War of 1812 or Napoleonic Brig

Today I have basically spent the entire day working on this ship. I started about 7am and finished about 10pm. In between, I went out for breakfast with my wife for a couple of hours in the morning, ate dinner then watched the news 545 - 630 pm and took the dog for a walk at Kariotahi beach 7pm - 830pm.

The rest of the time was spent on this master piece - tomorrow, I may get a chance to undercoat it!

Thanks to Gary Chalk who created the templates used to build this ship

Above - Original illustrations from Gary Chalk's article

The plans that were part of the article - I glued these to thin card then cut them out for templates - so I can create a sister ship if required.....

The templates all ready to go about 730am Saturday morning

I realized I needed THREE of the deck shapes - one for the base, the second for the deck and the third for the quarter deck, foredeck and prow sections.

This looks very similar to one of the illustrations in the original article - which I took to be a good sign!

Holes were aligned through upper and lower deck to ensure the masts would be perpendicular to the deck.

Dry run assembly before applying any PVA glue....

I used plastic clothes pegs as clamps to hold things in place while the glue dried. Masts are going to be created from kebab skewers, as I thought dowel was a bit too "Chunky"

About fifteen stages and eight hours later - this is how the vessel looks at the moment

From directly above.....

From a side angle....

...and with the two masts in position. I used some thin string I had to bind around the join between the upper and lower parts of the two masts. I made mine slightly shorter than suggested in the plan because I thought that worked better aesthetically.

My plan now is to paint the ship up in black and yellow a la Royal Navy circa 1800-1820. I have checked several images and decided that the hull and masts will be yellow, with the spars and fighting tops black. On the hull, all the beading is also black.  I think the model has come out pretty well and I just need to make sure I take time to get the paint work right!