rybakov

Thank you druxey!
 
Well, Augsburg is now over and all buyers of my block collection have received a free update that includes the Steel specifications. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, if not please let me kno 🙂

And after all those blocks, time for a chang 🙂

A long time ago I had already presented the built Brodie stove. Cooking place for 800 men.

First mishap - I had actually misplaced it for almost a year ...

Second mishap - space test and the stove turned out to be 2 mm too high ...

In the meantime, because of the unavailability of the original, I had made it again in print ...



... on the right the recovered stove, in the centre the first print - also too high - and on the left the right-scaled version, here the printing technique actually helped to quickly define the correct size, as I had scaled the stove in 2 % steps and could therefore simply place the results on my deck and select the appropriate size.





And the winner is:













XXXDAn

@druxey
@albert
Many thanks for your interest and encouragement, and thanks to everyone for the many LIKES.
 
In the meantime, the constant rain here in Bavaria is getting on my nerves.
On the other hand, I can spend more time building models again, so I can show you the latest results:
 
Equipping the fore royal yard - Vergue de petit cacatois
I continued with the equipment of the fore royal yard, analogous to the main royal yard. The fore royal yard still has a thickness of around 2.2 mm in the middle.
The first picture shows the attached tye and parral.

The clew line blocks that had already been produced were then fitted with served block strops and attached to the yard.

This was followed by the final fitting of the yard with the lifts, braces and clew lines. As already mentioned, I will not be attaching any sails to this model. Accordingly, I will later connect the clew lines of the royals to the sheets without the corners of the clews using the toggles.


Last but not least, a picture with the center section of the main yard for size comparison.

To be continued ...
 

So, I had a small pocket of time to snug and snip the fore, port channel. I was able to finesse that first knot up a little higher. Really - and considering that they do tighten up just enough more under slight tension - I am very pleased with this experiment. Black touch-up paint to follow:


I am at least confident that these long links would not look better as wire. I may have over-calculated the angle of the two furthest aft preventer plates, but I was just following what the test line told me to do. Also, technically, the preventer plate links should span to the lower wale, but the first batch I made just looked over-long. I can live with this compromise. It is still a vast improvement over the stock kit. The important thing is that the chains no longer interfere with the port lids.

There are three backstay deadeyes that I have yet to prepare, but I will get to them in the next few rounds of deadeye prep.

This business of learning to make the chains continued to confound me as I discovered yet another mistake in my process.
 
For anyone who may also be new to this aspect of the hobby - BEWARE: jewelry wire (brass/copper) is coated with an anti-oxidation layer.  Brass black will not take without first stripping the coating (acetone bath, 99% purity - available at the pharmacy), and then roughing the wire surface with ScotchBrite.  I failed to do either of these things.  For your own sake, just buy untreated, soft copper wire.
 
My first dipping in JAX brass black almost didn’t take at all.  Whatever oxidation there was, was very spotty and wiped away easily.  After thoroughly rinsing the parts in acetone, my second JAX bath did much more to blacken the parts, but the depth of oxidation was highly irregular, there were still lots of completely bright brass patches, throughout, and the oxidation that was present still rubbed off too easily.
 
What to do, now?  I quickly decided that I absolutely was not going to re-make all of these fittings, as I had at least bent them into nicely uniform parts.  The only reasonable solution, IMO, was to spray-prime the lot black:
 

After inserting the deadeyes, and any necessary touch-up, the deadeye strops looked like this:

Quite satisfactory, I think.  On the inside, bottom edge of each deadeye, I placed a drop of CA, in order to fix the orientation of the deadeye.
 
I needed to make a run of split-rings, both for the gun out-haul tackles, and for between where the chains attach to the middle wales.
 
For these, I really like how tight a twist I get with galvanized steel wire.  Given that I was going to paint these, as well, it didn’t seem quite so important what the material was, but how it behaved.


I found it quite easy to close the eyes with my parallel pliers, a decent set of which are essential for this work (Thanks Druxey!), and I sealed the rings with a spot of common, brush-able CRAZY GLUE.
 
The eyes on deck:


In preparation for the deadeyes, I made ready the channels.  Because I found it necessary to shift a handful of deadeyes, so that the chains do not interfere with the gunport lids, I found it necessary to widen a number of the channel slots.  I then drilled for short sections of .030 styrene rod, so that I could favor one side of the slot:


Next I made capping strips for the outside edges of the channels, and simulated the nailing with shallow slices of triangular styrene rod.  I used the same “heat flashing” technique to dome over the heads:

With my masts in-place and a guide-string, I penciled-in the preventer plate locations.
 
The important thing, I think, was that the join of the preventer plates and the small loop-links be in a consistent plane, along the upper middle wale - just slightly higher than mid-wale.
 
Following a tip from fellow SR enthusiast Eric Wiberg, I purchased the following dome-headed rivets:
 
https://www.eugenetoyandhobby.com/products/plastic-rivets-round-head?_pos=3&_sid=320937e14&_ss=r
 
My idea was to use these with plastic cement to secure the preventer and loop links.
 
After drilling the top preventer plate/loop-link hole, I secure the position of the preventer plate with a common sewing pin in the top hole, and then swing a short mechanical pencil arc for the bottom hole location.
 
There are very slight differences between preventer plate links, so you do have to drill specific links for a given location.  It is very fiddly to fix the plates with these tiny styrene pins, but it can be managed from the bottom up with plenty of patience and a sewing pin to guide mating eyes into alignment.
 
Now, my hope for some time and results redemption depended upon whether or not I could make appropriate diameter thread look like the long connecting links.
 
Among my stash, was some really nice line that Dan Pariser very generously donated to my cause.  Although light in color, I found I could “paint” lengths of line with two passes of a black sharpie, which also gave the line some stiffness when dry.  I found that a single bow-knot gave me the ability to introduce tension to these links:
 
Obviously, it is important to ensure that the loop links and deadeye strops are in the correct orientation to each other.
 
The proof of concept on this first link gave me sufficient confidence that this idea will produce a nice result.  It is only important that one wait to stiffen the knot with CA until after you have pulled the knot up close behind the deadeye strop loop.  On this first one, I glued before doing so, and the knot is less perfectly concealed than the others will be:

This picture above was before pulling the knot up.  Eventually, when the lower deadeyes are lashed to their corresponding upper deadeyes, these chain links will pull fully taught with just the slightest tension.
 
Here is where things stand as of now:

I quickly learned it is wise to cover the gun ports, so that you are not continually losing links into the hull.  After pinning the links in place, I brushed over the link assembly with thin CA, to give it a little extra holding power.  I then left it to dry overnight.
 
Next, I will draw all remaining loops taught, and then the whole of it will receive a thinned acrylic black wash to homogenize the assembly and touch-up any bright spots.
 
There are, of course, many better ways to go about all of this.  For me, for now - I’ll take this all as a learning experience and move-on with it.
 
Thank you all for looking-in!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Keith, the end is in sight, but I think it takes a lot of time to get there. There are at least a lot of things to do left.
Ian, no with these sticks and ropes I would't play. 
 
Today the Tiger came up from the basement to see some daylight. It's quite a large model. 

Hello,
when I look at the last likes, some like the picture of Victory's wheels more then that what I have build! It would be interesting why? I had asked before I built it so. But I say thank you to all, for the likes you gave my work.
 
The carpenters have installed the last two deck beams and also the knees for them. The inspector from the navy board was pleased. So I think, we could go all into the summer vacations.
 
Except the shipwright. He must look how to build in the taffrail, before the deck could be planked. And may be the carvers, who could start carving the quarter pieces. Steady and slowly we come to the end of this build.

Thank you guys for nice comments and likes.
I continue with the construction of hawse timbers.

Spring has taken over the last several weeks... planting, gardening, cleaning, staining, etc. Finally managed to (almost) finish the new wales. I studied the few Royal Duc drawings available (the premise being that it was a very slighter smaller sister ship that was launched before SR) and studied the sweep of the wales. And this is what I came up with after sanding off the old wales... the molded wales on the Heller model are all 4mm wide and mostly 1mm thick. The drawings (and Guy!) suggested that the bottom wales were wider/thicker than the middle wales, and they were wider/thicker than the top wales... and the spacings between the wales was different. The bottom wales are 4.2mm wide/1.5mm thick, the middle wales 4mm wide/1mm thick, and the top wales 3.2mm wide/0.75mm thick. It may seem sometimes that the spacing between the wales varies, but actully I maintained exact spacings alomg the length of the ship; I think the various curves and bends in the hull create a bit of an optical illusion. Oh - and the top two wales on the rear bulwark are paper! I can't attach the top wales on the bulwark until later in the process. You may notice that I removed the top sheer step on the rear bulwark and also sanded/scraped off all detail so that I can create my own.

 
I spaced the scarf joints about every 150 mm per the butt joints on the Heller model (except where they might land on a gun port opening). I found it easiest to make the individual wale planks, and then glued them together in one long strip. A long strip made it much easier to get the curves that I needed; a drop of glue was applied and I just went gun port by gun port to make sure the spacings were correct.

 

 
Now I can proceed to finish the anchor linings and the boat fenders. Also, I knew it was almost a certainty when I started down this path, but I am resolved to working on the quarter galleries so they follow the new sheer curves as the drawings show. I forgot where I got the circular gun port picture, but I found some brass rings that fit perfectly over the circular gun ports. And I will "bolt" the wales onto the hull using a pattern from the St. Phillpe monograph. The bottom wales will be bolted by the 0.03" diameter plastic rivet on the right, while the brass nail in the middle has a diameter of 0.02" and will bolt the middle wales. The top wales will be unbolted as they will be covered with "ses listons d'or" per Guy.

 

 
Finally, I actually found a use for my laser leveler! I bet a French carpenter would have paid a years salary for it... I used it to make sure the gun ports that I cut in were plumb as oppsoed to following the curve of the deck as some people have mentioned (Hubac's Historian, for example). I am also using it to mark on the wales where the "timber heads" that arise vertically to support the bulwark rails; I assume they are the top, visible pieces of the futtocks (vocabulary ?) and the vertical laser line will show me where to add my bolts to the wales, ala the St. Phillipe monograph (I hope that makes sense!). 

@Thukydides
Thank you for your nice comment, and everyone else for the many LIKES.
 
 
Equipment of the main royal yard – Vergue de grand cacatois
The royal yards are on the 4th floor of the rigging. Since these yards on the La Créole were obviously equipped with lifts and braces, it can be assumed that they were already an integral part of the ship's rigging. In contrast, until the end of the 18th century, the royal sails were often hoisted together with the yards and flown as fair-weather sails only when necessary, i.e. without braces and lifts.
To carry out the tyes for the royal yards of La Créole, I have photos of the original model at my disposal, which a restorer from the Musée de la Marine in Paris kindly photographed in the depot especially for me.
You can't see much in the following picture of a royal yard of the Paris model, except that the tye is somehow knotted and doesn't have a hook like that of the togallant yards.
 

Source: Musée national de la Marine de Paris – La Créole
 
Source: Atlas du Génie Maritime

In conjunction with the depiction of a royal yard from the Atlas du Génie Maritime and various other examples, the tyes may have looked like this.
 

 
My model implementation or interpretation of the tye ø 17 mm (ø 0.35 mm in model scale) for the main royal yard looks like this:


Next I made the parral. The royal yards receive a slightly simpler version of a parral, only served with ropes, without leather covering.


This was followed by the production of the single blocks for the royal yards. These were used to guide the clew lines - The clew lines for the main royal sail had a diameter of 11 mm (in the model scale ø 0.23 mm), accordingly the blocks were around 13.5 cm long (in the model scale approx. 2.8 mm) according to the table in the monograph .



After attaching the grommets as abrasion protection, the equipment of the main royal yard was completed by attaching the braces and lifts.

We then continue with the fore royal yard.
Sequel follows …

Continuation: Equipping the mizzen topgallant yard - Vergue de perruche
After the small mishap, as reported, I have now made a new mizzen topgallant yard and fully equipped it. This means that the topgallant yard chapter can be put to bed until it is installed on the model.
Here is a picture of the finished mizzen topgallant yard. 

And another picture with the tye.

 
The next picture shows different yards of the French corvette in size comparison. In the center you can see the mizzen topgallant yard. Above it is the mizzen royal yard and finally the middle section of the main yard is shown below.
 
The next step is to equip the royal yards with the necessary rigging elements. Then I'll finally have finished fitting out the yards.
To be continued ...
 

The belfry: technical implementation tests:
 



 
Final version in ebony wood:

Post One Hundred and Seventy-six
 
Casing the model.
Today 'Indy' was finally encased and moved to her display position.

4713
Quite a fraught business lifting the heavy glass cover over the base, but at least there are no tall masts to negotiate and yards to snag.

4717
The cover was set with the model/base on the floor, and the combination case lifted in two stages onto the chest of drawers.

4715
I had been waiting for the arrival of the ‘Indy’ Admiralty  plan which I have had framed. This was also a tricky exercise to hang being 53” in width, supported by three hooks.

4708
This is the last available space I have for a large model, but I think I can still accommodate a few smaller ones.

4723
The final act is to compile the build photo record book that I do for all my builds, this is now ready to go to the printers.
 
I can now finally declare the project completed, and I again thank those who have shown an interest.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
18/05/2024

Post One Hundred and Seventy-five
18’ cutter – completion.
Lifting rings and a mast step are added to the basic kit along with the incredibly tiny thwart knees. Amazing how Chris manages to produce identifiable laser cut pieces this small.

4602
I have gone with a double banked six oared rowing arrangement, mainly because with single banking I would have to cut an oarlock in the wash strake above the sternsheets, and there’s insufficient depth.

4625
I’m not a fan of the kit rudders supplied with this range of boats, comprising a thin central core sandwiched between two brass etch facings complete with straps.
 
I prefer to make rudders using slightly thicker wood with a vertical grain. For the 18’ cutter I used 1mm Boxwood.

For hanging I use the ‘quick release’ method as used on such boats, as seen here on one of the Victory’s cutters. 
With this arrangement the pintle is attached to the sternpost with an extra-long pin which allows for easier rudder hanging once the boat is in the water.

4590
Rudders are fairly simple to replicate, as is the hanging, provided sufficiently tiny eyelets can be obtained.

4605
To match the other boats on the skids I have painted the bottom with Vallejo ivory, but otherwise left the remainder of the hull and inboard works bright.

4610
The oars provide the colour element linking to the general inboard works of ‘Indy’

4612
I think this small cutter looks ok on the skids, obscuring little of the gun deck, so I’ll leave it onboard.
 
It has taken around 8 days to build this smallest of the supplied boats. From around 10” she looks fine to my eye, especially given the scale, but the macro is somewhat less forgiving.🫤
 
B.E.
10/05/2024

Post One Hundred and Seventy-four
18’ cutter – fitting out.

4571
A shot of the gratings and footwalings which are laser cut. A much better option than the brass etch version.👍
These take a little fettling to get them to sit fully down involving bevelling the underside of the parts, and shaving down the frames as required.
 
The kit sternsheets are combined with the aftermost thwart.
This is an arrangement I don’t like primarily because the grain of the thwart tends to run the wrong way and the set-up  makes it more difficult to  fit the vagaries of  individual hull constructions.

4577
I find it easier to cut away the thwart and make a replacement from spare fret. I have also filled in the open stern area to create an additional bench seat.

4570
At the bow I thought the area looked a little unfinished with  the remnants of the mdf construction block on view.
 
The kit plan (sheet eight) does show a small fore deck in this position but I can’t locate such a part with the 18’ cutter fittings.

4582
This benefits from facing up using spare fret, and the addition of a breasthook above it.
 
One other puzzlement with the 18’ cutter is the height the thwarts and sternsheets relative to the wash strakes.

4579
They are positioned as per the kit and instructions, but have very little freeboard. It is not a case of fitting them too high as the scale figures show a correct height between thwarts and footwaling.

4580
There is only 2mm between thwart top and wash strake top. This equates to 5” at scale.
Working up from the 1:48 scale drawings of an 18’ cutter in The Frigate Diana AotS book the difference should be around 11”
 

The new Vanguard resin cutter, what a beauty that looks, shows a much greater depth between the seating and wash strakes which looks more appropriate.

4583
Even so, visually the wooden version is a pretty little thing, and for most casual viewers this disparity won’t even register.

4588
I am fairly happy with the ‘clinker’ look but it does need a good clean-up.
 
 
B.E.
08/05/2024
 
 

Post One Hundred and Seventy-three
 
18’ cutter – Jolly Boat
 
I thought I would have another stab at clinker planking one of these bijou cutters to go with 'Indy'.
 
My original cutter which sits with Alert was of the older version replaced shortly after I had completed it.
This one is the current and revised version, which includes laser cut gratings and footwalings whereas the original had brass etch versions.
 
I will be using 3.4mm x 0.6mm Boxwood strip, and of necessity the planking starts at the keel and works up to the Wash strake.

4315
The Garboard is applied first using pva. This is shaped at the bow but is otherwise untapered.

4320
The second strake overlaps the Garboard by 1mm.
In proper practice there is a rebate or rabbet edge along the top of each plank to take the bottom edge of the plank above.
At scale and with 0.6mm board I can dispense with this nicety.
 
From the second plank above the Garboard I am adding a degree of taper both fore and aft. How much is down to eye and best guesstimate.
4528
As with all these projects clamping is an issue, more so as the planking rises.

4531
With three strakes added I move to the wash strake. This is fitted untapered into the bow slot.
 
Twice the stem part broke but repair was effected and once the wash strakes are in place the area is more stable.

4542
As the strakes are applied the taper increases fore and aft until the final strake fits flush with the lower edge of the wash strake.

4552

4550
Planking completed in its raw state, but the lapstrakes are clearly evident.

4565
I applied a 1mm square Ebony strip along the lower edge of the wash strake to represent the wale.
It looks broader than it is because top and face edges are not clearly defined on the photo.

4568

4569
There is a satisfaction to be had from completing the hull of this smallest of the boat range, but there is a fair bit of cleaning up required before the inboard fittings are put into place.
 
B.E.
 
06/05/2024

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

A very brief update. Visually doesn't look much different, but I've put in the inner bulwark, which is cut from 1/64 inch wood. I wound up kinda not following the directions. It's supposed to be made as 4 pieces; 2 that are about 20 inches long and 1 inch wide (bow to about 5 inches from the stern, and 2 that are about 2 by 8 inches. I wound up using the carrier sheet for the middle bulwark to cut the long pieces, and made the stern section from 4 smaller segments, which I found to be easier, and still made a perfectly fine looking inner bulwark. Some sanding, a little putty and we have the ship as below:
 

 
The instructions say that the bulwarks shold be 7/16 inch tall until about 5 inches from the stem, where thy rise to about 1/2 inch. If you form the bulwarks using the templated materials it too tall at the stern and way too tall at the stem. I wound up cutting almost 1/8 of an inch off the stem and about 1/16 off the stern to make it the correct size.
 
I dry fitted the upper bulwark for the forecastle, and it appears that the curve is slightly off. I am going to cut the upper bulwark piece off just past the foremost deck beam, and fit a similar sized piece of wood to cover the last 1/2 or so. This does mean though, that the precut forecastle deck will not be congruent with upper bulwark (it will be a bit too small at the bow. Depending on some imponderables at this point (for example, how much material gets removed for the opening for the boswprit) I will either buy a piece of scribed decking or just cut a piece to fill the gap from the carrier. I doubt it will be very visible, the question will be how much will it will annoy me.
 
I have also dry fitted the stem pieces. I may put the stem and the external keel in place before it is nominally called for in the instructions. 
 
Otherwise, next steps are to sand, prime, and sand, and then to cut out the gun and sally ports, and to cut out the slots where the channels will be inserted when the main rail is put in place, and the main deck. 
 
As always, thanks for looking in and the encouragement.
 
Regards,
George
 
 

It's been a while, as I've been working on the Discovery and had some travel in there as well. However, I've built up two of the three layers of the bulwarks and continued the preparation of the hull surface. Here are things as they stand (port and starboard) minus the innermost layer of the bulwarks.
 

 

 
And from above:
 

 
I did a dry fit of the decks and while they will need a bit of trimming, I think I'm in a pretty good place there too:
 

 
In general, I think it looks pretty good, and after some additional sanding and puttying should probably leave me with a good base to copper and paint.
 
I've progressed far enough to start to have some opinions about the kit. First, the good. I can't fault the materials. The wood has been good, the laser cutting sharp and clean, the brass, castings, and resin parts look nice and clean. That said, this is not the way I would have designed the kit. That doesn't make it wrong, but I have found a bunch of the steps in this kit to be really awkward. Compared to having the keel in place from the beginning with a nicely carved rabbet to accept the ends of the planks, I have found this to be very difficult. Similarly, building the bulwark core as a separate piece that you have to glue to a relatively narrow (1/16 x 1/16) "L" shape formed by multiple pieces of wood is much more difficult than forming the bulwark from an extension of the bulkheads, and planking both sides. In addition, you may have noticed that the ship is no longer upside down on the building board - this is because it was virtually impossible to fit the large bulwark core in place with it upside down and glued, and in the process of bullying it in place, I accidentally broke the ship loose. At that point, I said to heck with it, and finished it right side up which I found much easier. FWIW, in common with some of the other build logs I've seen on this ship, it seems to me that the instructions are a bit incomplete. I gather that there is a separate CD with a lot of very helpful build images at additional cost. At the moment, it seems to me that the balance between those that are in the instructions and on the CD is off. This isn't a free kit, and while I absolutely get that this kit is expensive to produce, throwing in some more pictures would probably improve the build experience.
 
And to be fair, it's possible that this design works better when everything is perfect, and I'm far from a perfect builder. It's also true that this just isn't the way I'm used to building, and who knows - I might have felt different if this was my fourth go with this method rather than my first. And I think it's going to eventually build to a really nice looking ship. It definitely deserves the 'Admiral' level, though. If I had tried this three ships back, I probably would have put it aside and moved away from wooden ship building. 
 
As always, thanks for looking in!
 
Regards,
George
 

Thanks Rick!
 
So, completed the coarse preparation of the main hull, a bit of putty and some 150 grit sandpaper. It will need more, but I think it's good enough to start putting the inner bulwark pieces in. Once they are planked, I can do a much better job getting the hull ready for paint. The really good news is that I am going to copper the bottom rather than paint it, so any imperfections will be even more hidden. In the photos below (with the frame for the RRS Discovery in the background), I've dry fitted the rudder post, it will come out before the next step. So, starboard side:
 

 
and port side:

 
One observation. I went looking for the relevant pieces for the inner bulwark. The two main pieces were easy to spot. They are LK72(A) and there are two of them. The pieces for the stern are LK72(B) and there are 4. What surprised me was that, on the same sheet, right next to LK72(A) were 4 pieces marked LK27(B), and I couldn't figure out how the heck I was supposed to use them to build the stern. Of course, they were the wrong pieces (I had swapped two digits) and when I saw the actual LK72(B)'s (which are half the thickness and hence on a different sheet), the whole thing made sense. With that said, if BlueJacket ever revises the instructions, they might consider including a diagram or photo of how these pieces work.
 
Thanks for looking in and for the likes!
 
George
 
 
 
 
 

A brief update. The basic planking is completed. It needs some filler and sanding now, before I move on to the bulwarks.
 

 

 
Thanks for looking in!
Regards,
George

Thanks Rick!
 
I'm heading off on a work trip followed by visit to my daughter in Boise, so last update for a couple of weeks. Not a ton to report. Hull planking continues, should be finished by the next update.
 

 
As always, thanks for looking in.
 
Regards,
George

Thanks Rick!
 
I'm temporarily stopped in my Discovery build (broke all of my scroll saw blades, more on the way) so I had some time to work on Kearsarge.  Finished the balsa filler blocks, sanded everything down, and installed the 3/8x1/2 inch boxwood fillers, and mounted her on a build board. Looks like she's ready to start planking. So, some photos.
 
Bow:

 
Stern from above and along side:
 

 
And the ship as a whole:
 

 
Build board, BTW, came from a piece of thin oak "driftwood" that had been paneling around a built in Sub-Zero refrigerator that was here when we bought the house. What a piece of junk that thing was. Replacing with another built in would have been such a hassle that we had a contractor remove it and leave us with a nice conventional refrigerator slot. The extra paneling has been slowly but surely been turned into a wide range of components, this from a bit of leftover from something else.
 
Just validating with @MrBlueJacket that the upper end of the sheer plank (well the bottom with the ship upside down) should align with the edge of the ledge that is formed by the notch. That is, if the blue lines in the picture below are the sheer strake they would go where shown, and the laser cut inner bulkhead core would go into the notch.
 

 
As always, thanks for looking in and for the encouragement and likes!
 
Regards,
George
 
 
 
 

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the ship during the holidays, as my children were visiting. Because of their jobs (one is a reporter and the other works at an inpatient facility for women and girls with eating disorders) they generally need to work some holidays, and this year their schedules wound up conflicting, so they were here sequentially, not in parallel as it were. It was wonderful seeing them, although a shame that they couldn't be here at the same time.
 
Anyway, where we stand. Although it is a little out of order, the frame reveal is completed and mounted. Rather than have some of the frames 'broken' for better visibility, I just decided to leave them all in place. The backing and "ironwork" were soaked in hot water, formed, and then glued in place when dry. The whole thing added below the subdeck, aligned with the bulkheads.
 

 
The other subdeck has been added. Having read the instructions enough, I think I understand the goal, to provide the necessary shape for the bulwarks, with the pieces over the subdeck being removed once the inner bulwark is in place. It needed a bit of sanding to make the edges match the bulkheads.
 

 
I've dry fitted the formers for the stem and stern as well, but not yet glued. Again, my read now is that this is going to be removed once fully build the bulwark. I presume that means that I need to be careful about where I actually glue this in place.
 

 

 
So, that's current status. Next up is going to be the balsa fillers.
 
As always, thanks for looking in and the likes!
 
Regards,
George
 
 

This is how this detail looks like on the HMS Victory in Portsmouth.

Hello,
the wheels are now installed and rigged.


And that is what you later will see of it. But the shipwright is pleased and spend a beer for the crew