SJSoane

Hello,
it is done, the fore castle is ready. Ok, there are some things left like the anchors, but that comes later. The only thing I would build here next, is the fish david. 

Hello,
I build the side parts, because drawing them would be nearly impossible.  And then came the hardest thing, to assemble the parts. But at least all went well and the shipwright is pleased. Tomorrow the painter has to paint it all.

Hello,
slowly, but steady the carpenters get the deck ready. First I thought to leave it so, but I think I should build the bows also in front of the open deck. 

Hello,
the carpenters where very busy today and build the walls for the kitchen. So, when I made the pictures, they where at there way home.

Hello,
so, it is done! The head is ready. 😃
The painter has to fix some things, because the man from the admiralty would come and inspect the work. He was very pleased and spend a beer for the crew 😮 Yes one beer 😕
For the next days the crew had some days free and after that, they have to cut the deck beams for the fore castle.

Greg's and druxey's gluing ideas worked well. Tiny drops of carpenter's glue between the piece and a sheet of plywood held everything firmly enough to sand fair on three sides. Isopropyl removed it from the ply, and as the British say, "Bob's your uncle!"
 
Good trick for refining small delicate parts.
 
Glued together on the hull, still not fully faired to each other:

then glued down on plywood:
 

 
Faired, and pinned back on the hull:
 
 

This piece reminds me of the great quote on Remco's HMS Kingfisher site: "Treat each part as if it is a model on its own, you will finish more models in a day than others do in a lifetime."
 
Mark
 
 

This has been a satisfying week spent detailing the tafferal plate.  First task was to complete the architectural moulding and to shape the top mouldings and scrolls:

I have taken a somewhat different tack with my adaptation than what Tanneron/Heller show.  I have decided to run this large architectural moulding all the way out to the ship sides.  The reason for this is that I chose to use the between window pilasters to bracket the outermost windows on all three levels.  These window pilasters are notably more narrow than the long rectangular panels on the outside edges of the tafferal plate, so this architectural moulding caps the lower window pilasters and provides a visual transition to what is happening above.  The rectangular panels need to be wider in order to accommodate the long bellflower ornaments.
 
The next step was to skeletonize the extra stock stern plates I have for these decorative elements that would otherwise be extremely difficult to carve or sculpt from scratch, in this scale:

I use the Dremel grinding disc to excise the relevant sections and then sanding drums to waste away material from the backside.  Once I can begin to see light through the plastic, I manually sand the parts with finger pressure against a coarse sanding stick.  I frequently check to see that the light is coming through evenly as a gauge of how evenly I’m removing the ground material.  It doesn’t take long before the desired elements only need the very tip of a sharp EXACTO to separate them from the ground.
 
I was able to extract the Zodiac symbols in this same manner:

But, the shortened height of these recessed panels is such that they no longer will fit in those spaces:

That’s okay - I will simply paint them-in with a very fine brush a little later in the process.  Above, you get a clear sense of how dramatically I’ve reduced the height of the backboard and the shape of the cornice.
 
The lower cornice moulding had to be pieced-in segment by segment.  I think the result is good:

The national coat of arms is still not perfectly centered, but I am happy enough with it’s placement.  To this point, here’s how the plate looks on the model:

Next, was the challenge of adapting the figures of Europe and Asia.  I first had to re-shape the backing to sit snugly on top of the new cornice profile:

The tricky bit is the bevel that must be incised along this mating surface so that it matches the return bevel of the cornice top.  Hopefully, this picture will make what I am trying to say clear:

Next, I had to in-fill the back of these figures where the stock kit would have an interior planking plate above the poop royal deck.  Out of the box, this plate really serves as the glue surface for these figures.

On my version, I want the reverse curves of the cornice moulding to be visible, inboard, so my figures will glue directly to the cornice cap rail.  Here, Asia has been faired and filed smooth:

As I was going through all of this I began to be concerned that the apparent height of the figures was no longer in-scale with my shortened back board.  However, I began to feel better about this after trimming back the lower swag of the figures’ robes, so that the cornice moulding would be visible.  Here is trimmed Asia to compare against un-trimmed Europe:

And, after trimming and final fitting both:

Berain’s drawing does show a little swag dipping below the upper cornice moulding, and I think this is a reasonable facsimile.
 
On the model:

I may yet decapitate and then re-capitate the horse and camel heads in an effort to shorten their necks a little bit.  I have some time to decide on that.
 
In the meantime, I can modify the big carving drawing a bit, so that I can begin making that.  I can also begin painting the backboard. which is obviously much easier to do off the model - particularly those Zodiac symbols.
 
Thank you all for your interest, your comments and for checking-in.  Enjoy the holiday weekend!

There are still distress washes to apply and some touch-up to do, but things are progressing.
 
The upper stern balcony is finally rounding into form:



The balcony rail completes my circumference around the ship with a band of ultra-marine.  Maybe I will get to fixing this part in-place tonight.
 
There is still quite a lot of work to do with the head and the head grating, itself, but it is all finally coming together.  Yesterday, I made a new pair of seats-of-ease, which are sized according to the space available to them, and reflect the imperfect geometry of my custom head structures:


I have subsequently drilled the waste holes in these, but I wanted to tweak their fit to the model before I did so.  Here they are in their places:


Here is the forward grating terminus in-place and re-touched:

Can anyone spot my homage to modern seamanship and navigation, from starboard:

to port:

It’s a little subtle on this side, but don’t overthink it 😉
 
My greatest satisfaction rests in the fact that I created enough space below the headrails to craft reasonable headrail supports:


As I often say, this is all something of an imperfect approximation, but it is a significant upgrade over the stock kit.
 
As a bonus, John Ott has put together a highly informative info-graphic on the statuary and colors of the stern:

As always, thank you for your interest, your comments and likes, and for stopping by.
 
More to follow!

Hello Amalio,
Can you tell me the scale of your ship model?
Mark

Amalio,
 
Outstanding project, some of the very best craftsmanship I have seen. You are a source of inspiration!
 
Mark

Beautiful, intricate joinery!
 
Mark

I just finished a clay maquette of the Bellona figurehead, at double scale, or 3/8" =1'-0".
Here is a filler showing location and fit with the cheeks:

Then taking the advice of David Antscherl's Fully Framed Models tutorial on carving, I used an artist's guide to dimensions of the female figure to get the right proportions of things, and initially modeled Bellona with no clothes yet:

It is a good thing I did this, because I discovered that the original figurehead on the first Bellona model had lower legs way too short for the torso, minuscule feet, and a head pushed too far forward from the neck. To me, she also looks too cherubic to be the goddess of war:
 

Since I had to add arms anyway, I looked at other artistic renderings of Bellona for a fiercer, more war-like look. I found a haunting image by Bertrand MacKennal of a sculpture in the Australian War Memorial https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Mackennal_-_War.jpg.
 
Mine is not as haunting, but as good as I can do, first go around:
 

Next, reducing this by one half, and doing another maquette. I might try to do it in Sculpey so I can take measurements from it for the wood carving version after it is hardened. Does anyone know if Sculpey shrinks when baked in an oven?
 
Mark
 
 
 

Thanks so much, Mark.
 
I thought I would share my working process thoughts regarding the carving of the figurehead, for everyone including me who is daunted by the thought of this.
 
After completing the double size maquette, I was ready to start carving. Then I realized that my original drawing of Bellona was a tracing over a photo of the Bellona figurehead on the first model.  This is the one I discovered was much out of proportion, and with arms and hands  that I kind of guessed at. This would not be a good drawing to work from on the actual wood. I knew I would have to redraw Bellona in light of what I learned in the maquette, to have a more accurate starting point for the carving.
 
Here is the original drawing:
 

 
Once I had a maquette, I took pictures of it, and then scanned these into my CAD drawing. This provided a better foundation for tracing a more accurate Bellona. Here is a photo of the maquette:
 

 And here is the revised drawing based on this. Comparing the two look in particular at the location of: the head (further back on neck; shoulder (further back on body), breast (lower and reshaped), width at waist and derriere (narrower, lower), arm location and proportion (hanging straighter, shorter lower arm), and the hand and feet. I struggled with drawing the hands and feet, until I hit on scanning images of hands and feet into CAD and tracing them. I took photos of my own hands, and found photos of feet online.
 

 
Also notice in this drawing a new trailboard. This is many, many thanks to druxey, who drew this for me based on typical designs of the period. I know he has studied many models and drawings of this period, and he has provided me with an historically more accurate idea than I would have been able to do on my own. It was exceedingly kind of him to take the time to do this, and my model of the Bellona will benefit not only from his historical knowledge, but also his artistic eye. It is an honor to have this contribution from one of the key experts on this website. Thanks, druxey!
 
Next step, starting to come to grips with laying out the wood blank. Here is the size of the figurehead I will be attempting:
 

All for now, Mark
 
 
 

Thanks so much, Mark.
 
I thought I would share my working process thoughts regarding the carving of the figurehead, for everyone including me who is daunted by the thought of this.
 
After completing the double size maquette, I was ready to start carving. Then I realized that my original drawing of Bellona was a tracing over a photo of the Bellona figurehead on the first model.  This is the one I discovered was much out of proportion, and with arms and hands  that I kind of guessed at. This would not be a good drawing to work from on the actual wood. I knew I would have to redraw Bellona in light of what I learned in the maquette, to have a more accurate starting point for the carving.
 
Here is the original drawing:
 

 
Once I had a maquette, I took pictures of it, and then scanned these into my CAD drawing. This provided a better foundation for tracing a more accurate Bellona. Here is a photo of the maquette:
 

 And here is the revised drawing based on this. Comparing the two look in particular at the location of: the head (further back on neck; shoulder (further back on body), breast (lower and reshaped), width at waist and derriere (narrower, lower), arm location and proportion (hanging straighter, shorter lower arm), and the hand and feet. I struggled with drawing the hands and feet, until I hit on scanning images of hands and feet into CAD and tracing them. I took photos of my own hands, and found photos of feet online.
 

 
Also notice in this drawing a new trailboard. This is many, many thanks to druxey, who drew this for me based on typical designs of the period. I know he has studied many models and drawings of this period, and he has provided me with an historically more accurate idea than I would have been able to do on my own. It was exceedingly kind of him to take the time to do this, and my model of the Bellona will benefit not only from his historical knowledge, but also his artistic eye. It is an honor to have this contribution from one of the key experts on this website. Thanks, druxey!
 
Next step, starting to come to grips with laying out the wood blank. Here is the size of the figurehead I will be attempting:
 

All for now, Mark
 
 
 

Thanks so much, Jason. This is my very first effort at sculpting the human form. The artist guides to human proportions helped enormously, then looking at examples of details like folds in clothing from other eighteenth century carvings.
 
Yves, the Bellona has 28 guns on the gundeck, 28 on the upper deck, 14 on the quarterdeck, and 4 on the forecastle. At the time the Bellona was first launched in 1760, which is what I am trying to reproduce, there were no carronades. The four on the forecastle were long range nine pounders. They peek through short interruptions in the forecastle railing. I have labeled them below.
 

I just finished a clay maquette of the Bellona figurehead, at double scale, or 3/8" =1'-0".
Here is a filler showing location and fit with the cheeks:

Then taking the advice of David Antscherl's Fully Framed Models tutorial on carving, I used an artist's guide to dimensions of the female figure to get the right proportions of things, and initially modeled Bellona with no clothes yet:

It is a good thing I did this, because I discovered that the original figurehead on the first Bellona model had lower legs way too short for the torso, minuscule feet, and a head pushed too far forward from the neck. To me, she also looks too cherubic to be the goddess of war:
 

Since I had to add arms anyway, I looked at other artistic renderings of Bellona for a fiercer, more war-like look. I found a haunting image by Bertrand MacKennal of a sculpture in the Australian War Memorial https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Mackennal_-_War.jpg.
 
Mine is not as haunting, but as good as I can do, first go around:
 

Next, reducing this by one half, and doing another maquette. I might try to do it in Sculpey so I can take measurements from it for the wood carving version after it is hardened. Does anyone know if Sculpey shrinks when baked in an oven?
 
Mark
 
 
 

I finally made my first foray into miniature carving. I started with the lion heads on the outboard ends of the cat beams. 7.85 mm or 5/8 inch square, so tiny enough to keep me focused!
 
I used my Russian chisels for the first time. They are as wonderful as everyone says. Super sharp, well balanced, controllable cuts.
 
I glued 3000 grit paper to a hardwood block for sharpening. I have been able to sharpen freehand with success, using the fore and middle fingers to hold the chisel at the right angle to the block, and the fore finger to press slightly down on the cutting edge. It brings back the super sharp edge in only a few strokes. And it does have to be touched up regularly, like every 8-10 cuts. I haven't had to do the gouges yet. That looks more challenging, especially the .5 mm one.

 
 
At first, I took chisels out and put them on my desk when switching to another chisel. I quickly found out that this does not work. First, they were all to easily starting to roll towards the front edge of my bench when I wasn't looking. Second, the cutting edges are so tiny that I would have to pick up each on on my bench to look very carefully to find the right one. I decided it was a better idea to keep them in their box whenever not in use. To facilitate finding them, I made a small chart and double sided taped it to the back of the box. Now it is very easy to find a chisel right away, and put it back safely between uses.
 

I held these in my GRS vise. Its ability to pivot really helps get at the wood from the right direction. Since this vise mounts on the edge of the bench, I pulled out my sliding platform beneath the bench (that usually holds my cutting board), and built a small platform to sit on top the platform and around the wood block to be cut. This gives me something to rest my hands on as I try to control these very fine cuts.
 

Gosh, a three dimensional figurehead doesn't look so scary after this!😏
 
 

A small update on the traiboard question. In posting 2286 above, I showed the two different trailboards for the two different Bellona models. I wanted to follow the first model because it is closer to the original design (since it predates the second model by 20 years or so), but the only photo I have is frustratingly out of focus.

I also looks like it lost parts in the center, and I could not imagine how to recreate the original design.
Then I saw the trailboard for a contemporary ship, HMS Hercules or Thunderer, launched just one year before the Bellona, in 1759. This shows a floral scroll:

 
So I traced what I could see of the remaining Bellona pieces, and speculated on how it might have been filled in in the spirit of the Hercules design. Too far down the road of speculation? At least it would be easier to make than the second Bellona model design, with its super thin spears, the George III cypher, etc.
 

 
 

I have now drilled the hawse holes, and fitted a bolster waiting for final assembly for final trimming:
 

 
 
 
I now have to turn my attention to the trailboard. I am getting closer to painting the blue around this area, and I want to know where the trailboards need gluing.
I want to build the Bellona as first designed, and shown in the first model. But the trailboard detail is frustratingly difficult to see or to reconstruct, from the photo I took:

Unless someone has a better photo, I may have to build the trailboard on the second Bellona model:
 

If I do the latter, do you have any advice for how to glue this down to a backing board for piercing and carving, and then how to get it unglued from the backing board with those tiny, fragile pieces holding it together?
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks so much for the kind comments, Yancovitch and Steve. Slow but steady!
 
In my last post, I express doubts about the way I had managed the hair bracket, sitting tenuously on top of the knee at the stem. After pondering it a while, I decided there was nothing for it but to cut down the top of the knee that I had shaped in 1998 when I started construction (see image below). It was too short for the hair bracket, the gammoning slot and the hole for the mainmast stay collar were in the wrong locations. To this day, I don't quite know how I got that so wrong. I might have copied something out of Lavery's book on the Bellona, which I have subsequently discovered is not  accurate enough to build a model from. And I started construction years before I finally started drawing more accurate drawings--always a mistake!

So, I made a complete new piece, combining the hair bracket and a carved ornamental piece that stands directly behind the figurehead. It seemed more solid the two together, and they are the same thickness relative to the figure head:
 

 
And after a lot of faying and tapering, the new core for the hair brackets now holds everything firmly together.
 
I made up a dummy of Bellona (don't tell her I said that, she is supposed to be a very scary warrior...), just to see how things are starting to fit together. The first image below shows the new core piece still covered in the paper pattern, showing the bas-relief carving to come on the piece behind the figurehead (she is pulled away from it a little in this photo). It also shows the captain standing on the cheeks. Gives a good idea of the size of the figurehead.
 

And here are parts starting to fall into place:
 

 
I have been reading David Antscherl's excellent explanation of how to carve a figure head in Volume II of the Fully Framed Model. I might start with the maquette, and see how it goes...
I have pondered what wood to use, to carve the figures on the ship. My boxwood is not buxus semperivens, the stuff the old modeler's used, and that David recommended when he first wrote his book. But I can find no supplier anywhere in the world of buxus semperivens anymore. I know my boxwood is from South America, but I don't know its actual species. It seems to be stiffer in relation to what others have written about working true boxwood. I think it will have to do. And I can always blame a bad outcome on bad tools or bad wood, not lack of skill!🙂
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark
edited with higher resolution image here:
 

 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, Gaetan, someday when I get further along, I would be interested in studying French ships of the period. Always fun to see what is universal, and what is culturally different!
 
Further progress today. I finally got in the second layer of the hawse lining, ready for drilling the hawse holes:
 

And now on to that pesky support for the hair bracket. I tried letting a liner down into a rebate I cut today on top of the knee, but I may sleep on this. It seems flimsy, kind of cobbled together. I may consider making the entire core in one piece. A decision for tomorrow!
 
 

 

Hi druxey and Alan,
 
The last image was a little misleading; the bowsprit shroud coming across the drawing make it look like the bowsprit was lower. The drawing below without the shroud shows the actual clearance I am working to, which is from the original Admiralty drawing.
 
While referring to the previous drawing, you can see my drawing of the bumpkin or boomkin has no stays or other supports.
Lees' Masting and Rigging pages 130-131 says that no rigging was fitted in the first years of the bumpkin, although he doesn't say when it first came into use. The few models I have seen of ships contemporary to the Bellona ca 1760--like the Thunderer-- do not show any rigging other than the shoulder block for the fore tack. Does anyone have any further model examples or further evidence of what may or may not have been used as additional stays for the bumpkin around 1760?
 
 
 

Waiting for the glue to dry on the port upper cheek assembly, I looked more carefully at the area around the figurehead, double checking on the heights for clearance for the bowsprit, and also where the rigging will begin to fasten. Better to catch problems now, as parts are beginning to fall into place. I redrew the Bellona figurehead, with more detail that might begin to lead into the carving--at the very least, a blank to make sure everything fits.
 
And, I did discover a mistake from 25 years ago. I marked and cut the slot for the gammoning in the keel when I first started construction. Now I see that I thought was the fore end was actually the aft end of the slot. So it is exactly its own distance back from where it ought to be!
It will take some fine work to fill the slot and cut a new one. Don't tell anyone!
 
Here is an updated drawings with the new Bellona figurehead, and the beginnings of rigging at the bow:
 
 

 
 
 

Greg's and druxey's gluing ideas worked well. Tiny drops of carpenter's glue between the piece and a sheet of plywood held everything firmly enough to sand fair on three sides. Isopropyl removed it from the ply, and as the British say, "Bob's your uncle!"
 
Good trick for refining small delicate parts.
 
Glued together on the hull, still not fully faired to each other:

then glued down on plywood:
 

 
Faired, and pinned back on the hull:
 
 

This piece reminds me of the great quote on Remco's HMS Kingfisher site: "Treat each part as if it is a model on its own, you will finish more models in a day than others do in a lifetime."
 
Mark
 
 

Alexandru,
Spectacular!
Mark