Tim Curtis

I have completed the main boom with topping lift, and main sheet, mainsail outhaul. All based on Peterson's "Rigging Period Fore and Aft Craft".

 

I have completed the main boom with topping lift, and main sheet, mainsail outhaul. All based on Peterson's "Rigging Period Fore and Aft Craft".

 

Jim,
I made one of these for my Brigantine Phoenix model (in progess).
Will be interested to see how yours goes. I found some of the wood pretty crumbly, so be careful. Pear planking is fantastic though. Still have a few details to add. I think mine might be the slightly larger version.

 

Good evening, gentlemen
I want to show what new elements  (rigging blocks, deadeye and nagels) will be in the tender AVOS.
On the photographs of the model tender AVOS is still old rigging blocks, but deadeye and nagel - new.
For sale it will be staffed with all elements of a new high quality
 

Yours looks great. Like your color scheme.
 
I have mine completed and only had one piece break but it was totally my fault. I painted mine tallow and black. This kit is light years beyond the Model Shipways kit, well at least for me.

Jim,
I made one of these for my Brigantine Phoenix model (in progess).
Will be interested to see how yours goes. I found some of the wood pretty crumbly, so be careful. Pear planking is fantastic though. Still have a few details to add. I think mine might be the slightly larger version.

 

Jim,
I made one of these for my Brigantine Phoenix model (in progess).
Will be interested to see how yours goes. I found some of the wood pretty crumbly, so be careful. Pear planking is fantastic though. Still have a few details to add. I think mine might be the slightly larger version.

 

Hello Marc, 
you are right, I would save some time if duplicated it in resin castings.
In fact, for me it is no problem to create plenty of sculptures and pieces of decoration in the same/or similar way by hand.I really enjoy this kind of work.I prefer to make each piece as an original and in a higher level of detail and quality. I suppose that our ancestors also carved all parts of decoration by hand and each one was unique. So I would like to follow their tradition when building this model as well.
 
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Tecko + Amateur:  That's right, you wrote it great. I have the same opinion.
 
 
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Thank you all for you comments and kind words, I am pleased and appreciate your feedback and "likes" it a lot..
 
 
During the weekend I finished all frames on the port. Here are some pics:
 
 








 
And here you can compare how the model looked about a year ago:
 
 

Those of you paying attention to the title may have noticed that I have given the scale as 1/64, where the AL kit is marketed as 1/50. Why the difference?
This first came to light when I compared the plans I had obtained from the Brunel Institute with the parts in the kit. It appeared that the parts supplied were a few inches too short for a 1/50 scale model. Where was the mistake? I checked the dimensions of the plans and the scale bars were correct: 10 feet was equivalent to 2.4 inches. Next I got out the MacGregor book ‘Fast Sailing Ships’ and checked the size of the Scottish maid. Now the exact size is not known for certain but according to the builders certificate the length is 92.4ft nm. At 1/50th scale this would give a hull length of about 22.2 inches between the aft side of the stem and the fore side of the sternpost.
Using just the parts of the model it is difficult to get an accurate measurement. But I would give this dimension as 16.4 inches for the model. This actually gives a scale of about 1/67, but I have chosen 1/64 as that is the nearest commonly used scale. Also other measurements, such as the distance between masts, give slightly different results.
I feel cheated I have purchased a 1/50th scale kit which should have a hull 22.2 inches long (nm) and instead only have a hull which is 16.4 inches long (nm). I feel cheated out of 5.8 inches of hull. I suppose it does give the dimensions of the model on the box, but I wanted to make a 1/50 scale model not a 1/64 scale model (grumble, grumble).
Well, I suppose I have what I have. The only way to get a 1/50 scale model would be to throw away the kit and scratch build. I could not bring myself to do this, too much waste, so I will just get on with it. Apart from that the Admiral would keel haul me if she knew I had spent about £90 on a kit and had then binned it. I did think seriously of scratch building this. In the end I went for a kit as it would give me everything I needed to get started in one easily purchased package. There is very little in the kit that could not easily be made from scratch.
Also in general the material in the kit is of good quality, especially the wood. The majority of which is cleanly cut and as flat as could be hoped for. There are some Items I will be replacing, but aren’t there always.
The primary reference material that I will use for this build in addition to what is supplied with the kit is:
·        David R MacGregor, Fast sailing Ships, Conway 1973 & 1988.
·        David R MacGregor, Lines & Deck plan, Sail plan, Brunel Institute
·        T W Ward, Reconstructed drawing of Scottish Maid unloading at a London wharf, Brunel Institute
·        D Hamby, Scottish Maid A nineteenth century packet schooner, MS 94, 1995
·        J G Heard MD, The English merchant schooner Scottish Maid NRJ Volume 58 No 4, 2013
The Hamby model is built to a scale of 1/48 and the Heard Model to a scale of 1/96. Neither have sails and they portray the ship quite differently. Lack of sails is useful when using pictures for reference as details of the models can be seen more easily. I will be including sails on my model.
In my next post I will run through what is in the kit and my first impressions.
Glenn

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.
 
Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.
 
Trimming the bow height:
Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.
 

 
Headworks:
Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.
 
The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.
 

 
These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!
 

 
Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.
 
Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!
 

 

Here I have started to make decorative frames around gunports - they are assembled from 4 parts and card base:
 
 

Magnificent.

And the starboard QG:
 

 

Masts are done -- now on to the yards.
 
Regards,
David

Truly astonishing. Your carving is just brilliant.
Wow!
 
Tim

With this post, I'm beginning a build log for Leon.  302 tons, built in 1880 in Norway, traded until 1915.  Model is 1:48, about 2 1/2 ft on deck.  Structure is all Swiss Pear,  planking - internal and external is Pau Marfin, rail and wale is Indian Rosewood.  Much planking and decking will be left off so that the internals will be visible.  I just ordered 6 little oil latterns with LEDs that will eventually light up the interior of the hold.  Most helpful resources so far are Underhill's Plank-On-Frame Models, Crother's American-Built Packets and Freighters of the 1850s, Tosti's Young America and various forums on this website.  Heading to San Francisco shortly to review Ron Cleveland's research material for his model of Leon in the 1970s.  Suggestions from anyone who has ideas about how to research the internal construction are more than just welcome, they will be warmly appreciated!
 
For now the bilge ceiling (meaning the common planks between the keelson and the bilge stringer).  Next, I'll be planking the exterior to match the interior.  I'm planking  inside and out, in sections so that I can best judge what to leave out for maximum visibility.  I haven't decided yet if I'll be cutting out some of the frames.  Until next time.

On June 8, 2018, by the decision of a medical expert, I became a lifelong disabled pensioner at the age of 50! Congratulate me! Continue building the ship!

Drawing in the water line: First a small tick mark is placed vertically 22 scale feet from the keel at the stern and 20 scale feet at the bow. A rig is built to hold the marker then the hull cradle is "adjusted" so that when the marker rig is firmly seated the marks line up at both ends. The hull cradle is a "borrow" from a Bluenose I I build years ago. The line is drawn sliding the marker rig around the hull on a very smooth surface. Ta-da! I hope the rest of it  is this easy! Probably not!

A bit more work today, finished off the footropes on the spritsail yard and finished fitting the fore topmast stays

Truly astonishing. Your carving is just brilliant.
Wow!
 
Tim

Thanks everyone! I’m feeling much better about this update. I used tiny nailheads from my Mayflower kit to simulate the bolts for the “iron” strap at the stern. The nailheads were clipped and glued onto the strap upside down. This allowed me to grip them with tweezers for their placement. Afterwards, they were sanded flush, painted black, and weathering powder applied.
Steve 

Hello.
Thanks to all for kind comments and likes.
 
Rudder system built and assembled.
 
Karl
 
Part 28

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The sail tracks are now completed. As they were left from the last posting the plain surface looked a bit blank, so I got some decent quality 1mm bits & drilled some part-depth holes to replicate the car locating points down the tracks, & also scribed a centreline - to help locate the drill bit plus I thought it would look right for some reason that I can't explain. I drilled some through holes to peg the tracks down & they are shown below pegged in their position but not glued down, the deck might need some more paint & there's no guarantee the colour will still match, or indeed even be usable so another full coat of deck paint is a definite maybe. The track holes didn't look very good or convincing, so I put a dot of darkening solution in each plus in the scribed centreline. I'm happy with the result, & I must say it's much faster to drill brass using a good bit than some piece of cheap rubbish that I bought in sets....
 
A longer track for overlapping headsails, plus a short one forwards for #3 & #4 headsails.
 
thanks all, 
 
Mark