Yes finally finished the tree nailing on my RC, 6.000 wooden cocktail pins have been added to the hull and the last can be seen in the picture below. Now it is time for some progress and I have started the addition of the cherry wood layer to the keel. The caulking between the keel parts is simulated in the model by adding additional laser burned lines in the cherry feneer. These laser lines I have additionaly coloured with a common black pencil. The caulking between the edges of the keel parts has been simulated by colouring the edges with a black marker. To finish the hull I have decided not to use any varnish but to rub the hull with bee wax and polish to a nice vinish. The effect of the wax is realy beautiful putting the focus on the grain of the wood with a satin gloss. After bee waxing the hull I have to repaint the whales as the turpentine in the bee wax is dissolving the black paint on the nails of the whales.
In the coming weeks I hope to start with the cabins as I plan some days of around the Christmas days.
Above a real tree nails from an anchor from the 17th or 18th century. The anchor is in our garden and was fished from the bottom of the North Sea 18 years ago, it is in perfect condition and shows the treenailing used to attach the achor stock. The tree nail is a wooden pen with a smaller tapered wooden pen in the middle. This anchor is about 2,5 mtrs and is 650 kg weight. It could be the size of Royal Carolines anchors. Sorry it is litted for Christmas at the moment.
A large part has to be removed from the keel veneer, I do this by first rougly cut of the major part and then using my grinder stone.
The aft part of the keel veneer has to be cut in less then half as I have changed the stern of the vessel.
In the model kit the lower part of the keel on the aft is also covered by veneer, this is incorrect and should be covered with planks, so I changed this in the model. There is sufficient of planks available in the kit to do this and gives to my opinion a better look and feel.
Finally the hull is polished with clear bee wax to get a nice finish.
The top whale in the pictures is a temporary one, this will be replaced by the carved whale in the near future.
Now I have to polish the rest of the hull with bee wax, repaint the whales and then start with the cabins. See you next time.