HM Bark Endeavour by dashi - Caldercraft - scale 1:64 - 1768-71 - bashed kit

[dashi]

Update:

 

I changed my mind and thought it better to attach the stern facia part 139 before removing the bulwark tabs as this provides structural support to the bulwarks in this area. I like to use contact adhesive for this, but its important to have everything measured and marked correctly because it can't be moved if it's wrong.

 

Then I removed the tabs using the dremel saw and planked the inner bulwarks as described in the kit.

 

I prefer the stern facia in the AOTS book and decided before fitting the sheer strake I'd shape and fit its wood work because the sheer strake butts into it.

 

To get the 1.5 x 1.5  ledgers running parallel and in the correct positions I soaked and shaped the lower first. When it had dried over night I glued it with contact adhesive. Then to shape the window ledges I soaked and clamped them to it. Then carefully marked their positions and glued with contact adhesive also.

 

Then I shaped the taffrail and trimmed the window ledges to take it. I also angled the lower edges of the taffrail for the figurines. Finally I carefully sanded the top of the taffrail parallel to the water line. I'm not sure whether I need (or indeed if I can) add a capping to the taffrail. There is no mention of this in the kit, but wouldn't need to do that until after the rubbing strakes are on which is my next task. So time to think on that. 

 

Last I cut the rabbets in the bow for the sheer and rubbing strakes.

Edited February 22, 2016 by dashicat

[dashi]

Minor update: Walnut splinters are very small and impossible to remove.

 

Thanks Paul for your input re the hight of the bulwarks.

 

A closer inspection of the 1x3 mm walnut used for the sheer and rubbing strakes revealed that 4 lengths had knots with cross grain in the middle of their lengths and some are splintery and splinter even after soaking when being fitted at the bow. All have saw tooth marks along their edges which need sanding especially if the edge is exposed which can drop the width down to about 2.5 mm. So I sparingly camfer the non exposed edges.

 

Remembering the experience I had with the previous cross grain cut plank and having no other options I will try and lose them in between the good planks while being very careful when handling and bending to fit so as not to break them.

 

If I wasn't painting the wale then this would have been a major problem to the finish of the model.

[dashi]

A package from Jatika arrived yesteday with a post date of November 2015?

 

So thanks Jotika but unfortunately they were not the 4lb deck cannon, but instead more swivel cannon which I don't need.

 

So this time I included the photo of the kit supplied over scale cannon on its kit carriage with my response.

 

There is still hope I think...

[dashi]

Thanks everyone for looking in on my build and for your help and comments.

 

Update: wales/rubbing strakes and sheer strake fitted with medium sand. Next will be to vacuum out the pin holes and fill and sand. 

 

Then I'll be onto the decking, but before that I might paint inside the bulwarks so I don't get any on the unsealed deck, and then I can varnish the deck and inside the bulwarks too. At least that's plan A. 

[dashi]

Cheers Paul. Yes I plan on rigging the breaching robe for the cannon, but might be able to fit that and the carriages without the cannon if they havn't arrived in time. A few months up my sleeve until then.

 

Re: your blocks and rigging cord. Have you contacted Jotika about it? They havn't even bothered to reply to my follow up emails regarding the cannon. I will think twice before purchasing a Caldercraft kit again.

 

I did a quick estimate and it seems I have the right amount of the 0.25 natural per the kit, but whether it is enough to do the job I don't know. The kit does seem to be a little tight on parts as a couple of extra lengths of 1x3 walnut wouldn't go a miss. It wouldn't be a big problem if I was still in Aussy, but here in NZ I couldn't even get slow ca gel from the hobbie shop and then if I could it would cost an arm and a leg. It reaches the point where it's not worth the risk if the kit manufacturer dosn't back up their product.

[dashi]

Update:

 

Cheers Paul, they have a good website. Good to know thanks.

 

Sanded and painted inside bulwarks using Admiralty Paints Red Ochre. Layed mid deck using a black permanent marker along both edges and ends to simulate pitch caulking. I used plain white pva glue to give me some time to position the planks. Once fitted I added and painted the cross pieces of decking. On the plan there is no indication of what to use here, so following the replica painting scheme I used 1x4 walnut so it could be painted.

 

Next: lay the other decks, sand, matt varnish, mark the butts and trennels, second varnish over deck and inner bulwarks. I won't be drilling trennels.

 

On another note re-those cannon. Email from Jotika Ltd. "Sorry for sending the wrong parts and the time it took to get them. Replacement parts have been sent by airmail."

 

Thanks Jotika for this, and special thanks to the supplier Cornwall Model Boats for going into bat for me. So fingers crossed they will be arriving shortly, watch this space...

[dashi]

Update:

 

The replacement cannons have arrived from Jotika so I quickly mocked one up on its carriage to see if it fits. And it does thanks Jotika.

 

Forecastle deck is laid and sanded awaiting a coat of matt varnish along with the other decks when finished. Then I will mark the positions of butts and trennels. I wasn't happy with the finish of the mid deck so after some research on this site I found some very helpful info regarding historical methods of decking. From this and using the replica and AOTS book as a guide I have added a waterway and tapered the deck timbers. To do this first I had to remove the outer mid deck timbers and carefully cut a left over 1x4mm length of walnut down to two 1x2mm lengths to use for the waterway. Looking at the replica forecastle photos there is no nibbing and the waterway seems not to run around the bow but finishes somehow before it turns (can't find a photo with the angle to show it). So I've loosely followed this to my best interpretation.

 

 

 

[kiwiron]

Very nice hull the start of a great ship.

[Captain Slog]

Glad to see you got your cannons sorted out.  The 4 pounders look correct but not as impressive of the previous monsters!

 

Cheers

Slog

[dashi]

Glad to see you got your cannons sorted out. The 4 pounders look correct but not as impressive of the previous monsters!

 

Cheers

Slog

Cheers Slog,

 

Yeah I looked into to those monsters on the Cornwall Model Boats Ltd website and think they are Caldercraft 1:64 18 pounders. I'd imagine you would need one big solid ship to fire them from, or more likely the sort of thing you'd expect to see used in a shore or castle battery I quess?

Edited March 13, 2016 by dashicat

[dashi]

Stage one of decking complete: Laid, sanded and first varnish. Next decking stage is to mark the positions of deck furniture so I can work out the postion of butts and trennels. I have traced the layout ready to make a stencil and included the likely positions of the deck beams. Slight problem is I don't trust the scale or layout of the plans which do line up with mast holes but not quite with the other holes. So I'm thinking I might need to make up the deck furniture and dry fit to get more exact positions before marking the butts and trennels. For butts and trennels I'll be using artists fine tip pigmented pens which have a range of nib sizes from 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7mm. 

 

In the meantime I'm thinking I would like to get the hull painted to provide some protection from grease and glue etc. This would include making the rudder and bashing the helm port as part of the deck furniture which isn't included in the kit. I;ve also noticed another kit exclusion which is the aft fireplace flue which comes up under the bent metal tiller arm according to the AOTS. 

 

Painting the hull: I have been given a can of pigmented stain which I will darken with some walnut stain to try and produce my own 'brown stuff' for under the whale which was my original choice instead of the white I was going with because of the paints I was sent. When I'm up to it I plan on doing some tests of this before finally committing to doing it on the hull. Because I'm using matt poly as a final coat then this should from experience protect the hull from handling.

 

Input is welcome regarding the order of things and making the 'brown stuff' which was a mixture of pitch and sulphur.

[S.Coleman]

Great craftsmanship. I could stare at that planking job all day long and never get sick of it. That looks like a red oxide color and has come up great. Well done mate.

[BANYAN]

Nice start to your build mate; coming along nicely.  Sorry I missed your log as i like to follow all Endeavour logs.  I'll follow along for a bit .

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Siegfried]

Very clean and beautiful work so far. Your decision to paint the underwater hull with brown stuff is right as it was explicit recorded in the letters of the shipyard. Marquardt has put this record in his AOTS Endeavour. By the way, Caldercraft/Admiralty offers a version of the kit with brown paint. You can order the colour as spare part.

 

Cheers, Daniel

[dashi]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Painting and staining: initial coats are on and looks darker in real life. When the hull is dry I will touch up the wale and then apply the first coat of matt poly. I penciled in strake butts below the whale which appear subtle now the stain is on. I'm happy with the colour and effect of not losing the strakes under a solid coat of paint.

[Captain Slog]

Beautiful clean work, well done.

 

Slog

[Cabbie]

Very nice dash

The lines, the colours, and the brown stuff on the hull, are all

combining to make her very enjoyable to look at. Cheers Chris

[DaveRow]

Mr Dash,

The hull has come up a treat.

Nice an clean looking.

 

Probably a shame to add fittings on it eh !

 

PS. You probably have something sorted out for mounting when finished ?

I didn't, and only recently(with deck fittings on), drilled 2 long vertical holes in the keel for fixing to a cradle or spigots. Not sure which way, but the holes are now their.

 

 

Dave R

[dashi]

Thanks everyone for looking in on my build and the complimentary comments.

 

Paul, I was looking ahead at the windows and checked out some ships galleries of replica's online and prefered the yellow ochre. I've pre-painted the frames so I can glue clear projector film to the underside for glass.

 

Dave, thanks for the heads up on mounting. I'll be using the cradle in the kit but you have got me thinking about how to best attach it to the hull.

[dashi]

The Rudder:

 

 

 

Here's some photo's of where I'm at. I was researching the positions of the deck beams because I wanted to know the positions of trennels and decking butts which led me to start a discussion regarding a tiller sweep support I found on a deck plan of HMB Endeavour which can be found at the link below. It is from this discussion that I will be attempting to build two versions or interpretations for the Endeavour helm in a way that they can be refitted depending on outcome. It is also from this discussion that we work out the correct position and rigging of the helm blocks and tackle to clear the chimney flue from the great cabin while solving the helm rope slack problem. 

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13109-hmb-endeavour-tiller-and-steering-question/page-6 

 

So what I've discovered from this is first that the Caldercraft rudder stock and head are too short by at least 6mm and not deep enough by around 2mm, so not to scale. The photos represent a several attempts and redoes to fix this. More research is needed to finish the rudder head.

 

The kit tiller is the correct length however it doesn't fit into the rudder hole so I've also bashed a new tiller to match the scale and shape of the original from the 1768 draughts. I couldn't bring myself to paint my tiller red, so have stained it. I've also decided not to use the kit tiller uplift attached to the end of the tiller, but instead to bash this from 1mm brass wire. I will bash the chimney flue from the great cabin which this uplift is used to clear as this isn't included in the kit either. The scale rule in the photos is marked off at 1 ft intervals to help me maintain the correct scale which seems to be an ongoing problem with this kit. The 1768 plans also show the stern post protrudes the quarterdeck, so I've added this and framed the rudder hole which also isn't included in the kit either. So some bashing.

 

Having built the rudder I could fit the gudgeons and pintles to the stern and finish the hull below the whale with a second coat of matt poly. The gudgeons and pintles needed some filing to fit the brass straps and allow for an easy fit and removal of the rudder which I will be doing a lot of. I've also shaped the stand so the hull sits level and plumb and glued some strips of old felted wool to it. I've placed wooden locator pins from off cuts that push up into 1mm holes I've drilled into the false keel so I can easily remove and relocate the hull. later I might make a clamping system to hold the hull more permanently on the stand.

 

I've now jumped ahead and started making the deck furniture which I need to dry fit on the deck to find their final locations and finalize the deck beam positions. I've managed to pencil the centres of some of these deck beams aft of the mizen so this could take a while. Once I've got this done and inked the trennels and butts and give the deck a final poly, then I can add the hull fittings above the wale.

 

[dashi]

Dash your hull is looking so buitifull and fine finish.I imajine grassing my finger along the wood. Very nice .I am pusald by the run of the planking second layer it is at odds as to what I believe to be correct . the David antcherler blog bow as he demonstrate it seams what I think of. Please could you explane. I do have difficulty looking on this tiny tab so may be I have not under stood robin

Thanks Robin for looking in. For the second layer of hull planking I was following the run of the replica as best I could with the minimum kit supplied splintery 90 4mm x 1mm lengths of walnut at 1:64 scale. So can you provide the link to the 'David antcherler blog bow', as I'm not sure what you are referring to?

[dashi]

Ok Robin I found it thanks very interesting and looks to be at quite a larger scale than 1:64. If you look back over my log you will see I ran into problems with my first layer at the bow and due to this found this photo of the replica which follows the run of the frames which worked nicely for this kit. All the comments from those of us who have built the Endeavour bluff hull will tell you she's a baptism of fire.

 

Here's a link to the bow of the replica as she was being built which I took my lead from which I think will answer your question.

 

http://www.seacoastnh.com/endeavour/ph3.html

[Cabbie]

Good Evening Dash

That is an enormous amount of work that you have been doing.

And it all looks so good, the hull planking is too well done,

Its too hard to see the planking, the joins are too neat.

 

And I must say that i am totally impressed in the effort you have

put in, finding out how the endeavour was built. And then use it

to build your ship to a great standard.

 

I hope you don't mind if i make use of your work and

incorporate some of what you have found out, into my model.

It will certainly make mine look better.

 

It has made me realize that there is a lot more detail, than what the kits

show for us to build.

 

Thanks Chris

[dashi]

Thanks for the likes and comments guys.

Chris if there is anything you like then by all means use it your model. I usually work through a process of concept, research then trial and error. And after around 3 attempts at trial and error I usually settle on a solution I can live with which is by no means authoritative and probably a compromise due to my lack of ability, research, kit, budget and material restrictions. As part of this process I try and make everything so it works in practice on the kit like a proof of concept. This is all a big learning curve which I get a lot out of, but due to physical health restrictions can be difficult and exhaust me which is when I make lots of mistakes and have to try and pace myself. So I hope you don't copy any of my mistakes :-)

Robin I just went and took a peek and it is something I didn't research due to Caldercraft kit design and material restrictions. But a good topic. So just went with the kit on the wales which used 5x 3x1mm walnut strips which I filled, sanded and painted so you can't really tell which method I have used. However I am very impressed with Chris's wale and hull which I recommend you have a look at if you havn't already.

Edited June 3, 2016 by dashicat

[dashi]

Heads up!

 

A scale problem I have just discovered is that the main deck is short by 2 - 3feet @ 1:1 or 10 - 14mm @ 1:64. I initially thought just the forecastle was too long, but it appears that the quarterdeck is also equally too long (both by 5 - 7 mm of where they are drawn on the AOTS book and 1768 drafts, therefore making the main deck too short. It's too late for me to fix and it would mean moving the offending plywood frames forward and and aft by a ply frame thickness at the start, then extending the false maindeck ply to cover this gap. Seems whom ever drafted the kit plans drew these frames on the wrong side of the line?

 

Also some small repairable scale errors with some of the deck furniture which I'll try and document at a later date.

Edited April 16, 2016 by dashicat

[dashi]

Kit question for those who have built this kit:

 

Part 244 Light Port Lid Hinges 0.5mm Brass. The kit supplies 24 on the brass sheet as indicated in the manual, but there are 13 lids including the forecastle hatch that use these meaning 26 hinges should have been supplied. How did others work around this problem or do I have an outdated kit?

 

As for progress I'm slowly working my way along the decks working out where the beams are. There are continuing problems with the scale of some of the deck furniture and hatches.

 

Rudder: I've also had to increase the width of the rudder head in addition to the depth in previous photos, to bring it up to scale so it now looks right.

 

Waist hatches: The waist hatches are just wrong going by the AOTS book and Admiralty draughts. @ 1:64 scale 1' = 3/16" or approx 5mm. So working at 1:1 scale the main hatch needs to be larger 9'x7' and the fore hatchs smaller at around a standard 2' width. I've used a grating in the main hatch.

 

Quarterdeck the covered hatchway: Is too high by about 1' meaning the average short sailor at the time wouldn't be tall enough to open it.

 

Wheel: The support posts also need to be reduced in hight by just under 1'. Bearing in mind they will end up at different hights because of the angle of the quarterdeck.

 

Quarterdeck spar gallows: This is too narrow so dosn't even match the kit plans and should be at least the same width as the Forehatch spar gallows. Bashed a replacement.

 

Great cabin flu: Not supplied in the kit so bashed this modelling it on the replica as I think if would have been a wooden cowl which can be turned depending on the direction of wind and which would be less likely to burn the tiller tackle should they come in contact with it.

 

Windlass: The standards are short by about 1' so don't reach the deck beam like they should which passes fore of the fore topsail sheet bits and which also supports the bowsprit and cat heads. So these might need to be cut off and new ones bashed. The barrel head is too wide by about 1' meaning each inner barrel need to be around 2mm shorter which also brings the bit chucks and standards closer to where they are shown on the AOTS book and navy draughts.

 

Main Fire: Didn't like the kit supplied flu which looks like a cannon blank so bashed the flu from some copper tube and based the vent grating under the windlass which isn't supplied in the kit.

 

Foretack bumpkins: Look to be postioned wrong and don't pass under the cathead but swing closer to the bowsprit and pass over the false rail leaving enough room to bash a foretack bit and seat of easement between it and the cathead. If the bumpkin passed under the cathead then... well you can imagine the mess as it would be in the line of fire from the seat of easement, but also the stays would be in the way of the anchor tackle. Seats of easement are on the navy draughts and replica so I will add these. This new position also matches the sketch of the Larboard bow by Parkinson entitled 'Wie View of the entrance into the Bay of Aware, Huaheine AA', which clarely shows the bumpkins. With the bumpkins in this new postion they now run clear of the anchor and cat tackle with the anchor rope passing under bumpkin stays when the anchor is stowed on the rail.

 

Knightheads: Will need to bash replacements for these.

 

I hope to post some pics when I've completed and inked the deck trunnels and butts. More work do be done on deck furniture to get me to that stage.

Edited April 30, 2016 by dashicat

[kiwiron]

Fantastic work she looks great.

[dashi]

Thanks Ron.

 

After successfully bashing a pair of replacement windlass standards from the sheet that the originals came from I thought I might post some progress photo's of where I'm at rather than wait until the deck furniture and deck are finished. Everything is pinned and dry fitted to the deck and uncompleted at this stage.

 

The pencil lines crossing the deck are marking the beam centres for when I ink in the butts and trunnels. 

 

Most of these photo's refer back to my previous post #77. The main hatch on the right is my first attempt from following the kit and so is too small. The new hatch on the left is closer to scale at 9x7'.

 

I've also included my bashed 'Tiller Sweep Support', from the discussion that can be found here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13109-hmb-endeavour-tiller-and-steering-question/page-6%C2%A0 which I've briefly mentioned in post #66 of this log but to recap based upon the navy deck draught of 1771, The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815 by Brian Lavery part 1 Steering, section 2 Tiller and Whipstaff and the physics that we worked out. Unfortunately I've had no answer to the replica tiller. I'm not an engineer so could be wrong but we worked out that the physics of a projecting 19 foot tiller unsupported made from 9x9" to 7x7" solid oak including 3 foot of solid iron tip would generate around 2 ton of cantilever pressure while at rest in the rudder head. It would blow apart if unsupported! Therefore we suspect that the replica tiller is made from modern lighter and stronger material so unless new information comes to light I can't use it as a historical reference. For these reasons and again unless new information comes to light the tiller sweep support is assumed to have been fitted along with the tiller that we can confirm was in the 1768 navy draughts.

 

The tiller sweep support is made so I can do a refit should our findings be proven incorrect. How it is made is by soaking and then glue laminating two lengths of 4x1mm walnut together around a container which had the correct diameter. Then I shaped it to the deck camber and then realized it needed to follow the vertical arc of the tiller. Then I filled scuppers under it and fretted some 0.5 brass into it's face to mark the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full rudder positions. On it's upper surface I glued some black card to represent a metal runner and decided on painting it black because it would have been greased. On the underside of the tiller is a small block that rides on the runner. I've added stops which made sense to minimize damage should the tackle break.

 

Post script: For the wheel drum the kit uses a 6mm dowel which is smaller than scale so I've used and 8mm dowel sanded down to 7.5 mm with thinly sliced 10mm dowel on the ends.  It has a capped removable pin which I'm still refining and turns. The capstan I've used card to make some rings.  The pawls are made out of wood and brass.

Edited May 1, 2016 by dashicat

[dashi]

Thanks Paul it seems the problem port lid is the one under the channels like you mention. I've looked at that on the 1768 draughts and the kit plans and to me it looks like a full size port lid which makes 5 large port lids on each side of the hull plus 2 at the waist on the quarterdeck bulkhead and 1 on the port forecastle hatchway. I'm still short a set of hinges for the port forecastle hatchway so I might have to do something different there.

 

There also seems and over abundance of long open lid hinges so I might be able to modify some of those and or try and have some of the hull light port lids open?

[BANYAN]

All coming along very nicely Dash.  Even with the AL kit, bits and bobs were not IAW the required numbers (under and over).  I ended up getting a set (PE) of my own hinges.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited May 2, 2016 by BANYAN