davyboy

Hello everyone,
the deck is finished and has all the iron nails in place, now it's time for the bulwark planks.
 

 

 

 
 

Lower/Upper Apron
 
The pre-cut curved rabbet is a nice feature which avoid the headache of bending and adjusting a straight strip and gluing it to the stem. I had to tweak the curvature at the stem to get a tight fit between the lower and upper apron.  I found it tricky to  optimize the seam on both sides at once. A lot of back and forth was required here.  The final result is shown below. 
 
The Rising Wood
 
Before gluing the rising wood sections, I realized that the strip supplied for the rabbet was a touch thicker than the curved section.  I fixed this easily using my Varitas mini-plane. The rising wood then went on with no particular issues. Care should be taken to insure that the position of the rising wood is not shifted with respect to the plan. For this I used a plan that I had printed at my local printer. 
 
The Deadwood
 
I followed the instructions with no particular issues here. Gluing the angled wedges is easier than at the bow.  The completed assembly is shown below. 
 
 

It’s just a pre- announcement of a ‘copy’ being pieced together now by some Chinese hack. 😳
 
I just read it as well (as a guest, I was kicked out long ago). Interesting how some members are complimentary while the staff and admins work hard to disparage Chuck at every turn. This comment by a member “ I emailed Chuck with updates and progress pictures and found him to be very personable, interested and encouraging. A much more personal investment of his time and interest than one might otherwise expect from the head of a commercial venture.“ must have really hurt.
 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Now it was the turn of one of the more complicated parts, which I didn't really want to do - the fashion piece.

Post One Hundred and Seventy-four
18’ cutter – fitting out.

4571
A shot of the gratings and footwalings which are laser cut. A much better option than the brass etch version.👍
These take a little fettling to get them to sit fully down involving bevelling the underside of the parts, and shaving down the frames as required.
 
The kit sternsheets are combined with the aftermost thwart.
This is an arrangement I don’t like primarily because the grain of the thwart tends to run the wrong way and the set-up  makes it more difficult to  fit the vagaries of  individual hull constructions.

4577
I find it easier to cut away the thwart and make a replacement from spare fret. I have also filled in the open stern area to create an additional bench seat.

4570
At the bow I thought the area looked a little unfinished with  the remnants of the mdf construction block on view.
 
The kit plan (sheet eight) does show a small fore deck in this position but I can’t locate such a part with the 18’ cutter fittings.

4582
This benefits from facing up using spare fret, and the addition of a breasthook above it.
 
One other puzzlement with the 18’ cutter is the height the thwarts and sternsheets relative to the wash strakes.

4579
They are positioned as per the kit and instructions, but have very little freeboard. It is not a case of fitting them too high as the scale figures show a correct height between thwarts and footwaling.

4580
There is only 2mm between thwart top and wash strake top. This equates to 5” at scale.
Working up from the 1:48 scale drawings of an 18’ cutter in The Frigate Diana AotS book the difference should be around 11”
 

The new Vanguard resin cutter, what a beauty that looks, shows a much greater depth between the seating and wash strakes which looks more appropriate.

4583
Even so, visually the wooden version is a pretty little thing, and for most casual viewers this disparity won’t even register.

4588
I am fairly happy with the ‘clinker’ look but it does need a good clean-up.
 
 
B.E.
08/05/2024
 
 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Out of curiosity I visited the pirates forum and read the article about Chuck's Speedwell. I had a really good laugh at the comment by one of their admin wallahs. "Luckily we have same quality kits from Chinese manufacturers at one third of the price". Quality ???? What planet is that guy on ? Keep up the good work Chuck,I enjoy following your build. Sorry I wont be building your Speedwell as I've started rigging my 1/48th POB version after 5 years of work .  
 
Dave 

Do you just want it done so you can move on?  Is there a deadline?  Cutting corners may get you somewhere faster, but it tends to magnify errors, not just in looks, but in frequency.
I glued all 500ish piece of scale-length decking (cut from 4 foot lengths) on my 5 foot long hull when I easily could have scribed some plywood.  There were a couple of places I had to pull a piece off and put in another, reusing the removed piece somewhere else.  That would have been a bigger pain using full 4 foot lengths.  When it was done, none of the left-over scrap was longer than an inch, so doing it this way was a more efficient use of materials.
 
I recommend all planking/plating be done in scale pieces on anything 1:64 scale and up, because you get more from it that way.  The decision,of course, is only yours to make.

Good morning everyone ☺️  
 
 

I have coated the boat with oil and made a slipway. Once assembled, it turned out to look like this. Macro photography revealed some disadvantages, but in the future I will eliminate them.

Yeah, but he'd be a lot faster making the next 50. 😉

Those look terrific, Chuck.
 
I'm sorry to read that Troll City over at SOS is still alive and bitching.... I suppose that trolls have to live somewhere.

Yes, another forum but seriously most already know what they are like...thats why I wanted to post publicly for everyone not to take the bait.   Its just not worth it.    Just stay clear of the whole bunch.
 
Chuck

Excuse the newbie ignorance but I assume that is another forum?
Again as a newbie to the hobby I can't imagine (other than insecurity and jealousy( what folk can say negatively about your work. Having looked at a lot of kits before moving on from my first (admittedly online) the only kits I really wanted to try were yours and Vanguards. On all of the build logs here it comes across so strongly how high the quality of both your kits are to give any stage of modeller the very best chance of making something stunning. Yes they are expensive but you get what you pay for in most areas and this is definitely one.
Good luck to you!
 

I am just about to post an update with those...LOL
 
The gratings for Speedwell are different but the same basic concept.  They are a different scale to reflect the larger size needed.  They will have 1/16" square openings which at 3/8" scale would be a 2" hole.  Just right and exactly the same number of holes as the contemporary model.
 
These will all be included in the chapter along with the jig needed.
 
I will have construction pics really soon.
 
I have been distracted lately with the topic on the SOS where the staff and admin are trashing this project relentlessly....but its a lot fun to watch.   Many of you guys have sent me messages alerting me about it.
 
I have to thank Ben however for being a brave soul to have something nice to say about it knowing he will get the wrath for it.   I must be the worst kit designer in the world if you read some of that stuff over there.  But seriously...dont put yourself out there because if you do say anything positive about Syren or any of my projects on SOS they will lambaste you.  So no worries.   Dont put yourself in that position.  Its not worth it.   Most folks know its all nonsense.  And I am well aware.  But thanks for the positive notes of private support.
 
Anyway...back to building gratings.

That would be so nice but it probably would put the builder at risk of being abused.
 
Anyway....those gratings
 
You will basically get all of the laser cut parts in this chapter.  There are only four hatches with gratings.  They are not very large.   Here are all of the elements needed.  You will get two layers for the jig.   The two layers are glued together to form the jig.
 
You also get a right angle jig which is 3/64" thick.  The thickness is very important.
 
Lets get started.
 

Start with the coamings.   They are laser cut and 1/8" thick.
 
The fore and aft sides are already shaped with the round-up of the deck....or camber as usually described but is an inaccurate term.
 
Use the right angle jig to glue two sides together...dont worry about the laser char just yet.   Then glue the remaining two sides together using the same jig to make a nice right angle.
 

Glue the two right angles together to form the coaming.  Sand the sides clean which are left a bit longer as you can see in order to remove the char and leave a nice bright smooth surface.   Also sand the top sides to clean the char.  You can see the cleaned coaming below.
 
Then you can start working on the grating.  Again just like my other smaller scale grating kits.
 
Insert the laser cut grating strips in the slotted jig.  NO GLUE of course!!!   This is just for alignment.
 
Then start adding the cross battens.  These are glued in position.  They may be too tight as you want a press fit.  So just run the small strips 1/16" x 1/16" through your fingers with some fine sandpaper.  Not much.  Just enough so the battens fit into the slots. see below.  There are seven batten strips and seven laser cut grating strips for three of the hatches.  The fourth is made the same way but is much smaller on the fcastle.
 

When all the strips are glued in position,  remove the grating from the jig.  Snip off the edges as shown below.  Then sand all four edges clean.  Try and not distort the perfect square shape.  In the photo two sides have the ends snipped off.   The smaller hatchway will have fewer battens and more to snip away.  Also sand the top surface clean and smooth.  Once again try and maintain the proper shape with the round-up.  You will know when its all done when the char is cleaned from the laser cut grating strip squares.

The photo below shows the top of the grating and sides all clean and nice and smooth.  It makes a nice grating.  The holes are 1/16" or 2" on the real ship and perfectly in scale.

You should but dont have to sand the bottom side as well.   Here is a look.  The battens are clearly less thick than the grating strips and these are pretty close to actual construction methods.  Or at least the impression of it.
 

And almost done...you will see how nice and tight the grating fits in the coaming.   Dont over sand the edges and you should test the grating in the coaming as you sand the edges.   In fact, the coaming normally has ledges on the port and starboard sides inside the coaming.  These create a ledge that the grating sits on so it doesnt fall through.  You can add those if you like.  But in my case the gratings fit so snug that they were not required.  I simply glued the gratings into the coamings making sure the top of the coaming was flush with the grating.  I sanded it smooth with some 400 grit paper.

The four corners of the coaming are very sharp at this point.  You dont want that.  They should be rounded off.  But they are only rounded off down to the deck level.   That is when you take that same right angle jig and use it.
 
The jig is the same thickness as the planking.   So you can place the coaming into the corner and use a sharp #11 blade to slice away the corner.  Slice it down to the top of the jig only.   You can make a stop cut at the jig level before slicing off the corner.  Then just round off the corner.
 
 
Dont slice off too much.   Just a little bit to round off each corner.
 
To finish it off I drilled three holes with a #76 bit.  I used 20lb black fishing line to simulate the bolts on the top of the coamings.  Three on each side.   They cut flush with the top of the coamings with a sharp blade.
 
All done!!!
 
 
 

Good move Chris,

The one in the centre is apparently Nelson's sword found in his cabin after Trafalgar.
The ones right and left are the surrendered French and Spanish swords.
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.
 

A tin of biscuits.  
 
 All kidding aside, ship's boats carried lanterns though I've never see a model where a lantern was part of the ship's boat contents.  

Jumping from task to task again but I can't fix no 18 - 20 till I know where the deck will be. So I have created beams a cross 14 to 18 so far so I can line up the camber of the main deck. These are clamped up because I have laminated coffee stirrers to create these beams and they are only dry fitted and clamped into place. You can't have too many clamps. 
There will be supports fore and aft. If I was Chuck, there would be half lap joints on every junction but I am going to cheat, there will be tabs glued to the underside of the junction so I can glue the fore/aft pieces without awkward clamping tasks. 
 

Had some time today and started checking the profiles with a length of 1mm x 5mm beech. Mostly just a case of removing excess or putting on strips where cut to fine.

Starboard mostly done but port side still to do. Bulkhead 18, 19 and 20 might be a bit of a challenge.