The Cux 87 "Krabbenkutter" {part 20}

      the buoys were a nice touch in the pilot house.  now, it was to decide what color to base the Cux for identification, as far as fishing territory went.  I did a few test buoys to see how they would look, these I will use for the pilot house......they won't be readily seen and I won't have wasted them.

        I decided on the yellow and white buoys, due to them being bright colors.  I set to work on making a batch of them, the idea is to nestle them into a rope coil on the deck.  another idea was to string them across the back wall of the pilot house. the first three were done with a toothpick protrusion, but for this batch, I decided to use 7mm and 10mm brad nails, because it was hard to get the toothpicks to protrude out of the bottom holes evenly.  once they were set up, they were painted, and set aside to dry.

      While they were drying, I cut out the porthole windows and cemented then to the portholes.  then I installed them into the pilot house wall.  all the windows are finished now......it can be assembled and the roof can be put on.  after assembling the buoys and looking at them.......I was quite satisfied with the results.  in fact, I was so satisfied, I decided to make a second batch.....using up the rest of the necklace beads.  as you can see, there are two different sizes....the reason for the use of the different size brad nails.  when it was time to put them together, I left a bit of a protrusion to the toothpick sticking out of the male end of the buoy....my hope was that it would press against the tab inside for the eyelet, and prevent the eyelet from being loose.  my thoughts on this was correct.....the eyelets are firm and don't wobble around.....now they can be shaped a bit better and painted as well.

      Hopefully, I can find the ones I am really looking for......round, flat, oval beads.....and made of wood, but these metal, decorative beads worked out just as well.  the little bumps and ridges on them, add a little detail to them........something to keep in mind for future builds.