clloyd

Armament:
 
Unable to find a 6pdr I liked I ended up making my own. 
 
I took a commercial barrel that was at least the correct length and shape, ripped off the trunnions (because they were much more centre than lower 1/3) and replaced them, carved the design on the top of the barrel, added the flat section around the touch-hole.  With my master done to satisfaction I then cast in whitemetal.
 
The foundry in full production.

 
The freshly cast cannon before cleanup...

 
To start making carriages I shaped a single block of timber that I can then slice off individual carriage sides.  I made sure the grain ends up running along the carriage side.  The shaping was a matter of multiple passess through the tablesaw adjusting the blade height and fence accordingly.
 

 
I do have one cannon built, but can't find a photo of it, so I'll get a camera out and update this post when I get the chance.
 
Figurehead:
 
My first ever attempt at carving in the round.  still very much a WIP.  Boxwood.
 


 
Rudder:
Anyone paying attention to earlier full hull shots will be aware that the rudder is fully coppered.  However I have a couple of photos of where I am in the process of doing hardware...

 
 
Colin

Arthur - now I realise the source of the confusion....
 
These.....
 

 
are the cheeks on my mast.  As you can see they go all the way down the side of the mast and the hoops do go under them ,  and the wooldings over. 
 
The wooden bands above and below the woolding are (and I've just looked up TFFM IV because I couldn't think of their name) aparently called woolding hoops (logically enough). 
 
Problem sorted.  Brain no longer confused.
 
And thanks for the compliment.... I'm enjoying doing the masts more than the hull at the moment. 
 
C

Arthur
 
Just so we are on the same page....  My mast has both hoops and wooldings.  the hoops struturally are underneath the cheeks, and the wooldings wrapped around the whole lot.
 
for placement and number I'm working off McKays drawings - and he works from Steele.
 

 
Colin

Further work!
 
I got a calm sunny day - so got the chance to take her out and sand the upper hull - that job is 90% complete.  I can still see a couple of places that need smoothing down a little more.
 
I've been working on the interior (most of this is not glued or varnished - just placed for assessment).
  Shot racks mostly done.  I ran out of 6lb shot, so need to get some more
  Jeer bits are well under way - the decorative bar at the top cost blood to make.
 



 
after redoing the gunport height it's nice to see the trial gun sitting nicely in the port.
 

 
Which gives us my latest full hull picture!
 

 
Colin

Finally got the main deck planking finished.  Crappy mobile camera shots - sorry.
Sanding is about half way through - it's mostly smooth, but I can still see and feel a few irregularities in the deck.
 
Not being able to see into the guts of the ship also gives it a much more finished feel straight away.
 


 
 
Short term to do list:
Finish sanding exterior hull.
finish interior planking. 
install main deck fittings.  I have a few things built, but just need to get down now and install ringbolts and cleats and work my way down the deck.  I'll probably leave guns until the very last minute before installing upper deck beams.
 
Colin

Finally got a chance to get out the camera and get some photos for an update.
 
I've made a chunk of progress, and after being static for so long it really feels good to be moving forward again.
 
I work on different aspects of the ship depending on location and how much noise I can make after the kids are asleep.
 
Hull:
 
Starboard side finished planking.  I marked out for trenails, but on rereading McKay I've tossed the idea of trenailing the whole hull, since the historical records show she had painted sides.  Since you can't see real trenails under paint, I've decided against that headache (hence the filler on much of the rest of the hull).   There is one plank sitting low, and for the moment it is filled.  If I'm unhappy after sanding I can still replace that one.  I've reworked the gunports and am much happier with the line they take.
 
Sanding awaits nicer weather.
 
Gunport lids are shaped and just dry fitted in place at the moment.  Sheaves done, and are temporarily in place until the inboard works are complete.
 


 
I got out my holly and have gotten on with the job of planking the gundeck.  Looking at top and but planking and a curved layout had put me off doing it for a while, but it's turning out to be an ok job.  Mckay shows straight planking, so I've had to redraw myself.  It's probably wrong in how butts lay in respect to hatches, but my head was hurting even trying to figure this out, so I'm just happy that it's probably a slightly more historically accurate rendition.
 
Caulking is paper.  I like the effect but may go with a grey for the upper deck.
 



 
My late night quiet task has been to shape more masts.
 
Jib - fairly straightforward.

 
Main topmast - still WIP, awaiting sheaves, ironwork blocks etc, but the basic shape is there.  What was nice was to take the topmast and be able to run it up through the lower trestletrees and mast cap the way it was supposed to work.
 

 
Colin

To finish, I was able to figure a way to light the mast to give some detail.
 
Pics are large.
 
Things to note.  
The heads are stained, but the stain and glue don't fully agree, so they will be painted later.  Prestaining should mean I need only one or two thin coats.
The bowsprit shot gives a good indication of how nicely lemonwood finishes up (it's still raw wood there)
The mizzen mast seems to have been occupied by rigging spiders - their work needs to improve.
 


 
Enjoy.
 
Current tasks:
Making sawdust: Portlids and sheaves in the hull.
Hurting brain: quarter gallery construction.
 
Colin

Lower Mast Continued...
 
Fish
 
Running down the front of the mast we had the fish.  This again was rectangular stock, but this time I did shape the inner surface, then glued it to the front of the mast, then the external surface sanded round.
 
Examining Steel - I noted that before the cheeks were added there were iron bands to support the central spindle of a made mast.  These were done in paper, and do not actually go under my cheeks or fish - they are just tiny squares, with matching bands on the rear of the mast.
 

 
Wolding, Trestletrees and crosstrees.
 
Once all that was sorted the wolding was added, with paper again serving for the wooden bands above and below.
 
I don't have any photos of building the trestletrees and crosstrees, so they are presented mostly built.  The foremast not complete since I need an item of served rigging in place before permanantly fixing them.
 


 
Bowsprit
 
Shaped in the same manner as the lower masts.  Constructing the bees was an interesting and rewarding task - I was able to actually install sheves here.
 



 
Test fitting....

 

This will mark the end of the historical photos - I've pretty much exhausted the supply of what is sitting around on my computer, and brings us mostly up to date.
 
First a couple of quick catchup photos:
 
Trial cannon - allowing me to test fit everything.
 

 
Current state of the rudder.
 

 
Lower Masts:
 
As mentioned before I chose to make the lower masts at this stage - to ensure that they fit and were straight while I could still get into the bowels of the ship if needed.
 
The construction process is essentially similar to what is outlined in TFFM:IV, with some allowances for building at 2/3 the scale.
 
Central spindle
 
Lemonwood Blanks were cut to length (not the full length on the masts, since mine terminate in the middle of the false keel), and maximum diameter of each mast.  On opposing sides, the centreline, cardinal points along the length (deck, quarters, head) and diameters were marked.
 

 
These references were used to chisel/plane a taper into the mast...
 

 
Then the process was repeated to taper the other two sides.  Once all four sides were tapered, then the sides were marked out for octagonals and the mast shaped into an octagonal.
 


 
This was then Clamped in a vice (baswood in the jaws to protect and sanded round.
 

 
resulting in this....
 

 
Cheeks
 
After all that work we then cut a chunk of it away...  In full size practice the mast cheeks were shaped around the mast, Hard to do at scale so we cheat by cutting the mast and attaching the cheek to a flat surface.
 
Marking out the angles through the head and the end point of the cheeks on the mast spindle...
 

 
These define the line that we run the mast through the tablesaw (triple check and deep breath time...)
 
The cheeks themselves are rectangular stock, rounded in the same way as the mast, with trangular notches ready to accept the bibs.
 

 
Here is a mast, slimmed down with it's cheeks with bibs attached (with their slight outflare)
 

 
When you glue that all together you get this...  The bands on the head are paper.
 

 
 
 

Armament:
 
Unable to find a 6pdr I liked I ended up making my own. 
 
I took a commercial barrel that was at least the correct length and shape, ripped off the trunnions (because they were much more centre than lower 1/3) and replaced them, carved the design on the top of the barrel, added the flat section around the touch-hole.  With my master done to satisfaction I then cast in whitemetal.
 
The foundry in full production.

 
The freshly cast cannon before cleanup...

 
To start making carriages I shaped a single block of timber that I can then slice off individual carriage sides.  I made sure the grain ends up running along the carriage side.  The shaping was a matter of multiple passess through the tablesaw adjusting the blade height and fence accordingly.
 

 
I do have one cannon built, but can't find a photo of it, so I'll get a camera out and update this post when I get the chance.
 
Figurehead:
 
My first ever attempt at carving in the round.  still very much a WIP.  Boxwood.
 


 
Rudder:
Anyone paying attention to earlier full hull shots will be aware that the rudder is fully coppered.  However I have a couple of photos of where I am in the process of doing hardware...

 
 
Colin

Interior Fit:
 
While also working on the exterior some of the main deck components have been assembled.
 
Capstan Step,
I think this was Holly - It's been oiled so looks different in the last photos to the deck planking.  It's 3 individual pieces slotted together.

 
Gratings and Coamings:
 
Gratings were manufactured from Boxwood, one side notched, with straight pieces glued across the notches.  I made larger then cut them down to size.  The coamings are of jarrah, beveled, rounded off, cambered, and I used a camber on the inner face to force the gratings to bend a little to reduce the sanding involved in shaping them.
 


 
Ladders:
jarrah and holly, coamings made the same way.
 

 
Mainmast partners:
Made from Holly.  This was one of the interesting components to build, as the plans disagree on different views.  Some views they are notched to allow for the outboard leg of the chainpump to pass by, in other views it clears the partners and no notch is needed.  Building the chainpumps showed the latter was correct.

 
When you put them all together...



 
You can see also in this the riding bitts have been completed and are in place as well.  Deck planking between the structures has started there as well.
 
Colin

Continuing on.
 
Getting there.
 
I can't find any pics of the lower hull planking in progress apart from this .

 
Coppering:
Coppering is done with individual plates, prestamped with a nail pattern.  I bought 7/16" (I think) adhesive copper, and cut into 3/4" lengths.  I was really pleased to find a width of copper that was exactly right at my scale.  For the whole hull I used an entire 32yd roll with about 100 to spare.
 

 
I tried an experiment to get the nail pattern right.  I took a 2mm thick peice of strip, glued a nail pattern on and drilled holes in the appropriate place.  Then I used acupuncture needles through the holes and on 2 edges.  The AP needles are 0.25mm diameter, so are actually pretty close in scale to the nails.  The nail pattern I produced was like this...
 


 
Pros: good pattern that burnishes down beautifully.
Cons: Fiddly.  There are 40 odd needles that need to be in place, even depth, glued down.  They are smaller than the smallest holes you can easily drill.  They are designed to pierce skin easily. They do blunt, and bend.   To make the press easier to hold, I created a handle out of scuply around the rear side of the needles.  
 
I got delayed in coppering so the first few plates went on about 6mo before the rest.  I decided to take a pic to show people what you can expect from copper that has been handled, and exposed to air.
 

 
Progress....





 
Just visible in the last pic is the batten along the top edge of the copper.
 
Colin
 
 

In the above you can see the planning for the diminishing strakes.  They were top and butt, and decreasing thickness from nearly wale thickness to the thickness of the bottom planking.
 
The rest of the planking was planned out with thread.  (pics are brutal but.....)
 

 

 
 
Here's a side profile about halfway through planking.  I've planked up the side of the hull as well as down.  Planks vary in thickness according to which planks they are and where on the hull they fall.
 
Masts are there to make sure (while I can still get inside that the chocks and partners are in line and straight.  there will be a separate post for making these later)
 


 

Planking
 
On the hull were marked the waterline, stations, and position of the wales.  Positions of the frames were marked in as well - here the spaces between the frames is in blue.  This is where having a full solid hull was helpful.  Also timbers marking the top and bottom of the gunports were added.  This was the right way to do things.  I later changed my mind and tried to do something different that just ended up being fiddly and way more work.
 


 
Then the wales. 3mm thick Tulip.  McKay shows hooked scarfs - so hooked scarfs it is.  Marking in "frame" positions allows trenails to be correctly positioned, and makes sure that the planks finish in the correct place.
 



 
progressing to...



 

As I came to fair the hull I was struck by some of the solid hull builds that the Russians use.
 
I packed between the bulkheads below deck level with balsa, and sanded the whole hull.  This helped with the process of fairing as the shape was more obvious and getting a smooth run was easier.
 
It took much longer to sand than balsa would suggest.


 

 
Here is the stern during the process - balsa crudely shaped with the dremel, and the transoms having been shaped.
 

 
This was then sealed with several coats of dilute white glue with a small amount of white acrylic paint in it resulting in a smooth very hard surface, and easy to draw on as you'll notice in later posts.
 
That's it for tonight.  Tomorrow stern framing, and on to planking.
 
Colin

Hawse Timbers:
 
In order to have a better idea of the correct shape at the bow and better surface for planking I created some pseudo hawse timbers.  These were initially taken straight off the side profile of the framing plan, but that didn't create the right shape, so they were redone from the sheer profile lines.
 
They are "pseudo" as they attach to the forwardmost bulkhead and run parallel to the centreline unlike real hawse timbers.
 

 
This is not right.....
 

 
Better....
 

 
The result
 



 
 

The Head:
 
Unlike a kit I decided to construct the head and keel from individual parts.  All 6mm Tulip, and the usual jigsaw of parts to put together!
 



 

Greg - indeed, someday I hope to build something like that. No time or more importantly to the admiral - no space.
 
Pre-planning:
I had started thinking about this build well before finishing the prior model.  I pre-printed all the basic structure at scale to make sure it fit together and to get an idea of the final scale.  She's bigger than Bounty.
 

 
 
Starting the Hull:
 
I printed the parts of the hull onto full page sticky lables, stuck these to the ply, and started cutting.
 

 
After which it was a fairly standard POB construction process.  The slot in the bottom of the centre keel is for a bolt later to fix her onto her stand.
 


 

 

Plans:
John McKay in his introduction to AotS Pandora lists the plans he used - a selection of the original plans from through the Pelican class.  Since he has done most of the work I wansn't interested in re-inventing the wheel.
 
He offers full scale versions of the plans that are in his books, and while these aren't cheap, they are useful.  I ordered sheer plans, deck plans, a couple of the rigging plans that are hard to read in the book in my 1/64 (3/16" scale for the Americans).
 

 
Pandora Plans - Information Sheet.pdf This is the information that McKay sent.  Note that this is 2008 details, but it'll be useful for anyone looking to get plans from Mr McKay.  He's a decent guy and all my contacts with him have been useful.
 
As was pointed out to me - there are some errors in the plans.  Some are editorial (wrong scale on the drawing of an anchor iirc), but a couple of drawings don't match (around mast partners) for example.  Close attention usually catches these.  It was also suggested that the straight run deck planking was probably incorrect (with which I am in agreement), and there was also a comment about something in the guns that would be wrong for 1779, but ok for 1790.
 
Wood:
Centre keel and bulkheads: 6mm ply. 
Hull: I got some tulipwood planks and blanks made up.  These have the dual blessing of being easy to work and cheap (I didn't want to throw expensive wood at a first scratch build.  Tulip can be a bit green, which turns brown with exposure to light.  But given the hull is almost all painted or coppered the visuals there aren't an issue.
Deck: I changed wood options there to holly, not the beautiful pure white expensive wood that Hobbymill does, but a very light grey that looks like weathered deck.
Interior planking and fittings: Jarrah.  sigh.  done for reasons of the heart rather than the head.  Beautiful red wood, but dense and hard, and doesn't bend well.  If you think you might want to use it - do a table, not a ship.
Masts: Lemonwood.  I love lemonwood - works beautifully, but it aint cheap.

Arthur - now I realise the source of the confusion....
 
These.....
 

 
are the cheeks on my mast.  As you can see they go all the way down the side of the mast and the hoops do go under them ,  and the wooldings over. 
 
The wooden bands above and below the woolding are (and I've just looked up TFFM IV because I couldn't think of their name) aparently called woolding hoops (logically enough). 
 
Problem sorted.  Brain no longer confused.
 
And thanks for the compliment.... I'm enjoying doing the masts more than the hull at the moment. 
 
C

Arthur - now I realise the source of the confusion....
 
These.....
 

 
are the cheeks on my mast.  As you can see they go all the way down the side of the mast and the hoops do go under them ,  and the wooldings over. 
 
The wooden bands above and below the woolding are (and I've just looked up TFFM IV because I couldn't think of their name) aparently called woolding hoops (logically enough). 
 
Problem sorted.  Brain no longer confused.
 
And thanks for the compliment.... I'm enjoying doing the masts more than the hull at the moment. 
 
C

Arthur
 
Just so we are on the same page....  My mast has both hoops and wooldings.  the hoops struturally are underneath the cheeks, and the wooldings wrapped around the whole lot.
 
for placement and number I'm working off McKays drawings - and he works from Steele.
 

 
Colin

Arthur
 
Just so we are on the same page....  My mast has both hoops and wooldings.  the hoops struturally are underneath the cheeks, and the wooldings wrapped around the whole lot.
 
for placement and number I'm working off McKays drawings - and he works from Steele.
 

 
Colin

Arthur
 
Just so we are on the same page....  My mast has both hoops and wooldings.  the hoops struturally are underneath the cheeks, and the wooldings wrapped around the whole lot.
 
for placement and number I'm working off McKays drawings - and he works from Steele.
 

 
Colin

Further work!
 
I got a calm sunny day - so got the chance to take her out and sand the upper hull - that job is 90% complete.  I can still see a couple of places that need smoothing down a little more.
 
I've been working on the interior (most of this is not glued or varnished - just placed for assessment).
  Shot racks mostly done.  I ran out of 6lb shot, so need to get some more
  Jeer bits are well under way - the decorative bar at the top cost blood to make.
 



 
after redoing the gunport height it's nice to see the trial gun sitting nicely in the port.
 

 
Which gives us my latest full hull picture!
 

 
Colin