xodar461

Greetings! I am currently working on masts and yards. here are a few pics... first one shows the components to the main mast including to mainmast, topmast,flagstaff and main yard main top The masts start as round walnut dowels and have a square top ( and bottom for the topmast). Here's how i do it. The dowel in secured in a vise with some scrap wood to protect the mast from getting marked up by the vise. the top is then sanded flat with a file, but only to 1/2 the thickness that will ultimately need to be removed (i.e., the mainmast is a 10 mm dowel and the square part at the top needs to be 7 mm. 1.5 mm needs to be removed in this first step). The dowel is then rotated 180 degrees and filed flat. I used a level to be sure the side filed first was level in order to be sure the 2 sides were roughly parallel. next, the dowel is turned 90 degrees and position is checked with a carpenters square to ensure that the sides already filed are perpendicular. after third side is filed, rotate 180 degrees and repeat. end result should look like this... It can be a bit tricky to do the top mast because the top and bottom are both square. And as to tapering masts and yards, I stick one end in a drill and sand it down to desired thickness. I found that using a plane will often make gouges along the grain and ruin the dowel. when making a yard that has to be tapered on both ends, i use painters tape to protect the side that has been tapered so as not to leave marks from the drill chuck. Below is the mizzen main and topmast and flagstaff along with some of the blocks to be attached. You may notice the small piece of wood at the bottom of the topmast...this is called the fid. it measures 2x1 mm. 2 small holes of 1 mm each are drilled and the opening is cleaned up with a small file. Below...main mast in place, not yet glued. All of the masts and yards with associated blocks will be made prior to the start of any rigging Jeff

Hi Jonathan Great job on you ship so far! I would not get too hung up on specific locations for the eyebolts as when the ship is complete and rigged they will hardly be noticed. The main thing is not to have different sizes in one area. As such, I recommend using the larger ones on: 1. the hatch coamings (forecastle, main and quarterdeck - 22 total) 2. main and mizzen mast base (8) 3. last 6 go on the deck near the main base (4) and mizzen base (2) this will use up all 36 large bolts and you will have consistent sizes in the same areas. All other eyebolts illustrated on the overhead diagram (page 76-77 on manual) can be the smaller ones (part 227) Hope this helps. Feel free to send me a message should you have any questions going forward. I am currently making masts and yards for the Revenge Jeff (revenge build log by xodar461)

hi Jonathan, I've enjoyed following along with your building log. A few suggestions from a been there, done that perspective...to get a good curve on the 1x2 mm wood strips, soak several strips of the appropriate length in water until they no longer float. then stack them together and clamp to a pot of a diameter that is close to the curve you want and let dry thoroughly. the wood can then be easily worked to the correct curve with minimal stress on the wood. This worked well for me. As for the bow, I snapped mine off early into the build. I did not try to repair until it was time to complete the bow with the support pieces and platform. this will give the repair added strength with the only weak area being the part that just out past the platform (which I almost broke). jeff (revenge build log by xodar461)

Greetings! Gunports (and corresponding ropes to open them) and deadeye channels have been placed. All pretty straightforward. The channels each have 2 pins that go into the hull to help secure them. Next the curved beams on the port and starboard balcony were placed. Instructions call for a pin to be put on the end of the beam that goes against the hull. To me this presented a possible problem with final placement as the hole in the hull would have to be perfect the first time - no second chances given that these beams are glued against the decorative paper. If they are misaligned, removing them may cause damage to the paper that would be impossible to fix. I modified this by drilling a small hole through the top of the beam and out the end. when the beam is properly positioned and glued, this hole acts as a guide to drill a hole in the hull and then a small wood dowel (0.67 mm) is used to anchor the beam. photos below show this. All in place ... And with this the hull is pretty much complete. It will be put aside while I work on the masts and yards. Jeff

Greetings, I am currently constructing the Revenge and I would like to display the ship at anchor in calm seas as she may have been seen of the coast of Spain in the Sea of Cadiz. Modelling water will be a first for me. I have the book "Waterline Dioramas" and the author mentions using textured Plexiglas that would simulate the small swells seen in calm seas. My idea is use a template to to cut the Plexiglas at the waterline - the ship will then sit in the cutout after the Plexiglas is painted. Photo below shows this using a cardboard template (taken from my build log). Here are some options for textured Plexiglas that I've found on the web: I think this may be the easiest way to simulate water and should look pretty good once painted (I hope). Any thoughts or advice? Jeff

Greetings...on to the bow First order of business was to repair the stem. 2 pieces had to be glued back in place (red arrows in pic below). This would be a weak spot if not for the platform supports that sit in the slots on both sides of the break. Once the platform is in place there should be little chance of breakage from the bowsprit gammoning. Once all of the supports are in place the platform is glued to the supports. If the bow was planked / shaped properly, little to no sanding is required to achieve a good fit. Next, a small strip is used to line the edge of the forecastle bulkhead. Plans call for 1x2, I used a 1x3. This can be seen in the photo below. A small amount of this strip outboard was removed to accommodate the walls that will soon be placed The walls at the bow are painted green and lined with African walnut ("dibetou" in the kit). Have I mentioned how much i dislike this wood? It tends to fracture very easily along the grain. In removing the frames from the pallet, I ended up with 4-5 pieces - for each frame. The it was like a jigsaw puzzle to get them in the correct orientation to glue on the wall. See if you can spot the joints on the photo below. The photo etched brass decoration was painted and glued in place The L shaped wood below the walls are the catheads. four holes will need to be drilled into each cathead for the anchor tackle. I suggest this be done now off the model rather then after placement. Also, the catheads are almost impossible to place through the walls after the walls have been placed. Some trimming will need to be done to have them seated properly. They were placed through the hole in the wall and left ungluded. Once the walls are up they can be glued. End result... The top of the bow walls are lined with a strip of pear wood, 1x3 mm. forward belaying pin rack was also placed. This got me thinking about the belaying pins supplied in the kit and just how many belaying pins are found on a ship of this period. As the kit was designed by Chris Watton, I figured that was good enough for me. Problem with the pins as supplied is that they are quite out of scale. The figure below is 1:72 which i figure is close enough for a 1:64 model. Note the size of the pin - almost as big as his head! 8 mm brass pins were ordered from Model Expo, blackened and placed in a new rack with smaller holes. IMO, the brass seems to be much closer in scale than the wood. Of course, this meant removing all the pin racks previously place and making new ones from spare wood. Here is a shot amidship that shows the new pins and racks in place (along with the swivel guns) Next up, gunport and channel placement and stern gallery supports. Also starting to think about how I am going to do the "water" that the ship will eventually sit in. I'd like to get this done before i start with the mast work and rigging as it will be easier to move the model about with the lower profile w/o masts. jeff

Thanks for the kind comments. re: next build log, i have no idea at this time what is up next as I still have a fair amount to do with this ship. I usually don't start thinking about the next project until my current one is almost done. And who knows what may be available at that time - so many interesting projects from Syren, Vanguard and CAF. Who knows, maybe the 1:64 Victory from Amati will be released by then! Jeff

Greetings! After a rather long interlude (trip to New Zealand, work, general malaise / inertia), I am back at work in the shipyard. All of the cannons have now been rigged, some with leftover blocks from Warner Woods (these were quite good) and the rest with blocks from Syren (equally as good). Kit blocks are in the trash. Pin rails and Staghorn cleats have also been placed (some visible in the photos below) Now onto the stern. There are 5 parts to the walls that make up the stern balcony. After painting, the forward wall (also the smallest) was placed first. this required a bit of sanding to get the profile correct against the hull. Next were the 2 sides followed by the stern. a mm or 2 was removed from the side panels to get them flush for the aft wall. Overall not too difficult but it was important to let each piece dry before moving on as there is not a lot of surface contact for the glue. Below are 2 views... Next, paneling, made of 2x1 mm strips, is added to divide each wall and the capping rail is placed. I recommend gluing the walls first then adding the 2x1 mm strips rather than adding these strips to the walls off the model. And finally, photo etched "emblems" are placed on the walls, painted whatever shade of yellow suits your fancy. next up, work on the bow, including repair (way earlier in this build the stem had a close encounter with the wall and snapped off). Jeff

Hi Jonathan. Re: the whipstaff. It has to be able to move freely up and down so you can eventually seat the tiller (at a much later stage) into the opening at the bottom of the whipstaff. You don't want to be caught with a glued staff and have a hard time placing the tiller when the assembly is covered with another deck. A piece of tape will suffice to keep the staff from falling out of the assembly. Jeff (Revenge log under xodar461)

Greetings Placement of the main mast bitt finished up with most of the deck fittings except the grates. 2 castings go on top of the supports, painted gold rather the brown as the manual suggests Next up in cannon rigging. I used light brown rope of 0.63 mm (Syren) for the breeching rope (0.5 mm would be the correct size at a scale of 1:64 but I thought anything smaller looked too small). The rope in passed though a ring (which is attached to a eyebolt) then seized (using 0.1 mm rope) after a half hitch is placed. The cannons are then glued to the deck and the eyebolt is glued into the bulwark. The gun tackles are next. Blocks are 2.5 mm (left overs from Warner Woods), tackle 0.2 mm rope. Each block would be stropped with a hook but rather that make such a small hook, the bock were stropped with 32 gauge wire which was then blackened. Blocks supplied with the kit will be discarded at they are the typical non realistic square kit blocks. One down, 13 to go Train tackle at the rear of the gun has not been placed as I will be a bit short with the 2.5 mm blocks. I'll get more from syren when I have more stuff to order.. for anyone interested in how the rope coils were made... 6 or 7 turns, then a light coating of glue before lifting off the tape. Jeff

Greetings After to rails I decided to place the hawse hole boards. These are 3 mm MDF and will have to be made to curve from side to side and then a little from top to bottom so it sits flush on the hull. Both parts were soaked in water (did not see much swelling in the MDF) and then clamped around an appropriate sized pot. Once I had the side to side curve six hole were drilled so the piece could be nailed to the hull. The holes were slightly smaller than the nail. The board was then glued and nailed to the hull, using a counter punch to drive the nails a bit below the surface of the MDF. By nailing the board I did not have to worry about how to clamp this piece in place if it was just glued and the board was now flush with the hull in both planes. on the pic below, the starboard hawse board has been nailed; on the port, the nails have been covered with wood filler and sanded. the second pic shows just the port board Photo below shows final result. The hawse holes can now be drilled into the hull to accommodate the anchor cable and painted black Back to some deck fitting - belfry has been constructed and placed and finally - as I plan to display the model at anchor in the bay of cadiz, I will need some crew. Though not much is available in 1:64 (and I am not good at carving), I did find some period figures in 1:72 which I feel will be close enough (5"7" at 1:64 is a 26.5 mm figure and the ones I found are ~25.5 mm). First crew member is manning the whipstaff. Next, a few more deck fitting and then the cannons will be placed. Jeff

Greetings Next item to be completed are the capping rails. not a difficult chore but several of the rails running across the ship need to be curved and sanded to be sure they smoothly join the rails running the length of the ship. When all the rails were place, one area amidships needed attention Arrow on the pic below shows an area where 2 curved wood pieces go to complement the small wales These have quite a curve so they were made by hand. a photocopy of the area was glued to a 2 mm strip of bass wood and then trimmed to size. one glued in place below now both... finally stained. Some of the surrounding wood has to have some stain reapplied as it was removed with the sanding. next, some work on the deck fixtures Jeff

"Breeching ropes were three times the bore length of the cannon, and ranged from 4 to 6 inches diameter, depending upon the size of the gun." In the table above, the size of the breechings is given in inches. This is not the diameter of the rope but rather the circumference. When a reference book gives the size of a rope or cable, the measurement is typically the circumference. For model kit rope and those that can be bought independently (IE Siren), the measurement given is the diameter. Therefore you have to calculate the scale size rope needed using D=C/π and maybe convert from imperial to metric measurements. A 2.6 mm breeching rope would be way out of scale at 1:48. A 5 in breeching rope at 1:48 would correspond to a 0.8 mm diamter rope. Jeff

Greetings With the side decorative paper patterns and wales now complete, attention was turned to the stern, which was lined with 1x3 mm strip and painted black (blue arrow). The curved area below the stern board was lined with the same (red arrow). The windows are framed with photo-etched parts painted yellow. The 4 knees that support the rear platform have also been place. Only a slight amount of sanding was needed to get a good fit. The photo-etched crest that goes on the stern is now prepared. There are 2 parts that when glued together give some semblance of depth. The upper layer is 2 lions holding a circle. Lions are painted gold and circle black. I first spray painted a base coat of grey. The parts were left in the photo-etch frames to aid in handling. The lower layer requires painting the letters black and the center crest blue / red. Paint is applied and when dry, a fine grade sanding stick is used to remove the excess paint on the raised surfaces. Lower part of the lion on the left is painted gold. Finally, the 2 parts are glued together and the frame was cut away; the piece then glued to the stern board. Below is the final appearance. Satin polyurethane was used as the final coat. Next up is the bulwark capping rails and one area amidships involving the capping and wales not mentioned in the instructions. Jeff

Thanks for the kind words. it has been an enjoyable build thus far Jeff

Greetings All of the upper wales are now complete Photo below shows a small piece of wood used to cap the side door frame (black arrow). The red arrow shows where a curved wood strip needs to go (not mentioned in the instructions but visible in several pictures). Below, one strip clamped in place. Several planks will line the stern board - more pics to follow when that is complete jeff

Greetings Work on the side decorations is now complete. All of the decorative strips were placed prior to placement of the wales that separate the various patterns. The patterns need to be trimmed around the gunports (untrimmed area can be seen above). The wale that goes just above the red / white diamond pattern runs almost the entire length of the ship. After staining, the plank was soaked in water and then pinned to the plan profile to help shape it (photo below) This last pic shows to quarter gallery door frame glued in place. I was not quite happy with the trimming of the paper decoration around the curve of the door (arrow in pic above). How I dealt with this will be shown in the next update showing the completed wales. jeff

Greetings. Back at the shipyard after vacation biking in Austria and Slovenia. Poop deck is now planked and some of the deck fittings have been place (eyebolts and the mast base). A hole was created at the stern for the bonaventure sail outrigger. On the quarterdeck, the hatch combing and mast coat (orange arrow) have been fixed as well as several eyebolts on one Staghorn clear (blue arrow). I discovered that there are two mast bases for main, mizzen and bonaventure masts. I assume the extra one goes on the deck below (why else would there be 2). I was able to work through the hatches to place the main and mizzen mast bases. The place where thelower Bonaventure base would go is completely inaccessible so...another spare part. Same work done on the main deck. one cleat has been placed as well as some of the eyebolts that will be used for the cannon rigging. Now onto placement of the paper side decorations. This is one area where there is no tolerance for error and once they are glued there will be no way to remove them. Also, there are many parts that have to be glued to the inner bulwarks (belaying pin racks, cleats and staghorn cleats). Instructions call for drilling a hole for a pin in these parts to add stability when on the model. Of course that means drilling a hole in the bulwark which will invariably go all the way through. So, all of these parts were pinned and a corresponding hole was drilled into the bulwark before placing any of the paper decorations. Each part was then place to be sure the pin was not too long or else it will still pierce the paper when placed. Some of the printed decorations in place...aft … and forward. The black arrow on the photo below shows the brown stripe on the printed decoration where a 1x2 mm plank will go. Jeff

Thanks. I am sure there are several other pre shaped kit pieces that will be discarded. I think this kit would be even better if Amati changed from dibetou to some other type of wood Jeff

Greetings The bulwarks for the upper deck are supplied precut using 2 mm dibetou wood. if you have been following this log, you already know my opinion on this wood so...not having any 2 mm planks I decided to double plank - the inner layer were planks left over from the hull planking - 1x5 mm. here's a pic of one side with the first layer mostly complete. The second layer was a combo of 1x4 and 1x5 mm walnut left over from other kits. some holes and ringbolts also visible for the cannon rigging. A separate 5mm plank is placed long the bottom of the bulwark (therefore 3 layers here). photo below shows the kit supplied dibetou piece (cut in half). this piece would have required quite a bit of modification to get everything to match up. one can see the coarse grain and the arrow shows how one small area broke off. this was the problem I had with the prow - if you look back at prior posts, one can see that the prow is missing. Even though this is 5 mm dibetou, one misadventure in turning the ship and snap, off it came along the grain. one useful modification for this kit would be to have the stem as a separate piece to be added at a later stage Quarter deck bulwark has the same pre shaped piece. They are now in the trash. Quarter deck was planked the same as described above. In the photo below, the area below the cutouts is double planked (therefore 2 mm thick). The area above this is single layer, 1 mm walnut bulwark planking complete and, the last deck to be placed is the poop deck. This deck comes pre shaped, 2mm thick. This is the only deck at this thickness. I decided to discard this one and use scraps from the other deck pallets. 2 pieces glued together and then cut to the correct shape. this deck is glued in place at the same time as the upper stern board (basically the back of the ship). The upper decorative strip (paper) and 2 1x2 mm walnut strips were placed prior to fastening this piece to the ship. It was at this time I realized the upper part needed to be white like the bulwarks (no mention is made of painting this area in the instructions - the picture does show the slats are white so I guess I need to pay more attention) . Yellow stars should be white in pic below Area in oval should be white in pic below. Not very hard to do but it would have been much easier while still off the ship. And lastly, the stern board in place. The side planking needs to be sanded flush and poop deck planked. Everything coming together quite nicely so far Jeff

Rather than fitting out the forecastle, I decided to move on to the quarterdeck. While planking the deck, the helmsman's canopy was constructed. This comes as 4 parts for the walls and 1x2 walnut for the roof. the upper ends of the side walls need to be beveled to accommodate the roof planks (arrow in pic 1 and 2) Quarterdeck partially planked. Planking was placed to leave a recess for the hatch combing and the helmsman's canopy. Quarter deck now planked. Here are views of the deck with and without the hatch combings and canopy. Too bad all the work that went into the lower decks is now not visible. once the deck is complete the aft 2 bulkheads can be glued in place. The aft most one can be seen in the photos above. The other can be seen below Make sure all the edges line up or there will be problems when the rails get placed (see arrow below) Next up are the bulwarks for the main and quarterdeck. Jeff

Greetings Past few weeks spent finishing the aft 2 bulkheads, placement of the forecastle upper deck and quarterdeck and finishing the forecastle. first was the deck planking. there are 2 of the smaller cannon located on this deck and I found that they sat a bit low , even after accounting for the 1 mm planking. easy solution was to install a 1 mm sub planking. a cutout in the planking was made to accommodate the grating. The fore and aft bulkheads are planked with walnut strip; the kit has a precut piece for the bulwark plank but this was dibetou and I did not like the look so I used walnut for this too. The bulwarks and inner bulkheads now planked. 2 more 1x4 mm small strips need to be placed which will hold the eyebolts for the cannon rigging. the eyebolts were place first then the strips will be glued in place (arrows). I the holes are drilled after the strips are placed, you may risk drilling too deep and piercing the outside of the bulwark. The outer upper decorative strip with the 1x2 mm borders were also placed in order to be sure the inner bulwark planking was even with the outer Forecastle cannon with breeching rope, testing fit... I will finish up this area with the ladder to the lower deck and the fittings (pin rails, cleats and eyebolts then move on to quarter deck Jeff

At the bow I filled in the front 4 spaces between the frames with basswood (a variety of sizes as you can see from the pic on my log - page 1). I felt this would be easier than trying to shape one bigger block. I then used a dremel with a sanding drum to rough it out and finished with manual sanding. I think the stern only needs the aft most space filled as the curves here are much more gentle than at the bow. Basswood is fairly soft and very easy to work with. It will also hold small brass nails. I bought a pack of strips, multiple sizes at a hobby store. you can find blocks of basswood on amazon too. Jeff

greetings with the external hull planking now complete, time to return to some internal work. there are 3 cannons left that are below deck. These were rigged with the breeching tackle and then glued to the deck external view of the cannon that were just placed One VERY important step is to place the forward knighthead. this goes into a small slot on the forward lower deck. however, if the knighthead is placed without rigging it beforehand, it will be almost impossible to rig it when the upper deck is in place (you would have to do it through the rather small hatch opening). Review of other Revenge logs show what can happen if this step is not done. so, referring to the rigging plans, the knighthead was rigged off the model with the appropriate ramshead block., then glued in place. when the upper deck is in place, the rigged block can be easily retrieved. Next up will be to complete the aft 2 bulkheads and complete the remaining decks. jeff

Hi. new progress report. Below is a photo of the bow deck, now completed with the addition of the pear strip and a 1x1 mm boxwood strip. With the 2 upper side patterns now in place, it is time to plank them. I decided to use full length strips of the wood supplied with the kit (1x5 tanganyca)as a time saving technique as any butt joints will be covered by the colored paper patterns. Not very impressed with this wood but this area will all be covered so no need to use something more expensive. The side gallery door frame was temporarily placed to help guide the run of the planks. Planking at the bow is complete. Some wood filler added to fill some minor gaps. Stern is almost complete. Instructions call for the planking to stop at the red line on the pic below.. However there are several wood strips 1x2 mm that are placed to separate the printed decorations. If the planking stopped at the red line then the 1x2 strip that goes here would be flush with the 1 mm planking that stops here. Photos in the manual show that this strip is not flush, I decide to continue the planking up to the 1x2 strip already planked aft Starboard side complete. After some sanding, side patterns will be ready to go on. Or I may complete the deck work and 3 cannons that are still to go below deck.