Sticky knifeplay, plus 55 nails go in perfectly straight

Ship-building all-stars; not pictured:
a metal ruler
From Crocodile Dundee,
Glennz Tees, Thor and Paper Mate 

Albatros took steps toward ship-ish-ness yesterday: planking the main and poop decks, and attaching the former to the keel. This was a continuation of the work mentioned before, plus a matter of trimming excess wood, then drawing on the wood. It was not especially taxing, but it did require the precision that draws me to this sort of project.

It all went pretty well. I set one plank close to the center line slightly askew toward the stern, and the glue set firmly before I noticed. Made a few trims laying its neighbors to straighten things out, and that helped some -- but, really, just penciling in the faux plank separations made all the difference. (My initial understanding was correct: pencil marks go in both length- and width-wise; the actual plank separations are barely perceptible.) The drawn-in nails, thank goodness, all went in straight.

There were, alas, some glue mishaps. Nothing catastrophic, but damn, this stuff gets very serious very quickly. One sliver of plank separated from the boat on my fingertip; to an onlooker, it might've looked like I had a huge splinter.

Last night was a lesson in glue control -- a notion that pretty thoroughly escaped me during my earlier model-building days. That, or glue has moved way up the technology tree in the last 20 years. The main deck is a sturdy piece of wood, maybe half a centimeter thick, and the keel has the slightest curve; the deck resisted some of the fitting. However, a few drops of glue and some brief clamping was enough to keep it in place.

Anyhow, it's starting to look sharp. The main deck is attached to the keel, but there's a frame that needs sanding before I can comfortably attach the poop deck; that'll probably be my work some time in the next couple of days.

Can you find the rusty nail? More pictures at tumblr.