Bill Morrison
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Bill Morrison reacted to Avi in USS Constitution by Avi - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1:96
I’m actually pretty happy with the copper that’s on the hull. My gudgeons and pintles finally showed up, so going to get those trimmed, painted and applied, and finally move on to the gundeck.
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Bill Morrison reacted to JSGerson in USS CONSTITUTION by Brian Falke - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:96
Nice save. In your situation, I've would have handled it in the exact same manner. Out of curiosity, what kind of wood is your hull planking made of? It does present a unique visual pattern. Will it eventually be covered with a second layer of planking and/or paint and copper plate(?).
Jon
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Bill Morrison reacted to Brian Falke in USS CONSTITUTION by Brian Falke - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:96
Thanks Jon. With the dimensions from the drawings you provided and me stepping away from the problem for a day, I am sure that I have it figured out. The measurement from the deck to the bottom of the gun port is actually from the top of the deck beams, not the top of the finished deck. Subtracting the height of the gun barrel (.38) from the height of the center of the gun port (.4375) yields .0575. Converting that to 1/8in scale is roughly 5-3/4in, which is roughly (close enough) the thickness of the deck planking. I should be good to cut the gun ports now. Thanks.
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Bill Morrison reacted to SigEp Ziggy in USS CONSTITUTION by Brian Falke - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:96
WOW, very cool. I thought about doing the same thing however with the Revell kit and only half frames, maybe port. Will love to see your progress.
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Bill Morrison got a reaction from mtaylor in Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build
I agree. I can't count the references on my bookshelves. Rigging makes up a large part of the collection.
Bill
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Bill Morrison got a reaction from mtaylor in Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build
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
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Bill Morrison reacted to Hubac's Historian in Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build
I do have both of those books in my library, Bill, although Marquardt is on-loan from a friend. Excellent references, both.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Hubac's Historian in Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build
HAHA - so true Bill!
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Bill Morrison reacted to ClipperFan in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
@Jared pg 27, post #785 of @Vladimir_Wairoa has excellent details with photographic proof of how McKay's clipper Glory of the Seas had her bowsprit rigged. The first image is Michael Mjelde's bowsprit rig illustration, next is a detail from the 1877 Glory docked at San Francisco, next 3 are Vladimir's model. Note how rigging is not evenly spaced but staggered closer to the tip. I hope this helps!
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Most of the holes in the masts and bowsprit for the remaining eyebolts, sheaves and metal fittings have now been predrilled (Photo 1). I also finished off the fish figurehead, having added on the wings (Photo 2). The bowsprit has been secured in place (the other masts shown in the first photo are loosely fit in place for now. I am not ready to start rigging the bowsprit. The kit drawings call for a number of wooden hearts for the standing rigging, but supply none in the kit, so I have started scratch building my own (Photo. 3).
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Finishing up on the masts, I have added the heels for each topmast and topgallant mast. To do this, I filed the bottom of each mast square then built up the heels by gluing a thin plank to each. They were then sanded down to the required sizes and the top edge/corner of each heel was hand carved carved to shape with a razor blade. A hole was drilled through the bottom of each heel into which a small piece of brass rod (fid) was inserted. The fid, which rests on the trees, bears the weight of the mast. I believe this completes the construction of the 3 masts, except a few metal parts (trusses and eye bolts) which I will add later. I would like to get started on the lower standing rigging and work on this as I tackle the metal work and yards.
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Bill Morrison reacted to ClipperFan in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
@Jared Vladimir & @rwiederrichboth give detailed descriptions of their metal work for connecting yards to masts in their Glory of the Seas builds. Vlad's 1:72nd scale build even articulates left, right and even diagonally just like on the actual ship. I'm sure either one would be happy to discuss their techniques with you.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Over the last 2 days I have been focusing on finishing off the deck so that I can begin the rigging phase of the model. All of the belay fin holes had to be redrilled as they were too tight for the Belay pins. I tried to chemically blacken the metal belay pins that came with the kit but was disappointed by the results as they a came out as a rusty dark black. After painting them black I mounted them on the pin racks as shown in the photos below. I noticed that at the bow section of the boat I had missed building the 2 sheet pin rails and had some time ago erroneously misread the plans and drilled a few holes in the top rear plank of the forecastle. As you can see in the photo to the left, these errors and omissions were corrected.
I also tried blackening then painted as above the 4 boat stanchions and mounted them loosely on the boat for the photo. These won't be permanently mounted until the model is nearly finished, to avoid accidently breaking them off.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
After a prolonged absence to do some travelling and other stuff, I have started up again on my Flying Fish. I have been installing the various blocks and eyebolts on the masts, as shown by the photo below. I just discovered that all the holes I had predrilled for the many belay pins are too tight and need to be redrilled 😞
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Today I complete the topgallant masts. The second photo show a side view of the model, with the various masts loosely attached. I still have more to do on them, including installing fids, eyebolts, and blocks.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Over the weekend I made significant progress on the Bowsprit, Jib Boom and Dolphin Striker. The work on the Bowsprit and Jib Boom was fairly easy. The paint scheme is as per James Buttersworth's Flying Fish painting. The various holes for the ring bolts and other rigging components are difficult to see but have been completed.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Wawona59 in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
I've had good experience with Model Expo's customer service as well. Even though I bought my Flying Fish in 1996, ME sent me a complete set of bulkheads, keel and planksheer to replace the parts that I screwed up. (see my build log to see how bad I did). No questions asked. Now, I'll just start over and do it right this time. I hope to be back working on the Fish soon.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Spent all day today building the dolphin striker. This tiny part turned out to be one of the most challenging pieces to date. All of the small metal fittings on the dolphin striker were made by bending thin blackened copper wire. For the lower metal band I used adhesive copper tape. The lower fitting was made from a single piece of wire.
On another note, I mentioned that I discovered the other day that I was missing one size of wooden blocks. I contacted Model Expo and soon after I received a reply that the missing blocks were on the way. What fantastic customer service!!
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Quick update. The spreaders on the 3 topmasts. I was hoping to start adding the blocks to the masts, but discovered on size of blocks was missing from my kit. While I await the missing parts from Model Expo, I will work on the bowsprit and jib-boom.
I implemented your suggestion George to strengthen the spreaders with copper strip on the main topmast and mizzen topmast spreaders. I added copper strip where I could on the already completed spreader on the fore topmast as doing otherwise would have required a complete rebuild of the structure. Adding the cleats to the 2 new spreaders went much better than what I encountered on the fore topmast. Put it down to learning from experience and using finer tweezers.
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Bill Morrison reacted to gak1965 in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
@Jared, you might consider strengthening the spreaders a bit. I glued a strip of brass on the underside before painting. It's not obvious and it kept things from breaking on more than one occasion.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Since the last update I have begun working on the the topmasts & bowsprit. These have been loosely mounted on the ship. In the past few days I have built the top on the fore topmast (see photo). I will be painting the top white. The trickiest thing about building top was the fabricating and mounting the cleats on the spreader. I had to try different types of wood incl. multilayer strips before I finally found something I could cut without the tiny wood pieces falling apart.
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Forgive my ignorance about the standing rigging on the Flying Fish. From the drawings and instruction book, it looks like the standing rigging is to be made from dark thread, meant to simulate tarred hemp.
UNDERHILL states in his book on clipper ship masting & rigging that "By the beginning of our period ( i.e.clipper period) wire had to a large extent superseded hemp for all forms of standing rigging".
Should I be making the standIng rigging from blackened brass wire? Thanks.
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Bill Morrison reacted to ClipperFan in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Jared,
Very nicely done!
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Bill Morrison reacted to Jared in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Have now completed the futtock shrouds on the lower main mast and mizzen mast. The work on these went much easier and faster than those on the foremast. Put it down to experience 😀. Much easier to do once you have worked it all out. Nowhere as difficult as what I implied earlier.
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Bill Morrison reacted to ClipperFan in Flying Fish by Jared - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96
Jared,
You're welcome for the information. I just wish I could have supplied it to you sooner. Just for the record, I believe the Flying Fish plans are inaccurate. It's most likely due to a lack of available accurate information. Then again, both the Frigate USS Constitution and Whaler Charles W Morgan also share much larger lubber holes and they've been around for decades. Regardless, I'm glad you were able to fix the front of your solid top.
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