Not much done on the model making front today, as fatherly duties occupied much of my time. It being Easter Monday, the kids are still off school, and my #2 son had hockey evaluations to attend, today being the start of the process to see what level of hockey he'll play next year.

I did manage a couple things though. As I mentioned earlier, I have frame #10 of Blue Toon to work on, and need to put on the transom which then needs to be sanded to shape. I put the transom on today, in the form of a 1/16" thick basswood sheet, topped with a 1/4" layer of balsa. The basswood provides the strength, and the balsa is there because it's easy to sand to the proper shape.

Also, I was asked if I could build my kit of the RCMP St. Roch, so it could be shown in an event in September. I've never shown a model before, so this is a bit daunting, but I'll give it a shot. I've also never had to work to a deadline before, and given my attention span problems, this will prove to be a challenge, but again, I'll give it a shot. Of course, this means that I have yet another partly built model on the list, which makes eight, I think. Sigh.

This is the Billing kit, which is in their Advanced Beginner line of kits. Here it is on the Billing site:

The hull of this kit is made differently than what I'm used to, in that the 'keel' is a large sheet that takes up the entire height of the hull from keel to deck. It's built with a 'keel' half to which one adds half bulkheads. Build, repeat, then stick the two halves together. Here's the port half with all the bulkheads in place and the first piece of decking added at the bow. 

Hmm, what else? One of the other builds I work on from time to time is a Thames workboat called Jane Burnyeat. I bought the plans from Traplet Publications, from whom I have bought a number of plans. You can see details about it here: http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12297/jane-burnyeat

To date, all I have done on the Jane Burnyeat is the keel and a couple frames, and even the keel isn't finished. Today, I chiseled out a 1/4" wide groove in the bottom of the keel into which I slotted a 1/4" wide piece of brass rod, which extends to the end of the skeg and is intended to provide it with more strength than the wood alone can provide. I then sanded the keel down from 3/4" thick, to about 3/8" or 7/16", give or take. The next step with this will be to chisel out the rabbet line. I'll post a picture of that another day.

Being a beginner-level model shipwright, I am working on Blue Toon with my friend John, who is an excellent modeller with more years of experience than I have years of life behind me. He is my teacher and mentor, and is guiding me through the build of Blue Toon. In order to reinforce his teaching lessons, I started the build of Jane Burnyeat at home on my own. I'm hoping I can achieve a decent level of success with it.