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chris watton

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Everything posted by chris watton

  1. chris watton
    Thank you. I did know, I have read this book twice over: The Struggle for Sea Power: The Royal Navy vs the World, 1775-1782 by Dr Sam Willis The Struggle for Sea Power: The Royal Navy vs the World, 1775-1782: Amazon.co.uk: Dr Sam Willis: 9781848878471: Books Highly recommended.
  2. chris watton
    Glenn, that is a fantastic job you have done there, well done!
  3. chris watton
    I find that working for myself is much better, I can streamline my projects. What I start, I can finish, rather than when being paid by someone else, having to put up with starting one project and half way through, asked to drop that and start something else. Rinse and repeat.. No plans for 48th scale for my main line of kits, very happy sticking with 64th.
  4. chris watton
    Yes, decks, inner and outer bulwarks, spirketting and main wale all have etched detail, including trenails. (Even gunwales have scarphing detail). Haven't worked out a price yet, as I haven't long started this one. I did want it to go in one of the smaller fully printed boxes, that the last four fishing boats use, as I love those. However, I realised that if I were to use those, I would have to either remove the longer parts like the bulwarks and gunwales from their host sheets, or split them. Neither option was palatable to me, so it will have to go in a Fifie/Zulu sized box.
  5. chris watton
    Paint the area above waterline to the top edge of the main wale black, leave the area in between the main wale and upper rail wood, and the area above the upper rail black. That would work
  6. chris watton
    Hull alone is around 335mm long. With masts and spars around 560mm long and 520 high overall (including drop keels) Kit will come with mirrored base. For the drop keel winch drums, I originally did these in laser cut wood, but was not happy with this solution, so I designed the drum in 3-d with a hole big enough for the 1mm brass rod to slide through plus another smaller offset hole to take the 'rope' that was attached to the drop keel, to lift it up and down. These are 3-d printed, so the holes will always be there on every one. I think this was the better solution. Each keel has an engraved line, so you know exactly how far to drop the keels.
  7. chris watton
    Cheers! A big part of this is James Hatch, who has been building the Grecian, photographing the stages and writing the text, leaving me free to start Trial Cutter. I thought I'd try that out and see how it went, and it seems to have gone very well, adding the outer bulwarks after the planking was complete and painted meant that it was free from any potential sanding/glue marks or paint overspray. No soaking in water at all for inner and outer bulwark patterns, but I did for main wale, but for the final kit, this will be in 0.8mm pear, not 1mm, so that should negate the need for soaking in water.
  8. chris watton
    I meant to add this pic in my initial post, the three that didn't make the cut, although the first, the one furthest away was always just a test to see how the initial designs looked - the one in the middle was used for all bulwark template patterns, and the nearest almost was the one, but decided to change the sliding keel parts so the modeller could add them once the hull is complete, rather than fit them before the deck is added.
  9. chris watton
    I did actually download all those pics and used them as a reference for some areas! The actual plans and contemporary model are so different in places!
  10. chris watton
    Around 8 weeks, I should think I have been taking pics during the build for the manual, and most of the hull is now done. Like Grecian, the channels are slotted and glued into place, as are the inner bulwark fittings like the pin rail and cleats - no need for drilling and pinning in place on this one.
  11. chris watton
    I think the best thing to do, if you are undecided, is to buy both! lol
  12. chris watton
    Cheers! I am a little rusty when it came to doing a nicer model, rather than speed built just for pics for jim. The designs are 100% done. I have changed a few things whilst building this. For example, I felt the 1mm pear was just ever so slightly too thick, so have put them on a 0.8mm pear file (inner/outer bulwarks, main wale, upper rails and gunwale) All of the planking is very easy, and all is painted. All above the white painted area are pre cut.
  13. chris watton
    Not sure about the inner bulwark ladders, may delete those.... I have opted for a mirrored base for this one. And I just realised I left off the hatch for the toilet at the stern..
  14. chris watton
    And this is where I am with the model now, waiting for my PE...
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  18. chris watton
    The Trial Class Cutter (1788) was a vessel with three sliding keels' Agreeable to a plan suggested by Captain Schank, She was just over 65 feet along the main deck and 121 tons. She was initially armed with 8 x 3 pounder cannon, but in 1793, 4 x 12 pounder carronades were added, bringing he armament up to 12 guns. She was launched in 1790, and hulked in 1810. She became a depot ship at Waterford; by the 1840's to Callao in Peru as a coal depot, being finally sold in 1848, after well over half a century in service. (Sailing Navy List - David Lyon) I wanted to develop a smaller cutter. I even thought about doing a much improved Sherbourne. However, I have little stomach for treading old ground when there are still so many wonderful subjects that have not been tackled. One such subject was the Trial Cutter (quite a bit larger than Sherbourne), and I thought it would be more of a challenge and more unusual, due to the three drop keels. For the designs, I have utilised both the original plans and the contemporary model. I wanted to develop not a simple beginners kit, but a nicely detailed smaller kit, with etched planking and treenail detail on the inner and outer hull, just to see how that kind of detail would work out. So, I started designs way back at the end of February. I had three stabs at the hull design before I settled on the forth. The original designs were to have the drop keels fitted very early in the build, and they dropped down to a pre determined level. That was pretty cool, but it would have meant adding the rope to the tops of the keels and keeping them free of glue and paint and whatever else throughout the hull build. I ditched that idea and came up with a simpler solution, where the keels are added only after most of the hull is complete. So here is where I am up to. I cannot do much more until I have my photo etched samples arrive, but I did manage to cannibalise some parts from scrap sheets, like eyebolts, winch handles, belaying pins etc. Here are some pics!
  19. chris watton
    Superb progress.
  20. chris watton
    I am working on making all carronade kits the same way with the new wheels, 12, 18, 24 and 36 pounder carronades. Indy already has them for her 42 pounders, now Grecian with the 18 pounders. I am thinking of offering an 18 gun brig armament set, with 16 x 32 pounder carronades and 2 x 6 pounder long Blomefield cannon. The wheels are 3-d printed and are much better than the PE type.
  21. chris watton
    Colour schemes for the smaller vessels are usually speculative. This gives the modeller a few options to go their own way. Something like Grecian would look just as nice with no paint whatsoever, just varnished. Or you could use the black and yellow/ochre scheme for the outer hull and all red for the inner, and it would still look great. I just wanted to depict Grecian as she may have appeared when in American service (although in reality, her armament was miserly compared to what I have given her), and using typical colours for that period. But this scheme is by no means set in stone, and you do not have to follow it, it is just one possible option of many.
  22. chris watton
    Do not trust the flat line drawings too much, as the actual model has curves, so when you lay the part on the flat drawing, it will not align due to the drawing being flat.
  23. chris watton
    Sergal and Panart were/are part of the Mantua group, from what I understand
  24. chris watton
    I will add a sentence in the manual when ready for reprint, stating that you can add the cannon barrels any time you like once the hull has been painted and you no longer have to lay the hull on its side or upside down. For gluing them in place, you can use superglue or epoxy resin. Regarding rigging plans for cannon, I have never designed a kit and made the model showing this, except perhaps breech ropes on the odd occasion. This is because I do not like to add this detail, as unless they are done very very well using very small blocks and hairless thread, they never stand up to close photographic scrutiny. In fact, I have seen many very well made models almost ruined by the inclusion of fully rigged cannon. But this is entirely my preference, and each modeller is different.
  25. chris watton
    That is a very neat job!

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