hamilton

I think it looks good so far - curious how you'll approach the stern framing - from my son's collection, I know there are pieces that feature compound arches that might work for this purpose - interesting build to be sure!
hamilton

To finish up chapter 4 and the forward platforms,  the breasthooks were made.  There are two of them.   These are laser cut for you in two halves.  Its just easier to work with them this way.  I usually shape one half and lightly tack it in position.  Then I shape the other half and fit it in next to it.   At this point they can both be removed and joined together.  Do a quick sanding to refine everything and add the bolts.  The bolts are 30 lb. black line.  
 
The lower breast hook has etched bevel lines because the side that fits against the frames needs to be beveled.  Its just a start because everyone's model will be slightly different.
 

Lastly..to finish off this chapter I made the riding bitts.  Like the fire hearth, this wont be glued in position yet.  But its good to have at the ready.   We will need it before framing out the rest of the forecastle deck later.  So the cross beam is laser cut for you.  Just clean it up and shape to suit.  I just used some needle files, etc.   The uprights are basically made from 5/16" x 5/16" strips.   Measure against the plans and shape the tops to suit.  Use the plans as a guide.  Nothing earth shattering with these.  
 

 
 
I will paint the riding bitts red above the gun deck.  I used the plans to determine where that break would be.   Here is what it looks like after being painted and test fit.  Note the string...this is good to get in place now too.  Its glued lightly to the center of the stem and then taped to the top of the stern post.  It will help guide you when setting fittings along the center line.  It helps a lot!!!
 

The fire hearth and riding bitts have been set aside for safe keeping.
 
Next up chapter 5 which will take care of the aft lower platforms and a few other odds and ends.
 

More Hatches
 
Chuck’s instructions say to make eye bolts and  split rings for the boards that cover the next hatch by bending 28 gauge black steel wire. I got an excellent refresher on how to do that from this thread. 
 
 I took a bunch of tries and looking at the pictures in the thread a few times,  but then it was not too difficult to get close :
 

 
 
The last 2 hatches continued to need a lot of fiddling, but they are on the ship.
 

Next is to make a ladder to go below decks.
 

Working on hatch coamings and gratings. I marked out the holes based on the plans and planked around them. The problem was the gratings wound up being a bit larger to make the gratings fit well.  so I had to make the spaces on deck bigger.  It was difficult to enlarge the spaces in the planks and keep them aligned and square. I think should have made the hatch covers first and used them to mark out the spaces and then planked around those spaces. It’s a slow journey, this ship. I am learning how to do it better the next time though! Two more hatches to go.
 

Finished up the standing rigging over the weekend!  This was quite a process, as I redid several of the lines (some multiple times) not liking how they turned out (too tight, too loose, I didn't like the way it looked, etc).  Hopefully I have learned enough from the standing rigging work to limit the number of redos on the running rigging

I ordered the 3 clamp ;helping hands from Micromark.  I used fuel tubbing from my R/C stash for extra grip on lines and to keep the clamp teeth from digging into the blocks. This will be a huge help as I get more into rigging blocks for the running rigging.

Tim
 

Thanks Håkan.
 
Only a few photos today, but I'm happy to report that I worked up the motivation to finish the carronade tackle blocks.  This shows the 13 sets that were done, and last four sets (16 blocks) I still needed to do--

 
The total here is 17 sets, because one is on the already rigged carronade that has been on the ship for years.  And here they are done--

 
That was probably the least pleasant task I have had to do on the build so far (literally taking me years of off and on work), and I'm glad they are finished!  
 
And here is one of the topgallant masts roughed out, next to a topmast, and the other topgallant blank--

 
Next is rigging the carronades, and continuing work on the masts.
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Thanks Håkan.   I can only guess that when they were assembling that page of the book, the true scale illustration just looked too small on the page, so they enlarged it and didn't change the caption.  Who knows?!  Hopefully I will remember to always double check the illustrations.
 
I finished the trestletrees, and test fit the pieces, checking to make sure they would also fit on the topmast--

 
Then I made a rudimentary jig to hold the trestle pieces, for gluing the crosstrees.  I rarely make these kind of jigs, because I am too impatient and lazy, but it was a good idea to do this, and it only took a few minutes--


 
I ended up making deeper notches in the trestletrees, and none in the crosstrees, though you can see I had marked some, and even started to cut a couple notches in one of the crosstrees, before deciding it would be wiser to just notch the trestletrees even though not historically accurate.  I test fit the crosstrees many time, adjusting the notches in the trestle trees for depth, and to make sure the crosstrees were parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the trestletrees.  I then glued the crosstrees in--

 
The photo makes that first set of notches look very bad.  It's not so noticeable in person, but I'll fill the gaps and all will be stained black when done--

 
There is more work to do now on the topmast: filing a tenon on the end, for the cap, and angling the top of the octagonal haunch so the trestletrees sit parallel to the water line--
 

 
Now it's on to the topgallant masts.
 
Ron  
 
 

My 10-year old loves this! As do I - seems to me that there is a serious challenge in knocking a lego period ship together - will you supply build instructions for those of us who might want to follow in your footsteps? I know that's a tall order so please don't take me seriously (though I am a little bit serious)....Lego released a Titanic recently that apart from being as costly as a high end wooden ship kit also looks very cool - would love to see someone document a build of that....
hamilton

My 10-year old loves this! As do I - seems to me that there is a serious challenge in knocking a lego period ship together - will you supply build instructions for those of us who might want to follow in your footsteps? I know that's a tall order so please don't take me seriously (though I am a little bit serious)....Lego released a Titanic recently that apart from being as costly as a high end wooden ship kit also looks very cool - would love to see someone document a build of that....
hamilton

The next step was finishing the planking up to the covering board. No surprises there and unfortunately I don’t have any pics of the work. 

Quick aside, I spent forever measuring an individual tick strip for each frame and then doing actual math (a dangerous pastime for me) to mark exactly how many millimeters between each plank. Never imagined there’s the a super simple fan chart that could have saved so much time. 
 
The bow was a little finicky. The smooth curve of the decorative scrollwork was done partly by bending wood and partly with a lot of filler sanded down. I think it’s ever so slightly too narrow, which would cause issues later. 

I left a window unplanked on the starboard side. 

Deck planking was straightforward too. I just had to be careful when going around one of the coamings to keep the planks in line. I used a pencil to darken the edge of one side of each plank for the caulking effect. I also left a part unplanked here as well. 

It will take some finessing, for sure - but if you use a scalpul blade to shave off any ridges between planking strakes and then sand the planks manually (and carefully following the wood grain) along the bulwarks you should be ok - looks good so far to me
hamilton

It will take some finessing, for sure - but if you use a scalpul blade to shave off any ridges between planking strakes and then sand the planks manually (and carefully following the wood grain) along the bulwarks you should be ok - looks good so far to me
hamilton

Bulwarks now finished , now to decide whether to plank the deck before the hull ?

Rat lines continued…

OK, I’ve decided not to let OCD get the best of me and let well enough alone on the deadeyes. I did start over on the rat lines. 
 
Onwards … Cheers 🍻 

Hi there:
 
A question for the moderators. I just packaged a bunch of photos that I took of the St. Roch here in the Vancouver Maritime Museum to send off to someone working on the Billings model and wondered if there was a thread or gallery where these could be broadly shared...I often see pictures of real ships on build logs and elsewhere for reference, but a single landing place for these would, I think, be useful for the community - perhaps it already exists and I didn't work hard enough to find it! If not, though, could a new area of the forum be created? 
hamilton

Ahh - that makes sense to me! Thanks for clarifying Chuck!
hamilton

I always use medium thickness CA for hull planking - and I also get glue on my fingertips. It's a pain! But if you invest in some isopropyl alcohol (nail polish remover) you can remove it once it's dried and crusty - it peels off like a scab once softened by the alcohol - as my skin gets thinner I worry it might take some skin with it when it does, but I prefer to use CA for this purpose as it allows speedier progress on a process I don't always get much enjoyment out of.....I have read of others who use PVA (wood glue), but my impression is that because of the slow setting and curing time it makes for very slow work....I'm willing to sacrifice my fingers for a little bit to get through it!
hamilton

Ahh - that makes sense to me! Thanks for clarifying Chuck!
hamilton

Ahh - that makes sense to me! Thanks for clarifying Chuck!
hamilton

We actually had one but folks didnt take copyright seriously.  They just copy pasted from all over the web.  And we got caught.  I guy whose pics were lifted and posted here caused us some serious heartache.  
 
He wanted $$$….and threatened with lawyers.  Of course we removed them the moment we were notified but that didnt stop the guy.  Finally I told him to go after the member who posted them…
 
That we werent responsible.  So that was that.  But it was dicey for a while.

Hi there:
 
A question for the moderators. I just packaged a bunch of photos that I took of the St. Roch here in the Vancouver Maritime Museum to send off to someone working on the Billings model and wondered if there was a thread or gallery where these could be broadly shared...I often see pictures of real ships on build logs and elsewhere for reference, but a single landing place for these would, I think, be useful for the community - perhaps it already exists and I didn't work hard enough to find it! If not, though, could a new area of the forum be created? 
hamilton

Yes, Håkan, more practice!!
 
I had cut out the trestle trees, and glued the crosstrees down to a piece of paper, to "hold' them while I filed the tapered undersides.   But a nagging feeling that they were too big wouldn't go away.  After holding the topmast close to them, I was pretty sure of it.   I looked at some photos of other models and then got out Lee's "Masting and Rigging", and calculated the length of the crosstrees according to that source.   Sure enough, it appeared that I had made them about 50% too long.   While I love Petrejus' book, this is the second time I've gotten burned using his illustrations without checking the scale accuracy.   Although the caption for the crosstree illustration read "full size" (meaning full scale size), it was actually quite a bit larger.
 
Here are the new crosstrees, roughly shaped, compared to the previous ones--

 
I glued them down and tapered the undersides--

 
I cut out new trestle trees, and here they are along with the crosstrees, and a wrong sized trestle tree and crosstree--

 
The crosstrees need some more work, generally narrowing the depth and breadth a bit, and cutting notches for the trestle trees.  The trestle trees need deeper notches, and some further shaping, then I'll try assembling them and see how they look on the topmasts.
 
Ron  
 
 

Happy New Year!  Thanks CiscoH and jereramy, and those liking and looking in.
 
To replace my toothpick topmast fids, I filed a pair from brass--

 

 
Next these were blackened, along with some eyebolts, ringbolts, and four hooks that I need to finish the carronade tackle blocks--

 
Next task is the topmast crosstrees, following the illustration in Petrejus' book "Irene"--

 
I glued six blanks together so I could do the rough shaping for all of them at once--





 
When I was satisfied that the rough shape was close, the block was given an isopropyl alcohol soak to separate the pieces--

 
I notice some irregularities, mostly the right side end is a little "bulbous", and they look just a bit chunky to me, but there is still a lot of work to do on these: drilling holes in the ends, notching for the trestle pieces, tapering the underside, and refining the overall thickness and curves--

 
All for now,
Ron

Beautiful work!
hamilton

I see it's been quite a while since I've updated here.....not that I'm on a schedule or anything!
 
In any case, I didn't get as much done on Bellona over the holidays as I hoped. But since the new year, I've managed to get a start on the second planking - starting with the outboard bulwarks. The first element laid here was a strip of molding that runs flush with the top of bulwarks mid-ships and follows the sheer to the beakhead forward and quartergalleries aft. This was a more or less straightforward operation, though it was eased by adding this strip in 3 sections and then blending these with acrylic modelling paste. The first section ran in line with the ship's waist, the second ran forward to the beakhead and the third aft to the quartergalleries. I finished this in Golden acrylic yellow ochre.
 
I've now also completed the first strakes of outboard bulwark planking in 1mm x 3mm walnut - 2 strakes laid below the first molding strip and cut around the main deck gun ports. This posed few difficulties. All of these elements will be finished in yellow ochre eventually, so the contrast between the limewood gunport lids and the walnut planking will be masked.
 
One thing I noticed on installation of these first planking strakes is that the gunport lids already installed on the model will in some cases stand a little proud of the hull planking. Once these strakes were installed, I had to commit quite a bit of elbow grease to sanding the lids down to be more or less flush with the surface of the planking. Here are a couple of photos - not great or very interesting ones, but....you get the impression.
 
Bye for now and happy modelling
hamilton