davyboy

Progress continues to creep ahead. After a bit of adjustment to the shapes involved, I was able to fit the figurehead that was made some time ago by Janos Nemath, one of our modelmakers. I really should have left it off a little longer, but I was anxious to see the 'Duchess' with her brightly coloured figure, which was painted at sea by the captain's wife without his knowledge. The damage to the port bulwark has now also been repaired and is ready for re-painting.
 
John
 

Keith, almost all the fine detail on this model will not be covered with paint. Nickel plating or polished brass coated with varnish will be used.

Valeriy. They look smart. Presumably you aren't planning to paint them?

And now I tried them on the model hull.

Саша ,  Gary , Roel, Ricr  and that's all, thank you for your kind words and attention to my topic!   
 
  The photo shows a small number of nickel-plated parts.

Adding the bolt ropes to the edges of the sails. Glued to the edge of the sail with matt acrylic varnish. Much more fiddly than I'd expected. I had to do a short section, let it dry and then do another until I'd gone all around the outside. I discovered the assembly would then stick to the cutting board, so I needed to peel the section of sail and bolt-rope off each time I did this, otherwise it would stick fast and tear as I removed it. And I had to go back over it to repair the places where the rope hadn't adhered properly to the sail.

Now that's complete, I've started adding the mizzen sail to the yard with robands made of cotton sewing thread, using a needle to pierce holes in the sail and then tying a reef knot in each individual roband.


It turned out that I needed to glue the first thumb knot together and to the yard, then come back later and do the other half of the knot and glue it in place. Otherwise it would all come loose and untie itself. And by that time I'd forgotten which way I'd done the first part, so I think I ended up with a decent number of granny knots. Not to worry, though. At this scale you can't tell anyway.

I used a cunning mechanism (a clothes peg) to keep the top of the yard facing upwards so all the knots ran along the top.

Still in progress. Once they're all done I'll go back and trim the free ends back close to the knots.

And I'm just getting into designing the anchors. Though there are plenty of contemporary representations of anchors from the 14th century, I've been able to find only a single one from the 12th - in another mosaic in San Marco which appears to have been done about the same time. It shows three anchors at the bow - the arrow is pointing to the foremost one. I've worked out how big they would be and their proportions, but the shank looks terribly short to me.
   
What do the rest of you think? Should I lengthen the shank? And also add flukes - it is, after all, pretty difficult to portray these on a mosaic - and for the same reason perhaps taper the stock as well?
 
Steven
 
 
 
 

Adding Main and Mizzen Main Yards to Indy
I have now painted all the yards black and have started the installation process, noting I did install the fore mainyard a few weeks ago.
 
Here is a couple of photos showing the Indy with most of the yards fitted. The topsail and topgallant yards have not been secured to the masts so they are little bit lopsided.

Starting with the main mast yard I have added the rigging for the sling. The truss pendants have also been added but they have not been belayed. I have not added the jeers as yet which will be the next job.
 
In the next photo the main yard sling rigging can be seen.

The next photo shows the main yard nave line which has been added to the truss pendants. Again this line has not been belayed.

The next photo shows the crossyard jack, which has been added to the mizzen mast.

The next photo shows the crossyard jack sling rigging.

Thank you John and mikegr.
 
And so onto the taper planks. Because I want both sides of the hull symmetrical I set about making the taper planks as matched pairs. Two parallel planks were taped together using double sided sellotape.
I then marked the "unshaped" edge of the joined planks so that I would retain the reference orientation of the planks on each side of the hull.
The planks were then mounted in my "plank clamping vice" and the edges were reduced. It is probably not clear from the photos but a reference taper strip is glued on to the jaws of the "plank vice" so that I can follow this reference when creating the taper. Additionally the clamping vice has inch subdivisions along its length. By moving the end of the planks to different positions along the vice I can create different widths of plank. Currently I am reducing the planks to 2/3 width at the stern and 1/2 width at the bow as per the measurements in the previous post. 

The following shots are just a sequence of taper planks going on to the hull.
 

For the moment the taper planks seem to be working and I am not having to force bend them in the width direction. Consequently I am not experiencing and "Clinkering".
I am bevelling one edge of each plank as it goes on to the hull to keep adjacent planks abutted tightly. I did make a small tool to assist with the bevelling.

However in the end I found that it was just a easy to shape the plank edges with a small sanding block and the tool was consigned to the bin.
 
So it was that I progressed steady to plank 14.


I am finding the pins on the "string" line are really convenient for storing the planks prior to fitting. You can just see one parked on the opposite side of the hull in the next photo.

More planking fun to continue next week.

It's not bad but I am not happy with the Stern, the transom twisted. I am having another go at it. There is way too much overspill of glue for stain to be an option anyway but you are right, it would look good Stained, I can try this on the interior to see how this might of worked. 
 
I have started again on the Gig and on a new jig for the lifeboats. Trying different ways to secure it to the jig to see if that helps. 
 

Also experimenting with bending methods. Obviously, the coin gave the best curve and I used that to add the next lamination to the keel. Just need to find a coin the right size for each frame. 
 
Simon
 

The hawse holes can be complex but if you spend a lot of time preparing and measuring it will go smoothly.   Before I begin describing my process here is a look at the contemporary model.   You can see many close up details here.
 

I started by preparing some new templates.   They are very much like the other templates but I wanted to add some other reference lines to help me more with aligning the hawse holes.   So these are the ones you want to use when you get this stage.
 

You will note a few things in that photo.  First you will see the dashed vertical lines I added that extend up to the cap rail.   These will allow you to mark the locations of the hawse holes on top of the cap rail.   To do this I cut some painters tape to the width of the hawse holes and placed it on the cap rail using the template as a guide.  The tape runs parallel to the keel across the cap rail.   
 
You will also notice how I cut the hawse holes from the template so I could use it as a stencil after taping it to the hull.   I also cut an opening to mark the location of the hawse hoods or naval hoods.  These are the plates that sit over the planking.   The template sits on top of the wales as before.  The forward edge sits against the stem.
 
I of course cut away the molding strip  on the hull before I taped the template in position.  I dont want to forget to mention that.   Then I traced the hawse holes onto the hull.   
 

On the inboard side of the hull,  I prepared another template specifically for the hawse holes.   Note the dashed lines again that extend to the cap rail.   This template was lined up with the tape I placed across the cap rail.  This will be the path I plan to drill through the hull for the hawse holes.   This was a lot of measuring and planning to come up with these templates but it all worked out well.   Just trace the hawse holes on the inboard side as well.  Note how the template is sitting on the deck which establishes the correct height...I hope.
 
I didnt take any pictures right after drilling the hawse holes.  I cant believe I forgot to do it.  But let me explain the process.  I drilled them out using progressively larger drill bits.   I drilled from both sides.   I drilled half way through from the front and then switched to inboard.  I drilled half way through until the holes met in the middle and the first small hole was clear and through.  Then I switched to a slightly larger drill bit and repeated the process.  I increased them until the hawse holes were almost full size and then I switched to a round file to clean them up and enlarge them further.   
 
THE ENTIRE time while drilling from the outboard side I used the blue tape on the top of the cap rail to guide the drill bit at the same angle.  Following the keel.   The hawse holes are almost level in height inboard and outboard with only a slight upward angle needed as you drill from the outboard side.  A very slight angle.   Not to worry if its not exact because when you dill from the inboard side to meet the outside hole it should all meet up decently.  
 
I touched up the red paint inboard and used a soft pencil to darken the insides of the hawse holes black...to represent lead or tin I suppose.
 
Next up was to add the Hawse hoods or Naval hoods on the outboard side.   These are made in two layers.  They are laser cut and on the outermost end is a laser etched detail.  This small etched detail wouldnt be difficult to carve with a sharp chisel.  But I just assume etch it onto the ends.  This means you must clean up the laser char from this "stepped" detail.  I used a small flat needle file.   It doesnt have to be perfectly clean either.  Just do the best you can.  Mine isnt perfect by any means and this little bt of char will actually accentuate the carved detail.   Look at the photo of the contemporary model to see it on the original.  The parts on the left are not yet cleaned.
 
The two layers are glued together carefully.  The circles for the hawse holes are registered together.   But a little tip....while gluing the two layers you can actually pre bend the hoods so they will stay bent and curved once the glue dries.  Its hard to see this in the photo but the one on the right is curved to almost match the hull curvature exactly.  This will make it so much easier to glue onto the hull.
 

 
Here you can see the two layered assembly glued onto the hull.  Please note that after gluing the two layers together the inside edge against the stem must be beveled.  I also cut these pieces a but longer (not by much) so you can line them up with your hawse holes drilled through the hull.   Just carefully bevel the edge a little at time until as you are test fitting it on the model it the hawse holes line up.   The holes themselves are also slightly smaller on this so you will have even more wiggle room to enlarge them after this is glued on the model.  I think they look pretty good and look quite a bit like the contemporary model.
 

Lastly...the bolster.   This piece is slightly thicker and not long enough to bend easily.  So I laser cut it on even thicker boxwood stock.   Its easier to sand the curve into the back side rather than bend it to fit on the hull.   Once the bolster sits nicely on the hull and the curve matches,   you can sand the outside to match.   This will leave the overall thickness at about 3/64".  Maybe slightly more.
 
Round off the top edges and sides but dont touch the hawse hole cut-aways just yet.   This will be done after you glue the bolsters on the model.  You will notice the oddball shape of the hawse hole cut-aways.  They dont look like half circles.   This is on purpose.   Remember the hawse holes are drilled through parallel to the keel.   So these weird shaped half holes are shaped like l=this so you can file them to the proper shape.   Use a round file to open them up to match the angle of your hawse holes through the bulwarks.  I hope that makes sense.   When initially gluing the bolster on the hull, line up the iboard side to match the profile of your hawse holes.  Just like in the photo.   Then use your file to shape them.
 

 
They will or should be opened up to look like this.  The holes were touched up and blackened with a soft pencil.
 

 

Hi empathry,it might be a good idea to educate your AI software as to how a Sailing Ship functioned and what it looked like. These two pictures are ridiculous and bear no resemblance to reality. 🤣
 
Dave 

Good Evening Joachim;
 
I cannot think that there is any difference between the two. I note two points from the list shown above: 
 
Firstly, the sheets pass through a shoulder block. This is the same as a quarter block, yet the inventory also lists shoulder blocks separately. However, as the quarter blocks are for the bowlines, they must be located on the bowsprit, near its outer end, with the running end coming inboard over the bowsprit. When the rope is hauled, this could cause the block to be pulled down against the bowsprit, with the rope being compressed between the two, and becoming jammed.  For this reason a shoulder block is needed here, and has been listed using an alternative name for the same item. 
 
As evidence of this, I have checked my images of the rigging warrant for the cutter 'Kite', of 1762. This lists the blocks for both the bowlines and the sheets as 'shoulder blocks'. They are both the same size, as they are on the list you show above. 
 
Below is a picture of a shoulder block, from Steel's Elements of Rigging. 
 

 
All the best,
 
Mark P

@druxey
@albert
Many thanks for your interest and encouragement, and thanks to everyone for the many LIKES.
 
In the meantime, the constant rain here in Bavaria is getting on my nerves.
On the other hand, I can spend more time building models again, so I can show you the latest results:
 
Equipping the fore royal yard - Vergue de petit cacatois
I continued with the equipment of the fore royal yard, analogous to the main royal yard. The fore royal yard still has a thickness of around 2.2 mm in the middle.
The first picture shows the attached tye and parral.

The clew line blocks that had already been produced were then fitted with served block strops and attached to the yard.

This was followed by the final fitting of the yard with the lifts, braces and clew lines. As already mentioned, I will not be attaching any sails to this model. Accordingly, I will later connect the clew lines of the royals to the sheets without the corners of the clews using the toggles.


Last but not least, a picture with the center section of the main yard for size comparison.

To be continued ...
 

Hi photo Victory 1765.

Hi HALLPHNK,
nice paintings, but in the first pic its the first time I see a squarerrigger sailing backwards and the top flags are in wind direction
 
Nils

appalling, absolutely appalling.
sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone, but... why?

Yard Manufacture
Over the last few days I have been shaping and then adding the various PE parts, cleats and footropes to all the remaining yards. The only task now remaining, before installation to the masts will be to paint the yards black. Please see the following set of photos.
 
Driver Gaff
This was an interesting dowel to shape. There are two flying lead blocks and a couple of blocks secured to the driver gaff via eyebolts,


Driver Boom
There was not a great deal of shaping required for the driver boom. The most time consuming task was to make the knotted footrope.

Mizzen Topgallant Yard
This was a nice simple yard to make with a central section which tapers down to each end. 

Mizzen Topsail Yard
I had a bit of a brain fart when adding the footrope stirrups and initially drilled the holes in the wrong place, as you will see in the attached photos where these holes have been filled. I will adjust the position of a couple of the footrope stirrups so they are vertically aligned.

Crossyard Jack
I had the same brain fart with regards to drilling to stirrup holes. I will also need adjust the position of a couple of the footrope stirrups so they are vertically aligned.

Main Topsail Yard

I did add thin planking trips to the central octagonal section.

Main Yard

 
I did add thin planking trips to the central octagonal section.

The best parties always take place in the kitchen.

First of all, of course, we need the kitchen worktop. Coincidentally, one of the prints I had made for the Revell Constitition fits like a glove, no wonder, almost the same scale and the design was based anyway on the design of the British 😉

Anyway, the kitchen and hearth are only worth as much as the life that takes place there.



The first three men assigned to kitchen duty were quickly pressed. Frederick Bush, the 24-year-old, hunky German is fetching firewood, Irishman Thomas Foley, at 47 one of the oldest crew members on board, will be working on a meat-like structure and Hans Yaul from Switzerland will be chasing the protein-rich maggots out of the cheese with his big knife.

Number 4 was more of a challenge. It's always nice when the kits come with little men, but they're usually not the right kind of hands-on character. Here on the right is a sailor from the Constitution kit.



Any sailor would immediately fall over on land with his legs in a row like this, so I first changed the leg position to a stable three-point position and also tilted the head slightly for the dynamics. After all, he should be fuelling the stove. However, the test position then showed a completely incorrect and far too static posture for this.

So he bent his back and brought his second arm into a working position. Now he finally looks like somebody doing a job.



Number 4 is alive 🙂

I then used one of my misprints to prepare the wood filling. The grill at the front of the Brodie Stove has 3 sections, so apparently you can fire it in 3 sections depending on what capacity you need. This is also the log length that dear Frederick has in his arms at the moment.



Afterwards, the lower decks are secured against falling objects with cotton wool pads ...



... and the grill is carfully loaded with firewood. We now know that our dear Lord of the Fire is 28-year-old James Caton from Brazil, with the logs that Frederik has placed in front of him and two bags of coals next to him for a nice, even heat.



And here you can already see why I had to shorten the height of the Brodie Stove compared to the original drawings: of course it has to pass under the deck beam and the two lids at the top should still be accessible. That's why there is a gap of exactly one deck beam width between the chimney and the lids at the top. How these two boilers could be effectively operated and cleaned with this limited access is still beyond my understanding.

Just like the automatic turning mechanism of the grill spit at the front. I know of English country houses that have a similar system, but there are usually much larger fires at work. The mechanics of the drive chain and the corresponding bearing of the spit are also not yet technically comprehensible to me in detail, even if they are based on identical plans in the NMM.

Furthermore, you have to bear in mind that the whole stove in Portsmouth is only a replica based on the plan just mentioned. I think back then, the stove size and installation situation were customised for each ship. Whether this is all correct in the replica is therefore not known. And fortunately, the difference in height is no longer noticeable once installed in the model.

And while we're on the subject of size and deck height, Frederick, with his height of 1.9 metres, which was unusual for the time but not uncommon, also has a problem here ...



... that standing is just about possible, but the next deck beam is already lurking for his head.



So he was clever enough to adopt a slightly more stooped posture to wriggle himself past the firewood, the coal bags and the water barrels.

In the small cooking chamber you can already see that with two people it's going to be a tight squeeze, especially if there's someone else working on the stove. I have deliberately avoided decorating the worktop like the breakfast buffet in Portsmouth, as everyone brings what they need for cooking from their mess and has to leave a clean worktop afterwards. After all, this is the only cooking area for 800+ crew members.

And that's the end of the small picture in the picture, just a few more impressions 🙂











Prost Mahlzeit,

XXXDAn

This shows the construction and temporary positioning of the portside accommodation in the great cabin

note the panelling surrounding the sternpost and in due course the rudder head on its way to the poop deck
 
Cheers
 
Dick

Good Morning Joachim;
 
Re your original query, a quarter block had a small projection worked on it, so that it would not be pulled flat against the yard-arm causing the rope inside to bind against the yard, preventing movement. Typically used for sheet blocks at the yard-arm. 
 
An iron-bound block has a strap of iron around it, rather than a rope strop. It also has an iron pin, which is set into holes in the strap each side of the block.
 
A coak is a metal plate of iron or brass, set into the outside surface of the shell of the block, to form a bearing for the pin through the sheave. This prevents the pin bearing on the wood, which would wear out more quickly than the iron will.
 
All the best,
 
Mark P

Hi All 
Thanks for the likes....time for a quick update.
 
First layer of planking is now complete, below shows a bit of the progress, rough finish and after sanding.  I placed tape around some of the bulkheads where I didn't want the planks to adhere to as these bulkhead extensions are to be cut away in future.  I could have used templates to cut the bulwarks out of some ply but I've elected to plank instead.  I  also added some strengthening across the bulkhead extensions to protect and reduce the risk of them breaking them during planking.
 
I used hoop pine for the planking and milled to 5mm x 1.5mm strips.  Hoop pine has no discernable grain and bends quite easily....most importantly it stays straight after been cut into strips from a larger plank
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The planking turned out relatively ok, however, for transparency.....I did make a slight error.  In the previous post I mentioned that I'd fair the mdf that I added as packing, which I did.  What I didn't do was fair the "leg" above this and this has resulted in a run of concave planking for 5 or so planks.  This will be hidden by the galleries but leaving like this will make it awkward to shape the formers of the galleries so I'll fill and sand this gap to get a straight run

 
Fashioned a bit of a mast step  glue well for all three masts as the 3mm spine would not give enough surface to glue onto.  I know some people just rely on the rigging to keep the masts upright....but not me , more glue the better, no way am I relying on my rigging to keep anything straight

 
 
As a quick check on how accurate I am at this stage to the paper model, I overlaid the paper planking templates onto the hull and all appears ok.  Normally I would line off the hull for the second planking by working out the bands but as things look ok, I'll use the templates to give the bands and tweak as I go along (you can just make out the separate planking  templates by the numbers I've written on them) .  At the top you can just see the templates that could have been used to cut bulwarks out of ply
 

 
 
And finally I added the false deck for the main deck.  A joggle stick was used to shape the false deck and cut from 0.8mm ply.  I had to install  in separate pieces as I couldn't get it into place in single go.  Holes cut (not vey well but sort of round) for the masts.  I've marked the deck at every 20mm to help with the planking shift pattern
 

 
 
Thanks for dropping in
 
Mark

Finally back on my Le Rochefort after building balsa planes for over a year. I’ve been figuring out where I left off. First thing is to taper the tops of the frames inside. They’re close now but I still have work to do on them. Since I used the Hahn method the bottoms, floors, chocks do not have the complex joints in each half of the frame. The keelson will be another major headache to notch and fit if I decide to notch it at all. I’m going to assemble this hull and when done and able to remove of from the jig take stock of it and decide to either continue or start over completely. 

Big guns are brought in for assistance...

better control and results but also lots of noise from machine itself and vacuum..

Happy modelling..
 

Sooner you than me, mate 
 
"Penultimate" = second last - the one before the last one.
 
"Antepenultimate" - third last - the one before the one before the last one. As in "her antepenultimate breath" at 2:04 in the Flanders and Swann song "Have Some Madiera M'dear"
 
 

Thank you for the nice comments.
 
The planking at the bow has been further sanded and fitted with treenails.

Back to the rear castle.
Smaller wales (4) are placed on the clinker planking. Of course, none of the four have the same dimensions.
The drawings and photos are partly used to determine the "right" location. The dimensions between the wales are also taken into account for future painting works.
According to Mary's remains, the Wales certainly continue as far as sector 10 (the penultimate cannon port)
 
"penultimate"  A new English word for me (hopefully Mr. Google translate is correct 😳)

After applying these wales I have to read my books and think first.
The "frames" of the rear castle are much too thick. And the clinker planking on the transom also feels wrong.
This means extra sanding and cutting, probably a redo and a   smiley.
 
Thanks for following