marktiedens

Hey all, here is an update finally. I've done the other side of the mainmast and made the portside of the mizzen mast. I found it difficult to imitate the sagging curves of the original, but it was easier on the mizzen as the shrouds are angled straight up. First a reference pic I took at the museum:
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
/Matti

Well this is it, she is finished. Maybe to the left or to the right some things could be added or improved, but I consider her ready.  Last pictures:
 






 
Thank you for watching! You were a nice audience! 

Looks very nice - I hope you can get them off the tape without chipping the paint. .
 
/Mark

Hello John,
I am looking forward to following your progress.One nice thing about this ship is there are no complicated galleries to build .I have seen some discussion on the shape of the forecastle - do you have any opinions about it?
 
Regards,Mark

My original attempt at the message port was simply to scribe a square and add some hinges.  I didn't like the result so I decided to create a port and put a small lid in it.  First I cut out the port, by drilling some holes in the corners, cutting them together, and cleaning up the result with files.  Then I needed a support for the lid.  That involved a small strip of wood maneuvered through the hole and then rotated.  There are now several such small strips of wood rattling around that part of the hull :-)
 

 
The port lid itself is very small and has an extra thickness at the top where the wale runs:
 

 
The port lid in place...
 

 
And stained with hinges added.  The result is in my opinion much nicer than scribed lines, although the size of the port made the project a little tricky.  Again, the rope used to raise the lid will be added at the very end of the build.
 

 

As I am not working this weekend for a change,I have decided to concentrate on big structural stuff and leave the gratings for the limited time I have on weeknights.
After a thorough rub down of the poly on deck spirketing and gunports I have made a start on the deck beams.Incidentally,the varnished areas have now had nine coats of poly,'knocked back' every three coats.There will be another coat applied before using whichever treenailing method I employ,if any,flatted again and then the final coat.
For the deck beams,I have borrowed a method from Russian master Dimitry Shevelev.The beams slot through the sides of the hull.This allows the beams to be adjusted by shimming to ensure perfect deck alignment in relation to the gunports.Any adjustments become invisible when the final covering is applied inside and out.In addition to this,the deck structure can be built inside the hull and fine adjustment can be carried out to the hull sides before the beams are glued to the hull sides.
The plan is that all the plain beams are dry fitted,then removed to allow the deck clamps to be fitted inside the hull.The beam slots are then extended through the deck clamps to allow refitting of the beams.I know this joint will be historically incorrect,but would look identical from the outside although this area will be nigh on invisible on the assembled model.
I do anticipate that these beams will be fitted dry and removed several times,to allow the joints to be cut in them and to allow varnishing of the undersides before finally gluing in place.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

I started trying to make the slots for the railing posts. At first I tried using a tiny milling bit with my dremel, but after a couple of attempts I gave up due to my unsteady hands.
So I switched to hand drilling two small holes (.035 dia) right next to each other and then slowly filing out the middle and making them rectangular as best as I could. My posts are 1mm thick x 2mm wide for the ones that support the curved  pieces and the rest are 1mm thick by 1.5mm wide. Most of them came out okay with a couple of slots ending up too big. (Some walnut wood filler should work!) .


 
Working my way down the port side, I milled all the slots and dry fitted the posts that I will be using.
Nothing will be glued down until later after the installation of the shrouds and ratlines.





 
Now onto the starboard side.
 
Thanks,
Frank
 

And now the round gun port decorations.  They don't look much like those on the real ship, unfortunately not a lot of detail.  But putting them on the model gives the upper part of the hull a nice finished look.  And I like the lower location of the rearmost port. 
 

 

 

A small update - finished the hull nailing.Hard to see the small nails unless you are close up. Also started planking the decks. After planking the decks I am going to make up one gun carriage to determine where to position the round gun ports & cut them out before finishing the planking on the outer hull to try & minimize splintering.
 

 

 

 

 
I am planking the deck with different length planks in no certain pattern as the original is.
 
/Mark
 
 

Nice job on the railings. Lucky for me I had some profiled brass moulding to make my rails although I will probably borrow your method when I get to that point on my Corel build.
 
/Mark

Back working on my model!
 
I started making the assembly for the upper railing system. I am doing this so I can lay out the slots I will need to mill for the posts. I want to do this now (as discussed above) before I start the masting and rigging.
 
I made the curve pieces by taking some walnut sheet and grinding a radius with my oscillating sander.
Then I penciled the outside line and ground the outer side using a disk sander.


 
I notched one end of the curved pieces and one end of the straight pieces so that there will be more support when gluing together.

 
Now I glued the different sections together for both side of the ship. I left extra stock on the curved section and also on the straight sections, so I can accurately fit everything later in the build. (I will also paint these sections white at a later date)



 
I made up a bunch of the railing posts and left extra stock so I can fit everything later.

 
Now I will start marking and slotting the railing for the posts. (Hopefully I can find tools small enough for the slotting)
 
Thanks,
Frank

thanks Randy, it really does sound like a fascinating book, I am planning to do as much internal detail as I have data for and was hoping that book might help me make any interior scenes more accurate.  Let me know what you think of the book when you get it.  I have to wait at least until next months allowance rolls around before I can order it.
 
Mark, I am planning to do a build log.   glad to hear you are retired now!   congrats   I still have to get up there to visit you when we go to our daughters house in Iowa, maybe I can bring my Mary Rose with me.
 
thanks,
john

A small update - finished the hull nailing.Hard to see the small nails unless you are close up. Also started planking the decks. After planking the decks I am going to make up one gun carriage to determine where to position the round gun ports & cut them out before finishing the planking on the outer hull to try & minimize splintering.
 

 

 

 

 
I am planking the deck with different length planks in no certain pattern as the original is.
 
/Mark
 
 

Hello John
Are you going to do a build log? I have had my eye on this kit for quite a while & would love to follow along,although I have no plans to purchase it in the near future.I am officially retired now so I am on a somewhat tighter budget.
 
regards,Mark

She is looking beautiful, nice work with the spikes. Keep the pictures and updates coming.

A small update - finished the hull nailing.Hard to see the small nails unless you are close up. Also started planking the decks. After planking the decks I am going to make up one gun carriage to determine where to position the round gun ports & cut them out before finishing the planking on the outer hull to try & minimize splintering.
 

 

 

 

 
I am planking the deck with different length planks in no certain pattern as the original is.
 
/Mark
 
 

Bill,
I have built this kit and in my opinion it is worth every penny! The plans are on 18 sheets & very well done.The instructions are very detailed & not too hard to follow if you a couple of builds already done. The parts identification book alone is 42 pages. The wood is all CNC cut very accurately so there is no laser char on the edges to clean off. Also any wood that will have edges showing is solid wood - not plywood. The castings & PE parts are very well made also.My only real disappointment were the rigging blocks - they seem to be the square ones that seem to come with every kit. 
 
/Mark

A small update - finished the hull nailing.Hard to see the small nails unless you are close up. Also started planking the decks. After planking the decks I am going to make up one gun carriage to determine where to position the round gun ports & cut them out before finishing the planking on the outer hull to try & minimize splintering.
 

 

 

 

 
I am planking the deck with different length planks in no certain pattern as the original is.
 
/Mark
 
 

I decided to finish off the stern by doing the rear gun port lids and false cannon, and adding better doors at the top of the transom between the grotesques.  The kit provides plastic port lids.  They have a raised center section with lions embossed on the top.  The lions are quite nice actually, although they need a dark wash to bring out the detail (otherwise they look more like bears than lions).
 
Since the lids are supposed to be unpainted wood, I couldn't use the kit parts as provided.  Instead, I cut the edges off, leaving only the center section, which needs to be painted completely.  I thinned the section down a bit, then built the port lids from three strips of 3mm mahogany laid edgewise.
 
Here are the port lids and decorations prior to painting.  You can see the lid prior to and after cutting off the edges:
 

 
I then spray primed all the lids at once, with a medium flat yellow ("Demon Flesh" miniature primer, if you are interested :-).  After that, I put a thin layer of pale yellow on the lion heads, and followed that with a dull ochre wash.  The result picks out the lion mane and other details rather nicely.  Add a red mouth and red for the remainder of the lid, and I was done.  The painted decorations on the wood lid work out rather nicely, I think.
 
The cannon were sprayed with flat black primer, then washed with dark bronze.  Here's the result:
 

 
Then on to the doors.  What I did originally was simply scribe lines on the base of the transom and paint the result red.  It looked OK, but the "doors" were recessed and I decided I wanted them flush.  So I scratched some doors from pieces of wood and dropped them in the recessed, then painted them.  Here's a photo of the finished stern:
 

 
 
 
 
 

Gratings Mk 4 part 2
 
1.5mm wide battens were glued into the grouves and allowed to dry.I used alaphatic applied with a cocktail stick and excess was vigilently removed with a wet brush.When dry,the back was sanded off and the battens flushed off.I used a small disc in the Proxxon IBE to do this.Before final trimming and profiling I am going to apply two coats of heavily thinned matt poly to prevent any splintering.Mr Frolich does mention this in his book and seems like a good insurance policy.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

In an attempt to address the poor picture quality above,I post a better quality example .Half of the nails fitted in one grating and trimmed flush(although the keen eyed will note I have one to redo as the copper was not inserted properly and dislodged whilst trimming).I have ordered some liver of sulphur gel,but I am sat on the fence as to whether to use it on these fixings.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi friends:
 
These two last weeks I was a little lazy with my sails, in part of doing other things as:  dealing with termites in my house!! , and in part because fixing the sails to their spars is not as fun as with other parts of the construction.  Anyway this are some of my advances with the bowsprit and foremast sails:
 

 
Saludos, Karl

started with the canon rigging
 

 

 

 

 
I have no to figure out n correct methode to complete all other canons

Grating construction pt2
 
I next glued battens into the notches in the ledges.The height of the battens was oversize as the tops would be milled off.I used aliphatic,with a drop in each joint rather than using dilute PVA,
When set,the top face of the gratings was faced of again with the miller,but still above finished level.Whilst on the mill bench,I trimmed the ends of the battens flush with the end ledges.
 
I have made the decision to carry out representation of all fastenings with copper.This was my original intention at the start and I have decided to stick to it.So now to the grating nailing.I have started drilling two holes at each intersection 0.3mm diameter.Unfortunately this must be done manually with a pin vise.Due to the drill diameter,I was unable to find anything adequately concentric and small enough to hold the drill in the mill or rotary tool.Into the holes I am bonding with CA 0.27mm copper wire.I have made a start in the pics,but you can appreciate it may be a little while before part 3 .The top face still has around 0.4mm of material to be removed so this should eradicate the glue residue.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Nicely done. I also spaced mine by eye to what looked correct, I didn`t count mine to see if I had the same number as the original . Since none of the original rigging survived I assume the museum took their best guess when rigging them,so it`s possible yours is more correct than theirs .
 
/Mark