Hull flange. For some reason the inside lip of the main rail of my hull was larger on the starboard side by a good 1/8 inch. So some loud time was had using Dremel and rattail file to even it up to the bulwark's thickness. (Insert "I love the smell of fiberglass shavings in the morning" joke here.)

Gun carriages. Next I gave the gun carriages a couple of coats of stain with brown paint mixed with clear waterproofing. Looks much better than a straight coat of brown or black, so I did some paint-removing from my first two carriages.

Then I drilled seven tiny holes in each carriage and added three screw eyes to the body and four cut nails to lock the wheels in place. Not sure what to do about the unimpressive looking rubber wheels yet. 72 wooden wheels to make?... ugg.

More crew. Another search on ebay for 1:24 and G Scale figures resulted in three new recruits joining the ranks of the Theresa Maries. After some alterations to conceal their "Pirates of the Seven Seas" origin they were designated as future topmen because of their smaller size (compared to the more hefty 1:20 Papos) . And to give a small shout out to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series I even broke down and bought the one 1:18 figure that wouldn't be too big: Marty Klebba (aka Gore Verbinski) whose figure stands at an acceptable 2 1/2 inches.

Happy Hen Toys also had a sale on some of their farm-themed Papo figures so another group of seven were conscripted and converted to serve aboard. Current muster list: Captain, 3 officers, 1 midshipman, 2 dignitaries with 1 attendant and 18 seamen. Arrr she'll be a lively ship.

Deck supports. According to the directions and other modelers here's how you're suppose to hold the deck in place to glue the support blocks precisely to the hull: "...lift the deck up and support it with bendable sticks wedged to the internal keel space or folded foam rubber, tight against the bulwark." After some attempts I became dubious of this working well for me.

So new plan. First I cut 20 small basswood squares (oak wood didn't seem to work as well). Next I clamped the bulwarks in place as tightly as I could. Then I put superglue on the blocks and one by one pushed them up in place, using a great deal of pressure to make sure everything was tight as a drum. Worked pretty well.

I also purchased a one pound can of Bondo for gluing the deck. I'll probably use some to reinforce the support blocks so I can get some practice working with it.

Week 6