hamilton

Hi Guys,
 
Here's my new update just to show I haven't been sitting on my laurels ( painfull ).
 
I have fitted a new worktop to my space and removed one of the shelves, this is to allow for an ever growing Aggy, 6ft x 2ft 6ins, with scope for some shelving underneath should the mood take me.
 
As far as the Aggy is concerned all the gun port lids are now fitted with accompanying ropes, one problem, looking at the channels there is a fowl up, the ropes lay across where the channels will be fitted, this only occurs on the first two lids, it means that I am going to have to fill in some holes when the ropes are removed,  not a major problem but annoying all the same.
 
The figure head is now fitted and I have made 3 shackles on the bow for the Bobstays. I have also added some extra chains to the rudder chain.
 
I am currently working on the channels and have 3 sizes of deadeyes 3.5mm, 5mm and 7mm, my only problem there is that my 5mm deadeyes are triangular, they should be round, a quick call to Caldercraft and I should have some winging their way to me as I write this, they also want the others back so no spares there then.
 
She also has another 26 teeth, all the dummy guns are now fitted to main deck.
 
I do have a few pics.
 
Figurehead fitted with shackles below.

 
Gun port lids on the Port side

 
All guns fitted

 
Extra chains fitted to the rudder chain

 
General overview from the port quarter

 
Next step is to build and fit the channels and then it's on to the ships boats.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 
 
 

Ratlines between the mizzen shrouds...
Mouse on the mizzen...
 
I realized that these small pets had been so familiar to the crew, so friend... all around on board... and had entered into the ship vocabulary...
 
 

A few more photos for everyone. (and yes a couple of GFPs..... I can't help it..... honest! )
 
As I said last night, bowsprit shrouds are done. Although it doesn't really look it in the photos, they are, in fact, equal length. I've sort of reached a natural stopping point this time, nothing really half done. About the only thing I'll do is brush on some matte medium to protect the rigging I've done in the last 2 weeks.
 
Andy

Hi Jason:
 
Excellent work! As for those eyebolts on the rear of the cannon carriages, I think they would have been used for a tackle that would run back behind the cannon and include another block hooked to an eyebolt on deck - not for the gun tackle (though using them as such makes more sense aesthetically for the reason you explain above). I'm sorry I don't know the name of the tackle, but someone here will.....
 
Alistair's suggestion is a good one and if you can follow it it's the way to go. Being lazy I might have fudged it by seizing the block directly to the eyebolt on the gun carriage and leaving out the hook altogether - but Alistair's strategy results in something far more authentic. Anyway - great work! I love watching this ship come together
hamilton

Now on to the rotisserie.
 
I made the top (smaller) pulley from a slice cut off some thick walled brass tubing. In this case the tubing has a 2.3mm outside diameter with a 0.7mm diameter bore. I have various sizes of this type of tube which is useful for making small pulleys and sheaves. Actually I used the lathe to part off the pulley to 0.3mm thickness, plus I included a 0.2mm thickness boss. I soldered the pulley on to a length of 0.7mm diameter N/S rod which fits in to a hole drilled in the stove's hood.
 
In the following photo this pulley and rod are temporarily fitted. The thick walled tube is lying alongside the stove.
 

 
Well - progress will stop on the stove for a week. I am heading off to deepest Herefordshire with my wife looking at houses - a retirement move. 

Three photos shewing the rail and centre legs in place.
 

 

 

Hamilton,
 
Now cricket is a game that has some interesting rules.............
 
I will pull together some words on my soldering related tools after I complete the rotisserie.

Yep, lash 'em up out of the way, Hamilton.
 
John

I was mussing on the presumed necessity of the pendants. With a capable boatswain, couldn't they just rig a strop of some kind when they needed a point from which to rig a purchase, like a selvagee? sure they could but it would always have to be attached to one of the other shrouds, which are already under some degree of strain and you wouldn't want to compromise any of those in any way- although you do see lead blocks for braces and things on them, and that is surely a strain, albeit usually lateral strain. And there are collars lashed around masts to direct the stays to the deck, and these are certainly under a lot of strain, why not an eye like one of those lashed up high? But the stay collars too have a mostly lateral strain on them and a vertical strain would probably make them slip down. The pendants are made off right around the masthead, an unambiguous strong purchase. Any strain placed on them would be translated directly to the strongest part of the ship aloft with no chance of damaging or carrying anything else away. "Nothing too strong ever broke".

Mast Tackles were rigged to hoist cargo and gear into the ship.  The pendants on the fore mast and the main mast would be connected by a runner so that the tackle fall would hang over the main hatch.  Yard tackles would also be employed to swing the cargo over the side and lower away onto the pier or boat alongside.
 
The burton tackle is just the name given to the mast tackle on the mizzen.

I think of the Burton Pendants as being auxiliary handy places to hang something heavy from, and I do believe they just hang down under the tops when not being used in conjunction with a temporary lifting project. I know one of their uses was for setting up the lanyards on the deadeyes, with tackle hooked to the Burton Pendants to put tension on the lanyards, which in turn kept the shrouds tight. The lead from the Burton Pendants is PERFECT for this. I hear tall ships to this very day have issues keeping their shrouds tight- those few that do not use steel wire rope standing rigging, so this reason alone would be enough to keep the pendants on all the rigs. I am certain that the gear would be struck down after the job was done though so I wouldn't place anything on them on the model.
The toprope I would just leave off too. Its only in use when they are striking the topmast down on deck and I seriously doubt anyone would leave that line in place if it wasn't in use. Why risk the wear and tear on a line you REALY don't want to part? Striking or Housing the mast was certainly done often enough. I recall reading somewhere of an English frigate crew that had trained so well they could strike topmasts in a matter of minutes, but it was a big 'all hands" type of job and setting up the tackle would be just one part of the sequence of events. Incidentally the Top Rope is one of the Seven Ropes on a ship. There are only seven ropes on a ship, it is said. All the other ropes are properly called lines.

OK let's try again.....
 
Next after fiddling with the lengths of the lower masts, here is what I arrived at....
 

 
These are just the raw dowels set in the mast holes - the rake in the mizzen isn't accurate and the rake in the foremast shouldn't be there at all. Anyway, this is just to demonstrate relative size...
 
Here are the foremast cheeks and bibbs which I made as 1 piece instead of separately, thinking that to make separate parts at this scale would simply be too tough.
 

 
Here is the foremast top, unfinished. Corel's laser cut part was accurate with respect to dimensions, except the thickness (1.5mm) which would have made the top much too bulky after adding the planking and the margins. So I traced the laser cut part onto a 1/32 thick sheet of lime and planked it using .5mm x 3mm strips. The margins are also 1/32"lime.
 

 
It looks a little mongrelly here, but after painting it's much better (sorry for the bad focus!)
 

 
Finally here are a couple of the shots of the fore mast dry fitted. It's not exactly finished yet - I still have to paint the bolsters and the mast head cleats and also reduce the latter's size so they don't look so bulky....
 

 

 
You may notice the holes drilled in the forward edge of the top for the crow's feet, which I plan on adding. My worry here is that the smallest blocks I have are 3mm, which even at that small size is too big for the crow's feet tackle. A suitable euphroe I can probably manage, but the tackle blocks will be a challenge. I'm not sure how much I can reduce the size of the 3mm blocks supplied by corel (which at any rate are very fragile things) though I might be able to do something with 1/8" blocks supplied by model shipways and leftover from previous builds (though these are slightly larger than the corel ones!!
 
Anyway that's a future worry. Hope you're all enjoying the day - now back to work!!
hamilton

OK so I'm working from home today and I thought I'd take a break and load some photos. Lots to do for work so I'll make it quick....
 
First we have the bowsprit standing rigging - shrouds and bobstays. Goodwin shows one, but Lees says that 2 were carried after 1719, so I went with Lees...
 

 

 
So for some reason I'm not able to upload more photos than this in this post....not sure what's going on - I'll try to continue in another....
hamilton

OK let's try again.....
 
Next after fiddling with the lengths of the lower masts, here is what I arrived at....
 

 
These are just the raw dowels set in the mast holes - the rake in the mizzen isn't accurate and the rake in the foremast shouldn't be there at all. Anyway, this is just to demonstrate relative size...
 
Here are the foremast cheeks and bibbs which I made as 1 piece instead of separately, thinking that to make separate parts at this scale would simply be too tough.
 

 
Here is the foremast top, unfinished. Corel's laser cut part was accurate with respect to dimensions, except the thickness (1.5mm) which would have made the top much too bulky after adding the planking and the margins. So I traced the laser cut part onto a 1/32 thick sheet of lime and planked it using .5mm x 3mm strips. The margins are also 1/32"lime.
 

 
It looks a little mongrelly here, but after painting it's much better (sorry for the bad focus!)
 

 
Finally here are a couple of the shots of the fore mast dry fitted. It's not exactly finished yet - I still have to paint the bolsters and the mast head cleats and also reduce the latter's size so they don't look so bulky....
 

 

 
You may notice the holes drilled in the forward edge of the top for the crow's feet, which I plan on adding. My worry here is that the smallest blocks I have are 3mm, which even at that small size is too big for the crow's feet tackle. A suitable euphroe I can probably manage, but the tackle blocks will be a challenge. I'm not sure how much I can reduce the size of the 3mm blocks supplied by corel (which at any rate are very fragile things) though I might be able to do something with 1/8" blocks supplied by model shipways and leftover from previous builds (though these are slightly larger than the corel ones!!
 
Anyway that's a future worry. Hope you're all enjoying the day - now back to work!!
hamilton

OK let's try again.....
 
Next after fiddling with the lengths of the lower masts, here is what I arrived at....
 

 
These are just the raw dowels set in the mast holes - the rake in the mizzen isn't accurate and the rake in the foremast shouldn't be there at all. Anyway, this is just to demonstrate relative size...
 
Here are the foremast cheeks and bibbs which I made as 1 piece instead of separately, thinking that to make separate parts at this scale would simply be too tough.
 

 
Here is the foremast top, unfinished. Corel's laser cut part was accurate with respect to dimensions, except the thickness (1.5mm) which would have made the top much too bulky after adding the planking and the margins. So I traced the laser cut part onto a 1/32 thick sheet of lime and planked it using .5mm x 3mm strips. The margins are also 1/32"lime.
 

 
It looks a little mongrelly here, but after painting it's much better (sorry for the bad focus!)
 

 
Finally here are a couple of the shots of the fore mast dry fitted. It's not exactly finished yet - I still have to paint the bolsters and the mast head cleats and also reduce the latter's size so they don't look so bulky....
 

 

 
You may notice the holes drilled in the forward edge of the top for the crow's feet, which I plan on adding. My worry here is that the smallest blocks I have are 3mm, which even at that small size is too big for the crow's feet tackle. A suitable euphroe I can probably manage, but the tackle blocks will be a challenge. I'm not sure how much I can reduce the size of the 3mm blocks supplied by corel (which at any rate are very fragile things) though I might be able to do something with 1/8" blocks supplied by model shipways and leftover from previous builds (though these are slightly larger than the corel ones!!
 
Anyway that's a future worry. Hope you're all enjoying the day - now back to work!!
hamilton

OK let's try again.....
 
Next after fiddling with the lengths of the lower masts, here is what I arrived at....
 

 
These are just the raw dowels set in the mast holes - the rake in the mizzen isn't accurate and the rake in the foremast shouldn't be there at all. Anyway, this is just to demonstrate relative size...
 
Here are the foremast cheeks and bibbs which I made as 1 piece instead of separately, thinking that to make separate parts at this scale would simply be too tough.
 

 
Here is the foremast top, unfinished. Corel's laser cut part was accurate with respect to dimensions, except the thickness (1.5mm) which would have made the top much too bulky after adding the planking and the margins. So I traced the laser cut part onto a 1/32 thick sheet of lime and planked it using .5mm x 3mm strips. The margins are also 1/32"lime.
 

 
It looks a little mongrelly here, but after painting it's much better (sorry for the bad focus!)
 

 
Finally here are a couple of the shots of the fore mast dry fitted. It's not exactly finished yet - I still have to paint the bolsters and the mast head cleats and also reduce the latter's size so they don't look so bulky....
 

 

 
You may notice the holes drilled in the forward edge of the top for the crow's feet, which I plan on adding. My worry here is that the smallest blocks I have are 3mm, which even at that small size is too big for the crow's feet tackle. A suitable euphroe I can probably manage, but the tackle blocks will be a challenge. I'm not sure how much I can reduce the size of the 3mm blocks supplied by corel (which at any rate are very fragile things) though I might be able to do something with 1/8" blocks supplied by model shipways and leftover from previous builds (though these are slightly larger than the corel ones!!
 
Anyway that's a future worry. Hope you're all enjoying the day - now back to work!!
hamilton

OK let's try again.....
 
Next after fiddling with the lengths of the lower masts, here is what I arrived at....
 

 
These are just the raw dowels set in the mast holes - the rake in the mizzen isn't accurate and the rake in the foremast shouldn't be there at all. Anyway, this is just to demonstrate relative size...
 
Here are the foremast cheeks and bibbs which I made as 1 piece instead of separately, thinking that to make separate parts at this scale would simply be too tough.
 

 
Here is the foremast top, unfinished. Corel's laser cut part was accurate with respect to dimensions, except the thickness (1.5mm) which would have made the top much too bulky after adding the planking and the margins. So I traced the laser cut part onto a 1/32 thick sheet of lime and planked it using .5mm x 3mm strips. The margins are also 1/32"lime.
 

 
It looks a little mongrelly here, but after painting it's much better (sorry for the bad focus!)
 

 
Finally here are a couple of the shots of the fore mast dry fitted. It's not exactly finished yet - I still have to paint the bolsters and the mast head cleats and also reduce the latter's size so they don't look so bulky....
 

 

 
You may notice the holes drilled in the forward edge of the top for the crow's feet, which I plan on adding. My worry here is that the smallest blocks I have are 3mm, which even at that small size is too big for the crow's feet tackle. A suitable euphroe I can probably manage, but the tackle blocks will be a challenge. I'm not sure how much I can reduce the size of the 3mm blocks supplied by corel (which at any rate are very fragile things) though I might be able to do something with 1/8" blocks supplied by model shipways and leftover from previous builds (though these are slightly larger than the corel ones!!
 
Anyway that's a future worry. Hope you're all enjoying the day - now back to work!!
hamilton

Hi Ian:
 
I dedicated a bit of time this summer to learning the rules of cricket, since my son (4 years old) saw a bit of a match on tv and was completely captivated. We discovered that there are a few local leagues here and a really nice little pitch down in Stanley park here in Vancouver - not an arena, but just in an open field surrounded by huge cedar trees and with a great view of the mountains and the city. Many a Sunday picnic surrounded by the very few people around here who have an interest in the game!
 
As for ruggers......sorry! I'm a basketball man....also uncharacteristic for a Canadian.....
 
And I think it would be very valuable adding some notes on your soldering tools. To date I've been able to avoid soldering, but when I was building my Glad Tidings, I felt I could have done a much better job of the metal work if I'd had a decent scale soldering tutorial.....
 
Anyway, keep up the great work! Maybe if you haven't already, you should try a whaling ship - modelling the try works on a C.W. Morgan would be a great exercise in your skilled hands. Bye for now
hamilton

Looking good Andy - almost time for rattling!
hamilton

Well there has been some progress on the Blandford, but I have no photos to show for it yet, unfortunately. I've not been documenting the last stages of the build as closely as I have in the past, mostly since I have much less time for modelling with the start of another academic year. So while I'm at the bench, I prefer to work rather than take photos. There will be some in the near future, I promise....
 
I've spent the last 3 days puzzling through the fore mast. Lots of trial and error following all the questions about calculations of length. The final lengths of the lower masts I posted above. I cut the dowels to length (actually about 10mm longer in each case) and dry fit them on deck, checking the look and trimming until i got something that looked right.
 
The fore mast has been a kind of experiment. Shaping it and squaring the head was not a problem, but what to do with the head was another matter. I added some 1/16 pinstripe tape as iron bands, which I thought added a nice subtle detail. I then thought to add the vertical battens, which I made out of 1/32 x 1/32 lime. I installed these (2 on each side as illustrated in Goodwin), and then sanded them down even thinner to try and approximate the very small scale. I thought they looked pretty good, but once they were done it was clear that they threw off the dimensions of the other elements (specifically the top and the topmast/cap) so I did away with them and had to strip the head and re-do it. 
 
I did add rope woldings (5) and scratch built the bibs and cheeks since the laser cut ones provided were nowhere near the mark. Making the top was really a lot of fun, and I think it'll look great once it's finally installed and adorned with railing and topmast shroud deadeyes....
 
Anyway, as I say, there isn't a huge amount of time for modelling in my world, as there is during the summer, so I won't be posting here quite as frequently as before. I'll try to keep my updates with photos, since all this reading is dull work if there are no photos to draw the eye....
 
Hope you're all enjoying yourselves....
hamilton

OK time for another update.
 
I've begun the masting with the bowsprit, which is now outfitted with most of the necessary rigging elements and installed on the model. I think I have more or less worked through the confusion over mast & spar lengths - thanks to the help of BE - and have come up with what I think is a good compromise between information provided in Lees and Goodwin and what looks pleasing to my eye. The lengths of the bowsprit and lower masts will be a bit longer than the scale calculations taken from Goodwin - like BE the scale lengths that I arrived at from Goodwin seemed a little short to my eye....all other mast and spar measurements will be derived from the scale measurement of the main mast as given by Goodwin, using Lees as the guide to calculation.
 
The bowsprit was cut and shaped from a 6mm dowel to a length of 111mm. This is longer than Goodwin's measurement by about 10mm, but I think it will look better on the model. 
 

 

 
Goodwin shows the bowsprit outfitted with bee blocks and though at 1:100 these are very small, I decided to give it a try. I shaped the bees from a 1/32 x 3/16" strip of lime. I filed a section of the top of the bowsprit to accept the bees and then installed the bee blocks underneath - these were 1mm x 1mm strips of light walnut. Turned out ok.
 

 

 
I used the same 1mm x 1mm strip to make the gammoning cleats and the stop chocks for the collars.
 

 
I couldn't get a good photo of it, but I also installed a sling cleat for the spritsail yard, including a 1/16" bit of pinstripe tape as an iron buffering bar on which the sling will lie.
 
I'll continue this in another post since for some reason I'm not allowed to upload many photos in a single post...
hamilton

Mike,
 
Thanks for the words of sympathy.
 
The stove is getting close to completion so I wont be able to put off modifying the the ship's waist for much longer!
 
Hamilton,
 
I am sure the work you do on Blandford at 1:100 suggests that you would have no difficulty in doing what I do on the stove. Besides I haven't finished the stove yet - plenty of time left for me to make a complete cod's of it!  
 
Good soldering tools are the thing. I was wondering whether I should add some notes on the tools and materials that I use.
 
Doing this level of detailed metalwork indicated to me that I needed to start wearing spectacles when I managed to burn the end of my nose on the iron!  These days I restrict myself to burning my fingers.  
 
BTW - I note from your Blandford log that you profess to not knowing the rules of rugby. Shame on you!     It was my favourite sport at school. There were a few old scores settled in those matches. It is said that football is a gentleman's game played by thugs and that rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen.

Alright, photos as promised!
 
Finished the last pair of shrouds this morning. Next step is to look at the outer bobstay collar and both forestay collars.

Your work is very impressive Hamilton...... take a breather, you deserve it
Frank

Well there has been some progress on the Blandford, but I have no photos to show for it yet, unfortunately. I've not been documenting the last stages of the build as closely as I have in the past, mostly since I have much less time for modelling with the start of another academic year. So while I'm at the bench, I prefer to work rather than take photos. There will be some in the near future, I promise....
 
I've spent the last 3 days puzzling through the fore mast. Lots of trial and error following all the questions about calculations of length. The final lengths of the lower masts I posted above. I cut the dowels to length (actually about 10mm longer in each case) and dry fit them on deck, checking the look and trimming until i got something that looked right.
 
The fore mast has been a kind of experiment. Shaping it and squaring the head was not a problem, but what to do with the head was another matter. I added some 1/16 pinstripe tape as iron bands, which I thought added a nice subtle detail. I then thought to add the vertical battens, which I made out of 1/32 x 1/32 lime. I installed these (2 on each side as illustrated in Goodwin), and then sanded them down even thinner to try and approximate the very small scale. I thought they looked pretty good, but once they were done it was clear that they threw off the dimensions of the other elements (specifically the top and the topmast/cap) so I did away with them and had to strip the head and re-do it. 
 
I did add rope woldings (5) and scratch built the bibs and cheeks since the laser cut ones provided were nowhere near the mark. Making the top was really a lot of fun, and I think it'll look great once it's finally installed and adorned with railing and topmast shroud deadeyes....
 
Anyway, as I say, there isn't a huge amount of time for modelling in my world, as there is during the summer, so I won't be posting here quite as frequently as before. I'll try to keep my updates with photos, since all this reading is dull work if there are no photos to draw the eye....
 
Hope you're all enjoying yourselves....
hamilton