Sjors

HMS Snake was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.
 
Scale: 1:64
Length: 910 mm
Width: 350 mm
Height: 910 mm
 
And now the build begins.
 
 

I 'm not that fast Mike 🙂
 
Coppering of the hull is done!
The starboard side is with glue en the port side with double-sided tape.
And that works just great!
No glue on the tiles.
No glue on the fingers.......
 
Sjors
 
 

Thanks for the likes.
 
Deck is planked and have the first coat of Danish oil.
Bulwarks are painted in the colors by Mike_H 🙂
Make the waterline and place also a plank so I know where I can put the copperplates.
 
Sjors
 

I 'm not that fast Mike 🙂
 
Coppering of the hull is done!
The starboard side is with glue en the port side with double-sided tape.
And that works just great!
No glue on the tiles.
No glue on the fingers.......
 
Sjors
 
 

I 'm not that fast Mike 🙂
 
Coppering of the hull is done!
The starboard side is with glue en the port side with double-sided tape.
And that works just great!
No glue on the tiles.
No glue on the fingers.......
 
Sjors
 
 

I 'm not that fast Mike 🙂
 
Coppering of the hull is done!
The starboard side is with glue en the port side with double-sided tape.
And that works just great!
No glue on the tiles.
No glue on the fingers.......
 
Sjors
 
 

everything is fine here as well, both the admiral and i have had the 1st jab, 2nd due soon

Working on the deck fittings.
 
The gratings were fiddly, but fun.   Sadly the supplied walnut strip for the framing was split, and the replacement I ordered was very pale, essentially the same colour as the deck.  So I stained it a kind of teak colour, that makes sanding to fit and end-grains difficult, so I mitred the corners.  I have also added a galley flue and rearranged the path of the cable.  The flue is solid, though, as has been remarked elsewhere, it usually sported a cap when not in use; I imagined my cap being of sheet copper



 
Next, the companionway, wheel, a possible binnacle (from Vanguard Models, badly stained, but a decent colour match) and the capstan.  Petrejus tells me that capstan heads were often covered in brass sheet - so mine is painted to look that way. I was not convinced by the PE wheels, or that Snake would have had a double wheel.  So I glued the two together, back to back, making something more substantial and also allowing me to paint it and keep a brass hub and rim showing



 
Here they are roughly in place
 


 
Finally, pinrails and belaying pins installed.  Again Petrejus reports that the rails were often edged in brass to protect from wear and add some decoration - so mine are.  I read in Steel that belaying pins were 16" long, or 1/4" at 1:64 ie 6mm, so the kit-supplied materials are not ridiculously small, though they are somewhat over diameter. I have seen pictures of pinrails bolted to the bulwarks, so I have borrowed from that by using round-headed black pins instead of hidden wire to give strength.
 


 

I'm back working on the Snake after a few months off from it, feels good to be back with fresh eye's.  I hope to finish this ship by summer so I have room for Chris Watton's HMS Sphinx, but that's just wishful thinking... 
 
I've added the shelves for the fore and aft platforms and am shaping them for installation. Of course there are a few things to be done before gluing them in. 


I've found some good colors for the rigging. This tan and brown thread I bought will work perfectly. I'm working on some cable-laid lines for the anchor and for the larger stays. They tend to take a while as you need to make 3-4 separate ropes first. 

A little bit of blackening.
I'm moving onto the deck furniture now, and thought I  would start by installing the ringbolts (largely for the guns, but in other places too) while nothing else was in the way.  There are 200 of these provided, in nice shiny copper.  So that's 200 tiny pieces to be painted black.  And there are 4 eyebolts and then 5 little photo-etched (PE) brass pieces for each gun.  So the guns alone have 162 tiny pieces to be painted black.  I also need to decide what to do with the gun barrels.  So I thought I would try some chemical blackening of the kind described here.
 
To stop the small pieces drifting off on their own I tied them onto small loops of fishing line.  The supports for the guns need to fit in slots pre-machined in the gun carriages.  Joy-oh-joy every piece of brass is alittle over-size so needed to be filed down fore and aft
 
 
I set up in the laundry.  Across the back you can see: (a) pH minus ie sodium hydrogen carbonate, (b) sodium bicarbonate, (c) water and (d) John Wardle black antiquing solution.  Across the front: the columns for the display board, the small parts for the guns, the guns themselves, two sheets of PE, a pair of wooden tongs (most metals are a bad idea in one or more of acid/bas/blackening solution), and a measuring spoon (about 3 table spoons  - 45 ml - in 250 ml of water is about right for both acid and base.  Blackening is a 10-fold dilution)

 
And how did it go?  Great at first on the small gun parts:

 
But the guns, no so much:

 
You can just see in the middle one of the guns came out solid black, but most have only a few spots of black acne.  This matches the descriptions on the blackening page ,linked above, of lacquer coating on the brass.  So after soaking in iso-propanol (acetone is not readily available in the UK, it seems) I scrubbed them with steel wool and gave them some extended acid treatment.  After neutralising and washing, I then painted on neat blackener and then dumped them in the dilute solution.  For about 15 of the guns the results were good.  The others needed a repeat.

 
And here is everything that's fit to show:
 

 
The PE worked perfectly.  The brass columns not at all - including on the parts that had been extensively filed, so not a lacquer problem.  This being a selenium solution, that reacts with the  copper in the brass (see @bartley's post here) I wonder if this is a particularly low copper brass.  I did get a little bit of antiquing, which I think I quite like.
 
As also explained in the links I've given, the blackening is microscopic selenium metal particles that are not chemically bonded in place.  I messed around for quite a while exploring rigging options handling one of he guns extensively.  As the following shows, it doesn't look so black anymore:

 
I picked the least impressive of the 18, and perhaps bronze would be ok.  I will give this one another bath in the solutions.  Of the fittings, only the eyebolts in the bulwarks were blackened all the other parts were painted from an earlier mock-up.  They look fine to me.
 
The kit recommends 0.75 mm neutral thread, which looked too skimpy.  Lavery in "The ship of the line vol 2" quotes 7" circumference for breeching on a 32 lb (long) gun, which would be 0.88 mm diameter at 1:64.  I  didn't have any 1 mm neutral so tried black for size - I've ordered some 1 mm neutral.  Because the cascabel does not have a loop for the breeching (as was quite common with carronades) I'm going to imitate a (ahem) cut splice.

And as a special extra, some months early, I checked the display stand fits. I what to install it permanently at the point when inverting the gull becomes too risky.  And as it happens I manage to spring one of the cathead by inverting it to install the bow cheeks.  Fixed that with a little thin CA, and can protect them easily enough, so will revert to the cradle until the gunwales are on.  But this looks pretty sweet I think:
 


 
The slots in the columns were just under 5 mm wide, and the copper-coated keel just on 6 mm, so I had to file 1 mm of brass out of the columns.  Filing parallel slots with a small file is beyond my skills, but turned out fine, and with a spirit level the pitch of the deck is exactly horizontal at the main mast, and the mast itself (or the place-holder dowel) dead plumb athwart-ships.  Those following closely will recall I left two captive nuts under the copper and keel.  Two 50 mm bolts come up through the stand and the columns to engage the nuts.  Just as sweet as can be.

Now the left right of the ship is finished...the colors will be refresh if nessesery after i finish the hull and don't need to touch it with my hands.
Now start the bow...interesting things there....

A good couple of days work in the shipyard where I have added all the blocks and stirrups to various yards. It seemed a never ending task of seizing blocks and then securing them to the yards.
 
All the yards have now been painted black and they are ready to be be rigged.
 

 
The fore yard has been tied in place and I'm currently in the process of rigging the two jeers which is proving to be very fiddley.
 
On a side note there has been an addition to the shipyard with a gift from my sister in law. The boat shape planter was made by a local craftsman and will look resplendent once it has been filled with some hanging basket bedding plants in the next few weeks.

Finish the gallant rails and varnish them dark brown. i put in place the rubbing strakes and paint the colors between them,as instructed. I made with a hand wood file a  slot allong them. Difficult job in a 2X2 mm strake...For the curved strake,between upper and second strake,i use brass wire as instructed.Now the same to the other side of the ship...

very nicem hope you are both well

Hi Sjors,
 
That looks great. I can understand that you're tired of that tinkering. 🤪
 
Peter

Hi Sjors,
Excellent work.  Very neat looking ratlines.
 
Sam.

Thanks for the likes and everyone who is visiting from time to time.
 
Ratlines are done!
I can not see any ratline for a while now.....
I don't count them but there are a lot.
Pictures are a little bit bad because she is to big to get het in one shot....
 
Sjors

And a little update again.....
Thank for the likes and the visiting.
 
Second planking done and after a few hours of sanding I'm happy how she is.
It is so smooth the I can not trust my fingers 🙂
On the picture it looks otherwise but that's the light I believe.
I have now a good underground for the paint nd the copper plaates.
But first the inner bulwark and deck planking.
 
Sjors
 
 

After a few weeks of planking and a little bit more sanding the hull is smooth!
A smooth substrate  for the second planking.
That will start in a few days....
For now pictures.
I don't make any stealers or drop planks because you don't see a thing about it!
Just the easy way 🙂
 
Sjors
 
 

Wow!  You are speeding along!  Keep up the good work. 

Thanks - I’m sure all my stylistic details are copied from others - so copy all you like. 

Thanks for the likes.
 
Deck is planked and have the first coat of Danish oil.
Bulwarks are painted in the colors by Mike_H 🙂
Make the waterline and place also a plank so I know where I can put the copperplates.
 
Sjors
 

Thanks for the likes.
 
Deck is planked and have the first coat of Danish oil.
Bulwarks are painted in the colors by Mike_H 🙂
Make the waterline and place also a plank so I know where I can put the copperplates.
 
Sjors
 

Thanks for the likes.
 
Deck is planked and have the first coat of Danish oil.
Bulwarks are painted in the colors by Mike_H 🙂
Make the waterline and place also a plank so I know where I can put the copperplates.
 
Sjors