gieb8688

I finished the planking, I have spent more or less 180h to plank the whole hull...

I'm going to upload this step by step as fast as I can, but remember...I have a lot of pic of the progress so, be patient my friends 
Cheers,
 
Ricardo.

Hello to you all fellow builders,

As you know , Mobbsie has ordered the HMS Agamemnon for me and finally she is in dry dock in Schiedam.
I will not start on her .
I have first finish the Le Mirage.
But when you have a new kit in the house , you want to show it.
That's the reason why I open a build log…...
First of course a little history lesson and later on the pictures of all the stuff that is in the box.
When I start on her I know I need a lot of help and advise from all of you.
I have a few great examples of other Aggy's and I know that Mobbsie will be there for me if needed.
So let the lesson begins and hopefully it will not take to long when I can start building her.




Caldercraft HMS Agamemnon 1781 1:64

HMS Agamemnon 1781 64 Gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line 1:64 Scale.




The Agamemnon was one of seven ships built to the same design, drawn by the same naval architect that designed the famous Victory, Sir Thomas Slade. Agamemnon was the third to be built in the class, the first two being Ardent in 1762 and Raisonnable, laid down in 1763. Third was Agamemnon, followed by Belliqueux in 1778, Stately in 1779, Indefatigable in 1781 and finally the Nassau in 1783.




A Third Rate ship of the line like Agamemnon was an expensive warship to build. The construction of the ship’s hull with yards and masts fitted cost the Admiralty £20,579 (in today’s terms, approximately £12 million), a figure that did not include ordnance, sails, hemp, copper plating and other hardware.




For three of the most crucial decades in British naval history, Agamemnon always seemed to be at the centre of the action, having no less than eleven battle honours.




Agamemnon’s maiden voyage was on 9th July 1781 under the command of Captain Caldwell. Her first engagement was at the battle of Ushant on 12th December 1781 where the British fleet under Rear Admiral Kempenfelt defeated the French fleet and captured a significant number of ships, including the convoy the French were escorting. Agamemnon’s next major engagement was at the Battle of The Saints on 12th April 1782 where Rodney and Lord Hood’s fleet defeated Comte de Grasse’s French fleet.




On 7th January 1793, Nelson learned from Lord Hood that he had been chosen to command his first ship of the line, the Agamemnon. Although initially disappointed that he had not been given command of a 74, Nelson soon grew fond of Agamemnon. Nelson wrote to his wife, Fanny. She was, he said, "Without exception one of the finest ships in the fleet, with the character of sailing most remarkably well". He also wrote after twelve days in a storm in the Mediterranean in "Gales and lumping seas but in Agamemnon we mind them not; she is the finest ship I ever sailed in, and were she a 74, nothing should induce me to leave her while the war lasts". Even a French Commander Admiral Alemand expressed the view that Agamemnon was one of the fastest ships in the British Navy. That, coupled with Nelson’s inspirational command made her a very potent fighting unit.




Nelson commanded Agamemnon, or "eggs and bacon" as her crew affectionately called her, until 10th June 1796. In that time Nelson had proved to be a great Commander, tactically and physically.




It was during his command of Agamemnon that Nelson lost the sight of his right eye. When at the Siege of Calvi in 1794 during the morning of 10th July, Nelson was hit in the face and chest by splinters, stones and sand that were thrown up by an enemy shell that hit a battlement during a shore action. On 13th June 1796, Nelson’s broad pennant was transferred to the 74 gun Captain at anchor in San-Fiorenza bay. He watched the worn out Agamemnon sail to England for a much-needed refit. She was refitted from the bottom up at Chatham. When re-commissioned in 1797 she was ordered to join Admiral Duncan’s squadron off Yarmouth, which was keeping watch on the coast of Holland. She was immediately caught up in the naval mutinies of that year. Agamemnon was however considered untrustworthy by Richard Parker the leader of the Nore mutineers and had the guns of the mutinous ships trained on her to ensure she did not ‘blackleg’. Subsequently in the proceedings that followed all thirteen of Agamemnon’s crew who were tried were pardoned.




Agamemnon’s next major fleet engagement was the battle of Copenhagen on the 21st April 1801. Unfortunately she was grounded on a shoal for most of the action, but Nelson won the battle and a truce with Denmark was negotiated. On the 21st October 1805 Agamemnon took part in the battle of Trafalgar. When Nelsons favorite ship hove in sight a week before, with Nelsons old friend Sir Edward Berry in command of the Agamemnon, Nelson was delighted "Here comes that damned fool Berry! Now we shall have a battle." At Trafalgar the 27 British ships of the line defeated the Franco Spanish fleet of 33 line of battle ships in a victory that ensured British supremacy of the sea for the next 100 years. Later in Agamemnon’s career, she served in the West Indies, taking part in the battle of Santo Domingo, and then in South American waters. Agamemnon was wrecked in Maldonado Bay off the coast of Uruguay on the 16th June 1809. Divers have recently discovered the remains of HMS Agamemnon on the bottom of Maldonado Bay, after a six-year search by marine archaeologists. Strewn around the site are hundreds of copper plate, as well as a 24 pounder cannon, parts of the pumping devices as well as a significant amount of shot, bolts and copper nails. Also discovered was a silver pocket seal, complete with fob chain. On its face of translucent stone it bore a star shaped emblem with the name ‘Nelson’ in mirror image incised in a curve above.




Agamemnon was laid down at Bucklers Hard in May 1777 and launched on the 10th April 1781. Her dimensions were as follows;




Gun deck - 160 feet 2 inches


Keel- 131 feet 10 1/4 inches


Beam - 44 feet 5 inches


Tonnage - 1384 tons


Guns;


Twenty-six, twenty-four pounder - Gun deck.


Twenty-six, eighteen pounder - Upper deck.


Twelve, nine pounder - Quarterdeck.


Complement - 491 officers and ratings.




The Caldercraft Agamemnon kit features: Double plank on bulkhead construction, Keel and bulkheads are CNC cut in Birch ply as are all the major constructional parts. Extensive use of CNC cut Walnut has been employed for the majority of visible structures and fittings.


The wood strip pack contains Lime wood for the first planking, Walnut for the second planking and Tanganyka for the decks. Ramin dowel is supplied for the masts and yards.


Walnut and etched brass stern gallery windows, with the remaining tafrail decoration in finely cast white metal. Scale brass cannon barrels with walnut carriages.


Rigging thread is supplied in natural and black to rig the model as depicted in the photographs. Beechwood deck gratings and Walnut Blocks and deadeyes. Shroud cleats, trucks, stunsail yard brackets as well as CNC cut Walnut tops, crosstrees, trestle trees, mast caps and a wealth of unique detail parts. Copper plates are provided to sheath the hull bottom.


Fully detailed full size plans and a comprehensive construction manual.



Specifications:


Scale: 1:64


Length: 1300mm


Width: 490mm


Height 945mm


Planking: Double

The main mast is finished. As I said before, when working on the masts, I am completing as much as possible before stepping them on into the ship. This may seem unorthodox to some, but for me it is a matter of necessity. When assembling the masts and rigging them, especially with sails, it is necessary to rotate them many many times in order to access all sides. With the sheer size of this model and the fact that my work bench is in a corner of the room, rotating the whole ship with the masts in place is very cumbersome and somewhat hazardous. Having the mast in a movable table vise makes it very easy to rotate in any direction, even tilting if necessary. After the mast is stepped, it will still be necessary to rotate it some in order to finish the lower shrouds and attach the running rigging to the deck belay points, but nowhere as much as with the masts assembled on the ship. For this model, this methed has worked very nicely for me.
 
Next up is to step the mast and finished it's rigging. That is a fun part that I really enjoy.
 
Vince P.

I finished the topgallent and royal yardarms
 

 
Here are all the yardarms.
 

 
 
Now on to the spritsail yard, spanker boom and spanker gaff.
 
 

I finished the Fore, Main and Mizzen lower yards
 

 

 

 

 
One of the draw backs with using oil paint to simulate the bright colors is that it tends to rub off with ahndling and will nedd to be touched up. No big deal.

The framing for the upper deck has started.  Hopefully it will look better than the lower deck framing.  The biggest difference between the two decks is that there are hanging knees at every beam, slowing down the process considerably.  In order to accurately mark the centerline I have wrapped a loop of thread through the ventilation spaces of the hawse pieces.  A second thread is secured to this loop and attached to the stem.
 

 
The carlings are dry-fit (and at least one of them needs replacing ) and still need their notches for the ledges cut.  The pillar has a tenon superiorly to fit into a mortise on the undersurface of the beam.  Inferiorly it is simply glued to the deck.  The large gap between the hanging knee and the frames occured because I have chosen to omit the ceiling below the deck clamps. 
 

Fiberglass
 
With frames set in and the hull's shape stable, it was time to glass the outside.
 
I started with the transom

 
Then the portside
 
 
Once that had set-up, it was on to the starboard side

 
There, that wasn't so bad

 
Excess resin went into the bilges and on the lower frames.
 
 
After the glass set-up and was sanded, there were some blisters where the glass didn't lay and bond to the hull, these came off while sanding and were filled with auto-body putty.  More sanding and another coat of resin brushed on, then sanding again.  Some clean up and degreasing and it's...
 
Wale Ho!
 
On this model the wale isn't the structural member it is on a real ship, but I did want it done in an anchor-stock pattern as it would be visible on close inspection.
I started by cutting a block of white pine, as used for the rest of the planking, to the offset anchor-stock shape, then slicing off 1/8" thick planks.
 
 
I started on the starboard side by marking the positions of each plank on the hull from the bow aft, and actually started gluing them on amidships.  I used CA to attach them to the hull, and Titebond III to glue them to each other.
 
 
Clamping them to the hull took some thinking at places, as did clamping them to each other without lifting them off the hull.
 
 
At the bow the pieces needed to be precurved, so the SBJ (Sophisticated Bending Jig) was employed.  The pieces were wet, clamped in the jig, and left overnight.
 
 
It took a little over a week, but the starboard wale was done.  Now to the port side!

 
I took a slightly different approach this time.  Clamping the pieces to the hull was quite tedious, so I used the nails I used to hold the planking with during construction to hold the pieces onto the hull here.  This made things go much quicker and smoother.
Before starting though, I cut out a gunport just for fun.  I was afraid the hull would flex with the ports cut out, but I need them cut before I frame up the hull thickness behind them, because that framing sets into the gunport opening a bit.  Actually, the planking is set back creating a rabbet for the lid to close against.
 
 

 
My friend Mark was building a crabbing skiff at my place, and while he had the epoxy out, I stole a bit to give the wales a couple of coats
 
 
I then started carefully cutting out each gunport opening.  Once all the gun ports are cut out along the gun deck, the internal framing will go in around each one, making the hull the right thickness as seen through the gunports.  The focs'le and quarterdeck ports will be cut after they're framed and the external moldings have been installed.
 

Recently I was doing grating and would like to talk about a device that made my friend Sergey from Russia.
I think the principles of easy to see from the photos.
I myself could not do it out of iron, but I made out of wood and it works the same way.
I hope it will be useful to many.

While I'm figuring out what to do about this latest challenge. here a some more better pictures of the coppering, taken outside and I after applying the first of several coats of yellow ochre.  When I got done with the coppering I noticed that much of it was tarnishing quite badly, so I got some rinseable copper polish, polished the whole thing up nright and shiny, then sprayed on a couple of coats of satin finish clear polyurethane.  I like the finish.
 
Patrick

Some progress with prow details, grouting and priming.



 
Thanks

I first set foot on board the Constitution when I was 7 years old, and I was hooked on sailing ships ever since.  My elementary school library had C S Forester's The Captain From Connecticut which I loved and led me to Forester's other work, namely Hornblower.  In fact, the 16 foot daysailer I've had since 1979 is named Lydia.  I spent my teens and twenties working under sail and power, from barkentines to tugs.
 
I've built several of the 1:96 scale Constitution/United States Revell kits, two of them were RCed; but I always wanted a sailing model of the ubiquitous British frigate, and no one made that kit.
 
I finally decided to build one.  Already deep into building an 1850's American sloop-of-war, and with a Baltimore Clipper schooner already planked up, I began a third model of the HMS Macedonian.  I chose Macedonian because I could easily get Chapelle's drawing of her from The American Sailing Navy from the Smithsonian, and she was interesting.
 
  Macedonian by Gardner
 
Macedonian was a Lively class frigate rated at 38 guns, another of Sir William Rule's designs.  Launched in 1810, during the War of 1812 she had the misfortune to meet the American frigate United States, a Constitution class 44 and was captured.  She was taken into the American Navy and served until 1828 when she was broken up and replaced by a new ship.
 
Lively     Bacchante
 
The story of Macedonian is well told in  Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922 by James T deKay  and I've posted a fair history of the ship on my page

 
There's lots of data available on how the British built and out-fitted their frigates, and even Macedonian's figurehead still exists, but I never have found any reliable information on what her stern looked like.

 
What I've come up with is my own conjecture based on the sterns of other Lively class frigates.  The mounted figure is from a statue of Alexander that existed when Macedonian was built.  The round object is the "Vergina Sun" found at ancient Macedonian sites and dating from the time of Alexander's father.  Symbology available when Macedonian was built and while this is my own guess, it's at least a logical guess.  I considered using Alexander's profile from a coin in place of the mounted figure, but his face is already on the bow - given the choice, I'd think an English builder would choose the horse. 

 
When the drawings came in from the Smithsonian, the first thing I did was have them digitally scanned.  I then rescaled them from 1:48 up to 1:36 mostly so this model would be the same scale as my Constellation.  That done, I made up a sheet with each station drawn full-sized, and printed that on my plotter.

 
At this scale, the model should be;
Length: 59" taffrail to Alexander's nose
Beam molded: 13.3"
Draught: 6.87" without the removable ballast keel
Her length over the rig will be about 7'
and she will stand from keel to truck, about 4'.
(I'll update this with more accurate numbers and metric equivalents at a later date)

 
These paper patterns were used to rough cut the wooden stations from 3/8" plywood.  Each paper pattern was then glued onto it's station
 
 
close cut on the bandsaw, and then fined up on the beltsander where some bevel was put into the forward and after stations.
 
 

I finished the development of my little table saw to a point where I could rip deck planking...and I ripped a pile.  The saw worked quite well.  I (as a Safety Professional) was leery of the spinning blade.  I used a push stick and remained vigilant throughout the operation.  In the end, I hardly lost any fingers at all and I have a pretty good stack of decking to use.  I'll have to do as much again but the hurdle of building the saw base is behind me.

Channels, Quarter Galleries, and Paint
 
The channels were made from pine and their shape, position, and size were taken from the 1888 spar deck plan, as will be many other deck details.  The Archives listed an 1854 spar deck plan, but it was, and still is, missing from their files.
 
 
It was time now to repaint.  Painting up to this point has only been  a quick job of spray painting, now I was going to finish the gun stripes properly, and get into some nooks and crannies.
 
 
 
 
I don't know what these things are called, the only name I've seen is "drops," so, I made them of sheet balsa laminated into blocks which also meant the quarter galleries were finally and permanently affixed to the hull with epoxy and the screw that had held them since their beginnings.  The insides of the quarter galleries had been thickly painted in resin some time ago, in case any moisture managed to get inside.
 
 
The gun stripe now went through the head as it should, and the masts and tops also got some fresh paint.

 
Course Yard Trusses
 
Constellation's course yards are attached to the lower mast via a set of iron trusses.  These are really quite impressive items that will be as important in the operation of the model as they undoubtedly were on the ship itself.  Unlike the trusses on the clipper ships and most modern square-riggers; Constellation's pivot out further from the mast where the more common type pivot at the mast and hold the yard off on a post.  This allows the yard to be braced further over and allow the ship to sail closer on the wind.  Constellation's truss design also allows the top masts to lower through them without having to disturb the yard in any fashion - something that will help me lower the rig on the model for transporting.
<= Stad Amsterdam  <= Constellation
 
It's very fortunate to have the actual ship available to reference, and that so many of her original fittings survived the attempt to make her into a frigate - these trusses for instance.  Using a photo of a truss on the ground and my own photos taken from on deck, and using the diameter of the masts for proportion, I designed a set for the model.

 
I ordered a sheet of 1/8" thick aluminum online and began cutting out my parts on a band-saw with the narrowest blade I could get.  I'm not really set-up for working with metals, but I trudged along.
 
 
Cutting out the parts was tough enough, making the bows made that seem easy.  The bow's center bulge was vertical and swelled to as much as a 1/4" while the ends were horizontal.  I opted to get this shape by heating and twisting the ends.  First I drilled them, then I heated them, then carefully twisted the ends 90°.  Most of them worked out very well, but a couple broke and had to be remade.  With some filing you can see they're twisted at all.
 
 
 
 
The remaining part to make were the clevis'.  This was made from some aluminum rod, drilled, slotted, tapped, and shaped with files to match the iron clevis' of the real thing.
 
 
Here's a shot taken a bit later showing the top mast lowered through the truss:

Assembly of the masts.

The two parts of the lower masts. The lower parts are 6mm dowels and the upper parts are 4x4mm walnut.
 


Fore top and main top are fitted. The top must sit parallel to the waterline when the masts are fitted into locating holes.
 


And the same procedure with the topmasts.  This time the lower parts have to be sanded to an octagon.
 

 



Ready for painting.
 

Thanks, Tim!
 
A little progress...
 

 

 

 

 

The fore mast is rigged.  The lower dead eye lanyards are not yet glued in place.  I will wait until the rest of the mast is rigged.  Then I can use the lanyards to make any final adjustments to ensure the mast is set properly both starboard/port and fore/aft.
 
The lanyard on the right of the 2nd picture is setup as it will look when finished.

Monday, October 1, 2012 - Display Case  
In these days since my last post I continued the work on the display case. For the base I bought at the nearest woodstore the three elements that characterize it, namely:
 
1) - a beech table (thickness 18mm) cut with dimensions of 99 x 27 cm; the customized cutting service was provided by the woodstore staff;
 
2) - strips of wood (unidentified), length 240 cm, 3 cm x 0.5; it will be used for the outer frame of the base;
 
3) - 5 knobs of lathed wood for the "legs" of the base.
 
The pictures 01 and 02 show the upper part of the base, with the outer frame applied. As can be observed the frame delimits the perimeter of the base and, being higher than 1.2 cm. will serve to hold the plexiglass of the transparent element of the case.
 
The wood was then treated with a coat of wood filler. Once the paint dried I sanded everything with very fine steel wool and then I applied a couple of coats of wood oil, the same I usually use for the model. Between one coat and the other I had to wait a couple of days to allow the oil to deeply penetrate and dry.  
 
01 P1080388.jpg

02 P1080389.jpg

 
In the next two images (03 and 04) I show the bottom of the base, which is also treated with a coat of wood filler. Here are visible the five knobs that have the function of "legs". I decided it was necessary a fifth knob placed in the centre to avoid a possible failure in the central area of the base under the weight of the parts above. Unfortunately for this knob I had to use a different color because the light ones were finished, but it is well hidden under the base and should not be visible.
 
03 P1080383.jpg

04 P1080385.jpg

 
Finally, the last image, even if these details are also visible in the first two (but in high resolution) where you see the threaded cylinders where I will fix the pedestal shown in the previous message. Anchor points are in number of four.
 
05 P1080390.jpg

 
That's all for now, even though I have more pictures to show, but in the next episode. .
 
Cheers, Jack.
 

Brace Winches
 
The winch drums were cut from pine planed down to 1/8 inch thick.  Each pair of drums was the diameter determined for it's yard and each had a slot cut in it so the brace could be threaded and knoted inside the drum.  Each drum was separated by a flange made from compact discs, CDs.
 

When the drum was assembled, a 1 inch hole was bored in it's center, and a servo horn was mounted at the bottom of the assembly.  The forward drum (right) is the main & mizzen mast winch; from the bottom up, in pairs, are the main-corse, crossjack, and main-tops'l.  The aft drum is the foremast winch with the fore-corse and fore-tops'l braces.
 
 
To the right top of the winches in the photo you can see some silver colored cylinders; those are the springs that will maintain tension on the braces.  There are 5 on each side.  The large servo at the right of the photo will control the fore-n-aft sails; heads'ls, spanker, etc.
 
Steering
 
The rudder head is very close the to stern of the ship, just as the real one is; so I don't have the space to mount a T type servo arm with hard push-pull linkages to steer the model.  Instead, I mounted a tiller on the rudder and will mount beams with blocks to route the tiller rope to the steering servo; a high-torque, metal geared type.  In the images you'll see some cup-hooks in wood blocks hot-glued to the hull to test the theory.  Beams will be epoxied in place and the tiller rope guides will be mounted on them, that way it won't pull off the the hull.
 
 
With the servo hard-a-port, and hard-a-starboard.
 

The next step was the removable ballast keel...
 
The ballast would attach to the hull by means of two stainless steel threaded rods that would run through a pair of tubes from the spar deck, through the keel.
The forward rod would be disguised with the galley stack, the after one hidden by the skylight that was part of the model's battery hatch made up of the skylight, companionway hatches, and the capstan.
 
 
Initially I wanted to cast a flat lead bar about 3/4" thick that would bolt onto the keel and weight about 50 pounds,  I made a wood mockup but I've never casted that much lead before, so I opted to fill a 2" PVC pipe with lead shot that weights in at about 42 pounds.
 

 
The model will still require some internal ballast, which will be in the form of lead filled "bean-bags" that will attach with Velcro tabs, like the battery.  Then it can be moved to trim the model as needed. 

Work Resumes
 
So, life went and changed things around a bit.  My wife and I went different ways and the farm was sold.  I moved into an apartment and the workshop and the plug went into storage.  In the late spring of 2008 I bought a house with a 12 x 29 shed that became my workshop, subsequently known as "The Damn Yankee Workshop."
 
 
With the shop set up, I began to work on the plug in earnest.  Those details needed for the mold still had to be added and the quarter galleries were a big part of that, so that's where I started.

 
These things didn't need to be very structural as the entire plug would be destroyed in removing it from the mold.
 
In the mean time I visited the restored vessel and learned some things.  The bulwark on the spar deck was actually planked up hammock stanchions.  When the ship was being "restored" as a frigate, they took off the hammock irons and tossed them into the bilges, the restoration recovered all but one and reinstalled them.
 
 
This changed the shape of the hull for me.  Instead of "solid" bulwarks continuing smoothly up to the cap rail, the hull stopped with a cap on top of the waterways, and had these stanchions mounted on top of that cap and covered with wainscoting.  So, I cut the plug down to the lower level at the top of the waterways.

 
The whole idea of the plug being destroyed when the mold was made began to nag at me.  There was a chance, a very good chance in my opinion, that the mold might not turn out and the whole thing would be a disaster and a major waste of time and effort.
 
Next: A Course Change

Finally got one upper gallery done.Not perfect but i`m ok with how it turned out.Now back to more painting.
 
 

 

 

 
 
Mark

Here`s a sample.First picture is before & the second is after.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Only 5 more towers to build.