JanV

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but things have been a bit busy at work and with family and as I have said before I tend to be a bit of a lurker often on the site but not very often posting . I guess we are all our own worst critics but I never feel that my work stands up to criticism compared to the excellent work shown on the site.
But here goes with a few pictures of my work so far   

Hi Mates,
 
Started, again, working on the mizzen chainplate pulley sheaves. These pulleys were apparently used for the lower foremast sail. Here are some preliminary pics.
 
The photos are self-explanatory. This is the first time (novice) that I “really” use the Proxxon MX70 (including X & Y attachment) for a task for which it was better intended. Nice tool-super accurate, great addition to my shipyard. Using the routing drill bits for the first time as well.
 
PS:  Nigel - thanks for you previous advice on how to correctly use these bits, I know that you have been very busy of late..good luck
 
===============
 
Oops, just noticed, after again looking at the 1/1 photo that the housings have an outward overhang from the chainplates by a fair amount. (I used the 1:10th as a guide, hmmm wrong, no overhang on that model) So the two that I made would attach to the without any overhang.
 
Fix: added a strip of wood to the rear of each one and re-shaped the back edge so as to gain that overhang. Bit of a diff. wood, but that will visually disappear once installed. The overhang is not as pronounced as in the 1/1, but I’m satisfied.
 
At least this time I caught the error before installing. Hmmm is that a good sign?? Ha ah…
 
Then made pulleys, as some of you know this is where I cheat. I’ve tried making real pulleys with my Proxxon Lathe, but just can’t seem to get that task right. So deadeyes to the rescue, a bit of sanding using a rotary tool, results in a “pulley”. Then a bit of sanding on the resulting sharp edges and Voila a pulley.
 
I now need to add proper looking mounting nails, as well as the pulley shaft, then glue both into place. I’ll post a couple of pics when it’s all done.
 
Again, thanks for looking in, and thank you so much to the kind mates that follow along, give advice, click like, and post way too nice of messages J
 
Cheers
 
Michael

FYI-Another ongoing issue with the Corel kit, for those of you whom might read this, and are considering, which of the two kits to purchase, Billings being the other one, I noticed the following;
 
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After installing the most forward upper gun deck cannon lids that the two most forward warriors would have to be mounted much higher than they should be. This is because Corel’s kit does not allow enough space between the cannon opening and the bowsprit side railing structures.
 
Even with foresight of this issue, if the two side structures were moved forward then they would not line up correctly at the beam with the lower central keel-framing bit. The Lion would have to hang on by its fore-paw claws (:-) And the weather deck would extend out too far forward adding an overhang lip.
 
Also the most forward lower gun deck cannon port is an addition that I included for this build. These two are not part of the Corel kit instructions. Having added them, the lids had to remain closed as well. I include comparison pics FYI.
 
Cheers,
 
Michael

Mates
 
Oh My - thanks for all of those such kind and supportive comments as well as the likes-very nice, and much indeed appreciated.
 
Frank M, I will now move onto the weather deck and rebuild all the knightheads and add pulleys, clean up the 14 cannon carriage ropes, build the last two poop deck cannon carriages. Then onto the masts (:-) I think?
 
Cheers,
 
MIchael

I added the blocks to the bottom rear of the sail and pre-rigged some more lines.
 


 
Here are some pictures of the yard and sail mounted onto the mainmast. Remember, a lot of the pre rigged lines will stay loose and unfinished until later in the rigging process.
 




 
Yard attached to the mast
 

 
Lifting lines finished to deck


 
Front of mizzen sail attached to deck
 

 
Now I am starting to work on adding the lower main mast shrouds and ratlines.
 
Thanks,
Frank
 

Alittle progress - made the odd looking pulleys that mount to the front of the mizzen chain whale.
 

 
Also installed the catheads - I`m not going to try and make the little guy in the cage that sits under the catheads. Also made & installed the upper hand rail - I made them from some .8 by 1.5mm brass bar bought from my local hobby shop. Now I will have to be careful not to break them off . Also got the rest of the figures installed.
 

 

 

 
/Mark

The figures for the knightheads are 28mm scale.  Most are from Essex Miniatures in the UK - Roman and Turkish soldiers.  The noblewoman is from Dark Sword miniatures in the USA.  They are cast from white metal, which contains lead, so be careful removing the heads - wear gloves and a mask, sweep up and dispose of any filings very carefully, and wash your hands afterwards.
 
On to the gun carriages.  These were surprisingly painful to get right.  The carriages have three main pieces from laser cut wood - the two sides and the base.  The sides come in two different heights, although the difference is small and not noted anywhere in the instructions. 
 
The first problem was that the instructions show the side pieces attached to the sides of the base, whereas the actual carriages have the sides attached to the surface of the base.  The difference is significant - one way the carriage is low and too wide; the other way it's tall and too narrow for the cannon to rest correctly.
 
The next problem was that even in its low/wide configuration, even the smaller of the two carriage heights was slightly (1/2mm) too high for the cannon to fit through the gun port.  That might has something to do with my custom bulwarks, or just might be the kit parts not being sized correctly.
 
The kit has two-wheel artillery carriages for the two small falconets on the poop deck, which aren't correct.  I ended up making my own small carriages instead.
 
Then the kit supplies brass rod for the axles, and brass trucks, both of which would require painting and wouldn't look right even then.  I substituted with wood dowels for the axles, and wood carriage trucks from Amati.  Unfortunately the holes of the wood trucks are wider than the kit wheel holes, which makes the carriage slightly higher.
 
And finally a small point - the pivot slots for the cannon trunnions aren't far enough forward.
 
The results, for those still interested, are that I needed to: (1) make the side pieces slightly lower by cutting off 1/2mm or so at the base.  No idea why they provided two sizes, since even the small one is too big.  (2) make the base narrower, (3) cut slots in the bottom piece for the wider wood axles, (4) move the pivot points forward, and (5) attach the side pieces to the side of the base, not the top.  All in all way more work than I thought it would be.  My strong recommendation is to make a single carriage, test it against all the ports, and be prepared to get creative getting it to fit properly.
 
Here are some photos of the small carriages I made for the falconets:
 

 
Slots being cut for the carriage axles:
 

 

 
And the axles attached.  Once the trucks are on, I'll cut the axles uniformly, letting them extend a millimeter or so past the truck.  In this photo you can also see the front of the carriage and the rear elevation bar.  Neither of these were described in the kit plans, although the kit photographs show them in place and they are required not only to look right but for the cannon to fit properly in its carriage.
 

 
Next up: picking cannon and painting them properly.
 
 

The knightheads were fun.  There are seven of them, four in pairs and three singles.  They all have sculpted heads - the pairs are roman soldiers, two of the singles are moors, and one is a noblewoman.  The kit doesn't say much about what to do here, other than to show some drawings of the knightheads with blobs on the tops.  I don't have carving skills, so I decided to look for some miniatures with heads that might fit the bill.  Turns out 28mm scale figures work perfectly, so I bought a few on the internet, chopped their heads off, and attached them to the wood pieces.
 
The kit plans are also somewhat incorrect about the pulleys in the knightheads.  They show single pulleys for the pairs, and doubles for the rest.  They should be doubles for the pairs and two of the individual knightheads, and a quadruple for the large one on the foredeck.  I didn't realize this at the time so I had to go back and fix it later.  The result was fragile enough that I didn't want to jam the kit brass pulleys into the slots, so I left them empty.  Here is the first attempt at making the pulley slots, with the pulleys inside.  Two pairs and three singles, one of them larger than the other two:
 

 
Two of the knightheads, with moorish heads attached:
 

 
And the heads painted:
 

 
And mounted on the deck.  Upon reflection, the foredeck knighthead isn't as fat as on the real ship, but I don't want to redo it - getting the moorish head mounted was a little tricky.
 

 

 
The noblewoman ready to be painted.  Took some searching to find something suitable on the internet - most of the choices were elvish princesses; this is a little closer to the real thing:
 

 
Painted and mounted:
 

 
The roman soldiers painted and mounted.  I've also switched the pulley openings to be double instead of single.  I still need to tweak the divider a bit and get it even.
 

 
And the foredeck Romans and moor, also widened for the correct number of pulleys:
 

 
Now it's on to the gun carriages...

Hello!
Thanks for all the "likes" 
 
I just returned from a great week of fishing down in the Florida Keys and I finally was able to get back to work on the shrouds and ratlines!
 
I made some spacers out of metal wire in order to try to keep my deadeye spacing consistent.
 


 
Finished the lower mizzenmast shrouds and tackle.
 


 
With ratlines installed
 

 
Now I added the Lower Mizzen Stay.
 


 
View of lower mizzen ratlines and stay
 

 
Working on the mizzen upper ratlines
 


 
Mizzen topmast sail almost finished with "pre-rigging" and ready to mount on mast soon
 

 
Thanks,
Frank

Hi Mates,
 
Finished up the hull cannon doors and installed them. Here are some updated pics.
 
Regards,
 
MIchael

A small update......
Cannons are done on the upper gun deck.
Stairs are also done and the railings .
I really need a cleaning person     
Nope, not Anja  I have to do it by myself.
Maybe a good idea to do it before I take pictures ?
Maybe something for the next time ?????
Or I have to use a camera with has no High definition ...........
Oh well.....
 
Sjors
 
 
 

Now I attached the lower  pre-rigged yard (the one without a sail) and the boom with the furled sail.
 







 
My next step is to install the lower shrouds (ratlines) to the mizzen mast on both sides, pre-rig and install the upper yard and full sail, then finish the upper ratlines.
 
Thanks for visiting,
 
Frank
 

Hello!
 
I was able to make further progress on my sails.
 
I hand stitched the bolt ropes to the 2 mizzen mast sails.
 



 
I now rigged the mast rollers and attached the lower sail to the yard (boom).
You may notice, that I cutoff 1/3 of this sail because of the furling. The material was removed before I sewed the folds around the edges and the bolt ropes.
 

 
Photo of furled sail.
 

 
At this point, I added the blocks to the yard and sail. Also, I tried to "pre-Rig" line to the sail that might be harder to do if I left it for a later point. A lot to these lines will not be fastened to the deck until later.
 




 
Assembly ready for attachment to the mast!
 

 
Thanks,
 
Frank
 

Hello,
 
After spending some time getting re-acquainted with my sewing machine, I started to sew the vertical lines of my sails.
 
I used a "disappearing ink" fabric pen to lay out some of the vertical lines. The ink disappears after a few hours on its own or right away if you wet the cloth.
 

 
Sewn vertical lines of the lower sails

 
Sewn lines of some of the upper sails.

Update - finally got all the weather deck guns rigged. Also got most of the deck fittings in place including the slightly modified capstan.
 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking.
 
/Mark
 
 

A small update - started rigging the guns.I am using Chuck`s nice little 2mm blocks. The blocks are really nice but also really small - I don`t know how he makes them so small and yet so nicely shaped. They are a bit difficult to handle but I am slowly getting them done.
 

 
/Mark

When I finished sewing all the vertical lines, I turned my attention to the ends of the sails.
 
First I folded the ends 1/4 of an inch and ironed the fold flat. 
 

 
Then (and this was the hard part for me), I lifted up the 1/4 inch fold and re-folded an 1/8 of an inch and tucked it under itself. Then I re-ironed it flat.
 

 
With the ends folded and iron flat, I now stitched the fold. I tried, as best I could, to keep the stitch near the inside edge, so I could insert some wire for shaping if needed.
 
Back side of sail


 
Front side of mizzenmast sail

 
Insertion of 22 gage wire for shaping of sail (if needed). If not needed when I hang the sail I can always pull it out.
 

 
Lower mainmast sail



 
I am pretty happy with the way things are turning out so far, but I wish I were more educated in the art of sewing!!
 
Now I am going to start hand stitching the bolt ropes around the edge of the sails and then start attaching the completed sails to the yards.
 
Thanks,
 
Frank
 

Hello!
 
Continuing on with my sails:
 
My next step was to transfer my sail templates onto tracing paper and add a 1/4 inch band around all sides in order to create a double 1/8 inch fold along the edges while sewing.
 


 
I picked up a nice sheet of fabric from the fabric store. (Bleached white Muslin).
Since the cloth is too white, I picked up some fabric dyes and after some trials on scrap pieces, I settled on a formula in order to "dirty up" or soften the look of the sail cloth.
 

 
After mixing, per the instructions, with hot water, I dipped the whole sheet into the dye mix, in order to create an even look throughout the sheet. 
 

 
Then I left the cloth dry overnight
 

 
After I pressed the wrinkles out of the cloth, I pinned the tracing paper to the cloth.
 


 
Now I cut the sail cloth to size.
 


 
I am now ready to start sewing.
I picked up some sewing thread that matches the running rigging line I will be using and the bolt rope I will be hand sewing later in the process.
 

 
Thanks,
Frank

Thanks Frank - I have corrected the placement of the tall figures on the sides of the upper stern 
. I had them on the wrong sides.
 

 
/Mark

Update - finally got the stern finished.Corel only gave 2 knights to stand guard by the windows in the stern & they were way too tall to fit in the space provided so I used some of the extra figures in the kit instead.They are just a little bit short but at least there are 6 instead of 4.Also built the front railing - I didn`t like the dolphins the kit provided so I used some nice columns I had in my spare parts box.Also built the knightheads while waiting for paint to dry.I don`t have a milling machine so I tried to make the sheaves by drilling & filing but that didn`t work too well so I made them by laminating a number of thin strips glued together to form the sheaves. Then I cut some thin pieces off a dowel to make the pulleys. Not perfect but they look good from a foot or two away.
 

 

 

 

 

 
/Mark

Thanks for all the likes!
 
I took the time to lay out the sail templates on paper.
Since the Corel kit has no sails or sail plans, I used the dimensions Karl was kind enough to forward to me from his Billings kit. (Thank you Karl!)
I only had to make some small modifications for them to work on my model. 
 
These templates are the finished size of a fully laid open sail.
For the sails that I decide will be furled, I will cut off about a third of the template, to thin down the furled sail thickness.
Also, when I cut the sails from the cloth, I will have to add about a 1/4 inch all around the periphery in order for me to create a double 1/8 fold along the ends of the sail.
 
Bowsprit Sails

 
Foremast Sails

 
Mainmast Sails

 
Mizzenmast Sails

 
I'm off to the fabric store tomorrow to try to find some suitable cloth!
 
Thanks,
 
Frank
 
 

Thanks George!
 
With the masts on, I feel I've turned a corner and that I am closer to the end than the beginning!
 
Anyway,
I finished constructing and tapering all the yards.
 
Bowsprit Yards

 
Foremast Yards

 
Mainmast Yards

 
Mizzenmast Yards

 
Yards painted a flat black and sprayed with clear dulcote for handling

 
My next step is to lay out all the sail sizes and shapes on paper, creating a template.
 
Thanks,
Frank
 
 

Hello all.
I can't believe it took me more than five months to finish the first planking of my ship. This hull is HUGE!
I finished placing all the wood on the hull, leveling the metal frames to hull level, sanding and smoothing the hole thing and painting red the metal frames.
I plan to let the second planking just a bit short from the openings to achieve the effect shown in the first photo. Not sure how this will come out. 
Also, do you see the photo of an unpainted frame with the upper right corner slightly rounded? Well.... all 66 red frames were like that so that was something else to fix.
The hull is not perfectly even... there a re a few albeit very small bumps here and there, but that will have to do.-
 
Thanks for watching!
 
 
 

Hello!
 
Thanks for all the likes!
 
Some small updates.
 
I added the blocks to the masts where possible and also some blocks to the decks around the masts. After I was done, I fitted and glued the masts to the hull!
 




 
The Corel kit plans show some rigging for cargo tackle. However, on the Vasa Museum plans and on the 1/10 model, I do not see it being there. It would make sense that there would be some sort of tackle for getting things on the ship!
For the time being, I added the blocks and eyelets for this tackle on the back of the foremast platform. If I decide to eliminate this, it will be easy to remove. Any thoughts?
 

 
More blocks



 
Masts fitted and glued to ship

 
So now I will put the ship aside and start working on making the yards and the long process of making and sewing the sails.
Next week, I will take a ride to the fabric store and see if I can find something suitable (tight weave and thin muslin) that will work for this ship.
 
Thanks,
 
Frank
 

Temporary workshop during the modelbuilding show last weekend
 

 
in between several interesting talks with visitors I prepared some block for the platforms
 

 
and mounted them for the foremast and mainmast
 

 
and some blocks mounted on the masts
 

 
coming period I will not post a lot, due to other jobs in the house (painting etc )