Captain Poison

I got to the point of building the gun ports and realized I'd have to start over from scratch; too many early mistakes. So, I threw it out and started over (after scavenging the keel). I'm now almost as far along on the second build as I was with the first attempt. I built a sanding jig and, by cracky, I didn't break a single bulkhead when sanding.

Recently temporarily slowed down the progress, rest a few days do not want to make themselves very tired. With the Beijing Winter Olympics and winter vacation approaching, I will have more than a month of vacation to focus on the next step. Thank you for your attention.
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Hi Michael,
I am scratchbuilding this exact model in the same 1:48 scale, following the books by J. Boudriot.
It is a BIIIG puppy! If you want me to send you exact dimentions, I willl do it. Suffice it to say now, you would absolutely neccesarily need a separate space (a workshop of some kind) to build it. Kitchen table will not do it!!! And prepare yourself for YEARS of work!
If you want to build it exactly like the books describe it, it is a monumental task! But, it is doable, especially now that the addendum (all frame profiles and the keel) is available from Ancre. When I started to build it, this addendum was not available, so I had to hand draw all missing profiles, since Boudriot only shows the so called, station frames (every 4th). It took a long time to draw all of them by hand, since I did not own a computer program.
There is LOOOOTS of wood cutting, sanding and glueing, so several power tools are a must!
 
Right now I am approaching the running rigging stage and sewing sails from thin muslin.  Here is a handful of randomly selected pics of this model.
Regards,
Thomas

Hello everybody and a happy new year!!
Thank you all for the likes and comments. In the last days I finished chapter 7. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
Matthias
 
 

Hello, everyone. This is the 2021’s last update. I’ll see you in 2022. 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

a few more....I'll finish the detail work and then send a few of the whole ship.
 
Peter 

Hello everyone,

Happy new year!! A few days of vacation during the holiday season allowed to progress on this build.
 
The 2nd planking was completed:

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Some more developments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
It was a productive month 🙂

Welcome back, Mark! Those fixed blocks are tricky. looks like you've got them beat though.
 
Had you considered painting your friezes on thin paper and then gluing them to the ship's sides? Contemporary models show that this was often done, rather than painting directly on the wood. I found this much easier to accomplish, particularly when the surface was directed downward!

Stern framing
 
Patience and perseverance - just a couple of random words, probably not connected to this post…
 
Ship sterns on kits always seem problematic, no matter what level of quality they might be they often seem to be an afterthought, overly simple, or at best a challenge to fit pre-cut pieces together properly. The challenge part doesn’t go away with Winchelsea but any questions of design do. I felt like I was building the actual ship with Chuck’s well thoughtout process for Winchelsea.
 

 
I made several copies of the provided stern plan, I’m not sure I needed each use after the fact but at the time they were helpful in some way. There are six frames with the outer one bulked up with an additional half frame. The objective is for them to be all properly spaced and equal distance in pairs, level and equal in height also in pairs, together forming a curve.  For whatever reason one frame didn’t want to cooperate so I had to file the slot a bit. A couple of my old feeler gauge blades used for milling work came in handy as a temporary spacer to determine the position and were later replaced with a thin shim glued into place.
 

 
It’s hard for me to walk away to wait on glue, but that’s what I did, a couple of hours for each pair (I sanded some other stuff). Then I left them overnight to lock them in place.
 

 
Another copy of the stern plan was sliced up and double sided taped to each frame. That plus the temporary templates shown in the photo make the whole thing possible, they set the widths and heights for the fillers and sills. Despite my careful frame alignment they didn’t stay in place without the help of a rubber band (I only needed the blue one, the second was to help with this photo).
 

 
The laser cut fillers are provided as part of the Chapter 1 parts package. Despite the fact that essentially all I needed to do was bevel the sides properly to account for the curve I managed to use all the duplicate fillers Chuck provides in doing so, some people are slow learners - plus I was a little obsessed with getting them right (and they aren't in this photo, but later they were).
 

 
With the fillers in place next up was the sills - again the templates coupled with the strips taped to the stern made it possible. All I had to do was get the right level, bevel and width from a length of ¼ x 3/16 wood. Fortunately 3/16 is the same thickness as Cheerful’s planking and I had a few leftover planking billets I cut into ¼ widths. Why you ask, because it took me a lot more than 5 attempts to get the 5 sills, again slow learner or too heavy handed on the Byrnes Sander (which was once again indispensable in gaining the angles and sizes required along with the cross cut table for my Byrnes Saw)
 
…Measure. cut, sand, dammit, repeat…
 

 
After an overnight glue drying session it was sanding day, and I mean it took me a full day to fair the front and back sides.
 

 
I needed a little comforting so I unwrapped my chapter 3 parts and tested the fit of the transom piece and the windows. Remarkably (or really not, its designed for them to do so, just means I followed the monograph) they all fit properly. (note in the photo the transom isn’t exactly level or even, I corrected it later and confirmed the fit but didn’t re-take the photo).
 

 
 
I also needed a few adjustments to ensure it was even across the top between pieces, they are now.
 

 
And with that the stern framing is complete. Is Yellow Cedar pretty or what...
 
What doesn’t show in a two dimensional photo is the gentle curve resulting from all the alignment, angled, and beveled cuts I made brought out by the fairing.  It’s quite pleasing, and pretty remarkable I more or less pulled it off. New respect for all the Winchelsea builders that have gone before. There was nothing easy about building this stern, it is though rewarding to see it completed.
 
On to the quarter gallery framing.
 
Thanks for stopping by along with the likes and the comments. Happy New Year!

Here are my cheeks and hair brackets.  These were a lot of fun to build.
 

 
I’m working on the guns, now and I have a dilemma.  I bought some 6mm belaying pins from Crafty Sailor and I’m concerned that they are too small.  Here’s a picture of one with a 6mm belaying pin and one with a larger handle turned down from a definitely too large belaying pin.  What do you think?

The other half went smoothly, no need to describe the same steps again. Here's the finished base assembly:
 

 
I'm quite pleased; I didn't expect it to come out this neatly.
 
I also thought of another tip/thought to pass along to others. When laying out the matching mortises between two sets of beams, the instructions say to hold the two beams together (such as with a rubber band) and mark the cuts across the two so that they're in the same place. This makes sense in theory, and it's how I tried to do it at first. But I found it relatively hard to do this accurately since I couldn't scribe a knife line across an entire beam. Instead, as suggested and described above, I ended up finding that it worked better to mark the location of one mortise edge using the caliper, then mark the rest of the mortise relative to the specific carling. I never set the two beams together, just trusted that starting from the same measured location would make the rest accurate, and it did. Either way it's probably worth practicing on scrap first.

After some minor distractions over the Christmas/New Year week, the build continues.
The Chocks (P/N 030 and 031)
There are two sizes of chocks, with the lower one being thicker than the upper, and the angles of insertion being slightly different. They are essentially a wedge shape when viewed from above, but their sides are also tapered to match the notches cut into the whelps. To simplify construction, I drew up a plan for each in CAD using the dimensions from Toni’s drawings and then duplicated each of these to provide a strip of five templates for each of the upper and lower chocks.
 
The templates were printed onto sticky label paper and attached to the relevant stock size. The stock was then taken to the Byrnes saw and ripped to a width that would leave plenty of extra length on the chocks for fitting, and then the individual chocks were cross-cut using the angled mitre gauge.
 
The Byrnes disc sander was then used with the table tilted to an appropriate angle (about 30-deg) to trim the sides to a loose fit. The table was then returned to its 90-deg setting and the inner ends slowly sanded away until the chock was a tight fit. Each chock was marked with its location and the barrel also marked accordingly. The chocks were then glued in their respective locations and left overnight. Once dry, the excess material was removed firstly at the Byrnes disc sander and then with files and sandpaper to achieve the final shape. The concave face on the lower chocks was achieved by firstly making a rough shape using the oscillating spindle sander, and then refining with a contoured sanding block.
 
Finally, the whole assembly was remounted in the 3-jaw chuck on the rotary table on the mill and the bolt holes were drilled in the chocks. I opted to drill these at 0.7mm diameter to accept some 40lb monofilament for the bolts. This is somewhat thinner than specified but looks about right to my eye. 
 
I got so focused on the process, that I forgot to take any progress pictures. Here is the completed Capstan Body.
 

 
Next up, the part I’ve been dreading – the Drum Head Assembly….
 

@mbp521
@Keith Black
Hello Brian and Keith,
thank you both for the wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
 
Main mast top with weather vane and war pennant (flamme de guerre)
It's hard to believe, but there are still a few details to be clarified on the masthead of my French corvette.
Thus, in addition to completing the standing rigging, I also deal with the final clarification of these details, which I always find a pleasant distraction in between. Sooner or later it has to be done anyway.
  
Source: Monograph by J. Boudriot, detail of the original model

By providing a picture of the mast top of the L'Inflexible from 1835 (model in the Musée National de la Marine-Rochefort) by Daniel @dafi, I am able to complete the corresponding detail.
What I previously thought to be the remains of a flag or a pennant based on an old black-and-white photo of the Paris model clearly turned out to be a windsock that was attached to the end of the weather vane by means of a small crossbar. The weather vanes of La Créole and L'Inflexible are basically designed similarly and the lightning conductors are also present in both. In this respect, I can confidently attach this windsock to the weather vane of La Créole and regard it as historically correct and documented, even if it is neither drawn in the monograph nor currently available on the original Paris model.

 
In this context I also try to clarify how the war pennant or home pennant could have looked in detail. Of particular interest are the length, the lay rope, integration into the flag line, pennant wood, etc. The flag line of the war pennant drove through one of the two discs in the flag button.

 
For the production of the windsock and the war pennant, I thought of silk fabric, which in my opinion comes closest to the desired scale in terms of its fine structure.
Let's see what the first attempts bring to light.
More about this soon ...

I spent the last 3 days working on and refining the parts that make up the qdeck rail.  It was quite a journey.   The parts were tweaked to allow a bit of wiggle room when assembling.   This is a very intricate rail but is another major element of the model.  So I took my time and completed the port side without taking many pictures.  I wanted to power through it to establish a good method for building it.  When I repeat the process on the starboard side I will take many more pictures and describe how I did it.   I found the best approach for me was to build the rail in sections or groups which I will explain.  Hopefully I will start the other side by the end f the week.  
 
But here are some final pictures of the completed rail on the port side.  It really does give the ship its elegant shape so typical of these 5th rates in the Royal Navy.   I cant wait to finish the other side to see how it will look.  The rail starts to lean in toward the deck more and more as you approach the stern to match the angle of that last stern frame.  The uprights which become the sides of the ports and the timberheads are extensions of the frames.   You will need to lean these inboard as you work from mid-ship towards the stern....finally adding the top rail which is in two sections.  BUT at the same time these uprights are straight and vertical when viewing the ship from the side profile.   A tricky but rewarding experience.
 
Note the fixed block at the stern against the transom.  The middle rail sits on this.
 




 
 

Merry Christmas to all of you…and yes it is full steam ahead on Speedwell in 1:48
 
Drafting in progress…an hour or two each night while my wife watches her shows.  This is in no way finished but enough to show you what I am shooting for.
 

The breastrail....
 
Its pretty straight forward.  All parts are laser cut for you.  But you will still need to prepare them and shape them.  You must do so in the same way you did for the various laser cut columns during this project.  Sand off all the laser char carefully if you dont plan on painting the uprights.  I left them natural which meant they had to be pretty clean.  Use some files, sandpaper and small chisels...or even a #11 blade in my case.   Duplicate the overall shape on the fore and aft sides which was laser cut for you.  Remember to get these clean, although you can paint them black if you wanted to.  I have basically just laser cut and etched the general shape of these uprights and its up to you to finish them with care.  Take you time as the breastrail is a feature element on the model and your eye will be distracted at one that looks sloppy.  
 

The lower rail is a 3/64" thick piece of laser cut boxwood.  It slides onto each upright.  Keep in mind that the angle on the top and bottom of each upright changes as it the rail moves outward from the center.  This is to accommodate for the roundup of the qdeck.  Make sure you position them accordingly.   The more severe angles are toward the outside of the rail.  The center pair of uprights has the least amount of angle.
 
Then glue the lower rail onto all six uprights.  Slide it down from the top...Make sure its seated properly and do a test fit before gluing.  
 
The top rail is actually made in two layers (top of the first photo).   There is a very thin 1/64" thick boxwood layer with square holes cut out of it.  Glue this onto the solid rail.  You will notice its slightly smaller so it leaves a nice lip all around the bottom edge.  Paint both rails black before doing a test fit of all pieces.
 
You should be able to align the top rail in position by inserting the tops of the uprights into the square holes on the underside of the top rail.  This should also force all of the uprights to be perfectly vertical as the laser cut holes are all lined up.  
 
Then test it on the model....it is very very important to center this rail port to starboard.  You can peg each upright into the margin plank at the edge of the qdeck if you like.   Make sure its straight in all directions.   Meaning its vertical when viewed from the side of the hull....and along the edge of the qdeck when viewing it from overhead.
 

You can see how it looks with the uprights left natural.  You can paint the entire rail black if you prefer.   
 
Also note that I constructed the railings around the companionway and made the ladder leading down to the gun deck....just like the one on the gundeck you already made a few chapters back.  I created the stanchions using 1/16" x 1/16" boxwood strips.  I created what I though was a nice fancy profile.  I kept them square in profile except for the center portion and the little ball on top.   They were painted black.  They were chocked in my Dremel and turned to create the rounded areas.  The horizontal rails were cut from 1/32" x 1/32" boxwood strips.   
 

 
You can also choose not to add this railing at all.  Many contemporary models including the one for Winchelsea dont show such a rail.  But I think it adds a nice detail.
 
Any Questions or comments?
 
Next up the fancy rails along the shear caprail!!
 
 

As I am still waiting for a package of #78 drills for the treenailing, I decided to assemble the different fittings of the deck.
 

 
They are mini projects in themselves. Again, we can only thank Chuck for the quality of these mini kits and for the precision of the assembly instructions.
It's a real pleasure. Just take your time and follow the instructions precisely. What a pleasure!
 

 
The windless will definitely be mounted once it has been painted. I will wait until the internal planking of the bulwarks is finished to paint all the elements at once. For the moment nothing is glued.
 

 
I started to mount the skylight.
Again a lot of fun to work on this element. And with the extra parts provided, no worries in case of mistakes (I had to redo one of the top frames because I managed to sand on the wrong side...)
 

 
I filled all the gaps and sanded the skylight thoroughly before mounting the coaming.
As usual, I tint the woodfiller in the final color of the element, which allows me to control my sanding more finely.
 

 
For the coaming assembly, I put the skylight on a wooden board to simulate the thickness of the deck planking.
Once this fitting is complete, I will mount the gratings.
Merry Christmas to everyone 🎄
 
 

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and many happy moments surrounded by your loved ones!

 

Thank you all for the likes and comments!!
After finishing the bulkheads, I continued with the deck beams, knees and fittings, wich is great fun to do. Everything comes together now, and you get an impression, how the model will look, once finished. 
I have this idea of a photo from the main deck under the quarter deck with a little camera, if that is possible some day. So I painted the beams and knees from the underside, to  have it all in color, .
Here are photos from the current stage of the building:
 

 

 

 

 
I will clean the top side of the deck beams once they are all finished. The numbers on the knees will be covered by the planking later on. 
 
Matthias

Chapter 4 work has begun.
The 6 false deck parts have been installed, then the filler pieces for the hawse holes were put in.
 

74 GunShip
New - and Reconstruction of the section of the second gun deck.
The cannon stayed the same, only the locking of the cannon barrel / mount (Lafette) was changed.
 
Karl
 
(Google Translator)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

AO 75 Saugatuck, Fleet oiler during a Kamikaze attack. NOT an actual event, created in my imagination
Watercolour 16" X 11" 

HMCS Iroquois Tribal class Destroyer on Convoy duty. 16" X 11" watercolour.

Rigged Speedwell dimensions: length (tip of ensign staff to end of jib boom) - 34". Height - 25 1/2", width - 12" at the main yard. The unrigged hull is 22" in length.
 
Chuck will have many challenges in making her into a kit but it starts with the carvings. That's what attracted me to her initially. If he can have carvings produced of similar quality to Winchelsea then I have no doubt this will be the finest ship model kit ever produced.
 
By the way, for those first time plank on framers, the photo of Pegasus  shown above to compare with Speedwell is my first failed attempt. That's several months work which is basically firewood but that I could not throw away. I believe the system Chuck is designing will prevent failures like this. Now all of you Winchelsea-ites get back to work so Chuck can proceed to the next project!
 

Binnacle test on the model.   This was fun to build.  I have plenty of construction photos which I will soon upload as well.  A big Thank You to David Antscherl who was kind enough to paint the friezes for the binnacle.   More to follow soon.   But breaking for dinner now.