hamilton
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Hi there: I've been doing a bit of planning for a future build (Corel's HMS Bellona) and have been consulting James Lees' Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War to flesh out the vaguer aspects provided by Brian Lavery's Anatomy of the Ship HMS Bellona and correct or improve upon Corel's design. One thing that has struck me as strange is the proportion that Lees gives for lower stays - "1/2 the diameter of the appropriate lower mast" (p. 185). This would mean a main stay that would be almost 5mm and the forestay 4mm (based on information obtained from Lavery)!! On a 1:100 model that seems way too thick....is Lees off base here or am I missing something? Any wisdom any of you can provide would be most welcome. Thanks a lot in advance! hamilton
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Thanks Jond - I've been out of it for a while now, so it'll be nice to be back at the bench when my plate clears....have not even had much time to drop in on some of my favourites - including your massive Bluenose! Promise I will soon! hamilton -
Thanks Mark & Per: It is good to be back (even in such a small way....) Hope to be able to carve out some time also to check in on your work, too! hamilton
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Thanks for dropping by Keith - yes, there are so many things that can go wrong at this stage - distorted plans, shaky hands, bad cutting....I could (and do!) drive myself crazy checking things against as many sources as I can and I'll still find time to second guess myself and/or get it wrong!.....anyways, today I made my "good" templates - double checked against plan 1 and 2 of the MS sheets, and against my previously assembled keel to see if the error still showed up as prominently in this final template as it did on the rough ones I made last night - it did! I think I've made these templates at least 4 or 5 times - I really hope this is the last! I'd love to actually get started with this build! Now I have to follow Grant's suggestion above to debond the keel parts already assembled. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to cut the new keel pieces - as I've mentioned before I'm a dining room table modeller living in the Pacific Northwest and I have to do all my cutting out on the front patio and only when it's nice and dry - the rain has let up for a couple of days but it's supposed to come back tomorrow evening and through the week. There's a well-known Vancouver joke (though maybe it's shared by our neighbours in Washington State) - how do you know it's Monday in Vancouver? The rain stops.....anyway, I'll get the bandsaw out again soon enough.... hamilton
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Well, my last update to this topic was way back in October.....and my contributions to MSW in general have been pretty lax (the occasional brief comment or like)....above and beyond that the last time I spent any time modelling was back in December! Crazy!! I have not taken a break for this long since I started. But with Syren stalled at the beginnings of the gunport framing (to be picked up again soon) and with the weather improving, I thought I'd think to Bluenose once again..... Tonight I made some new templates of the centre and foreward keel pieces from the MS drawings - two sets of templates were made - one from sheet one (which shows outlines of the laser cut parts) the other from sheet two (which shows sheer and plan views of the framework and planking). The templates were made quite quickly and were a bit rough - but they were really just meant to allow me to identify where my errors were in cutting the pieces the first time. My earlier guess ended up being right - there were two errors that compounded one another - first in the cutting of the forward piece and second in finessing the joint between the forward and centre pieces. Here's a photo showing the cumulative error: And here's a closeup: So as predicted it's back to the drawing board with the keel. I hope to do the debonding of the currently assembled pieces over the next few days - I'll then salvage the aft piece, make more careful templates of the centre and foreward, recut them and assemble the centre keel once again. Since I've already cut the bulkheads, I imagine that once this business gets done the framework will come together quickly. Bye for now hamilton
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Hi Peter: It's been a while since I checked in and your America looks great! The sails are beautiful and thanks for the tutorial above!! Very helpful - I will definitely be consulting it next time I try to make sails! As for the block you mention above for the tack - the one on the long line connected to the gaff. That block is actually for the topsail sheet - I think it must have been put in place to allow the operation of the gaff topsail from a single location on deck (i.e., the foot of the mast) - though I'm no expert.... great work - looks like you're close to the end.... hamilton
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Don't be fooled by the MS paint scheme - of course this is one of the easiest things to change about the kit. But the MS Glad Tidings is certainly one fun model to build - enjoy! hamilton
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The sad part about not including the laser cut templates is that it takes away the possibility of scratch building the kit - though I completely understand the logic. I'm building Syren right now, and one of the laser cut bulkheads (#4) had some gaps in the wood on the bulkhead extension, so I had to cut a new one - using the template - though I guess the part itself would have served. My wife runs a design business and she has had no end of problems with both foreign manufacturers AND European and American companies ripping off her designs - I have to say that in our experience this is not a phenomenon exclusive to Russia and China - it is in the very nature of Internet-based (or internet-facilitated) businesses. I have another friend who discovered that a song of his was being used in a Samsung commercial in S. Korea - without his permission. The payout he got allowed him to renovate his kitchen, but music publishing rights are pretty clear cut and enforceable. My wife, however, has been burned by some recognisable US, Swedish, Australian and UK companies as well.....her and her partner have had to become very savvy about licensing and copyright on the designs and on how they are marketed online - though access to the images themselves cannot prevent copycats from just biting their style. They modify one small aspect (like the layout of a set of graphic elements or the colour of an image) and call it "unique". The "creative" in "creative economy" is very widely interpreted, it seems.....and is even a possibility for those for whom "creativity" is just novel ways of thieving other people's labour.... hamilton
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The sail looks amazing! Way better than the ratty ones I made....I would love to see a detailed tutorial on your approach! hamilton
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I think the point of proportional dividers is to scale up and scale down, though they can be used to transfer lengths from plans to materials. I have a set of the micro-mark ones and I have not used them for kit building (though I have used them to practice lofting frames from plans - I can see how for a scratch build they would be very useful to have). hamilton
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I'm sure you'll get up again Ferit! There's a thread somewhere on MSW about debonding glue - I'm not sure what you used to fix the mast, but you might try to find that thread....I'd do it for you, but my son needs reading and putting to bed.... hamilton
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Hello Ferit!! It's so nice to see you strike this journal up again! Your Berlin has always been one of my favourite builds here on MSW. I'm sorry to see a bit of damage on the kit - I'm sure you will remake it to perfection. You may notice from my signature that I now have the Berlin kit on the waiting list....I've spent a few evenings looking through the kit contents and translating the Italian notes on the plans into English (strangely, my Italian has not improved as a result!) Anyway, I'm happy to see you back here and look forward to more updates on this beautiful build hamilton
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Maybe someone's suggested this already, but since it takes long enough to build even an inexpensive model, you can use that time to squirrel away a bit of money for the next one. My first model was the MS Phantom which took 3 months to build and cost about $100. While I was building it, I put away 50$ a month and then used that to buy the Sultana which took me about 4 months to build - during which I saved 75$ a month for the next one....etc. Now I have basically budgeted some money every month that automatically goes into a savings account that I use exclusively to support the hobby - and I have a priority list of goodies - not many kits on the list anymore, just tools and such. From my perspective it's easier to save the money over time than to try to rationalise to the Admiral why I have to spend (at a poor Canadian exchange) 500 or so USD on a Byrnes saw or even 100 USD for a volume from the TFFM series.....but since patience is so necessary in this craft (though I'm not a naturally patient person) I can wait a little bit and treat myself once I've saved my shekels...If you can wait, even a $1000 kitty is not unattainable - as long as no one else (Admiral and Little Lubbers) goes wanting! hamilton
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Hi Al: I'm sorry to hear about your wife's health - it can't be easy and I hope she's doing ok and that you're taking care of yourself. Best for the new year to you both hamilton
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Hi Peter! Happy New Year. The ship's boat looks great - have you decided how to add it? I haven't seen any images that might act as guidance but if I come across any I'll send them your way.... hamilton
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Excellent work Tim! Love the coppering and the special sans-sails rigging! I'm looking forward to following your Cutty Sark when the time comes - hope you have a great holiday and bye for now! hamilton
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Hi Tim: She's looking really great! Nice work on the rigging - the "fake" running rigging shows some interesting set-ups. Well done hamilton
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Like the way you set up the topmast backstays - I followed the kit plans but I think yours look much better! hamilton
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Alright Tim! I've also rigged ships without sails in the way you describe (most recently the Fair Rosamund). I think either way is acceptable. As for Syren - I have had the bandsaw out!! I had to cut a new bulkhead because one of the kit-supplied ones had really bad wood - big old holes in the face of an already-fragile bulkhead extension....the new one works great and is very solid - if I had enough 3/16" ply I'd have remade them all, but I need my supply for the Bluenose when I finally get back to her in the Spring....Syren is slow moving, but I've started on the gunport framing (last night, which was my first night modelling in almost a month!)....anyway, looking forward to more updates here hamilton
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Hi Tim: Here are a couple of pictures of my Glad Tidings to illustrate some running rigging with no sails - peak and throat halliards are included on the gaffs, but you can see they're lowered to deck. Forward I also included the jibsail running rigging (halliard & downhaul anyway). I imagined (perhaps incorrectly) that the gaffs and booms would be lashed together (though this was "modeller's convenience" since I didn't want the gaffs floating free on the horizontal and wagging back and forth). With America this would be tricky with the fore gaff since there's no boom....I'm really not sure how you would fix it, except at the jaws. On some of my early models, I set a small rod at the fwd end of the gaffs and then drilled a hole into the mast to receive it - this would fix the gaff and provide extra support and reduce any lateral movement....Anyway, hope you don't mind me posting the pictures here..... hamilton
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Good to see an update here Tim! She's looking spectacular! I like the optical illusion in one of the photos of the tweezers floating in the bowsprit rigging! Had to widen and narrow my eyes a few times to correct for it! Anyway, the rigging looks great - really brings her to life! Looking forward to more hamilton
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Looks great Peter - I found the holes on the belaying racks to be too small on mine as well. But instead of trying to widen the holes (didn't want to try after my experience with the deadeye strops) I sanded the belaying pins themselves to be a little thinner....Anyway, the masts look really nice - she's shaping up very well hamilton PS - where I am in Canada there is maple, but not much - mostly softwood here - back east it's much more plentiful h
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