Working on something like that must be so damn cathartic.
It really is but it is a double edge sword. Mrs Smuck is starting to wonder if it was a good idea because I spend so much time in the office working on it.
From the other 'learned' perspective... when you screw something up, like I did with the port side planking above the wale; you can tear it down and rebuild it. That in itself is a valuable 'muscle memory' type event. 'No matter how badly you screw up something, you can always fix it with some time, energy, and a new perspective.'
The ship in the OP, that was my second attempt at these types of models. The first one was the Enterprise, I ended up deep sixing it after I completed the hull. I was deploying, the hull looked like crap.
The OP ship; Privateer Prince de Neufchatel was my second attempt. I completed the hull before I got married so time wasn't a big factor in it. The deck fittings, Lt Smuckette (3 at the time) helped with that. We PCS'd to Spain and the ship sat for a while until friends and family from the Czech Republic started showing up for vacations. Mrs Smuck, Smuckette, and friends and family could speak Czech while I worked on the rigging. The moment I stopped working on the rigging, they would switch to English or pause and translate what was being said. The time spent finishing up the ship helped make the visits much more enjoyable for all.
For something like 24 years I didn't build another one until this. Through raising the kids, childhood cancer, birthdays, graduations, Commissioning .... just couldn't justify it to myself to build another. That was a mistake, there is no deadline to complete these ships. There were many times in the past 24 years that spending a little bit of time working some planks... would have really helped relieve pressure.
I do have to say, I am on a timeline with this ship though. Lt Smuckette ordered the ultimate Model Shipways USS Constitution for me last father's day. She has been ordering it, paying for it and then getting her money refunded. Eventually she will discover the one place that has the model. In the meantime, I am relearning the good and bad about building these models. I didn't find out until a couple month's ago that Mrs Smuck and the kids have been trying to get that model for me for the past 20 years.