Ferit

Thanks Mick, I’m looking forward to that myself 
 
In the meantime I found out that the provided keel in the kit was cut in plywood and additionaly had an “funny” color.
I think it is a shame to use it side by side with the sapelli covered hull and decided to scratch build them from a 5mm Mahogany sheet.
 

 
After having cutout the bow section of the keel, I made an mistake during drilling of the holes .
As you might notice the holes are not equally spaced..
 

 
Instead of starting all over again, I decided to be a bit creative and break-up the bow section in separate parts.
After this I could easily replace the section with the wrongly cut holes
 

 
Here's the end-result
 

I blackened the hinges (2 rounds of about 60 seconds each in Birchwood Casey Brass black, diluted 50% with water)
 
 
I first glued the hinges to the rudder.  Once the glued dried, I drilled 0.8mm holes halfway into the rudder through the holes in the brass strips.  I snipped off some pins that came with the kit, blackened them and hammered them into the holes.  In hindsight, I should have filed the heads of the pins a bit thinner I think - they do stick out a tad bit more that what I would have thought is optimum, but I'm pleased with the result.

 

 
Hammering in the pins removed some blackening from their heads, so I touched it up by applying blackening agent with an ear bud.  Below is a picture of the rudder after a coat of varnish to seal everything nicely.
 

Thanks for the kind words all.
Craig, its been an enjoyable build so far so good luck with yours.
 
On to some more building after an absence of a few weeks...
 
The kit would have you knock up the windlass from some ply laid over walnut centres. This doesn't look too flash and also appears extremely fiddly. The chances of me staining it anywhere near the colour of the rest of the walnut timbers is also next to zero after I've lathered glue on.

 
The windlass stock was two lengths of 5mm dowel glued together and sanded back to 8mm square. The octagonal section was then marked on and sanded with aid of a bench sander for a consistent angle. This could be done By a steady hand.
 


 
 
Shaped stock next to kit centre section for comparison. The centre action is smaller due to the 1mm ply which would take it to full 8mm width.

 
The centre was just the right size to mark the end of the taper on the windlass. It was stuck on temporarily and starting marks for the taper added in pencil.

 
Taper sanded in. It's just a matter starting at the pencil line and reducing the material to the width of the marker section.

 
The windlass pieces with end width markers removed and cut to length. This worked out well enough that it could have been done in one piece but the lack of a lathe meant turning the axle would have been difficult so out with the saw.

Hi Andy:
 
It's these kinds of jobs that will probably permanently bar me from scratch building - carving and decorative finishing....I say "not my strengths", but I really should say that I don't even know where to start....anyway...at some point I'll have to just sit down with a knife and a stick and start practicing....
hamilton

Weren't hedges ever in fashion as ship's decorations? Just dolphins and unicorns and cherubs and stags I guess...What about the mighty hedge!!!
hamilton

Hi Hamilton,
My thought is that to leave it plain is better than to decorate with unsuitable material...
On the sides of the original are there decorations?

A slot 3 times wider than a rope seems inaccurate to me...

Well I guess the word is in....I agree....I was looking at the dry-fit piece again this morning and realising that I was really just "improvising" in a situation where it isn't appropriate. Thanks all for the intervention!!
 
hamilton

Hi Hamilton,
My thought is that to leave it plain is better than to decorate with unsuitable material...
On the sides of the original are there decorations?

Hi Michall,
Yes, that is the answer...

Hi Ferit,
 
much thanks for your interest. I don't think that the scratch build is a other universe . Most of the kit builders are doing much scratch on his models
I'm planking the portside currently. Only what I can show is the same as on the starboard side. That's the reason to show the next photos if the portside planking is finished.

Thank you for nice words from the other universe...
Every time I receive your comment I check your build HMS Leopard for any update with curiosity...

Ahoy Mates
 
 
Build Update:
 
I am almost finished painting the wales. Almost because I have a small error to correct. It seems I am a little asymmetrical in the stern. It is a minor issue but I have decided to correct it as a learning experience. Next time I do this I will pencil out both sides and confirm symmetry before any taping or painting. Good news, the WOP does not affect the fully cured enamel paint as I originally feared making this repair and painting the gunwales much easier. I had originally tested it on paint that had only cured for 24 hours. After a week it is much more resilient. I can only guess the enamel paint reacted to the WOP used as a base extending the cure time.
 
The next picture shows how I am currently doing the gun ports using a level. There has to be an better way.  My earlier attempts had the gun port sills inline or following the sweep of the hull, not flat, like the water line. I also did not like that fact the this framework went straight across the curved areas in the bow. Not sure how exactly I will fix this. Right now I am thinking about pre-bending the wood like planks before installing them. I am also using 1/16 by 1/8 wood (not the 1/16 by 1/16 recommended) which I find much easier to work with.
 
You can also see that I am almost finished coating the inside of the hull with PVA. I did this slowly and in sections, alternating sides when I could to prevent the contraction of the PVA from warping my hull. Dan Vadas has a repair practicum that deals with PVA contracting that caused me to give this some concern. I decided to be safe.
 
Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to comment. Any tips on a better way to do the gun ports would be appreciated

Hi Matti,
Very nice color, I love this red, it's much better...

Hi friends,
new pictures of the construction progress of the Bonhomme.
Regards Karl
 
 
T e i l  28

Hi Jürgen,
 
Thanks for your response.
When I began the build I intended to make it as close to the plans and drawings as possible, but there have been a few details and proceedures that I have found a little difficult so I opted for an alternative way of doing them.
My intention for the ship is only to have it as a display item in my livingroom, and while I want it to be as accurate as possible I won't worry if there are a few things that were done a little differently. After all, it will be mostly myself who will be looking at it !
 
Jim.

good evening 
 
rudder saga continues
 
at last i am 99% happy with the result, took far longer than it should, stopping and listening to the cricket test match didn't help, what a game
 
i dont know why it, it took so long all everything seamed to be in the right place until it can to matching the rudder to the stern post, and continually moving this or moving that, i am not painting the straps black, it seams to make it all to much (in yr face) i will let it tarnish with the rest of the plates
 
some tiles to replace, some more nails to insert and then i can move on
 
all the best

4 / 5 of deadeyes...

Hi All,
 
A small amount of progress. 
 
As mentioned in my last post I decided to work on the channel supports which I didn't enjoy as found the little bits of walnut ply fiddley to cut around the shear strake.  The channels, depending on their position also slope up or down and to get the supports to sit vertical a bevel had to be sanded on the bottom of each one.
 
Initially I tried marking and cutting the support directly against the hull but couldn't get satisfactory results.  The picture below shows how small the mizzen mast channel supports are and at one stage I only had approximately 0.5mm thickness left and it still wasn't fitted.
 
I tried to make a notch in the shear strake so the support could still further back without removing more material off the already thin section.  This didn't work either as I couldn't safely make the notches without fear of damaging the blue paintwork above so I needed to come up with another idea.
 
I ended up filling in the notch in the shear strake and repainting and made another support using the originals as a template.  I then glued some 0.5mm strip stock to the back edge of the mizzen mast channel supports to give them more depth for notching.

 
I also used some business cards as templates to get the fit against the hull as this was easier to use then trying up the actual support each time.  The shape of the template was then transferred to the piece once I was happy with the card fit.  The supports were painted prior to fitting and then after marking thier position on the channels with Tamiya tape were glued on using CA.



 
 
Next up was the capstan.  After cutting out the parts from the walnut ply sheet and tidying up, I needed to make the barrel.  This is made from 8mm dowel which I stained using the Admiralty Paints walnut stain.  As the deck where the capstan sits slopes down from the stern to the mid deck I also measured and sanded the bottom on an angle so once placed on the deck the capstan sits vertically.
 
I used PVA to assemble and then gave it a couple of coats of satin wipe-on poly


 
 
The ships wheel followed.  I cut out, cleaned up and varnished the 2 supports before fitting together.  The ships wheel is a photo etch part which I sprayed with Skull white and then painted with Admiralty Paints brown paint.  The barrel is from 6mm dowel, 6mm long which again I stained with walnut.  It is all joined together with a piece of 1mm brass rod.  I CA glued all the parts together but still need to sand the support bases so again it sits vertical to the sloping deck.



 
 
Cheers
Slog

Yeah, its important to get it how you want it, and difficult to know how colors will blend as the build evolvs. Against light wood, the first nuance lookes different.
 
Here is how it looks now. Its more blood red in real life. Painted the planks a little different from each other to give the paintjob life and scale.
 
/Matti

Hi Hamilton,
"Since the last update I've made only a little bit of progress"
Do you say about this update a little bit?!
A big and nice progress...

Many thanks hamilton,
I had thought that it could be good to take a photo of the whole thing after three masts in their place...

Many thanks hamilton,
I had thought that it could be good to take a photo of the whole thing after three masts in their place...

4 / 5 of deadeyes...

Hi Ferit:
 
I feel like I've been starved for pictures of your beautiful Berlin! And now I see you're on to the rigging! It's looking good close up but I'd love to catch a glimpse of the whole thing....but maybe you're saving that for later.....
hamilton