Bob Cleek

I'd take into consideration the scale of the model.   On the real one, you can barely see the planking lines on the hull.  On the deck a bit of a different story.  But at your scale and keeping everything in scale, they would be all but invisible.  

Bear in mind that on the real thing decks are laid edge to edge, and the joints between planks ar caulked and then payed (filled in) with tar.  V grooves in a deck between planks are undesirable as water left in the grooves would be a source of leakage and rot.  What the eye sees is the tar between the planks.  
 
You might consider filling in the scribed marks, painting the resulting smooth deck with a flat paint and then ruling the deck lines with a very fine drafting pen.  Seal the ruled deck with Dulcote or other matte clear finish.
 
Roger

I also recommend Tom Cunliffe’s Hand, Reef, and Steer, a book on rigging and sailing traditional gaff rigged craft.  Written by a real working sailorthe book describes not just the “what” but also the “why” of small sailing craft rigging.
 
Roger

I'm not sure if this link has been posted before. The Introduction and Use of Copper Sheathing - A History, by Mark Staniforth, Academia.EDU PDF first published in 1985, bulletin of the Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (28 pages.)
 
This is a very interesting academic work on the history and technology of copper sheathing. https://www.academia.edu/358814/The_Introduction_and_Use_of_Copper_Sheathing_A_History?email_work_card=view-paper
 

I found them on Google Images at https://www.frankhagan.com/weekender/gaffhaly.htm. The diagrams, from that website, are originally from John Leather's Gaff Rig Handbook, a highly thought of authoritative work. The discussion related in the text, as it turns out, cites commentary from two acquaintances of mine, Andrew Craig Bennet and Ian McColgin, both highly knowledgeable on the subject of traditional rigging details. The point of the article, it seems, is "different ships, different long splices." There's no absolute "right way" to rig a gaff peak halyard, but some are a lot better than others.
 
If you are looking for a good book to add to your library, Leather's The Gaff Rig Handbook is a must on the subject. I'll add that modern "rigging books" written for modelers are often abbreviated and generalized, if not full of errors. They're sort of the Cliff's Notes on the subject. Books written on rigging full-size prototype vessels are much more useful to modelers, generally speaking. The detective work that goes into building an accurate period model is a fascinating aspect of the hobby to some and if you are one of those modelers, you will find contemporary rigging manuals such as those by Biddlecombe, Lever, and Steel invaluable and, fortunately, readily available in reprints and even in free PDF format online (courtesy of our sponsors, below.)
 
https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf
 
https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Biddlecomb.pdf
 

I'm not sure if this link has been posted before. The Introduction and Use of Copper Sheathing - A History, by Mark Staniforth, Academia.EDU PDF first published in 1985, bulletin of the Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (28 pages.)
 
This is a very interesting academic work on the history and technology of copper sheathing. https://www.academia.edu/358814/The_Introduction_and_Use_of_Copper_Sheathing_A_History?email_work_card=view-paper
 

I'm not sure if this link has been posted before. The Introduction and Use of Copper Sheathing - A History, by Mark Staniforth, Academia.EDU PDF first published in 1985, bulletin of the Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (28 pages.)
 
This is a very interesting academic work on the history and technology of copper sheathing. https://www.academia.edu/358814/The_Introduction_and_Use_of_Copper_Sheathing_A_History?email_work_card=view-paper
 

Yes. Thinned white (clear) shellac works well and dries very fast.

I found them on Google Images at https://www.frankhagan.com/weekender/gaffhaly.htm. The diagrams, from that website, are originally from John Leather's Gaff Rig Handbook, a highly thought of authoritative work. The discussion related in the text, as it turns out, cites commentary from two acquaintances of mine, Andrew Craig Bennet and Ian McColgin, both highly knowledgeable on the subject of traditional rigging details. The point of the article, it seems, is "different ships, different long splices." There's no absolute "right way" to rig a gaff peak halyard, but some are a lot better than others.
 
If you are looking for a good book to add to your library, Leather's The Gaff Rig Handbook is a must on the subject. I'll add that modern "rigging books" written for modelers are often abbreviated and generalized, if not full of errors. They're sort of the Cliff's Notes on the subject. Books written on rigging full-size prototype vessels are much more useful to modelers, generally speaking. The detective work that goes into building an accurate period model is a fascinating aspect of the hobby to some and if you are one of those modelers, you will find contemporary rigging manuals such as those by Biddlecombe, Lever, and Steel invaluable and, fortunately, readily available in reprints and even in free PDF format online (courtesy of our sponsors, below.)
 
https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Steel.pdf
 
https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/TheArtOfRigging-Biddlecomb.pdf
 

I'd do some testing before going that route. I've not seen one of those plastic Revell Connies in a long while, but, plastic being what it is, you may find that drilling the pin holes in the pin rails may weaken them to the point that they snap clean off when the total rigging tension is applied. You'd be perforating them in a line down their entire length. They might not be able to handle that.
 
 
Check your scale and make sure whatever pins you use are the correct size and shape. While not as bad as many, the ones pictured in the link are, IMHO, butt-ugly. They are way too fat and have an odd-ball shape. There is a relatively standard shape for a belaying pin and I don't know about anybody else, but incorrect belaying pins hit me like a poke in the eye every time I look at a model with them. 
 

 
(Note that the bottom of the pin is truncated in the above drawing. It should be 2/3 the length of the entire pin, with the handle the other third. See real pin pictured below.)
 
 

 

I've read this here and there a time or two, but I've never encountered a pin with a line belayed to it that could have been pulled out of a rail as described. Neither have I ever seen it done aboard a sailing vessel in my half-century plus of belaying lines to pins. Just sayin'. Maybe there's a trick to it that I haven't learned, but I've never encountered a pin that was going anywhere with a line belayed around it.

Any time your push stick gets bit by the blade, it's time to do some serious analysis to identify why that happened. Better a "sacrificial" push stick gets bit than your flesh, but even so, it ain't supposed to happen.  

What you are asking about are called "bolsters." (See diagram below.) They are simply pieces of wood fastened to the side of the mast which keep the strop from sliding down the mast. You should fashion them from wood and glue them to the mast where you want them, but then drill two or three small holes through the bolster and into the mast and glue small wooden pegs (made with a draw plate) into the holes and sand the top of the peg flush with the face of the bolster, or, alternately, glue a brass pin in the drilled hole, set slightly deeper than the face of the bolster, and fill the top of the hole with a bit of putty and sand fair with the face of the bolster. The pins are necessary to make sure the bolster will be able to stand the load when the rigging is under tension.  Glue alone may not be sufficiently strong to do so. The strops are made up separate from the mast "on the bench" and then installed by sliding them over the top of the mast and down onto the bolster when the mast is rigged. This will require your planning the sequence of setting up the standing rigging so you can get the shrouds and stays over the mast in the correct order. It's generally easiest to rig as much of a mast or spar "on the bench" before installing it on the model, because it is far more difficult to do the work if one has to do so when the mast is erected.
 
 


 
 
Your kit may have provided the eye-bolts you have pictured on the mast about. The pictured eye-bolts are are grossly over-sized and out of scale. If your kit's eye-bolts are out of scale, as is often the case with kit parts, I would urge you to replace them with eye-bolts that are properly scaled. The ones pictured are at least two or three times as large as they ought to be. They also lack mast bands. (See diagrams, lower left, above.) In real life, these eyes would be part of a metal band set around the mast, not eye-bolts simply screwed into the mast. The mast band is a much stronger fitting. Mast bands can be simulated in modeling by gluing a thin strip of black paper around the mast, then drilling holes through the paper band and into the mast and gluing the eyes into those holes.
 
This video on making your own eye-bolts may be helpful to you.
 
 

The Complete Rigger's Apprentice, by Brion Toss (just recently deceased.) https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Riggers-Apprentice-Techniques-Traditional/dp/0070648409/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&hvadid=78340264775888&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=the+rigger's+apprentice&qid=1602362353&sr=8-3&tag=mh0b-20
 
The Gaff Rig Handbook, by John Leather.  https://www.ebay.com/i/184384037037?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=184384037037&targetid=4580290572086399&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=403204655&mkgroupid=1227055191472610&rlsatarget=pla-4580290572086399&abcId=9300377&merchantid=51291&msclkid=6141db830e2a1da5d9c3840112cc890e

What you are asking about are called "bolsters." (See diagram below.) They are simply pieces of wood fastened to the side of the mast which keep the strop from sliding down the mast. You should fashion them from wood and glue them to the mast where you want them, but then drill two or three small holes through the bolster and into the mast and glue small wooden pegs (made with a draw plate) into the holes and sand the top of the peg flush with the face of the bolster, or, alternately, glue a brass pin in the drilled hole, set slightly deeper than the face of the bolster, and fill the top of the hole with a bit of putty and sand fair with the face of the bolster. The pins are necessary to make sure the bolster will be able to stand the load when the rigging is under tension.  Glue alone may not be sufficiently strong to do so. The strops are made up separate from the mast "on the bench" and then installed by sliding them over the top of the mast and down onto the bolster when the mast is rigged. This will require your planning the sequence of setting up the standing rigging so you can get the shrouds and stays over the mast in the correct order. It's generally easiest to rig as much of a mast or spar "on the bench" before installing it on the model, because it is far more difficult to do the work if one has to do so when the mast is erected.
 
 


 
 
Your kit may have provided the eye-bolts you have pictured on the mast about. The pictured eye-bolts are are grossly over-sized and out of scale. If your kit's eye-bolts are out of scale, as is often the case with kit parts, I would urge you to replace them with eye-bolts that are properly scaled. The ones pictured are at least two or three times as large as they ought to be. They also lack mast bands. (See diagrams, lower left, above.) In real life, these eyes would be part of a metal band set around the mast, not eye-bolts simply screwed into the mast. The mast band is a much stronger fitting. Mast bands can be simulated in modeling by gluing a thin strip of black paper around the mast, then drilling holes through the paper band and into the mast and gluing the eyes into those holes.
 
This video on making your own eye-bolts may be helpful to you.
 
 

I agree with you, Bob. Most belaying pins on models are poorly proportioned and usually out of scale. However, as far as commercial pins go, those shown from Model Expo are far better than others I've seen!

I'd do some testing before going that route. I've not seen one of those plastic Revell Connies in a long while, but, plastic being what it is, you may find that drilling the pin holes in the pin rails may weaken them to the point that they snap clean off when the total rigging tension is applied. You'd be perforating them in a line down their entire length. They might not be able to handle that.
 
 
Check your scale and make sure whatever pins you use are the correct size and shape. While not as bad as many, the ones pictured in the link are, IMHO, butt-ugly. They are way too fat and have an odd-ball shape. There is a relatively standard shape for a belaying pin and I don't know about anybody else, but incorrect belaying pins hit me like a poke in the eye every time I look at a model with them. 
 

 
(Note that the bottom of the pin is truncated in the above drawing. It should be 2/3 the length of the entire pin, with the handle the other third. See real pin pictured below.)
 
 

 

Excellent advice, Bob.  I would add Rule 4: Rehearse the cut. i.e. without the saw running push the work through exactly as you plan to do.  This enables you to answer questions like - where will my hands be? Is there any obstruction on the exit side? etc.
 
John

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.

First read the instructions that came with the saw. (I'm not saying this to be snarky. You'd be amazed how many people in this world never read the instructions... including my Dearly Beloved.) The instructions should show you how to set up your saw. You will probably want to move the fence to the other side of the blade and you'll want to find a place to keep your miter gauge until you are ready to use it besides where you've got it in the photo. 
 
Then, start with the YouTube video below and then keep watching the basic full-size table saw operation videos on this page: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+a+table+saw  The operation of the Byrnes saw is the same as that for a full-size table saw. Pay close attention to the safe operation rules. The Byrnes Saw is small and quiet, but no less worthy of respect than a full-size table saw. It will injure in all the same ways, albeit perhaps on a smaller scale. 
 
To get the most from your saw, you will probably want to also acquire the factory-made cross-cutting sled that will make short repetitive cross cuts easily and with extreme accuracy. 
 
This advice may seem a bit simplistic, but a good command of the basics will get you off on the right foot. 
 
 
 
 

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.

I often use a #2 pencil with an eraser as a push stick. The eraser side down on the wood. I also make up push sticks as I go. It only takes a few seconds. Rule One: Never reach over a table saw blade. Rule Two: Never stand in line with the blade. (Avoid getting hit by a kick-back.) Rule Three: Always use a push stick when ripping.