bdgiantman2

Good news, JJ!
I look forward to updates on your build.

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

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

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 am about ready to start planking the deck. But before starting that I have been making drawings of the deck fittings (deck furniture in the olden days) to determine what parts I need to have made from 0.005 inch (0.13 mm) brass with photo etching. Here are some examples.
 
This is part of the blueprint for the stern roller chock. All of the minesweeping cables pass through the rollers or blocks attached to the "arms" of the top piece.
 

 
This is just a small part of a large blueprint that gives the dimensions of all individual parts and a complete parts list. From this I made a CAD drawing of the assembly, and from it I can make 2D scale drawings of all the parts. I will make the pieces from 0.010 and 0.015 inch (0.25 mm and 0.4 mm) brass and solder them together.
 

 
 
 
Some of the assemblies are more challenging. Here is a side drawing of the minesweeping winch (for towed sweeps to clear moored mines).
 

 
I have top and end drawings as well. However, these drawings only give dimensions for the entire assembly, to be used for planning the mounting arrangement on the deck. No detailed and dimensioned drawings of individual parts are given, and there is no parts list. So I have to do a lot of measuring and calculating to guess the dimensions of all the parts not shown. I do have some photos, but they don't show many parts of the assembly.
 
Here are pictures of how far I have gotten so far. The light brown parts are the wooden mounting base that sits on the deck. The red parts are work in progress for the metal base of the winch. The gray parts are finished. And the rollers on top are close to the natural colors of the reddish-brown polyester coating on the nonmagnetic metal rollers.
 

 
 
This assembly sits forward of the stern roller chock and aft of the much larger winches and reels for the magtail (magnetic mine sweep cable) and the acoustic mine sweep cable (another very complex assembly!). The magnetic and acoustic sweep cables ride on the two large rollers at the top of the frame. The three large reels below are for the two long cables (left and right) to the pigs (floats) for the towed sweeps for cutting the cables of moored mines. The narrower center reel is for a shorter cable that tows a "kite" close behind the ship that pulls the moored sweep cables down deep just aft of the stern so the cables carrying the mine cable cutters will run under the mines to cut their mooring cables. All of these cables run through the stern roller chocks shown above.
 
I do have separate detailed dimensioned drawings of the winch motor, and it is perhaps the most complex part of the assembly. But I have simplified it greatly, leaving off details of bolts and screws. On the model the motor will be about 0.73 inch (18.5 mm) long so the tiny details are too small to make. The whole winch assembly will be 1.7 inch (43 mm) high, 2.2 inch (56 mm) wide and 1.5 inch (37 mm) long. Most of the parts will be made of brass, but I may 3D print the gypsy heads (if I had a lathe I could turn them out of brass). It will be a nice little model in itself.
 
There are about 30 separate deck fittings on the model, so I am just getting started!
 

Thank you druxey.
I continue with the planking of the stern. First it was necessary to make another rather complicated part defining the extension of the sides at the stern. The part is "shaped" in all three axes and the production is quite complex.

Congratulations on getting the Albatros launched and fitted out. Your last post makes it sound like a series of unfortunate events but this has been one of the most educational logs I've read. You've shown that what started out long ago as a rather mediocre model can be turned into a work of art and an educational tool. Now you need to list all the things you did right! A much longer list, I bet!
 
 

The schooner has a flag! This means this build is finished!! At least for the vessel. I still need to make a better support stand.
 

 
The US used a fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag from 1795 to 1818. This is the original "Star Spangled Banner" from the War of 1812. I guess I had forgotten that the flag ever had more than 13 stripes - if I ever learned it. But I have a 15 stripe flag I received from the Buffalo New York, Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park to commemorate the War of 1812 - guess I never counted the stripes! As more states were added the flag returned to 13 stripes for the original colonies and more stars were added to the blue field for additional states.
 
I printed the flag on ordinary 24 pound printer paper, with the two sides on one side of the paper. It was folded over and glued together with white glue, with a strand of 0.008 inch (0.2 mm) rope captured in the fold. I made eyes in the rope at top and bottom, and tied the flag halliard to these eyes. The flag was folded over conical files to produce the curves in the flag. It didn't fare too well wit the folding and some of the printed ink flaked off. I had to do some touch up with colored markers.
 
Here are some photos of the finished model.
 

 
 

 
 
Port bow and midships views.
 

 
Quarterdeck view and the ship's 16 foot cutter.
 

 
Bow and stern views.
 

 
 
 
Fore top and fore topsail, and the main top and main gaff.
 

 
Topsails and a close-up of the main gaff yard topsail yard. Americans raised this yard almost vertical as shown, but the Europeans hoisted it nearly horizontal, with a trapezoidal sail that was almost square.
 

 
Port anchor being fished and the starboard anchor in the stowed position on the rail.
 

 
 
Pivot gun and the bowsprit and jib boom.
 

 
For now the build is finished. Someday I will get around to making a better stand for the model, and I will post more photos when that is done. But now I will be working on the MSI model.

The masts: 20 degrees inclination for the front mast, 10 degrees for the mizzen mast.
 

 

 
Yves

@shipman
@SaltyScot
Hello,
Thank you very much for the nice comments.
I'm very happy. Thanks also to everyone else for the many likes.
 
Continuation: Fore yard – Bowlines / Boulines
I've also since read up on the arrangement of the bowline bridles in the contemporary specialist literature "Manuel de Greement" by F. A. Coste from 1829, starting on page 167, and it fits. The only thing is that it refers to thimbles through which the individual rope limbs are threaded.
I also looked again in Marquardt, which also covers the rigging of French ships, although again only up to the end of the 18th century.
If I now incorporate the aforementioned contemporary illustrations from the early 19th century and models from the Paris Museum into my considerations, I come to the conclusion that the bowline bridles on my corvette could well have looked the way I have since attached them to the fore yard.


I can't clearly verify the attachment of the bowlines without sails for the French, as shown in the K. Schrage's book – Rundhölzer, Tauwerk und Segel – . But I think it's quite realistic that the French did it the same way as the British.
I'm currently building a jig to make rope coils for the belaying pins.
I imagine it might look like this:

More on that soon...

 

It's fun to see another builder in the West!   The prototype is looking fantastic.
 
Alan

Again I find another interesting blog way too late. You guys brought up many interesting views. The iron pigs mentioned have an interesting history as you well know and document. They are poorly smelted iron often poured into molds in the ground and would get very brittle after cooling. The pigs often measured about the same dimensions as Limber boards and weighed up to 92 lbs each. 
 
On my model of Brig Eagle, she is said to have been filled with iron pieces like the ones pictured. It's not sure how much a ship like the Eagle would have carried in the form of ballast. I've seen estimates that the Brigs Eagle and Niagara may well have weighed twice as much as the current Niagara in Lake Erie despite modifications like engines. Using the mentioned calculations of the limber boards, the distance between the masts measured 42 feet enabling 14 boards each side between masts, which comes out to one and a quarter tons just for that space. 
 
Brian D:)

Evening all
 
I have - finally - finished rigging the guns. I'm pretty happy for a first go.
 
I used Syren 5/32 single blocks,  0.050 Ultra tan rope for the breeching and 0.018 for the tackle. I formed a little "hands free" from brass strip with eyelets soldered near the top. The gap between the eyelets is 3.7mm which produced a "frapped" outhaul tackle which looks about right to my eye.
 

 
Here is one end of the tackle.

 

 
And this is the other.
 

 
And here they are in the hands free.
 

 
I put in a simple overhand (?) knot/twist.
 

 
And start "frapping". The brass strips have sufficient spring to provide a little tension and keep everything in place.
 

 
Then push the free end through the eye of the hook.
 

 

 
And tie it off.
 

 
Here are the rigged guns waiting to go on board.
 

 
It's a lot easier to fix the ring bolts to the rigging rope rather than the bulwarks.  I did not take a picture of the breeching rope but its just tied off underneath the gun barrel.
 

 
All the best everyone 
Fred

Hi All,
 
About to start a new build of the beautiful 50gun 4th rate HMS Portland of 1770, This kit has been developed by the Portland Scale Ship company based in Oregon USA.
 

Hi Greg, I’m currently getting going on a website, as soon as I have something I will post a link. Ben and Dusan are building two prototypes to prove the structural design and provide input while I build ahead and I’m still writing instructions. This is a massive model and the instructions are very long for chapter one. 

That is a very beautiful ship. Can't wait to watch this build and continue watching on yours @scrubbyj427

I finished the yacht last month. Here is the result:
 

The model is exhibited below the drawing hanging on the wall in my living room:

Emiel tried to match the pictures he took with the drawing. It looks as if I was not far off:

Once he is finished with his photoshop painting I will present the result.
 
 

Once again, like usual, I am late to the party on a fascinating model and blog. Ab, you have made another beautiful model, I've never tried modeling with card personally. Seeing the ketch version of same ship would be really cool to me as those rigs were so rare and unique.  My condolences with the many others here about the loss of extended family and your friend. 
 
Druxey, this is great news to hear about your co-writing this book about the Stuart yachts. I have Ab's book about the Dutch cargo yachts of that time and was wondering if there was going to come a civilian/VIP version even if there is scant information available. I have long admired ships such as Mary and the Utretch.  So many similarities in deck layouts and some internal features yet so many differences as well, especially length of the hull. An old book I have printed in Dutch about one of the statenjachts being built as a scale model, this one measured 79 ft long (which was recorded as a standard size of many such vessels) whereas the diving expedition to remains of Mary estimate her to be only 52 ft long. Those designs of that era are beautifully made, too bad so much history and information was either destroyed or never recorded. I look forward to this book of yours being published.

Good Sunday evening MSW.  I got a little done this week.
 
I decided there was no way I wouldn't break the stand if I glued it on now so decided to add it later.  I touched up the faux beam ends with black paint and moved onto the decking.
 
The kit comes with printed decking and exterior planking but that would be easy.  I did my usual plank preparation of cutting strips from my shrinking billet of holly and smoothed the rough side with my Veritas string thicknesser.  The decking is curved so the easiest way to replicate it was tracing the edge of the pre-printed decking onto my holly strip, smoothing to the traced line, and using my trusty compass to mark the width.  I cut the concave side with a scalpel, then smoothed with sanding sticks.  I like to mark my planks with a pencil triangle to keep track of order.  And when I inevitably drop one (or all of them) I can instantly recreate their order.

For anyone following this procedure be aware that the planks are not all exactly the same width - some of the middle ones are narrower than the others.  Not by much but if you want your decking to exactly match the printed version some fudging will be required.  I sanded each board as I went to match the curves as closely as possible, and used #2 pencil for caulking.  I also edge glued each board with yellow glue which has some gap-filling abilities.
 
Here is the deck after glue only.  I tried to match the spacing and width of the printed version as closely as possible. I know it looks rough.

After scraping the glue beads off I trimmed the edges back to almost flush (the Veritas mini plane is such an essential tool), sanded with sticks using 180, then 220 grit, then applied 2 coats of water based polyurethane.  Now it looks like below, which I'm happy with.

Also in the above pic I have added the interior planking.  The kit provides a single piece of AYC which could be glued in place; I choose to cut it into separate planks.  The bottom one I glued to the laser-cut spirkiting, making it thicker.  (Its a different colour in the above pic b/c its been polyurethaned while the planks above it haven't yet.)  On the top 3 planks I sanded the edges so they have a subtle bevel; I think the directions say to paint the inboard all red and I was worried the planking seams wouldn't show. 
 
And at present its all drying.  Next up is enlarging the inner planking holes so they match the gunport and sweep port holes, then planking the outside.
 
thanks for reading
 
Cisco

I received this kit close to the same time that you did. Haven't started constructing her yet with issues involving my Brig Eagle project, but also am wanting to attempt scratch build a similar design off the same plans. Will be following this with interest. 
 
Brian D

I received this kit close to the same time that you did. Haven't started constructing her yet with issues involving my Brig Eagle project, but also am wanting to attempt scratch build a similar design off the same plans. Will be following this with interest. 
 
Brian D

Once again, like usual, I am late to the party on a fascinating model and blog. Ab, you have made another beautiful model, I've never tried modeling with card personally. Seeing the ketch version of same ship would be really cool to me as those rigs were so rare and unique.  My condolences with the many others here about the loss of extended family and your friend. 
 
Druxey, this is great news to hear about your co-writing this book about the Stuart yachts. I have Ab's book about the Dutch cargo yachts of that time and was wondering if there was going to come a civilian/VIP version even if there is scant information available. I have long admired ships such as Mary and the Utretch.  So many similarities in deck layouts and some internal features yet so many differences as well, especially length of the hull. An old book I have printed in Dutch about one of the statenjachts being built as a scale model, this one measured 79 ft long (which was recorded as a standard size of many such vessels) whereas the diving expedition to remains of Mary estimate her to be only 52 ft long. Those designs of that era are beautifully made, too bad so much history and information was either destroyed or never recorded. I look forward to this book of yours being published.

I'm sorry, Rick, but that's a myth. The topic has been much debated, without a lot of firm conclusions, but it is certain that the more advanced yards (notably the Royal dockyards in Europe) built from designs draughted on paper from the 17th Century onwards and probably from the 16th too. By the late 18th, individual timbers were being drawn on paper, before being lofted. (Stalkartt's textbook of the 1780s details the methods.) Across The Pond, British shipwrights may never have used a (3-D) model-based design approach, not even in the small yards building vernacular coastal craft.
 
Starting the design process by shaping a block of wood into a half-model seems to have been specifically a 19th-Century, North American technique (preceded by doing much the same with "hawks nest" models -- which look a lot like a modern plank-on-bulkhead model before most of the planking goes on). That sort of model-based design worked well with familiar hull shapes, as experienced skippers could say that they wanted a new schooner much like one that the same shipwright had just built but with a bit more fullness here or there, a slightly deeper keel or whatever.
 
I'm beginning to wonder whether men of Donald McKay's time and stature draughted and faired the lines of their ships on paper, did all of the necessary displacement and stability calculations, then built a half-model so that they could get a look at the 3-D shape (much as modern naval architects do with CAD/CAM computers), with final modifications made on the half-model before it was sent to the mould loft.
 
Half-models made at that stage had other uses too. Museums have models of steel ships with the plating marked on. It was likely much easier to lay that out in 3D than working a plating diagram on paper. Could be good for laying out planking too.
 
And lastly, for now:
 
I think that what he meant was the final fairing of the lines was done in the loft, where it could be checked at full-scale, not 1:48. Messing with a design when your nose is up close to the chalk lines and you can't get an overall view would be risky! Then again, the absolutely final shaping of a wooden hull was and is done with an adze, when a futtock needs trimming before a plank will sit firmly in place.
 
 
Trevor

I’m following along with Olha’s build. I’ll probably fall behind at some point but will try to catch up when I can. First step is locating and labeling the parts for the bulkheads and the keel. As I mentioned, this kit has large plan sheets, including one with a full map of the sheets. Will copy the part numbers to the sheets. I won’t write the numbers on the parts because this model will be stained.