Marcus.K.

My respect, colleagues!
In a russian book of the 19th century I found an interesting drawing of HMS "Diamond Rock" 
 

 

To fabricate the fore mast opening in the spar deck, two structural members were installed between bulkhead Beams C and D offset equally from the centerline by the width of the fore mast dowel. The dowel, sitting in its seat on the gun deck. restrained in its side to side motion, was now perfectly vertical to the beam of the model. Next, a piece of scrap wood’s edge was cut to 3° from the vertical. The scrap wood was now a 3° mast gauge. Placed on the beams, the dowel was pivoted aft back against the gauge and a cross beam glued into place to restrain the dowel’s aft movement. The dowel still has a little forward movement to facilitate removal and then its final placement. Once the foremast is seated again and leaned against the cross beam, it will at the proper rake of 3°.
 
It is to be noted, that the position of the foremast on my model, is not exactly in the same position as shown on the MS plans. The MS plans have the fore mast seated in the C-bulkhead just under the spar deck planking. My fore mast is completely behind the bulkhead C and obviously seated in the gun deck’s extended keel. Why the slight aft position shift, I don’t know.
 
And just for grins and giggles I took a photo with the bowsprit and foremast dowels to get a sense of size of the model. That sucker is biiiigggg!

All historians agree that the Congress was built to Humphries 36-gun draught. It is fairly complete, given that most of the inboard profile is superimposed over the lines. With that, and the 1820-ish Charles Ware sail plan, one could make a reasonably accurate post-1812 model of her, except for the carvings and once again, that freakin stern! Makes me kinda wish that the British had captured her ... kinda.

I have not posted in this thread in a while, I started my master's degree program in the spring, and it has been eating up a lot of my free time.
 
I have mentioned the brig Burrows several times before, and it still stands out to me. A beautiful, never-built brig of larger than average size and armed with around 14 guns, either 32-pounder carronades or 27 hundredweight 32-pounder cannons. It was designed by Richard Powell, assistant to John Lenthall. I was struck by the resemblance to Lenthall’s ship-sloop Germantown, so I stuck the two together, and it is very apparent. Above the waterline, the two ships are very similar. Similar bows, stern is the same shape, fore- and mainmasts are in almost the same locations, even the boarding ladder. I know US brigs normally didn’t have quarter galleries, but this one was huge, just slightly smaller than the Boston-class ship-sloops. I copied Germantown’s onto Burrows, and they fit perfectly like they meant to be there. All I had to do to tweak it was shorten the top part of the quarter gallery a bit to fit Burrows’ smaller hammock rails. I also included a drawing with her rig. I have a comparison of lines too, but I need to go back and work on it more so I will post it another time.
 
Burrows
LBP: 126'0"
Beam (Molded): 30'0"
Depth in Hold: 14'0"
 
Germantown
LBP: 150'0"
Beam (Molded): 36'0"
Depth in Hold: 16'8"
 


 
 
This is another drawing I did for a prompt over on Civil War Talk. The sloop Plymouth was captured at Gosport Naval Yard by advancing Confederate forces (along with Germantown). There was a proposal to convert her into an ironclad, which fell through. I combined a proposed Confederate ironclad casemate design with Plymouth’s hull. I also included the armament, two 7-inch Brooke Rifles, two 6.4-inch Brooke Rifles, four IX-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, and a pair of boat howitzers.


 
I did up several gun drawings as well, including the top view of Plymouth’s 7-inch rifles on pivot carriages, a new Marsilly carriage for the old IX-inch Dahlgren I drew. I also drew a British 64-pounder MLR of 64cwt and a British truck carriage for it.
 


I did a drawing of Plymouth’s gundeck based on a combination of a plan In Canney’s Sailing Warships book, and a Library of Congress plan of Plymouth’s great cabin. I plan to use this on another forum to illustrate some armament and layout concepts, but right now it is armed with a mix of 32-pounders and 8” shell guns. I’m also including a larger copy of the two guns and their truck carriages.

I am not a sailor. I have zero experience on a large sailing ship, especially on a vintage one. Obviously, I have boarded the USS Constitution and all the lines were neatly tucked away for the safety of the public. The only working commissioned naval vessel I have been on believe it or not was a Soviet destroyer on a good will tour in the mid 1970's in Boston Harbor. You didn't see too much, but that ship was as neat as a pin because it was on public display. In pictures of vintage sailing fishing vessels I've seen, there were rope lines all over the place. I assume once the boat was returning to port with its load of fish, they made everything "ship shape."
 
The guns on my model are at the ready, in firing positions so I can't imagine the crew taking the effort to make things visually neat like spiraling rope coils, but probably workable neat. That's why the ropes are simply coiled and in position to be used for firing and reloading the guns. This set up is my best guess and you may be totally correct and I'm totally wrong.
 
Jon

Finally, using the US Navy plan No. 022-06-2011 - Diagonal Rider & Knee Layout Revised 2011 (a minor revision of 27772, 1996) for the elevation view and No, 17636 Spar Deck Planking Removed 1926 for the plan view, I fabricated and added diagonal knees to the bulwarks around the gun ports of the rigged guns. Additionally, the three vertical stanchions around the stove were also fabricated from 0.032” music wire (for rigidity) and installed. Before I can move aft to the next section and while the gun deck is still accessible, I want to create spare deck structure to ensure the foremast will have a 3° rake when it is installed. As I have it presently planned, this portion of the spar deck is expected to be planked.IMG_1479.HEIC

At this point, As I promised, the gun deck is becoming quite cluttered. I wanted the ship to look more like a working ship than one on display for the “Brass”, so no pretty coiled rope spirals.

Then the next items to be installed were the anchor line bits and the stove with the stove tray which were previously fabricated. These were installed after dry fitting their final position and installing the spar deck beam that passes over the stove (not shown).

@LAHF1  Ahoy Loni... Thank you for popping in... I appreciate your interest in my Titanic.  I hope you consider adding your perspective in a build log or some other format.  I find that keeping some sort of log helps me to organize my approach and maintain the long view needed to make progress.  Hope you had a great holiday season!
 
 
@Jeff59 You have a great start on gathering some terrific enhancements for the Trumpeter kit... Good stuff.  I'm being cautious about how much investment I need to make on 3rd party add-ons.  At some point they can detract rather than enhance... I'll try to focus on acquiring elements that solve for issues that I can't otherwise handle with some scratch building - or at least gain significant time advantages.  Model Monkey is a terrific resource - I've utilized some MM 3D prints for my Old Ironsides build.  Certainly the Titanic funnels are on my radar.  I do hope that my build helps with your efforts in some small way... At least serve as some sort of inspiration.
 
@NavyShooter I checked in on your Titanic... That is a big boat.  Impressive 3D printing - must've taken days to generate! Thanks again for looking in on my build.  
 
@Roger Pellett Please let us know if Naval architects do discover the necessary engineering needed in order to sailor proof anything that floats. 
 
@md1400cs  I'm happy you found your way here... I suppose at some point I'll have to admit that I'm immersed enough in all of Titanica that I'm another in a long list of Titanicphiles... A fan.  She is a beautiful ship and the circumstances of her end makes for compelling research in my quest to enhance the kit and move it closer to an accurate representation.
 
To that end... I'm gonna double down on the research side of the hobby.  I've decided it was time to join the club:

 
I'm now a proud member of the Guild and have already benefitted from my first Journal issue... A great overview of a FFG build that will inform my own (eventual) kit build... An older brother served on a Perry class frigate while escorting tankers during the Persian Gulf war.
 
Cheers
Evan
 

Thank you Sirs!

Somehow it was time to do something to this little USS chick again. The infamous gunnade in the bow was still missing.





Even if it has already been questioned, I decided in favour of the variant with the GRIII crest.

Then I prepared the space on deck for it, fitted the lower deck knees and printed the nailed interior bulkward ...



... and glued it in.



Then checked the size of the blocks. The 2.5 mm were too long after all.



So it became the 2 mm blocks 🙂



I now also have a technique that works quite well. You sharpen a toothpick well ...



... and clamp it in a vice.



Then put a piece of paper over it to make it easier to see, and press the block onto the tip.



First check which side you need to start on so that the rolls are on the right side. Then apply 2 mm of superglue to the yarn and press it onto the correct side, ...



... pull the ends forwards, tie a knot and secure with glue. Then knot the hook, secure it, cut it to length and the double block is finished.



For the single block, first knot in a hook, apply some superglue to the hook´s knot ...



... and as with the other one ...



... with a little superglue at the back and tighten the ends to the front.

Then tie a knot, secure and cut to length.

Now comes the most difficult part in my eyes: the correct run through the blocks so that nothing crosses over 🙂

And that's it.



It also looks good on the 24-pounder 🙂



And then it was time for the trial fitting.















XXXDAn

Log #65: Tying off the Stays and Shrouds
I have been very slowly tying off the stays for the last week or so. The Mainstay was fairly straight forward, there was a clear diagram in Goodwin so I decided to go with it as it made reasonable sense. I tied the sizings with 10/0 white fly tying thread. Ideally I would have preferred to use an off white, but there was limited colours available and at least it does make the detail stand out.

The preventer stay was sized in a similar manner.

The shrouds were a little more confusing as the diagram in Lees seems to show them just wrapped around the shroud and then sized to it. However, when I did this I found that it would loosen and slide up the shroud to the point at which it was sized. To remedy this after wrapping them around the shroud as pictured in Lees, I slipped the end of the laniard through the gap between the sizings of the shroud. This held everything in place and then I just ran it straight up and sized it to the shroud.

I first tried using the 0.25mm rope to size it (see the standing backstay on the right), but I thought that looked a little too big and so switched to the fly tying thread for the rest. I didn’t feel like going back and changing the standing backstay and since it is not really that noticeable unless you zoom right in I decided to leave it as it was.

And with that the shrouds and stays are in place. Next I am on the the ratlines as I think I want to do them before too many more lines are all over the place waiting to be caught on somthing.
 

Log #66: Year End Review
With the end of the year approaching I thought I would give a quick update on the status of Alert to round out the year and look back on the progress that has been made.
 
In January of 2023 Alert looked like this:

And today she looks like this:

I am pretty pleased with the progress to date and am hoping to finish her sometime in 2024. The ratlines have been particularly tedious and I would say at this point I have done most of them between two and three times. That being said the end is in sight for the larboard shrouds and I am hopeful that the starboard ones will go a bit quicker given all the practice I have had.

Ahoy @Niemand...
 
Apologies for missing your note.  
 
Many thanks for the kind remarks - I really do appreciate folks stumbling on my build and finding some value... As it happens, I've started working a few elements on this project.  I am hoping to get the halves fused together with the gun deck in place along with the rudder and stern details.  I'd like to have it set up with pedestals mounted on a wooden plinth in the near future.
 
Cheers
Evan
 

Minor update, I got the iron bands on the gaff and the boom as well as added the eyebolt to the gaff. Both Goodwin and the kit plans have the eyebolt further from the jaws, but Lees seems to suggest that this was only the practice after 1818 and so I went with him. I also painted the bands to try and help them stand out and give the illusion of metal. One of the challenges with close up photos is that the transitions for the colours look very abrupt when in real life they blend together much better.

Log #56: The Boom and the Gaff
Despite the lack of updates, I have been making progress on the model. I am currently in the process of trying to get everything associated with the mainmast that I can done off the model to make things easier. This however means that despite doing lots, I don’t have many things complete and ready to show. Much of what I will discuss in this log has been in progress for several weeks and I have many other things done, that I have not yet mentioned as they are not in a finished enough state to show. I say this mostly for the benefit of any other first time builders as the order I present stuff in my log is not necessarily the same as the order I worked on them.
 
A significant amount of my time lately has been spent on the boom and the gaff. For the shape and length of them I followed the excellent directions in BE’s log. You can find them here. I achieved this by turning them on my drill much the same as with the mainmast. I also decided to adjust the kit arrangement for the jaws as I felt that with a little bit of effort they could be made more historically accurate.
 
First I cut the two halves of the jaws in two and for the boom I doubled the thickness by gluing them to another piece of off cut and carefully shaping them.

The gaff I left the same thickness. I then attached them to the boom and gaff and proceeded to give them a coat of black paint.

I also took this opportunity to taper the edge of the gaff to let it sit more naturally. This taper is clearly marked in both Lees and Goodwin.

After giving it a coat of black and sanding it back I decided to relocate the holes to more accurately reflect the diagrams in Lees. The old holes were filled with putty.

Painting was a long slow process. I first coated them in black then sanded it smooth then coated then sanded and so on. Once I had a solid base I highlighted with one reflection point similar to how I have previously described.

As a stylistic note I decided to leave all the cleats natural pear coloured with just a bit of WOP. I like the contrast this produces and also that it highlights the details. As a final touch I also made some changes to the end of the boom to simulate the pulley in it and also to make the end of the boom and gaff reflect what Lees said the practice at the time was (metal plate and eyebolt).
 
For the gaff I used a leftover top of one of the extra stantion tops as the plate and one of my amati eyebolts. For the boom I used one of the leftover chain plates for the shrouds and one of the extra hoops that the running backstays attach to as the eyebolt.

I still need to add the iron hoops that hold the jaws to the spars, but I needed to let everything dry completely before I start messing with that.
 
And here are the two of them on Alert.
 

Ahoy there! What´s up, doc?
 
Vacation with my family. My kids all in the age of puperty used to sleep until the first half of MY day is wasted. So I decided to make use of this quiet time and take a kit with me: the Falkonet 6-oared boat.

Its a very nice kit and due to recent experience with a Shipyard Alert with klinkered hull I dared to try this one.
 
My working place was like this:
 Southern France, Atlantik Coast (Biskaya), you could hear the sea crashing into the beaches (a surfer-paradise nothern Biarritz and Capbreton) - a cool breeze even when the sun burned hot.
The start was more tricky than I expected. The plan showed this:

But the part A14R uand A14L was available 2 times each!!??? And my russian is not good enought to understand the text. And even the sketch confused me, since the direction of the milling seems not plausible!?
It was clear: those two filling pieces support the connection of stem post and keel - and also provide gluing surface for the planking in the bow area. But .. why then a step there? .. and why two pairs of them in the set?
 
An Englisch Pool-technician (thanks Willliam!) gave me the hint: use your smartphones google-browser to translate. You can even translate graphics via hte smartphones camera!!! .. and you can "share" and save that picture:
 

Ups.. sorry, now this translation is in German - which fits well for me.. But although its just a google translation its getting clearer than cyrillic russian texts for me.
But still it left me with the question: why in heaven are the two sets of this filling pieces - and even on different thick sheets?

I decided to ignore this question and just start with the thicker ones!

Milled them in shape according to the lines (ignoring the misunderstandable sketch in the plan - et voila!
The filling pieces in place beside the division line of keel and stem post. Aligned so the slot beneth it would not be covered by the step of the filling pieces.
 
Next step is preparing the slade (correct wording?):

These where the first parts I needed to file a a bit so that the tongues fitted into the openings. But in general there is not much rework to be done in this laser cut set. Just sanding the cutting area.. and maybe getting rid of the burned edge if you don´t like the dark appearance (which I did not do).
Then the frames had to be set loosly into the slade. Only the 4 front ones were allowed to glue together to each other so they don´t get lost.

Added the Keel (onto which I already glued the transom and the rear bulkhead) ..

Those two rails had to be added too ..
And the small kit slowly became looking like a boat ...

This is all so fascinating—all kinds of valuable data. I've been looking everywhere for the sailors that came with my Revell USS Constitution 1:96 bi-centennial edition. I bought it used. The previous owner's kids took them—also two of the lifeboats. I've looked at HO characters but have not found anything suitable.
 
I built the same edition long ago. Took years. One of my cats knocked it off shelf. Landed masts down. So I found the edition on ebay and I'm building again. I found it so amazing though to have the internet this time. 
 
Force9 your attention to detail and craftsmanship are amazing.
 
Thanks
 
 

Log #45: Blocks for the Gun Tackle
Thanks to everyone who has stopped by. I am beginning to understand why some people hate rigging the guns. Even for a ship as small as Alert I need to prep 48 very tiny blocks :). That being said I really do prefer the look of cannons that have been rigged and so having done a few test version, I have moved into mass production.
 
Step 1 is to get the block, hook and cut off a 30mm piece of 0.25mm rope. I experimented a bit and found that any less than 30mm made life very hard.

I then made a small knot in the rope (this picture is an older one, I forgot to take a picture of this step). I found doing the knot and then pulling it tight around the block was easier than trying to do the knot afterwards.

I then pulled the knot mostly closed, but left a small gap. Into this I inserted the end of the gun tackle. A small dot of super glue was added with a sewing pin and then I pulled the knot tight.

Once this dried I used some matt varnish and secured the end of the gun tackle to itself. I did not attempt to do more than a cursory imitation of a splice as this will all be hidden once the tackle is on the model.

Then with the line secure I flipped the block over and slipped the hook onto one of the two ends of the rope running around the block. At this time I also used a small dot of super glue to secure the knot on the top of the block.

Then using tweezers I inserted the other end of the rope into the hook from the opposite side. Once it was through the hook I looped it through the gap at the bottom to make another knot.

Another small dot of super glue was applied to the inside of the hook and the knot was bulled tight. Once dry I also covered all the knots with varnish both to hide the super glue shine and also to make sure that everything was secure.

Then into the bag with the other finished blocks. Half of them have the gun tackle attached and the other half do not. The process for those that don’t is pretty much the same, just the first few steps are a bit easier.
 
I still need to cut off the ends and add a little bit of seizing, but I don’t like doing this until I am sure everything is fully dry so I will wait till I have them all done before doing this step.
 
Seven done, fourty-one to go.
 

Time for another minor update. I am making faster progress than I thought and have all the breaching ropes done. I then attached all the deck fittings as the gun tackle will be done on a jig and then just hooked in so I am not as worried about things getting in the way.

Log #43: Rigging the Guns Continued
Thanks for all the comments and likes. I am getting excited to get to the point where everything is in place on the deck.
 
I am glad you found it helpful. I find that one of the benefits of documenting the process is it keeps me motivated to keep moving forward. I have learned so much from all the build logs I have read and I hope others can also learn from me muddling through the process of figuring this stuff out.
 
With the breaching ropes all attached to the cannons, the next step was to attach them to the ship. I found in my experimentation with the first two guns that it was easier to attach the ropes before fixing the cannons in place. There is nothing particularly complicated about this process, just patience, a bit of epoxy and a pair of fine tweezers.

Then using a small bit of super glue on the bottom of each wheel I attached the cannons in place. I also at this time decided to add in the deck fittings that did not stick up too much. The rest will have to wait till I have finished the gun tackle so as not to get in the way.

The next step is to get all the breaching ropes to lie properly. You can see I have done this with the cannon on the top right, but the others don’t look very natural as the rope is not flexible enough to lie naturally. To fix this I use a combination of small dots of super glue to hold specific parts of the rope in place and ultra matt varnish to help hold it in place as I shape it. This is a fairly time consuming process as you need to use very small amounts of glue and varnish to avoid getting it in places you don’t want it to be.
 

Log #42: Mass Production
With two of the breaching ropes attached and the problems ironed out, I have moved to simultaneous production of the remaining guns. This is a general principal that I like to follow. Do an initial test, often redoing it until I am happy. Then do a second to get the process down and then move to mass production.
 
The first step was to cut all of the breaching ropes to size (as I have already noted 95mm)

Next I attached it at the mid point with a small drop of super glue to the bottom of the cannons.

Once this had dried I wrapped the rope around the and secured it in place with another small drop of super glue.

I then attached the ring bolts to the end of each breaching rope using a small drop of super glue to hold the folded rope in place. To control the super glue I place it on a plastic lid and apply it using sewing pins. I didn’t take any pictures of this part of the process, but what I did was to set my micrometer to 4.5mm and then would place one end of the breaching rope in the gap. Using the micrometer as a guide I then pinched with a pair of small tweezers at the 4.5mm distance and folded the rope over attaching it in place using the super glue. You can see the result of this below.

I had found that the thread I used for the first two cannons was a bit thick so I made it thinner by removing one of the three strands that it was made of. I then used a sewing needle to secure one end of the thread before wrapping it around the breaching rope.

After 4 loops, I tied off the 5th to secure the thread in place. Once both seizings were in place I secured them with some ultra matt varnish. In the picture below the varnish is still wet and looks a bit shiny, but it dries to a clear matt finish.

And below you can see the final result.

I still need to trim the ends and once I have done so I can attach them to the ship. I have also been playing around with the gun tackle and have my first one done. I will discuss my plans for mass producing gun tackle more in a later post.

Time for another minor update as it might be a little while before I have enough progress to justify a full post. I have most of the breaching lines still to do and since I am planning on fully rigging the guns, a lot of hooks to attach to blocks. See below for a preview.

I am using Chuck’s 3mm hooks.
 
I also having done another blackening session managed to get enough eyebolts done to finish off the bulwarks.

However for some reason none of the brass worked despite the copper eye bolts coming out perfect. The blackening just came right off, something I have never had happen before. I have had blotchiness and parts that didn’t get fully covered, but never every single piece not working out. I currently have them all soaking in acetone just in case there is some sort of coating stoping the blackening from adhering and then I will give them another dip in the pickering solution and try again.

Log #41: Odds and Ends
@jpalmer1970 I have noticed a number of nice looking tools that various people on the forums have used for rigging (fly tying vices, quad hands etc…). I have been tempted, but at this point I am managing to make do with what I have, likely just at a slower pace than I could achieve if I had a more comprehensive setup. I have considered that it shouldn’t be too hard to make something like the quad hands with some alligator clips and shrink tube I have on hand. I may investigate that.
 
@Theodosius thanks and also thanks to everyone else for all the encouragement. I am really motivated to get these guns done as I am looking forward to seeing what she looks like when I have all the fittings in place.
 
I continue to pick away at the guns and have completed a second.

Now that I have my process down I have switched to mass producing each stage. So first up I am cutting all of the breaching ropes to size.

You may have also noticed that the 2nd cannon is not attached in the first picture. That is because I ran out of blackened eye bolts and I don’t want to attach the ring bolts the breaching ropes are tied to until the eye bolts are installed. So this necessitates another batch of blackening and while I am at it I am also going to blacken a bunch of other items that need to be done in the near future.
 
For the metal posts that the railing rope (not sure what this is called) is attached to I decided to file them a bit to try and make them look less flat. This involved filing the sides to make them less thick and then also rounding the corners. You can see how much of a difference  even just this little bit of cleaning up does to them below.

The ¼” rim circle was cut from 1/64” plywood while the 5/32” plug circle was cut from 1/32” plywood. The plug circle edges were filed to slope inward to form a short, truncated cone. The hinge was cut from 0.005” brass sheet into 1/16” wide strips. First, the rim and plugs components were wood glued together on center. Then the brass strip was CA glued to the backside almost across the full diameter of the rim piece to provide the maximum gluing surface. After the CA glue dried solid, the plugs were painted black. Slits were formed in the rail just above the hawsers with an X-acto knife for the flat brass hinge to slip into. To install the plugs, the brass strip was bent 90° so that the plug would be in the open position when inserted into the hull. The open position is needed to allow anchor ropes and chains to pass through the hawser later in the build.

Bottom Plates
 
Up next, I needed to blend the outer edges of the new bottom plating with the kit hull… I didn’t like having that .010 lip all around the bottom of the hull.
 
Out came the Miliput again…

After taping around a narrow band that encompassed the outer edge and enough area for a smooth transition into the kit, I mixed up a small batch of the Miliput and spread a thin coat the length of the edge – port and starboard.  I was careful to keep it wet and kept smoothing it down and scraping with a scrap of styrene until it was reasonably thin and just covering the styrene edge.  I then removed the tape and let it all dry overnight.
 
Came back the next day and sanded the Miliput down using various grit sandpaper – coarse, medium, fine until it was blended into the kit surface and smooth to the touch.  A lot more effort than I thought it’d be before I started!  Another part of the kit that will be refined after a layer of primer.
 
In the meantime, I cut a length of .250 wide styrene to match the general length between butt joins on the upper hull to use as a marking template.

I then marked off the individual plates in pencil across the hull bottom mid-section.  Adjustments were made at the bow and stern to accommodate the more complex shapes.

Next, I snipped many dozens of .250 width strips of .010 x.030 styrene to approximate the kit butt joins.  I used some scrap styrene as a template:

These were cemented to the hull in the marked positions…

It took about four days’ worth of my modeling time, but the plates are complete (except for a few on the outer edges that will wait until final tuning).
 
Here is a view of my bottom plate butt joins along with the kit side versions:

Not too far off.  Some sample views:



Butt Straps and bottom keel up next.
 
Cheers,
Evan