petervisser

Yesterday the ship itself was completed (except for the Everard company pendant...)
 
Now I can focus on finishing the quay, and after that decide how to display the diorama.
 
Some pictures (taken with my Nikon rather than the phone).
 

Hi - The poop screen bulkhead is now assembled,painted,& glued in place.   Also glued the stern fascia on & added the windows.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Peter, 
Catching up on the build.
She is looking fantastic!  All of the details are really taking that model to a high level.  Love the deck. 
best
marc

Well, the railings are completed. It was a bit of a slog. The first coat of primer took 2 hours to apply to all the railings. Phew. That was a bit much, my neck and back told me. Thereafter I painted them in sections as they still wanted two coats of white. But now they're finished and I am pleased woth the results. Modelling will now take a back seat for a few months as summer is arriving and the outdoors and the yard call for some attention instead. I hope to putter with the ships boats during rainy days, whenever they happen. Cheers guys!
 

I just finished up the labour intensive work on the deadeyes on the main deck. It was a multi-step process that invoved some "metalwork". Billing supplies the chain plates and a bunch of plastic deadeyes. I opted to poach a bunch of deadeyes from another kit so as to use the chainpates that were provided. It would not have been easy to use them together. Once the chainplates and deadeyes were married, I used a drop of glue to make them rigid so as to paint them easier.
 
Here's a bunch of pictures showing the process...
 

Hi - All the side mouldings are now on,along with the gallery window frames.  The decorative mouldings are supplied as laser cut walnut & are extremely fragile - I broke each one at least 3 times just cutting them out of the walnut sheet & smoothing the edges!   Some of the laser cutting does not go completely through the sheets.  I managed to get them glued back together & on the ship,though.   After that the upper hull painting was finished up.   
 

 

 

 

 
and..............the fenders,chesstress, & steps were added
 

 
 
The fenders & chesstrees were laser cut & just needed slots filed to fit over the mouldings plus a little filing to fit tight to the hull.   The steps were made from 1x1 & 1x2 strips glued together & filed to shape.     Thanks for looking in!
 
 
Mark

On to bending the driver.  I wanted to have the driver attached before stepping the mizzen.  I made more hanks using the jig described earlier in the log.  why I didn't make all of the hanks at the same time, I'll never know! I built the channel for the hanks to slide on as well as attached the hanks to the driver.  I used photos of the cutty to make sure of the detail. I have an observation. I shot around 200 photos and still don't have the shots that I need. 
 

 
 
With the driver rigged, I stepped the mizzen mast.  I used toothpicks for the wedges.  

 
Thanks for looking!!
marc

Work proceeds on getting the mizzen ready to step.  Before stepping the Mizzen, I wanted to make sure that the driver was attached and rig.  Here is preparing the booms.  There are still a couple of fittings and cleat to add.
 

 
I finished rigging the ratlines and checked and double checked the blocks to make sure that I haven't missed any. 
 

 
A view of the progress on the sails and test fitting the mizzen.

late to the party yet again, this is my next project after completing the Dorade, i love what you have done to this build

I just finished up the labour intensive work on the deadeyes on the main deck. It was a multi-step process that invoved some "metalwork". Billing supplies the chain plates and a bunch of plastic deadeyes. I opted to poach a bunch of deadeyes from another kit so as to use the chainpates that were provided. It would not have been easy to use them together. Once the chainplates and deadeyes were married, I used a drop of glue to make them rigid so as to paint them easier.
 
Here's a bunch of pictures showing the process...
 

Hi Mates,
Long time no see. Now that I am pretty much confined to the house because of this Corona virus epidemic, I have been putting more time into my build. I have finally finished the starboard side of the first planking layer. It was a monstrous job. Besides being a very large hull, the enormous amount of bulkheads requires constant adjustments of just about every bulkhead to get a fairly even and smooth run of the strakes. Even so, there are a few rough spots that will have to be smoothed out when placing the second finish layer of planking. I used little nails throughout to hold the planks until the glue dried and then pulled them out. For the second layer I will not have to use them because there will be a solid layer underneath to glue them to. I used PVA glue for most of the planking, except where the curves in the hull required holding. In those places I used medium thick CA glue and fast drying spray. I did not cut off the ends of the planks that hang over because I might need some extra when placing the decorations and strips to the bow and stern. Although you can't them, I did mark the locations of the gunports with little holes for cutting them out later.
Hopefully I will post more quickly now.
 
Vince P. 

Hi - back to the ship after a bit of a break.   After re-doing the gratings,stanchions were added with a rope railing (Syren rope).   The 2 stanchions at the bottom of the ladder were simply glued to the steps.  The grating - ladder assemblies will be glued in place after the 28 gun carriages are mounted on the upper gun deck.   I still have to make all of the carriages,so it will take a little while.
 

 
Mark

back in the shipyard due to bad weather again- got the clewlines and lifts belayed for the fore topyard then can start on the fore t'gallant.

 

 
take care all- just hope the rain remembers to stop - cumbria is the wettest area in england- suppose thats why its called the lake district and not the dried up riverbed district!
 
Keith

some pople were wondering how big really she is....
 
well....i am quite about 2 and a half meters with hands up ...and still not quite a lot enough
 
 
 

Hi All,
 
I have been busy in the shop of late due to the self isolation and making some progress. But boy, there is no rushing with a model ship so things are going slowly. I have been detailing some more of the main deck and added some fairleads and mooring bits here and there. I have also tackled the railings on the foc'sle and aft deck which went rather well considering. I tried my hand a soldering and it went so-so. In the end, I found that they didn't need it, and all is well seated without. I had intended to solder them so I could paint the railings off the model. But they looked so good without solder that I decided to paint them in situ. Therefore I had to tape off the stanchions at the base. Now the tedious painting begins. One coat of primer and two top coats. It took 2 hours for the first coat. Yikes. As mentioned earlier, model ship building is not done at lighning speed...
 

Congratulations on your very fine looking Bellona. I was following along and you had a very interesting build log. I like the fact that you kept with the all natural wood finish. it really shows off your craftsmanship.
Cheers,
Peter

A quick productive trip to Bendigo this morning, I knew the book shop
had the Sailing Ships of War. But bought the other 2 as well.
Hooroo Chris

I'd like to plug Oxford Companion to the Seas. Lots of wonderfull info in alphabetical order no less! It covers a broad range of topics and should answer all your queries. The book is widely available on the internet at a very respectable price.
Cheers,
Peter

Had my first serious go at airbrushing today, starting with priming the anchors:

The unpainted bits on the shanks are where I held the anchors - that part will be covered by the stocks. I then sprayed the hatch covers, the swivel guns and finally the anchor top coat.:

Once I'd realised that you need to control the paint flow quite carefully - a light misting being preferred to a heavy coat - I was able to paint the swivels far more quickly than I'd have managed with a brush, and with a much smoother coating that doesn't hide any details. You'll have to take my word for that as I can't take a decent closeup with my iphone!
 
The anchors went well, although to be honest a brush would probably have been as easy. Similarly, I tried airbrushing the pearwood channels but the result wasn't noticeably better than brushing. 
 
However the gratings were much easier with the airbrush, although I noticed when they dried that they're not quite evenly coated. Another quick go should sort that.
 
Cleaning the airbrush after use is a pain and took me about ten minutes, but like anything I expect it will get easier with practice.
 
Overall I'm quite pleased.
 
Derek

I'd like to plug Oxford Companion to the Seas. Lots of wonderfull info in alphabetical order no less! It covers a broad range of topics and should answer all your queries. The book is widely available on the internet at a very respectable price.
Cheers,
Peter

I'd like to plug Oxford Companion to the Seas. Lots of wonderfull info in alphabetical order no less! It covers a broad range of topics and should answer all your queries. The book is widely available on the internet at a very respectable price.
Cheers,
Peter

Good morning,
 
i havent updated for some time, doing so nnow. Somethimes i feel i make 2 boats in one, coming up with new ideas. Summing up the pics, I had to reinforce nose, sticking in thick wooden nails. I was never satisfied with bow floral ornament, probably still undoable with carving even at this scale, so I tried to paint a new ones, with acrylic Golden metallic color. I have to say I am quite a satisfied with outcome myself, with tinest brush possible even small birds on tiny vineyards line are visible now. it really glows agains sunrays. I made rail winches out of some old rivets stuck into wooden block: i finally made cabin doors and made proper horizontal base for decks to follow reality more...Made davits lanyards. Finished ratlines and forestays. I made topsail yard to be attached at deck. updated catheads with release levers and chain eye...i almost finished 1 side of sheathing, ending with 480 individual pieces of brass plates...still another side to come but that will be done later as I run out of brass. I must say before bow curvature disaster  all looked bleak but as I managed to repair that most important flaw , all seems really fit to me. foremast stay heartbocks are not really nice but I juct made them out of remained roundblocks  leftouts from shrouds. they are quite fragile so i couldnt push wires more to them, but im sure knowing myself iwill repair them sometime in future. I attached 2 of three bowsprit guys, and from that pic you can see reewed topgallant rail outer wooden rails nicely stepping out of stright line to lean outwards making more steeper agressive curvature going in line  with toprail. I tried to rivet the outer side of bulwark iron walls and attached eyed to deck. At this point all shourds and ratlines are fit, I secured lifeboat to the vessel _no pic unfortunately, and varnished Hull of the vessel with vax oil. I must say I found painting eith acrylics and putting semimatte vaxed oil afterwards really works visually for me. This Acrylics drying almost instantly, even not dilluted just brushing with good brush is what I used on yard. This is all for now, im adding pics along. Thank you. Have a nice sunday. 
Vlad.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Well, the railings are completed. It was a bit of a slog. The first coat of primer took 2 hours to apply to all the railings. Phew. That was a bit much, my neck and back told me. Thereafter I painted them in sections as they still wanted two coats of white. But now they're finished and I am pleased woth the results. Modelling will now take a back seat for a few months as summer is arriving and the outdoors and the yard call for some attention instead. I hope to putter with the ships boats during rainy days, whenever they happen. Cheers guys!
 

Well, the railings are completed. It was a bit of a slog. The first coat of primer took 2 hours to apply to all the railings. Phew. That was a bit much, my neck and back told me. Thereafter I painted them in sections as they still wanted two coats of white. But now they're finished and I am pleased woth the results. Modelling will now take a back seat for a few months as summer is arriving and the outdoors and the yard call for some attention instead. I hope to putter with the ships boats during rainy days, whenever they happen. Cheers guys!
 

Finally, here are some photos of the gunwale stanchions and trim along with the attachment of the foc'sle deck. I didn't think I would bother with the trim and stanchions but other builders of this model added them so I had to try and keep up. I have finally found a re-purpose for the styrofoam trays our meat gets packaged in. They are perfect for holding tiny fittings while they get painted!
What with the foc'sle deck being added, I had to afix the bowsprit in place. This made the model instantly longer by 8.5" so it is alot more susceptible to damage. Yikes!