dafi

Next the barrels were continued. The number of hoops is interesting here. As an average layman, one would assume 4. However, Nelson's brandy leaguer shows a completely different number, and the double hoops are particularly interesting. I found several references to the fact that larger barrels have a double hoop at the top. So once again, nothing with once programming 1 barrel and scaling it to all sizes 😉

Each barrel format is unique, and I have attempted to develop a reasonably plausible number of hoops. After all, a 675-litre Leaguer weighs over 0.8 modern tonnes, so there is a considerable amount of self-weight to bear, especially during transport when dynamic forces are added.

The result was a nice family picture:



The 1.55-metre-high, 104-cm-diameter tun is the largest in the series, but I have not yet come across it in a maritime context, probably because it is too unwieldy. The smallest here is the firkin, with a capacity of 9 gallons, a height of 56 cm and a diameter of 43 cm. The powder keg on the Invincible has almost identical dimensions and, in my opinion, is a firkin with special hoops.

The picture clearly shows that the size range of the different sizes could be reasonably accurate. Using this overview picture, I was able to compare the shapes of the different sizes.


And here are the next samples of the barrels. The differentiation between the various number of hoops results in a pleasant visual impression for eye of the beholder 🙂

The selected sizes are, in descending order, leaguer, puncheon and hogshead, as these are always mentioned when stowing the hold, plus the kilderkin as it is a basic measure and the smaller firkin for boats and as the probable size of powder barrels.









The stacking in the boats is based on historical data, so special launches for first and second rates could hold 14 to 16 leaguers, which is a mere 8 to 10 modern tonnes in weight. I dare to doubt how much freeboard was left, but perhaps there wasn't as much heavy stuff in there as liquids ...





XXXDAn

And we continued with the lugger-rigged version of the large launch.

First came the masts. I took the measurements from W. E. May's summary, but they also correspond fairly closely to the French measurements. The strength of the lugger rig is its simplicity. Insert the pre-rigged mast, hook in the pairs of backstays on both sides with the standing end, hook the tackles in the middle, and belay the free end. The halyard of the sail is already sheared through in the masthead, so the sail is immediately hoisted, the tack, sheet and brail are secured, and off you go.



In my scrap box, I charmingly found a sample from my sandwich sail tests from 2017 – yes, I actually keep such things for that long – and the sizes I need fit quite well, even avoiding the messy areas. I developed the material back then to combine the advantages of fabric as an elastic material and paper for a more true-to-scale surface. Thin strips of restoration repair paper are ironed onto both sides of a layer of silk to create a sandwich that resembles closely the visual properties of the sails. It is also unbeatable for folding and stowing. However, at the time, I did not yet have a model that was ready for me to use it on ...




I took the angles from Steel's drawings, but I had to mark the radius at the bottom – one of the differences to French sails – with a pen and thread, as the radius is larger than my templates.



I shortened the furled sails by approx. 25%, i.e. below the lower reefing band, which I had also omitted for this purpose.

The surrounding leech was glued on and the eyes for the brails were added.



If necessary, I'll even clamp a sail in a vice 😉



And then it was time to fold and fiddle around.



And then it was adjusted to fit the storage space.




Together with the masts in place looks quite cheerful and full. Two barrels have also found their way there. Who can find them?







It's great to finally be able to use the sails developed eight years ago in a model myself. Some modeling friends have already impressively demonstrated their potential. Thank them for that.

And I'm already testing out the next crazy ideas for my boat collection...




XXXDAn
 
 
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

Thank you very much for commenting. the zulu is already finished, just in the absence of the showcase manufacturing.
 
Javier

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

At the same time, work continued on the boats, especially on the 32-foot launch.

The nice thing about printing is that you can simply repeat, so suddenly there were 4 hulls in front of me. What am I supposed to do with them again?


The little devilish voice inside me then came immediately: Build it! Build it!

Well, that's the way it happened.


Here are the 4 steps of the interior: Priming black to prevent flashes, dark brown for the inner body, thin black ink for depth and usage, and white drybrush to bring out the textures again.

On the other hand, I painted the interior parts with a lighter shade of brown, inked and brushed them to emphasise them a little. It could also have been interpreted as different wood.

But when I looked at it ...



... and compared it with the first launch at the front in a completely lighter colour ...

... it looked too much like a toy to me, and the dafi had to do what it does best - tear it down! - and everything flew out again ...


... and the inside of the boats has been coloured lighter. Fits much better now http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif


Here is a picture showing how the barrels fit - that's easily over 7 tonnes of weight -, in the middle the rowing version, and the third one still without thwarts , where you can see the height of the stretchers above the inner floor. Then you can also see that the rowers' feet would otherwise have been hanging in the air and intensive pulling would not have been so successful.

So that I don't always get the thwarts mixed up, I have given them markings on the underside. The stretchers too, by the way.

XXXDAn

And once again I've made a mistake. This drawing from 1815 shows the loading of the large launch with barrels of drinking water.



And so, of course, I had to know how big the barrels were in order to put them in my launch. These large barrels are so-called Leaguers with the equivalent of 480 liters. So with wood, they weigh over half a ton. And then 14 of them in the boat, making well over 7 tons.

The research was somewhat difficult, as the volumes are often mentioned, but not the exact dimensions. In the meantime, I have researched the sizes of the whole family more or less reliably, so that I was able to start on the models.

Here are the 3 sizes for the model: Leaguer 480 liters, Puncheon 318 liters, Hogshead 200 liters and a small powder keg. Each in three parts, as I don't want the supports to be visible as usual.



Family picture with avatar.



And after priming and inking came the challenge: blackening the hoops.





At the back right was with the brush. On a good day, I get a few hoops, but then it's all over. Okay, that wasn't a particularly good day anyway. So I tried the back left with a felt-tip pen, which was better, but still uneven and above all an unpleasant metallic-reddish sheen.

And in front a completely different approach, because I remembered that the prints are made of black resin. I quickly tried to see if sanding the hoops worked, and lo and behold ...



... it works like a charm!



The powder keg was given its copper hoops and light-colored withy rings and joined the others. No iron hoops on purpose, because they could cause sparks and that would be really stupid. The copper is also nicely embedded between the withy rings so that it doesn't stick out. There are wonderful artifacts showing this, recovered from the HMS Invincible, which sank in 1758.

And that brings us very close to what I wanted 🙂

XXXDAn

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

More on the casks soon :-)
 
In the meantime, a whole small flotilla has emerged from my 32-foot launch 🙂



The 7-oared pinnace is in a race with the fully loaded 14-oared launch, which has to pull the fully loaded launch with the water barrels. Next to it is another boat with fully stowed equipment and one where the launch is helping to weigh anchor. And of course a setting with set sails. Always the same hull, but with different contents and task each time. More on the individual deployment options soon. It remains exciting.

Here is the comparison one more time ...



... of the single-banked pinnace with the rowers always sitting on the opposite side ...



... and the double-banked 32-foot launch.


And another little tip on the technical side:

And I always propagate not to cold bend resin parts. After painting, the oars got quite a bend in the shaft. That's why I briefly dipped the parts in hot water.



You could really see how the parts straightened out in the water within 2-3 seconds by themselves. Like memory metals, really strong 🙂

The bent parts at the top and the hot-bathed and straightened parts at the bottom. The fact that the far left side still has a bend is not a mistake, but the curved rudder blades of the small and medium-sized boats.

XXXDAn

And I still have 2 boat shells.

... what do I do now, what do I do now ...
 


 

Hello Sbdyess5, have a look there 🙂
 
XXXDAn

At the same time, work continued on the boats, especially on the 32-foot launch.

The nice thing about printing is that you can simply repeat, so suddenly there were 4 hulls in front of me. What am I supposed to do with them again?


The little devilish voice inside me then came immediately: Build it! Build it!

Well, that's the way it happened.


Here are the 4 steps of the interior: Priming black to prevent flashes, dark brown for the inner body, thin black ink for depth and usage, and white drybrush to bring out the textures again.

On the other hand, I painted the interior parts with a lighter shade of brown, inked and brushed them to emphasise them a little. It could also have been interpreted as different wood.

But when I looked at it ...



... and compared it with the first launch at the front in a completely lighter colour ...

... it looked too much like a toy to me, and the dafi had to do what it does best - tear it down! - and everything flew out again ...


... and the inside of the boats has been coloured lighter. Fits much better now http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif


Here is a picture showing how the barrels fit - that's easily over 7 tonnes of weight -, in the middle the rowing version, and the third one still without thwarts , where you can see the height of the stretchers above the inner floor. Then you can also see that the rowers' feet would otherwise have been hanging in the air and intensive pulling would not have been so successful.

So that I don't always get the thwarts mixed up, I have given them markings on the underside. The stretchers too, by the way.

XXXDAn

Hello Sbdyess5, have a look there 🙂
 
XXXDAn

At the same time, work continued on the boats, especially on the 32-foot launch.

The nice thing about printing is that you can simply repeat, so suddenly there were 4 hulls in front of me. What am I supposed to do with them again?


The little devilish voice inside me then came immediately: Build it! Build it!

Well, that's the way it happened.


Here are the 4 steps of the interior: Priming black to prevent flashes, dark brown for the inner body, thin black ink for depth and usage, and white drybrush to bring out the textures again.

On the other hand, I painted the interior parts with a lighter shade of brown, inked and brushed them to emphasise them a little. It could also have been interpreted as different wood.

But when I looked at it ...



... and compared it with the first launch at the front in a completely lighter colour ...

... it looked too much like a toy to me, and the dafi had to do what it does best - tear it down! - and everything flew out again ...


... and the inside of the boats has been coloured lighter. Fits much better now http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif


Here is a picture showing how the barrels fit - that's easily over 7 tonnes of weight -, in the middle the rowing version, and the third one still without thwarts , where you can see the height of the stretchers above the inner floor. Then you can also see that the rowers' feet would otherwise have been hanging in the air and intensive pulling would not have been so successful.

So that I don't always get the thwarts mixed up, I have given them markings on the underside. The stretchers too, by the way.

XXXDAn

And once again I've made a mistake. This drawing from 1815 shows the loading of the large launch with barrels of drinking water.



And so, of course, I had to know how big the barrels were in order to put them in my launch. These large barrels are so-called Leaguers with the equivalent of 480 liters. So with wood, they weigh over half a ton. And then 14 of them in the boat, making well over 7 tons.

The research was somewhat difficult, as the volumes are often mentioned, but not the exact dimensions. In the meantime, I have researched the sizes of the whole family more or less reliably, so that I was able to start on the models.

Here are the 3 sizes for the model: Leaguer 480 liters, Puncheon 318 liters, Hogshead 200 liters and a small powder keg. Each in three parts, as I don't want the supports to be visible as usual.



Family picture with avatar.



And after priming and inking came the challenge: blackening the hoops.





At the back right was with the brush. On a good day, I get a few hoops, but then it's all over. Okay, that wasn't a particularly good day anyway. So I tried the back left with a felt-tip pen, which was better, but still uneven and above all an unpleasant metallic-reddish sheen.

And in front a completely different approach, because I remembered that the prints are made of black resin. I quickly tried to see if sanding the hoops worked, and lo and behold ...



... it works like a charm!



The powder keg was given its copper hoops and light-colored withy rings and joined the others. No iron hoops on purpose, because they could cause sparks and that would be really stupid. The copper is also nicely embedded between the withy rings so that it doesn't stick out. There are wonderful artifacts showing this, recovered from the HMS Invincible, which sank in 1758.

And that brings us very close to what I wanted 🙂

XXXDAn

Hello Sbdyess5, have a look there 🙂
 
XXXDAn

Not much of an update but after idling my time away playing with the printer and then doing nothing for a month, I felt in need of building something using tools. Nothing too ambitious mind you which ruled out the yards. I had a notion to display one of the ships boats being hoisted aloft in the rigging as though it was being launched. If I did, I thought I should include some cargo for added interest. A few barrels sprung to mind as the ship’s boats were often used to ferry barrels ashore to be replenished with fresh water. Lavery notes that the ships were provisioned with 6 month’s worth of food but only 3 months of water meaning the captain would have to stop off near some handy water source to fill up his barrels.  May has a copy of a contemporary drawing showing a 33ft launch filled with 14 leaguers. These are the largest standard barrel carried and have a capacity of 150 gallons. I have often wondered why only some thwarts have knees and it seems that those without are removable to allow the loading of cargo. The whole arrangement looks somewhat like a theoretical maximum as I cannot imagine it would be all that easy to pilot that boat through heavy seas with that amount of cargo. At least it gave me a dimension for the barrel which was a start.
 

Lavery has a handy contemporary drawing showing the placement of casks in the hold of the frigate Artois, sister ship to the Diana. This shows that it did indeed carry leaguers and confirmed the dimensions shown in May. 
 

Given the leaguers dimensions of 4ft. 6in. height and a diameter of 3ft. round the middle I started off with a 15mm diameter beech dowel. This was inserted in the lathe and then reduced to a 14.2mm diameter and divided up into five 21.4mm sections in the hope that I would get at least one barrel out of the five. I then bevelled the ends at 7.85 degrees. This was the first failure as the markings on the lathe that I thought were degrees turned out not to be. Angle corrected I proceeded with the rest. These sharp angles were then softened into a barrel shape with sandpaper.
 

 


I scored lines along the length of the barrel using a scalpel to imitate the staves. There should be upward of 30 staves to a barrel but as the beech was quite hard, I only included 15 as it was tricky to accomplish and you are guaranteed to jab the scalpel into your palm every 12 or so staves. I milled out grooves to countersink the metal hoops which I made from styrene strip painted black. A recess was milled in the top and bottom to simulate the lid and I rubbed charcoal dust into the stave grooves to give them more prominence. I gave the barrel a stain of walnut and stuck in a cut off toothpick for the bung.
 


 

Once it was placed into the Jolly boat prototype the crew were heard to comment that they needed a bigger boat.
 

There is a drawing in Lavery that shows a layout of a launch carrying 12 of the smaller butts which are only 108 gallons. They note that a first rate launch can carry 14 butts but a third rate only 12. I decided that perhaps butts were the way to go. I found a table in Steel where he gives the overall dimensions of the various types of casks stored on a ship so I used these for the smaller barrel which turned out to be 20.6mm in length and 12.9mm diameter around the middle. As the beech dowel was quite hard to work with, I used a different wood for the butts. I found it in a drawer so I do not know what the timber was but it was a lot softer. Probably too soft. It was easier to score the grooves for the staves though so I increased the number to 24. The barrel was made pretty much the same way as the leaguer but I used a smaller styrene strip for the metal hoops. I really needed something a bit smaller and thinner but they do not seem to make strip of the dimensions I required and cutting them out of larger sheets proved to be too frustrating and inconsistent.
 




The end result was a bit shaky but sat more comfortably in the Jolly boat so should be even better in the launch if I ever get round to building it. I do not think that twelve casks would be all that practical though and a rough measure with the scale rule would seem to suggest that six is crowded enough.
 






 

 
 
 

A bit of a hiatus between posts but I had some vacation time and after coming back I found it hard to overcome the inertia.
 
The mizzen mast is much like the fore and main but with some subtle changes which means I will have to be on my toes lest I miss them. The sling is the same configuration but the diameter of the rope is only 0.5mm. The jeer blocks are lashed to the head in a different manner and must be installed after the shrouds are in place so that they sit snugly on top of the shroud pile. The first bit of rigging encountered are the burton pendants and these are a pair of singles rather than twin doubles. The rope is 0.5mm served dark brown. Luckily, I had used the 0.5mm diameter rope while bungling the fore pendants. These were replaced using a larger diameter rope that allowed me to recycle and repurpose these first attempts for the mizzen.
 
Once I had fixed the top with strong epoxy, I noticed that it had a bit of a slant to port. I somewhat optimistically thought that I could correct this by giving it a good twist but just succeeded in demolishing the crosstrees and the whole assembly came tumbling down. I managed to salvage the pieces and then added a shim to the top of the port bib to straighten things out. I had to rebuild the top insitu but, with lashings of CA and structural paint, it mostly went back together again.
 

Shrouds were added in the traditional manner although they were 0.8mm diameter with 3mm diameter deadeyes. Steel calls for the lanyards to be 0.32mm so I used 0.35mm rope which was the closest I had. I struggled to get the deadeyes to line up and I had to cut out some lashings and retie on multiple occasions. Still not perfect but good enough.
 



Ratlines were slightly less onerous seeing as there are only two pairs of shrouds and a swifter to attach to which is a great saving in clove hitches but the same amount of cow hitches which I find are not as fun as a clove hitch.
 

I had to order some more rope from Ropes of Scale as I had not initially planned on using the 0.25mm diameter for my ratlines and the fore and main masts chewed through my existing stock. I thought that I had enough for the mizzen but ran out half way down so there were more delays as I waited for Canada Post to bring reinforcements. The rope duly arrived which allowed me to finish the lower mizzen ratlines.

Futtock staves, futtock shrouds and catharpins were all similar to the other masts albeit in smaller diameters and fewer numbers. Futtock shrouds are 0.5mm diameter. I used 0.85mm diameter black annealed wire for the futtock staves compared to the 1.0mm I used for the fore and main masts.
 


 

While I was waiting for the rope to complete the lower mizzen rigging, I started to repaint the window frames at the quarter galleries. I had originally painted these white but it was a bright titanium white that was not in keeping with the overall look of the ship. I am going over these with a white that has been coloured with a splash of yellow ochre. I have just started this task and it already looks a lot better but painting these in situ is not the easiest. It is further complicated by my not being able to turn the ship upside down now that I have the masts in place. I am still not happy with the faux caryatids but I am at a bit of a loss as to how to improve these. I will extend the base down to the lower moulding though as that seems achievable and will make them look more grounded at least.
 

To break the tedium of window frame painting I thought I would have another stab at a ship's boat. I had covered the trials and tribulations of my first efforts in an earlier post but I was not happy with how they turned out. I was looking for futtocks that were closer to the actual dimensions used but had to go with larger sections due to structural concerns and the limitations of my current 3D printing setup. I was reading a book about whaleboat construction and they had a photograph of the futtocks being shaped over formwork. I figured I could use a similar arrangement for the small boat construction. If I introduced a form at each futtock location that would give the thinner member enough support while I finished the planking. Once the planking was in place it would theoretically have enough structural integrity to hold its shape. The poor quality of the printed members would have to be lived with unless I invested in a new resin printer. I could possibly disguise some of the shortcomings with lashings of paint. I got CADDing and knocked out the parts for the jolly boat as this is the smallest boat which would theoretically be the most challenging. I made a base that would accept the formwork pieces. I added a number/letter to each of these so that I would not get confused and insert them in the wrong slots.





The printed futtocks are incredibly delicate and I dare not give them a hard stare less they wilt. These were then inserted into slots milled into a 1.5mm thick walnut keel. Once they are draped over the temporary formwork though they are quite robust and can stand up to some vigorous planking. The ears that secure them to the base will be cut off once planked to allow the hull to be lifted free from the formwork. I think that it is a viable construction technique for those that are better hull plankers than I.





As this is a 18ft cutter (jolly boat) I had to approximate the clinker construction. For accuracy the actual planks would scale to around 0.3mm x 2.2mm in section. I used some pear I had lying around although this is slightly thicker at 0.4mm and I cut the planks around 2.5mm wide. Close enough for my clumsy tolerances, however, using these tiny planks did not go as smoothly as it did in my mind. After the first few planks there was noticeable asymmetry and for me it was not practical to go down the tick mark and spiled plank route given the tiny size and my short attention span, so I resorted to eyeballing things which resulted in a bit of a mess. I ended up with one more strake on the starboard side compared to the port much to my embarrassment.
 




Once I cut it from the formwork, I noticed that the planking had fought against the tight radius of the hull and was pulled away from the top of the futtocks. I attempted to mitigate this by introducing a thicker wash strake but it was not a complete success and would still require some distortion to be applied to the head of the futtocks to close the gap.
 


As it us a prototype I applied a rough paint job and fitted the inside with gratings and footwalling salvaged from a previous prototype just to see how it looked. I added the thwarts and various other bits and bobs to see how the rest of the details worked and to test out some colour combinations. I did not bother finishing it and some of the elements are held in place with blu-tack. I suppose it is not the jolliest of boats but it is quite cute.
 







I have lost count but I think this is Jolly Boat prototype number five. I have noticed that each of these prototypes has been an improvement on the previous version so given an infinite amount of time and patience I would theoretically eventually end up with an acceptable product. I think that going forward I will either have to bite the bullet and get a new printer or just order one of the Vanguard mini kits. The 1:64 scale is not my friend in this endeavour.



A lot of running in place but some progress nonetheless. I do not know if I should continue with the masts or mix it up with some yard construction or perhaps even have another stab at another ship's boat prototype. Given how long it has taken me to progress the first ship's boat I think that I will limit the complement to three boats down from the five mooted in May. I am thinking the jolly boat, the 26 ft yawl and the 32 ft pinnace. That would give me a one of each type and I could mount two on the skid beams and have one hoisted in the rigging as if being launched. That way I will not totally obscure all the detail of the upper deck with shabby looking boats but I reserve my right to change my mind at the last minute.
 
 
 
 

A minor update. I decided to press on and get the last bits and pieces of the launch out the way. These were the breasthook, windlass and rudder. They are fiddly little pieces that take a lot more time than their size would suggest. I did not have maple of sufficient thickness for the windlass so I ended up sandwiching three thinner pieces together. This was a particularly annoying piece to make. I cut the chamfers on the milling machine but it was one of those pieces where one false move out of the countless moves meant that I would have to chuck it out and start again. This happened on more than one occasion. Fitting it into the hull was also quite challenging but I used some thin-walled brass tube for the housing and brass rod for the axle to ensure that it does indeed turn. I drilled a hole in the side mounting block and then glued the first one in place and the fitted the second one along with the windlass. I had some problems with my geometry but I am not going to worry too much about it as it is pretty much hidden by boat structure. Handles were shaped out of 1.2x1.2mm maple.
 




It took several goes for the breasthook as no matter how I orientated it I was always left with a terminal weakness due to the grain of the wood. I persevered and eventually got one that did not snap in two which sadly was not the shapeliest one.
 

I fashioned the rudder and then tried a new tiller arrangement. I carved this out of a block of walnut. It looks quite clunky but I was a bit fearful of thinning it down even more as it was very fragile and I felt that it was about to snap with every pass of the file. It might be a piece more suited to 3D printing. I have yet to settle on the pintle and gudgeon detail. They are too fragile and I keep knocking them off. I may have to resort to epoxy.
 




Another piece of equipment that I added at this time was the boat hook. I had previously made one on the CAD according to the size of a historical example but this turned out to be far too small to be printed out successfully so I had to exaggerate the dimensions to get something workable. I doubled the size but this looked a tad overscaled when sat next to my trusty sailor. I wanted something more in keeping with the example shown in the famous 17th Century Rembrandt Van Rijn painting. This is over 100 years earlier than my version but I suspect that boat hook technology did not advance much as the hook on the end of a pole concept is hard to improve on. You can buy similar models today although newfangled aluminium telescopic poles are now de rigueur.



I tried to print out a smaller version, which was the devil to work with, but I am happier with the result. I initially printed it out all in one piece with head and handle but then decided it would look better if I printed the head separately and made the pole out of wood. I thinned out a toothpick to around 0.8mm diameter using sandpaper on the lathe. This equates to two-inch diameter in real life which is not outrageous. I made them around 2.4m long or just a shade under 40mm. I printed out 42 of the smaller heads and managed to safely release only 9 from the support raft and lost 3 of those to over-exuberant tweezer action and another two mysteriously vanished leaving me with a paltry four that made it onto their poles.
 



I had noticed that during some of BlueEnsigns build logs he populates his craft with a scale seated sailor figure to check the height of the thwarts and to see if everything is in place. Not wishing to over capitalise on the build, I thought that I could probably find a similar seated figure online for free and then print it out at home. I admit that I did not spend too much time searching but the only free seated figure I could find was a well-heeled Japanese lady. I figured that it would suffice for my purposes so I printed out a few to sit about in the boats and test out the equipment. Please note that this is just an exercise to check the scale of the built elements so I hope there will be no lectures about how it would be highly unlikely that an 18th century ship's boat would be crewed by posh Japanese ladies in high heels.



 
It was a fun but quite useful exercise as it gave a good illustration of the size of the boats and the heft of the equipment that I had produced. I had initially thought that this equipment too delicate but it turns out that I am erring on the beefy side. I am not going to do anything about it as I am at the limit of what I can produce with my shaky hands. I may have to consider the jump to 1:48 scale should I ever get round to finishing this ship and starting another.
 






 

 
 

After completing most of the work in the jolly boat I had the urge to do something other than another small boat but much like washing the dishes or writing the minutes of meetings it is always best if you leap on to them straight away and not let them fester otherwise, they will never get done. I therefore decided to try and build the remaining three small boats concurrently. That way I would be able to capitalise on the recently acquired knowledge while it is still fresh in my mind and I should hopefully be able to get a good rhythm going and muscle through all the CAD work and then have a couple of days devoted to printing rather than doing it piecemeal thereby tripling the amount of cleaning of equipment.
 
I was on the fence as to whether or not to include the 24ft cutter but decided to press ahead and build it. I can then make the call later if I should install it. The basic techniques for the additional boats are pretty much the same as the jolly boat although every time I make another one, I tweak the 3D models somewhat to try and overcome difficulties encountered in previous attempts. I noticed that the formwork for the jolly boat started to bow as it sat on the desk. As I am new to the resin printing world I do not know if this is because the base is too thin to resist the stresses of curing or if the base is too thick and the mass of resin is imparting additional stresses during the curing process. To attempt to mitigate this I added some fanciful engineering to the base of the formwork to hopefully keep this straight. This did not work perfectly in practice so I have come up with some other ideas to achieve a better success rate if I should ever again attempt a small boat. This new technique would involve adding metal or wood stiffeners as soon as the print was free of the support structure. The 3D model would be modified to accommodate these.
 

 

 
 
 


 
 

The cutter is just a slightly bigger version of the jolly boat but with slight modifications to the floor and grating. I had been thinking about how to tackle the pintles and gudgeons on the jolly boat and it is causing me no end of headaches. BlueEnsign has some good information on how these work in one of his build logs with the longer lower pintle that facilitates installation in rough seas. It occurred to me that I could save myself a step if I included the fixing points in the 3D model which should help with stability and accuracy. I figured I could make the pintles out of 0.5mm diameter brass rod inserted into 1mm diameter thin-walled brass tube. It is very easy to draw this but building it will be a lot more difficult given the tiny scales and I doubt that I will be able to achieve acceptable gaps and tolerances between the keel and the rudder. Once the model has been printed out the fixing point is a microscopic blob of resin. Once you zoom in using the magnifier function on the phone you can see that all the detail is there. It is just not visible to the naked eye.
 

 




The launch is a different beast from the previous cutters. It seems to have wider spaced futtocks that are slightly beefier. The breadth is nearly 8 feet so I am making this one double banked. There is also a lot of additional equipment with the windlass and davit and it is carvel built rather than clinker. Lucky there are no gratings which are a pain to draw but it does mean that I will have to do some in-situ planking later so swings and roundabouts.
 
The 32ft pinnace is also carvel built but closer to the cutter in terms of the distribution and size of the futtocks. It is quite narrow so will be single banked. The drawings in the AOTSD show a bench running down the middle. I have noticed in some drawings and models that there are small posts that sit on the keelson and support the thwarts. I am not sure that I will include these. The detailing of the pinnace looks like the most complicated of the three and will need some further study.
 
Although quite tedious I sat down and built the three basic structural models as well as the formwork upon which they will sit. I printed out two of each as there is a lot of potential for breakage when liberating the models from the temporary support structure. The total print time for everything was just over 18 hours so it is a two-day exercise which works out quite nicely as I am using two different types of resin.
 
I had to clear a space on a desk to keep all the pieces segregated before I started on the assembly as I did not want to get them muddled up.
 

I had the idea of completing all three hull planking exercises at once. The advantage of doing all three at once is that you can paint them all in a production line which is a good saving in time over than doing them one by one. The disadvantage as it turned out is that all of the hull planking at one go is too much for me to stomach so after planking the launch I decided to carry on building the rest of it to break up the monotony. I used the same basic colour scheme as the jolly boat except with a black identification stripe. The washboards are looking a bit tentative though, so I will revisit those later. As it is so much larger than the jolly boat the area of white hull is giving me palpitations. I probably should have left some of the planks au naturel and just painted below the waterline but too late for that now.
 






I used the oak stained maple for the footwalling but went for a slightly thicker plank as the in-scale version was prone to disintegration. There are no gratings but there is some steensheet footwalling which was also made from the maple.
 


The AOTSD drawings do not show any lifting ringbolts but these are present in all the other small boats so I am inclined to blame a lazy draughtsperson for their omission and included them on the model.

The rising and thwarts are also maple. May notes that the main thwart is wider and thicker than the rest. This is a detail too far for me so I kept the same thickness throughout but increased the width of the main thwart. I did make them fancy three-piece thwarts though but you really have to peer closely to pick this detail up.
 




The overall shape of the launch is causing me some concern. I have been dutifully following the dimensions set out in the AOTSD drawings but it looks quite beefy in the backside and quite deep dish. I was wondering if I had bungled spectacularly in transposing the dimensions in the CAD process but when I lay it over the drawings it does match up so it may be that I just overdosed on the Jolly boat shape after building so many prototypes.
 
I knocked up the davit and support structure out of maple with wire simulating the bolts. The sheave was lathed out of some 2.5mm diameter brass rod with a 0.5mm diameter brass axle.
 


I added the transom knees and the various steps. I then tried to replace the washboards with some that are slightly thicker although the demolition phase caused much grinding of teeth and destruction of parts of the model that were not slated for demolition. It ended up a bit of a bodge. Still looked a bit funny so I added some reinforcement pieces at the rowlocks, which is a detail I have seen before, to tidy this up.



 
Knees were installed on the fixed thwarts. I was dithering about which anchor to include
I was going to use the 78lb version as it is quite a hefty craft but Lavery hints that these boats would be equipped with a 40lb version. I may go with my smallest one which is 54lb but there is not much visual difference between the two to be sure.


 
I must add the breasthook and then tackle the windlass which looks like quite a fiddly little exercise. I also need to print out some additional oars as I only have four of the 19ft versions although while poring over the drawings of the windlass I noticed that I will not be able to present it with the oars laid across the thwarts as the windlass sits above the level of the thwarts. Perhaps I will leave off the launch oars in the final setup.
 





I still need to touch up the paint job but I think I will move on to one of the remaining two boats for a change of pace but the fleet is growing albeit slowly.