MONTHS 1 THROUGH 5

Rib Shaping

Shaping the ribs is a bit tricky and you must take your time and not get too aggressive. You will be surprised how quickly you can rub away the wood and end up with a piece that has been over sanded. If you do this there is no nice way to recover...you can glue the sawdust back on. You would choose to add some wood shims to the overhanded area, but seeing as this is an Admirality model that won't look so nice on the final product. Again, take you time and you should be fine.

Carefully remove the templates from the printout with a very sharp knife and try to get as smooth a curve cut as you can. Then attach the template to the rib using a glue stick. The glue stick works well to hold the paper in place and the glue does come off fairly easy when you are done. Another option, and the one that I chose, is to trace the template onto the rib with a #2 pencil. Be sure to do this for both sides and take note that there is a different template for each side.

Once you have your template in place, or traced, start to carefully sand away the edge of the rib until it is the shape of the template. I used 220 grit to do this. Yes, it took a lot more time, but it also ensured I did not overdo it. Remember, the wood in this kit sands very easily and anything rougher than a 220 grit can take wood away much faster than you think. When you have the rib to your liking go ahead and remove the template.

Next, I worked over the entire rib on all sides with 320 grit until it was as smooth as I desired.

IMPORTANT: Finally, take a piece of painters tape and write the rib identifier on it. Place this tape on the rib. This will help you ensure that you can properly identify each rib when it comes time to attach it to the keel.

MONTHS 1 THROUGH 5

Dry Dock Assembly

The dry dock is about as easy as it gets. Assemble the pieces as instructed. Do not try to force things into place. If you find something is just too snug and may likely snap off you should instead remove the slightest amount with a file or some sandpaper and refit.

Be sure to glue all pieces together throughly and clean up any excess glue. This dry dock will dictate how all your ribs, the keel, the stern will fit together so it is critical to assemble cleanly and square.

MONTHS 1 THROUGH 5

Attaching Ribs to the Keel

Attach your finished ribs to the keep and pay careful attention that you get each where it should go. It is very important that you ensure your keel is seated perfectly within the dry dock and that each rib is square to the keel. Do not try to do all the ribs in a single go, instead, do one or two...let them dry for a short period of time...remove the ship from the dry dock...and check that the ribs are square to the keel and also that they are perfectly perpendicular to your work surface.

Summary

Honestly, that is about it for the first 5 months. There is a lot of repetitive work that gets done. I found that I could typically complete the entire month in a single weekend for these first few months. Again, as with all things on a wood model ship, take you time and enjoy!

Back to the main deck framing. Keeping in mind that I need all the masts to align perfect I decided that the best place for me to make any final adjustments no the main deck would be the main hatchway. Having decided that I then moved to the bow of the ship and made the first few sections of main deck framing from the bow back to the foremast. Once I had all the pieces fitting nicely I went ahead and stained the assembly. Finally, when attaching to the ship I used the provided foremast, put it in place, and made sure everything lined up as best as possible.

I also needed to fine tune the assembly so the access to the stove was in the correct area. This will allow me to properly attach the chimney when the time comes.

Hi Tenderfoot,
A lovely build and a superb diary. Well done.
Chris

Time to finish up the davits. Several posts back I had begun to take these on while awaiting receipt of Month 10. Now that I have everything I need it was time to put these to bed.

I went ahead and added the hardware (nails and eyebolt) per the instructions. Also added the metal band. This is a good point to put out a reminder that you should anneal your brass before trying to bend it...makes life sooooo much better. I will quickly walk through what I did and you can go back a ways in this log for additional details on how to anneal, bend, solder metals.

Annealed both pieces after I had removed any burs. Also bought up the surfaces to better accept glue and paint.

Bent the pieces to shape using some micro pliers.

Dry fit to the piece and once I was happy with it I glued the metal band to the davit. Note, it should be slightly below the end of the davit, not flush with the end.

Note there is a small gap where the brass band comes back together. Needed to add a bit of CA Glue solder here. Afterwards, the gap was nicely closed.

Finally, I used a soft lead pencil to add some color to the pulley wheels inside the davits. This doesn't show well in my photos (I am not a good photographer) but does look better in my opinion.

Finally, a bit of paint very carefully applied and the davits are complete. Will set them aside until they are installed in a later part of the build.

Needed to back-track a bit. I had actually forgotten to drill the two 6mm holes in the lower deck for the elm pumps. Now that I had the main deck in place, and didn't want to try to tear things out, I decided to accomplish drilling the holes with the main deck in the way.

To do this I first used a 1.5mm drill bit and carefully positioned it in the center of where the holes in the lower deck should be. Once I had a pilot hole in place I came back with a round needle file and began to methodically sand away until the hole was 6mm. This took a lot of time and patience as I needed to avoid hitting any of the main deck infrastructure.

Once all was said and done I was actually happy that I had not done this until I had the main deck in place. The main deck supports around the pump holes acted as a nice guide so I could ensure the holes I created would line up perfectly. I reviewed the deck plans carefully and I would have been fine to follow the directions, but since I tend to wander hither-dither things like this happen. You can see in the photo where I marred one of the main deck supports just a bit, but this will get covered with deck plans...all good in the end.

This next part isn't a mod, but it also was not in the instructions - at least I didn't find any mention of it. The stern-most ribs end up being slightly taller than necessary once the main deck supports were in place. The supports should have a smooth run from the stern support, along the top of the ribs, all the way to about the 5th rib from the bow. So obviously, these four ribs circled in the photo below needed to be sanded down just a bit.

I went ahead and tackled this with some fairly rough grit - 80 to be exact. I have avoided using rough grit sandpaper on this project as the wood in this kit tends to sand rather easily. However, since this stern section will be completely covered with deck planks I was comfortable with going at it with gusto and not worry too much about marring the adding supports. Once I had the four ribs sanded back on the starboard side I went ahead and did the same on the port side.

To finish up with Month 10 it was time to complete the anchors. Note that the instructions actually call for assembling one of the anchors earlier in the build and I had simply chosen to wait and do them at the same time. However, since this log has been moved to the featured build log I thought I should start to adhere to the order of the directions a bit more, at least in those areas where it wouldn't change anything. I do tend to jump back and forth and will make an effort to stay on a steady course from here on out.

In that vain, I went ahead with both anchors and followed the directions for the most part. I did not modify these in any way but I did change the process of assembly just a tad. When assembling the wood pieces the kit calls for you to glue two together and then shape them. Then to glue the two for the other half together and then shape those. Then, when complete, the two should marry up perfectly. Well, I know me and it would not work out this way. So I did things slightly differently.

First, I glued the two pieces together for each half. Then I went ahead and glued the two half together. The end result was I had the entire wood anchor assembly glued up. I then took the template and traced it onto the wood on both sides. Please note, I also drew a line along the bottom of the wood assembly where the angle should stop. I did this to help me ensure I did not sand too close to the hole for the metal part of the anchor. I outlined one side in magenta in the image below since the pencil marks were just a bit too hard to see in the photo.

Once I had the template traced and everything looked good I went ahead and sanded away to the pencil marks. I take may time on things like this...sand a bit...take a look...sand a bit...take a look. It took about 30 minutes to complete one wood assembly in this manner.

The last few steps on the anchors...

I followed my typical procedure when preparing the brass fittings (see previous posts in this log) and carefully applied some black paint once they were in place.

Lastly, I used CA Glue to attach the metal part of the anchor with the wood part. Be sure these two parts are perpendicular to each other...the anchor should not lay flat when completed. Also, take your time and be sure you attach the piece square to each other. I am 100% satisfied with the results.

That does it for Month 10. Yes, the instruction do have some steps for assembly of a canon. However, I am going to do this in a few weeks and will have some detailed posts on how I accomplish this. I always do my canons at the same time as I find the methodical routine soothing and want to do the same here. Next post will be the start of Month 11.