dvm27

Thank you Rusty, Steve and Jorge and for all do click the likes.
I do agree she is a beauty but most of the credit goes to Chuck’s wonderful design.
I started the Qgalleries, I used the guide to mark the placement of the first peace.

 
 
I found that the lower part of the Qgallery was easier to build upside down.
 

 

 

The false window in the Transom was added next.  I decided to paint the windows white.  Not as fancy as Beckman’s ivory windows but they look ok.
 

 

 
 
The toilet, upper part for the ceiling and the little stop peace were added next (thank you Chuck for giving us multiple copies of this peaces).
 

 
 
Looking from the top to be sure it was aligned as Chuck instructed.
 

 
The pillars for the windows went next (probably 4 hours to get this right). Windows are not glued and will be painted white.
 

 
lots of thinking and going slow was the best strategy as Chuck have suggested.
 
I am working in drawing the freezes by hand.  Thank you Beckman for giving me you PDF files.  They contain most of the model elements.  I realized the figures are Mer people inspired by mermaids and fish that appeared in 18th century cartography and are represented in Europe’s fountain sculptures.
 


The Fontana di Trevi is a good example.  I will use those to improve the figures in the freezes.  My first pencil draft is bellow, simplified to be a freeze component,
 

 
Best,
G
 

good evening everyome
 
Day 19 full frames and cants
 
i delayed putting the cants in for as long as possible, they seamed quite difficult, so best to leave them, but the time had to come
 
i may have mentioned it previously. that there are laser etched lines on a lot of the ribs, these provide a rough fairing line, 

so the same goes for the cants, also there is a angle template provided for each numbered cant to help achieve the correct angle, this template is to set up the bench sander at the correct angle, mine kept moving so i devised my own answer by gluing the template to the cant and then sanding to the correct line, it worked


having done that, i then found i did not have enough room to get access to pin the cants, 
so
i removed the top level of the jig
glued starboard cants 2 to 7 in position, when the glue set, i removed the hull from the frame to pin, this will be repeated on the stbd side

 
 




the hull drops back into the jig quite easy, im not sure how difficult its going to be to put the top level back on

 
 

I was fortunate enough to get part four parts from the first batch. They arrived three days after ordering, on my birthday (81, for anyone interested). A nice birthday gift to myself. I was eager to go and have done the following so far: the sub-deck planking; the beams and carlings; the false deck; and the first layer of the bulwark planking. I also made up the two coamings that go over the sub-deck openings, just to see how they looked.
 
Although my installation of the false deck doesn't look particularly neat, all of the laser etched lines and the center line match up perfectly, and there should be no problems later on. I've also tested the deck clamps for the future fit of the deck beams and they should be right on. Now, it's on to the cabin paneling, the   second layer of bulwark planking and the bulwark painting.
 
Bob

I thought I'd post this wee tip here as I used the technique when I was doing the drop plank on Flirt.  You probably all know this already and I don't mean to teach yer granny to suck eggs but it might be of use to someone reading this who's never seen it. 
 
OK... So instead of using mitre boxes, fine tooth saws or any other gizmos here's a quick way to get a perfect 45° cut every time. 
 
You need a large-ish chisel (1 inch plus) and it needs go have the back polished to a shine.  If you have the chisel but not the shine a flat surface and ever finer wet and dry papers to a minimum of say 1500 grit will do the job. 
 
Line your strip of wood along a straight line on your cutting mat and use the reflection of the chisel to cut your 45.  The pics below will make it clear if my explanation doesn't.  I should have made the cut using one of the boxes on the cutting mat to make it very clear but I re-lined it up after the fact for the final pic to do that. 
 
Hope it's of use to someone. 
 
Cheers, Gerry
 

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone
Just a few words and a few images to show that things are progressing very slowly! Found out I have the 'Big C' and docs have me jumping through hoops preparing 
to be irradiated. As it turns out, that sweet little band saw will sit for a bit longer. I didn't have the gumption to cut out all the pieces so I imported all of the bulkhead file into Corel, created some dxf files and used a laser. I really wanted to stay away from the char but it wasn't so bad after all. As many of you have mentioned in your wonderful build postings, this ship is HUGE! I'm doing all of this in my dining room and I must say my wife has been very tolerant of my mess! I sourced out a Canadian company for the cedar to cut all of my planking. Can't be fighting with a certain Republican over softwood lumber now  Since I need to cut planking, of course I need a thickness sander and got it into my head I want to build one. So far I've got the power supply, speed controller, bearings, belts, drum, 1:2 timing pulley and motor. Just have to get my butt in gear and finish it. I only hope I can produce lumber of the quality Syren provides  Excuse the bad images. I will bring out the real camera when I get things going. Chuck, perfect advice to use the glass to ensure flatness. That entire false keel stood on its own! So far I've only freed 5 of the larger bulkheads and made the mistake of under-sizing the slots so I need to sand a fair but. Sanding is good for the soul but a tad dull after a bit. Ok then....back at it!
 
 

Apparently more than about 25 degrees of rudder become ineffective: the rudder then acts like a brake. So I think that you are safe, Mark!
 
Read Hutchinson:
 
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Seamanship/Hutchinson(1777)_p38.html

Hi everyone,
While waiting for the upper deck beam glue joints to dry before shaping their roundup, I worked some more on the tiller and its tackle. In a post to Alan (AON)'s site, Gary (garyshipwright) pointed out the need for directing the wheel ropes up through the deck forward of the mizen mast. I started working on this and discovered a few things.
 
First, according to Brian Lavery's Arming and Fitting of English Ships, pp. 18-20, at the 1760 date of the Bellona, the Royal Navy was holding up the fore end of the tiller with a gooseneck running along a curved sweep track, just under the upper deck beams. A rope ran from the end of the tiller to a block on either side of the ship, back to a central block and up to the steering wheel. A problem with this method was that the tiller rope did not equally tighten and slack on each side of the tiller, causing sloppiness and some accidents. The solution was found in 1771, when Pollard, a Master Boatbuilder at Portsmouth devised a way to run the tiller rope along rollers within the track itself, keeping equal tension. But this was 20 years after the Bellona, so I will have to model the earlier, cruder method.
 
And here it gets interesting. the original Bellona draft shows the tiller very tight up against the upper deck beams. We are seeing below the tiller at midships, but the beams at the sides. When the beams are shown at the center location, their bottom surface is only an inch or so from the top of the tiller surface. How does the gooseneck and the sweep fit?
 

 
Here we see close up that the gooseneck and sweep cannot fit under the main beam. Both have to fit up into the space between the beams. There is more clearance at the small intermediate beam shown in orange. but eventually as the tiller sweeps to the side the gooseneck (shown in dotted orange) it hits the next big beam aft. (this drawing is not accurate for the position up and down, since the tiller sweeps downward as it sweeps to the side, following the roundup of the deck beam. But the space between tiller and beam will remain the same through the sweep, so this is just showing that eventually the gooseneck hits the beam.)
 

 
In plan, this means that the tiller can only swing as far as the location shown in purple. The green location is a 33 degree angle David Antscherl discovered as the ideal angle in a study of helm angles in the eighteenth century, and described in The Fully Framed Model, vol. II, pp. 47-8. The Bellona geometry only allows a 26.7 degree sweep. However, the contemporary study David quotes also notes that some ships in the period only swept 28 degrees. So maybe this is close enough. There really isn't any lee-way, given the restricted space between beams 23 and 24, into which the gooseneck and sweep have to fit if the tiller really is as tight to the beams as the original Bellona section shows. Even with this, the sweep will have to be pared down at its outer ends to fay onto the underside of beam 24.
 
Mark
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just a quick update to mark the end of Chapter 3.  
I admit I was not looking forward to doing the pillars and the tops & bottoms to them, along with the roof rails, but everything turned out OK -- at least for me.
 

 

 

 
Now it is time to clean up the shop to get ready for Chapter 4.

No resin this time around.  So far so good.  I am just laser cutting them out of boxwood.   Should have some pics shortly.
 
Chuck

I look forward to your take on the cheeks and rails with their intricate moldings. Your scroll work has already set the bar for other manufacturers

Really, Doris, there's nothing you can't do. If you don't rig R.K. it can only be because rigging may not get your creative juices flowing like creating beautiful sculptures.

Finally finished chapter four in its entirety.   The deck is finally planked.   There shouldnt be much much planking for a while.  Pretty straight forward from my last update.  Just follow your lining out of the deck planks and take your time.   Match the tapering and curve of each plank just like you did when planking the outboard hull.
 
I will begin chapter chapter five by getting back to some outboard details.  First the cheeks and hawse holes...then the rudder.   Afterwards it will be back inboard to add the details to the bulwarks and the guns.
 
Feel free to ask me any questions.
 
Some photos...






 

I realized that other day that summer is coming to an end, and cold weather will be upon us before we know it. That means I need to plan ahead for anything needing the use of the router table in the garage before it is too late. So, I temporarily put aside spirketting, to concentrate on making the beams for the remaining decks. I used a router jig for the gundeck beams, and plan on the same idea for the rest of them.
 
First, the upper deck beams. Much as I admire the tabled joints done by our great craftsmen including Gary (garyshipwright) and Ed Tosti, I remind myself that my design goal is to emulate the Admiralty style models I can see close up including the two Bellona models and also the Princess Royal model in Rob Napier's book. My hull framing is thus stylized, and so should the deck beams as seen here in my photo of the first Bellona model. The two beam halves are a simple scarphed joint. I did this on the gun deck, and so will continue onto the upper deck. The higher decks are one piece beams.
 

 
So, I measured the angle needed to form the correct length of the scarph, and used angle gauges of 3.5 degrees to set up the table saw for an angled cut:
 

 
I then slid this angled plywood piece under the angle table on the Sherline mill, to set the correct angle of taper. On top of this I bolted a simple holding jig, into which I can slide beam blanks, clamp them down, and then run the cutter across to form the angle. The brass bolt was used for fine tuning of the angle after I ran some tests for the correct length.
 

 
I have 27 beams in the upper deck, times two halves, times 3 passes for controlling the depth of cut, equalling 162 passes of the cutter. A happy five hours!
 
Here are the blanks awaiting their turn at the mill...
 

 
Next, gluing up and shaping the roundup on the router table.
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 
 

Every ship was slightly different, even in the same class. The 'as launched' plans are accurate for the specific ship, as a record of its actual construction. This would be very useful when it came time to repair the vessel.

Thank you Reg, Don and Bob and for the likes.  I assure you there are plenty of flaws but I think they are ok.
I added the stern post the transom and upper counter.  I have planned the painting patter ahead of time and some sections were painted before they were glued.
 

 

 

 
 
The cap rail on top of the transom took a long time but the effort was wort it.
 

 
 
The circular ports were enlarged to match the transom plate.
 

 
 
Next reinforce the upper counter to start the Qgallery.
 

 
Best,
G
 
 

Hi Alan,
Just for fun comparison, here is my reconstruction of the Bellona upper deck. Now I am going to have to remember where I got the carling pattern, which steps towards the bow and stern, also the curved beam just forward of the rudder opening...
 
Mark
 

 
 

Hi,
thanks for your nice comments. And to all the others also a thank you for the many Likes.
Today I show step by step how I made these blocks.
The pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 
 

Getting near the end of the Upper Deck Beam Layout.
Looking at various references that don't agree with each other plus my NMM deck plan drawing of HMS Elephant is too long for that ship.
I've yet to add the Knees... and then check it again.
Here is what I have so far...  (image updated 13 SEP 2020)
 

We used to sell the plans on Mylar but now they are sold by  Sea Watch Books and are printed on paper. You could have the paper deck plan copied onto Mylar at a print shop but as Druxey noted make sure they match perfectly.

I did the same with my Swan class model, Ben. Looks like your Mylar pattern fit better than mine. Well done!
 
Tony, you can make little pin pricks through the Mylar to transfer marks. It's very accurate. I also made deep pin pricks at the fore end of the pattern as registration marks to relocate the pattern each time it was removed.

Forward upper deck framing almost complete, need to add the riding bitts and the final ledge piece.
 
ben

Completed the construction of the frigate Sirena completely. Scale 1:36  And I sell it. My price is $ 15,000. Bargaining Is Appropriate. It is possible to declare a desire to purchase a frigate and make a deal until August 16, 2020.

I have heard that sentiment here and elsewhere, and it is my guiding ethos on this build.  My objective, always, is to maintain a standard that will allow the viewer to get up really close and scrutinize the work.  It isn’t that they won’t find flaws, errors or omissions, but they definitely won’t find any distracting sloppiness.
 
So, the knee extensions are glued-in, and I think the run of their sweep is fair and consistent.  I like the look of the raised bolsters around the hawse holes.
 
Given how fragile the artists’ acrylic, raw sienna was when I applied it - I was surprised at how difficult it was to scrape away from the glue areas, a year later.  Granted, there was a clear topcoat applied, but it took real effort to scrape the yellow, once you were past the topcoat.



There’s a little bit of putty work that still needs to happen, here, and then I’ll prime, paint and repair finishes in the bow area.
 
The beakhead deck is secure, now.  You can see the styrene fill, along the leading edge:


Filling that gap facilitated a natural camber which should be present, anyway.
 
Ultimately, I have decided that I will maintain the roundhouses.  While I agree with Chapman that they probably are not correct, the wrapping hull modification was complicated by the fact that this sweeping wrap extends up into the upper bulwarks.  Builders of this kit know that the upper bulwarks are separate pieces that I am nowhere near ready to install.  So, I think I will just avoid all of that, on this build, and look to install additional simple seats of ease.  Here are the roundhouses painted, but not installed:

I have not yet applied the walnut ink wash.  This red color, though, will be what I apply to the beakhead bulkhead, along the run of the main deck ports, selectively throughout the lower quarter galleries, and throughout the stern facade.  It is also an artist acrylic, proprietary mix for BLICK.
 
I’ve thinned it considerably with water, and the color lays down beautifully in thin coats.  I have found that the artists’ acrylics are hit or miss.  Fortunately, my blues are going to work!
 
I also picked up a bottle of the Tamiya X20 thinner for acrylics, and this helped with the application of my yellow ocher, so that was a great help.
 
I’m finishing up my starboard amortisement dolphins, and I was amazed to realize that they are about 1/32” taller than the port side:

Here, I have the P&S forward carvings back to back:

I double-checked the 90% reduction photo copies and there is no distortion from one side to the other.  They match up perfectly.  I can adjust this, so that both sides match, but it remains a mystery.
 
I have figured out what the process will be for making the false amortisement windows that go between these dolphin carvings.  Those will be my next small-work project, and I think they should be relatively straight-forward.
 
Here is the stock port headrail, as it currently aligns:

Unfortunately, I will not be able to use these; the headrails need to lap the hull by about another 1/4”, and there is no feasible way to stretch or modify these so that they look good and right.
 
Patterning new ones will enable me to correct the problem of the forward scroll rising up, alongside the sprit-mast, thus spoiling the line fairleads.  I will also be able to space the headrail vertical timbers (decorated with lyres in Berain’s drawing) so that they align with the headrail supporting timbers.  This way, I can space those supporting timbers, along the trailboard, in a way that makes sense.  Ultimately, I believe that I can graft the forward scroll and rear escutcheon onto the new headrails, thus saving an enormous amount of time.
 
If I can achieve all of that, I will have done justice to the bow.  Before I do my paint touch-ups, I’ll get busy extending the beakhead bulkhead and getting that in place.
 
Thank you all for looking in.  Enjoy this last week of the summer, as best you can!

For those of you who have had hit or miss success with blackening I have found the following techniques to work consistently and create a durable finish that won't rub or flake off. Most of the products are available from Beaducation, a jewelry supply store that also has great learning videos https://www.beaducation.com/pc/393-jewelry-making-tools-soldering-fusing-tools. Check it out.
 
The change I have made is that I now use Sparex on all my brass parts prior to blackening. Anyone doing silver soldering should have Sparex and a small pickle pot in their arsenal (see above link). The heated pickling solution removes oxide (and solder remnants) from the surface of the brass. I used to just soak the piece in acetone or alcohol to degrease but had some failures. Not so with the Sparex. These are my steps:
 
Pickle for 10-15 minutes. You must use copper tongs! I just keep my solution covered when not in use and it lasts for months. Do not forget to unplug or you will need a new crock  pot (ask me how I know)! It does not have an on-off switch.

Place the brass items into a baking solution/water bath for a few minutes to neutralize the solution. If you fail to do this you will get uneven blackening (ask me how I know (again)!

This is how they look after pickling. Clean as a baby's bottom.

 
Place the brass objects in an acetone solution for ten minutes or so. I have also used isopropyl but acetone seems to work better for me. Keep covered and don't inhale the acetone! Use only disposable gloves to handle the objects from this point on. Any grease from your fingers will prevent the blackening solution from adhering.

Prepare the blackening solution. I use hot water and Jax Blacken it. I use somewhere around a 1:7 ratio but in truth I just eyeball it. Place the brass objects into the solution and gently agitate so all surfaces are exposed.

After 3-4 minutes rinse flush out the solution with warm water for a couple of minutes until it is clear. I do not reuse the blackening solution as it is inexpensive and seems to lose its potency after mixing. Dump the brass objects on a paper towel and gently blot dry. There will be an uneven powdery surface but this is normal. Allow to dry for 10-15 minutes.

Use an eyeglass cleaner or old tee shirt to gently remove the surface covering then continue to rub. An evenly blackened surface should appear. You can also use a cloth polishing wheel at low speed to get into the nooks and crannies.

And here's the final product. No streaks, blemishes or chips. I hope you find this useful. Next up, if interested, is how I conquered silver soldering (finally).

 

I did that on my Hannah model Jim and the result was too much black (I assume you're talking about for deck planking). Perhaps a grayish black would work better. I think the pencil edge blackening technique is more subtle and doesn't over power the surrounding work. Definitely experiment first and don't forget the finish. You don't want the black paint to run if applying a finish over it.