Strelok

I must admit, that I'm a bit lazy. Instead of doing as I planned and start the many small parts (where I have to think!! 😥), I redrew the rig with its new and final dimensions.

The gaff boom seems a bit long. Maybe I'll shorten it later by around 2m (it's now around 12m long)

The time, where I can work on the Packet in order to procrastinate my other two modelling projects will be over in the foreseeable future. Many plans and detail sketches are done and grouped together, so that they fit onto a DIN A4 sheet of paper (297 x 210mm or 11,693" x 8,268").

The lower left plan will include all parts, that have a diameter.

I have a list of parts, that stillt need to be drawn. This list includes a dozen items. After they are done, I will take care of the oversized rig. My plan is to delete the toppgalant mast, but keep the yard. Once the rig is drawn and placed on the plan, I will stop working on the Packet and finish my two other projects. Once these are done, it will be the Packet's turn. I'M really looking forward to it. I'm really proud of how the plans look.

Today I finished all bulkheads.

The left group will be done with 4mm thick plywood and the right group with 2mm thick stuff. The next step on this front will be the backbone and its separation from stem post, stern post and keel.

Furthermore I separated the decks and cabin roofs from another to plan the planking.

H.M.S Mosquidobit (ex-Lynx) was a topsail schooner. She was rebuilt in the 90's and is sailing again. She is a damn sexy vessel 

I want to build her, too, one day. I'll be following excitedly 

Today I made good progress on the bullwarks. All are drawn. The last things missing are the slits for the backbone and the mast. They will be added in he next session 

Swivel guns were mentioned separately in the article. 

The whole section reads like this:

"On December 25, 1686, a Spanish expedition [...] left Veracruz to sail along the Gulf Coast. On April 4, they reached Matagorda Bay and dispatched several canoes to explore the area. 3 miles from their ship, they discovered La Belle, which they described as a "broken ship" with three fleur-de-lys on her stern.

The Spanish salvaged two swivel guns and five cannons from the ship, as well as the anchor, some cordage, and the masts, which they made into oars."

I have a question concerning La Belle's armament:

It is said (only according to Wikipedia, I know), that the Spaniards recovered five guns , when they discovered the wreckage. Two further guns were excavated by the historians and one gun was presumed missing.

That brings the total number to 8, but all reconstructions show her being pierced for only six. Were two guns carried as cargo or is there an error in the reconstructions or in my brain? 

Can you describe the process of graphically determining the CoG for a basically irregular shape like a ship's hull? The CoG of the rig should be no problem for me 

Yes, I'm quite sure. I took the sloop Mediator and several sloops from the Danish archive and took their mast and yard lengths in relation to the vessels breadth. Their respective diameter was put into relation with the part's length. These relation numbers were added for each part and divided by the number of vessels. This way, I got an average dimension for each part. These average numbers were applied to the Packet.

I got a bit of the rigging plan done, while my Junior is taking a nap.

This is the current stage: All mast and yard dimensions were taken from my Excel-sheet, I mentioned above. Measured from tip to toe, she is 29,198 m high and 29,767 m long (that's 95,794 foot and 97,661 respectively). Essentially, she is a triangle in a square - viewed from the side. I don't know any specifics, but this feels like good proportions.

While drawing this, I procrastinated the drawing of the individual bullwarks. That's my next step. After that comes the standing and running rig. I'll make a seperate plan for each. I'll use the rigging plan of the golden Yacht as a template, because the packet's rig is basically the same like the Yacht with the addition of the gaff boom, another sail and the jib boom. So the number of "loose ends" is manageable and for the most part, I already have a rough idea, where these ends need to go.

Hi guys,

Today I can present you some real progress and not just some theoretical thoughts. 

I cancelled the whole Golden Yacht project, because in the end, I don't really like the look of her, but wanted to use her as a base for the Mary II. Bit as she was 5m shorter and had 1m less depth, there were just too much opportunities to mess up. But I found the hull plan for HMY Fubbs, a ketch rigged Yacht and the two ships looked quite similar except for the rigging. So I will use these plans as a base. But that's a story for another day. Before that, I will build the Packet. 

I will go for 1/60th scale, because I want to build both (Packet and Mary) in the same scale to show their size compared to another. But the Mary is almost twice as long. In 1/60th scale, the Packet is not too small (hull around 20cm long) and the Mary not too big (just a bit longer than 33cm).

Concerning the CAD-issue:

I tried some free software (LibreCAD), but found it uncomfortable to work with. So I decided to use the SEMA program, that I work at my job with. It is originally intended to design and plan wooden houses, but you can also draw lines and circles and so on AND I know, how to use it. That's a big plus. Fortunately, there is a free try-and-learn-version, that doesn't run on a time limit. They just warn you to not use the T&L-plans in a professional context, which I do not intend. 

Here are my first results: 

Here I copy-pasted a scan of the original plans into SEMA in 1/1 scale. 

I drew all plans, that I thought, I might need:

Top left: the cabins

Top mid: stern gallery 

Right: side view to measure something like wales and so on

Lower left: the backbone

Upper picture:

mid: deck plan

Lower: outlines of the bullwarks

I entered another layer and started drawing the rigging. The mast has its final length, the bowsprit/jibboom will be a bit longer. Height from keel to top is around 29 m, length (from the gallery to the jibboom-top) around 28 m.

When all plans and parts are drawn, I will scale them down (automatically... I just enter the scale), convert them into .pdf-files and print them at work. 

I really like the look of the sails. You managed to give them some weight - as an illusion at least. I hope, my Chapman Sloop will look half as good as yours

The day of New Year's Eve has started (it's about 7 a.m. around here) and it's tradition to think about the past year and its decisions. 

I've made some modeling decisions and I want to share my thoughts about them, if you may. 

1. Finish all other projects, before starting a new one.

That's definitely a good decision, but it's so hard to follow 😅 new ideas almost every day. A long time, I was able to withstand, but my "will wall" is crumbling. 

2. Shelve the projects of the Berlin and the Friedrichsburg, in order to build the easier Packet sloop. 

Yep, also a right move. Many, many small steps in order to improve, not a big one for the risk of a "fail" or disappointment. 

3. Build the Packet BIIIG.

I've found this decision to be one of my bad ones this year. As Merriadoc Brandybuck said, if the model is bigger, it needs to be more detailed and I don't have A) the knowledge, how each detail looked and where it needs to be and I don't have that much space! The Packet would be almost 70cm long and its longest yard around 50cm long. If I want to build a few ships, I need to build them smaller. This also helps with the details and learning curve. Furthermore, I don't have some of the tools, to build the Packet to a good looking finish - like a mill or a lathe. 

So my new plan is

1. Finish at least the most of my current projects. 

2. Decide on a new scale for the Packet and simplify my plans (that means not drawing 20+ new bulwarks)

3. Build another Golden Yacht, but a bit bigger 

Concerning this last point: it's more of an exercise. I'm familiar with the Yacht, as I've already built one from the same plans. I know the challenges, these plans come with and I'm already working on eliminating them. I enlarged the plans by 75%, so the hull will be about 25cm long. This gives me some opportunities for detailing. I don't know, if I create a thread for the Yacht, but I will work on the Packet's plans in parallel, so there will be updates. 

I also think about changing the plans for the Yacht, so that the result looks more like the HMY Mary II of 1677, but have not yet decided, as the Mary has 1m deeper draft and is around 5m longer. So the changes on the bulwarks and backbone would be big.

I'm also considering starting to work with a free 2D-CAD-software, but haven't decided yet, which one to choose. 

Today I practiced with my dremel tool. Both the wing and face were done without any drawings or sketches. So, for a first time, I'm very satisfied. 

Concerning the face: I was surprised, how DECISIVE the cheek bones are. Before I cut them, there was just an oval blob with a bump in the middle, but after this - a face. Not a pretty one, but a face

Nice figurehead! I think, I will keep this picture in mind as an inspiration for my packet boat as Hermes was the god of mail and postmen and so on 

I had a revelation today *facepalm*

With the help of modern technology and a little bit of magic, I don't have to draw all plans a second time. I just need to put them onto a copier, rescale them to 109% and print them! I think, it's just as easy as it sounds 🤪

So, a quick update:

I formulated three options about how to proceed after realizing, my plans are 9% too small.

1. Just proceed like nothing happend and build with two different scales. -> This is my least favourite, I won't do it
2. Shrink the rig dimensions to fit the hull. -> My second least favourite, because I planned to display the packet with some figures, which do have a scale of 1/35th, so essentially, it's also two different scales

3. Redraw EVERYTHING! -> The most work-intensive, but the one option that won't bother me everytime I look at.

I copied the packets plans from ANM onto a sheet of millimeter-grid paper. With the help of excel, I generated a grid of 2,7mm x 2,7mm. This way, I should be able to enlarge the plans just by counting squares. Should this not work somehow, I will turn to Option 2 and use the plans, that I have and adjust the rig dimensions.

Furthermore, I've drawn the anchor using and altering the template, Wolfram zu Mondfeld provides.

So, I did a bit of excel-magic

St. Croix and the Korsar are ship's plans out of the danish archive. The Chapman Skizze refers to its sketch of a sloop rig on plate LXII. The diameter ratios are out of proportion, because everything was 1mm thick and therefore not usable.

The rough process was entering the measurements, that were taken from the original plans. Converting these into metric was done by the programme, as was calculating the ratios. For the bottom right table, it was the other way around. I measured the breadth from the plan in the ANM and let excel calculate the average ratio for each position. I then let excel multiply the ratio with the breadth and so on. So, although the sample is very small, I have here the average dimensions for a sloop rig.

Now looking at it, I've found, that there must be an error in the topgallant mast section and maybe in the yard section, too.

PS: I solved the issue. The average ration for the mast is equal to E7, ergo 1,1786 and the one for the yard is 1,4412. This equals a mast length of 516,85 cm and 631,98 cm for the yard or in scale 14,77 cm and 16,15 cm respectively.

During this process, I realized, that my plans have an incorrect scale ... again 😖 the breadth is 1cm too small and the length 3cm. Sooooo... I need to think about this. Redraw all plans to match the scale or just ignore it.

Stay tuned

Unfortunately, my danish is non existent, so can anybody translate the text written on sketch G 2001 II? It confuses me, that there are two different rigs drawn.

Concerning the very narrow yards: I think, my error lies in not reading Chapman thoroughly. He says concerning his rigging templates, that the length of the yards measured there "have [...] their half length". This taken into account, the crossjack yard is not 15,6cm long but 31,2cm with its diameter increasing from 2,8mm to 5,6mm. This brings with it a conflict with Mondfeld's numbers, BUT I must admit, that I've taken the numbers provided for the mizzen mast of a ship-rig. I guess, they can't really be applied to a small sloop rig 🤔

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

The yards actually look quite narrow. The main course (Breitfock) then appears to be rather narrow and heigh. Top- and topgallant-sails look more in the typical proportions.

That's what I thought, too. I guess, there is an error in my calculations. 

I will check this again 

I know the danish drawings. I've even saved them on my hard drive. *face palm* thanks for reminding 🙏 

@bruce d thank you for this link. I will take a look at it

A quick update: I've done a first sketch for the rig. 

Note: this is roughly a third of the size of what it will be, when it's being built. The rig will be drawn in full size as soon as it's finalised. 

here is a list of the dimensions. Written in black and blue are the original lengths and diameters, in green you can see the down-scaled dimensions for 1/35th.

From top to bottom:

Mast, top mast, bowsprit, jibboom, crossjack yard, cross-topyard, cross-royalyard, gaff, gaff boom.

I've based my calculations on the dimensions of the Sloop "Mediator" and the ones, Mondfeld gives in his book. Where their measurements differed greatly, I've stuck to the "Mediator".

There is no need for speed while building models (of any kind). If you rush things, you either make mistakes, that need to be corrected, or you end up with a result, that doesn't look good in your eyes. You will always see this "imperfection" and regret your rush. I've been there myself and for a matter of fact, I'm still in the process of improving my patience 😅

So take all the time you need to build the best model that you can 

So, basically yes, although the ships of the Roebuck-class (like Serapis) were never called frigates officially and had a heavier armament 18/9 or 18/12 later vs. the Nereid's 12/6.

Am I right in thinking, that "frigate of the 1st order" just means "ship-of-the-line" or is this a really, really heavy frigate? 

A quick update:

the first sketches for the frames are done

The sketches for the frames C and D are done, too, but I don't have pictures of them at the moment. It's a low progress. I need approximately 30min for one frame. Having to do 18 frames, it will take me at least 9 hours time, if I get everything right at the first time 🤔 I don't expect to be this fast xD We have a saying in Germany: "Mühsam nährt sich das Eichhörnchen." Translated into english it means roughly "Tediously eats the squirrel". I think this can be applied here 😆 but if one rushes a task, one will do mistakes