Bob Legge

I have started work on the dreaded figurehead.  I decided to make her out of clay rather than attempt carving.  I felt sorry for the wood that I would butcher.  Thank you to Chuck for his clay sculpting lesson and thank you to David Antscherl for carving a figurehead of Atalanta for Chuck.  The photos he took and posted on MSW were a godsend.  Here is the link to those photos.  
 
This is a copy of one of Chuck's photos of Atalanta.  She is holding a golden apple in her right hand.  The first thing I did was make a wire armature.  This provided more strength to the arms and legs.  I mounted the armature over a mock-up of the stem.
 




 
The first layer of clay was applied.  I was not too careful with this as it was simply a base to build upon.  I used white Sculpey clay with a few drops of softener added.  After every significant addition I baked the clay per the instructions to harden that section.  I think the biggest piece of advise that I can give is be careful with your proportions.  Stand in front of a mirror.  Your wrists hit the femoral head.  Measure a female hand for the correct length (mine is 6").    How long is your torso in relation to your legs, etc.  The breasts are not cones, as you can see in the picture above.   

 
I decided to add the clothing and hair after I had the proportions correct, leaving the details of the hands, feet and face for last.
 




 
After the other details were completed I test-fit the figurehead to the actual stem.  I discovered that I had forgotten to incorporate the taper of the stem on my mock-up and had to add extra clay to the medial thighs.  Obviously there is still some finesse work remaining.  I have a question for the members.  Should I paint it white to minimize losing detail or in natural colors (white robe, dark brown hair, tanned skin).  The apple will be gold, either way. 



 
 

Greg had drawn it to my attention that when I rebuilt the rudder head cover I had forgotten to add the sill.  Greg, this one's for you!  You can also see the gunport tackle and tubes.  The tubes are made of leather which I simulated with rolled paper dyed with brown Rit.

 
The rudder chain has been installed.  It attaches onto the spectacle plate with a U-shaped tackle.  The last things on my punch list are the figurehead, cleaning and paint touch-up.  After my experience with the upper quarter carving the figurehead has me terrified.  
 

I debated back and forth whether I should put a flag on the ensign staff.  Although few models of this style are shown with flags, I decided to make one.  My reasons were that the model needed a pop of color and I had never made a flag before and wanted to see if I could do a good job.
 
The technique that follows is exactly what was demonstrated by Gus Augustin at an NRG Conference a few years ago.  I determined that the correct flag for 1775 was the red ensign.  I drew the outline onto both sides of a piece of plain copy paper with pencil.  Next, I cut the flag out, leaving extra paper inboards to make straps to secure the flag to the staff.  The flag was shaped by crushing it in my hand, being careful to leave the inboard edge flat. 
 

 
The flag was gently wet in a bowl of water and the crinkled shape was formed after laying the wet flag on a piece of glass.  I did not touch it again for a few days but Gus states that one should wait at least 24 hours.  The flag is then (sort-of) flattened and painted.  Start with the light colors and gradually go darker.  I used Poly-S and Model Master acrylic paints full strength. 
 

 

 

 

 
Once the flag was dry I air-brushed it very lightly with gray to soften the colors.  Finally, I reformed the flag and secured it to the staff.  Overall, I am pleased with the appearance.
 

 

 

 
 

Karl, thanks for the tip.  Some beautiful carving on those models.  As my punch list has gotten smaller, I could not put off the upper quarter carving any longer.  On both the plan and the contemporary model I could not tell for certain what the creature was.  Because of the tail, I had to choose between a dragon and a lioness.  I decided upon a lioness because that is what Atalanta was turned into after she had sex in a temple.  The first thing I did was make an oversized mock-up of the carving out of Sculptey.  Then, I made a second mock-up that fit into the space.  Once I was satisfied with that I drew the outline on to a block of English boxwood.  The color was a good match for the costello boxwood and I wanted the extra strength because of the tail. 

 

 

 
After a few failed attempts, the lioness slowly came out of the wood.  The hardest part was the head, both the direction and appearance.  Although in the pictures the face looks more like a bear than a lioness, it was the best I could do.  
 

 

 

 

Started work on the waterways, curved scarph joints are a pain

 
I'm using ottili wood for the waterways, I was given some sheets by friends who own a boat yard in Windsor (they are currently refurbishing the last Dunkirk vessel still afloat and supplied the boats for the recent Dunkirk film)  its quite grainy but is a lovely colour

Thanks Michael and for all the likes, I did think to have them working, opening and closing but with the frames at 1/32 it might be difficult
I have added some hinges and opened one side, they will go up and down but will be very fragile and probably mot accessible when completed so I'm thinking to fasten one side and leave one open

All deck furniture completed, now into waterways and then planking, I'm going to try and have the skylight windows opening

I have made some progress in the last month. The gun ports were spray painted using a mix of Windsor & Newton Crimson and Burnt Umber. The mix ratio is 10:1. I was surprised to see the color bleed into the soft ply so much, though It will all be covered after the planking is completed. Next, I made the bollard timbers. These proved to be quite a challenge along with some failed attempts. Most of the work was done on the disc sander and mill. The eight sided swivel mount and step were shaped with needle files.
 
In preparation for the first layer wales I ran a batten which marks the lower wale location. As usual, Chuck made it easier with laser etched lines on each bulkhead. With the first batten in place a pencil line was drawn along its top edge onto each bulkhead. This line marks the bottom of the wales. Vertical measurements were made at each line and a corresponding mark was made to the other side of the hull. The result being that each side looked smooth and symmetrical with both battens in place. I completed the four strakes for the first layer of wales on both sides working from the bottom up. I did not adhere to the butt joint locations on this underlying layer as shown on the plans. I will on the second layer. Work was also started on the first of two layers that will make up the black strake.


Mike

The lower counter has been planked and sanded. I used a #2b pencil to darken the plank edges.  Decorative molding will cover the notch in the lowest plank.

Mike

I've been working on a few things over the past week.
 
The quarter gallery framing and surrounding area was faired some more. The tops of the two outer stern frames were reduced in thickness from 1/4" to 5/32" in order to match the thickness of the inner frames. The entire area was then faired to establish a smooth batten run down the hull. You can see how much material has been removed compared to the photo above from an earlier post.

Next, the entire hull was faired with the exception of the two filler pieces under the lower counter. I started on them, but remain unsure about the transition from one to the other. Hopefully, this will become less confusing after I talk to Chuck this week.

I did manage to add the fixed blocks. 1/32" Slots were milled for each of these. I did not mill the slots on a strip of wood that was the exact width required. Rather, I used a much wider strip. The advantage being that it was not necessary to mill the slot to the exact angle and position on the strip. Paper templates were cut from the plan drawing and the slots carefully removed with a #11 blade. They were then aligned over the milled slots and adhered with Elmer's School Glue. With the template as a guide, the outer edges of each block was sanded down on the disc sander to the proper width all around. The sheaves were made from slivers of wood cut from discs of the same thickness as the slot. Each sheave is thinner than the actual block, so they can recess slightly into the block. A #2 pencil was used to darken the sheave slot and the actual sheave.

Mike

The four hance pieces are in. They were laser cut from yellow cedar and set proud in order to shape them to the outboard hull shape. A cross spall was used to insure that they sit straight.


Mike

Thanks everyone for the likes.
 
Mark Pearse said:

 
Mark, your comment inspired me to check the headroom belowdecks (something I hadn't thought about before) with one of my carved figures from earlier in the build. It turns out person approx 5'6" tall has the top of his head exactly level with the deck. So though the lower oarsmen might have to duck their heads to move around belowdecks (depending on how tall they were - someone 5'2" may have no trouble at all), it would possibly be no more difficult than in the ships of Nelson's time.
 
More progress on the deck beams. Got as far as the foremast, and created an opening for the mast with intermediate beams at right angles; the deck beam that would otherwise go right across the ship at this point is cut and connects to these beams.
 
 
I wasn't happy with the finish of the plating on the spur, so I've removed it on the starboard side. The main problem was the glue - I used a clear glue from a junk shop that professed to glue anything to anything. But it was lumpy when applied and made the plating have lumps and bumps. Also I cut the side plating too narrow, so there was a gap at the corner where it joined the plating on the bottom of the spur.
 
This time I made the plating a tiny bit too wide so there was an overlap. Also I tried standard PVA white glue and was rather surprised to find it worked very well - I thought it only worked on wood. A very thin layer of glue,


and when I clamped it all together, a very nice flat surface on the plating.

Then I bent the surplus aluminium plate around the corner at top and bottom.
 

This covered the join at the bottom, and at the top I filed off the overlapping plating with a fine file so it reached just to the top of the spur.


When I do the top I'll bend the plating over both corners to cover the joins, which I think is probably how they did it back in the day.
 
Some of the photos don't have a lot of detail because I took them in the evening when there was too little light. But I find it hard to work on this stuff in the daylight because the reflections are so bright I can't see the detail of what I'm working on.
 
The joins between the plates were scored with an awl
 
and the marks for the "nails" were made with the pointy end of a rat-tail file. They're less obvious this time - the ones I'd done before were too deep to be in scale.

 
Here's the finished product for the starboard side; the port plating is still in progress. 
 I think it looks considerably better than the previous version. Next I have to do the port side and the top, and then colour the plating to look like aged/oxidised bronze. Then I'll make the "iron" - the pointy bit at the business end.
 
And in between times (in daylight) I'm continuing with the deck beams.
 
Steven  
 

Here are the deck beams complete for the prymne (poop) in its new configuration.
   
I've laid a couple of planks on the beams so you can see the (rather small) step between the prymne and the main deck.
 
And as I got onto a roll, I started on the beams for the bow as well.
  
When I get further into the main deck I need to make allowance for the deck furniture - at least one (or possibly two) hatches for a ladder below decks, maybe a cargo hatch, plus openings for the masts and also the stands to support the masts and the yards when they've been lowered. But that's yet to come . . .
 
Steven  

I put all the beams in for the prymne (poop deck) and dry-fitted planks on the prymne and the main deck. At that point I realised there was only about 4" difference in height - really not a proper poop deck. This problem goes back to the original design for the ship with its curved "tail" - the prymne was originally going to be quite a bit shorter, and extending it makes the line of the deck intersect the gunwale lower down - and there's not much I can do about it.
 
If the poop is much higher it'll be above the gunwale, but I can at least raise it as much as possible. This of course involved removing all the deck beams for the poop, plus the beam shelf on which they rested. 
 
So I've done that, and put in a new beam shelf and the highest (sternmost) and lowest (furthest forward) beams, and now I've got to fill in the beams between them.

Fortunately I can salvage the beams I took out. They may need to be adjusted in length, but I think I can re-use most of them. If not, they can go in the bow.
 
Steven 

In the meantime, I've been working on the structure to support and protect the side rudders.
 
A pair of through-beams form the supports, and are cut out to take the rudder shafts.

 
A framework from the beams forward to the hull forms a triangle which protects the rudders from collisions etc. It will be filled in with planking.

The upper through-beam is forrard of the lower one, so the rudders will be angled forward to where the steersman stands. The rudder shafts will be lashed to the through-beams, but with enough play so the rudders can pivot around the shaft to steer the ship.

I had this structure in place earlier in the build but had to remove it because other things needed to be done first. Now it's time to put it back again.
[edit] Looking at the photos, maybe I have to have another look at those oarports. They do look a little rough. [/edit]
 
Steven 
 

removed, not required. 
 
 
 
 

Ciao e grazie a tutti, adesso arrivano le coste più difficili....
Hello and thanks to everyone, now the most difficult coasts arrive....
   








Un Saluto

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre interminabili coste....
Hello and thanks to everyone, other endless coasts....
 









Un Saluto.

Ciao a tutti, grazie tantissimo per il supporto che date, siete troppo gentili.
 
Hi everyone, thank you very much for your support, you are too kind.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto
 

Ciao e grazie a tutti.
Altre foto…
 
Hello and thanks to everyone.
More photos...
for tabycz, use the FF230 of the proxxon
elastic bands are very useful druxey
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre foto delle coste.
 
Hello and thanks to everyone, more photos of the coastline.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

Ciao e grazie a tutti per i like.
 
Hello and thanks to everyone for the likes.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Ciao e grazie a tutti,
Altre foto.
Hello and thanks to everyone,
More photos.
 
Anche te non scherzi Alberto, sei bravissimo.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Hello,
thanks for your feedback and "Likes", I appreciate your support a lot.
Currently I am producing the Gaff and the Boom for the Corvette.
There were many interesting details to clarify. So z. B. is located on the Gaff peak a small metal block for the national flag.
What is still to be clarified is the design of the Gaff goosenecks the boom.

Source: Auszug aus der Monographie zur La Creole von J. Boudriot

Source: William Dwight Whitney The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language (New York, NY: The Century Co., 1911)
 

Source: Text-Book of Seamanship, Commodore S. B. Luce, 1891
 

Source: Musée de la Marine (Bildausschnitt)
 
For the current building conditions of these components here a series of pictures:

Quelle: Musée de la Marine (Bildausschnitt)
 

 
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