Brian the extraordinaire

Hi Byron, no problems taking questions mate, that is what these logs are all about
 
My kit was the Artesena Latina (AL) but probably not that much different wrt their content.
 
I stopped using all AL parts and accessories about 2/3s way through the hull build, so all my rigging and deck furniture etc is either scratch or after market.  My rigging is a combo of Morope (tan) and home made (black).  I had already purchased the Morope before acquiring my rope walk so I was compelled to use it or waste my money - easy choice
 
Essentially, I used the rigging calculator (spreadsheet) developed by members JimLad and DanVad which is available on this site.  I simply rounded up and down the calculated sizes and simplified the range to 4 tan and 5 black sizes, and applied the general rule of diminishing rope size the higher in the rigging.  So while not absolutely scale correct, it should be close.
 
As to references, I have not bothered with the AL instructions at all.  I have basically used the AOTS book Capt. Cookes Endeavour by Karl Marquardt as my primary guide, but where there have been obvious or contentious issues I have also used the Replica, Ray Parkin and the feedback of some of our members to steer me.  James Lees (The Masting and  Rigging of English Warships)  has also been very useful.  In a nutshell, there will be difference to other builds; this is simply my interpretation.
 
FYI - Ray Parkin and Karl Marquardt were members of our club and there were some interesting debates about the differences in ship construction/fittings and rigging   Yes, there are differences between these authors interpretations, and with the NMM plans, the replica rigging  etc - although the vast majority of the rigging is generally the agreed.  Have a peek at MSW members Greg Lester Mike C and Shipaholic build logs to read of some of the issues that have arisen.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Hi all, a long overdue update.  I have been busy with life (health issues), revamping my workshop and working on our club's build of HMCSS Victoria (see separate post) but have had time to progress.
 
I have completed the 'rattlin' of the lower shrouds on the port side and working across the upper shrouds.  I am using a template (see photo) which at scale provides 13" separation. Some of you may have noted my query re ratline sequence/pattern in a separate post/forum.  In the end I followed James Lees description in his great reference " The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War1625-1860"  which is essentially what the replica has done with some minor adaptions which I have also applied.  His reference is based on contemporary models in the NMM and while there are difference between ships in this era, it is anyone's guess what pattern was actually used
 
I have also started rigging the shroud cleats - what a pain in the xxxx    I have tried various techniques and having had advice from Dan Vad and Greg Lester (thanks guys), still had problems holding these 'slippery little suckers' in place while securing them to a shroud.  even CA would not hold.  In the end I finally had some success using a tiny dab of CA on a half hitch around the base of each leg of the cleat (see photo), then half-hitching these and applying a dab of PVA to the hitch to temporarily hold them in place while I finish the hitches.  The PVA them leeches into the completed hitch and 'et voila'
 
cheers
 
Pat (and my 1000th post )
 
  
 
  

Yesterday (Wednesday), another Swedish ship from 17th century was found. This time at a depth of 6m (about 18t).
She is slightly bigger than Wasa with 66 cannons.
Her name is Solen (the Sun), built in Lubeck 1669, sunk 1694.
Armament:
16x24 pounder
8x18 pounder
24x12 pounder
2x8 pounder
14x6 pounder
2x4 pounder
4x3 pounder
 
Length: 45meter
Width:12 meter

Basswood is very interesting material for modeling, if you need soft, and elastic easy to cut and sand piece, and when wood texture is not significant. Except hull (plywood) first planking layer (balsa), veneer ( planking)  and some details, almost all I made from basswood

We can talk about woods we use next 15-150 years, and I think here on MSW is separate topic dedicated to woods. One of my dreams is to make perfect nice and extremely complicated model from different kind of natural woods, and this will obviously wait to my next life considering my slow progress, and a long way in front of me with CS

Is this boxwood ? Translators I use and Big brother Google point to that ?



Hmmm ... hard, almost impossible to find except if you have it in your own yard. Very very slow growing, and you must have own cutting machine. I have little bush in yard 10-15 years old only 50cm dia, but do not like idea to cut it. Ee tried to plant different type of "live fence" but it just do not work, so there is classic wire net fence, filled with bunch of plants climbing on and falling down from fence

I then did the walkways which run along the middle of the ship. please note there are no instructions whatever on this, and the walkway is a single piece so they cannot be placed in a photo etch bender given the angles.

Hi All
 
Just to say thank you all for your likes and comments.
 
I have planked the next deck, and sanded it all down and one coat of varnish (two more coats to do).
 
Sorry about all the dust you can see ha-ha, will clean that up soon.
 
Denis.

I use CA for gluing down copper plates, holding the end of hull planking down until quick dry PVA glue sets, making a pointy end on thread. Other than that I avoid CA glue. The flu like symptoms resulting from inhaling even a small amount of fumes from it is a real issue for me

Finished.Finally. Well, I finished up by rigging the anchors & finishing the running rigging.Not sure about some of the belaying points but I think it passes the galloping horse test . Sorry I was not a little more descriptive of some of the work but sometimes I get going on something & forget to take pictures.A lot of modifications were made but I think the end result was worth the effort. I would like to thank everyone for looking in & posting all the generous comments & hitting the like button. I will try to put a few more pics in the gallery. Now for the hard part - trying to decide what to build next .
 

 

 

 

 
/Mark
 
 

That's true Ajax should be a 3rd rate not a frigate like they show.  I also think Mamoli made up a kit as the HMS Surprise and nothing to do with the historic ship but the latter mamoli kits were all junk anyway.  But like I said some of these kits may have origin stories elsewhere and are then bought by the model companies, repackaged into something totally different and given a name a fake back story (like AL's Independence).  While I am sure quite a few of them are total fiction a few that are listed above like the Resolution, or something like Mantua's Peregrine Galley do look like they were based on something historical so I'm just trying to track down what they were actually meant to be.

Hi,
Art of shipbuilding.
Due to the lack of scientific methods of calculation and design of ships
ship building in the old days was a kind of art and everything depended on the experience of employee master of shipbuilding.
Gathered here from my archive of photos from various museums showing how ships were built centuries ago.
A few photos from the net is because old shipyards are still in the Navy possession  or a ban on photographing in some museums.
Project.
Construction of a new ship ordered by the King was preceded by a performance of the model to the Admiralty can assess whether the project meets its requirements. Many of such models have survived to our time, they show the details of construction of the hull, we call it The Admiralty Models.
Because in those days there were no scientific method stability calculations all based on the experience of masters of shipbuilding.
 
Admiralty models
 

 

 

 
Assembly of Admiralty
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Tadeusz

I finished planking up the hull of my Steingreber Admiral Vernon and wished to paint the lower hull white.Due to the rather large size of the model(The keel is 2 feet long)using my normal Tamiya white would prove to be too expensive.I had some latex interior semi gloss(Baer)left over from painting the shed that looked promising.I thinned the paint with water and used a good quality 1-1/.2 inch sable artists brush to apply the paint.Great results were achieved with just the right sheen after 3 light coats and the waterline mask was sharp due to the great quality blue 3M masking tape.The paint should be quite durable after it cures but since the model is in its assembly cradle the hull will not be handled for several weeks after the permanent  display base is constructed.

Hi Everyone,
 
The hull received 3 coats of grey primer, and then three coats of finish paint.  Painted the hull (using paint from Billings), one color at a time, from the bottom up.  Three coats.
 
-Jason
 

Hi Brian
 
The plans don't call for the main mast fife rail to have belaying pins.
But I am sure it must have had them.
 
The kit supplies 14mm ones.
 
I think I will go with the 10mm ones.
 
But if any one can help please advise me.
 
Denis.

Hi all
 
As I did not make the stove I only did the chimney that comes out of the forecastle deck.
 
I did add a lip to the top of the chimney.
 
I thought that I would also add some rivets to the sides.
 
I got some PVA glue and mixed it with some flour to give the PVA some body (thicken the PVA up).
 
I know the photo looks bad but it looks Ok in real life if you know what I mean ha-ha.
 
Well it is only about 16-17mm high.
 
Denis.

Dear Nigel,
 
what a pitty, that the work on your amazing model has stopped.
 
As I am building the DeAgostini SotS as well (with influences of the Morgan drawing, as far as my skills allow) I have taken a lot of inspirations, suggestions and ideas from your build log.
 
Here are two pics of my current build. Unfortunately I don't have much time for model building and I have started approximately two years later.

Before I bought stdio flash, I did a lamp with 2  adjustable LED spots. I took it out of the closet  and installed it over the working table. You can see on the table top how it illuminates. The last picture is done with these 2 spots.
 
I also did a table for the next exposition.  I tried a new receipe for fast dying  and waxiing wood :
 
Drop Bee wax shavings  in a pot cover with odorless turpentine This will make the wax liquid and it will be very easy to apply  the wax, and the turpentine will then avporate in the air.
To intensify the color  and also to give a greater aged look,  add bitumen and mix. Again turpentine will do the same action as it did to the beewax.
 
For a final ingredient,  double the quantity  already mixed with tung oil which is also going to help the look of the wood grain m making iti look richer.   

Hi folks,
 
I am just starting the 'rattlin down' of my HMB Endeavour (Scale 1:60) and am a little confused with the various authorities in how these should be rigged.
 
The following depicts several possible options of interpreting what Lees, Steele, Lever and others have described but not illustrated.
 
Which would be the correct sequence noting it is a English ship, rigged Naval style (even though a collier) for the year  circa 1768.  I am reasonably sure (but stand to be corrected) that Endeavour did not carry Swifters, so I am assuming Option 2 is incorrect? 
 
Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
cheers
 
Pat
 

Thank you to the Peanut Gallery for your support - this should be fun .
 
Here's the first step. I carved a Plug for the hull, which I'll plank the same way I did the Cutter for Vulture.
 
I'm assuming that a 26' Longboat will be proportionally thinner amidships than a 18' Cutter (i.e. they would both be about the same width) - there would be no need for extra width, as one man per thwart would still apply. I've made the hull as wide as will be possible to fit into the neck of the bottle, but still wanted the hull to be as long as possible.
 
Final dimensions of the hull are 72mm long, 20mm wide and 12mm deep :
 

 

 
  Danny

Just to start this entry I would like to express that I appreciate very much the new results of the research, as every new input is always welcome. Of course, this "Hello-Kitty-meets-Happy-Pony"-version is quite outrageous for plenty model makers - but why? Simply because many of us are quite stubborn and fat headed and do not like changes, especially on iconic things like this. And that includes me too ;-)
 
Those were the correct colors in about 2003, samples I was given during the modelers tour on the ship ...
 

 
... I even do not remember what the green was used for :-)
 
The thing changing most is the ochre. So have a closer look.
 

 
But it is not that outrageous if looked closer. Jan Marten in our german forum posted the picture showing 50 shades of ochre ;-)
 

 
If you take the medium reddish tone and mix in more white than it was used before, you will get the "new" color, as suggested by the latest research.
I think the red one on the "summit" would create an even more exalted reddish tone.
 
But now some very personal thoughts about the latest research and why I am not rushing into repainting my model.
 
First of all: We are talking about a time of Pre-RAL, Pre-Pantone and Pre-other-Color-Charts.
My personal belief is, that the ships usually looked much more like patchwork color wise.
 
Just some reasons for my thoughts:
The ochre paint came as a barrel, how much did the paint match the other barrels of the delivery, not speaking of other charges from different provenances? If you look at the picture of the ochre, you really have 50 shades in there if not even more! What shade was meant to be painted, if yellow or red ochre was meant to be used?
 
Second the paint was mixed by hand by adding white - how much was in the eye of the master painter. Did he have the experience to match the existing paint, as wet paint looks different than the dry one? Also what were the differences if some pigments were stuck on the bottom of the barrel?
 
It is great that the research used old paint samples to determinate the original color, but where was it taken from? What is known, when it was exactly painted? As most of the outer hull was exchanged already multiple times, where was exact spot of the sample, was it outboards or inboards, was it the original 1803 main paint - with all its variations, when possibly every barrel was mixed by hand - or was it some 1804 repairs or late 1805 post Trafalgar patches? How close was the research to determine the exact timing?
 
Also how much were the studies taking care the possible changing of the color by time, saltwater, sun and interaction with newer paints?
 
On the Vic in P. there is a interesting exhibit in the middle deck: it is said to be part ot the original foremast. If the color would be also original, it shows itself today as a nice Nato-drab ;-)
 

 
Also if one looks at the contemporary paintings - as seen in the entries before - the english ships show commonly a more warm yellow ochre, while the french and spanish show all different shades from yellow ochre to pink and even red. But of course, this could be only an artists convention to pinpoint the english ships. However also Turner used the more yellowish tone, and I know his deficiencies in perspective and technical details, but he was master in the use of colors and he saw the ship in real life after returning from Trafalgar.
 

 
Too there are the carpenter expenses to have a closer look at. Goodwin had an interesting article in the Mariner`s Mirror about it, just to round up the discussion (thanks to Achilles for pointing it out in our german forum):
http://seaphoenix.com/index.php/publicat...-victory-yellow
 
So I will leave you in the mess of your thoughts, to me it still is worth some nice discussions and that is the really interesting bit, as I like the idea to stir up the model makers minds and keep them flexible :-)
 
And if I say patchwork for the paint job, I really mean it, not as neat as usually shown, just another hint - would ever somebody have dared to build the real existing planking scheme of the Vasa on his model without having seen the original ? ;-)
 
So do not be upset about the new color, do see it as an opportunity to discuss this issue even further, who knows what even later "latest research" will show!
 
As a resumee:
I am skeptical in how far this examined color samples are applicable for the whole of the hull including trucks.
So find your own answers or tastes :-)
 
Cheers, DAniel

Denis, I experienced the same thing with the Euromodel  Friederich Wilhelm zu Pferde (FW for short !) and then made a vow that besides using instant glue, I would also pass a fine nail through each carriage into the deck before adding the cannon in any future builds. Maybe not totally authentic but hey, the use of glue isn't either.
Pete

This is one of the primary reasons why I follow build logs...as a first time builder I've been sweating bullets about how to avoid this issue as some of the items I'm gluing down now would be the devil to reach and reattach. 
 
First I was thinking Epoxy, but now I'll use pins to secure them as well....thanks much   

Hi Greg
 
It is Ok we all have to redo things it is part of model building :) .
 
Denis.

Hi All
 
Have finished the gratings for the quarterdeck.
 
Denis.

As can be seen on the photograph showing the disassembled jigsaw, the piston for the saw-blade was guided by two self-aligning bearings. These bearings essentially were two cast-iron spheres set into slots and that were bored for the steel piston of 9.5 mm diameter (3/8”).
 

Self-aligning bearings in the original jig-saw
 
Lubrication relied on the self-lubrication of the graphite in the cast iron and the system had already considerable play in consequence. Therefore, the spheres were bored out to accept 10 mm self-lubricating bushings for 8 mm rods. These came from China through a well-known Internet service and are presumably normally used in computer printers and the like. Self-lubriacting bushings were chosen, because oiling would have been difficult under operating conditions. The new piston was fashioned from 8 mm polished and calibrated silver steel.
 

Bored out bearings with new self-lubricating bushings in place
 
To be continued ...

Brain,
 
Thanks for the compliment.  The hull length is 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters for you metric types ).
 
Erik