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San Felipe - ZHL JM

Luckily my wife has quite a collection of acrylic paints and I mixed a few until I got a shade of brown I didn't hate. I'd call this a success. I couldn't help myself and had to see the baby boats with their mother. 1000029257.jpg1000029259.jpg
 
These skiffs were probably the second most intimidating part of this build outside of rigging. In my opinion, they're kind of the centerpiece on the deck; it's just what my eye personally goes for. I still need to make the oars, but I wanted to get the cradle started and see what these looked like mounted. The cradle is just "press fit" for now. I'm really happy with the outcome.

On another note, it took me far too long into this build to remember I owned an old Alvin friction divider. It has made these awkward measurements on the deck effortless and significantly reduced my trimming and sanding when fitting pieces. I know some of you read things like that and think "who doesn't use one of those?" This build has taught me so much. 1000029349.jpg1000029350.jpg1000029351.jpg
 
Found some brass tubing on Amazon and had some spare wiring that would fit through to light the lanterns. I'm kind of figuring this out as I go, but I like this plan so far.

Bending the tubing with the wiring inside and not having it kink is tricky. I bend it slightly, then squeeze the outside with smooth pliers to get a fairly smooth bend. So far so good! Still kicking myself for using the white silicone wire; it's just barely too wide. The solution will have to be some tedious soldering without burning the ship. Then again, everything has been tedious!

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I'm dry fitting the unfinished chainwales...does this angle look too steep?

It looks steep to me, but my thinking also tells me chainwales should be more or less perpendicular with the hull when mounted, especially considering the brackets that attach them to the hull are roughly 90 degrees. Thanks in advance!

Edit: it's come to my attention that the rear chainwale is backwards in the photo. Sorry, still a newbie!
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Perhaps they look a little unorthodox, but I think it's the best I could have hoped for. It'll look really nice lit up in its display at night.

A lot of things had to go right on the first try with these lamps. I'm not 100% finished with them. They're made of very thin foiled cardboard, so you really only get one chance with the glue. 20260715_205213.jpg20260715_205334.jpg20260715_205451.jpg
 
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