Ahoy Shipmates,

As you might see on my build diary I finished all the masts and yards from issue 62 to 82, and now I'm returning to complete the skipped tasks.
The next to come is in issue 66, drawing the waterline.

At this point I faced a problem. I placed the hull in its cradle under frame 18 & 23 and checked the level side-to-side (placing a spirit level across the decks/bulwarks), luckily it's in level (<0.5 degrees) without any adjustment required.
However when I measured the lowest point of the lower whales I found a 2 mm difference between the port and starboard side (110 & 112 mm from the table top). I'm not sure where is it coming from, but I think it doesn't matter now.

Obviously it's not possible to remove and reposition the whales without seriously damaging the hull, so I dropped this idea immediately.

For drawing the waterline if I would use the same instruction (3mm above the lowest point) on both sides then the waterline wouldn't meet and the bow and stern. This would look ugly hence this idea also dropped.

Other option I see that I use the middle (111 + 3 = 114 mm) to draw the waterline, but in this case the two sides would look slightly different regarding where the black/yellow "stripes" are running relative to whales/gunports.

Third option is that I use different waterline level for the two sides (113 & 115) at the middle of the hull and bring the two lines together at the bow/stern by "bending" the waterline up/down to ensure they meet.

Did any of you face with this problem before and how did you get over it?

Hi Alan,

Thanks for yor advise, I had the same opinion. The ship will be hanged from the ceiling in a glass cabinet above the staircase hence the viewer will see only the right hand side of the ship, the bow and partially the stern.

I am running into the same problem. I am ready to install the middle and lower wales and there is about a 2 mm difference between the port and starboard side. I think my best bet also is to lineup the bow and stern so they match and I will fit the center as best as possible. Thanks for your insights it is real helpful as always.