Joe100

Oh good, I hope you like it! Yeah, I completely forgot you weren’t coppering the hull, that’s in me. Well, on your next build if you decide you need any info on antifouling, you know who to call! Ha!

Looks good to me! Yeah they stripped all of the iron off in order to avoid galvanic corrosion when they coppered the hull. Bethia had a hull coated in White Stuff, and I think they coppered directly over it. I do have a book somewhere that covers antifouling coatings going back to forever. It details the use of Black Stuff, White Stuff, and copper in a fairly easy to understand but still technical manner. I can scare up a copy of the relevant passages if you’re interested in reading more about it. If I remember correctly it goes into the paints used on steel ships, but it’s been a while since I’ve looked at it so I could be wrong.

Excellent. Is that something only exclusive to a shipyard or would that measuring stick also have been kept aboard a ship in service? It’s an interesting detail.

Wow! That’s all I can say. There really aren’t enough superlatives are there? If you don’t mind, the figure on the right, can you confirm the use of the pole he’s holding?

There are models, and then there are models. This is the latter. Whoa.

I think it looks great! All of her iron fittings were changed to bronze and what you’ve done here looks the part to me. What did you use to darken the brass?

My goodness this is a beautiful build

I might have missed it, but are you planning to paint the Baltic stripes on the superstructure? It might be interesting to note that Baltic camouflage was completely abandoned by December 1941 when it was deemed to be extremely dangerous. Captured Soviet submariners states the white stripes made excellent aiming points.

You’re in for a treat! Wait until you see the finished product and you will be a convert!

It’s exactly that. A good story to motivate us! Churchill certainly had Shackleton’s number, however that letter was written from the trenches after his involvement in the Dardanelles campaign and the disaster at Gallipoli so he didn’t have any room to criticize.

Hey Glen! Your Aurora is coming along brilliantly. It’s going to be awesome when it’s finished. Im glad you like my work! Endurance was one of the first ships I built in small scale and it really does show! A little too simple for my standards these days, and I have plans to build another eventually. I have a copy of the original plans for S/Y Polaris (Endurance) so it can be much more accurate. If you want to make ice for your diorama, I used Deluxe Materials plastic putty. I was at a trade show and talked with some of the folks who developed their products and their plastic putty is about as stable as one could ask for and so far, many years on, it’s still as white as the day it went on. When I decide to build Endurance Mk2, I’ll probably carve the pack ice from boxwood, paint, and seal. I think it’s probably better for longevity, but I can attest that the putty I used on the model you see is something like 6 years old. Certainly an option. The following here is just my musings on Shackleton to flesh out some of my opinions. It’s directed to the casual reader and not at you since anyone spending this amount of time with Aurora will undoubtedly already know. As for old Ernie Shackleton, he didn’t like the planning part or the raising money part, so he did a bad job of it. He essentially sent Aurora out with the order to beg, borrow, or steal whatever provisions they needed. She was criminally underprepared and under-provisioned, and the choice of her leaders was questionable, and that’s being very generous. With the war going on, the UK, NZ, and Australian governments wanted to strangle Shackleton when it became apparent very quickly that tax dollars were now going into this thing, and they didn’t have much choice. The slapdash nature of it all, especially the afterthought that was Aurora, cost lives. It’s often said that Shackleton didn’t lose a man on the ITAE, but this isn’t true. Those deaths can be traced right back to him. Winston Churchill, who in 1916 didn’t have a leg to stand on either famously wrote to his wife: “Fancy that ridiculous Shackleton and his South Pole, in the crash of the world. “When all the sick and wounded have been tended, when all their impoverished and broken hearted homes have been restored, when every hospital is gorged with money, and every charitable subscription is closed, then and not till then would I concern myself with those penguins. I suppose however something will have to be done.” Churchill was a lot of things, but he was a good judge of character. I think he saw through Shackleton in a way most of his contemporaries didn’t. I’ll bet you’re thinking I’m not a Shackleton fan, and you couldn’t be farther from the truth! I love everything about his story, but I just don’t feel he was the hero like everyone makes him out to be these days. He was a real person and that’s who I want to know, not the pop-culture hero we have today. He was an ambitious man living on borrowed time. We have to remember Shackleton had a heart condition, and he knew he probably wouldn’t live into his 50s. This of course is what ultimately took him, and I’ve always maintained he died right when he needed to and right where he needed to. It’s almost poetic. The schemes an aging Shackleton would have gotten up to on land is terrifying to think about! He would have wrecked his own legacy, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. I hate when I read folks who say “oh yes, when men were men, they were the toughest, they don’t make men like that anymore”, when the truth was that most of these guys came back from these expeditions, the ITAE being no exception, deeply emotionally traumatized. Not a single person the ITAE, with the exception of Tom Crean perhaps, came back with severe PTSD. (Crean wasn’t a man, he was made of something else entirely!) If you want a sense of the emotional side, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who was with the Scott expedition when Scott died, and was one of the party who found Scott’s remains, wrote a book in 1922 called The Worst Journey in the World. In it he describes just how awful life was. He never really recovered from what happened to him, and it’s an excellent look into the minds of these men. I’m sorry if I’ve prattled on a bit, but when I see models of a Shackleton ship, I’m immediately interested. I love sharing my knowledge on this subject and my passion. I love hearing what others have to say too, it’s fascinating. The story of Endurance is always told, being the sexy side of the expedition, however, Aurora is the other half of the story, and a far more sad tale of what can go wrong. So thank you for building this model! it’s inspiring to see it taking shape and May just push me into building Endurance mk2 sometime in 2022!

Hey Glen! I have a little museum here in my study, but because of a recent move, quite a bit is still packed up. However I can show you a couple items. Firstly is a piece of rope from Shackleton’s sledge used on his personal sledge for the furthest south trek. I knew of its existence and a friend overseas called me to tell me it was coming up for auction. The auction was held right as the pandemic was getting started, so I didn’t have too much competition. Thankfully. I had pretty much made up my mind I was going to have it anyway, but in the end I only had to sell one kidney! Ha! The sledge itself sold for something like £1m not too long ago, complete with ropes, minus my section. The note attached describes when the rope was removed, and I believe it was a gift to someone. From speaking with other collectors, it seems I’m probably the 3rd owner of you don’t count Shackleton. The second item is the film rights contract for the Shackleton-Rowett expedition. This is how these expeditions made money: film, book, media, photo rights, appearances, lectures, etc. This document was written by Shackleton himself, but like everything Shackleton did, it was a slap dash mess, and the expedition had started before the contract could be countersigned. Once he died on SouthGeorgia, there was no need to countersign since the primary person named was dead. I’m sure something new was redrawn, but I haven’t seen it. This document is very poignant because it does embody a lot about Shackleton as a person, his poor planning, ambition, and sadly his death. That missing signature is one I’m sure you will recognize. I have some other items too, and once they’re unpacked, I’ll have to photograph them. As for museums, well I’m in talks with 2 currently. Mostly it’s boiling down to transport and insurance. I’m a Shackleton fanatic, so the loss of these objects would be devastating so their transport and care has to be paramount. Once we have a location picked out, I’ll surely let everyone know.

Certainly a must read, PoB. Even his early writings answer. I became very interested in the man himself and spent a summer reading about O’Brien’s life. I was absolutely shocked to discover that the man who wrote all of those beautiful books was such a monster. If monster is too harsh, then he was a liar for certain, and that’s being generous. I love his work, but I wouldn’t invite him over for dinner!

The issue with foam board is that it’s not stable. You can ask the model railroad guys and they’ll tell you that it definitely has a shelf life. It off-gasses slowly and can cause all kinds of odd reactions years and years after the model is finished.

I’m definitely following this! I’ve been a collector of Shackleton artifacts for years. In my collection I have items used on his sledge during the Nimrod Furthest South expedition, and items relating to the Rowett Expedition. Some of these will be on display at various museums this year to mark the centenary of his death. Anything to do with Shackleton, I’m on board. Keep up the excellent work.

That flight deck, absolutely flawless

Whoa!

My goodness this is good!

I purchase my boxwood from http://www.modelerssawmill.com/milled-wood-sheets.php I’ve almost fought a duel over the superiority of boxwood, but that’s another story for another time!

That is substantial!

Why Wasp isn’t more famous, I’ll never know. I’m glad to see this thread revived since some new discussion on her is overdue!

Gorgeous! I built Servia myself a few years ago, certainly a unique looking liner.

Into my library as well. Thanks!

That is an extremely interesting article.

It’s all a bit of a muchness in the end, since we just don’t know. I’ve had crippling indecision on many, many projects and with this being my second HMAV Bounty, she’s no exception. In the end, no matter what you choose, you have the best information available, which isn’t much, your choice is as informed as it can be. What else can we do? What is important is your cracking build is going to look awesome in the end, and I’m happy to be following along!