Day 439.

With construction of the hull, masts, booms and gaffs complete, it is a good time to do a quick final pass and clean up any lingering issues.

Looking over the hull, I found a few minor things that needed to be finished up.

Barrels

Over the last couple of months, I’ve ordered some wooden barrels from a few different vendors.  I wanted to find ones that were not only the right size, but also the right finish to match the ship.

I really liked the ones I ordered from Model Expo, but they were a dark walnut that didn’t match (and they were too dark to stain).  I managed to find some from Modeler’s Central that were identical, but made from lighter unfinished wood.  I tried a few different sizes, and ended up going with 15mm x 17mm barrels.

I was able to stain these barrels to match the wood work on the rest of the ship.

The barrel before and after staining.

I painted the bands black, and tied them down with some tan line

Three barrels stained, painted, and tied to the cabin on the deck.

Dory Oars

The dory oars also needed to be secured.  I made these quite a while ago, but I left them loose until now.  After a little bit of fiddling, I decided on a spot and glued then down.

Dory oars were glued into place.

Gooseneck Shackle

When building the lower masts, I fashioned the gooseneck and its shackle from brass.  It seemed fine, but once I did a test-fit with the booms, it was a little too long.

The original shackle on the gooseneck was a little too long.

So, I removed it and tried again.  The new one is uglier, but shorter and better shaped.

The updated one (prior to touch-up paint) is a little shorter.

With those fixes in place, I’m ready to move on.