Oct. 1, 05 - This is the backplane I cut out for the model. You can see the stations and the waterline. As soon as I finish drawing in the missing stations I will start planking this model. The model is sitting on the mahogany mounting board, which has its first coat of varnish.
Oct. 10, 05 - I finally finished filling in the missing sections on the drawings and have started construction of the model. The picture shows the model with its station frames, deck, shear and waterline planks in place. I slightly mis alligned the waterline at station 6, but that is of no consequence since the waterline plank is largely there as a marker for the waterline. When I actually paint the waterline I will straighten out the line. The mahogany mounting board now has three coats of varnish.
Oct. 16, 05 - I have now finished planking the hull on this model. Tonight the fiberglass goes on the hull (the deck is already glassed). Tomorrow I will start the filling/fairing/priming process. I expect to start painting the model by the end of the week.
Oct. 22, 05 - I have now finished filling the hull and have put the first coat of primer on the model. I also now have 5 coats of varnish on the mounting board. I will fill pin holes tonight and reprime tomorrow. If I get all the pin holes filled, I will put the first coat of Navy gray on the topsides on Monday.
Oct. 24 05 - Over the weekend I filled all the pin holes in the surfaces and reprimed the model. I also put the 5th coat of varnish on the mounting board. Today I painted the topsides. I will let the topsides paint cure for two days before I paint the bottom on Wednesday. I will paint the red boot stripe on Friday and the model will be finished.
Oct. 28, 05 - This model is now almost finished. Since my last update I have painted the bottom and the boot stripe and built and painted the rudder. I have also finished varnishing the mounting board. As you can see, the nameplate also arrived from the engraver. All that remains is to build and install the prop, shaft and strut, buff and wax the hull, and then mount the finished model on the board.
Oct 30, 05 - Here is the finished model with the prop, shaft and strut in place. The model is mounted on mahogany finished in satin varnish.
