tlevine
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Congratulations on finishing this very interesting build. Looking forward to your next project.- 525 replies
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Sorry for the late reply, Maury. Yes I am using the Sculpty for a prototype. It has made getting the correct shape, both exterior and adjacent to the hull, easier. I initially thought that the upper part of the cornerpiece was a dog. One of the stories about Atalanta involve her hunting a bear with a group of men. One of the contemporary carvings shows hounds with the hunting party. The more I thought about it, I decided that the animal is a lioness. She and her husband Hippomenes had sex in one of Zeus's temples and were punished by being turned into lions. At that time it was felt that lions could not mate with each other, only with leopards. I am in the process of fabricating an oversized sculpture of a lioness and will post that when I am happy with the results.
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Mamoli HMS Beagle kit question...(edited by admin)
tlevine replied to mlukas's topic in Wood ship model kits
NEVER put your personal email address in a post. You never know who or what is lurking. To contact Tom directly, send him a PM with your address in it so no one else has access. -
I have started the dreaded quarter pieces. On Atalanta they have an upper 3-D carving of a dog (jackal?) and leaves and flowers in relief on the outer and stern sides of the lower section. Even though I finished out the gallery on both sides, because there is no planking on the starboard side I am only planning on making the port quarter pieces. I also made the decision to make this in two pieces. The upper piece will comprise the dog and the lower piece the relief carvings. The first step was to use Sculpty clay to form the quarter piece. I would then use this as a template for the lower piece and a guide for the upper. Because this is a long, skinny piece it was difficult to remove it from the hull without distortion. The instructions say to bake for 30 minutes but I removed it after 15 minutes and let it cool on the hull to minimize the distortion. I have already started to draw the shape of the dog onto the clay. The next step was to make the lower piece. This ended just below the window sill decorative molding. I was able to use the shape of the clay as a template. The carvings curve inward as one goes inferiorly. I will probably complete and install this piece before starting to make the upper piece.
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Thanks for the link, Danny. I've already looked at it a few times. I am jealous about the quarter piece on Vulture...it was a simple piece of molding. Mine is a carving some type of animal and a few other things thrown in just for fun.
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The pilasters are finished and installed. Once the middle carved section was completed, the upper and lower parts were made up of various sizes of stripwood. A coat of finish has been applied to the taffarel and all the parts that needed replacing. The dreaded quarter pieces are next.
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Thanks, guys. I am still finding little things that need fixing. Overall, I probably spent 30 hours on the repair. Mike, I think I just got lucky with the lighting that day. Almost all my pictures are taken using ambient lighting, occasionally with supplemental flash. That day was bright but overcast so there was little shadowing. Greg, thanks for reminding me of my last close encounter of the klutzy kind. The ridiculous thing is that she travels with me on the back seat of the car every other week back and forth from where I work. No problem. Two rambunctious dogs...no problem. Myself, alone at home, nothing annoying me...problem!
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The munions between the stern lights are covered with carved pilasters. Some of the Swan Class ships had simple reed decorations but not this one. I will need to make a total of 10 of them. I considered making a master from clay and casting them but that would require painting them. I will try carving first. Please remember that the full size of the carved garland is 10 mm. Therefore I have decided to take an impressionist approach to their carving. If they are all similar it will give a good impression of garlands. As yet another break from carving I make the quarter rail. Because of its length I made a simple joint at the support piece above the gun port and a scarfed joint at the center swivel gun mount. It is bolted to the swivel gun mount, leaving an airspace between the rail and gun mount. The scroll was carved using the plan as a template. The distance between the planksheer and the quarter rail diminishes as one goes aft. Back to the carving!
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Maury, I guess it is a good thing that I don't have too much mass! Thanks everyone for looking in. Now back to carving.
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Echo by tlevine - FINISHED - Cross-Section
tlevine replied to tlevine's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
Thanks, everyone. My progress will be directly related to my frustration index with the carvings on Atalanta! -
It has been another long time since posting but I have two excuses. First, I went on an extended vacation and started Echo because of ease of transport. Second... The second reason is a combination of funny and terrifying. I had Atalanta sitting on the floor in preparation for taking some photos. I then tripped on willow-the-wisp and fell into the model inflicting a significant amount of damage to Atalanta. This included resetting every cannon, installing a new quarter deck rail, new side moldings and several other minor repairs. Three weeks later I am able to post the photos that I hoped to take on that fateful day. The tafarel carvings have been installed and the assembly has been glued and pinned to the stern timbers. The rail was fabricated from five pieces of wood. The relationship between the caprail and the quarter deck rail was difficult to see on the plans. I hope I built it correctly because I am not doing it again!
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Echo by tlevine - FINISHED - Cross-Section
tlevine replied to tlevine's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
The lower part of the well and lower deck beams have been temporarily installed. The well is still missing the finishing touches like the hinges on the doors. There are pins extending from the corners of the well into the bottom of the lower beams. Once completed, the mast step will be almost invisible (but we will all know it is there).
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Echo by tlevine - FINISHED - Cross-Section
tlevine replied to tlevine's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
Cliff, from here on out it will be progress in fits and starts. Atalanta is still my first priority. -
I hesitated starting this topic in the Echo Cross Section area because it will not really be a build log and it will probably take a long time for me to complete. In 2012 I had the pleasure of taking the Echo course presented by David and Greg. Over that weekend I was able to raise two frames and purchased the completion kit which included necessary wood, armament and a CD with the plans. Atalanta has taken me longer than anticipated to complete and Echo has been ignored. I knew I would be traveling this month and did not want to risk injuring Atalanta but when I considered a month without sawdust but when the thought precipitated anxiety attack and I picked up Echo. My eventual plan is to completely plank the starboard side and leave the port side open. The primary wood will be costello boxwood with the lower hull planking in holly. All my frame components were rough cut prior to leaving home since the only power tools traveling with me would be a Dremel and my little Preac saw. Those two frames I built in 2012 could not be used in the actual model because the actual scantlings were different than those used in the course. Let me describe some of the highlights of the hull. There is one gun port, a sweep port and two scupper ports. The sills of the gun and sweep ports are parallel to the water line but the scupper ports angle upwards to facilitate drainage. There are two cast frames that help form the gun port. The top of frames 4-aft and 5-aft are tapered in preparation to forming them into stanchions. The keelson was installed and bolted to every other frame. The starboard ceiling planks and lower deck clamps have been installed. On the port side I installed the limber strake and the thick stuff over the floor and first futtock head joints. Everything has been treenailed with bamboo.
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Echo by davec - FINISHED - cross-section
tlevine replied to davec's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
Looking very sweet. Almost every time I omit something because it will be hidden, I end up regretting my decision. As a suggestion, install the items on the hidden side first for practice. -
I have the same kit, purchased over 20 years ago. The wood quality is not bad if it has been stored properly. Check to make sure the backbone is true. There are two problems with the kit. First, the instructions are worthless. Unless you can build this off the plans you are in serious trouble. Secondly, the ship is not historically accurate. Take a look at some of the build logs to see the differences. If you are good at making molds, duplicating the missing decorations should not be too much of a problem (unless you are missing the figurehead!).
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I am in a bit of a quandary. The plans show a taffarel fife rail, an extra rail above the taffarel rail. However, the contemporary model in the RMG does not have this rail. The photo is from the RMG website. Suggestions, anyone? If I build the taffarel fife rail, is the area above the carvings solid or open, showing the counter timbers?
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Thanks guys. My carvings look best when viewed from a distance of 3 feet or greater! But seriously, seeing it blown up on the screen is extremely helpful in picking out areas for improvement that you cannot see when looking at the actual carving. For example, Atalanta's calf is not shapely and her right forearm is too cylindrical, rather than tapering below the biceps.
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Thanks everyone for the kind comments and likes. As I said in my last post, the carvings are going to take a lot of time. I have absolutely no artistic ability, making carvings anything other than leaves and flowers a tremendous challenge. Here are the stern carvings after an additional 20 hours of work. I am getting close to the point where I am afraid of damaging the carving if I fiddle with it too much more. The center carving represents Aphrodite grasping an apple tree and she is flanked by Hippomenes and Atalanta, each holding apples. The outer carvings, which look like fancy beer steins to me, are supposed to be Greek temples. For those not up on their Greek mythology, Atalanta was a virgin-warrior, daughter of Jason (as in Jason and the argonauts) who could outrun all the boys in town. Her father was forcing her to marry so she came up with a plan she thought would keep her safe. If anyone could beat her in a foot race she would agree to marry him. If they lost, they also lost their head! Hippomenes approached Aphrodite who gave him golden apples to throw on the ground to distract Atalanta. As she bent to pick them up he outran her and won the race. It gets better... Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite. On the way to their ship, Atalanta and Hippomenes suddenly became amorous (thanks to a spell from Aphrodite) and had sex in Zeus's temple. He became furious and turned them into lions. In this era it was thought that lions could not mate with each other so Hippomenes and Atalanta could never mate again.
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I got my Rope Rocket last week and could not wait for the videos to become available. My previous ropewalk was a bobbin-type and I literally melted the plastic gears running it too fast. Even without the videos, it took me only a few minutes to make beautiful three strand right hand laid rope. (I have not tried left hand laid yet.) I have always found that the most difficult rope to make is at the extremes of thread size but I had no problems using either the included #50 crochet thread, #100 or #10.
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Swan class 3D model in progress
tlevine replied to dvm27's topic in CAD and 3D Modelling/Drafting Plans with Software
Fantastic renderings. Let me echo Greg's comment last month. If one is considering starting a Swan class, hold off construction until they are available.- 141 replies
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I started the carving for the taffarel. Let's just say that it will be a slow process. I need to be in the correct mood to concentrate on it. Therefore, I will work on other aspects of the ship while carving continues. The next thing to tackle is the counter artwork. The upper counter has the name ATALANTA and some acanthus leaves. The artwork was done in the same manner as the side of the ship. The background was spray painted. The artwork was drawn onto the background with transfer paper. The painting was done with artist acrylics. The print shows the lettering as "artsy" rather than block lettering. This did not seem right to me so I attempted to make the lettering more consistent. I could not find any information about the two men on the lower counter. The man on the port side is blowing a horn and the man on the starboard side is holding a caduceus in his right hand and what looks like a gourd in his left hand. I do not think this represents the two prospective suitors of Atalanta because they are seen in the carvings above. After they were installed I tried to freehand paint the edging on the lower counter. This was an utter failure and I had to remove all of that paint without damaging anything. The best alternative for me was to paint some tissue paper with yellow ochre, cut out strips and glue them onto the blue background. I think it looks reasonably good and will look better after I install the rudder.
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Martin, I simply duplicated to the best of my ability the design on the print. OK, there were minor changes when the knife slipped and I had to go with Plan B!
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