jonny.amy

Morning Everyone, Just a quick photo update of this weekends progress...... I have completed the Mizzen Mast, and fitted all standing rigging for Main and Mizzen. I have also cut all the yards and gaffs to the right lengths, and are labled up, ready for sanding and shaping, painting, and eventually rigging. After this I will venture in to the unknown and start rigging the running rigging. What I have noticed over the last 72 hours is that my eyesight is terrible in the low light. I'm considering gluing a pair of LED torches to my glasses...... Maybe not the smartest idea, but it would work! Anyway, here are the photos: Let me know what you think guys, I happy with my progress so far. I'm estimating another 4 to 6 weeks until completion of the kit (but I could be wrong), and I've made the decision that I'll buy and build the 14' Jolly Boat, fit a White Ensign to the ship, fit six or eight 0.5 pounder swivel guns along the length of the ship, and am considering fitting another two carronades either side of the main mast. This may put my completion date back, but who cares.... it's a joy to work on! Cheers Jonny

By the way, sorry about the orientation of these photos, I've done this via iPhone and completely forgot about that!

Hello everyone, just a quick photo update on the main mast rigging. I've had a real surge of energy and progress over the last 48 hours, and the standing rigging for the main mast is complete! Woohoo! I'm starting on the mizzen mast today, but have already managed to snap the mizzen crosstree in half, so I've had to glue it all together prior to painting!! Anyway, here are the photos: I have also made a balsa template of the 14' Jolly Boat from Caldercraft, and I've tried fitting it on deck, and it would fit either side of the main mast, and in reality probably would have been stored on top of the Mortar bed whilst sailing. But I'll think a little more about it before buying it, and the swivel guns. Just another thought, which ensign would a mortar vessel fly? It depends on the Admiral and Fleet, but does anybody know if the Mortar vessels were evenly distributed between the Red, Blue and White Fleets, or where they pigeon holed to one specific fleet and dispatched when necessary? Cheers

Yes I do see you as an autumn type of person!! Haha That's the plan for tonight, after finishing the top mast shroads, I'll cut out a cardboard template to see if it will fit. Although I have that funny feeling that it won't. What are the thoughts on swivels? I'm not sure if a ship of this size would ever got close enough to another ship to use them? But it's worth thinking about.... Might have to leave it until I finish the rigging! Cheers

Hi Guys, Just been doing some wind shopping online, and I'm thinking about buying a few 1/2 pounder swivels guns for Convulsion (max. 4 swivels), and thinking along the lines of adding a ships boat to the deck layout. What do you guys think? I'm thinking an 18' Jolly Boat would be the right size for the ship. Would I be correct? I'd use Caldercraft's Jolly Boat kit, but I'm not 100% sure on whether that would be the right size? Any way, here are some photo's from the last few days effort. Please ignore the Pink Handbag in the background, apparently the dining room table / shipyard is an appropriate place for handbags and candles and roses.... What can I say, I just love playing dress up! Cheers guys, I'm off to stick my fingers together and glue Convulsion to my jeans.... both of these MAY have happened! Jonny

Good Morning all, I made some more progress with rigging and spar building last night. I've rigged the Port shroads, and straigntened out the mast (the mast was raked over to Starboard before tension was provided to Port), built the Main Top Crosstrees, added 3 out of 4 of the Main Top deadeyes (my eyesight got too blurry last night to finish them), dry fitted the whole main mast assembly, and finally added the blocks for all running rigging attached to the main mast. I started around 6pm, and I decided I should probably stop at 11pm and do the washing up like I had promised the boss.... Good thing about that is that it got most of the CA glue off my fingers!! I will add photo's later on! I'm thinking about making YouTube videos of the latter stage of the build. It might just be a bit more interesting then my ramblings on here?! As I said - Photo's are to come later on today! Cheers Jonny

Hi everyone, a little bit of news on Convulsion. Last night, after cooking dinner, washing up, doing laundry, and general tidying up, I made a little bit of sawdust on the ship yard floor! And by that I mean I cut out and glued in place the riding bit on Convulsion. Not satisfied with leaving progress like that, I decided I would cut the shroads for the main mast on the Starboard side.... I didn't stop there.... I spent time searching through the tool box, the kit box, and miscilaneous box until I found the Deadeyes for the shroads. Ties in place I the proceeded to run the lanyards through each one. After one month of reading, watching daytime tv, playing playstation (other games consoles are available) and generally doing nothing, I was pumped up last night! I seized off the lanyards, and tacked them down with a blob of CA glue! Need I say any thing else! I was chuffed to bits to be working on Convulsion again! I'm heading home tonight and starting the Port side to even things out a bit! Photos will come soon! Cheers for now, Jonny

Cheers Eamonn - I'm fed up with these mid season breaks too! I'll be glad when I can get stuck right in again, the lack of activity in the dockyard has been infuriating to say the least!

Chuck, I very much admire your Cheerful, and Winchelsea builds, and I'd love to build a model of the same calibar! Will Cheerful ever be available as a kit? Or will it be sold purely as a set of plans with a practicum? I am weighing up a complete scratch build similar to Cheerful, or buying a "semi-scratch" kit from someone like The Lumberyard. Thanks, Jon

Hi Guys, I've been off wfrom work, Convulsion, MSW, and (most importantly) beer for a while now with my back op.... The operation itself went well, but the recovery caused a few issues. I have pretty much been bedridden for 4 weeks in total, but I was given the all clear by the Surgeon to return to work today, so I'm very pleased to say I am back to work! Having stitches in my lower back, and then eventually having them removed to pack the wound (70mm long, 35mm wide, and 30mm deep), has meant there has been absolutely no progress on Convulsion at all. To be honest there has been very little since Christmas unfortunately. BUT!!!!!!!! In the time off I've had, I've given a few of my problems with the build a bit of consideration, and I've got some easy fix solutions. So I'll start tonight by fixing a few niggly bits that have been bugging the crap out of me since Christmas. So watch this space, fingers crossed in the next few weeks with my increased mobility, there should be some decent progress on Convulsion. Cheers guys! Jonny

Cheers for the feedback guys. I've followed the doctors orders so far, and I'm resting up nicely! I've been watching the digitally remastered Hornblower series originally produced by ITV. I've been reading up on the scene production and model making during the series, very interesting stuff! Hopefully I'll get back to the model eventually! Cheers

Hi guys, just a quick update! I've had my back surgery now, it was a complete success, and I'm home safe and sound! As you can imagine, I'm in a considerable amount of pain, so I think Convulsion will have to sit on the side lines until I am sorted out. If you don't mind holding on for another few weeks, the build will continue! Cheers Jonny

Hi guys, thanks for the quick responce - because I'm usually visiting MSW whilst I'm at work when I have a spare 5 minutes, I have to use I.E. Pro v8 because the IT department at work won't allow Firefox, Chrome, other brousing sites, or later updates of I.E to be installed on our user accounts! I checked on my iPhone last night at home, and sparked up my laptop, and there is no problem at all with other devices! It must just be a giltch or bug in the connection between older web brousers and the MSW website host. Like I said, it's not really a problem, but I want to MSW not 'online back up solutions', that's why I use iCloud! Once again, thanks for the responces! Cheers

Hi guys, Anyboday getting this screen appear when you open up MSW? It's been doing it all week, it's not too annoying, but makes me wonder if theres a bug in MSW? When I click the link to MSW on Google, this web page opens up, but I just go back a page in Internet Explorer and it goes to the home page..... Very strange - just wondered if it happened to anyone else?! Cheers Jonny

Thanks Eamonn, I'm hoping for a speedy recovery, otherwise I'll be playing catch up at work afterwards! I discussed this point with her last night, and as expected, her opinion on the matter was not too favourable! Hahaha so I'll be having a break for the first week I guess until I can get myself out of bed!! Oh well! Cheers, Jonny

Hi guys, Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or two, it's been very full on with work and home due to my upcoming back operation on Monday. I'll be bed-ridden for two weeks, but I should be able to perform light duties from my bed or sofa. So I intend to use some scrap balsa or similar to build a "Dead Eye Guide" so I can rig each Dead Eye to the correct height. This is something I didn't do on President, and that bugs the hell out of me!!!!!! So Hopefully on my two weeks recovery I can work on Convulsion a bit more. I will keep you all posted. Cheers Jonny

Hello Everyone, Christmas is now over and I'm back to work now but I've been given the go ahead by the Admiral to start the Shipyard back up again, and tonight shall hopefully be the first night getting back in to the swing of things! I'll keep you posted on developments! Cheers, Jonny

Happy Christmas to all Shipmates! Have a wonderful and prosperous New Year, and let's hope the model shipyards are well stocked up by our loved ones this year! Jonny

Hi guys, Just a quick update before Christmas. Over the last few days it's been all hands on deck for Christmas prep, so I've not managed a great deal, but what I have managed to do is fit all the carronades in the right place, add all the channels and start fitting some of the dead eyes and chain plates on the Starboard side. I also had a play around with a bit of butchers string and made it look like a mooring warp - just thought it might look good, although it's already had mixed reviews from the Admiral! Happy Holidays guys, Merry Christmas, and have a happy New Year! Cheers, Jonny

I'm sorry to keep banging on about this, but I've had a Eureka moment! I've just found another drawing of the same vessel, showing all of the interior layout, deck layout (hatches, windless, elm tree pumps, etc) and mast location! Ken you were right - she is a little Cutter! Unfortunately, the lines I've drawn on the first drawing have been over-laid on top, and I've found a slight discrepency between the two drawings. But this could be due to scalling of the scan rather then one drawing being incorrect?!

Cheers Jason! Thanks for the kind words! My thoughts exactly - the drawings are on the public domain, so if I use them for my own personal use and not sell them on (never my intention anyway), I should be fine using them! Either way, I like the print and I've cleared it with the Admiral and I can buy that print and replace the God Awful painting we have in the living room! So we're going up between Christmas and New Year to buy the print! Also.... been stalking your Jason and Snake builds.............. WOW!! Ken, I think she's a little Topsail Schooner, the description on the NMM website gives her a LOD of 90.00' and a LWL of 75' - so she's probably too big to be a Cutter, but I may be wrong. Also I haven't finished tracing the lines yet - I haven't traced over the Channel for the mizzen mast yet! I should hopefully do that next monday! http://prints.rmg.co.uk/art/491944/untitled I bought a new book this week that should give me ample Christmas reading (especially when I get to my folks place). I bought "The Built Up Ship Model" by Charles G. Davis - Published by Dover Martime Books (ISBN-13: 978-0-486-26174-4), which discussess the build of a fully framed ship model (which is something I've always wanted to do since I saw the scene in the Master and Commander film when they're discussing the build of the Acheron)! Merry Christmas and have a joyous and prosperous New Year to you all! Cheers Jonny

This is what I found on the website, and it's gorgeous. But I've got that nagging feeling in the back of my head - was I a bad boy... Should I have bought the plan from the NMM and then played around with it? The red and blue lines are what I've added on so far. What do you guys think?

Just a quick update on Convulsion.... I was given orders to "cease construction on HM Mortar Vessel Convulsion until the festivities of yule are over, because I want my bloody dining room table back!" (direct quote from her!! - I love it that she gets in to swing of things when I call her the Admiral). So tonight will most likely be my final build night of 2014.... But there will be an addition to the build log tomorrow! Woooop! Also, I was scrolling through the National Maritime Museum website yesterday (we're going up there between Christmas and New Year), and I saw that you can buy scans of real plans from them for a fairly reasonable price! So I did something naughty.... I took a screen-grab of an unnamed Topsail Schooner, dropped it in to AutoCAD and scaled it to the right size. So before I finish for Christmas on monday, I'll trace over the lines and plot it at A1 as a Christmas Project. Technically I wouldn't be working on Convulsion.... just a thought.... Cheers Jonny

Paul, I'm sorry to hear that you're being held back from Convulsion due to health problems. I've got a few issues myself that I'm having sorted out next year... I'll be out of work for 2 weeks at the end of Jan. for a minor back operation. According to the doctor I'll be on my front or side for the 2 weeks, so I'll be held back on Convulsion then. Keep your chin up, and hope you're not out of it for too long! John, I've had plenty of screw ups along the way so far, but I'm working my way through them nicely. I've learnt a lot from this build so far, and I'm very pleased with the outcome at this moment in time. But as I said to the Admiral last night, I'm not even 1/3rd of the way through yet!!! Cheers Jonny

Hi Guys, Sorry it's a rather late reply, it's been chaos at work recently due to the Christmas Shut Down, conferences, and close out of outstanding work. I also had a lovely relaxing weekend away arranged by the Admiral, which was well needed! Now - down to brass tax, what we're all here for.... an update on Convulsion. Like I said, the last few weeks have been manic - I've been left, right and center trying to get everything done in time before Christmas, so Convulsion has fallen by the way side a bit. So this is a brief update to show the progress (if you can call it that) in the last 2 or 3 weeks. So what's been done on Convulsion, I hear you ask..... Well I've finished off the deck planking like I said I would since about November time.... It's my least favourite part of the build I must admit. And I've got a lot of the deck fittings glued in place. I am in the process at the moment of clipping down all of the eye bolts to half their original length, and gluing them in place. Hopefully, by this evening, I will be in a position where I can say I'm done with the eyebolts. I've just got to add them around the base of each mast and in to the bulwalk for the carronade positions. I've also built up the lower main mast, and started tying ratlines to the shrouds on my Loom-a-Line, but as explained in a previous post, I balls'ed this up by sutting the shrouds too short. so I have remeasured and cut the main shrouds, and they've been left to the side until I have the chain plates and channels glued in place. So I've decided I will recycle this shroud and use it on the lower mizzen mast as it should fit quite nicely. To get a feeling of what Convulsion would look like with her spars in place, I took this photo of the uncut lengths of dowel in place. I have subsequently cut the lower mast mast and upper main mast parts to shape and added their fixings. Lastly, for this post anyway, I decided I would work on something different, and something that would be a little refreshing, so I worked on the Anchors. I found the Anchor Stocks were symmetrical, and that they fitted together very well, but....... the holes cut for the anchors were too big, so I had to pack the holes with 0.5mm THK walnut strips and sand them down slightly to get a tight fit for the anchor. After that, I had a look online to see how the Anchors were attached to the anchor cable, and I found that a split ring arrangement was used to attach the anchor to the cable. But.... each Iron split ring is bound in rope (either to make it easier to handle, or to stop corrosion happening so quickly), so to replicate this, I bound each ring (made using 1mm brass wire wrapped around the handle of a craft knife) in black thread. This problem with this was that I required about 2.5 meters of thread for each ring and I had to pass the thread through the ring every time, pull it through, check the lay of the thread, and then repeat. Because I have chunky fingers, I found this very difficult, so Lucy suggested I tie a length of wire or wood to the end of the thread for me to get a better grip on! Damn that girl is smart!! All in all, it was very tedious work, but I'm happy with the result! To finish off the Anchors, I tied on the anchor cable, and used the remaining length of cable to make up strops to hold the anchors on to the bollards, as can be seen in the photos. So, that's it for now. I'll give another update by the end of the week. I'm home alone tonight so I should make some decent progress! Cheers, Jonny