Erik W

This week I've been in assembly line mode with fashioning the breech ropes and attaching them to the carronades, and then attaching the carronades to the deck. Chuck's advice on the seizings above has been invaluable for a newby like me. Six down, four to go . . . *note: It looks like I'm using different color red paint. It's the same bottle of Vallejo red I've used all along, but I've noticed it looks more orange when newly applied, but for some reason darkens to more red over time. Weird. At any rate, when not under the bright glare of a closely positioned halogen light for photos, the variation is not noticeable to the naked eye. Erik

Chuck, When you came up with the rope list for the Cheerful, did you figure in extra rope, like you did extra wood with the wood list? And I just made my 3rd breech rope following your method above. Much less frustrating, and it took about 35 minutes total, compared to 1 1/2 hours for the last breech rope I made. And no pulling out the seizings and starting over. Erik

Chuck, Thank you so much!! I'm glad to see you also posted this tutorial on your Speedwell log. This needs a wider audience. This step by step tutorial is exactly what I needed. I had done my second breech rope yesterday, which turned out well, but I still was fumbling around with how to best hold/secure the breech rope and seizing thread while making the seizings. So far my outcomes have been fine, but the process of fumbling through it has been super irritating. So this will help a lot. Also, I did have the thought that because rigging is new to me, and unlike any other modeling skill I've mastered over the decades, I'm feeling that beginner frustration with how to best approach it. At least my finished product looks good. I just now need to develop the skill set to venture forth confidently. Thanks again Chuck. I really do appreciate it! Erik

Mike, I appreciate your super clean planking. It's always been an inspiration for me. Good luck healing from the Mohs. The worst is behind you. I've had a few skin cancer surgeries, including Mohs. It's never fun, but always a relief to have the problem removed. Erik

Thanks for the feedback guys! Peter, Thanks for the advice. I rigged up a temporary tool with a alligator clip on a wood block. Chuck, If you have time, I'd appreciate any photos you can post of your method. Todd, My cap squares were made from strips of black construction paper with the hinge being represented by 24 gauge wire. Low tech, but they actually look pretty good. Glenn, Yes! I had actually seen the helping hand you used in your post on the breech rope. As I get closer to the main rigging phase, I'll definitely keep those in mind. Thanks all, Erik

It's been a nerve wracking week . . . I started rigging the carronades, haha. This represents a milestone on this build for me. It's my first rigging done on the Cheerful. Rigging is the element of this hobby I have the least experience with, and really don't feel like I know what I'm doing, so I'm actually quite nervous as I tackle this part of the build. Taking a page from Mike's (Stuntflyer) Cheerful build log, I made a 3/32" (.010") spacer to put between the bulwarks and the front gun carriage wheels in order to get the spacing uniform as I attach them to the deck. Chuck's monograph, and build log posts, were spot on for making the breech rope. I manged to get the first one, pictured below, made on the first try. My seizings need a bit of work, but these early attempts are fine. The more I do, the better they'll get. Since the gun tackles will be positioned directly above them I'm not too worried about them being less than perfect. I'd like some advice from you folks with rigging experience. What, if anything, are you using to hold the rope when you seize the ends of it? I don't have anything currently to hold on to the main rope, so what you see below was done while simply holding it in my hands. This was quite awkward, not ideal, and I could tell I was at least one holding point short of what what I needed. Thanks, Erik

Thanks for the likes and positive comments. Nirvana, thanks for the link to the UMM flush cutters. I hadn't seen those before. Erik

The carronades and cannons are now finished and ready to be rigged. I applied a black primer/paint coat over the self etching primer. And then dusted them with a dark rust weathering powder (hard to see in these photos). In the last photo they are just temporarily set into place. Erik

It's been a bit over a month since I've posted anything. So consider this as a bit of a proof-of-life post. Haha. I spent 2 ½ weeks traveling around Hokkaido, Japan. That was a lot of fun. Japan is a great place to travel. While home, I have been working on Cheerful. I made a ton of small eye bolts for the gun carriages. I also broke out the airbrush and painted the gun carriages. This morning I primed the brass cannons and carronades. I'll spray them black tomorrow. Here are a couple of quick photos of the progress. Erik

Thanks for all the likes on my last post. For this week I finished the bow cannons, made the 12 quoin handles, and drilled and added the extra bolts on the gun carriages. Since these will all be painted I went ahead and used .020" styrene rod. It's easier to work with and cut than wire. The bolts stand proud of the surface by .010", which looks good to my eye. I made a quick jig out of .010" thick styrene, and then cut the bolt heads flush with my superb PBL flush cutters (one of the highest quality, best tools I own, and sadly long discontinued - the cutting surface edges are very precise and produce an absolutely perfect flush cut). The last step before the carriages will be painted is to drill the eye bolt holes (with the eye bolts to be added at a later time) and do a bit of clean up and filling where needed. This will probably be my last update for some time. I have family coming into town next week, and then I head off to Hokkaido, Japan to explore for a while. Erik

This is a beautiful model. I've been following your build closely. I didn't realize until the very end that this was your first wooden ship build. As I am approaching the rigging phase of my Cheerful (also my first wooden ship build), I plan on referencing all your posts on rigging. That's probably the part of my build that I'm most nervous about. I don't want to screw things up this far into the project! At any rate, your inspiring Alert shows whats possible to achieve as a beginner. Erik

I've been working on the cannonades the last few weeks. This type of purely repetitive part of modeling is definitely not one of my favorites. Cleaning the char off the first one, and then assembling it was interesting. The other 9, not so much. Haha. It gives me new found respect for you folks building large ships of the line! The objective at this point was to get these as near identical to one another as possible. They need post-assembly clean up after I also build the 2 bow cannons. I'm planning on air brushing the carriages. This will be much less time consuming than hand painting them. Erik

I spent the week making 17 belaying pins using my Dremel tool. While it's not too difficult to make one belaying pin, trying to make a bunch that are identical proved to be impossible. Glad I'm done with that step! They turned out pretty good anyway. I remind myself that once all is said and done, there will be rope placed around all of them, so any variations in shape that are visible now, won't be able to be seen then. Erik

Mike, Thanks for the tip. I had figured out using fingernail files when my regular files were leaving gouges in the wood. I have a pillar file I'll give a try as well. Erik

With outdoor temperatures up to 98 degrees (37 Celsius) here this week, it was easy to want to stay indoors and work on my Cheerful. After procrastinating for a bit, I tackled a couple of things I've been putting off. I built the ladders. These were a bit of a challenge as they are not straight, even though they look straight. They actually lean aft with the sheer of the deck. It took a while to get all the steps cut to exactly the same length, and the notches filed into the ladder sides, since I did all that by hand. They wound up turning out the way I had hoped with the right amount of lean and both ladders being symmetrical when compared with one another. I know the model will rarely be viewed from dead ahead or dead astern, but hey, you have to put your best foot forward. The other thing I had been procrastinating was making the belaying pins. In my 45 years of model making I've never fashioned a part using a power tool. So, the photo you see below is my first attempt at making a belaying pin. I used the Dremel rotary tool my dad gave me as a gift in 1985 when I was fifteen years old. I followed the dimensions Mike (Stuntflyer) had used for the belaying pins on his Cheerful build. The pin is .375" long, or 18" in 1/48 scale. I turned the square stock down to .045" in diameter, then shaped the top. The bottom shaft was then reduced to .030" in diameter. It looks rough obviously, but turned out OK for a first attempt. The little collar between the lower shaft and the handle looks a little clunky, so on the production pins, I'll reduce the width of that a bit. I still have some playing around to do with which specific files I'll use, but I'm happy I got over the mental hurdle of giving it a try in the first place! Erik

Johann, Thanks for the nice compliment! That means a lot coming from someone of your skill level. Erik

Over the last couple of weeks I made the catheads and bow pin rail. These were pretty straight forward, though they required a lot of measuring, and as always I proceeded slooooowly. It was a bit nerve wracking cutting out the sections of the cap rail. The more hours I have into this build, the more nervous I get when I have to remove material! This was my first time cutting sheaves into wood. I used a technique Chuck had posted about a while back for those of us using hand tools. I practiced a couple of times on some scrap wood before creating them on the catheads. The results turned out decent. One technique I'd like to share with you folks is when you look at where my catheads meet the bulwark you see that it's seamless. To achieve this look I shaped the cathead as close to the correct profile as possible, and then after they were glued in place I made a mix of 50/50 wood glue/water and using the tip of a straight pin to apply, ran a thin bead down the seam. Once dry, I then used a small paint brush to paint the red or black over the seam. It's pretty effective on parts that will be painted. I've found if you do the same with mat medium thinned with water, it even works on seams between painted parts and bare wood. The mat medium is used in this case to avoid a shiny seam on the unpainted joint between the painted and non-painted parts. As always, thanks for looking, Erik

Glenn, Thanks for the compliments. I think it's just the angle of the photos for the pin rails. They're made/shaped exactly to size from the plans. Erik

Thanks for the kind words and likes. When photographing a couple weeks of work it doesn't really look like I made much progress! I attached the rest of the cleats to the bulwarks, drilled all the holes for the cannon eyebolts, formed the 60 or so eyebolts needed, and then made and attached the side pin rails. When attaching the eyebolts, I only glued in the top ones, and left the lower ones off. I made a jig out of styrene to get the holes in the bulwarks consistent. And being a perfectionist, the forming of the eyebolts themselves wound up taking some time. I had a question regarding the inboard bulwark ladders for you Cheerful builders. The instructions say, "You will find the template on the plans to cut the sides for the ladder. But just to make life easier, print the next page as all of the elements are provided". None of the 3 plan sheets have a template for the sides of the ladder. And I'm not sure what the print the next page reference means. There are no plans for the ladders in the written instructions either. Does anyone happen to have a plan that shows the side shape of the ladder? I guess I can make a good guess based on photos of the ladder pieces shown in Chuck's instructions, but it would be a little easier if I had a template to reference/print. While still working on the Cheerful almost daily, my progress has slowed down a fair amount. With the warmer weather and longer days, there's lots to do outside, so the path forward on the build will be a bit slower while I enjoy the summer. Erik

Glenn. This looks superb! I like the display base too. Erik

This was a fun week. I finished the stern details. These included building the second seat, which I'm happy to say is close to identical to the first. I made the horse for the boom sheet out of 22 gauge annealed wire, with washers made from .062" diameter styrene rod with the center .028" drilled out for the wire. I cut and formed the transom knees, and glued those on. I then shaped and added the cleats. These I had bought from Chuck a long time ago. I see he currently offers cleats in 5mm, 7mm, and 9mm. I have 9mm and 6mm on hand. So for the cleats on the transom knees, I shortened the 6mm to 5mm, and used the 9mm and 6mm cleats in the other areas of the stern. I see in these enlarged photos a couple of spots that need touching up, but I'm otherwise happy with the way these details turned out. Erik

I did a variety of things over the last week. I built the jib outhaul block (shown in the painfully enlarged photo below . . . warts and all, haha). Mike (stuntflyer) has an excellent tutorial for that on his Cheerful build, so I followed that. I then made a card stock mock up of the starboard side seat. I used the card stock templates as a pattern to cut out the parts. As others have said this is a bit finicky. I have a feeling the second one will be more of a challenge as I try to get it to match the first. I spent some time this week reading ahead in Chuck's monograph chapters to get a list of the last little bits I need to finish the build. I ordered some Albion Alloys brass tube. I also messaged Chuck, Mike, and Glenn (glbarlow) with questions about the thread type/size/color they used with Chuck's scale rope for seizing and serving. Today I went on a region wide road trip to fly fishing shops and fabric stores. Most of my dark brown rope is Chuck's old style rope, other than the .012" new Ultra for rat lines (so I don't need thread for seizing or serving the brown Ultra rope). My tan rope is a mix of his old rope and the new Ultra rope. These tan colors are close enough in shade to mix on the model, but I wanted thread for seizing that matched each shade. The photos below are color corrected to be as close to accurate as I could possibly get the images. The Gutermann thread is for most serving and seizing. The smaller diameter UNI-Thread fly tying thread is for tiny serving and seizing. Here's what I came up with based on what I could find locally. Using with Syren old brown rope - Gutermann 50wt CA02776 Polyester thread Color 593 - UNI-Thread 72D 8/0W Dark Brown Using with Syren old tan rope - Gutermann 50wt CA02776 Polyester thread Color 512 - UNI-Thread 72D 8/0W Tan Using with Syren new Ultra tan rope - Gutermann 50wt CA02776 Polyester thread Color 509 - also UNI-Thread 72D 8/0W Tan Also, as Chuck had answered, the thread he uses for seizing and serving his new Ultra rope is as follows (I researched what actual size/diameter it is in wt and tex). Ultra Brown rope - Gutermann Mara 150 50wt/20Tex Color 682 or for smaller uses Mara 220 77wt/13Tex Ultra Tan rope - Gutermann Mara 150 50wt/20Tex Color 263 or for smaller uses Mara 220 77wt/13Tex This is hard to find in the US, so Chuck recommended this place: https://www.williamgee.co.uk/product-tag/mara/ Erik

As always, thanks for the likes. I do appreciate you all following along. After all the metal work of making the chain plates, backstay plates, eye bolts, and deadeye strops, I decided I'd work on a relatively straight forward sub assembly. I went ahead and installed the rudder, and gudgeons and pintels (I had shaped the rudder itself a couple of months ago). I used Chuck's mini kit for those. You have a choice in the mini kit of .010" thick paperboard material or .028" thick plywood. I opted for the thicker plywood and sanded it down to .018" thick. By my eye that's a good compromise. I used .020" diameter styrene rod for the bolts. Yes, yes, I know it's probably sacrilege among purists to use plastic on a wooden ship build. Haha. But since the bolt heads are covered in paint I chose the easier to cut and work with styrene rather than metal wire. Everything was painted with black paint and then once mounted I taped the simulated metal straps off and applied rust brown weathering powder. I haven't glued the rudder on yet. I'll do that at a later date after I drill the final hole to mount the tiller (I did drill a small pilot/locator hole though). That said, the rudder sits correctly straight and true with the pintels snugged down into the gudgeons. On a related note, I received the last few packages of blocks I'll need for the build, and a serving machine, from Chuck this week. If I'm inventorying correctly, I think that may be the last stuff I need to complete the build. Erik

I finished the deadeyes and deadeye strops this week. And set a new personal record for the most discarded/rejected parts. Haha. I can laugh now, but at the time, it was the height of frustration. I think to get the 8 usable deadeye strops shaped correctly and mounted, I wound up with an additional 15 or so I scrapped. Admittedly most of that was trying to get the first couple formed. Once I had a system down for shaping them, things went more smoothly. I wound up chipping the paint off some of the chain plates, so had to touch that up. And I wound up rubbing off the finish of the annealed wire I used for making the strops from handling too much, so had to blacken those again . . . which made a bit of a mess on the deadeyes from blackening smudges coming off of my fingers. So, I had to re-sand some of the deadeyes to remove that. All in all not the most fun part of the build. So, I'm happy that buttons up Chapter 9 of Chuck's monograph, and I look forward to getting away from handling metal and back to working with wood for the next parts of the build! Erik

Fred, Thanks for the compliment! The build is definitely coming along nicely. As a bit of a perfectionist, I know I'm my own worst critic. That is definitely both a good and a bad trait at the same time! Haha. Erik