hamilton

So another update - quicker than I thought.....Tonight I made the forecastle rail with belfry and installed some stanchions for rope railings around the companionway hatches - quite a bit of work. Here is the drawing of the foc'sl rail and belfry from Goodwin And here is the part supplied by Corel. The Corel part is designed to serve as the forward support for the spare spars that are used for propping up the ship's boat. Since I built a set of forward gallows to perform this function, I could easily dispense with the Corel design and go with Goodwin's drawing. I used lime throughout - 2mm x 2mm for the timberheads, 1.5mm x 3mm for the belfry posts, 3mm x .5mm for the rail and the base, and 4mm x 4mm piece shaped to make the belfry roof. Here are some of the belfry parts - very straightforward. I used the Corel belfry roof as a template for my own, laying it down on the 4mm x 4mm stock and tracing around it... I then just cut it to shape. Here is a comparison of the Corel foc'sl rail and my own, in process... It seems I'm unable to upload any more photos with this post, so I'll continue in a new one hamilton

Thanks for the kind words, Andy! I definitely appreciate this coming from you! hamilton

Hi Jim: I'm happy you're continuing your SF - it is shaping up to be a beautiful model. As for the nail heads - right now they might really stand out and you might be tempted to "hide" them. But as the build proceeds they will probably become less obvious and more "ambient". I'd leave them as is - they look great and will add something to the build for sure. hamilton

Hi Max: Whoa! I do recall shedding blood on the Phantom (in fact on all my builds so far - except the latest one....) but nowhere near stitches!! Funny you mention using CA to patch yourself up, since I believe that CA was first developed for just such a purpose for field medics....but maybe you knew this already! Hope you're healing up well - and congratulations on lasting till now with no stitches - my first were at age 4 - right along my hairline on my forehead. The family joke is that it's my lobotomy scar..... hamilton

Hi Andy: Great shot! Your rails look perfect - I wish my build was as clean as yours....The real issue for me is maintaining the overall colour scheme and not adding anything new in one section of the build that isn't reflected elsewhere....I had thought about staining the rails with Golden Oak, and using black (or blue) on the vertical timbers, but this went out the window once I decided to use the Corel flexible beech instead of cutting the rails from a thicker sheet of lime.... This is certainly a tricky part of any build and I look forward to an opportunity to do better! hamilton

Thanks Augie - after following your Syren I'm pretty positive you could do the head rails! In fact - won't you have to do them for the Confederacy? I'm sure you'll nail them hamilton

So I've spent the last few days on the head of the ship - a scary part of the build for me, seeing as I have only ever built one set of head rails in my time and that was on my second build, the Sultana, about 3 years ago..... Seeing as I had scratch built all of the cast parts to this point, I could not possibly use the metal cast head rails....at the same time, getting the right curves and overall shape into the rails was a bit difficult to conceive and to plan out. In the end, I used lime for the head cheeks and cheek knees, which ended up coming out fine. For the rails themselves I used some 4mm x 1.5mm beech left over from the Corel Toulonnaise build. This stuff is a special "bendable" beech that Corel included in that kit for the cap rails (and that I think is also included in the Bellona). I had to trim it down to 2mm x 1.5mm and taper and bend it to an appropriate shape, but I think they came out ok. For the head timbers I used 1/32" thick brass strip, blackened and then painted. At this scale I think the result is ok - and less crazy-making then trying to custom fit little pieces of wood! Cutting corners again! It was difficult to think of how to finish the rails. Painting them a yellow ochre would have looked out of place (since there is no other yellow ochre on the build). I had thought black with a recessed molding painted yellow ochre, but in the end decided on just a straight black - if anyone has suggestions for adding colour details on the rails I would love to hear them - I don't think it's too late to take a stab at it.... Strangely, the element that ended up being most thorny in this part of the build were the hawse timbers. From Goodwin, there seemed to be a backing piece ( a simple rectangle) fronted by another smaller piece with half-round sections filed out for the hawse ports. As you'll see from the photos below, when I first installed them they looked really clunky and bad. I trimmed them down a bit and restained them and widened the holes and now they look better, though still far from perfect. Unfortunately, I do not have photos of the construction process for the head rails - my phone was inaccessible while I was working and it's my only camera. In any case, here are the photos I do have....enjoy! hamilton 1. I traced the inside line of the stem post on a piece of lime and carved it out. Then I traced the line with a compass set to 2mm 2. The head cheeks and cheek knees were then painted black - here you can see how rough the hawse timbers turned out at first.... 3. Head timbers installed and unfinished 4. head rails finished 5. head timbers installed

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Hi Andy - I know it seems weird to go back and build something again...but when I consider the beauty of the vessel and the deficiencies of the Corel kit, and the existence of the Goodwin book....it is a tempting idea....anyway, such a project would be impossible for me at the moment....I have a few kits left to build and a lot of tools to buy (not to mention a bigger house with a proper workshop)..... hamilton

Thanks BE, Ferit, Augie & Andy for the comments! Much appreciated - yes this is a very small scale to work in....at some point in the far far future I'd like to scratch build this from the Goodwin book at 1:48 scale - it would be a bit of a monster, but would be a lot of fun! hamilton

Hi Mark - I do feel myself to be dangerously close - and dangerously unprepared!! Soon....but not quite yet! hamilton

Hello Jim: I'm so sorry to hear about this diagnosis. I cannot begin to imagine what you must be going through, but I do know that it's best to reach out to family in such moments and discuss your feelings openly with them. Do not think of it as burdening them, but as a way of drawing closer at the most needful time. My thoughts are with you. hamilton

Beautiful work! hamilton

Looks great! The bulwarks look to be at a perfect thickness - I sped through mine a little too hastily (first build, and all) and though the result was fine, this outstrips it by a long mile. hamilton

The galley stack was quite straightforward. I constructed it out of a single 3mm x 3mm strip of lime, shaped according to the drawings in Goodwin and painted black. I drilled and filed out a hole for the actual funnel, but it's barely noticeable...I cut and stained a 6mm x .5mm piece of lime for the base and wrapped some pinstripe tape around it to simulate an iron band that Goodwin shows just below the outlet. Here it is. I was a little worried about the pumps but they ended up not being too difficult to make. I used 2mm x 2mm lime, with a section filed out at the end for the pump bracket, and 3mm x .5mm lime (shaped) for the handle. Here is a shot of some of these parts beside the kit-supplied metal part. I used a 4mm dowel for the pump barrel. I drilled a hole in the side for the spout, which I made from a piece of brass rod. I drilled another hole in the top and painted the interior black to simulate a well. A bit of pin stripe tape wrapped around the top simulates an iron band, and a small piece of wire set in the well and propping up the handle completed the assembly. Here is a comparison with the Corel part.... ....and here are mine installed on deck.... hamilton

Well I have a couple of updates - one documenting the bridle port lids and the other documenting the galley stack and the elm tree pumps. Here goes. The bridle port lids consist of 2 layers of planking - a horizontal (outboard) layer consisting of 2 6mm x 1.5mm lime and a vertical (inboard) layer consisting of 3mm x .5mm lime, painted red. Here are a few shots of the process. It took a bit of filing to get the port lid to fit, but eventually I got it.... I bevelled the inboard layer of planking and added a ring bolt in the lower centre. I also used 1/16" pinstripe tape and blackened brass wire to simulate the hinges and hinge pins outboard - they're a little large for scale.... Here's the finished product. hamilton

Thanks Ferit! And you're welcome here - if you don't mind the rain! hamilton

Beautiful looking model! hamilton

This should be a good one! An impressive looking kit! I know it might be early to ask, but what are you thinking regarding wood substitutions? hamilton

Hi Ian: Yes - 4 frames, plus a transom piece and a bow piece. I think you could probably dispense with the bow piece altogether and outfit the boat with a proper breast hook rather than the bow planking - though I guess it would depend on the type of boat you were trying to model. Planking across the 4 main frames and then yes, the removal of the frame formers. The other frames were added (in port and starboard sections) afterwards. I added bottom boards over the seams between the false frames and the keel to make it look more authentic (well....you know what I mean) The ship's boat came together very easily. The strip wood was not of the highest quality and even after soaking the 1/16 x 1/16 pieces ended up shredding when bent around the frames. I had to spend a bit of time after they were dry in sanding then down and fairing them - tricky at this scale, particularly at the bow, which is why it looks a little kinked there. Anyway - I say go for it. It was a fun little holiday project. Model expo offers several sizes of this same boat from 5" down to 3" (or smaller, I can't recall). The one I built was the 3 3/4 which pretty is much exactly the length of the Corel supplied metal boat hull. hamilton

Hi Ferit: Thanks a lot! But I'm afraid there will be no oars!! I will be making 38 sweeps for the big ship, and the thought of making even 8 tiny ones for this little boat - given my increasingly limited modelling time - is too much!! In other news, I tried this beer the other day at a friend's house - it says it's Turkish (at least the brewery is in Istanbul) - I imagine this is a mass market export and that there must be some fine Turkish beers out there....If I ever make it back to your lovely city (I was there for 10 very memorable days back in 1998) perhaps we can try some together! hamilton

Hi Mark Thanks! It was a pretty straightforward little kit, though there are issues with using a rather generic design for all manner of ship's boats. The basic ship's boat kit is a 5" kit (not sure the scale) and for the smaller ones they just scale down the same design. I understand the economics of this kind of thing, but it does pose limitations if your aim is to produce something historical. Other issues I had were the use of 1/16 x 1/16 lime for the frames - it's easy enough to work, but in the end it needs to be sanded down to 1/32" to bring it closer to scale. Anyway, it was fun to put together! Thanks for coming by hamilton

Hi there: It seems I've had to divide this post in two - I was having trouble uploading some of the photos in the last post - not sure why....let's try again hamilton

Alright - though I've been away I have been working on the ship's boat. We just arrived back this morning and after putting the boy down to sleep I did a tiny bit of work and finished it off. It was made from a Model Shipway's ship's boat kit (the 3 3/4" version). The boat is just about the right size - pretty much right on the length of the metal boat provided by Corel and only a touch wider on the beam. I deviated from the design of the ship's boat - mostly by referencing the pinnace drawings from the Blandford book and the large cutter drawings from the AOS Bellona. I could not achieve the precise effect of either of these boats and mine is something of a mongrel. It is probably most like the yawl in the Goodwin book in the end.... Anyway, I'm more or less please with the results. My main issue is that my dad didn't have any blue paint, so I was unable to paint the sheer strake blue as I had wanted - I could (and should) have left it raw for when I came home, but exercising my usual impatience I just painted it all black...Here are the pictures hamilton

Hi Augie: In one of the last set of photos it looks like you've got your jacket hanging off the main topgallant! But that can't be....Looking great - can't wait to see it installed in all its splendour hamilton