dunnock

Topmasts The plans are a simplification of the base of the mast with no block or octagonal sections and I redrew them to the proportions given in Lee’s. I start with 8mm ramin dowel and squared off the section between main mast top and cap at 6mm and then cut the octagonal sections using the 7:10:7 rule. This done, I use my lathe to reduce the main part of the mast to 6mm and then taper to 4mm at the hounds. I wasn't happy with the results, especially the main topmast so decided to remake them using a different route. I began with the same 8mm dowel but using a plane and sanding sticks, made the entire length 6mm square. I marked out the octagonal and square sections of the block and heeling using the 7:10:7 rule and cut the octagonal sections with chisel and sanding stick. It's difficult to measure such small faces accurately and the diagonal was coming out oversized. The face of a 6mm octagon is 2.48. I set this on my calipers and score down the partially cut diagonal faces and then sand back to the correct width. I cut the hounds into a square section of 4mm at the base increasing to 6mm at the beginning of the head. The bulk of the mast is prepared for the lathe by roughly sanding it from square to octagon and then to a hexadecagon before finally sanding it round on the lathe. The hounds are finished to an octagonal cross section as before and the head cut square with a taper from 4 to 3.5mm at the cap. Finally the cap tenon is cut at 3mm square. It's left slightly long to allow for the final trimming. I have marked the rough positions of the fid and also the top and bottom top rope sheaves. I'll remove the waste wood at the base of the masts after these have been cut. This is much longer process than trying to work with a round section but I’m much happier with the results. With a bit of extra work, my previous efforts might serve as spare masts on the deck. David

Thanks Geordie

Thanks Ross

Ship’s Boats Before going much further I needed to position the boat stands for the 22’ cutter so I decided to make up both boats. I painted the interior with a mix of browns and ochre until I was happy with the colour and then added a colour wash of dark brown. The exterior is painted using off-white and iron-black (as an off-black) for the wash strake. The interior fittings of the 24’cutter are laser cut 0.8mm pear. To help with the alignment of the forward mast step, I began by placing the forward grating and thwart. I used a cocktail stick to align mast step and thwart. The other four pieces of footwalling were then glued in place. I scraped off the paint and used thick CA but still had trouble achieving a decent bond. Damping the wood helped. Once the footwalling was in place, I could fit the stern gratings and stern bench. I added lifting rings as a bit of extra detail. The thwarts were a puzzle. Only four were supplied but the single-banked oar arrangement suggested five were required. I cut the fifth from the same 0.8mm pear sheet. The thwart at the main mast was added first followed by the other four. I copied @Blue Ensign's idea for the rudder and added a pintle and a ring to the stern from which to hang it. I haven’t used the provided oars. They are undersized according to May’s Boats of Men of War and I wasn’t sure of the shape. I had some brass etched ones from a previous model which, although still a little short, I preferred their look. The boat stands needed to be lifted with a strip of pear to raise the boat above the deck gratings. They are only pinned in position at the moment. I positioned the stands centrally between the hatches but looking at the photo below I may have to move them back a tad to clear the forward hatchway. The parts for the smaller cutter are very delicate. The footwalling is moulded into the hull so gratings are added first. The sternboard posed a problem in that it appeared oversize by about 1.5mm. It maybe because I placed the stern grating too far aft and therefore the sternboard, to sit in line with the grating, was also too far back. I cut the sternboard to size but the thwart split and was eventually cut out completely and replaced with a separate piece. At least the join at the rear could be covered by the backrest. Both boats are now put to bed until towards the end of the build. Thanks for looking in David

Lower Masts cont’d With the tops fitted, details at the head can now be added. The bolsters are made from some 2mm fret and cut and rounded off. They are cut a little longer than those supplied. The hoops are cut from heat-shrink tubing and spaced according to the plan: four on the foremast and five on the main. Eight battens are fitted around the head to reduce chafing of the shrouds and other ropes I cut them from 0.8mm fret which allows enough depth for them to be notched over the hoops. With these details added, I have painted the head and mast to the bottom of the bibs in matt black. A 5mm block is stropped to the foremast head for the main topmast preventer stay using 0.5mm served thread. The main difficulty is judging the length of thread required. I served 50mm of thread leaving a short length unserved at either end and siezed the block in centrally. The unserved section is threaded through to make a false splice, tightened against the mast and tied off. The boom topping lift runs through a 5mm block at the head of the main mast. It is siezed to an eyebolt and glued into the mast. I made the tenon 4mm square to fit into the tops and therefore need to cut new caps. They are made from 4mm pear, using the kit piece as a pattern for size. The holes in the main mast cap also need to be cut a a slight angle so that it sits parallel to the top and the waterline. The corners of the cap are rounded as per the drawings in Lees. I’ve still to add eyebolts and the block on the main cap. This will wait for the fitting of the topmasts when I can finish the forward hole in the cap. The violin blocks for the yard lifts will be made up and added at the same time. This is Harpy as she stands. The masts don't need any glue, they are just slotted in. Thanks for likes and comments. They are much appreciated as always. David

Just catching up on your D-of-K Glenn. She's looking very nice. David

Lower Masts cont'd Cheeks and hoops are added and then the front fish and the remaining hoops. I checked the angle of the main top which must sit parallel to the waterline before the bibs are glued in place. The foremast is not raked and the top sits squarely on the mast. I drilled 0.9mm holes ready to take the lower yards which will be pinned in place when the time comes and I also drilled a 0.5mm hole in the after side of the main mast at the hounds ready to take the block for the throat halliard. The foremast has a 5mm single block on a strop just below the hounds for the main topmast stay and a 5mm deadeye set at 53mm above the deck for the main stay. Strops are 0.5mm thread served with Gutterman cotton thread. Before going further, I need to complete the tops... Tops The mast tops fit together very nicely: trestle trees and crosstrees slotting together and then into the deck. It’s easier to add blocks, eyebolts and cleats before fitting the tops to the mast. The plans show the blocks for tacks and sheets suspended from eyebolts in the crosstrees but according to Lees, they were suspended from toggles on the deck. The main mast has six blocks and the foremast twelve. There are also four single blocks on eyebolts at the rear of the fore top for the bowlines. I checked how long the strops need to be to hang clear of the crosstrees. The strops are made from 0.4mm linen thread. I siezed the toggle loop around a 2mm dowel with 9 wraps of Gutterman cotton thread. The block is fixed with a simple knot and some dilute PVA added to seal it. I make the toggle overlong from 1mm square boxwood, rounded and reduced slightly by scraping. Once the blocks are in place, the toggle is cut to size with a micro chisel. The tops can now be fixed to the masts. I rechecked that the tops sit parallel to the waterline before glueing in place. I made some slightly longer bolsters than the kit provides from some 2mm pear cut from fret. It is rounded off and glued to the trestletrees. Before I finish the head of the masts, I need to get my paintbrush and some matt black paint out. Thanks for looking in and the much appreciated likes. David

Lower Masts I considered applying the appropriate tapers as given in Lees (I assume that they are valid for brigs too) but looking further ahead, it would have meant a few other modifications. The mast at the head is given as scale 6mm so cheeks and bibs would have to have been reduced and maybe the tops too. I decided to just go with the plans. The masts begin with 8mm ramin dowel and the 5mm square section for the head is marked up. I use a mini chisel to remove the bulk and then sand to final size, regularly checking for width and squareness. Fore and main masts are the same differing only in length. A flat is added to each side of the mast to take the cheeks. I mark the position of the cheeks and remove a little of the wood with a chisel but mostly I use a sanding stick to reduce the width between the flats to 6mm. The cheeks are glued in place. I have stained the masts with antique pine wood stain mixed with a drop of teak to even out the colour between ramin and pear – not entirely successfully. There are a number of ‘iron’ bands to add over the cheeks which I cut from black card. Further hoops will be fitted once the front fish is added. The foremast is similarly ‘hooped’ I’ve also begun work on the tops but that’s for another post. David

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

Head Works All of the parts involved in making up the head are very delicate as I found out. The hair brackets are first to be fitted after painting them yellow ochre. Don’t try to remove the char from the edges, they only break in two. The PE etch decoration is next also painted yellow ochre. The cheeks only needed a little sanding off the top edge but I found that the bolsters required a couple of mm removing from the bottom edge. Too late I realised that the bolsters are handed because the hawse holes are at different levels. The head timbers and knee caused me the most headaches. Minimum sanding to remove char is best because the slots for the head timbers are weak spots. I ended up with several more parts than I when I started. The knee was glued back together with thin CA which also hardened the whole piece. Eventually I was able to glue in the head timbers (after using the spares provided) but then I found that quite bit of gentle fiddling about and fettling was needed to make the assembly fit the prow. When it was finally in place, the main rails were added after a bit of sanding but without more drama. Finally the cathead brackets are added. The outer edge is given a slight curve to blend with the main rail. I was tempted to follow BE’s lead and add a third pair of head timbers but maybe after I have recovered from the headache of the head works. As a bit of light relief, I have added the boat davits; pinned and glued for extra strength. Thanks for looking in David

The Rudder The rudder is a three part piece with a 2mm core sandwiched between two 1mm facing pieces. The pintles are integrated into the core piece and three lugs plug into the stern post. This makes for easier fitting but as has been noted elsewhere, loses something of the look. I rounded off the forward edge of the rudder but in doing so, knocked off two of the locating lugs. After a couple of failed attempts at glueing them back, I eventually drilled and pinned the rudder in place. The copper plates come as three complete sheets: one for each side and a strip for the rear edge. I also applied some copper tape to the forward edge. The straps are black laser-cut board. There are small holes in the copper plates as a guide to the position of the pintle straps. When the rudder was pinned in place, I used masking tape along the hull to align the gudgeon straps. The bands are cut from heat-shrink tubing. I like the contrast of the black straps against the copper plates but for authenticity, decided to paint the straps copper. The spectacle plate is a one-piece brass photo-etch piece that fits into a slot on the rudder above the hance. In my continuing clumsiness, I dropped it down the sink while I was rinsing it off after cleaning it ready for blackening. I made a new piece from two eyebolts. The final addition is the rudder coat. I made an initial paper pattern using the fret to draw around, cut it roughly to shape and then cut a piece of fabric from that. Three iterations later I had got it about right and painted it with brown mix of acrylic paints. The ‘iron’ plate is cut from some black card overpainted with iron grey. Once in place, some final trimming was needed. Cotton wool stuffed in from the top keeps the coat filled out. Finally I have added the horseshoe plates at the bow and the butterfly plates at the stern post and painted them all copper. Thanks for the likes and kind comments; they're all very encouraging. David