AnobiumPunctatum

Really wonderful progress
 

Work on completing the upper deck framing is coming along nicely.
 

Congrats for finishing this wonderful model.

Congrats for finishing this wonderful model.

Congrats for finishing this wonderful model.

Congratulations!  Very well done!

With Christmas and New Years over, I am commencing upon building my model ship.  Louie da Fly provided the hull plans including the shape of the frames.  After penciling in the remainder of the shape of the frames and the stem post, keel, and stern post, I cut out the shapes.  See the attached photos.  
I will be using basswood.  It is a popular wood for making models in these parts.  There is plenty available in various sizes and shapes in hobby shops and hardware stores at a reasonable price.
Next, I will cut out the stem post, keel, and stern post.  After that, is cutting out the frames, two each.  Before gluing the frames to the keel and posts, I will make a jig to keep the keel and posts upright while gluing.
I named my nef, The Tyburn Treader.  
 

You saw in the last post that the cracks between the planks in the flush carvelbuilt section were uneven and they now looks nicer after I inserted the laths between the planks. I hoped the walnut strips would show up a bit more, but I guess it's nice that they are discreet.

 
These laths should then be protected by iron clamps called sintrels. Here is a picture from another ship from the same period.
 

 
I have looked into manufacturing them by photo etching brass, but I think it will be hard to secure them without gluing and it would look very busy so perhaps I will omit them.

Hi everyone,
Well, it has been a long, long time since I last posted. A number of life-outside-the-shop issues took over, but I am back to the Bellona at last!
 
My plan of work now is to complete the planking and all outboard work, so I can paint the wales and friezes with the hull on its side. Then I can install the lower deck guns and proceed at last with the upper deck. With the lower deck guns installed, I would have no hope of turning the hull on its side for painting.
 
As I got closer to the top with planking, I realized that I would have to install the sheaves (main sheet and tack, fore sheet, sprit topsail sheet) in the sides before the next strake could go on. I thought this would be a fun, short break from planking. It turned out to be over a month of work. They are way more complicated than I ever realized. And I made several mistakes in their fabrication that meant starting over.
 
First the complication. The sheaves on the Bellona are neatly slotted between the sheer and waist rails outboard; and they slope at right angles to the side to arrive inboard just under the clamp. The inboard edge also swings up the fay to the underside of the clamp:

 
And the block in sheer is a symphony of angled lines. The top and bottom of the blocks correspond the sheer line of the hull at their respective locations; the sides are vertical; the sheaves are angled within the blocks to provide a fair lead for the lines:

How to construct these? Since I did not have any router bits that could cut a slot thin enough, I created the slots by laminating blocks, with a groove cut in the side of one with a mill bit. For the double sheaves I laminated a thin sheet in the middle of the block. While the blocks were still square and the slots were parallel to the top and bottom, I drilled the holes for the sheave pins.
 

 
At first, I tried mounting the blocks on my Sherline rotary table on the mill; thinking I could just dial in the appropriate angles in one go. But I simply could not visualize which way angles went relative to each other, and I also stupidly misread the scale on the rotary table, cutting .3 degree rather than 3 degree angles. I ruined several blocks until I discovered this. The sheave hole in the block at the bottom of the previous photo was supposed to be sloped and you can see it is parallel ....
 
To make life easier, I turned instead to using my angle blocks to set up the mill vise at the appropriate angle (see the angles against a square in the photo below). This helped me physically visualize which way things should be aligned. And then I used a mill cutter to cut first the ends and then the sides. the block at the bottom of the photo below is an example of the failed blocks relative to the correct ones with angles:
 

 
And then trimming to get the blocks to their correct sizes. I turned the sheaves in ebony, and used a tiny round file to ease the ends of the slots. Note how the tops of the blocks in the photo below have angled tops to the inner surface; this is to fay to the bottom of the clamp, as seen in the first photo posted above. Also notice how large these puppies are next to my captain. They are tiny in my model, massive on the ship. I can see the laminations on the blocks more than I would have liked; but these are all under the frieze painting and so hopefully this will disappear.
 

 
They are dressed proud where the next strake of planking will come up to them:

 
But the main sheet sheaves had to be cut into finished planking (it did not occur to me to deal with this when I was planking lower down). These were very laboriously cut into finished wood, with much trimming and fitting, trimming and fitting, to do this cleanly. It would have been better to think ahead before the planking was installed here:
 

 
All for now. On to the next strake of planking.
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 

Welcome back, Mark! Those fixed blocks are tricky. looks like you've got them beat though.
 
Had you considered painting your friezes on thin paper and then gluing them to the ship's sides? Contemporary models show that this was often done, rather than painting directly on the wood. I found this much easier to accomplish, particularly when the surface was directed downward!

As I am staining the leaves for the Library display I cannot afford to stir up any sawdust from my shop so I decided to go back to my computer and work on my made fore and mizzen masts.... but before I start that I modelled my 1/2 pound (1-1/2" bore) swivel gun for my fore and main tops (platform).  Originally I saw these as 16 inches long but that was from one reference, a Battlefield 18th century swivel gun manual printed in 2016.  Lewis and Clark had a 1-3/4" bore 22" long barrel swivel gun in 1804.  It's just that everyone I talk to suggests naval guns we scaled down in size so my 1/2 pdr would be 27 to 30 inches long following that train of thought.
 
 At 1:64 scale that makes it just under a 1/2" long!
Now to see if they can be resin printed as my other cannons were done.

Year end update?
My build progress to date:

Only a few frames to go.
If you've been following you know I've also worked on the figurehead, bowsprit, jib boom and associated yards, the rudder and the main mast and tree.
 
But I am again distracted.
I volunteered my time to make a donor wall display for our local library.
 
They wanted something like this.

 
But I proposed this.

 
And I am presently sanding the leaves (yuk).  The edges have been bevelled (45°).  They will be stained (3 different stains for variety) and sealed.
I made card stock templates to locate the hangers so they each dangle at their proper angle.
2" synthetic manila rope for the main branch, 1" for the off shoots to be spliced in.
2 ounce waxed whipping will be used for the sailmaker's whipping to finish the one base end and common whipping for everything else to keep things tiddly!
 

 

My lower mast tribulations:
 
I had previously made my lower main mast as per Steels, Mast Making (1794), Volume 1.1, Tables (dimensions) and plates (drawings) 2 and 3.
I began creating my fore and mizzen lower masts using calculations from formulae in the same publication while referencing plates 2 and 3.  This is when confusions began to arise.  Some calculation did not agree with the table figures and the figures did not completely agree with the descriptions.  For example, the bibs and cheeks are smaller on the drawing then as calculated.  Similar dimensional differences were realized with the main top (platform).
 
So I had to employ "artistic license" and massage the drawing so the two smaller masts didn't outshine the main mast that I'd already made.
Then came the length of the front fish.  Steels plates clearly show them extending below the orlop deck on the main mast, and not so clearly on the foremast for a 74 but quite clearly on a 36 gun ship, so I added it on my 74 foremast.  However there doesn't seem to be a front fish on the mizzen mast.
 
I checked other builds and most don't have this type of detail, or they show the improved shortened and narrowed paunch that came to be about a decade later.
 
I checked my books, the  Anatomy of Nelson's Ships by Longridge shows the short narrow paunch from a decade later.  AOTS Belona by Lavery (figures H) shows no front fish or paunch at all.  Masting and Rigging OESOW by Lee, which are observations on historic models, (section 1, Part 1, page 2) disagrees with Steels plates, stating the length of the older style front fish or paunch on the masts stopped above the upper deck. Then (page 3) states the mizzen mast was not fitted with a front fish as a permanent fitting, but did have a rubbing paunch (?).
I decided to make all my lower masts similarly.  My mizzen mast being so much smaller would have a less prominent front fish.  I also continued my woolding hoops to just above the partners (upper deck) on the mizzen mast, not as shown in Steels.
 
For those interested, below are my drawings for my lower foremast, mizzen mast and their tops.   My drawings print on 8-1/2" x 11" (A size) sheets of paper and are at 1:64 scale.  Each mast drawing is on two sheets that need to be taped together.  The "splice line" is clearly identified.
fore top layout.pdf mizzen top layout-Model.pdf Foremast Cheeks+Fish+Bands - sh 1 of 2.pdf Foremast Cheeks+Fish+Bands - sh 2 of 2.pdf Foremast Layout - sh 1 of 2.pdf Foremast Layout - sh 2 of 2.pdf Mizzen Mast Cheeks+Fish+Bands - sh 1 of 2.pdf Mizzen Mast Cheeks+Fish+Bands - sh 2 of 2.pdf Mizzen Mast Layout - sh 1 of 2.pdf Mizzen Mast Layout - sh 2 of 2.pdf

Wonderfuk pictures of a beautyful model, Ben

Nearly complete! Just a few things to organise and she's done!
 
First, adding the forestay. It seemed to me that it would be sensible to fix its lower end through a hole in the stempost, but the contemporary representations, when they show anything at all, show it wrapped around the stempost, clumsy though that appears. 
 
       
 
So that's how I did it.
 

 
 
Holding the "eye-splice" together at the top of the forestay with a small peg until the glue dried.
 

 
I had already worked out that I would have to cut a hole in the front "wall" of the forecastle for the stay to pass through, so that was already done.
 

 
Putting in lanyards between the pairs of hearts at the bottom of the shrouds to replace the wire spacers. I used a needle to get the thread through the holes.
 
     
 
Shrouds and stays (including backstays) in place and lanyards loosely tied.
 

 
Adding the yard (sorry about the quality of some of these photos!).
 

 
Tightening lanyards. In retrospect I would have made the wire spacers longer so I could pull the shrouds tighter while keeping the upper and lower hearts far enough apart. The shrouds and stays aren't really as tight as I'd like them to be, and I'm a bit worried that they'll start to sag after a while. Note the halyard wound around the windlass.
 

 

 
Making the parrel. The halyard passes through a sheave in the mast (not sure if a rotating sheave is correct for this time and place, despite being in common use in the Mediterranean at the same time - it might have been just a hole in the mast, back in the day). The ropes are a bit furry - it looks worse in the photos than in real life. I tried the beeswax trick too late - I should have done it before I put everything in place.
 

 

 
 

 
Flagpole for the forecastle - in the shape of a spear.
 
           
 
As Winchelsea is one of the Cinque Ports, I'll be using their banner. Here it is on the seal of Dover, and in full colour (but note this is a modern flag - with a stern rudder instead of a side rudder).
 
 
     
 
Adding the crew (at last!)
 
Buisiniers
 

 
Working the windlass - also note the pumps have now been added.
 

 

 
Climbing the backstay to unfurl the sail.
 
      
 
 
 
A little more to do, but getting very close to complete.
 
Steven
 
 

Really nice model.

Really nice model.

I've had a little more time in the shop today and I've now made the counter timber extensions that run up to the taffrail.  
 
They have nice little tenons on the top and were quite easy to make.  It was just a case of making sure that I followed all of the existing angles to the counter timbers and beam so that they sat correctly.
 
I give them a 50/50 chance of surviving until the end of the build as they will be pretty vulnerable as the build progresses.  So if I have to make them again it's not a problem.  I now need to make the parts in-between and the window frames which hopefully I will find some time this week.  Thanks for all of the comments and likes too 🙂
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 

Wow, that is the appearance I like to create also for my HMS Triton. It's a fantastic result

See my post 😉

Hope this helps: 1/48 * x = 1/35 ==> x = 48/35 = 1.3714 or 137.14%

This looks great, Chuck

Congratulations for reaching this milestone. The planking looks perfect

Before starting on the rigging the straps for the deadeyes need to be made. These would be ideal for photoetching (see Siggi's latest postings) but I thought I'd make my own following the illustration by David Antscherl in Volume Two of Speedwell. Keep in mind straps varied in the number of links  based on the size of the vessel and era modelled. Here is the illustration of Speedwell's deadeye straps:
 

 
I used 24g brass straight wire from K&S. The first step was to form the toe loop. It was bent around a 0.33" drill bit using various shaped jewelers pliers.
 

 
Once the toe loop was formed the strap was transferred to a honeycombed ceramic soldering plate with steel pins to hold them in the correct position for silver soldering. I use Euro Tools  paste solder http:// Quote https://www.eurotool.com/search.asp?keyword=silver+solder+paste  and it is a joy to use. I used to have a 25-50% failure rate with silver solder but this self fluxing paste is magic - not one failure in the 18 straps and it flows beautifully. I used the low temperature solder for this application.

 

 
The strap was next cut to length

 
The top was bent into a hook with the round pointed jewelers plyers. 

 
It's extremely difficult to photograph the next step but the hook was tapered on each side to fit into the binding loop of the deadeye. I did this on the Byrnes disk sander and used files to finish.
 

 
Finally, the toe was bent to lie at the correct angle against the hull.

 
All straps are now being pickled before blackening and installing on the hull.

 
I can now start on Speedwell's rigging. I've only fully rigged two models before so this should be a fun learning experience for me. David has gone into great detail in Volume Two of Speedwell detailing every rope and fitting for rigging her so I have no excuse for not doing it correctly.

Thank you very much. 
Photos. j