Frigate updates

I managed a couple of free moments this weekend to tinker with the frigate. I spent some time working on the gun ports. several of them were filled in by spilled over resin and had to be cut out. Then the detail work of the ship has some rough spots. In the bow of the ship, some of the details were filled in with bubbles of resin that were lodged in various crevices. Some bubbles were present along its outside lines that had to be smoothed.

Also there are several spots on the hull where it appears some of the detail work has broken off and will have to be replaced. Fortunately none of these was catastrophic and all easily dealt with. Once the carving was done, the ship received a thorough washing.

Then came an attempt to fit the masts to the ship. Well, that proved interesting. The instructions that came with the ship mention that all of the masts are cut to length. Yet for a 3 masted ship, it only came with 2 masts. As I fooled with it, the masts themselves were way too big and would need to be cut down. There is plenty of wood for the operation but the instructions were misleading.

Each mast comes with a resin fore, main and mizzen top. Each of these had a huge amount of resin flash that had to be cut away. The Top Masts, Top Gallant Masts and yards included in the model were bamboo skewers that will need to be cut to length. The only problem point that I am seeing is that all three of the masts have holes pre-cut for them. But there is nothing in which to mount the bow-spirit. I think I can figure out where to mount it without too much trouble though.

I will drill the hole for the bow spirit this week and cut and shape the masts to post a picture of the progress. I plan on getting the masts and tops installed before priming

I will get more time to work on this over the coming weekend. Stay tuned.

On other news I have sold 24 copies of the BTH Western Desert Campaign Supplement. Thank you to all who have purchased. Once you have a chance to read through it, I would appreciate it if you would post your thoughts on the blog here. I am interested in improving it. I have had some e-mail feedback and will be making updates to it based on that feedback. If/when the next version is complete, I will notify all who have purchased and give you the opportunity to get the revisions for free. Thanks again everyone.