Dilbert55

Here is some dumb thinking. I was talking with a gentleman this morning and he explained to me what is : Stabilized wood.
 
In the Knife making business when they want a perfectly  stable wood, they use acrylic resin as a wood stabilizer. The penetration  is made by vacuum.   Could it work if I could put the model ship under vacuum?
 
Dry parts are almost done and all parts can easily be assemble or disassemble at this stage.

Prepearing the Stem job. The stem figurehead its a Lion bearing the french coat of arms (monarchy). A beautifull Bow design and am anxious to see how far I cam manage an acceptable result.
 
Ps a member of the crew came yesterday on board.

More pic

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! 

Congratulations on a job very, very well done and expertly presented. 

Hi guys... am keep working even in slow motion... 

Hello Everyone,
 
FINISHED!!!
 
The boats have been completed and are now mounted on their beams. I think that they worked out quite well and I'm glad that I made the two. The rope coils have also been placed around the deck and give it a finished look.
 
As far as I can see RW. is now finished, I'll leave it in my workroom for a couple of weeks casting my eye over it to see if I spot anything that I need to do, I'll clean it up then when I get some decent light I'll do a photo session. I'll also put my mind to writing up my conclusion.
 
It's been quite a journey and thanks for coming along for the ride.
 
Ken

Hi,
 
Just a short update as to how the boats are coming along.
 
Ken

Hello Everyone,
 
Again thanks for your likes.
 
Welcome aboard King David, your probably the last crew member to come aboard before we're ready to sail.
 
I think it's natural that when you can see the finishing line you put a spurt on, well that's what's happening here in my workroom.
 
A bit more progress on the boats, the photos show how I'm doing, I've also made up and fitted their supports on the deck beams. I'm in the process of collecting all the cord off cuts and I'm starting to make up the rope coils.
 
Ken

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! 

Hi Again,
 
I just have to show you my first flag, I'm actually excited by it and must share the moment.
 
I ran out of styrene strip and need to order some more so the boat build came to a stop. In the meantime I opened the packet of flags, I can only say wow! I was instantly impressed. They were wrapped around some very nice sailcloth which I didn't know was there, I'm pleased that they were rolled and not folded, it's difficult to get creases out. The flags are something else, bright, vibrantly printed on both sides not the usual one side, there are five of the best quality flags that I have seen, I just had to put one on.
 
I used a 2mm block at the staff head, glued the flag to some thin cord, using contact glue and a small fold over the cord. To get it to hang naturally I used my wife's spray on starch, I soaked it well until it was quite limp, put some clips on the lower corner to keep it weighed down, arranged the folds then let it dry. The end result is I think a natural looking hang rather than it sticking out looking rigid. Only another four to do.
 
Ken

Hello Everyone,
 
I've started the ships boats, a Pinnace and a Launch, I saw these resin hulls on Ebay and that's what gave me the idea of having two boats on the RW instead of the one supplied. I'm using styrene strip to make up the ribs and gunwales and wood strip for the rest. I'm going to put some decoration along their sides to match the ships decorative hull. For this I've twisted two strands of brass wire together then hammered them flat, it took a bit of experimenting but I've now got the result about right. I'll put up pictures of my boat building process so it should be self explanatory.
 
Ken
 

Hello Everyone,
 
Today's progress is the making up the lanterns and fitting them to the stern.
 
As you can see they come as several cast  pieces needing making up. The opportunity is there for the frames to be cut out and the windows glazed. As I'd already done the windows I didn't think that this was going to be an issue but I was wrong. When I tried I found that the outer frames without the support of the cast windows had no strength and when handled they just broke up. I ended up painting them and just putting my liquid glass into the recesses straight onto the metal surface. This works ok for me, the silver metal backing gives it a bit of a sparkle through the glass and it looks quite ok, better than I'd hoped. I used pieces of strong piano wire for the mounts as these lanterns are very heavy and I wouldn't have been confident using brass wire.
 
Now I'll get cracking on with the ships boats.
 
Ken

Hello All,  
 
Just a quick update today.
 
I made up and fitted the anchor buoys. I tapered some small pieces of dowel, put eyelets into each end then just wrapped cord around finishing off by running the ends of the cord down the sides. I know they look a bit rough but at actual size and mounted they look quite good and they were simple to make.
 
Ken

Hello Everyone,
 
Thanks for your likes and kind comments, much appreciated.
 
I've got a bit more light in my room today, enough for my compact to get some close ups, so as promised here are some better pictures of the rigging. You'll see that I've trimmed the ropes right back, I found that there were just too many to keep neat for the scale, I'll add the rope ends and coils separately, easier to keep track of them that way. I'm making up the anchor buoys at the moment so they'll go on next.
 
ken

So shipyard goes one...slowly because the presitential elections in Cyprus are coming to their pick (am the campaign manager of one of the main canditates) but still I visit Hermione even if I come home very late in the night. Mostly just to look at her... some times even to work on her even very shortly.

Hello Everyone,
 
I've managed to finish the rigging to my complete satisfaction.
 
As you were aware I was very apprehensive about this part of the build as I just couldn't figure it out at first from the plans. I said that I wasn't concerned about accuracy and was going to do a sort of generic rig based on the Victory, but like the rest of this build once I stopped worrying and got stuck in it revealed it's secrets. I started following the plan from the upper yards downwards, at first it wasn't overly difficult to get about right, being encouraged I continued with the RW plans and not my own ideas. It was like a crossword, the more words that you get done the more clues as to the next words you get, so as I worked downwards the sequence and reasoning of the lines became clearer and I understood the plans more. I think that I ended up with a reasonably accurate rig that looks good.
 
The boat lifts that I'd made earlier now looked too simple and not in keeping so I made them up again to look something like they would have been. I'll be making up two boats, a pinnace and a launch next rather than the one launch supplied in the kit, it's just a personal preference.
 
The anchors which I'd made earlier are now also in place.
 
The weather at the moment as quite bad and the light in my room is so poor that it's difficult to photograph detail, I'm having to use a tripod so I can't get the angles needed or get in close. I've managed these but I'll post a better selection when the conditions permit.
 
 
Ken
 

 
 

If someone looks at your Royal William and what they see is some minor technical discrepancy with the running rigging, then they are blind. 

Thank you but in fact it is not a dark background:
After supper, no sun, 1 led light and underexposed of -2 F openings
 
Needed to make a hole much deeper than the  standard drill bit lenght :
So extra long one has been used.
 
Almost everything is fixed  temporary.
Added 2 horizontal  U shape curved beams to hold the vertical beams.
 
The hole for the rudder was did on the milling and then sanded on the oscilating sander. The closer the diameter of the round hole, the better the results.
Similar results could not be achieved with a sanding drum a fraction of the hole diameter.

Another photo
 

Those look  Superb.
 
OC.

Hello Everyone,
 
The rigging is progressing nicely. Except for the braces I've completed all the upper yards and all the mizzen rigging. The mizzen took quite a bit of working out, the Victory wasn't any help here. It's my version, it looks ok as if it would work so I'm happy with it and can now move on. I'll sort the tie offs and rope coils later and hope that they'll give me a more realistic look.
 
I now feel like I'm on the home straight with my RW and can now start making hints as to what needs to be put in my very large Xmas stocking.
 
Ken

Captains cabin goes on... its a lot of work but very pleasant!

Hello Everyone,
 
Thanks again for your likes and for those very kind comments.
 
As you may know this is my first build log. I decided to do one as over a few years I have followed other logs, enjoyed them, learned a great deal and were motivated by them so I thought that I should give something back to MSW members. I was concerned at first thinking that my attempt would fall short and that I may have taken on a project that was beyond my skill level. At first it felt like I was doing homework that was going to be critically viewed but as the build progressed I found that I actually enjoyed doing it and it soon became as much a part of the project as the build itself. To make it a little more interesting I've tried to add a little bit of who I am in my posts. It's those very nice comments that members post that makes all the extra work seem worthwhile, so thanks again.
 
No Zappto I don't intend to make a case for it, it would be much too large for me to display. I have quite a large bay window at the front of my house and it will easily sit there for all the world to see. It is north facing so doesn't get direct sunlight and I have a compressor which I use for blowing dust off so I can get away without a display case.
 
Michael, Yes I have put sails on a model, my last but one build was ALs Bounty but that rig was simplified, I think that it was intended for intermediate builders like I was. They came out ok, I thought that I might put them on the RW but when I saw the rigging set up and realized the enormity of the undertaking I chickened out.
 
Autumn is now here in the UK, for a few weeks nature displays itself in full colour, to capture some of this I've been to one of our many local parks with my camera, here's a few of the scenes from around its lake.
 
This is Birkenhead Park, it was built in 1847 and was the first known publicly funded community park in the world. Olmstead and Calvert Vaux the designers of New York Central Park visited the park in 1850 to see how it had been done and their design was heavily influenced by seeing Birkenhead.
 
Ken
 
 

Hello Everyone,
 
I've made quite a bit of progress on the rigging. Once I'd stopped beating myself up about trying to get it something like historical accuracy I felt a whole lot more relaxed with it and started to enjoy the build again. I'll follow the supplied rigging plan as best I can but for the sections that I can't decipher I'll  note how the Victory was done in that area and adapt the RWs to something similar. There's plenty of info on the Victory so I should be able to come up with a reasonable looking, workable rig.
 
One thing I've found is that there is a awful lot of rigging!!!
 
Some pictures of my efforts so far.
 
Ken