Beef Wellington

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

Thank you Thomas and Michael, it's great to receive positive comments from those whose work I also admire..
 
Post Eighty- four
 
A few steps ahead
The Quarterdeck beams aft of of the forward partition have been cleaned up and tried for fit.

5727
One of the great interests for me in going off piste on a kit build is having to think many steps ahead and solving the tricky little problems that may arise.

5728
Of course the danger of going off piste is that  you may encounter an avalanche.
 
Back to the machine shop today to chop about the ply underdeck to suit the profile of the un-planked areas.

5729
I have removed far more of the planking area than originally cut to expose the deck below.

5730
With this completed I know what will be on show and what won’t and can work to that purpose.

5731
 

5736
That looks about right, or will do once the remaining beams are installed to the break of the QD.

5733
I think I made the right decision about using the b/w sailcloth covering in the Great Cabin.

5735
It has so much more impact than the faux parquet  flooring of the kit, but it’s all down to what appeals to the individual eye.
 
I have also come to a decision about the guns, they will be fitted but without rigging.
The rest of the model is displayed only partly complete, so to rig the guns would seem a little incongruous, and this will accord with contemporary Navy Board style models.
On a practical level the guns will not hold up progress and I will  be able to assemble and fit them at my leisure.
 
Moving ahead.
 
B.E.
18/02/22
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

In a rare moment of weakness, I felt bad for the modeler having to drill 250 evenly-spaced holes in the chock rail for the stanchions. The chock rails are now four pieces of laser-cut 1/8" basswood with the holes already there. And, they actually fit the hull...
 
Chock rails are not yet glued down.

 

 

Third quadrant, at the stern: 
 

 
These maple wood strips are interesting. They are extremely flexible, allowing you to espouse pretty much all shapes, which comes handy at the stern.
In addition, after gluing them, especially when using Titebond Quick glue, the wood need to be "burnished" to embrace the exact shapes of the support. It is like burnishing a thin sheet of copper and is very unusual in the way it reacts. I am using an ice cream stick to do all the burnishing. The wood of the stick is hard and smooth and does not damage the thin planking.
 
Multiple coats of Wipe-On-Poly have been applied and the stern is now hard and extremely smooth to the touch. The blue color is Cerulean Blue by Liquitex (Acrylic) and that is the color I like the most after trying about 4 other Royal blues, and other blues from Model Shipways and Tamiya. I find the traditional Royal blues way too dark for my taste. On top of that blue, various decals will be applied, since the freezes on these  vessels were painted and not carved.
 
Yves

Found it! The "Great Golden Grail o' Glue"!

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

Fascinating to see the development of these new kits, thanks for shring.

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

good evening everyone
work continues, i am still trying to get the wood to look like teak, perhaps i never will
not the upper deck is the right colour it is starting to look right, but still so much to do, im hoping that most of it will be complete by middle of march, as i dont want to put her away uncomplete again (lol i must finish her)
 
 

Good morning everyone
 
thank you for comments and likes
 
Bilge keel
one side was broken in the kit box, strengthened with a bit of wire
they are far to long, so 16 cn was taken from the forward section, and now looks right

far to long

16cm removed

Portholes
part of the GLS (Great Little Ships) set, put on with PVA glue the eyelids are also included

 

 vajello white primer

 

good evening everyone
thank you for comments and likes
back to basics and tried some pre-shading (could do better)
 

good evening everyone
 
Thank you for comments and likes
 
apologies for being grumpy for the last few weeks
 
onto the Bluebell, and the depth charge racks, there is more PE on these two units than on lots of extra detail sets, but it is starting to look ok
i have about 40 pieces left to add 

Good afternoon everyone
 
well the anchor windlass is done now and has a coat of black primer on it,  i love this GLS PE
 
primer has gone on to more of the completed bits, like the engine room skylight
 
new paints arrived, colourcoats, by Soveriegn hobbies, these will be her going out clothes
 



some of the PE bits i had done in the past had a powdery finish, cleaned up with my tooth brush








 

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

BE, Pat, Joe, Michael, Nils, Wayne, JPAM  and the likes - thanks so much.
 
Ron - I'm hoping to make it, would love to see your fantastic Diana in person, my challenge is always football/soccer as I coach my sons team and that takes a big bite out of weekends at this time of year.  If I could just arrange a game in New London then I'd be set!
 
Small update, I've been missing making posts but I have a little to share and hope pictures make up for it.  Continuing to work on the more foundational aspects as I can.  Paint has been applied to the upper hull - I used Tamiya matt XF-18 medium blue.  I applied many layers of watered down paint and corrected larger imperfections, but left the slight imperfections from planking visible.  I'm no painter and have limited experience with modern acrylics!  Watering down the paint gives a nice smooth finish, but at the expense of surface uniformity - this should disappear completely once a clear sealer is applied so not concerned.  I found that using a brush the undiluted paint dries so quickly that brush mark are inevitable.  Lots of touchup to do which should be pretty easy, but I want to get a protective coat of poly onto the boxwood to reduce the risk of mishaps.
 
The waist rail has been applied on one side and the side steps added.  I left gaps for the fenders, after having already cut these roughly to shape - using boxwood of course adds the number of pieces that need to be fabricated to keep consistent.  I wont attach these until later.  Steps were made using 2x2mm boxwood strip and a different profile scraper to the side molding and then cut length and shaping the ends.  These hopefully give more of an impression of the fine molding as keeping that to scale was just too much for me.  The upper and lower 2 steps are not glued yet.  I think they pass the scale test with the assistance of Able Seaman Lewis.


I've also made up the anchor lining bolsters, not identified in the kit plans but approximated from AOTS and TFFM.


And the usual 'all over' shot of where things stand..

 
 
 

Ensign...conclusion:
A tiny bit of steam was used to soften the ensign while various "rounded implements" with different radii (dowel, metal file shafts etc.) were used to try and introduce various folds.  I'd love to be able to describe a reproduceable scientific process, but thats not what happened.  It was really just a continual serious of tweaks, leaving to dry and most importantly trying not to introduce creases.  Steam worked fine to initially soften and allow the structural folds to be introduced, but isn't really a good ongoing solution as it tends to undo any previous work.  Real care is also needed to not 'over wet' the painted flag, not sure I was completely successful here.  Final tweaking was done by wetting very gently any tools used and trying to hold in position while it dried and the fold takes.

...and with that milestone, I'm declaring this build FINISHED!  
 
This was my first wooden ship build, and first model I've built for over 30 years.  Its taken probably 8 years to get this far off an on (probably 7 years more than it should), but I have to say I'm glad I was able to finish her.  I've come to realize that I enjoy the journey more than the destination, and I certainly experienced moments when I could easily have put her aside permanently, mainly due to me recognizing unfixable mistakes or compromises that that could so easily been enhanced had I known more at the time.  Given the length of time taken to complete, this progression in knowledge and execution is very apparent to me, but I hope is less apparent to others.  All in all, this was a most enjoyable project that exposed me to the necessary knowledge and techniques that I hope build on and leverage in the future.  I still need to make up a protective case, and will probably continue to see needed fixes and touchups before she (hopefully) is put in a place of rest.  I would like to thank this entire community for the ongoing help, support and encouragement - without which I would not have reached this point.
 
Few pictures to celebrate, apologies that these aren't exactly studio quality.

 

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

Post Eighty-two
 
Cabin Bulkheads
The first major exercise is to assemble the cabin bulkheads, delicate pieces that curl quicker than a British rail sandwich, with one sniff of pva.

5669(2)
They will be left clamped flat until fitting time.

5716
Trial fitting the Bulkheads in place, before I add the detail.
 
A bulkhead puzzlement.
The aft bulkhead has the hinge patterns on the inner side to reflect  inward opening doors, as they are on the forward bulkhead with doors opening inwards into the Captains bed space and Coach.


The arrangement is as the prototype build (above) by Jim. Note however, that the scribed hinge patterns on the forward bulkhead are not used.
 

 
Rather, the hinge etched patterns have been applied to the outer face of the forward pattern (above) indicating outward opening doors.
There is only one way these bulkheads fit to take account of the slot for the partition between the Bed Space and Coach.
 
The AotS book on Pandora does show inward opening doors on both sets, but outward opening  doors make sense on this first bulkhead given the very restricted space beyond.

 I note that Chuck has shown this arrangement on his Winnie build, (above) but he also has opening outward doors from the Great Cabin.
Note also the ‘L’ shaped hinges common at this time.

5711
As far as the kit is concerned inward opening doors on the forward bulkhead would  come up against the guns in the cramped bed and Coach spaces.

5712(2)
Unless they were generally secured side onto the bulwark, which they may well have been to give more space.
I suppose if the ship was prepared for action, the bulkheads would in any case be removed to work the guns, so perhaps that wasn’t considered an issue.

5710
If Chris’s intention is that the hinges were placed for inward opening doors from fore to aft then the arrangement fits, and it may be that Jim just preferred the look of outward opening doors on the forward bulkhead, as do I.

5714
There is plenty of space to open the doors onto the Quarterdeck without fouling the guns.
 
Such a confusing issue  but of minor relevance if the Quarterdeck is to be planked over as such detail will be all but hidden.
 
B.E.
15/02/22
 
 

Post Eighty
 
Manger boards.
These are an appropriate fitting to add to the model as they will be visible, and besides I just like doing stuff.

5657
A card template is used to get the right proportions.

5666
The boards and cants are made up as one using scrap 1mm Pear.

5668
They need to be worked in conjunction with the Fore Topsail Bitts that sandwich the Bowsprit stop.
This effectively means that the bitt posts really need to be attached to the stop sides at this point before any deck beams are put into place.

5658
The Topsail Bitts are glued to the stop using the plan detail, and the Fore Jeer Bitts are used as a height reference.

5660
The relevant deck beams are tried in place to make sure there are no nasty surprises down the way.

5662
Looking at the Bitts it seems to me they could do with a little shaping at the tops if only a simple chamfer.
 
All  these pieces will eventually be painted red, but I’ll leave the actual fitting  until just before the Foc’sle beams go in.
I’ll now continue with the upper deck fittings working from aft forward.
 
B.E.
13/02/22

 

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.
 
Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.
 
Trimming the bow height:
Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.
 

 
Headworks:
Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.
 
The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.
 

 
These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!
 

 
Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.
 
Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!
 

 

Foc's'l Planking Wrap-up:
 
Foc's'l and gangway planking is now complete.  Hopefully photo's tell the story.
 
The position of the cathead has been estimated, and a rather bizare planking arrangement was used to hopefully ensure that this will look OK once the cathead is finally installed, basically wanted the planking to be as prototypical as possible, although this will mean staring at a rather jarring joint until this is installed.  The second photo in the series below shows how I'm anticipating this will look once the cathead is in place, and which will essentially hide the joint of the waterway and the artificial planking arrangement.  Once the angle of the plank-waterway termination was less than 45 deg, a switch was made to hooking the ends of the planks, and each of these had to be cut and shaped from 6mm strip (these were tapered the same as before)

The process was continued until the area was complete.  The only deviation being that the last 2 planks on each side were tweaked a little more to try to get these as even looking as possible, and of course the last plank being the most laborious to get an acceptable fit. It is hard to see in the photos, but the curve of the plank can be challenge to ensure that the simulated caulking looks as consistent as possible.  I eperience this challenge on the quaterdeck as well, but a solution that helped here was the use of thin plates of clear mica to help position these as consistently as possible until glue sets (I use PVA glue almost exclusively for planking).

The gangway planking in the waste was pretty straightforward, (in fact the only non-shaped planks on the entire top deck) and comprised almost my last acceptable pieces 4mm maple strip.  It was very close, but I did not run out thankfully.  Photo below shows how the gangway planking 'sits' on the lip of the entryway platforms that form part of the quarterdeck.  The gangway does not have a waterway.

Finally, some overall shots of the top deck, the foc's'l has not been scraped or cleaned up at all yet, which will be the next task.  The question I ask myself is whether the time and effort to taper the foc's'l planking was worth it.  I suspect that anyone looking at this would never notice as the final effect is very subtle, but I can't help but feel that the reason this is hard to see is simply because it complements the shape of the foc's'l without drawing attention to itself.  Overall, I am very pleased with the result, and with this almost complete, it will be nice to be able to turn to other tasks.

10: Superstructure (cont'd)
 
This completes the construction sequence up through Step 10. The hull and superstructure are now joined.
 

 
I hope you are enjoying this "10,000-foot view." Personally, this bit left me with a bad case of the "Curse of the Headband Magnifier" -- can't work without it, but the trade-off is that every stinkin' little cosmetic error is highly visible while I work. It's a little depressing, honestly. Thank goodness for low-res photography!

10: Superstructure (cont'd)
 
Not much in this post. I finished up the CIC roof. Not a whole lot to see on the top side, though I did make things only slightly more interesting by accidentally gluing in the inner wall upside down.
 

 
The underside has helped inflate the parts count thanks to its 15 support brackets.
 

 
A test fit of the roof was successful. Finally assembly will take place once the hull and superstructure are mated, which is next up on the to-do list. 😬

Have you ever worked with copper leaf?
 
The link  above starts off talking about gold, but makes it clear it is copper if you choose it from the various options.
It might make a good covering for your existing work.  My experience is that it goes on almost like  paint and is seamless.
 
I used it to cover the the cupola of the companionway on my Resolution.

 
It goes on as very shiny copper, but a patina can be created in various ways.
 

Post Eighty-one
 
Moving aft – moving forward.
I have finally decided on the Great Cabin flooring, I am going with the traditional b/w  painted sailcloth look.

5681

5673
I think this will have more impact when viewed from above or thro’ the stern lights and ports.
 
A few bits and pieces to attend to, tackle rings in the cabin deck and bolts and rings in the bulwarks.
I am not really a fan of the kit provided etched stuff which lacks the round of the iron work. I prefer to use Amati fine eyebolts and rings.
Amati  2mm rings (4000/02) 3mm rings (4000/03) Fine eyepins (4703)
Deck ring bolts: 2mm rings coupled with fine eyebolts.
Bulwark Breeching Ring Bolts: 3mm Rings coupled with fine eyebolts.
Bulwark side tackle Eyebolts: Fine eyebolts.
I prefer to chemically blacken metal parts if possible.

5709(3)
Making up forty ring bolt and eyebolt sets for the bulwark gun tackles is not one of the most exciting tasks, but they are best fitted while the deck access is clear.
At least the fixing holes are pre-drilled in the bulwarks.
I note that the kit indicates the use of Eyebolts for the bulwark breeching ropes rather than Ring bolts, a simplification perhaps. 

5696
At this point the basic preparation for the next stage has been completed. The line on the deck is secured thro’ the tiller lead hole on the Port side in anticipation of rigging the ships wheel.
For this I have used 0.45mm Syren line.
Not sure at this stage how I will rig the wheel and secure the tiller line on the Starboard side. 🤔

5689
A Marine stands guard to prevent any pilfering of materials, but there is something wrong in this picture, any ideas.
Answers on a postcard to PO1 3LS.
 
 
B.E.
14/02/22