tkay11

Just to add to Druxey's comment, have a look at these photos of the cutter Hawke I was shown in the Chatham Historic Dockyard (the same Hawke, I think, that was shown in a better state in the AOTS book on the Alert). The curator thought it must have been the result of a handler knocking the model against something and then hurriedly trying to 'repair it' in what he thought was the correct way. He groaned when he saw it brought from the store. However, I don't think anyone seeing this would think of it as historically accurate because of being contemporary. You can see the remaining photos in the gallery at Tony

Great to see your skills being applied to this model. Beautiful work. Tony

I'd forgotten about Marquardt. Thanks! Tony

I think a crucial decision about the rigging is whether you place the topmast fore or aft of the mainmast as it is quite different depending on the position. Both positions were current at the time. It may depend on the height of the mast. You might remember the discussion we had about this with Gregor and Stockholm Tar, who decided to put the topmast aft, like the kit and as did George Bandurek. However, the 1763 cutter I saw in Chatham had the topmast fore, as had the later contemporary cutters that were there. Petersson also placed his topmast fore of the mainmast in his drawing from the cutter in the Science Museum. So I decided the other way, partly also on what I saw were the forces on the top mast if it was placed aft. I'm not saying one is more correct than the other -- just that the choice leads to different rigging. You can see these in my pics at The full range of pics are also available in the Gallery of Contemporary Models from Museums and Private Collections, e.g. Tony

Good to see this back on course. I am sure your little Sherbourne is delighted to be paid attention again! Tony

I agree with Frankie that there are many inaccuracies in Petersson's book. However I found it invaluable as a simple guide to the names and principles of rigging. The reason is that it separates each aspect and its function which, for a beginner who has never sailed, is really helpful. Of course, as soon as I started rigging I went to Steel and Marquardt as well as others to make it more accurate, and I received really helpful criticism on this forum when I made mistakes, but without this beginner's guide I would have been lost in the complexity of drawings and explanations that are so often provided. Tony

I agree with all the previous comments, but, just to note, and in case it's of help and you're thinking of obtaining plans or instructions for the use of a restorer, there is a book called 'The Bomb Vessel: Shore Bombardment Ships of the Age of Sail' which includes detailed information on a range of bomb vessels. It's about £36 on Amazon at the moment. I mention this because when you look in detail at the stern, the deck layout and the structure of the hull your model does not really look like any of the kit models of bomb ships available (Amati, Caldercraft/Euromodel, Occre's Candelaria, Sergal's Racehorse) and nor does it seem to match the bomb vessel Granado described by Peter Goodwin in the Anatomy of the Ship series. However I would point out that I may be mistaken in this, and that it is indeed a kit that has been altered. If there's a flag on the model, that might help identify it. It looks as though the hull and deck are not much affected, so it may be that it's just the masts that have to be repaired. As others have said, the longer job would probably be the re-rigging as that would have to be in its entirety. This really does require someone with the knowledge of rigging of the period, although much could be made out by detailed attention to the existing attachments. There are quite a few books on rigging for the period of the model, and any restorer should have knowledge of and access to such books. To my mind the model looks very well made and although you may think £500 too much to restore it, even if someone worked for £10 per hour that would only allow 50 hours of work, which probably is not enough. All the same, you may be lucky to find someone who is keen enough to do it. One of the problems modellers face is where to put their completed projects, so it may just be that there's someone who is expert enough to do this with minimal damage while having the satisfaction of the build. You might try to contact the Society of Model Shipwrights based in Bromley and whose membership is mostly in the South East. Their address is http://www.modelshipwrights.org/. Good luck! Tony

Thanks, ragove. If you search for 'CARD' in the scratch building forum, you can see what can be done using card for ship models. Try Doris' posts, as well as GrandpaPhil, Ab Hoving, Chris Coyle, and several others. Then there's lots who do wonderful kits from card in the kit building forum. They're all way ahead of myself and their builds stimulated me to try a card model just to see how it is done. I might well come back to it once I've improved my skills on wood. I don't want to reach ahead of myself! Tony

Thanks, Jörgen. Yes, it's the admiralty water based red ochre. Still a left over from my Sherbourne! Tony

I bought this kit after seeing completed builds on this and other sites. It is a model designed by Daniel Dayn Vishnevsky-Karlskhagen and I was intrigued to see how a longboat with its small frames could be built from card. It uses the same principle as the wood kits for longboats: frames supported by an internal plate which is removed after the external planking has been applied to the frames. The kit is low cost (I spent about €25 which included postage from Russia to the UK) and has excellent instructions. The only problem is that the instructions and guide are all in Russian (albeit with very good and useful illustrations), so I had to work hard using a variety of sources to translate it all into English. See my post on Russian translation and the resources used at and previously in my Chaloupe Armée build. For those who buy the kit I will be very willing to send them the translations of the instructions with the parts list. I have done the translations as a table with the original Russian in the left column and English in the right-hand column. I also have made a table or dictionary of Russian nautical terms used in the guide which goes with the parts list. I think you can only buy the kit from the author, whose email address is bureau.k68@gmail.com. You can see his full build of the original on the Russian forum at http://only-paper.ru/forum/85-12867-1, and you can see his discussion about it (in English) on the papermodelers forum at http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/ships-watercraft/27125-french-longboat-xviii-cen-most-large-pinnace-tree-masts-sails.html?highlight=planking . Because my interest was mainly in the method of construction, but also because I was prevented from continuing with my build of the Chaloupe by recuperation from surgery, I only built this model as far as completion of the basic boat without any masts or additions such as anchors and cleats. My main purpose in providing this Review/Log is to bring the attention of a really interesting kit to others on this forum who are proficient in card modelling or who just wish to probe it (as I did). I would rate it as fairly tricky but very rewarding. What’s in the kit? In addition to the guide and parts list, the parts themselves are printed on standard A4 photocopy paper. There are several sheets of 0.3mm card which can be multiplied to provide various thicknesses. The list of parts also details how thick each part should be. An interesting aspect of this kit is that the card comes in three colours: white, yellow ochre and red ochre. This is to allow you to make the model with a minimum of painting. A really nice feature of the kit is that plans are also provided for you to make all the masts, yards and fittings as well as accoutrements such as barrels, buckets, cleats, hooks, belaying pins and oars. A full rigging and sail plan is included, with directions for the varying rope thicknesses. Finally, the author has a practicum with colour photos which he will send you (in Russian). The base The first thing to make was the base. This is really sturdy, and, as with all the pieces, requires accurate cutting out so that the frames, when inserted, fit exactly. You’ll note in the photo the Swann Morton scalpel with a no 26 blade I use which I keep sharp by stropping after every few cuts. You can get the idea of the frame assembly with the following diagram: It is clear that you have to be very careful with where you place the glue if you want to remove the shell from the assembly later. But you can see that it does replicate very neatly the framing structure of the boat with floors and futtocks. You can see the assembly sequence in the photos below. The guide points to the fact that all but three of the 40 frames have the same height, so it is important to have a method of making sure that the height is correct. I built a small jig to build most of the frames, but later on just used a slide rule to check the heights. Despite all this my measurements were frequently incorrect and I had to adjust several frames by filing or gluing on various thicknesses of 0.1mm paper. Because the frames were made from grey/brown card, the instruction was to paint them with red ochre. This I did, but regretted because (a) I painted it on too thickly and (b) later on it interfered with the gluing. You can also see how the paint covered the holding frame – which I then had to separate from the floor with a scalpel in order to ensure I could remove the frames from the mould. Actually, after finishing the entire 40 frames, I was so dissatisfied that I made the model again, base and all, to this stage again, but being more careful with glue and paint. I don’t have photos of the second frame and mould, so you’ll have to make do with the photos of the first attempt! Stem, keel and stern timbers were then cut from 3mm card, glued and the assembly held in place with rubber bands. Planking I then laid the planks. I could have used the coloured card supplied in the kit, but I elected to use my own card which I then painted with yellow ochre. The spiled planks were beautifully accurate as printed, so I did not have to make any further adjustments when cutting from the plans. As you see, the big problem for me was laying the planks so that they would be completely flat. Mine turned out in a rather wavy fashion! Once the planking is complete, the shell with its frames can be cut from the mould. First there’s the rough cut using curved scissors to cut around the edges at the level of the rubbing strake and then to cut the areas attached to the base floor. The frame supports can now be cut away. Because I had used my own card, I had to paint the interior with red ochre. Finishing the hull The keelson, stemson and sternson are then put in place. The counter and timbers for the cuddy can now be added. With the cuddy finished, the main floorboards can be inserted. The thwart stringers are placed. The thwarts were made from 3mm card, and the supports made from 2mm cocktail sticks. The mainmast step was made from wood, using the plan in the guide. Now the thwart knees. The davit timbers and their roller are now constructed and assembled. The front davit with its roller were made in an identical way. The main remaining piece of the hull was the roller beam at the front. Swivel Guns Having done the main hull (without the swivel gun mounts, cleats, mast straps, belaying pins etc.) I thought that even though I wouldn’t arm the boat I would still see how cannon were made with paper alone. The instructions in this regard are excellent. I started with a simple roll of paper, marked with the positions for the subsequent layers of paper. Final result So, at its current stage, the model looks like this: In comparison with my ongoing 1:36 build of the Chaloupe Armée: I won’t be going any further with this build as from now on I will concentrate on finishing my build of the Chaloupe Armée. It is just possible that at some future date I will continue, but don’t hold your breath! The purpose of this review/log was mainly to bring the potential of this very nice model to the forum, and especially those who wish to explore card modelling – which, as you can see, offers up its own delights, techniques, thought processes and problems. Tony

Thanks, Carl, G.L. and Dirk as well as for all the 'likes'. Yes, I am indeed walking, talking, joking as before. Surgery has advanced dramatically over the past decades, and procedures are more and more like a change of tyres in the pits with great team work between the specialities, then off and out again. The NHS (for urgent cases anyway) is a wonderful institution. Glad you like the model, too! Tony

The last part of my build was posted in February. Since then, and while recovering from surgery, I used the time to experiment with the card model of the 18th Century French longboat that I mentioned. (I wasn’t allowed to cart around anything heavy like table saws for a couple of months). I’ll do a separate log for that, just to show how nice a model it might turn out to be for someone more experienced than I am with card. For the moment though, I can show the stage to which I had arrived in comparison with the Chaloupe: Rear Lockers A recurring theme in this (and my other builds) is damage limitation. Mistakes or inaccuracy early on lead to recurrent problems later in the build. The major problem in this build that I continue to face is the asymmetry resulting from slight inaccuracies in the original mould and not ensuring the true verticality of the frames. This has meant that I cannot simply make pieces according to the plans but have to make my own measurements and templates so that the pieces can fit together. Fortunately, this is something I really enjoy and see as an essential part of model building (or else it could mean that I’m too lazy to rebuild the model from scratch)! A good example of this lies in the making of the rear lockers and the gunwale. I finalised the measurements for the rear lockers using 0.3mm card templates. You’ll note that the floor of the cuddy is not straight and there’s a sub-millimetre difference in the length of the locker sides. In order to make the doors at the end of the cuddy, I used two layers of planking, with the rearmost layer glued to card. The side lockers were built in a similar way, using card as a base. The picture frame moulding was made from strips from an old boxwood ruler. I added extra support for the locker covers. I faced a small problem with the thickness of the covers. The foremost cover has to be flush with the thwart knee and lie on top of its thwart. However plan sheet 4 shows that the cover thickness at the level of the swivel gun support has to lie also level with the top of the thwart knee while resting on the thwart stringer below. To satisfy both requirements I added a small batten under the foremost cover to rest on the locker side. You can get an idea of the completed lockers in the following photo, which shows the davit timbers in place. The hinges are again non-functioning, made of 0.5 x 5mm brass rod. Finalising internal planking The next stage was to make the final strakes of the internal planking above the thwart stringer. These required multiple notches for the thwarts and thwart knees, so I used cardboard strips to define the cut outs first. Once the planking was in place, it was important to ensure it was level with the external rubbing strake. I used a flat board wider than the hull, partially covered with sandpaper. I then laid the end without sandpaper on one side and sanded the internal planking on the other side until it was level with the external planking. I then checked the level with a metal rule. Gunwale Clearly, the outline of the hull on the plans would not match the plans because of the small variations I have already mentioned. In order to find the shape, I used a card template as suggested in the monograph. The monograph also suggests to make the gunwale in one piece, although it also says it would have been made in several sections. I decided to make it in several sections – not only for the sake of accuracy, but mainly because I predicted to myself that I would make mistakes and thereby waste a lot of wood in the process. So in my tracing in the CAD programme I inserted a number of scarf joints. I started with the bow and the saddle joining the two sides. Before fitting these pieces, I glued the saddle to one side, glued that assembly to the bow, then added the final section around it. Transom lodging knees The transom lodging knees require careful cutting out. The picture above shows one piece for the last two sections of the gunwale. This was just for measurement purposes. The two sections were cut separately. Next up will be finalising the transom with its roller, putting bands on the davit timbers, making the washboards. Tony

Neat work on the gunports. Don't forget to check the height (top and bottom) with the guns by putting in temporary decking before you finalise them. You can use cardboard cutouts of the profile of the guns in their carriages. I remember the ports giving some trouble in this adjustment. Tony

Of the choices you provide I'd go for the last one with the flat angled top. Tony

To align at 90 degrees, you can straighten the scans by using a vertical (or horizontal) line on the drawing (e.g. a station line), superimposing a straight line with a photo editor and then using that line to rotate the whole drawing. After doing that you make all the distortion adjustments and then the superimposition of each of the subsequent scans. Tony