tkay11

What a nice project! I look forward to its evolution. Tony

Yes, the instructions that come with the kit are sparse and not very good. The build logs are a far better way of doing it. That's how I did mine. Tony

Great to see another Sherbourne build. Welcome! You may not have noticed in many of the other Sherbourne builds that it can help to do the planking first. This avoids the problem of damaging these parts as you sand the planking. This in turn allows centring of the keel and stem on the thinner longitudinal bulkhead. If you haven't read the other Sherbourne builds, do have a look as they will guide you through the process. In particular try Dirk's (dubz), Kester (Stockholm Tar) and Gregor as they have a lot of discussion about the historical details. You can find all these and others if you do a search for 'Sherbourne' and tick the box 'Content titles only'. This search will also reveal useful discussions about the Sherbourne. Of course, if you have particular questions, don't hesitate to put them up on your log, or as specific questions in other parts of the forum. You'll find people really friendly and supportive here as they have all been through the same processes and mistakes. There are no stupid questions! Tony

If you look at Wikipedia under 'gunboat' one answer might be 'decked gun yawl'. See the picture of a similar boat on the right. Tony

Thanks, Edward, Michael and G.L. for the comments and to all the 'likers'. And I apologise for the large number of posts that I put up together -- this was the result of my being unaware of the passing of time and of thinking that each step was such a small one that it wasn't worth posting about! I still have the same aims in mind, though: (1) to stimulate interest in this lovely model which I want to show is manageable by novices such as myself. (2) for all us novices to show that it can be done by taking each small step one at a time, rather than being worried by the apparent enormity and complexity of the build at the outset. This means I try to show each of the steps in reasonable detail, together with the mistakes, rather than try to present a series of nice photos. I find that as I take each individual step I become totally absorbed by it, and enjoy it as much as making an entire model. Tony

Yards After fashioning the yards, I cut grooves for the cleats, added a strip of wood and then filed the strip to mimic two cleats. The yards were then fitted with their slings and the grommets for the brails. Bowsprit & Mizzen boom The bowsprit was fixed as shown in the pictures: The components for the holders of the mizzen boom are shown in the following picture: Masts in place An initial assembly of the masts and boom: Oars I’ve just started experimenting with making the oars. My first attempt is using lime wood, making the oar in three sections as follows (I’m happy with the method, but still don’t know whether to dye them or paint them. I also have to add the leather protective sleeve): The next steps are (1) making the sails; (2) adding extras, such as barrels, portable binnacle and the oars; (3) making a stand. I'll be working on these over the next week or so and hope to have postings in that time frame! Tony

Swivel guns There were two types of swivel gun used in the period of the Chaloupe. One was the breech-loading type, the other the muzzle-loading type. It is the latter that is shown in the plans, so I built the 4 swivel guns following the plans. I started by boring the holes for the trunnions. This was done first by pasting the plan to a block of wood, then clamping a brass rod into a vice. The block of wood was then trimmed to fit the remaining opening in the vice by using the non-grooved edge of the vice jaw as a reference point. It was then a simple matter of drilling the hole using the plan. The brass rod could then be turned in the lathe as normal, using the set of gravers that I had made for my previous build (Triton cross-section). A trick I learned from Herault’s build of the Chaloupe was to use a scribed reference point on the turned bar using the sharp tool. This then allows exact placing for the various steps in diameter of the barrel. The swivel gun mounts have good detailed plans in the monograph: Initially I thought I would make the basic barrel holder out of wood, but that proved far too fragile, so I ended up making them out of copper plate. The picture shows the process I used, but on the wood prototypes. It’s probably easier to show the different components in the following diagram, rather than attempt an explanation. Next up: Yards. bowsprit, mizzen boom Tony

Bow davit I then went on to make the davit at the bow. First thing was to get the outline right, which I did with a piece of masking tape. The davit itself was then fairly straightforward to make. You can probably make out the different pieces used in the following photo. Mast travellers for the yards Plan 9 shows the travellers as follows: The following pictures should illustrate the sequence of making these: Mast sheaves All the masts and boom have sheaves at their ends. I started the process of making these by milling out spaces for the sheaves using a setup consisting of my modified Proxxon drill stand, a Proxxon dividing head and a spare Jacob’s chuck from my Proxxon wood lathe. The dividing head allowed me to rotate the mast by 90 degrees to drill the hole for the sheave spindle. The sheaves themselves were then turned on a lathe after having their centres drilled through for the spindles. Next up: Swivel guns Tony

Ironwork I finished my work on translations in February and took up work on the Chaloupe again. I haven’t been noticing the time fly by since then, so there’s quite a lot to cover. The main decision is, as I had hoped at the start, to build the fully rigged model with sails. This meant that there’ll be no big cannon sitting in the middle of the boat. I’d left the option open of leaving the swivel guns on, and that’s what I decided to do. I’ll start with some of the ironwork. First off are the clamps or holders for the bowsprit and the mizzen boom. The plan for the clamps shows the following: I don’t have the skills to make them opening, so I went in for a simulation. I soldered 1mm brass tubing to either side for both clamps: Pintles & Gudgeons Plan 6 shows the rudder as follows: I started work on the pintles by tapering lengths of 1mm rod then fitting them into sections of brass tubing which were soldered to a strap (for the bottom pintle) and a rod (for the top one): Unfortunately my first attempt at the lower pintle showed that the soldering joint between the strap and the pintle was not strong enough to take the strain when the rudder was fitted, and it snapped off. So I had to strengthen the join by linking the pintle to the strap with a 0.5mm rod as shown in the picture below. The completed gudgeons and pintles then followed the normal type of construction. You’ll note I still haven’t mastered the art of aligning the bolts in the straps correctly, nor have I mastered the art of blackening. The dark patch around the lower strap is where I tried painting a bit more of the blackening solution on to the strap: Grapnel anchor I also started to think about the various accessories that are needed on the boat. Although no plans for an anchor in the book, I found plans in the paper model of the 18th Century French Longboat that I had partially completed (see https://modelshipworld.com/topic/21175-french-longboat-18th-century-by-tkay11-148-card-review-partial-build/). I scaled the plans up to 1:36 and made the paper version. This gave me the experience to do one in copper. This led to a discussion as to where the anchor will be stowed. Eventually it was decided that it should go over the bulwarks at the bow, and be fastened to the main cross beam there. Next up: Bow davits, yards and mast sheaves. Tony

Yes, I totally agree with wefalck. I bought a pack of what were said to be the finest files a few years ago at the London Model Engineering Exhibition. I found they could only be used for the very coarsest of jobs with small pieces, and since then I have hardly ever used them. In fact I can't remember the last time I used them. Tony

It was the fit between the rotating head and the body that was out in my case, in addition to the fact that the support in these Proxxon stands is a bit flimsy. I'd be intrigued to know how accurate the MF70 mill is in terms of verticality, feed and consistency. At the moment I get by with the modifications I've made but I keep wondering whether it would be worth the expense to buy the MF70. Tony

Nice adaptation, Kris. Far more elegant than my own modification of the cheaper Proxxon MB140 stand. How accurate is the vertical feed on this stand? My stand had something like a 1 degree inaccuracy which I had to compensate for with shims. Tony

Very nice, druxey. You can certainly be trusted to dig out interesting sites. Did you happen on this site as a result of more time spent browsing, or have you been a regular visitor? It's a part of London I hardly know, but having enjoyed Pepys' diaries and a good biography, I hope to visit this church once the restrictions are over. Tony

I got my sail plan from Steel’s Elements and Practice of Rigging, along with Marquardt’s book on 18th Century Rigs and Rigging so that I could understand the structure and making of the various sails. The Steel is available at low cost from Cambridge University Press and Marquardt can often be found on eBay. You can see the results for my Sherbourne (a very similar cutter to Lady Nelson) on page 8 of my build log under the title 'Making Sails'. Tony

Just a note on the glue stick: I used to use Pritt (a water-based glue stick) but discovered that Uhu (a solvent based glue in a tube) which is used by card modellers is much better. The Pritt caused problems by causing warping of the paper and in removal after cutting -- since I found I had to dampen it in order to remove it easily. This itself caused slight warping of the wood on very thin parts. The Uhu doesn't have either of those problems. I just used acetone to remove it, which it does very quickly and without any obvious effect on the wood. Tony

Latin 'pons' = bridge. This has many ramifications in Europe including, interestingly, 'pontificate' which came from 'pontifex' which itself was made up from the words meaning 'make' and 'bridge'. But to 'pontificate' now means 'acting like a pope' and has entirely lost its inherent suggestion of 'making a bridge between people'. That's me done pontificating for the morning. Tony

Is there any progress on the Hudson River Sloop "First Effort" (a good name for a novice scratch builder)? Tony

Yes indeed, Bruce. I've already found that out with the scroll saw! I use beeswax on the table saw blade, though, and on my coping saw blade for brass.

Most of my questions have been answered by an excellent masterclass on bandsaw use on YouTube. It is based on a Record bandsaw, but the lessons apply to any bandsaw. It is also longish at 50 minutes, but very well worth the entire video. It goes into depth about setting up a bandsaw, which blades to use, problems to avoid, maintenance, how to cut various types of timber, changing blades etc. You can find it at Tony

I agree, bruce. I'm also asking whether these small bandsaws manage 50mm thick lumber. I know they say they have 80mm depth of cut, but reviews seem to suggest they have difficulty in cutting to 50mm depth for the hard woods modellers work with. I would have thought it requires a lot of skill in addition to make sure such thicknesses are cut PAR if there is no fence. Are they up to the job I'm asking about? If so, are they all equally so? Tony

Just two questions about the Proxxon bandsaw, as well as other small (8-10") bandsaws: 1. On the Proxxon specifically I don't see a rip fence, so can you use it to re-saw logs to a constant thickness? 2. Several reviews of small bandsaws say they are not very good at re-sawing lumber over 25mm thick. What's the experience of people here? I need to cut pieces 50mm thick as that seems to be the common thickness of wood provided here in the UK, but have been put off buying a small bandsaw because of such reviews. Any advice, as always, is most welcome! Tony

Did you mean nitrocelluose wood sealer? Also, do you use the bleached shellac as the varnish, or the ordinary variety? I used to make up my own shellac from the flakes for finishing furniture, so I might be tempted to start doing that again for the ship models. Tony

It's possibly true that the fashion for buying models made by someone else for home display is waning, but I can't remember throughout my lifetime ever having been in a home where someone has done just that -- apart from the simplified models bought at seaside stores and LEGO pirate ships and the like. Then there are plenty of people who have to make models of modern yachts and ships for the manufacturers and their excessively wealthy clients and governments -- as has been the case for centuries. Just recently druxey posted a picture of the most marvellous silver yacht model for auction at Sotheby's which sold for £10,625. However, I keep hearing that ship modelling itself is dying out, that younger people are not interested, etc. How true is this? It would be good to have some figures as otherwise such statements may be based on localised subjective opinion. It's not that I disagree, more that I don't know the statistics across the whole range of activities that would include ship modelling. From what I understand, ship modelling fora are growing rather than decreasing in size; in Eastern Europe the competitions still thrive (and card modelling is very popular); and there's a constant influx of people who have just retired and who try to find a hobby that is stimulating intellectually as well as practically in addition to giving satisfaction over a long period of time. In addition there are a whole host of professional model makers who work for a variety of different media at many different scales due to the constant demand for period films and tv shows. The skills and tools available to the model maker are unparalleled and new techniques are evolving all the time along with the need for new skills -- especially with computer programmes of a variety of types. Techniques used even in the 1990s have also evolved with the new ideas, the greater sharing of build logs on the internet, and with the available tools which need the parallel evolution of different complex skills. Do we have any statistics (global, national or local) to show whether ship model making (of whatever period) is waxing, waning or simply stable, and among which types of population? Tony

I think you have the wrong size cannon. It doesn't look like a 3-pounder to me, and the Sherbourne was said to carry 3-pounders. Yours seems much too large. The carriage length should be 14.3mm for a real 3-pounder at 1:64, and the gun barrel length 26.8mm. I can't remember the kit gun sizes, but the kit barrel lengths were for a 3.5 pounder gun at scale. Perhaps you could measure the gun barrel length, the height of the assembled gun from the ground and the length of the carriage. I compared the sizes in my build log. You can see the final gun build with a full discussion and comparison on Page 6 at I attach the real plans for an Armstrong 3-pounder. ARMSTRONG 3 POUNDER S1.PDF ARMSTRONG 3 POUNDER S2.PDF Tony

It's difficult to say without a photo. Your particular difficulty seems to be a little different to the problem with the fitting of the cannon through the gunports in other Sherbourne builds. What cannon are you using? Are the guns horizontal? Have you already made them from the kit or are you using card cutouts? Tony