Hi John, great piece of kit!

So the barrels are finished at last and I can finally put volume 1 to bed, apart from tidying up some loose cannons.

I bought some 1mm masking tape as recommended by someone here and painted the edge black however the paint didn't take well and the edges were rough. Then wrapped the tape around a small plastic bottle first and painted again but still the tape took some of the paint off when dry and left the edges rough once more.

Third try and painted the tape again around a bottle but rewound it around another plastic bottle while it was still wet. I was quite pleased with the result this time.



Used my new rotary tool to cut the ends and drilled a couple of holes for the stoppers, again inspiration from someone here. Stain is warm oak which I am planning to use for the decks with Danish Oil or polish on top if that makes sense. I wanted to get an 'old wood' finish.



Finished at last and patients is still a virtue.



John

Looking really smart there. keep up the good work.

Hi mate
That's some very nice barrels there. I've not started mine yet but it will be difficult to get anywhere near you
On ce a g in- great

Hi coming along nicely, take your time each plank you place is one less.

to a certain extent let the plank follow its natural course when you bend it around the bow

Hi again all.

Latest update and a couple of questions for the great and the good. Progress is slow partly through other things but also getting the stern right is not easy, which leads to the first point.



The planks on the right are the ones I ripped out and started again with and they do lay better now. Problem is they will be uneven and not look symmetrical by the time they meet the keel.

Starting over I would do better of course but maybe when a beginner, one should carry on and save the learning for the next build, so long as it's not storing up problems for the future. Ultimately the planks here will be painted black or covered with copper, so if it's not perfect I am happy to carry on.

Not sure what do you think?


And the second qestion is around Karls point about the gun ports

Because I wanted to finish the hull first I haven't completed the upper planking yet nor cut out the ports other than the first 2 rows.



Much happier with the planking on the lower hull than the upper part now - so much learning to pick up here.

I remember there appeared to be a problem with Tomicks build way back but I thought that was on the quarter deck gun positions.

Having seen the builds progress now, would it be better to position the higher gun ports on the upper gun deck a millimetre or two higher?

John

Hi John!

I will do some graphics to help explain were the instruction have caused some people to make an error with the gun ports, so you can avoid the same thing in the future.

Hi John!

You can get the upper deck gun ports set to the correct height when you start the upper planking again first fit the upper gun deck then take the measurements from the deck inside of the hull up to the top of the plank already fitted. Mark this to the outside of the hull this is the deck line now measure 3.5mm to 4mm above this and mark the bottom of the gun port, repeat for all the ports. When you cut the ports the guns will fit with the barrel about in the middle of the port.

I have done some graphics to help explain were the instructions have caused some people to make an error. The problem is the method used didn’t take the shape of the hull into account on the straighter parts of the hull (bow & stern) the measuring stick works, but as the hull curves more in the middle of the ship and you lay the stick over the hull you mark the ports lower to the deck. The deck beam brackets are equally spaced between the decks if you used say ‘digital callipers’ instead of the measuring stick the fixed jaw would be put under the lower deck and the upper jaw at the correct measurement put against the hull holding the calliper vertical. You then would have marked the bottom of the gun port in the correct place, no matter the curve of the hull.





This should explain what happened and how to avoid the same thing happening in the future mate.

Thanks Drron.

Easily solved, I will do when I get there.

John

Thanks Mike.

I guess I will carry on for a bit and see if I can get them to line up again.

John