bdgiantman2

My project is the same scale as the other blogs of this ship, 1:48 scale.

Thanks for the reply, your Eagle build is coming along. Yeah, I agree it is easy to get distracted with those Winnie blogs, some of those models are coming out amazing.

Alrighty, my friends. I finally have gotten most of the keel cut out. I seriously envy those of you reading this who have those fancy milling machines Finally was able to get the safety key needed to operate my bandsaw, was able to get replacements through Amazon.com. Then carefully cut the strips needed with a jury-rigged rip-fence, followed by the painstakingly slow process of cutting and sanding the groves for the hull ribs. The deadwood is the only part glued together right now. It seems to cave a bit, the deadwood that is. When holding it up vertically it shows better despite holding the deadwood with tight clamps to a piece of plywood that my plans are draped over. Those of you who I know have sharp eyes will notice some color changes in the deadwood. Found out had some gaps in the deadwood, so stuffed those gaps with glue and basswood sawdust from a Ziplock bag I have. It works though, looks a lot smoother. I still need to make the appropriate grooves into the deadwood for the half-frames in the stern, and am needing to cut the stem pieces themselves out still. Thank you so much for the thumbs-up on here and for following. Brian

I personally wonder though how much of that carried wood would be for repairing the ship at sea vs for using as cooking material.

I think they would carry small amounts of coal to first start a fire in the galley stoves, but one of the things it seems they would do was burning the boards from barrels that had been taken apart upon being emptied. Now I admit that I have no clue how often the stoves were allowed to burn out during a voyage other than weather related or even if put out at night.

Experienced friends, I have attached the first two planks of the Longboat model. It is looking right so far I think (keeping fingers crossed it stays this way for me🤞), but always open to input from those who have done this kit. Even though the instructions don't do this, I removed the middle of two of the frames of the boat so that I could place clamps and hold the the top plank easier which I didn't need to do for the plank nearest the keel. Brian

Jorge, your Winnie model looks great, and very nice job with the cannon bays. Also you did a great job with all of the additional frames to show every frame of the real ship. Your gray and white cat is my favorite of your fuzzy helpers. Cheers! Brian

Hello my friends. So not a whole lot has improved with this model. As I was attempting to make the keel using Yellow Alaskan Cedar from Mr. Passaro, I quickly stumbled upon issues. The cedar was getting grain fuzz similar to that of basswood. Doing some research, I finally found one solution in buying a bitt for one of those milling machines instead of the regular Dremel bitts. That helped a little, but not much. So I reached out to Mr. Passaro by e-mail on here and he was kindly suggesting trying Boxwood. Turns out he has a vendor through the Syren site. Joe was helpful as could be and very prompt about mailing merchandise. I am very happy with the products that I received from him. But then came the next problem. Taking some time off from work to clear my head out, I was going to start cutting my new Boxwood when I found out that the safety key to operate my bandsaw is missing. Going to have to make another trip to the Home Depot and look for a new safety key. In the mean time, I had bought a plank of Yellow Alaskan Cedar from a wood dealer in Denver and have started for the time being the extremely slow process of cutting pieces off manually with a hand saw. Also in the meantime, I have decided to start building my two ships boats. One is the longboat kit by Mr. Passaro supplied through Model-Expo, and the other is a kit made by Model-Expo of a little four and a quarter inch model boat I will be using as the Captain's launch. In my readings about the history of the Brig Eagle by Dr. Crisman, the brig had one boat for sure as half of the crew often would row to shore for sleeping on shore. Books of other ships from the same time period indicate that the captain's boat was strictly for the use of the captain, so I am making my model with two boats.

I really like the blue paint on the bow myself, a nice contrast to the black paint of the wales. And it makes the figurehead really stand out in sharply too. Nicely done model.

Thank you for your reply. I have enclosed a picture you shared of the object asking about, it definitely looks like was made using a laser. Looked up T-tracks on Amazon as you suggested and couldn't find anything like these. Assuming that you did make these, how much would you charge to order some?

Nice progress so far with your model of the Winnie. Looking over your photos, I have been intrigued about those sliders you have for holding keel center. Where did you get those? I am wanting some for my new model. Keep up the great progress. Brian

Personally, I like the ceiling planking, it is very clean and tight. And if I remember correctly, the CAD images that Captain Hook shared earlier do show the whole midships area none-planked, so I see it as a little of best of both sides. On my current build, I am wanting to do something similar. Keep up the great work on this model, sir! Brian

Hey Jim, there is a build I have been following where this guy in Europe is constructing a section of hull of a 74 gun ship showing cannon arrangements and accessories. He has cleats for each of the lower deck guns built onto the beams of the deck above. Here is the link to his blog showing the inside works.

Thanks for the info, Mark. I finally found the links after a lot of looking. And discovered that I have saved the information that I was looking for several years ago on my USB stick. Silly me, I should have looked there first since I have a file about Triton on there.

Impressive outcome on this sectional model, sir. I am curious, is there an instruction manual that comes with this or did you make this completely on your own? I have seen the group-build page of this by Chuck, will continue to see what more I can find. Brian

That was the biggest option available on Blue Jacket for their Heavy Bower pewter anchors. There is another option available that is longer, but was dated 17th century and I knew that wouldn't be very appropriate. They have a wood option that was over an inch shorter. Like I said in the intro to this discussion, I wasn't sure about the proper length. Using my drafting ruler on the printed sheets of Eagle, the anchors would be blocking cannon operations perhaps up to two ports in full scale. Taking out two guns is a lot of lost firepower. But I guess that is a problem of having built the ship so quickly. In research that I have done, Lake Champlain at it's deepest part is 400' down, which is deep for a lake; this area also happens to be at least two miles south of where the battle took place and the wrecks found.

Hello Allan, this build is in 1:48 scale. The same scale that Gene Bodnar built his demo model with the detailed blog. Brian

Thank you so much gentlemen for your input, much appreciated. I went ahead and purchased two anchors that actually measure 2-7/8 inches long. Looking forward to checking these out when they arrive in a week.

Hello everyone. I am looking for suggestions beyond what I know. So I am in the beginning phases of building the brig Eagle of 1814 and have been researching and accumulating parts for later steps. One of these items has been the ships anchors. Reading the documentary by Gene Bodnar, he suggests using anchors that are two and five-eights inches in length for the model. Blue Jacket makes such a size of anchor, but for a ship the size of Eagle, plus the fact that she operated in shallow water compared to the ocean like larger ships, I feel that an anchor of that suggested size is too big and measurements show these would interfere a lot with cannon operations. I would think that the one and a half inch anchor offered by Blue Jacket to be a better size? Does anyone here know more about proper anchor size for a ship like Eagle? Thank you so much in advance, I look forward to any input. Brian

After being delayed for several months with ongoing weather and work issues as well as other things, I finally surrendered to chance and started on the next step on the keel. First, I set up my Dremel at a locked position after proper height alignment on its shaft. That's when the first problem came. One location I attempted to hollow up purely visual, which worked about half decent but not as straight as I had desired. So I then got a modeling hand saw blade and have made groves in the wood so wouldn't go so crooked again. This helped me some. And then a second issue came about. If you look closely in the enclosed photo you can see some splintering in the areas being kept raised for between the frames. Also I have been dealing with a lot of wood fuzz similar to that from basswood but I am using the Alaska Yellow Cedar that I purchased from Chuck Passaro. I have no clue if this is supposed to be expected, even after going through more of the Winnie blogs on here. If more pictures are needed, I am happy to provide additional ones. Brian Davies

Well, sonuvagun, I am seeing a ship! She's looking good, sir. Great progress and thank you for sharing your progress. I am enjoying this build. Brian

Mr. Van Dahm, I have two questions for you concerning the upcoming NRG convention at the Channel Island Maritime Museum or other decided location. Does the Guild get to secure certain hotels and/or rates to those attending the conferences? Also, with this event being in California, do you know if attendees are going to be required to have received COVID vaccinations prior to attending? I am looking at being at the convention this year and my father coming along as well.

Mr. Passaro, I am looking forward to your demonstration of how to properly rig the ships cannons. A while back I found this picture of one of the cannons from onboard the HMS Victory, but can't find the person to give credits to. The part that is circled in blue, would this have been common practice from the early 1800s? While I like how this gives the gun areas a cleaner look, I admit that I don't know much else. Brian

I attended the 2016 NRG conference in San Diego, the first one I have been to. The current proposed location looks good to me, and many alternative ideas floated above. Very surprised that I didn't see Erie as an idea, even though I think that is in Penn instead of Ohio? Probably already did at least one there anyways. I currently am living in Denver and I think this will make a great location although there aren't major bodies of water nearby.

Hello Dragonflyxlii, thanks for the kind words and sharing your pictures. Your model is a beauty. Haven't seen a blog by you about this build though, I would love to be following it.