It's High Summer now and the temps are 100 or more every day. It only goes down to 85 at night so there's a good start on the next day's high. I've mostly stayed indoors and worked on the GR since it's awful outside and some progress has been made. I'm finding that I have bitten off way more than I can chew with this model but since it's well on it's way to being built I will continue. Got into making the knees for the the lower deck beams and what a chore that is. Every knee, port, starboard or in between is slightly different than the last one. Since knees were made by matching grown tree forms, to a given angle at the deck and hull sides, how much trouble it must have been building the real ship. These are not light weight pieces either. They must have weighed hundreds of pounds if not more. I also made mast steps to bed the masts on and they did come out pretty close to the plans. Getting the ten degree rake angle will be fun as each mast hole on each deck will be in a slightly different place but all lined up for the rake. I also built in some reinforcing at the bow to support the base bowsprit piece which will be 3/4" giving the bowsprit a very strong attachment to the ship. Along with that the hatches are being built going through the lower deck with combings and removable hatch covers to keep unwary sailors from falling down on the keel. Each deck has four hatches ranging in size from 6 x 6 to 11 x 14 and all must be aligned to give a straight hole from the top deck to the lower hold so as to lower cargo without bashing it against the sides. Since there are four decks there are 16 hatches to build. I did two last night but the upper ones cant be built until the lower decks are finished first. I think I need an extra person to tell me what comes next and in what order. At least I have plenty of lumber for now but I can see some rather large orders coming up for future work.
I have to apologize for not posting more info more often. However this work does not progress very fast and there doesn't seem to be any reason to take pictures of every piece of wood that gets added. I might add that so far I have used almost $600 worth of wood from various vendors if that's of any interest. I think that I'll be interested in part ownership of a thread factory when I get to the rigging. Building this model is the most tedious and complicated as well as frustrating model that I ever have attempted but also the most exciting too. I couldn't stop building it even if I wanted to.
I just downloaded some pictures but they aren't where they should be. I'll post this and then find and post the pictures.
Ships lumberyard for lack of any other place to put it.
Trace one knee as many times as you need knees.
Cut out knees on band saw because I don't have a jig saw. Sand the pieces with the oscillating drum sander to get the curve and fit to the place it's to be used. Glue it up quick before I change my mind.
A view down one side of the ship showing one of the mast steps.
A view down the other side of the ship showing the opposite side of the mast step. Can't tell port from stbd. from here.
Top view of mast step.
