BareHook

Thanks everybody for the advices, it is really much easier than I thought
After a lot of experimenting with scrap wood, it turned out that scrapers will not give a straight enough line. There should be something that ignores the grains and goes straight.
So I ended up with a following process, not saying it is the only correct one.
 
Use flat chisel to set the straight line for the rabbet, making two cutoff lines.

 
Cut away the wood between those lines with a blade:

 
Use triangular file to shape the rabbet. Do straight passes:

 
That triangular file was the key part, it keeps the straight line, not going sideways due to a wood grain.
Also if you need to add an angle to the rabbet - just change the angle of the file:

 

 
 
 

My first 4 builds will be ficticious ships due to my naming each after one of my kids, that being said, my "Hannah" as based upon the Schooner Hannah but the accuracy is limited by my kit bashing and ability, since the kit is very limited at best and I didn't feel ready for a full "Hahn" scratch build though I think it will be a fair representation of the vessel.
If I were to try to build a "museum quality historically accurate" vessel, the stress of trying match everything perfectly would likely turn me off somewhat from the hobby during the learning stages of these first builds, but as I develop technique and learn my limits, I will likely take up the challenge of a true historical build in the future.
 
Ken

Thanks for the kind comments gents, and for the likes everyone.
 
It's been a crazy week at work, 13+ hours Tuesday and I was actually supposed to be on vacation today, but worked instead kind of crazy, so not a lot of time spent on the AVS.
 
I did start doing the lower planking, and have now been introduced to the weirdness that is spiling.
I started out by evening up the existing planks at the bow.  I did this by measuring all over the place to determine that the top of the 1/8" blank just above the 1/4" plank was correct along the entire top (at least as far as I could tell), and then using a compass to mark the long lower side based on the measurements from the other side, as measured from the top of that 1/8" plank.  If that makes any sense at all.  After marking it, I just carefully trimmed it with a razor knife.
 

 
Seems to have worked out well enough.  Next I added two spiled planks below this, and that was.. interesting.  One side spiled completely different than the other side between those first two planks, and I think I'll have some odd cleanup to do at the stern, but the 'finished' bottom line of the two sides is oddly even, even though the spiling was completely different.  Strangeness is afoot!
 

 
I also stripped off all the black paint from the stern fashion pieces, sanded everything again, and applied a coat of primer.
 

 
I won't be touching this again until Saturday, as I'm headed to Reno tomorrow morning where I'll be picking up the entire collection of books, magazines, fittings, wood, tools, and even a partially completed Hannah model from a gentlemen that wants to get rid of his entire 30 year accumulation of ship building stuff. 
 
I guess I'll know sometime Friday morning what treasures (or not) I might be loading into the car for the long road trip home!
 
Until Saturday, happy shipbuilding! 

A little further progress. I've completed the fore top (with one exception).I assembled the trestletrees and crosstrees and the mast block and glued them in place under the top. I then drilled all the holes for the deadeyes, the crowsfeet, the spritsail brace blocks, some eyebolts and to mount the railing. I also cut the hole for the lower yard slings and made and added the sling bolster. The assembly was painted black. The railing was made from a boxwood rail and brass stanchions, painted black and glued into the previously drilled holes. The eyebolts were glued in place. Lastly, I stropped the deadeyes and mounted them. The only item remaining was the spritsail brace blocks, which I had forgotten to order from Chuck, and am now awaiting.
 
I'm now working on the lower fore mast, and will complete that before moving back to the main top and lower main mast.
 
Bob

Today I moved on from the stern.  I'll revisit it later once I decide what I really want to do as far as trim, paint, name, etc.
 
No warship is complete, not even a small sloop, without gunports!  So today I did upper bulkhead outer planking, first layer.  I quite enjoyed this part of the project, and other than the fact that it's apparently completely impossible to eliminate all the fuzz from basswood, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
I took a ton of pictures, but when I started to edit them to post I realized that they are all really pretty much repeats of each other just on the next section, so I cut it down to just a few.
 
First section, and then with three sections completed:

 
The stern required a bit different approach, as I there is no way to get clamps on the planks, so I used some pins.

 
One of the things I may possibly have spent a fair chunk of that money mentioned earlier on, a little bit at a time, is clamps.  For the first month I was doing this new hobby, I would grab every clamp that looked like it might possibly be useful, and that I didn't already have.  Some people would say I now have far too many clamps, but I say, there is no such thing as too many clamps!

 
Cut to the chase, as it's past my bedtime now, and nobody likes a grouchy ship builder at work on Monday morning.

 
Hrmm.. looking at that last picture, I didn't get the earlier planks on quite even at the bottom.  I'll have to measure and fix that before I begin lower planking.
 
Until the next time, happy modeling everyone, and thanks for the looks, likes, and comments!
 

So the stern has been an interesting experience.
 
I continued by planking the transom with basswood, marking each plank where the window openings are so that I could open them up when all the planks were in place.  I did not trace the windows based on the marks, but rather opened a narrow opening in the center of each, and then slowly opened them out until I was happy with the window fitment and alignment in each opening.

 
After joining MSW, I read in one of the threads about stuff that could be used to make window glass, and less than a week later I was in a hobby shop and saw a bottle, so I bought it.  I finally got to use it!

 
Works fantastic.  As I started to try to get the windows placed, I quickly realized that it was going to be a pain in the rear to get the windows in without accidentally pushing them too far in, as the nice window glass that was now in place prevented me from holding onto the inside frames with tweezers.  I cut off small bits of planking basswood and glued them into the top and bottom of the openings as window stops.  Looking back I wish I'd brought them out slightly as I think the windows might look better if they protruded from the transom slightly.  Oh well, next time!

 
I first tried to place the walnut planks in a single piece, and then cutting in the window openings, but after breaking the narrow parts repeatedly, I gave up and glued the windows in, and then placed short planking sections between them.  I am not really happy with some of the gaps I've left though.  Since I used CA to place these (in retrospect, I should not have done that) because of trying to maintain the slight arch, re-doing them would be quite difficult, so I left it and will think about how to address the gaps with some kind of filler later on.

 
Next I added walnut filler pieces on the stern end of the currently placed hull planks, and put the transom side fashion pieces on.

 
I then started working on the counter fashion pieces.  My first attempt didn't make me terribly happy, it just didn't look right to me.  It doesn't look all that bad in the picture now that I'm looking at it, but I tossed it.  The mark on the planking is where the top of the wale should be later.

 
My fashion pieces seemed too short compared to the plans and photo's I've looked at, and I think I figured out what is different about my stern (or at least part of it).  Somehow when I did the walnut planking on the counter, instead of grabbing another piece of .030 walnut, I picked up a full thickness walnut plank (about .048) which made the entire counter thicker than it should be, pushing the trailing edge of the fashion piece back a bit.  I figured I'd just go with it this way, since it really shouldn't affect anything except make my stern shaped slightly different.

 
For my first 'intentional' change to a model, I've decided to 'box' the transom by adding another 'fashion piece' (for lack of knowing what it should actually be called) at the top of the counter.  I had to soak this piece of walnut for about an hour, and then I sort of steamed it by placing it in the microwave for a minute wrapped in a wet washcloth.  It was still pretty hard to get to take the bend, but it didn't splinter at all, so I'll take it.

 
As part of my change to 'box' the transom, I intend to extend the black from the black strake to all the fashion pieces and the taff rail.  I decided to paint these pieces now, prior to adding all the other planking that will butt into them, and I started with primer.  I then started with the black.  I think I need to do some research on prepping wood for paint, because I'm really not happy with how the paint looks, it's very rough compared to most of the painted builds I've seen here.  The first coat of black didn't cover well at all.

 
I ended up with 4 coats of black.  Painting has never been a strength for me in modeling, and it showed as I managed to get paint where it shouldn't go in several places.  After the black had dried, I tried to clean up the areas where I got black on the planking, but I think I screwed up and exposed more primer and fashion piece wood than I cleaned up on the planks. 
 
Oops, hit post too soon, adding pictures.
 

 
I will revisit the stern later and clean up the fashion piece painting, as well as hopefully figure out a way to do something about the gaps around the windows.  I think I'll probably sand the fashion pieces all down smooth and try again.
 
For now though, I'm moving on, as I'm kind of tired of messing with the stern.

I neglected in my last update to explain how I am going to proceed from here. The kit was designed as a hull only Admiralty type model. As a result, all of the masting and rigging has to be done from scratch. My two primary references for this work will be AOTS Essex and Lees. I am confident that a representative job can be done this way. All of the blocks and rigging line will be from Syren (Chuck). The deadeyes are from Model Expo (I have a lot of them on hand). Some specialty items, such as the already done hearts, will be done from scratch.
 
The order of the work should be roughly as follows: the bowsprit (done); the lower masts and tops; the lower deadeyes and chains; complete the hull by doing the hammock netting; the lower standing rigging; the topmasts and jib boom and their standing rigging; the topgallant and royal masts and the flying jibboom and their standing rigging; the yards and the running rigging; the boats, anchors, lantern and any remaining undone items.
 
I've begun the lower mast work by starting on the tops. So far, I've made up the decking from holly strip and added the rims and other reinforcing pieces from holly and boxwood. i've also made up from boxwood and dry fitted the trestletrees and crosstrees. A lot of holes need to drilled and other parts such as railings need to be added. These assemblies will be painted black. Before finishing the tops, I will at least partially make the lower masts.
 
Bob

I added the cap rails and upper deck rail frames, so now I can complete the planking. I created a small separate nose rail peice at the bow that allowed me to have the knight heads as solid frames down through the deck. I just need to trim the tops and shape them.
 
I have a bit of scroll work to carve, I plan to try it on walnut and see how it goes. There is also a black arch on the transom that is a thin plank over the transom planking, but at this scale, I think painted card stock will work for that.
 
I hope to have the hull complete and finished soon, then I can start to focus on the deck furniture and fittings.
 
Ken

So took last night off as I worked late and was tired, so didn't feel like I should tackle the other waterway shaping.
 
Tonight I shaped the second waterway, and then placed both waterways on the sub deck.  In the process of trying to hold one of them tight while the glue took a set (really have no idea how I would get a clamp on these, so I used CVA with CA at the points that didn't want to stay down on the deck) I managed to break my first bulkhead extension.  It didn't break all the way off, and broke right at the top edge of the waterway, so I was able to just inject some CVA between the extension and the outer planking and hold it there for a couple minutes to repair it.
 

 
I then placed the first of the transom planks using an oversized plank so that it could be trimmed down after.
 

 
And then I completed the transom planking down to the bottom of the wale.
 

 
While trimming the transom planks, I managed to break another bulkhead extension.  This one is on the quarterdeck, so no real way to repair it right now.  I'm just going to try to be very careful and not finish breaking it (like the other, it's cracked, not broken completely off) before I get the upper planking in so I can glue it to the outer planking.
 
I trimmed the basswood planks I had previously placed a little bit short of the transom planking, as the plans show that I need to add a short 'false plank' section out of walnut at the stern end of those planks as the basswood will show from the stern.  I am not going to try to place those walnut pieces right now, but will wait until I can see what is actually exposed and how best to do it.

Hello friends.
Iron construction of the handrail mounted.
Karl   
 
 
T e i l    52

I've loose fitted the rudder, pintiles and gudgeons. After blackening the brass, they wil be bonded in place. I came up with an easy way to create the rudder hardware, I cut a strip of brass the combined width for pintle and gudgeon and slit it down the middle with a dremel cutoff blade, leaving a center section the width of the rudder solid and bent the strips opposite around the rudder and hull to form the assembly. The rudder is stained to match the walnut hull after it is finished, so appears darker at this time.
 
I've completed the upper planking to the main caprail and am pretty happy with the results in planking to the frames.
 
Next is the main caprails which are fabbed and painted (no pic).On many models of the Hannah, the next plank above the cap rail is of a lighter wood, then a false rail with scroll work, I may keep the plank walnut as the rest, since all the cap/false rails will be black.

I've loose fitted the rudder, pintiles and gudgeons. After blackening the brass, they wil be bonded in place. I came up with an easy way to create the rudder hardware, I cut a strip of brass the combined width for pintle and gudgeon and slit it down the middle with a dremel cutoff blade, leaving a center section the width of the rudder solid and bent the strips opposite around the rudder and hull to form the assembly. The rudder is stained to match the walnut hull after it is finished, so appears darker at this time.
 
I've completed the upper planking to the main caprail and am pretty happy with the results in planking to the frames.
 
Next is the main caprails which are fabbed and painted (no pic).On many models of the Hannah, the next plank above the cap rail is of a lighter wood, then a false rail with scroll work, I may keep the plank walnut as the rest, since all the cap/false rails will be black.

Slow progress continues as I move on from the stern today, and begin work on the timberheads and knightsheads.  I cut out the rabbets for them to glue into, and shaped the knightsheads, but the timberheads require a wider piece of wood than the kit provides because of the odd parallelogram shape, so I doubled up the wood and glued them together.  After getting them shaped to fit, but not 'thinned' down, I decided that there was no way that these would not get broken off by my ham fists, so I drilled them for pins before placing them into their final resting places (hopefully).
 

 
At this point all of the bulkwark extensions need to be faired on the inside, but given how thin they need to be made, they are sure to be quite fragile and break, so a 1/4" wide plank is placed to bridge the sub-deck line.  Before placing that plank, the timberheads and knightsheads are faired into the outside hull shap.  Then another 1/8" plank is placed above the 1/4" plank, and now even if the fairing process of the extensions is done terribly (which I did manage on a couple of them), they won't go anywhere or break off, as they are secured by the outer planking.  Also, before the planking can begin, the stem needs to have the rabbet extended through it, as the outer planks set into it above where the false keel is.
 

 
After the bulkhead extensions were faired on the inside (no pictures, as they don't really seem like something that would show up well in photos, or be very interesting, so I didn't take any), then comes the waterways.  These pieces are laser cut walnut, and mine were quite badly laser burned and double cut for about half the length, so they are probably slightly narrow, and were a massive pain to clean up.  The outside edge needs to be beveled to fit up against the bulwark extensions snugly, and I did this with a hard sanding block without too much difficulty.  The inside top needs to be beveled as well, 1/16" in from the top edge, down to where the deck planking will meet it on the inside edge (3/64" planking).  I used a compass to mark the 1/16" line along the top, and then used a piece of 3/64 basswood planking with a fine .05 mechanical pencil to mark the inside edge.
 
I beveled the inside edge using a scalpel type X-acto blade.  After about 30 minutes I decided I really don't like the waterways.    After a bit over an hour I finished the port side, and now my hand hurts (from holding the blade - I somehow managed not to slice part of my anatomy off doing this), so the starboard one gets to wait for tomorrow.
 

 
Alistair and some others may recognize that my sequence of construction is following the Bob Hunt practicum (mostly, I'm deviating here and there), which I did decide to get and use for this build.  Not sure if I mentioned that before.
 
 

It does look fine the way you built it Barehook, thanks for the photos.
 
Random mid-day non-update update.
 
Sample planks comparing wood from the kit vs. some I got from Ebay.
 

 
As is labeled in the photo, Cherry, Sapele, Black Walnut, and the kit supplied .020 thickness Walnut.  Taken with a flash.
 
Planks were cut to length, not beveled, then rough sanded, lightly sanded with 240 grit, wiped with a damp cloth, and then when dry given a single rubbed in coat of wipe-on satin poly.

So yesterday I placed the inner two stern frames based on how the Bob Hunt practicum indicates it should be done, but got nothing else done as I had a long work day and an HOA meeting at night.  This evening I sat down and started trying to get the outer frames to line up in a way that they looked right, and no matter what I did, if I had one edge aligned properly and the window tight, the other edge was all kinds of out of whack. 
 
So I went back and stared at the plans for a while, and it dawned on me while I was looking at them that the Hunt practicum is wrong in this area.  He has the #1 frames only beveled to match the sub-deck, and then glued to the keel, but the plans show something completely different.  The plans show that frame #1 needs to be angled in such a way that the top and bottom of the window frames are level, meaning that the top of frame #1 needs to be narrower than the bottom, and the wing transom ends up completely flat, not angled as shown in the practicum.  But then the 'expanded transom' detail does show a slight curve, so in reality, perhaps it's a little bit of both.
So tonight ended up being a 'go backwards' night, as I soaked the #2 frames to remove them so that I could get to the #1 frames and then re-align the #2's.  Unfortunately I managed to rip off part of the sub-deck with one of the #2 frames, and all the water has made it all wavy because it's so thin.  Hopefully I'll be able to fix that after it's dried by gluing it down to blocks or the top window frame supports.
 
I left the #1 frames in place, as in looking at things, I only need to angle the outer edge where the window frame will sit, and I think I can do that with it in place, rather than trying to remove it from it's very well glued spot against the keel.
 
From last night, placing the frames:
 

 
The various plan views showing what I mean above.

 
And the destruction showing the damage to the sub-deck.  Going to let this mess all dry overnight before I touch it and try to make it right.
 

Or inspire Chuck at Syren to create a molded upgrade figurehead as was done for confederacy.

I've been working on two areas --one successfully and one not so much. The bowsprit is done, but not yet permanently installed. The work included tapering and shaping the piece, making and adding the bees and bee blocks, making and adding the cap, making and adding the dolphin striker, making and adding the gammoning cleats, jib boom saddle and spritsail sling saddle and adding the single woolding. The bowsprit itself is a dowel, stained with golden oak stain, and the other wooden parts are boxwood. The bowsprit will not be mounted until the various hearts and deadeyes have been attached.
 
 I have made the hearts from boxwood strip and the deadeyes I'm using are from Model Expo. I am now in the process of making their collars.
 
The less productive work that I've been doing is on the figurehead. I can only describe my efforts to date, both with clay and wood, to be embarrassingly pathetic. So bad in fact that I took no pictures and won't even describe the results. I need to do some rethinking. 
 
Bob

When last we saw our intrepid little boat, the subdecks had been glued, but no fairing had been done.  Since then some progress has been made in that department.
I began by doing a 'rough' fairing to see where I needed to add any shims.
 

 
Because of adding all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads prior to mounting them, I found that no shimming was needed except for about half a dozen extensions that were not going to touch the planking without causing a 'dip', or needing to remove far too much material from their neighbors.
 
Once again I dipped into the 3/64ths basswood deck planking, and cut pieces for the extensions.  I used a second piece of basswood in the clamping so that the alligator clamps I used wouldn't leave divots in the shims where I didn't think I needed to sand very much material away.  Here you can see my clamping system so that I could use regular wood glue to hold the extension shims in place.
 

 
I made some blocks to reinforce the mast mortise, and placed them.  I made them overly long as I didn't want to apply a lot of glue right around the mortise.  This is also why I added a 'shim' to the edge of them, to get more glue surface away from the mortise opening.
 

 
I cut out bow fillers to a rough size with a hand scroll saw (I see a nice power band saw in my future I think, every time I use the scroll saw I see how useful of a tool it would be where I could guide a piece with both hands or a fence) and then did all the shaping with my Dremel and a drum-sanding attachment.  Once I had them nearly right I glued them in place before the final fairing, as I wanted them fixed in place to do the final shaping against the bulkhead, keel, and deck.
 

 
I did another run with a rough (120 grit) sanding block and reduced all of the bulkheads until I was seeing 'kit bulkhead' material on all the higher bulkheads, so that my mass shimming didn't cause the hull to be too 'fat'. 
 

 
I also realized that I had never beveled the stem, so I finished that, and trimmed the excess wood from the keel that extended aft beyond the sternpost.  At some point I need to make a tiny filler for the hole where the sternpost and keel connect that was left because of the keel being the wrong length.
 
And a couple test plank runs.  Very happy with how nicely they lay all the way from the keel up to the top of the bulkheads.
 

 
Still need to do a final pass with a 250 grit sanding block, but I am going to build out the stern and get it faired up with the hull before I do that.  Looks like the stern should occupy quite a few hours to get it right.
 
Fairly amazing to think that on the Carmen I was at this point in the build within a few hours of starting, since I didn't know any better, and did pretty much none of this early preparation work!  Then again, the planks didn't lay anything like this when I started working on them.

I had a box on the door this evening.  The replacement bulkhead arrived from Model Shipways exactly 1 week after they responded saying they would replace it, so pretty happy with their service.  They sent the entire sheet, and the bulkhead "F" is perfectly cut, so my kit part was an anomaly, not an issue with their pattern.
 
Obviously I won't be using it at this point, but it's nice to know they support their product and if I ever do get stuck with a bad part, I won't have to wait too long for a replacement.
 
I got the hull faired with 120 grit, but it was a long day at work and I'm not going to finish it tonight, so no real update or pictures.

Don't worry about the subdeck details, just make sure your final details are located and centered, Its all covered by the deck planks anyway.
Ken

Looking great, I like yoyr clamping and bonding ideas and plan to use them myself.
Don't forget to bond a block on each side of the mast step bulkhead before planking, they enclose the mast footing.
 
Ken

Thank you Slog.
 
I've finished the reinforcement blocks finally, although I chose to completely fill the final two gaps at the bow rather than use the blocks, in order to help me see the 'flow' of the hull up there when I get to fairing.
 
While doing the reinforcement blocks, I used the opportunity to correct any minor out of square issues with the bulkheads.  I did this by measuring at multiple points along the top of each bulkhead, always taking my measurements off of bulkhead 'O' which I took great care to square up with all the stern bulkheads and the keel.
 

 
After measuring to determine if I needed any adjustments to the bulkheads, I would cut individual blocks and then fine tune them until they caused the measurements from bulkhead 'O' to be right where I wanted them, and equal on both sides.  I was having some issues where the addition of the glue prior to final fitting would actually change my measurements slightly, so I devised a technique to apply the glue after fitting the blocks in place, so that I did not need to compensate for the glue thickness on the ends of the blocks.
 
After my final measurements and test fitting was complete, I cut a 'cross' into both ends of the block with a razor saw.
 

 
I would then slightly widen the leg of the cross that would be 'outboard', and then place the block without glue, and hold it in place (if needed) with needle nose pliers, while I used a syringe to inject the glue into the cross via the slightly wider leg.
 

 
As can be seen here, the glue would flow through the cross, and would almost always bubble out of each of the other three points almost equally. 
 

 
This method seemed to work quite well, and I had no measurement changes between the final test fit, and the glued in blocks after starting this system.  After the glue had set for a couple minutes I would then use the syringe to lay a 'bead' of glue around all four edges of the block where it laid against the bulkheads.  Testing several blocks that were completely dried shows that they have plenty of strength with this system.
 
After inserting the last two spaces with filler blocks, this is where I'm currently at. 
 

 
Every bulkhead is even with bulkhead 'O'  along at least 3 points on each side, to less than 0.5mm now with all reinforcements in place.
 
Next I'll begin to work on the sub-decks braces and sub-decks for fitment, and the bow fillers I think.

Thanks Rich, and I got your message and sent him an email.
 
Alistair, thanks for the tip - I could probably use that same filler that messed up the Carmen hull so much, as it's very light colored (which was the problem with it in that scenario on walnut).  I'll do some testing with that.
 
Fairly brief update tonight, spent most of the day at a charity event so not much time on the ship.
 
I finished gluing in all the bulkheads, and I have started placing reinforcing blocks between the bulkheads.  I'm using 5/16" square basswood for the blocks.  I was going to use balsa, but it's just as expensive as basswood, so I just got basswood figuring it will always be useful to have extra basswood bits around.
 
After last nights update, I decided to do "one more bulkhead" before bed.  Yea, I'm dumb that way.  I managed to get distracted after gluing it in place and setting the blocks against it, and left it so long that the excess glue got onto the blocks and glued the bulkhead to both blocks.  I broke both sides of the bulkhead trying to get them apart.  Because the center slot was solid, and the breaks were both clean, I drilled a hole through the center of the now solid slot, drilled a hole into both sides and pinned the broken pieces all back together with a single long pin made from a toothpick.  After the glue dried, I think it's the strongest bulkhead I have now.
 

Looking good, you may want to add some support blocks bonded between the bulkheads to stiffen up and keep the keel strait while planking, Also make sure you take plenty of time in fairing the bulkheads, seems almost everyone who builds the AVS reflect that they could or should have done more fairing.
 
Ken

Hi Frank!  I guess that the MS kits have issues with bulkhead alignments.  Oh well, I guess they have to make it a challenge somehow, other than including the worst rigging line in the history of the universe. 
 
Some photos to catch up with my text.
 
Work on pre-cutting the rabbet prior to installing the keel.

 
Installed the keel, stem, and sternpost.  The stem had to be done twice since it shifted when I left it to dry overnight.  The sternpost required that the slot in the keel be re-made, as it was out of position.  I've read that this seems to be a common issue with the kit.  Took some sanding to get the sternpost to fit decently.
 

 
After the keel was dried for a while, I finished the rabbet.  I did this using a suggested method of using a piece of planking made up with both the basswood inner, and walnut outer plank stuck together for sizing.  Doing this I think I have a larger rabbet than is indicated anywhere in order to make it fit right.  Guess I'll find out later how it works out.
 

 
Jpett started a thread yesterday in Wood Tips reminding me that I needed to make a build board, so I chopped up a piece of MDF shelf, and made a thing.
 

 
Finished attaching all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads.  After some thought I decided not to extend the shims all the way up the extensions, as I think that will make fairing more difficult, as I won't have a baseline of the extensions to work from.
 

 
And then, I began fitting bulkheads.  Started at the rear, let each bulkhead dry for 30 minutes or so (using Titebond wood glue - it sets up pretty solid in 30 minutes).
 

 
While I was waiting on the bulkheads to dry, I chopped up a piece of maple strip and made a test decking bit to see how maple might look like if I can't get Holly in a timely manner.  I need to work on my planking techniques before I get to the real thing.  Not sure what to use for the nail holes (i.e. what to fill them with) at this point.
 

 
Apparently I also need to work on getting the subject matter into the focused area of the shot!
Plugging away at the bulkhead mounting, hope to have them all finished tomorrow.