DaveBaxt

Sorry to return to this subject but as I now approach the building of the masts I need to get their sizes nailed down. Using the breadth of the model as 145 mm the main lower mast for that period 1758 to 1761 For a 6th rate ship equates to 330.6 mm. Although this is longer than the Caldercraft drawing mast of 293 mm ,they woulld be pretty much the same height above the partners . Using the Main lower mast length as the datum pretty much all the other masts and yards work out ok until I come to the main and fore topgallant yards.According to Caldercraft drawing these are both 150mm each. Now according tp Lees calculations these are calculated as 0.5 of the main topsail yard which is 0.5 x 198.36 = 99.2 mm Quite a bit under. the 150 proposed by Caldercraft , I would have thought. Then we come to the fore topgallant yard , also 0.5 x fore topsail yard which is 0.5 x 178.5 mm which is 89.2. This is smaller but this I beleive to be expected but still too short. The only thing I think I could be going wrong with this is using the comparison of a 6th rate ship. As I understand it the HMB Endeavour is not rated so where do I go from here regards the topgallant yards. Interestingly enough the length of the mizzen mast is much higher than proposed by the Caldercraft drawing and therefore the shrouds will then be clear of the rail. Which was why I raised the initial question. One answer would be if some one was kind enough to work out the sizes for a scale of 1: 64 from the AOTS book just for the main and fore topgallant yards would be fantastic and I would be more than gratefull for their help. For the record I also worked out the sizes from the Monfield book and again the Topgallant yards are pretty much the same as the Lees 6th rate ship.but still a bit on the small size I would have thought and also worked out from the breadth of the ship. I am almost at the point of just using the sizes from the Caldercraft drawings apart from the length of the mizzem mast. as they will all probably look ok and hopefully not top heavy. Thank you for your continued patience. Best regards Dave

Some fantastic looking deck fittings and hatch covers etc. I hope I can build a Dianna in the future half as good as yours. I do sometimes wonder how accurate the AOTS book is. I am another owner of such a book as I managed to pick this up on the cheap. This is one of the reasons why I am thinking of building the Diana but as I say I do wonder how accurate the position of deck fitting and sizes of various items and wonder where Caldercraft get there information from and wonder what your thoughts are on this. I do hope I am not distracting you too much from your progress. Best regards Dave

Some great looking rigging work and I like your mouse on your stays. and well done with your the rest of your build of the Diana. I have been considering building the Diana for a while so its great to see another blog of a excellent build of this ship. I am looking forward to your continued progress. Best regards Dave

I see that now and once again thank you for your effort. Best regards Dave

Please accept my apologies for asking , it is only because you were discussing ships boats and I was then hoping that it was only a matter of paccking the parts together in bags. I now appreciate that there is more to it than that and it will take you a lot more time. I therefore thank you kindly for your time and effort. Best regards Dave

Vane. Thank you for your tips on planking. It is always nice to hear different ideas on how to go about this piece of work. Hope you return to building the Diana in the near future as I look forward to your progress. I am considering building the Diana as I have mmanaged to get my hands on the AOTS book for this ship so it will be interesting to see if there are any differences in the kit. The other reason I wish to build here is I fancy doing one of the big ones but I am still not sure where to put her. You have a huge project on your hands there , so I will wish you good luck and remember to keep us all posted. Best regards Dave

I like that method too using elastic bands bands for securing planks/ strakes, especially the second planking where we are not allowed to use any nails. keep up the good work. everything is looking very neat. Your workmanship is of a very high standard. I am looking forward to your progress. Best regards Dave.

Chris. Any update in putting those boats together what we previously discuused. Longboat - approx. 94mm long Pinnace - approx. 96mm long Yawl - approx. 68mm long Skiff - approx. 106mm long Sorry for contacting you so soon so no problem if they are not ready yet. So forgive me for being so too keen. Best regards Dave

Thank you for raising these questions as it is another reminder to me as I approach my second build with 18th century rigging that the last time I did the rigging was to build the masts and then attach the rigging whilst the mast were fitted on the ship. Although I managed to complete (apart from the rigging which is used for the sails ) rigging it was not without a few hurdles. I started from the center and worked outwards and also from the bottom to the top. This time I am thinking of trying a different approach. I do like the idea of attaching all the rigging to the masts away from the ship before attaching the masts and rigging to the ship but wonder if this would actually work in practice. Great thread by the way and I hope you do not mind me adding my own thoughts on this subject. I hope you get the answers you require and good luck with your future builds. Best regards Dave

Andrew. She is coming on nicely and what a cracking little boat. How did you find doing the single layer of planking? I am assuming this is also done in pear and is it easy to work with? I also wonder at bending the planks off the medel and allowing to dry as I have always pre soaked my planks and then bend on the model and dry using a heat iron other than edge bending which i do off the model ( Chucks method) Good luck with this project and I look forward to following your progress.

Fortunately I am in luck as Chris has kindly sorted me out with something which is very similar to the sizes and similar to the types of boats supplied by Calsercraft. but there ends the similarity Mainly the Long boat, Pinnace, Yawl and skiff. In the mean time I can move onto the masts and I still need to make up the Lantern down aft. So still have lots to be getting on with. I may have a try at planking one of the Caldercraft boats as I need some practice at seeing what its like planking such small items. So might have a go at this before attempting the real thing.

Moving onto the ships boats and first up is the Pinnace. This is my first attempt at building a ships boat from the ground up. My first boat build was the one for the Bounty which was cast in metal and did not look too bad when painted. According to what little research I have done the Endeavours boats consisted of A long boat, a Pinnace and two skiffs. According to Endeavour she has One Long boat, One Pinnace , one Yawl and a skiff. Here is my attempt at putting together the keel and the flat bottom of the boat after trying to fit each bulkhead to the keel and breaking each bulkhead at the recess at the keel I decided to attempted a different approach fitting the flat base before fitting the keel was met with some success. However in view that the size of the boat the difficult I would have and the vague nstructions moving forward I have decided to see what boats Vanguard models have to offer and hopefully they have 4 boats of similar size I can use. I understand that the long boat is sometimes refered to as Cutter. Here are the actual sizes of the model boats measuring the length of the keels Size of model sizes Size @ 1: 64 Size in imperial Possible boat to consider Long boat (Cutther) 95 mm x 32 mm 6080 mm x 2048 mm 19' 11" x 6' 8 " 20' Cutter Pinnace 96mm x 27 mm 6144 x 1728 20' 5' x 5' 8 " ? Skiff 104 x 22 6656 x 1408 21' 10" ? Yawl 69 x 27 1656 x 1728 5' 5" x 4' 5" ? There are quite a few boats that Vanguard models supply but a lot of them seem to be a bit larger than the boats supplied by Caldercraft for the Endeavour kit but hopefully Chris will be able to help me out with something similar.

Made 12 hooks out of copper eye pins and drilled end of the 2 mm blocks for gun tackle. I didn,t fancy laying coils of rope on the deck as can,t see how this would be done in practice although not sure what the standard of safety practices were in those days. I found this part of the build the most difficult so far. I probably went through about 50 x 2 mm blocks and the same amount of eye pins during the process. I made a big error when making up the guns and kept them all the same angle so when they were pulled up through the bulwarks/ports they were all at different heights compared to the cap rails due to the sloping deck.Hopefully I can change the elevation of the gun barrels by adjusting the wedges. Unfortunately I glued these into position so might not be able to do that. Also I think I would probably fit the guns before fitting anything else on the deck to allow for more room when working with the cannons. If my next model also has more than 6 cannon I think I will probably just fit the breaching rope. Anyway here is my progress so far. Just need to give the ropes a coating of diluted PVA glue.Not the best of workmanship but I found this part more than a little stressful and time consuming.

Derek . You definately have the hang of using those machine tools and such fine tolerances. Hope you don,t mind but I may have to pick your brains at some time in the future for when I am doing my masts and see what your take on ways to get around that. using your machine tools. Hope you don,t mind. I won,t bother you too much for now and just let you get on with what is turning out to be a really fine model and what we can all aspire to. Looking forward to seeing your progress and updates. Best regards Dave

Me too! Its a no from me. Interesting you say about scraping though Allan and will give this a try the next time I am doing any planking.

Looks like something that would be great but wionder if it actually works.Currently unavailable on Amazon.They are currently sold in the uk but for over £60 is a bit expensive for what it actually is. I will be also interested on peoples view so go post Dave

Thank you Phil for that kind offer and I might take you up on that, especially when I come to putting the masts together. I have been searching for that AOTS book for Captain Cooks Endeavour a long time but even second hand, the prices are somewhat scandalous . I have managed to get a copy of the HMS Diana and have been considering using this for my next build. Although I have not been using that book comparison and there are a lot of similarities but I have not used it for sizes etc.

You have chosen a fantastic ship to build and I look forward to seeing your progress with your model so keep us posted during 2022. Good luck and happy new year. Best regards Dave

Fantastic workmanship. Happy new year and good luck in your retirement. I think we will see a lot more of you as there is nothing holding you back now. Always great to see your progress.Best regards Dave

Completed the 4 x Anchors and run the chord through the iinboard hawse to the foorward anchors which ends up in holes drilled into the deck which I assume is into the hold.The chord is supplied with the kit which was a bit light for my liking so stained it with tea for half an our to tone it down a bit. The positions of the anchors will need to be changed once I have fitted the shrouds and I am not sure what to do with the aft anchors and wether or not to attach the ropes to these as I am not sure where they are supposed to go. Ie do these also take a turn around the capstan. Moving on now to the 4 lb cannon . I have now managed to complete the Breeching lines which you can see are not yet attached to the ship until I figure out the best way to fit the gun tackle. It is my intention to use 2 mm blocks ( the smallest I can find) but I do not have any double blocks at this size only 3 mm. So I will try and use just single blocks only. I am also not sure what to do wiith the tackle falls but thnk wrapping the ends around the tackle seems to be what a few people have done and looks quite tidy so I might try this. I found when fitting the Breeching it was easier to wrap the rope around the cascabel first and securing it underneath before seizing the ends to the eye bolts. Hope this makes sense.

Great thread and has help me in understanding a bit more of the world of rigging a period ship. Than you

Thank you for taking up your time to explain this to me and it very much now makes sense . I also read somewhere that the studding sails higher up were not introduced until 1771 which was after the Endeavour was built but don't quote me. Interesting that when I built the model of the Bounty of similar period there were no studding sail booms attached to the channels or kept inboard on the deck ( according to the kit) but that is not to say there weren't any. There were however studding sail booms on the lower yards on the Bounty . Unfortunately I do not own the AOTS Endeavour so it is difficult to find the exact layout for this ship, so i am just having to go with general layout for this period.of ship and using books by Mondfeld, Lees etc. Although the Lees book is very precise in explaining just about every piece of rigging there is. For me it assumes that you already know quite a bit. Best regards Dave

Thanks once again Allan for your quick response. That is what I think I was trying to say but why has one ship and not another carry the stunsails from topsail yards for a similar period. Was this down to the captains discresion or some5hing else. Please forgive my ignorance for I am not sure what the stunsail yards are if not just the yards which carry the small diameter spars, called the stunsail booms. Looks like I need to go back to Lees book and read some more and hope the penny finally drops. There is still so much to take in and the more I continue to learn the more I realize I don,t understand. However frustrating it becomes all I can say is that I am a willing student and hopefully one day it will all fall into place. I have just done some reading form Mondfeild book which explains what the Stunsails are and a very good picture of the difference between the stunsail booms and stunsail yards. however I still don,t know why the Endeavour does not carry a topgallant stunsail boom, where as the Bounty does. Another question has arisen which is, where are the stunsail yards kept if the model is not carrying the sails? Best regards Dave

Hopefully I am correct in thinking that these were carried on both lower and top yards on main and fore masts. In 1761. However on my Caldercraft Endeavour she only has the stunsail booms on the lower yards fore and main .However there are I think are spare booms attached to the outer main mast channels. Could this be where the top stunsail booms would be carried if not in use or are these just spares for the lower yards . If I am got this wrong what would be the criteria for deciding if the ship would have stunsail booms on the top yards or not. Also that my first model the Bounty did have these but wonder why the Endeavour model has not but both of a similar time. Best regards Dave

Update . Continued with deck fittings including the 2mm blocks for the steering gear and used 0.25 mm for the tiller rope and 0.5 mm for the pendents ( sizes taken from Lees book) Once again I found the 2 mm blocks difficult to work with but I persevred and finally managed it. Also I used 0.1mm thread for the doors for the transom windows and wondering if this should be larger but used the same size for the handrail for the walkway over the tiller arm. I have also secured the binicle in place again using the 0.1 mm thread. I have made a start on the anchors but found the stocks supplied with the kit unsatisfactory as they are the wrong shape so made some up using my miller the same size 2 pieces 3 x 6mm x 60 mm for each anchor. I then machined the slots and then glued the two parts together with the stock in the centre. I also made the rings out of 1 mm brass wire as suggested on the drawing. I am almost ready to star the gun tackle but as yet I have not decided how much I need to show and will try to use 2 mm blocks again and try not to have any coils of rope lying on the deck. I think the next part is going to be quite awkward. After placing the bowsprit into position I ave noticed that it does not lie in the correct position as the brackets for the boomkins are getting in the way so will need to move these so that the bowsprit sits between them hopefully the the bowspit will sit on top cutwater/stem and lie at the correct angle.