harlequin

well when you drink proper real English ale at a local public house it will set you back around £2.50 to £3.50 for a pint ( or £25.000 a pint in London)....cheap beer to be had in supermarkets for home consumption, but real ale is king. 

the bulk of the plans are not too bad......my son frightens me to death but that what he does.....I skydive for a hobby, used to fly microlight aircraft and most dangerous of all used to go potholing, so after scaring the hell out of my parents it is payback time....I think he has more of my genes than his mothers...  

the plans were a bit knackered when I got the kit but my friendly neighbourhood mice have not helped.....I should be able to work round it though. Nothing much lost really as the kit only cost £10.00...........cant get 4 beers for that nowadays.

looks like it.....I bought the kit 2 or 3 years ago for a tenner and it has been in my garage during that time. It would be a shame just to do nothing with it.

ships bell added.....probably get knocked off again as I clumsily build on.

not that great a cast either.

I bought this kit for the princely sum of £10 for my son to have a go at....needless to say he isn't interested...he is a freeclimber who hangs off cranes and buildings so building a model doesn't do it for him...the kit and plans have started to deteriorate so along with building Bellona I am going to start this one before it goes beyond building. I have no idea what sort of quality constructo is but here goes.

components of the ships bell.

it was only 3 planks today.........

take note Hamilton.......a couple of second planking planks added........ :P 

quarter deck steps.

I need a single malt after those two pillars. Later realised that these two pillars were placed wrongly......they belong further underneath the poop deck along side of the ships wheel and a single pillar in front of the binnacle......see further along the build log for photo details.

ships wheel and binnacle now added.....very little surface area on both the wheel and binnacle to apply glue so mixed a tiny amount of epoxy and applied to an area which cant be seen and then placed onto the deck and allowed the epoxy to run down to the deck to set. 

binnacle, ships wheel and a pillar waiting to be fitted ......

Poop deck planksheers and false waterways fitted.

ha ha....your true colours are showing.........a second planking putter offer.............just like me...........i do 2 or 3 second planking strips a day, sometimes just one and sometimes none at all......proper shipbuilder just like me.

sharp tools and a ready supply of single malt scotch whisky is essential in my book.....especially the latter.....and learn to stop and walk away when things start to go wrong, there is always later.

port and starboard gangways offered into place linking the quarter deck and foredeck.

bit more done with the addition of the staircase entrance and quarter deck edging.

main mast hole made with enough play to add the wedges when final fitting of the mast takes place.

quarter deck planking now in place.....needs and good sanding down then onwards and upwards.

quarter decks added and quarterdeck bulkhead cabin doors. The quarter decks don't fit very well but that can be covered with the tanganika planking still to be added.

now that belay rack was glued into position I could then glue in the two halves of the quarter deck.

two quarter deck halves in place offered up for final position, then I realised that the belay rack is virtually imposible to position once the quarter deck has been placed so belay rack completed c/w belay pins already in position for later.

next job is the fitting and planking of the two plywood quarter decks, then the two gangways can then be fitted.