BillLib

Hello Everyone.
 
I am going to start building the Royal William by Euromodel.
 
First I will introduce myself. My name is Ken, I am 70 years old, retired and I live in the north west of England. I started building model boats from kits about six years ago not as a serious builder with a passion for accuracy or perfection but as a pleasant way to pass my time and that is how I will approach this build.
 
This will be my fifth build and thanks to following some of the many excellent build logs posted on this site I have improved to a point where I feel that I really should try a challenging project, believe me this build will put me way beyond my comfort zone.
 
This will be my first build log, having benefited from other members hard work I somehow feel an obligation to contribute. I will need to get a grip of photographing my work and learn how to post, I don't use social media, I'm of the generation that didn't come to grips with it and already it feels like homework so bear with me.
 
My intention for this build is to first start with the mindset to see it through to completion, I have seen too many builds come to nought because builders get so engrossed with detail and expect perfection during the early stages that they make no progress and get disheartened. I will build it as much as possible just with what is supplied in the kit and I will leave the enhancing, fine detailing and perfect technique for others who are more competent. I hope to learn a lot along the way but initially you will probably see what many of us do, get a kit and muddle through as best as we can.
 
I shan't go into details about the kit as there are already excellent in depth logs already on this site that I couldn't improve on, I agree with most of what has already been said
but would add that this is a very different kit to any others that I've seen and I'm not disappointed with what I got.
 
For building I don't have the luxury of a well equipped  workshop but have the use of a corner of an office/study that I share with my wife. I have a six foot worktop, a Proxxon drill and sander and a selection of hand tools to use, again like many this is just what we have. Wish me luck.
 
I've just tried downloading some pics and found it quite easy, they are my work place and a couple of my last build, HMS Fly. The plan gives some idea of the size difference.
 

Pete,
I'd also like to thank you for the work you put into those interpretive build instructions.  Great job!  I continually refer to those and Marks posts for ideas for my own build.  I'm still quite a ways from rigging, needing to finish installing the guns and some more work on the hull.  I'm not really a fast model ship builder, nor a slow one.  More of a half fast ship builder....
 
Bill

Over the last few months, I have worked through a very challenging task of creating a set of files that cover the rigging of the Royal William. They include text, diagrams and photos arranged in a sequential order of rigging. They are freely available for anybody who wishes to make use of them and it is my fervent desire that they will add to the joy of creating this mighty ship. Having said that, there is still some work to be done on these files to fully complete them. Hopefully, the MSW members will 'jump in' and make this a real community effort through a range of ideas, suggestions and criticisms. I feel that this task is more than one person can handle so I will wait to see what happens. The files concerned range from RW.06 through to RW.10. The link to the Euromodel website is ....
 
https://www.euromodel-ship.com/eng/royal-william-i-i.php
 
Pete

ROYAL WILLIAM RIGGING
Over the last few months, I have worked through a very challenging task of creating a set of files that cover the rigging of the Royal William. They include text, diagrams and photos arranged in a sequential order of rigging. They are freely available for anybody who wishes to make use of them and it is my fervent desire that they will add to the joy of creating this mighty ship. Having said that, there is still some work to be done on these files to fully complete them. Hopefully, the MSW members will 'jump in' and make this a real community effort through a range of ideas, suggestions and criticisms. I feel that this task is more than one person can handle so I will wait to see what happens. The files concerned range from RW.06 through to RW.10. The link to the Euromodel website is ....
 
https://www.euromodel-ship.com/eng/royal-william-i-i.php
 
Pete

A small update - decided I might as well mount the stern lanterns,so I made some side braces from some .8mm brass rod & glued them all in place. Next ,I cut & shaped all the stunsail yards. The stunsail irons were made from some brass & copper tubing & they were fitted on the stunsail yard with .8mm brass rod. I made caps for the end of the yard out of thin copper strip. They were attached at a 45 degree angle from the center of the yard I only have the fore topsail yard completed,so 3 more to go. The irons around the yard was made from black card stock.
 
Mark
 
 

 

 

 

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

Another update - mizzen mast is now completed. As before,all components were cut & shaped according to the plans. The mizzen mast is angled back a few degrees,so the cheeks were cut at an angle so the top would sit level.
 
Mark
 

 

 

 

 

Another update - the main mast was built identical to the fore mast,except larger. Hard to get a good picture of it since the height is about 770mm above deck level.
 
Mark

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

Update - after a lot of cutting,shaping,filing,& sanding the foremast has been assembled & painted.
Mark
For some reason,all the pictures are in reverse order.
 

Hi Greg - I have taken a bit of a break due to catching a cold a couple of weeks ago & feeling lousy. I am much better now & should be up to speed soon. I have made a little progress on the bowsprit. The dowels were tapered & shaped according to the plans,then the top was cut from the supplied 1mm plywood & planked on both sides with a 1x3mm strip glued around the outside edge.The trestle trees & cross trees were then cut & shaped to fit & glued in place. The whole top assy. was then painted black. The chainplates were made by bending some .8mm brass wire around the deadeyes & soldered shut. The lower end was flattened in a vice & holes were drilled for nails. The design of the bowsprit is a little different than I have seen before - the top is offset to one side & the jibboom goes through the top rather than under it.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark

I currently still have the ‘Francis Pritt’ in the planning stage – currently working on the hull lines – but she should be ready to start making sawdust in a couple of weeks (says he hopefully).
 
In the meantime, here’s a bit of an introduction.
 
A (very) brief history of the evolution of T.I. luggers
The pearling industry at Thursday Island (known almost universally as T.I.) started as far back as 1870 using smallish lug rigged boats that had previously been used in the beche-de-mer fishery.  The later type of pretty ketch rigged boats were introduced into the T.I. fishery sometime after 1876, by James Clarke, a local entrepreneur, who is thought to have had the first of these type of boats designed and built in Sydney  on the lines of popular pleasure yacht design of the day with a beautiful ‘wine glass’ hull.  This type of efficient and seaworthy boat quickly became the standard type at T.I. and many were built by local shipwrights to a slightly simplified design with a plain wooden skeg instead of the shaped ‘wine glass’ type keel.  Although the popular ketch rigged boats were then almost universally used, the popular name of ‘lugger’ stuck and is still used today to describe boats of the pearl fishery.  By the way, the industry was mainly concerned with collecting the pearl shell, as the mother of pearl was used in all sorts of domestic applications before the invention of plastic.  Actual pearls were a bonus, when found.
 
Thursday Island
For those not too familiar with remote Australian geography, Thursday Island (T.I.) is a small island lying just to the north of the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsular – that’s the pointy bit of Australia on the top right hand corner that reaches to the north and almost touches New Guinea.
 
Francis Pritt
‘Francis Pritt’ was built in 1901 as the lugger ‘Santa Cruz’ by the famous T.I. builder Tsugitaro Furuta.  She was purchased by the Anglican diocese of Northern Australia in 1905 for use as a mission ship and renamed ‘Frances Pritt’ in honour of a former Archdeacon.  She was 50.58 feet in length with a breadth of 13.75 feet.  She was said to be an especially deep boat with a full load draft of 7.5 feet.  She was sold again to a local trader in 1910 and is thought to have been lost on a New Guinea river bar shortly thereafter.
 
Why Francis Pritt?
As some of you will know, I usually build models of ships with a personal or family connection, but the ‘Pritt’ is a little different.  A friend of ours used to live in the township of Ngukurr, in Arnhem Land, doing bible translation work.  Ngukurr had formerly been known as the Roper River Mission and was founded by the Anglican Church in 1908 after the Bishop of Northern Australia, Gilbert White, pleaded for a mission station in the area as a means of protecting the local Aboriginal people, who were being indiscriminately murdered by European settlers.  The ‘Pritt’ was the ship that scouted the area in 1907 and then took the first team of missionaries (both European and Aboriginal) to the Roper River in August 1908.  After the establishment of the mission, nearly all the surviving local Aboriginal people came to the Roper River and were protected there.
 
That storey, combined with the honest good looks of the T.I. luggers, seemed very good reason for me to depart from my usual approach and build the ‘Francis Pritt’ in memory of that first mission.
 
The Model
The model will be built plank on frame at a scale of 1:48, giving an overall hull length of 12 5/8 inches (320mm).  I’m building the ‘Pritt’ at this larger scale rather than my usual 1:96 as she will be on public display when completed (final location not yet finalised) and needs to be large enough for people to see properly.
There are no plans for the ‘Pritt’ – indeed plans for early luggers are few and far between as the Japanese builders on T.I*. built mainly by eye.  There is, however, a lines plan for one of  Furuta’s luggers from about the same time as the ‘Pritt’, and there is also a lines plan for a luggere built at the same time by one of Furata’s, Tsurumatsu Shiosaki.  Using these lines plans plus the broadside photograph of the ‘Pritt’ on the slip (below), I pretty confident of getting a hull pretty close to the original.  The rigging and deck fixtures and fittings will be taken from surviving photographs.
 
John
 

Francis Pritt under sail in 1907
 

Francis Pritt on an unknown slipway in 1908
 

Landing supplies from the Francis Pritt at Roper River, August 1908
 

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

Pete - thanks so much. I could not have gotten to this point without your guidance & encouragement.                                                                
Bill - from the pictures you posted yours should end up every bit as good as anyone else`s.
 
Mark

Beautiful Mark!
Hope mine turns out as well as yours. Now I can see what I would like to achieve. I've also purchased hinges from Rick and agree they are nice.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

Update - moving right along,I added some cat heads to the catheads . Then I added the staghorn cleats to the quarterdeck bulwarks. I am pretty sure the hull is now complete  except for the stern lanterns,which will be installed later .
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

That might have been me with the heat shrink idea in Kenneth Powell's build log of the Rattlesnake, post #40.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/3656-rattlesnake-by-kenneth-powell-model-shipways-american-privateer/page-2
 
I'm also following this build log as well since I'm also building the Royal William.  I'm not dedicated enough to do a build log, but I'm following all of these great builds in the forum.
 
He's mine so far.
 
Regards,
Bill

The lightest solvent you can use is saliva. Moisten a Q-tip (cotton bud) and roll it over the surface carefully - don't scrub! It is a long and painstaking process, but should shift the dirt. If it is really greasy, use a dilute soap mix on the cotton buds first, then 'rinse' with saliva and Q-tips. Needless to say, don't put the Q-tip back in your mouth! You will get through a lot of Q-tips and expect to spend serious time on cleaning the model. Good luck with it.

Und beenden.