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Waiting for things to dry I started on the rails to hold the belaying pins.the information on how to make these is rather sparse. I have to look at the parts list to see what length they want them to be and try to figure out how many holes they want. 2x5mm wood strip is used except one piece where they want 2x6mm. Why? Who knows. Also some small stanchions are labled Q10 on the pictorial instructions but there is no Q10 in the parts list. I believe they mislabeled them Q9. They would have you drill 2mm holes to place the belaying pins in but I found that was too loose. I found 1.8mm holes made for a much better fit. I drilled the holes with my nail drill , after using a bit of math the figure the spacing between holes. I rounded the edges of the strips, but I doubt anyone will see that viewing the completed ship.
3x3mm strip each 6mm long were used as stanchions. The end stanchions are to have pins put in them. They suggested to use the included eyelets. I instead used some of the many nails I did not use to attach the planking. I drilled small holes before putting the nails into the stanchions.
The remaining stanchions were glued into place.
The grating was cut to size to fit over the opening in the hull. The edges of the grating were sanded. The grating was "weathered with the Bitumen of Judea. They would have you now make a 2x2mm strip edge around the grating, but I kind of like the look of it like this. I may leave it as is.
Well forget what I said above about not framing the gratings. Two davits for a boat are supported by the framework. So using some 2x3mm strip I formed a framework around the grating. I cut small mitered joints so it would look neat.
The davits were then glued to the framework. Placing it on the hull it looks good. I will use the Bitumen of Judea to match the colors.
I notched the edges of two of those pin rails to receive a 3x3mm stanchion to hold them up. The stanchions were made of strip cut to size. The tops are supposed to have a decorative head on them. To do that I marked a line 5mm from one end to denote where the base of the decoration would be.
Using an Xacto blade,I then scored the wood fairly deeply along the lines I drew.
I then repeatedly carved out small wedges of wood on the corners both to the line and the top;
Taking my time, I then did the same thing along the faces of the strips, creating a "neck" along the line. When I was satisfied with the rough shape I finished shaping the piece with sandpaper. I used emery boards as I find them easy to handle. These have 120 grit on one side and 240 grit on the other.
This is the results after a few minutes work.
The stanchions were then glued onto the pin rails.
I have spent more than a few minutes looking over the plans for the mast boots. The parts are labeled and looking at the laser cut pieces I could for the life of me not find them. But lo and behold there they were in the box containing the pins, dead eyes, flags etc. The parts list has them as premade not precut! Any way, I attached them to where they belong in the foremast and mizzen mast holes. The piece for the foremast early slid over the wooden dowel that is to become the foremast. The piece for the mizzen mast needed a bit of sanding for it to fit the 6mm dowel that is to be the mizzen mast. They were glued into place with the dowels in position and then the dowels were removed.
The ships wheel assembly was also assembled. The round "drum" that the steering ropes engage was another premade part in the parts box.
The captains cabin was glued into place. Before that can be attached the metal "decoration" piece had to be placed first since the top of the cabin sits on top of that. The metal piece was secured with CA and the cabin with PVA glue.
Just a quick note. I will be away from this work for about 3 weeks. The good news is that I will b restarting my Bluenose, which I am looking forward to.
Next up they hav you build some of the deck furniture. The ladders are made from PE. I painted the components before assembling them. This cause a little more clean up but it may be easier than painting after the ladder is together. IT is also possible to use a sharpie pen to "paint" the pieces. It can be frustrating to assemble such small items. I used a strip of plank to secure one of the sides of the ladder to to assemble it.
Once one rung was on, the other side was secured to the rung. CA was used as the adhesive. Other rungs slid in rapidly.
