topsides completed.

all hull repairs completed. aft gallery/balcony constructed and fitted. all painting and varnishing done. bottom white and waterline to do. acylic paint (revelle) used throughout. all covered with polyeurethane clear satin varnish.

hours 56.

the dreaded triangles.

well, i did them on the port side. this was really hard. originally they were marked out and painted with the cards flat on the bench and the cards fitted to the hull o/c. painting in situ is hard. the results are not as good as roy's efforts but when model is completed my errors will hopefully melt away.

hours 44.

removed rubbing stakes prior to painting triangles.

after much thought have decided i don't have the ability to freehand paint the triangles. they are too small. therefore will have to mask them with tape. in order to get access for tape, removed rubbing strakes. they were pinned, not glued, thankfully. pried them off with chisel, leaving pins behind. pins very small and heads corroded away. managed to remove most and drove the rest flush with hull. then masked off and primed area.

tried using tape with no success, so tried freehand with reasonable results. will look better when rubbing strakes replaced. will take hours.

hours 34.

primer, colour match and rails.

weekend sent priming and topcoating rails and bulwarks. very fiddly and slow. am going to have to get a whole lot better before attacking the triangles!!!

hours 28.

repairs, tops and topmasts.

carried on with repairs. replaced bumpkin reinforcing with 1.5 mm bras rod. stuck down rail capping where sprung. glued in place rib end on port inner gunwhale. repaired topgallant mast top supports. struck down all topmasts to facilitate fitting shroud loops over lower mast tops. finaly gave topsides hull, masts and yards a good going over with dark spirit stain. will start painting tomorrow.

hours 22.

started repairs.

the side boards forward had lost the edge trims and warped badly. gave them a good soak and dried them pressed flat. removed traces of old animal glue and secured them with cyo. one trim, the port upper, was missing so replaced it with card laminated x3. the deck house was in bits. am going to have to do a bit of pen and ink on the sternlight. they didn't have glass that big in those days. i'm making up the names of thing i don't know so they sound nautical. i should know them but have forgotten a lot. i could look them up but can't be arsed.

hours 18.

after cleaning.

last two days managed 4 hours cleaning. used
q tips and weak solution of flash. it's slow and delicate, but the only damage it does is show up
pieces that need refixing.












the nex step is repairing damaged and detached

pieces.

then preparing for re-painting. am going to use

acrylic paints, thinned with water. painting one

side first keeping the other side for a pattern. am dreading doing those tri-angles. the pics don't show the size very well. the model is only 17" long so it's going to be difficult. will try valium washed down with triple g&t. that used to steady my hand pistol shooting at bisley!!!

received the cordage from cornwall model boats.

their service very quick and the product looks

very good.

bought a metre of fine cream callico from the local haberdashers. was going to use linen as the original but on looking at what was available, thought it too coarse for scale.

hours 14.