David Lester

Your wheels look amazing Tom,
David

Looking really beautiful Ken,
David

Your wheels look amazing Tom,
David

Looking really beautiful Ken,
David

Chuck, thanks for your insights; I guess I may have gotten lucky since I stained and let the rope dry in place before cutting I may have relaxed the rope enough to not unravel. I am waiting for my rope order so I will follow these tips when I start making rope.
 
In the meantime I have moved back to the gundeck and added the cannon ball racks to the ladder ways which I will leave the grates in place for this build. There will be plenty of racks to build so I thought this may help others with their builds. I used .020" brass wire and formed two identical perimeter shapes.
Next I used a small punch and flattened the end on a steel block; this provides a flat surface to carry the solder on a round wire for a strong joint. I drew patterns on a small piece of plywood using a square and taped all the parts in place on the pattern. Once soldered, the racks were cleaned with acetone to remove any residual flux the ends were trimmed and cleaned.
 
Here is a sequence of photos.
 







 
Now back to gun deck items.
 

Do you ever have one of those days when your shoulders just camp up from too much time at the table?
 
Moving onto the masts, I was going to use brass and redo the entirety of both Masts from scratch. The kit ones are just not that bad, they just have no detail.
 
I trimmed off the yardarms, and started with them at bare poles. At this scale, this is where the sore shoulders began. As you can see the photo of the photo etch, the platforms for the searchlights are planked, but Huff says they were metal plate, so I just glued some on top and filed it down.
 
Using some spare yardarms from my Varyag build, I added proper yardarms and signal rods, plus the other etched platforms required. Rigging this stuff will be a nightmare. I still have to add the 4 lights which are aftermarket as the kit ones are blobs of plastic. I also have to add the searchlight control boxes which sit below them which I'll fabricate from resin. 

Happy Wednesday Everyone,
I'm still working away, although in for the past while it's been lots of work, but little evidence of progress. I'm using the LLS practicum and Chapters 10, 11 and 12 all concern the many details on the outside of the hull, on the deck and on the bulwarks. I'm grappling a bit with the sequence. I don't care for the sequence outlined in the practicum, but it goes against the grain for me to deviate. I tend to be "compliance oriented" and if it says to do it a certain way, then that's the way it should be. I need to be more like Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, who interprets the Pirate's Code as "more what you call guidelines than actual rules."
 
The practicum has us add much detail to the outer hull first, then all the detail to the centre of the deck and finally detail to the bulwarks. I'm worried about knocking gunport lids and davits and what have you off as I work on the interior stuff and I can't see cluttering up the centre of the deck before I have to drill holes in the bulwarks for the eyebolts, cleats etc. So I'm going to "live on the edge" and do the bulwark stuff first, then the more central deck details followed by the outer hull details and then finally to top rail. 
 
I'm currently working on completing all the many components - gun carriages, gunport lids, horse block, ramps, binnacles etc. etc. A few of them are included in the picture.
David

Hi Greg,
I've just discovered your build log. Your detail work is amazing! It's a very beautiful model.
By the way, where do your Lesters hail from? My dad and I were both born in Canada, but my grandfather emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland as a teenager just before WW1.
 
David

Hi Greg,
I've just discovered your build log. Your detail work is amazing! It's a very beautiful model.
By the way, where do your Lesters hail from? My dad and I were both born in Canada, but my grandfather emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland as a teenager just before WW1.
 
David

Happy Wednesday Everyone,
I'm still working away, although in for the past while it's been lots of work, but little evidence of progress. I'm using the LLS practicum and Chapters 10, 11 and 12 all concern the many details on the outside of the hull, on the deck and on the bulwarks. I'm grappling a bit with the sequence. I don't care for the sequence outlined in the practicum, but it goes against the grain for me to deviate. I tend to be "compliance oriented" and if it says to do it a certain way, then that's the way it should be. I need to be more like Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, who interprets the Pirate's Code as "more what you call guidelines than actual rules."
 
The practicum has us add much detail to the outer hull first, then all the detail to the centre of the deck and finally detail to the bulwarks. I'm worried about knocking gunport lids and davits and what have you off as I work on the interior stuff and I can't see cluttering up the centre of the deck before I have to drill holes in the bulwarks for the eyebolts, cleats etc. So I'm going to "live on the edge" and do the bulwark stuff first, then the more central deck details followed by the outer hull details and then finally to top rail. 
 
I'm currently working on completing all the many components - gun carriages, gunport lids, horse block, ramps, binnacles etc. etc. A few of them are included in the picture.
David

Happy Wednesday Everyone,
I'm still working away, although in for the past while it's been lots of work, but little evidence of progress. I'm using the LLS practicum and Chapters 10, 11 and 12 all concern the many details on the outside of the hull, on the deck and on the bulwarks. I'm grappling a bit with the sequence. I don't care for the sequence outlined in the practicum, but it goes against the grain for me to deviate. I tend to be "compliance oriented" and if it says to do it a certain way, then that's the way it should be. I need to be more like Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, who interprets the Pirate's Code as "more what you call guidelines than actual rules."
 
The practicum has us add much detail to the outer hull first, then all the detail to the centre of the deck and finally detail to the bulwarks. I'm worried about knocking gunport lids and davits and what have you off as I work on the interior stuff and I can't see cluttering up the centre of the deck before I have to drill holes in the bulwarks for the eyebolts, cleats etc. So I'm going to "live on the edge" and do the bulwark stuff first, then the more central deck details followed by the outer hull details and then finally to top rail. 
 
I'm currently working on completing all the many components - gun carriages, gunport lids, horse block, ramps, binnacles etc. etc. A few of them are included in the picture.
David

Happy Wednesday Everyone,
I'm still working away, although in for the past while it's been lots of work, but little evidence of progress. I'm using the LLS practicum and Chapters 10, 11 and 12 all concern the many details on the outside of the hull, on the deck and on the bulwarks. I'm grappling a bit with the sequence. I don't care for the sequence outlined in the practicum, but it goes against the grain for me to deviate. I tend to be "compliance oriented" and if it says to do it a certain way, then that's the way it should be. I need to be more like Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, who interprets the Pirate's Code as "more what you call guidelines than actual rules."
 
The practicum has us add much detail to the outer hull first, then all the detail to the centre of the deck and finally detail to the bulwarks. I'm worried about knocking gunport lids and davits and what have you off as I work on the interior stuff and I can't see cluttering up the centre of the deck before I have to drill holes in the bulwarks for the eyebolts, cleats etc. So I'm going to "live on the edge" and do the bulwark stuff first, then the more central deck details followed by the outer hull details and then finally to top rail. 
 
I'm currently working on completing all the many components - gun carriages, gunport lids, horse block, ramps, binnacles etc. etc. A few of them are included in the picture.
David

Happy Wednesday Everyone,
I'm still working away, although in for the past while it's been lots of work, but little evidence of progress. I'm using the LLS practicum and Chapters 10, 11 and 12 all concern the many details on the outside of the hull, on the deck and on the bulwarks. I'm grappling a bit with the sequence. I don't care for the sequence outlined in the practicum, but it goes against the grain for me to deviate. I tend to be "compliance oriented" and if it says to do it a certain way, then that's the way it should be. I need to be more like Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean, who interprets the Pirate's Code as "more what you call guidelines than actual rules."
 
The practicum has us add much detail to the outer hull first, then all the detail to the centre of the deck and finally detail to the bulwarks. I'm worried about knocking gunport lids and davits and what have you off as I work on the interior stuff and I can't see cluttering up the centre of the deck before I have to drill holes in the bulwarks for the eyebolts, cleats etc. So I'm going to "live on the edge" and do the bulwark stuff first, then the more central deck details followed by the outer hull details and then finally to top rail. 
 
I'm currently working on completing all the many components - gun carriages, gunport lids, horse block, ramps, binnacles etc. etc. A few of them are included in the picture.
David

Hi Dave,
Your filler blocks look great. It's hard to imagine that you wouldn't need them given the blunt shape of the bow. I'll be interested to hear how difficult the bow planking is to do.
David

Thanks Denis for the heads up. I shall follow your advice.
 
Doc, thank you for looking in. I have been so wrapped up with this that I've barely checked in on what the rest of you are doing - shame on me. I need to see what you're up to and by the way, your post card is probably in tomorrows mail because I haven't seen it yet .  .  .  .  .
 
During the past couple of days I finished planking and permanently attached the slightly elevated deck aft of the gun deck.
 

 
Between other tasks, I cut and attached the fascias at either end of this deck. Wood of the manual described width was not to be found so I milled what was necessary. The width of the forward facia had to be determined by temporarily prepositioning an upper deck support that straddles the ends of the piece. Since the picture was taken both facias have been trimmed down to deck height and varnished.
 

 
The manual instructs temporarily placing some fore deck components in place and using their positions to draw planking guide lines on the deck. Instead, after positioning the pieces I used them as a guide to permanently glue cross ship pieces of deck planking - that way I was assured of the fit. There is too much interpretation of pencil line position/thickness to work well for me.
 
In this picture you can see the deck  plank glued to the forward side of the bulkhead.
 

 
And here is the deck plank I glued on the aft side of the bulkhead. Doing it this way worked best for me and I was able to obtain a very flush fit by forcing the planks against the bulkhead and clamping them there while the glue dried.
 

 
Later, when the glue set I began to plank the fore deck. My Byrnes sander is a miracle machine for fine tuning the length of the planks that are set between the cross ship pieces.
 

 
I really like this kit and look forward to working on it each day. Some days, like today, are slow in visible progress because I need to wait for glue to dry. I do not use the down time to prepare future tasks but rather take the time to do other things - such as reading ahead - over and over.
 
I further decided I don't like my former technique of using steel wool as a final finish for the decks. Today I added a couple of coats of matte to all the reachable decks and am very pleased with their overall appearance.
 
Respectfully submitted,
John Maguire
Total time 90 hours
 

Hi Dave,
Your filler blocks look great. It's hard to imagine that you wouldn't need them given the blunt shape of the bow. I'll be interested to hear how difficult the bow planking is to do.
David

Hi Dave,
Your filler blocks look great. It's hard to imagine that you wouldn't need them given the blunt shape of the bow. I'll be interested to hear how difficult the bow planking is to do.
David

Hi Dave,
Your filler blocks look great. It's hard to imagine that you wouldn't need them given the blunt shape of the bow. I'll be interested to hear how difficult the bow planking is to do.
David

Had a great fun Easter weekend with the grand kids decorating eggs and then the egg hunt in the backyard yesterday. I was able to finish gluing in position all the gun deck cannons.
Here they are in place.


 
I then needed to locate the in haul eyebolts for the cargo hatch area. The photos of the restored ship do not show these; so I had to sort them out by using a cannon in the reload position and factor in the tackle blocks. I then made a strip to fit between the truck wheels and drilled a guide hole. I drew a centerline on the strip to align with the eyebolt in the gun carriage for positioning and drilling.


 
I had to add the ladders in position to locate the last eyebolts adjacent to the wood support post that will lay in front of the ladders. I am sure these were positioned to avoid tripping and are shown in one of the photos of the ship. I also added the deck plates at the bottom of the ladders made of .005" brass sheet and added the bolt heads by using a center punch on the backside on a steel plate which provides a great looking head.

 
I positioned the pinnace in place and quickly saw that the support will need to be rebuilt using thinner stock and the brackets will need to align with the framework structure to allow removal of the grates.

 
Now back to gundeck work on cargo framework and grates.
 

More work completed over the weekend ... I finished the first layer of basswood planking on the transom and cut openings for the stern lights (i.e., windows). Then I painted the windows gold, glued some clear acetate film on the backs of the windows to simulate glass and installed them in the openings.
 

 

 
I have started planking the second layer with walnut (pics to come later), but have hit upon a choice in how I want to complete the transom. Many AVS builders here on MSW appear to shape the ends of the transom to the profile of the side filler blocks. Then they shape and glue the fashion pieces onto the edge of the transom planks and the side blocks. (This also happens to be the build methodology shown in the practicum that I am using.)
 
However, my read of the plans suggest that the transom is actually wider, on both ends, than the transom planks and side blocks and that the fashion pieces glue to the edges of the first and second planking layers on the transom rather than the side blocks. (See the note on the plans that says "Extend planking beyond side blocks to form wing." Also note that the drawings pretty clearly indicate that the transom planks are meant to go beyond the outside edges of the side filler blocks.)
 
I am tempted to try to do it as per the plans (even though affixing the fashion pieces to just the edges of the planks seems harder than using the filler blocks) because I assume that the kit's designer had some historical reason for the dimensions he recommends for the transom.
 

 

 
Any thoughts out there on which way to go?

Hi Everyone,
As tense moment this afternoon when I removed the masking tape from the copper plating, but I was relieved to see that it worked very well. My red line is reasonably crisp. There were a couple of places where there was very slight bleeding, but I was able to scrape most of the paint away without damaging the copper. If you look closely enough they are still slightly visible, but when all the many details are added to the hull, nobody's eye will be drawn to them.
 
I now just have to add the fenders to the starboard side, give them a final coat of poly and touch up the black in a couple of places and I will have Chapter 9 of the practicum behind me. Chapter 10 of the practicum deals with many of the outer hull details. In preparation I've been working ahead on some of the components - gunport lids, channels etc. There are sheaves set into the side of the hull and the practicum suggests simulating these with thin slices of dowel. It suggests a 1/32" slice of a 3'16" dowel for each one. I don't have a miniature table saw, so all of my efforts to slice them off with an xacto saw or knife only resulted in their crumbling into bits. My solution was to cut off a thin slice of styrene tubing that I had. (It's 7/32" but I think that's close enough to 3/16" for this purpose.) I then filled them with filler and polyed them. I think this will work, but I'll know better when I actually try to insert them. I included a picture of them below, but when I look at it I realize that I might as well have just photographed eight aspirin tablets - maybe I should just use eight aspirin tablets! 
 
That's all for now, and many thanks for comments and likes.
 
David

Hi Ken,
That's a great trick with the drill bit extension. With the very small size drills, I find I often just slowly rotate the pin vise by hand anyway, so no reason why this system wouldn't work beautifully.
 
As you may know I'm following the Bob Hunt practicum and he suggests making the stars out of styrene plastic. He recommends using a strip .010" x .188" Of course they could be cut from any width material, but the .010" thickness seems about right. He even includes star shaped graphics in the practicum which you can print out. You then glue them onto the styrene and just cut the stars out with a knife. If you have a graphics program or Microsoft Word on your computer it's very easy to make a star yourself. It's just a matter of experimenting until you have the right two sizes
David

Thanks Al and Nenad. Nenad - you were the one that inspired me to try make new wheels. Yours came out great.
 
Well, here is my weekly update for the build log. I figure I should at least let you know where I am. I have been doing a lot of work but nothing real to show for it yet. First of all I have made all of the flat rope coils I need to finish the spar deck guns, but haven't installed them yet. I have the Conny set aside under an old T-Shirt to keep the dust from making the wheels out of it for now.
 
For the wheels, I read up on ways others have made these , including Nenad, EdT, David A., and others. I have come up with (I think) a process that works for me given my limited abilities and lack of precise machine tools.  I started out with some basswood sheet, mostly to practice on. As I expected, the basswood doesn't work real well for this application. I glued up some square pieces of 1/16" basswood to make a 1/4" thick piece, with each layer turned 90 degrees to alternate the grain. I then glued this stack to the end of a longer piece of basswood and put it in the 4 jaw chuck i have on the Proxxon lathe. I was able to turn a rim of sorts with this set up, but the 4 jaw chuck is not very good at holding this kind of item very securely, so I was getting some wobble in the turning. I also tried to turn the inner hub at the same time with bad results. For one, I tried to drill the center hole using the drill chuck in the tail stock, but this holds the drill near the end and it was sticking out very far, so I was getting deflection which caused the center hole to be off. That would have been bad except that while turning it I managed to break it off because the basswood is so soft and my skills with a chisel are pretty bad. No pictures of these failures but I will leave it up to your imagination.
 
I was tempted to give up at that point but I had to tell myself that was just practice. I had bought a piece of 1/4" boxwood a few years ago and I thought to give it a try. I was not going to use the 4 jaw chuck again so I had to come up with another way to hold the wood. In my box of lathe stuff I found a spindle with a small plate and some holes. I think it came with the lathe. I was able to hold the wood on this spindle with a couple of brass screws and it seemed very secure. I used brass screws because they were the only screws small enough that I had and I knew they would be very close to the tools so if I hit one it wouldn't do too much damage. So here is the set up in the lathe after I turned the two rims:
 

 
I again tried to use the drill chuck on the tailstock, but I still had the same result, as you can see. I also had to remove a lot of material around the outside of the outer rim so that I could drill the holes for the spokes before removing the rims from the rest of the board. I first marked the spoke locations as best I could by copying the plans and cutting out the outer rim with the locations of the spokes. I copied those locations to the area surrounding the outer rim. This was not as precise as I would like it to be. I then put the whole thing into the vise on the drill press and lined up the drill bit as best I could with the center of the hub and drilled the holes:
 

 
This also was not as precise as I wanted it to be as some of the holes were not centered on the rim and I was still having problems with drill bit deflection. But, I was able to cut the rim off the backing without any problems, so I was happy about that.
 
So at this point I was confident I could do the cutting but needed a better method for drilling the holes for the spokes. I took one of the basswood rims I had made earlier and glued it to a piece of plywood. On the plywood I had glued the plans for the wheel, but only from the rim into the center, so the edges were loose. I took a piece of dowel for the center hub and carefully found the center and drilled the center hold by hand. I glued this piece to the plans too. The next day I used a pin vise and drilled the holes for the spokes by hand. I was able to line the drill bit up to the whole spoke image on the plans so I was able to drill these all nice and straight into the hub. As I drilled each hole I put a piece of wire in to substitute for a spoke:
 

 
When all the holes were drill, I gently pried the rim and hub away from the plywood using a flat X-Acto chisel under the paper. I couldn't soak it in alcohol first because the rim was a sandwich of thin layers and might have come apart. With the solid boxwood rims, I will be able to soak them first. In any case, the rim and hub came away clean, and I just had to sand the paper off the back:
 

 
So then the question was what to use for spokes. I didn't like the wire because I would have to make separate handles anyway and I want the wheels to be all wood, which I way I am not using the supplied metal wheels if I can help it. I tried something that I have seen on this site before for making treenails, which was to take a piece of 1/32" square stock and chuck it in a Dremel tool, then with the Dremel running, push the wood through smaller and smaller holes in a draw plate. This turned nice round tiny dowels and the ends that were in the Dremel chuck can be shaped into the spoke handles. At this point I have made exactly one of these, which you can see in a picture further down, but I am pretty confident this will work for the spokes. I will still use the wire as I drill the holes, but then I will replace each wire with a spoke one at a time after I spearate it from the backing so the whole thing will stay together.
 
OK, so now I have the process somewhat down, so it is time to execute it. I turned a new outer rim and this time I tried to go deep enough to get both rims off the same turning.
 

 

 
Let's just say that didn't work. I did get two rims but I by the time I sanded off the saw marks they were too thin in spots to drill the spoke holes. So, I turned two new rims, this time not bothering to make the center hub at the same time. Since I was going to be cutting these off the backing right away, using dowels for the center hub was a better option. I managed to get two nice rims, thinner than the basswood rims but not as thin as the last two, so I have enough meat left to clean these up before drilling the holes. I also cut these off using the lathe by just lightly holding a razor saw to the pieces as they turned until I cut through them. The widths are much more consistent this way and less sanding to remove saw marks was needed. In this picture you can see one of these still on the spindle and compare it to the basswood rims (with the spokes and directly to the left) and the too thin boxwood rim to the bottom left. You can also see the spoke prototype to the bottom right.
 

 
Here are the two set ups glued up ready for drilling the spoke holes.
 

 
Well if you have read all this expecting to see finished wheels, I apologize. I was pretty long winded. I am hoping to have finished wheels by the end of next week, probably without the stand yet. I may have another problem though in that the space for these to fit between the mizzen mast coat and the hatch coaming is pretty tight, so I can't let these wheels get too thick if I want room for the drum between them. If I end up getting nice wheel but they are too thick, I may end up using them as decorations on the ends of the cradle. At least I will know how to make these for future builds.
 
 
 
 
 

Hi John,
I didn't know the Revenge was a container ship!
 
Your decking looks great.
 
David

Hi Everyone,
As tense moment this afternoon when I removed the masking tape from the copper plating, but I was relieved to see that it worked very well. My red line is reasonably crisp. There were a couple of places where there was very slight bleeding, but I was able to scrape most of the paint away without damaging the copper. If you look closely enough they are still slightly visible, but when all the many details are added to the hull, nobody's eye will be drawn to them.
 
I now just have to add the fenders to the starboard side, give them a final coat of poly and touch up the black in a couple of places and I will have Chapter 9 of the practicum behind me. Chapter 10 of the practicum deals with many of the outer hull details. In preparation I've been working ahead on some of the components - gunport lids, channels etc. There are sheaves set into the side of the hull and the practicum suggests simulating these with thin slices of dowel. It suggests a 1/32" slice of a 3'16" dowel for each one. I don't have a miniature table saw, so all of my efforts to slice them off with an xacto saw or knife only resulted in their crumbling into bits. My solution was to cut off a thin slice of styrene tubing that I had. (It's 7/32" but I think that's close enough to 3/16" for this purpose.) I then filled them with filler and polyed them. I think this will work, but I'll know better when I actually try to insert them. I included a picture of them below, but when I look at it I realize that I might as well have just photographed eight aspirin tablets - maybe I should just use eight aspirin tablets! 
 
That's all for now, and many thanks for comments and likes.
 
David