Thunder

Some more shots of deck furniture:

Here you can see the rudder post coming through the deck, companion ways and kevels. The gun ports have eyebolts and kevels for securing the lids installed.

Main companion way and skylight (and thumb). Brackets for top of main companion way were made from a sheet of brackets found in an old etched sheet which I had brought 20 years ago.

another view of same items. The skylights have clear sheet installed, the smaller one of which is showing as reflection here.

whip staff progressing, much to do yet.

External also progressing with chain plates, hawse holes, catheads, and wales. These photographs are excellent for showing where needs a bit of extra sanding and finishing.

As you can see things moved along greatly, Deck planking completed. Bulwark capping rails made by cutting from ply sheet and fitted. Cleats fitted, cat heads built and fitted, Gratings made, skylights and companion ways. Most of these are shown in place but not yet fitted. The only part that came in the kit is the whip staff main lathe turned section, all other fittings are scratch. On the work mat you will see work started on the cannons. Each truck has been drilled and plastistrut rod inserted to represent the extension of the shafts. Belaying pin racks are also fitted.

Why didn't I think of that!!

By the way, don't look at the wall behind too much, I was decorating at the time.

Once the deck was completed the heights of the marked gun ports were double checked. to do this I built one of the gun carriages. The guns came with nicely turned barrels, two side cheeks of the carriages and two sets of trucks complete with shafts. To make it easier to glue these together I made up a simple jig. This would also help ensure they were all the same.

As the gun ports needed little adjustment I started to cut them out. Usual way by chain drilling around the perimeter and then cutting out.

Starting to look like a war ship now.

Next gun port lining and inner bulwark planking.

Having fitted the beams and central supports the deck can be laid. First you have to make a false deck out of a sheet of 1mm ply. This all seems a lot of extra work but does make the curvature easier to acquire than the usual kit methods. Photographs show ply deck fitted, margin planks fitted and first planks raised.

The first two planks to starboard of the king plank look to have a gap but it I just pencil marks.

Full length of deck completed for first planks. Also shows Waterways in place pre-painted black. Planks at stern are to be cut back when planking the stern section. 

View of deck with Bulkheads trimmed down above deck level and extra fitted to sides of gun-ports. Also shown are the deck 'stringers' in place, deck beams and central deck supports.

Thank you Nils, Apart from one small area under the bows I am happy with it, especially as done on a winter holiday away with only a few basic tools. Usually after an evening in the village pub. 

I'm amazed how you have turned that second planking round after the first. I think making them narrow probably helped you achieve this. That first planking really was provided far to wide.

You may of seen the red lines on the hull in the above photographs, I often use the laser, I have for installing sockets in kitchens, for my hull marking out. bottom edge of keel set correctly as per kit plans, ensure level from larboard to starboard and then use laser to mark out.

Close up of marking out method below also showing Wale in position which had it edges painted black prior to fixing.

Gun port positions marked out. This needed doing before inner bulwarks or decking as false frames needed installing inside the planking at the gun port edges.

O.K. big jump now as went on holiday and didn't take photographs. So here we have hull planking complete. Only has one layer. The 40 year old planking smelled a bit but was really nice to work with.

To plank area above the wale was done first. Then temporary 'stringers' were used to divide each side of the hull into four. These area were then planked using proportional dividers. With two layer planking I usually use scale length plank but due to lack of bulkheads and one layer these go full length of the hull.

Druxey,

I am going to have to search through some of those old copies of the model shipwright as I would love to see one of those advertisements. Do you know what editions they were in?  

Back on with the build.

The instructions book actually did not tell you to put the first key hull planks in place but told you to put deck stringers in place. These are fitted inside the frames along the length of the deck pretty much as you would fit the waterways but are only there to lay the deck beams onto.

As the top tabs of the frames are so weak and I needed to get the stern correctly aligned I decided to switch these stages and plank the hull first. Also, reading on, the tops of the frames were to be reduced in size. This would mean these stringers would no longer be against them.

The key planks were also the sheer strake and the main wale. The pictures on the box art showed the model as clinker planked but the instruction book described this as 'clench' and then described how this is not necessary correct as by this period carvel planking was the common practice.

I decided to do this Carvel and perhaps attempt clinker for my Lady Nelson build.

just checked your parts and yes there is pre curved bulwark capping sections for the bows that could be used as formers to give you an idea of the bow shape.

I agree with Danny. Did this kit have pre-shaped bulwark rails? if so you can use these as a former to check. 

Hi, I built this model many moons ago and my bulkhead 10 was exactly the same. I did mention it on past logs on here in the past and if you look at some other builds you can see where, in some builds, it has not been corrected. I am surprised that Jotika have never corrected this. I worked out that they took there measurements straight from the admiralty plans but then spaced the position of that bulkhead differently. I did what you are doinjg now which worked out fine.

10 hours ago, Gregory said:

In a discussion a while back, it was surmised that the Corel Resolution is based on HMS Ferrett of 1711

 

Thank you for the link, I had found the ferret drawings as recently as last Christmas in a book I was brought on Royal Naval Sloops. With this confirmation I can finally make a name plate for my HMS Ferret!

Two more photographs of the first key planks. These make or break the build as the define its finished gunwale profile. Also, this is a single planked model so my planking techniques need to improve.

My own fault for getting this build off course, I should perhaps dig out my Resolution build and put it back on.

The next stage, after the fairing of the bulkheads, was to place the two key planks. In order to achieve this I started to carefully mark their positions on the bulkheads (usually do this prior to fitting them). When doing this I discovered the deck heights were going to vary drastically over the length of the hull. The deck supports, which were part of the inner bulkheads were all at the incorrect heights. An approximately check of gun port positions confirmed this.

The next series of photographs show the two key planks fitted and modifications made to the bulkheads for the deck heights. The positioning of the key planks and locking them in position was very important as they also had to be used to ensure that transom assembly was perfectly square.

More on the deck height later!

From this photographs you can see blocks fitted to assist the planking between the bulkheads. At the bow, fixed to the inside of the stem, from the 'deck' up is the Apron. This, together with the 1mm ply fitted to the keel makes a perfect slot for the planking to land in.

Hi Lou,

I did find details of a HMS Resolution that was a Cutter and lost in the North sea with all hands. I am on holiday at the moment so cannot get the details for you. I think it is most likely that Corel made this kit up completely as I have found no plans for the vessel I mention above.

Below is my Resolution:

The next stage was the transom section. I started to build in place but it was far too flimsy so built before installing. It is made of three pieces that all require the correct angles. To assist in this there was two formers included in the kit which can be seen in the first parts photo above just to the right outer edge of the opened box. Once fixed in place this structure was extremely flimsy and almost impossible to fit correctly. Chamfering the edges was even harder.

I jumped ahead a bit over the next stages and failed to take photographs. After the bulkheads were all fitted the supporting 'deck' was fitted. I say deck but it has no use than to support the structure. Until this point the bulkheads were very weak so it was essential to fit this before any fairing of the bulkheads was attempted.

As yo see other work has been completed but will describe later. Once this 'deck' was fitted I started to fair the bow bulkheads but the first bulkhead was very week and the bulkhead 'tabs' started to break so I had to put in a strengthening piece between them and attempted to remove after the planking had been finished.

Thanks Coxwain, I got to the scale quite differently converting to millimetres first then dividing one by the other. Always seems a shame that we have left imperial behind and yet it is still used in America. I had to work on American packaging machines in the past and had to dig out my Grandad's old spanners to take to work as nothing was to hand.

I know what you mean about these old kits but did question whether it should be built or left as a collectors piece - but it was meant to be built.

I have found reference to an HMS Endeavour kit by Trident Models that I would love to get hold off and keep an eye out for the Nonsuch by Aeropiccola. But I have purchased many old kits that were very poor and sold on. These could not have done much for advertising the hobby back in the day.

That looks great, well worth doing and nothing to stop you leaving some of the hatch covers off to make sure it can be seen.