HMS Pandora by clloyd - Scale 1/64 POB, 1790 configuration.

[Navis Factorem]

Hi Colin,

 

Thanks for the comments on my very beginning Surprise build.

 

I have just finished perusing your Pandora build, so this is what awaits me! I will create a link to your build, it will be a very helpful reference.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

[clloyd]

David,

Thanks.

You are starting down a very similar path to me, and Surprise will end up being quite similar in some ways to Pandora.

 

I'll be watching, and feel free to ask questions if you need to!

 

Colin

[clloyd]

Finally got a chance to get out the camera and get some photos for an update.

 

I've made a chunk of progress, and after being static for so long it really feels good to be moving forward again.

 

I work on different aspects of the ship depending on location and how much noise I can make after the kids are asleep.

 

Hull:

 

Starboard side finished planking.  I marked out for trenails, but on rereading McKay I've tossed the idea of trenailing the whole hull, since the historical records show she had painted sides.  Since you can't see real trenails under paint, I've decided against that headache (hence the filler on much of the rest of the hull).   There is one plank sitting low, and for the moment it is filled.  If I'm unhappy after sanding I can still replace that one.  I've reworked the gunports and am much happier with the line they take.

 

Sanding awaits nicer weather.

 

Gunport lids are shaped and just dry fitted in place at the moment.  Sheaves done, and are temporarily in place until the inboard works are complete.

 

 

I got out my holly and have gotten on with the job of planking the gundeck.  Looking at top and but planking and a curved layout had put me off doing it for a while, but it's turning out to be an ok job.  Mckay shows straight planking, so I've had to redraw myself.  It's probably wrong in how butts lay in respect to hatches, but my head was hurting even trying to figure this out, so I'm just happy that it's probably a slightly more historically accurate rendition.

 

Caulking is paper.  I like the effect but may go with a grey for the upper deck.

 

 

My late night quiet task has been to shape more masts.

 

Jib - fairly straightforward.

 

Main topmast - still WIP, awaiting sheaves, ironwork blocks etc, but the basic shape is there.  What was nice was to take the topmast and be able to run it up through the lower trestletrees and mast cap the way it was supposed to work.

 

 

Colin

[clloyd]

Finally got the main deck planking finished.  Crappy mobile camera shots - sorry.

Sanding is about half way through - it's mostly smooth, but I can still see and feel a few irregularities in the deck.

 

Not being able to see into the guts of the ship also gives it a much more finished feel straight away.

 

 

 

Short term to do list:

Finish sanding exterior hull.

finish interior planking. 

install main deck fittings.  I have a few things built, but just need to get down now and install ringbolts and cleats and work my way down the deck.  I'll probably leave guns until the very last minute before installing upper deck beams.

 

Colin

[Beef Wellington]

Very nice shots Colin, looks fantastic.  Where did you find the detail to allow you to replicate the complex planking patterns?  I'm sure that was quite the project but well worth it.

[Karleop]

Hola Colin:

 

I made the HMS Pandora 5 years ago using a kit from Constructo (now discontinued).  You are doing a very good job with this ineteresting and nice ship.  The copper planking looks great.

 

Saludos, Karl

Edited April 10, 2014 by Karleop

[clloyd]

Where did you find the detail to allow you to replicate the complex planking patterns?  I'm sure that was quite the project but well worth it.

 

Jason,

 

It's a bit of working from first principles.

 We know from numerous sources that straight planking didn't start until well after this time so curved planking is the order of the day.

 Equally then we know that hooked plank ends rather than nibbling was the order of the day.

 The swan ships (built about the same time as Pandora) had top and butt planking under the guns for strength.

 There are rules for how the butts in the margin plank relate to the butts in the side planking (this is where my head began to hurt)

 We know well where the beams were.

 McKay uses a 5 butt shift, but that gives a really long plank as it crosses across the midships area, so I chose a 4 butt shift.

 

Then I took my scans into gimp (free photoshop alternative), scrubbed out the illustrated planking and started dividing up the width of the deck into bands much like you would for side planking, using the Swan deck plans as a rough guide (and any errors there are entirely mine not as a result of copying anything David Antscherl did  ).

 

I printed out the result at full scale and away I went to try and replicate that, keeping in mind that when the other decks go on, most of it is going to be lost to sight.

 

Colin

[clloyd]

Further work!

 

I got a calm sunny day - so got the chance to take her out and sand the upper hull - that job is 90% complete.  I can still see a couple of places that need smoothing down a little more.

 

I've been working on the interior (most of this is not glued or varnished - just placed for assessment).

  Shot racks mostly done.  I ran out of 6lb shot, so need to get some more

  Jeer bits are well under way - the decorative bar at the top cost blood to make.

 

 

after redoing the gunport height it's nice to see the trial gun sitting nicely in the port.

 

 

Which gives us my latest full hull picture!

 

 

Colin

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Colin, beautiful work.  I'm using the McKay AOTS book as a guide for my Unicorn build, and find it incredibly detailed and helpful.  I thought that this could be a gorgeous ship to scratch, and I got my confirmation in coming across your build log today

[MEDDO]

Wonderful work!  I just caught up on your build and hope for more updates!

[Trussben]

Looking good Colin. Nice to see updates.

 

Ben

[clloyd]

Thanks guys

 

Arthur - the bands going under the cheeks aren't woodlings - they are the iron hoops that would have been put on a "made" mast to hold it together.  These were put on before the the cheeks....

 

 

From Steel

The mast is then sixteen-squared, rounded, and planed smooth from the heel to the hounds, except the surfaces left for coaking on the cheeks, which are rounded a little at the lower part, one-third their length.

 

The mast, thus far compleated, is hooped, the upper mould hoop is placed in the middle of the hounds, and the others equally spaced between that and the lowest mould hoop, which should be eight inches above the lower end of the cheeks.....The hoops are heated nearly red, then driven on the mast to their stations by long round bars of iron, called pokers, flatted on the feet. They are swung backwards and forwards, by the working, striking the edge of the hoop on each side the mast, which is well greased with tallow to facilitate the driving the hoop, and prevent the mast from burning. The hoop, when driven to its station, is cooled with water, which shrinks it and increases the tension........

 

Then follows about 4 paragraphs describing how to make the cheeks, including hollows for the hoops. 

I have course have cheated and made something that looks right but is manufactured for ease of construction.

Colin
 

[clloyd]

Arthur

 

Just so we are on the same page....  My mast has both hoops and wooldings.  the hoops struturally are underneath the cheeks, and the wooldings wrapped around the whole lot.

 

for placement and number I'm working off McKays drawings - and he works from Steele.

 

 

Colin

[Beef Wellington]

Mast look great Colin.  What did you use to make the 'hoops' at the top and bottom of the woolding?  (I have no idea what they are called).

[clloyd]

Jason,

 

My favourite alternative material - paper.  That's a 250g tan coloured cardstock.  Getting wood to be that thin and bent is a huge effort, and some people do that, but I'm not interested in that level of frustration.

 

Similarly the hoops are black cardstock.   At viewing distance you can't tell the difference.

 

C

[clloyd]

Arthur - now I realise the source of the confusion....

 

These.....

 

 

are the cheeks on my mast.  As you can see they go all the way down the side of the mast and the hoops do go under them ,  and the wooldings over. 

 

The wooden bands above and below the woolding are (and I've just looked up TFFM IV because I couldn't think of their name) aparently called woolding hoops (logically enough). 

 

Problem sorted.  Brain no longer confused.

 

And thanks for the compliment.... I'm enjoying doing the masts more than the hull at the moment. 

 

C

Edited July 8, 2014 by clloyd