Another week?! Erm ... or six.
But I have been busy. Oh yes. In between all the other stuff required to keep a roof over my head.
Here's the proof:
Dodgy camera this time, and via a different server - but the decks are done.
I sliced up some lovely pine with the Proxxon tablesaw, slathered the sides with black electrical tape, and got sticking the wood down onto the false deck. Result? A fabby pine deck looking
just right. This has had a couple of coats of varnish and sanding and is
ssmmootthh. Needed here are the toerail (causing me nightmares - more on this next time) the rubbing strip (ditto), a couple of anchors, the samson posts and the dinghy.
The cover for the forward hatch is underway - and I feel good about it - while that wee triangular breakwater positioned to save the mast step from soaking was also used for the halyards' tie-offs: which, in a strange way, is all starting to make sense with regards to the design behind the
real thing. Cabin sides are now covered in pine strips and are much stronger - but are on the verge of needing their portholes cutting out again.
Next!
Stern end. Not
much to see here, but she's smooth: a few last splodges of Milliput need sanding down, and the cream paint can be finished. The waterline is about right - this'll get repainted once the cream's done. There will be an external (non-scale) push rod for the tiller - coming out of the red tube - but you'll never see it. Much.
Pintles and gudgeons need marrying up here, but the rudder and tiller look the bees' knees, and should all work well.
More!
Comfy seats!!! At last!!! I did promise them!
(Milliputted "leather cushions" now adorn the cockpit. The gap on the portside of these is for the 1/8th scale helmsman's bum.
The benches for these were made up in pine strips - the same pine material that is being slapped on the coaming inside and out to provide a better surface.
"Slapped" as in adding an inch or so per night.
The mizzen tabernacle space is done - there'll be a compass in here later - and (outside the coaming) the decking looks great: I'm really pleased with it. The shroud deadeyes are firmly mounted through the deck, and outside these I need to fit the toerail all round the edge of the decking. Outside this, on the hull sides, is the rubbing strip which (I suspect) will require superglue, lots of carving
and swearing.
But! (You know what?)
I am getting there. I'm ready to start rigging (everything's done up top) once the hull sides are finished and a stand is made. The list of "needing done" is evaporating - at last!
Sailing? Well - how about when the ice melts at Riga, early next year?
Andy