AJohnson
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Well I didn't know about that! Every day is a school day, when did that practice of not applying names to the sterns of RN. ships end, does anyone know. Thanks for the insights.- 302 replies
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- Diana
- Caldercraft
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Also does CA go brittle over time, I am guilty also of using CA on rigging and wonder how long it might last. Have tried using fly tying varnish, but that has come undone on a few occasions? Is PVA the best way generally. 🤔
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Yes please Roger! 👍
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A few more pictures bringing up to date where I'm at now. Started with the smaller yards and Stunsail booms; some of the later were actually made with cocktail sticks as they were a near match scale-wise than the suggested dowel in the kit. One item I'm not sure of is part No.278 that Caldercraft call a "Bowsprit fairlead", a semi circular item that rigging passes through along the top of the bowsprit. McKay does not show one on his "AOTS" book, so for now have left it off, unless anyone know better on MSW?
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I've not seen the Amati rudder rig, so can't comment, but the Caldercraft kit seems to follow the McKay "Anatomy of the ship" book about the Bounty, extract in picture below. Thanks for looking in on my log.
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It's been a while since my last update, the Admiral has been keeping me busy over the Summer with various "projects" she wanted doing in the garden etc. But back to it now and have made a start on the masts and yards. I am using the "Anatomy of the Ship" book to try and make the masts and yards the correct dimensions (or as near as my skills will allow!) The kit agrees with the lengths generally but is always over scale for the diameters, having done a few of the smaller yards I can see why, they are quite thin and fragile.... A few pictures of the Bowsprit for now, will add more of the other masts when I have downloaded them.
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How you getting along Trond with your Bounty? Or like me have you been kept busy by the admiral and her summer garden / decorating projects! 🤨 😂 Getting back into the swing of things and started on the masts and yards on my Bounty, hope to do some build log updates soon. Hope to have your company with your build this winter.
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Looking very neat Mike, good tips on the shrouds and pre-seizing them. 👍
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Hi Dave, you are making cracking progress on the Endeavour after your Bounty. I've been kept busy over the summer by the Admiral, who wanted a Summer house building and some DIY/decorating doing! 🙄 Light at the end of the tunnel, just one more room to finish (my eldest gone to University last month), so apparently that "Has" to be done before he comes back at Christmas and makes a mess of it again! 🤣 Then I shall be back to my Bounty...
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Good luck with your Dad's birthday present build, I hope you do better than me for hitting the deadline! I set out to do the same, building HMS Orestes (Caldercraft HMS Mars) and sailed past his birthday by four years in the process 🤣 - He is happy with it now he finally has it - phew.
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Hi Gary, Did you progress this project? I ask because I also have the Caldercraft HMS Snake (my next build I think) and I am thinking along the line of building perhaps one of the other ships in the Snake/Cruizer class, rather than just out of the box so to speak.
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A few little updates, think I am about finished on the hull now, added the anchors, buoy rope just coiled for later attachment to the shrouds (and buoy when I make them.) Completed and mounted the rest of the swivel guns; I used eyelets to make the yokes and handles as I didn't like the look of the PE ones supplied with the kit. I have fixed the deadeyes in the channels; used epoxy glue to strengthen them so hopefully the PE straps won't come apart. I won't add the chains plates until I can rig the shrouds so I can get the "angle of dangle" of the chains correct - I think that's the correct term! Few other touches here and there to finish the hull fittings off, including a motley crew! - they will be positioned as the finishing touch when that happy day comes! Next up, masts and yards....
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Great work area - and so tidy! 😲 (👽 with envy!)
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Agreed! I think you will be able to build an excellent Endeavour 👍 Well done on your Bounty build! 👏
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These are not a patch on the artist ones above, but here are my 1/64 scale (25mm / 1 inch) Amati white metal figures I have just finished painting for my current "Bounty" build.
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Welcome back, I've been away for ten years and it wasn't held against me! 😆 Like you I would dearly have loved to see Caldercraft release their HMS Surprise (as a huge fan of the Patrick O'Brian novels), but it has been quiet on that front for far too long now. Hopefully Vanguard Models might do her one day? 🙏
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Flags supplied by Amati look to be too big
AJohnson replied to DaveBaxt's topic in Masting, rigging and sails
Hi Dave, CC don't supply flags, so I got this BECC 75mm one for my Bounty from Cornwall MB.
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Morning All, @Thunder Looks like you have few Caldercraft under your belt 😃, generally I think they are a good kits (some variable quality wood stock) but I have always been happy with them. Although I have no experience of them, comments on MSW seem to indicate they are not keeping up development wise with the likes of Victory/Amati & Vanguard, but Chris Watton's evolving design's behind all three of these companies! 😉. @DaveBaxt I completely understand the "pull" of the local connection with Cook, think we have discussed before our proximity to Cook's old haunts. My feeling about the Endeavour is that I want to do it "justice" as it's our local hero's ship, so almost a disadvantage in some ways in that we don't want to muck it up. Still if we do, we can always build another - think i have seen somewhere on MSW that a 1:48 scale Endeavour is coming out soon, not sure who by though?
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Over the years I have built many of the Airfix range, those springing to mind of the sailing ships were their HMS Victory, Royal Sovereign & Cutty Sark. Then from the WW2 1:600 range, I have made a whole fleet! USS Forrestal, HMS Ark Royal, King George V, Ajax, Cambeltown, the Bismark, Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst etc. Sadly over the years there were many fleet actions (both deliberate destruction as a child; by fireworks and air rifle and accidents) so sadly the "Grand Fleet" consists of two survivors 😌 though ironically of two ships that didn't fair too well in the real world! - Graf Spee & HMS Hood! A few pictures attached, complete with their 1980's boxes (check the price on HMS Hood!), sadly these two are relegated to the garage as "they don't look as nice as the sailing ships" according to the Admiral...🤭
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I think both kits will present their own challenges, doing copper plates was quite therapeutic once I got into it on the Bounty, so that would be okay for the Snake, but no such worries with the Endeavour, the choice there is go with a white hull (as many do) or the more realistic brown/off-white (when fresh) look that the protective coating had. Decisions decisions! 😁 Hopefully you will get some input from those who have built the AL Endeavour amongst other manufacturers, before you make a decision.
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The Walnut is 4mm x 1mm, this seems to be Caldercraft's "standard" second planking stock. The issue on some planks was that I found the grain to be quite short and sometimes at an angle across the plank, so as Walnut is a little less pliable than some woods, it could splinter along these shorter grains, when trying to bend. It could be a combination of a few poor strips of wood and my less than "craftsman like" attempts at planking! To be honest I am torn as to which of my Caldercraft kits to do after the Bounty - Endeavour, or HMS Snake 🤔 there are a few Snake build logs out there, but not as many CC Endeavours.
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Hi Dave, I have the Caldercraft Endeavour. Attached are a few pictures of what is in the box. As you know I am building the Caldercraft Bounty at the moment and looking at what the Bounty kit is like and seeing what you get in the Endeavour kit, I would estimate that the effort involved is going to be up a level, perhaps another 50 - 75% more effort to build due to more detail and complexity. My comment would be that the quality of the materials are good, the wood seems good to me, but the second planking is in Walnut, which is hard to bend around a bluff bow like Endeavour/Bounty, so maybe look at swapping that? But otherwise all the fitting are good, a big PE brass sheet, brass cannons, think largely you will have everything you need. The ships boats look very similar to the Bounty's and will be a challenge to make look nice. Big caveat are the instructions, "sparse" does not do them justice! 🤣 - however there are the excellent large scale plans (eight of them!) But as you will have plenty of willing helpers on MSW if you do a build log, then I think any ambiguities could be overcome. I would be interested to see what others on MSW think, I have no experience of other offerings of the Endeavour.
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Looking good! 👏 and very neat. 😁 Do the fore/aft platforms slide under the bulwark capping rails? Or is there no "overhang" to the capping rail to worry about?
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Looking good! 👍 Based on what you have done so far would you say HMS Fly (or Pegasus) were a good learning curve before the "Diana"? Love the look of all three and would like to build them at some stage. 😁
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Following on from yesterday's update, I've finished the air scuttles and quarter galleries, adding details to the kit not provided by Caldercraft, by reference to McKay's "Anatomy of the Ship" book and comments provided elsewhere on MSW about the appearance of the Bounty. The air scuttles (added by Bligh to help ventilate the great cabin for the Breadfruit plant cargo) were made with spare planking with black card simulating the hinges. The domed roof of the quarter galleries were made with scrap MDF, which was easier to profile than a hard wood and as it was to be painted, no one would see, detailing again in card strip. Finishing off the anchors next and then on to the swivel guns!
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