glbarlow

I doubt you could give it away as is, not a particularly interesting model and not at all well made

Good call BE. The extra effort shows well, especially on a hull of this size but really on any hull.

Take a break, your health comes first. NyQuil is our friend.

The diagram really isn't the right approach to fairing a hull. Maybe on older models to get the rough shape but you can't take too much off. The bulkheads need to be squared up and installed on the former then you sand the whole hull so a batten (long thin piece of work, like a skinny plank) fits smoothly on all the bulkhead front to back. One way to manage is sanding with rougher grades of sandpaper on a sanding block then finish with 220 grit. You don't want to lose the shape of the proper hull so for a beginner leave the back edge of the char on bulkheads forward of midships and the front edge on bulkheads from there to the stern. You'll have to further shape the bow and the stern, but that's entirely model dependent though the batten approach still applies. No way though do you want to carve off a bunch of any bulkhead with a blade before its on the former. There are a ton of build logs on this site that demonstrate fairing, check them out.

Congrats on the successful octagonal work. I had other planes and never could do much with them, the Ibex finger plane is a work of art and make shaping mast and yards so much more a pleasant task. it was harder to draw the 7-10-7 reference marks than it was doing the actual cutting, something I'm sure you experienced as well. For what it's worth, the sweeps would only be open if in use and an actual sweep (oar) in them. My approach was to make all those little dudes and simply pin them on, requiring only a small drill bit to make the hole and mark the location, a touch of glue and they are there for life. My captain is opposed to rowing so he was fine with this approach. Granado is one of my earliest models and occupies a fond place in my memories, a lot of water past the bow since then. Yours is looking great.

Winchelsea took me six months, planking is fun stuff Your first planking is looking great, nice start!

I’m building a high level model that takes a decent level of skill to complete from a design and parts I could never achieve otherwise. These port hinges for example, I could make 20 from a strip of brass, I made one today just to prove to myself I could. But I’d be disappointed taking a week (in my case) because I’d do them over and over to get 20 that looked nearly alike, cause that’s what I do. I’d much rather spend my time on more fun things, like head rails, capstans, chain pumps, pedestals, and ship’s stoves than fabricating 1/16th metal strips. (I did ‘scratch’ all the metal on Cheerful, not that I enjoyed that part). I of course admire those that can scratch build, such amazing work here on MSW. However Chuck has brought modeling to a level us mortals can achieve amazing high results, if we put the work in and don’t just slap it together. It still takes major effort, so scratch building or not I’m pretty happy about consistent believable port hinges from magic metal looking material. Now I’m going to go fabricate a bunch of split rings and eyebolts from some wire.

Beckman is exceptional, he made those out of ivory from old piano keys. Before you get overwhelmed ther are simpler ways to do bulkheads. I scratch built the one for my Pegasus, it doesn’t have to be that hard.

While I frequently use a standard dust mask, a respirator for the work we do in modeling seems a little over the top.

The raised bulkheads sound exciting, though too late for me, and having been one that has broken a scroll work or two I can see the advantage. The challenge might how it matches up to the surrounding molding and not having seen it how it looks matched up to wood in general. I’d like to see it as the head rails someday, is that a place where this material vs. wood wouldn’t be an issue? (I can be your beta tester😊). Yes, the scroll work and stern decorations are certainly a game changer as are many other Winchelsea innovations. I get to see that every day. Can you make black port hinges with it, or pedestals- those things there are multiple of and challenging to made consistent copies.😊

What, no char! What’s the world coming to. Those are some nice looking windows.

Sounds like a good solution. Just won’t make that big a difference in the grand scheme.

It’s a tough question about being symmetrical or going for an improved look, one not easy to answer. On display only one side shows obviously but we as the builder know there is a difference. I’d recommend trying “bending the wrong way” method, once you learn it you’ll love the result. That’s second part of the process, the first are the tick strips, making it easier to understand where to start the taper and how much to cut from the plank for the taper and you’ll not need stealers. It takes longer, but it looks so much better. Perhaps blending the two methods so your other side is an improvement but still somewhat mirrors the first side. Also good call on the CA and how you applied it. I use CA medium for planking, edge gluing is never needed. You could even just spot glue about the distance between bulkheads and still be fine. One other suggestion is to consider a butt shift pattern, doesn’t matter how long or how spaced they are, just a consistent repeating pattern on where horizontal planks meet on your run bow to stern. That said, your planking is well done, boxwood is such a nice wood. Once sanded and finish applied you’ll have a very fine looking model. I’ll enjoy watching your progress on this excellent Vanguard model.

Looking good Glenn, and I mean UK Glenn, not me😂

It looks from here as though you’re right on track. With your attention to detail I’m sure it will be absolutely fine.

Wow, those columns are absolutely gorgeous. If you want to make another set, send them my way😳😂 That is really excellent work, just one would be impressive, having so many absolutely identical is really amazing.

I wasn’t all that sure about the paper friezes at first. After spraying them with fixative and now having applied them all with the recommended stick glue I’m happy with how they turned out. Short of hand painting, way beyond my skills, I think it’s the best answer. Yours, like your amazing planking, look absolutely great.

Very interesting and precise approach to building your own. You’re on the right path, it is critical to get the stern framing accurate. It will pay dividends later, well done!

Thanks Kevin, Chuck makes that part a lot easier with his design. Thank you Jean Paul for saying so, I do try to share what I’ve learned, not sure how good it is but I try. Thanks for the kind words. My great grandfather was a stone cutter. He built a stone wall along a Kentucky highway famous for its many horse farms. The wall was built without any mortar, just the fit of the rocks. It still stands today and a historical landmark, they wouldn’t move it when they widened the road. Despite state sponsored effort no one knows how to duplicate it. So maybe I inherited some small part of that skill. Thanks Jim, I appreciate the comment and glad I can help as I’ve been helped. Thank you Dusan. I just go into to a zone, cut, bend, shape, cut, bend, shape….so fun. I still have so many to go. It’s worth it though, helps bring life and realism to our models.

I seriously doubt it would carry a cutter at all, way too big, maybe a jolly boat towed behind. These were fast ships that mostly worked in local waters, a ships boat wasn’t essential would think. As you can see from the deck there is not really a place to easily store one.

Simply outstanding! You are more than ready for a return to Winnie. It’s a huge investment, if you’d feel better starting over you should, if you can move forward from where you are you should do that. At any rate we await your return. I was glad I did Cheerful first, so much I learned there I’ve applied and built on now. I’m sure you have that same confidence!

I agree for what it’s worth, cut a new piece at the first seam, minimize filler.

As JJ notes it must be flush on both sides for the sheaves to be mounted

I really like the cherry, I came very close to doing the same thing. Having rigged just 12 carronades on Cheerful I know the time I spent doing it. You’ve done 28 and they all look exactly the same, no small feat! Very precise, very nice. Your lighting makes for fun and interesting photos. Such a great looking model, congratulations on chapter 6 and of course the work you’ve done well beyond that.

Of Wires and Wood An update on the visually small but fun stuff on and about the deck. First up were the ladders. Always fun to square up these. Very nice that I didn’t have to scratch make them as I did on Cheerful. The laser cut ones provided by Chuck are a step up (see what I did there) for anything I could make. As others have noted I had to thin the edges of rounded steps for a tight fit into the ladder sides. While this is time consuming (since when did that matter) it made for a better and easier fit. Char removal is essential and so much fun on the small steps and ladder rails. I’m getting the hang of it by now, especially after a short post Chuck provided on this a while back. A single edge razor blade to remove the gummy part, then lightly, and the key is lightly, sanding with a 320 grit flexible sanding stick, one I repeatedly clean on the big rubber bar I described in an earlier post (and yet another thing learned on MSW). A light coat of WOP and they are installed, following the plans for height and location. I managed to do this without them disappearing forever inside the lower deck. Very happy about that. Avoiding the port lids and hinges for a while I moved on to the staghorns and cleats. The mill was feeling left out so I used it to drill centered holes for the pins used to attach them the bulwarks. An under utilized tool in this case but it made for quick work and a constant location. I inserted those little nails we all have in abundance for the pins. More char removal on the very small cleats. The red paint I use in thin coats won’t cover the char so it all must be removed. In the process each cleat was rounded and shaped with the fluted ends common to all cleats. The staghorn ends were also shaped up. The pins are a nice hold point while painting, I used four coats. They stood on their pins in the foam block between coats. The blue tape on the pliers served only to protect them from the paint brush. Once the last coat was dry I cut off the pins to about 2mm in length so I didn’t go all the way through the hull. I decided that would not be good. There are many many eyebolts and split rings on our models. Both to avoid the hinges a little longer and to continue to tackle (I did it again) the wire work in stages I elected to add all I needed for the 28 ports. The first step was coming up with a jig to ensure a consistent location. I cut out a port from the plans, glued it to a piece of 1/32 cedar, measured and drilled the holes through the paper and by consequence the wood, and cut out the port itself. There has to be a constant and I didn’t feel like the deck was it. What is constant is the spirketting running along the bottom of every port. First I used the deck for the 4 ports with cabin walls then I cut off the jig to the exact bottom of the port (on the paper cutout) and I had my jig. The top piece you see is just to stiffen up and reinforce the 1/32 wood. Once it was made I remove the paper, just easier to see the holes. With this and a couple of clamps to hold position I made fairly easy work of drilling the holes. Yes I did it by hand, no way was I going to trust even a slow turning drill, or more precisely trust me, not to go through the hull. As I mentioned I decided this would not be good. There are four eyebolts and two split rings for every port. Because I count these things that meant 112 eyelets and 56 split rings. Of course I made more than that, there were one or two rejects, I forget how many, maybe more than two. Now there are just that many less when I start making guns. With that done and the cleats installed I’ve run out of things to do to avoid making lids and hinges. So off I go to do that. Thanks as always for stopping by with your likes and comments. They are always appreciated.