The work continues…

Really have not enjoyed carving, sanding, etc., on the hull, but I got it ‘good enough’ and moved on.

I chose to tackle the bulwarks before painting or coppering the hull because I felt that I would likely damage the copper with all the work on the top side.  The risk to damage the bulwarks is mitigated by the ‘post’ I can attach to the deck, allowing me to safely hold the ship upside down in my vise for coppering (a hole where the post screws in can be seen on the rear deck in the first photo).

I built a small jig to slide along the top of the bulwarks to aid in marking the depth to carve.  That helped a great deal.  The outer ‘step’ was carved first, followed by thinning from the inside.

My powered micro-sander was invaluable with the bulwarks.  Burned through tons of sanding pads, but it really helped to get things straight and even.

The stern gave me a lot of trouble due to the changes in wood grain.  I managed to get close to 1/32″ all the way around.

The hull then got a couple coats of primer.

Primer was sanded between each coat, and some minor fills were made with putty when needed.  Finally, today I was able to apply the first coat of black to the hull.

The black was airbrushed on, which isn’t really necessary, but I’ve had this airbrush sitting idle for a while and wanted to take it for a spin.  I decided to ahead and paint the entire lower hull, even though much of it will be covered by copper.  No good reason except that it looks nicer until I get the copper on there…

While watching paint dry, I’ve started in on building above deck.  These are proving to be tough given the scale – so I will likely end up re-doing them after this first attempt.

Next steps are to continue with coats of paint, working on the deck buildings while waiting…