davyboy

Hello, and thank you for all the likes,
and yes I'm guilty. I was't at the shipyard last week. We had here the finest spring weather, with sunshine and temperatures up to 24°C in the sun! 😊

But yesterday the weather changed, and I finished planking with the last two strakes. They are at least only 0,4 mm thick! So as next I will install the gun-wale.
I started with this project last November and planking mid January.



At the next picture you see the rocked keel. I reality the keel was in the middle 30 cm lower then at his outer ends.




 

Post 52
Little gem fittings (Part 1)
As a change of scene I have turned my attention to assembling the deck fittings, which are more time consuming than you may think, at least for me they are.
I start with the Winch.

0733
Tiny brass photo-etched parts that need blackening and which try to escape at every opportunity.
Pearwood  parts that require careful cleaning up before assembly and painting.

0734
The deck slots need checking for fit.

0742
The winch is conveniently assembled on the model following painting.
 
Capstan
Need to refer to the plan for assembly to ensure that the various sections are added in the right order.

0752
The Capstan is assembled on 6mm ø dowel which represents the spindle, and everything fits perfectly.

0753
The spindle extends down to the lower deck where the heel slots into a step. In reality the spindle tapered below deck but that’s a detail I haven’t followed on this build.
I  decided to bring out some of the detail on the drum head, by painting in the iron reinforcing ring.

0759
When adding the final topping piece to the Drumhead, the holes for the Capstan bar retaining pins should align with the bar mortises.

03576a

0374a
Having assembled it, I wasn’t too keen on the engraved Drumhead  patterns, so I reversed the cap to show the plain side.
 
B.E.
13/03/2025
 

Rigging is not the easy thing to do even on a small ship of sail..🤪

Thanks to all ☺️

Hi everyone,
 
Sorry for the long silence; other things going on!
 
To catch up. First, Der Boss, thank you for your kind comments. Slow and careful keeps me moving along!
 
Trevor, thanks for the reference to Roberts. I haven't seen that, but I do have the facsimile book and set of plates for Steel's Naval Architecture. I have used that to help with several questions of drafting, but could find nothing on the curved surface between the upper deck and quarter deck windows on the quarter galleries.
 
And Gary, good to hear from you! We old timers go back a long way on our 74s!
 
And druxey, thank you for your list of tools and materials you used. I did a little test fret-sawing boxwood, and if I find myself going down the route of fret sawing, I have determined that wood is too crude for the very thin cross grain pieces (see below). I can see plastic would be a much better material, no grain to deal with.

And once I saw that plastic might be the right material, I mocked up the curved surface in basswood to see just how sharp the compound curves would be. This would be to test whether glue would be enough to hold flat plastic against the curved surface.
 
And the surface turned out to be less curved than I thought. The front edge sweeps back at a good angle, but at any line drawn between the upper and lower moldings, the surface curve is gentle.
 
So for now, I will explore having these laser cut. I first need to reinstall everything with the final windows (coming from Chuck, thanks so much!), and then carve the final curved surface to measure and expand for a true elevation of the fretwork.
 
Mark
 

 
 
 
 

Stropping blocks….
 
As part of the Speedwell project I am putting together a small tutorial on how I strop blocks.  Nothing fancy like some folks do when rigging their models but these methods work for me.  No real splicing or crazy stuff.  I dont have patience for that or the skills.  
 
I will be doing a demo at my club meeting this Saturday but will put together a PDF for folks building and…yes…rigging the Speedwell.
 
These are my darker “Swiss Pear” colored 3d printed blocks and my Syren Rope of course.  Should be done during the week.  
 
Doing a little at a time while …you guessed it…while making more rope and blocks.  I use the same
technique on large blocks and very tiny ones…2mm even.  But I am using larger blocks for demo.  If there is some interst.
 
When rigging I mostly
just try to keep things neat and simple so the rigging and blocks hang nicely.  I avoid anything that makes the line too stiff at the seized strop of a block…Keep it simple.
 

 

 

Main studding sail booms:
 






 
 
 

more pictures:
 









 

Hi All
Quick up date to show planking of the main deck.
Although the plans don't provide for a waterway I've modeled a basic version of those shown in Peter Goodwins reference book on the construction and fitting of a Sailing Man of War.
 
Using a 2mm x 2mm length of cherry I ran this past a ball nose mill bit to provide the required profile.  This took several passes to achieve the correct profile as I needed 1mm at the top and bottom of the concave shape 
 
The table fixed to the milling machine is simply a piece of melamine board with a fence glued to run the stock against.  I also added a version of an adjustable "feather board" to help keep the stock tight against the fence as it passes the mill bit.  
 

 
The waterway was added to the false deck.  I've removed the temporary bulkhead extensions discussed in post#1 and added additional internal planking to thicken the bulwarks.  First was an additional 1mm of cherry that I had left over from the external planking and the final planking is 1mm of Tasmanian Myrtle and this will be left natural and not painted.  Total thickness of the bulwarks is now 4.5mm 
 
 

 
I've cheated slightly in that the waterway is only fitted to part of the deck where it will be visible, I've not ran it the full length of the ship. 
 
I've used poplar for the planking.  King plank and margin planks are 1mm x 6mm the rest of the planking is 1mm x 4mm.  To represent the caulking I use a medium hardness charcoal pencil.  A 4 butt shift pattern has been used
 

 
The waterway is flush with the deck planking having allowed the 1mm and I've just got to add the spirketting which will be 1mm to fit against the top of the waterway
 
 
 

 
Thanks for dropping by
 
Mark
 

I started making blocks. First large sizes, there are only a few of them, and then non-traditional shapes. "lift block", "sheet block" and "fiddle block"...
The base on the milling machine, then hand-made..🔥







I plan to produce small-sized pulleys "by machine" on a milling machine using shaped milling cutters..😴

I made the boats some time ago, and now seems a reasonable time to put them in place. There are few contemporary models, as far as I know, that show boats in position. An exception is the early 19th century frigate in the National Maritime Museum (SLR0346 ; I’ll not put the photo up for copyright reasons) which has three boats in the waist, and a further one hung from stern davits. I have limited myself to four boats, though May, in his The Boats of Men-of-War, in a slightly confusing table, suggests that there would have been seven. That many would be very hard to fit in, and puzzles me, though I don’t think it’s wrong. One answer might have been to follow the example of the eminent ship modeller MalcoIm Darch, and leave all but one of the boats lying around on the bottom of the stand, but that does not seem quite right (https://julianstockwin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/darchblog2-whole-ship.jpg?). It would look something like this:

So, the boats are now installed where they should be. I tried to fit all of them with rowlocks, but this was difficult, and looked odd, so it’s just the jolly boat that has them. It would have been possible to put oars, in the boats, though the sail and associated equipment for the longboat would have been far too hard to do. So, at least for now, the boats just have their thwarts. And I have not added clutter in the form of the spare yards that would have been alongside the boats.

Thank you guys,
the deck beams are ready for later installation so I started with the internal installations. The foremast step was the first to come.      

Post 51
The Rudder
This is a nicely made Pearwood item with outer veneers, also of Pear, marked with the appropriate engravings for those who don’t intend to copper the hull.
 
With the Copper plate set comes a rudder specific section of plates. These can be added as a unit rather than individual plates and are designed to fit the rudder profile. A separate strip fits to the aft rudder face.
For this kit Chris has supplied laser board versions of the straps and pintles, a far better option than pe for this purpose.
 
The pintles on the rudder are an integral part of the rudder formed in Pearwood. The Gudgeons are also part of the rudder structure represented by pegs that fit into slots on the Sternpost.
If the rudder is to be attached in ‘working’ mode attaching the Gudgeons to the sternpost would be necessary.
Altho’ I’ve  had working rudders on many of my builds, using Chuck’s Syren parts, I’m going with the kit arrangement on Harpy, with a few tweaks.

0712
A small modification I made to the rudder was to file a bearding line down the inner edges of the rudder which for practical purposes allow better movement and gives a more authentic look.
Strictly the copper plates should be folded inwards  on the inners side, and folded over by about a scale mm on the outboard side.

0711
The provided set is too short to fully do this, but sufficient to follow and cover the bearding.

0715
For the rudder head straps rather than fiddle around with thin pieces of Laser board card I used heat shrink tubing.
Hanging the Rudder.
The rudder fits perfectly into the designated slots, nice and close to the stern post.

0718
The fit is so good I didn’t find it necessary to glue it into place
The straps to the Gudgeons can now be fitted to the hull.

0721
Where fitted over the copper plates I have painted the straps a Copper/Bronze colour to represent the cuprous alloy from which they were cast.
The bolt heads, barely noticed, are represented by spots of thick paint mix applied with the point of a  wooden cocktail stick.
The kit set-up for rudder hanging no doubt makes what can be a tricky exercise a simple operation, but there is a cost in authenticity.

Photo from  Build manual.
It caught my eye that there is an obvious disconnect between the gudgeon straps on the sternpost which end short of the gudgeon and the pintles that fit into them.

0717
Adm plan detail.
The difference can be seen here, the Gudgeons  stand proud of the sternpost and the Pintle cut-outs in the rudder allow the pintle to engage with the hole in the Gudgeon.
 
Once you see it the eye is drawn to it.

0729
The look can be enhanced to an extent by turning the Gudgeon straps around the sternpost, and using a spot of paint just below the Pintle straps in-line with the Pintles.
 
Still a couple of things to  finish, the Spectacle plate in particular, which should fit just below the Hance.
 
 
B.E.
09/03/2025
 

I've never used bits of paper as templates. There is usually a standard distance between Ratlines of 12" to 15" ",I use 12". A piece of wood 1/4" wide (I build in 1:48th) clipped across the shrouds below where the first ratline is to be rigged. Rig the ratline then clip your piece of wood directly above it and rig the next and so on. The beauty of doing it this way is you can ensure good alignment of all your ratlines with out struggling to align them with lines on a sometimes wobbly piece of paper. It works very well for me,try it.
 
I'm sure I read this tip here on the forum years ago.
 
Dave 

I'm not sure if I understood the mainstream of this thread. Sails on a static model look unnatural? I beg you pardon?
In my humble opinion sails and flags are the few items that can bring life into a model. A picture says more than a thousand words:
 

Model ship building is too nice a hobby to be frustrated by rules, laws and frozen opinions. Make what you like. It's the pleasure in building what it is all about.

Post 50
Fitting out continues
Looking at the stern area.
Overall I found this section difficult to get how I wanted it, and several dry fits, re-fits and decontructions were involved.
Stern board
This a tricky part to attach as it is awkward to clamp whilst ensuring the part is properly aligned.

0668
Again, I had to get inventive to secure the board in place.

0670
Having most of it glued, I separately re-clamped the lower quarter corners which were the most difficult to conform to the stern.

0672

0680
Finally, the Capping rail to the Tafferal is glued into place. The Aft davits were used to ensure alignment.
 
Quarter pieces
These are represented by a two layer arrangement so that the finished look is of the Lower Quarter piece extending down to the Square tuck.

0675
I spent a fair bit of time fiddling with the set-up for these, and once fitted I thought they could use some beefing up on the aft side where they meet the lower counter and  the wale.

0691
An afternoon of tweaking to arrive at a look I was happy with.
 
The kit differs slightly from the Adm plans.

0696

0705
The kit has stern davits  with a crutch for the Boom placed centrally on the tafferal.

0706
The kit usefully includes laser cut patterns for the sheaves both top and bottom. They need to be carefully drilled thro’ (0.6mm drill) from both sides.
The Adm plan  does not show davits, instead the counter timbers are extended above the rails to provide port and starboard boom crutches.
It is more than likely that during her long career Harpy would have been fitted with stern davits, and for a model they do provide a feature of interest, particularly when fitted with one of the sweet little cutters supplied with the kit.
 
Waist rails

0682
Chris has designed a ‘string’ of rails that fit seamlessly between the ports. Finely cut with a  central groove to represent a moulding they are easy to attach using spots of cyano.
I had thought of making my own, scribing a profile, but I didn’t think I could get down to scale size, and the kit ones look fine to me, given the size and class of the vessel.
 
B.E.
08/03/2025

I've never used bits of paper as templates. There is usually a standard distance between Ratlines of 12" to 15" ",I use 12". A piece of wood 1/4" wide (I build in 1:48th) clipped across the shrouds below where the first ratline is to be rigged. Rig the ratline then clip your piece of wood directly above it and rig the next and so on. The beauty of doing it this way is you can ensure good alignment of all your ratlines with out struggling to align them with lines on a sometimes wobbly piece of paper. It works very well for me,try it.
 
I'm sure I read this tip here on the forum years ago.
 
Dave 

1765
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66456
 
Who´s earlier?
 
🙂
 
XXXDA

I offer you the 1720s.
British first rate 
Edit: or a little earlier this one
 
Edit: it can still be done a little earlier as this one shows

Glen, Rick, Keith, MCB, Ian, Eberhard, Pat - thank you all for your continuing support and thanks to everyone for all the likes and visits.
 
Eberhard, I don't get very stressed about paint it's drilling holes in the hull that traumatises me.
 
I have been making a bit of progress with the ships bow decoration.

I had previously made the oval feature.

I bought some .04" bearings to create the fringe. They were fixed in position with clear varnish.

I then applied 3 coats of gold paint.

I masked the carvings on the bow and painted them gold.

I also did a bit of repair work to the paint. In one position the masking tape had covered the very edge of the reinforcing plate. I applied a further piece of tape and painted the edge by hand with a very fine brush.


Then it was time to cut the hull from its building board. I used my pull saw to cut each frame in turn.

It took a while but eventually the hull was free and in its building cradle.

I now need to cut all the up-stands off.
 
 
 
 

We are moving along again.
 
 

I fixed the anchors and fish davit
 

I am tired of hitting wire with a hammer to make loops for ports. I bought myself this unit. Now the wire is flattened very quickly and very quietly.

I have not been able to spend much time in the shipyard today and will have very little or no time in the shipyard over the next couple of days as we are looking after our youngest granddaughter (1 year old). I am hoping I can glue the upper deck pattern in place when she has an afternoon nap (fingers crossed she will have a nap)
 
One more dry fit test was my first task today. This time the inner bulwark patterns were aligned using the gunport jigs. As can be seen below everything lined up perfectly.

Next I applied some sanding sealer to the various bulwark, rear cabins, stern counter and stern board patterns. Once the sealer had dried the various patterns were painted.

The stern board and counter patterns were then glued in place. The stern counter was positioned and clamped before the stern board. I am reasonable happy with how this looks.

I then decided to paint the outer frame work of the cabin sides patterns black.

In the final photo you get an idea of how the different colour parts interact, noting I still have much work to do with the stern cabin fittings.

Hello everyone. Its been a while since anyone has posted any Speedwell progress.   I have finished up Chapter 2 and everything seems to be progressing pretty good.  I had to do my fair share of de-construction of the frames a few times but it's all squared up pretty good now. 


I do have a question.  My plans show the top plank as 5/32 wide (above) and Chucks and Mikes (below) show it as 7/32.  Not sure which is correct. 
Its going to be a while before I have to worry about that but it will make a difference when it comes time to cut the tops of the frames.

Pretty much on hold now until Chapter 3 parts become available again.  I missed the day that they were available on the website & they were gone before I could get one.
Hope everyone is moving along out there...
Steve