MEPering

Thank you for your kind compliments! Once all the carronades were assembled and reviewed both plans and real photos I realized that I needed to be able to attach the carronades before rigging them with tackle and breech lines. The plan drawings must be for some other ship because the sizes do not match each other in relation to the attaching brackets and the planksheer. This is where assembly drawings would have shown the issue. So I devised my own brackets that required drilling an index hole into the top of the waterway that will suggest an attaching bracket which is visible both looking down as well as through the gun ports.
 

 
Here is a closeup front view.
 

 

 
Once the brackets were in place the breech lines could be added. Here I am using .035" light brown left over from my Niagara build. I also realized that the tackle blocks provided in the kit were way too large. I then ordered both single and double 3/32" blocks and .008" light brown line to fit the blocks. These will be much closer to scale once rigged. These were ordered from Syren on Thursday afternoon and arrived today (Monday) Chuck is to be complimented on his customer service focus and quick turnaround!  I will now be continuing on rigging the carronades without missing a beat.
 

 
Here is a suggestion to make a drill bit depth gauge which enables drilling holes for eyebolts in the ceiling walls without drilling through the outer wall accidentally. Also in this case the 1/32" drill bit is glued into a 1/16" brass tube long enough to reach across the width of the deck.
 

 

 
Now back to more breech lines and then block and tackle which I will be at for awhile.

I finished staining the hull. I really like the way it turned out. It looks like it is aged, and at the same time, shows off the planking. Next up is coppering! Anyway, here are the pictures! There are a lot!








Now that has me thinking about getting a patina on my copper plates ! Until next time!

I have built the rudder, and the next step is staining the hull. I got a dark stain which I will test on some spare wood, and I got a min wax stain pencil to help blend the lighter wood with the planking. The pencil can do a little darker than the stain, so that should help even out the lighter wood to match the planking. I have a small sponge brush for more control. The thing I am most worried about is the planks falling off if I get them soaked with stain accidentally . I will probably just need to do light coats so that they don't fall off when a ton of stain gets on them. Anyway, wish me luck!

I finished planking yesterday! I'm sure I must have taken 2 months! I'm not able to do anything else at the moment, but I can give you pictures. It's not perfect, but I'll play the newbie card this time !




That's it for now! Until next time!

Hello to everyone! I am back from the States after 3 months of fundraising for the orphanage here in Zambia. The giving was down so we'll have to cut a few projects until next year.
  While there, I did pick up some balsa wood for planking. I will be getting a wood slicer to cut the wood into the proper widths.
 It has been so long that I just looked at the boat and plans and had to make sense of where I was at and what I was doing. I finally found out that I was building the top deck gun ports. So I worked on it last night and finished the port side. while the Storage wars on.   

Starboard quarter galleys are complete! Lots of trial, several errors, a couple of cut fingers and one complete start over later and I was finally able to sit back and smile at my work. I'm hoping that the port side will go a bit smoother now that I have a plan on how to build them and learned several ways not to. If not, well the admiral and I did make port this weekend and restocked the bar so I can always just sit back with a glass and look at her which is nice to do also.
 
Well, thanks for stopping by to look and enjoy the pictures.

Thanks Vic! Glad you stopped in to take a look.
 
So here is a progress picture of the quarter galley I'm building. Got both turrets built and will be building the cabin in between them tomorrow. Then build the roofs and repeat the process on the other side. I've been looking forward to seeing these on her as they are some of the defining characteristics that drew me to la Couronne in the first place.  

Progress from over the weekend. Quarter galley construction is progressing nicely. Got the lower sections on both sides built and installed. The supports for the balcony I had to remake out of the same mahogany that I used on the hull as opposed to the plywood they were originally made from. That took a good portion of Saturday but gave me an excuse to play with some of my new Dremmel bits.
 
Not pictured I have almost completed one of the turrets and I have part of the balcony decked. I have not found a fast way to build the turrets that turns out the way I want so they are a slow process. Still I would rather that then end up with a look I do not want.
 
Enjoy the update!

Update - I finished up the stern today. I decided to cut out the recessed areas of the upper railings & glued them in place. Then the stern fascia was glued on & the rest of the decorations added. The only things left are the lanterns,& 2 spears held by the upper figures. They will be added much later to avoid damaging them. I added a couple of brass pins to the uppermost decoration due to it`s weight. This ship is getting really heavy!
 

 

 

 
 
 
Next I will probably put some finish on the hull under the lower wale.
 
Mark

A little more progress has been made - lower wales are on & painted. I made one little error - after gluing all the wale strips on I saw that they are a little too high.This is not a problem except for fitting the lower decorations at the stern,so I added a 2mm strip to the bottom of the wale so the decoration would fit. Also painted the upper part of the stem
 

 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi all.
Just a thought before I continue - If anyone has thoughts about getting a Euromodel kit their web site is offering their kits at 20% off for a limited time. I have no connection to them - just a satisfied customer.
On with version 2 of the stern railings. I decided that my little scrolls did not look that great,so I decided to change them back to the kit supplied oval decorations with a little modification. The first picture shows the decoration as supplied. I modified them by carefully cutting out the recessed portions to produce a better 3D effect as shown in the second picture. After painting & gluing in place I am happy with them. Next,I will work on getting the lower wales in place before finishing the stern while I can still lay the ship on its side.
 

 

 

 

 
Mark

A little more progress has been made. While working on the railings between the middle & upper decks I didn`t really care for the little ovals that fit in them,so off to the art & craft store I went to browse around. I found some items in the bead dept. that looked like some fancy scroll work & looked about the right size so I bought some & installed them in the railings. They really seemed to dress them up a bit.
 

 
Then I cut out all the window panes in the upper windows & painted them.With some very minor adjustments they were fitted in place,along with the railings.
 

 

 
Then I made & planked the upper deck & slid it in place. All 3 of the stern decks were made from 1.5mm basswood sheet planked on both sides with some brass mouldings around the outside edges.The brass mouldings were left over from a previous build. The very top rail will be fitted after the fascia is in place.
 

 

 
The lower & middle windows are also now "glazed".
 
Mark

The two long guns and carronades are finished, now I started adding all the eyebolts to the bulwarks for the cannons. The single eyebolts are easy but just a bunch of them. Then I saw the double eyebolt and thought I would share how I fabricated these using 28 gauge copper wire which is softer and more flexible than brass and once formed the shaft was soldered to join the it with the loops for strength.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Test fit of soldered and cleaned eyebolt.

 
Finished double eyebolt in place centered between carronades.

 
Next to drill the hole locations for the single eyebolts adjacent to the lower gunport openings. 

Continuing on with the building the carronades I added eyebolts using 26 gauge black beading wire and added them as needed. Next I tried a few options for bolt heads and decided the best test results were obtained using a Pilot Fine Point rolling ball "Precise V5".
 

 

 
Once beds and bases were marked and eyebolts added the beds were glued to the bases in the forward position. 
 

 
Next the master carronade barrel was glued in place relative to the gun port; and the master was then used to match each barrel to be tack glued into position on one side only. This allows further adjustment when trunnion straps are added and fitted to an individual gunport if needed.
 

 

 
Once the barrels were glued in place the trunnion straps and quoins were needed. The straps were formed over a .045" rod set in a V notch cut in a piece of hardwood. Hardwood is needed to resist the down force of the pliers during the forming. Lengths of .005" brass strips were cut and trunnion straps formed on each end of the strip, then cut off and the next one formed on the strip. This speeded up the making of the 40 needed. Once formed all were spray painted Satin Black. The quoins were made using 3/32" square basswood explained early in this build.
 

 
This shows them just set in place until next steps.
 
 
 

I have been busy with spar deck details and the like; however I did add a billet head detail I saw in the previously posted drawings. I used copper wire and twisted it and inserted the ends into holes drilled on either side of the billet head.

 

 

 

 

 
I then added the gammon irons which required some careful surgery to cut holes under the steps. These should have been added before adding the steps to the bowsprit. A lesson for those who may follow. I also fitted the eye bolts and cut the two lengths of chain needed. The chains will be added once the bow sprit is permanently installed. 
 

 

 

 
Next I have moved on to the carronades and the barrel castings will require a great deal of cleanup. I built a test one to sort out the best process for a mini production line. Here is the first one just set in the gun port to check on size relative to deck.
 

 
Here I have painted it up and added the eyebolts, this one is able to slide but I am not sure if this is really needed once rigged with lines. I will also need to decide whether to add the in haul lines for the long guns. Also you can see that the belaying pin rails are in place as well.
 

 
I will be busy for awhile and here is the production process set up ready to go for the carronades. Once all are built the rigging process will be done.
 

 
After these will come the brass canopy frames for the companionways. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have a question about the ammo scuttles and hope someone can help. The plans show locations for aft and center ammo passing scuttles in the spar deck but none forward. It seems odd that there are no forward (bow) ammo scuttles. Can anyone confirm that there are only four (4)?
 
I also assume that they were made of brass so as not to spark so I turned them using brass and polished the top of the lid.
 

 

 

Thanks Popeye, and for the other likes.
 
I finished up the channels and deadeyes on the starboard side last night. I am glad I started on the port side, because I was able to get these to look better (more lined up) after practicing on the other side. I am glad this part is now done as I found it a bit tedious. But as with everything I am glad to have done it.
 

 

 

 

 
I am at a bit of a crossroads now. I have been vacillating about whether to do the hammock cranes now or wait until after the rigging, but after looking things over last night, I have decided to add them now. I am going to try to make Sculpey hammocks to go in them too. I think they will be low enough to not interfere with the rigging later on. I am also going to add the quarter and stern davits now, but haven't decided when I will make the ships boats. I was going to do them after the hammock cranes, but now I am thinking that I want to get the bowsprit and masts built next.
 
BTW - does anyone know off hand what length the hammocks would have been in real life? Somewhere in the back of my mind I am thinking 18" but I am not sure. I probably have it somewhere in my notes, too.
 
 

I rebuilt the pinnace cradle to allow for removal of grates with the pinnace in place.

 

 
Here is a sequence of making the large cleats and then the small cleats per a previous request to show.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here are the small cleats.

 

 

 
Now back to adding the rest of the cleats and then onto the eyebolts and paint touch up.
 
 

Well, I finished the Fore and Main mast rigging for the shrouds. They will be installed in stages.
 

 
Here is a picture of  of the bowsprit, fore main mast prior to installing.
 

 
I have most of the lines fore the foremast made and ready to go. I am presently working on the mainmast lines.

Thanks popeye. You're right about the speed of the build. I am having fun, although last weekend I was stuck in the cold and rain of NH when I would have liked to have been in the shop. Oh well, we still had fun.
 
Just a quick update. The port side channels are all finished with their chain plates and backing links (I have been calling them chains and plates, which is not right). I have also touched up all the areas around them with black paint, which does hide a multitude of sins as popeye said. My goal is to someday build a model with all natural wood, but I am not there yet.
 

 

 
I have the starboard side channels in place and have stropped and painted all the large deadeyes for that side, so I can start installing them tonight. I still have to strop and paint some medium and small deadeyes, but only a few.

Thanks Nenad, Steve, Al, Geoff, and David, and the folks who hit the like button. I feel bad for not having an update in a while, but I haven't been home much and when there I have had to deal with other things. But, I am back in the shop for a bit this week so I was able to make some progress.
 
I have been working on the process of stropping the deadeyes and attaching them to the hull with the chains and plates. I wanted to go through the whole process with one channel to make sure it was going to work before totally committing to it. So, I started with the port fore channel to see how this would work. I first stropped the large and medium deadeyes I would need for this channel. I tried first using a copper wire, but it was too soft and I didn't like how easily it bent. So I went back to the 24 gauge black steel wire that I have used many times before. I first wrapped the wire completely around the deadeye, but with a small piece of brass strip where the two wire ends crossed. The strip was to make a small space so that I could slip the end of the chain between the wire and the deadeye later.
 

  I then cut the two wire ends at the same place, making a loop with a small space under it. I tried soldering the ends together at this point, but I could really only get the soldering iron on one end of the wire which didn't heat up the other end, so the solder joint was pretty lousy. Also, the soldering iron was scorching the deadeye. A little scorch would have been OK since I was painting them black later, but it was too much. I thought of trying silver soldering but I was really afraid of setting them on fire! I settled with just a tiny drop of medium CA glue that I applied right at the joint. It actually flowed nicely into the joint like a good solder would and the bond seems very strong. I could have also added more glue to glue the deadeyes to the strops, but I wanted to be able to rotate the deadeyes in the strops to get the holes to line up correctly later. I used the alligator clip to hold the deadeye by the sides when I glued them, which forced the two ends of the wire together.       I then painted the deadeyes and strops black. One thing I found with this method was to make sure the holes in the deadeyes were lined up correctly with the joint because after painting them I could not easily rotate the deadeyes in the strops. I had to take a couple of them apart to get the holes right after painting, but now I make sure the holes are lined up correctly before painting. I blackened some chains and plates, some rings, and some nails that I had that will fit through the holes in the chains and plates, after I opened then up a bit with a #72 drill bit in a pin vice. I drilled out the holes while the chains and plates were still on the brass etched plates, so they were easy to hold. i also made up some eyebolts with rings, which are used in place of nails at the ends of some of the chains.   To attach the stropped deadeyes to the channels, I first marked the line that the chains make on the hull with some masking tape, to try to get them to line up nicely. I also added a dowel for the fore mast and marked on it where the ends of the fore shrouds would be and tied a piece of line at that height. I then slid a chain down through each hole in the channel, set the end at the masking tape and used tweezers to hold it at the top of the channel. I then carefully removed the chain and bent it 90 degrees at the tweezers, pushed this bent end through the gap in a deadeye strop and bent it the rest of the way back onto itself, covering the joint in the strop. I used the same procedure for the rings that are attached with chains.     I was then able to slid the chains back into the channels, pull them down so the strop was at the channel, and drill a hole into the hull, again using the string on the mast to get the right angle for the chain. I added a plate to a nail or ringbolt, cut off the excess length of the nail, pushed it through the hole on the end of the chain and into the hole in the hull. I put a small drop of medium CA on the nail shaft before pushing it all the way into the hole. Before the glue dried, I positioned the plate to be in line with the chain, then after the glue dried I drilled another hole in the hull for a nail through the bottom hole of the plate. Here is how they came out.           There was a little collateral damage during the process, like having to reattach the first gun port lid in the pictures, but nothing major. I still need to touch up the black paint on the nail heads and a couple of other areas. There are also a couple of extra holes that need to be filled where I didn't have thing lined up quite right.   I glued the fore main and mizzen channels to the hull last night, so they will be rigged next.  
 
 

Thank you both for your kind compliments; and yes having the right tools make a great difference. This is why I really like the precision of the Sherline lathe cutting these tiny details.  
 
I finally glued the spar decking in place using the cross beams through the gunports and wedges for tight fitting and allowed the assembly to set overnight. I then located the deck structures with their locating pins and drilled needed holes into the deck. I will next address the various items to be attached to the ceiling walls using locating pins. Thus the deck structures will not be glued in place for now so that holes can be drilled without their interference.
 
Here are pictures of the structures just set in place for now just to get a feel for how they will look.
 

 

 

 

 

 
One detail I am trying to sort out is the 1/32" raised deck area shown on the plans, but is not seen on the photos of the restored ship. It is a deck doubler extending from the companionway aft of the main mast to the mizzen mast fife rail.   Any advice or knowledge on this detail is welcomed on which would be correct for what period?

A major milestone has been reached! I finished installing the forecastle deck today and with it that was the last major structural component. I do still have the turrets, quarter galleys and balcony left to build but major work on the main body of the ship is complete. I also still have some deck furniture, bits, kevels, capstan etc. to install and those will be along shortly.
 
I also got the rest of the canons rigged in place so that monotonous chore is complete as well. Once the paint dries on the canons for the dummy ports I will install those and all 64 guns will be in place.
 
Next will be a little bit of a lot of things. I am going to start building the turrets and quarter galleys as well as the misc. furniture. Since there will be a lot of down time waiting on glue to dry for those turrets that will give me a great opportunity to build the furniture. Now that I am working on the exterior and am starting to get more delicate decorations and railing on I get more nervous as I know there will be accidents, I just hope that none will be catastrophic.
 
Enjoy the pics!

After two days of building canons.... they are still not done.... however they are close. I got the carriages built and most of the rigging ready. I ran out of the blocks I needed but fortunately I placed an order with Chuck last week so I should have more in later this week. Drilled the openings for the barrels and installed the decorative wreaths. Should be able to get them rigged up this week and then I can build the forecastle deck and all the major planking will be completed.
 
Mark, I've taken a look at the Billings Wasa and combining it with a few other interpretations I have seen I think I now have a plan for the capstan. We shall see...
 
 

Update - all the middle deck windows are in place. They fit together nicely,although I had to add a shim across the tops of the windows between the side openings. the middle deck is now in place also & lines up nicely with the openings in the stern fascia.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark