BANYAN

I prefer the bending technique you have used over the use of a heat source/plank bender although, sometimes the shape does resile a little and a further over bending may be required to allow for it. I also find that for thinner pieces I only have to soak for about 20 minutes. Nice progress, the planks should lay along this with very little pressure. cheers Pat

That looks a really nice fit Carl; coming along very nicely cheers Pat

Looks good to my eye Jay cheers Pat

Quite a bit of detail there Greg; she should look really nice painted up. cheers Pat

She's looking great John, not far to the finish line now. Any ideas on your next project? cheers Pat

Hi PeterOs, Any other characters planned? For example Officers and Helmen? cheers Pat

Thanks Druxey, I'll try that. cheers Pat

Nice little project Michael. Based on what I have seen posted in these forums, there are three workshops that I would love to tour noting the excellent tooling shown - those belonging to Gaetan and Wefalck, and yours - seeing some of these wonderful tools you knock up I'll bet your workshop is is something to behold. cheers Pat

Great to see an update Alan, especially noting your ongoing problems with your eyes - best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to full eyesight. cheers Pat

117 huns, phftt - you could do that in your sleep Carl - glad it is you and not me. Nice work on all that PE, seems you have quite a bit of dexterity left in them fingers but you probably have worn out the eyes cheers Pat

Great to have that old tooling hull to practice on; the actual model will look all the better for the practice. cheers Pat

Nice clean woodwork there Steve; they look good. cheers Pat

A major milestone completed nicely Rexy. cheers Pat

Thanks Druxey. I have trawled the NMM several times but you seem to know your way around much better than me (I wonder why ) I think I will just need to slowly go through the whole collection. That is getting fairly close, I just need to exchange the iron frames for the diagonal planking with Lang's Plan of ironwork. Pity they did not mention the ship class or name as I could then locate the associated plans (hopefully he says appreciate this cheers Pat

Those trawls will look excellent; nice improvisation Denis. cheers Pat

Very nice Toni, that looks great. i have just noticed your excellent ironwork also. cheers Pat

Hi Vossie, Under the skylights I painted the surface a very pale blue, so that when I used plastic, mica or even perspex to simulate the glass of the skylight, it gave the impression of depth and something open under there. In the hatch entryways, I sometimes even used white on the vertical surfaces, so that when you looked through an open hatch there was an impression of some light - some people paint them black to hide the fact there is nothing in there, or even close the hatch completely, but I tend to use veneer to enclose the hatchway entrance void where the ladderway disappears into, to give the impression of a bulkhead etc, then paint a light colour to reflect a bit of light. A couple of modellers even painted curtains and/or pale yellow (to simulate a lantern), on the clear material used to simulate glass, so that when looking through the window, again there is a sense of depth. i hope this explains a little clearer. Unfortunately the model i did this too is no longer in my possession and no photos sorry. cheers Pat

That looks great Greg, what paint did you end up using. I will take a bit of time to look at that link also, looks very interesting. Persistence pays off and I am glad you found something that works for you. I think you have identified one of the issues I had (splatter (low pressure) - thanks for that cheers Pat

Well worth the wait mate; she is looking great. You have been busy, some nice details added. cheers Pat

Hi folks, anything pleeeeaaassse... What I think I really need is a diagram or description of the keel, limber, floor, futtocks and framing pattern of a contemporary vessel (such as one of the Cruiser class (1850 ish), Arrow Class (1854) etc - anything will be a great start for me. Begging complete cheers Pat

That is a great idea Pete; very useful in several application. Thanks for sharing. cheers Pat

Coming along very nicely Vossie. All this attention to the bones of the model will pay dividends in the long run. WRT entry spaces etc, I have toyed with the idea of painting them a very pale grey/blue so that they reflect light a little better? cheers Pat

Thanks Druxey, That diagram is from the construction of a Tea Clipper and not built on the Lang Plan principle (ironwork); it was was shown only to illustrate the planking (I will edit the text accordingly). I am basing most of my assumptions on White's discussion paper where by he describes the use of temporary vertical timbers which would have been removed later? Thanks for the imput and I very much appreciate that you are looking at this discussion. cheers Pat

Hi folks. Some help please (see end of post). My investigations and research on the HMCSS Victoria (1855) continue. While designed along the lines of a Gun Despatch Vessel (see Cruiser, Arrow and Vigilant Classes), Oliver Lang used some leading-edge construction techniques when designing her. As such she differed substantially in construction to RN warships of the era (although she looked similar externally). Lang designed her to be constructed using the diagonal planking technique; as espoused by a fellow member of the Institute of the newly formed Naval Architects, Mr John White. White presented a paper (2 March 1860) on this subject in the first edition of the Journal "Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects" titled "on an Improved Method of Building Diagonal Ships". The publication is available online (Google Books) and the article is on page 112 of the document (page 137 of the pdf). [Edit: Different to the designs shown below, White suggest a 30 degree angle superior in strength to that of 45 degree diagonal planking. As White and Lang were contemporaries and both members of the Naval Architects Institute, I am assuming this would have swayed the construction to White's method. Further support for my assumption is that the ship builder (Young), and the designer of the feathering screw (Maudsley) were also contemporaries and members, all of whom would have influenced his design (noting that one of the provisions for Lang designing the ship [free of charge] was that he was given "free reign" with no limitations/restrictions other than to meet the broad requirements.] I am sure she had diagonal planking as it was specified in the Contract (Scantlings) as shown below: This technique involved stopping the frames at the 'turn of the bilge' then using the strength of the diagonal planking supported with iron plates for lateral and vertical strength, with additional iron work to support beams etc. This is shown in a plate that accompanied the paper: As Lang designed the ship, I am also assuming he would have used his own iron work designs as shown In James Peake "Rudiments of Naval Architecture" : An example of what the diagonal planking looked like can be seen in Charles desmond "Wooden Ship Building (1919) - Fig 91 (page 102) and in George Campbell's "China tea Clippers" in his illustrations (Fig 22) of the Clipper "Vision" of Liverpool (page 67)- please note, these illustrations are included only to show the planking technique (as pointed out by Druxey, the China Tea Clippers, well the VISION at least,, had vertical timbers. I am assuming that Victoria used Lang's Plan of iron supports as espoused by White) Questions: I am trying to get a feel of what the actual framing and construction would have looked like? Would the base framing (to the turn of the bilge) have been exactly the same as for a contemporary fully framed ship (say HMS Harrier or HMS Arrow) - see discussion in the presented paper (extract follows) and I am assuming Victoria would have used the warship option for the floor timbers etc. I know Lang would have used his own keel design (Lang's Safety Keel); but as a novice in this area, I am trying to determine the framing/timber layout/spacing etc used . As there was no rise I am also assuming there was no need for chocks in the futtocks etc. Can anyone point me to a good drawing or reference , or provide some clarifications on this please? cheers Pat

I'm following along Joss and enjoying your discussion. I am currently doing a simple 2D plan and side elevation drawing of the Victoria, but one day hope to draw up full plans - so I am following along to see what you do cheers Pat