Blue Ensign

Hello dear friends,
Thank you for your kind words, I am glad I can share my work with you all and find a lot of great inspiration here at MSW.
 
 
Well, I started to build models when I was six and my mother was surprised that i had a bit different hobbies as compared with other small girls. But I could not help myself and enjoy this hobby to these days.
 
 
Thank you dear Anja, I am pleased you like the changes on Royal Caroline. I also like the actual appearance more than previous+.
And my new avatar comes from the recent boat trip. 

Take care,

Doris
 
 
Hello dear Sjors,

I try to look for the new ways, how to improve my work and achieve better results. Sometimes I am satisfied, but there are a lot of things, I could make better. So this is a motivation for future projects.
 
 
 Thank you very much, Grant. Now I have about 30 ship models at home, some of the older ones have plenty of mistakes, but this way I can compare progression of my modeler skills and learn from own mistakes.
 
 
Today I took all my ships out to clean them. I use only a soft brush.
Here are some of the biggest ones:


 
 

Hello Sjors and thank you a lot! That is my favourite room in our house.
 
I have made only few new details on Royal Caroline, because I have no time for my hobbies now. In the end I have decided to change again the surface of belfry and other details, because I was not satisfied with previous modification and its cleanness. BTW, I looked again at the paintings of Royal Caroline and I did not find red colour on these parts. Only the chimney is red.





 
There were added anchor ropes, I made them on Rope Walk by Amati.

Hello dear friends!
Thank you for your comments and kind words, I appreciate them a lot and I am glad, you like my work.
I have to excuse I was not here for a long time. Several months the work on Royal Caroline was frozen, I have had health problems and
moreover I am sorry to say,  but there are some envy and grudging people in our country who discouraged me from modeling.   In autumn I have started to assemble some plastic kits from Revell http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=175&t=79951   and found again pleasure and desire to work on RC, so now I am continuing with interior of cabins. I really enjoy this kind of work. Here are pics, so enjoy them. The furniture is made of wood or paper covered with self-adhesive foils with wooden look. Decorations are hand made from modeling clay.
 
finished railings:
¨



 
 
Making furniture for the rear cabin

Haven’t posted in quite some time, bad me. To catch up, I have stepped the masts and complete much of the standing rigging. I am currently tying ratlines and have competed the port side of the main mast. Some photos to catch up.
 
Main sail lacing.

 
Main and fore masts and sails set in place. The gaffs are temporarily rigged.

 
Used single wires to set constant deadeye heights while seizing the shrouds.  The single wires worked okay for height but allow the deadeye to rotate while tightening the shroud. Next time I’ll try something more stable and may make a single tool for all deadeyes.

 
Lanyards complete.

 
Bowsprit details.

 
Ratlines in progress.

 
Dave B

A few pictures to show the completed deck items before the masts go in.  Definitely seems to be a little more crowed than kit supplied parts and layout but I'm pleased with how its turned out.

I did some research on the changing face of Victory when I was  modelling her a few years back, these are the date changes for her broadside scheme.
 
At Commissioning in 1778 -  Her sides were ‘bright’or payed with rosin
 
During the 1782 /83 refit it is likely that her sides were first painted yellow ochre in compliance with an order dated May 1780; that painting should replace the ‘paying’ of sides.
 
1800-1803 (The Great Repair)
Sides painted with black and yellow ochre bands but outer lid colour painted yellow to match the strakes. This was her appearance as she left Chatham 14 May 1803.
 
Nelson took command of Victory in the Med 31 July 1803 and sometime between then and September 1803 Nelson had the outer port lids painted black, and shortly before Trafalgar, the previously painted black mast hoops were painted yellow, this was a general fleet order applicable to all British ships intended to aid identification.
 
B.E.

Thanks, Elmer!  Hope you had a good Christmas.
 
As Keith predicted, it starts to get interesting with a few more planks added--
 

 

 

 

 
Ron

Well, as I started checking things, I realized I hadn't built the Breasthook earlier as I was waiting till the opportune time, well, today was opportune if it was going to get done, so I worked on the foremast and the breasthook today.....

and the grinding wheel around the workbench

a couple of more for the benefit of anyone else that is building a Morgan

Just time for the last pre-Christmas update as we hit 250 hours into the build.
 
Sanding of the upper hull has been completed and the second layer of the channel wales added.  The hull has been stained after a coat of Minwax Pre-stain.  For this portion of the hull, I've used 30% Golden Oak.  As the intention is to have the upper hull much darker than the lower portion, a second coat of stain will be applied later (after treenailing).
 

 
Before we get to treenailing, the second layer of the main wales will be added and painted  ...  hopefully in time to ring in the New Year!
 
The very best of the Holidays to all.  Be happy, stay healthy and ENJOY!

That's an impressive view of her Grant, very, very, nice.
 
Best wishes for a successful modelling year in 2014.
 
B.E.

Hi Len,  No stops on the Lazy Susan. Not a bad idea though.  It certainly helped with tensioning the shrouds and backstays, and leveling the yards with topping lifts.  I've held off on the driver boom since it will limit the swing.
 
Looking forward to your build log Daniel. 
 
Floyd,  After Mike Graff's photography workship, I tried posterboard which was inadequate, and finally found a baby blue pull down shade.  If I painted some clouds on it, would it look more real?
 

 
 

Daniel, I couldn't match your beautiful work on the Victory's anchor cable, but did rebuild the windlass on our boat to raise 500 - 700 lb. of anchor and chain. A bit small for the Victory.
 
Jerry, I'm still at the amazed stage of the white whites and bright colors.
 
Popeye, Where can I find a copy of your "Modelers Creedo?"  Sounds interesting.
 
Daniel (Sailor),  I looked at your bio and was astounded.  I was also a lieutenant in the Canadian Navy (Reserve) and as a midshipman, spent time on HMCS Sioux (tribal class destroyer) and HMCS Antigonish (Frigate), 1951 - 1954. AND built models of the Cutty Sark, USS Constitution and of course the present Victory.  Dream on!  Our dream came in 1999 - 2002 when we took our boat offshore  for three years and 30,000 miles. I couldn't find a build log, but hope you'll start one before getting too far along.
 
Nick, (Pompey2), Your Victory is a delight to behold. I'm looking forward to seeing the rigging come to life.
 
And finally, finishing up the Main mast topgallant yard.  Adjusting the foot ropes.
 

 
The state of the ship before progressing on to the Mizzen Mast.  Click to enlarge.
 
 
 
Cheers, Gil

Thanks John.
 
Some minor progress to report just ahead of the big fat guy with the red suit...
 
I've now completed attaching all of the yards to the Foremast, complete with Jeers/Tyes, Truss Pendants/Parrals, and Lifts.  Getting this far has required a great deal of cross-checking between the kit plans, Longridge and TFFM.  I would NOT like to be attempting this based on the kit plans alone!!!  That said, the kit plans for the most part aren't actually too bad - once you can understand them..........although there are a few inaccuracies, most of which it is possible to correct at this stage (though not all).  Longridge is great for accuracy, again when you can understand what he is saying.  He tends to be somewhat brief at times, and his writing can be difficult to fathom unless one is already an expert in 18th century rigging.  Antscherl, in the TFFM, provides a good counter to both, making both Longridge and the kit plans more intelligible.  Although Antscherl is writing about a Sixth rate ship, there is a very high degree of alignment with that of the First rate.  For the most part the differences are just the size of lines and blocks, although there are a couple of minor variations in rig.  Anyway, between the three of them, I'm making some progress, although I would say that I have spent probably twice as much time reading, studying plans, and re-reading, as I have actually rigging.  It really is like a game of chess as you try to figure the next move and the one after, and the one after.........
 
A couple of pics to show where I'm at, and to keep you-know-who happy.  It's quite difficult to see some of the lighter coloured line in the first photo, so I improvised a back drop with my cutting mat for the second shot.  There is no tension on the lifts or tyes of the topmast and topgallant yet as there is no counter tension to stop the yards sliding up the mast.  That will come when further rigging, such as braces, has been added.
 

 

 
Now, to do it all over again with the Main Mast...................
 
Merry Christmas one and all.  May your Christmas stockings be full of Ship Modelling stuff. :D

I'll photograph component parts for the foremast later

Well, hopefully everyone survived Christmas and having enjoyable times with family and friends.  The shipyard is kinda quiet so far today, not sure if I'll do much.  I have just been playing around with details and masts.  I cut the foremast, mainmast, and mizzen mast from stock.  I built the foremast top platform, trestle tree and cheek knees for the foremast.  I dry fitted the foremast and cut the fore topmast just to see how all of this will come together.  Still have numerous details to add to the foremast before it gets stepped, so mostly just playing today.....I think...

Merry Christmas and a happy new year every one.
 
Thanks to every one with their kind words. It seems that I have a small up date on Montagu gun deck. I took off the planking I installed the first time, or was it the second time but instead of installing just enough for the gun's, ran it all the way over to the hatch ways and left one side unplanked. The deck planking is silver maple and boy is it white and every thing has been pegged but have not done any kind of stain on it. Thinking about toning it down but not sure of the how or with what so if you have any ideal's please let me know. Have been expermenting but not happy with what am coming up with yet. Do know that Frolick used maplewood on his deck of his  La Belle Poule, and looks real nice. Seems it is a honey oak color and doesn't blind you when you look at it, but havn't found out what type of maple and if you know what type maple and  stain please let me know. The cannons are just sitting on the deck till other items get done and will be reloacted to a safer place once I start working on them again. Any way folks Merry Christmas and may you get that tool or kit that you been wanting for the past year.
 
Gary

Christmas update. Been painting the herms that sits by the railings. I also started to add the ledges that runs between the tritons.
 
First a compilation of the herms from the 1:10 at the museum that can be helpfull for us vasabuilders:
 
 
 
Then follows how mine turned out. I choosed to only do the blue version that I think look really nice. They didnt check that many sculptures when doing the paint analysis so I think there is room for artistic freedom when painting the sculptures.
 



 
/Matti

Hey all, been working on the base for the rails this week. Pretty tedious work as I had to reshape many pieces to get it right. Reshaping also means repainting, but for some reason that part of the work feels fun.
 
The horizontal planks are first painted with  brown washes to get a slightly darker nuance. Then I sanded the outer sides to make it look like its painted. Then thin dirt streaks like it had rained on them. Then lighter washes to make it realistic and finally some light sanding to make it blend. I want to get many nuances of the washes so I had to paint all the vertical pieces using different shades of washes.
 
 
/Matti

Hello BE, the anchor chain is an antique coppery bronze color and I intend to leave it that way.  The camera makes it look bright, when in reality it is a dull color looking almost like rust.  It looks quite natural actually.  Thanks for your input and I'm glad you like it.  It's not quite to your skill levels yet, but with you around I have goals and targets that someday I can reach in my modeling.  Thank you for sharing all that you do and the photos are always a welcome sight..wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year.... 

I ask for a little slack from the mods on this one..(Dont reply to this...just hit the like button).....I couldn't pass this up....   On behalf of Diane, "Cosmo" and myself may all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year......

Great detailing John, I can almost smell the rendering down of the blubber from here! One question, do you intend to blacken the anchor chains?
 
B.E.

I guess now is as good a time as any to wish all of my MSW friends and your families a most Joyous and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  Thank you all for your support, help, mentoring, advice, tips, tools, comments and most of all friendship since I've been involved with this forum.  I've had all of this as well as being able to meet several of you during my travels of the east coast this year.  I look forwrd to continuing this through the west coast this coming year.  We have a wonderful Brotherhood/Fraternity or what ever you want to call it here...comraderie.....Thank you all, and may we have good winds and calm seas this coming year.....take care Mate's and Bro's......

A couple of more of the hull