hexnut

I was actually talking about still using lofted surfs, just doing the lower transom as a square driven by the waterline curves, so as not to distort the edges, then trimming it with a surface projected from a rear elevation sketch plane, similar in technique to how you cut the top in side elevation to define the bulwarks:

 

I agree with what Don said about the counter geometry, plus I would suggest you don't try to get all of that geometry in one surface.  I would:
1. cut the lower portion back a bit (to the teal surface on the attached sketch)
2. draw in and trim the gently curving rear transom geometry (red surface)
3. add in the teal surface as a transition, starting as a variable section round from the top of the red surface and ending straight and parallel to the deadwood at the rabbet line.
 
Hopefully that was at least slightly helpful...

Nice job on the bow, the hull is looking smooth!
 
I've been doing surfacing for a long time, but once and a while I still get stuck.  I heartily recommend printing out your center section (keel, deadwood, transom profile) and your aft-most station views, mount them on mat board, glue-em together and hack in the transition area with modelling clay, foam or balsa until it starts making sense. You can then take lines and sections out using a profile gauge or tracing paper, then fair and attach the curves back in SW. 
 
Sometimes 15 minutes with a sketch mock-up will save many hours of 3d modeling time...

Alan, when you do "get it", please let me know, because I sure have a lot left to learn!
The only way I ever learn any of this stuff is by doing it wrong a bunch of times.  Even giving advice is a bit tough, as something that worked fine a bunch of times might not work for a given application.
 
I do surfacing all of the time for work, and I still face: "it worked fine until I tried to put rads on it", "What do you mean it won't import as a solid? It told me it was a solid!"  " Why won't you shell?" etc...
 
You should be able to hit > insert> surface> loft> to get into it, pick your stations, do a simple loft, pick guide curves, etc...

Very nice.  Depending on what you want to use the cad for, you might want to:
1) extend the frame station sections beyond the rails so that they are a consistent height before lofting, then chop off at the desired rail profile.
2) get buttock and water lines faired and attached to the station lines, then use those to control the loft surfaces.
 
Or, if you just want to use the model to make nice frames and hand fair them once in place, what you already have is perfect and ignore everything that I just said...

Yet more deck work at a grueling slow pace. I like it so far though. 

Hi Highlanderburial
It appears you did not mark out the plank widths at each bulkhead which may be part of the problem. The width of the plank is dynamic as it goes from the stem to the stern.  If you have not already done so maybe consider studying David Antscherl's planking writeup here in the MSW Articles archive and Chuck Passaro's videos on planking and you will have an easier time of it on the next planking job.  
Allan

Wow. excellent work!  I think if anyone asks how to paint a plastic ship, we can just show your presentation and say: "make it look like this."

Final Sponson and Turret Shaping
 
Decided to do the final shaping with the sponson and turrets glued together; with sandpaper attached to the side and deck simultaneously; reasoning was to avoid filling the turret/sponson seam.
 
Found, as the instructions state, it is important to hollow out the underside of the turret and inside the sponson - did this with a Foredom hand piece, initially with a flame bur to get the seam between the sponson and turret, then with a drum sander bit.  Resin dust isn’t good for you, so vacuum.

Here are the assemblies dry fitted, note a small gap at the deck/hull corner is ok, as there will be 3/16” half-round trim installed along the edge later.


 
 
 

I have finally corrected a major error with this build.  I kept telling people at the time I could not see the royal cypher, so I enlarged it and then painted it yellow ochre.
 
I had printed a new one piece barrel to replace my two piece.
At one of our local club meetings one member had mentioned I should paint this new barrel with several light coats of Beauty Tone Flat Black Enamel Acrylic paint.. I did this back in February 2019 and it looked great, except I still couldn't see the cypher.  He suggested highlighting it and any other proud items with a light brushing of a hint of a lighter shade of black (smokey grey).  I have procrastinated.... because I couldn't see it.
 
Well I have had cataract surgery in both eyes this August and September and now... I CAN SEE IT!
 
Today I touched up the  royal cypher and other proud items, removed the old barrel (tossed it in the trash), and mounted the new barrel.
 
Here are the results.  You can see the difference.
 

Completed.
Thank you all for following, your "likes", comments and help.
 
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

I apologize for clogging up your "like" button, but I can't help it.  This is wonderful work, thanks for sharing.

My personal advice on primer is Tamiya rattle cans--the gray primer right out of the can puts out a very nice, easily-controlled finish.  
 
It is a water-borne lacquer, so it sticks and covers nicely, but won't damage plastic.  I'm not a big fan of brush painting acrylic over large areas of plastic...

I believe that Artwox, Pontos and KA all make laser-scribed wooden decks for this model, in my opinion well worth it. 
 
I recently got a deck set for another model I'm working on, and now I don't think I'll ever go back to painting...

Wonderful.  I assume that your daily job is as a surgeon and a jeweler?  At the same time?  

Bulkhead Frames
The only problem with gluing the reinforcing pieces was the ‘B’ piece on the starboard side interfered with the hook of the brass rod at the center board which prevented the full operation of raising and lowering the center board.  So I had to cut out a 1/16 inch notch in the ‘B’ reinforcing piece.
It took some time and looking at all the pictures in the instructions to identify the bulkhead frames.  The etched numbers were missing on some of the bulkheads.

If the instructions included a scale diagram of the model frame like many other models, it would solve a lot of wasted time figuring out how parts go together.  I had the same issue with the Norwegian Sailing Pram.
 
Bulkhead Frame #4 problem; as you can see in the below picture, the notch pre-cut into Frame #4 was not deep enough to go over the ‘B’ reinforcing piece.  I had to deepen the notch by 3/16 inch, I used a jeweler saw and knife for this.  As I was dry fitting frame #4, the top of the frame prevented the center board from coming completely up, not sure this is a problem once the keel pieces are glue on the model.

The next problem I noted when dry fitting bulkhead frames #3 and 5, is the bottom cutout is wider than the spines.  The 3 parts of the spine are 1/8 inch thick when glued together, however the cutout in the frames is 3/16 inch wide so the frames don’t touch the spine in this area.  I looked at all the pictures in the instructions and it looks like the frames are supposed to touch the spine in this area.  Since there is no clear picture of these frames, I don’t know if there really is a problem.  I’m concerned that the bottom of the frames will float until the planks are installed.

Again, a to scale schematic of the model would answer this question.  I sent Model Expo a question on the fit, will wait to see what they say. 
 

I tried to bend the brass bar without annealing it first, did not work at all well, so I went and bought a micro-torch.  Heated the brass bar up on an old ceramic tile which worked very well to insulate and prevent damage to anything else.
The bar now bends well.  I am finding out that my small needle nose pliers do not have small enough tips for this small kind of work.  My initial effort to make the eye resulted in to small of an eyelet to insert a tooth pick as a handle, so I had to pry it open and make it bigger.  Finding out that you should only heat up the amount of rod that you will need to work with.  As I was making the eyelet, I kept bending the rest of the bar.

As I test fitted the brass arm with the center board and then the spine, I noticed that there was a major interference with the slot that the brass arm was to travel in.  I chose to cut it open more with a knife to hopefully prevent breaking the thin spine.  No luck, broke two parts off on the Port side spine and one part on the Starboard spine, glued them back on and waited.  I tried the fit again and found out that I needed to remove more wood, ended opening up the slot by about a good 1/8 inch.

Now that I did that, I noticed that the end of the brass rod that fits in the little hole of the center board needed a little more hook than being a straight elbow.  Was afraid to try and bend it while it was in the center board due to the thinness of the center board wood.  So, I removed it from the board and bent just a little more hook in the rod end, and very very carefully inserted it back into the board.

Note that I painted the center board prior to gluing the spines together, I couldn’t see how I could get a good paint job on the board while it was assembled.  I think this was a good idea.
Glued the Port spine on the other spines and trapping the center board.  Seems like my wood glue was a little two watery since the port spine started to curl.  It was a challenge to get the spine correctly placed before the glue was too tacky.  Broke off another two pieces during this process.

CAUTION: the port and starboard spines a very thin and easily break.
 

Eberhard, thank you for the suggestion. I'll keep this in mind as I pursue a solution. 
 
 I've positioned the 1.0 water cask on the deck. Seeing them in situ my disappointment has lessened, at this moment I have mixed feelings. Here are some deck photos showing the water cask. 

Pat, Keith, and Gary, thank you for the kind words and thanks to all for the likes.
 
 I made the water casks from the following materials...
 1) Handles made from individual chain links. I tried making them from wire but the effort didn't look as good as the chain links. 
 2) Tops and bottoms punched from card.
 3) Cask body from turned dowel.
 4) Banding from masking tape. 
 Overall dimensions....Bottom diameter, .3 inches. Lid diameter, .2 inches. Height, .2 inches
 

 
 And the assembled bits. Because the cask in the H and H photos differ from one another making them was a lot simpler. 

 
 I am disappointed in the results. Each cask has three bands but because of the size I couldn't include the center band, there are just the top and bottom bands. I'm sure Eberhard and Keith ( and others) could work at this scale and make them look exactly like the originals but, It is what it is. 
 
 I'll get these poly coated and put them on the deck ( not glued down) in their assigned places and in time see if I can come to live with them. As I look at them in situ over the next week maybe I'll come up with a way of making them differently/better.
 
 Chest are next on the menu, hopefully they pass muster. 

Thank you to all for the likes.
 
All the completed deck elements are now permanently glued in place.  
 
 
I got the steam whistle turned and mounted. 
 
 Rear coal scuttles
 
 and forward coal scuttles completed
 
A couple of deck shots showing recently added eyebolts, steam whistle and coal scuttles.


 
The deck is starting to fill. I still need to add three chest, three water buckets and a couple of vent pipes.

I struggled with the gun tracks (tracks, sweeps or traces) I spent countless hours viewing the H and H photographs trying to to make sure I wasn't missing something as I consider the tracks to be every bit as important as the guns. Years ago I thought about not adding the tracks because at the time I didn't have a clue has how I would go about making them. Even when I started trying to make them I doubted if I was going to be able to make a convincible representation. I think my attempt has accurately included all the elements, the tracks are not to scale due to the method I used to make them.
 I made a rough drawing of what I was seeing but the actual working layout had to made on the deck, consequently there a many compass point indents. Hopefully they'll disappear when the tape/tracks and deck get a coat of poly. The poly acts as a binder to keep the tape from lifting. 
 To make the tracks I used one inch masking tape and a compass cutter. I placed strips of masking tape on porous wood butting the long edges together for the large circles and a singe strip for the small circles. The porous wood allowed the masking tape to be removed without tearing but as I said, the tracks are not to scale. When I tried making them to scale (.06 inches) the tape would tear when removed. After may tries the best I could do without tearing was .09 inches. The deck planking isn't to scale, .1 inches vs what should be no more than .08 inches so the tracks don't look too ghastly out of proportion/scale. Before removing the circles they were painted black and allowed to dry. Once dry I had to pick gingerly at the edge till I could get a dull blade under both edges and continue to gently remove from the board. This was/is an exercise in patiences as haste makes for a lot of torn circles.
 The bigger circles being in two pieces made them easier to remove from the wood but harder to apply to the deck. Did you ever notice how masking tape wants to stick to everything except where you want it to stick? Well, I have. Another exercise in patiences.
 I'm sure you'll notice there is a difference between the two Dahlgren gun tracks. This due to the different relationship between the stowed position and gun port. The stern Dahlgren's port is more abreast where as the forward Dahlgren's port is to the rear of it's stowed position. I'm sure that in actuality the stowed position and their respective guns ports were the same for both guns. When I started this project I couldn't see this far ahead and work out a solution more accordingly. 
 The first photo is a work in progress photo, all the rest are of the completed work. 

A little more progress.
 

 

Finished the bow.
 

 

I continue to lay the diagonal planks. Moving from the center to the bow and stern.
 

I started laying the diagonal planks - anegri wood