schnu

Greetings to all,
I decided to start a build log for my current  work on Corel's HMS Unicorn. I started this kit a long time ago,nearly completing the hull planking before taking a hiatus. After retiring and moving to a house with a small work area I started on the project again. This was also spurred on by finding this forum and reading the posts of others like Ian and Mike,who worked their way through the problems found with this kit,which was one of the reasons work ceased.
 

 
I have now finished the hull and gun deck planking.
 


 
The rudder.
 
.
 
 I am working on the transom and galleries.
 


 
 Next the gallery roofs and bottoms need to be finished.
 
I will post the progress of the build in more detail from this point forward.
 
John
 
 
 
 

I have now completed making the rest of the mast parts,some differ from the plans as I have cross referenced them with AOTS Diana`s drawings, and I am going with the books drawings, for instance the fore mast, the top mast has no eight square section. All the sections were profiled in my umimat lathe, and all square or eight square sections
filed ,some square sections were built up as required.
As showed in the last photos the masts have been dry assembled (so if they look slightly out of line that’s the reason why).The lower masts and tops will be stepped into the hull next after the tops have all the required blocks fitted to them, and the rest of the mast parts held over for now, as I will next make and add the burton pendants and the shrouds to the lower masts before working up the masts.
 







 
Masts Dry Fitted to Hull

Puttin’ on some ritz now ...
 
Animation:
 
http://youtu.be/csZ7lRy36Nw
 
First time with some UVW mapped textures on the vertex-animated coat.
 
Still missing is a rapier which will make it even more complex ... we will see.

HI All, Sorry about the lack of updates, Thank you all for a stopping by looking commenting and/or liking, Very much appreciated.;
 
I have planking the upper deck  ( not yet at a stage im happy with, needed sanding and  weathering
 
 I have planked up the starboard side above the gun ports im now happy with it, I put the inner patterns in with a strip of 1x4mm in to give my edge, the cannons  fit very nice like this, i still dont understand why the patterns are out...
 
Ill up date soon,

Lower masts
The three lower masts were made up next profiling as necessary and the fore and main having the sides filed for the cheeks to be added, they were then painted and the metal bands added I used black plastic insulation tape as seen in the photos, the cheeks and front fish, were added and also the hounds and bibs which are in one piece they then had the wooling added and the bands to the top square section, I have also started making the tops.







Tops

Thank you for the compliments David, Sjors & Brian, they are “as always” very appreciated !
 
I have also managed to finish the gallery on port side and it looks pretty much the same as the one on starboard ..
 

 
The next thing on the list: “framing” of the stern and the galleries..
As the stern has some “tricky arc’s”, I decided to use a template to shape the strips.
 

 
I had quite some issues bending the “lantern stern strip” without snapping the wood or shaping it into strange curves.
In the end I used 3 pieces of 0.6mm mahogany veneer (and 3 strips of 2x2mm for the top)  and glued these in the correct shape on a template.
 

 

 
I also had to cover gabs between the stern and bulwark..  
 

 

 
.. and I made an “L” shaped strip (app. 2x2mm) and used this one for “framing the stern” and the “transition” towards the galleries.   
 

 
Here’s the end result which I’m able to present just before leaving for my holidays ..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Hopefully I'm not boring everyone with all these stern and gallery pictures, It just that i'm quite happy having completed the stern & galleries. 
..and all that even without having to use any paint ..   

Hi everyone!!
 
After some days off I made a little progress with the shrouds and stays.   For that I use the pictures of the 1:10 model, Clayton´s page and some imagination or common sense.  Here some pictures:
 

 
Main mast
 

 
Foremast with some details (not all finished)
 

 
Saludos and thank for watching, Karl

Gracias Karl, I wasn't sure which paint you used, this will make it easier

I finished the forward part of the handrails; I just have to do some sanding and slight adjustments. Like said befor I had to use nails, as I saw no posibility of using clamps (should I remove the nails, blacken them or let them be?), the tips really helped thank you all.

The handrail on the bottom of the pictured was bent with steam iron (I have no iron bar, but I am thinking of getting one for my next build) and hot water, while the one on top only with boiling water. On the image there is no real difference, but I had to use less force with the iron. First I was a little unsure if it would dammage the woood, but it seems that was not the case. Now I am proceeding with some outer planks on the hull. Those were painted with acrilic colour (not sure if it was the right choice, but now it is too late to change that). I am asking myself if the acrilic colour will be damaged by the heat of the iron, has anyone tryed it? Otherwise I will just use hot water + the clapms which do little cuts in the wood (I forgot their name, sorry). Finally I have noticed that the ship has some issues with the scale. The doors are about 1.3 meters high, which seems very small, the mortar deck is about 1.2m below the main deck, yet there are no stairs/ladder which leads to it (that is not so high, but still if you have to climb down that with mortar amunition...). Is it possible that it was that way? I shall take more measurements to see if something other seems out of scale. 

It`s nice to see that you can finally continue your build. I hope you get better soon. Even tho the others already said it,the wood work/colours is fantastic 

. . other pictures coming . . cheers, Jack.
 
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Hola Schnu, I use a variation of the methods already mention:  put the strip to bend over a towel and then using a steam iron you can bend it slowly using your hand.
 

 
Saludos, Karl

Exams are finally over, now I have more time for the ship. I finished the sweep ports, they aren`t perfect, but I guess they will have to do, except if someone has an idea to improve them.

The ramin wood splintered on the first few  ports I made, so I had to rip off some planking and replace it. On this photo one can see that the precut holes were muvh too high, as the ones I made were measured from the plan.

I also started to cut out the stern. Now I am moving to the ships `handrails`. I have some difficulties on bending the wood, as the curve is quite pronounced on the front and the wood is quite thick… any suggestions?

The brown plank is the one to be bended, i thought of cutting it in two, but iI am not sure if thats the right thing to do.

Dear gentlemen, now, finally, I  announce that this build  log is completed... Thank you very much for your support and good comments, it really means a lot ...When I get some time I will correct the mistake on the rudder, and now, I'm going to post this last photo ... so this is Trajta :
Best regards, MarisStella.hr  ...

Exams are finally over, now I have more time for the ship. I finished the sweep ports, they aren`t perfect, but I guess they will have to do, except if someone has an idea to improve them.

The ramin wood splintered on the first few  ports I made, so I had to rip off some planking and replace it. On this photo one can see that the precut holes were muvh too high, as the ones I made were measured from the plan.

I also started to cut out the stern. Now I am moving to the ships `handrails`. I have some difficulties on bending the wood, as the curve is quite pronounced on the front and the wood is quite thick… any suggestions?

The brown plank is the one to be bended, i thought of cutting it in two, but iI am not sure if thats the right thing to do.

Hi there, I have gotten this Kit for my 16th birthday back in January. If someone would question me why I wished to have a model ship or how I came on the idea of model shipbuilding, I could not answer it. One morning I just woke up with it in my mind. It might have been a model that I have seen once, or some photos on the internet that gave me the Idea.
 
Anyway I chose this kit because it was in a good price range and it was the only one with 2 mortars in the front. Once it had been ordered I searched eagerly on the web for more pictures of the finished ship. (a little late maybe    ) Unfortunately there were only a few pictures and I only found two build logs (one in Russian and one in Portuguese). I might have taken another ship if I had known this before ordering it. I was wondering what other ship were available and this is how I stumbled on this site. Only after reading through build logs did I come on the Idea of modifying the kit. I never thought to improve it  , but now that I have a log I will try to do modifications .
This log may not be worthy of this site, but I hope to get excused because it is the only build log of this ship here.
 
 
 
Anyway here are some pics:
 
 

 
 
 
 
The first planking I did was terrible, because the instruction weren`t very clear, so I used lots of wood filler  
 

 
 
 
 
Now I just finished the second planking and started to cut out the gun holes (is that what they are called?) 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Thank you for the advices,I followed them by putting boiling water on the wood strips, it worked out okay and I was able to nail them in place, for the second one I will also try the iron bar, will hopefully post results soon (probably a day or two)

Schnu, for bending wood there are lots of tricks and tools. I bended my last ones soaking wood on water and heating an iron bar - That was totally improvised, since I did it all on my stove - but you can use those hair "curlers" or similar. For soaking the wood, use a recipient to fit all the strip you want to bend and let it there for 20 minutes or more. Over heat, soaked wood can bend easily.

I think you are doing really well on your build, to help bend your planks soak them in water first.

Exams are finally over, now I have more time for the ship. I finished the sweep ports, they aren`t perfect, but I guess they will have to do, except if someone has an idea to improve them.

The ramin wood splintered on the first few  ports I made, so I had to rip off some planking and replace it. On this photo one can see that the precut holes were muvh too high, as the ones I made were measured from the plan.

I also started to cut out the stern. Now I am moving to the ships `handrails`. I have some difficulties on bending the wood, as the curve is quite pronounced on the front and the wood is quite thick… any suggestions?

The brown plank is the one to be bended, i thought of cutting it in two, but iI am not sure if thats the right thing to do.

So I am back, I couldnt do much as I had visit and its the end of the schoolyear, where there are many exams =/. Anyway I had the ocasion of cleaning y workspace, so here is a photo of it. (Not really the most apropriate place, but it does just fine for me)

But now to the actuall build. In the last post I told about the problem of the kit. I was looking a little at some buildlogs and I was quite impressed by the decoration of the inside cabin, So I told myself that I would try it too. So I went on and placed the brass stern, note that normally there would be a wood piece behind the brass, but I just wanted to see if the windows are in the right posision. To my surprise the windows are way too high, first I thought I had done an error, so I looked at the plans, but everything seems right, I really can`t understand why occre would do such an error.

So I guess I will try too scratch build the stern. I noticed that The roof of the cabin is a little low (around 1.5m or 4.9 feet for those who prefer it). So I shall do some modifications.

Finally I got two books about model ship building and a little hand drill.

Exams are finally over, now I have more time for the ship. I finished the sweep ports, they aren`t perfect, but I guess they will have to do, except if someone has an idea to improve them.

The ramin wood splintered on the first few  ports I made, so I had to rip off some planking and replace it. On this photo one can see that the precut holes were muvh too high, as the ones I made were measured from the plan.

I also started to cut out the stern. Now I am moving to the ships `handrails`. I have some difficulties on bending the wood, as the curve is quite pronounced on the front and the wood is quite thick… any suggestions?

The brown plank is the one to be bended, i thought of cutting it in two, but iI am not sure if thats the right thing to do.

It`s a real beauty, but I do have one question, will you find the time to place the rudder at the correct posistion? Even tho one would not notice thats its in the wrong place until you tell them or they know the boat.

Exams are finally over, now I have more time for the ship. I finished the sweep ports, they aren`t perfect, but I guess they will have to do, except if someone has an idea to improve them.

The ramin wood splintered on the first few  ports I made, so I had to rip off some planking and replace it. On this photo one can see that the precut holes were muvh too high, as the ones I made were measured from the plan.

I also started to cut out the stern. Now I am moving to the ships `handrails`. I have some difficulties on bending the wood, as the curve is quite pronounced on the front and the wood is quite thick… any suggestions?

The brown plank is the one to be bended, i thought of cutting it in two, but iI am not sure if thats the right thing to do.

Good luck, don`t underestimate the low number of parts tho, it may still hold some surprises