mobbsie

Thanks Martin, been 2013 since we had  any significant snow in my small area of England, an area that would no doubt slip into a corner of Oklahoma and not be noticed for weeks. Great for taking seasonal pictures of William, but it's all gone now.
Been busy in the shipyard this morning making an additional support cradle for the Cutter.

3927
Haven't used it for months but the Band saw came into its own today, I so love these bijou Proxxon  machines.

3932
Set the supports for bulkheads H and 8.

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Rough and basic from a bit of scrap 9mm mdf, but it will serve the purpose.
 
Winding operations down now for the Christmas break.

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Not before time for some of the Dockyard  workers.
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.
 
 

Thanks Martin, I can't make out  the signature on the plan but this is what I know.
 
Cheerful (and Surly) were designed by Sir John Henslow, Surveyor of the Navy, who had served as a young man as draughtsman to Sir Thomas Slade; The Cheerful Class were the last of a varied class of ship designs produced before he retired in 1806.
The plans were produced in The Navy Office 16/4/1806, approved by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty 17/4/1806 and a copy of the draught sent to the Merchant Builders James and Joseph Johnson, Dover 30/5/1806.
The keel was laid in June of that year, the vessel launched in November, and commissioned in January 1807.
She was sold  on 31 July 1816 after 9 years service.
Surly her sister ship was commissioned at the same time but had a much longer and more exciting early career, finally sold in 1837 after some 30 years.
 
The moral of this tale if anything, is, if longevity is your goal, it's better to be surly than cheerful.

Happy Christmas to you and Mrs W. 
 
B.E.
 
 

Post 4
Attending to the stem
 I am grateful to Chuck for the laser cut parts that make up the stem and keel, saves a lot of time faffing around with the scroll saw; nice Boxwood and need for very little fettlin', the most time consuming part is removing the quite heavy char on the pieces.
I did this mostly by scraping with a sharp blade.
I followed Chuck's  example of filling the treenail holes rather than use dowel pegs.

3772(2)

3609
They are very small, he suggests a #76 drill equivalent to 0.508mm Ø I used a 0.6mm Ø drill.

3603
Once I was satisfied with the fit the two stem pieces were  glued together.

3608
and then to the Rabbet strip on the false keel.

3772
All went together very nicely.

3774
The two keel pieces were then added.

3779
Impressed by the fit of the stern post and rudder, although these will be put aside for much later in the build.

3776
There seems to be a slight kink in the forward section of the keel, I hope this doesn't prove to be troublesome, the false keel looks true sighting along from stem to stern.
 
To complete this part of the build, a light sanding and sealing with wipe-on-poly.

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Note:
Chuck makes reference to the use of Minwax wipe-on Poly to seal the Boxwood finish of the stem pieces once they have been fitted.
For those in the UK Minwax products are horrendously expensive (£36) for what is essentially a thinned down oil based Polyurethane Varnish.
Normal oil based Poly is readily available in the UK. Thin it down 50/50 with White spirit to make your own wipe-on.
I used Blackfriars satin poly - 250ml cost me £8 effectively 500ml once diluted.
There is loads of stuff on making your own w-o-p on the internet.

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Finally as with Pegasus I obtained the Admiralty plan for Cheerful and Surly which now sits above my workbench as additional inspiration.
 
Next up fiddlin' with my Bulkheads.
 
B.E.
 
 
 

Hi Donn,
 
Your making some rapid progress mate and so far all looks good.
 
Before you go too far make sure you fair the forward and stern bulkheads, this is critical in order to get a smooth bend when planking. From memory which is a little shaky nowadays there is a lot of it to do. You may need to put some kind of filler in between the Stem and No 1 Bulkhead to assist with getting that bend right.
 
I watch on with interest mate. Don't forget to enjoy the process.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 

Hi Donn,
 
Your making some rapid progress mate and so far all looks good.
 
Before you go too far make sure you fair the forward and stern bulkheads, this is critical in order to get a smooth bend when planking. From memory which is a little shaky nowadays there is a lot of it to do. You may need to put some kind of filler in between the Stem and No 1 Bulkhead to assist with getting that bend right.
 
I watch on with interest mate. Don't forget to enjoy the process.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 

Hi Donn,
 
Your making some rapid progress mate and so far all looks good.
 
Before you go too far make sure you fair the forward and stern bulkheads, this is critical in order to get a smooth bend when planking. From memory which is a little shaky nowadays there is a lot of it to do. You may need to put some kind of filler in between the Stem and No 1 Bulkhead to assist with getting that bend right.
 
I watch on with interest mate. Don't forget to enjoy the process.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 

Today I painted the areas around the barrel posts were the cannons will be mounted on the lower gun deck. Although very little of these areas will be visible (your will only see it when you look through the gun ports) the custom is to paint the area black. I painted more area than is probably necessary, but I wanted to be sure. With the painting done, it was time to mount the upper deck. As I understood the manual there are two options, 1) mount the deck as one piece and then overlay with 4mm planks or 2) cut the deck into two halves (longitudinal) and plank each half prior to installing.  My approach is going to be more of a hybrid. I tried to install the deck as a single piece, but the piece is large and thin, consequently, I was afraid it was going to snap. With this concern in mind, I elected to cut the deck in half. The next step will be to glue the halves in their respective locations and then apply the deck planks. I thought about applying the planks to each half before installing (as one of the options mentioned...the primary advantage being no obstructions to contend with), but I am not as confident that I can get everything aligned as well as the more "traditional" approach to planking. 
 

Another good day at the shipyard; I was able to install the bow deck and the upper deck camber beams. At this stage, it is easy to see lots of progress, but as you know in other stages you can spend hours on some very small components, which can make progress hard to see. Bill, Scott, and Hennie, thank you for your comments. Hennie, I read your Aggie building log, it is a thing of beauty, as is your current build (SOS)! 
 

Thank you for your interest in my project! At this point in the build, my go to tools have been the dremel sanding drum and the wood rasp. The bulkheads required a whole lot of "rasping" to get them to fit their respective slots...the best tool for this work turned out to be the rasp! This was also true for the lower gun deck, a lot of wood was removed to get it to slide into place. Placement of the dummy cannon barrels was a straight forward process, but then came planking the lower gun deck. Here is where my lack of experience begins to show. It was my intent to plank this area with a five-butt pattern shift, just to practice for the more critical upper decks. I thought I had the process figured out, but as it turned out, I didn't. Once it became obvious that my process wasn't working, I considered ripping it up, but given the fact that so very little of this area will be seen, I decided to leave well enough alone. An after the fact analysis of "what went wrong" I believe that the root of my problem began with the mistaken notion that the planks had to terminate on a bulkhead. Given the fact that the spacing between bulkheads on the Aggie is not even, that through my plan off. I have since looked more closely at the work of others it is apparent that the planks do not have to terminate on a bulkhead. I am determined to have this figured out by the time I get to the more critical upper decks.
 
Cheers!
 

 
 

In many respects I am a relative newcomer to the world of model shipbuilding. I recently completed, as my very first build,  the HMAV Bounty (Caldercraft) and I am reasonably pleased with the end result. That said, it took me about eight years to complete the project; however in fairness to myself, the actual time spent actively working on the ship was closer to two years.  Following retirement, most of my time has been devoted to building furniture, however, I recently sold my house and shop so woodworking had to be temporally suspended. Given the fact that I wanted to keep my hands busy, I dug the Bounty out of mothballs and began building. It took me awhile to get back into the rhythm of working in a smaller scale, but I soon rediscovered how much I enjoyed tinkering with these wonderful old ships. 
 
Given my limited experience as a modeler, the wisest course of action would have been to choose a much less ambitious project than the Agamemnon. I totally agree; but having found this website and after reading the building logs of such Master Builders as Sjors, Mobbsie and others, I knew that my next build would have to be the Aggie! ("Aggie" or "Aggy", I am not sure which is correct...but, since one of my degrees is from Texas A&M University, I'll go with Aggie).
 
So, it is with this background in mind that I start this log. No doubt it will take me a very long time to complete this project and I am very confident that I will be calling upon the collective wisdom of this folks associated with this site to help me along the way. 

As you can see, I have the box with all of the necessary inventory, and I have started the build! Since I have never posted pictures before, I will close for now to be sure I understand the mechanics of the uploading process before I get too far ahead of myself.
 
Thanks,
Donn

Hi Denis,
She's looking really good mate.
With regard to your slack rigging, have you tried soaking the thread in diluted PVA and hanging it up to dry with a weight attached to the bottom, run a finger down its length when wet to stop any blobs of glue. When it's dry it will be quite rigid.  It worked for me in the past mate.
 
Keep up the excellent work
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis,
She's looking really good mate.
With regard to your slack rigging, have you tried soaking the thread in diluted PVA and hanging it up to dry with a weight attached to the bottom, run a finger down its length when wet to stop any blobs of glue. When it's dry it will be quite rigid.  It worked for me in the past mate.
 
Keep up the excellent work
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis,
She's looking really good mate.
With regard to your slack rigging, have you tried soaking the thread in diluted PVA and hanging it up to dry with a weight attached to the bottom, run a finger down its length when wet to stop any blobs of glue. When it's dry it will be quite rigid.  It worked for me in the past mate.
 
Keep up the excellent work
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis,
She's looking really good mate.
With regard to your slack rigging, have you tried soaking the thread in diluted PVA and hanging it up to dry with a weight attached to the bottom, run a finger down its length when wet to stop any blobs of glue. When it's dry it will be quite rigid.  It worked for me in the past mate.
 
Keep up the excellent work
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis,
She's looking really good mate.
With regard to your slack rigging, have you tried soaking the thread in diluted PVA and hanging it up to dry with a weight attached to the bottom, run a finger down its length when wet to stop any blobs of glue. When it's dry it will be quite rigid.  It worked for me in the past mate.
 
Keep up the excellent work
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Jason
 
I make no suggestions mate but I am really interested to see your remedy, thin the sides or make new Transoms. 
 
Looking at the pics I reckon it's gonna be bigger transoms.
 
Nice jig by the way.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Andy,
 
It's great to see back mate and resuming with your leviathan, I'd forgotten just how big she is.
 
I was sorry to read about your work but I was more concerned to read of the problems with your eyesight.
 
I can only hope that all will be resolved and that your returned to both full employment and full fitness very soon.
 
Take care my friend
 
mobbsie

Hi Bob,
 
I can only agree with what they all said mate, truly fantastic.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

I'm liking her a lot Bob, she's looking super.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

You don't get rid of me that easy Peter, gonna follow along mate, already got my chair.
 
She's big isn't she, brings back the old Agamemnon nightmares.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

You don't get rid of me that easy Peter, gonna follow along mate, already got my chair.
 
She's big isn't she, brings back the old Agamemnon nightmares.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

You don't get rid of me that easy Peter, gonna follow along mate, already got my chair.
 
She's big isn't she, brings back the old Agamemnon nightmares.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis,
 
Is it too late to do anything with the hanger doors now or could you chop a section out and turn the chopper around.
 
Your making really good progress and your certainly achieving good results.
 
I may not say much but I am watching from the sidelines and enjoying what I see, keep it up my friend.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 

Hi Andy,
 
It's great to see back mate and resuming with your leviathan, I'd forgotten just how big she is.
 
I was sorry to read about your work but I was more concerned to read of the problems with your eyesight.
 
I can only hope that all will be resolved and that your returned to both full employment and full fitness very soon.
 
Take care my friend
 
mobbsie

Hi Denis
 
Your making some really good progress my friend, I like the cam on the choppers, sets them off a treat.
 
Good work on the radars mate, bit of a shame you arn't able to use both though.
 
I'm interested to see just what your going to do about the windows on the choppers and the bridge, always a difficult area I think to get them looking credible.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie