Mayohoo

Hrs 828-840

This thing is complicated and the AL directions are awful (see above). I decided to use a combo of the HMS Victory and the Jotika HMS SUrprise model at their website.

Oh, here's the pork pie I had in Plymouth. Reminded me of Lucky Jack eating a pork pie with mustard...

I liked the blue trim, so am working on getting the edge painted just right.

The AL pieces have the notch on the wrong side of the V, so I broke them and reglued facing outwards.

Then began adding trim.

Initially tried a thinner peice of wood up top, but it looked cheesy so I ripped it out and started again. (no pics)

Getting the top piece was difficult because the wood does not bend that well inspite of soaking and heat.

Finally getting there, but it is slow going.

Hrs 826-827

After staring at the AL directions for the boom, have not been happy. 

With the AL directions, the dolphins (?correct name?) extend way beyond the bowsprit area and end up being really skinny pieces of wood. I had to sand them to match the contour of the bow. Then I had to add another piece to form the slot where the rope for the bowsprit would go and it fit poorly. Then the anchor cable holes seemed to be in the wrong place below the bowsprit rather than above.

After hemming and hawing and looking at the Jotika build

and also after going to see HMS Victory over vacation (more on that later) I decided to redo the area more like the Jotika build with the anchor cable exiting above, since it seemed the Victory was a much taller ship it made sense to have the anchor cable holes lower on the hull proportionally for her

Now as for HMS Victory, she is being extensively renovated and preserved. As a result, the masts above the lower masts have been removed as had the jibboom to reduce weight. They will eventually be replaced with fibreglass facsimilies as apparently the extra weight was causing the keel to bend.

This will apparently be at least 5 years work (and one guide said 10-15 years), so those who want to see her in all her glory will have to wait awhile. Still, it was a great tour and the guides were really nice (kudos to Ian Heath and Ian the Scot!)

So according to my source book Roth, the bowsprit in an 18th century ship should be approximately 0.45 of the length of the mainmast. Since the mainmast is either 17.67 inches long for the lower mainmast or 30.02 inches total mainmast, I am not sure which length is correct. In any event, inboard portion is 0.3, so 0.7 outboard.

17.67 x 0.45 = 7.95 inches x .7 = 5.565 inches bowsprit length.

Now presuming ship wall is one foot thick would subtract another 0.25 inch for 5.315 inches (if using lower mainmast)

30.02 x 0.45 =13.59 inches x .7= 9.456 inches - 0.25 inches = 9.21 inches (if using total mast)

Hmmm... the Marquardt drawings show a Mainmast of 11.7cm measured total mainmast length or 4.7 cm for the lower mainmast alone. The bowsprit appears to be 3.5 cm long. 

3.5/11.7 = 0.3 if using total mainmast

3.5/4.7=0.75 if using lower mainmast only

So, they must be using total mainmast length...

So I will cut the bowsprit to have it 0.3 x mainmast length extending from the hull, also adding a 1/2 inch to embed and secure into the hull.

The measured mainmast is 30.0 inches long, therefore the bowsprit will be 9.0 inches plus 1/2 inch or a total of 9.5 inches.

Whew...

Hrs 820-823

Decided to do something different and created grate over the kitchen stove. Plan on having ship with wind abaft so smoke stack is pointing forward. Drilled hole in deck and placed grating and solid section in place.

Naturally, I didn't realize it wasn't perfectly square, so had to take it down and redo it after squaring it. 

Deja' vu all over again 

Holy smokes! I do operations less convoluted than doing gold leaf that way Denis R!

As any surgeon (and Monty Python fan) would do... "retreat!"...maybe a reconsideration of doing stuff in gold leaf in the future. The paint looks more manageable. (Thanks MTaylor). At least the davits looks ok 

"There are old surgeons, and bold surgeons, but no old and bold surgeons."

Live and learn.

Hrs 820-821

"Lessons learned are like bridges burned..." Dan Fogelberg

Working the catheads. Gold leaf is ... tricky. 

First, the gold leaf comes in little booklets. It is very thin and folds in any breeze. I made a mistake (one of many) by taking the adhesive outside to spray along with the gold leaf.

Upon opening the booklet, the first leaf folded... a lot.

I then created a ...mess.

Using the soft brushes to transfer to the catheads... but they looked ok.

So I put them on the davits.

Now, what about the other ones? Guess what, I thought I'd turn the temp up to bake the clay faster. A. Clay burns B. Commercial catheads melt at 400 degrees F. Ooops...

Hrs 818-819

Catheads... while waiting on gold leaf to arrive, decided to mount the lead ones on clay to increase size. Then, what the heck, made one out of clay. Following are three pictures one with cathead on clay, one with cathead on clay and added clay base, and one made out of clay. Not sure what looks best... opinions?

They will presumably be covered with gold leaf (if I can figure out how to do it...)

Hrs 812-817

Anchor davits away! So built them pretty much how AL kit has them as they look spiffy. Made them correct to scale length according to the Lavery plans. 

Note hole for trenail reinforcement into deck.

Brass highlights and gold trim

The supports for the davits needed trimming and added pieces to fit correctly. Will be painted before sliding under.

A little rope holder for the anchor davit.

Have decided to try my hand at gold leaf on the catheads. The molded ones from the internet are kind of sketchy ie not square or uniform) but I figure gold will make them different. Gold leaf is $16 on the internet for 5 small pages, which should be plenty. Might do something for the figurehead too (eventually)

Hrs 808-811

Finished the flag lockers and added a frame around them with netting over the front. Also completed the gold trim along the stern.

Then began work on anchor davits. First I trimmed to length and added the openings on the end. Also a single hole on the inner side to secure it down with a big trenail.

I liked the AL look using brass on the ends, but couldn't figure where the brass came from looking at the inscrutable instruction sheet. So I took some scraps from the brass in the kit and made it up.

Cut to length and then superglue...

Hrs 806-807

Wrestled with a couple ideas to cover the flag locker. If I used faux canvas, then it would cover the color of the flags. I thought of glass, but getting it precision cut would be tough. So I decided on using tulle, the mesh fabric that Gil Middleton suggested for netting. Went to local fabric store where I asked for it. Apparently it is used to poof up skirts for little girl outfits. Go figure. When I told them it was for a model ship, they just looked at me. If you are well off, you are eccentric. If you aren't, you're weird...

Made the cover using a small frame, painted white.

Flag lockers, with added piece above in gold to cover unfinished edge of stern

And top view

And rough placed needing to be glued in place.

Can still see into lockers and see the colors of the flags which is what I wanted.

Thanks for the kind words. I think I should point out that this is my first model ship and that without the kind assistance of the members (eg. Gil) and moderators(MTaylor) and the resources here and on the website that I would not be near where I am currently. And I am definitely an amateur!

Hrs 801-805

Watching the Dutch and Ticos play and working on the flag lockers. It appears the predominant colors are, red, white, yellow, and blue. (NOT fluorescent yellow ) So I made 2 lockers, each with a bigger slot for national country flags and the smaller slots for signal flags. 

Used grill material framed and then fit into place along the taffrail.

Used fabric from the flooring, then colored with markers, then mod podged matte over the top. Then cut them out and glued together so that they looked folded in the slots. Then cut to fit and glued into place.

Then painted the frame white. Have to add another coat...

Not sure how to cover the lockers. Maybe canvas flap in front?

Hrs 796-800

Cleaning up and fine work. Took awhile, but am pleased with look. Needs a dusting however.

Built base of stern lamp up to partially camouflage the base of the lamp where wires enter.

Also still have removable hatch for cabin view. Am contemplating a flag locker along taffrail. Also, binnacle and wheel area to use as base over the little hatch.

Ouch! I feel your pain. I have used the round headed pins, sometime with a little drill starter to get them going. I like the square ones you have though. Also used extendable Irwin model clamps to get the planks tight to each other.

Strong work!

Hrs 791-795

Using Tamiya paint tape as it seems to work very well, very little bleeding and a nice edge. 

Had to adjust exposure to see the black, so some may look a little washed out.

Now for the red on the inner bulwarks...

[Hrs 776-790

Resanding and finishing

To get that silky smooth feel have resanded and redone the rails and deck. Combination of emery nail boards, sponge sanding blocks, and file. Also used woodd filler as needed.

Now to repaint.

Like a baby's bum!

Hrs 771-775

And the foredeck is planked. Now for trenails galore   followed by sanding and touchup painting.

Slow and steady wins the race... 

A larger model in Barcelona...

Da kids 

Sorry, no info. The Jotika Surprise has no gun hatches. I have an oil of the Geoff Hunt "Flying Kites" and there are gun ports on the gun deck but not the upper deck.

My mistakes will become your glory...  

I'm trying. It feels like I am so slow, but it's kind of make it up as I go along or find it on the web. I am most concerned about the rigging as that looks very complex. I've bought some books and between them and this website I THINK I might get there...

Anyway, next step is bowsprit I think.

Hrs 761-770

Let's go Wild! So two hockey games is about 9 hours of work and building.

Nearly finished with foredeck.

Also put in framing of the amidships opening with camber of the deck. Can just see bottom of stove with copper pot and bread cask.

Plywood was warped a bit so edging straightened and flattened imperfection. Note temporary wedges placed underneath and then removed once glue dried.

Need to touch up paint of course, then add trenails and perform sanding to finish level. Starting to come together tho.

It is a bit surreal as I am in a sportsbar watching the Yankees and also the Stanley Cup (hockey) and having a beer with dinner...and you are a world away in Australia watching the same game!
For the best hints on the Historical Surprise go to Jotika Surprise on Google. They have a nice set of pics showing their construction. I've used some if the stuff in the AM version I'm doing. If you click on them they come up in color!

There is also the original plan for the ship I can email or pm you from my other computer (on iPhone now)(also had a pint already ;0)) later

Hi Bindy,

Thanks for the kind words. It is a work in progress and since it is my first ship of this kind it is going kind of slow. I tend to get picky and if it doesn't look right I go back and redo a fair amount (see copper, hull, redo).

I see you are building the Mamoli kit Surprise. That should be fun to compare the two as you go along. 

Are you planning the Historical, the Fictional Aubrey-Maturin, the Jotika plan, or the Mamoli ship plan version? If you want the Historical or Fictional I have a fair amount of research stuff I've picked up along the way.

Oh, and I'm a long suffering Twins fan. Only slightly better in misery than a Cubs fan 

Hrs 746-760

Finally got the aft deck done.

A struggle but it finally came together.

I chose to make a plank around the hole in the middle.

Will try the butt shift thing again forward, hopefully with a little better success.

Found the plywood was a little warped so filled in with wood putty.

Did the trenails and they look snazzy at 0.021 or a little over 1 inch to scale diameter.

First sanding is nearly done.

Also lined the skylight and grating. Note can see thru glass 

Note scarf joints and trenails.

Hrs 734-745

Revised the deck and put the thicker rail back in. Tried to make them as mirror image as possible but have discovered they are not perfectly congruent. So had to put stealers in...

Placed glass in the skylights. Figured out how to cut the glass a little easier by using a plastic ruler on a granite surface which allows support all along the surface. Still break 2/3 of them tho.

Can just see the capstan, hatch cover and some cannon balls. I anticipate the light will be visible through the gratings and the skylight.

Have to finish the deck, then add trenails (that's going to be a lot of bamboo to shave...), then sand and then teak oil it lightly. Hard to get a perfect 5 butt shift, but at least it isn't uniform and artificial looking. Maybe some battle repairs

Hrs 721-733

Done with the Bow deck area (finally). Used styrene to create half circle area in wall. 

I couldn't get the top rail perfectly smooth, but it is the best I could do with the gentle rise and the curve of the wood at the same time.

Began work on the stern and put up the main stern lantern with light. Will add smaller lanterns later

Also beginning the deck planking in a modified 4 butt shift with cut into the sides (joggling?). I made the edge a little more narrow because the carronades won't come to the gun port otherwise. 

Am working on having a detachable segment of deck to be removed by lifting off the wheel or binnacle and removing a single nail. It's the one in the middle of the deck. Hope to be able to look into the cabin through the stern windows (which open) and through the small piece of removable deck.  (That's the theory of course...)