order to be able to remove or replace these doors without damaging the wood.     Clare

The next step in construction of the Tosa Wasen kit is to add the deck boards. This part of the build turned out to be a lot tricker than I'd expected. This is an area where you really want to take your time, and it's easy to want to rush through it.
  The deck boards serve as a deck to walk (or sit) on and work on, but they are also designed to be removable, allowing the fisherman access to storage space under the deck. This allows the deck to be kept clear and free of clutter, making for a tidy looking boat.     Beam supports glued into place. The beams are sanded to fit, but I left them unglued, so they'll remain removable. Ledges are then cut to length and glued to the beams for the deck boards to rest upon.     The deck boards themselves are rather interesting in that they are made such that almost no two are alike. Each one can only fit in one location, with the possible exception of the boards that cover the live wells in the center of the boat. But, given that there are many boards, it would seem to be something of a puzzle trying to figure out which one fits where. To make the positioning more obvious, there are two lines scribed into the top of the boards.       The lines form a sort of an arrowhead with the point at the front of the forward most board, and each compartment has a 3 or more deck boards covering it, with its own arrowhead pattern scribed on it. This makes for a quick recognition of the order of the deck boards and also makes it easier to keep from mixing them up. Note that at least one deck board of each set has a square notch cut into one edge that serves as a finger hole to make it easier to pull up the board.             The kit supplies the deck boards as laser-cut pieces, which look they'd make it easy to put them into place. However, in order to allow some variation between models, these parts are cut over-sized, so they have to be sanded to fit. This turned out to be a far trickier than I'd expected, as the Japanese cedar is pretty soft, and really wanted to avoid small gaps between boards. In fact, I used every scrap piece of cedar that I could find in the kit in order to finish the deck boards.     If you're building this kit, Proceed Very Carefully here     The next step was to scribe the patterns into the deck boards. I found it easiest to take each group of deck boards which are part of the same pattern set and marking the endpoints on the first and last board, then scribing them all together as a group. I lined them up against a straight edge to keep them in alignment.   This was pretty much the last of the difficult work. There is one more step that was a little tricky, but in a completely different way, and that was the next step. For those following along with the kit instructions, this is step 33. This involves the construction of the covers for the cargo compartments in the bow and the stern of the boat. If you haven't built the model kit yet, I would suggest doing this work in steps 17 and 18 before the compartments are decked over. It would just be a lot easier.         I'm not positive why the kit has you build the compartment covers now instead of earlier in the build. Possibly, it's because the real boat would probably be built in the order shown in the kit. That would be okay, except that trying to reach in with your finger and thumb to get the covers into place without knocking parts into the compartments is pretty difficult.   The kit includes a small pair of wooden tweezers that you're instructed to build for handling those compartment doors. In the long run, these will be necessary in order to be able to remove or replace these doors without damaging the wood.     Clare