jparenti
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Everything posted by jparenti
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I decided to remake the davit stanchions. I managed to find some 4 mm square stock at the local model train supply store. I drilled two 1 mm holes in the stanchion and carved out the wood in between and filed it smooth with the Flex-i-File. I found some tiny brass sheaves on Cast Your Anchor and bought a bunch of them. They slip right into the holes I made and are secured with a brass nail snipped to size from the kit parts. I added a short length of brass rod at the bottom of the stanchion from the stock supplied in the kit. The end of the brass rod slips into a brass standoff I bought from Ages of Sail. It might not be prototypical but it will save me from drilling holes in the deck to position the stanchions properly — I can just glue the standoffs in place where they’re needed with white glue and pull them loose if required. -
I wondered if I needed to scratchbuild new tops and crosstrees. I’d been debating it which is why nothing is actually glued into place. I need to examine some diagrams of period ships and see what the actual layout should be.
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I’m painting the lower main mast and staining the upper masts. I really need to figure out if the tops need to be painted black or not. The iron bands are in place (made of black card) and the rest of the mast is mocked up to check the fit. I’m pretty lost at this stage so I’m going for something that looks the part rather than being absolutely historically accurate. I’m hoping to bend toward accuracy in the end though. I really need a copy of Lee’s rigging book. Nothing is actually glued into place yet. All the masts and bowsprit are just dry fitted into each other and into the deck.
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It definitely looks like the model in the Greenwich museum now. Raising the bulwark really helped for sure.
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I’m using the method detailed by clearway on the Model Ship World forums to build the deadeye strops. I wasn’t sure how to flatten the copper wire effectively but it turns out I can get a good result by clamping it with a vise. I’ll need to get some 22 gauge wire to do this for real — this is 18 gauge that I had in the toolbox and I don’t have anything thinner. Still debating on whether or not to buy deadeyes from Syren since I’d need a tumbler to shape them too. Rigging is where I start to panic. I don’t know the first thing about it and I’m not well versed in the terminology. I’m still learning what everything is and I’m starting to be confident enough to attempt some of it. I purchased some scale rope from Syren to use and I can already see it far exceeds the stuff included in the kit.
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Scupper holes and drain holes drilled into starboard side. I need to find a microscopic file to clean these up and repaint the holes.
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I received a very nice communication back from OcCre and they will be providing the iron davits from the Beagle kit for me to use on Terror. The scales are slightly different so I’m hoping they work well — they seem to be close enough to work fine. I believe they’re on vacation until the end of August though so it will be a short wait. Meanwhile I’m moving on to other things. Any insight on this? I didn’t think I’d seen anyone else drill the scupper holes in the side (the elongated holes marked as 15 here). I probably ought to do that at some point — the holes in the deck need to be carefully added, too. Has anyone else added these to the model? I know Matthew Betts did. I’m trying to determine what those five round holes in the bulwark are. They’re on Betts’ model too. Any clues? I also have to figure out how to drill the holes you see in the left upper corner for the…sheaves? Is that what those are? Wish I’d realized that before I built so much more of the model! I’m not handy enough to drill out good sheaves yet so I practiced on the wooden davits and stanchions with somewhat mixed results. (They’re not difficult to manufacture so I can always build more if I need to.)
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So I decided that, despite Captain Crozier’s dislike of the iron davits, I’m going to include them in my model. I’m doing it as fitted for the Northwest Passage expedition, and they were there at some point. Plus, I kinda like how they look. I assumed I’d need to make them out of metal stock but then I saw that some places actually sell them. I couldn’t find anyone who ships to the United States that had the ones I thought looked most accurate. By chance I read the passage in Matthew Betts’ book regarding davits and he states that you can see similar davits on modern reconstructions of the HMS Beagle. Which got me to thinking. I went to OcCre’s website because I knew they make a Beagle kit. I pulled up the instructions and lo and behold: Seems almost a perfect match for the diagrams in the book. The company doesn’t sell the davits in their online catalog unfortunately. I’ve sent them a very polite message asking if they’d sell me four of them (maybe I need to buy eight if I’m doing Erebus later!). I also mentioned that they’d allow me to build a more accurate Terror — maybe they’ll eventually decide to start providing a set of them in future releases of the kits. 😁
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I learn a new trick with this model every time I pick it up it seems. 😄 I honestly had no idea there was a preferred orientation of the grating! I also didn’t know the Syren grating is closer to the real thing in construction than the typical kit part and not just better looking. I’m glad I’m doing Erebus next. I can refine my technique and correct some of the stuff I learned about while assembling this one.
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A question to anyone who might know: How do you guys usually make the sheaves in a piece of wood like the stanchions and the davit arm? I assumed I could just drill two holes but I wondered if there was a better way.
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That’s no kidding. I still haven’t quite determined how to do it properly. The diagrams seem to show a support mounted outside the bulwarks at one point… I might just have to wing it and hope it looks decent honestly. This is the first curved davit assembly. I still need to get some brass stock to make the brackets for the rest of the davits but so far the design seems sound. The stanchion is removable and you can remove the curved arm itself by pulling the pin out of the bracket mounted outboard.
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First four davit stanchions. They’re 4 mm by 4 mm square, and 50 mm tall. I didn’t have enough 4x4 mm stock to make them so I laminated some of the planking from the kit, cut it to size, and sanded it smooth. Then I drilled a hole in the center of the bottom for headless pins to be glued in place and carved the notch around the top. I test fitted the stanchions where they’ll be needed to support the planks that hold some of the boats. I was wanting to mock up the ice plank. I’ll still need to drill holes in the stanchions and make the straps to hold them to the bulwarks (I need some sheet brass — scraps from the provided photoetch aren’t enough to do it). I wanted to see how the supports would work for the ice plank. I just stacked some scrap wood on to check the fit. So far I’m mystified as to how the supports are fitted into place. I’m still studying the diagrams and trying to get a 3D picture in my mind of the entire setup.
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I have no clue what these are called but here’s one of them test fitted into place. I’m not caught up on nautical terminology yet. Those ice channels need a better sanding and repainting. I’m planning on masking them off and trying that soon as well.
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I didn’t get a lot done today but every little bit helps. I got the platform for the capstan in place too, hopefully I can get that accomplished at some point too. I really wish I could get a mini-Crozier figure like Matthew Betts used in his posts. Getting a sense of scale with a human figure would be fun.
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This is coming along nicely. What book did you get your Erebus plans from? I'm still accumulating my Franklin expedition library one book at a time and I probably need a copy of the one you used for later.
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It was nerve wracking to start drilling holes in the decking. All but two of them are installed now — I have to make a couple more since I miscounted. Something I’m going to remember next time for Erebus: Drill the holes and install these earlier in the build. My hammering knocked a few pieces of furniture loose. Nothing bad but it would be easier and less stressful to drill these holes when you have a chance to repair any mistakes just in case.
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Looking at them side by side on the deck, I agree with you Keith. I do like the blackened brass better so that's what I'm going with. I finally found a technique for filling the brass portholes with Micro Kristal Klear. The method I've seen people use on plastic starship models did NOT work out and I had to remove dried material from a few grommets. The method I've seen involved using clear cellophane tape to cover the windows from the outside, fill the windows from the back, and then peel the tape off when the Kristal Klear dries. This was not great, as the tape just pulled the material out or allowed voids that couldn't be eliminated with a pin. I'll stick to that method on my Star Trek model kits and just fill them from the top here. I was trying to eliminate the concave surface of the lens but that's not a dealbreaker.
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I’m still not certain what to do with the Illuminators. I’ve seen them described in Matthew Betts’ book as a gunmetal ring, and I’m not absolutely sure what color gunmetal in that day was. I blackened one grommet as a test to see what I thought of it but I’m not sure what would be better to use — unfinished brass or the blackened version?
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Both stern deck houses were painted and attached to the stern. I was going for a rough-looking paint job that allowed the wood texture to show through so I used an airbrush to lay down fine layers of paint.
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I need to install the Preston Patent Illuminators into the deck. The little brass grommets OcCre provides are a little rounded though. I drilled a 7/64” hole in a piece of scrap wood and fitted the first grommet into the hole. This will be a handle for using a file to flatten the surface. After filing the grommet is much less proud. After the coarse grinding of the file, I worked my way from Coarse to X-Fine with my Flex-I-File set. This polished the surface pretty well. The filed and polished grommet is on the left, which is much better than the original on the right and will stand much less proud of the deck when installed. I’m still not sure if I should blacken these or not. They will be filled with Microscale Industries Micro Kristal Klear to represent the glass. One down, 29 to go…
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Finished wheels and pedestal in place.
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Oh I’m happy to see someone reviewing this (since it’s pretty much a guaranteed purchase when I’m done with my Terror)! I was wondering how different this kit was from the Terror kit. I do like the nameplate being included (OcCre needs to release a brass nameplate for Terror that can be purchased separately, maybe something matching the one from the show just to be consistent…). I really was hoping the hull would be the proper extra 12 mm though. I wish I could find a vendor for the Caldercraft wheels, as much as I do like the Syren ones I’m building. I need to do something a little different for Erebus just to have some small differences anyway!
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Now I’m trying a new idea for the great cabin skylight. I tried a couple of things that didn’t work before I settled on cutting a piece of plastic, frosting it by sanding it, and taping it to my drawn out diagrams. I then cut small pieces of wood to assemble the window frames. It’s such a small assembly that carving the windows out of a solid piece of wood wasn’t working (and basically just making splinters). Abortive first attempt on the left side of the photo. I filed the edges to a bevel to attempt to make the panels meet more evenly. With the kit’s wood, this is about as good as I can do. Everything I build is attached to the deck with white glue in case I decide to rebuild things later. I have to decide if I’ll replace the officer’s mess skylight with something built like this next.
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This is how I build my belaying pin rails. A paper template that I use to mark the places for holes to be drilled. I’m using a 0.7 mm bit. I ordered more 5 mm brass belaying pins from Model Shipways. These are much more consistently shaped. Pin rail in place. Now both sides match.
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Building these 10 spoke wheels from the Syren kits is definitely a trying task but they look so much better than the kit parts. First wheel mocked up with pedestal parts. Now I just have to build another wheel. I used Model Shipways 3 mm brass airports for the hawse holes, filed to fit and blackened with Jax. I know they should be more widely separated but the holes are already punched into the kit parts so I went with what was there instead of attempting to modify the part this far into the build. When I assemble another one of these that would be an easier fix earlier in the assembly. I bought and assembled two Mantua 25 mm brass cannons (30531) to represent the deck guns. They’re close enough to the right size. I cleaned the brass with vinegar and used Jax to give the surface a worn appearance. I learned you absolutely cannot immerse things in Jax — it MUST be brushed on (as everyone else seems to have learned already if my forum searches are any indication).
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