This is one of the models I acquired from the estate of a fellow ship modeller here in central Florida. He had completed the hull planking and part of the deck planking. For some reason the original owner cut the top off all the bulwarks flush with the deck which doesn't appear to be called for in the instructions. So I will have to fashion at least some of the stanchions before adding the bulwarks. He also planked the hull without installing the keel and stem. I had to sand the bottom of the hull to establish a mating surface for the keel and stem. The shape of the keel and stem didn't conform to the shape of the bottom of the hull and without further shaping would have required some heavy bending to get a good mating surface. I had to alter the shape of joint between the keel and stem quite severely so they could be attached to the hull. It still took a good amount of wood filler to create a smooth joint. The instructions indicate that a second layer of planking can be added as there are extra planks included with the kit. As I don't plan to leave the hull unpainted and the original owner did a decent job of planking I will probably omit that step. I have started this build log even though I won't be going beyond finishing the hull any time soon. I will probably end up building the Bluejacket 1/80 scale kit first as a test run before tackling the much larger MS Bluenose.
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