dunnock

As a change from repetitive gun work, I made some further parts for the centre line of the upper gun deck. The bowsprit step and manger boards were quite straightforward and although not seen, I wanted to include them. The only slight difficulty was setting the step at the correct angle and getting the hole for the bowsprit in the correct position and at the correct angle. I cut the heel tenon in a piece of 10mm birch dowel that serves as a temporary bowsprit to check alignment. The step is temporarily fitted in place with 1mm brass pins. Chain Pumps I looked at the birch ply parts provided in the kit and thought that although they match the sizes given in the AotS Diana, I could probably improve upon them. Using the AotS as a guide, I made up the cistern from 6x2mm boxwood strip and the hood from some boxwood sheet laminated to make up 5mm thickness. The bearings are made from some brass eyelets that I bought along with the hooks from HiS Model. When blackened and cut down, I think that they look the part. I know that I am flitting about here but I next decided to tackle the channels. I couldn’t use the walnut ply channels provided in the kit as they wouldn’t have sat well against the rest of the hull. I am again indebted to Robdurant for providing the plans that he drew up and for suggesting the use of the laminated 6x2mm strip. The backstay stools are thinner and I cut these from 1.5mm sheet. Rob’s drawings were cut out and pasted onto the boxwood pieces using a glue stick. Sawing curves has never been my strong point (one of many) but I roughly cut them out and had to spend a lot of time sanding them back to the line of template. The channel positions were marked on the hull using the plans and the AotS drawings. A final check was made by putting temporary masts in place and using thread to make sure that the shrouds would not interfere with the gun ports. All was well until I came to the mizzen channels and realised that one of the shrouds would be right in the firing line of a carronade on the quarter deck. This will mean removing the bulwark planking and realigning the gun port. I’m not sure yet whether I will have to move just the one or whether this will make all the other gun ports look wrong. For the moment the channels are temporarily fixed in place using 1mm brass pins, 3 for the main and fore channels and 2 for the mizzen. I am wondering how to finish the edges with a moulding piece. I don’t think that for me scraping a shape will be the answer, although I will have a go. Alternatively I might cut them out of more 6x2 strip. A bit more thinking and trialing required.

Dave, thanks for your kind comments. I bought the '3mm patinated in black' hooks. They are very nice and the black doesn't rub off when you are fiddling around. Although delivery costs are quite high, they came very quickly via post with no issues over importation from the EU. David

Breeching ropes and port tackles are completed. Port tackles are made up from 2.5 mm blocks from Vanguard models and 2mm hooks that I bought from HiS Models in Czech Republic. I stropped the blocks with some 0.3mm thread that was left over from and earlier build and the tackle rope is 0.25mm thread from the kit. I believe the tackle is a scale 260mm long. I have frapped the fall around the tackle and will cut off the excess length to make a loose coil on the deck. The quad hands that I bought a couple of months ago made rigging much easier than it might have been with such tiny blocks and hooks but even so, I found that I could only do a few at a time. I have only made port tackles for the 10 midships’ guns and I am debating whether to make the training tackles or leave them off. Maybe I will feel more inclined after a break from it. Between rigging the tackles, I have continued with more of the fittings down the centre line of the upper deck. But that is for another post. I am also thinking to put the guns to one side for the moment and carry on with more of the outer hull before finally fitting them. I have drilled the carriages to take a 1.5 mm brass pin and will fix with epoxy into corresponding holes drilled at each gun port but even so, I am concerned that the barrels will be vulnerable to my clumsiness when fitting rails, channels etc. Guns rigged with breeching ropes are kept in order to ensure that they line up with the holes in the deck for the posts and with the gun ports

Good to see you back in the shipyard Rob

A short update as I continue with the upper deck guns. The barrels are completed and when placed on the carriages with the quoins, I am pleased with the way they look along the ship. I have used the cap squares provided in the cut, preforming them over a piece of 1.5m brass before they were blackened and then glued into position with CA. To finish off the carriage I added the eyebolt and hinge to those midship guns that are partially visible but only the eyebolt to the others. The copper eyebolts in the kit, I thought were a bit big for this purpose so I made my own from 28gg black ‘artistic wire’ twisted around a 0.8mm drill. The hinges are cut down kit eyebolts. This was a bit fiddly but once I’d got a method worked out, it went quite smoothly. The breeching ropes are 3 times the bore length of the barrel so 120mm for the 18 pounders. I made up the breeching ropes for all 28 guns using the 0.75mm thread provided in the kit, seizing one end to a ringbolt. It is then a bit of an awkward job to thread the rope through the eyebolts on the carriage and wrap it around the cascobel with a false splice before seizing the final eyebolt.

Allan, Thanks for the info and link on 3D printed barrels. I can see that this will become the way to go in the future to replace many of the white metal, brass and PE components. I'm well into my 18 pounder gun carriages and just about to start rigging the tackles now but I will be looking around for options when it comes to the guns for the quarter deck and forecastle.

Dave, Thanks for the link to Shipaholic's log. I did make some of my own hooks for my build of HMS Fly but nothing like as good as Shipaholic. I've just received some 3mm hooks from HiS models in the Czech Republic which look very nice. I've also bought some 2 and 2.5mm blocks from Vanguard Models but they are sooo small. I will be trying to make up the port tackles with these items over the next few days. David

Thanks for the post on the Estonian wood suppler. I've been buying boxwod strip and square section from Original Marquetry but it's good to hear of a European source with a wider selection of wood types. David

Thanks Allanyed - I don't think that I would have a steady enough hand to paint freehand but I could try to stencil the lettering in future. Dave, thanks for your comments on the cannons. I thought about replacement but to buy 28 from Chuck would be quite expensive. For the carronades and 9 pounders that are more visible, I will look to Chuck or to Chris Watton for replacements. The problem I have now is finding suitably sized hooks for the tackles.

Thanks Allenyed, I don't mind at all. Always happy to learn something new. The kit provides PE brass letters which I thought were too heavy looking so I made my own but perhaps I needn't have worried but now that I have, I may leave well alone As you say, the drawing on the back cover of the AotS shows the name on the stern but it doesn't appear on the photo of the NMM model on page 16.

Rob, Thanks for your kind comments on the gun carriages and your suggestion for the monograms. I'll take a look at Chuck's site. The postage and possible import duties have put me off before but I have noticed that quite a few UK based builders do buy from him. I'm afraid I can't claim any credit for the poppy seed idea, just picked up on someone else's ingenuity! Still working on the quoins but will certainly go with your recommendation on alignment of the guns. David

18 Pounder Guns The walnut gun carriages in the kit are not great but I am using them for the upper deck. The dimensions seem to be about right but they take some work to clean up. I may replace the carronades and 9 pounders in the kit for the f’csle and quarterdecks. I glued up the sides and axles using a simple jig to keep things in line. The bed bolt was made up from the 1mm brass wire blackened with Birchwood Casey Black and glued in place. I drilled the holes for the eyebolts using another jig made from plastic card. Cutting out the trucks and trying to clean them up was probably not going to be worth the effort so I bought some replacements from CMB. It required a bit more sanding of the axles to get a snug fit but they were worth the effort. The downside is that the new trucks are thicker and don’t leave enough room on the axle to fit the pins as I would have wanted to do. I wanted to represent the bracket bolts, at least on the ten carriages that were likely to be visible amidships. Elsewhere on this forum, I had read (and I’m sorry but I can’t remember who) that someone had used black poppy seeds. I made one carriage up as a test and thought that it looked quite good. It was also quite simple: just a small hole made with a needle then a dab of glue and a poppy seed carefully placed on top. These close-ups are unforgiving of the coarse walnut grain… The walnut pieces for the bed were very delicate. The groove cut for the bed bolt was very deep on all the pieces and I broke three as I was sanding and painting them. This is the stage I am at with all the carriages made up. I started to cut out the quoins but they are not great, too small according to the AotS and difficult to sand into a wedge. I have experimented with making quoins, at least for the more visible guns, using 3x3mm boxwood strip and a cocktail stick for the handle. I cut off 8mm from the strip then cut the piece in half diagonally to give two quoins and glued the cocktail stick into a pre-drilled 0.7mm hole. I’m quite pleased with the result but perhaps more work on the handle required. The photo below shows the comparison and second one in progress. The quoins are quite fiddly so I want to check the position of all the guns in the gun ports before committing to making 28 of these little quoins. Next up then will be cutting and blackening the trunnions and the barrels. Should the barrels have the 'GR' monogram? There are none provided in the kit.

Good to hear that you're getting better and could be back to light duties in the shipyard soon. Enjoy your holiday

Thanks very much B.E.. Your Pegasus build was a big influence on the way that I went about building HMS Fly, so your comments are much appreciated. I was wondering how long it would take for the patina to develop on the copper because there is very little sign of it at the moment. David

Thanks for all the likes and for continuing to follow my progress. I have finished all the partitions for the captain’s cabin. I had to remake one of the doors on the front bulkhead because too many breaks around the door light made it excessively weak. For the remake, I cut out the opening for the light and fitted the boxwood frames before cutting out the door. It would have been nice to have been able to cut back some of the bulkheads to open up the great cabin but I think it would have been a step too far and created difficulties with the stern structure. The capstan supplied in the kit is a bit of a horror show. The walnut ply is very poor quality and the proportions very different from that shown in the AotS. It might seem inconsistent to go to the trouble of making cabin bulkheads, mast partners etc and not try to improve on the capstan, nevertheless, I decided that for the lower capstan, I would use the kit version and attempt to make the upper one from scratch. This is it in position on its step. Nothing is glued yet and for the moment I have completed the parts that run down the centre line of the upper deck that I wanted to make. The rest: pumps, columns and also a bowsprit partner and manger boards, I will leave until the guns are in place. On to the guns...

A few weeks since I posted but I will update progress on making some of the gun deck fittings. I’ve also been in Iceland for a week on a holiday that was postponed three times due to Covid restrictions. What an amazing country. We plan to go back in the spring when there should be good numbers of breeding waders and other birds around. I started with the ship’s stove which I made from 1mm and 0.5mm styrene card using patterns from AotS Diana. I used the condenser provided in the kit because when painted with Tamiya copper, I thought it looked the part but I made the chimney using 8 and 6mm dowel shaped and drilled out. The body of the stove is painted in Tamiya iron. I was quite pleased with the result… … until I realised that the chimney was over the boiler instead of the fire! Luckily I was able to remove the chimney and top plate and glue it back the correct way around The hearth is made from 1mm maple sheet and the tiles from boxwood strip and all edged in some 2mm walnut strip. The forward riding bits in the kit didn’t look right so I made these from pieces of 6x2mm boxwood stringing in the manner of RobDurant. There are no riding bits at the foremast provided in the kit but I wanted to make them for the sake of completeness. Again they were made from 6x2 boxwood and sized according to AotS. Neither are glued, just pinned together. I wasn’t very keen on the parts provided for the ladders and there is no provision for the double ladderway or at the rear hatch. Since these ladders will not easily be seen, I decided to use the kit parts but I will work out something that will hopefully look better for the q’deck and f’csle. I have started making the partitions that form the captain’s quarters. Once again I am indebted to RobDurant for providing a downloadable pattern making the task much simpler. I glued the paper pattern onto 1mm maple sheet and cut out the doors. With hindsight I should have left them until I had completed framing of the lights because they were prone to breaking up but I have managed to make them presentable. The panels are carved out using a #6 blade then finished of with a file and 600 wet & dry. And the edging strips are in boxwood strip. I also wanted to make the partition for the Great Cabin. Again I used Rob’s pattern. Cutting out the centre section made it the correct width. I again used 1mm maple sheet and will carve out the panels. This time though, I will leave the doors in place until the lights are completed. Since it will be difficult to see, I may not cut the doors out but just score the outline. I will also make the partition dividing the coach and the bed place but plan to leave it fairly plain. I’m surprised that there is no door between the two shown in the plans. I also wonder whether to paint the internal walls of the partitions white. Finally two shots of the deck. Nothing glued in place yet The mast partners are cut from 1mm maple sheet and simply scored to imitate the planking.

Thanks Beef Wellington and DaveBaxt for your kind comments on the stern. Dave, I thought the kit letters in PE brass were too chunky so I made my own letters in Perpetua Titling, painted them, cut them out and stuck them onto the counter.

Copper plating the rudder was challenging because of the changing angles and cut-outs but any small gaps I have covered with Tamiya copper paint. The pintles and gudgeons are made from 3x3 boxwood planed down to 2x2. The pintles proved relatively straight forward with holes for the pins drilled before cutting the strip down to size. I made the spectacle plate from leftover stanchions from HMS Fly cut down and twisted into the right shape. The position and sizing of the gudgeons needed more care, each being placed separately and alignment with the rudder checked. The top three gudgeons I pinned in place but the lower four are just ca’d. The first two gudgeons fitted Completed and rudder mounted The photo-etched straps were too thick to allow free movement of the rudder and anyway were not sized correctly for my boxwood version so I used black card cut into 2mm strips following the pattern given in AotS. I will add the cloak (not sure of the proper term) that seals off the rudder from the sea and the chains at a later date. I think the next stage will be to work on the lower/gun deck. The stern was complicated enough and judging from other logs, the head looks more so, therefore I’m putting off work on this area to another time in the hope of tackling something simpler. David

Just caught up with your build again Rob. Very nice job on the coppering and particularly around the waterline where it took some working out

Many thanks Dave for your comments, they are much appreciated. I'm sure that if you do decide to build Diana, you will find it a glorious combination of frustration, challenge and satisfaction. There are many Diana builders with logs on this site that will provide support and inspiration if you decide to go ahead. David

The majority of the stern is finally finished with only a little more of the decoration to be added. I thought that I had finished it a couple of weeks ago but as it was going together for final gluing, I realised that it wasn’t fitting quite as well as I'd hoped. I reworked the lower finishing pieces twice more before I was reasonably happy that they fitted as closely as possible to the wale and lower counter. I also removed and reworked part of the lower counter to get the rail to fit better. It now sits a little high against the lettering but I think it looks acceptable. Jotika should be sending me replacements for the console brackets, and also for the swag on the upper finishing pieces which I broke trying to file it down. However I've decided not to use the swags provided in the kit and will try to paint on my own decoration that is more in keeping with that shown in the Admiralty models shown in the ‘The Sailing Frigate’ I'm continuing to work on the rudder. The pintles and gudgeons provided are too small for my thicker boxwood version so I am working out my own solutions to the puzzle.

Thanks for all the likes, it really does help to keep me going. I have been wondering how to add the name Diana to the upper counter. I wasn’t keen on using the pe brass letters supplied as they looked a bit too chunky, so I pondered on how to either paint or apply my own lettering in some way. Having searched through all the typefaces on Windows, I decided that like others before me, Perpetua Titling looked the most appropriate. I would probably make a mess if I attempted to paint it freehand. I tried printing on baking sheet and transferring onto the model as suggested by Rob in his Jason log but the result was too faint for me to see. In the end I cut the letters out and stuck them on. The result looks effective from normal viewing distance but one leg of the N still looks a bit shaky even after tidying up. I think that if I try to improve on it, I will probably make it worse so I’m going to leave well alone. Now it was time to bite the bullet and get the stern galleries fixed. I glazed the stern lights using the kit PET film. The two false lights were glazed separately and the central section in one piece. The false lights are backed with black card in the same way as the false quarter lights. All lined up ready to glue: And fixed in place with the taffarel and upper counter With the stern gallery in place I was able to carry out a final adjustments to the quarter galleries. I was disappointed to find that some of the components required more than a little fettling, but I’m now happy with the way they look and I have glued them in place. A lot of painting and repair work to do before the final decoration and mouldings are added but I’m confident that it will look fine when complete. I now have a couple of problems with the final decoration. One of the console brackets ( I think that they are supposed to be stylised dolphins) is badly formed so I have written to Caldercraft asking for a replacement. The other is that I have broken one of the swags that go on the top piece of the quarter gallery. The mouldings as supplied are very chunky, so I filed them back to the bare swag. Unfortunately I was not careful enough and broke one of them. I hope that I can align it when I fix it in place. Once work on the stern is finished, I will move on to fitting the rudder which I have already started coppering.

A few days away again, this time in Kent for a bit of bird watching but mainly to visit Chatham Dockyard. The talk and tour of the ropery was fascinating. In the early days, before the process was mechanised, how they twisted the initial yarn by hand from a coil of fibre wrapped around the waist is remarkable. It seems that it was fairly late on in the 19th century that rope making caught up with the the textile industry where mechanisation of similar spinning processes had begun to be used nearly 100 years earlier. A few other pieces completed between continuing with the stern galleries. I had some trouble with the steps getting the spacing to appear correct. On the first attempt I didn’t like the arrangement so removed them and tried again. I’m much happier with the new alignment and also made some attempt to allow for the tumblehome and shape of the wales. I have also made the riders. Although only the two amidships will be visible, I have also made the three that go along the aft section but which will be hidden by the quarter deck. They are shaped and painted ready to be fitted. The kit-supplied rudder no longer fits because of the new stern post replacement. I cut another from boxwood sheet using a template taken from AotS Diana. A bit more tapering is required but generally I’m happy with the overall look. Back to the quarter galleries. I glazed the lights using the polyester film supplied and then backed the false lights with black card before glueing the frame to the top and bottom patterns. This gave me the base from which to shape the lower finishing pieces. These are made from 7mm boxwood sheet and a piece of 2mm walnut taken from the kit. I have tried to follow the general shape illustrated in the AotS. The starboard gallery is finished for the moment, with just the drop to make, but I expect that a small amount of further work will be needed when they come to be fitted permanently The port quarter gallery will follow the same pattern and will probably take the rest of the weekend...

I'm going to be following too and can only echo what West Port said about your Pegasus build

A very nice start on the coppering. Those tiles are in a different league compared to the ones supplied in my Diana kit. Is the relative difference in size due to the different eras in which the ships were built? David