Palladio

Thank you all, I´m proud you got this flattering impression, but in fact the guys from the late 18th century were simply better and by far more experienced ! Well, I "choose the lesser of the two weevils"... :-) By the way, in the german translation of this famous dialog, they choose the term "bug/beetle" instead of "weevil". Believe it or not, a "pretty/cute beetle" is in german the equivalent of a nice girl. So Jack Aubrey says: Didn´t you know, in the navy we allways choose the prettier beetle... "Wifes and mistresses, may they never meet!"

A little update concerning the progress in rigging HMS Surprise. It was a surprise for me how time consuming the detailing of each and every sail turned out... ...and there are quite a few very specialized objects to create. In scale 1:48 you see allmost everything.

Thanks everybody !! Once hull and the standing rigg are completed, there are two major challenges left. Sails and flags. There may be some 500 or even more pulleys of different size and shape, but in the end this is a question of diligence. :-) Sails and flags are a question of texture. Most models are shown without sails because sail making is painstaking and often the final output doesn´t look like sails at all... Even the thinnest tissue has the appearance of corrugated cardboard or worse. That rises the obvious question: is fabric tissue the ideal material? It´s definetly not! But.... :-) Well, there are certain conventions in the honorable business of historic model ship building.... So I humbly took the thinnest fabric available and started with the gigantic Spanker. As sail making is awfully time consuming, I had to overcome my concerns to bath the precious thing in ordinary potato starch before giving it a stiff breeze with the hot hairdryer... .. witch resulted in swelled sails which concerve their form. meanwhile the main course is ready for action. I replaced conventional seams with liquide fabric glue to avoide stiff multi layers of fabric. But when it comes to flags, even the thinnest fabric doesn´t work. The texture of a flag is destinctively different from a sail. In this case, I didn´t give a damn on conventions and looked for an unconventional alternative. In the end thin copper foil proofed very effective. It was prime coated, using white enamel paint, was fixed on a sheet of paper and send through an ink-jet printer. You just look for a beautiful "white ensign" in the net, download and print it on the copper foil, which is the ideal material to bend and twist it to a convincing "Flag". The wrinkles of the real flag (which are extremely difficult to achive) are simply printed on the plane surface and look quite realistic.

Well done! The bow is very convincing. HMS Agamemnon was a beautiful ship, no wonder Nelson liked her :-))) Hendrik

Now she has got a very attractive "face" :-) Thank you for showing ! Hendrik

A full broadside salut to and from HMS Surprise! Thank you all. Even though the highly praised features of the real ship, read quite different, when you look at the captains logs. She is a nice looking vessel and in her fictional appearance really a fine "seabird"... Hendrik

Well, there she is, in full size and something like a weird memorial of the beautiful sailing frigate she may be, when finally finished. First thing that had to be replaced was the carefully "tail docked" bowsprit I used in the earlier stages of the build. As a working mast it had to be done completely new. It may not be the easyest thing to start with, but it´s quite servicable. In the end you have to invent a convincing "look" for the rigg, something like a "used look" in my case. The lower foremast in comparison to the drawing of the massiv 36gun mainmast. In scale 1:48 at least some parts are exposed to permanent stress which could cause significant damage in the long run. One of this fragil looking elements are the fighting tops. This is the maintop and the smaler mizzentop. The "mouse" of the forestay as a workpiece and in action

I like your "heads" :-)))) The drawing of Karl Heinz Marquardt which depicts the fictional Jack Aubrey Surprise, is very helpful indeed. But there is a little sketch of Geoff Hunt (which is also included in the book) that proofs helpful too because it outlines the overall "look" of the ship. Hunt used this sketch and some rough models for his famous paintings.

I´m totally ungifted in knitting, and therefore had to start something else... This is not the first and definitely not the last Surprise. Just do it!!

I think this was the main stay, I don´t intend to do that mad job for smaler cables. Concerning the Admirals, if I would call her lovingly "my dear old Jarvie" she surely would grip the nine tailed cat and start flogging the captain of her heart... This world is unfair!

...with deep respect! "My god thats seamanship"

Thank you all for your comments, as you well know, this is very encouraging in the ups and downs of such a long lasting build. Typical for a scratch build is the absence of a masterplan, at least concerning the little decisions you make, which may result in many weeks of additional work. One of this crazy ideas were the workable gun lids. Most "HMS Surprises" show the traditional one piece gun doors, simple and reliable. My (about) 1810 Surprise had to feature the two-parted version the trio Lavery, Hunt and Marquardt demand. Believe me, I didn`t know what was coming about. A horror trip: but she has a "look"... Finally, one clear cold morning the hull was completed. ... and another decision had to be made: Rigging? Sails? Well my wife decided imperiously: "Rigg and sails!" ...and here we are, serving countless ropes...

Hello Paul, thank you I mentioned it because Patrik O´Brian used poor Captain Pym and his ill fated HMS Sirius when he portrayed that disastrous grand port frigate raid in one of his books ("The Mauritius command") virtually through the eyes of his fictional charakters.

Thank you all, this is lionfish poetry I found some "how -to´s" concerning two important topics "guns" and "boats". Most of the guns for model ships are either purchased or made, using a machine and brass tubes. (please don´t care for the nickel silver tank tracks, Merkava3D ) More important is the use of master patterns for the various types of gun barrels. In this case the 12pounder long gun.... and the 24pounder caronade. This masters are made from simple epoxy putty, intended for car repairs. I choosed a very low temperature bismuth tin alloy to cast the guns (you can use normal silicone for the moulds) and didn´t mind to use resin parts for the wheels of the carriages. The colour of the barrel is an experiment, in the end I prefered a dull black paint and a drybrush with "gun metal". This is the complete layout of guns for Jack Aubreys Surprise 18punder caronade for the boat, 24 pounder for the upper deck, 12pounder longguns for the main battery and 9pounder longguns for the chasers. Same thing with the boats: I tried to simplyfy the whole procedure for the holiday "workbench". cardboard replaced more elaborate methods: The jollyboat took me three or four days hard holidaywork When the boat was completed, I could´nt withstand to place it in front of the famous church tower of Coullioure (as a tribute zu POB ) My dog "Queequegg" was not amused though... The pinnace is carvel planked but was build the same way.

Hello Paul, a very interesting project! In a broarder sense it even fits to the fictional context of the Aubey/Maturin tales. Hendrik