tkay11

There are two ways round this. The first is to write to Euromodels/Amati and ask them for the spare parts, explaining what happened to yours. In nearly all cases they send you the replacement parts. The second is to make your own. This is not at all hard, seeing you have the deadeyes intact. You just need a strip of brass sheet and some copper or brass wire. You could even make this from old electrical cabling if you happen to have wiring that is that thick. There are lots of builds that show the variety of ways to do this on this forum. There is also the late Hubert Sicard's superb site for novices called 'Wooden Ship Modeling for Dummies' which has an enormous range of tips for making your own parts -- with many illustrated by silent videos. You can peek at bits of it for free, but for its full use you have to pay a one-off fee of 40 Canadian Dollars through PayPal. It really is worth it. The link is http://www.shipmodeling.ca/, and is a resource used by many on this forum (including myself). Some of the English translations from the French are a bit ropey, but it's easy enough to understand. Of course there are lots of books as well, many of which you can obtain through your local library. The advantage of making your own is that if some break you just make some more -- instead of waiting on the kit manufacturer to send you replacements. Tony

Very neat, Bryan -- you're certainly cracking on at a good pace. We all bemoan our own perceptions of mistakes, but mostly we are the only ones to notice them in reality. They're a kind of spur to achieve better next time. It's all part of the learning and acquisition of skills we all do with each build. And the problems are the fun part once we find a way around them -- a bit like any puzzle or strategy game. Luckily questions about finish are entirely yours to make -- the creation is for your pleasure alone. Tony

I don't know how I missed this log for so long, Ed, but I just wanted to add my thanks to this excellent guide. It's just the kind of detail that is needed for us novices, and it's great that you continue this tradition in all your postings. Without such clarity, so many logs just end up being picture books of finished stages, which, whilst pretty, isn't exactly helpful. With enormous respect and thanks Tony

Yes indeed. Not only beautiful to look at, beautifully and carefully made, and lovely historical research -- as well as yet another signpost to the kind of thing I should attempt. Thanks very much, Gregor, for your wonderful continuing input. I can't get over my luck at having you, Dirk and Kester all doing such wonderful things with your Sherbournes. You all provide such terrific guidance, ideas and gently get me on to the right path whenever needed. Tony

Sorry, Bryan, I was thinking of my Sherbourne kit which does not have lugs. I had presumed wrongly that the Lady Nelson kit would be the same. And I can now see that the bowsprit assembly is quite different from the Sherbourne's. I'll try to be a bit more careful in future! Tony

You'll find that the bowsprit assembly is designed in the kit to be fitted to the deck planking, so you'll need to fill in those holes. Also, note that because the deck is curved, one side of the bowsprit assembly has to be longer than the other. Fitting them to the deck planks makes it much easier to position the bowsprit exactly since you can do it with the bowsprit on the assembly itself, then mark out the assembly base with a pencil. Tony

Great to see such rapid progress, Bryan. Probably the first thing to do would be to sand it to an even finish. Then it really is down to what you prefer. Some like to add the treenails, but the obvious comment is that if you were looking down at a deck on a real ship of the period at this scale they would be pretty nearly invisible to the naked eye. I fell to the temptation of drilling holes for treenails, then filling with a very similar coloured wax. It's probably more to show that you can do it and to demonstrate that you understand the process of nailing planks to decks. As to finishes, from what I have seen, most people seem to narrow it down to three choices: 1. leave it natural 2. finish it with a matt or silk clear varnish (water-based or oil-based). For my Sherbourne I put Ronseal water-based quick drying clear matt varnish on. 3. finish it with an oil, such as linseed oil, tung oil or whichever suits your taste. The problem with an oil is that you will then find it hard to glue things to the deck such as cannon, hatches etc. However you could then pin them to the deck. I don't think anyone has painted their decks. It looks as though you have two large holes in the deck just behind the stem. Is that deliberate, or am I missing something important? Tony

Don't worry about the first planking. It doesn't matter at all if you use filler. The whole point is to get a smooth and even surface for the second planking, as well as giving you some experience and confidence with the whole process of planking. You're doing just fine! Tony

If you want a small drill, think about the Proxxon tools. They are excellent. I have a Micromot 50/E but the FBS 240/E may be the more useful if you are thinking of using it as a mill and grinder as well. That model comes with a whole range of attachments apart from the collet set, which you'd have to buy separately. The collets are much better than a regular chuck for holding small bits. You can find the Proxxon catalogue in English at http://www.proxxon.com/en/catalogues/download_catalogues.php. As to purchasing, the cheapest place to buy (as Proxxon is a German company) is from SAT Berlin. This is far cheaper than buying in the UK, even with the cost of shipping --€14.90, or £11.64 -- included. You can see the English page at http://www.satberlin.de/en/PROXXON-machines. If you prefer to buy from the UK, cheapest is at Chronos, which you can see at http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/12_v_Precision_Workshop_Tools_-_Proxxon_etc.html. If you need any help about tools and accessories, I'll always be ready to help, as I am sure many others will be on this forum -- so do expect them to chip in with their own views. You'll find advice about tools on the pages of the forum that I've already directed you to. As to sanding, I'd be cautious about sanding the planking with a machine tool as they can easily cut too deep unexpectedly. It might be better to sand the hull by hand. Tony

Great to see another cutter build, Bryan. You've chosen a really nice kit. It was what I was going to do as my first build, but as it was out of stock at the time went with the Sherbourne instead as it was very similar. There are quite a few logs going of cutters on this forum, as I'm sure you've already found out, so you not only have a wealth of fellow enthusiasts who can share their own experience with different aspects of the build, but you'll also be able to ask questions about difficulties peculiar to the kit as you stumble across them. If you haven't noticed the part of this forum dedicated to learning resources, have a look at the home page for the forum at http://www.thenrg.org/and then click on the 'Ship Modeling Resources' tab. It includes wonderful guides on planking, for example, which helped me a great deal. I much look forward to following your log. Are you going to have a log for the Albatros as well? Tony

Just a small update. I've taken Kester's and Gregor's advice and re-fashioned the pin racks -- in the sense that I'm keeping the idea but making them higher so that the belaying pins do not foul the anchor cable. First off is a shot of the raw wood version. Now a shot to show the clearance. The angle doesn't show the extent of clearance, but it is two cable widths. The bowsprit clears the rail quite easily. Finally a shot to show the view from above. If anyone feels that this is totally out of historic possibility, please do go ahead and offer some suggestions. As you can see, I'm always willing to listen and modify in the light of wiser counsel! Thanks again to Gregor and Kester for keeping an eye on this question! Tony

Thanks very much, B.E. and Brian. Actually I'd like to keep stressing that it's me that is learning -- so really I am just feeding back the approach that you and others have intimated through your work. It's not just a question of the actual techniques used, but the way of thinking about problems as they arise. What is so interesting is that for almost every stage when I look at it first I can't believe I can do it. Then I settle down to think about it, and remind myself that the masters are just as human as I am -- so if they can do it, then I should be able to as well -- albeit with a lot of practice. I then try various approaches out, and something nearly always works in the end. I have done most of the steps about three or four times before accepting the result (as I have tried to stress in my log). Even if the finish is not quite as good as I would like, I have to compromise and say to myself that more experience will allow me to finish it better in future. Thus it's clear that my cannon are not nearly as nicely finished as most, but now I am confident that next time I do cannon I'll do them better as I have learnt from each part of their construction. For example, Brian, you'd be amazed at how easy the sheave was. I only attempted it that way because I couldn't think of another way to do it (I don't have a metal-working lathe), and my mind went back to using the wood lathe for turning the cannon barrels. I remembered how beautifully boxwood turned and all I needed was a sharp chisel. I thought it didn't really matter that the sheave wasn't metal. The groove on the rim was just with the tip of the parting tool in my set of Proxxon wood turning chisels. I myself couldn't quite believe how straightforward it was. You don't even need a wood lathe to do it -- I've seen examples of fine miniature wood turning using a Proxxon drill and home-made chisels. So take heart: most of the time you can do all of these little tricks. It just takes thinking of them, and that comes with watching what all the masters on this forum have done. Most of them will tell you that they too were novices once, and went through the same process -- which is why they are so willing to help out when you ask questions. You then learn more by doing it yourself and finding out what works for you with the tools you have. This is my very first model (apart from a few plastic kits 50 years ago) and if I can do it, then you certainly can! Soon I'll have to start the rigging. Believe me, I am really anxious about it, but I'm confident that once I start it'll all begin to make sense. Tony

Ah well, it was worth a try, and I am happy practising my joining skills. I'll have a re-think and see how to improve the rack at the bow. Thanks, Gregor and Kester, for the usual intelligent and insightful input. Tony

Yes, I thought about the anchor cable. I wasn't sure whether the cable would run along the ground, under the windlass, and then back over it. If it runs along the ground we're fine. Otherwise I could raise the rack so it is above the windlass, attached to the top of the pawl. What do you think. Thanks, guys, for the nice comments. You can all see I'm learning tons from you, so really you should all be giving yourselves a nice pat on the back for good mentoring! Tony

Belaying rack at bow Having decided on this type of windlass, it was clear I couldn’t follow the type of belaying rack that Dirk used in his build, or the type of rack that Petersson displayed in his drawings of HMS Expedition in the book ‘Rigging Period Fore and Aft Craft’. I also studied Gregor’s approach of putting the rack right at the stem, but decided I’d do something silly and make a rack attached to the pawl post. Again I drew up a set of plans with TurboCAD and used tracings to cut the wood and drill the holes. I cut out the joints using the table saw. A knee for the pawl was similarly cut out with a jeweller’s saw. My first attempt was to have a short rack on either side, as follows: However, as soon as I attached the bowsprit, I realised that the pins under the bowsprit would be hard to reach, so I modified the rack on either side to be longer. While doing this, I saw that the bowsprit I had made was going to be problematic, so I need to have a short digression. Bowsprit My first thought was to do as the kit suggests and square off the end of the kit 6mm dowel. This means that the squared sides have to be smaller than the diameter while the diagonals match it. I did do this, squaring off the kit dowel using my modified Proxxon drill stand as a mill. (See ‘How to modify Proxxon MB 140 drill stand to act as mill’ at http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4539-how-to-modify-proxxon-mb-140-drill-stand-to-act-as-mill/?p=130660). However, looking at other builds and at pictures of contemporary models, it is clear that the diagonals are cut down to the diameter, leaving the square sides the same size as the diameter. This in turn meant that the kit parts for the bowsprit stand would have to be discarded as they are made with the idea that the kit bowsprit is squared down. So I re-designed the bowsprit stand in line with other builds, as well as contemporary models of cutters. You can see the modified stand along with the modified pin racks in the next photos. Having got that end of the bowsprit correct, I turned my attention to the sheave at the tip. I had used 9mm dowel to make the new bowsprit but I squared off both ends so that I could mill the groove for the sheave vertically and drill its axle horizontally. The groove for the sheave was quite easily milled out with a 0.8mm milling bit by holding the squared end of the dowel firmly in a vice. The sheave itself I made from a bit of boxwood that I had turned to a 3mm diameter. I cut the sheave to 0.6mm width on the wood lathe, making a small 0.3mm notch in the rim for the rope and then sawing off the remaining stalks. I held the sheave in a 0.5mm black copper wire to insert it into the groove and then drilled a 0.6mm hold transversely for the axle. I made the axle out of a piece of bamboo passed through a drawplate. It was now that I came to my current problem. I tried dyeing and staining pieces of dowel to see if I could achieve the kind of finish that others have achieved. I used oak dye, walnut stain, very concentrated tea, tea with ferric acetate made from steel wool dissolved in white vinegar (4% acetic acid), and refined linseed oil. Nicest was the plain tea but the finish was very blotchy. The linseed oil was good, but not dark enough. So I have ended up ordering pear wood, and will make the bowsprit, mast, boom and spars from that. I will also be spending time now on building a serving machine and making another ropewalk as my old electric shaver that I had modified has now given up its ghost. Tony

Pumps The pumps were glued to the deck. Tony

Windlass Again, looking at the plans, and at Gregor’s excellent example, I thought I’d have some fun trying to make a windlass as per the plans from the NMM. I drew one up in TurboCAD, and took a strip of pear wood and marked out the octagon with dividers as shown in the picture. I then made a jig with a Proxxon FET table saw. Luckily this saw can be tilted to 45o, so it was easy to cut two strips at that angle and lay them together as in the photo. The edges were planed off as far as the markings in turn using a small David plane with a razor blade. The pattern for the cogwheel was drawn in CAD, pasted onto the end of a dowel and the edges filed to the pattern. The windlass is held by two blocks fixed to the bulwarks. Again a plan was made with TurboCAD. The windlass enters the blocks at an angle of 82o. In order to drill the hole at the correct angle, a protractor was used to set up the table saw. A stick of ordinary wood was then cut at that angle and used as a base for the block. The hole for the windlass was then drilled with the drill stand. Because the block also abuts against the spirketting, a chisel was used to carve space out from the edge of each block. The windlass was then put in the wood lathe and the ends turned to make the holding rods as per the plans. The windlass was then cut in half and the two ends glued to either side of the cog wheel. Holes were drilled into the windlass and squared off with a steel nail. Black paper bands were placed around the windlass to simulate iron bands. Note that the pawl assembly and the bowsprit stand are not yet glued to the deck. These will be replaced with new assemblies as will be seen later in the log. The assembly was then glued to the bulwarks. Tony

Pin rails Following the other Sherbourne builds, I put pin rails at the stern, and modified the ones under the main mast shrouds. The kit’s belaying pins are way too large. I had to buy the belaying pins as I found I couldn’t make wood ones small enough (although I now realise I could do so with boxwood). I coloured the brass ones with brown paint to make them look a little more like wood. You’ll notice the square galley pipe I put in, following the plans for the Cutter Alert. I also decided to omit the pin rail that is provided in the kit to go in front of the mast. This is because I felt the deck was really crowded at that point, that the galley needed some space below, and that I might be able to have enough belaying points anyway. Let’s hope that’s right! You’ll also note the strip of Sellotape I have put across the mast hole to stop small pieces being lost down that hole. Tony

Entry ladders Next up were the entry ladders. Not much to comment on here (apart from the very crude workmanship which I am afraid marks me well out from all other Sherbourne builders). The inner steps were made by pasting a plan made in TurboCAD onto a strip of wood, then cutting at the correct angle. A razor saw was used to cut the joints for the steps. My first attempt at the stanchions was to turn boxwood on the lathe, but they were rather ungainly compared to brass. So I made the stanchions from a simple brass rod topped by a brass tube which was silver soldered. The base was another brass tube, also silver-soldered. The stanchions were set into the rails.with epoxy adhesive. You’ll note that I decided to put the ropes through the steps rather than letting them hang loose. Tony

Rudder coat Following many others, I decided I’d try to fix a coat on the rudder. I started by holding some cotton over the rudder and its hole with some self-gripping tweezers. This allowed me to make a rough outline for cutting. I then glued some brass sheet to a strip of wood, and, after drawing the correct diameter circles with a pair of dividers, cut it away with a jeweller’s saw. I then drilled holes for the retaining bolts. Brass rod was then pushed through the holes, silver soldered and cut off flush on one side. On the other side the rods were filed down to an even height to represent the bolt heads. You’ll note I stuck the kit’s letters on the transom for the ship’s name. They’re ugly close up, but at normal viewing distance they’re tolerable. Tiller It was clear that the tiller I had made previously was too long and too low to be usable with the captain’s companionway so close. So I made a new one that was both shorter and s-shaped so that it would be on level with a person’s elbow. Tony

Boom crutchAfter studying the plans, and asking a question about it in the thread ‘Is this a boom support and how is it fitted?’ at http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/7051-is-this-a-boom-support-and-how-is-it-fitted/?p=207835, I decided to make one. At first my idea was to make a stick and add a curved section to the top. This proved impossible. So my next step was to carve it out of a single sheet of pear. I started by drawing an outline to the dimensions shown on the plan. This also proved impossible as the pear simply snapped every time I cut out the outline. However, it worked with boxwood. Then there was the need for holders for the support. Following Chuck’s modelling of the Cheerful, mentioned in the post about boom supports mentioned above, I decided to have holders on either side of the stern, allowing the boom support to be placed on either side according to where it decided to have a little rest when it was tired. I made these holders out of brass tubing. Then glued them to the bulwarks with epoxy and kept them in place with a drill bit and Blu-Tak (a kind of oily putty). Tony

Captain’s companionway I’d been looking at the plans and decided I’d scrap my long companionway, build a captain’s companionway to the height it is in the plans and place it aft, by the tiller. This left me with a dilemma. If I placed the doors of this companionway facing forward, it would leave small room for people moving in and out since the next hatchway is only 2 feet in front. If I had the doors opening to the rear, they would be getting in the way of the tiller. I didn’t think of making them open sideways – partly because the plans show a line on the companionway going side to side, which seemed to me to indicate the roof opening in the fore/aft direction. In the end I decided I’d have the doors opening forwards. I reckoned 2ft was still room to get in and out, and the doors certainly opened comfortably into that space. To build this I drew up some plans in TurboCAD, then made a block from balsa wood to act as the form around which the walls would be placed. I used pear wood from pen blanks that I bought on eBay. The hinges were made of a strip of brass with a 0.5mm brass rod placed across the middle. The whole assembly was then finished with linseed oil. After all that I decided to add the ship’s bell to the roof. This would be in a handy position for whomever was at the tiller. I made the uprights from some pear strips with a wood lathe. The bell I had to buy (an Amati fitting) as I don’t have means of turning brass at the moment. You’ll see the completed bell later in the log in the following posts. Second companionway Although the next hatch forward is shown in the plans as a normal hatch, I couldn’t resist keeping the glass-covered companionway I had previously made to fit this position. I had put so much effort into building it that I decided to give those down below light as well as some protection from the elements. Naughty but nice. Remaining hatches re-made This left the remaining hatches aft and fore of the main hatch. I had made them with the kit gratings, but since I had remade the main hatch with much smaller gratings to be in line with the likely real size, the small hatches looked incongruous. So I remade those using some of the combs I had not used in making the main hatch. In doing this I stumbled across a very handy little ploy that overcame the fact that some of the combs were not evenly spaced – several of them had slightly widening gaps as they moved along the comb as a result of my not being too careful with the saw. However, by taking the combs in the batches from which they were originally cut, I could then just interleave the remaining combs upside down and the overall appearance was of a correctly-spaced grating. The assembly was then covered with dilute PVA, cut to size and placed in coamings. You will see the pictures of these remaining hatches later in the build log where other aspects of the deck furniture are shown. Tony

Cannon 1. Shot The first problem resulting from my making the cannon to the scale of 3-pounders was that the shot I had put in the shot racks was clearly too large. So I searched around for 1mm shot that could be painted black. Black plastic ones guaranteed to be exactly 1mm are very expensive. Steel ball bearings proved useless as I couldn’t get them to take black. I ended up getting 200gm of 1mm steel carbon pellets from eBay. It’s the type that’s used to fill soft toys. It turned out that the stated 1mm was a bit variable, so although the shot is now roughly the right size, I failed in achieving symmetry of placement in the shot racks (which also had to be re-made – as you’ll notice in several of the pictures in the rest of the log, which appears over the next few postings). I now realise I didn’t try gun blue on the steel ball bearings, so that may be worth a try in future. 2. Seizings For the rigging of the cannon, first thing to do was prepare the seizings. In this I followed the idea from the late Hubert Sicard in wrapping line around a drill bit and holding it in place with two forceps/haemostats whilst glue was applied. The drill bit was coated with beeswax for each seizing made. I used CA glue at first but eventually shifted to using diluted PVA glue which is far kinder to the thread, leaves it a bit flexible, takes up stain, and does not discolour the thread. 3. Blocks Again because of the smaller size of the guns, I found that the blocks with their hooks I had originally made were too long to fit between the rear-most eye on the side of the cannon and the eye in the bulwark. Furthermore, if I stuck with the double-sheaved blocks, the smallest I could make them to take 0.25mm thread made them still seem enormously wide compared to the guns. This posed quite a challenge which I tried to get round in two ways: a. using only one single-sheaved block attached to the bulwark. This I justified in thinking that the lighter cannon might have been pulled back using only a single sheave pulley. I also thought of using one block only, with a line going straight to the hook that attached to the rear of the gun carriage. I reckoned that when I wrapped the line round the blocks it would be hard to tell that there were one or two blocks there at all. This was the first approach I used and did this for all 8 cannon. This is similar to the approach that some people use. Thus George Bandurek put two blocks on a wire and wrapped the line around the whole assembly. Others have carved a small length of wood to the dimensions of two blocks linked by their ropes and then wrapped line around that. However, although that was relatively successful, I reckoned I should have another try at doing it in keeping with the proper rigging. b. So I tried making the blocks and hooks even smaller. I stuck to the idea of having single-sheaved blocks, but this still required several stages. The first was to find a way of marking the blocks out. I followed Frolich’s suggestion of making a scribe. At first I couldn’t think how to do it as he seemed to suggest just sticking pins in wood, and the smallest pins I could find were too wide to be used as scribes with a depth stop. Eventually I cottoned on: I filed down the sides of the pins until they were the correct width for the sheave and then sandwich them between leaves of wood against an end stop. You’ll see the process in the following pictures. With the smaller block came the need for a smaller hook. I squeezed a 0.4mm piece of copper wire in a vice, then drilled a 0.3mm hole through the flattened end. Finished off by curving the remaining wire to a hook shape and cutting off. I could now strop the blocks. At last I could rig the cannon. First the breeching tackle. This I made up to 0.5mm diameter using the ropewalk I had made from an old shaver. Then the ropes could all be attached. Note that I dyed the lines with walnut dye first. The lines are attached to the bulwarks and the cannon, but left loose. This allows the lines then to be tightened until the gun is firmly against the bulwark, at which point it is glued to the deck. Note also that I allowed the line in the rearmost block to terminate at that block, rather than link it to the foremost block. This was simply because that line would not be seen when the blocks were wrapped for stowage. Tony

Thanks, Kester. I probably just need more experience with stains! Anyway, I also need experience with different woods, so I am not going to be too upset at forking out for the pear. It'll come in handy for my next build should I ever get to it. Tony

Lovely work as usual, Kester! I'm glad you, Gregor and Dirk are so far ahead that I can keep on picking up tips. I like the finish on your mast. Did you use the kit wood and stain, or is it different wood? And if it's stained, how did you do it? I tried staining mine with all sorts of finishes (walnut stain, oak dye, linseed oil, incredibly thick tea (with and without ferric acetate made from steel wool and white vinegar) -- but they all came out blotchy, no matter how many applications. I've ended up ordering pear for the mast, boom, spars and bowsprit. I saw Gregor used maple for his bowsprit. Tony