hamilton

Hi Srenner: The build is really shaping up! You mention a "curved" bulkhead above - do you mean curved along the top and bottom edges to match the deck camber? Or curved convex or concave on the fore/aft plane? I think that period practice would argue against the latter, though as in all things the aesthetic choices of the modeller are their own! Adherence to historical accuracy - especially in a kit like this one that has soooo many complications in it - is always tricky with a kit and ultimately it's about what is satisfying to you. Anyway, looking forward to seeing more progress. hamilton

So I've finally more or less finished the detailing of the inboard bulwarks, rails and outboard hull. I realised that when I made the main rails, I forgot to account for an inboard extension through which the catheads run - I'll have to add this at some point soon. The chainplates & deadeyes need to be added for the fore and main shrouds, and I need to add the bobstay chainplates, decorative star, scrollwork around the hawse pipes and the name plates at the bow and on the transom - and of course the rudder! And the mounting! I guess I have quite a bit of work to do still.... In any case today I installed a series of ringbolts along the inboard bulwards as well as outboard on the splash rail and then some eyes for the bowsprit footropes. Nothing too exciting. But once this was done, I decided to work on the wheelhouse. I started by making the wheelhouse roof and coaming from a 1/32" basswood sheet and finishing both grey. For the wheelhouse itself, I took some 1/8" x 1/2" basswood stripping and cutting out 4 pieces to the fore-aft dimensions of the wheelhouse. When I sandwiched these together they were slightly wider athwartships then the wheelhouse, so I substituted one of the 1/8" thick pieces for a 1/16" piece and this ended up being perfect. I glued these pieces up and squared the rough edges using the disc sander. The main part of the wheel house was finished white and the roof and coaming glued on - again very straightforward work. I am leaving out some of the details featured on the plans as, on the one hand, I don't feel that I have the skills to work at such a small scale on such fine details (mouldings around the wheelhouse roof, chamfers along the corners) and on the other hand, I was worried that attempting to add them would just make it look clunky.... The ship's wheel was "borrowed" from another kit, in which a generous manufacturer had packaged 1 too many - the wheel was almost to scale, but is a tiny fraction larger than the wheel depicted on the plans - I don't think it looks too absurdly large. I inserted a toothpick into it for purposes of painting, but then figured I would just use the toothpick as the wheel shaft - painted black with the wheel, There is a little pad, cut from 3/32" x 1/32" basswood, that I drill a hole in with a needle file and then widened gently using the toothpick - I then cut a short section out of this strip and finished it black for the pad. Though you all probably know this, I feel obliged to say that by design the wheelhouse is shifted approximately 1/8" to port and the ship's wheel lies slightly to port of the wheelhouse centreline, which explains why in the photos it appears off centre on the quarterdeck. Here are some photos of the process and the completed wheelhouse. Enjoy and bye for now hamilton

Hello all I've now completed the rail detailing and installed the monkey rails - have still some ringbolts to add to the inboard bulwarks and the fore and main chainplates, which I'm a little intimidated by to be honest. The monkey rail cap was pretty straightforward. I took a tracing of the curve of the monkey rail bulwark onto a 3/64" basswood sheet, trimmed the sheet along the tracing and marked out the width with a compass. I cut the part overlong because I wanted to use a trimming at the end for the part of the cap that runs down the curve at the front of the monkey rail (there must be a term for this that I don't know!). You can see this little off-cut in a photo below. This part was installed first and lightly sanded down so that the upper part of the rail ran over it. After installing the main cap, I then spent some time with sanding block and files refining the transition. The rest is just eye bolts and belaying pins - I can still not get blackening of brass done in the seemingly neat and tidy way I see in other builds. It always comes out somewhat fuzzy and flakey - I've read through as many of the blackening tutorials I can find and the results seem the same regardless of how I follow the tutorials....using acetone to clean the parts, diluting the blackening agent, etc....it always ends up looking pretty bad - what's your secret anyone who can produce cleaner results? In any case, enjoy the photos and happy modelling hamilton

Thanks Steve: Yes I do have a thought to mounting. I have cut out sections of the keel for mounting nuts and have already constructed a stand and some mounting posts. I have to replace one of the mounting nuts, but will do this once I reach a stage where I don't have to handle the hull too much and when it can be moved to a more permanent housing. All holes that need drilling have been drilled! One of the lessons I learned early on! Thanks again for coming bye - I like your Mayflower! hamilton

Hi there Another small update as I continue to detail the inboard bulwarks, the rails and the outboard hull. At this point, I've added the mooring chock (needs quite a bit of cleaning up as the photos show), some belaying pins and started on the "monkey rail" - a term that really makes no sense to me even in the context of the usual fancifulness of nautical jargon...but anyways.... The pins you see in the first shots were used to ensure a smooth run of the rails along the centre of the main rail. the aft portion of the monkey rail cap was cut from a sheet of 3/64" basswood - the same sheet from which I'll make the sections of it that comprise the port and starboard caps. I promise that the upward flaring effect you may notice in the final photo is an illusion of the camera! The photos may not be of intrinsic interest - in reality a post like this feels to me more like a notification to the community that I haven't stopped working rather than something soliciting advise or feedback....but here they are and any and all comments are, as usual, welcome. Enjoy and bye for now hamilton

Yeah - I've turned away from it for a bit to work on my scratch build of Bluenose, so no updates to report on Bellona - you and I are now at almost exactly the same stage in our builds - but you'll get past me for sure before I get back to mine. I want to complete Bluenose up to the masting and rigging and then I'll move back to Bellona - hopefully sometime in early May. In the meanwhile, I'll follow along with you! hamilton

She's really coming along - planking looks nice so far! hamilton

Thanks Alistair & Ron Nowhere near where you guys are at, and after a long hiatus from regular modelling I feel like I need to relearn quite a bit, but this one has been satisfying. Thanks for stopping by! hamilton

Always nice to see your work, Alistair - glad to see this log refreshed and looking forward to whatever's coming! hamilton

A very minor update to keep this log active. I've spent the last couple of sessions starting in on detailing the outboard hull, inboard bulwarks and rails. I fabricated and installed the splash rails at the bow and the anchor pads positioned at the aft end of these rails. I also made the hawseports and fashioned the bowsprit shroud chainplates from 1/16 x 1/32" basswood - figured that it would make little difference visually to use wood or brass for this and since the wood is much easier to work with (at least for me) this seemed to be the best route. The photo below shows these before they were painted black. If I can get through some house chores and day job obligations I hope to be able to get to the bench today to work on more of these elements - ringbolts on the inner bulwarks, bobstay chainplates, the aft mooring chock and mooring cleats along the rails, etc. - the little details that really start to bring the model to life. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a relaxing Sunday hamilton

Looking pretty sweet Ron! hamilton

Thanks very much Greg! It's been a slow but fun build! If you measure your fun in years, this is the best hobby! hamilton

Hello again The caprails are now complete - a little rough round the edges, but with a bit of detailing and clean-up they should look just fine. The little "bench" that sits beneath the stern caprail was a little tricky to get right and even now it's a little off kilter, but I'm more or less satisfied with it. The process of making and installing these pieces is identical to that described above, so I'll leave you with the photos and sign off! Enjoy! hamilton

A little more progress on Bluenose to report. After fashioning the bow and transom main rail pieces, I examined the plans to break the caprail into three sections - the first two will feature the inboard extensions for the belaying pins and the final one aft will complete the rail up to the stern piece. The first sections forward were completed yesterday and today. I started with a 1/16" x 1/2" basswood strip and cut it to the length of the pieces needed. I then laid this strip along the top of the bulwarks and traced the shape of the forward taper of the hull onto it. After cutting this edge, I used a compass to mark the width of the cap rail and then used the same method to trace the pinrail extension. These pieces were then cleaned up using needle files and sandpaper and a slight chamfer added to the outboard edge. As a final preparatory step, I marked out and drilled holes for the belaying pins - these are smaller than they eventually will be, but I wanted to get pilots in before installing the parts. I also further cleaned up and finished the bow and stern main rail pieces - also adding pilot holes for future placement of belaying pins on those parts. The bow piece was then installed permanently and a final trimming of the outboard edge completed. I then refined (as much as my weak eyes and low-level modelling skills allowed) the scarf joints, finished the edges and bottom of the cap rail sections and installed them - adding a final finish to the top. Though the plans recommend finishing the rails black, I have done so in white, as I did on the 1:100 scale BN I built back in 2012. I like the way that the white rails contrast with the black hull and the black monkey rail to be added later. The photos below show the rails with two coats of titanium white, to which I'll add at least one more plus a final protective finish. Enjoy and happy modelling to you all hamilton

A few modelling sessions in a single week is a real rarity for me these days, but a welcome one! I managed to eke out some time last night and at lunch today to make the bow and stern sections of the caprail. I made templates of these parts from the plans, and rubber cemented them to a sheet of 1/16" basswood. A bit of work with the scroll saw, sanding blocks and files and I think they came out ok. You'll notice that the main sheet hole in the aft caprail section looks pretty squiffy on the template and on the tracing I took from it on the basswood sheet - this was corrected more or less during the refining process. I hope to be able to spend time this weekend finishing the cap rails and adding some details on the inboard bulwarks, hull and rails - then I think it will be on to the rudder and mounting. Happy modelling all and enjoy the photos hamilton

It really is hard to deny the beauty of old Bluenose.....thanks for coming by Grant and Mic! hamilton

Thanks Steve! hamilton

Well - this was a lot longer coming than I had hoped or anticipated....but finally I'm ready to post some progress on Bluenose. The deck planking is now complete - it took me a while to work my head around the tapered planking on the quarterdeck, but once in the rhythm of things it went more or less smoothly - not the neatest work, but seeing the framework sealed up is satisfaction enough for me. Now the real fun parts can begin!! I'm going to re-do the cabin, which I built over a year ago because it turned out a little bit asymmetrical, but before installing it for good I'll add some external hull and interior bulwark details and the caprails. In the meanwhile, enjoy the photos hamilton

Do you mean "work"? "Work" is a 4-letter word on Sundays in my world hamilton

That awful thing!! I remember spending quite some time looking at it and wondering what the heck to do about it....someone pointed out that the frieze on it is actually derived from HMS Victory - built 45 years after Greyhound..... If you check out my build log for HMS Blandford (my Greyhound build) you can see my solution to the transom issue and the related quarter gallery issue...Feel free to crib from that if you're dissatisfied with those parts! It was pointed out to me in my log that my diamond shaped window frames were also out-of-place for the period, but I was so constrained in the materials available to me for this that I had to just not care.... Anyways.....if you can grab some 2mm thick basswood/lime sheeting you can work something up that will function much better than that metal part. You can use the metal part as a template for creating a thin wooden "foundation" for the transom and locating the stern lights and so on. Keep at it!! The rewarding parts will come soon enough!! hamilton

Nice looking so far - the wood stock supplied by Corel is, if memory serves, not great. A good soaking in warm water and pre-bending in a jig might help with the splitting. I didn't use the kit-supplied gunport frames but framed out the ports myself with spare wood strips, so I could run longer lengths of planking down the hull, which makes it a bit easier than trying to bend such short runs of planking. But I think a bit of knife work (a scalpel blade will shave off that little flare of wood and some filler ands sandpaper will do the rest) and a bit of filling and sanding will produce a good result. hamilton

Are you willing to ship outside CON US......? hamilton

This looks amazing Ron - maybe not perfect, but amazing! hamilton

Looking great Yves! hamilton

Lees was a great help in the rigging, but I found I had to produce an entirely unique set of rigging tables for this build based on his documentation of period practice - not only for accuracy, but just for planning out the build! This led further to having to re-do the numbering and labelling of all kit parts - this was an arduous and time-consuming effort, but it definitely paid off in the levels of sanity I was able to maintain through this build. hamilton