hamilton

Hello again! Well it's only been a few days since I completed bashing the Corel HMS Greyhound into the HMS Blandford and here I am at it again! I've seen a few build logs for this kit out there - one notable one here is by Meredith, who has done some amazing work on this kit. Guillemot also has a build underway it seems, but I've not seen a log here - only a few photos of what also looks like an excellent build. I don't think mine can improve on these examples, but I'll add it to the lot anyway. The history of this vessel is at once ignoble, vague and confusing. She definitely began her career as a slaver - the Dos Amigos, a Baltimore Clipper. A description from the NMM here states that she was a Brazilian vessel running slaves from West Africa to Brazil until 1827. Other sources list the date of her capture as 1830. In any event, it is also clear that she was captured and outfitted as an anti-slaving vessel, which role she dispatched admirably until 1845 under the name Fair Rosamund. Like others, I have preferred to represent OcCre's kit as the anti-slaving ship. A draught I found a reproduction of online shows her as re-outfitted in 1832 - though it's hard to say whether the re-outfitting took place in 1832 or 1831 - the draught dates from 1832 in any case. Here is that draught - the date is listed at centre left and can be seen more or less clearly if you zoom in on the image. It may have been captured in 1830 and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1831.....a couple of sources support this timeline. Apparently there is (or was) a replica project for this vessel underway - not sure if it is still happening. But I did find a brochure presenting some of the history of the vessel with some details. You can read it here. This information lists the ship as being not Brizilian but Cuban. It may have been built in an American shipyard and sold to private owners (Cuban or Brazilian...). Anyway, the provenance is difficult to discern though there are some consistent aspects of the history. One of the more nettling questions for me has been - what differentiated the Fair Rosamund from the Dos Amigos? A thread begun by Guillemot provides some answers - the first area of differentiation was in armament, the second in the sails and rigging. 1. Armament - OcCre shows the kit bearing one 18-pound carronade on a swivel carriage. A couple of sources I have found online state that as the Fair Rosamund she carried "three guns". What these guns may have been is open to broad speculation, but Guillemot's thread provides some suggestions - look here. I'm not sure how I will supplement the carriage gun supplied with the kit.....but at least there is a place to start. 2. Sails & rigging - a couple of images of the Fair Rosamund (one an isomorphic pen and ink drawing of the vessel under sail and the other a sail plan) depict her as carrying a gaff topsail above the main sail. The OcCre kit does not include this among their complement of pre-fabricated sails. I will include this sail to further differentiate her as Fair Rosamund. Anyway, that's about all I've got for introductory material. So what else am I going to be doing to the kit? Changes I can predict are: 1. Coppering the hull (like Meredith, whose work here is stunning) 2. Scratch building the cabin, the mast tops, and the gun carriage 3. Possibly replacing the hull and deck planking (though this is "budget dependent") Other things may get done in the course of building that I can't predict, but we'll see...... Finally, for your delectation, some images of the kit and its components. Bye for now! Not sure when building will begin, but sometime soon.... hamilton

Looking forward to some more progress on this one! Glad to see you're back hamilton

Thanks Mark - it's the figurehead!! I'm going to stick a lump of metal on there sometime over the weekend and call it a day! hamilton

Hi Meredith: Really impressive work! I'm about to start work on this kit, and had thought of building it out of the box (more out of exhaustion after a major kit bash of the Corel HMS Greyhound), but after seeing this I might have to push myself a little harder.... You answered here a question I was asking myself today as I was doing some prep work - would the hull not have been coppered below the waterline? Your coppering job is really excellent. Anyway, I'll be following with great interest and possibly asking you some questions as I start going with this one. Bye for now hamilton

Thank you Russ hamilton

Thank you Andy, BE, Bob, Ferit, Mike, Richard and Crackers! All comments much appreciated! It seemed to take forever at the end! But ultimately I'm very happy with the results, though as usual it does not completely match the picture in my head.... Mike - the Hannah will have to wait until next summer, I think - a quick little summer project. In the meantime, I'm moving on the OcCre Dos Amigos/Fair Rosamund and then Mamoli's Yacht America - both are gifts - the first for a friend's 8-year old who's been at me for a while for one of these and the second for an old friend of my wife's who's also been on my case.....As long as these people keep asking me to build model ships for them, I can always rationalise one more purchase to the Admiral..... I almost bought (but chickened out) the LSS Hannah that Floyd Kershner was advertising on this site last week....I'm now sincerely regretting that I didn't buy it.....these kits aren't being produced anymore it seems, and are apparently of very high quality.... Anyway, thanks again to all - expect a new build log for the Fair Rosamund to appear in the next week or so....hope to see you all there hamilton

Well she's done (mostly). I'll leave it to the keen-eyed among you to spot the one still-missing element, which I plan to add tomorrow after a bit of touching up.....just think of it as a little easter egg for you all to discover. General impressions of the kit - pretty bloody poor in many ways, though in others perfectly fine. I would NEVER recommend this kit as a first build or even a second or third....it was my twelfth and a lot of sweat and frustration (though not as much blood as you'd think) went into the 14 months spent building it. The plans and instructions were probably the worst I've seen. However, with good resource material (Goodwin and Lees) and the fine advice and encouragement of folks on this forum, it can be done even by the hopelessly butter-fingered! Despite the shortcomings of the kit, the challenge it provided was what made it compelling - not that I recommend to manufacturers that they make their kits worse just to provide some interest! But overall, though I wouldn't build it again, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice little kit to heavily bash. Of the three builds of this kit I've seen here - Harlequin's, Collingwood's and my own - I'm surprised to see how many unique interpretations of the kit there can be. All of our builds are very different - and though I haven't seen an update from Collingwood lately, I sincerely hope he'll start posting again because his bash of the kit was shaping up to be really great. Anyway, here are a couple of photos (others are in the completed build gallery) - thanks for all your help along the way, people - I hope you'll tune into the next one, which may wait a bit to start, depending on a variety of different things. In the meantime, I will finally get back to sitting around watching all of you work a bit! hamilton

Hi Mike: I've just re-loaded the photos to the log - page 12. Check it out hamilton

Thanks Mike: I'll try to re-post this evening - the transom was a bit experimental - the approach I took might work for you on the structural level, though the aesthetic might either be a bit off for your Unicorn specifically or for its period - what year was the Unicorn? BE pointed out earlier that the diamond-shaped windows that I used for my transom are not accurate for the period - I was using the (later) Belonna transom as a guide here, though she was half a century later on.... I will see if I can't re-post the photos later this evening (Pacific Standard Time). Thanks again for dropping by. hamilton

Well my optimism has been defeated again....I've still not completed Blandford, though I'm so tantalisingly close that it's becoming painful. As of this evening, I've finished my courses for the semester, which means my schedule will be much more flexible - long hours of work still, but more reasonably paced than during the regular academic year.... However, before the modelling can continue, we're off to Maui (while we get our kitchen redone....I tried sneaking in some plans for a modelling nook to our contractors but the admiral wouldn't have it....) for some brief vacation time. When I get back my first priority (after washing my hair) is finishing this damnable model!! Hope you're all well....final stages to come and then it's on to OcCre's Dos Amigos/Fair Rosamund....a different kind of build....looking forward to something more or less straightforward... hamilton

Again with the astounding metal work - and fine all around craftsmanship - very well done Ian! hamilton

Hi Tim: I've built the Corel Sloop - it is plank-on-bulkhead. It's relatively large scale allows for a lot of detailing, though since it was my first pob build I stuck to building it out of the box. The wood that came with the kit was very nice, the plans were nice and clear and as long as you don't mind using plans instead of instructions you'll have fun making this one. Last I checked it was on sale through Model Expo for a really good price 60-something if memory serves.... Anyway, I think you'll enjoy building it. Here's a shot of mine - the only one I have apparently...... hamilton

OK so here are some photos for you David - these show marking the bearding line and carving the rabbet on my build of the Corel Greyhound. Here are the bearding & rabbet lines drawn at the bow Here are the same at the stern The bearding line is normally marked on the hull profile plan (perhaps as a dotted line on the cross section drawing) - it runs along the bottom edge of the bulkhead frames where they meet the keel. The rabbet line runs below it. After scoring the lower rabbet line with a #11 blade, I then shave off wood starting from the bearding line until I hit the rabbet line and then scrape or carve the wood out to form the joint. This is the finished look Hope this helps hamilton

Hi David: Depending o the scale (and your commitment to accuracy), you could take a simplified approach to carving the rabbet. I usually draw the bearding line (which marks the inside edge of the planking along the keel) and then the rabbet line below it. I then score the rabbet line lightly with a #11 x-acto blade. I then use a #10 x-acto blade (the scalpel blade) to shave wood off the keel from the bearding line to the rabbet line. The #10 blade is also useful for scraping along the rabbet joint as you carve. I was trying to post some photos to go along with this, but for some reason my uploads keep failing.....I'll try again in a bit hamilton

Jealous! hamilton

Planking looks amazing! hamilton

Hi Mike - that is one big hull!! What's the overall length with the bowsprit? Anyway - she looks great hamilton

Well everyone, I'm on the home stretch. The rigging is complete and I installed the anchors over the last couple of nights. Now it's just making sweeps for the next week or so until I have 36. I made a prototype which needs detailing and finishing, but I think I've worked out a good process for carving them to a standard out of single 90mm strips of 2mm x 4mm walnut. The wood is hard enough to tolerate the work at a small scale and the darker tone of the walnut provides a good contrast. I will follow an early suggestion and finished the ends of the blades in white. The photo Ian posted above shows red sweeps - I was tempted to go this route, but in the end I think I like the natural wood tone better..... Photos to come soon. Bye for now hamilton

As I recall I did one strake per night, port & starboard....Took about 3 weeks...have fun! hamilton

From my memory that is the case Al, but the plans also have a graph to facilitate spiling the planks to suit the idiosynchracies of the builder. When I planked this model, I used the plank patterns as a reference for the garboard and the upper band. They worked well. For bands B & C I used the patterns cut slightly more oversized and tried my own spiling taking measurements off the bulkhead edges. It was a good learning experience and the planking turned out ok...still had to use some filler, though not too much..... hamilton

Ahhh I remember this planking! Lots of cutting, lots of rubber cementing but a good education in spiling planks! Have fun with it! hamilton

Thanks Ken and Mark: I have ordered a kit from the UK before from a small retailer - the kit price was good, but I hate hate hate paying UPS brokerage fees and that's who they shipped with. I understand that Cornwall Model Boats uses UPS as well, which is why I have been hesitant to order anything through them. My experience with ME has always been good - had a bit of a wait on my last order, but since I have 4 kits on the shelf waiting to be built it didn't exactly try my patience. Anyway, thanks both! hamilton

Hi there: When I first started ship modelling "way back" in 2009, ME carried a much more extensive variety of European manufactured kits (Mantua, Victory, Amati, as I recall - perhaps others I forget). Does anyone know whether there are any plans to reintroduce these lines? ME is by far (for us N. Americans at least) the most convenient and affordable source of ship kits...it would be great to see a wider variety of manufacturers represented - specifically Amati and Caldercraft. Perhaps there are barriers to carrying these lines that I don't see or understand....does anyone know? Thanks hamilton

The half-hull construction design is due to the scale of the model (1:25) - the instructions explain that the scale thickness of the centre keel was too thick for the laser cutter (1/4) so they halved it at 1/8. I was very nervous about this construction method (made the alignment a very tricky business times 2!) but it actually came off ok. hamilton

Looking at your build log I'd say you're doing a great job with the OcCre kit despite the differences hamilton