Work continues. As I had said before, I am deviating from the instructions as I am finishing the hull before I do anything on the deck and above. With that being said, everything outside of the grates and ladders is done up to about halfway through pack 4 now. The planking is very easy on this ship. I did use the manual plank bender thing that looks like a set of pliers on some of the front pieces. I also managed to get a couple of planks out of order. On one side you can see I have several rows starting at bulkhead #5, but this is ok. I noticed it early and made sure everything looks good and even. With that being said, once I get through all the planks I will make a little spreadsheet for those that want to build this kit so that doing the hull will be a bit easier than following the instructions. I do like the pictures and descriptions, but I am finding that you really have to pay attention to the sequence as on some pages it jumps around. Regardless, I am having a blast with this build. Pack 5 won't be here until the end of the month though. What you see here is the first ten rows completed. This took about three to four hours over two days. Having a good glue is imperative. I use gorilla glue for wood. I also am using a 2oz hammer to drive in the nails and holding them a set of angled tweezers as I start.

Looking good and nice work. With Pack 5 take a look at how the stern frames are fitted in the official build as this may help you in fitting yours.

I watched a build where the builder used a small travel iron, with steam setting



seemed workable to me

nudge nudge


hope all is well with the holiday seasons