petervisser

Mark. You're a machine! Back in the saddle so soon. Well, good on ya. Doing something you're passionate about and obviously something you are very gifted at. Enjoy your new project and I will sign up for more updates. I love this kit and know you'll do it justice.
Cheers,
Peter

Mark. You're a machine! Back in the saddle so soon. Well, good on ya. Doing something you're passionate about and obviously something you are very gifted at. Enjoy your new project and I will sign up for more updates. I love this kit and know you'll do it justice.
Cheers,
Peter

I've now pretty much finished all the deck structures and fittings.  Pictures here of all that.
 
Some comments on sequence.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I chose to go ahead and do the stern deadeyes early, which was a relief when I installed the curved stern railing.  I'm not sure I'd have been able to avoid mangling it if I'd done them in the manual sequence, which is during the rigging stage.
 
Speaking of those, the manual and drawings show a way to create the chain plate from wire, and then fix it to the deck below the deadeyes, which is conceptually fine for those in the middle of the hull if you have a 3 inch long .75mm drill bit -- mine are shorter, and I'm not sure they exist.  I may still do it by drilling on an angle.  It still looks like a flimsy fixing for the tension on the deadeyes, so I'm going to reinforce them to the bottom of the channel. 
 
But there's no clear way shown to attach the ones on the stern that you see here -- so I improvised by creating a sort of wire "plug" on the deadeye and gluing that into the hole.  I'll do the ones on either side of the hull next, as I won't want to try to maneuver those into place with masts and yards up (which is the way the manual would have you do it).
 
The other improvisation is the small front railing between the ladders.  I lost one of the stanchions on the floor somewhere, and of course Mantua provides no spares.  So I had to fashion the two rear stanchions out of wire.
 
Before I get to the rigging, I need to build the lifeboats and mount them, which is the next step.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

Beautiful work Mark. A wonderful addition to your fleet. It's mainbrace splicing time!
 
Peter

After adding the tack lines for the fore & main sails I`m calling this one done.   The kit does include a ship`s boat kit,but I have decided to not build it.  
Thanks to all that have followed along.  I will add some pictures to the gallery soon. I`m not sure what I will build next - would love to do Chuck`s  Winchelsea,but I don`t have a hobby size table saw to cut planks & can`t really afford to spend hundreds of $$ for one right now.
 

 
Mark

Hi Richard and welcome to MSW. I'm down in Victoria, so I guess we're pretty much neighbours. Really good looking Endeavour!
 
Peter

Hi David,
She looks fantastic! The black hull and copper bottom are real eye catchers! The white strakes are a very nice touch too.
Peter

The white rubbing strakes are now on.  The manual wants pins to hold the curve, but I steamed the curve into the strips, then painted them, and then used CA glue.
 
I think I may have ended the strakes too soon at the bow, and if so, I'll fix that later.  I KNOW I have an issue at the stern where the width between the strakes isn't quite large enough for the brass figures that go in there, but I ran out of stern to fix the lower strake to, so I'll fix that as well by cutting down the brass to fit.
 
I need to touch all of this up now with black and white paint.
 
Regards,
David

All of the gunports are located and the dummy gun blocks are placed. Locating the ports was fairly easy since they all butt up against a bulkhead. I added planks that follow the deck lines to mount the blocks to. I also noticed that if I want to keep most of the ports open with protruding gun barrels, there are not enough guns supplied. They figure on only having about half of them open. I do have a good supply of gun barrels that are similar in my stash. I will use those.

Next up is to bevel the fore and aft bulkhead ends and begin the first layer of hull planking. A hull this size that also has a complex curved stern and a bluff bow will take a considerable time to plank.

Vince P.

Hi Allan,
Wow, what a great model so far! She looks super. I have a very old Danmark kit which I have just started. However, the instructions are so old and basic that I have contacted Billing to get some full size drawings.
I will be checking in on your build log from time to time and get some hints and tips. You have put the bar pretty high...
 
Peter

Hello friends!  Haven`t posted in a while - did some remodeling,cleaned out & got my mother`s house sold, then a few unfortunate things happened(Murphy`s Law has been following me around)......    I have got a couple of things done - made a bunch of rope coils,& got the fore topmast & topgallant yard braces done. Those braces were shown on the belaying plan to  belay BEHIND the main lower sail but that is not possible with the mainsail in place,so I belayed them to the railing at the rear of the forecastle deck.  Also got the fore topgallant backstays done. I hope to get back to work on this more regularly very soon.  As always,thanks for looking in.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Welcome back Dave!
 
Peter

So here is a picture of what has been completed on the foredeck so far. The deck has been sealed and parts added. I will now be moving on to the aft deck and bring it up to the same status as the foredeck. Also attached is a picture of the aft deck with the veneer lying beside it. I have circled the items that will have to be removed to allow installation of the veneer. This time I will be sealing the veneer before placing it on the deck as I believe this will be easier than trying to paint around all the deck fittings etc...

Hi Robin,
After seeing the enlarged picture I recognized her as the sail training ship Cuauhtemoc, from Mexico. I was aboard her when she visited Victoria several years ago. I remember how immaculate she was when I visited her. Built in Spain in 1982. A lovely ship (barque really).
Cheers,
Peter

Hi Robin,
I'm going to guess it's the Danmark. My guess is based on the green boot topping on the hull. It looks like it is a ship rig but it's hard to tell from the small photo.
Cheers,
Peter

Hi Robin,
Greetings from the West Coast and welcome to this site. Your Bluenose looks fantastic! And thanks for the link to your build log in the other model boat website. Lots of great progress shots and build tips. I'm like you in that I wait until the fall to get back to work on my model. But that's proving difficult this year and I try to steal an hour here and there...
I look forward to your next model boat log in the fall!
Cheers,
Peter
p.s. What ship is that on your profile pic?

Hi Robin,
Greetings from the West Coast and welcome to this site. Your Bluenose looks fantastic! And thanks for the link to your build log in the other model boat website. Lots of great progress shots and build tips. I'm like you in that I wait until the fall to get back to work on my model. But that's proving difficult this year and I try to steal an hour here and there...
I look forward to your next model boat log in the fall!
Cheers,
Peter
p.s. What ship is that on your profile pic?

Rigging Hatch Nr2 and the 50-ton Jumbo Boom
 
The first step was to rig the 2 5-ton booms in the vertical stowed position:

 
Then the fun started. I usually enjoy rigging blocks because they look good on a model. Up to now a triple block has been the most ambitious for me but this called for 4 quintuple blocks and having to adjust the tension between 20 running lines on the blocks tried my patience. I came to realize that I had to be able to tension the rig after the blocks were set so I decided to use the 1 hatch beam and show it suspended as if it had just been hoisted off the hatch and about to be stowed on deck near the hatch covers that had already been removed. Doing so allowed me to use the 2 tag lines from the bottom of the beam to tension the whole rig.
Once the boom vangs were rigged I was able to attach the shrouds on the foremast so everything is good to go.
 
The 2 jumbo booms were the only ones that pivoted on their base like a normal crane - the 5-ton booms were fixed in place. In order to swing such a large boom the vangs had to be taken to power using the capstans on the 2 winches on the adjacent hatch so using a jumbo boom required 4 winches and prevented the adjacent hatch from being worked at the same time.
 
Doing this part of the build showed me what a huge job it was on these ships to shift between the 5-ton booms and the jumbo booms or vice versa. As shown now, to go back to using the 5-ton booms their cargo whips would have to be unwound from the storage reels on top of the mast house and laid out on deck. Then the Jumbo boom cargo whip and topping lift wires would have to be removed from the winches on Nr2 hatch, wound onto the storage reels, and then the 5-ton cargo whips wound onto the winches. It is hard to imagine a more dirty, difficult and dangerous job than wrestling with so much thick wire rope, all of it covered in thick slushing grease and full of needle sharp broken wire strands and fish hooks. Tough, tough guys.

Now, where was I?
 PW is still on the table, but since we decided to sell our previous home, no work was done. So, it was like this, and still is, gathering dust on the table.

I would like to do some work on him this week, but there are so many orher things to do: garden, house-things, work
 
Jan
 

Hi Russ,
 
Congratulations on the complettion of your Hermione! She is a beautiful piece of work. Although splicing the mainbrace is not compulsory when completing a model ship, it is recommended...
Cheers,
Peter

Hi David,
 
You are making great progress I see. Looking very neat and trim. Can't wait to reach this stage too!
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

Hi David,
 
You are making great progress I see. Looking very neat and trim. Can't wait to reach this stage too!
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

Here's the stern deckhouse.  I like the look of this model with the brass/paint/wood combination.
 
Regards,
David

Hi Russ,
Splicing the mainbrace is a traditional term in the British Navy for serving out an additional tot of rum or grog to the ship's crew as a reward for extra efforts in a number of difficult tasks aboard the ship.
The mainbrace itself was a purchase attached to the main lower yard to brace it round to the wind, but probably has little to do with the saying beyond the fact that hauling on the main brace called for extra effort by the crew.
I found the saying in the Oxford Companion to the Sea which is an excellent reference book with tons of interesting articles regarding seafaring history.
Cheers,
Peter

Another quick update.
 
I have belayed the halyards and headsail sheets which competes the rigging. All is coiled down with a coat of lacquer and the paint brush handles are holding everything in place. Come morning these will be removed and I will cut of any little tails that need trimming.
 

 
I think just the anchor needs to be fitted and "Irene" will be complete!
 
Peter