dunnock

Hi Tim, Only just caught up with your log so apologies for my lateness! Your ship is looking really good. I used the kit pivot guns but wished I had made an attempt to replace them with barrels and new brackets. I did replace the posts though with 3mm boxwood because the kit supplied walnut ones were not very nice and I couldn't get them to fix firmly. David

That's great thanks Rob. I'll take a look. My lime strips turned up this morning from CMB and they look pretty good so I'm going to finish off the messy job of sanding down the balsa blocks at bow and stern before I go back to the inner walls. David

Thanks Jason and Rob for your kind comments. While I'm waiting for the strips from CMB, I'll continue with the balsa filling blocks and getting ready for first planking. I'm also looking ahead to making the hatch coamings and covers. I think Rob, that you got some boxwood from a guitar making source do you have a link to them? David

Not too happy with the maple strips that I received with large variability in strip width and thickness and in the quality of the surface. I realised that I had not laid enough 3mm planks before starting the top & butt so I removed them and laid another two runs before starting the top and butt again. I cut out a template from plasticard to try to get consistent planks but in the end I found I could do much better by measuring and cutting each individually. I think the last rows probably follow no known pattern but I tried to fit them as best I could. The next time it might be better to work from the waterway into the centre. Anyway I have now completed planking the deck. It took quite a lot of scraping and sanding to get a reasonable surface but it's now done and a couple of coats of thinned matt varnish applied to give some protection. I placed temporary supports under the deck because it was very flexible especially around the hatch openings. I'm now moving on to the inner walls. Looking at the AotS, on page 108, the spirketting is in top & butt planking, Overall the bulwarks are scale 6mm in thickness, but the kit bulkheads are nearly 4mm, plus two layers of lime and a layer of walnut makes a total thickness of 8mm. I am reluctant to thin the bulkheads and using thinner planks might weaken the structure for cutting gunports. I have decided to lay the spirketting and string in 1.5 lime and then the quickwork in 1mm tanganyika. However I've just realised that the lime strip supplied by caldercaraft is 6mm not 5 as stated in the instructions which will throw out the line of the gunports with respect to the inner planking. I don't have any other suitable stripwood so it's another order to CMB. While laying up the first run of spirketting, I realised that bulkhead 6 on the starboard side is misplace and will need thinning on the inside and adding to on the outside.

Jason and Thunder, interesting to see your comments on the mizzen mast position. It seems OK to take the easy road and leave it where it is. I've started planking the gun deck using maple strip but I've come to a halt because for some inexplicable reason, I didn't order enough so I'm waiting for a delivery from CMB. I began from the centre line with 3mm as far as the outer edges of the hatch openings then a couple of runs of 5mm followed by more 3mm. I thought that I would have go at top and butt planking and have completed the first two rows. I am now puzzling over how to make a decent job of the final two rows up to the waterway while waiting for the rest of the wood to arrive.

Welcome aboard Rob and Thunder and thanks for your comments and encouragement. I ordered some boxwood from OM for the stem and sternpost plus a few sheets of 1.5 and 3mm which arrived the other day. As you say, they are most helpful and respond to enquiries very quickly. I hadn't thought of using boxwood for the visible planking above the wales but I am seriously considering it now. While I was waiting for the boxwood to arrive, I planked the visible section of the false deck using the kit supplied tanganika. It is pretty rough on the edges and needed a fair bit of dressing; ok for this largely hidden area but I will be using some maple that I bought from CMB for the other decks. I used a Pigma brush pen as recommended by Ray to colour both edges of the strips before laying, which I found much easier and gave better results than my previous method of using a 4B pencil. The planks in the photo look a bit muddy but are better in reality. My boxwood arrived from Original Marquetry so I set about marking out a new stern post and stem. I used the drawings from AotS for the stem. Having satisfied myself that the replacements were ok, I took the plunge and cut off the appropriate parts of the keel. A little filing, sanding and a thin filling piece required, but overall I was happy with the fit. At some point I had an accident with one of the bulkheads, which hopefully I can fix later. As other builders have spotted, the position of the mizzen mast is slightly aft compared to AotS and the space between skylight mast bitts and mast is pretty tight on the kit plan. I have decided to leave the mast where it is and move the skylight back a few mm. The bulkheads and deck are now glued and fixed. I'll carry on with the termination pieces and the balsa infills but leave the stern section off for the time being.

Hi Peter, Your model of Diana is becoming a beautiful looking ship. I'm just starting out on the Diana voyage and your log has been very helpful in pointing out some of the pitfalls of this kit which I'm hoping to avoid. No doubt I'll create a few of my own too which I'll write up in my log. cheers Dvid

Hi Rob, Your Ethalion is beautiful ship with some great attention to detail. I'm just starting out on my build of Diana so I hope that you won't mind if I pick up on some of your ideas to help me through. Thanks also for developing your picture resizer app which has made starting my first log so much easier. David

Thanks Beef Wellington, I will be sure to add to those other Diana blogs. As for head scratching moments, I’ve already had a few and in fact I’m having one of those now. I’m contemplating removing both prow and sternpost and replacing them with boxwood, which seems to be very difficult to get hold of here in the UK. I’m waiting for a delivery from Original Marquetry, who only have 7mm thick sheet, before I take the irreversible step of cutting things out. In the meantime, I have followed your line on the bowsprit and modified the keel and bulkhead 2 to allow it to come through to a step. I've also cut away the parts of the keel that can be seen through the false deck. While I'm waiting for the boxwood, I think I'll make a start planking the part of the false deck that can be seen through the hatches of the gun deck. David

I started my first ship, HM Cutter Hunter about 25 years ago and left it on a shelf. A couple of years ago, when I finally retired, I decide to finish it. I really enjoyed doing that so I looked around for something else and settled on HMS Fly but first as a refresher, I built the Brig Scotland by Corel. When I began the build, I discovered that unlike when I started Hunter, there was now lots of help and ideas on forums like this one and I must pay tribute to all the Swan builders on this forum who gave me the inspiration to add a few more features my build of Fly. I will post some photos when I have finished some final tweaks to her. I looked at various options as a follow on from Fly but finally settled on HMS Diana. This will be my first build log, so please bear with if I make any silly errors. The ply keel and bulkheads, though not quite as easy to work as the mdf in the Amati kit, I haven't found it too difficult to work. The keel and bulkhead slots needed quite bit of cleaning up to get them to fit together, as did the false deck but I think all is looking good now. I am using AOTS Diana as a reference plus all the good information from previous builders on this site to help me. I started by drawing the waterlines on the keel and bulkheads to help with chamfer angles and planking. I marked out on the keel where it will be visible through the hatch openings on the gun deck and although they may not be clearly visible, I'm thinking of cutting these away because I don’t think that it will compromise the structure. I have also marked up the angle of the bowsprit. As noted by Beef Wellington if placed as per the kit, it will interfere with the figurehead. Strangely it seems that the angle in the top drawing of sheet 1 is correct while the drawing below has it at a shallower angle. In the end I may replace the stem with a piece of boxwood so that the edges of the ply don’t show. I have marked out and cut the rabbet and am have started to shape the bulkheads at fore and aft but have left #17 because I’m not sure if it needs any shaping.

I would like to add my congratulations on your build of Pegasus. It has helped me tremendously with my first real build of a model ship, HMS Fly. (I completed Hunter by Mamoli about 25 years ago.) I attempted many of your simpler suggested modifications where I thought I could but definitely never to the same quality that you have achieved. My rendition is far from perfect I know, but I am still quite pleased with the result and hope I have learnt enough during the build to improve on my next project, HMS Diana. I still have a few tweaks to make on Fly but when complete, I will post a few pictures. Thanks again BE and I intend to post a build log of Diana as I begin the project in the next month or so.