Charter33

Simply awe inspiring! Terrific result...

Simply awe inspiring! Terrific result...

Update and a change in plan, I decided after all to complete the main sail.  Thinking about it, I thought whilst I was in the mood for sail making and undaunted by making 200 reef points I better get on with it, before I found excuses to avoid making further progress.  This is probably the largest tissue sail I will ever make, so overall pleased with how it came out, but learned a lot more in the process of making this monster.
 
Followed the same process as before:- paper template for shape and size, then construct the sail with a one piece core and strips glued front and back, with wire trapped in the edge for shaping later.  I found using a rule helpful to fold the tissue in one piece around the wire as I went.  The gluing the bolt rope along the edge to hide the wire; forming beckets etc. as I went.  Reef points were actually split in two and glued separately to each face, rather than trying to tie knots flush to either face of the reef point hole to minimise handling the tissue paper -that entailed making nearly 400 of them! 😬 - but worth it not to risk trying to pull knots tight through fragile tissue!  I did contemplate only adding one per. sail panel, but I knew someone would spot that and so took a deep breath and did two; have also punched in two per. panel for the robands when I get to those. 
 
Have now begun the process of adding the sail to the model.  Starting with the mast hoops, so it will take it's own weight.  the hoops are extras bought from Vanguard.  A few shots below show the sail as it looks now, temporarily held in place with various bits of tape and temporary rigging held by clips to provide tension, but it gives an impression of the look I am aiming for eventually.
 
Thanks for keeping me company with this experiment and the likes and kinds words!  😁
 
 

Adder is now finished. Another absolutely superb kit from Vanguard. Even more so than on previous Vanguard kits Chris has really innovated and made this ship as easy as possible to build whilst in no way compromising the finished outcome which I think looks superb (despite my building skills). I can’t Adder recommend enough. 
Adder was a step up in terms of complexity for me over Grecian and Alert in two areas. Firstly rigging a square rigger, the plans were excellent and very clear but just tying off the lines to belaying pins and feeding them around and through the tops was very fiddly (and that’s on a slightly simplified rig than other kits such as Speedy/Flirt). Nonetheless this was the ideal first square rigger for me to build and will prepare me well for my next build. Secondly the bow planking would have been a challenge if I’d wanted to have an unpainted lower hull, but the cleverness of Chris’s kit is that all the planking is below the waterline so it didn’t really matter what the planking looked like so long as it was smoothable with sandpaper and filler. Other than those areas I found her to be a very straightforward and accessible build. I have barely strayed from the kit and made very few adjustments such as drilling out the carronades and breach rigging the cannons and carronades. 

I’ve added a red duster. The ensign is a flag from BECC and isn’t very high quality. It’s heavily shown up by the American ensign I bought from Vanguard for Grecian which is made on a much higher quality material, with better printing and a lower propensity to fray at the edges. Unfortunately the ensign sets that Chris sells are too big for a small model such as Adder. Chris any chance you could sell some high quality small ensigns? I used the same process as on Grecian for shaping the ensign with a fabric stiffener and weighting with crocodile clips, this ensign needed a fair bit of CA to hold its shape too.

Thanks to Chris for another super kit and for everyone else for the advice, likes and encouragement. 

I found a 1/72 scale Navy WW2 pilot from CMK and a picked up a resin concrete tarmac off of eBay the other day, so decided to use them for a simple diorama with the JRS-1.  I like adding figures to help better show scale.  Here, the figure shows how big this plane was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

The most difficult plate in the whole model is on on one side.


Deck removed to show mooring deck ready to be fitted with all the framing, the most complex bit of framing on the model, the rolled corner losses shape without the deck in lace, but will return once the framing is in place. there are 2 tranverse frames which I will fit but the longitudinals will be fitted to the deck so this can be framed out and painted before the deck gets glued down


That concludes the non glazed plating on the port side upper hull and all steel decks, once sanded I will prime and weld bead.

While doing some work on 2 other models which are now done I gave this a year to really check the stability of the styrene across a full year of seasons and things are absolutely fine. no sign of delamination or loss of adhesion, so I can gladly say plating resumes this weekend, It's been a while but it was time well spent to make sure it's not all wasted work.
Over this time I also got the 3d resin decals made for the draught marks, rivets and plimsol lines

Thank you all for your likes and kind comments from the last update.
 
Not a great deal to show for what seemed like a lot of effort at times, but I have completed the ratlines and the Topmast shrouds.  The ratlines actually went okay once I got into the "groove" of doing them and slowed down to take time to tease/allow the thread to curl they way it wanted to whilst doing the clove hitches, so the free end to the next clove hitch stayed flat and didn't want to kink upwards and also taking care to use fine tweezers to help the knot tighten into the correct location to avoid moving it about later and the evitable loosening of the knot that causes.
 
The topmast Shrouds have turned out satisfactorily, I might not go so far as to say I'm "happy" with them, but my rigging skills would not produce noticeable improvements with yet more redo's! 🙄  They are something of a compromise between the details provided by Lennarth Petterson's Cutter in "Rigging period Fore and aft craft" and the contemporary model referenced before.  Most noticeable being the tying-off to the Dead eyes (as per. the contemporary model) rather than their own eyelets as shown in Petterson.  I have tied off the port side, but have not done the same yet for the starboard side, as some adjustment will be needed for the deflection of the Topmast shrouds caused by having the lower yard braced to that side.  I am having the yards braced as though the wind is coming onto the Port quarter, partly for looks, but also to make the model narrower for the designated shelf width! 😆 These Cutters with their large sails have a deceptively large footprint for display purposes!
 
Next up the rigging of stays, whilst preparing for the addition of sails.  Hoping for an incremental improvement over the ones I added to my Nisha 🤞:-
 
Thanks for looking in! 😁

Another SIB adventure comes to a close here on MSW.  I put the finishing touches on the Banshee II project last night and it’s ready for the shelf.  I want to give a personal thanks to everyone that took part in this journey.    
@Keith Black, @Knocklouder, @BANYAN, @Javelin, @Ian_Grant, @Canute, @gjdale, @FriedClams, @Landlubber Mike, @KeithAug, @GrandpaPhil, @Thukydides, @PvG Aussie, @gsdpic, @JacquesCousteau, @Paul Le Wol, @ccoyle, @Harvey Golden, @mtaylor, @CDR_Ret, @John Fox III, @Roger Pellett, @berhard, @Rick310, @Desertanimal, @Ryland Craze, @rookie, @rwiederrich, @Dave boatswain, @cotrecerf, @Charter33, @Snug Harbor Johnny, @Dan Poirier, @Charles Roseberry, @JEFFRAV, @downeaster.

Whether you popped in every now and then or managed to endure each step along the way, I am very appreciative of your support, comments, and suggestions.  You make everything I try to do so much better and I can never say thank you enough. 
 
Also, because of y’all, this was the most interesting and entertaining build log I can remember.  Along the way, you gave me a number of great recommendations which helped tremendously – ship plans/drawings from Grandpa Phil, Bare Metal foil and painting tips from Landlubber Mike, Funnel schematics from Pat (Banyan), and corrections to my cowlings from Rob (rwiederrich).  Y’all also provided fascinating discussions on a variety of subjects like fire ants, Venetian and Czech beads, Philly cheesesteaks, stropping 2mm deadeyes, and Norfolk Island just to name a few.  Furthermore, I was so very fortunate to receive free language lessons where I learned what an egg nishner is and how to talk some strine, as well as Keith Black adding a couple more B words to my cow's forbidden vocabulary.  And finally, there’s Knocklouder who kept me laughing the whole time with his comments like the one about “whack a mole”.  Bob, you are one of a kind!
 
On to the final reveal.  Here's the original concept drawing and how the completed project turned out.

 
 







 
 
 

Thanks for that Bob.
Some more progress. The salvaged scaffoldboards yielded enough usable cladding for about a third of the ceiling, and scavenged wood, including a section of heavy duty fencing, enabled the ceiling to be completed. Because of the unusual geometry of the workshop with its tapering width the shaping of each piece of cladding was not staight forward. The ends were never 'square', but at least the 2 - 3 degree angle was pretty consistent throughout. Added to this some pieces needed shaping around the ends to match the profile of the additional bracing on the corners of the roof beams.

Defects from the sawing etc. were sanded away, and the side corners bevelled with a block plane.


The pile of timber bottom left is now about to be converted to the cladding for the walls. Took the opportunity to overhaul the dust extractor with new filters and added the optional cloth filter. It's doing a sterling job. Wish I had a thicknesser.......it would certainly speed things up a bit!
Cheers,
Graham
 

🤫 it has been known for the smallest layout possible, just over 90 cm long, to be connected to a Roco z21 control unit while the Admiral disappears to pilates on a Saturday morning......😉
Model trains are Grandson/Grandpa activity in this case, and for the younger member of the team a source of great fascination and focus.
You're so fortunate to have that shop so close, Ron, but I can see the danger of tempation! My two closest stores have shut in the last year so purchases are usually made on-line, without the chance to look, handle and seek advice from the staff. 
I hope you will keep us updated with your layouts' development and evolution.
Cheers,
Graham.

Great work Ron. Your advice on the best sequence for adding the hammock cranes has been noted, thanks! It's all coming together nicely. Will you be adding the netting on the bow section where the knightheads are mounted?
Like that other hobby too.... N gauge?
An impressive layout and the work under those bridges is intriguing.
I'm just starting to get involved in model railways as well. Early days, but a totally unexpected Christmas gift from the Admiral of an Accurascale OO gauge class 55 Deltic locomotive (one of my favourites) provided the spark, and I'm working on getting to grips with DCC controllers etc. The gift came with a proviso, however - no building a layout until Victory has been completed 😄.

More pictures of the HMS Bellona kit, designed by CAF Model:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Yves
 

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Hello shipmates!  Since the last update I've been wrangling shrouds and deadeyes into some resemblance of respectability.  This hasn't always gone smoothly and there has been a considerable amount of "redo's" to get them looking as best I could manage, at one stage it looked like the poor old Trial had been in a scrape with a French Privateer like her original namesake - rigging all shot to pieces! 😆  Anyway, glad I redid them, for the few extra hours, would be as nothing to the countless times I would have looked at them later and not been happy if they had been left...
 
The fore shroud was served for the full length and the remained the top portion only, I've also added Burton Pendants as a little detail.  I am starting to think about the order in which the rest of the rigging gets completed as I am adding sails. I think the foresail first, once I have the Forestay is added as this won't get in the way too much, then Jib sail, but this will be vulnerable as an extremity.  Then yards, or mainsail?  🤔  Another thing that I'm pondering is how the topmast shrouds were adjusted if the lower yard was braced round for the wind?  On the RMG model referenced before:-
- the foremost topmast shroud is already deflected and rubbing up against the lower yard when the yard is simply perpendicular to the keel, but when braced one way or the other, this must really have deflected the topmast shrouds a lot!  These must have been served and regularly replaced due to wear?  Lennarth Petterson's Cutter in "Rigging period Fore and aft craft" (based on the model in the London Science Museum, shows tackles for adjusting these shrouds when the yards are braced?  Perhaps this is something I could replicate?
 
Plenty to ponder as I start on the Ratlines! 😬
 
Thanks for looking in and the likes. 😁

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Thanks for that Bob.
Some more progress. The salvaged scaffoldboards yielded enough usable cladding for about a third of the ceiling, and scavenged wood, including a section of heavy duty fencing, enabled the ceiling to be completed. Because of the unusual geometry of the workshop with its tapering width the shaping of each piece of cladding was not staight forward. The ends were never 'square', but at least the 2 - 3 degree angle was pretty consistent throughout. Added to this some pieces needed shaping around the ends to match the profile of the additional bracing on the corners of the roof beams.

Defects from the sawing etc. were sanded away, and the side corners bevelled with a block plane.


The pile of timber bottom left is now about to be converted to the cladding for the walls. Took the opportunity to overhaul the dust extractor with new filters and added the optional cloth filter. It's doing a sterling job. Wish I had a thicknesser.......it would certainly speed things up a bit!
Cheers,
Graham
 

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Thanks for that Bob.
Some more progress. The salvaged scaffoldboards yielded enough usable cladding for about a third of the ceiling, and scavenged wood, including a section of heavy duty fencing, enabled the ceiling to be completed. Because of the unusual geometry of the workshop with its tapering width the shaping of each piece of cladding was not staight forward. The ends were never 'square', but at least the 2 - 3 degree angle was pretty consistent throughout. Added to this some pieces needed shaping around the ends to match the profile of the additional bracing on the corners of the roof beams.

Defects from the sawing etc. were sanded away, and the side corners bevelled with a block plane.


The pile of timber bottom left is now about to be converted to the cladding for the walls. Took the opportunity to overhaul the dust extractor with new filters and added the optional cloth filter. It's doing a sterling job. Wish I had a thicknesser.......it would certainly speed things up a bit!
Cheers,
Graham
 

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

I decided to go ahead with my original plan and used the pieces of cladding I had already prepared to trial the idea on the far end wall.

'Loose tongues' keep the ends of the boards level where joints don't line up with the timber frames. The width of the cladding strips vary between runs, and the run that follows the line of the sockets is only temporarily tacked in place so that it can be removed to permit the installation of the ring main cable.
I'm focusing on the ceiling next and am currently converting those scaffold boards used as shuttering for the concrete base. 
Thinking of possibly giving the internal cladding a 'limed' or whitewash effect finish that makes a feature of the wood grain. This will then be coated with satin or matt varnish. We'll see...
Cheers,
Graham.

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁

Thanks Andrew - a nautical influence was always in the plan 😁