bdgiantman2

Your model looks great, Mike!! Making terrific progress making Speedwell. You and Chuck have been great mentors with this project as well as the Winnie
 
Brian D

Your model looks great, Mike!! Making terrific progress making Speedwell. You and Chuck have been great mentors with this project as well as the Winnie
 
Brian D

Back from holiday now and back at the bench both yesterday and today to finish up the final frames - frame set 5. These were mostly straightforward except the toptimber of frame 5 aft is shifted forward 1.5" - not difficult to achieve with some shims under the frame. The only other features of these frames are a notch on the forward face of 5-forward to match the one on 4-aft for the pump dale scupper and a fore/aft tapering of the top of the toptimber of 5-aft. 
 
The final stage of the framing of the cross-section has now bee reached - installing the sills on gunports and sweep ports, inboard & outboard fairing of the frames, installing the the keelson and temporary ribands along the toptimbers. I am going to be finishing the model, but I'm not sure whether to do the inside edges gunport and sweep port frames now or later. Makes some sense to do them now, before laying any planking, but maybe there's merit to doing it later on? 
 
I do have the practicum for fitting out the cross-section, but it isn't possible any longer to order the wood package as pre-milled sheets and strips. I do have a Byrnes thickness sander and micro table-saw, and have a stock of unmilled 2" x 3" lengths (30") of boxwood, as well as the wood list that was posted on the now-defunct Admiralty Models website. I invested in a thin-kerf blade for my 10" table saw, so I think all I need is a good set of digital callipers and I can mill the wood necessary for the fitting out. There is quite a bit leftover of the wood supplied in the framing package, as well, so....we'll see how things progress. At any rate, when I complete the components noted above I'll be going back to Bellona for a while - at least until I finish the second layer of hull planking and clean up a few things from earlier in that build. I may return to Echo then, as it has been a lot of fun so far. Confidence building for a fully framed model of a complete ship - ideally I would love to build a 1:48 fully framed version of the HMS Blandford, which I built about a decade ago from the rather poor Corel kit....but my lack of drafting knowledge beyond some rudiments is a real obstacle....
 
In any case - here are the pics - enjoy and bye for now
hamilton

Your model looks great, Mike!! Making terrific progress making Speedwell. You and Chuck have been great mentors with this project as well as the Winnie
 
Brian D

Your model looks great, Mike!! Making terrific progress making Speedwell. You and Chuck have been great mentors with this project as well as the Winnie
 
Brian D

I had to add the two outer stern lights before doing anymore work on the upper bulwark strakes. They are much stronger than the laser cut wooden ones that were on the Winnie. Before installing them I wanted to remove the char color from the inside edges of transom template. Sanding was not an option, so I mixed up some paint with what seemed to be a reasonable color. Notice the reflection off the build board on the center light.

I have the upper port side strakes completed. Cut from a long 3/64" sheet, I was able to combine strakes #3 and #5 together which made things easier for me when adding it to the hull. I was happy to see that the strake edge ran smoothly along the gun ports. It's hard to see, but there is a 1/64" space between the shear and the top of the transom. This allows for the cap rail to sit even with or slightly below the top of the transom, rather than above it. I planned for this in advance which might be something that you would consider doing. I sandwiched Three of those laser cut scroll pieces together rather than two which gives me more leeway as I add them to the hull.

Mike

I've been working on a number of things lately. .
 
The two inner stern frames where in need of some shortening as they were well above the top edge of the transom. I used a fine saw to make the cuts. I believe it's called a JLC razor Saw.


Then I added the 3/32" cap rail to the bow section. Actually, these were taken down with the thickness sander slightly thinner than 3/32". I did this so the top edge of the scroll molding would align with the cap rail in a smooth contour along the shear.

Then I scraped the 1/32" x 3/32" fancy molding for the outer hull. I went with a simple shape here.

Lower platforms (fore)
I went with Chuck's design for the Gauge which is needed when setting the depth of the beams inside the hull. What can I say other than it was easy to make and it worked perfectly.

The disc sander really comes in handy when making these beams, especially since they are boxwood. To establish the angles for each beam, I used a slightly shorter one than needed from scrap wood. Being shorter, I could hold it against one side of the hull and approximate the angles needed. Adjustments were made to the disc sander until I was sure that the final beam would work. For the most part things went smoothly with only a few throwaways. keep in mind that the beams should not only sit nicely against the frames, but also the tops should lay flat to one another for the planking.

Mike

With the beams in place I went ahead and made the bulkhead for the lower platform. I ripped some 3/64" x 5/16" strip for the planks and 1/8" square strips for the vertical support beams. I used a cardboard template in order to get the approximate shape needed for the outer edge of the bulkhead.
 
Then I added the carlings and ledges for the scuttle lids. I prefer to assemble these off the ship if at all possible. Then it's just a matter of shortening the length of the carlings to fit between the beams. Also, the ends of the carlings were angled slightly to match the angle of the deck.
 
As you can see in the fore most scuttle lid, I used an extra ledge just to aid in squaring the parts. I will remove it later.

Mike

You can try also making a stub mast on a spare flat piece of wood and practice the sizing that way. Archjofo has very good pictures how he does sizing with descriptive articles as well.

You can try also making a stub mast on a spare flat piece of wood and practice the sizing that way. Archjofo has very good pictures how he does sizing with descriptive articles as well.

Thanks Gary, the Alaskan Cedar is very nice to work with. It will sand to as smooth a finish as you want and it holds a clean edge. Very nice for making small parts and it takes heat bending without breaking as long as you take it slow. All in all I like it a lot. Joe at Modeler’s Sawmill is very good to deal with._

Good morning all,
Not a build update yet in the holiday period unfortunately. Family obligations… But I think quite as nice an update though from a trip to the south of England of me and my wife. We visited Rye, Falmouth, Bath, Canterbury, among others these holidays…
And ofcourse, on our way from Rye to Falmouth, we hád to stop in the very nice quiet village: Winchelsea!
Do you recognize the Viking / Norseman Ship in the municipal sign from our HMS Winchelsea stern ornament?
Cheers, Frank.

I bought that Chicago Tool for Christmas two years ago, then my dad got me a similar Amazon saw for birthday last year. Mine doesn't have the blade height adjusting feature as a cheaper model, but that would come super beneficial for this hobby.  
 
Brian D

Hello friends. With my limited abilities at this time to be working on the keel and ribs like I am wanting to, I have changed my focus for the time to the favorite topic of the gun carriages.  I have provided you a picture of the wheel chassis for one of the carronades. I found pieces of styrene that came molded in a square shape and filed away one of the sides. That provided me the opening for the wheels and the block of wood that I make still. Each of wheels are 1/16" wide, used a small diameter dowel I found in my workshop that proved the perfect size.  

What were the purposes of those green and red tanks near the aft of the superstructure if you know??
 
Great details and a finely produced ship model!!
 
Brian D

What were the purposes of those green and red tanks near the aft of the superstructure if you know??
 
Great details and a finely produced ship model!!
 
Brian D

I bought that Chicago Tool for Christmas two years ago, then my dad got me a similar Amazon saw for birthday last year. Mine doesn't have the blade height adjusting feature as a cheaper model, but that would come super beneficial for this hobby.  
 
Brian D

I bought that Chicago Tool for Christmas two years ago, then my dad got me a similar Amazon saw for birthday last year. Mine doesn't have the blade height adjusting feature as a cheaper model, but that would come super beneficial for this hobby.  
 
Brian D

I bought that Chicago Tool for Christmas two years ago, then my dad got me a similar Amazon saw for birthday last year. Mine doesn't have the blade height adjusting feature as a cheaper model, but that would come super beneficial for this hobby.  
 
Brian D

I bought that Chicago Tool for Christmas two years ago, then my dad got me a similar Amazon saw for birthday last year. Mine doesn't have the blade height adjusting feature as a cheaper model, but that would come super beneficial for this hobby.  
 
Brian D

What were the purposes of those green and red tanks near the aft of the superstructure if you know??
 
Great details and a finely produced ship model!!
 
Brian D

Thank you for the reply. I could have sworn it was in your blog, but I very well could be thinking of others I follow as well that are bigger ships

Enjoying following your blog on Speedwell, she is coming along very nice. I was noticing that both tackles were singles, so because of these guns being lighter in weight and caliber they wouldn't need the one tackle connecting to the hull as a double like you demonstrated on Winnie. Is this the correct understanding??
 
Brian D 

Just singles.  The guns were too small for needing doubles.  Those were only used on bigger guns.  The winnie only used singles on the guns as well.
 
Im not sure where you got the idea that doubles were used.  They are only used on the biggest guns.  The winnie has 12 pounders which would only have used singles also.

Enjoying following your blog on Speedwell, she is coming along very nice. I was noticing that both tackles were singles, so because of these guns being lighter in weight and caliber they wouldn't need the one tackle connecting to the hull as a double like you demonstrated on Winnie. Is this the correct understanding??
 
Brian D