_SalD_

Thanks Thomas. I'm making good progress now but I have the longboat looming and all those dreaded rat lines!

Elijah, John, Augie, Joe, Don, thanks very much for the kind words and thanks for all the ‘likes’. John, I want to thank you for your confidence in my abilities but I’m still far from having the skills of Dan V., Chuck, Dirk, Thomas, Bob, Augie and many more too numerous to name. I do try my best and with the help of all those on this forum I think someday I might be in their league. As of now I see their ships as showroom new, mine, more like certified pre-owned, its been around the block a few times with a few dents from a 12 pounder. I’ll be sure to bring it to the next meeting. Augie, first I hope you’re feeling better and yes getting crowded. I’m glad you like the compass.

Great job Jesse, that just amazes me.

Jesse, George and Bob thanks so much for the kind words.

First I would like to thank everyone for all the 'likes' and for the kind words of encouragement, they're much appreciated. Continuing with the aft deck fixtures I made the water pumps from some brass and copper tubing I had. The pieces were soldered together and given a coat of paint. It’s amazing what a couple of coats of black paint will cover up. The parts were then assembled as described in the instructions. The aft cannons were set in place and rigged pretty much the same as the carronades, just not as many. The tiller was made as shown in the instructions and as I was thinking about how to attach the split rings to it I remembered that I had won a serving tool in a raffle at the Northeast Ship Model Conference last April. So I tried my hand at serving some rope to lash the rings to the end of the tiller. It took a few attempts but I finally got the hang of it. Finally I rigged the ships steering mechanism. My final configuration is a conglomeration (say that five times fast) of a number of layouts I studied on this forum. I thought that the position (angle) of the line from the tiller to the bulwark would work more efficiently if it was more in line with the arc the tiller would travel in instead of being perpendicular to it. To accomplish this instead of moving the eye bolts on the bulwarks farther aft which would have crowded the aft cannons, I made the tiller a little longer. I also added two blocks at the base of the ship’s wheel to keep the line lower to the deck. To give myself a little more room to install these blocks I decided to reposition the wheel to the outside of the support legs. I’m not sure if this is historically correct but it made rigging the line easier and I thought it would give my helmsmen a little more room to steer. I also had to remove the binnacle that was already installed because the spacing between the wheel, binnacle and companionway didn’t look right. Before reinstalling the binnacle I decided to add a compass in it.

ditto the above comments Thomas, carronades came out real nice.

Hi Jesse just catching up. Your plating came out great, nice job. I decided not to do anything with my plates and just let them age over time. For the edges and corners you might want to try a wallpaper seam roller. I used one and it keeps the plates down nicely. Try it on a scrap piece and see if it might help, don't press too hard. Oh, and happy BD.

Beautiful work, Bob

Hello Elijah, Thanks for looking at my logs and for the kind words. The bell is a britannia metal casting and it comes with the kit. You should enjoy building the Phantom it's a great kit, take your time and enjoy it. And if you run into any problems along the way there's a wealth of knowledge on this forum with a terrific group of people who will help you out.

Thanks Thomas, Christmas! That might be a very aggressive schedule but on the up side that would mean I could ask Santa or should I say Mrs. Santa for a new ship.

Assembling the 12 pounders. This task was straight forward using all the parts provided in the kit. The laser cut gun carriages were assembled and painted as were the cannons. The handle for the quoin is a small belaying pin I had left over from my Phantom and used some of the leftover copper tape for the iron brackets, cut to shape and blackened, to secure the cannon to the carriage. A few rivets were added for effect. The ship’s wheel that came with the kit (top wheel in the first photo) was in very bad shape so I got in touch with Model Expo and they sent me a replacement. I also order, from ME, a wooden wheel with the intention of using it instead of the metal one but it turn out to be much too thick to use. The replacement metal wheel casing that ME sent was in better shape than the original but had a lot of flash to remove. The wheel was filed and all the wooden pieces cleaned of the char and stained. I haven't permanently attached the cannons or ship’s wheel to the deck yet because I want to wait until I make the tiller and work out how I want to show the rigging for the steering.

Thanks Jesse, I'm sure with your skill you should have no trouble at all.

Small update and I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and for hitting the ‘likes’ button. I put together the binnacle which was pretty straight forward as most of the parts are provided on the laser cut sheet. I beveled the top's edges and door and drawer fronts before gluing them on and decided not to install the trim piece between the top doors and lower drawers, it just didn’t look right. I added handles made from 7mm rivets and drilled the three vent holes on each side. The bell support was the hardest part of this section trying to get the wire legs all the same. I’m still not sure if I like the way it came out and it may be on the list for a do over.

Nice progress Ed, looking good. I held my false keel on with some blue painters tape and some of my best files are my wife's emery boards.

Thanks Thomas, it's starting to take shape.

Thanks George and Dirk. It's tough making that basswood look good, it's very fuzzy. Maybe next time I'll splurge for some better wood.

For the companionway ladder I drew up my own riser template to make sure the spacing between each rung was equal. After transferring the rung location to the side rails I made grooves for the treads by using a flat file that has teeth on its edges only. The treads were then glued in place. The finished ladder came out slightly racked but since it’s going to be installed below deck and you can't really see it I decided not to do it over. I’ll need to do better for the above deck ladders. The capstan was quite the challenge. I stated by making templates to place over the small wooden disks to mark their center points. I then drilled a small hole in the center so I could mount the disks and cog onto a dremel mandrel. This was done so I could lightly sand the edges to remove the char and to keep the pieces round. Next I installed the 8 whelps on the center wooden dowel, prior to gluing them on I drilled a hole down its center. The instructions called for a 5/32” diameter dowel but the drawing showed it to be closer to ¼” diameter. I thought the larger dowel looked better so that’s what I used. To help me line up the whelps I make a couple templates, one was glued to the bottom of the dowel to line up the bottom of the whelp and the other was used to align the top. The larger template was not glued to the dowel and the smaller one was sanded off after the whelps were installed. I don’t know if this is over kill but to glue all the pieces together I used the screw from the mandrel to fasten all the parts together while adding glue between the pieces. This kept everything in alignment. I think the hardest part of this piece was to make all the tiny chocks that fit between the whelps. After about a dozen failed attempts I finally figures out how to make them. The last piece to be glued on was the small cap on top of the capstan and then I added some 7mm rivets for effect. For the companionway I started by gluing 5 strips of 1/32” x 1/8” basswood together. I made it long enough so I could to cut the two sides and back of the companionway out of it. The back piece had to be trimmed about 1/32" on each side to fit in my companionway opening. I could have made this piece even longer because I also did the same thing for the top of the companionway. I decided that I would run the planking 90 degrees to what was shown on the drawing. This worked out because I was able the cut the lid out of this piece also. The door hinges were made from the photo-etch spur and the lid hinges were the ones provided. Once I had all the pieces it was just a matter of assembling them all. One word of caution is to make sure you measure the height of the capstan cog openings and to make sure you don’t make the companionway higher than that. I had to reduce the height of mine compared to what was show on the drawing. One addition that I made was to add a trim piece along the top of the coaming. This covered up a small gap I had between the coaming and companionway sides and back. I also added a couple pawls near the capstan.

Cap rail looks real nice Jesse.

Thanks Richard, that's what I like about this website a lot of great ideas that you can learn from.

Thanks George, glad you like the corners.

Thanks Dirk, you are definitely an inspiration for me. And thanks for letting me know about the grating, please don't hesitate to tell me if I have anything else not correct.

Finishing up the hatchways I glued them to the deck along with the shot racks. The cover boards for the capstan platform were then added between the aft hatch and companionway opening and finally the edge boards around the inside of the companionway were glued in place. After all the hatches were installed I thought I would add a little 'Dirk bling'. I liked the iron angle pieces he added to the corners of the hatch where the anchor ropes enter the hull so I thought I’d give it a try. Using the spur from the photo-etched parts I made a couple ‘L’ shaped pieces. Next I drilled holes for .5 mm rivets I got from Scale Hardware, blackened all the parts and then very carefully attached them to the coaming. Not too bad but I have to try a little harder to keep the ca glue off the parts

Great looking rope coils Brian, all the rigging looks terrific

Thanks Joe, see you Saturday Thank you Thomas much appreciated

Thanks Brian, I guess I'll need to read the logs more carefully. And thanks for all the likes