HardeeHarHar

Interesting!! I haven’t heard about the dark side!!

Hey Andrew - I certainly agree with you that the Caldercraft gun carriages are not even close to what Chuck can offer with respect to quality and authenticity, and when I got done with them, they were definitely crude!!! 😃

Thanks for the kind words and for following along for the ride Andrew! Also thanks to @Ryland Craze @VTHokiEE @GrandpaPhil @Peanut6 @Spellapeaka and the other kind peeps out there who stop by to look and offer encouragement or advice in the form of thumbs up (e.g., @glbarlow 😉 ). I recently bit the bullet after looking at Andrew's great work on the bounty and his comments about doing the cannon tackle rigging. I had been delaying doing this, and building the windlass and other deck accoutrements and not installing them to save room for the inevitable installation of the cannons. But, I was starting to worry about this approach as the completed elements were starting to build up and could get lost or damaged, so I decided to tackle the tackle (ugh). My cannon builds are not very pretty, and I should have replaced them with Chuck's cannons, but I had already completed them and was hesitant to go and make them all over again. Nevertheless, I did order and am planning to fully employ Chuck's rope and CNC boxwood blocks to make the cannons look as good as possible. [Seriously, with my eyesight, everything looks pretty reasonable until I take a picture and blow it up to the point where I can see the details of every wart (and there are many)]. Having done a few components, I thought I would share some pictures and solicit some opinions, and the primary subject is something Andrew (AJohnson) has recently noted in his build log. That is, that if I seize the block to the cannon ring (even without using a hook), and then seize the line on the other side of the block, it adds considerable length to the tackle so that the other block is going to be awfully close in proximity and decreases the length of the lines running between the blocks to near zero. I have posted one picture with just one use of seizing, and another with two around the block. I am now of the mind to just use one to save room, but if anyone has any opinions on the matter feel free to chime in. I also included one picture of the double blocks that will be used at the bullwark for the gun tackle lines. You can maybe see that I have stained the boxwood blocks a little to give them a weathered look. I hope that is a reasonable thing to do. I also have to decide on the thickness of the breeching line I am going to use, and for simplicity, I think I will stick with looping it around the cascobel, even though I would love to employ the more complicated cut-splice approach. That is the approach I used for the bow-chaser cannons that I have already installed. Cheers mates, and thanks again for stopping by (and giving your thoughts if time permits)!!!

Hey Andrew, Your work on the Bounty is very impressive!!! I just started the task of tackling the gun tackle, and I am heeding your comments about how space gets tight in a hurry and leaving out the hooks. I have been seizing the block, and am using some of Chuck's awesome rope and his CNC 1/8 boxwood single and double blocks that I have given a touch of stain to make them look a little weathered. I have been pleased with the appearance of the blocks with their seizing, but haven't put it all together yet to see how it will "fit" when installed. I think having the hooks would look better, but I was surprised there wasn't much room for anything with the 2 bow-chaser cannons I have already installed and hidden under the forecastle deck. It is amazing how much rope I used in the flemish coils for those 2 cannons (even though they looked really nice and neat), but it didn't look that realistic to have about 20 feet of rope lying in a coil, so I am going to rethink them for the cannons that will be seen. I haven't installed any of the deck gear so I have room to install the cannons once I have them rigged, so that is a positive, but I am still thinking it won't be easy to do. I will look over your build logs and keep learning from your work, which is solid! Cheers mate! Brian

@glbarlow That's the hardcover set I have, but I couldn't take the time to figure out if it was going to be cost-effective to purchase the individual books on Amazon or whether I could find some vendor who had all of the individual books for sale as a collection. Seems like Amazon would be the approach...

@Cathead @AJohnson Wow, those are great recommendations for the library. I will definitely add those to the top of my wish list. Thanks for the recommendations!!

I am/was looking for the whole series in one (and only one) of the older formats…

@BenD I would love to have the whole series in the older print version! However, I didn’t have the time or knowledge to find a good source before Santa made his rounds…please share if you have any sources. The Sea of Words is pretty awesome!

Welcome aboard, but I have dibs on dumb questions, just ask Chuck how many I have asked him.

Hey Gang, Hope everyone is doing well in 2022! I wanted to share a little bit about two Christmas gifts I got for my wife (and myself =). One is the Patrick O'Brien Series, which is a beautiful collection of tales including Master and Commander, etc. A lot of complaints have been made regarding the print size and the thin paper, but it is quite an amazing compilation of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and centered on the friendship of the English naval captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen Maturin. I also bought her A Sea of Words: : A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian, written by Dean King, John Hattendorf, and J. Worth Estes. Surprisingly, she actually loved these gifts! They both are truly beautiful works, and the Sea of Words is full of useful information regarding nautical terms, etc., with awesome drawings (albeit few and far between).

It's looking great Sam! Nice work for sure, and you are making it look easy. Lots of progress being made in short order, very impressive!!!!

Well, I added the banding around the windlass, put the bell on the belfry, and built all the ladders. I have them dry fitted, and have posted a photo that shows all the warts that still remain to be touched up with some stain and some WOP. It still feels like progress is being made, warts and all. I have also completed the quarterdeck barricade, and have the elm tree pumps almost finished as well. Will post photos of those soon, as it helps to see what needs to be touched up more =\ Please forgive my repetitious pictures, but I did touch up the windlass a little more, and did so semi-successfully from my perspective. I also touched up the ladders a little, in order to reduce the appearance of the layers of different darkness on the sides of the ladder. I don't think I did as good of job with the rungs of the ladder, but maybe if you use your imagination we can all "believe" they look "used" and "weathered". I believe I could do this kind of touch up work forever, with little to no further benefit, so I am going to move on for now....and perhaps spend some time rigging the cannons, instead of staining wood poorly. Thanks for the thumbs up and build fly-bys.

So….here is my “improved” finish on the windlass and belfry. The parts are just temporarily placed on the deck. Work is making things slow going lately, but I hope to make some significant progress soon!!!

Beautiful work! Congratulations on a great job!!

I should also add that I will need to sand them with fine sand paper before I put one more coat on and poly them, as they look pretty rough in their current state.

So, I have got the windlass and belfry completed to the point where I have stained them with a couple of coats of stain and they are drying. It felt good to make some progress. Sometime soon I will have to finish rigging the cannons so I can get them on the deck and installed. Then I will feel I can start to put in all the deck hardware, and the mortar assemblies, which are on stand-by to give me as much room as possible when putting the gun rigging in place, Flemish coils included....

Hey Vane. I recognize that my Granado is not an exemplary piece of work, but I thought I would chime in with my "lessons learned. Like you, I also did as the directions indicated. However, in order to get an even coating of blue on the stickers (or decals), I had to do more than one coat of paint. It made the decals much less striking (as in it decreased the contrast of the black and blue), but in the end it seemed to work in a subtle fashion. I should note that once I got the decals glued in place, I put a light coat of poly over them. I stained the dividers of the quarterdeck panels with dark walnut stain as well. With respect to the deck and the pencil bleed, I wonder if a coat of poly will help blend the appearance a little?

Had to travel out of the country for work for a while, and it was fun and covid-free, but it is also good to be back in reach of the Granado. I have tried to make sure I post any amount of progress made, so I keep up some momentum in the building and the logging, so here is an update, with pictures to follow: Timberheads and knightheads. Fiddly. Little. Hard to handle pieces of wood that have to be reduced to fit in capping rail slots. I started with a diamond valorbe file, but it was painfully slow. After only two or three, I reached for the dremel with the cutting wheel attached and went at them with abandon. Only one shot out of my fingers during this high speed manuever, and luckily I found it on the floor before my dogs or wife ate it or got ahold of it, respectively. Once trimmed to fit, I stained them dark, and CA'd them in place. They look pretty darn ok! Belfry. straightforward so far. Haven't located the bell and painted it yet. Have to decide what color to paint it. I am thinking black. Windlass. I thought the timberheads were fiddly, holy toledo, building one section (the warping head?) in the octagonal fashion required was fairly challenging, and I still have the rest to build. Once I finished with the one warping head (the end), it looked pretty good, so I am happy and ready to continue the painful process. I'll make sure to add some pictures so that you get an idea of what a newbie thinks "looks pretty good" 😃 Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, and that your football team won (unless you are a Raiders fan =P). Talk about some horrible refs, and bad calls, missed calls, and ugly behavior on all sides of the field.

Indeed, I never would have imagined that the conversation would go to such an elevated level. I am glad I asked the question, and that I have such informative replies!!!! I will take a picture of the part(s) that is/are called kevels or kevel cleats so we can be further bewildered and/or amused, but it might take me a few days to get back to the Granado to do it. So, stay tuned and thanks again!!!!

The Granado build manual from Caldercraft calls the 4 "posts", 2 of which are leaning a little, timberheads, and uses the term kevel cleat for a different part. But having read Allanyed's latest commentary, I suspect the 4 posts they call "timberheads fore" and "timberheads aft" are likely to more appropriately called a Cavel block.

Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail. Having the kit on the shelf, I will have to reference your build log if I am to have even a chance with this planned future endeavor.

Interesting, after looking at the photos in AOS, the aft "kevels/timberheads" are at the angle, but aren't in the same place as shown in the kit's plans, and the photo has them sticking above the capping rail, whereas the kit's plans show them flush with the capping rail or slightly lower. I wish I had looked at the photos just to give it full consideration before I glued them in place, but I think it will "all be ok in the end" 😉

It is interesting, because the build manual does use the term kevel for some of the other parts of the ship, but calls these 4 items timberheads. I looked at the AOS Granado and couldn't locate them in the drawing. I will go back and look more now that I know where they are. Thanks a ton @Dr PR and @allanyed, I am learning more and more as I go along!

@allanyed Well I'll be darned, it does look like there are 5 on that model, but looking at the plans that came with my kit, it looks like the modeler put the swivel cannons where the 6th timberheads should go (see plan below). It also looks like the modeler lost one of the swivel cannons on the starboard side (the one where there should be a timberhead ;-). I also included a picture of the plans to show the angle of the timberheads (part nos 36 and 37). You can see (I hope) that the aft main deck timberheads are at a slight angle as opposed to the forward main deck timberheads (which are pretty much vertical at 90 degrees). Just interesting to see them at that angle...and it seemed strange to me that they weren't vertical because as you said, the timberheads "pretty much follow the line of the top timbers if it were a fully framed model". So be it, they are CA'd at the angle in the plan, for better or worse! Thanks again Allan, I do appreciate your kind and informative replies!!!

@allanyed Hey Allan, that is exactly the kind of advice I was hoping to receive. Thank you so very much for your kind reply! Interestingly, I have the image of the official Granado plan you sent framed and hanging on our entryway wall along with three lithographs by John Noble. I wouldn't have considered using a chisel, but that sounds like the appropriate approach, and I just happen to have a set of good chisels that should do the job nicely. One thing I should note, the Caldercraft kit plans shows 6 timberheads between the aft most and middle swivel gun posts, port and starboard on the forecastle, and has 6 recesses on the capping rail to accommodate the timberheads (I believe I am reading things correctly). I don't want to take advantage of your time and good will, but your response brought a question to mind about the timberheads on the main deck of the Granado. There are two sets, the forward pair of timberheads is verticle in orientation, and set at a right angle to the deck, whereas the aft pair of timberheads is set at an angle. I was contemplating not doing that and putting it at a right angle because it looks strange at an angle, but then I went ahead and did it the way it is shown in the plans. Is this commonly seen on ships and common practice, or is that an oddity of the Granado? Just curious on this issue. Thanks again Allan, I really appreciate your thoughts because I would not have thought of the chisel approach!!! Best regards, Brian