Bob Legge

There are a lot of small projects to complete at this point.  The first project was to start the cleaning process.  After five years, the hull inevitably gets a little grimy, especially since it travels with me weekly on the back seat of my car.  I started with compressed air to remove most of the sawdust.  This was followed by moistened Q-tips and bits of paper towel held in a needle driver.  This process took about three hours and will be repeated a few more times in the upcoming months.
 
One of my punch list items was to insert the nails into the ribbands.  I had pre-drilled the holes at the time the ribbands were installed but deferred adding the nails so the blackening would not wear off.
 

 
I have put the ring on the anchor and applied the puddening.  There is a first layer of rope with four seizings on top of that.
 

 
The elm tree pumps were installed earlier but I did not make the handles as I knew they would be damaged.  Needless to lay, this picture was taken before cleaning.  A bracket was shaped to the side of the pump tube and a slot was cut for the handle.  The strap is from black paper.  
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
I shipped the rudder at this point and drilled out the aft plexiglass support to accommodate it.  I discovered that the top of the rudderhead was taller than the rudderhead cover and so this had to be remade.  I prefer the looks of this one as well.  I also installed the binnacle cabinet and secured it to the deck with two ropes.
 

 

 
 
There is netting in the waist which is secured to the stanchions for the hand rail.  This was made with tulle.  The ropes are threaded through the netting and the entire assembly is spray painted.  It was then trimmed and tied to the stanchions.  As you can see, the cannon barrels are not even.  Several of them have been jarred loose and need to be reglued.
 

 

I have now fixed the upper antenna wire to the top of the brass pillar.
 In order to fix the antenna to the top of the insulator I flattened a piece of .040" nickle silver rod then drilled a .020" hole and shaped the end this was then glued into the .040" hole in the top of the insulator.
 

 

 
And a close up of the connection. this follows the connection method on the bonham's Model, so even if it is incorrect it is consistent with the other model. However I think that this makes sense in light of the antenna article.
 

 
just tying this short piece of line to the insulator gave me pause to reflect on the amazing work of all you folk who rig the three mast ships, and especially those working at the miniature scales.
 
Michael
 

Thanks to all for the kind comments.
 
Board stove installed.
 
Part 34

Haven't been painting for a while, but did this yesterday and today 'Dispatches' no particular ships.
Jim
watercolour 14" X 10"

At sea early 20 century.
Not one of my best, but a nice way to pass the afternoon.
W/C 15" X 11"
Jim

Pat, Druxey and Joe thanks for the compliments. And thanks for all those who hit the like button.
 
A couple more cable stays on the port side of the forward funnel.
 

 
Now we can play, Spot the new vent stack.
 

 
If you guessed this one you were correct.
 

 
It is beginning to look like a ship again.
 
Michael

Finished ratlines and shrouds for the foremast....next is the mainmast....I'll start that tomorrow.
I'm slowly progressing.

Thanks for the kind comments.
 
Cut in the deck for a view into Officer's cabin.
 
Karl

 
 

Thanks for the likes. A recent update.

Good morning.

Hi 

Another small update.  After retrying the decals I had two problem; first the colour of the decals just do not show up against the brown (a known issue apparently but I thought I would try), and after trying that I found the wheel had 'roughened' again.  I put the latter issue down to using the water on acrylic paint/gloss when trying to apply the decals.  The photo show the wheel having been redone - please remember the rim is only 1mm wide and 12mm in diameter (OD).
 

 
I have decided that even PE will be difficult at this scale (to etch that is) so we have decided to leave this small detail off.  i think there is enough detail to make the steering arrangement look OK?  Yep - I know - a real 'cop out'.  If I get time I may revisit this when I do the PE for the brass work on the skylights.
 
The following photos show the companing and steering position dry fitted.  In hindsight, I think we opted for a slightly too large rear bench but it will have flag lockers fitted on top of it either side of the wheel and we needed sufficient width to allow for that.  The red 'pull' cord is for igniting the powder via the adapted gunlock on the Common Service Lifebuoy on the transom - this then provided the smoke and/or the flare (night) in the upper pan of the lifebuoy.  nThe black handle is a 'twist to release' for the lifebuoy.  In later times, these two controls were combined.
 
  

 
One remaining issue is to determine what the most probable configuration for the mizzen boom crutch.  The boom extends beyond the transom, and in the photograph of the crew on the quarterdeck, it shows the boom, when in its stowed position, lies to 'port' of the ensign staff.  Unfortunately, as can be seen from the earlier photo of the wheel, it is impossible to make out the configuration of the crutch support.  At the moment I am tempted to have it secured to the transom using the roughtree timber immediately to the left of the centreline and using the back edge of the bench as one of the vertical supports (a hole drilled in the bench).  What I cannot decide for this configuration, is whether any supporting struts would have been required or simply a supporting upper bracket near the top of the roughtree timber.  The next outboard roughtree timber (with the notch in the rail) is for one of the rear davit arms.
 
An alternative is have the crutch with tripod style support configuration, free standing in front of the bench but I think that would be in the way of the helm (not that the crutch would be there when the wheel was manned).  The issue with the first configuration is that the crutch would be in the way of working the boat; but, again the boom, and therefore the crutch, would have had to be moved out of the way before working the boat anyway.
 
Opinions and suggestions eagerly sought
 
cheers
 
Pat

Another small update:
I have progressed the wheel and standard a little further having painted the brass wheel.  The paint to the eye looks smooth but it is very uneven when photographer so close up (noting the rim is only 1mm wide, and the wheel 14mm tip to tip).  The paint is burnt sienna acrylic with a glaze made from varnish and wood stain.  It looks pretty close to the wod used in the standard.
 
One of the photos also shows all the parts ready to be assembled; including some decals I made.  The decals were a dismal failure though as against the brown they just don't show up.  I think I will have to paint the brass plates onto the rim of the wheel after all   With my shaky hands they won't look too flash!  Work in progress so to speak.  I am not sure yet whether to try and further smooth the paint on the wheel; as i said - to the eye it looks OK. 
 
  
 
In the meantime the main companion has been completed; including the ironwork supporting the crutch for the main boom. I have included a close up extract from the quarterdeck photo as a comparison for what we have made.  The legs supporting the crutch look a little oversize but these are less than 1mm diameter so near impossible for my fat hands to get smaller unfortunately - again the close-up photography makes it look rougher than it looks to the eye (the ironwork).
 
  

 
 
cheers
 
Pat

I have also tried to make a grating (it is made from longitudinal wooden laths - they were also used on English ships from that period), but I do not have any accurate plans or images that could help me with a realistic appearance. Now I'm thinking about design of seats of ease, I have several options but I am not sure, which of them is suitable for Royal Katherine from 1670... If you have historically more accurate information, I will be very grateful for your help.
 

 
Best regards,
Doris

Too true: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy
 
I will use the narrowing calculated by mezza lune  to determine length of floor for each position and build the frame using the jig. I will assemble on the building board and use ribbands to help with fairing. Like all great cunning plans, it will grow in the telling.
Dick

After a few transatlantic flights, I've managed to the roughly sketch body plan across the relevant planes set along station lines.  I ended up going back to the patch workspace instead of t-splines as the ability to edit edit and adjust far out-weights the smoothing ability.
 
I've ended up using projected points from the relevant half-breadth and sheer sketches combined with construction lines to establish bounds of the geometry.  Unfortunately it looks a little noisy in the screen capture.
 



 
I tried using splines but quickly became frustrated and went back to using arcs and tangent constraints.  Originally I used 4-5 arc segments for some but once I discovered the zebra analysis and repeatedly adjusted the curves for fairness, it became apparent that as few arcs as possible will result in improved fairness.
 
 

 
While still can be improved, if I keep continuing at this point i'll be spinning my wheels until I'm able to model other areas.  Which brings me to how to bridge the stern post, station 20 up through the wing transom.
 
I created construction planes using the sheer plan for the bottom of the wing transom, transom #1 - #4, and one in between the keel and the bottom of #4.
 

I then created sketches on these planes.  This adds some complexity as projections will be skewed when looking down towards the top of the keel.  I added the various reference points and intersected the stern post at each sketch.  However, a rough sketch of the filling transoms (?) profiles appear way off from the TFFM half breadth plans.
 
I've struggled making the 15" square at head of the stern post fit the rest of the plans.   TFFM states 1' 3" on pg. 41, pg. 64.    However, the plans seem to agree with about 12".   Additionally, the contract I have for the Hornet states:
 
"The stern post to be of good wound? oak tim of the best kind free from defects. sq. at head 12 1/2 (which is t run up to bolt in the Lua? deck beam)"
 
Which leads credence to the ~12" dimension. 
 
Does anyone have thoughts on regarding this?
 
This screen shot is taken top down which means the profile lines for the filling transoms are project per the angle of they're drawn on.  
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Yes it is a wonderful feeling to be back in the yard..and with some days set aside for the very task..I hope to put the hours to good use...though I will probably be working in the machine shop getting a telescope ready for the weekend as well.   rigging can be so rewarding and slow at the same time.
Thanks for the fine comments Michael.

Finished for the day..but I'll be back at it tomorrow......
 
Got the top shrouds finished now got one side of the topgallant finished.  I hope to have all the ratlines for the mast finished up tomorrow so I can begin on the mainmast next.

I'll begin and finish each mast as a single project to make the building go faster(in my mind). 
Here I've begun the rigging of the shrouds and lanyards for the formast.

I'm finding that I will have more time this week to spend on the GR..so I began on finishing up the top spreaders and adding some deadeyes.
 
Rob

A couple images of the new boats and their davits.
Rob

Thanks Patrick...I really appreciate that.  I feel I spend more time in research then on the build itself.  I was prefabricating parts for the spider rings that hold belaying pins around the mast feet.
It's funny how it all comes together in a convincing manner, when it feels sometimes that I'm rushing...comparatively speaking.  Actually I like working fast......My 1/96 hybrid build of the Cutty Sark on her repair ways(getting a new rudder)...took me 3 months to build.   So in retrospect...this is one of the longest builds I've engaged in.
 
3 months to build this....

Hello,

just a short update:

Hello,
 
and thank you all for your likes.
Today I finished the long feared paint job  I do not like it very much, but to the end my hands get more calm and I think the result is not sooo bad 
 
At one of the pictures with the cheeks not painted, you may have seen that the left one was a little higher than the right one. That came because the treenail was in a wrong hole. I saw it first at the picture and went immediately down into the basement to see what had happens, but all is ok. 
 

 

 

 

 
And here you see why I do not like the job very much, it's all so small.
 

 

Hello,
 
it is done, the cheeks are mostly ready. First some pictures before I have painted them.
 

 

 
Here I started painting them. That was from the feeling more work then building them. But this is only the basis paint  The real hard work begins tomorrow,  all these small acanthuses.