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

Thanks Adam, but the link doesn't work......try here hamilton

Wow! I've been out of it for a while, but I feel like it was just a couple of weeks ago that you were bashing your way through the framework construction - now look at this!! Really great results and fine craftsmanship Bob! hamilton

Thanks for posting this Ian! This is the model I mentioned in my last post - I love the look of it with the sweeps run out - though I don't think I'll be punishing my crew with the added weight of the ship's boat (now lashed on deck....)! Thanks again for the photo! hamilton

Thanks Druxey! hamilton

Thank you all! Such kind words from you guys mean a lot! Ian - I appreciate this - though if you look closely at one of the photos above, one of the most egregious mistakes is staring us all right in the face!! I won't mention it here out of embarrassment, but if anyone can spot it....well I don't know what I could do to reward the effort...but something probably. In the meanwhile, I've started experimenting with making sweeps....No photos yet to share, unfortunately. My first attempt involved a 2-part sweep - the shaft made from 2mm square basswood notched and whittled down to around 1.5mm round - and the blade made from 4mm x 1mm basswood, shaped and thinned. This proved a poor strategy - the wood is too soft at this scale and there was a lot of splintering and other forms of frustration. My second attempt was to carve a sweep from a single piece of 4mm x 2mm basswood - this was a better approach but the soft wood was my enemy here too. On a whim I decided to look at the wood stock supplied with the Greyound kit (most of which remained untouched, since I replaced a lot of it). There I found 6 4mm x 2mm strips of walnut! I tried making one of the sweeps from this and it worked great. And there was almost enough of it for the 36 sweeps (I managed to cut 32 lengths last night at around 90mm each). I have a box full of scraps from old builds, and I'm reasonably confident I can get the remaining sweeps out of this supply. The one sweep I made looks good, though it's only rough shaped and needs some fine touches and finishing. The model from the NMM which is serving as partial inspiration for this build features the sweeps finished in red with the ends of the blade finished in tallow or yellow (the photos are dim and the paint faded after a couple of centuries....). I'm thinking of leaving them in the natural walnut with some white on the blade but would be happy to hear of any period finishing suggestions that might add a touch of historical authenticity to the build.... Anyway, sorry for a long post with no eye candy! Bye for now hamilton

Thanks Russ and Chuck: Chuck - I'll try your method - I have an ample supply of bamboo skewers (getting ready for bbq season!) but the sweeps are roughly 3 1/2 inches in length - I'm assuming your 1/4" length is only a reference to the trunnels you describe......anyway, in thinking about the two methods I have thought about, the first one started to seem very unrealistic, considering the depth of the notch I would have to carve - your method puts me in mind of a strategy that might work.... Thanks once again! Much appreciated - don't know what I'd do without this forum hamilton

Thanks Jud - I'm tending towards carving them out of single strips, as you suggest, though a few experiments will be necessary....the dimensions of these things will make them quite fragile - a 1mm diameter shaft, e.g. I'm bound to break a few through this process......I'm assuming it will be better to use a harder wood to make them, since this may prevent splintering and breaking. I'll try a couple from basswood (which will be easier to work with hand tools - no power tools here) and a couple from walnut and compare the results.... hamilton

Thanks Andy Richard and Bob! There certainly are a lot of little flaws (and larger ones) in this build, but one good thing about 1:100 scale is that the mistakes tend to be so small that you have to put your eye up pretty close to see them....... Thanks again! hamilton

Thanks Brian - I may have my terminology wrong.....I'm talking about the oars themselves hamilton

Hi there: I'm nearing the end of a kit-bash of Corel's Greyhound, which I've built as HMS Blandford (or near-ish, with respect to those on this forum who really know what they're doing!). Inspired by images of a period model re-printed in Peter Goodwin's Anatomy of the Ship HMS Blandford and to be seen in colour on the NMM website here, I've decided to add 36 sweeps. I've made sweeps at larger scale (1:25) for the Corel Brittany Sloop and the Corel Flattie (2 for each!), but at 1:25, they were pretty straightforward. Faced with making 36 at 1:100 scale, I'm a little puzzled as to technique. Originally I had thought of making the blade and the shaft separately (blade out of 1mm x 4mm stock which I would thin down; shaft out of 2mm x 2mm stock which I would reduce to 1mm round). My idea was to file a thin slot in the 2mm x 2mm shaft and glue the blade in, then once the glue had cured whittle and sand the thing into shape. Now I wonder if trying to carve them out of a single piece would be easier..... Anyway - I thought I would post something here to canvas for techniques for producing these things. And while I'm at it I might as well also ask for suggestions for finishing them - the NMM model shows them in red with the end of the blade finished what might once have been white....or yellow? Very hard to tell.....does anyone know what might have been the early 18th century practice? Thanks to all in advance for the help! hamilton

You're off to a great start. I built this kit last year and it was a lot of fun - the large scale is great to work in and it's overall a very good quality kit. I'll follow your build with interest hamilton

Well hello and welcome back....Like many others on the forum, I've lost some photos on my build log....one has to expect this sort of casualty rate when upgrades, cleanups and backups are going on and I applaud our tireless forum administrators for their behind the scenes efforts!! Eventually I will get to reposting the missing photos - I have them all somewhere and the names are still attached to the missing files so it shouldn't take long - at present, though, I'm so near to finishing that I'd rather press on with the build than re-post past entries here - if you are a soon-to-be greyhound builder and want to see some other photos, just prompt me here and I'll get them back up.... In the meantime, yesterday was a special day - my 1-year anniversary of starting on this build! The longest time it had taken me to build a ship model in the past was the Corel Toulonnaise at around 6 months. I had thought this one would be finished by late-November 2013! Ha!! So many modifications and so many issues with the kit definitely put the breaks on things, not to mention a new child and an increasingly busy work schedule and other projects drawing my attention. In any case, I thought I post a few pictures to document what she looks like one year in (though I think there are only about 10 working days left to go)..... Last night I made and outfitted the fore topsail yard, and began rigging it - truss, jeers and lifts. Tonight I'll finish the rigging and put on the ensign staff. Anyway, not much left of this one...enjoy the photos hamilton

Very exciting Harlequin! hamilton

Looking great Harlequin! Maybe you answered this question elsewhere, but did you make a gun-port template to transfer the positions from the plans to the hull or did you use the plans or did you do it "free hand"....? Not that I'm going to be starting on my Bellona any time soon! But....better to ask now while you're "in it".... hamilton

I like the paint scheme a lot Collingwood - distinct and interesting - the red gives a nice warmth against the tones of the wood - she's shaping up into a real beauty! hamilton

Hi Craig: Just read through your log - it's quite a read! Lots of chuckles and I'm finding it very informative. I'm contemplating this kit as a gift to my son's kindergarten teacher for her classroom - but I've never built a pof model before....a bit intimidated, but your build log is giving me confidence - looking forward to following along hamilton