Vane

I like the 1:64 scale for wooden ships. Nice details and perfect to work with without a microscope!

Caldercraft has a good basic design of their models and its quite easy to get started once you understand how its made. However, they seem to have redesigned it since their first models. The HMS Snake you could "lock" the whole sceleton of the ship with the pre cut floor. Now you are supposed to add the floor later. The precut gunports also have a different design where you can first add a half long board underneath it in the front section.

HM Bomb Vessel Granado - 3rd build My third build I am actually doing in slight parallell mode to my HMS Snake. Both vessels are similar in size and so far it has been quite easy to do something on the first model and then the same to the other. I hope I havent taken on too much since I am also rigging my HMS Victory from Corel. I think the Granado is a really beautiful model with nice lines and also a rather unique look with the huge bomb throwers in the center of the ship. This will be a great addition to my other builds. History According to JoTiKa, 12 bomb vessels, including Granado (the sixth), were built at the outbreak of the War of Jenkins's Ear in 1739. Granado was ordered on September 14th 1741 and the keel was laid on November 18th 1741. Although it is uncertain who designed the Granado, it is commonly attributed to Thomas Slade, the naval Surveyor who oversaw the construction of the ship at Ipswich. Thomas Slade also went on to design famous ships such as H.M.S. Victory. Granado was unusual in that she was designed to be used as either a sloop or a bomb vessel, being constructed with a conventional square stern. Launched on June 22nd 1742, Granado was taken to Harwich, fitted out and put in commission as a sloop.An Admiralty Order on July 15th 1745 was issued 'to fit her (Granado) as a bomb' but this order was reversed on July 17th 1745 and Granado remained as a sloop. It was not until 1756 that Granado was fitted for the first time as a bomb vessel from an Admiralty Order on July 26th 1756. Between the launch of Granado on June 22nd 1742 and her fitting as a bomb vessel July 26th 1756 a number of changes had been made to Granado's configuration as compared to the original Admiralty plans the most noticeable of these are as follows: 1. Two extra 4pdr carriage guns were added (Admiralty order of June 20th 1745) bringing the total 4pdr carriage guns to 10. 2. Two bow chaser gun ports were added allowing accommodation of the extra guns either under the forecastle as bow chasers or at the fifth gunports. 3. The mortars as shown in the Admiralty plans are two 13 inch mortars however when fitted as a bomb vessel this was actually changed to 1 x 13inch and 1 x 10inch mortar. This is confirmed by the provisions list on March 30th 1757 which details 50 large and 50 small shells. Granado remained as a bomb vessel until the Admiralty Order to fit her as a sloop on March 20th 1760. It was during this period as a bomb vessel that Granado was involved in her most active role. On January 22nd 1759 Granado and the squadron under command of Commodore John Moore anchored off Basse Terre. The following morning the citadel and batteries of Basse Terre were bombarded. By January 24th troops had occupied the forts of Basse Terre and Fort Royal, the town had been devastated by fire caused by the carcasses discharged from the bomb vessels. On February 7th, the fleet moved to attack Fort Louis at the entrance to Cul de Sac Bay. The attack began the following day and by February 15 the bombardment ceased with the capture of the Fort. Granado was again converted to a bomb vessel in August 1761 and she remained as such until she was sold on August 30th 1763 for £575. During this period Granado was involved in the action of capturing Morro Castle and El Morro in the West Indies and the capitulation of Havana on August 13th 1762. The kit This kit is one of the newer from Caldercraft and that is very noticable. The plans and instructions are extremily good and way more describing than the HMS Snake. This kit is also has much more parts in it and seams to be much more detailly made. Its a much more complex build and probably not suitable as a first model. The wood was better in this kit however I think Caldercraft makes a bit of false advertisement when they only provide walnut for the second planking while all of the photos they have on this ship is made of a much brighter wood (probably boxwood).

Working on the yards. I decided to do the "thinkening" in the middle bit differently than suggested by the plans where you have to put 8 very small pieces together. Instead i just make the yard Square. Add 4 pieces of thicker planks together and thereafter carve out 8 sides.

Thanks alot, its a great kit and I am eagar to see how it looks like 🙂

2nd layer....

I order most of my stuff from here: https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/caldercraft_nelsons_navy.html 275 euros + shipping Then u of course need some glue, paint etc Considering Brexit, there might become more expensive/complicated to order from UK in the future.

Next step is the 2nd planking. I will use walnut, and put the better supply at the top and the rougher strips at the bottom which will be covered by copper. This planking will be trickier since i want to do it without using pins that leave marks. First I started with the back.

My 2 mistakes... too short and too low.

First layer done... this is a larger scale than my 1:98 Victory... but still quite smaller in comparison!

There are plenty of pics of Victory models on this page. But unfortunately for us, very few builds on the Corel version. Most buildlogs on it seem to have stopped.

As EJ_L said, lots of factors play in when deciding what to do. Personally, I am just aiming at finalizing my Victory kit. It dont need to be an accurate model. Maybe in the future i will go over to the dark side as well but I dont have those skills yet.

Unfortunately my Victory is on the other side of the world... this is what i could find in my phone. when i get back Home from my vacation i Will add lots of photos in my buildlog.

After looking at photos of the real Victory and other larger scale models I believe that Corel made a few compromisses for the design of the bowsprit. Maybe it just the scale 1:98 that is just too small to make it right. It was also difficult to fit everything in place here.

One of the pieces that was missing in my kit was the pre cut Cap for the bowsprit, but the had an extra for the Main mast so i had to modify it. Not perfect but ok.

Well, I used the whole assembly on my Victory. Its not accurate, but its the design of the model. I dont think it look bad, especially if you paint it.

So next step... let the planking begin! I enjoy this part of the process where you really can see the ship taking shape. I usually tapet both ends of the Wood and hot water to make it flexible. Pins and glue and not too picky about the details since it will be covered up.

Thanks, Yes it mainly the first gunport that it too low. I Will add some more Wood to correct it.

Caldercraft has a different solution than Corel with pre cut gunports. Nice to not to have to measure these up, but also abit tricky to get in place. Unfortunately, here is where i did my 2nd mistake. Wasnt sure how high i should place these at the bow... got too low. Hopefully I can correct it with some extra wood on top of them later on.

The hull taking shape...

Lets begin and make a small first mistake... cut the keel a few millimeters too short. Not a major problem since it will be covered with copper later.

HMS Snake - 2nd build After picking up my modelship building hobby again (after many years of dorment) I decided to buy my second kit to have something to alternate with when doing the rigging on my first build Corel's HMS Victory in 1:98. It took a while to go through various brands and to decide which one to invest in. My first choice of doing the Victory was kind of naive and a typical newbie mistake. Dont get me wrong, I really love it and it has turned out ok. But I never finished it and modelling is learning by doing and everyone should start more easy is my recommendation. After discovering Caldercrafts Nelson Navy series it become a choice between several ships I found very beautiful. First I was tempted to go for the Diana or even the Agememnon but eventually i decided not to do the same as before and doing something too advanced. In the end it become a choice between the two mast HMS Cruiser or the slightly more advanced HMS Snake. I settled for the latter. It is basically the same model but the Snake is some kind of "special edition" of the Crusier with 3 masts and carronades. History According to Wikipedia, HMS Snake was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of 18-gun brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816. The Snake was the sole vessel of her class. This class was very business like with a flush deck and nine cannons or carronades each side, they were very fast and seaworthy. As originally built Snake had a full ordinance of 32 pounder carronades. Carronades replaced the carriage guns because at close quarters the short range carronades proved devastating to their opponents. Class dimensions were: length 100’; breadth 30’6”; displacement 382 tons with a crew of 121. Her designer was Sir William Rule. He produced two designs, one for a ship-sloop (Snake), and one for a brig-sloop (Cruizer) that differed only in their rigging. His designs were in competition with those of John Henslow, who produced the ship-sloop Echo and the brig-sloop Busy. Rule's brig-sloop design won. The Admiralty ultimately ordered 106 Cruizer-class brig-sloops. In 1811, the Navy converted Snake to a brig-sloop, making her indistinguishable from the Cruizer-class brig-sloops. The kit I order it from Cornwall model boats who shipped it quickly to Sweden. My first impression of the kit is really Good. Lots of details and pre fabricated wooden pieces. Caldercraft seem to have quite alot of different design solutions than Corel. The plans where more detailed but at te same time they come in huge size making them abit difficult to handle in my small kitchen "workshop". Two things on the negative side. The box was full of sawdust, perhaps not a major issue but it kind of gave a non quality impression. The second issue was that some of the Wood especially the walnut was not great. Very rough and edgy. A couple of the sticks were basically 50% of the material they should had been. This comes as a surprise considering that Caldercraft seem to be at the high end of kit manufactureers. The rest of the material seem to be fine.

I have been looking into the buildlogs for inspiration for my upcoming rigging work. There are a huge number of Victory models being built. But unfortunately, there are not many of the Corel version and most of those seem to have died during the build process. Anyone know where i can find lots of photos of the rigging and mast/yard details on a Corel HMS Victory 1:98?

A few thoughts on the kit itself. I bought it in the 90s so it might have been changed since then? Anyway, first the scale...1:98.. i would probably had prefered something much larger which could give Victory the details it deserves. However, then it would had been an enourmous model just to place in a room. Now its slightly longer than meter which is quite reasonable. But you miss out on the details and its trick to handle everything when building it. The plans are quite Good. Nicely drawn and I really like that they are many but not oversized. But there could had been more details and explanations in them. Especially regarding the size of things. Excellent quality of the wood. Lots of pre made stuff making it easy to build. Well besides from the masts and yards which is totally made from scratch. Mtrl... the pressed wood/paper solution brings out lots of details but it also looks kind of fake. Rope... Well if you want to paint your ship (which i think would be the first option) you dont get anything in Black. that sucks. Missing pieces, most things were in the box. I missed a bowsprit Cap. Now at the end I also realized that i am running out of some things. some walnut sizes. Also rings and eyebolts. I am overall happy with the kit but there are s few things that should be upgraded.

I am truly sorry for the absence of updates. Work has progressed, but I havent had the time for writing about it. I have been mostly into the masts and the yards. Basically all of the wooden work has been finished. I also decided to pick it up a notch... with two additional builds that will get their own buildlogs soon. Anyone that can identify them?