Mr Pleasant

Hi All

Is there a way to tension the belt?

I was ripping some planks today at it sounded as if the belt was rattling against the belt guard.  I removed the guard but there was no apparent way to apply more tension to the belt apart from lifting the motor on its hinge point.  As a result I've chocked some wood under the motor and this has solved the problem.

Anyone know a better way?

 

Thanks

Mark

Hi All 

Thanks for the likes....time for a quick update.

 

First layer of planking is now complete, below shows a bit of the progress, rough finish and after sanding.  I placed tape around some of the bulkheads where I didn't want the planks to adhere to as these bulkhead extensions are to be cut away in future.  I could have used templates to cut the bulwarks out of some ply but I've elected to plank instead.  I  also added some strengthening across the bulkhead extensions to protect and reduce the risk of them breaking them during planking.

 

I used hoop pine for the planking and milled to 5mm x 1.5mm strips.  Hoop pine has no discernable grain and bends quite easily....most importantly it stays straight after been cut into strips from a larger plank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The planking turned out relatively ok, however, for transparency.....I did make a slight error.  In the previous post I mentioned that I'd fair the mdf that I added as packing, which I did.  What I didn't do was fair the "leg" above this and this has resulted in a run of concave planking for 5 or so planks.  This will be hidden by the galleries but leaving like this will make it awkward to shape the formers of the galleries so I'll fill and sand this gap to get a straight run

 

Fashioned a bit of a mast step  glue well for all three masts as the 3mm spine would not give enough surface to glue onto.  I know some people just rely on the rigging to keep the masts upright....but not me , more glue the better, no way am I relying on my rigging to keep anything straight

 

 

As a quick check on how accurate I am at this stage to the paper model, I overlaid the paper planking templates onto the hull and all appears ok.  Normally I would line off the hull for the second planking by working out the bands but as things look ok, I'll use the templates to give the bands and tweak as I go along (you can just make out the separate planking  templates by the numbers I've written on them) .  At the top you can just see the templates that could have been used to cut bulwarks out of ply

 

 

 

And finally I added the false deck for the main deck.  A joggle stick was used to shape the false deck and cut from 0.8mm ply.  I had to install  in separate pieces as I couldn't get it into place in single go.  Holes cut (not vey well but sort of round) for the masts.  I've marked the deck at every 20mm to help with the planking shift pattern

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping in

 

Mark

Use a piece of thin card or paper say 10mm in width.  Stand it on its edge and form it around the bow area along your red line and mark the start and finish points.  This will give the length of the space that you need to fit the planks to.  Divide this length by the number of plank runs required at midship bulkhead (or however you've determined the number of planking runs required) this will give you the width of the blanks at the bow.

 

Mark

Hi All

Thanks for the likes...

Moving onto the stern area, this needed some manipulation to how the paper model is constructed.  Hopefully my explanation of how I achieved this is not to confusing.

 

Firstly for context this is how the paper model is done

This formation allows for the modelling of the internals and for a moment my ambition threatened to overrule my ability, eventually, however reality prevailed and I decided against going this far.

 

This means I have to change parts H1 to H4 (top left) to accommodate the fixing of the stern fascia.  The paper model simply has this glued on top of part 6 (top left) and to the bulwarks and relies on the flexibility of the card to get some curvature.

 

Although there are no corresponding parts to what I need to achieve, there is enough information provided for me to fashion the parts needed and this explained (hopefully) below

 

Part G (above top left) is the transom and this was fashioned out of some hard maple 5mm thick by the template provide in plan view and the curvature determined by the markings on bulkhead 17 (horizontal markings).  A chamfer was then  created for the planking

 

 

 

 

 

Next was extending parts H1-H4 to allow the forming and fitting of the stern fascia at a later date.  To achieve this I used common features of two templates to give me the final shape

 

 

 

Middle picture above....X, Y and the deck level are common on the formers H1-H4 and to the bulwark templates.  These were glued one on top the other to produce a single template shown in the right.

 

Blanks were then cut from hard maple using the template ...I'm only using H1 and H4 on both sides of the stern post and omitting H2 and H3

 

 

The only difference in the finished parts of H1 and H4 is the length that attaches to the transom to give the curvature of the stern fascia and this was cut to the correct size

 

H1 and H4 templates were then used by subtracting 5mm for the transom to give me the shaping for the planking below the transom. Below shows these fitted and then filled with balsa and shaped

 

 

 

 

Finally H4's are  glued in place, with a bit of additional padding (3mm mdf) to help with the run of planking.  This will be sanded for a fair line.

 

 

 

 

I'm not installing the H1's at this stage as they will interfere with the planking

 

Hope this all makes some sort of sense.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

 

It sold for £1020 which is roughly US$1300 and the thicknesser sold for £445.  For comparison the saw was US$520 in July last year when I bought mine.

 

Hi All

Thanks for the likes....

Just a quick post setting out the bow area for planking.  This isn't the way I've done it in the past but seeing as how I'm experimenting in how I can use a paper model as the basis of a wooden version I've stuck with the way the paper model is done.

 

From left to right shows the process

First I extended the formers (red lines) above the deck level with sacrificial tabs to aid in the planking around the bow above the level of the deck

Next shows them fitted and I've added some 6mm ply against the spine that follows the curve of the stem post and in line with the rabbet piece i fitted in post #1

Finally I've filled between the formers with Jelutong wood.  This sands quite easy but takes nails better than balsa should I need to 

 

 

 

More functional than pretty

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

Hi All

Thanks for the likes.

Onto fitting the bulkheads

 

A quick jig was made to keep the spine vertical whilst the bulkheads were fitted.  Bulkheads kept square using Lego and clamps

 

 

Once all bulkheads were fitted I added spacers to keep everything square, this is simply achieved by taking measurements of the gaps between the same bulkheads on either side of the spine and taking the average, two pieces of stock are then cut to that length and glued in place between the bulkheads

 

 

The 3mm ply spine is still flimsy at this point so bracing pieces are required.  These are cut from the templates provided and 3mm ply is used.   I cut the bracing pieces roughly 5mm less wide than the templates so that the edge of the bracing pieces were clear of the bulkhead edges..

Following shows a couple of the bracing pieces cut and installed clear of the bulkhead edges

 

 

Gaps in the bulkheads are plugged with some pine and sanded flush

 

 

The frame is now rock solid and straight

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

Mark

 

 

 

Hi All

Thanks for the likes

@GrandpaPhil hope you start back on your card version, it's looking good so far

@jpalmer1970 thanks, happy to have you along

 

 

Ok, stem part next....this has been broken down into its component parts and glued up

 

 

 

 

I've milled some cherry to a 6mm thickness for the stem, keel/false keel and stern post pieces and mixed some black acrylic paint into PVA glue for the joints.  Some of the joints are not perfectly tight but I'm fairly happy for a first attempt

 

All glued to the "keel" piece

 

I've scored a line along the cherry 1mm in from the "keel" piece (if you zoom in really close you can just see it) , I'll cut this away after the first planking to use as a rabbet for the 2nd planking.  I'm hoping the scoring will help in a smooth removal

 

The 6mm cherry is centered  on the 3mm "keel" leaving 1.5mm on each side to take the 1st planking which will be.......yeah, you guessed it 1.5mm in thickness.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

Mark

 

 

 

Hi All

It's with a little trepidation that I start this build log and as such a word of caution is required..... If you are of a nervous disposition and easily offended by poor quality workmanship, find a complete disregard of historical accuracy extremely upsetting and deem lowering  the quality of this forum as morally outrageous then then I beg you to avert your eyes and leave now as the following content is probably not for you.

 

Ok, for those of you that are still with me and made of stronger stuff there are some points that I need to make you aware of before I start

 

a) I am not at one with wood

b) tools are not a natural extension of my hands

c) I do not see a plan on paper and turn it into a 3D matrix in my mind and compute complex curves and angles instantly

d) If there are two ways to do something, I'll choose the wrong one

e) If there is an easy way and a hard way, I'll inadvertently do it the hard way

e) I was not blessed with any real woodworking skills and I have to make do with my God given abilities

f)  I enjoy making ship models and I struggle daily to overcome the points above.

 

Let's begin

This is my fourth model ship (see signature for details) and my first attempt at a scratch build.  I'll be using the paper model by Shipways as the basis of the build and will be using as much as what is contained in the paper parts as templates to assist as I attempt to  covert it into a wooden model.  I've also downloaded the plans of Syren from wiki commons as an aid as the paper "plans" do not contain plans as such...what is provided is along the lines of

 

 

Syren download

 

The content of the paper model is really good and has excellent rigging, belaying, mast and yard info and in my opinion is as good as Caldercraft rigging plans...small example of rigging info

 

 

 

Masts

 

 

The paper model is at a scale of 1:96 so the first order of the day was to scan the sheets and print out at a scale of 1:64 and to try and identify what parts are printed on the 30+ A3 sheets and compile into a spreadsheet for ease of location.

 

Bulk heads were cut out of 6mm plywood....this is just normal ply from the local hardware store (Bunnings), I know there is discussion in another topic on the merits of using something better but I've got to work with what I can get easily  in my little corner of Queensland.... but first a little manipulation of the templates was required.

 

As below the bulkhead templates only go to the main deck level and make no provision for the bulwarks

 

 

The way the paper model caters for these is to add internal supports to the deck as shown in the photo below which has been copied from the paper build log of Mercury by  @catopower

 

 

These supports are few and far between and made from the templates

 

 

 

 

 

I've used these templates to form an extension of the bulkheads

 

I know I could have used the Syren plans to form the bulkheads but I want to use as much as what is provided as part of this build

 

"Keel" piece is made from 3mm plywood....I can hear the gasps now "that won't be strong enough to support 6mm bulkheads....far too flimsy"....I originally considered the 6mm ply but this would result in a loss of definition of the bulkheads once a 6mm slot was cut into them.  I've repositioned the bulkheads slightly to centre them over where the thin card bulkheads would have gone.  The bulkheads at stem and stern have been positioned so that the face is identical to where the card bulkhead would be as I need to use these as refernece points for the bow and stern works.  I've also omitted 3 bulkheads (no's 4, 13 and 17) as I deemed them not necessary with the 6mm ply and closeness to the others

 

 

A strip of 1.5mm has been glued to the "keel" piece to form a rabbet for the planking.

 

 

I'm further on than this but will call it a day for this initial post.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

Thanks for looking in

I'm doing this for the HMS Enterprise using the Shipyard card model kit.  Have upscaled from 1:96 to 1:64 and I'm just building a rough prototype to work out the stern and bow areas.....watch this space, build log coming in the New Year once I've worked through some of the issues in relation to converting this to a wood model as to what is provided in the paper plans 

Thanks Patrick

I'll certainly be following your build of the Mary Rose

Hi All

 

Thanks for the likes and comments and thanks to Fishhooks for posting on the error in the mast dimensions provided in the plans.  This is what the forum is about after all, I've learned a lot and continue to do so and hopefully this build log will prove some assistance to those who are in the middle of building this model or who are considering starting.

 

I started this on the 28/12/2020 and finally finished on 05/09/2023.  The model out of the box builds fairly well and I think the preceding posts point out all the main pitfalls I came across.  The only things I've changed are the making of my own rope and the addition of the two cannons at the stern.

 

The following photos show the end result of a model I've enjoyed building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again for stopping by

 

 

Mark

 

 

Will be interesting to see if this solves the problem entirely or if you still need to widen the channels.  If you're not doing a build log a pm would be nice when you get to that stage to satisfy my curiosity.

 

Mark

Hi All

Thanks for the comments and likes.

Small update on progress...

Cannons are now installed but not without a few small issues shown below.

The plans asked for dummy cannon blocks to be installed at the framing stage in the pre defined slots  shown in the top left image with the intent that holes are drilled into the blocks to accept the dummy cannons.

Top right image, the wood gauge shows the depth from the dummy block to the edge of the frame (pencil mark). The unpainted part of the cannon is of a lesser diameter than the barrel and is to fit in the hole drilled in the block.  However following this course of action would lead to the cannons being far recessed inside the hull.  To overcome this blocks were made and the cannons fixed to these to effectively increase the length of the cannon as shown in the bottom image.  The assembly was then glued against the dummy cannon blocks....the thread was was used as a recovery mechanism in case the cannons fell inside the hull whilst the glue was setting

Cannons are now installed and I'm onto the running rigging

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

Mark

Wow, where did that time go!!!!!  9 month since my last post.  

Standing rigging and ratlines are now pretty much complete, I've done the stays with "mice" although the instructions didn't call for them and the plans were a little unclear in this regard and the AoTS that I have doesn't have a lot of detail regarding the rigging.

 

There's quite a lot of resource on this site on the making of a mouse and after quite a lot of trial and error I've managed to get something that I'm fairly happy with

 

 The setup that I got best results with was to use a serving machine.  This allowed me to keep the weaving threads tight but also made the weaving a lot easier than other methods I tried as I could keep turning the weaving threads towards me once I had gone over and under a pair.    Thread used was Mara 30 and is probably a little on the large size but was all I had in large quantity as there is a lot of waste,  11 weaving threads were used.  The circle used to keep the threads separated  is simply a piece of card with the 11 holes punched thorough, I numbered the holes as I found this helped me keep track of the weaving thread as I went under and over the threads.  The mouse former was turned on a lathe and is roughly 3mm in length

 

 

 

Once this was set up it was "simply" a matter of threading the weaving thread under and over a pair and turning the gears of the serving machine towards me to weave under and over the next pair and so on.  Once the former was covered then I served a length of the stay and formed the eye to stop against the mouse.

 

Following photos give an idea where I'm at

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in and hopefully my next post won't be too far away

 

Mark

 

Hi Meredith

Have sent you a PM

 

Mark

Thanks Steven

I have the AoTS book and did consider the chainwork option but the chain supplied in the kit is so soft that I think I would have struggled soldering the ring from the dead eye to it and I didn't fancy making up my own chain so I elected to go with the plans as below where "B" is thread

 

 

Also, it's not the first time I've had issues with Caldercraft models and the shrouds.  I got caught out on the Endeavour and this was a problem with the kit and is discussed by others in a thread in the "masts and rigging section".  I think it's something similar in that the main mast should be slightly longer than what is given in the plans and the channels should be slightly wider.  But all good, hopefully others who are planning on building this ship can learn from my mistakes.

 

Mark

Hi All

Must be time for another update.....

Had a small issue with the shrouds fouling on the sides as shown below

 

Not sure how this happened as I haven't deviated from the plans and having checked the photo (below) that came on the instruction manual it's not clear if there is an issue with the model itself or not and particularly the shrouds further away from the Main mast and around the Mizzen mast.

 

 

Regardless, I needed to fix it, the channels are epoxied and pinned so I couldn't remove them, the mast was also epoxied and not moving, the height increase in the mast to clear the sides would have been significant in any case.  Only real option I had was to add material to widen the channels, luckily there was sufficient spare wood from where the channels had been cut from.

 

Next was on to fixing the shroud dead eyes and this was accomplished using a jig with a horizontal line drawn on to fix a constant level...I know some people prefer spacers but I find this works for me.  

 

 

 

The dead eyes for the channels are only held by rope and these had to be stitched prior to seizing as no amount of glue, shellac, varnish would take the strain once the shrouds were pulled tight....following photos show where I'm up to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

Hi All

I have quite good results using Floo Gloo from Veniards, it's used in the tying of flies in the fishing world.  I was struggling on the dead eyes that sit in the channels on the Mary Rose and having tried nail varnish, shellac, watered down PVA etc the Floo Gloo seems to have  solved my problems.

 

Mark

 

 

 

Hi All

Thanks for the likes and comments.....really appreciated!!!

Just a quick update, deck works are now complete and the gangway installed.

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop, masts and yards

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

Mark

Hi All

Small update on progress over the last few months or so.  Forecastle is now complete and just a few points for those who may be planning on building this model.

The fore beak platform provided didn't really fit and so I had to fashion another out of scrap.  The photos below show the kit supplied  and my modified version

 

 

Next was an issue of my own making, when planking the main deck, I planked to the oval provided in the false deck for the bowsprit.  This is far too large and I only realised once the forecastle was pretty much complete and I was checking the fit of the bowsprit.

The following shows the repairs in a tight space (before and after)....not perfect....but lesson learned for future!!!

 

 

 

Cannons are now rigged on the main deck all rope was made on a home made vertical rope walk.  Gutermann Scala 200 and 240 thread colour 464 was used

 

 

 

Again for those considering the model the centre hatch coverings in the below need to be made narrower than the kit supplied otherwise the support columns for the waist gangway wont fit....don't ask me how I know

 

Some general photos of progress.....looks like one of the cannons has lifted from the deck, time to get the glue out 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

Hi All

Didn't realise it has been so long since I last posted....

Still working on completing the fitting out and the decks are nearly complete, not a lot more to say really at this stage just steady away.  Out of the box, I've not come across any major issues and any small issues have been of my making...anyone planning on building this model make sure you get the first layer of planking tight against the top of bulkheads in the bow area, I didn't and its causing a few issues getting the bulwarks to fit properly and I've some work to do to the forecastle bulkhead as a result.

I've left some decking incomplete at this stage as I want to try and get a continual run of the planks along the waist gangway but we'll see how that works out

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

MP

Hi Steven

Thanks for the comments.  I hadn't thought about deviating from the plans but your link to your previous post has given me something to consider

 

Thanks

Mark

Hi All

Small update showing latest progress.  Continued to work on the hull and had a few small issues to contend with.  The 2mm walnut sheet that contained the channel brackets isn't of good quality and is quite orange in nature and almost the texture of cork.  You can see the difference in colour against the channel in the photo below

 

 

I tried staining but wasn't happy with outcome so ended up milling some of the spare walnut planks down to 0.2mm to make a veneer to cover the brackets.  This has led to the brackets being a little thicker but I think I can live with this more than I could live with the original wood supplied

 

As mentioned in my previous post, I've measured something wrong somewhere and the channels are positioned a little high .  The channel brackets should fit under the blue line below

 

 

The channels were already pinned and epoxied in place so I considered removing some  material off the top of the bracket but this would leave no recess for the belaying rail and taking material off the bottom would result in the belaying rail when fitted almost touching the channel so I elected just to live with the error.  

 

Some additional photos showing overall progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

Hi All

Thanks for the continued commentary and to Allan for the links to the the pictures from the rmg collection, certainly gives me something to aspire to.

 A quick update on where I'm at.....

I lowered the wales a tad as on reflection they may have been a bit sharp at the bow compared to the plans.  Fortunately these are glued to the outer planking so I was able to unglue them so far back and drop them down slightly.

 

Cannon ports have been framed and the lower part of the hull has been given a couple of coats of amber shellac

 

Channels are fitted, pinned and glued but they're a couple of mm high at the start and this is going to cause some slight issues with the channel brackets but more on this when I get to install them.

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark