Bob Cleek

I've never found any citation to academic authority answering that question. I do have a theory, though.
 
There are different types of "curves." Specifically, there are ship's curves, of which the two most common sets are "Copenhagen curves" and "Dixon Kemp's curves." There are "irregular curves," also called "engineering curves" or "Burmester's curves." And there are "French curves."  (I  don't know why they were called "French curves."  The British always seemed to add a place-of-origin adjective to anything from elsewhere. Perhaps it was intended as an insult, much as they called condoms "French letters" and syphilis "the French disease."
 
Burmester designed the now-classic set of 28 "irregular curves" bearing his name in 1904, at least 150 years after the differently-shaped "ships' curves" came into common use. "French curves" were also in existence long before Burmester designed his curves.  Of Burmester's set of 28 "irregular curves," three are the most commonly encountered today and are still in production and sold in art and stationary stores, often incorrectly labeled as "French curves." Burmester's curves are mathematically defined curves designed to solve mechanism solutions for full link rotatibility, compactness criteria, and feasible transmission angles in multiple position linkage mechanisms. (Or so says one research paper.)  Each curve is defined by algebraic equations. Beyond that, it's way above my pay grade!   In summary, Burmester curves can be used to draw fair curves in the same way as French curves or ships' curves, but they were specifically designed for use in mechanical engineering to design linkage systems.
 
As far back as we know, patterns and templates were used in shipbuilding by the Romans, who built fleets of sister ships from standardized full-size lofting patterns. The use of drafting curves in naval architectural drafting appeared in the Eighteenth Century contemporaneously with the practice of drawn ships plans demanded by the development of  scientific approaches and the use of theoretical models in naval architecture, which previously had been an exercise in trial and error and "monkey see, monkey do."  In Western Europe, at least, the "Father of Scientific Naval Architecture" was Fredrik Henrik af Chapman of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) fame. Chapman devised the "parabola method" of ship construction and design, which identified the relationships between certain fair curves and their effects on speed, stability, and the displacement of ships. (Increased stability was a huge advance.  More displacement and stability meant more guns could be mounted and higher above the waterline, which meant they could open the gun ports in heavier weather.) It may be presumed that as Chapman's scientific curves were adopted as part of the naval architect's lexicon, curve templates for drawing them were created. Chapman's curves were, like Burmester's, defined by algebraic equations, but for different purposes.
 
I suspect we have Chapman to thank for the English term "Copenhagen" curves. Chapman's theories certainly occasioned their invention even if that was by someone else. Chapman was an interesting fellow in many ways. He was a self-made shipwright who virtually invented scientific naval architecture, going back to school to learn the cutting edge mathematics of his time. In the mid-1700's, as most know, Western Europe was in political flux and wars were commonplace. Chapman was British, but born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a British father. He traveled around, studying the shipbuilding practices of the various nations' navies. At one point, that landed him under house arrest in Britain, which considered him a bit too cozy with the French, and, right after that, tried to hire him to design ships for the Admiralty. He almost did, but then took a similar job with the Swedish. In those days, his ability as a warship designer made him the Werner von Braun of his day, with nations so eager to secure his technical expertise that his prior political affiliations were ignored. But Copenhagen is in Denmark, not Sweden, and Chapman worked in Stockholm. That is so, but from 1397 to 1523, all of Scandinavia had been united under the flag of the "Kalmar Union" and Norway continued to be united with Denmark between 1524 and 1824. Copenhagen was the capitol of the Kalmar Union and the Norwegian-Danish Union. It's reasonable to conclude that Chapman's technology was common to all the Scandinavian nations and, from the perspective of  England, anything coming from Scandinavia might be called "from Copenhagen" in much the same way the world refers to "Washington," "London," or "Moscow" to reference the U.S., Britain, or Russia. And so, they became "Copenhagen curves" because that's where the English thought they came from. They already had "Stockholm tar," so maybe they thought they'd spread the credit around and call them "Copenhagen curves."
 
At least that's my best guess. Can anybody shed any more light on the subject?

Beat me to it! That's a copy of the Keuffel and Esser catalog page showing the Copenhagen curve set. There are 56 curves in the standard "Copenhagen curve" set. Check out the old K&E catalogs on line and find the details. Here's one:  http://archive.org/stream/pricelistcatalog00keuf#page/231/mode/1up   They were sold as sets, but I believe they could also be ordered individually. Each curve has a K&E part number on it. The famous British naval architect, Dixon Kemp, designed a set of ships' curves, as well in the late 1800's. Kemp's curves were sort of "egg" or "kidney-shaped" and nested inside of each other with three or four "rings" to a set. The sets, of identical shapes, came in two sizes. I've seen pictures of these in books, but have never seen them in the flesh. They were a British item and apparently never caught on in the rest of the world.
 
 

I've found that using PVA glue is tedious because it takes the glue a while to dry and you have to hold the reef point in place until it does. That can be a problem when you have to hold the entire length of the reef line against the sail to get it to hold its proper shape while drying.
 
I use white (clear) shellac instead of water-based PVA glue. I thread the reef point through the sail with needle and thread long enough to allow me some thread to work with (e.g. two or three times the length of the reef line.) I remove the needle and tie an overhand, figure-eight, or surgeon's knot tight up against each side of the sail to hold the reef point line in place on each side of the sail. Then I place a strip of masking tape on the sail face with its upper edge the same distance from the line of reef points as I want the length of my reef lines to be. (The reason for this is explained below.) Remember to determine the scale length of your reefing lines. There's no precise rule that I know of, except "not too long and not too short, but definitely not the same length from row to row." Reefing lines need to be long enough to encircle the reefed portion of the sail and be tied off with a reef knot, leaving a bitter end sufficient for holding and untying the reef knot. The length of the reefing lines must be sufficient for the amount of canvas that will have to be secured by the reefing lines at each line of reef points. This depends on the size of the sail and the placement of the lines of reef points. Each line of reef points must secure all the canvas below it so if a sail were divided into three equal areas by two lines of reef points, the upper line of reefing lines would have to be approximately twice the length of the reefing lines through the lower line of reef points.  If the lines of reef points don't equally divide the sail into separate segments, the length of the reefing lines required to secure the resulting roll of canvas will have to be individually determined.  If there are sail gaskets on the head of the sail or fastened to the yard, they would correspondingly have to be approximately three times the length of the reefing lines in the first row of reef points in this example, or, in other words, sufficiently long to encircule and secure the entire furled sail.
 
I then take a paint brush loaded with white shellac and, holding the long end of the thread out away from the sail, and taking care not to flood the knot and send the shellac soaking into the sail material itself, I place a drop of shellac onto the knot and reef line on one side, spreading it down a bit farther than the intended length of the reef line. (i.e., the shellac should end on the masking tape itself when the reefing line is pulled down where it's supposed to end up.) The thin shellac will immediately wick into the knot but, if done carefully, should not wick into the sail itself. Hold the free excess end of the shellac-soaked reef line away from the sail and gently blow on it for a few seconds. (The dry free end of the excess reef line keeps the alcohol from getting all over your fingers which when they get sticky will make a mess of it all.) The alcohol in the shellac will quickly evaporate and the shellacked reef line will become increasingly tacky as the drying shellac thickens. Gently pulling the un-shellacked free end of the reef line downward and perpendicular to the head of the sail (or to whatever other angle you desire) and against the sail, use tweezers, a hemostat, or a similar tool to gently press and hold the sticky reef line against the sail into the final position that you want it to take. It's best to use some sort of pointed metal "positioning tool" to place and hold the sticky reef lines because such a tool will only contact the sticky shellacked reef line in a small area and can be easily be pulled free and rinsed off in a small container of alcohol and wiped clean as you go, preventing a sticky buildup of drying shellac on the tool tips. Try to resist the temptation to use a finger to push the sticky reefing line against the sail. You want the reefing line to stick to the sail, not your dirty finger and the small area of a metal tool point will pull free of the stuck reefing line leaving it attached to the sail much easier than the far greater area of adhesion that occurs when your whole finger tip has become glued to it as it dries. The "finger tip method" causes the reefing line to pull free of the sailcloth because more of it will be stuck to your finger than to the sail. The sticky shellac should cause the reefing line to stick well to the sail in short order. Blowing on the shellac speeds the evaporation of its alcohol solvent. If adhesion proves insufficient, apply a bit more shellac to the underside of the reef point line, blow on it for a few seconds until it gets tacky, and try sticking it again. Let the shellacked reef point dry, adhering firmly to the sail. When it is dry, cut the reef lines to the desired final length with a sharp pointed iris (medical) or embroidery scissors using the upper edge of the strip of masking tape you placed on the sail to mark the desired uniform scale length of your reefing lines across the face of the sail in a neat straight line. After all the reefing lines are cut to length, all the trimmed off-cuts, which will likely be shellacked to the masking tape, can easily and neatly be lifted off of the sail along with the masking tape without leaving any shellac on the sail below the ends of the trimmed reefing lines. 
 
This job can be done in any order you prefer. I've found the most efficient method for me is to tie in all the reef lines on one line of reef points on each side of the sail and then shellac, position, and cut to length all the points on one side of the sail and then turn the sail over and do the same on the other side. I install one row of reef points at a time.  Keep in mind that there is a technique involved. The reef point stopper knots are most efficiently tied into the reef lines on both sides of the sail using an overhand or surgeon's "instrument knot" tied around a needle holder or hemostat. This permits the two knots on each side of the sail at each reef point to be tied tightly against the sail without any free space between them. Search for "tying surgeon's instrument knots" or "tying sutures with instruments" on YouTube to watch tutorials on tying knots with surgical instruments. (If you haven't learned these skills, they will change your life as a ship modeler. Their training in the use of medical instruments is one of several reasons why doctors and dentists are generally such good ship modelers.) Once the length of the reefing lines is determined and you've placed your masking tape strip across the sail to mark this length and you are ready to start shellacking, remember to keep your hands out of the shellac. Otherwise, you can fall victim to the "tar baby effect" and end up with fingers to which everything sticks but which are useless for getting anything done. To this end, take the long end of the reef line in your nondominant hand and do not let go until the shellacked reef line is stuck to the sail and masking tape right where you want it. Better yet, if you have a suitable instrument such as a needle holder or hemostat, grasp the end of the long reef line at a point just below where the reef line crosses the lower end of your masking tape length marker and use that instrument to control the line instead of your fingers. In that way, you can leave the line to be held by the instrument if you must let go of the instrument. Use your dominant hand to apply shellac from a small cup or jar and to manipulate the tool you will be using to put the sticky reefing line where you want it to be. Use your dominant hand to rinse your shellac brush and positioning tool in a small cup or jar of denatured alcohol as need be.  You might want to imagine yourself a surgeon as you install your reefing lines. You want to "keep a sterile surgical field" within which to work and you want to use your instruments to do what your fingers are too large to do. Once you get in a rhythm installing reefing lines, you'll find that it's a task that can be performed rather quickly and precisely without a lot of practice.
 
The shellac will seal the knot in the reef point, secure the reefing line in the proper position on the face of the sail, and prevent the free end of the reef point from unraveling. If you are careful to work neatly, there should not be any visual evidence of the shellac on the reef point lines or the sail when you are done. The advantage of using shellac for this purpose is that it dries very fast and, should the need arise, more shellac can be added if greater adhesion is required. Sticky shellac has excellent archival qualities. While the method may seem involved, it's really a lot easier to do than it is to describe. The shellac allows the reef points to be stuck flat against the sail for the entire length of the reef line, providing a proper scale appearance. Shellac is very forgiving to work with. It cleans up very easily with denatured alcohol, which instantly dissolves it.

Five stars and two thumbs up! Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing it with us.

The engineering thinking being that the "from aft forward" "forward plate's aft vertical edge overlapping the adjacent after plate's forward vertical edge" reduces drag and reduces the chances of plates being torn off if abraded by anything (e.g., flotsam) that might be struck. Similarly, the "bottom to top" "lower plate's upper horizontal edge overlapping the adjacent upper plate's lower edge" reduces the chances of plates being torn off if abraded by anything if the ship takes the bottom at low tide. (Of course, if the ship takes the bottom for any other reason, the copper sheathing will probably be the least of her problems!  )

The business will be able to produce and sell all their machines on or about January 1, 2026 according to Donna when I spoke to her on 10/9/2025.
Currently available:  4” carbide blades with 24 and 36 teeth available for immediate sale.
If you are sure you want a specific tool as soon as it is available send an email to the business email using the Contact Us link on the website https://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com
Donna reminded me that the Rope Walk Machine will no longer be produced but that they have most of the small accessories for its operation available.
Kurt 

Yes, indeed!
Absolutely correct.
 
The term "tall ship" was popularized by a poem by John Masefield called Sea Fever:
 
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
 
The first line is often misquoted as "I must go down to the seas again." The original version of 1902 reads 'I must down to the seas again'. In later versions, the author inserted the word 'go'. Source: https://poemanalysis.com/sea-fever-john-masefield-poem-analysis
 
Author Joseph Conrad who spent 1874 to 1894 at sea and was quite particular about naval terminology used the term "tall ship" in his works; for example, in The Mirror of the Sea in 1903. 
 
Henry David Thoreau also references the term "tall ship" in his first work, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, quoting "Down out at its mouth, the dark inky main blending with the blue above. Plum Island, its sand ridges scolloping along the horizon like the sea-serpent, and the distant outline broken by many a tall ship, leaning, still, against the sky." He does not cite this quotation, but the work was written in 1849.
 
These early usages appear to be simply poetic descriptions as would be "a big car" or "a long train."  It had no other specific nautical meaning.
 
Modernly, "tall ship" is often used generically in reference to large, classic, sailing vessels, but is also a technically defined term invented by Sail Training International for its purposes and of course, Sail Training International helped popularize the term. The exact definitions have changed somewhat over time, and are subject to various technicalities, but by 2011 there were 4 classes (A, B, C, and D). Basically there are only two size classes, A is over 40 m LOA, and B/C/D are 9.14 m to under 40 m LOA. The definitions have to do with rigging: class A is for square sail rigged ships, class B is for "traditionally rigged" ships, class C is for "modern rigged" vessels with no "spinnaker-like sails", and class D is the same as class C but carrying a spinnaker-like sail. Sail Training International has extended the definition of tall ship for the purpose of its races to embrace any sailing vessel of more than 30 feet (9.14 m) waterline length and on which at least half the people on board are aged 15 to 25. This definition can include many modern sailing yachts that few who use the term to describe large sailing vessels would recognize as "tall ships."
 
Outside of Sail Training International's unique commercial parameters, the term "tall ship" is meaningless as nautical nomenclature and people who use it to describe any particular sort of vessel, such as a large square-rigged one, are only proclaiming their status as landsmen.  
 
 
 

My workbench area.

Bench itself.  I have a computer station in the room, too.  I use the same wheeled chair for both. 

And my humble nautical/modeling library.

Here’s my modest little area. 
 

My work area is in my bedroom. 

i have a small 10x10 workshop in my back yard. I used to do a lot of wood carving and taught small classes in my shop. Now it is my boatyard.

I'm currently using my dining room table as my work area.  The two rolling carts from Ikea have been great.  They make it pretty easy to clean up the work area and turn it back into a dining space pretty easily.  That ring light provides pretty good illumination.
 

After quite a while using a couple of folding tables and a drop cloth in the middle of my younger son’s room - while at college - after moving in there from the dining room, we redid his bedroom and I got a corner as my work area. It’s densely packed but (somewhat) organized. 

Maybe I am just missing something but I am interest in other builders work areas.
I can get many tips just looking at others work areas.
 
I am a solitary builder and don't belong to any associations to share information.
The only contact about my hobby of model ship building is from Model Ship World
and an occasional vendor or web search. Which is fine with me.
 
I know there is a spot to put specific information on tools and equipment.
 
I would like to see a location to look at other builders work area.
I am not interested in discussions about the best tools and what you should have
but simple one or two pictures of the builders bench or work areas.
No description needs to accompany the pictures just let me explore the pictures
easily and quickly without searching all over for this basic information.
I have found I can pick up many hidden gems buy just studying others.
.
 

 

It sounds like your shellac sealer coat is working exactly as it should, so don't feel bad at all. It appears that you aren't happy with your shellac job because you are expecting it to do something it's not able to do if you expected it to look like a "pure tung oil finish." (Which is more a product of the finish coating manufacturers than it is the seeds of the tung tree, but that's a story for another night.) 
 
It appears the use of shellac as a finish requires some clarification. Shellac can be used as a finish and is, most famously in the "French polish" method of traditional fine furniture finishing. Shellac can also be used as a finish by building up successive coats, much as one would with a varnish, and then wet-rubbing them down with very fine abrasive powders or simply attempting to apply thick shellac as one would a varnish, which is very difficult to do without encountering brush strokes, given the speed with which alcohol evaporates. These now antiquated finishing methods have been widely replaced by modern finish coating materials over the years, beginning with sprayed clear lacquers and more recently polyurethanes and epoxy finish coatings. The classic shellac finishing techniques are only seen in very fine custom furniture and in refinishing antique pieces these days. 
 
When we talk about shellac as often used in ship modeling, we are generally talking aboout using shellac as a sealer, rather than a finish. This is to say that many of us use shellac on our models precisely because it's "almost a non-finish." That's how it's supposed to look. A coat or two of thinned shellac soaks into the surface of the wood and seals the pores, but does not build up a thick coating that would serve as a finish coat with any of the depth needed to accomplish what one would consider a finish on the wood. A very thin varnish application will, also bring out the figuring in figured woods, but enhancing the figuring of wood is decidedly not something one would want to do on a ship model and figured woods are avoided wherever possible in any event. What a thin coat of shellac does as a finish on a ship model is to mimic the appearance of bare wood while invisibly protecting bare wood from exposure to the elements, dirt, and greasy finger stains. (Heavier cuts of shellac are also used as an adhesive and medium cut shellac is particularly useful in cementing knots in rigging work and stiffening lines to create realistic catenary shapes.) 
 
When used as a sealer shellac on a model used to portray bare wood is theoretically a "finish," but not one intended to be seen. When shellac is used solely as a sealer, it is exceptionally effective beneath subsequent finish coats of paint or varnish. I know of no finish coating which will not adhere well to shellac. It is compatible with everything. Shellac is a particularly effective feature if subsequent coatings are water-based because water will soak into the pores of most wood species and, to one extent or another, "raising the grain" of the wood as the water-wet wood expands, which makes achieving a perfectly smooth finish virtually impossible. Shellac does not raise the grain when applied to bare wood and when dried may be lightly sanded without creating the "fuzzy surface" that results when sanding many softwoods, such as basswood, commonly found in ship model kits. While no coating is entirely impermeable to moisture, shellac is recognized as one of the most impermeable coatings we have available.  Shellac's ability to slow the exchange of moisture between the wood in a model and the ambient humidity of the environment in which the model is kept is often a valuable contribution to the life of a wooden model which otherwise must endure the shrinking and swelling, however microscopic, of its separate parts as the moisture content of its wood fluctuates, a process with can, over time, weaken glue bonds and cause the structural integrity of the model to deteriorate. 
 
Now, if one desires a "finish" on their model, I would not advise attempting to achieve a "finish" on a ship model using shellac simply because the intricacy of the parts virtually preclude the rubbing and polishing required to achieve a traditional "hand rubbed" shellac finish and because the thickness of the shellac coating required would, in any event, operate to obliterate the fine detail on the model, a fault commonly seen in models built by modelers inexperienced in the nuances of finishing miniatures.  If your model is now shellacked, and providing you haven't sanded off the coat you applied (another mistake often made and easily corrected by applying another,) you've properly prepared and sealed your surface for the application of the finish coat of your choice. That choice is entirely up to you and will depend upon what you want the finished product to look like. If you are seeking to portray a compelling impression of reality in miniature, a "furniture finish" would not be appropriate and, in fact, the "bare wood" appearance of shellac alone would serve the purpose well. If on the other hand, you want to finish the bare wood on your model as if it were a piece of furniture without regard for the actual opaque paint colors applied to the prototype, an artistic effect which seems in vogue to some degree these days, you will have to either hand-rub wax over the varnish sealer, a traditional furniture finishing technique that is best left for flat table tops than any modeling application, or use a varnish or polyurethane coating. These are quite subtly varied in appearance, and you will have to experiment to determine which product creates the finish appearance you like best. A lot of modelers who prefer the "all wood look" on their models use what's called "wipe-on poly," This product is apparently not available in Europe, whether this because of VOC content regulations or some other reason, I don't know, but "wipe-on poly" as marketed in the U.S. is simply thinned clear polyurethane coating, produced in a range of stain tints. As it says on the can, it may just wiped on with a soft cloth and it will yield a matte finish of whatever depth one wishes to apply. 

Excellent advice... to which I will add that any wood one intends to paint with water-based acrylics should be first sealed with shellac or thinned varnish or the equivalent and sanded lightly (so as not to remove the sealer down to bare wood again.) Application of water-based coatings onto bare wood is likely to cause the wood grain to raise. For a "model quality" finish, the surface must be perfectly smooth, and the paint applied in a thin coat, or preferably several thin coats, to obtain a proper finish. 

There is at least one article on building cases in one of the Shipmodeler's Shop Notes volumes and perhaps a few posts about case making on the forum, but the search feature didn't help any when I looked for them. It's a simple enough project to make a case, although it helps to have three arms! A decent table saw is a must and you'll need to have a way of making very exactly accurate 45 degree angle cuts. This is where your Jim Saw will really come in handy!  A picture framer's 45 degree corner clamp is also very handy, although one can build their own jig for this purpose easily enough.
 
I've found the best-priced glass can be sourced from places like Michael's that do custom framing. Ask them to cut to the exact dimensions you specify and buy the picture framing glass with the UV-blocking filtering in it. I've also used simple window glass, which is a bit cheaper, but I've found a glazer's shop may not cut to the exact measurements you request and may not have the thinner glass you'd likely prefer.  
 
Construction is pretty simple and any article on building cases will give you the details. You can pick whatever method you prefer. I like glass because it doesn't scratch like the plastics can and it's less expensive. It's easier to clean, too.  I've found that you can't build a glued box plexiglas case unless you are a pro. They use special proprietary adhesives that dry to an invisible weld at the corners and if your adhesive (I've tried CA) goes anywhere that you don't want it, you'll have a mess that is relatively impossible to buff out unless you are using the professional proprietary adhesive which is only sold to licensees, I believe. If you prefer plastic, you can always build a wood frame case and glaze it with plastic.  Plastic out-gasses and that troubles me in terms of archival quality. Others' mileage varies in that respect, of course.
 
One can buy case kits, but they are expensive and the size selection is limited. Purchasing a professionally built case has always been prohibitively expensive in my estimation, although I have the tools to do it in house myself, so I'm biased in that respect. Most of the case kits on the market do not include the glass or plastic. Shipping the fragile built case from the manufacturer is quite expensive, as well. I expect the special handling and insurance is costly.
 
After trying a number of construction methods, I've settled on what I've found to be the most simple. I make two rectangles with 45 degree mitered corners. these define the shape of the top and bottom of the case frame. The top rectangle has a saw kerf cut into the inside sides of it, as well as on the bottom sides of it. (A table saw blade kerf just matches thickness of the glass I use. It should be a tight fit.) The top rectangle is assembled with the glass held in place in the saw kerfs. The corners are glued with thickened epoxy adhesive and allowed to set. Diagonal holes are then (carefully) drilled at right angles to the joints and a dowel or metal pin (or two, depending on the size of the case) is inserted into the hole(s) at each corner and glued with epoxy or CA. The bottom rectangle is assembled in the same fashion, but without the glass, of course, for which reason it will only need saw kerfs on its top sides. Then four posts are cut and saw kerfs run on the two inside sides of each post. (All this kerf cutting will take careful measurements to ensure the kerfs on the posts will be in line with the kerfs in the top and base.) The entire case is then assembled with the edges of its glass sides being captured by the saw kerfs in the top and bottom rectangles and the side posts and the side posts are glued with epoxy to the top and bottom rectangles. (Here again, fitting is critical. A little bit of extra depth in the saw kerfs is helpful. Do not force the glass panes into the kerfs. Don't ask me how I know this!) When this epoxy is cured, again carefully, drill one or two holes in the top and bottom rectangles at each corner and insert a dowel or metal pin cemented with epoxy or CA. The holes for the metal pins can then be filled with a bit of furniture refinisher's wax or putty and will be virtually invisible. If you use dowels, they can be sanded flush.
 
This wooden framed glass box is the top of the case. A base, upon which the model will rest, must be built to accept the "box" cover when it is placed over it. A rabet in the base board edge secures the case over the base and keeps it from slipping around. If one desires, holes can be drilled in the edges of the frame of the glass box and through into the edges of the baseboard rabet and a nail, brass escutcheon pin, or other unobtrusive fastener provided to slide into the holes with a "slip fit." these will prevent a disaster from occurring if someone attempts to lift up the case by the "box" instead of the baseboard, thinking it's all attached and whacks the model with the box! This is particularly relevant to small models that hamfisted cleaning ladies seem to think the can just throw around when they are dusting! 
 
It is important to provide a means for air circulation in a model case. Otherwise, an acidic atmosphere can be trapped in the case environment and cause deterioration of the model. The acid out-gasses from various sources within the case environment, including PVA adhesives and without air circulation, can reach destructive levels over time. Only a very small hole is required. A space of an eighth of an inch between the side of the baseboard rabet and the box bottom rectangle and a space of and eighth of an inch between the baseboard and the bottom of of the "box," provided by something like those adhesive felt "buttons" they sell for putting on the lower back edges of picture frames so they don't mark up the walls should be sufficient. The "rule of thumb" is that there should be one square inch of "hole" in a case for every one cubic yard of a case's interior volume, so it doesn't take much to provide enough circulation. An alternate method of providing ventilation is to make the base rectangle higher than the size of the rest of the framing rails and drill a few ventilation holes through the back of it. This "heavier" base rectangle side can also be more aesthetically pleasing, particularly if the baseboard plinth upon which the model is mounted is raised up a bit. See: Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models (thenrg.org) for more details on preventing acid deterioration in ship model cases.
 
So, there you have it. It's not rocket science, but it does take care and accurate measurements and cutting. Building a case for a 36" model yourself can easily save you several hundred bucks!
 
Oak case with mahogany plinth made using the above-described method. Note the thicker bottom rectangle sides:

 
Detail of baseboard construction with glass box removed showing the mahogany plinth on a plywood baseboard with mitered oak trim around the edges:
 

It's been interesting watching Olha Batchvarov's build of the Gunboat Philadelphia on YouTube. The planking is different (it's wide sheets of basswood that are too thin to edge bend), so don't use it as a how-to for the kind of planking you're doing. What's been eye-opening for me is how long someone with that much experience takes to get a piece of planking on the hull or the deck just right. It's cutting, checking, sanding, maybe some more cutting, checking, some sanding, checking, sanding, checking, sanding some more, checking, checking again, some more sanding. I know she's more efficient than most people watching her channel. But I could certainly imagine that some who have built that model just glue the pieces in place with a couple cuts and get the model "completed' way more quickly than she does. Expertise makes things quicker. But it's really seemed to me to be a place for lots of patience. Watching her video has helped me realize that I'm not doing something wrong if it takes me a while and sometimes I just need to toss a strip and start over. 
 
The NRG Half Hull model also helped me understand the shapes that pieces of planking have to take. That model uses a different approach in that you cut out the planks from large sheets of basswood to the right size to fit the 3D geometry instead of using long thin strips of wood bent to shape. Edge bending of planks is a different technique. But the Half Hull helped me get a better mental image of what I was trying to achieve by bending planks in two orthogonal directions and the shape I was trying to achieve when fitting a piece onto a 3D hull.

In the early 20th steel was used for some parts of the running rigging that did not need to go around blocks. For those parts chain or hemp was used.

At the risk of thread drift, I'll mention that I've found the cheap and readily available magnetic dishes used by auto mechanics to hold small parts are really very handy around the shop. I've got four of them here and there and I try to keep in the habit of using them to hold nuts, bolts, screws, and the like whenever I'm working on taking things apart and the like. They've saved me tons of time that otherwise would have been spent on my hands and knees searching for parts that went walkabout of their own accord. I can't bring myself to criticize a single thing about my Byrnes tools, but I'll "mention in passing" that using them often entails the removal of small grub screws and tiny flathead bolts which make having the factory "replacement parts set" on hand reassuring. 
 
Three bucks from Harbor Freight: 4" Magnetic Parts Tray (harborfreight.com)
 
 

Put that plane upside down in a vice, mark the line on a plank, hold the plank with thumb and middle finger to keep the plank perpendicular to the blade, run the plank past the blade, with the first finger applying downward pressure and remove waste. 
 
Or hold left hand thumb middle and forefinger on the plane body, before the blade, use right hand to pull plank across blade.
 
Be careful, good luck, see my Constitution build log for more info.
 
-Rich

A needle in the wood dowel does work but in a pin vise feels a lot better in the hand.
Kurt

The problem is, that it only works for the set of diameters provide in the tool ...

Here in the Northern California Wine Country, there are lots of micro-breweries and if you go into a big chain drug store and ask for IPA, they're likely to send you to the liquor department where the various boutique brands of IPA, India pale ale, are stocked!  As far as my "gentleman's C" in chemistry gets me. I understand that ethyl alcohol, which is distilled from plant starches, and isopropyl alcohol, which is a product derived from petroleum, are entirely different things. I have always used ethyl alcohol in my shop as a solvent for shellac and, where indicated, for thinning acrylic and latex paints, as well as for a marine stove fuel and I buy it by the gallon tin. I've never used it for dissolving PVA adhesive, but I've heard many recommend isopropyl alcohol for that purpose, but never ethyl alcohol. Do any of the chemists in attendance, or even anybody who plays a chemist on the internet, know whether, when we talk about using alcohol for dissolving PVA adhesive or conditioning acrylic paint, it makes any difference whether we use ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol for such purposes, or are the two completely interchangeable?
 

Simply amazing! Are you talking about a radio-controlled galley? (Maybe even with a speaker for the sound effects of the cadence drummer and lashing whips?) How cool is that, or what?