HMS GREYHOUND by Jackson7 - Corel - Collaboration With My Past Self

[Jackson7]

It's intriguing how many different skills building a ship involves. Putting deck furnishings on is radically different from assembling planking. Both require precision, but the precision of sanding a plank to fit bears little resemblance to placing a knighthead or drilling a hole.

 

 

So far, the deck is far less trouble. At this point, I've glued on the cannons, wrapped the wheel in rope, and thanks to @harlequin's advice, I've been able to put all the cleat hitches in place.

 

The kit's drawings require 14 cleat hitches, and the kit only provides 12. I dread to consider how I will do the masts and yards from drawings that just don't work. They are fast approaching.

 

While gluing the cannons on, I discovered they often aren't quite even. I fixed the problem by running them over light sandpaper until the wheels were all level. It's hardly noticeable, and having four glued points of contact on the deck is a great benefit to their long-term stability. 

 

I assumed Corel's instructions were right, so my forward deck knightheads were slightly too wide to fit the foremost two guns. Don't believe the manufacturer on this model. Instead, carefully evaluate everything they show in pictures of the ship and reason out how it all ought to fit together. Measure distances yourself.

 

The last thing to do is the rail on the quarterdeck. I've measured everything, and I'm going to start drilling holes to slot the pillars into soon. It will be finnicky to slot six different apertures together into two seperate pieces of wood, but I think I've got it.

 

A note to other beginners: The best way to do deck furnishings is to start at the lowest area. Finish it, move higher, and don't touch the places you've already completed. Also, build the complex stuff first. You're more likely to accidentally break an easy deck fixture while working on a difficult one than to do it the other way around. I found myself wishing there had been some way to complete the main deck before putting on the quarterdeck. It was endless trouble to drill and stab holes for the ship's wheel underneath a roof.

[Jackson7]

Progress proceeds once more, but with a setback that will delay much further operation until Sunday.

 

I've attached the quarterdeck rail. This step looks particularly elegant. At the same time, it's puzzling to see how two pieces of wood can be made to fit together so precisely.

 

As usual, the answer is that these things are simpler than they appear. I made the rail by using a template made of some of my scrap wood. It was a simple matter of drilling holes in the template two mm from its edge, then putting it on top of both pieces to guide the drill.

 

After that and a few gentle nudges, the metal pillars perfectly connected the two wood pieces. All that was left was to put a little slice of veneer scrapwood over the top to hide the holes.

I was working on the six brass pieces to the side of the ship. I'm not sure what they're called because Corel's instructions don't mention them. As they are too weak to be pushed into the side like a nail, I was drilling holes for them, and my smallest drill bit broke with four more to go. I'll be buying a new one Sunday at my local hobby store.

 

 

[Nirvana]

But still very nice progress.