Okay, time for some project status pictures. Here's some of what's on the go. Sorry for the lousy pictures, but they were taken with my phone. I've got pictures of the work I did last night on Blue Toon, but they were taken with my BlackBerry, so I'll get to them later on.

This is the canoe model that I have underway. All the forms are in place, and the first plank has been attached on the far side.

The next step: start adding more planks.

Next, we have the Billing Boats model of the tug Banckert. I'm naming it the M. E. McIver, after my grandfather. The deck is just sitting on the hull, not yet attached. All the running gear is installed and working. You can see some BBs that I've put in for ballast. I'll pour them in all over the bottom and fix them in with epoxy to form permanent ballast. After that I'll add moveable weights for the final ballast adjustments.

The next step: a friend of mine built this model and said he had a lot of trouble with the deck. What I'm thinking of doing is cutting out the entire deck and replacing it with a planked deck, with better access holes to get at the electronics when necessary.

Next we have the Midwest Models kit of the USCG 47-footer, which I have already started to paint in Canadian Coast Guard colours. Because I'm Canadian, that's why. The hull is mostly finished, other than some paint touchups and the addition of the name and Canada wordmarks and such. I'll leave that til last. The wheelhouse is mostly built, and I'm now working on the fly bridge.

The next step: start building railings. This involves doing a lot of soldering of brass wire, which I don't do inside. I have no proper workshop and do much of my work on the dining room table. I don't want to get into soldering there, plus I have no proper ventilation, so things such as painting and soldering get done outside. Outside is snowy now, so I wait for warmer weather to continue.

Next up is the Traplet kit of the MTB 379. I've just started this a few days ago, and what you see in this shot is the two top stringers installed, but not yet trimmed to length at the bow, nor fastened at the bow.

The next step: trim those two stringers and attach to the bow, then install the chine stringers.

Next is the Dumas kit of the USCG 44-footer, which I will also do up in Canadian Coast Guard colours. This one will be somewhat retro, with a red hull and the SAR yellow wheelhouse, just to be different from the 47-footer which will have a white wheelhouse. At this point, the hull has just been built and coated in and out with epoxy. The outside has some Bondo filling in low spots, and it hasn't yet been sanded down properly, so it looks like crap. This hull was not without its problems. Dumas supplies balsa strips for planking the hull, 1/8" or 3/16", I can't recall. Anyway, the balsa is brittle and didn't take kindly to some of the curves in the hull, but with a bit of soaking I managed to coax them into place. If I were to do this again I'd go buy some basswood to plank the hull.

The next step: cut through the hull to install the prop shafts, then do some more finish work on the exterior of the hull.

That's it for now. What else is there? The Jane Burnyeat and the Blue Toon, I believe. Pictures on those later on.