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Mike_H

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Posts posted by Mike_H

  1. Final post for a while while I, the Admiral and one of my bikes seek a couple of months of winter sun.  The hull and deck furniture are pretty-well complete - apart from guns, channels and one or two other things.  No major traumas (that I can remember).  Opted for the PE gratings, as the rebates in the coamings were sized for them, rather than the laser-cut pear wood.  IMG_7423.thumb.jpeg.e5ab1e9d4f355c974c42f3eead43d08a.jpegIMG_7413.thumb.jpg.5e673b6dca418f8735c205f187720899.jpg

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    As a piece of painterly whimsy I decided the sky-light is glazed and the glazing bars are painted white. And as I have before, I fitted a copper rain cap on the galley flue

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    That's it for now.  Back in the spring.

     

     

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  2. Done some decorating - of the hull that is.  Fitted the rough tree rail, and the rather beautiful scroll decorations.  As an original act, I chose to paint the outboard edge of the rail in yellow ochre to match the other embellishments.  To good effect, I think.IMG_7303.thumb.jpeg.550b03616ab6db14e5436da89116b25c.jpegIMG_7309.thumb.jpeg.096b2a4ba125cdf81fa2ffa389f04fbc.jpeg

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    I found the rough tree rail rather challenging - mainly because the cut-outs in the capping rail were smaller that the size of the various inserts.  I thought I could just trim these latter with a scalpel, but it ended up a bit rough and ready.  Should have used my Proxxon mill.

     

     

    Installing the decorative scrolls was time consuming but went well.  The manual suggests spraying the paint on while the parts are still attached to the PE sheet to avoid getting dobs of paint on the reverse.  Spraying paint in the the spare bedroom was never going to happen, so I did as follows

    Stuck the unpainted PE parts on masking tape, painted the PE pieces, sliced the tape around one piece, pulled that tape off (revealing the unpainted reverse - success!), trimmed the paint with a small scalpel

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    I attached the PE to the hull using @James H's floor polish method.  Works astonishingly well.  

     

     

  3. And so, I have progress to report.  Let me show you where I am up to.

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    As you can see, the hull is painted and substantially complete.  Given how many blunders and the odd challenge, I'm amazed how well she passes the "30cm test" - in fact I think she looks drop-dead gorgeous with beautiful lines and very fetching paintwork - all credit to the designers.

     

    In the blunders camp, despite the clear instructions to the contrary, I used satin varnish to seal the the woodwork, having done so in all my previous models, but then neglected to either scratch or sand it when gluing further components - they fell off - a lot. I also discovered subtle variations in the shape of the hull which meant fitting the transom proved a right royal pain.  I think those arose because I didn't quite get the sanding of the frames right, and because I chose minimal bending of the 1st and 2nd planks, I ended up sanding a lot of planking off.  Essentially I rushed.  Still, lesson worth learning.

     

    The biggest challenge can be seen here:

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    There is a gap between the counter (attached weeks ago) and the transom attached just before the first photo (I knocked it off about 30s later - learnt my lesson and stuck it on properly).  I cannot work out what, if anything I did wrong, but a little seam of Milliput sorted things out.  When sanded and painted, the stern looks fine.

     

    I was also rather perplexed over where to fit the side counter timbers.  The fig on p24 (and later) of the manual, and the photo on p 32 show different things.  I opted for the latter, as can be seen in the opening pics.  Had I known I was going to do that, I wouldn't have tapered the main wale at the stern, but I think I will leave it as it is, now. 

     

    Hope to get a little more done before Christmas, but the full Admiralty Board will be in residence, with a supernumerary flag officer arriving this week, so that might slow the work of the shipyard (not to mention make it off-limits to all those below the rank of captain), and have the shipyard Matey too busy swabbing and knuckling his forehead to get any useful work done. So Merry Christmas one and all - or Happy Holidays, if you'd rather.

     

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  4. It's been a while.  But I have some progress to share after a fantastic late summer of travel and cycling (sometimes combined!)

     

    Anyway, I've finished the second planking (give or take a rub-down with some 320 grit, and another coat of varnish).  I set myself the challenge of getting a respectable result with no soaking/heating of the pear strip wood, or use of pins.  The test being: would I be will just to varnish the hull, and not paint most of it (though I do plan to paint her)? 

     

    I followed the usual advice and divided the hull into three zones - two initially and then a third - built myself a spreadsheet and shaped the planks as I went. I find shaping the planks with a knife and a ruler very hit and miss so instead marked up the cut lines and then held them in a plank clamp with the cut lines aligned with the tops of the jaws.  I then simply planed off the waste - typically at the forward end and at the aft.  I could clamp 6 strips together so shaping was relatively quick (once I got the hang of it).  I chamfered each plank on one edge by mounting the strip in the clamp and then inclining the plane.  Annoyingly I forgot to do this bit for the first few planks.  Holding the planks in place while the CA set was 80% trivial, 10% challenging and 10% near impossible.  Got better at it but future projects will require a bit of thought.

     

    For sanding the hull, I started with 80 grit paper using a set of Occre sanders.  Slow process.  I happened to be in B&Q and saw they had Black and Decker "Mouse" palm sanders for £11!!  I recalled @James H saying that @chris watton had talked him into buying a palm sander, so thought I could risk £11 on (yet another) power tool.  It was transformational!  Particualrly after I had finished the first cut and then applied a small amount of acrylic filler - which, as I have said before, sets rock hard.  After that second sanding at 80, I went up through the girts to 240 just using the Occre tools.

     

    And here she is after that sanding

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    I struggled to get the planks to fit well at the prow and the stern.  Almost inevitably getting a good fit at the prow and then cutting them short at the stern. If you zoom in on the last pic, above, there's quite a lot of filler on show. A rather greater challenge arose with the top planks at the stern.  They are essentially unsupported and one of them was not well attached to the first planking beneath.  Some overzealous (hand) sanding knocked it loose.  A little very thin CA reattached it, and I then put in a bracing strut, visible athwartships at the stern here, that I will remove shortly.

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    While sanding I noticed the familiar protruding-plank-that-doesn't-sand-down.  That is, a plank not attached to the 1st planking beneath it.  Fortunately I noticed this before I sanded it through and could anchor it using the very thin CA again. Turns out that there was a handful of such defects, all on the port side. Perhaps I held the planks differently on port and starboard sides while gluing them

     

    And so here she is with one coat of varnish applied

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    And so would I be willing to display this varnished and unpainted?  No, not quite. There are two flaws that annoy me but I could live with : first, and most annoyingly , not bevelling some of the upper planks, resulted in some noticeable gaps between planks (filled with CA and so not now fillable) and second, the lay of some of the planks is not quite as natural as would be desired.  But the real killer is that I needed to colour the filler and made the rookie error of matching that colour to dry, unvarnished planks.  As the aft view shows, that's not great.  But when all is said and done, I'm pleased with the overall job. 

     

  5. I undertook the 1st planking with medium care.  Planks were soaked in water, for 4+ hours, roughly trimmed and then pinned in place while wet.  After drying overnight they were removed and then glued and pinned in place.  I typically did 3 or 4 planks to starboard and to port, at a sitting

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    The end result, prior to filling and sanding, was a little rough, but well-within acceptable bounds, I thought.

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    I had only intended to use a little filler, but the nozzle on the tube was blocked, so I slit it open and then had mountains to use or throw away.  I've lived in Yorkshire too long to throw anything away, so I thought: more must be better.  It's not! Acrylic filler sets rock hard, so sanding it down is a pain.  It takes a long time and it's easy to sand off timber and leave filler behind.  So it was out to the garage where there's an abundance of power tools.  Just about avoided sanding off too much timber - but it's close!

     

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  6. So, to progress.  High-quality kit design and documentation mean that the last couple of weeks have been pretty smooth sailing.  The odd bit of sunshine means that modelling has not been top priority, and my capacity to rush at things means there have been one or two minor issues

     

    My warm feelings towards MDF bulkheads have grown: sanding them down takes minutes, not hours and simple hand tools are more than sufficient. Here are the end results

     

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    However, I should have dry-fitted the keelson before ploughing on, and then I would have seen where the bearding line was with a little more precision.  Never mind, a small amount of Milliput meant that I could put back what over-zealous sanding had removed.

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    So ready for first planking.

     

     

     

  7. On 8/7/2023 at 9:58 AM, AJohnson said:

    Hi Mike, looking forward to seeing this take shape, I enjoyed following your Snake build. 
    “Alert” has been on my radar for a while, then Chris went and released “Trial” and I couldn’t resist! 😊

    Thanks Andrew.  I just saw your Trial log when I opened MSW - will go back and have a look when I've finished posting here.

  8. Welcome!  Lake Constance is a fabulous place . A friend and I did the bike ride around it the summer before Covid - fabulous scenery, villages and food. Some beer too.  Really sorry to hear you have had the long version, but given time, you will get better.  And in the meantime - build models!  I'm and engineer, too, and I had a great time working on my Snake model - plenty of geometry to do, especially after I bought a Proxxon milling machine!

     

    Cheers

     

    MIke

  9. Box looks lovely, though hard to photograph!

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    Contents even better.  I'm particularly struck by the quantity and quality of materials that add embellishment.  The hull is modest in scale, the rig fairly simple, but the fittings, and in particular the photo-etched brass, are a joy to behold.

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    But to building!  

    First, I should say I'm an instant convert to MDF and laser cutting.  The bulkheads and false keel are very easy to separate from their frame, and slot together very neatly. There's a bit of give, so had I followed he instructions and glued those as a first step, quite a lot of clamping would be needed.  But I didn't.  I carried on and dry assembled until I had this:

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    Which is so thoroughly braced that it is essentially rigid and square.  I didn't attach the stern frames (though I should have).  I also didn't do any sanding other than of bulkhead 10 - Dremel and I will go outside next week.  I then painted diluted PVA (3:1 glue:water) around all the joints.  A real joy to benefit from such accurately machined parts and such clever design.

  10. This is my third build, and while I really do want to build a frigate, it suits me to have a smaller project first.  I'm also keen to have a go at a modern Chris Watton design, and since Alert is numbered VM 1, there's nothing like starting at the beginning.  Particularly as I get the benefit of doing the updated version 3.  And free sails.  Because, yes, I'm going to rig sails.  

     

    I doubt this Log will be anything like as verbose as my Snake.  Mainly because I doubt I'll have the same level of problem solving to do, or the same amount of steam to let off over the poverty of the instructions.  And there-in lies a deeper reason - anyone can read Chris's magnificent instruction manual online - for free.  So I hardly need to spell-out what I'm doing.

     

    It's also true that there are some fine, detailed Logs already on MSW.  You can find a list, here

  11. On 8/1/2023 at 8:24 PM, chris watton said:

    Yes :)

    Thank goodness!  And on your full list, delighted to see Anson's Centurion.

     

    If you ever tire of 1:64 and 17/18/19th C warships, I'd give a vote for some of the 19th C packets, clippers and windjammers.  I was at a market in Hobart Tas, last Feb, and a fellow, name of Brian Stafford, had a stall selling his self-published The Great Windships - very interesting books on the development of merchant sailing ships.  Prompted me to re-read The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby.  Newby sailed in, and Stafford extols, the windjammers - the last important commercial sailing ships - fantastic vessels.  But they were big.  Up to 7 masts and over 100 m in length (probably excluding  the bowsprit).  So that's 1.5-2 m at 1:64.

     

    But anyway, Suprise and Centurion will do me for a while.  And that's after Alert.  Whose build log I must now start.

  12. And more than 2 year's later, more thanks and congratulations on your build and your log.  Just as you built Alert waiting for Sphinx, I had planned one of Vanguard's fishing boats while waiting for Surprise.  Surprise is delayed so I will use Alert to fill a slightly longer gap and since I only model build when the weather keeps me indoors, she should do the trick.  Your log will act as a running commentary on what to be thinking about at each stage, and your build as a beacon of success.  So thanks - and I expect you will hear from me (keeping it all within Yorkshire)

     

    Mike

  13. On 3/21/2023 at 8:32 AM, Vane said:

    Working on the 18 carronades... these are not that great..  lots of adjustments needed to get them together. Next time I will probably order some aftermarket products from Vanguards instead. 

     

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    Ah yes. The brass gun barrels are pretty good (if your kit had those, not the white metal) but the other parts are pretty rudimentary and the assembled carriages will NOT sit on external porta.
     

    Great to see you back working on her. 

  14. Just catching up after a month of riding my bike in antipodean sunshine.  She looks magnificent!  Really striking how the final addition of deck furniture gives a sense of scale - she’s a big girl.  And also how it shouts out about the quality of the model (and the build skills used).  

     

    Every times I see the yellow ochre shown in this log I think - wow, that’s bright.  Probably my only real point of comparison is Victory, and I know that historical views on her colour at Trafalgar have changed over time.   Given how much research Chris has done, I wonder if there is a precedent for such a bright yellow?

     

    On documentation of masting and rigging, I think Chris’s twin points - decent drawings and the level of skill expected for this model - are compelling arguments. That said, and having just hauled myself up from novice-level in this respect, there is room for an intermediate model, where the manual suggests the order of build and gives a brief description of the purpose of each category of rigging.

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