leginseel

DRINK CAN RING-PULLS
After the above entries, taken from USS Constitution builds that I follow on MSW, this one comes from my own build.  I had noticed some iron-works marked on the plans. As this hull will eventually be copper-plated, I wanted to replicate these hull braces as an added detail.

 
To my eye, the horseshoe-shaped front brace looked a lot like a drink can ring-pull …

… so I salvaged a few for a trial. Holes were drilled to simulate the bolt-heads. The ring-pull ends were trimmed off.
 

… shaping the bow hull-brace around a pencil-tip.
 

Braces for the stern were cut from the rim of the drink can, annealed and straightened.
 

… grooving out a seat for the stern braces.
 

The horseshoe-shaped bow brace fitted into position ...
 

…. and the stern braces also placed. The surface of the braces sits slightly proud of the keel.
 

 
Since I am still a long way from planking and copper-plating my hull, a test was done to see how the braces would appear, once plated …

... NOTE TO SELF: Be more careful when coppering-over the holes.
 
 

When I was over in the UK I bought some 'Blue Stuff'.  If you've never heard of it or used it check it out on YouTube.  Basically I bought it to replicate items such as the figurehead so I could practice on it as I've never done any close miniature painting before.  Anyway here are some photos showing what I did with it - melt the blue Thermo Plastic in boiling water; wrap it around the metal figurehead and let it set (about 10mins); take the figurehead out of the mould; mix some Milliput and push it into the mould; leave to set and remove the replica.  The beauty is that the Blue Stuff can be used over and over again - just melt it in boiling water - magic! 

She's not the prettiest girl in the world but she's mine!  This stuff has many uses and I hope it gives you some ideas.
 
 

Regarding Guns, a major problem with a lot of Kits (some are worse than others) is that they have a "one size fits all" policy, regardless of whether they are 4 Pounders or 24 Pounders and sometimes even the wrong scale altogether.
Don't worry, I did the same thing on my first ship .
 
Making it from individual pieces isn't all that difficult, and if you run the grain in different directions using "real" shipbuilding practices the effect is a lot more realistic and looks a lot better. It's worth the effort. Shape and glue the whole Knee of the Head together on the workbench, and glue it to the keel when it's finished. Or see THIS LINK for how I constructed Vulture's Knee.
 
As far as the Gammoning Slots are concerned the easiest way is to drill a hole at each end and remove the middle with an Xacto knife or Xacto chisel.
 
  Danny

Hi Jeff, you're really getting there well done for perseverance. Don't beat yourself up over having to check everything on the kit as I'm having to do the same on my Constructo kit. The cannon were really poor compared to the book so I re made the carriages from scratch, unfortunately it seems to be a fact of life with these kits. As for re making or re fashioning any part one thing I have done is buy a mixed box of balsa wood which is dead cheap any easy to work with and I've made patterns with it to prove my ideas work rather than wasting time money and effort on the best wood. Regarding the holes I drilled mine at each end of the slot and joined them by filing. Keep up the good work mate. 

Thanks for the comments and the likes.
 
Not a lot of progress since my last posting, partly due to a hand injury.  I'm right-handed and the injury was to my left hand, but it's amazing how many daily routine things are so much more difficult when the 'other hand' is not working properly!
 
The main shrouds are now in place although the deadeye lanyards are still to be made off properly >>>

Now that I'm at the rigging stage I really don't know in what order things should be done, so I'm kinda making it up as I go along.  I'm trying to think ahead and imagining what snags may lie in wait if I do "X" before "Y" - - - or if I do "Y" before "X".
In any case, since the mizzen stay was in place I felt that there may be some intrusive rigging in the way if I left it to later to rig the crow's foot of the mizzen top so I made the euphroe and went ahead and rigged it >>>

That main top that is lying on the Q/deck should soon find its way up onto the main trestletrees/crosstrees as soon as I finish attaching the blocks to the underside of the crosstrees. They're still off the ship as it seems to be taking forever to fit them pesky blocks! . . . I'm just glad that I didn't fit the crosstrees first and then attempt to fit the blocks afterwards . . . !
I'll soon have to be fitting the bowsprit as the main stay and preventer both originate on there . . . I'm just trying to delay as long as possible having those long, vulnerable things sticking way out in front of the ship.

Hi Jeff, you're really getting there well done for perseverance. Don't beat yourself up over having to check everything on the kit as I'm having to do the same on my Constructo kit. The cannon were really poor compared to the book so I re made the carriages from scratch, unfortunately it seems to be a fact of life with these kits. As for re making or re fashioning any part one thing I have done is buy a mixed box of balsa wood which is dead cheap any easy to work with and I've made patterns with it to prove my ideas work rather than wasting time money and effort on the best wood. Regarding the holes I drilled mine at each end of the slot and joined them by filing. Keep up the good work mate. 

I decided to add in a few more cabins on the middle deck. 
After a lot of playing around with ideas and studying The Bounty book again, I settled on an idea I quite like.
 
This is my cardboard template for the assembly:
 

 
Again I copied the template onto 1.5mm ply wood and lined with 0.5mm x 5mm strips. I created the cabin doors with 1.5 x 3mm mahogany.
 

 
The assembled cabins in place
 

 

 

Progress has been a little slower since my last update. With spring upon us I've been doing a lot of work in the garden with not much time left at the weekends for The Bounty. However, things are still moving along. 
 
The middle deck cabin staircase
 

 
You can just see in the photo above that I've veneered the visible edge of the middle deck to hide the plywood appearance. I intend to do the same with the lower deck at some point.
 
Although there's no allowance for it in the kit, I felt that the top area of the staircase looked very empty so I added a hand rail. Initially I used a single string to simulate rope but thought it looked too thin, so I plaited 3 strings together which I think gives a more realistic effect.
 

 
I really don't like the AL way of lining the walls of the bulkheads for this next section of the build. They supply 15 x 0.5 mm stripwood which really doesn't look good at all in my opinion. So I decided to use the same 5 x 0.5 mm planking that I've used on the other bulkheads that I've built so far. It keeps everything consistent too.
 
Greenhouse rear bulkhead

 
With thanks to other Bounty builders who pointed out that if the middle cabin is built as the instructions, one of the doors would open so that when you walked through it you'd fall straight down the stairs and the other door would open straight into the bilge pipes! So I decided to make the doorways work a bit more logically, which involved a few modifications.
 
I added in a couple of pieces of ply wood to change a door to a window and moved the door to the opposite end of the bulkhead....
 

 
 

 
These are the three cabin bulkheads. Again, you can just see that I've veneered the visible edges to hide the exposed plywood.
 

And the assembled cabin
 

 

 

 
As you can see, the doors and windows are rearranged to make a more logical arrangement.
 
 
 
When installing the upper deck supports around the cabin I found that the fit on a couple of them is not perfect so I added a shim using an offcut from the laser cut sheet the supports come in.
I've placed these on the fully planked side so they'll be pretty much invisible when the planking is complete. Yes, I'm still dreading the planking! 
 

 
That's it for now. My back can't take any more gardening for a while, so hopefully my progress will move along a bit more quickly now.
 
Thanks for looking in  
 

So far I've been quite impressed with the quality of the components in this kit. Everything seems to fit together well, the laser cut pieces all seem accurate and, with a couple of exceptions, the supplied wood seems to be good quality. However, the gratings! Oh dear, what a mess. I could see as soon as I took some out of the packet that they were very poorly made. The spacing looked so irregular. Nevertheless I persevered and made the first set of gratings......and promptly threw them in the bin!  Fortunately I remember seeing in @cobra1951's build log that he had found some better quality gratings from Caldercraft, so I ordered a few sets from them. What a difference!
 
I hardly need to point out in this photo that the top set are the supplied AL gratings, the bottom are Cladercraft.
 

 
The gratings in place in the middle deck
 

 

The next stage of the build is the middle deck. Again I painted the ply boards black prior to planking
 

I'm much happier with the simulated nailing on this deck. I think it's better with just nails at the plank ends.

 
Again, thanks to @thomaslambo for pointing out the importance of filing the deck support to allow for the two bilge pipes prior to fitting the deck in place. It would be a nightmare to do at the point it's mentioned in the instructions!
 

 

 
And the mid deck (both sections) glued in place
 

 

The extra cabins installed
 

 

 

 

 
All in all I'm quite happy with my first attempt at kit bashing.
I have to say a big thanks to the other Bounty builders for the inspiration to give it a go  

So, after studying the drawings in the Anatomy book, and with a lot of help from the other Bounty build logs on here, I set about a little bashing.
 
Using cereal box cardboard I created the templates for the extra cabins. Once I was happy that they fitted perfectly in place I transferred the measurements to a sheet of ply board
 

 
Then I lined it with planking, again pencil edged, and created the doors and frames
 

On now to the bilge pump room. Using the supplied 0.5 x 5mm strips I clamped each strip in my Proxxon vice and edged each plank with a soft pencil on both sides before gluing them in place. It adds some time to the planking but I think it's well worth the extra effort. I like the way it gives the planks definition. Once planked I applied 3 coats of satin varnish.
 

 
 
The assembled bilge pump room in place. As you can just see in the next photo, the walls protrude slightly over the height of the middle deck planks, so some sanding will be required to bring them level. 
 
 

 

The next stage was to install the middle deck support beams
 

 
And the support chock
 

 
 
 

With all frames in place, checked and double checked for squareness, I installed the lower deck support beams
 

 
I painted the lower decks black prior to planking them to give a nice contrast between the planks. 
I spaced the planks 0.5mm apart and simulated the nails with a soft pencil prior to varnishing with a satin varnish.
 

 
In hindsight I wish I had only nailed at the plank ends but it's not a big enough deal to warrant redoing the work.
 
 
 
Next I glued the lower decks in place. They fitted very easily with only a minor amount of filing and sanding needed.
 


 

Hi All,
 
This will be my build log of the Bounty by Artesania Latina.
 
It’s my first build log and I’m looking forward to sharing my journey with you.
 
A little about me – I’m Paul and I live in Reading in the UK. This will be my third build, previously having built the HMS Endeavour Bark (not completed) and the King of the Mississippi, both by Artesania Latina. I enjoy being challenged which is why I’ve chosen to take on the Bounty as my next build. I appreciate that this is a complicated model to say the least. I’m not even sure my skills are up to it, especially when it comes to single planking the hull, but we shall see. To be quite honest, I don’t think I’d have taken this on without the help of some of the amazing builds on here as a reference point. Reading the build logs has given me a degree of confidence that help will be there when I come across problems. Special thanks to thomaslambo, Capt. Fisher, Captain Al, cobra1951 (I still can’t believe your Bounty got crushed!), bryanc, rcmdrvr and all the other Bounty builders on here whose amazing builds have been my inspiration to take this on. I’m looking forward to getting input and feedback from you all.
 
 
I actually started the build over Christmas and have been working on it for a few hours almost every weekend since, so I’ve already made some progress. I’ve been taking photos of every stage, but only now have I got round to starting this log. So I’ll be uploading some photos to bring things up to date.
So, here we go……
 
The kit contents:



 
 
 
Making a start, I separated and numbered the parts the parts for the main frame.
 
 

 
 
Then I stained all the parts with a Ronseal Walnut wood stain. It took 4 coats to get the colour I was after. 
A bit later in the build I'm going to veneer the exposed frames to hide the ply board appearance. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Realising the importance of getting the frames absolutely level and parallel on this build, I did quite a bit of research into building slips.
I went for the Hobbyzone slip in the end and have found it to be a brilliant piece of kit. I'd highly recommend it to anyone considering using one.
So I set about leveling the frames and gluing them in place using Titebond.
 
 



 

Hi Nigel,
I've only just picked up on your build log and am very impressed with your work to date.
As a fellow Bounty builder myself I shall be following along from now on if that's ok.
All the best,
Paul

Thank you Mustafa, it's nice to be warm again but unfortunately when I try to get on with modeling the sweat from my brow is causing me a few problems!!  Maybe I'll have to go slowly till we get below 30 degrees C.

Welcome back home Nigel

Thank you for your comments Fernando.  I'm pretty happy with how she's coming along but as for the paint I see far more errors every time I take a photo!! 
 
I'm off back to England next week for the summer and my son has bought me an airbrush kit and compressor for my 60th birthday so I'm already looking forward to playing with that.  The only problem will be convincing the customs people that I don't have a bomb in my suitcase!!
 

Hi Guys, back from my annual trip to good old England and I had a great time with the family and Grandchildren but now I'm ready to get back in the shipyard.  Had a 20kg case in the hold of the plane full of modeling goodies and not a single item of clothing!  Check out my newest purchase -

Really looking forward to trying this out.  I've bought a very cheap solid hull Bluenose kit so I can practice on that before I use it for painting the Bounty.
I hope all my followers have had a great summer and I hope to be posting some 'proper' work soon.
 

Ain't that the truth .
 
No doubt the Bulkhead is in the wrong place - a typical problem in Kits. I'd just line the bulkhead with the same timber you are using for the decks, or perhaps a different one for contrast (don't forget to put a couple of doors in ). There wasn't a great deal of room in real ships in some places, so I wouldn't stress about it. As long as the gun will actually fit it's all good. If you haven't already, I suggest you make one gun now and try it for size - you may get a good surprise if it fits OK . I think it will .
 
  Danny

Wow Jeff you are really up against it mate.  I presume that the frames etc are to scale as per the original kit?  I've not progressed to the Victory yet (as you know) so I'm probably not the right person to give advice, but looking at it objectively and if as you say you are not looking for 100% authenticity, then I would start by veneering any exposed plywood.  I presume that if the gun port is obstructed by the frame and you cannot mount a cannon properly then make it so that it looks aesthetically correct from the outside.  In other words frigg it.  This may not be the answer you're looking for but I'm with you and feel your pain mate.  Keep positive and I'm sure more experienced guys will come up with a better solution.
 

Wow Jeff you are really up against it mate.  I presume that the frames etc are to scale as per the original kit?  I've not progressed to the Victory yet (as you know) so I'm probably not the right person to give advice, but looking at it objectively and if as you say you are not looking for 100% authenticity, then I would start by veneering any exposed plywood.  I presume that if the gun port is obstructed by the frame and you cannot mount a cannon properly then make it so that it looks aesthetically correct from the outside.  In other words frigg it.  This may not be the answer you're looking for but I'm with you and feel your pain mate.  Keep positive and I'm sure more experienced guys will come up with a better solution.
 

Still going slow but adding in extra detail of the tackle used to assist the boat removal, boats which the kit has decided were not important enough to fit.... Does any one know where I can get boats of the scale of 1.92 for this kit, Or am I to make my own