JerseyCity Frankie

I feel like I accomplished something today. I put together a nibbing strake.
 
First I traced out the deck edge on a sheet of styrene. Then I drew an arc about 3/8" above that, and cut that out. It took a little filing to get it sized. You can see it dropped in place.
 

 
Next I had to decide where to break up the strake. Not as easy as it sounds, as the scarph joints require a certain amount of width and the strake is not all that wide. After drawing the joints out on the styrene it was time to start cutting the actual pieces. At the bow - where all the nibbing ugliness is - I used a 1/4"x1/16" plank. I went with basswood since I figured it would be a little easier to shape.
 

 
Cut the pieces one by one adding a simple scarph joint to each end.
 

 

 
The final product. When I got to the straight pieces I switched to 1/8"x1/16" planks.
 

 
I wish I could just take these parts (the port side) and copy them for the starboard but there are some slight variances so I will have to go thru the exercise again.
 
The outer edge of the strake will still need to be shaped to fit snug to the waterway. I'm thinking of gluing the pieces to the deck edge and then filing the outer edge as required. All in all I'm fairly happy with the outcome.
 
This all seemed to go pretty smoothly, almost too much so.  Let me know if you can think of something I haven't considered.
 
I'm also priming and sanding the bulwarks again. I'm looking forward to getting that painted again.

Brass Photoetch
 
starting with the largest piece, you can see where it slid down and wrapped around the cardboard backer included with the brass frets. The damage was mainly done to the oars of the long boats, which I might scratchbuild anyway. The green mat has a grid that is 1" x 1" so you can use that for scale.


The oars are about 4 inches long, so it's not like they would be a super tiny detail to scratchbuild.

Fret 2

fret 3

fret 4, this one is very thick, about three times the normal PE thickness

fret 4 details

fret 5
fret 6

fret 6 close up

fret 7 is the lantern housings

fret 8 had a minor amount of curling damage

fret 9 as well

both of the last two will be pretty easy to flatten out.
 
Whelp, that about wraps up the unboxing.  When the longboat comes in I'll make a separate thread about that, so this is the last you'll hear about Victory for a month or two at least, though I might post a few pictures when I complete the setup for the hobby workplace.
 
 
 

Fittings
 

Copper plating

guns...

guns...

and more guns...

various fittings in wood, brass, and pewter (white metal)







and finally, a clearer look at the paint set

getting close to the end...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Unboxing cont'd...
 
The drawings set
The kit comes with 18 D and E size blueprints to help with construction.
 
dwg 1

dwg 2

dwg 3

dwg 4

dwg 5
dwg 6

dwg 7

dwg 8

dwg 9
dwg 10

dwg 11

dwg 12

dwg 13

dwg 14

dwg 15

dwg 16

dwg 17

dwg 18

to be cont'd...
 

So I went and done it, I shelled out 1200 simoleons for the JoTiKa/Caldercraft Victory.  I won't do to you what I did to the guys at reddit and claim I found it an estate sale for $25 (even though that was really funny).  But in all honesty, it's going to cost a lot more than $1200 (kit + paint + shipping).  There's also the desk I had to build out of this adjustable height desk frame and this desktop. I actually had to buy two of those sets for a total of $700. One is going to be my standing height work desk with my computer on it and the other is going to be a dedicated modeling station which will probably be solely occupied by Victory once I start rigging it. Then add in the various tools I bought just for Victory, like a mini table saw and cheap rotary tool since my Dremel died (and clamps, lot's of clamps), and that's another $200. Then there is the practice kit I bought.
 
While I have a couple wood ship kits under my belt now, this is a project I want to do with my younger two sons, 6 and 11.  I will probably be doing the main stuff, but I want this big project to be a collaboration so when they are older, they can look back and be proud of what we did together.  Towards that end, I won't be starting Victory until we have done the longboat.  I want them to get a little experience under their belts before they try to help tackle the elephant in the room.
 
So for now, I'll post this unboxing as a placeholder, since I doubt many of you have seen what's inside this kit.
 
The Box: 41" x 12" x 6", 33 lbs/15 Kg

The reverse side

with the top off

Seperate paint set

various papers

Manual 1; The Hull

Manual 2; The Rigging (and small boats)

Manual 3; The Parts List

 
more to come...

Took a few hours today to do a detailed search of the Web on this topic. The only things I came up with were the following.
 
Balclutha, which is one of the premier museum vessels held by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, is extremely well documented through the National Park Service HAER program. Several of the scale drawings in that program include diagrams of the anchor windlass, which is shown below. Though the Balclutha is much larger than Galilee, she is almost contemporary to the brigantine. The following diagram shows Balclutha's hand-powered anchor windlass.

The photo below that I found on Pinterest of capstan/windlass of the sunken Lucerne (check out the Wikipedia article) is probably more similar to the one Galilee carried. Since there doesn't seem to be any contemporary diagrams available of a Hyde windlass, I'll have to approximate one when developing the ship's plans.

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

The Art of Rigging, by George Biddlecombe, is an easily and inexpensively obtained book covering the shrouds and much else. I would not be surprised if you could get an eBay copy for under $5. Including shipping. Its got a comprehensive glossary and covers every important bit of rigging in excruciating detail. Not many illustrations though. Another good book to have is Wolfram Zu Mondfelds Historic Ship Models. Again, very inexpensiv. Mondfelds book has lots of illustrations on every page and covers broad swaths of gear rigging and techniques from all ship eras. You won’t regret owning either book.

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

The Art of Rigging, by George Biddlecombe, is an easily and inexpensively obtained book covering the shrouds and much else. I would not be surprised if you could get an eBay copy for under $5. Including shipping. Its got a comprehensive glossary and covers every important bit of rigging in excruciating detail. Not many illustrations though. Another good book to have is Wolfram Zu Mondfelds Historic Ship Models. Again, very inexpensiv. Mondfelds book has lots of illustrations on every page and covers broad swaths of gear rigging and techniques from all ship eras. You won’t regret owning either book.

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

Funnel walkways?! Ugh, I don’t want whatever job those walkways entail. I have to imagine it was solidly coated in inches of black soot. The interiors or upper surfaces of the funnels of large ships are not well documented and I would like to know more about them. I know that with steam powered ships their height is a factor of the physics of the rising column of hot air and steam and that forced draft funnels add complexity and machinery to the interior of the funnel. I would love to hear a lecture on the inner life of big ship funnels. Anyone know of any source material on the subject?

Thank you all .
 
The Control Top is now fitted to the rest of the Bridge. I'll leave the whole assembly off the deck for now in case there are other things to fit to the deck first :


 
Now I've moved on to the next assembly - the forward funnel. I've made the base for it, but before I continue there are 5 Rubber Boats to make. These mount on the base.
 
Here are a sequence of pics showing them being assembled in a jig. I made this to hold the boats while gluing up the sides, as they are very "slippery customers" to hang onto. First pic is of the parts for 4 boats in various stages of preparation :

 
The Holding Jig, made from card :

 
The jig in use :



 
The boats fitted to the base :

 
Danny

Hello James,
Thank you for salvaging my topic from bottom of the thread list!
 
Daily life, work and other projects have been preventing me from proceeding the Bellerophon, but I hope I will soon restart her after finishing 1/400 miniature model of US side wheel steamer Powhatan. This model is being built as part of diorama of Commodore Perry's second expedition to Japan. The diorama will be exhibited at Yokohama Sailingship Modelers Club exhibition which will be held coming September.
 
Regards,

Quarter figures
 
When I decided to build Bellerophon from three options, I decided to represent quarter figures as 3D pieces whilst those of the kit are represented as mere relief. L. G. Carr Laughton writes that quarter figures or “strong men” of ships’ stern became merely vestigial by the order of 1796. So quarter figures of the kit may be correct if actual ship had received repairs on these decorations after that date. But I prefer 3D quarter figures than mare relief and I determined to improve stern decos in some way.
 
 

Initially I tried using 1/72 Roman warrior figure released from Itareli for quarter pieces and it isn’t bad idea. But I noticed that stern decos of model are occupied by too much male motifs. So I decided to carve goddess quarter pieces by myself from boxwood.
 
I downloaded google image search results with keyword “Bellerophon”. I determined to settle Athena to starboard. I don’t know who is she but I determined to settle goddess figure based on another google image search result to port side. Maybe she would be Stheneboea or Philonoe. I resized downloaded images to desirable size for carving templates.
 
Absolute desirable finish is natural wooden finish, but carving from boxwood is my very first experience and I broke their neck and arms sometimes. I decided paint quarter pieces to conceal their vestiges. Also leaving quarter pieces with their natural colour requires further carving for other decoration motifs to match their colour finishes. I adopted easier way but I’m quite happy with results.
 
 

Photo above is of start of carving from boxwood.
 
 

Photo above is showing quarter pieces on carving process and their templates downloaded from google image search result and resized to match model. Neck of port side goddess is broken and it was repaired later with reinforcement of brass rod.
 
 

Photo above is of port side goddess nearing completion.
 
 

Photo above is of finished quarter pieces carving.
 
 



Photos above are of decorations seen from several angles

Continuing of copper sheathing (part1)
 

Photo above is showing sheathing is started from aft end of keel.
 
 

Photo above is of two strakes of copper plates sheathed upward from keel and walnut strip as batten to confirm line of third copper row above stealer copper plates.
 
 

Photo above is of marking of running line of third plates.
 
 

Photo above is showing how I decided to insert two stealers here.
 
 

Photo above is showing third copper row is glued along marked line.
 
 

Photo above is showing triangular space is filled with stealers. In this photograph stealer copper plates and their neighbouring plates are cut in “edge to edge” manner.

Planking of upper amarillo strakes
 
 
Final stage of hull planking is installation of upper amarillo strakes. Amarillo strakes are also reducing its width towards both ends.
 
 



Photos above are of ‘shutter plank’ which is reducing its width towards both ends. But it will be hidden by waist rail later and I don’t mind its inauthentic finish opposing ‘parallel running’ rule.
 
 


Photos above are also showing the completion of hull planking.

Planking of thick stuff
 
Now let’s start detailed explanation how I planked above main wale.
 
In my building of Bellerophon, I challenged to simulate double thick stuff (or black strake) which is running above main wale and gradually reducing their thickness upward. In page 42 of AOTS Bellona, I found pair of 6.75” and 5.5” strakes are planked above main wale. Someone may feel it would be too fanatic to reproduce them in 1/72 scale, but even small scale plastic Revell Victory kit reproduce stepping of strake above main wale. I think it is worth to try.
 
 

Illustration above is showing my planning of thick stuff installing. Thickness of most of wood strips I prepared for 2nd planking is 1mm, so I planned to lay thick stuff on backing of 5mm x 0.5mm ramin strips. Upper portion of ramin will be thinned to accept upper thick stuff.
 
 

Firstly I planked 5mm x 0.5mm ramin above main wale.
 
 

Then I planked 1mm x 3mm amarillo.
 
 

Photo above is showing how I thinned upper portion of ramin backing. In result, 2mm width thinned ramin is running above 1mm x 3mm amarillo.
 
 

Photo above is of planking of 2mm x 1mm amarillo for upper strake of thick stuff. I’m sorry that I didn’t take a picture of planking work itself, but effect of two strakes gradually thinning their depth can be seen in this picture.

Marking waterline and Copper plates edge covering timber
 
 
I marked waterline at this point because I want to simulate covering timber of upper edge of copper plates. Kit plans are showing identical depth from waterline to keel for both ends of the ship. But “Trim by Stern” is apparently appropriate. I referred NMM Edgar plan to determine waterline. Again pictures and accompanied depictions tell how I did them.
 
 

Mark waterline at sternpost. This procedure is repeated at stem.
 
 

Mark waterline. Set hull on cradle so that waterline runs parallel to floor then mark it. My “waterline gouge” is very primitive one, but worked relatively well.
 
 
 

Marking waterline at stern requires careful attention because convex curve of stern causes tendency of pencil point goes downward. Run point of pencil carefully with possible lesser force to hull.
 
 

I cut carefully 3mm x 0.5mm walnut strip included in kit to width of 1mm.
 
 
 

Installing of covering timber starts from stern because it has more complex curve here than bow sections. Again I used gel type Cyano glue for faster securing.
 
 

Gluing of covering timber went on little by little. After installing to these difficult areas was finished then rest of timber was glued with Tight Bond.
 
 


Installing of copper covering timber finished.

Main wale at bow section
 
Except its stronger curve, bow wale planks are build in same manner with that of midship sections.
 
 


Forward end section of pre-bent wale material is used for this area.
 
 



Again careful repeating of cut and dry fitting of material is required to get better result.

Starting of main wale installing
 
After finishing bottom hull planking, I started installing of main wale. Usually planks simulating main wale are installed after all 2nd planking finished. But I’m intending to use lighter tone wood between wales and decorative rails instead of paiting yellow band. Also I’m planning to apply alcohol based black dye and ebony colour Watco oil to walnut planks of other areas. Applying of black dye to strakes or wales neighbouring to lighter tone wood would be very difficult. So I determined to install main wale and blacken them before planking of lighter tone wood. Blackening of channel wale may course same kind of difficulty but I will postpone it until building process reaches that stage.
 
While kit instruction is suggesting using straight planks for main wale throughout the length, I determined to simulate top and butt stocking fashion. I found starboard profile of Vanguard in “Nelson’s Ships, A History of the Vessels in Which He Served 1771-1805” written by Mr. Peter Goodwin.
(http://www.amazon.com/Nelsons-Ships-History-Vessels-1771-1805/dp/0811710076) Although I can't judge on accuracy of Mr. Goodwin’s drawing, he is famous as ex-keeper of HMS Victory or maritime author. So I'm confident of its authenticity.
 
 

Firstly I marked each position of wale planks to hull referring Vanguard profile in Goodwin’s book. Profile is photocopied in enlarged size and transferring anchor stocking pattern to hull carefully.
 
 

I’m using 6mm width walnut for main wale planks. They are pre-shaped with steam and heat from kettle to fit curves of hull.
 
 

Pre-shaped plank is once dry fitted to hull and butt position and peak are transferred to plank.
 
 



Wale planks are made as shown in photos above. Once satisfying shape is reproduced it was glued its place.
 
 


Photos above are of wale planks are covering forward part of the ship.

My advice is just use glue, no knot at all. Knots add bulk and stick out too far in many instances. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a certified knot nerd! I love knots. But sometimes they are too thick when tied on a model.