garyshipwright

Hi Mark. Nice job sir and I must say your drawing our outstanding. Mine comes out looking like a first grader in art class. Keep up the good work sir. Gary

Hi Mark. how about air brushing the paint on. Tape up what you don't want paint on and spray on the paint. You can also cut in above the tape edge and it will stop the spray paint from seeping below the tape. Works good for me. You can even paint dye this way. Practice on scrap till you get it they way you want it. As they say practice makes perfect.Here is a space shuttle I painted and built from a kit. I think it came out not to bad. Gary

Hello Everyone. Seems its been awhile but some times life hits you between the eyes but I did get a little bit down on Alfred. Hope you enjoy the photo's. Gary

Druxey I do believe you are right sir and it says that Peter based his book on the work of Bob Lightley's superb detailed model which is in the National Maritime Museum. Well thats ok, I still vote for drawing number 3. ;o} Gary

Hay Mark. Your doing good sir and druxy I do believe that model ship builders are some of the most humble, just look at their scrap box. Gary

Hi Siggi. Went looking in the library and only came across two, one that shows the joint and one that talks about the hook and butt joints. The book 18th Century Shipbuilding, remarks on the Navies of the English and the Dutch, by Blaise Ollivier,1737 done by David H. Roberts and published and distributed by Boudriot. The other is The Anatomy of the ship The Bomb Vessel Granado1742 by Peter Goodwin. On page 52 he shows in figure 6/3 through6/6 the make up of Granado wale made up of 3strakes showing the upper and lower put together like your bottom drawing. Some would say the Anatomy of the Ship is full of mistakes, which I have found some but doesn't stop me from using what I think is right as long as you can back up what your using.I look and see if I can come up with some more for you. It also shows that the middle one as just having a butt joint. Gary

Hi Siggi. Mark is right the wales are more complex then one thinks in their layout and construction. Look forward to seeing what you come up with sir. Gary

Hi Siggi52. Is it the curve at the bow sir? Gary

Hi Sigi. Nice job on the ports sir and seeing your work am sure they will come out just as good as the ones in the photo. As far as gun ports I just finished up the ones on Alfred which has taken me a while to do. Hum come to think of it 17 years. ;o). Look forward to seeing your next update. Gary

Hi Allan. Thought I would give you my way of how I did the gun ports on Alfred, which may help you and give you some ideally's that might help when it comes to getting your ports right. What I did with Alfred is completed all of her framing and sanded the hull to shape and made sure every thing was right with her framing. I just could not see cutting out the gun ports as the framing was being put together. To me there is just to many varables to contend with in getting the ports just right from the stern to the stem. Once I was happy with her hull and she had the gun deck and main wales in place for strength, figure it was time to work on the ports and was worried about not getting them right. After marking off the upper and lower cills along the hull, I took a batten and pin it in place on those marks along the hull giving me the lay out of the cill's. You can also use the gun deck clamps to help in laying them out height was, but found that using the base board a better place to measure from. What I also did was put those battens lower by the thickness of the cill and then made up some planks to fit the spacing of the frames,and went from side to side that was the height of the port from the bottom cill to the top of the upper cill. You can also make the planks the size of the cills them self and use that to set on the battens to mark out you cills. Then one can mark the inside of the frame with a level line on both sides showing were the cills will lay. If this doesn't make sense let me know and I see what I can do to make is make sense. Hope this helps. Added a photo sir, hope it makes sense and forgive me for being long winded. Gary

Well hello Siggi. About time you get back to work and I do believe you have another master piece in the works sir. I still look at your Dragon just to help on the stern of Alfred. Love the figure head and hope I can do Alfred's carving as well as you have done you Lion. Will be watching sir. Gary

Hi druxey. You are correct sir. If one looks at the photo from Finchams book you can see that the planking from the main wale down is blending with the bottom strakes with no step in between. Gary

Hi Mark. You could be right sir but if you look at the photos of the model of the Bellona her self in the Gallery you will see that the planking between the first black strake and the rest of the planking up to the channel is different. Being that the short planks between the gun ports all look the same. They could have taken off the upper edge's of the two in the photo but could this have been done to do away with the sharp edge of the strakes them self. Not to be nit picke, seems that Brain drawing is missing a strake in the main wale. Could of swore there is four. Thing is if you taper the black strake in to the other upper planks are you not doing away with a detail of her? On a different not I have added a photo of the contract that am using to help me build Alfred and a plate from Fincham's Ship Building, reprinted by the Ship Model Society of Rhode Island, 1933, that show the step down from the black strake up to the channel wale. Either way sir Bellona will still be one outstanding model's no matter how you do this. Gary

Hi Mark. Your wale sir is looking outstanding. Love looking at her and how she is growing in leaps and bounds. Look forward to the next update. Gary

Hi druxey and Pat. Druxey you are probably right and no argument form me sir. Thanks Pat still a long way to go. Gary