HMS Surprise by Mayohoo - Artesania Latina - Scale 1: 48 - after Aubrey-Maturin series - First wooden ship build

[Mayohoo]

And added scuppers at scale size to the locations seen on the HMS Rose. Used the right size as per the Bible using brass tubing...

Used the smallest tube cutter I could find and still had to finagle it with tape to get it to cut straight...

[Mayohoo]

Brodie oven modified from Caldecraft. Added pulley system and copper pot and pan and lid handles. Also brick shards at base to mimic fire protection.

 

 

Then made chain pumps from balsa. Added wire for pump handles and little beads to reinforce the balsa. Needs to be bent... Taken from the Jotika model pages.

 

Then went for the hat with a chelenkh using a swarovski crystal from my daughters old bead set.

Added a "ruby"for color...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Added elm tree pumps too but need to take a picture of them.

 

[Mayohoo]

Cannons: Or how best to make them black. Used superglue to add rings to the cannon for the tackle, then decided to trial using Brass black after acetone and vinegar. Blotchy and uneven. So added a coat of acrylic paint from Caldecraft and was pleased overall. Got free Brass Black from the company cuz there was no retailer within 50 miles. Tried it at 1:5 dilution per krt, then 1:2 and it was still blotchy even after leaving overnight. 

Brass black upper four, brass black plus paint lower two.

Worked better on the small pieces like pins and eyebolts. 

 

Used bamboo trenails/dowels for the axles and the cannon trunnions? Can customize the diameter with the machine plate.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Mayohoo

[Mayohoo]

So named the cannon as per O'Brian (Reverse of the Medal, Nutmeg of Consolation, Letter of Marque, The Truelove) per the starboard side. 22 12 pounders on her main gundeck ( I put 24 there or 12 a side since I didn't want an empty gunport)

#2 Viper

#4 Wiful Murderer

#6 Towser

#22 Jumping Billy

#24 True Blue

 

Added #8 Mad Anthony, #10 Bulldog, #12 Nancy's Fancy, #14 Belcher, #16 Sudden Death, #18 Spitfire (next to Sudden Death), #20 Tom Crib. There is a Fumping Billy listed, but I think it is a typo for Jumping Billy. 

Two more names were listed in the books: Revenge and Nancy Dawson so I placed them on the port side as #1 and # 3. Added my son's high school friends (and his sister) for the rest of the port side. 

 

#5 Pedantic Keith

#7 Kitty's Snarl

#9 Garret's Garrotte

#11 The Bear's Claw

#13 Hammering Hank

#15 Thumpin' Ella

#17 Hebrew Hammer

#19 Mmonster

#21 Peaches Pitot

#23 Lukes Schnoz

 

Began the cannon tackle as per this illustration...

[Mayohoo]

Hours 500-512

Mounted the cannons in place and glued them down. A little persnickety getting them all in a line and the same distance out from hull. Put in the breeching tackle, now working on the blocks for the gun tackle. My first attempt on one. Thanks for the help on the blocks Russ and Bahamas Diver!

 

Edited March 2, 2013 by Mayohoo

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 513-537 Block and tackle

 

Using the pictures from the Web and from Bahamas rider and Russ al I decided to make a how to for single blocks.

 

1. cut the provided wire 1 inch long with wire cutters

2. bend with needle driver to block shape with a little extra

3. add block and twist

4. make hook and trim

5. make second hook with thread attached 

6. use clip to hold thread to instrument tie loop with three knots, wrap, flip, and another three knots

7. drop of glue to hold in place and trim extra

 

Then drop into Brass Black solution for 20 minutes. If left overnight, the wire will break...

Edited March 21, 2013 by Mayohoo

[Mayohoo]

Cannon tackle issues.

 

1. For the back most tackle rig I wasn't sure why the last bolt ring on the gun carriage was off center in Gil Middleton's pictures. Turns out because the wedge covers it. Also, the ring itself should be perpendicular to the deck, not parallel. Otherwise very hard to get the hook through the ring. Duh.

Broke several handles off trying to get the hooks connected. Lesson learned.

 

2. Next stretched block and tackle out and secured with ringbolt directly back.

 

3. Then created coil using Bic pen and 4 turns of "rope" sealed with a bit of glue and trimmed

 

and attached to deck. Voila'!

 

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 538-550 Gun deck Madness!

So started to make a capstan for the gundeck based on the Jotika appearance. 

 

Cut out Balsa and scrap mahogany into disks and glued together with a dowel. Added fins and drilled holes for the handles. Going to use toothpicks somehow for them

 

 

 

Tentative placement...

[Mayohoo]

While I was at it, added Stove into place and a Staffroom table. Working on cannon ball holders using #9 birdshot from a shotgun shell.

 

 

 

 

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 551-570 Finishing the gundeck by adding table to staff room and walls with door.

Moving forward to the hatches with capstan.

Then the chain pumps an elm tree pumps. 

Cannonballs and hatches...

to Brodie stove with pots and pans...

and a longitudinal view from stern toward bow.

 

Next step, putting in the lights!

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 571-575 Details and lights!

 

According to the book, Feeding Nelson's Navy, the officers would have a keg tapped to imbibe wine or beer. So, I put one in the Staffroom with a little tiny tap and really big mugs. They wuz thirsty...

 

If I look in the gunport I can see the barrel and the mugs...

 

The biscuits were stored in small barrels with the British insignia on it, so I put one by the stove. They wuz hungry too...

 

 

Because they were pumping the water up from the elm tree pumps to clean the decks...

 

And they were looking for the Captains hat...

 

which he had left in the cabin and forgot because the lights weren't quite ready

 

(and yes I know they are a little incorrect in design, but I liked them for their ornateness so much I decided to use them in the cabin even though they are designed for on the masts ...so shoot me )

 

 

Tested them with the 9volt battery from the base and they worked! Now for the other 4 lights...

[runner63]

Beautiful work sir, love the hat.

 

runner63

[Mayohoo]

Thank you runner 63. It's fun and I try. It's my first ship model so a lot of trial and error (accent on errors!) that get redone.

[pisistrate]

Very Beautiful

[pisistrate]

BEAUTIFUL

[pisistrate]

WONDERFUL

[Mayohoo]

Appreciate the kind words! A little bit at a time...And I'll finish this decade ;0)

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 576-585

Decided to work on gunport covers/lids. Made them to look like those on HMS Victory. After looking at the painting and book, decided it would make sense to put gunport lids on all except the 4 guns in the waist ie 16 gunport lids/covers and 8 uncovered.

Theoretically they would lie flush with the hull, but I am going to have them raised. Wanted to put the pulley/rope system in place before putting on the next deck.

 

Side view of a gun port

.

Then added some kind of serving pipe to Brodie oven, though am not exactly sure what it does. Maybe serves soup?

 

Finally, put the two lights in to the gun deck areas fore and aft. Will try for a dark shot sometime. They flicker nicely so maybe a movie might do it?

 

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 586-596 Gun port lids

So ordered hinges from Cornwell boats in England to use on gun ports. The problem with being in the frozen tundra is there are no hobby shops with this stuff locally. So it takes awhile to get things and I don't know what they will look like. Good thing they don't cost much...

The Amati hinges with the little pin worked perfectly for the 15 mm x 15 mm gun ports.

They are tiny!

Finished product...

I chose to use a modified HMS Rose type arrangement as opposed to the HMS Victory arrangement. 

Also added Tompions to the guns using red clay like the painting (Christmas present).

 

And the little eyebrow over the guns in the waist.

 

Originally was going to do 8 guns with port lids, but the hinges came in packages of 10 so that worked out to be 5 a side... so 2 up front and three over the Captains cabin areas...Just like I planned!

[ianmajor]

Mayohoo,

 

This is a very nice build.

 

By the way. The pipe on the stove that you mentioned is a condenser or still. The stove could be used to boil salt water with fresh (well distilled) water collected from the condenser.

 

The idea of it producing soup is more interesting - though I suspect the crew would prefer an output of something stronger!

 

Ian M.

[Mayohoo]

Beer soup is good! We have it here in the Midwest... Thanks for the interesting info. I always wondered why they didn't use that when they ran short of water in the tropics.

[Mayohoo]

I had the pleasure and honor of visiting Gil Middleton in Seattle while I was attending a meeting. He is the artist/craftsman/genius! who is building the HMS Victory here on another blog. I was astounded at his work and when I found out I was going to Seattle for a few days I arranged to meet with him. He was incredibly kind and picked me up at my hotel (right after I got done with a speech...he phoned me as I was talking and the audience got a chuckle when my phone stared quacking during my talk...note to self...turn to buzz ;0)]

 

He and his wife Judy had me for dinner and we had a great time talking about our mutual profession of surgery. Judy is a superb cook and it was a lot of fun!

.

 

I was describing how I made "Spotted Dog" for my children using the original recipe...and that it was NOT a hit. She did much better!

 

With his permission I was able to tour his work area and he gave me some tips on the next great adventure...rigging!

 

This is an area that I was looking forwards to with a little trepidation as I am doing this on my own with no experience and only the Internet to help. Here were some tips he gave me:

 

A Lazy Susan is extremely helpful so as to allow you to spin the ship and balance the rigging from side to side. One side gets done, then the opposite. 

 

The masts are not perfectly straight. The main and mizzen are slightly raked depending on the ship.

 

Splicing, seizing (not the neurologic one ;0)), worming, netting, and other rope work require a little skill and some equipment which he was kind enough to illustrate for me (the splice at least). 

 

Some is just...wow...

 

Styrene is great for details.

 

And the right CA glue is important...

 

I think I got splicing down (long and short), and I at least have some understanding of what is going on. 

 

All in all a great time. And his ship is soooo gorgeous. As my Surprise is my first ship, I am amazed at how smooth he was able to get his fairing. It is like fine crafted furniture!....Some day ;0)

 

Anyway, a memorable evening with Gil and Judy. I shall refer to him as the "Admiral" from now on!

[gil middleton]

Mike, You are way too kind.  The pleasure was ours. Your ship is coming along beautifully and will be much more interesting with your interior lighting (wish I'd done that), "Spotted Dog" (haven't tried that), violin (Jack Aubry), cello (Dr. Maturin) and rum barrel (have tried that !). And Admiral it is.  At least Admiral of Opening Day of Boating in Seattle. Were we born 200 years too late?  Cheers, Gil

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 597-610,

 

A bit of a slow period as moved the daughter into an apartment in NYC. Wow! Rent for a 350 sq foot loft...$4000 a month. Gulp.

 

Finally got all 10 hatches rigged and done. They look nice, but they are a little thick for perfection. I thought they needed a little heft to add interest. I like the tompion look though.

 

 

Inside view with the trapdoor rope attached inside to a hook.

 

 

It's hard to get good help!

 

 

They sleep a lot...

 

[Mayohoo]

Ok, just finished the gun ports and am gettinf ready to place the gun deck above. Kind of sad to see all the little things go, but that is the price of progress.

 

Question: Before a put the deck on is there anything else I should have done before I glue it on and start the second deck? Like mast or rigging wise?

[Mayohoo]

After some advice from The Moderator, I am going to do some work on the masts in order to get them to seat solidly and correctly at the rake I want. I could not find the exact heights of the masts in the PO books. I do know they did experiment with the longer main mast.. Here is a formula in the Peter Goodwin book which states: 

1794

Mast = (G + W)/2 where M is mast length in feet, G is length of gun deck in feet taken between the rabbet of the stem and the rabbet of the sternpost, and W is the extreme breadth of the ship in feet.

 

Looking at the Lavery drawings, PO HMS Surprise is then 130 feet in length at the gun deck and 35 feet in maximum width (including steps and all?). So the Main mast height should be 130 + 35/2 = 82.5 feet. It does not state if from the keel or the gun deck so I arbitrarily chose the gun deck.

 

The Foremast is 0.90 the length of the Mainmast so it would be 82.5 x .90 = 74.25 feet

 

The Mizzen mast is given as 0.86 the length of the Mainmast so it would be 82.5 x 0.85 = 70.125 feet.

 

The Main mast diameter is D = M/3 so 82.5/3 is 27.5 inches

 

The Foremast diameter is "proportional to the mainmast". So I presume it is 0.9 also so 27.5 x 0.9 = 24.75 inches

 

The Mizzenmast diameter is 1/3 the length of the mast divided by 12 and then multiplied by the appropriate factor (0.67 for Third rates and below).

 

So this would be 70.125 /3 = 23.2375 / 12 = 1.947x .67= 1.30.

 

This is impossibly small. I think the 12 factor is a mistake as this would increase the size to 15.66 inches, which seems proportionally more in line with the drawings and the paintings. 

 

So:

Mainmast     82.5 feet length, 27.5 inch diameter.          

Foremast     74.25 feet length, 24.75 inch diameter

Mizzenmast 70.125 feet length, 15.66 inch diameter.

 

Model scale then would be: 

Model Mainmast = Model length x Ship Main mast length/ Ship length 

Model Maimast= 34.25 inches x 82.5 ft/130 feet

Model Mainmast is 21.74 inches above gundeck

 

Foremast would be 19.56 inches above gundeck

Mizzenmast would be 18.48 inches above the gundeck

 

Problem:

Looking at the Lavery/Marquardt drawings of the Rigged ship, it looks like the mainmast is 120 feet in ship length or 31.62 inches above the gun deck! On further reading, Lavery has the drawings with the 36 gun frigate mainmast. I guess that is the difference, but it is 21.74/31.62 or 45% longer???

 

Given the proportionality of the drawings I am favoring using the drawings and scaling as best I can from them. 

 

Am I making a mistake somewhere?

[Mayohoo]

Found another source, Ship Modeling from Stem to Stern by Milton Roth. He quotes Mungo Murray for determining the length of the Mainmast and divides the Mainmast into the Lower, Topmast, and Topgallant mast.

 

For a 1750 ship (next point is 1850) the Lower Mainmast is 2.28 x Beam or in this case 2.28 x 35 feet or 79.8 feet. So to scale of the model, this would be:

Model Lower Mainmast/Model length = Ship Lower Mainmast /Ship length

or

Model Lower Mainmast = Model Length x Ship Lower Mainmast/Ship length

 

"             "          "           = 34.25 inches x 79.8 feet/130 feet therefore

 

Model Lower Mainmast = 21 inches

 

The Lower Doubling (Overlap I guess) is 0.13 or 2.73 inches

 

The Topmast is 0.58 of the Lower Mainmast = 12.18 inches

 

The Upper Doubling is 0.06 or 1.26 inches

 

The Topgallant mast is .031 or 6.51 inches

 

So the total length is 21 - 2.73 + 12.18 - 1.26 + 6.51 = 35.7 inches

 

Now that is in the ballpark of 31.62 inches from the Lavery drawings! (Especially as I am guesstimating the distance to the gun deck...)

 

I am happy with that...

 

Mainmast diameter is 27/28 of each 3 feet of Mainmast length. So at 79.8 feet/3 = 25.65 inches in diameter. At 1:48, then the diameter is 0.53 inches.

 

The mast also needs to be tapered to 3/4 maximum thickness at the Top Trestletree doubling.

 

Progress!

 

 

Foremast is:     21 inches x 0.9= 18.9 inches

Lower doubling is 18.9 x .13 = 2.46 inches

Topmast is 18.9 x .57 = 10.78 inches

Topmast doubling is 18.9 x .06 = 1.13 inches

and the Topgallant mast is 18.9 x .29 = 5.48 inches

 

Total length is 18.9 -2.46+10.78- 1.13+5.48 = 31.571 inches

Foremast diameter would 79.8 x 0.9 x 27/28 = 23.1 inches at 1: 48 = 0.48 inches

 

Mizzenmast length is:

Lower mast is 21 inches x .84 = 17.64 inches

Lower doubling is 21 x .095 = 2.00 inches

Topmast is 21 inches x .43 = 9.03 inches

Topmast doubling is 21 x .095 = 2.00 inches

Topgallant mast is 21 inches x .22 = 4.62 inches

 

Total length is 17.64-2 + 9.03 - 2+ 4.62 = 27.29 inches

 

Mizzenmast diameter is 15/22 x 79.8/3 = 18.13 inches at 1:48 = 0.37 inches

 

To bed... ;0)

[mtaylor]

Good to know that you got sorted out.  

[Mayohoo]

After working on the foremast I have come to realize the mast is going to be disproportionately too large. So after thinking about it, I measured the greatest beam of the model itself which is 7.75 inches. Using that, I will recalculate all the masts.

 

Lower Mainmast is then 2.28 x 7.75 inches long or              17.67 inches long

Lower Doubling is then 0.13 of this or                                     2.3 inches long

Topmast is 0.58 or                                                                  10.25 inches

Upper Doubling is 0.06 or                                                         1.1 inches

Topgallant is 0.31 or                                                                  5.5 inches

 

Total is 17.67 -2.3 + 10.25 - 1.1 + 5.5 = 30.02 inches

 

Lower Foremast is then 17.67 x 0.9 or                                    15.9 inches

Lower Doubling is the 15.9 x 0.13 or                                         2.1 inches

Topmast is 15.9 x 0.57 or                                                           9.1 inches

Topmast doubling is 15.9 x 0.06                                                 0.95 inches

Topgallant is 15.9 x 0.29 or                                                        4.6 inches

 

Total is 15.9 -2.1 + 9.1 - 0.95 + 4.6 =                                        26.55 inches

 

Lower Mizzenmast is 17.67 x 0.84 =                                        14.84 inches

Lower Doubling is 14.84 x .095 or                                             1.41 inches

Topmast is 14.84 x .43 or                                                          6.82 inches

Topmast doubling is 14.84 x .095 or                                          1.41 inches

Topgallant mast is 14.84 x 0.22 or                                            3.26 inches

 

Total is 14.84 -1.41 + 6.82 -1.41 + 3.26 =                                 22.1 inches

 

 

Will try with dummy masts to see if it looks right.

[Mayohoo]

Hrs 611-625

Revamped the lower foremast and have put on the metal hoop reinforcements using styrene. Have had difficulty getting them to stick together using cya glue. Tried Plastic model glue with no better success. Eventually got them in place but it was slow going.

Put the side reinforcements on above (cheeks?) and square cut the coupling area and test fitted the cap on top after cutting to the right length. 

Then started building the platform and discovered the sapele/mahogany is brittle and cracks easily. After repairing and covering got it together pretty well. 

 

Drilling the holes for the ropes to go through and the ironwork is not easy as the exact precise vertical angle is really hard to maintain so some of the holes are not exactly even. I am hoping the rope work will cover the minor errors.

Second layer of paint and done!

Edited April 21, 2014 by Mayohoo