egkb

The copper plating continues. I have now glued the row of plates that lies along the waterline, port first and then starboard.
 
The first step was to peel back the 6mm wide masking tape and push pins into the hull on the waterline. (If you do this on both sides then many pins will get knocked out while handling the hull.)
Next I cut a 1mm wide strip from the supplied deck planking, which is 0.5mm thick, and dyed it walnut colour. This is then glued onto the hull above the pins. I started at the bow and pre-bent the strip before gluing with CA superglue. Then it was a case of working along the hull and using fingers from one hand to hold the strip against the next couple of pins while the other hand applied a small drop of CA. I used two techniques for the CA: one was to have a large drop on my work mat and I used a long pin to pick up a small drop from it. The other was to put a small drop from the bottle on the pin and then rest it somewhere convenient until the wood strip was positioned properly. Both work, neither is perfect. 
 

Pins along the waterline to align a thin wood strip
 
At the stern the strip is bent and twisted to follow the waterline, and cut to length where it meets the stern post. The wood is thin enough to be pliable and the CA holds it effectively. 
 
The vertical joints between the copper plates on the waterline should align with those in the highest row fitted so far (row seven from the keel, see photo above). (This is purely aesthetic on my part and I have no evidence for the practice.) It is important to work from the bow when fitting the plates because of trimming the leading vertical edges, so we need to know where to start. I set a pair of dividers to the length of the plates, aligned one point with one vertical edge in row seven, then stepped along the wood strip. This showed that there should be a small triangular plate at the bow, about 2 to 3mm long on the strip. I made an executive decision to ignore this because it would be structurally weak and on my Whiting the first full plate started at the bow. With hindsight, I should have fitted the waterline row first and then plated the rest of the hull to match the vertical joints, starting from the keel. 
 
The Amati plates come in port and starboard flavours. For the waterline row I used the 'wrong' version so that the edges with many nail marks were facing aft and down. 'Facing aft' is sensible because the overlap suits the flow of the water. 'Facing down' has no evidence, again, but it seems more likely because the shipwright could attain a neater line with these plates than with the sloping and tapering ones which meet them. From a practical, modelling perspective it would be very difficult to make odd-shaped plates that had the full set of nail marks on three or four edges. 
The plates are gently bent and twisted so they lie on the hull, and then a triangle is cut off from the leading edge so that the plate butts against the one before it. This is vital at the bow and stern but along the middle of the hull the trimming is minor. For small triangles I held a plate with pliers so that a long edge was resting on my work mat, then cut slivers off the short edge with a knife pushing down. A sliver took off about 0.1mm so the process was quite controllable and a final clean-up with a sanding stick gave a good edge. Where a large triangle had to be removed I used scissors first, then the knife.
In a few cases the edges that butt against the wood strip would leave a gap. One method I used to counter this was to trim the long edge into a shallow curve, the other was to run a knife point along the wood strip to make a groove that hides the copper: this was better. 
Gluing the individual plates with CA needs three hands unless you have a method for applying small drops, as for the wooden strip above. Once one drop grabs and stops the plate from sliding it is easy to apply more drops around the edges of the plate, pressing the plate down to expel the air from any remaining gap. 
 

Plates fitted on the waterline
 
Both waterline rows are now in place and the next job is to start filling in the gaps. Lots of trimming to come. 
 
George
 

Main mast
 
The lower main shrouds were set up in a similar manner as those of the mizzen. The futtock shrouds have a strength of 1 mm.
 
Some alterations to the main stay and its preventer stay were necessary. The kit's plans are a bit ambiguous as how to fix the forward ends to the bow. After some searching in web and books, I decided to follow Lees and set the collar of the main stay up the way the preventer stay is shown on the plans: It leads below the forecastle rails and the collar goes through the hole in the beak below the bowsprit. The preventer stay leads over the rail, it's collar over a pair of new stop cleats on the bowsprit and through an additional hole in the beak. It runs a bit close to the seats of ease and may irritate the seamen there but nobody said that the life of a seaman is a bed of roses.
 
The snaking of both stays was continued past the foremast. On the plan it ends there but probably this is because the preventer stay up to 1793 only went to the foremast and only later to the bowsprit.  As I try to show my Bellerophon the way Napoleon might have seen her, I set the preventer stay up in the later fashion.
 
The lashing of the stowed boats seemed inadequate. I cut the spliced eyes from the ringbolts and threaded the lines through it and set them up double. That will look better in some lively weather.
 

Main shrouds and stays
 

mast top with crowsfeet
 

stays on the starboard side of the foremast
 

stay collars
 

better lashed boats

Charter, Paul and Malcom thank you for your kind words.
 
Next in line were the topmast shrouds.  But I thought I better install the slings for the lower yards before the shrouds are put on.  The manual tells you to make it in one sling and tie two knots to simulate two thimbles.  I took a different approach and made them in two separate slings, one that goes round the mast cap and one that goes round the sling, each with a thimble at their end.  Details taken from Longridge book.
 
This is the sling that goes round the mast cap with an eye on one end and a thimble I made from brass tubes.

 
Sling finished with three seizing. You have to be careful about the length of the sling, the position of the thimble has to be just a little short from the thimble on the yard sling, so that they will be lashed together.  You have to put it in place by sliding it from the top of the masts before you make the topmast shrouds, otherwise you have to make the three seizing with the sling in place, which will be more difficult.

 
This is the sling that goes round the yard.

 
 
Sling in place on the foremast.

 
 
Foremast with topmast shrouds fitted.

 
Main mast.

 
All topmast shrouds in place with staves as well, except for one shroud on the Mizzen.  I was missing one 2.5mm deadeye.  I have them ordered from CMB together with some 3.5mm deadeyes as I also realised I would be needing a few more as well.  I had turned a few of them into hearts to use on the bowsprit, that is why I am short of them. 

 
 
From time to time I check the alignment of the masts while doing the shrouds to make sure none of them is being pulled to one side.  When you look directly from the front you will only see the fore mast, the other two are completely hidden behind it.

 
Next job is the never ending ratlines.   
 
Robert

Hi everybody,
today just a small update,
I proceeded with the next bulkhead, wich is half wooden, half ivory.
The way to build it is almost the same as shown above. The difference is just the two materials being glued together in advance.
 

 

 

 

 
Next will be the doors.
 
Matthias
 
 

Thank you all again.  I plan to fight it as much as I can.
 
 
Mark

Well, with work and other pressing matters, planking is progressing very very slowly 🐌 
I have two bands completed on the port side and I'm halfway through the second band on the starboard. 
The transition from Hull to counter has been a trial, with several planks being removed, replaced and removed again. As it stands it's not the prettiest but it is smooth. 
It's going to be a fair while before I can flip her right side up😊 as I've reverted to using titebond glue because I got in a proper mess using CA.
Thanks for watching and the likes!
Until next time, cheers.

Hi Mark, even though we've never met I felt crushed reading your post after all the kind exchanges we have had over the years.  I'm at a loss for words right now, but wanted to send my best wishes to you and your family.

Oh dear. Who would have thought that a short post from a man I have never met who lives thousands of miles away could affect us so deeply.
 
Best wishes to you and your family from all of us in the UK.  

Mark,
I have been faithfully following since 2019.  It will be a shame to not see her completed but that does not compare to the news of your health.  It is indeed terrible news, and I pray you continue find the strength to stare that bastard down and fight on.
Alan
 

Hello friends - I am saddened to say this build is being terminated.  I have got a terminal illness & don`t have the will or energy to continue. Not sure how much time I have left, so I will look in at your projects from time to time.
 
 
Mark

Before I finished the standing rigging, I made up the topping lift and the main sheet, leaving them unrigged to the boat for now.  I finally built the main sheet horse and drilled the holes for it:
 

 
It's not glued in yet, I'll wait until it's time to rig the sheet.  I turned back to the standing rigging and I believe it's now done.  I installed the sheer poles and made up running lights.  I deviated a bit from the plans, making them more like what I discovered while researching the lights on Bowdoin:
 

 
After some difficulties with the wire pulling through, I installed them on the shrouds.  (This photo was taken after the topmast stays were in.)
 

 
I had been putting off the jib stay and bowsprit until there was no option other than to do it next.  Turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.
 

 
The heat shrink tubing on the bobstay worked well.  With the bowsprit all set and the shrouds secured, I made up the three topmast stays and rigged them.
 

 

 

 
So it's on to running rigging, much of which has already been assembled off the boat.  The end is in sight.

It is time to clean the spider webs and continue the work. The goal for the moment will be the windows but before  we need some  moldings.
The longest one are cut from a 3/4 by 3/4 inch  plank.

Okay... pintles and gudgeons... 
 
MarisStella in their plans have sections where they show all the component parts of one area of the model (e.g. the rudder) laid out alongside each other.
 
In plan 5, section P19, all the component parts of the rudder are shown... At first glance it seems that there's duplication, but actually when you look more closely it's the pintle components and the gudgeon components. (I was struggling to remember which was which, but the pintle is the one with the pin, mounted on the rudder, and the gudgeon, the one with the hole mounted to the hull).
 
These components are all labelled neatly on the plans, and those labels are also on the photo-etch fret, so no problems identifying them.
 
They go as follows:
 
er is the strap at the top of the rudder (the spectacle plate that provides the mountings for the rudder chains) This will have two eyelets added.
dr, cr, br, ar are the straps, with two associated pieces of photoetch that form the pintles.
 
The mountings for dr, cr, br and ar have their respective gudgeon partners, dh, ch, bh and ah which will mount on the hull. I decided to start with the pintles on the rudder before cutting out the gudgeon parts.
 
These are very similar parts, so I was careful to keep a note of which was which. Note that the ends of the straps are designed to follow the stern-most edge of the rudder, so it DOES matter which way up they go. They are the right way up in the photo below.
 

 
What are the rounded parts? They're the formers that provide shape and support for the front part of the pintle. The instructions are sparse for these parts, but the plans are helpful.
 
First fold the rounded parts along the line (I would suggest folding with the photo-etched line on the outside.) It's pretty thick metal, so you'll need pliers or similar to do this. Then stack two, one on top of the other and put a length of 0.4mm wire through. I found that mine folded so precisely that there were no problems with the holes lining up, although I did opening them up a little with a 0.5mm drill.
 
Now they can be soldered together - I used lead, soft-solder - and you should end up with something like this (excuse my soldering... I need more practice, clearly!). It doesn't actually matter how neat the solder looks here as long as it isn't sticking out too much. It's going to be melted again when we add the strap in a minute.
 

 
By drilling a .5mm hold into the wood I was using as a soldering board, I could cut the wire so I had about 8mm left on the side that would end up being the pin, and insert it to hold the assembly flush to the board ready for the next step.
 

 
Now the strap is bent round the part to form it into the right shape and soldered into position. Once cooled, you can lift the whole assembly out, and it should look something like the assembly below...
 

 
 
Now - I can't emphasise this enough... do make sure you cut off the right end flush to the assembly, otherwise you'll have the pin going up instead of down (or the straps with the endings facing in the wrong direction), and you'll end up doing it all over again.
 

 
With a bit of clean-up, I think this should look okay.
 

 
This part was dr, now I need to add the spectacle plate (er), and the three remaining pintles, cr, br and ar, going down the rudder, one in each of the flat areas. I'm waiting to put these in place until I have the gudgeons complete, so I can check the spacing and make sure it all lines up nicely.
 
That's all from me for now. Hope it all makes sense.
 
Rob 

Thank you all for the likes and encouragement  It's very very good to be back in action again.
 
Looking at the plans, I realised I hadn't shaped the front edge of the rudder - nearest the hull - before plating it. With some careful application of a sharp scalpel blade, I was able to carve this wood away, and then wrap the copper round, as it now protruded a couple of millimetres in front of the front edge of side of the rudder. 
 

 
Then I got stuck into making the pintles and gudgeons. But real life calls, and I think that subject deserves a slightly more in-depth post, so I'll write about that tomorrow.
 
Happy building, all!
 
Rob

Good to see you back in the shipyard Rob

Thank you David, Bob for your kind words, and to everyone for your patience as this build paused. I'm pretty much back to normal now, and work has eased just a little, allowing me time to get re-focussed on Stefano, and back into the shipyard.
 
I have a little progress to report. I was conscious that I'd coppered the hull, and it was gradually beginning to gain a patina, but I had not coppered the rudder, and I didn't want to end up with a rudder that looked like it had been put on the ship at another time. So, that was the next job.
 
This was surprisingly tricky to think through, as the tiles overlap from the bottom up, and they need to finish at the perfect point at the top. Equally, I didn't want to have a part tile if I could avoid it. So a bit of measuring, and head-scratching, and lots of pencil-marks later, it CAN be done... 
 
Before I started, however, I removed the laser char from the rudder, and made it wedge shaped, so it narrows from front to back. I think this little touch makes the rear end of the vessel look much more delicate, and I can imagine this would help the hydrodynamic properties of the hull, too, perhaps? 
 

 

 

 
(nb: The tiles are sided - (and in this picture upside-down!) The tiles have vertical rivets at the rear, and the top tile has rivets along the top AND bottom...)
 

 
Finally, some copper paint was added on the front and back faces of the rudder, and then it was trial fitted in place... 
 

 
Right - now I need to go and read the manual and work out what I'm supposed to be doing next
 
Happy building, all!

Here we go step by step:
 
1. The material:
I use old piano-keys, if you don't have some, just use bone. From cattle for example, Cut it into strips of about 1,5 mm thickness.
 

 
2. Sand the edge 
 

 
3. Cut a mortise in the edge with your saw
 

 
About 0,5 / 0,5 mm
 

 
4. Then cut the strips into the proper width of the framings:
 

 
5. Clean them with fine 400 sand paper
 

 
5. Glue them in 3 layers together. In the middle put a small veneer strip to create a gap between the ivory strips.
 

 

 
6. Then make a little jig, to get the shape right and cut and dry-assemble the framing
 

 
7. Then make the fillings
 

 

 
8. Afterward you assemble it part by part and glue everything together
 

 

 

 
9. Finally clean and polish it with the dremel 
 

 
And that's it
 

 
Matthias

Thanks very much Eric 😃
 
Now for a change of plan yet again.  After having built up the starboard side I couldn't quite see how hawse frame 1 blended into hawse frame 2.
 
I wasn't sure whether I had built them correctly so I decided to roughly fair these parts first.  This was a bit harder than I thought that it would be due to the parts being quite flimsy added with a lot of material that needed removing.  I removed 90% of the material from the hawse timbers off of the ship which meant that I had to try and imagine the finished shape. 
 
It's one of those jobs that just seem to make sense as you remove material. I'm glad to say that all looks ok.
 
I've not taken it back to its final finish I'll do that when the outside of the entire hull is faired.  Mind you what a mess I made of the square holes on the hawse timbers.  They are all different sizes and I could have done better.  I now need to replicate these odd holes on the other side  
 
Now that I know that I'm on the right track the port side will be next
 
Cheers Mark
 

More coppering, this time doing the complicated bits at the stern, keel and bow. 
 
Keel
The main run of the keel was laid as a long strip, glued to one side. I then carefully bent the strip along its length so that it also covered half the lower face of the keel. Repeat the process for the other side of the hull and most of the keel is covered, though with an overlap between the two strips. I considered cutting back one or both sides to give a butt joint, but chose the easier solution because the bottom face of the keel will not be visible. 
The front and rear portions of the keel include the support stands. I pre-bent the copper strips and filed in a semicircle to fit around the stand. Then it was gluing and overlapping at the bottom. 
 

Fore, port section of the keel with my 50 year old needle file
 

Keel, aft end, with copper fitted around the stand
 
Stern post
I had continued the run of plates from the hull onto the stern post, bending them where necessary. The protruding ends were cut back in three stages: 1) cut with scissors or end-cutters, 2) cut with a knife, removing small slivers, 3) filing with a sanding stick. I then reduced the width of a short strip of plates by cutting off the heavily nailed edge and glued it over the end face of the stern post. I guess that the shipwrights would do this, or lay the plates horizontally. The finished result on the model will be mostly hidden by the rudder so it makes little difference. 
 

Plates extending from the hull onto the sides of the stern post
 

Stern post with plates on the end face
 
Bow / stem post
Unlike the stern post, I plated the bow separately from the hull. I cut and fitted pieces to the sides starting from the waterline and working down to the keel, trying to keep parallel to the waterline. The piece next to the keel was a complicated shape and needed a lot of trimming and test fitting. After these pieces I filled in the gaps on the hull, again with more trimming and test fitting. 
 

Side face of the stem post. The ends have not been cut back and the remaining plates on the hull have not been fitted yet
 
I wanted to represent the nails on the front face of the stem post and achieved this with two strips of plates. One was the offcut from the stern with lots of nails, the other was about 3.5mm wide and the pair give a symmetrical look to the nail pattern. The vertical join between them is sometimes visible, depending on the angle of the light. 
 

Wide strip fitted to front face of bow
 

Front face of bow fully plated. The join between the left and right sides is visible here
 
There is one more coppering job to do, which is up to the waterline. I plan to glue a thin wooden strip (1mm x 0.5mm?) above the top edge of the blue tape, then use that as a datum for the plates which will need a lot of trimming. In the meantime I think I have earned a beer or two for tonight. 
 
George
 
 

Finally got most of the details onto the hull and will spray gloss clear tonight in preparation for the weathering, etc. process.  I have a few more things to add like a few more AA guns and the small boats, but I wanted to make sure I had access to areas for adding washes and other treatments.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I used some other sets to get a little more detail to the kit.  FiveStar sells resin life buoys which are nice because they are 3D and don't have to be folded like PE buoys, and you can paint them right off the plug.  The kit searchlight was ok, but I ended up using a FineMolds 90cm searchlight which I thought gave better detail:
 

 
 
Here are the torpedos and their carriages - great little details from the Infini upgrade set:
 

 
Small boats - lots of little details from Infini, including the wood bottoms for the cutters:
 

 
The resource books I posted at the beginning of the log showed a small lantern hanging from the pole at the bow.  The FineMolds set with the searchlight included small lanterns, so after trimming to size, I added it to the bow.  Nice little touch I think:
 

 
After the weathering, I'll put together the seascape, add the rigging and flags, and add figures to the model.  I've left a few little details here and there for added interest, including an open torpedo hatch, a hatch at the top of one of the other torpedo launchers, an open ammo box, etc.  
 
Thanks for looking in!

Hi everybody, 
I continued with the aft bulkhead, wich separates the captains cabin. 
The bulkhead panels and doors were assembled and glued in place, underneath the deck beam. The doors can be opened, but for now, I leave them shut, because of the danger of being damaged. I am not shure yet, I propably leave them closed anyway.
Here are som photos of the result.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Matthias

I made some more tweaks to the strings after turning the hull the right way up. And from David's help, I managed fixed the areas at the stern. Here are some pictures of the lining out stage before I dive into planking:













I think I may start planking soon now, just very nervous of the overall process. Hopefully I can pull it off! But please do let me know if you guys spot any other areas of concern 🙂 

After many hours, I finally finished treenailing the planks! Well, I will need to do one more round for the channel wales, but right now majority of the treenailing is done. 
 
After completing one side, I learnt it is better to randomize treenailing the last bit of the bamboo skewer so the transition between two bamboo skewers is not very apparent. Even though the colors of the skewers match, the cross-section appearance is slightly different. I hope once I apply the Tung oil finish, the transitions between the skewers do not show much. 
 
Here are some snapshots I took of the WIP:


Applying a bit of water shows how they may look after applying the Tung oil. Here you can see the clear divisional line where I began using a new bamboo strip (between the 2nd vs 3rd columns of where I applied the water). Lesson learnt! Next time I will be sure to randomize the the treenails at the transition area. I did that for the portside area and I can not see any clear transition lines.

After treenailing, I sanded all the planks with medium then fine sandpaper. Here is how she looks right now:






I am now thinking of starting to plank the lower hull area. I bought some 1/16" basswood sheets so I can cut the planks to shape instead of edge-bending. I may also start installing the channel wales but let's see!

What I am representing... not a shipyard scene, more like a three-dimensional cutaway drawing, like those I used to admire in Road & Track.  My goal is to show as much of how things are put together as possible.  For the rigging, I am not planning sails, but I'll include all the lines I can manage without sails.  The instructions say these lines would be tied or shackled to something.  The topsail halyard is a good example.
 
I've been making slow progress but I have managed to build up the three primary halyards off the boat, ready to install when the time is right.  The top block for the jib halyard is shown as rope-stropped with beckets on either end.  It took me two or three days of experimentation and frustration to get it together.
 

 
The nylon line is very springy and uncooperative, and white glue doesn't stick to it.  I had to saturate the seizings with CA to get them to hold.  Other blocks are iron-stropped and did not present such a problem - I have thin black wire that can be wrapped around the block twice and fashioned into beckets or hooks as needed.
 
I test-fit the throat and peak halyards to make sure everything was untangled and would hook into the ironwork properly.
 

 
Then I stored them away, along with the jib halyard, for safekeeping by hanging them from a handy cable
 

 
I wanted to make all three halyards from the heaviest supplied manila line (.028") since it was closer to the plan specification (.023") than the next-lighter manila (.016").  However, there wasn't enough to do the three halyards and the main sheet, so I ended up using .016" for the jib halyard.
 
With these halyards more or less sorted, I turned to the shroud lanyards.  The spec here is .020" and the closest line supplied line is black .021".  I know there is some debate over whether lanyards should be black or manila so I made up one of each, using the .016" manila line.  Decisions, decisions...
 

 
The photos of the real ECB show light-colored lanyards - the picture on the Model Shipways box has black. I will probably go with the manila, as the contrast with the stained deadeyes is nice and it's also easier to work with than the slightly heavier black line.  But I'll sleep on it.

Thanks for the really nice comments 😀
 
I've now fitted the last two hawse timbers on the starboard side.  Timber number 5 is a sliver of a timber (try saying that without putting on a pirate accent 😆).   The spacers had to be tapered and I had to pretty much guess their location by eye but I think it looks ok.
 
I've also taken out the brass rod and replaced it with treenails and its all glued together.  When the time comes I've a lot of excess wood to remove before I even start shaping it but at least its straight.
 
The tricky bit starts next weekend and that's  trying to replicate it on the port side
 
Cheers Mark