Back to the boatyard after a little vacation. Have been working on wiring. I'm using Tracy's method of running round wires down to the bottom of the boat, where they will be soldered to tapewire. This is a bit tricky in half-inch scale, as tucking wires into corners of rooms too small to accomodate large hands is a challenge. I decided to install all of the ceiling lights into the lower deck ceiling before attaching it. I figured out where the wires would have to run and had at it. The kitchen ceiling is embossed paper, so hiding the wire was not a problem. The rest of the ceilings are painted white, so I cut a groove with an X-acto knife, glued the wires in, spackled, and painted. You can see a faint line where the wires are, but I doubt if anyone is going to be peering inside. In this photo, the spackle has not yet been applied.

This is an overview of the ceiling in place. The unstained areas will be the bathroom and nursery, which will have tile and carpet, respectively. The rest of the middle deck will have hardwood flooring. The wires are taped so as not to get tangled; they haven't been fed down to the tapewire yet.

The next picture shows the dining room and one of the columns that will will separate the DR from the foyer. I stained it with walnut stain and put a coat of satin polyurethane (water based) over it. Looks pretty good, I think.

The dining room light with wiring, which will run along the ceiling to the left edge of the door opening, then run down inside the doorway to a hole in the floor. The little bit of wire on the wall will be covered by draperies and an architectural feature. The dark wire/chandelier chain looks pretty ugly. I think I'll try to paint the wire gold so it won't be such a contrast.

I was going to try to do a faux finish on the ballroom columns so they would match the pink marble walls, but I've decided to leave them white. It's in keeping with the white woodwork. The columns hold up the balcony where the musicians perform.

Whilst waiting for the glue to dry, I started working on some of the furniture kits. The bed and round table for the master bedroom cabin are wonderfully ornate. They're made of walnut, but I think I'm going to put a walnut stain on them anyway. I want them to be dark, dark, dark, to contrast with the light green leaf-print wallpaper.

Since Captain Bulrush is a world traveling sailor, I thought it appropriate to include a sailmaker's bench on board. Not sure where it will go, but it was just too darn cute to pass up. :whistle: It is assembled, but not finished. Not sure yet how it will be finished. I want it to show years of wear.

Am also working on a rocking chair for the Captain's library. Haven't had to resort to the Mag-eyes yet, but tweezers have come in very handy for assembling these items.