coxswain

And here we are, after 14 months my Polaris is finally finished!
 
    I certainly kept my promise from the very first post of this log, that I will make it slowly 😅. Hopefully I fulfilled at least a little the other, more important, part of my promise: "to do it well"!
    I want to special thank for all of the comments, likes and support through this wonderful journey! I started as a total beginner without any nautical knowledge and ended with a finished model and a lot of information and lessons learn. 
    For sure this won't be my last model and most probably my next build will start next year at the earliest. Till then I will try to read some books about rigging, make a display case and better photos of the finished model (the last one will happen soon).


-----
P.S. Now I can finally back to one of my other hobbies and celebrate it properly! Cheers!

Last couple of photos. Erycina is finished. 

Lower foremast shrouds are in place. Ratlines are up next. 
 

All three masts are topped out and Royal Louis has reached her full size at 33 inches tall and 43 inches long. This is another massive model. 
 
I will be working on attaching more blocks to the masts, tops, and crosstrees then will begin installing stays and shrouds. 
 

Next goal was to mask of for painting, and paint. Then it was assembly top mast and do some rigging then fit etch ladders. Next stage is to fit more etch and more rigging and start working on the jib, but feeling when I get this mast fitted onto model I will have turned the last big corner. 🤞Take some photos and post, next time the mast shall be on ship and rigged. 😊 Then I’ll be a happy bunny. 🤛

Priming the Hull
 
Before priming the anchor bills, ram stiffeners, and torpedo tube covers were installed, along with the half round trim along the deck edge.
 
First the deck was masked with tape and construction paper.
The hull was positioned upside down on a lazy Susan, on the Artograph table.

Vallejo grey primer, thinned with Vallejo thinner was applied with an Iwata RG-3 mini gun, @20 psi.  Smoooooth….   Let dry overnight.  Vallejo is an acrylic primer  that adheres well to shellac, metal, and brass.

 

 
 

Sealing the Hull

Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac was used to seal the hull.  It’s an evaporative finish, and the alcohol base dries very quickly.  And additional coats easily blend into the finish.  Here the hull is upside down to avoid masking the deck.  

Wood dowels were used to keep Minwax wood filler out of the port holes.  Shellac also does a good job filling minor imperfections.

 
Swauber Applicators help when applying shellac around the portals and along the lower edge.

 
Looking good after a rundown with steel wool.  A few drips and runs, shellac dries into a hard finish, were removed with fine flat and round files.

 
 

Well, possibly an ill judged foray into something different. This is the Aedes Ars kit to build the Castle Loarre in Spain out of individual ceramic blocks. All 8600 of them.
I built the Towers of Rochelle by the same kit manufacturer a while ago and although there were some caveats about the scale of some elements it looked decent when I finished it.
A great friend of mine sent me this kit (and paid postage all the way from Spain) a couple of years ago and I am ashamed to say it has languished. I found I got bogged down in the Rochelle build. In that kit there is a large multi-curved tower that used about 80 blocks per tier and it seemed like in spite of the hours working on it, it felt like it was going nowhere, I'm hoping that this one might go better having a widen array of smaller elements but 2000 more blocks. I suspect there will be regular breaks to play with something less demanding.

Inside the box, plans and general guides. Some basic landscape elements which will be ditched in favour of the Woodlands Scenics investment for the howitzer diorama.  Lots and Lots of blocks

The kit is built on a printed cardboard base which I decided to glue to a piece of 3/4 plywood. The finished kit is going to be heavy and a piece of cardboard as a base is not going to do it.
The structures are created by building up the walls against card formers. These are die cut and just need easing out of the frames

The kit provides lengths of scored card strips to create tabs to glue the formers together and to the base. The kit provides two bottles of glue which is unlikely to be enough. I switch to Weldbond when it runs out. A syringe is an efficient way to dispense the glue


The curved sections of walls and towers require the formers to be curved. ts easy to crease and ditort the card but using the PE rollers produced decent results


A variety of heavy things are used to hold the sections down until the glue sets up.

And the first section of wall formers are up

This may get very boring so I will only update at intervals when there is discernable progress. I'm hoping that with a bit of community spirit I can complete this without getting overburdened.
I hope you enjoy watching it come together.
There is one outstanding question - where will the completed model go. The base is 26 inches by 22 inches. Oh dear!
Thanks for looking in
Alan
 

Somehow it is a pity that all the brilliant wood-work gets buried in more and more brilliant wood-work ...

Good morning.

...continued:
 
Gun port lids. Very straightforward.
 


 
 
 
The channels are made up from three layers, so look more realistic. The edges of these were rounded/chamfered as per the real thing.



 
 
 
The reworked figurehead is complete!

 
 
 
And here is my work so far on the 24' cutter, which is still ongoing. Many are already familiar with the construction of these little boats. 






 
 
Until next time.
 

Update time. 
 
As you've seen recently, I've been doing the coppering using 6mm tape, cut into 18mm lengths. It's a little tedious, but perhaps less so that using PE, and it's also a little quicker. I coppered the hull in around 4 less than full days. There's no double banding on this.....just complete from keel to waterline. When all done, the copper was buffed down using cotton buds.
 



 
 
The coppering was added above the slightly (and intentionally) lower waterline I added in silver pencil onto the black hull. I figured that adding a good two levels above that would be a reasonable indicator of 'enough'. It was as planned. With the copper added, I set the waterline tool again so I could draw along the copper plates this time. It needs to be remembered the the stern of this sits a little lower in the water than the bow, with the waterline increasing in depth from around 90mm to 95mm, bow to stern, along the full hull length.....so not parallel with the lower keel. With that done, I ran a fresh scalpel along the whole pencil line and peeled off the excess above the line. The keel and stern edges were then coppered too.


 
 
 
The rudder is a very simple affair. I'm actually coppering this at the moment, but don't have those photos yet.



 
 
 
The headrails are built up from various laminates of pear, and there are other single piece rails. All have engravings which must be painted in ochre, whilst the main colour is obviously black.

OK, I streamlined the pricing options and now have the box details for shipping.
 
Here are the prices:
 
VM/12           HMS INDEFATIGABLE  (February 2023 Release)                                                                                              £1350
VM/12/Box    HMS INDEFATIGABLE  Boxwood Planking (This replaces all pearwood and red alder planking (Decks)        £1800
VM12/D1       HMS INDEFATIGABLE  Laser engraved deck set (Very Limited supply - Red alder planking still included)     £120
VM12/CP01   HMS INDEFATIGABLE  PE copper plate set (Including rudder shape PE)_                                                        £150
VM/12/PB      HMS INDEFATIGABLE  Pear block and deadeye set (This set replaces the standard set)                                 £140
 
Box details:
Box weight – 14.5kg
 
Length – 990mm
Width – 370mm
Depth – 195mm
 
The box weight is well over double that of even Sphinx. The box dimensions are those for the shipping sleeve. I wanted to keep the length under 1 metre, as I know some postage rates go up a lot past this point.

Turret Cowl Vents and Deck Varnish
 
Need to trim the turret vents to length shown on the plan.  Found the best way is to put the part in a vise and trim with an Xacto saw.  Mark the line with a pencil and position the part in the vise so the line is exposed, then use the vise edge as a guide.  Then used the Ultimation sander to even up the parts.
 


Turret vents in place.
 

Applied a second coat of Spar Varnish, will smooth with 0000 Steel Wool and apply a final coat.
 

 

Thank you very much for the comments and for all the likes!
 
Both jib sails are on:
I am trying out the paper sails that came in the kit.
 
I was going to make silk span sails, but I took the inspiration to use these, which are very nicely made anyway, from the paper sails on the Great Republic by @rwiederrich.  
 
They looked phenomenal on his model!  
 
The Great Republic is one of the best models that I have ever seen!
 

The first jib sail is on and rigged:

Tying off to the deck and the rails is really difficult at this scale.
 
I am using the sails that came with the kit.

Custom Gun Barrel Fitting
 
Enlarged the turret ports slightly, again with the Foredom, to accommodate the custom gun barrels - provided with this kit purchased from a third party.  They are slightly longer than the kit provided barrels.
 

 
 

Have fitted the last parts on this side, you can see how I’m thinking this works, anyway that’s me for the night.

M

Another small post on mast, this involves fitting extra ladder rungs from were the kit etch stops, up to the underside of the searchlight platform, since photos and information on this part seem scarce I have used my imagination again 😂 

Shaping the Hull
 
Before starting, assembled the forward and aft superstructures by drilling out the alignment holes to 1/8”, then used a 1/8” dowel to align the lifts.  Assembled them with carpenters glue and clamps.  Then drilled 1/8” holes at the appropriate locations on the deck and dry fitted the superstructures.
 
Gathered the tools needed to do the job:  flat chisel, rasp, files, sanding sticks from Amati - Pic 1.

At first I was a little uncertain how to proceed.  I did trace the hull plan view, made a template and found my main deck centerline off slightly.

Did some chisel and file work at the bow starboard side, and went to town with a sanding block  - results not the best so on the bow port side and stern, found it best to simply start with the rasp and remove the lugs.
 
I was overthinking it, once the lugs are removed you are practically there.
 
Pic 2 - rasp in action, removes a little or a lot of material depending on the pressure. 

Pics 3-4.  Used the bow and stern templates and the files to dial in the shape.  Mark the high spots with a pencil, file them down, repeat.  

Personally this step is tedious to me…..still have some work to do - to get her ship shape.  Enjoying the journey….

And, quite a bit further...

When you're a little further down the road...

I designed it back in 2005, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.  If you break or lose anything, we still have the stuff to replace it.