Polaris by James K. Scale 1:50 Practice Kit

[Jameskilroy]

Originally started Endurance but renovation work has meant no space to build for a long while. Now got some space back and decided before butchering Endurance (and not caving and buying the Lego one lol!) I’d buy Polaris to practice some skills on. So far learnt quite a bit… mainly by making mistakes of course. Still thanks in no small part to YouTube videos it’s coming along fairly well

 

had to cut some of the bulwarks back off at stern to re-align as one too high and the other too low. A hot knife worked surprisingly well! May have to do similar at prow just to adjust a tad. 
 

the decking was time consuming compared to just long strips and pencil and I’m not sure if worth that effort. When varnished a couple planks raised and one not full gone back down but I tried to glue underneath using a pin and besides it will be covered when finished. The nails were done as per a video instruction using a hammer and retractable pencil tip. Damaged a couple of planks on edge doing that but again think I can cover and realised after the second why. 
 

Next is first planking and I’m both looking forward and dreading this as I can’t work out if I’ve sanded enough/too much/both/neither. This is the bit I wanted this boat for the most in terms of practice so exciting to be at that point!