Phantom 1868 by Greg Davis - Model Shipways - 1:48 scale - New York Pilot Boat

[Greg Davis]

Bulwarks have been reinstalled. Beforehand, I did take the opportunity to smooth out the interior side of the bulwarks where the two strakes butt together - easier than if that work had been done with them installed. The hull will still need a little bit of fixing / care due to it being dropped a while back. I'll take care of that work when it is time to paint and copper the exterior.

 

Next up is completing the fairing of the deck beams followed by making a false deck.

[Greg Davis]

Making preparations for the foredeck. I added strips of wood between the bulkheads and near the bulwarks so the subdeck can be secured well in this area. Once they were in place, I faired the 'deck beams' and support pieces.

Then I made a copy of the foredeck plan and was glad to see that it matches the foredeck quite a bit better than the aft deck plan matched the aft deck.

Next step will be to actually fashion the subdeck.

 

Still haven't made a decision on the planking pattern for this deck - nibbed as in plan or herring bone pattern as illustrated in Chapelle. Votes?

[Greg Davis]

Subdeck completed - I decided to make this one out of 1/32" basswood instead of the plywood like on the aft deck.

Next step will to mark out the waterways / margin planks - after that I'm going to need to commit to a planking scheme!

[Greg Davis]

Got a chance to work some more on this project this evening. I marked out margin planks to match those on the aft deck, the forward hatch location, and mast location on the subdeck. Took a few photocopies of the piece and then glued, clamped, and weighted it to the model. Spent some time making up some more 1mm pear for the waterways. I had some more pear that I have been using on the model. Unfortunately, it was 4mm thick and I really didn't want to mill off 3/4 of the wood to make the waterways. Decided to see if it was possible to split the wood in half - turns out that I could. First using successive cuts from both sides of the piece with a slitting blade on my table saw I was able to cut all but about 1/4" of the material out. The remaining material was cut with a razor saw. I ended up with two strips 1.5mm thick. They cleaned up and thinned to 1mm quickly in the thickness sander. Templates for the waterways are now rubber cemented to the pear and await the scroll saw!