Ray

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat





 
 
 
 

Update time! Hooray!
 
Planking continues slowly and steadily on the starboard side. The second layer of the wale has been added, my first attempt at top and butt (anchor stock). You can just see the shape of the planks through the black paint. I used castello boxwood for the second layer, which was a pleasure to work with. Having the black strake 0.5mm proud of the surrounding planking gave a nice line for the first strake to butt up against.
 
Below the wales, I've carried on using the kit supplied walnut planking. It is incredibly splintery, Caldercraft must supply some other variety of walnut from that supplied by Amati (go figure). It works after a fashion, and doesn't look too bad. Most of it will be coppered anyway, and I find the the colour contrast to the castello appealing. Also, because the kit supplied planks are also about 1m long, cutting them down to more manageable lengths has made things a lot easier when it comes to bending and tapering, it also makes it easier to get a nice fit and finish where the planks meet the stem and stern counter.
 
Anyway, that's about it for now
 
Andy

Great work Len, the stern detail looks spot on, and I think we all have to make small adjustments, and the point being they were only small. Coppering, one thing I would say is that with this type of tiles you can overlap,  and they look ok I did this on Pegasus, and it gives a better look than trying to fit in cut wedge shaped ones.

Hi Glen
             Nice to see you back again your Pegasus was one of the reasons I built her myself. Nice work on Vanguard, and as you say so far this is the foundation for what is to come, and to me the shape looks spot on, and the jigsaw gun ports very well lined up, I look forward to more updates.

and happy ending....
   

The main wale                       The main wale planking was done next; again the timber needed dressing before it could be used, as the edges were very rough. After all the planks were fixed I taped over the top thinner plank so as to protect it, and to maintain the difference when rubbing down the rest of the wale. The wale was rubbed down and filled and top plank uncovered and the whole wale painted black.
The whole of the hull including the wale was given a coat of 50/50 satin water based varnish and water, I use this as a sealer, I find both paint and the copper tiles adhere to it very well (I did a test strip to make sure).
 
First plank on

 
Ready to fill and paint


 
Narrow top wale plank

 
Wale in progress and lined gun ports

 
Masked up and painted

 
Wale completed and 50% water-varnish sealer on



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi Tozbleker
 
Beautiful work! There's no doubting the beauty of these types of Destroyers, especially with their sweeping sheer lines.
 
The details that you're adding is amazing. Somehow, you make it look so easy!
 
Lovely.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

back deck and mk56 fire directory and 3inç twin gun this final

general placement

Hi All,
 
For obvious reasons mentioned in previous posts, schrouds & ratlines required a "make-over"
And Yes ! spacing the ratlines is recommendable !
 
Regarding the futtocks : the horizontal connections are made of brasswire ( 0,5 mm ) painted in black. I was anxious to avoid bulky knots in that area.
Another (possible) advantage of this approach ( at least that is my guess) the brasswire is to prevent ore stabilise any tension of further shrouds coming from top masts. The hooks are by my own making : for some reason I did not like the ones supplied in the box.

Part 2
The yards with the stun-sails booms have domed end brackets with legs, these do require some fettling, I first thinned the legs both inside and outside as they are way to thick to start with,they were glued to the end of the yard, and reshaped  (see photos) I then added the rope lashings, I then made a dummy stun sail boom ( the real ones will made from hard wood dowel) to allow the brackets to be aligned, next the mid yard boom brackets were fixed to the yard in conjunction with the outer boom brackets which are not yet glued in, both brackets were set up so that the the rear edge of the boom is over the front edge of the yard which allows the 3mm blocks to be added later, and for them to be in the centre of the top of the yard. I then drilled a hole to the rear of the yard at the centre and added a 1-2mm pin to allow the yard  to be fitted to the mast.
 
Yard end bracket as supplied

 
After rework

 
Yard brackets on with dummy boom

 
All brackets and cleats added

 
 

Hi Guys
Diana the final photos. 
       I have managed at last to take and crop and re-size the final photo`s. Just under the 3 years to build, she has been a pleasure, although not without some difficulty`s, I am fairly pleased with the result, in hindsight some things I would have done a little bit differently, but not many, I might not have virtually scratch built the ships boats if the hull kits had been around, but this has lead me to be building another set of boats (scratch) at 1/48 as an in between project.
 

Thanks Christian, I've used overhand knots hitherto on my builds, mainly because given the scale I considered the clove hitch although the authentic method, to perhaps look too bulky.
 
The jury is still out on my current build, I will have a look when I get around to the ratlin' down stage.
 
These days I tend to consider most things as 'guidelines' but for rigging I tend to go directly to Steel, cross referred to a few choice reference books, kit instructions particularly in relation to rigging I mostly ignore.
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.

Hi Thunder
 
You  certainly have a point.
If I understand correctly : the angle where you are referring to will be most noticeable where the distance between two shrouds is on its  largest.
( e.g. when there's a gun that separates 2 lanyards )
Even on my build it is noticeable, I must admit.
 
As often : it is check & balance operation : the choice between (as BE mentions) the bulky knots and on the other hand some awkward ratlines.
Nonetheless : this is an interesting debate : which type of knot is most suitable for which scale ( 1/64-1/48-,...) ?
 

Dang Christian, you got there before me!  But couldn't agree more.  I wouldn't dream of doing something so potentially catastrophic as using the ink directly on the ship.  Lovely progress by the way.
 
I found that using overhand knots at either end of the ratlines and clove hitches in between works for me, and gave me the opportunity to put some 'sag' in the ratline which I was looking for.  That seems to be another ratline question - 'sag' or 'no'sag'

Hi its coming along well the stunsail booms look good they are a bit tricky to get set right and they look right.

Thanks Pat and likes for the interest. 
 
Jesse - hope you're feeling better, your Syren is looking fantastic.
BE - glad to see you back in your new work area, jealous how clean and tidy it is
 
Stem and Stern:
Planking seems to be never ending with all of the various ports, it seems there isn't one plank that can simply be
cut to length and glued in place, but at least I've been managing to get at least a couple done each day.  I've been spending quite  a bit of time trying to figure out two key elements...
 
The bow is coming together, and thankfully it seems my modifications to replace the cutwater and have a properly fitted bowsprit to haven't ended in disaster.  I needed to remove the filler block to allow the bow planking to be clamped in place and this was a delicate time, it strengthens quite nicely with the laminated layers, again I'm using PVA glue. 
 
The bowsprit hole has been fine tuned and quite happy with the result.  Overall the modification added a lot of extra work, but I'm glad I did it.  The uppermost shape of the bow is more rounded which seems more intuitive and consistent with the AOTS diagrams, but differs from the kit which seems to be more 'pointy'.  Ray had identified that the bow cap rails in the kit ones are undersized means that these would need to be redone anyway.
 
I still finalizing the exact shape of the bow bulwark following the sheer, but this also seems to consider the angle of the foc's'le deck - will be leaving a little extra here to be cut back later based on what looks right.
 

 
The stern has had my head in swirls for some time.  There has always been something that bothered me with the kit pictures but I couldn't figure out why - the kits stern fascia seems too wide, too 'flat' and the stern lights too small and far apart.  After enlarging the diagram in the AOTS book I figured out what was up.  It seems that Caldercraft used the stern projection to shape the stern fascia without accounting for the vertical angle and lateral curve.  Estimating what this would be I cut out a card template to confirm the needed shape on the lower fascia and the upper counter.  This now seems much more in keeping with the needed curves.  A problem to deal with down the road at the PE lights, I think these made undersized vertically, again because they do reflect vertical foreshortening.  Glueing photocopies of the lights in place has made me wonder whether I'll be happy with these, because in addition the panes do no match the desired curve of the fascia or the vertical alignment of the hypothetical stern timbers....something to ponder some more.
 
Kit supplied fascia compared to AOTS diagram, the lower curves match perfectly even though they shouldn't...
 
Card template compensating for lateral curvature and vertical slope...

 
What these look like in place, much nicer in my opinion.

Reached the point where I need to decide what I want to do with the rear bulwarks, built up or open.  After reading various sources, it seems that Jason would have been built with the built up barricades at launch which were back in fashion by the time of construction, even though various plans of the Artois class show open bulwarks.  I've decided to go with the open bulwarks like many who have built this kit as this more in keeping with the look of the NMM models which I'm going for. 
 
Armament seems also to cause a little confusion due to changes at the time, with slightly varying numbers quoted.  Seems there is no reason to deviate from what is suggested by the kit, and I'll stick to having a few carronades for visual interest rather than replace with cannons.  So what does this mean?
 
I decided to keep the ply bulwarks and reshape them, I'd already planned the other planking around using these so this was no issue.  The required shape however had me scratching my head for a while, but then it suddenly dawned on me that the top of the bulwark would simply follow the sheer.  To get a nice smooth curve some strip was used to a consistent height from the whale (in this case ~50mm, leaving just a tad for some potential future fine tuning).  I estimated the position from various pictures which all seem to vary slightly - this seems good enough
 

 
The front portion is brings in a few additional challenges, so I cut out the stb main drift to help with shaping

 
The curve of the top of the bulwark is quite apparent...shading beneath the ports is not correct at this point, which needed to be tackled next...

 
Once cut, the next thing was to adjust the port sills as these seemed too high.  To do this the deck was fitted and then measured up approximately how far the port sills should be for the cannon and carronade ports followed the line of the deck allowing for the final deck planking.  The lateral position was not changed.  The shading indicates material to be removed.

 
And finally glued in place....planking can continue.

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat





 
 
 
 

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat





 
 
 
 

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat





 
 
 
 

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat





 
 
 
 

Hello
 
Thanks to BE the problem related to the bowsprit cap is resolved
 
Rigging and mast part started with the shrouds :
 
I secured the shrouds near the mast top with Guterman thread col n° 36 (dark grey), as I wanted a little contrast with the black shrouds. Besides, the thread is rather thin which suites me fine as I wanted to avoid "sausages"
 
Same remark about the lanyards : they're supposed to be black but I went for something more pale. The only problem I encountered was the necessary small drop of glue : it affected the pale color, so I carefully overpainted with diluted light grey. I'll see about some extra trimming : I'd like to remove the protruding parts of thread as much as possible without damaging the knots
 
The thread I used for the shrouds is - regarding the thickness- a compromise. I did not use the one supplied in the box
 
Almost there 

Hi Ulises,
 
Thanks for showing interest
 
Humbrol paints were OK but I made the decision to move over to Acrylic paints and the A.V. (Acrilicos Valejo) brand deliver quality.
 
Here's an overview
 
Regarding to the lifeboats : I can recommend the paint with ref n° 311 New Wood : it's -in my opinion- pretty close to the "wooden" look I was aiming for
 
 

The mast bowsprit and the rigging has now been completed, with the ropes, buckets, barrels,boat hooks,and oars added, only the barrels were bought the rest made,I will cover that on the next boat in the group,I also made a simple stand out of ply,so the 26ft launch is finished,one down three to go.
Mast


Stand

Rigging started


Inboard views




Finished boat