Jump to content
MSW Spring Donation Drive

cdrusn89

NRG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,653

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by cdrusn89

  1. cdrusn89
    Working on the gun port door details (hinges and eyebolts) and put a coat of varnish on the knees. So here are the varnished (Minwax Polycrylic water based - I have never had much luck with W-o-P anywhere but on large surfaces) hanging and lodging knees, the three mast coats and the first "assembled" deck beam and hanging knees forward of the aft bulkhead. I measured and I should (ish) be able to get the assembled beam/knees into place but... Next up for these is to drill the holes and add the monofilament "bolts" so they are "ready to go" as I get to the next deck beam.
  2. cdrusn89
    While messing around with the gun port doors I decided it was probably time to get all the knees off the carrier sheet, laser char removed, stained and maybe varnished before starting the deck beams in earnest. So here they all are ready for stain. I marked each one of at least one of the edges that I thought would not show. Turns out for the ones extending down (I forget which is which) the only edge not visible is the one against the outer bulkhead. I had to sand off and reapply the markings on all of those. I finished the port side gun port doors and here they are after a coat of W-o-P. I have to paint the inside red after this dries and then maybe another coat of W-o-P.
  3. cdrusn89
    Port side gun port doors are half done. Hopefully get these finished today so I can get them painted, varnished and have the eyebolts installed. Am wondering about the hinges. The instructions use the part of the hinge that would be on the hull (I assume) as a "pin" to be inserted into a hole drilled in the hull. For the closed doors I assume this part needs to go on the hull above the door. Or was the top of the hinge on the inside of the gun port? Maybe I need to look carefully at some pictures showing closed gun ports.
  4. cdrusn89
    Here is the forward most gun port with the door in place - no Wipe-on-Poly or hinges or eyebolt yet but it does fit pretty well. Only 13 more to go, on this side.
  5. cdrusn89
    I made a "false start" on the gun port covers. I forgot to add the caulking between the planks (aka graphite from a pencil lead) plus I had to take a bit off each side of the planks to get the white glue residue off. Decided on a "do over" so I got a 24" piece of Swiss Pear and thickness sanded it to 1/8" then cut five pieces 3/32" thick. I used the pencil and white glue to glue them together and when it is dry later today will use the thickness sander to get it back down to 1/16" thick and (hopefully) have a nice smooth surface (with caulk) ready to make the gun port doors (lids?). I estimate that this one specimen could make all 28 gun port lids but I'll settle for 14 now. While waiting for the glue to dry I fitted the center section of the aft interior bulkhead and the floor beams for the aft part of the quarterdeck. Unfortunately the center of the bulkhead does not line up with the center of the deck, off about one plank width. But it will be really hard to tell with the next bulkhead only 2" forward. A lesson learned, secure the center of the bulkhead first and work out from there. Mistakes will be much less noticable between the doors and the outer bulkhead sections. I cut some scrap basswood to check the "lay" of the beams before gluing them in place. Looks "okay" to me.
  6. cdrusn89
    Working the port side gun port lids and the internal bulkheads in parallel. Building up four and five row pieces of side planking to use for the gun port lids. Have not figured out exactly how to fit them but I recognize that they will have to be "taller" then the port so I can get the planks to "line-up". I had previously build up the bulkhead pieces and thinned them down per the instructions. Also per the instructions, the bulkhead pieces are some what larger than required I shortened and took material off the edge pieces to match up with the interior bulwarks (ish). I added the hinges and door knobs to the doors and glued the door and edge pieces in on both sides. Once this is dry (tomorrow) I will "adjust" the center piece so it fits between the two doors. Hopefully it will fit with the center of the piece on the centerline of the deck. Here is a picture of the bulkhead with the edge pieces and doors in place.
  7. cdrusn89
    Wooo-Who - guns are complete. Thinking about building the port side gunport doors now and installing them so I don't have to contend with them while adding the external details (channels etc.). Otherwise it is time to start the internal bulkheads at the stern.
  8. cdrusn89
    Eight of the 14 port side cannon installed and rigged. I am getting this down to a "routine" just in time to be completed. Here they are:
  9. cdrusn89
    So here is my "test" cannon in the "stowage" position. I did glue this one down while I adjusted the breeching tackle so I guess I am committed to do the rest this way now.
  10. cdrusn89
    Starboard side cannon are all installed and the out-haul tackles are complete. Here is a shot of the four after most (except for the one in the Great Cabin which can be seen in the post above. I arranged the other guns approximately where they would be if I opt to place them where (IMHO) they would be stowed when underway. Jury is still out on this. The upside is I may not have to redo all 28 out-haul tackle since there will be significantly more room with the carriages back another 20mm or so. I guess I will rig one to see how easy/hard it will be to rig them back. Probably will have to glue them down before rigging to try and keep the breeching tackle the correct length. I'll try one without gluing the carriage down to see how it goes.
  11. cdrusn89
    While installing the out-haul tackles on the starboard side guns I was thinking about the storage for these lines. Given the usually wet nature of the deck I thought that probably these lines may not even have been routinely kept on the guns but rather stored somewhere nearby and rigged as part of "beating to quarters". When I got to the Great Cabin I thought that at least the Captain would not want the lines laying on the deck (no matter how smartly coiled) since space is always at a premium the floor space could be used for something else (chair, locker, etc.) so I put two cleats on the bulwark and hung the lines for the out-haul tackle on them. Here is what it looks like. All the starboard side out-hauls are complete except for putting the rope coils in place.
  12. cdrusn89
    All 14 of the starboard side guns are in place with at least the breeching tackle secured to the bulwark. Next is the out-haul tackle for the nine that I did not do before I changed tactics. With the starboard side positioned at the gun ports I need to decide if I am going to position the port side guns in a similar manner or have them further back so that I can have to port side gun ports closed. Not that I am anxious to have to make 14 gun port covers that match the planking pattern on the hull but it would make the two sides "different". First order of business is to make sure there is nothing that gets installed later that would be impacted by the gun carriages being about 20mm further inboard. You would hope not since the guns clearly had to move back that far in recoil and allow the gun crew to reload without having to reach through the gun port to get the shot and powder in the barrel - not to mention trying to swab out the barrel. So here is the starboard side with all the guns in position waiting for me to add the out-haul tackle.
  13. cdrusn89
    Thanks Schooner - necessity is the mother of invention - or so I have been told.
  14. cdrusn89
    After having the "hook" that I formed out of the annealed steel wire (32 gauge I think) that I used to "strop" the 2.5mm blocks broke on three successive blocks as I was trying to hang the block on the eyebolt in the bulwark (for the out-haul tackle) I decided that I was going to have to try another approach. That and finding that the connection to the becket on most of the blocks I already had made was going to be too large led me to begin redoing all of the remaining 25 sets of out-haul tackle blocks with becket. Not much fun but I think I will go crazy trying to use what I already have. Lesson learned, try to use what you pre-make before you get too far down the road. Sometimes what seems like it should work, actually doesn't. So I got my jig for holding the 2.5mm blocks and after removing the existing stroping and line I put the block in the jig. Make a loop in the line that becomes attached to the becket and loop it over the block. Make a "U" shaped piece of stropping wire (I use 32 ga) and catch the loop of line against the end of the block. I sometimes gently press the wire into the slots in the block with a pair of pliers. But be careful it is possible to crush the block both with the pliers and in the next step. Do not ask me how I know. I use a clamp to hold the wire for the next step which is to wind the two ends of the wire around each other to form a "shaft". Cut the excess wire off and cross the ends of the line over each other a time or two and put a dot of CA on the juncture and cut off the short end. Now the "shaft" goes into the bulwark and with a small amount of CA will stay there in the correct orientation so that the line from the block on the carriages comes out at the bottom of the bulwark block and down to the deck where it is secured with a dot of CA and covered with a rope coil. Not the way it would look in "real life" but close enough for "government work" as we used to say in the USN.
  15. cdrusn89
    Slow going, have three cannon installed with tackle. Trying to find the best way to install the tackle. The breech tackle as to be done before installation more or less per the instructions. It is the out-haul tackle that is the more "interesting" problem. Should the blocks on the carriage be installed before or after the carriage in onboard and secured? Should the block/becket/eyebolt be attached to the bulkhead as a unit or separately. I haven't worked through all the permutations/combinations yet but have done all three so far differently with no clear "winner" yet.
  16. cdrusn89
    Back from cruise and have one gun carriage and associated tackle installed - only 27 more to go. I have to choose the out-haul tackle components carefully. I try and reduce the size of the hook to the greatest extent possible (and still be able to hook it on the eyebolt) on both blocks before I start rigging and fear at some point I am going to have to redo some of the blocks with the becket to reduce the size of the seizing. Hopefully not too many will have to be redone but... Anyway here is the one completed gun, carriage and tackle.
  17. cdrusn89
    I decided to keep going on the coamings and get those out of way along with the anchors. So here are the seven coamings for the quarterdeck and fo'c'sle deck, the ladder, the rudder box and the twomanchors. As soon as the flat finish is dry they will join the stove, capstan, and binnacles in storage until needed. Now I am out of excuses for not installing the guns. Except for the 7-day cruise my girlfriend decided we cannot live without - it leaves this Saturday. So not many guns are going to get mounted before we go.
  18. cdrusn89
    Thanks Schooner. The Alfred is "looking good"!
  19. cdrusn89
    And here is what we have waited for through the trials and tribulations associated with the guns! The first gun back onboard with the new .035 breeching rope (out haul tackle is next). So here is the first one!
  20. cdrusn89
    So now that the breeching rope is in I decided to go ahead and fab the coamings for the hatches/companionway on the quarterdeck and fo'c'sle. The instructions say to use 3/16" X 1/16" wood for all the coamings but the drawings show otherwise. All of the coamings (except the one around the stove flue which has a grating in front of and behind the stove flue) are 3/16" tall. The coaming around the mizzen looks to be 1/16" wide, but all the others measure more like 3/32". The other "trick" is to build the coamings around the gratings that they enclose. I am not that good and hitting the measurements exactly (assuming they are even that accurate) so I use the grating as the final arbiter of how long/wide the coaming needs to be. Here is the stove flue coaming with the two gratings installed (not glued). No finish yet, just the bare boxwood. The drawing shows some sort of material around the stove flue and in he pictures in the instructions it looks like wood but I can't do much more until I know exactly where the flue will come through this opening. And here is the upper aft hatchway (over the capstan) also without finish.
  21. cdrusn89
    Here is the capstan and the two anchor stocks stained and drilled for the bolts. Need to add the pin stripe or card stock. Breech tackle has arrived !!
  22. cdrusn89
    Here are the two binnacles after painting. I will add the windows shortly (using the Model Master Window Maker). Hopefully the .035 breech rope comes today. The tops don't really look this bad in "real life".
  23. cdrusn89
    On to the binnacles. First I followed the instructions and used a 1/8" X 1/8" piece as the basis for the base (you glue the two side pieces to this square section base). Unfortunately, (at least for me) this is a bit too narrow and when I fit the front and back I had to narrow them so much that the borders around the openings became very thin (and at a 45 degree angle to boot). So I decided that trying to bevel these very small, 1/32" thick pieces and getting them to fit together in something resembling a square was probably (for me at least) a bridge too far. So I cut a piece of 1/4" X 1/4" square stock so it was as wide as the base pieces and 1/16" (twice 1/32") narrower in the other dimension (.251 X .154 as it turns out). This makes for a rectangular binnacle but I think it will be really hard to notice. I had to make up new pieces for the tops since the kit provided pieces assume the binnacle is square. There is plenty of spare 1/32" around so other then trying to get the same overlap on all four sides (twice since there are two binnacles) this was no big deal. So here are the two binnacles ready for paint. It is taking a good bit of restraint on my part to not paint one green and the other red but I think the green one might stand out too much since it is the only green item on the model.
  24. cdrusn89
    The USPS web site says the breech rope will be here Tuesday. In the meantime I got the stove finished (except for the rotisserie) so here it is sitting on its platform.I may wait for the rotisserie since it looks pretty delicate and it will be "awhile" before I can actually install the stove.
  25. cdrusn89
    Working several items while waiting for breeching rope from Syren. Build a jig to make the rope "coils" for the out haul tackles. I have about fifteen done so far, with the 10 above I need another 30 or so. Here is the assembled capstan with the first coat of red paint. I decided to use the monofilament fishing line for the bolt heads so I drilled (#74 bit) holes in the photo etched ring and then painted it black. I have made the initial assembly of the stove, sealed the wood with several coats of sealer and a first coat of flat black. Need to add the metal strips, drain pipes and the details on the top. If I get all these done I can start on the coamings for the hatches/masts on the quarter and forecastle decks.

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...