modlerbob

I would attach those ladders more upright.

I have benefited from others' posts about the Revenge, so I thought I'd post my status partway through the build, with the decks complete and ready to begin the masts.
 
This is a fantastic kit, with wonderful quality and instructions.  You'll notice that I have kept the hull natural vs. painting it white below the waterline.  The videos in other Revenge logs on plank bending were a fantastic help, although I found that steam + hair dryer worked best and fastest for me.
 
Happy to share my experiences up to this point with anyone who may be at an earlier stage.

There has been recently many methods shown to make strops around small blocks. When rigging the guns for my Le Cerf I needed a big number of small 3 mm double blocks. For making strops around these  I made this simple fixture, which fullfilled it`s task quite reasonably.
 
First a simple construction was made of a piece of scrap wood and 2 mm plywood.  Small pieces of 1 mm and 0,6 mm iron wire were glued into the bottom of the jig, and grooves were sawn with jeweler`s saw into the plywood walls:

 
 
Pieces of 0,15 mm thread were put into the first grooves, and blocks were positioned to the jig so that the 0,6 mm wire was put through one hole of the block:
 
 
Then small pieces of 0,6 mm rigging thread were placed into the second grooves:

 
 
And then it was rotated around the block and then around the 1 mm iron wire:

 
And now it remained only to make a small knot between the block and the 1 mm loop using the thinner thread, and attach small blops of diluted PVA glue into both ends of the block. After the glue had dried, ends of threads were cut as near as possible of the block.....

 
..... and blocks were ready......

 
......and used for rigging the guns:

 
 

My finished model photos.
I really enjoyed building this beautiful ship. When I look at some of the scratch builders work, mine seems less impressive, but for my first build I am very happy with the result. Cheers

Thanks very much Nils.
 
Your build updates are the first thing I look for whenever i visit the site.....brilliant and inspirational!
 
My kit build has been slow and steady over nearly 2 years, but i am nearly finished. Goodness knows how many hours i have spent working on it, but... i'm not counting!
Rather than watching the box, i put some music on and sit at my work bench and try do the best i can with every part of the build, i know it cant be perfect, but make it as best i can. It has become a labour of love. (Apart from doing the 100's of ratline knots!)
 
Here are some more pictures from along the way.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

good evening
I finished pasting the other side.

Today I worked hard!

Work continues on the anchors and their rigging. I used Grimy Black and Rusty Red powders for weathering. The bands are made from striping tape cut to a width of approx .070. Puddening was done with .008 Dark Brown, close to 80 wraps each. Anchor and buoy rigging are .018 Light Brown. Speaking of buoys, that's next.


Mike

All of the remaining rope coils have been completed. I found this to be an exercise in patience and sticktoitiveness. Lines had to be re-tensioned and in some cases the number of belays were reduced to remove unnecessary bulk around the belaying pins. To avoid disturbing the surrounding rigging, I used tweezers, one in each hand, as fingers to re-tensioned and belay. A tiny drop of PVA was used under the pinrail to hold the rope while belaying. With six belaying pins on each side, the coils sometimes overlap slightly. Making seven instead of eight holes in the pinrail would allow for spacing the pins further apart. However, I'm not sure if Chuck would agree. Here are a few photos of the completed work.

I'm really enjoying making the anchors from Chuck's kit. The slot in the stocks were first deepened leaving a thickness .045". If you don't do this, the air gap between the two stocks will be too wide. I used some sticky back sandpaper adhered to a 3/32" strip to achieve the required depth. I found that there was better control if I moved the stocks across the sandpaper rather than the other way around.

I finally had a chance to test out a milling machine that I acquired recently from a fellow member. I had never used one before, so I was anxious to give it a go. It made simple work of making inline holes for the #76 treenails. I used Chuck's method (chapter 1 of the monograph) which uses a pencil to outline each hole along with a neutral toned filler. Next, the rings, bands and then those fiddly buoys. Weathering will be done later after all the parts are completed.

Mike

While working on the topsail yard, I noticed that I needed a few more belaying pins. These were made from 1/16" square boxwood strips and the Dremel rotary tool. Using a 1/16" collet, the bottom end of the pin was reduced to .032" (1 1/2" scale). After cutting the handle of the pin to the correct length, the bottom end was inserted into a 1/32" collet and the pin was reduced to .045 (2 5/32" scale) From here the handle was easily shaped, and the bottom was trimmed off. Final length = 18" scale. 

 

 

 
The topsail yard is completed and all lines are belayed. I still need to trim the lines and add the remaining rope coils.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Bob
Is the kit complete other than the plans? If so I'll cover the shipping charges.
 
regards
 
J Lombard

More progress on the longboat. Added cap rail and molding. Painted hull. Added bowsprit step, iron strap for bowsprit and oarlocks. Still need to do the splash panel, gudgeons and oars.
 
Jesse
 

the clew/sheet lines were rigged.......it wasn't till I rigged the lower and top sail braces,  that I realized I forgot to photog the steps.   so I took 'em...focusing on the groups.  first the clew/sheet lines.


then the braces......I like how the blocks show up in the rigging



I'm done just in time to take Gibbs out...........time to appease the carpet monster  

It didn't take long to finish the hull below the waterline. 
 
I didn't add the shafts, props or rudder. I thought I should at least wait until I have the rest of the hull done before I go back to do that. 
 
Since I had already finished the four sections aft, I figured it might be best to start at the bow and work my way back. That way, the bow was sure to come out correct and I think it looks good.
 


I used little pieces of Tamiya tape to hold pieces into place while the glue dried – I used Aleene's Tacky Glue for everything here. When it was dry enough, I pulled the tape, revealing the finished hull. 
 

 
Certainly, my work is not perfect, but I'm having fun, and, so far, it doesn't look terrible...
 
By the way, I took this model to three local ship model meetings, and people were VERY interested in the model. I love the fact that because these part are printed on my own printer, if I screw something up, I can just print another parts sheet.
 
There are an awful lot of teeny parts, though. I did a rough count and I think I got to around 250 pieces. So... 31 down, 219 to go!
 
 

Bill, I'm not sure what I want to do about railing. Chris's technique sure turned out well. However, I may just check out the PE stuff that GPM makes. The only thing is that the deck has the locations of stanchions pre-printed, so I'm guessing the PE stuff won't fit exactly. So, we'll see. I have been eyeing that HMS Bellona kit too. I figured if I can get through the frigate HMS Mercury, the Bellona would be an interesting subject. 
 
Jan, Ken, CDW, happy to have you aboard. CDW, please tell your wife "Cousin Clare" says "hi!" 
 
The V108 Build
As for the V108, since I'm building the lower hull, I'm already diverging from the tutorial and in uncharted waters for myself.
 
I went ahead and glued up the parts for the lower hull and added some reinforcing blocks for display stanchions.
 

I cut the parts for the main deck and glue them to the frames. All the parts sheets, by the way, I gave a couple coats of artist's fixative to protect the print. 
 


 
Also, added some reinforcements that I'm hoping will help keep the lower hull plates (or skins, as some people seem to like to call them) from puckering too much. It's all a big experiment for me, so we'll just have to see how things turn out.
 

One thing I discovered at this stage was that I managed to impart a bit of shear to the hull. From the drawings, it clearly is not supposed to. So, I cut some of the frames loose and re-glued the parts. I clamped the hull to a sheet of glass to help flatten it out. 
 

As you can see, it still has a little shear. Hopefully, it's not enough to be a problem. You can also see another view of the hull reinforcements I added. Not perfect, but we'll see how things fit. 

As you can see, I also drilled out the keel where the support blocks are and I made a little display stand. I just did that today, but the posts are a bit on the tall side, so I'll cut those down a bit at some point. Depending on how I'm feeling about it, I may or may not add some brass tubing sleeve over the rod to make the posts visually thicker. But, making them shorter may create the same overall effect.
 
Anyway, I have to focus on the lower hull next. We'll see then if this is worth keeping and continuing.
 
Clare

Okay, here's a very brief update again.
 
I don't know why it's so easy to get sucked into a paper project, but it is...
 
About a week or so ago, I made this chest of drawers for the Captain's day cabin. The kit photos showed a couple items sitting atop, and I'm contemplating a rolled up map, maybe a book. Yeah, it gets addictive.
 

 
Just today, I set it into place to see how it would look and above it, on the partition wall, was an empty space, and I thought "That would be a great place to hang a painting".
 
Next thing I know, I'm on the Internet looking for paintings appropriate to a British ship of 1778 or later. I hunted down a Willem Van de Velde the Younger, Royal visit to the fleet in the Thames Estuary, 6 June 1672. I also found a nice portrait of King George III, but settled on the former.
 
I found a site that sold framed artwork that allowed you to see what the painting would look like with a choice of frames. I figured that tastes were more toward what we would consider gaudy. So, I did a screen grab. I probably should have photoshopped out the matte, but didn't think of it. I don't know if I really care, though I might if people could really see the painting clearly.
 
The pic in the screen grab had a watermark, so I used photoshop to overlay another image I found that didn't have one, then proceeded to size it appropriately. A put a few different sizes on a small piece of photo paper, which I printed on my inkjet.

 
Now, if I had been more ambitious, I might have also built up the frame a bit, so it didn't look so two dimensional. But, I did laminate the print to card stock to make it thicker. I also edged this with a gold paint pen. If I'm not happy with this when I go to install it, I do have a somewhat larger image I printed earlier without a frame. I could always build up a frame and use that instead.
 

 
Anyway, it was yet another fun distraction.
 
 

No worries, Bob.  My Essex still awaits some attention.  I just haven't had the time for any building the past few months, and I am still struggling with planking on 3 separate builds.  I am trying to get my feeble mind around planking my Emma C. Berry before I restart the Essex.

I also made the masts:
 



I tapered them in my drill using sand papers of various grits.

A few more pics:
 

I repainted the ship, this time using mat acrylics from Valejo and using an airbrush. It was my first experience with the airbrush and I think I like it already
These paints also work using the brush or toothpicks on smaller surfaces.
 

The instructions say the deck should be simulated by using a pen and straight lines directly on the solid hull. I didn't like the idea so I've searched in my goodies shelf and found some 2x1mm lime wood strips. I glued them to the hull using PVA colored with black ink to simulate the caulking and then sand it so I can lower the deck with 0.5 mm or so. I did that before mounting the bulwarks. The strips are 8 cm long.
 

Thanks Guys for looking in. Here are a few more photos.  


I used my little sanding boot and got good results. Next I'm going to add the ring bolts for the gun the lies half under the forecastle deck because it will be impossible to get to it once the deck is on. Rigging the gun later shouldn't be too hard with small tools. Or am I kidding myself? I've seen other builds where the entire set of guns is set and rigged but the sanding really makes a mess.
Ideas are welcome.

Excellent work, as always. Like the 'iron'-work. Using an end-mill to drill obliquely into surfaces or into curved surfaces is a good practice I am also using often. One has to be sure, however, that it is an end-mill that cuts across the centre.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 216 – Bowsprit Cap
 
The bowsprit cap is a heavy balk of timber that is mortised on to the end of the bowsprit to support the jibboom.  It sits vertically, so the mortise for the bowsprit tenon and the round opening for the jibboom must be cut through the cap at a 20 degree angle corresponding to the angle of the bowsprit.  But first the cap must be cut out and the angles of the top and bottom faces shaped.  In the first picture, the outer lines of the shape and the centers of the openings have been laid out on a Castello plank,
 

 
Some additional work, permanent center lines for the openings, for example, is required on the drawing shown in the picture.  Once the overall piece was cut and the rounded ends shaped square on the sander, the beveled ends were sanded off as shown in the next picture.
 

 
This was done with the sander table angled at 20 degrees.  Some hand shaping is required where the straight side meets the curve of the ends to avoid under cutting the straight sides.  The angle of the bevel varies from 20 degrees at the apex to 90 at the side.
 
The cap is surrounded by an iron reinforcing band.  To fit the shape, this must be curved as shown below, so it will lay tightly on the cap when fitted.
 

 
The band may be seen on the drawing.  The copper strip shown in the picture was bent progressively with pliers to the shape shown.  It was then test fitted as shown below, curved for the other end of the cap, and further adjusted until a good fit was achieved.
 

 
After fitting, the band was soldered to form a ring and fit over the cap as shown below.
 

 
The band was then set aside so openings in the cap could be bored using a milling bit.  The mill setup I used is shown in the next picture.
 

 
A dead center has been mounted in the drill chuck to center it over one of the center marks on the piece. This was done before boring each of the two holes.  Two 18" holes were then bored as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The ¼" milling bit scales to 18" at 1:72.  A 3/16" bit would be used at the 1:96 scale.  After boring, the lower hole was filed to a square mortise to fit the bowsprit tenon.  After fitting the tenon, the cap was set up for gluing as shown below.
 

 
The square was used to check the vertical face and the side of the cap when it was glued.  The last picture shows the iron band fitted to the cap and blackened.
 

 
The band was secured using some thin CA, but will be well anchored in position when the rigging eyebolts are added through drilled holes into the cap.
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 210 - Mainstay
 
Once the main shrouds were installed the main stay was next.  Like the lower shrouds and the forestay, this was 10 ½" rope.  The first picture shows the main shrouds in place and tensioned, and the mainstay rigged so the served areas could be marked out.
 

 
The shackled bullseyes and eyebolts through the main deck beams were installed earlier.  In the next picture the stay has been served and leathered and is rigged to allow the glue on the leathering to dry in position before painting.
 

 
The stay is clamped where a collar seizing will be placed after the stay is secured at the fore ends.  In the next picture the first seizing at the lower port end has been tied.
 

 
The lower ends of the stay are served as well as the collar at the top.  In the next picture frapping turns to the first seizing on the port side are being made with the aid of a sewing needle.
 

 
The next picture shows the four seizings on each leg completed.
 
 
 
I was very pleased that the stay clears the chafing battens on the mast by about six inches and is just inside the sheet bitts, so I may not install the spreader that was used if needed to keep the stays outside the mast.  The smaller bullseyes inside and just aft of those for the main stay will anchor the main topmast stay and will hopefully fit as well as the first.
 
The last picture shows the completed main stay with the collar seizing applied below the top.
 

 
The sheer poles have yet to be installed on the main shrouds and the lanyards are still dangling loose.
 
 
Ed