SJSoane

Hi everyone, I am finally retiring in 5 weeks, and moving to Montana a thousand miles from an ocean, but a few hundred feet from a lake. Hope to have a shop set up in the next few months, and starting again on the Bellona. All my tools have been packed away for moving, and dust has definitely collected on the hull... Mark

Hi Vitaly, Many apologies for not seeing your questions. Work and personal circumstances have taken me entirely away from the shop and website for some time. Thank you druxey, for answering these questions in my absence! I will be retiring in one year, at which time I plan to take up the Bellona again with a lot more time available! Best wishes, Mark

Hi Siggi, I have been away from the website and the shop for some time, due to family and work issues. I just had a chance to read the rest of your build log, and I am delighted to see that you have completed the Dragon! It is an exceptional project, congratulations. I look forward to learning from your build as I reach similar stages of my Bellona build. Best wishes, Mark

Siggi, That is as good as it gets! Mark

I can't wait to see the chairs! Will you show how you create them? Mark

Siggi, It is fascinating to see how you fit guns and furniture into the space, discovering how certain arrangements work and others do not. It is a level of detail I had never considered. Good job! Mark

Siggi, Spectacular, well-crafted, detail. Bravo! Mark

Beautiful, Siggi. Outstanding work. Mark

Alexandru, Spectacular! Mark

Siggi, It is looking really great. Well done! Mark

Hi Siggi, Your cannon look great. And thanks for asking about my progress on the Bellona, which has been little since spring except for a little more CAD drawing. Work and family related issues have closed down the shipyard for some time. Maybe when the nights get longer in the winter..... I will continue to follow your progress as a road map for me, when I can return to the shipyard. Best wishes, Mark

Gaetan, You set the standard to which we all aspire. Beautiful! Mark

Alexandru, It is looking spectacular! Mark

All great comments. All details should be considered in light of the overall artistic effect of the model as a whole. Having said that, I know that I have made some very fine and time consuming details that no one will see in the end, but I did them anyway. I think for 2 reasons: first, to push my limits and see if I could do it; and two, because I was curious about how the detail was built. building the details helped me understand how these ships were made, and how the parts functioned. Good thing my overall deadline is to complete the ship just before I pass away.... Mark

Siggi, A very harmonious arrangement in the stern. The colors work well together, and the green paneling is not only historically based, but also gives a good sense of the privileges enjoyed by the captain. I had always been thinking that I would not fully plank the upper deck of the Bellona, but your checkerboard and green paneling are causing me to re-think this. Mark

Remco, exceptionally beautiful work!

My own experience with the Bellona is that the clamps are so fiddly to install, they would not easily have been removed to notch and then reinstall. They change their lengths slightly as they are conformed to the hull sides (particularly the upper deck clamps on a British 74), and any notching when they are not fully bedded down would result in inaccuracies fore and aft. So I opted for installing the clamps first, focusing on keeping their tops at the precise line marked on the bulwarks (deck height at bottom of planking minus thickness of beam, plus 1" as Druxey notes). Fully glued and pinned in, they form a solid foundation for everything else to follow. I then located each beam very accurately in its fore and aft location, temporarily clamping it in place with a small C-clamp. I then marked each side of the beam on the top of the deck clamp with a very sharp knife, and scribed down from this line 1" in scale from the top to mark the sides of the mortise. I used a small jig to scribe a line 1" down and parallel to the top of the clamp, to locate the bottom of the mortise. With the mortise accurately marked out on top, side and bottom, I then used a variety of small chisels and hobby knifes/scalpels to cut each mortise. One inch down at 3/16" scale is easily done by this method. Following full size practice, firmly press down vertically with a knife on each scribed line on the top, then take a slice from the top center of the mortise to each side you just cut, forming an inverted V. Cut from the middle so you are always cutting down on the grain into the stopping cut, thereby avoiding unexpected splits. Cutting this way also means that a knife can be brought to bear from the side, rather than the top where the tumblehome can get in the way. Do the vertical cut and then V cut on each side several times until you cut down to the 1" line. Then pare off the remaining inverted V with shallow horizontal cuts until the V is gone and the mortise is 1" deep. Easier to do than to explain. One key is to take a number of very shallow cuts, so the wood is easily pared, rather than forcing deeper cuts. The other key is to scribe the lines marking the mortises, from the beams themselves and from a jig for the bottom. The scribed lines give a very accurate register for the chisels/knives that you can feel in cramped quarters even when you cannot see the line. Even if you cut the mortises first, you will likely still have to make some adjustments to them once installed, to ensure that the beams are all exactly at the height of the deck minus the decking. I used long templates to sit on beams at the middle and at both ends of the deck, so all intermediate beams could be brought level to the template. So if you are going to adjust the mortises slightly in place anyway, why not cut them in place to start? Once cut this way, the mortises provide very precise beds for the beams fore and aft, and vertically. I drilled through the tops of the beams into the clamp where possible, more often into the bulwarks, for pins. I cannot begin to count the number of times I had to locate and remove the beams for further work, like marking and cutting the mortises in the beams themselves for the carlings. The precisely located mortises were my friend. For those who are anxious about hand cutting mortises, I took inspiration myself from Gaetan Bordeleau, who pointed out to me that the more you cut by hand, the more comfortable you become with cutting by hand. It was like training on the job. And if you follow the advice of shallow paring cuts into stop cuts, you can't go drastically wrong in any given slip of the knife. Mark

Beautiful work!

And I agree on one color; so much agreement, we should form a political party! Mark

Siggi, I like the panelling very much, and the color is consistent with house interiors of the same period. I know you always look for a good original source for your decisions; did you see this color in one of the models you have inspected? In your photo of Kensington Palace paneling, I believe the wooden dowels were used to pin the tenons of the cross pieces into the mortises of the vertical pieces. The holes in each piece were drilled a little offset, so driving in the dowel would help pull the joint together. It is still not clear to me how the frames and panels were actually attached to the bulwarks. I have some old early 20th century traditional architectural construction books; I will see if they offer any clues. Best wishes, Mark

Doris, I will add to the chorus of compliments. It is a spectacular build, worthy of a place in a prominent museum. Mark

Siggi, Beautiful floor cloths. Did you see an example of this pattern, or is this your own historical reconstruction? The compass roses are particularly effective. Mark

Siggi, You are making great progress! It looks very good. Mark

Siggi, the deadlights are a great touch. It is interesting to speculate on their use. They would not have slowed down a cannonball, and they would not be needed to shut out light that would disturb the captain's sleep. So would they have been used to protect the cabin in severe storms? Mark

Siggi, It is looking truly spectacular! Your color choices are making this very special. I do hope the captain will pay for the extra quality in his cabin... Mark