gjdale

At the risk of repeating everyone else - just WOW! Such ingenious fabrication, and a real joy to follow this.

Sorry to hear that Charlene has felt it necessary to stop work on the Bounty Jerry - she was clearly enjoying learning from you. I'm sure your build buddy will return in due course.

Frustrating - yes. Time-consuming - yes. Valuable learning along the way - absolutely! Good on you for your perseverance Dan. You will be very pleased you bit the bullet at this stage when you see the end result!

Jax Pewter Black will work on Brittania castings.

Looks like you're off to a good start Phil, and I see you're already receiving plenty of good advice. Just remember to take your time and enjoy the journey. Mistakes will most certainly be a part of the process and re-dos are simply an opportunity to do better. I look forward to following your progress.

Nice to see you back Harvey!

Great job Jesse!

That's a very nice planking job so far Ken!

And me Bob! I have one of these stashed away with a Boxwood timbering set from Jeff. I'll be really glad to follow your progress with this.

Congratulations on reaching this milestone Bob. She looks terrific, and that windlass kit from Chuck looks to be well worth the investment.

Another great lesson in machining - thanks Ed!

That's looking really nice Jack. Clearly your painstaking preparations are paying off.

Thanks again folks for all the kind comments and the "likes" - they really do encourage me to keep striving to do better. The home straight is in sight! Entry Port Ladders The entry port ladders were fairly simple to make – once I used the right timber, and the right method. My first attempt was using 3/16” square stock Yellowheart, and using the Mill to cut the stepped profile. I quickly discovered that while Yellowheart is fine for planking, it is very difficult to use in other applications. It is very coarse grained, and very brittle, meaning that it will splinter as soon as look at you. I also decided that this task would be better accomplished using the Byrnes table saw rather than the mill – quicker, easier, and cleaner. I decided to use Castello Boxwood for the task as it still retained a pale colour to blend in with the external hull planking, and at the same time was consistent with the timber used for the Channels. These two decisions made the task very simple. The profile along the long edge of the ladder steps was cut very quickly onto longer lengths of stock. I decided to add a degree of difficulty by continuing the stepped profile onto the short edge of the steps. The pieces are too small to safely attempt this with the table saw, so they were individually cut using a chisel and finally cleaned up with a file. This last task was also much easier than I had first thought – perhaps I’m starting to develop my skills with the hand tools too! Here is what the steps looked like after profiling: I decided that they would be easier to mount on the hull if they had a locating pin, so I made up a very simple length jig for the drill press to ensure that all steps had a hole exactly in the middle of their lengths, then inserted a long brass pin “handle”. This handle was a useful holding aid while applying a coat of Wipe-on Poly to the non-glued surfaces, after which it was cut off to a more appropriate length. To aid in placing the steps accurately on the hull, a template was printed from the drawings and attached to a piece of card stock. This was taped in place on the hull while the centres of the steps were marked through with a brad point. The locating holes were then completed by very carefully hand drilling, and the steps glued in place. PVA was used for gluing, which gave ample time to ensure that each step was aligned parallel to its neighbour. Also during the week, my shipment of monograms from Chuck’s Syren company arrived – I think mine may have been the very first order placed, or if not, it was very close. I have to say that I am delighted with the product. The larger size is just right for this scale – a side-by-side comparison with the Russian-made (? or perhaps Ukrainian?) guns that Danny had given me previously showed that Chuck’s monograms were pretty much identical in size, and they also match really well against Jeff’s drawings. Well done Chuck! I gave them a coat of Floquil Engine Black prior to cutting from the sprue, and then put a tiny dab of CA glue on the barrels before placing the monograms ever so carefully with a pair of very fine pointed tweezers. This job would of course have been much easier to do prior to mounting the guns. Anyway, here’s a couple of shots showing the monograms in place on both the Mortar and Gun barrels. Unfortunately, the photos also show just how badly the model needs cleaning up prior to completion. I have been working on the "optional" Mortar Pit Housing over the last couple of days. Not sure if I will complete this yet or not for two reasons. Firstly, as I have been doing this, I have discovered that the recesses I cut into the top of the Mortar Pit are not actually the right size - I didn't appreciate at the time how everything worked together, so I went with something that looked "about right" at the time. If I had studied the plans more thoroughly, I might have realised this and been in good shape at this point. The other reason is that as far as display goes, it really needs for the Housing to be completely on or completely off - there doesn't seem to be a 50/50 option. So, I may just continue to make the parts for the heck of it, or I may get to the point where I simply call "done". I ordered the display case this week, so I've got until that arrives to finish this task, make the final display cradle/stand, and apply some Wipe-on Poly finish to the external lower hull. Oh yes, and clean the pesky dust off !!!!!

I'm with Bob on this one too, Sjors

Lovely joinery Christian!

Sorry to hear about the Half Moon, Sjors, but do I recall correctly that Anja has a scratch build Hannah package waiting in the wings? Could be just the excuse needed to start on it!

Ken, You could always try "ebonising" your wood instead of painting it. The process is described quite well in this video:

Very clever indeed Nils - they look great!

Very nice work Mike. Must have been a bit nerve-wracking the first time you used the plane on it!!!

Congratulations on completing an outstanding model and equally fascinating build log / history lesson, Cathead. I have really enjoyed the journey - thank you for sharing this with us all.

Fascinating and educational Druxey - not to mention exquisitely executed!

Good choice Mark. I've learned that if you are considering whether or not to do a re-do, then you absolutely need to do it!

Thanks again for all the kind comments, thoughtful suggestions, and of course all of the "likes". Chainplates – again! After pondering the problem of the chainplate failure for a few days, and after receiving a few suggestions from my MSW friends, I concluded two things: Firstly, I had been a little too zealous with the clean up of my silver-soldering when I attached the tube to the flat-bar. The result was that the joint had too small an area of bond, and hence a weak joint. After considering alternative approaches, I resolved to give this another crack. So I used exactly the same method as previously described, only this time taking care to leave a fillet of solder on the “shoulders” of the joint. Here is a picture after drilling, bending and blackening. If you look closely you can see the slight thickening at the joint line. The second conclusion I came to was that I was using wire of too great a thickness for the chain strops. I had been attempting to use 0.75mm diameter brass wire for this. After checking with both Mobbsie and Rusty, I decided that 0.5mm diameter would be better suited (Mobbsie successfully used 0.5mm diameter on his build at this scale, and Rusty used 0.78mm diameter for his build in 1:24 scale). The only problem I ran into here was that I was unable to silver solder the joints of the thinner wire. If it’s possible, it’s beyond my current skill set! Instead, I copied the method used by both Mobbise and Rusty on their builds, and that was to twist the wire one complete turn under the deadeyes, and then tuck the ends into the tube section of the chainplate. This at last produced an acceptable result. I secured the bottom ends of the chainplates with small brass nails left over from previous kits various (though I had to shorten them), and then blackened the heads in-situ by painting on Jax Pewter Black, and washing with distilled water afterwards to halt the reaction. This worked very well and did not have any impact on the surrounding timber (which I was careful to avoid). Finally, I used a dab of C/A glue to encourage the deadeyes to “stand up”. Here is the result: All in all, I’m quite happy with the results. All that remains now is to make the external entry ladder, and perhaps the Mortar Pit Housing, as well as the final stand.

Boyd, Jeff Hayes (HobbyMill) has a page on his website about operating the Byrnes Saw, and it includes advice on Blade selection. I just checked, and the page is still there - don't know how much longer he'll keep it up now that he's "retired". Here's the link to the Saw blade selection part: http://www.hobbymillusa.com/byrnes-saw-operation-2.php

Looks like a fascinating subject and a little unusual. Think I'll tag along too.