Sauron
GMorrison
I wouldn't bother with the nails. It's a lot of work and there are a lot of them. You can go over the plates with a pin and make little dimples.
I use a sewing pattern tracing wheel to make the dimples. They are cheap and diffenent manufacturers have different spike spacing. Get one that has about the spacing you need. Makes quick work of it.
That's a good idea. I have something similar for making "rivets" in bare metal foil. Not all that cheap. I'm actually unhappy with it. It is photo etched and try as I can, I cannot get the attachment points to the fret entirely filed down as they are on the ends of four teeth. The things show up every ten rivets when I use it. Sewing store it is.
To mwe056: your other questions about planking. You can plank the outside of the hull. If you do, you'll need to plank it all the way down to the keel in order to avoid a "step" where the copper starts.
Another easier way is to fill the wood hull and sand it really smooth. That'll look as good as anything.
I would not worry about the extra thickness of the deck planking either. I carefully mark out where all of the deck houses and other stuff like winches go, then cut and install a base in those locations with the same thickness of wood sheet as your planks. It makes the plank job look nice and neat.
It is typical of solid hull sailing ship kits that the bulwarks are way too thick. You can easily fix that with a chisel. Mount the hull solidly and work your way around the inside until the bulwarks are reduced to what you want. Your ship is a composite clipper. That means that the frames are made of iron, planked with wood. If you look at onboard photos of the Cutty Sark, you'll see that the bulwarks are supported by iron stanchions, not thick wood ones.
Here's what your ship would look like "undressed".
That's the Ambassador, which used to be on the beach down in TdF.
Have fun with the model and ask all the questions you have. I don't have too many answers, but other folks will.