Bill Morrison

Call this Post "Trying to Make a Silk Purse from a Sows Ear"..... the stern was designed way incorrect based on surviving drawings of the same period ships and the 1958 Mayflower II, where Trumpter got the idea to add the dolphins and other decorations are just strange. While I cannot correct all the mistakes I can at least TRY to address some of them. I first sanded off the dolphins and windows as well as the clam shell. filled, sanded and re-scribed the planks and then re-grooved them to replicate them a bit. I cannot replicate the knees on the exterior of the transom, I can add some framed windows.  I laid out the general shape of the windows based on the Mayflower II, once the filler sets up, I sand flush and inset some screen material, dry brushed pewter and black out the "window". Comment ALWAYS welcomed.

Got some more done, daughter and grandson are down visiting, so not my shop time.  I'm still working on the stern windows, waitin gon some after market one to come in to see if they will work, I give her a wash down with a med brown water based wash to draw out the detail on the planking and tone down the colors.  I choose the early version of the painting scheme from the early years, thaere really no real records of how she was painted, thats why when the refit the Mayflower II, they changed the scheme.   I'll ad coils to the deck boat to hide the lines as well.

Got the base completed and the model locked down.

Got the colors laid down and started on the Base. 

Coming along great Jake. I do remember that extensive masking so well!

Have my completed Le Soleil Royal in the diorama displayed in its brand new custom made display case!  I decided to route dados in the underside of the cabinet top to accommodate LED strip lights that are plug in instead of battery. The LEDs are adjustable by the use of a remote. I think the lights create a since of sparkle on the “water”.

I agree.  I can't count the references on my bookshelves.  Rigging makes up a large part of the collection.
 
Bill

Marc,
 
I recently picked up two books That may be of interest.  They are
 
1. Lees, James, The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860
2. Marquardt, Karl Heinz, Eighteenth-Century Rigs & Rigging.
 
Granted, they don't fit your interesting in seventeenth century French warships, but they are of a general interest.
 
Bill

As you can see I have a wider King Plank in the middle a wider plank for the Binding Strakes, which should actually be two. Outside of these is where the fir planking starts, but only on the lower deck.

My brother, who is an expert ship modeller mostly leaves his wood natural, but I‘m thinking of airbrushing(!) a fine mist of grain filler as some protection, as I‘m worried the untreated wood would pick up dust too easily especially in moist and humid conditions.

Small update, good evening all,
I need your expert opinions here. With the hatch coamings sorted I‘ve been thinking about the lower deck planking. Some modelers have achieved great results with thin cardboard strips between each plank for the tar caulking. This is what I‘ve tried here...

 
...but I think the results might be a bit too heavy. On the real ship decks the caulking is a lot less conspicuous as you can see here:
Quarter Deck HMS Warrior

 
Upper Deck HMS Trincomalee


Quarter Deck HMS Trincomalee

 
I might even leave off the caulking all together as the Navy board models don‘t seem to have this feature. Or I might try dark grey paper.
what do you think?
Oh, yes. I lined the edges of the ply deck at the hatch openings as the ply wood which was almost white was too noticeable.
 

Thanks for stopping by, Chris

Good evening all,
a small update. It took three attempts before I was happy with the hatch coamings. On this picture here the deck planks have again been loosely put in place, just for a sneak preview if you will. I cut away some large chunks from four bulkheads as I realized they would be visible from the upper deck hatches. That‘s the official version, but the truth is I wanted more deck area for planking. As I‘ve said before, Tosti writes that the planking outside of the Binding Strakes was done in Evergreen Fir. So cutting away the bulkheads would give me more space here.

I didn’t want the deck to look as if it was 3‘ thick so I beveled the edges a bit. 

the PO had followed the instructions here and simply painted the lower deck in Walnut Stain.

The bulkheads and false keel were painted black where the hatches are to make them a bit more inconspicuous when the gratings are added later 

Thanks for stopping by,
 
Chris, in Germany

The wood for the lower deck arrived and I started testing my skills on some hatch frames. I think they should be a bit flatter. The deck planks are not glued here yet, just put in place for a sneak preview, sort of
 

So after several hours I had cut out all the parts for the carriages. Not only did the tabs need removing, but there was a load of milling debris stuck to the edges which also took a while to clean up. I was about halfway through this all when I noticed that the cannons (and the carriages of course) were in two different sizes. So I spent an extra few hours sorting everything out again.

I‘ve ordered pearwood strips for the lower deck, which will probably only arrive the week after next. To keep myself busy I started something else.
This is going to be a loooong build (well at least it isn‘t a Victory) 😳😆
 

I have also noticed that part of the bulkheads might be visible through the open hatches. This will have to be fixed. But first I‘ll have to order a decent razor saw.

Per instructions the lower deck should just be painted in walnut stain, but I would like to take things to the next level here and plank the deck as far as it is visible and add hatches etc. Tosti writes that the planking outside of the Binding Strakes was done in Evergreen Fir which should add a bit of variety but only on the lower deck. As far as deck planking goes I‘m planning on doing everything in pearwood except the Fir decks which will be in Maple. Hull planking (if I get that far) will be Boxwood,
 
Chris
 

So after a break of close to five years, being inspired by Vanguard Models‘ Speedy (yes, I bought one), I decided to dust off the Diana and carry on where I left her. 
I had always had the intension of filling in the space between the bulkheads with balsa as, a) I didn‘t trust my planking skills and b) to check her hull after modifying the bulkheads the way I did. This was a slow process at first but started to move along once I got the hang of it.
I found the best way to shape the infills was by carving...


...and sanding with 40 grit sandpaper on a small plank

The bow and stern where also filled in


The thick lower deck wasn‘t in place when I did all this so I could turn her upside down and work on her the ‚Hahn‘ way. This was nearly a disaster as it was very difficult to get it to fit right.


In the end I also filled in the space between the very last bulkheads. The stern wasn‘t easy but manageable with a bit of planning and forethought.

Some glamour shots at the end of the day



that‘s all for now. Thanks for looking,
 
Chris
 
 

Test post to show that I‘m working on my HMS Diana again, after five years! It‘s scary how time flies. I just want to check how uploading images from my phone works. A detailed update will follow over the weekend.
 

Yes. there were a few, so I decided to check them first, before the whole thing is glued up. I called the National Maritime Museum to order copies of their historic Diana plans, but they couldn't find them. The lady on the phone thinks they may have gone lost. I'll check again tomorrow or on Monday, see if they have turned up.
But I didn't want to wait weeks before they do and my oder arrives here, so I decided to move on with what I've got. I went about it the same way as on the other bulkheads and found that the remaining five are closer to the plans than the others.

Here they have been trimmed accordingly

and, again, after bevelling, the test fit strips
 


Looks like I may have trimmed off too much at the very bottom of bulkheads 8; 9 and 10. This will be corrected with the balsa infills later. A large box with several planks of 15mm balsa arrived at the office today. Excellent timing!
 
Nothing beats a nice good night photo at the end of your successful building session

 
--Chris
 

So, the modified rear bulkheads have also been cleaned and bevelled.

I have now completely reworked the rear six bulkheads (except #16 and not counting 17) and have carefully bevelled the front four. That leaves five in the middle. I'm thinking of ordering a set of Diana plans from the NMM so that I can check those remaining five as well. It seems wrong after going through so much work on these 11 and not do the same for the rest. So far everything has turned out quite well.
 
--Chris

Well it's done now


drove to my brother's house tonight (as we do every Sunday night, to have supper together with the whole family - a nice family tradition)
 
My brother had balls enough to tackle the bulkheads with his bandsaw.
 
I'll start cleaning up the cuts and the bevels tomorrow - it's too late here now. I like how they look, though.
 
--Chris

I'm pretty confident the bulkheads were aligned correctly when I compared them with the plans. The waterlines were the references I used for aligning.
 
To put this more into perspective I drew on the bulkheads where the curvatures should be according to the plans. Bulkhead #14 would need to have the most shaved off.
 
Looking forard to this evening, Bro' Let's see what we come up with
 

Well after being warned by both of you, I thought I'd give the stern a little more forethought than usual, before bevelling and I promptly ran into a dilemma.
 
It was quite obvious when even looking at the bulkheads that something was not right. The test strips for planking I use as a guide for bevelling just didn't line up against the bulkheads very well at all.


With the plans I had right-clicked from the internet I decided to check each bulkhead working from the back towards the front before I started sanding
 
16 looked ok...[ish]...

while 15 would also have been passable, but from there it just went from bad to worse (the dotted line is the kits part), here's 15

14...

13...

12...

11...

10...

this made me curious so I decided to check them from the bow as well
 
2...

3...

4...

and 5

Conclusion: if  the plans I am using here are really the Diana (and I believe they are, although I have no firm evidence), then the rear bulkheads are quite a bit out of shape. The front ones are very close to to my plans. Close enough to pass anyway.
 
That is even apparent when looking at them stacked like here

I don't have the AOTS here yet, as it hasn't arrived in the mail. I'm wondering if someone here could scan the drawing with the frames for me, so that I could check the bulkheads with it as an alternative source.
 
I'm thinking of making scratch built formers for the stern here, just to see how they work out, before I start cutting around on the kit's parts
 
--Chris

Chris
I had the same problem as Jason with low points and made note of it in my build log, so well worth checking out.
 
 
 

Chris - good to see another Diana build here, you look to have got off to a solid start...will be following closely as I'm not much ahead of you 
 
Nice approach to the bevelling, I found that on some of the frames they needed to be packed out a little with some strip to avoid low points (especially at the waist and stern), I wonder if this is just variability in the manufacturing or an issue for all of these kits.

I did a bit more tonight.
 
The plank termination templates needing some more sanding, as became evident when testing the plank strips on the bevelled bulkheads. The front edges are now quite pointy.

Then I added some more waterlines to the front bulkhead to help transfer the bevelled edge over to the opposite side. The small pencil mark will act as a guide on how much material needs to be removed to make an exact copy of the bevelled side (hopefully)

Both side of bulkhead 2 have been bevelled here

and here all four front bulkheads have now been completely bevelled. I also tested strip planking here as well and still had to remove some material, before I was completely satisfied. I don't know how many times I took the whole thing apart and built it all back together again to check how the planking will fit.

So the first part of step one of the instructions has now been completed. Next I'll tackle the rear four bulkheads. There are some really steep angles on those bevels there!
I'd hate to have to do this on a glued up frame with everything else in the way. Damage would be inevitable.
 
--Chris