usedtosail

I have finished the cutter and installed it onto the deck. I added some oars, a boat hook and an anchor that I had left over from a previous Vanguard build. I also added the boat beam, which I am thinking I will use to hold one of the whale boats instead of having them on both side davits. I will wait to add them after the rigging so they won't be in the way. This completes page K of the instructions. The other three small boats are almost done. I have to add the splash guards to the dinghy, and used the laser cut out of the rail to bend them to shape. I'll cut the various pieces out of these bent strips to glue to the rail after I stain them. Here is an overall shot of the ship up to this point. Next up are the anchors and side davits. I am going to use the supplied white metal pieces, except for the two anchor stocks that are supposed to be made from wood. I will make these from some basswood strips with black paper bands. Happy New Year!

It has been too long since the last log entry so here is one that shows the state of the work since then. I am still working on all four small boats, with all of them planked and in various states of finishing. The cutter is furthest along with the interior finished and the rail added. Gluing these rails down onto the small hulls is somewhat problematic since there is a distinct curve in the top hull planks. I used medium CA and clamped using slide clamps and strips of wood, but still ended up with some gaps under the rail. I filled these with wood filler and am now in the process of sanding that off and touching up the paint on the hull and stain on the rail. The dinghy interior is finished and I have started painting the outside of the hull and the rudder white, just like the cutter. The other two boats are long and skinny. For these I am staining both the interior and exterior using walnut stain. Here is the whale boat with a coat of stain, which I really like how it came out. The floor boards are being glued down into the long boat and the figurehead is now attached to the stem. I used medium CA with a quick spray of accelerator to hold it in place, which worked very well. I also stropped some blocks with hooks to hold the three smaller boats to the aft and side davits. The two blocks with beckets and attached lines are for the dinghy on the aft davits. The other blocks without beckets will be used as lower blocks on the side davits. There will be blocks with beckets attached to the side davits for the top tackle blocks. These blocks are from Model Expo, which they call Beautiful Blocks. They are not quite as nice as the blocks from Syren, which I will also be using on this model, but these are 3.5mm which falls between the 3 and 4 mm blocks from Syren, giving me more size choices. Also, these were available when I needed them as the Syren blocks were sold out. The hooks are PE, left over from one of the Vanguard models. They are too big for the cannon rigging, so I made my own for those, but these seem really good to me to hold the boats. Once I have all the boats completed I'll post a picture of them all.

Thanks DAR. I am glad that there are still some little gems in the log to help folks out. God knows I can't never remember all those little details now. Merry Christmas to you too and you are doing a great job on your Connie.

Tom, Those boxes are exactly what I use for storing wood strips. I got them from a business supply company (ULine I think). Anyway I did order about 50 of them and I really didn't think I would need all of them but since then I have used most of them.

I am working on all four supplied boats. The cutter is planked so I can start finishing that one and the other three are in various states of planking. These long thin clamps work great for holding the planks while bending them to fit and gluing them on.

I agree with you Andrew. It looks too crowded. I think that some of these deck components from the kit are over scale. Even more stuff on the deck now. Sky lights and boomkins added. I have the supports for the ships boat and the beam that other boats rest on, but I am waiting to add them until I put the boats on. I am currently planking the ships boat and have put the frame together for the gig. The two other boats will be started soon.

That figurehead looks great. Much better than my attempt.

I finished page J of the instructions which included finishing the depth winch and pumps and gluing them to the deck, along with the compass by the ships wheel. I also finished rigging the cannons, added some chain to the windlass, and added all the belaying pins. I have already started on page K of the instructions by gluing the deck house pieces together and starting the planking of them. I have blackened the supplied chain and added the two chains to the rudder.

Thank guys for the kind words. I will have to see how the boat turns out and how much it covers, but since it is such an integral part of the mission of this ship I would be reluctant to leave it off. I may even add some whaleboats too but that is some time off yet. Tom, I would not sell my copy of the AOS Beagle, but I would be willing to lend it to you when I am finished with this model and you are ready to start yours. I was away all last week but made some good progress before then and since I've been back. I assembled and rigged all the cannons. I am using the breaching rope and side tackle to hold the guns to the deck. I still have to finish the rigging on the back two smaller cannons. These are very close to the steps leading to the upper deck so I am in the process of making smaller side tackle for them. I also finished the main bitts and the hatches and glued them to the deck, and added all the blocks and eyebolts to the deck. I am finishing up the painting on the depth winch. I had trouble gluing those side brass pieces to the drum until I bent the bottoms of them to a 90 degree angle and glued those bends to the back of the drum. Now they are attached more securely. In the process I ended up loosing one but was able to duplicate it using some thin brass sheet. Next up are the pumps to finish up page J of the instructions.

I am using Model Expo's Bulwarks Red for my gun carriages.

So I had some time to add more belaying pins to the fore mast pin rail. I also added more to the main pin rail, just in case I need them there too. Thanks again Mowzer.

Thanks Mowzer. That's a great heads up. I had trouble like this with my previous model where they had over 30 lines going to one bitt rail. I do not want to deal with that again!

I wanted to add the gun tackles to the fore gun but couldn't figure out where the other end attached to until I saw @brunnels great build log for his Beagle, so I made up two tackles with 1/8" blocks with hooks and hooked them to the ring bolts. I am using Syren blocks (and cleats) for this model instead of the one size blocks and metal cleats supplied. I also glued the pin rail and pawls to the deck using two pins under the uprights. I finally finished the windlass and got that installed. The plans for the two handles are way off so I basically had to remake them. In the process the blackening was coming off so I painted them flat black. I first glued the handles into the ends of the barrel and slid the end blocks onto the other end of the handles, then glued the windlass supports to the deck and the end blocks to the bulwarks. I put a dowel in the fore mast hole to make sure the mast wasn't hitting anything on the deck, since everything is very close around the mast. This completes page I of the instructions so it is on to page J. I first cleaned the flash off all the white metal parts for this stage, cleaned them in acetone, primed them with Binn primer, and painted them with flat black enamel. I also cleaned the char off the wooden gun carriage parts. Instead of using brass rod for the axels, I made some wooden axels from 1/16" basswood strip. After cutting them to length I files the ends round and pushed the wheels on to finish the shaping. I had to file 1/16" notches into the bottoms of the carriage sides, and once the carriage sides and bottom are glued together, I will need to continue the 1/16" groove across the carriage bottoms to fit the axels. I plan to paint the carriages with bulwarks red paint when they are all glued together.

I installed the gun on the fore deck by gluing the eyebolts into the deck and I put a few small dots of CV glue under the ring. I also added all the other eyebolts, cleats, and blocks to the fore deck.

I have been working on the gun for the fore deck using mostly the kit supplied pieces. I am using smaller eyebolts with the kit supplied rings to make the ringbolts that hold the gun down. I added a short length of a brass screw under the back of the gun for the elevation screw instead of the eyebolt the instructions called for. Here is the gun with four lengths of line seized to the ringbolts. These will be tied to four ringbolts in the deck when the gun is installed. I have also started building the windlass, again using mostly the kit supplied pieces. One change I made is that the instructions show a loop at the barrel ends of the handles that go around a nub that sticks out of the ends of the barrel. I instead filed off the nubs and drilled holes in the ends of the barrel so I can leave the ends of the handles straight and glue them into the holes. I am now priming and painting the barrel and assembling the upright support pieces for the windlass.

Thank you Gregg. I am glad you are finding my Connie log useful. Your model is looking great. Here are some shots of my current progress. All six ladders are installed as well as all the pin rails on the bulwarks. A lot or work as been done on the poop deck, including the azimuth compass, some blocks, whale boat supports, cleats, eye bolts, and the rope railings. For supports I used larger eyebolts that I had which are still not as big as the supplied eyebolts, which look way out of scale to me. If you look closely you can just see the ships wheel under the poop deck. Thanks for looking in.

I was lucky when we moved up to New Hampshire that the condo unit we bought had a rental unit that we are not renting out anymore. My wife said I should use the kitchen and living room for my shop which I jumped at the suggestion. My main work bench (with a lovely view) The rest...

Is the copper paint intended for the bottom of the ship's hull, to simulate the copper plates? The kit itself not include any copper for the bottom, but I had some rolls of copper tape left over from a previous build which I used for the bottom.

I made the flag lockers from the supplied pieces and added the hardware. The next step was to make the four ladders that are used to get to the upper fore and aft decks. The kit supplies pieces of photo etched brass for these ladders but I wanted to make them from wood instead. I cut four equally spaced slots in a piece of sheet wood on the Byrnes saw, then sliced off angled pieces from each side to make matching sets of ladder sides. The slots were just thick enough for a 1/32" piece of basswood strip to fit in, so I cut four rungs for each ladder, then used a magnetic jig to hold the sides while I slipped the rungs, with glue on the ends, into the slots. When the glue dried I sanded and stained the ladders. I also made all the pin rails that go along the inside bulwarks, using a strip of pear wood. I drilled the equally spaced holes using the sensitive drilling attachment on a Sherline lathe with the milling attachment. I also made kevels from boxwood using the lathe with a bit of wood so they stand away from the sides. Here are all those pieces waiting for a coat of wipe on poly.

Thanks DAR. Yes it is a good task you can do away from the workbench. I used the laser cut channels that came with the kit, but I did have to file out the notches for the deadeye strops. I also added wire pins to the back of them to provide additional gluing strength. I thought I needed to add the deadeyes before gluing the covering boards over them but this proved too difficult to hold everything together while getting the covering boards straight. I found that I could slip the deadeyes into the channels after the covering boards were glued on by elongating the small loops slightly. After adding the deadeyes I drilled holes for the pins in the hull and glued the channels on. I then added the chain plates to the deadeyes by hooking the upper ends through the small loops on the strops. I bent the chain plates to sit flat on the hull and used a dowel and some string at the heights of the various shrouds to set the angles of them The lower nails were below the deck level so I could cut them long enough to handle easily, but the upper nails were above deck level so I had to cut them very short which made them hard to handle. I ended up drilling a good size hole so I could slip them in more easily but I had to glue them into the holes. I also added the three small chain plates on each side with the double blocks for the topgallant and mizzen topmast backstays. I ended up remaking the aft davits again as the ones supplied with the kit that I used as a template were too short, so I made the new ones that are a little longer. That completes page H of the instructions, with the aft davits and cleats added, the head area completed, and the channels and deadeyes. The next page I adds much of the deck furniture.

I added the rest of the rails to the head area and made a grating to fit over them. I will wait until I add the bowsprit gammoning to glue the grate in place. You can see it sitting on the fore deck in the first photo. I first made a template from manila folder material, then cut out the shape from some 1/16" birch plywood. Once that fit nicely I drilled holes and squared them off using reamers. I still need to do some clean up of the white paint on the rails. I have also cut out and painted the channels and the covering strips for them. I added pins to the backs of the channels provide more hold to the hull. I stropped all the large and small deadeyes to go into the channels. I made the strops with 22 gauge black steel wire for the large deadeyes and 24 gauge copper wire, that I was able to blacken with Birchwood-Casey, for the smaller deadeyes. I glued the deadeyes into the strops with thin CA. I am using the large deadeyes for the shrouds and the smaller ones for the backstays, again as shown in the AOS Beagle book. Next up is the add the deadeyes to the channels, add the covering strips, then glue the channels to the hull. I am stropping four double blocks with thimbles that are hooked to the hull for the topgallant backstays, which I will also add with the channels.

Thanks Tony and for the likes too. As I did on the transom, I am using wood strips instead of brass rod for the head rails and trim. For the head rails I am using 1/16" square basswood strips which I have bent using the same jig I used to bend the hull planks. Here is how OcCre shows to make the head rails in the instructions. In my case I am trying to emulate the head rail setup shown in the AOS Beagle book. I was able to use the upper and lower rails supplied with the kit, but I added wood trim to the upper rails. I also have a thin strip of wood painted black to add to the tops of them. For the lower rails I made two scrolls from Sculpey and extended the lower rails to meet them on each side. The middle rails will connect to these extensions. Here I have attached the upper middle rail. I am still working on the lower middle rail pieces. The trim on the upper rail extends a bit higher so it will be flush with the wood strips that I haven't added yet. I am waiting to add those until I fit a grate that I am making for the head area. I will probably wait to add that until I add the gammoning on the bow sprit to make that job a little easier.

I made the aft davits but am waiting to install them so I don't snag them on anything. Then I added the gun port lids. I first made them according to the instructions, using supplied plugs that I planked on both sides. I started installing them but did not like the way they fit and looked on the outside or inside. So I then made them from two planks of basswood each and glued them into the openings horizontally. I then added the hinges and painted them black. The final step was to touch up the white paint around them. You may notice that I repainted the fake gun port so it was all black, to match the real gun ports. This is the paint scheme shown in the AOS Beagle book. I am now focusing on adding the details to the bow and stem. I started with the hawse holes which I made from two pieces of basswood each and painted white. I used a large sanding drum by hand to sand in the curve of the hull on the back. I will drill out these holes in the hull when the glue dries. I am now working on the head rails and will have photos after I make more progress.

I have completed Section G of the instructions. This included the cat heads, rails, taffrail, transom decorations, and rudder. I had made a taffrail by bending a piece of basswood but I didn't like the fit so I cut one out of a block of pear which fit much better. The next section includes the aft davits, closed gun port lids, channels, and chain plates.

Well I was so happy with the cat heads but they are not correct. I used the laser cut pieces for the aft davits which looked like cat heads to me. I was able to take them off without damaging the deck or the bulwarks. I made the correct cat heads from the supplied square stock. They fit better than the davit pieces but I still needed to notch the bottoms to get them to sit flat to the deck, just not as much. I drilled holes for the sieves but this time I drill them at an angle so when the cat head is installed the holes will be vertical. They are pained black on the left in the photo below. I made the new aft davits using the cut out in the laser sheet from the old ones. There was enough excess wood on the sheet to make both of them. I again cut them out to a rough outline then sanded them with a sanding drum and disc sander. These will be left natural so I gave them a coat of wipe on poly after drilling the holes for the sieves. They are on the right in the photo. You can also see some of the rail and trim pieces after I stained them and gave them 2 coats of wipe on poly.