Padeen

Heh heh.. Grant, you can up that score a little bit..
 
The third battle of the fore topmaest had been effectively won... I hope... just some finishing touches to smooth out a few nicks left over from my method of hand tapering. I don't like tapering blind, so at a couple of places along the length of the mast, I filed down "reference rings" to whatever diameter was needed at that point.. I find if keeps the taper from going "pear shaped".
 
After that I felt I needed a change of pace and went after the bowsprit... nothing like a change of pace  .
 
Getting that end bit for the bees was a challenge... carefull marking, sanding, carving... managed to make it through with all digits intact... and a lot of dust on the bench...
 
Still some work to do cleaning the last bits up, but overall I'm happy...
 
Next ship I'm definately getting a lathe and learning how to use it...
 
(not on the ship of course.... )
 
Andy

Hi John!
If I may chime in here (great work buddy), about the running back stays. It is really in the name... "running".. The running back stay on the leeward side is eased off because
1. It don't support the mast when the wind is from the other side, but the more important
2. If it were to be hauled tight it would chafe not only the boom but more the sail. How do I know? Well, after reading Magz of classic boats for some years now, I've seen it enough times in pictures of old smacks and their alike to be sure. Also, in my own younger days I owned a skerry cruiser with running back stays...
 
Upright? Can it be in the nature of the craft, beamy as they were/are. And then of course, about good seamanship...not to carry more sail than the weather permits...
There might be several more answers, this was my 2 cents only!

Popeye, Russ and Bob (Rafine) - Thanks very much for your encouraging words.
 
Adeline - They're actually single backstays, but set up with a variation of the double Spanish burton tackle, which gives a mechanical advantage of 8 times.  I think, as you say, that that's an indication of the weight of canvas she carried!
 
Augie - the forestay set up is really unusual.  I first thought that the stay must run over a sheave between the bowsprit (offset to port) and the stem, but there isn't any space for it there.  After much studying of the plans and an equal amount of head scratching, I decided that it actually ran through the stem.  As the knee that it's lashed around is right on the centreline that makes sense as it gives a straight lead for the lashing.
 
Bob (Cap'n'Bob) - we have to use spiders here.  The rigging fairies won't come to Australia as they're too scared of the spiders!
 
John

You need not be surprised, Sjors: you are bringing a lot of fun on the forum and your build is very pleasant to follow.Keep up shrouding! (does that word exists, who knows?)

It's a beauty Adeline!
And no worries about the gnomes….when I'm finished with the Le Mirage I have also the San Ildefonso and she has also a lot of ratlines…..
I'll keep those guy's buzzy!
 

and some more finished photos.
 
(For the europeans, I've got a 0.20 euro so you can see sizes ) [if you want photos with your own type of money please send it to me ]
 


 

 

 

 
And I'm done I hope you enjoyed the build.  My next build is on the Billing Krabbenkutter - It will be up soon.

Sjors,
 
Excellent progress. And you're still having fun... I like that.

Welcome here Sjors!
Yes this workbench is very usefull, this is a Christmas present I greatly appreciated!
 
Here is the asked for pic:

 
At the time I began this log on old MSW there were so many Swan builds that I did not bother to put a picture of the box... In fact HMS Fly is a sister ship to HMS Pegasus and I believe the two kits are very similar.
 
Well... I think I won't need your gnomes for another couple of years seeing my present building rate! But I'll keep that in mind just in case ! 
 
And nope... I'm French. I have been living in Rome since the beginning of this year for work.

Hi Padeen ( or Adeline, just what you want)
 
You are more then welcome.
Attention all other viewers, make a little space for Adeline please.
And Mark? will you be so kind to get Adeline a bag of popcorn?
Drinks are also available if you want some…..
And thanks for your kind words!
And about the ratlines….no worries, I have hired some gnomes to do that!
 

20/05/2012
 
I began putting together the deck fittings: they are made from laser cut walnut ply and/or walnut beams and I painted them with the same vermillion red acrylics paint as the bulkheads. I only dry fitted them on the deck: they will not be glued before the planking is finished.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, an update on the Stag at last.  I didn't get a lot done yesterday as we are in the middle of school holidays at the moment and the museum was crowded with families - always fun when you're surrounded by a mob of kids asking questions about your model.  At one stage I dropped a needle on the floor and had a group of kids crawling around the floor searching for it for me (they found it, too)!
 
I've finally started rigging.  The standing rigging of the bowsprit it done and I've made up the sets of shrouds ready for seizing in the deadeyes.  The lower mast is also permanently fitted now awaiting shrouds.
 
 It's usually at about this time in a build that I get really paranoid - always thinking that I might have forgotten to rig something essential before going on to the next stage, but even so I love rigging - even ratlines.
 
I remembered that Pat had asked for a photo with a ruler against the model, so one of the photos shows my trusty six inch rule against the base.
 
John
 

I've been so busy playing with my ship that I've not updated my log for awhile.  Lets start with the IOU's
Wayne, here is a photo of the dead eyes going into the sponsons....

 
Keith - here is the penny with a completed ratline for persepective

 
When making the ratlines I used this cardstock comb that I made to keep the lines separated.

 
Ok, so I finished the 4 sets of ratlines.

 

 
Now that I've finished the ratlines (phew) I'm on to my next challenge, furled sails. Thanks to everyone who sent me photos of furled sails -that helped a bunch. The local club gave me some silkspan to use (which is lucky since the sail cloth I'd bought from ME was way too heavy for furled sails.) and I cut and died it with earl grey. 
 
I found that wetting the silkspan gave it a more realistic weight so I furled them while they were still wet and they held that shape when they dried. I'm going for the look that they've just been temporarily tied up, not the fully stowed perfect bundle that they do when they are fully storing the sails. 
 

 

 

 

 
I am working on running rigging tonight

Thank you very much John, Janos, Doris, Amfibius, and Adeline - I'm glad you all appreciate the effort gone into this piece. It's been a heap of fun building it .
 
Almost finished with the Capstans - I've fitted all the bolts. There are 10 brass ones (they should be iron, but I've used brass so they can be seen) in each reinforcing ring, as well as the 0.35mm holes for the bar retaining pins. The pics with the sidecutters give you an idea of how small these "bolts" are - the last one to be fitted is lying on top of the drumhead in one of the pics.
 
I've used blackened brass "bolts" for the remainder.
 
 





 
  Danny

02/08/2012 As the hull planking is slow (only two planks at a time + drying times...), I continued with the deck fittings and made some capstan bars out of tooth picks, using David Antscherl's book as a reference and my home made conversion ruler for peace of mind (Mr Antscherl and other maritime authorities unfortunately speak in inches and feets while I speak in metrics and have already enough trouble with scale conversion... ):          
I'm not sure exactly where the bars will be stored but we will see to that later...   13/04/2013 As I did not brought my tools nor HMS Fly with me in Rome, I'm not going to update this log before the summer when I get a chance to finish the first planking (hopefully). But of course questions, comments and/or suggestions are welcome anytime.

Thanks Andy,
Rewriting this log made want to fly back to Fly... but I'll enjoy it all the more when I finally have some modelling time!
 
Robert,
Thank you for the encouragement. In fact I'm in Rome for work but fortunately it is also a lot of fun: this is a wonderful city and spring here is greatly enjoyable.

Thanks Andy,
Rewriting this log made want to fly back to Fly... but I'll enjoy it all the more when I finally have some modelling time!
 
Robert,
Thank you for the encouragement. In fact I'm in Rome for work but fortunately it is also a lot of fun: this is a wonderful city and spring here is greatly enjoyable.

Thanks Andy,
Rewriting this log made want to fly back to Fly... but I'll enjoy it all the more when I finally have some modelling time!
 
Robert,
Thank you for the encouragement. In fact I'm in Rome for work but fortunately it is also a lot of fun: this is a wonderful city and spring here is greatly enjoyable.

Thanks Patrick!  It's been a little bit since your last update on Niagara -- I hope all is well with you and yours.
 
Hi Adeline, great to hear from you in MSW2!  Mars was built by the Dutch as a privateer in the late 1770's, but captured by the British in 1781.  And now, through the magic of the link in your signature, I can see what new project you've chosen to tackle
 
Cheers,
Robert

Great to see your build log back up... even if time a distance are preventing you from working on her.
 
Andy

Here is the build log of my second model ship. This build was started in winter 2011 during the sail-making of Le Camaret... and may take a few years till completion as my building time is quite reduced for the moment. The first part of the build log (until August 2012) was done on the old MSW: I recreate it here more or less as it was then, hopefully with some improvements, putting the date of the original posts as I go along.    
18/03/2012 I have been talking of a build log coming soon for months now but here it is at last. Welcome to my second build and first attempt at a Man-of-War from the late 18th century!   My motivation for this built is that I love ships from this period more than any others and it was the desire to have such a ship at home rather than in the museums that brought me to model ship building two years ago. As I particularly like the lines of small ships like cutters, sloops and frigates compared to ships of the line (and as it is still hard to find a three-decker at 1:64 scale...), I decided for HMS Fly. I hesitated a while with HMS Pegasus but my local modelling shop had only HMS Fly available and I did not want to copper the hull. This will be a fully rigged model with sails hopefully: they are not included with the kit but I think that with the help of David Antscherl's 4th volume on the Sawn class it will be feasible... and that's not for the near future anyway!   There are already many kits and scratch build logs about the Swan class sloops here so I will have plenty of information to help me on this particular build. I also have the four volumes of the Swan class books by David Antscherl and Greg Herbert which may come in handy.    So, now for the kit itself: the box was heavy! There are about ten A1 sheets of plans at 1:64 (half of which are about the rigging: good point!), an instruction booklet with a list of parts and some additional lower scale plans to explain planking and deck fittings in more details. Everything is written both in English and in Italian. Most wood parts are made from very clean laser cut plywood or walnut sheets. There is lime and walnut for the hull planking, tanganyka for the deck planking and ramin for the masts. The rest of the kit is made of brass photo-etched parts, copper gun barrels and carriages, castings for the decorations and an impressive number of wooden blocks of different size. (Well, I guess three masts are three masts, whatever the number of guns!) The thread for the rigging is also provided in different size and colour. I look forward to the rigging: this will be fun!  
 

Thanks John and Mark .
 
Next comes the Trundle Head - this is made from four pieces of timber. Two are edge-glued to make the 1'9" wide piece needed. I made sure the grain was running in different directions to make it stand out as two actual pieces later. The other two were treated in similar fashion.
 
NOTE: I didn't really need to do this for the trundlehead, but I thought it would be a good practice for the Upper Capstan's Drumhead which is a lot more visible - turns out it was, I made a setup error that would have stood out later on.
 
Then I turned up a "dummy shaft" which could be chucked in the 3-jaw chuck. I spot-glued the head to it for the machining work.
 
The square cuts for the Capstan Bars were milled in next, using the dividing head again. Not possessing a mill cutter of the required diameter (0.73mm) I used a 0.38" slitting saw which needed setting up twice for each cut :
 


 
Then I chucked both parts of the Capstan Barrel complete with Whelps and Chocks back into the lathe and trimmed down all the chocks. I also used a Boring Bar to take out the inside diameter of the trundle head where it fits to the barrel. I should have done this earlier while it was still in the lathe, but no biggie - it was still glued to the dummy shaft. I separated the head from the dummy shaft with Isopropyl :
 


 
The lower chocks in each section have a Concave outer edge. I filed these in with a half-round needle file :
 

 
  Danny

Forward Stanchions, Cistern Hood and Pump Dale
 
Hi all,
 
The last few things for the Pump Assemblies (almost) - I've made the Forward support Stanchions, the port side Cistern Hood and the Pump Dale for the same side. None will be fitted to the starboard side.
 
The Stanchions support the forward ends of the Cranks :
 

 

 
The Cistern Hood is made from 1mm thick side pieces and 0.35mm boards over the top :
 

 

 
The Pump Dale is a removable item on the real ship - it would be a constant trip hazard otherwise. It is made from four pieces of 0.5mm thick timber, and attaches to the cistern via a board which can be lifted upwards :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks Carl and Mark - it's good to be back at work on my ship at last  .
 
Yeah Mark, there's not a lot of room between the forward part of the Cistern and the Mast - about 2 1/2".
 
Here's an update for you Sjors - I'm about half finished with the Cisterns. They look out of alignment in the first two pics, but that is the way they fit :
 

 

 
 
The Pump Dales (drains) will fit into the slots in the outboard end. I'll only be fitting the port side one :
 
 

 
 
The hole in the side is for a drain bung :
 
 

 
  Danny

It would be kinda tough to measure out to 5 significant places.     When I was in Engineering the rule was:  "Measure with a laser inferometer.  Mark it with a piece of chalk.  And cut it with an axe."    

Just for Sjors....
 
Enough Eye bolts for you? I have more!
 
Andy