ccoyle

Well, guess what? I found the brass name plate, so I won't have to make one from scratch. Whew!!
 

 
BTW, in that same photo you can see one of the kit's PE eyebolts. I do not like them, because they are flat and therefore have a rectangular cross-section instead of round. The drill bits used to make pilot holes are of course round, so that's a problem. I prefer to make my own eyebolts.
 
I also needed to make up a batch of ringbolts, which means I needed to whip up a batch of split rings. Tiny split rings. I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up a pair of jeweler's side cutters, which have narrower tips than the usual variety. I wrapped some fine wire around a beading needle (also from Hobby Lobby and a very handy tool), then cut it into rings with the side cutters. I made up 14 ringbolts in almost no time at all.
 

 
That's all for now!
 
 

Thanks @Danstream & @Landlubber Mike for your kind comments and for the likes everyone.
 
After another session with masking tape, I have applied the faded ID stripes, looks black and a cream yellow in the photos , but in daylight they are more charcoal and a pale yellow.  The photo on post #5 you could say the stripes were white/black like "D-Day" ones; and Airfix's instructions say they "might" have been white, but comparing them to the white square on the leading edge of the wing (inner section with the number "86" on it) I have convinced myself they are faded yellow.  Anyway committed now! 😁
 
Getting close to gloss varnish and decal time! - thanks for looking in.

And time for an overview: 
next steps: 
- fix some issues with the piping edges at the forward edge of the hatch and piping issues forward of that edge
- level out forward catwalk since it determines the height of the next part along the deckhouse

- complete the piping connections to the deck house
 

- finish and fix catwalk next to deck house
- finish forward edge of manifold catwalk where it makes a step to the part next to the deck house

I believe after that that I will proceed with finishing the deckhouse (finally put the real crane jib support in place instead of an airbrush jar) and railings on top of it. And together with that, start making the stairs to the catwalks.

 
Only the aft catwalk is glued, all others are just dry fitted. I will first put some transverse beams, paint those and also the catwalks themselves before gluing them, same sequence as I used on the aft part.
 

We had some family crafting time in the basement today so I did some more work. I had apparently given up on finishing this thing at some point in the last three years because my plank bending board was in the scrap pile in the garage. 😑 I did go ahead with a 4th full plank before trying to bend and taper. I previously marked bulkheads on the first planking. I want to try to do pseudo scale plank lengths and alternate plank shading for some extra eye appeal. I am trying a slightly different technique for my second planking. I butted together five full planks and marked the hull. I used a scrap piece of cardboard to copy that mark to each bulkhead. I then used the sectioning method that Chuck teaches and some Tamiya masking tape to try to mark off a better line to taper to. 


When I did the first  planking, I started to taper way too early and it didn’t go well. With the tape line and marked piece of cardboard, I could see exactly when to start the taper. Another thing I did different was that I bent and edge chamfered a full width plank before marking and tapering. I was able to math the taper at the leading edge and hand sketch the taper. I used a knife and sandpaper and I make the taper. After two hours of work, I only added two more planks, but I think I am off to a better start than my first planking.  It did take me a minute to get the hang of soaking the plank and heating with my iron to shape again. This is such a slow process. 

More work on the helicopter. The rear section and pontoons and rotor blades are all Billing. The highly detailed Cockpit and engine are from an OH-13 Sioux (same scale)  by Italeri. 
Quite happy with the look so far. Will only get better with more paint and decals.  So not 100% accurate but darn close :0)

Hello everyone.  I haven't forgotten about this project, despite some inconvenient changes in circumstances. I've had to temporarily shelve Brig Eagle because of change in housing situation and many of my tools had to be put in storage for a few months. However, I am still doing lots of research and making frame templates for this model to work on once housing situation improves. Lately, I've been doing additional comparisons of different ships, this time the American brigs Syren and Oneida. Syren seems more like Brig Eagle in deck layout and overall hull contours (even though Eagle is 20 ft longer than Syren and Syren was a deep water hull with additional deck like European ships HMS Blandford and Le Cygne discussed in Post 41), whereas Oneida would be more followed for rigging and was also a "shallow draft" hull design with just only berthing deck and gun deck like the Eagle was and Niagara.  However, I found one article interesting about Oneida saying she was a slow performer under sail, I am guessing that she may have been top heavy for a ship her size. Will have to do more digging around work schedules. 
 
Brian D

I got the cap rail on. The bow has a small piece on top with grooves that match the ones I filed in the hull. Loops of .5 mm thread went in these. The deck also has loops that needed to be put in before it was glue to the hull.
 
This is at the bow. I used a 2x2 to standardize all the loops.
 

 
Here’s a 1.3 rope at the stern.
 

 
The mast is attached to a beam that will rotate to raise and lower it.
 

 
It also has two boulders that rest on the knees at the base. The weight counter balances, so it doesn’t slam down on all the slave rowers. I hope to mimic this action before I glue the mast on. 
 

 
I have flipped back and forth through these instructions and much as I did a Sears and Robuck Christmas catalog:-) 
I’m still wondering if I’ve  overlooked something. So here’s where it stands with the deck glued on.
 

 

 
 
 

Stern seat and thwart now finished and installed.  Now time to drill some tiny screw holes in the 1/16” wide patinaed brass rubbing strip for the stems/keel.
 

 

 

Small update 
Planking upper deck "work in progress" .

It's time that I update this thread and carry on where I left off some time ago. Currently the project is in a bit of a holding pattern, while still on the books it had to take a back seat to my logging truck rebuild, work and a few other things requiring my time; not a lot has happened in the last 14 months. However prior to this hiatus the project did see its first water test, one which turned out much better than anticipated.
 
To carry on from my last post work was done to mount the motor and steering gear inside the hull:
 

 

 

 

 
With this done, the next step for was to do a bit of experimenting. A concern was the adhesion of body filler, styrene plastic and fibreglass and it's differing rates of expansion when subjected to extreme temperature swings. As luck would have it, we were expecting to see -45C in the coming weeks so a few test rigs were made. These rigs had a defined profile, one that I could compare to a go / no-go gauge and mimicked my hull construction. One was lined with fibreglass mat and body filler applied over this and the other smoothed with filler and then covered with fibreglass mat. Once the fibreglass and body filler were cured and sanded these two rigs were toss out into a snowbank to freeze. After a week they were brought into the house, twisted, dropped and kicked and then placed near the toasty warm wood stove. With a temperature swings of about 70 degrees no distortion or separation was noted; both good news for my logging truck and the tug.
 
Here are the rigs after their torture in the cold, they aren't pretty:
 

 

 

 
I am not too sure which route to go for glassing the hill. With body filler over the glass sanding is a breeze, however body filler will absorb water over time and any scratches in the paint system may allow this to occur. With glass over body filler sanding will be a bit more tedious but the hull less susceptible to damage. In regards to strength, I believe both to be roughly the same strength, what are your thoughts?

Post 96
Completing the Fore shrouds.
Shrouds are a very fiddly business, and applying the throat seizings is a tedious thing.

4915a
I find that using a fine needle helps with the threading of the line  between the shroud and its return.

4924a

4921a

4922a
The Fore shrouds  gave me more trouble than the Mains;
I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking the  shroud length before the Lanyards are eventually tied off.
This involved unpicking previously seized upper deadeyes and re-setting.
On a model a sloppy line of deadeyes is not a pretty thing.

4930a
The next step is the application of the futtock staves.
According to Steel these are set as far below the trestletrees as the mast cap rises above.

4931a
In reality the staves were of 4” circ served line, but it makes sense to use something more solid for model purposes.
I used 0.7mm ø Brass rod served with 0.1mm line.

4932a
‘Quad hands’ are a useful tool for this job, holding the bar steady whilst the outer lashings are applied.

4936a
The Futtock staves are a great device for evening out the shrouds, as well as providing the anchor point for the Futtocks and Catharpins.
 
The Fore stays beckon….
 
B.E.
02/07/2025
 
 

It's been some time since the last post but with other large projects like the dinghy finished here's an update.
After the frames sitting around for about a year as I dithered over how to fit internal components that were a long way down the track it was a case of just doing something rather than overthinking the project and suffering decision paralysis.
So, the frames were cut and assembled with the keel on the building jig. 
 
Below is a test fit before glue with the frame interiors still solid. These were hollowed out before assembly.

 
The stern gallery frame has been assembled. This involved a lot of thought and trial and error due to the vagaries of transferring a 2D plan into a three dimensional shape.  I worked on the theory that as long as I had fixed and known points at the taffrail (The building board base) and accurate gallery window voids (created with temporary spacer blocks) the rest should follow.  
 
 

Fairing of the hull framing followed, with some blocks at bow and stern the help with the plank fit. 
 

After adding upper and lower gunport sills planking is now underway. I'll double plank the hull to give a solid base for the more tidy second planking. 
I'm using Douglas Fir left over from the mast build on my sailing dinghy and will use matai for the visible portions of the second planking to take advantage of the nice honey tone and hardness. The bottom will likely be coppered anyway. 
I'll add a layer of wales as I get closer to them and the upper bulwarks will likely had a 1.5mm ply first layer rather than planking, allowing gunports to be cut and lined easily. 

The lines are starting to appear. 

Today went very well.  I made the 6 stunsl yards and glued into place on the fore and main masts.  Tomorrow I will add the securing ropes to tie them to the slings.  
 
 

Fixed the angle of the foremast gaff.
 
 

After a lot of fiddling and tight work, I managed to make, mount and rig thegaffs on the main and fore masts.   My only potential concern is that the angle of the fore gaff may be a bit low.  Any thoughts?  Unless this is a gross error, i am inclined to leave it as is.
 

No need. I think the two gentlemen have each made their point as far as this build is concerned.

Well, guess what? I found the brass name plate, so I won't have to make one from scratch. Whew!!
 

 
BTW, in that same photo you can see one of the kit's PE eyebolts. I do not like them, because they are flat and therefore have a rectangular cross-section instead of round. The drill bits used to make pilot holes are of course round, so that's a problem. I prefer to make my own eyebolts.
 
I also needed to make up a batch of ringbolts, which means I needed to whip up a batch of split rings. Tiny split rings. I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up a pair of jeweler's side cutters, which have narrower tips than the usual variety. I wrapped some fine wire around a beading needle (also from Hobby Lobby and a very handy tool), then cut it into rings with the side cutters. I made up 14 ringbolts in almost no time at all.
 

 
That's all for now!
 
 

No need. I think the two gentlemen have each made their point as far as this build is concerned.

Well, guess what? I found the brass name plate, so I won't have to make one from scratch. Whew!!
 

 
BTW, in that same photo you can see one of the kit's PE eyebolts. I do not like them, because they are flat and therefore have a rectangular cross-section instead of round. The drill bits used to make pilot holes are of course round, so that's a problem. I prefer to make my own eyebolts.
 
I also needed to make up a batch of ringbolts, which means I needed to whip up a batch of split rings. Tiny split rings. I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up a pair of jeweler's side cutters, which have narrower tips than the usual variety. I wrapped some fine wire around a beading needle (also from Hobby Lobby and a very handy tool), then cut it into rings with the side cutters. I made up 14 ringbolts in almost no time at all.
 

 
That's all for now!
 
 

Proceeding apace I decided to get the after end of the ship "finished", except for the final tensioning of the backstay/top mast shrouds and the inter-mast stays.
 
I took the pictures in my make shift "photo studio" which I hope to use to take the pictures for the NRG model contest, assuming I get the Simpson finished by the end of the month. Pay no attention to the bottom surface. I have been promised a white sheet to cover up the wood working bench.
 
So here is the mizzen mast with all the rigging that I intend to provide in place. The only new running rigging is the topsail halyard and down haul which you can see joined together aft of the throat/peak/topping lifts. I ran the down haul through the small block at the aft end of the gaff, along the boom and then down to the deck. I have a rope coil that will go on top of the cabin roof where the down haul line leads down from the boom. 

After i got the topmast shrouds/back stays connected and the deadeyes lashed up I added the railing along the stern rail. 

Next up was the boat and davits/tackle. Since there was no boat included with the kit I used a vanguard 1/64th, 3-D printed boat (18' cutter) which is probably too wide and too short to fit under the davits and not hit the stern. Given my unwillingness to pursue a different boat at this late date I decided to mount the boat on a skid on the cabin roof to starboard of the mizzen mast. I toyed with the notion of fabbing a cover from the left over sail material but gave up when I could not figure out the correct shape of the cover and not wanting to cover the work I had done on the boat interior.
 
Here is an overall view of the stern from the quarter (the whole ship in this view is one of the required photos for the NRG contest).

So with the boat on deck I turned to davits inboard and added a eyebolt and cleat to hold the boat tackle in place. It is hard to see but there are coils of the boat tackle on deck below the cleats. I used Bluejackets .005" white line for the boat tackle as it is the smallest line i have. 
 
Here is a shot of the "quarterdeck with the davits and tackle in place.

Hard to get the camera to focus on the deck but you can see the white rope below the davit.
 
And this is another required shot (directly astern).

And yes I know the ship is listing slightly to starboard. That happened the last time I had to fiddle with the mounting screws. I am waiting until everything is DONE before I try and tackle that issue. But at least the masts seem to line up correctly and I had to drill the mast holes. 
 
 
 

I know it has been like three weeks since I last posted but I have not been idle.
 
I have all the lower shrouds and ratlines in place. I used the ratline spacing template I had from Sphinx which are 6mm apart. Since Simpson is the same scale I decided 6mm was "good enough". I used .030" Syren line for the shrouds. The plans said .027" but I decided to go a size larger (Syren comes in .025 and .030) and to use .005" black line for the ratlines (from Bluejackets). I have previously used Syren .008" line for the ratlines at this scale but like the .005 since I believe it is 100% cotton and ties better (and obviously) smaller knots (and is considerably cheaper). The instructions suggest gluing the ratlines on rather than tying them but the Bluejackets line comes on a regular thread spool and has a good bit of twist in it that does not fall out even after 4 days hanging with a weight on the end. I built a test jig to see if gluing was an option (for me). I coating the thread with dilute white glue and hung it up to dry. I had to have the jig on its side (and turn off the ceiling fan) to get the thread to "stick" and would only be able to do one ratline on each mast as touching anything before the glue dried caused movement of the ratline just placed. Soooo I decided to tie the standard clover leaf knots as I have done before.

The mizzen ratlines are the easiest since there are only three shrouds and only every fifth ratline covers all three shrouds. Don't ask me how I know but it takes a mind shift when switching sides on the mizzen as the shrouds with ratlines every 6mm are on the left now, not the right.
 
I added boom rests for all three booms since I needed something to "pull against" when tensioning the topping lifts and peak halyards. I find it hard to believe that the real ship did not have removable boom rests - probably not where I put them but there somewhere. I also rigged the boom sheets and added rope coils on deck after belaying the sheet lines as shown on the plans.
I
I added the side lights but used platforms and bulbs from Billings Boats. They are a bit larger than the Britannia metal parts that come with the kit but I think they look better. A sailor climbing the forward ratlines would have to step over either set.

I finally got around to adding the capstan bars and stowage location.

I populated all the pin rails except the three at the extreme bow including rope coils. 
 
I decided that the only running rigging on the Main and Mizzen top masts would be the top sail halyards and since these start at the becket of the block at the top of the mast I added them to the pin rail and coiled up a sufficient quantity of line so I will rig this "in reverse". I followed the same tactic with the five halyards at the fore mast. The lines are coiled up on plastic tubes and labeled with the sail (although the lines are pretty much all the same length).

Here are two shots of the ship from the quarters.
 
 

All three lower masts are now on the hull.
 
The Fore and Main peak and throat halyards and the topping lifts are in place and secured, at least by clamps after passing through the the respective pin board hole.
 
When I got to the mizzen I realized that the pin rails there (and I think at the bow) are going to be a problem. The instructions call for 3/32" X 5/32" material for the pin rails. Those work out fine at the Fore and Main masts but because the bulwarks are shorter on the quarterdeck (13mm vs 5mm below the cap rail) the 3/32" thickness ( 2.5mm) leaves a pretty narrow opening below the bottom of the pin rail. There are similar measurements at the pin rails on the forecastle but there is no deckhouse getting in the way up there.
 
I am in the process of fabbing new pin rails from 1/16" X 3/16 stock. Hopefully I can get these installed without messing up the deckhouse or the bulwark. I am not sure the additional 1/32" is going to "solve" the problem but it is a step in the right direction. It is not clear to me how anyone could use the pin rails as provided  -  even sticking the line in the pin rail hole and jamming a belaying pin to secure it would be problematic.

And yes I recognize that the Fore mast is racked back too much. I hope to correct this to some extent when all the forward leading stays are in place and tightened.

Hello,
because I was not really happy with the tiller, I build today a new one.

 
 
At that picture you see on top the drawing Dammann did, with a too short plug. The black thing in the middle is the original tiller, or what is left of it, and my calculations for 1:10. Below that in 1:50 and the new tiller.

And here is he installed. I think it looks much better

 
 
 

Well, guess what? I found the brass name plate, so I won't have to make one from scratch. Whew!!
 

 
BTW, in that same photo you can see one of the kit's PE eyebolts. I do not like them, because they are flat and therefore have a rectangular cross-section instead of round. The drill bits used to make pilot holes are of course round, so that's a problem. I prefer to make my own eyebolts.
 
I also needed to make up a batch of ringbolts, which means I needed to whip up a batch of split rings. Tiny split rings. I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up a pair of jeweler's side cutters, which have narrower tips than the usual variety. I wrapped some fine wire around a beading needle (also from Hobby Lobby and a very handy tool), then cut it into rings with the side cutters. I made up 14 ringbolts in almost no time at all.
 

 
That's all for now!
 
 

Well, guess what? I found the brass name plate, so I won't have to make one from scratch. Whew!!
 

 
BTW, in that same photo you can see one of the kit's PE eyebolts. I do not like them, because they are flat and therefore have a rectangular cross-section instead of round. The drill bits used to make pilot holes are of course round, so that's a problem. I prefer to make my own eyebolts.
 
I also needed to make up a batch of ringbolts, which means I needed to whip up a batch of split rings. Tiny split rings. I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked up a pair of jeweler's side cutters, which have narrower tips than the usual variety. I wrapped some fine wire around a beading needle (also from Hobby Lobby and a very handy tool), then cut it into rings with the side cutters. I made up 14 ringbolts in almost no time at all.
 

 
That's all for now!