egkb

A small update today. I spent my day off yesterday beginning the ratlines for the mainmast shrouds. I was pleased to complete the starboard side. I use 6mm lines placed behind the shrouds as a guide, and begin by adding spaced out lines, then filling in the gaps, gluing each row as I complete it. The ratlines are #20 DMC Cordonnet Crochet thread... The same stuff I use to make ropes. I'm pleased with how it looks, and how easy it was to tie. As a natural thread, it takes the watered down PVA really well, and is easy to clip to length once dried.
 


That's it for today. Happy building, all
 
Rob

Cheers mate its starting to come along now!
 
I've made a start on the deck shelves - Its the usual procedure of running some wood through the thicknesser which in this case is 6.9mm and then photocopying the plans for the templates.
 

Then cut them out, sand to size and join using scarf joints


The next stage just takes time as the shelves do not sit at 90 degrees to the deck clamps.  The best description I can give is that the point slightly upwards as if to follow the curvature of the beams.  So a bevel needs to be cut the entire length of them and then they also need to be let into the deck clamps for a good tight fit.  This isn't actually hard to achieve it just takes time and a little patience.  Once done I clamped them in place to mark out the recesses for each beam.  I thought that the best way to achieve this accurately would be to use the beams themselves so thats what I did.

This seems to have worked well so now that I have the locations I can cut them out.  I also need to bevel the front of the shelves and round the underside which will be my next jobs.


I've also been treating myself 😊 I bought my sanders little brother for some of the finer work.  Wow what a lovely tool this is - Its not as powerful as its big brother but it has excellent control for both speed and direction.  Just what I needed and another fantastic tool from Model Machines.

Loads to do and thanks to you all for your comments and likes on this build
 
Mark

Small, current updates of my work
I've left a lot of spaghetti-threads on the deck just to feel secure enough before I freeze or trim them down.
A real symmetry of the lines and the respective tension of the threads is needed at this stage

OK, Grecian is now fully complete and available for pre order:
The Baltimore privateer schooner Grecian 1812 – VANGUARD MODELS
 
I also have some extras for the Grecian kit, pearwood blocks:
Grecian Pearwood Block Set – VANGUARD MODELS
 
US Flag:
Grecian flag for US service – VANGUARD MODELS
 
PE copper plate set (to replace copper tape that is standard in the kit)
Grecian Copper Plates set – VANGUARD MODELS
 
And finally, a Grecian paint set:
Grecian paint set – VANGUARD MODELS
 
A big thank you to Jim for the superb build, pics and text for the manual!
 
I have attached a pic of the box label. Like the actual model, the box is long and sleek..
 
Now, I continue to work on Trial Cutter, the 14th kit. Next week, I will receive a truly massive shipment from Italy of photo etched sheets for almost all of my range (Fifie. Zulu, Sphinx, Duchess, Grecian etc.) plus my Trial Cutter sample sheets, so I can continue with this model.
 
Also included is a new set of Speedy PE. This kit will be out of stock (I think we have one left) until I have completed a little re design and updated the plans and manual, which I shall do once the Trial Cutter is complete. 

Hi All
 
Work continues on the deck and I've been making the short and thinner half beams.  The plans give you a very good idea of the shape but don't give the individual shapes for the undersides although the lengths are shown separately.  This simply means that you have to use your brains a bit and translate the drawings as you see fit.  Thinking back I would have struggled with this concept at the beginning of this build but now I can see what is required.
 
So here are the eight half beams.


Now just for a change and to try something new I thought that I would make the female part of the dovetail joint first and then fit the end of the beams to suit.  This was not a great idea and I won't be doing that again - it's so much harder that way around and I couldn't get the joints as tight as I wanted.  Anyway they turned out ok and here they are fitted on the ship.



I still need to drop a few of them further into the deck clamp but thats an easy job.  On the whole I think the run of the deck looks pretty good as this is only a dry fit and I don't think it will take much sanding at all.


I can see some slight variations on the dovetails for the waterway and spirketting so I guess that will need some adjustment when the time comes to make them.  I'm not going to make the pump partners until the deck is fixed in place either.  So now I have to remove all of this work and make a start on the deck shelf which is fitted to the entire length of the deck clamp.  This shelf is there as no knees are fitted to the beams on this ship and it looks quite difficult to make.  Hopefully I'll have something to share soon
 
Cheers Mark
 

Working on the pennants. A rather fiddly job. Acrylic paint on cotton cloth. A layer of paint needed each side to get the colour to go all the way through.

Adding crew members.
  
And restoring pieces I clumsily broke off while working on other things. The little flagstaff with crown on top at the end of the bowsprit:

And the "grapnel" at the larboard end of the mainyard.

Anchors in place

And the first penannt in place; folded to approximate the effect of the wind,

and final state.

Getting closer to the end.
 
Steven.
 
 

I've spoken to Banyan on the phone in between times and he's explained that he uses a dowel to produce the catenary curve in ratlines - the dowel is inserted at right angles between a pair of shrouds and weighs down the ratline between its fixings to the shrouds on either side in a nice smooth curve. Clever idea.
 
Now that the spritsail and its yard are in place, I've been adding the rigging. A pair of blocks fixed to the forestay to take the braces.
 
  
Belaying the foresail tacks.
 
  
Ringbolt (eyebolt actually - I can't make a ringbolt at this scale, so I faked it with an eyebolt) to take the spritsail sheet, and a hole drilled in the side of the hull immediately above it, to represent a sheave to take the free end of the sheet through to where it's belayed within the bulwark. The rope right next to these is the maintack.
 
  
Braces added to the spritsail yardarms. Hanging free at the moment, while the glue dries.

Braces going up to the blocks on the forestay. Not very good definition in the first photo, I'm afraid.
    
I needed blocks to take the lines for the spritsail lifts, clewlines and braces back to the forecastle to be belayed. Anderson in The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast puts these on the beakhead. One tiny problem - the Great Harry doesn't have a beakhead. So I had to figure out somewhere I could put the blocks. They should probably have been at the front face of the forecastle but I just didn't have the room to drill holes to take the lines supporting the blocks (strops? I don't quite know what to call them). So I put them along the sides of the forecastle instead, as far forrard as I could. The first photo shows the blocks for the lifts and clewlines. I added the one for the braces later, but the photo isn't all that clear.
   
 
And everything belayed.
  
I'm not totally happy with the "belly" of the spritsail (nor some of the other sails, for that matter), but I don't think I can do any better under the circumstances, so I'm leaving it as it is. There's an old saying "Better is the enemy of good" and I think it applies in this case.
 
And the outrigger and sheet for the mizzen "course" on the  bonaventure mast.

 
You know what this means, don't you?
 
I've FINISHED THE RIGGING!
Party time!
 
There's more to do, of course. Adding the little men in the rigging, the anchors and the flags (all the rectangular ones are done and ready to attach, but there's about 7 or 8 pennants that need to be made). And then replacing the two bits I broke off while I was doing the rigging. 
 
And then (weather permitting, and if all goes well, and barring accidents and misfortune, and touching wood) the whole build might (possibly - not to put the curse on it) be FINISHED.
 
Steven
 
 
 
 

Thank you Jason.
After so many years, a touch of real progress was needed...

Another update from me as I finished the mast partner in far less time than I thought it would take.
 
The first thing I did was to make sure that the carlings were a very good fit in between the beams.  As mentioned earlier I had placed beam 7 in the incorrect place and once this was sorted the parts fitted as they should.  In this picture they are sitting proud as I had not yet cut the rebates to make them flush.

The cut rebates and how they sat on the beams after.  I have deliberately left them slightly proud so that I have something to sand down to deck level.


Next I cut out the notches for the other two parts of the mast partner and the dovetail for the half beam

Nothing like a nice piece of symmetry 👍

I then made the other two parts which basically followed the same process.  The actual hole is bevelled towards the stern but this is not difficult to achieve.

The parts assembled

The parts on the ship between the beams.

To complete them they still need some small corners made but I'll make and fit them once the mast partner is fixed in place.  I've still got loads to do before I get the half beams in.
 
Cheers Mark
 

Hi all,
 
Not much more to show, except the reefing points that are now stiffened using watered down PVA front and back. This was done before they were trimmed to length, by placing a small ruler behind the reefing points. Then they were trimmed to the bottom of the ruler giving a nice neat line.. The second photo is the progress on the mainmast lower-topsail yard with the footropes in progress....
.
 
As always, thanks for the likes and encouragement.
 
Rob

Hello Mark,
May I ask how you made the recess or angle on the sternson and extensions?
 
The angle is changing over the complete length of this part and - if the plans are correct - also from the bottom up to the sternson knee extension.
Your part looks just perfect and I'm wondering how this can be made.
 
Thank you 🙂

Thanks mate 👍
 
Work on the deck continues - Having found the centre line of the beams I placed the templates on each beam to cut out all of the required notches.

There's quite a lot of them to cut and I had to look through quite a lot of the plans to find the required sizes.  I was cutting for the carlings, binding strakes, bowsprit partners, mast partner and pump partners too.  Also some to the cuts follow the curve of the beam and some need to be cut vertically.  There was one dimension that I just couldn't find and a quick email to Gerard Delacroix gave me the place to look - Thanks Gerard 
 
So lots of cutting which I mainly did on the mill using a 1mm twin flute end mill and then squared out all of the corners with a chisel


Once that job was done it was a pretty simple job to make the carlings for the hatches - I was just trying to get the tightest fit that I could.



I now need to make and fit the 8 half beams that fit along side the hatches and mast partner.  So I guess I'm going to have to make the mast partner too.  I think this will take quite a while so I'll update you once I get somewhere with it.  Thanks for all of the encouragement 
 
Cheers Mark

Hi Stergios, hopefully I can answer your question.  The problem is that at real world scale, the lines that are secured to the braces would not pull the stays out of their natural position because they are so much more massive.  Without dealing with this at this scale, the braces would pull the stays out of their natural line which is what I wanted to avoid.  The approach used weighted the stays down enough to keep them in their natural position while the braces were given a little tension, then dilute PVA was brushed onto the braces so that when dry, they retain a 'taught' profile, even though there is no longer any real tension.  Seem to recall I just used plastic clips or simply tied other thread around the stay to counteract the force of the braces.  In the situations where the brace goes through 2 blocks on the stay, these were handled sequentially, waiting for the PVA to fully dry before moving on.  Good news, if it doesn't quite work out as you'd like, you can re-wet the line and repeat the process until you're happy.

The spritsail - the last sail to be added. The spritsail is supported by a (fake) parrel truck and held in place with a halyard/ties through blocks at the end of the bowsprit and on the yard.


The main sheets finally tied off and fixed in place.

 

And the tacks


And the foresail sheets

And tacks

Still working on getting those catenary curves in various ropes (not all that easy). I may have to just accept that some of them won't fall right. Ditto the sails at the clews - the tacks probably affect them differently in the real world, but that's all part of the learning curve, I'm afraid. 
 
And here's a new courtier being carved to go with the King (he needs friends around him, right?). Sorry about the definition - it's the best I could get with my phone.
  

And here he is in place, with two others re-positioned (the guy in the yellow who I accidentally knocked off the deck while I was doing the rigging, and the one in red, who had to be moved because the mizzen sheet was running across his nose).

And here's a (not terribly good) photo of the ship without most of those pegs hanging off it.
 

Steven
 

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments.
 
Druxey, thanks. I've also changed the colour of his jacket, as they were all looking a bit same-ish.
 
Ferrus Manus - exactly. The outrigger is made, but won't be put in place until right near the end -too much chance of breaking it.
 
Steven

Hello Everybody,
thank you very much for your nice comments!
I continued chapter 11 with the deadeyes and chainplates. It is all so well explained in Chucks instructions, there is not much to say about it. It all worked very well. The only bigger problem was to not stretch the acrylic chains too much, so they remain close. I tried the position in advance and made a hole with a needle, where the brass-nail is supposed to be. That worked quite well, I hope you know, what I mean.
So here are some photos of the result.

 

 

 

 

I also installed all the guns on the lower gundeck. I followed stuntflyers method and pinned them onto the deck with brass-nails, so they cannot get lost. I will now proceed to the next chapter and think about, if I will add the swifel guns or not. They are a nice feature, but somehow interrupt the lovely flow of the quarterdeck-rail. 
Matthias
 

Hello, and thanks to all:
 
 

I just couldn't resist it. I just had to try to make a small part that included cutting brass, silver soldering and blackening of metal. I have never done it before but thanks to all of yours excellent explanations in this forum I had a clue how to do. 
I decided on the swivel mounting pintle and according to the drawings in the Alert book this part have a interesting shape with 8 sides. It also have a Iron hoop on the top.
So I took a 4 mm walnut rod and put it in my dividing attachment for the Proxxon milling machine. This was also the first time I tried to use this divider. For the milling I used the 3mm cutter. 
 
 
I started to mill and form the mounting pintle. I milled a side, then choose another degree and milled that side. It was so easy to do with the divider.

 
And in no time I had a perfect 8 sided swivel mounting pintle.

 
A brass sheet was glued to a piece of wood and in this way did I manage to cut a 0.7 mm strip. I used superglue but I am open to suggestions of a better glue for this work.
 
 
I found the perfect tool to shape the 8 sides of the iron hoop and this was the smallest Tamiya photoetch bender. 

 
Then I managed to silver soldering it together. This was easier than I thought. I used soldering  paste and a torch. 

 
I made the Iron hoop little smaller than the pintle so it would get the right look and fit well. For this it was necessary to mill out the form for it but again this was easy to do in the milling machine. I took away another 0.1 mm wood.

 
And he hoop in place.

 
The hoop was blackened with Birchwood Casey blackening solution. Again this went well since I know how to do thanks to you all. I oiled the walnut (it will be colored black later) and mounted the hoop. 
Here is the result of my first try of this kind of work and I am more than happy over the result. 

 

Fore course
While comparing the kit's plans and Lees' book I found that there seem to be too many buntlines in the kit's plans (also already installed for the main course). Lees mentions only 2 per side - a total of 4 - while the kit has 3 per side. The total of 4 is confirmed by several Books of the AOTS series. Therefore I reduced the number of buntline cringles at - and the number of associated buntline clothes on the fore course accordingly and could at the same time simplify the hole setup a tiny little bit. The 2 superfluous buntlines on the furled main course remain for now.
 
Making the sail, bending it to the yard and hoisting up the whole shooting match was similar to previously fabricated yards and sails.
The yard tackles were installed as on the main yard.
 

fore course with the 2 buntline cloths on the port side visible
 
 

the yard tackle is hooked into the futtock shrouds
 
 
 
I also took advantage of the moderate weather (it was neither raining nor raining cats and dogs nor snowing although it is still the month of April) and took Bellona outside for a few photos:
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Johnny, I think the pre 1536 GH (my abbreviation) would have been rigged as you suggest, and perhaps the post-1536 would have been similarly rigged, though it's possible she had topgallants as shown on the Anthony Roll. You're probably right about the forecastle and aftercastle being reduced in height in the rebuild. Yes, I've read that GH was built as a reply to the Great Michael (which never really got used, and ended up getting sold to France IIRC. I've read that GH was 1500 tons burthen, (while the Mary Rose was 1000) but I don't know what date that relates to.
 
I certainly don't think she'd have had lateen topsails or topgallants in everyday use (though the Embarkation shows topsails on both mizzen and bonaventure, it also shows them as square rigged!) I've been told that the Embarkation was probably painted about 1545, despite showing an event of 1520.
 
Can you refer me to the painting of the marriage party of 1521? I don't know this one.

I've taken most of my interpretation from Landström's reconstruction, which based on both the Embarkation and the Anthony Roll depiction, also of 1545.

I included the cloth-of-gold sails because - well, they're way cool.
 
Now, here are the latest additions.
 
Parrel truck for the bonaventure lateen  "course"

Mizzen topgallant  with sheet, lift etc.

"Outriggers" for the bonaventure lateen sail and topsail.

More work on the bonaventure parrel truck. A bit fiddly, but I got there eventually. Note also the matchstick being used to form the "belly" of the mizzen lateen - I'd had the buntlines too tight and the sail got a kink at the lower edge. So I dampened it and gradually smoothed out the curve.
 
You might also notice that Henry now only has two courtiers with him - one of them got dislocated while I was trying to install some of the rigging. I've left him off until there's no more rigging to be done and then I'll put him back in place. Same thing happened to one of the grapnels at the ends of the mainyard. It'll go back when the model is complete enough so I don;t accidentally break it off again.

The mizzen topgallant in place and rigged. And the match further along, forming the belly at the foot of the lateen.

And jumping ahead, here's the ship with all the lateen sails on it and rigged. Only the spritsail to go!

 
Steven
 
 
 

Hi Alistair - yes, it is the Syren rope, and from memory it was the largest diameter Chuck produces which seemed to fit the bill nicely.

Headworks (Part 2):
 
@DaveBaxt - the diamond cutting wheel is similar to this, easily cuts into the razor blades (545 Dremel | Tools | DigiKey ) with suitable eye protection!  Sure there are many other similar items and prices from other retailers.  The razor blades were bought in bulk...similar to these Multi Purpose Razor Blades (Pack of 100) (double-glazing-parts-spares.co.uk).  Also, have provided a little more detail in update below...The wood used is either pear or castello box depending on what I have on hand, these woods are great for this.  I would suggest you have nothing to lose, and much to gain by giving it a go....think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is with a little practice.
 
Much fiddling, fettling and fine tuning has been going on with the headworks, but this should bring me up to date.  Think the back of this challenging task has been broken as I will likely be needing to spend much of any available time on unrelated projects.
 
Once the shape of the head timbers had been finalized, the covering boards could be added.  These are identified as being 1" in TFFM, so these were cut from 0.5mm pear sheet to approximately the correct dimension.  TFFM suggests shaping these and attaching once the lower rail is in place, but am going to try and simplify because I'm not sure how successfully I'd be able to do this.  Photos below show work very much in progress.

Once finalized, the time head timbers can be finished.  A scraper was made specifically for the purpose to scribe the profile, with a long inner face than usual to act as a guide on both the fore and aft sides, and to account for the very different angle the face presents.  A light coat of blue paint was applied to the outer face of the covering board to aid the eye in seeing the results of introducing the profile.  Unfortunately, the only photo I had of this was of horrible quality, so apologies in advance but you get the idea.  The scraper detail and a more final version is also shown below with paint applied.

The lower rail was profiled by temporarily attaching to some spare sheet and again a custom scraper.  Finding one that followed approximately the desired profile and looked acceptable took quite a few attempts.

With all the key components really only requiring the some final finishing, it was time to cross fingers for another dry-fit - it gives confidence knowing that any additional tweaks can be easily addressed before glued to applied.  The covering boards introduce a 'ledge' for the main rail to sit on, something that the simplified approach to shaping the head timbers did not include but seems prototypical.  Some slight alignment issues apparent in the photos below should disappear when finally secured in place with glue.  Next up is clearly some touch up after seeing these pictures on the PC!

 

Good to see you back!
 
Tony

Hi everyone. It was long time ago since i post anything here about my Sherbourne. The reason is that I didn't had the time to put focus on my models. However, now i feel that the time have come again to take up the hobby. It has not been totally down, I have manage to build some 1:48 airplanes during the time. But now have i started both my Vasa build and my Sherbourne build again. So here is a what I have done.  
My shape of the Sherbournes hull is not exactly the same as in the kit so I had to do new ones with the correct form. Also the supplied parts are of laminated wood and as stated before, I don't like it at all.
 
So here are I drawing the the exact shape on a sheet of better wood.

 
Here is the shape missmatch between my Sherbourne and the kit part. This is most probably because of lack of experience from my side during the planking work.

 
Then I cut it out and copied it to get two exactly same parts.

 
I formed the edges of the handrails with the tool suppled in the Vasa kit.

 
It was not easy to attach the handrails to the kit. So i drilled holes and pined them down with brass rods. It will be ok later because i will add filler and sand it all down. The rails will be painted black later.


 
Then i formed the stern part of the handrail. This part had to be bended to fit.

 
All rails glued in place.

Now I must do sanding work before I start to do the timberheads and swivel gun pedestals. When these are finished then will I paint and oil everything to get it in right finish.
 

Kevin, Hamilton, Mort - thanks for overly kind words and the likes.  Hopefully have another progress update soon.
 
Dave - all the moldings are made from wood strip of various dimensions.  I had ordered a long time ago some of the brass strips you reference but never used them, the brass just seemed very hard to work with, so I made the decision to make my own because it was a technique I wanted to get to grips with given the large number of molded profiles that may be needed.  There are more professional techniques involving heating and cooling to harden, soften and harden again which probably allow a little more control, but I unashamedly just use razor blades and a cutting disc on my dremel.  For me its a bit more art than science, and many reworks are sometimes needed because until you see the profile cut onto the wood, you don't know if it looks right or not.  Getting comfortable with the result on a spare or offcut first is recommended!