Thanks Steve

Moving on again.
I have now varnished the Hull. For this I used Ronseal Ultra Tough giving three coats, with a sand after the second coat. The lower Hull Maple is Satin and the Upper Hull Matt.
I then added the third deck, this fitted very well with only some minor adjustment to the 2 Stern sections, it's always worrying then very gratifying when something fits well to something you built months ago. I added extra supports around the Hatches using 2 x 5mm Strip. It feels strong enough with these, so I am omitting the columns suggested in the magazine.
Next I have planked the Bow Bulkhead with 1mm thick Limewood, 5mm wide for the flat section and 2mm wide for the curved sections. I am intending to plank over this with Black Boxwood when the Forecastle Deck is in place.

Hi Andy the sunlight does do all the detail justice great build Kind regards Mike

Fantastic work Andy she looks fabulous.
Kind Regards Nigel

Thanks Mike, we live in a very old house with small leaded windows and 2ft thick walls and the light's terrible, particularly for photography. So an outside shot is essential to show anything off to it's best. Still there's so much dust in old houses the wife doesn't notice the sawdust

Thanks Nigel, can't hold a candle up to yours, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

Thanks very much, Martyn

Everything seems OK at my end

I have returned to the SOTS after working on a couple of other model projects and some other stuff which I won't bore you with.
So here is an update on my progress, although I'm now a long way behind some other builders.
My first problem was the cannon ports as I had used the 5mm wide strip and this protrudes 3mm inside, this is only a problem on the 10 ports on the lower deck. What I decided to do was remove the linings completely and cut them down to 2mm then primed and sprayed them to match the outside. I then pre painted the bulwark lining strips, fitted them and trimmed out the ports before the port linings were refitted to the holes.
Meanwhile I planked the deck with 3mm tanganyika in a 3 butt shift pattern. This and the size of planks was chosen to match the decking plans in Endsor's The Restoration Warship. The caulking was added with felt pen, except on the butt ends where I used a 6B pencil to avoid seepage. The treenails were done using a 0.1mm drawing pen.
Next the two gratings were fitted, these are made from 2 Caldercraft 39mm gratings joined in the centre. These have 1.5mm holes, whilst this is still a little large they do still give some visibility and sense of the depth beneath which I feel is lost with anything smaller. I surrounded them with mitered 3mm walnut and hid the joint, which was still slightly visible, with a 2mm strip.
I have now started on the next 2 decks.

Hi Andy, great to see you back on the SOTS build.... .. Lovely work, hope to see the next episode fairly soon....

Regards

Alan