AnobiumPunctatum

Thanks for all the likes and encouragement. 
 
I got the hull together and began applying the skin. I was anxious to see how the spongy card I found performs. I’m not sure if it’s exactly like hout-board; it does delaminate a little bit and gets fuzzy when sanded, but can be shaped with a firm round object. As I am low on small cannonballs, I rely on my pokemon figures for getting tighter curvature.. always gotta be resourceful. 
Midships is more or less straightforward, but one must start with a little extra material. Can always remove it. Cutting a curved piece is hard so I cut over a large round surface like a bottle of varnish. Towards the ends, you need to start thinking in trapezoids and funky math, but basically just start wide and trim bit by bit. I have no idea how one could finish this all in an afternoon but I imagine experience will help.

 

 
As this is a hypothetical ship, I must invent a name and a story for her. I suppose she must be English. I’ll decide upon a name and think about how that should influence her decoration scheme.   It’s tempting to start six more cardboard hulls as soon as I get her planked, but I think I’ll try to give her some life and complete her so as to uncover all sorts of scratchbuilding riddles and problems to solve.  Deadeyes, blocks, pinrails, fancy beakhead features. Painting different mediums with different paint brands and types on the same model. Problems that I need to find solutions for for future projects. 
 
Meriadoc
 
 
 

Thank you for the likes and enthusiasm!  I’m glad we can share these little projects. 
 
I have the frame together in some sort of order, dry fit for now. 
It took a bit longer than expected and the card stock I ended up with is not the best- too papery and hard to achieve minute precision. But it’s the basic shape which will hopefully at length come together to look nice.  I’m looking forward to getting it glued, skinned, planked, painted, fitted out, and rigged. One bit at a time. 

 

 
-Meriadoc

Well. 
Time for a long-overdue update. 
In July, I managed to sculpt several decorations for the ship, and print out and install a tiny little bird painting for the stern plaque (I’m afraid my imaging skills are what they are). Then it sat around for a month while the summer heat and a bout of sickness had their way with most of August. And finally this week I got back to my little scratch-build, and have been conducting experiments with sail-making and manipulation.
 
Images↓
 
Bird painting courtesy of a friend, much downsized:

Sculpting fun:








Below, I tried an experiment with a quick jury-rig. I was trying to get some wrinkles to stick in a little sail by using watered-down pva. I’m trying to capture the look of hanging, becalmed canvas seen in so many nautical paintings.  I was also hoping the glue would yellow the sail some. It was moderately successful at the wrinkles. More practice needed. And I still need a way to yellow the cloth a little. 


 
It’s supposed to droop over the stay nice and satisfyingly. Not quite there yet. 

Oh, and here are the spars I prepared sometime in July:

That’s all for now. Stay healthy!
-Meriadoc

The belaying pins are now installed in their shroud deflectors. That's a term I had never read before but that's what they're called according to Markquardt. Perhaps they're called pin rails only when affixed to the inner bulwarks. The deflectors have grooves filed on the outboard edge for the shrouds and lashings inboard and are surprisingly strong once attached.  At any rate, I was able to hone my lathe technique to turn out consistent pins. Next it's on to ratlines. Perhaps Archjofo would fly in from Germany to show me how he successfully duplicated actual practice when securing them to the outer shrouds. Personally. I believe he used Photoshop as this is not humanly possible to do.
 

They are looking much better than as your 3d model.

They are looking much better than as your 3d model.

They are looking much better than as your 3d model.

They are looking much better than as your 3d model.

They are looking much better than as your 3d model.

OK, I had my cannon crew print files arrive yesterday, and on Friday, I just so happened to receive my brand new 8k 3d printer (my other two are 4k resolution). These are the first files I printed.
 
The most pics show the 64th scale crew with an Indy 24 pounder gun. There are also shots of the 48th versions.
 
These will be on my website soon.
 
Oh, also, I asked for bases for each as I prefer to attach the majority of the supports to these, rather than the figures themselves, as much as possible.

It's looking really nice, but a shame that you hide your beautyful framework.

It's looking really nice, but a shame that you hide your beautyful framework.

Sanded, termites treated, sanded sealer, wipe on poly  on with satin finish

Hi Chris,
 
will you offer your gun crew also in scale 1/48? The 3D model of them is looking great. I am really intersted in them. Further sailors and officers of the period of the American Wars of Revolution will be a nice add on. 

Hi Chris,
 
will you offer your gun crew also in scale 1/48? The 3D model of them is looking great. I am really intersted in them. Further sailors and officers of the period of the American Wars of Revolution will be a nice add on. 

Hi Chris,
 
will you offer your gun crew also in scale 1/48? The 3D model of them is looking great. I am really intersted in them. Further sailors and officers of the period of the American Wars of Revolution will be a nice add on. 

Hi Christian,
 
Yes, I will offer the sets in 72nd, 64th and 48th.

Hi Chris,
 
will you offer your gun crew also in scale 1/48? The 3D model of them is looking great. I am really intersted in them. Further sailors and officers of the period of the American Wars of Revolution will be a nice add on. 

Oh.
I had the impression you must be some multi-billionaire  🤑
Thought possibly you might want to adopt me.
But if you're not made of money.....
🙄

Thought I would add some close up photo's of Montague.  I was on the NRG site and came across the article by Kurt on taking photo's of ones work and figure I needed to practice  a bit. Guess I have to find a little space for a photo booth when  taking good photo's of my ship.  Well guys one day maybe I get the hang of taking good photo's, hope you enjoy the close up. Gary

Great beautiful work Mark.

Slow but steady progress. I have planked up to the drift rail level, and look forward to cutting those volutes in the drift rail. I started this outboard planking 5 years ago to the day, and this is what I have to show for it. In this period I did cast the guns and prefabricate the beams for the remaining decks, but still slow, slow, slow!
 
My wife is threatening to put my ashes on this ship and push it out into the lake on fire, if I don't get it done before I pass away. So I am highly motivated to keep going....
 
Mark
 

I continue the long work of assembling the gunner deck:








 

There seems to be as many ways to cut a gunport as there are ways to make mistakes.  I had to find a method I was comfortable with... this after all is my first time and I honestly wasn't looking forward to cutting holes into all this work I just got done.
 
After having tooled around long enough trying my hand at various methods of cutting the gunports I finally brought the ship outside and started cutting.  I decided to use a rotary combination drill-saw bit in the flex-cable of my dremel.  The bit has a drill cutter point and rotary cutting notches on the shaft.

It was plunged through at the centre of the square outline, holding a level and square as I could I cut up to within about 1/16" of my upper cut line (top of the upper cill) then changed direction left, then back to the right to free the top of the frames, then back to the middle, then down to within 1/16" of the bottom cut line (bottom of the lower cill)  then cut across to pop them off.

So far I've only been working on upper cills.  I wrapped sand paper over my 1/2" wide flat file and holding it level, I sanded to the upper and lower lines.  I then marked the thickness (height) of my upper cill onto the edge of the frames at each side so I knew where the notch had to stop.  I used my mini triangular file to sideways shape the upper cill notch.  This was cleaned up a bit with a sharp X-acto knife.  In the photo below you will see the sides need to be opened to get the proper opening width.

I then took my cill timber and cut it to a bit more than 1/8" the required length.  This was held to the opening and I pencil marked off the bottom distance of the notch to cut away.  This was cut away in bites with a chisel. Fitted to the opening and sanded to look right on a piece of sand paper laying flat on the table top.  The far side was then cut and shaped to fit likewise.  Below you will see it dry fitted.... almost there.

Then after some more fiddling about it slid into place.  Apply some glue. Assemble. Let sit 20 minutes to grip. Sand flush. Done. On to the next one.

I will post my lower cill installation when I've get around to having a few done and I can (of course) pick out a better looking effort.
(and yes... the aft gunports are a wee bit skewed as they should be! 🤪  )
 

Post One Hundred and Thirty Eight
 
The Skid beams
At this point in history these beams were temporary, held in position by brackets along the Gangway between Qtr deck and Fo’csle.
On the Marshall painting they are not shown, and I have doubts about fitting them.
 
I can see that the number of four beams in the kit has probably been taken from the Pandora AotS book.

Minerva 1780
Four is the number indicated on several contemporary models, but these tend to be larger  Frigates, the Minerva (38) of 1780 being one example.
 
On this beautiful model, as with several others, only the crutches are shown, and I’m of two minds whether adding the  skid beams will enhance or detract from the overall look of this style of model.
 
I certainly don’t want to obscure the Upper deck details.

7438
The beams have been replaced by some pristine 2.5mm x 3.00mm Pearwood stock (Hobbymill EU)

7434(2)
As I’m not big on permanent fixing, if  an alternative is available, I drilled and pinned the skid beams to the brackets.
If you look closely the bracket parts do have bolt holes in the side.

7435(2)
I also considered whether to  fit any or perhaps only one of the boats on the model, or have them set as separate displays within the main model case.
If I am to display a boat on the skids it will be the Pinnace as the most elegant of the three.
 
The artist in me is drawn to the clean uncluttered look of the Navy board style model, the detail demon in me says if its there and applicable – fit it.

7442

7443

7444

7446
I’m not convinced that I like the look of the bare cradles on the beams.
 
Were I building a fully rigged version I would not have these concerns but Navy Board style models are of a different order, and often less is more in relation to this type.
 
I will  ponder the matter further while I attend to the Port lids.
 
 
B.E.
 
06/07/2022