HMS Vulture 1776 by Dan Vadas - 1:48 scale - 16 gun "Swan" class sloop from TFFM plans - Finished

[rdsaplala]

Lovely work on the guns and their rigging, Danny, I love the "weathering effect" you gave to tone down the color of the breech ropes

[Sonofagun]

Dan,

Been following your build since inception. This is my first comment. She looks incredibly beautiful in every respect! I am envious of your cannon. I an doing mine now, as well as working on the capstans. I find the gun carriages a bugger. I have a jig but still so much fiddly work with so many pieces. Following your method on the capstans, so far so good!

Your build log has helped me immensely! A big thank you!

Bryan

[AlexBaranov]

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.

 

Hardware

 

The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.

 

The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :

 

Hardware 001.jpg

 

Hardware 002.jpg

 

Hardware 003.jpg

 

Hardware 004.jpg

 

  Danny

hello

I think these are the guns that came to you from Odessa. I was worried about the delivery of these trunks. I judge the photos and I hope you enjoyed the artillery.

Alex

[Mirabell61]

She will be fully rigged Kevin.

 

Danny

Hi Danny

with "fully rigged", will you also be presenting a full set of sails ? I can hardly wait to see more....

 

Nils

[Richard Griffith]

^{Thank you Dan for taking the time and effort~!  Part of the reason I started my own "Vulture" is your build-log (the main reason is Mr. Antscherl's bools).  When the server crashed, I was very disappointed.} 

^{My Vulture is on hold this year as I need to finish several other projects.  In spite to that, I have completed the building slip, the various squares, the stem, keel and capstan, the special clamps (cramps) and roughed out the framing stock (domestic pear).} 

 

^{BTW, do you have another project underway?  Thanks again and keep up the excellent work~!}

 

^{Duffer in Middletown, CT (USA)}

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks very much Allan, John, Aldo, Bryan, Alex, Nils and Duffer.

 

I look forward to many months (years) of following your build

 

Yep, YEARS Allan .

 

Bryan - thank you and you're most welcome .

 

Alex - yes they are your gun barrels, and they turned out just as good as I expected they would .

 

will you also be presenting a full set of sails ?

 

Perhaps just one or two sails Nils - I don't want to detract TOO much from the woodwork and rigging.

 

do you have another project underway?

 

Welcome to my Log Duffer, and I'm looking forward to following yours when you get started on your Vulture.

 

At the moment I have three other ships (two Victorys and a Mississippi Riverboat) to finish off for a couple of families who have lost their ship builder fathers - that will take a while.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Forecastle Knees

 

I haven't managed to do a great deal lately - too much "bill-paying work" getting in the way .

 

I've fitted all the Forecastle deck knees, both Hanging and Lodging. Note that there is no hanging knee on beam #5 as it is directly above the first gunport.

 

I only need to make the Foremast Partner and the forecastle will be ready for planking :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Børge]

Wonderful work Danny, its been  while since i was active due to my elbow, but its great to be back in the community again.

 

Børge

[Sjors]

Hi Danny,

 

I want to say something but I can not found the words so I only saying WOW.

 

[dgbot]

Beautiful work.  It will be a shame to hide all that detail.

David B

[Jim Lad]

Maybe not quantity, Danny, but certainly quality!!

 

John

[rdsaplala]

Wow! those lodging and hanging knees look great Danny, it's frightening just to imagine how to perfectly fit the lodging knees to the deckbeams, hanging knees and ship's frames, and you've executed all these perfectly! 

[Dan Vadas]

And thanks go to Borge, Brian, Sjors, David, John and Aldo. Also all those that used the "Like" button - much appreciated.

 

it's frightening just to imagine how to perfectly fit the lodging knees to the deckbeams, hanging knees and ship's frames, and you've executed all these perfectly!

 

 

It's not as difficult as it looks Aldo. Thin card templates to get the shape approximately right, and then a little finessing with a sanding stick and/or Xacto knife.

 

On another note, the Rigging Line I ordered from Chuck a bit over a week ago arrived today - WOW, great stuff. I thought the line I'd used on my guns was reasonably good, but it's not even in the same ball-park .

 

This is Chuck's (three-strand) 0.2mm line for the Tackles compared to 2-strand Guterman thread :

 

 

And 0.63mm for the Breeching :

 

 

 

Needless to say, the guns will be re-rigged.

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Hmmm!  Just a bit of a difference in quality of rope there, Danny!

 

John

[Corkbottle]

The level of detail in your work is simply amazing. Truly inspiring.

[lamarvalley]

What knocks me to my knees is the detail. The pictures could be full size objects yet they are tiny. Incredible attention to the minute aspects and follow thru to make it as 'real' as possible.... ....impressive!

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you John, Corkbottle and Randy.

 

Catheads

 

The Catheads are a piece of work to make and fit. I used some 12" (scale) thick Swiss Pear to shape the curvature beneath the deck into them:

 

 

 

A word of warning to others building one of these ships. DO NOT install Forecastle Beam #2 before fitting the Catheads - it's impossible to get the catheads underneath the beam when it has been glued in. I had to remove the beam, which meant totally destroying it. I will fit a new beam when all is completed :

 

 

A lot of careful marking, cutting and filing was needed to get the cathead through the bulwark. The first Lodging Knee also needs cutting/filing through on an angle :

 

 

 

The Cat Tail is notched beneath Beams 2 and 3 :

 

 

 

  Danny

[newbuilder101]

Nice work on the catheads! Shame about the beam, but having seen your past repairs I know it will be great!

[Trussben]

Wow Danny, those catheads sure look complicated when you show all the different steps in fitting them, but as usual great work and thanks for the warning for all us future Swan builders.

 

Ben

[Jim Lad]

Nicely done, Danny.  Seems you were only thinking ten steps ahead when you installed the beam and the cathead was eleven steps ahead!  

 

John

[SkerryAmp]

I am with Sjors - Wow.  

 

-Adam

[DBorgens]

Maybe in a hundred years I could aspire to such accuracy and skill! Danny you inspire us. Keep up the great work and many thanks for your log.

 

Dave B

[rdsaplala]

Thanks for the tip on using the card templates, Danny, I'll give them a try, splendid work on the catheads, they look great!

[gjdale]

Nicely done Danny,

 

Shane about the beam but as Sherry said, your past repairs/re-dos suggest only good things ahead.

[druxey]

Those catheads are tough beasts to wrestle, but it looks like you've won, despite the battle damage! 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the compliments and the votes of confidence in my ability Sherry, Ben, John, Adam, Dave, Aldo, Grant, Druxey and Brian .

 

Seems you were only thinking ten steps ahead when you installed the beam and the cathead was eleven steps ahead!

 

 

Yeah John - just a minor annoyance. There wasn't any warning in TFFM Vol 2, and I notice that Greg didn't even fit the catheads on his model so there weren't any progress pics in Vol 3 to alert me either .

 

did you use a razor saw to notch out the beam ?

 

 

A razor saw, Xacto knife and square needle file Brian.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Removing a Beam

 

Just a small "tutorial" on how I safely removed the beam. This method can be applied in quite a variety of situations - I did a similar thing when I snapped off the Knee of the Head a while ago (see HERE).

 

Step 1. I cut the beam in half so that I could work on each end independently.

 

Step 2. I drilled a series of holes close to the edge of the beam on both sides. This helps the Isopropyl Alcohol to penetrate into the glued joints more efficiently :

 

 

 

Step 3.  Using a narrowed Xacto chisel pointed blade I removed most of the material from the middle of the beam :

 

 

 

Step 4.  A #11 Xacto blade was used to cut along the glue joint. Plenty of Isopropyl was applied before and during this step to completely soften the glue. The pieces just about fall out by themselves with a minimum of cutting. The knife blade is used more as a lever than a cutting instrument :

 

 

The result after a bit of cleaning up with a blade. A final sanding can be done after about 1/2 an hour when the Isopropyl has completely dried out :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Catheads Fitted

 

Both Catheads have now been fitted - only "dry" for the moment. I will cut the sheave holes and fit the sheaves off the ship before gluing them in. I also need to make the Cathead Caps, more about them shortly.

 

I surprised myself with how accurately they finished up - not even a fraction of a millimetre difference from the centre line or the baseboard :

 

 

 

The notch for beam #2, and the beam dry-fitted :

 

 

 

  Danny

[WackoWolf]

Excellent work as we all expect from you. And Thank you very much for the walk through as to how to do it, and yes this is something to remember as it will work for other projects. Thanks again.

[rdsaplala]

Beautiful work on the beams, Danny, thanks too for the tutorial on how to remove them safely