RMC

The side rails are causing a few self-inflicted problems. The head rail has been glued with far less drama than I expected. It is supposed to butt against the side rails.  However I have fixed Part 96 in a way that makes that impossible. I have therefore shaped the forward part of the side rails to butt against part 96. As well I have cut the two gaps in the side rails to provide for the guns.
 

 
Here are the notches cut to butt against part 96.
 

 

 
The rails dry-fitted.
 

 
The following photo shows a side rail butted against part 96.  It is dry-fitted.
 

 
I have cut a notch at the end of  the mid-deck gunwale  to enable fitting it in what appears to be in the correct position. I found the plan and instructions here far from clear.
 

 

 
I am not sure at the moment how best to close the gap between the side rail and the gunwale.
 

 

The side rails are causing a few self-inflicted problems. The head rail has been glued with far less drama than I expected. It is supposed to butt against the side rails.  However I have fixed Part 96 in a way that makes that impossible. I have therefore shaped the forward part of the side rails to butt against part 96. As well I have cut the two gaps in the side rails to provide for the guns.
 

 
Here are the notches cut to butt against part 96.
 

 

 
The rails dry-fitted.
 

 
The following photo shows a side rail butted against part 96.  It is dry-fitted.
 

 
I have cut a notch at the end of  the mid-deck gunwale  to enable fitting it in what appears to be in the correct position. I found the plan and instructions here far from clear.
 

 

 
I am not sure at the moment how best to close the gap between the side rail and the gunwale.
 

 

The side rails are causing a few self-inflicted problems. The head rail has been glued with far less drama than I expected. It is supposed to butt against the side rails.  However I have fixed Part 96 in a way that makes that impossible. I have therefore shaped the forward part of the side rails to butt against part 96. As well I have cut the two gaps in the side rails to provide for the guns.
 

 
Here are the notches cut to butt against part 96.
 

 

 
The rails dry-fitted.
 

 
The following photo shows a side rail butted against part 96.  It is dry-fitted.
 

 
I have cut a notch at the end of  the mid-deck gunwale  to enable fitting it in what appears to be in the correct position. I found the plan and instructions here far from clear.
 

 

 
I am not sure at the moment how best to close the gap between the side rail and the gunwale.
 

 

The side rails are causing a few self-inflicted problems. The head rail has been glued with far less drama than I expected. It is supposed to butt against the side rails.  However I have fixed Part 96 in a way that makes that impossible. I have therefore shaped the forward part of the side rails to butt against part 96. As well I have cut the two gaps in the side rails to provide for the guns.
 

 
Here are the notches cut to butt against part 96.
 

 

 
The rails dry-fitted.
 

 
The following photo shows a side rail butted against part 96.  It is dry-fitted.
 

 
I have cut a notch at the end of  the mid-deck gunwale  to enable fitting it in what appears to be in the correct position. I found the plan and instructions here far from clear.
 

 

 
I am not sure at the moment how best to close the gap between the side rail and the gunwale.
 

 

The side rails are causing a few self-inflicted problems. The head rail has been glued with far less drama than I expected. It is supposed to butt against the side rails.  However I have fixed Part 96 in a way that makes that impossible. I have therefore shaped the forward part of the side rails to butt against part 96. As well I have cut the two gaps in the side rails to provide for the guns.
 

 
Here are the notches cut to butt against part 96.
 

 

 
The rails dry-fitted.
 

 
The following photo shows a side rail butted against part 96.  It is dry-fitted.
 

 
I have cut a notch at the end of  the mid-deck gunwale  to enable fitting it in what appears to be in the correct position. I found the plan and instructions here far from clear.
 

 

 
I am not sure at the moment how best to close the gap between the side rail and the gunwale.
 

 

I have been working on the forward railings and the gunports on the upper deck. I have just realised that the rear end of the side railings require an angled piece of timber to join the upper and lower parts of the rails. As well there seems to be a curved bit of timber required that butts onto the end of the lower part of the railing that covers the curved decorative molding. I can't see a part like this listed, so I guess it needs to be fabricated.
 
The forward railng is dry-fitted here and I'm not looking forward to gluing it over the curved timber to which it must be attached. It will be under a fair amount of stress.  The side railings must then be fitted to the front railing and in doing this, the corners with the protruding decoration will be an intereresting exercise .
 

 

 
 
The lower sills of the gunports required filling - I used Intergrain water-based woodfiller. (The Intergrain is far superior to others I have used.) The openings then need to be painted. As all the rest of the hull is already painted, each opening needs to be carefully masked.  For this  I used Humbrol Maskol again. It's effective but a bit fiddly to work with. So far I have only completed one side. Once both sides are painted, a couple of coats of polyurethane should finish the job.
 
The next two photos show the gap between the exterior of the hull and the inside wall. Here, for the filling, the exterior was masked by Tamiya tape.
 

 

 
The gaps filled.
 

 
The gunport openings painted awaiting two coats of poly.



 

The photo of the screen was quite blurry.  This should be a bit clearer.
 

I have been working on the forward railings and the gunports on the upper deck. I have just realised that the rear end of the side railings require an angled piece of timber to join the upper and lower parts of the rails. As well there seems to be a curved bit of timber required that butts onto the end of the lower part of the railing that covers the curved decorative molding. I can't see a part like this listed, so I guess it needs to be fabricated.
 
The forward railng is dry-fitted here and I'm not looking forward to gluing it over the curved timber to which it must be attached. It will be under a fair amount of stress.  The side railings must then be fitted to the front railing and in doing this, the corners with the protruding decoration will be an intereresting exercise .
 

 

 
 
The lower sills of the gunports required filling - I used Intergrain water-based woodfiller. (The Intergrain is far superior to others I have used.) The openings then need to be painted. As all the rest of the hull is already painted, each opening needs to be carefully masked.  For this  I used Humbrol Maskol again. It's effective but a bit fiddly to work with. So far I have only completed one side. Once both sides are painted, a couple of coats of polyurethane should finish the job.
 
The next two photos show the gap between the exterior of the hull and the inside wall. Here, for the filling, the exterior was masked by Tamiya tape.
 

 

 
The gaps filled.
 

 
The gunport openings painted awaiting two coats of poly.



 

I have been working on the forward railings and the gunports on the upper deck. I have just realised that the rear end of the side railings require an angled piece of timber to join the upper and lower parts of the rails. As well there seems to be a curved bit of timber required that butts onto the end of the lower part of the railing that covers the curved decorative molding. I can't see a part like this listed, so I guess it needs to be fabricated.
 
The forward railng is dry-fitted here and I'm not looking forward to gluing it over the curved timber to which it must be attached. It will be under a fair amount of stress.  The side railings must then be fitted to the front railing and in doing this, the corners with the protruding decoration will be an intereresting exercise .
 

 

 
 
The lower sills of the gunports required filling - I used Intergrain water-based woodfiller. (The Intergrain is far superior to others I have used.) The openings then need to be painted. As all the rest of the hull is already painted, each opening needs to be carefully masked.  For this  I used Humbrol Maskol again. It's effective but a bit fiddly to work with. So far I have only completed one side. Once both sides are painted, a couple of coats of polyurethane should finish the job.
 
The next two photos show the gap between the exterior of the hull and the inside wall. Here, for the filling, the exterior was masked by Tamiya tape.
 

 

 
The gaps filled.
 

 
The gunport openings painted awaiting two coats of poly.



 

I have been working on the forward railings and the gunports on the upper deck. I have just realised that the rear end of the side railings require an angled piece of timber to join the upper and lower parts of the rails. As well there seems to be a curved bit of timber required that butts onto the end of the lower part of the railing that covers the curved decorative molding. I can't see a part like this listed, so I guess it needs to be fabricated.
 
The forward railng is dry-fitted here and I'm not looking forward to gluing it over the curved timber to which it must be attached. It will be under a fair amount of stress.  The side railings must then be fitted to the front railing and in doing this, the corners with the protruding decoration will be an intereresting exercise .
 

 

 
 
The lower sills of the gunports required filling - I used Intergrain water-based woodfiller. (The Intergrain is far superior to others I have used.) The openings then need to be painted. As all the rest of the hull is already painted, each opening needs to be carefully masked.  For this  I used Humbrol Maskol again. It's effective but a bit fiddly to work with. So far I have only completed one side. Once both sides are painted, a couple of coats of polyurethane should finish the job.
 
The next two photos show the gap between the exterior of the hull and the inside wall. Here, for the filling, the exterior was masked by Tamiya tape.
 

 

 
The gaps filled.
 

 
The gunport openings painted awaiting two coats of poly.



 

Here is the beginning of the main yard.  There was not as much progess over the weekend as I'd hoped.  Doing the octagonal centre piece turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought and it turned out quite well.  Having more suitable tools would have helped however in making the edges more defined.  Once I had worked out the dimensions of each side of the octogon, I used Tamiya tape to delineate the edges, then used an Exacto knife to plane the surface flat. (The little plane I bought has proven to be the most useless tool in the box.)
 

 

 

Once the octagonal section was done  I used my Proxxon lathe to taper each end.  The tapering was done in stages. For example I first measured 40 mm along the yard from the end of the octagonal section, referred to the plan to see the thickness of the yard at that point, and tapered the intervening distance appropriately. I then did to same for the next 40 mm ......  The following picture shows about 80mm tapered.

 
Here is the (semi) finished yard tapered at both ends (the tapers turned out to be pretty well spot on to my pleasant surprise).  The octagonal section does not show up well in the photo unfortunately
 

I have been working on the forward railings and the gunports on the upper deck. I have just realised that the rear end of the side railings require an angled piece of timber to join the upper and lower parts of the rails. As well there seems to be a curved bit of timber required that butts onto the end of the lower part of the railing that covers the curved decorative molding. I can't see a part like this listed, so I guess it needs to be fabricated.
 
The forward railng is dry-fitted here and I'm not looking forward to gluing it over the curved timber to which it must be attached. It will be under a fair amount of stress.  The side railings must then be fitted to the front railing and in doing this, the corners with the protruding decoration will be an intereresting exercise .
 

 

 
 
The lower sills of the gunports required filling - I used Intergrain water-based woodfiller. (The Intergrain is far superior to others I have used.) The openings then need to be painted. As all the rest of the hull is already painted, each opening needs to be carefully masked.  For this  I used Humbrol Maskol again. It's effective but a bit fiddly to work with. So far I have only completed one side. Once both sides are painted, a couple of coats of polyurethane should finish the job.
 
The next two photos show the gap between the exterior of the hull and the inside wall. Here, for the filling, the exterior was masked by Tamiya tape.
 

 

 
The gaps filled.
 

 
The gunport openings painted awaiting two coats of poly.



 

Here is the beginning of the main yard.  There was not as much progess over the weekend as I'd hoped.  Doing the octagonal centre piece turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought and it turned out quite well.  Having more suitable tools would have helped however in making the edges more defined.  Once I had worked out the dimensions of each side of the octogon, I used Tamiya tape to delineate the edges, then used an Exacto knife to plane the surface flat. (The little plane I bought has proven to be the most useless tool in the box.)
 

 

 

Once the octagonal section was done  I used my Proxxon lathe to taper each end.  The tapering was done in stages. For example I first measured 40 mm along the yard from the end of the octagonal section, referred to the plan to see the thickness of the yard at that point, and tapered the intervening distance appropriately. I then did to same for the next 40 mm ......  The following picture shows about 80mm tapered.

 
Here is the (semi) finished yard tapered at both ends (the tapers turned out to be pretty well spot on to my pleasant surprise).  The octagonal section does not show up well in the photo unfortunately
 

Here is the beginning of the main yard.  There was not as much progess over the weekend as I'd hoped.  Doing the octagonal centre piece turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought and it turned out quite well.  Having more suitable tools would have helped however in making the edges more defined.  Once I had worked out the dimensions of each side of the octogon, I used Tamiya tape to delineate the edges, then used an Exacto knife to plane the surface flat. (The little plane I bought has proven to be the most useless tool in the box.)
 

 

 

Once the octagonal section was done  I used my Proxxon lathe to taper each end.  The tapering was done in stages. For example I first measured 40 mm along the yard from the end of the octagonal section, referred to the plan to see the thickness of the yard at that point, and tapered the intervening distance appropriately. I then did to same for the next 40 mm ......  The following picture shows about 80mm tapered.

 
Here is the (semi) finished yard tapered at both ends (the tapers turned out to be pretty well spot on to my pleasant surprise).  The octagonal section does not show up well in the photo unfortunately
 

Here is the beginning of the main yard.  There was not as much progess over the weekend as I'd hoped.  Doing the octagonal centre piece turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought and it turned out quite well.  Having more suitable tools would have helped however in making the edges more defined.  Once I had worked out the dimensions of each side of the octogon, I used Tamiya tape to delineate the edges, then used an Exacto knife to plane the surface flat. (The little plane I bought has proven to be the most useless tool in the box.)
 

 

 

Once the octagonal section was done  I used my Proxxon lathe to taper each end.  The tapering was done in stages. For example I first measured 40 mm along the yard from the end of the octagonal section, referred to the plan to see the thickness of the yard at that point, and tapered the intervening distance appropriately. I then did to same for the next 40 mm ......  The following picture shows about 80mm tapered.

 
Here is the (semi) finished yard tapered at both ends (the tapers turned out to be pretty well spot on to my pleasant surprise).  The octagonal section does not show up well in the photo unfortunately
 

Here is the beginning of the main yard.  There was not as much progess over the weekend as I'd hoped.  Doing the octagonal centre piece turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought and it turned out quite well.  Having more suitable tools would have helped however in making the edges more defined.  Once I had worked out the dimensions of each side of the octogon, I used Tamiya tape to delineate the edges, then used an Exacto knife to plane the surface flat. (The little plane I bought has proven to be the most useless tool in the box.)
 

 

 

Once the octagonal section was done  I used my Proxxon lathe to taper each end.  The tapering was done in stages. For example I first measured 40 mm along the yard from the end of the octagonal section, referred to the plan to see the thickness of the yard at that point, and tapered the intervening distance appropriately. I then did to same for the next 40 mm ......  The following picture shows about 80mm tapered.

 
Here is the (semi) finished yard tapered at both ends (the tapers turned out to be pretty well spot on to my pleasant surprise).  The octagonal section does not show up well in the photo unfortunately
 

Thankfully the planking  etc is finally finished. While taking a break from treenails I began the quarter deck barricade assembly.  It proved, and is proving a very tricky little job.  The columns are tiny - about 6mm high and about 1.5- 2mm in diameter. I used a pin vice to drill 0.6mm holes top and bottom of the columns and in the bottom part of the assemby to receive the columns.  Brass 'rod' (from small eyelets) was inserted in the bottom assemby and the columns glued using 'slow' CA.  Nails had been inserted in the tops of the columns to enable the columns to  be properly aligned with the curved top-piece of the assembly.
 

 

 

 
The screen has now been added and I have dry fitted the rear hatch, binacle and the mizzen mast, just to see how things look.  The stairs and the hand ropes in the hatch have been done in the same way as earlier done. I gives a good result and is far less trouble than alternative methods.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

I couldn't find the post so I went ahead with pine water-based filler for the treenails.  It is a bit too light and noticable unfortunately - but I'm certainly not doing it again. I hope that with all the other stuff that will eventually on the decks they won't really be all that obvious - which is a bit ironic. 
 
I have probably gotten a bit carried away with the number of photos here, but I am still experimenting with the new camera.
 
 
The first two photos show the the holes for the treenails before filling.

 

 
The following photo shows the holes filled before a coat of polyurethane.
 

 

 
 
 
The deck with one coat  of poly.  Another coat has since been applied.  I have not bothered too much about the deck planking that will be behind the screen towards the stern. It should hardly be noticed through the gun ports.
 

 

 

 
While taking a break from drilling/filling holes I began making the belfry.  It proved to be a bit tricky to get everything square. I eventually used a piece of scrap balsa to mount the sides and the cross-piece.  Nails are supposed to provide support for the cross-piece, but they proved to be far too big for a very small piece of 1.5mm ply.  I ended up using a couple of small brass eyelets.  It has yet to be painted and coated with poly.
 

 

 

 

 

 
In doing the treenails I found dust getting in to all sorts of comparatively inaccessible places. If anyone has some recommendations regarding small vacuum cleaners I'd be grateful.
 
 
 
 

The photo of the screen was quite blurry.  This should be a bit clearer.
 

Thankfully the planking  etc is finally finished. While taking a break from treenails I began the quarter deck barricade assembly.  It proved, and is proving a very tricky little job.  The columns are tiny - about 6mm high and about 1.5- 2mm in diameter. I used a pin vice to drill 0.6mm holes top and bottom of the columns and in the bottom part of the assemby to receive the columns.  Brass 'rod' (from small eyelets) was inserted in the bottom assemby and the columns glued using 'slow' CA.  Nails had been inserted in the tops of the columns to enable the columns to  be properly aligned with the curved top-piece of the assembly.
 

 

 

 
The screen has now been added and I have dry fitted the rear hatch, binacle and the mizzen mast, just to see how things look.  The stairs and the hand ropes in the hatch have been done in the same way as earlier done. I gives a good result and is far less trouble than alternative methods.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The photo of the screen was quite blurry.  This should be a bit clearer.
 

I couldn't find the post so I went ahead with pine water-based filler for the treenails.  It is a bit too light and noticable unfortunately - but I'm certainly not doing it again. I hope that with all the other stuff that will eventually on the decks they won't really be all that obvious - which is a bit ironic. 
 
I have probably gotten a bit carried away with the number of photos here, but I am still experimenting with the new camera.
 
 
The first two photos show the the holes for the treenails before filling.

 

 
The following photo shows the holes filled before a coat of polyurethane.
 

 

 
 
 
The deck with one coat  of poly.  Another coat has since been applied.  I have not bothered too much about the deck planking that will be behind the screen towards the stern. It should hardly be noticed through the gun ports.
 

 

 

 
While taking a break from drilling/filling holes I began making the belfry.  It proved to be a bit tricky to get everything square. I eventually used a piece of scrap balsa to mount the sides and the cross-piece.  Nails are supposed to provide support for the cross-piece, but they proved to be far too big for a very small piece of 1.5mm ply.  I ended up using a couple of small brass eyelets.  It has yet to be painted and coated with poly.
 

 

 

 

 

 
In doing the treenails I found dust getting in to all sorts of comparatively inaccessible places. If anyone has some recommendations regarding small vacuum cleaners I'd be grateful.
 
 
 
 

The photo of the screen was quite blurry.  This should be a bit clearer.
 

Thankfully the planking  etc is finally finished. While taking a break from treenails I began the quarter deck barricade assembly.  It proved, and is proving a very tricky little job.  The columns are tiny - about 6mm high and about 1.5- 2mm in diameter. I used a pin vice to drill 0.6mm holes top and bottom of the columns and in the bottom part of the assemby to receive the columns.  Brass 'rod' (from small eyelets) was inserted in the bottom assemby and the columns glued using 'slow' CA.  Nails had been inserted in the tops of the columns to enable the columns to  be properly aligned with the curved top-piece of the assembly.
 

 

 

 
The screen has now been added and I have dry fitted the rear hatch, binacle and the mizzen mast, just to see how things look.  The stairs and the hand ropes in the hatch have been done in the same way as earlier done. I gives a good result and is far less trouble than alternative methods.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The photo of the screen was quite blurry.  This should be a bit clearer.