petervisser

Hi All,
Well, with the fall weather and rain arriving (yay...) it's high time to get back to model building! It's been March since I last posted any progress and to be honest, not much has happened. But with more free time and crappy weather I am really looking forward to getting all the standing rigging set up. I am using a combination of Nepean's book and Underhill's excellent text regarding the rigging of ocean clippers as well as Campbell's plans. Together they have helped immensely. I had started with the lower mast stays and lower shrouds on each mast as they held the masts to the desired rakes. A short blurb in Nepean's book which I thought makes sense is to set up the shrouds and backstays first before tying off the stays. This is due to the fact that the former are set at smaller angles relative to the mast and therefore have less tendency to pull the mast out of the desired plumb. So I shifted gears and have therefore continued with the mizzen standing rigging (shrouds, backstays and stays) for the lower mast first, then the topmast (shrouds, backstay, stay), and will continue that process for the main mast and foremast. Of course creating a "cage" of standing rigging will make the running rigging more interesting and challenging.
Here are a few pic's of the progress...
 


 
 



 

Hi All,
Well, with the fall weather and rain arriving (yay...) it's high time to get back to model building! It's been March since I last posted any progress and to be honest, not much has happened. But with more free time and crappy weather I am really looking forward to getting all the standing rigging set up. I am using a combination of Nepean's book and Underhill's excellent text regarding the rigging of ocean clippers as well as Campbell's plans. Together they have helped immensely. I had started with the lower mast stays and lower shrouds on each mast as they held the masts to the desired rakes. A short blurb in Nepean's book which I thought makes sense is to set up the shrouds and backstays first before tying off the stays. This is due to the fact that the former are set at smaller angles relative to the mast and therefore have less tendency to pull the mast out of the desired plumb. So I shifted gears and have therefore continued with the mizzen standing rigging (shrouds, backstays and stays) for the lower mast first, then the topmast (shrouds, backstay, stay), and will continue that process for the main mast and foremast. Of course creating a "cage" of standing rigging will make the running rigging more interesting and challenging.
Here are a few pic's of the progress...
 


 
 



 

My order for rope from Chuck at Syren arrived faster than expected - 12 days instead of the anticipated 20 days. This means I can get back to work on what I dread the most - rigging. 
 
I would like to thank @BANYAN for lending me his rope server. I was originally going to serve my rope with tan string, but he convinced me to use black. He also pointed out that some lines were served along their entire length, e.g. the first line in the shroud, to prevent chafing. I had forgotten this. I have VERY FINE black string, and even with the machine it took forever to serve 56 lengths of rope for the shrouds. This is his machine: 

Notice there are two motors - one to turn the rope, the other to advance the feed. It is possible to set the machine up, leave it running, go make a coffee, etc. and return to have your rope all nicely served. I forgot to ask if it had an auto-off feature, because I was not game to leave it running unattended. It's not my machine! So I sat there and manually served all the rope. It took a really long time. On the plus side, I covered a lot of podcasts. 
 

All the rope has been served and tagged sequentially so I don't lose track of which is which. 
 

The served rope neatly stacked. The fid was made by cutting off the bottom of the topmast and topgallant mast, cutting a square hole using the table saw as a dado cutter, and gluing the bottom back on. Once securely glued on, a hole was drilled from the bottom, through the fid, and the whole thing was pinned together. It was sanded flat and painted, and you can not see that it has been cut. I know that the crows nest should be painted all black, but I like the contrast of the pearwood to black so I left it that way. 
 

 
I have also constructed a base out of plywood and veneered it with maple burl. The reason I did not use the Euromodel base is because I need to route power into the ship through the supports. You may recall from my earlier posts that very early in the build, I drilled a hole into the keel, placed a nut there, and soldered wire to the nut to run power to the whole ship. The whole thing was reinforced with spare plywood. This was always the plan. 
 
You can see the support I made for the ship in the second photo. This is 3mm brass rod, bent to shape with the help of my vice. It was then soldered with reinforcements. It is then screwed through the base into the hull with an extra thick stainless steel bolt, and I made the base extra wide. The base is also ballasted for even more stability. It is really solid and stable and I doubt it would tip over in the car even if I took a fast corner. 
 
I can tell you that applying burl veneer is not easy! When you receive it, burl is always badly warped thanks to the grain of wood running in different directions, and there are holes everywhere. The first step is to flatten the veneer - spray it with water, then sandwich it between two melamine boards. After 24 hours, it is dry and must be used within a few hours otherwise it will curl up again (don't ask me how I know). Then brush on some PVA thinned with water (70/30) on both the veneer and the substrate (the plywood frame), and sandwich between the boards again. Wait 24 hours. Then trim and apply the edge veneers, trying to match the grain as best as you can. Clamp and wait 24 hours per side. Then it's clean up time - patch all the holes with spare veneer, trying to achieve a colour match. Make up some filler by mixing sawdust with thinned PVA. Sand the whole thing flat, going down the grits to 600. Then I applied Tung oil. So far 6 coats. I am waiting for the last coat to dry before I seal it with wipe-on poly. It is almost 2 weeks and the Tung oil still feels a little bit oily. 
 
If you look closely, you can see that I applied the top veneer before the edges. In hindsight, I can recommend that you do not do this, because you can see the side of the edge veneer. I should have applied the edge veneer first, and then the top veneer so that it overhangs the edge. 

Removing the name plate reveals a hidden compartment with the battery and a switch. 
 
After going through all that rope, I found that I did not order enough. Another order was fired off to Chuck, hopefully this will be enough rope to finish the project. And I am woefully short of deadeyes, Euromodel did not supply anywhere near enough of the 3mm deadeyes. I have put together a shopping list and will visit my hobby shop later this week. 

Welcome Marco! That is quite the impressive fleet you have! Coincidently, I was a passenger aboard the Stephan Batory in the early 80's sailing from Montreal to Rotterdam and back. You are probably already aware she was the former Maasdam. Anyhoo, glad to have you with us!
Cheers,
Peter

Welcome Marco! That is quite the impressive fleet you have! Coincidently, I was a passenger aboard the Stephan Batory in the early 80's sailing from Montreal to Rotterdam and back. You are probably already aware she was the former Maasdam. Anyhoo, glad to have you with us!
Cheers,
Peter

Welcome Marco! That is quite the impressive fleet you have! Coincidently, I was a passenger aboard the Stephan Batory in the early 80's sailing from Montreal to Rotterdam and back. You are probably already aware she was the former Maasdam. Anyhoo, glad to have you with us!
Cheers,
Peter

Hello all, 
 
Pleased to be here! I'm new to this forum, not entirely new to (ship) modelling. As far as ship building is concerned, I am particularly interested in paper civilian ships and wooden sailing vessels. I'm currently building Amati's galleon Revenge.
 
Cheers,
Marco

Spectacular Keith! A colossus of a model. All the best with the rigging.
Cheers,
Peter

Hi again, and thanks for the likes and comments everyone. I have reached another major milestone - the hull is finished, and it is time to move to the masts and rigging. In preparation for this task I have been reading other RW build logs on MSW and I am amazed by what other builders have done - @marktiedens, @ken3335, and @pirozzi. I enjoy rigging the least because rope has a mind of its own and it never goes where I want it to go. But it's something that has to be done! 
 
Here are some photos with highlights on some ship features. 
 






Some vanity shots taken outside. 
 

Entry way. As per usual, I did not use the kit parts. The railing was made by coiling some fine brass wire around a jig, then flattening it in a vice, then painted. The columns were made by wrapping the same fine wire around a brass rod and painted. The roof was the kit part. Note the taper on the underside of the steps, this was quite troublesome to make. I milled out a "V" groove on my Proxxon MF70 and then sawed it in half. Then each step was shaped with a Dremel. 
 

The shroud stays reach down to the wales. The bottom stay has eyes for nails - these were too large (as noted in other build logs), but instead of replacing them I flattened them with some pliers. They were also pickled in some blackening solution because I did not like the shiny brass - it called too much attention to itself. The angle of the stays was set with a string tied to a dummy mast. 
 
The rigols were made from brass sheet and blackened. I could not find brass strip of the correct size and thickness, so each rigol had to be individually cut out of the sheet. The cutting process leaves them curled, so they had to be flattened in a vice. I found that the cap of a Vallejo paint container has the perfect curvature to form the rigols. 
 

Here is a carved chesstree. My carving skills are quite rudimentary and I was unable to obtain the finish that I wanted. Still, the part and the imperfections are small enough that hopefully they won't be noticed. 

The gunport hinges were from @rshousha at Modeller's Workshop. They are a bit too short, but far preferable over the overly thick kit supplied part. 
 

Roughtree block. It has all the features indicated in the Euromodel plans, but it has been slightly restyled. 
 

I realized I haven't posted a clear shot of the fo'c'sle deck so here it is. Note the fo'c'sle deck railing which deviates from Euromodel's plans. My research suggested that the beam supports should be round. Indeed this was depicted in the RW in the NMM in Greenwich. So I rounded the bottom and made them thick and sturdy. 
 
 
 

Now I tackled an area which has been of great concern to me since I started this project - the lanterns. Euromodel supplies the lanterns as a solid cast metal part with metal plates for the windows. If you look over all the other RW build logs on MSW, every other modeller has elected to paint the windows. I thought this would look out of place in my model, since I had fabricated all the windows so that they are clear and can be backlit. I wanted the lanterns to light up, so I ordered the largest lanterns from Vanguard Models: 
 

They are little jewels compared to the poorly cast Euromodel part. But sadly, they were too small and I can't use them. So I had to come up with my own solution. 
 
Sadly I did not take photos of the complete process, so you will have to rely on my description of what I did. The solution was to cut off the top and bottom of the Euromodel lantern, and fabricate everything else in between. 
 

 
The central support would be an acrylic tube which had to be machined to size. Since I did not have any acrylic tube, I had to make my own. I did this by THOROUGHLY CA'ing sheets of acrylic together and then machining it on my lathe. This is an incredibly messy process and the tube becomes really fragile just as it starts to reach the proper dimension. I needed 3 tubes for 3 lanterns, I had 5 failures - all fractured just as I was about to reach my goal. 
 

Here is a completed tube next to the Euromodel lantern. I copied the dimensions of the cast central support exactly but did not bother copying the squared off facets because I would not be using the lantern face plates supplied by Euromodel. 
 

Next problem was the lantern support. It had to be hollow so that the wiring of the LED's can pass through it. I tried bending the tube, but it crimped at the bend and the wires could not pass. The solution was to cut to copper tube (2mm diam) to 45 deg and solder them together. I did not take photos of the completed joint, but after the solder went on I reinforced it with epoxy to make it extra rigid. 
 
I then passed the copper tube through the base of the lantern, glued the acrylic tube on, and then the top tube. These were held with a mixture of CA and epoxy (CA to hold the part in place while waiting for the epoxy to set). To increase the strength of the joint, little holes were drilled into the top and bottom metal plates to give the epoxy something to grip. Once cured, the whole assembly was pleasingly solid. 
 
I then fabricated the lantern faces out of acetate sheets and detailed with painted styrene. I did consider drilling out the windows on the kit plates, but it was just as fast to make my own parts given the sheer annoyance of trying to drill through white metal. It melts, refuses to be worked on, and breaks drill bits. The other advantage of not using the kit parts is that I can get a far more precise fit by making my own parts. 
 
Once done and painted, I mounted the lanterns on the model and anxiously tested to see if it would work: 


IT DOES! 
 
 

The poop cabin is a busy place with a number of features crammed into the tiny space. All the wires had to be routed away from the lights so that they can not be seen. 
 
1: Hole for flag staff support. 
2. Tiny wire going to the lanterns. You can see that the middle lantern is awfully close to the hole for the flag staff. You can also see how far the side lantern supports protrude into the hull. Not only are they epoxied in place, the ends of the tubes are bent so that they won't slip out of the hull. 
3. Copper tube with brass rods so that I can power the lights. When the ship is complete, the lights will be powered through the stand. You may recall from much earlier posts when I was constructing the skeleton that I had soldered cable into some nuts and mounted it into the keel, so that when the model is screwed into the base, it will receive electricity that way. In the meantime, this is a subtle solution which is hidden behind the staircases and the copper tubes can barely be seen. 
4. LED's for lighting the poop deck. 
5. Brass wire terminating in the transom fascia. These are MUCH thicker than suggested by Euromodel, but once they were installed the lanterns were solid. You can pick the ship up by the lanterns, they are that securely mounted. 
6. Pins for mounting the transom fascia. These are two of the 10 pins I installed. Yes, the transom isn't going to fall off. 
 

Well, my wife told me that even if nobody reads this build log, at least I will have a record of what I have been doing. There has been a LOT of work done to the ship now, to the extent that the hull is almost finished and I am starting on the masts. But I will share some progress pics. 
 
First is the poop deck rail. According to the plans this was elaborately decorated. Euromodel does not include this part in their kit, so I fabricated my own by carving it. I again used the same method of creating my own plywood out of laminated pear strips for strength and so that it won't fracture when I am carving the tiny fragile bits. Here is my laminated strip cut down to size with the lines marked with the aid of a pencil and a compass: 

And here is the completed deck rail compared to the plans: 

I used a tiny bit of creative license and made them close to what the plans suggested but not quite. Regardless, it looks beautiful on the ship. 
 
I also tackled the dreaded curved staircase. This is my method: first, calculate the angle required for the steps then draw it out on a piece of paper. I wanted 6 steps, so 90/5 = 18 degrees. These were accurately drawn out with a protractor: 

The first step is laid, and with the line for the next step is carefully marked out. Glue the next step up to the line, taking care to align the inside of the step with the inside curve. 

As the steps go up, it becomes more and more difficult to support the steps without them toppling over. I simply used more step offcuts to support the steps with the bottom step glued to the template to stop it from moving. Don't worry, once it's done just rip it off the paper and sand off the glue. It won't matter if it's ugly because it is on the bottom and won't be seen. Here are both steps complete: 

Now both steps can have stringers attached. I decided to add some holly planks to match the other steps. I turned 12 toothpicks for stanchions. 

And here is everything attached on the ship: 
 

 

I also received something rather nice in the mail - a pair of ships boats from Vanguard Models. Chris Watton has a reputation as one of the best model ship designers in the world, and no wonder. These little marvels ticked all the boxes - reasonably priced, nice wood (pear), superb instructions, precisely cut parts, extra wood and spare parts in case you make mistakes and drop parts on the floor (where you will never find them again, these are TINY!), and fun to build. I honestly can not think of a way these little boat kits can be improved. 

Here is the one of the boats coming together: 

And both boats completed: 

You will notice that I deviated from Chris Watton's instructions and implemented my own colour scheme to match my ship. The bigger boat (34 foot launch) has supports for the 28 foot pinnace. 
 
Here are the boats mounted on the ship: 
 

The sharp eyed among you will notice the elaborate safety rail on the gangway. These were painstakingly soldered from brass wire and is more elaborate than depicted on any reference I can find. Those half circles really help with rigidity. 
 

I did not take any shots of the gangway rail under construction, but you can see some of it here. I am installing the outer rails. @piratepete007's Interpretive Info says that "most people" ignore the taper of the stanchions. Well, mine are perfectly tapered from 3mm in the base to 2mm at the top. What you need is a tilting table for your Byrnes Table Saw. I have one, but it is a complete pain to use because it is impossible to set up precisely. I had to estimate the angle, make a test cut, measure the angle, and repeat until I had the result that I wanted. Once enough stock for all the stanchions has been milled, individual stanchions can be cut out. 
 

Each alternate stanchion was pinned to the ship. Given that I have no training in engineering, I have a somewhat Victorian attitude to building. I over-engineer everything and make it as solid as possible. Very few things on this ship so far is in danger of breaking off, as proven when I had an accident where my ship rolled off my lap and crashed upside down on the floor while I was working on it. I inspected it for damage ... and ... nothing. NOTHING WAS BROKEN! A few loose parts had snapped off where I had designed them to fail (weak glue joints so that the glue joint fails rather than the part breaks). e.g. that poop deck breast rail in the post above is held on the ship with 3 tiny dabs of PVA glue. It simply separated at the glue joint rather than the part breaking. 

Hi Keith. Sorry to hear that you're disappointed about the lack of responses to your very excellent build log. You have put in an incredible amount of work into your model and it really shows off your skills. On top of that you have put in a goodly amount of work into your build log.  This is not only an inspiration to other ship modellers but also a valuable information source on the techniques and methods you have used in assembling this beast of a model. I for one will miss watching and learning from your log as I have this model waiting to be built. As a fellow build log contributor, I am also guilty of watching for the responses after I post my latest entry. Like you I don't often see many comments. But I always appreciate the "likes" I get from the members who are thoughtful enough to provide them. I have come to realize that although there might be a lack of tangible evidence, our work is appreciated. I believe that the site is a positive space in which to show off our efforts and we have to be satisfied knowing that somewhere, somehow we are enriching MSW and its members. I for one would really like to more of your Royal William.
Cheers,
Peter

Thank you Allan, and thanks everyone for the likes and comments. 
 
A milestone has been reached ... I have completed the transom. 
 

In case you are wondering why my colour scheme deviates from other RW's in MSW, I was guided by John Clevely's painting of HMS Royal George from 1756: 
 

 
I did consider painting the entire fascia blue as per that painting, and went as far as creating a mock-up. But I decided that the supplied castings would not provide enough coverage, and there would be large areas of flat colour. Other RW's on MSW have the transoms painted black, or left natural wood - I studied those images closely. Black made the most sense, because it matched the strip going down the side. Going all gold might be a bit excessive, but all gold camouflages flat areas pretty well. In the end: 
 

 
... this is a photo of the stern of Victor Yankovich's Royal William, which looks to be better than museum quality. I know it is foolish to post this picture so that you can directly compare his sheer modelling perfection to my hack job, but this colour scheme looked right to me. He went all gold. So that's what I chose. 
 
Before I purchased the ship, I had already inspected a friend's RW kit and decided that I would scratch-build the transom. Everything that you see except for the cast metal decorations and pre-cut transom fascia has been scratch built ... which is why it looks so wonky. I was not convinced that you could get a good result using the kit supplied parts until I saw marktieden's build, surely the most perfect "out of the box" RW there is. 

I am not happy with how I applied the stanchions, they are uneven and look like they need a visit to a good dentist. I will tear out some of them and replace them so that they are more straight. 
 

It was a typical Melbourne day (raining one moment, sunny the next). So once the rain stopped, I took the ship outside for some photos. 
 
 

Ok, so Pegasus has been sitting idle for some months now. I have finally decided that I am not going to go with the masting and rigging, so here are a few final photos, and I declare Pegasus to be finished. It’s been an enjoyable build but I don’t have the enthusiasm to take it further.
 



 
 

 

 
 
 
So thanks to all those who added likes or offered comments and advice.
 
Cheers
 
 

Great work on your Cutty Sark so far. It's always fun to see others working on the same ship (different kits) to see the difference in fittings and materials. I managed to get the bow and stern decoration from AL for my model after having seen it on another model in the Build forum. Keep up the great work!

Hello - final pictures of my HMS Flirt. Trying to show the rigging hopefully a bit better.
 

 
 

 

 
Thank you all for the encouragement and nice comments during the build. Nearly had a disaster with the waterline thinking I ought to keep the keel level as it would be a problem to source brass mounting columns. In the end sorting that out was fairly easy. 
Think my next build will be something with less rigging - probably Vanguard 'Saucy Jack'.
This has not been a log showing how to build Flirt as it comes with a very good manual and I did not encounter any real problems other than my dodgy building skills / lack of knowledge.
 
Anyway again thank you for looking - the comments and 'likes'
 
Regards
 
Doug
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello - Have now finished HMS Flirt. A lot of rigging...... Going to have to take a few more photos with a black background as the white thread is not showing up as much as I hoped against the white background.
 

 
Some threads not tied off as instructed - have found more suitable belaying places.
Found these tools helpful with doing the rigging.
 

 

 

 

Not sure if all these rope coils spoil things - maybe the way I do coils etc does....
 

Hope you don't mind but will upload later few more photos with a black background.
 

 
Thanks for looking.
 
Regards
 
Doug
 
 
 

Thanks Matt and Glenn. Also thanks for all the likes and advice throughout this wonderful build.
 
A special thanks goes out to Chuck for putting together such fantastic model!
I started this adventure back on September 30, 2019. It has been a great learning experience. I got to watch some very nice Winnies being built. Enjoyed the comradery and friendship from so many of you who have the same passion as I do.
 
Well, the lantern has been completed and added to the stern and with that my version of the Winchelsea is finished.


Again, thank you for stopping by and most of all for your support, guidance and friendship!

Hi Guys and thanks for your suggestions. I am still having difficulty inserting the caption below the photo but have found a suitable solution. I move the photo to the left margin and insert the caption midway down, beside the photo. I'm not sure why the previous method no longer works, but hey, this works just as well.
Cheers,
Peter

Thank you Mike, Chuck, Glenn and Grant for the kind words.
 
Mike your definition of fun just might differ a bit from mine. 
 
Grant I'm way more human than you think. In one form or another this is a daily occurrence!  
 
I've finished the gangways. Like Chuck I glued the long gangboards flush to the caprail prior to adding the knees.
I figured that was the only way I could ensure them being flush with the caprail.
 

 
Then I took the laser cut newel post, cleaned it up and added the fancy rails.
 

 
I just have to fix the broken deadeyes and add the eye bolts and chapter 11 should be complete.
 
 
 

Thanks for the like..
The emblem is ready..

..and placed on the mirror..



Next job - a big flag on the stern

 
 

Hi Guys,
I just got some new eyes! After a recent dental appointment, I was intrigued by the eye glasses my dentist was using. I asked about them and was told that professional dental loupes are in the range of $3K-5K. But she told me that they are also available on line for much less than that. So after a brief amount of searching I found these on Amazon. Where else...
These are the BoNew 3.5X binoculsar loupes with a 5W headlamp. I was doing some intricate rigging using my usual magnifiers when I thought maybe the loupes would be more suitable. Were they ever! The work was made much easier with them as the headlamp really comes into its own. So if you have $100 CAD kicking around I would definately consider them. They do have a finite range of vision, but I find it an optimal distance. Here's some pic's...
 
 

Hi Guys,
I just got some new eyes! After a recent dental appointment, I was intrigued by the eye glasses my dentist was using. I asked about them and was told that professional dental loupes are in the range of $3K-5K. But she told me that they are also available on line for much less than that. So after a brief amount of searching I found these on Amazon. Where else...
These are the BoNew 3.5X binoculsar loupes with a 5W headlamp. I was doing some intricate rigging using my usual magnifiers when I thought maybe the loupes would be more suitable. Were they ever! The work was made much easier with them as the headlamp really comes into its own. So if you have $100 CAD kicking around I would definately consider them. They do have a finite range of vision, but I find it an optimal distance. Here's some pic's...
 
 

Hi Guys,
I just got some new eyes! After a recent dental appointment, I was intrigued by the eye glasses my dentist was using. I asked about them and was told that professional dental loupes are in the range of $3K-5K. But she told me that they are also available on line for much less than that. So after a brief amount of searching I found these on Amazon. Where else...
These are the BoNew 3.5X binoculsar loupes with a 5W headlamp. I was doing some intricate rigging using my usual magnifiers when I thought maybe the loupes would be more suitable. Were they ever! The work was made much easier with them as the headlamp really comes into its own. So if you have $100 CAD kicking around I would definately consider them. They do have a finite range of vision, but I find it an optimal distance. Here's some pic's...