Introducing myself as a new member of the forum.
A late start, as I have only just got the first 3 issues.

I like the idea of being 3 months behind the first subscribers - I can read all about your experiences and pick up some ideas, well before I get the next parts.

This is my second go at a wooden ship. The first was a Billing Kit of a Dutch barge - never finished due to it going underwater in a flood!

No jig made yet of course. All I need is the measurements of the last two parts of the keel and I could do it now. Length of the other mid-section, base length of the keel, angle of the keel and it's height. Then I could make up all the jig pieces now.

Ah well, I jointed the bow to the first keel piece anyway and it looks dead straight.

Bulkhead and 3 frames made up. One is a bit warped (no.6) but I can sort it when packing out the hull.

Cannons and anchor put aside for now. I want to do them in a batch. Looking at the official build so far, there are no more coming for several months.

Ah well, another month until parts 4-7.

Thank you!

Thanks Delboy.

The reason I have chosen Captain David as a username is that I live on a Dutch Barge, so am the captain of my own ship. Not that I do any sailing. I drove her to this mooring 20 years ago and that was it!
Now I can fantasise about being captain of a 100-gun ship of the line !

My post from 7 March - which I accidentally started a new post with. I prefer to keep it all in one place!

[img][]Well, I have started!

First off, I have to admit I haven't yet made a jig/drydock. I still might make one later. The bow has been traced onto a piece of 4mm ply just in case.

I notice that Tomick's official build doesn't use a shaped bow support anyway, just the supplied bow stand (pieces C1/C2).

The first 2 pieces of keel are a straight as a die when glued together with the bracing pieces. Just a slight warp of about 1mm, right at the tip of the bow, which the jig wouldn't correct anyway. I will sort this later, when the bowsprit is added.

Rib 6 had a slight warp too. About 1mm diagonally across the main piece. Not enough to send the part back but I made another problem by sanding too much out of the slots of the joint to the keel.

The problem was using a loose sheet of fine sandpaper. I was very gentle but I have rounded out the slots very slightly, so there was a slight wobble in the fit - which was tight as could be before I sanded. 45p at Tesco got me a pack of 10 fine emery boards; £1 at the local Asian hardware shop gave me a set of 6 needle files of different shapes. Controlled sanding is the way to go!

Correcting the wobble-fit and warp was done by packing the assembly. I knew that rib 7 was a perfectly square and tight fit - I had dry-fitted it when joining the keel pieces and clamping the bracing pieces to butt against it. Now that 7 is glued in, I dry-fitted 6 and used a vernier to measure the correct centre distance between them at 52mm. Packing was done with a piece of foam insulation slab (49mm) and two slips of cardboard from a wine-box, the same both sides. Anything would do really, so long as it is exactly the same on both sides and really tight.

I will keep the rib packed out until the lower deck is glued and pinned in place.

No work on the cannons except making one carriage. I will wait until more metalwork arrives before deciding on paints. Loooks like that will be when the ship's launch equipment arrives: anchor, bucket and oars.

Still not decided about balsa infills. The ship will be double-planked, so there is an opportunity for fairing up between the two layers. If I find I need more glueing area for the planking, I might add 10mm blocks of balsa either side of the ribs. This would also strengthen the rib joints.

That's it for now. I wonder when the next bits will arrive? Customer Service "despatch dates" seem to be 2 weeks before the parts arrive. I guess that is the date they give the order to their distribution contractor, not when it is actually sent. Royal Mail doesn't take 2 weeks to deliver!

Hi David welcome to the forum I cn see you are enjoying your build. Kind regards Mike

All ribs now braced. At least, the ones I have received so far.
The front two (5 & 6) done with ply cut from the fret/sprue waste and the rest with stuff I had lying around - this had been previously used, so there is still a bit of paint on one side, but this will not be seen so I didn't sand it all off.
Rib 13 now has top reinforcement as well, for pinning the deck joint between front and middle deck sections. This was made from some 5mm pine strip offcuts, again just stuff lying around.
None of the ribs are glued in yet. I am waiting for the lower deck to arrive, to use it as a fixing jig. The slots in the deck edges will be used to align the ribs as I glue them.

Thanks, Gandale.
I wish I had more to do. I am a late starter.
There was an option to start off with the current issue and get all the rest as a large back-order. I would have had to shell out more than I could afford at the time.
As I only got two issues last week (4&5) I am hoping the next delivery will be in 2 weeks, not 4.

Yes, I agree. But I have nothing to do now until the next delivery

Hi Captain, it is a pain I agree but you will find the deliveries will settle down to you receiving them the same time every month, 4 issues at a time.... This is also partly the reason why I took on the San Fran II build, something to fill in the time when there was nothing to do ont the SOTS..... Maybe its something for you to consider..... Happy building...

Regards

Alan