Charter33

Copy all the ideas you like, a lot if them I picked up from here too! My absence was not through choice, I assure you, but it really is good to be back at it. Some interesting R/C aircraft in the background there..... Cheers.

A great start Helli. I look forward to watching your progress. Welcome to the Caldercraft Victory club! Cheers, Graham

Hi, What did I receive today? - the postman delivered an off-cut of velcro from my sister. Sounds a bit uninspiring, but let me explain. A nine inch length of velcro, just the hoop, not the loop, was more than enough to complete the friction sander I made the week before last. With full time retirement getting ever closer I decided at the end of last year to try my hand at taking part in a couple of craft fairs, selling some of the bowls, automata and other small wooden items that I make. The plan was to see if I could make what my Grandfather used to refer to as a bit of 'pin money' to finance hobbies such as model making and the on-going restoration my motor bike. To cut down the time it was taking to get a decent surface finish on the turned bowls I thought of buying a friction sander - then I found out how much they cost! Just couldn't justify the outlay. After a bit of on-line research I decided to try and make my own, for as little as possible. The handle and interchangeable heads are turned from elm off cuts, the ball races spares from my serving machine. Brass bar off-cuts from the 'scrap' bin were used to make the knuckle, while the knurled adjuster nut and lock nut that secure the shaft to the handle were reworked from a tired and battered chisel honing aid that was worn beyond use but I hadn't had the heart to throw away. The ferrule is half a 22 mm diameter copper pipe connector, and the thumb screw that locks the knuckle was machined from a short stub end of titanium I had as I'd run out off suitable brass. Neoprene rubber from an old Pilates mat cushions the sanding discs. The only cost incurred was £3.99 for a pack of 50 6 mm dia. insert nuts from Screw-fix. The remaining 48 will no doubt find a use...... eventually. Just one slight fly in the ointment - it will be sometime before I can try it. My lathe is in my school workshop, the school is closed for the foreseeable future, and teaching is now done remotely from home via computer. Stay safe, Graham.

Hi Will, Lovely grain, very much like the figuring - my guess is walnut, but not the grade usually found in model ship building. As a veneer there is a beautiful box crying out to be encased in this........ my fingers and creative juices are itching in anticipation, you are one lucky bunny to have this to play with - good luck! (oh so jealous!) Cheers, Graham

Hi, Thank's for the comments and 'likes' gentlemen - always genuinely appreciated. Robert - your photographs of the original ship are proving to be a great source of information, as is your own impressive build log - thank you. Wallace - welcome aboard! In fairness I feel I should flag up the observation that has occasionally been made on this site that although the main aim of this hobby is to complete a well made model, the journey travelled to achieve this is equally, if not more, enjoyable and important. That said I must confess that sometimes I will occasionally climb off and break the journey, take a deep breath and admire the view for a while, usually by choice, but sometime forced by circumstance. It's taken a while to get to the current stage, and there's a long way to go - but I will get there, eventually. No pressure..... Cheers, Graham

Hi, I can't believe it's over a year since I last added to this build log.....! Here are some details of the progress that I have made: With the quarter deck in place it was time to cut the tops off the forward bulkheads. Next job was to re-install the outer forecastle gunport strips that had been removed following the advice of Shipyard Sid. The beakhead bulkhead had the roundhouses fitted and was painted. It will have the additional decoration added before it is finally glued into place. It’s currently just dry fitted. With the deck planked and tree nailed, using the method previously explained, and inner bulwarks fitted… …. I made up the quarterdeck screen assembly...... I decided to try and produce a modified version of the belfry. The uprights provided in the kit seemed to lack detail of the mouldings as shown in John McKay’s ‘Anatomy of the Ship’ and were restricted to just the front and back surfaces. I also wanted to replicate the copper roof. After a bit of experimentation, and a few failures, I came up with a way to press form thin copper sheet into an acceptable shape. This is the result ….. Second planking on the outside of the hull and inside the bulwarks was completed, gunports lined and then all painted. The cap strips were glued into place. I couldn’t find anything provided for the small curved sections just ahead of the poop deck so laminated some. Two strips of walnut were soaked and then clamped around a former, in this case a wooden collet I had made to hold ‘turned’ wooden components for some automata I’ve been making. Once they had dried these were glued and re-clamped before being cut and sanded to size and fitted into place. Forecastle gratings were assembled but I chose to make them up separately from the deck rather than following the method outlined in the instructions. Having gone to the trouble of trying to replicate the dovetail details of the coaming joints on the gratings on the previous deck, (which are now hardly visible!), I was keen to try and do the same thing here. Probably the hardest aspect was trying to sand the slight curve that was needed on the top surface. The galley chimney was given a bit of attention with the addition of two handles and the impression of the seam on the main body prior to painting, using pictures of the chimney found on-line as a guide. The Forecastle Breast Beam assembly has also now been completed. All these pieces are dry fitted and will be glued in place once some more painting has been done, including the cap strips, and a few other additions have been added to the inner bulwarks. Cheer for now, Graham.

Dan – your news left me stunned and initially speechless, made more poignant by travelling a similar journey over recent years. Seeing you name listed in the ‘recent posts’ section made a post a ‘must’ to read, your work in all modelling mediums pure inspiration. I’d never appreciated just what could be achieved in card! Your sage advice and encouragement genuinely motivational and appreciated. Thank you. I struggle to think of anyone for whom the term ‘legend’ is more appropriate. Best wishes, Graham.

Gorgeous!!!! A stunning build..... thank you for sharing Graham

Hi Mark, Without doubt a bold choice for your first model ship! Having said that I should own up and admit that it so happens that it is my own 'second' build and as a relative novice I can appreciate where you're coming from. You're in for a great journey and joining this forum is probably the best thing you could have done to help you on your way, There are some stunning build logs here and I could not have made the progress I have without the sage advice of other members. Many build logs are now my first port of call when tackling new and challenging stages. Of the builds currently under way I recommend the work of 'Bertu' as a good starting point but there are also many others - using the search function to find these builds is time well spent. As for helping other novices to benefit from your expected mistakes, take look at my log - I made some real howlers! Looking forward to seeing your work. Cheers, Graham

Oh that was a battle I also had to get through, the boss was not a 'happy bunny' at the prospect of me getting back on two wheels. But, as has been quoted on this site before, it's often easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, and now she's now bemoaning the fact that I treated myself to a single seat from Corbin in California and replaced the old double seat. Sometimes you just can't win ....

Love that Triumph, Chuck! My route to the Commando started with learning to ride in a field on a Norton 500T trials bike at the age of 13. My first 'proper' bike on the road was an early Norton ES2 500cc single (plunger frame) and I went to college on a Norton 19S 600cc single complete with Swallow side-car. Three years later I returned from Teacher training on a Norton Dominator 88 with a Steib side-car which quickly became a solo machine. After a brief fling with a Honda 400/4 the big 850 came into my life. Sadly all the previous bikes had to be sold on to meet the needs of a growing family - it makes me wince when I see how much they sell for now! Eldest son has his eye on the beast now - but he'll have a long wait. And yes, the Commando is now being regularly ridden.... happy days.

Today I took my bike out for our first run together in about 16 years having just completed a long and protracted restoration. It’s a 1975 Norton Commando 850 Mk 3 that I bought back in 1992 and used for pleasure and the daily commute to work (school) including three years with my oldest son on the back when he was a student at the school. When my second son also joined us in 2003 it was time to reluctantly buy a car and the bike, now in need of a bit of significant TLC and with funds being tight, was consigned to the back of the garage with intention of probably using it as an eventual retirement project. The Admiral suggested selling it – no chance! Fast forward to December 2015. ‘Christmas’ isn’t the only C word in the house. Won’t go into details but for several months I had the dubious pleasure of driving to St Luke’s in Guildford every week for treatment. On this journey I was often passed by various classic bikes heading in the opposite direction. The majority were heading over to ‘Jack’s Place’, a café in Bagshot popular with many groups of bikers who regularly meet up in the car park on a Wednesday. Wearing little more than a hospital gown and lying on a table while the hospital equipment did its ‘thing’ I made the decision not to wait for retirement but to get my bike back on the road and, among other things, to get myself over to Jacks and join in the fun. The restoration required the bike to be striped right down and then repaired, fettled and re-assembled as funds permitted. It’s taken nearly four years, two long periods in hospital and a change from full time to part time employment. Mechanically the bike is now as good as ever if not better. There’s still some cosmetic work to do and she remains a work in progress. But today, grinning from ear to ear … ……. we made it to Jacks.

Another stunning picture - and just a hint of Turners 'Fighting Temeraire' in the sunset and juxtoposition of sail and steam? Love it. Thank you.

Superb! Thanks for sharing. Great detail plus some new ideas for bases for displaying models too. Graham

Just a quick note - there are grades of ply that are produced specifically for laser cutting - we use them with the students at school. They char much less than birch ply of similar thickness. Another tip - when cutting wood with the laser cutter I often set the machine up to run at a lower power / faster speed setting and repeat the cut several times until full penetration is achieved. I developed this technique when teaching myself how to use the machine and software by drawing and cutting components for an R/C model aircraft from balsa wood. This reduces burning and is very useful for those small or delicate parts. I have successfully used this on lime (basswood), mahogany, yew and cherry - although not necessarily all for model ship building. I also fully agree with the previous post about using MDF... Best way to learn is to dive in and 'play'. Good luck! Graham.