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HMS Beagle by Occre. My second ship build.

Completed the second planking and now moving on to the fun stuff. Trying to get those rubbing strakes spaced correctly was not easy, and thus I failed at it. I finally found a reason to use that math stuff they teach you at school to calculate the spacing of the vertical pieces. Also, Legos helped me to insure the vertical pieces stayed vertical.

Bluebear, I doubt if my second plank layer will make a difference. Looking at other Beagles, I can see gaps between gunport and covers. You would have to be awfully careful and thinking ahead to avoid them.
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More fun stuff. Much more satisfying than spending hours and days on one task like sanding, planking, sanding some more, still more planking, and still more sanding. Today I completed the exterior verticals, opened the cannon ports and completed the interior bulwark decorations. Now I have some filing and scraping to get ready to shellac or varnish the hull and getting it ready to paint. The instructions call for pore filling shellac. Anyone know what that is? Is that needed or can I just use the varnish included with the Occre Beagle paint set?

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Good morning. Your planking is looking very nice indeed. I agree with you- rubbing strakes and wales are no easy task. Especially as the wales following the sheer line of the ship and not the deck level. On my Victory I got these wrong but the ship still looks cool. I certainly don’t think you failed with yours and she still looks mighty fine. Cheers Grant
 
Shellac should be used as a sealant, an intermediate layer between two different finishes, or on its own for interior items that don't require high abrasion resistance. Shellac's durability is lower, which is probably why it was suggested for use under paint and varnish as a sealant or primer.
 
I got a lot of work done since last post. The ship is now painted, the hammocks and rail installed, rear transom with wire decorations installed and davits both front and back installed. I've now completed page G of the instructions and have started on page H.

Here is the start of painting. Unlike the instructions, I painted the black areas and white areas separately. Here is just the top band of black.
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Then I had to determine the waterline which was a little difficult trying to mark the line on the shellacked hull. I was a little off at the bow but then remembered I had a laser level and I used it to confirm the areas I had right and correct the areas on the bow.
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. Added the hammock rails and front davits. Then installed the transom. The trim pieces on the transom were very difficult as well as the wire decorations. I did my best.
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I am now nearing completion of installing the rudder. If you've read my previous build logs, you know I hate gudgeons and pintles. This time it wasn't too bad. Will post pics of rudder in next post.
 
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