Patrick Haw

Thanks Grant. The First Lieutenant calls for sweepers all the time. Well actually he has cases of this stuff stowed below! Patrick

Hi Glenn, Your second planking is looking very good. It's a good idea to put primer on the hull below the waterline, it will really show up any dings and divots that need to be filled and give you a really good surface for coppering. Remember to install at least the lower wales before you start coppering. See my log for the the consquences of not doing so! It worked out in the end, but caused a lot of extra work. What kind of glue are you planning to use for the copper plates? I had good results with contact cement, it gives you time to move the plates into position, unlike the CA recommended in the manual. It might also be a good idea to order extra tiles as I found there was quite a bit of wastage. Plan on a couple of months of living and sleeping copper tiles! Enjoy! Patrick

Thanks Nick, Glenn, Sjors, David, and Lawrence. You're right David, in retrospect it might have been easier to build the whole beakhead structure off the ship and then install a la Yon. Too late now and I think it's going ok. I really am enjoying fitting out the quarter deck and like doing these one-off features. It'll be back to repetitive stuff soon enough, and I'm sure you'll remind me how many clove hitches there are to tie for the ratlines! Patrick

Wow David! She looks fantastic. You're really setiing the standard for rigging here. It's still a long way off for me, but believe me your rigging work will be a "go to" must for tips and advice when I get there. Keep up the great work. Patrick

Very nice work on your pin rail Grant. All of your little fixes and mods to your build are carefully filed away for my future use! Patrick

In between re-decorating a bedroom and waiting for my new companionway ladder to be deivered I've had some time to keep moving ahead on my build. Finished the beakhead capping assembly and am now building the roundhouses and hopefully will get the beakhead decked and finished in the next couple of days. So here are some pictures, the quarterdeck screen, wheel, and ninnacle or just dry fitted right now. Patrick

Just wonderful Kevin. So glad the weather's good enough for you to take her outside again. She looks majestic! Patrick

Thanks David. I go through a lot of cans of that computer keyboard dust spray they sell in office supply stores to try and keep the ship as clean as I can. And of course I clean it up before I take photos...you wouldn't want to see it beforehand! Patrick

Hi Glenn, Fantastic job with the second planking and you got the result you were looking for. Take lots of pictures before you start covering it up with copper and paint. Once I'd filled and sanded my second planking smooth I put on a couple of coats of primer below the water line and sanded it again. It gave a really smooth surface for the coppering, so you might want to consider that. Keep up the great work, and enjoy. Patrick

Quarter deck pin rails, shot garlands, kevels and staghorns installed. Need a bit of paint touch up but I'm happy. Quarter deck screen and binnacle are dry fitted. The shot garlands required 62 cannon balls, I had 63. Dropped two of them amd spent half an hour on my knees to find one. Got it! I decided to paint the shot garlands yellow instead of black as I think it highlights the cannon balls better. Patrick

Hello David, Glad to see you back. I hope everything went ok with the hospital treatment. Fantastic work with your rigging, it sure does get very "busy" in there doesn't it? It's a pity about the damage to the bowsprit, but consider the damage she suffered at Trafalgar. According to a report of a midshipman on board: "The hull is much damaged by shot in a number of different places, particularly in the wales, strings and spirketing, and some between wind and water. several beams , knees and riders, shot through and broke; the starboard cathead shot away; the rails and timbers at the head and stern cut by shot, several of the ports damaged and port timbers cut off; the channels and chain plate damaged by shot and the falling of the mizzen mast; the principal part of the bulkheads, half ports and port sashes thrown overboard in clearing ship for action. the mizzen mast shot away about nine feet above the deck; the mainmast shot through and sprung; the main yard gone; main top mast and cap shot in different places and reefed; the main topsail yard shot away; the foremast shot through in a number of different places and is at present supported by a top mast, and a part of the topsail and crossjack yards; the fore yard shot away, the bowsprit jibboom and cap shot, and the sprit sail and spirtsail topsail yards, and flying jibboom gone; the fore and main tops damaged; the whole of the spare top mast yards, hand-mast fishes shot in different places, and converted into jury gear." They managed to get her into Gibraltar by October 28th and she was ready for sea again on November 4th 1805. Seven days to get her fit for sea and the return voyage to England! So repairing your bowsprit in your well-equipped shipyard should be a piece of cake! Patrick

Gil, Good luck with your preparations and hope you have a fantastic cruise. You'll be missed while you're away but I will be all over your log as I move ahead with my Victory. Yours is one of the logs I could not get anything done without! Patrick

Hi Kevin, Don't know how that happened, but glad you made it back to my build. Your insight and advice are always invaluable. Patrick

Hi Mobbsie. Just catching up on your Agamemnon and your work is simply stunning. The precision and symmetry of your rigging is just amazing and sets a high standard for the rest of us to try and achieve. Thanks for all your photos and tips. Definitley a log to file away for future reference. Patrick

Hi Sjors. That work room looks way too neat and organized. I'd be embarassed to show you the state of mine right now! Patrick

Thanks Glenn, Daniel, Grant, Sjors, and Lawrence. Thanks for your confidence in my ability to scratch build new ladders, and I tried, I really did. Spent a lot of time yesterday cutting out blank ladder sides and trying to cut the grooves for the steps, but I just couldn't get them lined up and all at the proper angle. I found that Cornwall Model Boats has some 1:72 scale wood companionway ladder kits (not Caldercraft, but any port in a storm right?). So I ordered some and will do a bit of bashing on them to make them fit right. I have plenty of other things to work on while I wait for them to arrive, so will be posting some new pics soon. Patrick

Very nice, neat job on your first planking Sjors. She's going to be very special. Looking forward to seeing more. Patrick

Thanks Daniel, Maybe I'll give scratch ladder making a try. Like you said, what do I have to lose? And your efforts give me inspiration! Let's see what happens. Patrick

I decided to go the route of using the ladder sides from the admiral's dining cabin companionway to make a new main companionway ladder, and then do the 'faux' companionway for the dining cabin with no actual ladder in it. I figure it will be invisible once the poop deck, mizzen mast, wheel and binnacle are in place. Maybe I could put a fireman's pole in that companionway and have the admiral slide down it to dinner!! Patrick

Nice work Glenn. Nice, tight joints between the planks. And where they aren't tight enough...filler and sand, sand, sand! You're going to have no problem getting a very smooth hull. Patrick

Well, a minor disaster has struck. While dry fitting the main companion way ladder it fell through to the upper gundeck and then, incredibly, went straight down the companionway ladder from the upper gun deck to the middle gun deck. I couldn't have made it do that if I'd tried! But it's lost forever! Now what to do? I don't trust my skills to make new ladder sides with the grooves cut in properly, and it seems a bit ridiculous to try to order two new ladder sides and ship them across the Atlantic. One option is to cut the ladder sides from the companionway down to the Admiral's dining cabin to the right size and use them for the main companionway, then just build the companionway to the Admiral's dining cabin with the coaming and hand rails, etc, but without any actual steps. This companionway is so hidden under the poop deck and behind the binnacle, wheel, and mizzen mast that no one would know there's no actual ladder there I think. Maybe I'll work on the binnacle and wheel while I ponder this one. Patrick

Work continues on the quarter deck. I must say I'm enjoying these one-off assemblies like the quarter deck barricade, belfry, etc. It'll be back to repetitive tasks soon enough. Got the main top bowline and fore topsail sheet bitts installed and lined the main mast rigging opening, and finally epoxied the fore brace bitt in place. It's pretty solid now and shouldn't knock over any more. Then the first lieutenant decided it was time to spiff things up a bit so I put a couple of coats of satin finish clear varnish on the hatchways and gratings and the main mast rigging opening linings. I think it gives it a bit of pizzazz! On to the main companionway today...it's probably easier than it looks but the instructions in the manual are quite confusing and badly written...what else is new? Patrick

Very nice work Kevin. I admire your dedication to getting it right, even though it means going back and re-doing some very tedious work. The results speak for themselves and your gun ports look fantastic! Well done! Patrick

Thanks Sjors. Whenever possible I assemble the components of each assembly and then paint the completed assembly off the ship. For all the quarter deck pieces (barricade, belfry, etc) I've been using regular household flat black spray paint. I find it gives more consistent and smoother coverage than brush painting. After installig the piece I then do any needed touch up with a brush. Patrick

Today's project was the quarter deck barricade. 21 separate pieces to this. With the exception of the 1 x 3mm base piece and the top cap rail, I built the three sections off the ship and then installed them. Pleased with the result. As suggested in the manual, installing the hammock cranes at this point is inadvisable due to the potential for damage. And if there's anything that can be knocked down or broken, I'm just the guy to do it! Patrick