dunnock

You're too kind Andrew, thank you

Thanks very much Chris and Geordie for your generous comments David

Thanks Bob, that's very kind of you

Completing the Hull The head was looking flimsy with only two head timbers so I added a third cut from some spare 2mm pear fret. The basic pattern is taken from the plan and modified to fit. They are cut in two pieces and fitted either side of the prow. The bow blocks needed some of shaping to follow the curve of the bulwarks and then glued either side of the bowsprit slot. The rest of the timberheads are glued into the slots at bow and stern and all painted matt black. The final bits of woodwork to add are the channels and again these first easily into the slots on the hull. Deadeyes and Chains There are countless parts of PE brass to remove, trim and blacken and then separate into deadeye strops and chains. The strops were opened up before blackening to minimise the damage to the blackening when adding the deadeyes. I used the standard method of temporary mast and shroud to get the correct alignment of the links. The 5mm deadeyes have three parts to the chains. The first and second links were added first; the second link sitting just above the wale, its position marked and hole drilled for the ‘bolt’. The third, preventer link can then fixed and pinned in line with the other links of the chain. The 3mm deadeyes in the aft two holes of the main channel and the stools of the foremast have two part chains. Once all the deadeyes and chains are in place some touching in with matt black was needed to tidy up the chains, bolts and wale. This completes Harpy’s hull and it’s now time to move on to masts, yards and rigging. Many thanks to all those who have been following and for the likes and kind comments I've had while reaching this stage of Harpy's build. David

Ship’s Wheel Sorry Chris but I could not get on with the PE brass wheel supplied in the kit. The handles are extremely thin and don’t have any definition. I lost one just removing it from the matrix and I found it impossible to work on without bending the handles. As a replacement, I bought one of Syren’s boxwood kits. The rim is put together in the supplied jig. The outer ring is in three pieces and is glued in place according to the markings on the jig. When dry the assembly is carefully pushed out of the jig and the spokes added. Gluing the second outer ring on top completes the assembly. The rims need to be sanded back to a thickness that is more in scale and that’s it. There’s a lot of pieces to this kit and consequently a lot of laser char to remove. Shaping the spokes is probably the trickiest part but there are plenty of spares supplied for practice. I found it easier to begin shaping using a file and sanding stick before finishing off in my Dremel. The spokes are cut to length using the pattern etched into the assembly jig. As recommended, I made all 15 spokes supplied and then selected the best 10 for the wheel. I used Vanguard’s parts for the stanchions and hub but even after sanding back, the wheel is still thicker than the kit version. To compensate, I sanded back the rims of the hub until the overall length fitted the 13mm axle length given in the plans. Rigging the Wheel I used 3mm blocks and the PE eyebolts supplied. The blocks are rigged with 0.35mm rope and I calculated that I needed 326mm to allow for four wraps around the hub. I cut 420mm to allow for splicing on to the first and last eyebolts and was happy to find that this worked out nicely. With the wheel rigged I continued along the ship adding all the other centre line fittings. With the shot garlands added, this completes the internal hull and fittings and a significant stage is reached in the construction of Harpy. Thanks for following and the much appreciated likes David

Deck Fittings Gallows and Bitts These fittings are simply made. A little bit of chamfering on the cross-beam of the aft gallows and the bitts is all that’s needed. I made sure that all was square by fitting the standards into the slots in the deck or hatches and then gluing the cross-beams in place. I’ve created the ‘bolts’ using dabs of pva painted with Iron Black. Capstan The capstan is assembled around the post, a 6mm piece of dowel, everything slotting in cleanly and easily. Winch The winch is made up of pear standards with PE etched cogs, pawls and handles. The drums are 3D printed. The parts are painted or blackened prior to assembly. Again to ensure squareness and that the bars are set at the correct width, the standards are fitted into the slots in the deck and the winch assembled in-situ. Elm-Tree Pumps These pumps are more robustly constructed than many. The body is made up of three hexagonal pieces glued together around a piece of 3mm dowel. I waxed the dowel to prevent any excess pva from sticking. The stanchion is 4-piece brass PE assembly first blackened and then glued together with CA. To finish off the pumps, I added a discharge port cut from 2mm styrene tube. None of the fittings are finally glued in place. The final two pieces to to complete the deck fittings are the wheel and binnacle David

Just catching up on your Erycina BE. Love the mods to the fish hold and cabin. The stove is excellent. Is it made from styrene sheet? David

6 Pounder Guns The gun carriage sides and cap squares are all one piece, so one half of the carriage is glued to the axles and then the barrel is added before completing the carriage with the other side. I wasn’t sure about this set up on Speedy but it is much easier and no fiddling with separate cap squares. The bed is provided but there are no quoins to change the elevation however they are simply made. I used some 2mm pear and spare belay pins from Speedy as handles. The axles only require a light sand for the trucks to make a snug fit and the carriages are finished with 2mm eyebolts for the tackles. A ring bolt is added for the breeching. Because I’d rigged the carronades, I couldn’t get away with just breeching on the guns. The breeching is 0.45mm rope. I believe the tackle blocks should be scale 2 or 2.5mm but I decided to use 3mm blocks for the sake of my eyesight and rigged them with 0.25mm rope. At least there are only two 6 pounders to rig. Before going any further with the mid-line fittings I decided to fix Harpy’s armaments in place. Part way through... Thanks to all for following and for the 'likes' you leave. David

Completing the Carronades I worked my way through the carronade tackles, making up first the double block and hook and then the single block with hook and tackle. I used 12.5mm of 0.35mm rope. Finally I threaded the two together using a simple jig of two pins in a block of wood. I set the separation between the two pins at 18mm. The excess rope is frapped around the tackle, tied off with a half hitch and a dab of dilute pva to fix it in place. Once in place, the excess rope will be trimmed. The small hooks need opening slightly to hook into the eyebolts and are then closed to keep them from dropping off. The carronade slides are pinned with 0.8mm brass rod and will eventually be glued into the deck. The carronade and bed will then be fixed in place and the rigging glued into the pre-drilled holes in the bulwarks. I have found doing it in two stages to be easier than fixing the completed carronade to the deck. David

Carronades Continued Following on from Thukydides advice, I made up a set of port tackles using 3mm single and double blocks with 0.35mm RoS natural rope. It’s still quite fiddly, especially rigging the single block with 3mm hook (not 2mm as I said previously) and the tackle rope itself. The first carronade is completed and looks a lot more in proportion. I’m continuing to make up the blocks and tackle but it is a long and somewhat tedious job so I may do other bits and pieces in between. I need to rework the frapping but compared to the 2mm rig... it looks a lot neater. Thanks again for looking in and the helpful posts. David

Thanks Daniel. I missed your post on the Perseus draft, I will go back to take a look David

Thanks Daniel that's very helpful. I've been looking for exactly that information but I'm not familiar with the source reference. I'll try single and double 3mm blocks as well. If they don't look too big, it will make things much easier. Thanks Andrew. Yes I I use an Optivisor with 5x magnifying lenses. I'd be hopeless without it

Carronade Rigging I used 0.6mm RoS rope for the breeching. This is a little undersized but even so, I still needed to ream out the breech ring and to go further would risk breakages. I have seen a number of methods in books for attaching the breeching to ring bolts. I used a thumb knot with the tail siezed back on itself, one of the simpler options, as illustrated on p116 of “Irene” by Petrejus. I set up one carronade on the model to determine the length of rope required to provide some slack when the gun is run out and would come taught when recoiled. For my set up this is 70mm from ring to ring. I’m now considering the tackles. A 32lb carronade should probably be rigged with double and single blocks on the model and this is the set up shown as an option on the plans. I only have 2mm single or 3mm doubles in my box so I have made up one tackle with the 2mm blocks to see how it looks. In the end, I will frap the falls around the tackle so the single rigging will be less noticeable. These are really small blocks and with 2mm hooks from HiS Model, the whole set up is a recipe for eye-strain and frustration but I think larger blocks would look overcrowded. I’ll make up the other side and see how it looks on deck. David

Carronades Still some of the deck fittings to completed but I thought that it was time I made some armaments for Harpy. There are 16 carronades to make up and Chris provides sufficient wooden and PE parts for 17. I start by making up the slide and bed and then painting them red ochre. For the ‘ironwork’ I used the kit breaching bolts with Amati 2mm rings. All other ringbolts and eyebolts are Amati 2mm. There are two ringbolts on the slide for the port tackles and two on the bed for the training tackle. The trucks are 3D printed and are painted black before gluing into the bed. When fitted, the tops of the trucks stand proud of the bed so need sanding back and retouching with red ochre. The barrels are also 3D printed and again painted matt black. I snapped one of the elevating screws but it was easily replaced with a length of 0.8mm brass rod. I finished the barrels off with some rust red and dark brown weathering powder and glued them into the slide. Slide and bed can now be glued together but first I asked the boss whether run-in or run-out: so run-out it is then. I will be adding breeching ropes, which will be done off model, but I’m still thinking about whether to add port tackles. David

Deck Fittings As an antidote to headworks, I have begun to make up some of the deck fittings or to be more accurate; to pick them up again. I made a start a few months back while waiting for some wood and fittings to arrive but had put them away to continue with the hull. Many of these fittings are like little mini kits and are fun to make. I started with the bow platform. Made from four parts: two front panel pieces, grating support and grating. I needed to shape the front panel to fit around the waterway and chamfer the edges slightly to obtain a reasonably tight fit. I painted the panel red ochre and left the grating natural. Next up the rudder housing. Again some sanding and shaping was required to fit the planked deck. I will add a spray cover once the housing is glued in place and the tiller arm fitted. The bread hatch is a simple one-piece item. I used Syren hinges and kit brass eyebolts for the handle. The companion hatch cover has some scope for some tweaks. I decided to leave the doors and hatch in the open position and used the kit PE brass parts for hinges and handles. The lid needs a ledge on which to rest when in the closed position made from 1mm square strip. Support brackets are needed to keep the lid in the open position and these were made from some brass fret bent into a curve and CA’d in place Finally the skylight. The kit version with its four glazed panels looks quite chunky. I cut out the centre bar from the lids and replaced it with three bars of 1mm square strip. They are glazed with pieces of clear PES. Syren hinges complete the covers. All these pieces are placed in position but I will leave fixing them until the carronades and guns are in place. Thanks for looking in David