The wheel house, cockpit, and aft companion way (hatch)

This step is really a collaboration of four individual parts that were created separately and then put together and installed in their proper location.

Beginning with the wheel house I measured and cut the required piece and cut again to create the slope of the wheel house, then came careful sanding to its final shape and a great deal of patient painting to get the lines right for the sides and top, stained the top and scored some lines in the roof.

Next I built the companionway or the hatch that sailors would have used to get below deck. This piece is made of 6 pieces, all of which were very small, the base was cut and shaped, then stained and painted. The slide for the hatch is made of two short strips of 1/32 X 1/32 in wood cut diagonally and then int an L shape that you can see in the photo. two similar strips separate the slides and finally the roof was cut sanded stained and installed.

With these pieces constructed I sanded and painted the kit supplied cockpit comings and carefully lined everything up and glued it all together, last but not least was the wheel, also kit supplied, it needed some touch up and a lot of paint, some of which is not completely even in the photo due to the magnification, I could not even tell that there were issues until I saw the photo, so I guess it will do as is.

With all that installed on the model I will move on to the rest of the aft deck and be a few steps closer to well, the half way point...

Traveler for the boom

It seems to have been a while since I took myself away from this project to snap and upload some photos so I have a lot to explain.

The traveler for the boom was not supplied in the kit so this piece was fully fabricated. The traveler is the tie off for the main boom that will extend out past the rear of the ship.

In order to make this part of the model I cut a very small strip of wood out of a sheet that is 1/32 in thick and attached two strips of small gauge wire. I had to drill several small holes in the center of this wood strip to make the slot in the center that will allow the boom to move side to side as would have been done on the real ship due to changing wind directions.

After painting this black with multiple coats of paint it was almost ready for installation, first I had to paint and install an eye bolt under the traveler that holds the block that the boom will eventually attach to. After installing all of these things I put in one more eye bolt that will serve to keep all of this in place.

This is one small detail that will be followed by many more to come...