Keith S

Are you building the model in natural wood colours like Clearway, or painted?

This time I photographed the top BEFORE globbering it up with paint, more or less so I can show how I built it up using planks imitation of how the real one may have been built up. I read somewhere (probably Lees') that around about this time the Royal Navy authorized the tops to be built up in two parts, to be assembled aloft. This makes some sense, as it's basically two "leaves" with the cross-members bolted into position and pinched between the crosstrees and a set of upper sister-crosstrees. Of course I glued them because tiny bolts are not feasible. Later, I will add blackened pin-heads and "iron" (black paper) reinforcements per the original, which hopefully will make them look better, as I still do not like the white paint. I've also worked on the sprit and jib-boom, adding bees, cleats and iron banding around the cap.

Observant! Yeah I cut the fore topmast, and was looking for a place to put it where it wouldn't get mixed up with all the other little bits of dowel I've got lying about. Seemed like the sensible place to store it till I get around to mounting it! You're right, once the spars begin to be built up, the model build seems to accelerate, doesn't it? Although I still have things to build on the hull: Kevels and mooring bitts and more chainplates primarily.

This morning I've been working on the bowsprit fittings. There is a lot of stuff in this particular spar. I had to make the cap three times before I got one I was reasonably happy with. Drilling parallel holes on an angle is not easy, particularly when one of them needs to be filed square afterwards. I also tapered and roughly shaped the jib-boom, although there is a lot left to do on that thing. I wanted it to have a square heel, so I started with an oversize dowel, and carved the butt square after tapering the rest. I think it turned out "OK". We'll see. This is a significant stage in the model for me, because now, she looks just about how the real ship looks on the ocean floor. We know from sonar images and Parks Canada's fleeting seaweedy glimpses that the ship still carries her jib-boom, and while I don't know how much of her masts remain, at one point in the last 20 years Sammy Kogvik, the Inuit sailor who led the survey ship to Terror's position, saw spars sticking out of the water. While these spars are't there anymore, it seems likely that Terror's masts stood for quite some time. I think now my model looks similar to what we might expect to see when further documentation of the wreck becomes available. Minus the kelp and sculpins. As for me, of course I will be pressing on and trying to complete the model.

They must have a picture of you on the wall at the forceps factory. Nice work so far.

You're right, I don't think it would be possible. Anyway, like we were talking about in the other thread, in real life, paint was used to COVER the seams. It's always going to be a toss-up whether to show off your clever woodwork or to cover it up with paint. I suppose it's not reasonable to expect both, on models this small especially.

Thanks Keith for the encouraging words. I think you're right, real working ships -even warships- do not look as crisp and tidy close-up. The whole point of paint in real life is to FILL the cracks, not show them off. Whenever I make something I'm not immediately proud of, I put the ship on the dinner-table and watch it for a while. Sometimes, this helps me decide whether to pull the part off, or leave it on. The foretop is starting to grow on me actually. It looks correct with the paint, and once I've included the black iron banding and rivet-heads, and futtock chains, it will probably be perfectly acceptable.

Here I've built up the foretrees and top. I wanted to build up the top from planks the way it's depicted in Lees' book, and it was very interesting to see it go together more or less how it would have in real life. I continue to use the ratios given for a tenth-rate frigate. So far it seems to look pretty good in terms of size. The top is bigger than the one from the kit, but it doesn't look disproportionately large. I hope. Also, I can see now it was foolish of me to glue the trees onto the main mast. That will make it more difficult to build the main top. Oh well! I was disappointed when I painted it. I was rather hoping the planking detail would show through the paint. It did not, and I don't like the effect. This is why I didn't paint the water-closets at the stern. However, I think it would look strange to have painted masts and unpainted tops, so I will press on. I really do despise paint. Whenever you're hoping to cover an error, it refuses to hide anything; but when you are hoping it WON'T cover some detail or other, it covers marvellously. I've been aboard a number of ships in my life however, and I've noticed that the paint is slobbered onto parts like this pretty liberally in real life. So maybe it's actually realistic. It's just kind of too bad the planking is hidden: it took a long time to do. But I will know it's there. Maybe it will prove a blessing when the model is old, and it doesn't warp. I also blackened the deadeyes and coated the boat-davits with wipe-on poly (I found some!!) and tapered the main topmast. It does not look very tapered in the pictures but I think that's an effect of the lens more than anything.

I am having the same problem with paint. I just finished building up the foretop on my model, using planks as in real life, rather than the plywood from the kit. Then I painted it, and it might as well have been the plywood from the kit. You can't see any of the planking. The only paint that will show planking detail like that is probably a very fine mist of spray paint.

She's looking great, Keith. Your workmanship is to a very high standard. Your approach to the running rigging is very sensible too. I like the eyebolt your driver sheet attaches to, in the transom. It's the simplest option, therefore likely the correct one.

I wish I had ordered mine from a real bookstore and not evil Amazon.

Nuts, I don't have "Twitter". Well at least it's easier to pull them off than it would be to put them on once I've started on running rigging. It does cause a bit of mischief concerning where the mizzen stay will attach to the main mast. Where did you order your book from? I pre-ordered mine on "Amazon" but haven't heard anything since. At the rate I build, the book will be out before I need to worry about any of the information it will contain. The davit arms and trysail masts are easily pulled off if necessary.

I tend to hop about a bit on this model. As I get bored or frustrated with one part, I switch to another. I went downstairs with the intention of finishing the trees for the lower masts, and ended up making the lower cap for the main mast instead. I made the battens that go above the top as well. This was frustrating as I wasn't able to cut notches in such small pieces of wood to allow the bands to pass through, so I just laid the battens over the bands, which is a bit sloppy but it's near the limit of my ability to make and manipulate small bits without destroying them in the attempt. Also, I made a decision about the rigging, which needed to be made before the trees were glued on permanently, and that's with respect to trysail masts. In many drawings of Terror, I am quite sure I see a furled trysail on a gaff behind the main and fore masts. Looking at lots of pictures and models of ships, it seems to me that trysails had replaced staysails at some point. The "Beagle" model lots of people are building has trysail masts, and Lees' has a picture of how they were mounted. I've decided to include them in my model. As usual, I'm not super thrilled with my workmanship, but also as usual, I feel like I'll get over it. I am quite pleased at the model's stature with a topmast (temporarily) mounted. She is bound to be an impressive model if I don't completely stuff up the rest of it.

Well, if it helps, I find that kind of plywood breaks pretty easily when you DON'T want it to. Therefore it probably won't put up much of a fight there. Just pretend you're hoping it will hold together. That pretty much guarantees it'll break.

Oh yeah, I do remember seeing that. I have a pair of conures. They chew everything. They are not allowed near the ship.