MEDDO

OK I have a milestone completed.
The deck is all planked and now onto treenailing.
 

Those look really nice especially if you were able to whip em up over the weekend.  Properly scaled figures always add life to a static model and really help with visualizing the scale of the project

I started work on the hatch. The coamings are 7/32" thick bloodwood and jointed by half laps at the four corners. The coamings are also beveled inward by 10 degrees on all four sides. How to do the beveling easily and accurately? I decided on a jig!

Basically the jig is a slice of wood, angled at 10 degrees from the horizontal. When the face of a coaming is sanded such that it is square up against the Byrnes sanders disk, you know the angle is a perfect 10 degrees. The hatch frame is attached to the jig with two sided carpet tape.

Sanding the four sides took about 20 minutes.

 

Very nice work! It has been a pleasure watching this come together

I have started a build log here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29396-nrg-capstan-project-by-usedtosail-116/
 

Thanks, guys!
 
The complicated anatomy of the ends of the angled bulkheads actually makes fitting the outboard and transverse bulkheads easy.  They are cut a little long at a 90 degree angle.  I then "sneak up" on the final width with the Byrnes sander.
 
 
 

Very nice work! It has been a pleasure watching this come together

Wonderful to see this restoration completed. You guys have done a wonderful job of returning "Harry" to his original glory, but preserving the patina of age. It's beautiful.
 
Any chance of more photos from other angles?
 
Steven

Very nice work! It has been a pleasure watching this come together

Darrell, Bill and I have finished Harry.  After over 500 est hrs of work and a year I have taken to calling Henry Grace a Dieu, "Harry." ....it's shorter and we are certainly familiar.  He has been cleaned, his broken or missing parts are present, his sails are all rigged and he's ready for another hundred years.
 
Thanks to all for your support and suggestions.  Special thanks to the Powerhouse Museum of Sydney, Australia for the great photos of their copy of Harry.   It was a valuable assist. Below, find the before/after shots
 

To put a webpage link into your post you:
 
1  type what you want for example
 
Check out our club Shipwrights of Ohio
 
2  highlight the words you want to link
 

 
3  goto the tool bar at the top of the post and select the icon that looks like 2 links of a chain
 

 
4  after you highlight the word and then hit the link (chain icon) you get a pop up
 

 
5  now copy/paste your webpage url into the space
 

 
6  then hit the button insert into post
 
 
7 now your post (and/or signature block) should have those words underlined and you will see the weblink if you hover over it.
 
 
 
Check out our club Shipwrights of Ohio
 
 
 

Gun Port Hull Bolts
Before upper hull is painted, there are numerous accruements that I want to install first, such as scuppers, port windows, bolt heads, etc. They will all be painted black. If it can be avoided, don’t want to glue to painted surfaces.
First up are the bolts that protrude from the hull around the gun ports. These are the bases of the ring bolts for the cannon rigging. These are NOT shown on the kit’s plans but can be seen on the actual ship. Based on the photos, I made a pattern to follow. The actual dimension vary slightly from gun port to gun port. 
Edit: I’ve added additional bolts (shown in red) to indicate that these bolts are only on the spar deck level. Why, I don’t know.
 

 

Here you go.....

I’ve reached the end of my thirteen month journey, this is my 59th and final log post on my build of HM Cheerful. Thank you to the 52 of you who’ve followed my build and the many others who have stopped by with a like. A special thank you to all who’ve taken the time to leave a comment, many of you more than once. It is inspiring to read your replies, often they were my motivation for the next post.
 
When I thought about building HM Cheerful, I started by reading the first couple of chapters of the monograph downloaded from the Syren Ship Model Company website located here. I say first couple it’s because I stopped reading, realizing there were so many things, techniques, processes, skills, and knowledge I didn’t possess. There were many big steps, starting with single planking a hull I would not paint, I had no idea how I’d accomplish (I’m still not sure why a square tuck is actually a triangle). I dove in anyway, figuring it out as I went, trusting I’d come up or find the solution. I knew one thing, I wasn’t going to quit. I sincerely thank @Chuck for his unwavering support and guidance, aside from a great design and mini-kits, he is always available to answer my questions. I also want to thank those who came before. Aside from frequently reviewing Chuck’s build log in addition to the superbly written monograph I also found @Blue Ensign and @Rustyj to be reliable resources, I thank them as well for the help I obtained from their Cheerful build logs many years after they’d completed them. Finally my thanks to @DelF. While he isn’t building Cheerful (yet) he and I frequently exchange PMs, me the greater benefactor of his master level skills and techniques I was able to apply to my own build. Both our work shops are the richer for “hey I want one of those, where’d you get it…'
 
Aside from building my first semi-scratch model I wanted to create a log that not only tracked my progress but was detailed enough to be of assistance to future builders, paying it forward for all I’ve learned from others. I wanted to de-mystify aspects of this build, step by over-written, over-photographed step. I realize maybe it wasn’t always the best solution and often was one I modified or learned from others. They were methods that worked for me. I took as much satisfaction in writing the log and filling it with photos as I did the actual building. As a result I’m sure I’m in the running for the ‘excessive use of the written word’ award.
 
Many of you have commented I have been of some help, I’m very glad to know that. My related objective was to provide enough of a resource that others looking at Cheerful as a build option and first thought “no way,” might instead take it on. I hope I’ve done enough to encourage others to say “well that guy did it…”
 
So with that, here are the final photos of my finished HM Cheerful:
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
I hope to read and follow your Cheerful logs, it is a well designed model and a fun build.  At the request of my neck and shoulder muscles I’m going to take a break from building, but I’ll be back. Thank you for hanging out with me!
 

I really enjoy following along with this you’re doing such a great job here

I'm back at it!  I just finished planking the inboard bulwark ceiling planks, then cut the gun ports and the sweep ports.  There are very subtle treenails in place.  I used birch toothpicks and they blended in well with the bloodwood planking.

Finished painting the ports and also finished the forward most ports which I had left with the plywood exposed. Might not have been the best but it is what I did so I sanded between coats of paint and added gesso before the next coat. You can still see the plywood layers but not as visible with the surface being smooth.
 

 
Now on to planking the wales and up to the cap rail. I had bought the wood from Syren to mill my own so I spent the afternoon making planking. The wales call for 5/32" (.156) by 3/64" (.047) and when I measured the 5/32" wood it was slightly oversized. Decided to use the Byrnes thickness sander to get the sheet down to .156 I know that the couple mils would creep up and may cause problems up to the sills and the 1/64th strip so anal or not I did it. Then I ripped 18 strips a little oversized so I could again use the thickness sander bringing them to .047. Tomorrow I'll start planking slow and steady here.
Last year an old modeler in the Phoenix area sold me his lathe and when we were talking he said that he had box of wood I could have. I never turn down free wood. To my amazement the box was a wooden crate filled with Pear, Cherry, Walnut, Lime, Ebony and many pieces I still don't know. So I decided plank the wales second layer with Ebony. After ripping and sanding the shop was a mess of sawdust so I took a piece of ebony to the bandsaw and ripped a strip off. We will see how it goes as I've never worked with ebony.
 
Ebony plank 2"x3-3/4"x 33

 
Ebony strip ready to be finished
 

 
I used a covid mask when cutting the ebony any ideas of how to sand and finish for the wales
 
 

Made progress today really happy how its coming out. I faired the transom and ports installed the square tuck. Added the fillers behind the square tuck and faired them into the flow of the sides.
 
When cutting the port sills and lintels I clipped a batten to the frames after measuring and making sure they met the plans. This made it easier to cut and trim the pieces as the frames were held in place so the sills and lintels slid in without friction. I did take a picture of a little tool I made to align the lintels to sills. It was a simple 3/8" square piece at the exact length to rest on the sills for lintel alignment.
 

 
Ports before fairing
 

 
 
Ports after fairing with square tuck placed and faired to the sides.

 
Next the afternoon was spent marking the wale lines per the monograph. I ripped a 1/32" x 1/8" batten out of a 4" by 24" basswood sheet that allowed me to line the length of the frames. Pinning the batten showed only one minor alignment on both port and starboard sides at the same frame. 
 

 
It was great how the battens crossed after touching the counter and transom line as monograph described.
That done I moved on to painting the ports using the crimson paint. I spent a lot of time and effort making the joints in the ports and am very happy how they came out after the first coat of paint.

 
Waiting for paint to dry second coat tomorrow and when satisfied with painting start the planking.
 
 
 

I like your choice of red, Cheerful is go RED or go home and you’ve gone RED! Nice work on some tricky steps. They don’t look like much but I know how hard they are to get right. Every step done right now pays dividends later. Your fairing looks really good. 

It’s always darkest before dawn:

Cotton and natural rope actually sags more than poly.  It is so finicky when it comes to moisture.  What you describe as sagging one hour and super tight the next absolutely happens with natural and especially cotton ropes.   In fact....if you rig with cotton rope on an especially humid day and make your lines tight......when it dries out the next day the lines will shrink.  I have seen belaying pins pull away from the bulwarks when this happens because cotton shrinks when wet and then it dries.
 
Poly on the other hand is more slippery but has much more stretch.  So if the lines are taught the stretchiness tends to prevent any sagging at all.  Its a trade off.  I like the natural stuff but it tends to be fuzzy.   I also like the poly ropes because it is so crisp and clean.   
 
Now that the unravelling issue is solved,  it is just a matter of personal preference.  
 
I never belay my lines permanently when first rigged.  I let them sit and adjust for a while.  Then I tension them later and permanently belay them.  That helps with either material.  With poly line there is no dye needed.  Only certain brands are really shiny.  So many colors to choose from.  Cotton is more problematic that way although good color choices are out there.   It just tends to be kind of fuzzy.
 
Chuck

Machine à curer les ports (A Harbour Dredge)
English edition
Written and prepared by Gérard Delacroix
Published and available from Ancre for €59,00 (with 1:36 plans)
 

It’s ok having harbours, but over time, if not maintained, they’ll silt up and become unusable. Yes, they need to be dredged! It’s not the most glamourous task nor are the vessels which perform this vital function, generally thought of as subjects for the modeller’s bench. That’s why it’s great to see a title (monograph) which does look at a dredger in great detail and also furnishes us with a set of 1:36 plans so that the keen and able modeller can have a go at recreating one of these workhorses in miniature. 

Ancre’s title is nicely presented in a format slightly larger than A4, and as a simple folder with high grade satin, heavyweight paper. Sewn spine
 
In Ancre’s words:
“Ever since man created harbours, he was faced with the problem of their maintenance. To this end, he created a rather primitive machine, that in the end was fairly practical and already modern, since it has existed for three centuries without really evolving. The harbour dredge was only removed from ship basins with the arrival of steam and chain dredges.
 
All along its lengthy existence, it maintained the kingdom's harbours so that the “Great Navy” could be maintained and resupplied in the best of conditions.”
 
Details of this monograph:
The work consists as a 72-page booklet which contains the description and the operation of the dredger as well as commentaries on the ten plates of drawings and on the 55 photos of a finished model. The plates are at the 1:36 scale and show every piece of the framework.
 
24 x 31 cm format, booklet and plans contained in an envelope with flaps, adorned with an illustration from one of the plates of Belidor's work.
 
Booklet:
Harbour dredges, history Auxiliary boats Description of a dredge Operation of the machine Commentaries on the ten plates of the monograph Ironwork – Paintwork Timber scantlings Photos of a 1/36 scale model by B. Rimlinger  
List of the 1/36-scale plates
Schematic plan of the hull Drawings of the frames Construction of the hull Deck layout and lengthwise section Detail of the upperworks Outside view of the hull and fittings Cross-sections Detail of fittings Overhead view Overall elevation PLATES (Sample)




 
Whilst 1:24 plans are also now available, the supplied 1:36 will help you build a model of these dimensions:
 
Length: 57cm Width: 23cm Height: 21cm  
This pack, like any monograph, is intended to help the builder recreate an authentic replica of the subject at hand, with every detail shown on the ten plates (plans), including profiles, formers/bulkheads, dredge mechanism etc. All drawings are presented as fine-line and with a wonderful clarity. They are, of course, designed so you can take your dimensions directly from them. The dredger itself is a flat-bottomed vessel and doesn’t conform to the regular concept of building a ship. That it itself will make this a relatively easy project, and one that will prove to be a nice diversion from what will usually sit on your workbench.



 
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so they say, and the 72-page book shows many photos of this subject completed as a model. A number of full-colour plates in this book show the dredger from many angles which should provide inspiration enough for you to dip your toe into the murky harbour waters.




 
The book itself excels in content with history thrown into the mix, as well as the technological challenges on a type of vessel which had served, until relatively recently, for a number of centuries. The book is also illustrated with more photos and drawings in black and white.
 
Conclusion
Whether a collector or a builder, this is a really nice title to have in your collection, and doubtless will be quite different to other monographs you may have. M. Delacriox  has certainly taken a topic I would never have thought was of any interest and actually created an informative and readable tome, plus the drawings to build what is surely going to be one of the most unusual models in your collection. 
 
My sincere thanks to Ancre for the book reviewed here at Model Ship World. To buy directly, click the link at the top of this article.

 

 

It took nearly a year to complete, and the work was completed after the entire body was painted and the base was made. Unfortunately, I didn't get a third book on ropes, so I couldn't finish the EDT. Here, I thank all my dear friends who have supported and encouraged me from beginning to end! This forum has given me a great comfort, but also gave me a huge space to show. We all want to make it better for the same reason. I will take some time off later to continue with the next piece! Also hoped that each friend can point out my insufficiency, lets my work be more perfect. Thank you!
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

I decided to design and make the stove before I put any more beams in position.  I just wanted to have it ready when its time to glue it in permanently.  Usually when I design new mini-kits like this I have to make five or six of them.  I got lucky and this time everything went together perfectly on the first go around.  Unfortunately I didnt take any construction photos so I am going to have to make another one anyway.
 
Maybe it will come out even better the second time around.
 
Here are some photos.   Except for a 1mm brass rod and a bit of 24 gauge black wire, this stove kit is made entirely of boxwood, yellow cedar and laser board.  The pulley is laser board for example.  The close ups are pretty brutal but on the ship it looks really nice.  It was hard to photograph a black stove so you guys can see all the details.
 

 

Just another very small update, but a big one for me...
 
I have now left my day job to concentrate fully on Vanguard Models. It got to the point where something had to give, and Vanguard Models won out.
 
So, hopefully, I have made the right decision, and in the meantime and from this day forward, all of my time energy will be focused on new developments.
 
I still feel very apprehensive, as this is a new sensation for me, but felt I had to do this.
 
Also need to say a big thank you to Jim Hatch, who has helped with prototype models, photography and manual text immensely, meaning the kits have been finished a lot quicker than I could have hoped. When a development is complete, I make sure they are brought into the market as quickly as possible, and Jim has been a very big part of this, so credit where it is due.
 
So, because I do not have to worry about getting ready for a 12 hour shift, I think I will get all Sphinx CAD plans complete by the end of next week, which I will then send to Jim for the rigging (he already has all plans except rigging).
 
I am also most grateful to all of those who have bought my products, and making the decision to move full time developing new products easier.
 
ETA - My wife's leg/knee is healing well, and she can now get around without any aids!