newbee

Just a brief update this time. Thanks to Allan, I looked at the shape of the wales, and, I think it was more a case of the camera angle making them appear too high at the stern, combined with the hull not being level on the base. From the dimensions given, the lower edge of the wale needs to be 30mm below the stern most gunport and 33mm below the first. this pretty much tied in with their positioning. However, I realised that to get the correct curve of the wales I needed to finalise the size and positioning of the gunports. originally I was planning on having the gunports 7mm above the deck level with 0.5mm frames. I have now decided to make them 8mm above and use 1mm thick frames. This means that the ports still sit 7mm above the deck but, the sprketing will be 8mm high with the sills butting up to them. I have now widened the gunports on the port side to 16mm wide and levelled them off, and will do the same on the starboard side over the next couple of evenings. I still need to slightly adjust the dead wood area to get the waterline correct. cheers for now. David.

I have just looked at your document and it looks like the wale should be 17. 9 mm wide. I was planning on 16mm but with the black strake being 2mm, the instructions say it should be 3mm. Also, by the way, if the stern counters were a little lower it would give a slightly flatter shape to the hull either side of the stern post/ deadwood. Yet another thing to consider. This could be very useful if time consuming. This ship would be a challenge for me in kit form but I don't give up easily though have felt like doing so. I don't have the knowledge or tools to make this millimetre perfect but fully intend to make a good looking ship in the end. However long she takes. Thanks again Allan. David.

Many thanks again Allan for your advice. In my case it's more determination than perseverance. It's your knowledge that's commendable. The thinner line is the waterline. The 2 thicker strips are 3mm wide strips to mark the upper and lower edges of the wale. They are just an approximation to see how I need to shape the upper and lower stern counters. This morning I looked at the photos again and assumed my measurements were wrong. After finishing work today I had another look and realised that it was the curve of the wale that was wrong. I pinned the lower strip below gunports 3 and 4 and allowed the strip to curve up to the correct height at the stem. I should have used a couple more pins further forward to obtain the correct curve. I've also realised that the strip sags a good bit below gun port 1 and the upper strip is closer to where it should sit. The stern, however, still involves some guesswork, as other builders have noticed, that the stern galleries sit a few millimeters too high. I may still have to adjust the depth of the stern counters to allow for this. The most difficult problem to solve is the actual shape. Now this is almost done I have something to work with. I will have to scratch build the stern and quarter galleries, more or less, so having the correct shape beneath them is crucial. Thanks again for your input. It's really appreciated. David.

I have noticed now that the wale needs to be raised up to sit higher against the stem. One of the best things about taking photos as you govis they can really highlight errors before they become a problem. Cheers for now. David.

Once again, thanks for the likes. It's always nice to know folks are dropping in. I forgot to mention before that I pinned some 1X 4mm strips to see how the planking will look. I was quite happy with this trial run and it seems I am going in the right direction. I have made some good, all be it slow, progress since my last post. I have made the lower stern counter from balsa and roughly shaped it on both sides. However, this has highlighted just how much of the stern shape I have lost. To try rectifying this I used a 1 X 10mm strip pinned to the side of the hull and a strip of balsa held to the stern. I then built up the space in between with filler and allowed it to set, after 3 goes at this I had the shape I required. It's cosiderably different to the shape I had and a huge improvement. This area still needs to be sanded a little more. But, before shaping it any further, I decided I need to work out the waterline position followed by the lower edge of the wale. I thought the "helping hands" device would work but one or other croc clips would move. I resorted to the"paper cup method" only with a platic bottle. The hull was propped up with long balsa strips and the bow raised by 6mm , when the hull was level I used a couple of heavy monkey wrenches to hold everything in place, and then drew the waterline. I next measured the lower edge if the wale from below various gunports and marked the edge. On my laptop screen I zoomed in to 365% which practicaly takes the hull profile to 1/64 scale and took measurements from this which pretty much agrred with my measurements. I have pinned strips of 1X3mm wood to mark the upper and lower edges of the wale. when I took a few photos these were hard to see so I highlighted them with a black marker pen so I can check the look of their postitioning. The lower edge of the wale sits pretty much exactly where I need (and hoped) it should be, which, should allow me to slightly round off the hull without having to bend the 2nd planking into severe bends and, instead, curve smoothly. That's the idea anyway. My next task will be to finnish smoothing off the hull below the wale and hopefully achieve a perfectly symetrical finnish. The waterline has shown up a slight discrepency between port and starboard. My one concern at present is attaching the planking to so much filler. I am thinking of adding a 2mm wide strip under the lower stern counter to glue the planks onto and just use the filler as a shaping support. Here are a few photos to help explain things better. I will add more soon I hope. David.

I have returned from holiday and started back to working on the ship. I was going to start on the inner lining of the gun deck but, decided to again tackle the stern first, as this will be more difficult. While looking at the stern section as it is, I thought I would form the rear face of the stern post from 1mm by 10 mm strip, taper it from 9mm at the top to 4 mm at the bottom and pin it to the end of the false keel. Next I roughly sanded the deadwood area. I then added 2mm thick walnut strip to each side of the rudder along with a 3mm X 5mm block at the bottom and removed the strip from the stern and pinned it to the inner face of the rudder as a guide and sanded the rudder to the approximate shape. This was then tapered both from top to bottom and also from fore to aft which was much easier than I expected. At this point I realised that I had done myself a favour as, I had forgotten that the stern post needs to be 1mm wider on each side of the false keel for the 2nd planking to butt upto ( I need to keep reminding myself that I am finnishing this as the first planking). At present I have 1mm either side at the base and 1.5mm at the top of the stern post so I can hopefully taper the rudder to fit properly. My next task was to finnish shaping the hull from frame 17 to try to achieve the curve required. To be able to do this I removed the parts 26 (stern counter frames) as these were preventing me from getting the required angle to shape lower edge of frame 17. With a little sanding at a time I have been able to achieve the shape I want but still needs a little fine sanding to obtain the correct run of the planking. It is very close to being correct though. Having decided to remove the stern counter frames I decided to also remove the outer ends of the hull. The idea being that I shall build up the upper and lower stern counters with balsa sheet/blocks and then plank over them. It seems the easiest way to obtain the correct shape and can also be roughly done off ship and added later. The upper counter has now been done and I will start on the lower tomorrow night. I hope that this all makes sense and here are the latest photos of the progress. Thanks again for the likes and comments so far. David.

Hi Jason, It's great to see you back. I know I am not alone in thinking you've not only provided a fantistic build log, but also a beautiful looking ship. Having read through every build, saving photos and taking notes over the last few weeks, I think I confused myself and hadn't realised you hadn't added the head gratings and thought you had finnished. I am really wishing I had another 20 years of model making ahead of me to get anywhere near the standard you have achieved. She is truly a work of art and am looking forward to the upcoming installments. As you are moving forwards I seem to be going in reverse but am looking forward to hopefully learning from your log once I start progressing in the right direction. She is truly a beauty. Well done. David.

Many thanks Jason. I really appreciate your wishes, especially having read your entire build log on your version. ( I must admit I've saved quite a few of your photos too) I really take my hat off to you for the amazing quality and detail you achieved. I am afraid my version will not make your standard nor a few other builders, but, it is certainly a challenge, and I am enjoying it immensely (though with much less hair by the end) especially the research and learning. This will probably be my last ship build so I am starting to feel I should really put in the extra effort to get a good looking ship. I may follow your lead and make her hull only or possibly just add the lower masts. Mainly due to her overall size. The jury is out on that at present though. Many thanks again for dropping in. I will need to check in on your latest build soon. Cheers. David

I have been on holiday for a week now and am still away for another 10 days. However, this has allowed me some precious time to study the build logs and techniques to hopefully make a decent job on the hull, without the distraction of work and the ship. It's also given me the chance to think through what I still need to do and, more importantly which order it needs to be done. I wasn't happy with the inner lining between frame 2 and the after edge of gunport 2 so had removed them so this will be completed first. I will be adding the 3 X 5mm strip under the keel and will use the original rudder but will build it up on each side and add a block of wood to lengthen it before shaping it to a taper. From previous posts I've realised that many builders have noticed the stern galleries can sit a few mm higher so I will then mark the waterline and the position and width of the wale. This should show me where lower stern counter should sit along with the rest of the stern pieces. I am contemplating then removing the filling blocks that I over sanded and refitting them as well as building a frame to replace the area in front of the stern facia with supports running up in-between the lights. I will use the frames that are in place for the shape required before removing them completely. Having looked at where the water line will sit, I have realised that it is closer to the keel at the bow and higher at the stern so the bow needs to be raised before marking it out. Once I have attached a false wale then I should be in a position to finally correctly shape the stern and deadwood areas. That's my thinking at the moment but, if anyone has any suggestions or advice please let me know. Any advice is highly appreciated. I will update properly in a couple of weeks time. David.

Thanks for the continued likes. At last I can now supply an update. The 18lb carraiges are finally complete apart from the rigging tackles. I originally used the smallest copper eyepins I had, but, having made the eyelets on top of the capsqares, I thought they looked too large so made more of the eyelets for the carraige cheeks. They are maybe a little small now but they look much better I think. The hinges I made from the left over copper eyepins. I next turned my attention to working on the hull along with figuring out the 9lb carraiges. Following the lead of previous build logs, I will try to taper the stern post from 8mm wide at the top to 4mm at the bottom. I am also contemplating adding a 3 X 5mm strip along the keel to give it some extra depth, and improve the shape of the bow section. In the instruction book it says to terminate the end planking 5mm away from the stern and add a 1X5mm strip to represent the stern post. Judging from the photos from the maritime museum it looks to me that the stern post is almost twice as wide at the keel than at the top. rather than being a consistant width all the way up. I have also added another problem if I proceed with deepening the keel, it will alter the shape of the deadwood aswell as requiring the waterline to be lowered followed by the wale also dropping down. This would only be a mm or so but it looks like the shape of the deadwood would change a fair bit. This in turn will alter the curve of the hull up to the stern counter so I am now planning to build from the keel up and see how it goes. I have ordered more timber from CMB which will arrive on Monday. As well as wider strips of walnut for the stern post, I will also have 1.5mm lime strips for the skid beam clamps and spirketting. I tested 1mm strips which looked too thin and also 2mm strips which I thought were too thick. The 9lb carraiges were a challenge as both the Vanguard versions seem too short for the long 9 cannons. I decided to order 10 12lb carraiges as they were about the same length as the 18lb but the cheeks, I hoped, would be slightly lower. Thankfully I was correct and although the rear of the carraige looks slightly too wide, the other dimensions are perfect. I widened the holes for the eyepins before painting the sides of the carraiges and wheels. I have the eypins ready to fit and just need to deepen the trunnion holders for a better fit before adding the capsquares. While sanding down the stern counter I have removed too much balsa so this also needs to be built up again. I will try sorting this once I am happy with the shape of the stern upto the lower edge of frame 17. I may try rebuilding the complete stern above this point and maybe build a frame behind the stern facia so the false keel doesn't block the middle window but again I will wait and see. At least I am still proressing although much slower than I would like. David.

Thanks again for your input Allan, The barrels are from Vanguard and I believe are the Armstrong versions. I painted them matt black and then dry brushed with rubber black and then a little matt black mixed with sea grey. I'm pretty happy with the final results. David.

I am sorry I didn't get any notifications on your responses. Thank you all for your input. Alan, I thought you would have some knowledge of this. In between posting my question and now I remembered that Chris (Vanguard) had expanded his range of cannons and carriages after I had ordered the carraiges I bought. I had another look earlier and found that, indeed, he now has different sized carraiges for the long 9s and the shorter ones. I should have included photos to help show my dilemma, which I will do now. Hopefully this can help others. The top cannon is the 18 lb'er. Below left is the long 9 on the 18 lb carraige, middle is the 9 long on the standard 9lb carraige and below right is the long 9 on a carraige bought for a previous build but never used. Thanks again fir your help guys. It's very much appreciated. David.

It seems like I have the answer to my question above. I remembered seeing that Vanguard have extended the range of guns and carriages. From the quality of the carraiges, previously bought, I went back to the website and looked at the 9lb'ers again and Chris has longer carraiges for the 9lb long than for the shorter barrels. It's only millimeters but looks like the longer barrels won't protrude beyond the rear of the carriage. I am not sure if they sit higher but am guessing they will. Chris, if you look in on this, would it be possible to post a photo of the long 9 on its carriage compared to the long 9 on the smaller one. It would be handy to see the difference, not just for me but others as well. I also need, in the near future, to plan the foc'stle and quarter deck bulkheads. Thanks. In the meantime I am getting on with the 18lb'ers and am getting to the point where I really want to get back to finishing the hull. I really expected to only take a couple of weeks away from the hull but it feels like months now. Now I am hoping to complete the the 28 carraiges for the 18s. I am hoping to get get back to the hull again sometime next week. I will post more photos once these carraiges are done. David.

I have posed this question on my build log but thought I would also try here. I will try to keep it simple. Basically I am stuck with the size of the carraiges required for the 9lb long cannons. I believe that all the dimensions of the barrel and carraige were determind by the bore. My problem is that the 9lb long barrels are too long for the carraiges I have. The ship I have taken on is HMS Diana which I believe would have carried the long 9's on the fore and quarter decks. Should the carraiges for these be larger than the standard 9lb carraige. I've searched online for a couple of evenings and have had no luck with this. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks. David.

Unfortunately, progress has been extremly slow over the past couple of weeks. I have made up the quoines for the 18lb'ers and made extra for the 9lb'ers. I knew they would be too large, but, thought I could shape them to fit. Having tried shaping one as small as possible I found it was still way too big. I also found that the 9lb long cannon barrel is way too long for the carraige. While researching cannons and carraiges for the San Fransisco II, I remebered that all the measurements for the cannons and carraiges are calculated from the size of the cannon ball, (ie the cannon ball determines the width of the bore, this determines the width and length of the cannon which in turn determines all of the measurements of the carraige, length, width, height, position of the trunnion ans well as the size of the trucks. I have spent the last couple of evenings trying to search if the carraiges for the long 9lb'ers should be larger than for the shorter barrels, but to no avail. I maybe overthinking this but, as I will probably have quite a few things that aren't quite right with this build in the end, but I would at least like the cannons looking correct. From what I have found the carraiges I have are the correct size for the 18lb'ers and also the 9lb'ers with shorter barrels, but the long barrels are too long for the carraiges. As these barrels are actually longer than the 18lb cannons, should the carraiges for them be a little larger than the 18lb ones or just a little longer but about the same height. In the mean time I will finnish the 18lb'ers and hope for some help with this from the experts among you. I've attached two photos which I hope will highlight the problem. The uppermost gun is the 18lb cannon with it's carraige, the 3 below from left to right are the long 9lb'er on the 18lb carraige, the same on the 9lb carraige and on the right, again the same barrel on a previously bought carraige which is about the same length as the 18lb carraige but a little lower. This last one would require a lot of work to match the quality of the ones I have never mind drilling identically drilled holes for the eyepins. The trunnions on the last two also extend beyond the sides of the carraiges, another problem. Any help with this would be really appreciated. thanks. David.

While I decide how to progress with the hull, I have started construction of the 18lb guns. I started painting the cannons first with vallejo matt black as a base and then dry brushed tyre black followed by a mix of enamel dark grey and matt black to highlight the details. I am pretty happy with the final look of these.The carraiges, as previously mentioned look great, and easy to put together. To begin with I only started assembling one of the carraiges as a prototype. I found I needed to drill the 3 holes on each side for the pins to fit into a little larger. I then built up the carraige as per instructions. I used very little pva glue at first to avoid any excess oozing out when clamping the pieces together but, however, the bond wasn't strong enough so I resorted to a litte super glue applied with a tooth pick to the joints. This worked much better. With the sides and axles glued the assembly was painted red. Next I stuck the eyepins into a block of balsa wood and painted them black. These were then glued into place. I also added the qoine bed support with a section of a long eye pin that just happenned to fit into the hole, and coincidentaly, I have enough for all 38 carraiges. With the barrels and carraiges painted I started on the capheads which, after scraping off the glue, straightening and removing the burr from the ends, wasn't as hard as it looked. I then pinned 2 of these down onto the balsa block and painted the black. With this done I test fitted the barrel onto the carraige and realised the qoines supplied were too low and the wrong shape for my needs. After several failed attempts at making the qoines and particularly the beds for them to sit on I compromised and did without the lip on either side of the bed and just used a 1 by 6mm strip of beech cut 11mm long. I then added the qoine on top with a 1mm belaying pin from a previous kit (that was from a wasn't used but may come in handy one day box). God I've got so many of those!!! Anyway here's photos of the cannon. Hopefully it looks pretty decent although a little touching up and highlighting is still required especially the trucks.

It's been a long 3 weeks since my last post. Thanks again for the likes so far. Having checked my measurements, I have decided that I'm happy with the gun ports sitting 7mm above deck level and the guns will sit correctly. I have built up the spaces between frames with balsa and also remade the skid beams. These now fit into slots on the hull with the exception of the forward most one which lies level with frame 6. I need to decide whether to create a notch or fit a knee to accomodate it. I am also struggling a little with shaping the bow section to accomodate the fore section of the upper deck.

Many thanks for your input David. I take it that means that the gunport sill sits on top of the spirketing, I have a bad feeling I've messed up my calculations. Very dissapointing but, if so, I'm glad it's not too late to fix. My original thought was the gunports should sit 5mm above deck level. But, when I measured the height of the carraiges, I had a height of 14mm and, assuming the cannons should be dead centre of the ports, would make them 7mm above the sill level and 14mm above deck level. I also thought, after much trial and error, that I should make the openings 15mm long instead of 16mm, and 13mm high instead of 14mm, and line them with 0.5mm strips instead of 1mm thus making them still 14 X 12mm when completed. I will need to re think this now, as I am working out how to get the upper deck to fit and I don't have enough space above the gun ports for the skid beam clamps to be fitted. An extra couple of mm's could help me with this. The previous builder had all the skid beams over the open deck sitting several mm away from the hull which, on the real ship, would mean them hanging from the deck planking alone. Figuring out where they should lie was going to be my final task tonight. I have started re drawing the upper deck with the aim, once it's symetrical from the centre line, of making it 2 or 3mm narrower but still fit on top of the sides of the hull to be able to create a lip that it can fit into. When the time comes to fit it properly I will be able to plank over this lip along with the deck itself. I also want to attach the skid beams running accross the open deck area from the hull instead of free standing. Thanks again David. I've named myself newbee for a reason. If I can get a result with this build, in a couple of years I may promote myself to newbee(ish) with your and others help of course. Cheers for now. David. (yet another one)

I forgot to mention before that I am planning on adding the skid beam clamps along with the spirketting. The only problem I have is the sizes and correct positioning. I am guessing the clamps run the entire length of the hull and look to be 2 strips of 2X2mm. The spirketting looks like only 1mm thick but I can't tell if it runs level with the gunport sills or runs below them. Any help with this would be really appreciated. Thanks again. David.

Thanks guys for the likes. I'm happy you are looking in. Another week has passed and I really feel I'm progressing, all be it slower than I would like. I have filled in the lower stern counter and added some balsa strip to the lower the stern counter sides. I wasn't happy with the shape it had but, after starting to sand it down, I realised it needs to be shaped into a shallow concave curve rather than being flat. Due to me losing the shape of the counter sides I hadn't picked up on this earlier. I only thought it didn't look right. At least now I am on the right trck with this and will get it finnished over the next few weeks. In the meantime I carried on with the gun deck. I have almost completed lining the sides with 1mm beech strips and only need to complete between frames 2 and 3, the most difficult part. This didn't prove too challenging but waqs time consuming. I cut the 5mm beech strips into 10cm long planks and laid the first along the deck. The second strakes were also cut into 10cm lengths and staggered by 2.5 cm. these were then laid on top of the first strake and cut to fit 1mm or so inside the gunport to allow for any adjustments being needed. While building up the sides I have also continued trying to sand the lower hull but I have now found that I am unable to sand any further on the port side between where the wale will be and the gunports as a plank or two are now paper thin. I have used filler to fix the depression I had mentioned before just forward of this spot and delicately sanded it down so it is virtually un-noticeable. I have also smooth sanded down the gundeck itself and to prevent any damage to the planking have given it it's first coat of stain. I have two different antique pine woodstain one from Occre and one from Furniture clinic. Neither of them was I happy with for a pine effect. the other stain I have is English oak from Littlefares. This is much too dark for the deck so I mixed a few drops of the pine and added a much smaller amount of the oak and , after testing, got the colour I was happy with. Once it had dried I again lightly sanded it down ready for a final coat before varnishing. In between these jobs I also realised that before I can start adding what will effectivly be the 2nd planking, I will need to have the hull built up at least level with the upper deck, if not a little higher. I removed the 3 skid beams which were still attached to the upper deck (on one side only) and as it is so thin along with the starboard walkway snapping off at the junction with the foc'stle, I decided to reinforce it with 5mm wide 0,5mm strips running along the length of it. Unfortuneately, once it had dried, I found that instead of curving upwards it instead sags to the centre. Pretty baddly. However I can use this to my favour as it can be reversed, and hopefully, will be able to be glued in place on top of the beams easier. Unfortuately I will now need to repair what was the underside as there are 3 sections which seem to have been cut out and replaced ( again baddly) Having planked the upper. or rather now the lower side, I realised I should have properly marked the centre line. Again though, once the deck is flipped over, this can still be marked. I have now cut out the notches front and stern for the location points but these still need to be completed. over the last week I also looked again at the cannons supplied and, although nearly happy with the shape of the cascabels I am unable to reduce the width of the cannons to fit the new carraiges from Vanguard. I decided to bite the bullet and asked on Friday night via the website if I could purchase the cannons seperately. I was amazed that Chris replied on Saturday morning If I wanted long or short cannons. When I ordered the carraiges in November there were no choices of gun length. It appears the range has expanded considerably since then. Chris also mentioned the lengths I would need. To cut to the chase, I have now ordered the 18 and 9lb'ers I will need as well as, in the future will be getting the 32lb carronades along with all of the ships boats,( The 24ft cutter is missing) and the other 3 boats are pretty much beyond any use. I was very impressed with the quality of the carraiges and, having looked at the carronades and ships boats building intructions Chris produces, together with the double capstan already bought, I haven't finnished shopping there yet. I don't know the rules regarding mentioning suppliers, but a huge thumbs up to Chris anyway. Here's the latest photos of progress to date. I may need to take a couple again tomorrow without the flash. Thanks for now. David

Merry Christmas to everyone at/on MSW, and, Happy new year when it comes. Wherever you are. Thanks for the continuing likes so far. It is very encouraging and I'm very grateful. It's been nearly another 2 weeks on the build and progress has continued slowly but surely. The inner wall of the gun deck has been filled between the bulkheads and has almost been sanded enough to be planked. There's just a couple of bits to finnish. The gunports have been filled and then filed to pretty much the correct shape but more importantly are in the positions I wanted them. With the help of a contour gauge I am now working on getting the lower hull symetrical on each side. There is a very slight depression left on the port side just below gunports 7 and 8 which I will fill with 1mm strips of balsa and then sand smooth. It's only about 0.5mm deep at the most but is still fairly prominent. I have also started working on the stern beside the deadwood to achieve the correct shape. I'm going to fill in the gap between the gun deck and the stern counter with balsa blocks, and then sand them to shape, followed by rebuilding the lower sections of the stern counter sides (which were over sanded) once I have achieved the correct shape. I have now also built up the 9lb gun carraiges and filed a little more off the cascabels of the 18lb'ers. This weekend I am hoping to start lining the gun deck sides followed by lining the gunports and replacing a few bits of balsa that have broken off during sanding. All in all I'm pretty happy with progress so far and feel quietly optomistic on getting a pretty good looking hull in the end. I have also been looking at what I am going to do about the upper deck both the deck itself aswell as how I am going to attatch it to the hull. I am thinking I may need to replace it completely as the underneath is in quite a bad way. I will have a go at sanding it down before I decide. It looks like I will also need to get it to fit before I can really get started on the gun deck gratings, stairs and fittings etc. Happy new again to you all. Cheers. David.

This time it has been two weeks but it feels much longer. The time has been spent building up the inner sides of the gun deck. At this point I rea;ised that the gun carraiges, being 14mm high, would mean the centre of the cannons would also need to be the same height. This, in turn, meant that the sills of the gun ports would need to 7mm high rather than the 5mm I had previously thought looked ok. This being rectified by adding 2X2mm strip on top of the existing 5X2mm strip, I started on the hull walls. After cosidering the options I opted to fill between the frames with 2mm thick balsa strips with the grain running horizontally and then with other 2mm strips with the grain running vertically, hopefully to give extra strength and support for the final sanding and planking of the complete hull. This has now been done with the exception of the area around gunport 1 on each side. I have also sanded down the inner hull using sanding strips with a foam interior to avoid damaging the deck planling. The next task was to fill in around the gunports on the outside of the hull. This was rather tedious as it meant cutting different widths of 2mm balsa ranging from 1mm to 6mm wide. I have also allowed the gunports to become a little smaller so I can file down the openings to the correct size. (mainly as a safety precaution in case I've made any mistakes in my earlier measurements. I have also started adding 0.5mm thick filler planks to the depressions in the hull to hopefully achieve the correct shape and also marked out the the bearding line I think that's the term) on the deadwood. This should allow me to obtain the correct shape of the stern.

Thank you again Allan. I have a feeling that I should have said bulkheads rather than frames. I'm sorry if I confused you with my terminology. My worry with this ship is I have weakened the hull by sanding and also removing the inner hull lining. If she had 50 or more frames then cutting out 5 or 6 wouldn't be such a problem. As this build has only 17 bulkheads altogether, and already planked (fairly badly in places) I really didn't want to cut any away. Every post I've seen has some modifications of the gunport positions and even the anatomy of the ship book seems to contain anomalies compared to the maritime museum model and especially the plans for this kit. (which is why I haven't bought it yet). I just knew there had to be a way of fitting in the gunports evenly spaced apart from 7 and 8 within the space between bulkheads. Added to this is the person that started this build had some gunports higher than others and also not square nor with vertical sides. I was tempted to remove everything from the gun deck up and build it all from scratch but decided that would be even more problematic. I also thought about removing the planking but also decided against it as this would mean sanding down the bulkheads. If the previous builder is anything like me, the bulkheads would look like a pin cushion and be too fragile to sand smooth. Thanks again for your advice and interest. David.

Thank you Allan. I have a copy of the picture but I really meant I was trying to avoid weakening the sides by having to cut too many of the frames and, also, to keep the gunports as close to their correct positions to avoid problems later. Thanks again for your interest and advice. It's really appreciated. David.

Just an afterthought, but, this may be a good time to check how the channels and chain plates will line up just to be safe. David.