DelF

Tell the War Department that's fine, so long as she doesn't mind the furniture being 1:64 scale 😀

Looks good to me too Ernie - a very sound basis for your second planking.

Thanks Chuck & Vlad. I've just ordered Model Shipways' 18th Century Longboat - another Chuck-designed classic that should make a fine addition to the fleet. Derek

Welcome to the club! Very neat work on the counter, btw. Derek

There's a danger this is going to turn into "the cannon rigging log", 'cos that's all I seem to be doing these days. Having said that I'm enjoying the challenge, including the opportunity to refresh old skills such as silver soldering. Having decided to fully rig the guns one of the first tasks has been to make the 28 ringbolts required for the breechings. I made my first attempt with 0.50mm brass wire... ...and quickly decided it was over scale. I settled on 30 s.w.g. / 0.32mm which equates to 20mm/0.8" at 1:64 scale. My method for making rings is fairly standard, starting by winding the wire round a 1.0mm drill bit... ...then cutting along the resulting coil with the smallest snips I could find: The wire I'm using is soft, so squeezing the individual pieces back into rings is fairly easy - apart from the inevitable tendency for rings to go pinging off to be lost in the black hole lurking in most workshops. I probably lost around one in five that way (and yes, I've read the entertaining forum topic on that phenomenon and tried the various solutions suggested, all to little or no avail. But I digress). I thought I could get away without soldering the rings, but unfortunately the brass is so soft and easily bent that I had great difficulty getting them to stay on their bolts. So, out with the silver soldering kit. For very small jobs like this I use silver solder paste which works a treat as the flux and solder are combined in the one material. The brass is so thin I found the solder melted into the join when I got within about 20 mm with the torch. Here's what happened when I got too close: Believe it or not, the blob on the right is all that was left of a ring the same size as the one on the left. Next, I fitted bolts by just bending a piece of wire round the rings and snipping it off short. Before going any further I checked the breeching would pass through the ringbolt: The breeching I'm using is 0.75mm rope I made on my Syren rope rocket. Another of my favourite tools. That test passed, I blackened then fitted the ringbolts: I'm happy with the size and appearance. Unfortunately they rather show up the photo etch rings for the side and train tackles, but I draw the line at making another three ringbolts for every carriage. I'm sure all will look fine when all the tackle is in place. On tackle, I've re-thought my approach to blocks and hooks. Although the method I described in a previous post works - gluing the hook in a hole drilled in the top of the block - the process involved is fiddly and nerve-wracking to say the least, and I'm not convinced the resulting tackle will be robust enough to withstand handling when I come to rig the guns. I can imagine a fair percentage failing. So, in search of another approach I ordered some 0.20 mm brass wire. This is 12 mm/0.5" at scale which seems reasonable. I can't photograph the process I used at this scale, and neither can I claim copyright. I got the idea from EdT's magnificent Young America log - here. Basically, you take a short length of wire, wrap it round the block, take one end and wrap it round the other, and shape the latter into a hook. I dropped the block complete with hook into acetone followed by Brass Black, which didn't seem to do the block any harm. This is the result: At 4 mm overall length I'm happy with that. Only another 83 to go! Derek

I really like that deep, rich red - to my eye it goes very well with the pearwood. Like you, I'm usually more interested in vessels of the Georgian era, but I could be seriously tempted by this little cracker. Derek

Very impressive Glenn. That cedar is beautiful, especially with the wipe on poly. If I hadn't known different I'd have assumed it was boxwood. I'm seriously tempted to add this ship to the dockyard waiting list. Derek

Thanks guys. I'm still a bit daunted by the amount of work involved in fully rigging the guns (I think I'll be well over Chris's estimate of 50 - 70 hours for the build!) but at least I now know it's possible, and hopefully worth the effort. My jigs are not usually that posh! The stand was lying around unused from a previous build - a Victory cross section that I built a picture frame for instead. Derek

First attempts at cannon rigging Thanks (?!) everyone for encouraging me to fully rig all Speedy's 14 four-pounders. I wanted to have another go at making my own blocks. However I haven't been able to make anything acceptable at the required size, the smallest I can manage being about 2.75mm. Here it is with a Syren 2.0mm block for comparison: Syren blocks aren't available at the moment but I was able to order some from Vanguard and they arrived today. I'm very happy with the quality: ...nicely shaped, with good grooves for the strop. Here's my first go at adding a strop and hook: In both cases I made the hooks from brass wire, using the thinnest I have (0.33mm) for the new Vanguard block. Apart from my difficulty in achieving a consistent shape, I can't get them small enough to look right, so I had a re-think. Eventually I found I could drill a #80 hole in the end of a block, which is just right for the thinner wire. First, I pushed a short length of wire through the top sheave hole to prevent the shaft of the hook from interfering with the rigging line, then drilled through the top of the block until I hit the wire. Keeping the wire in place, I put a minute drop of CA on the hook and inserted the shaft in the block. No-one could have been more surprised than me when the glue held the hook, in what must be a truly tiny amount of wood. I've tried this before with tiny blocks and they've just crumbled under the drill, so it says a lot for the quality of Vanguard's pearwood. Here's the new hooked block alongside the previous attempts: The hook isn't perfect and I should be able to improve it, although at this scale I'm not sure how much it will show. I took Glenn and Blue Ensign's advice and made a little jig from scrap wood to rig the tackle off the model: This is just a test for the side tackle so I've not blackened the hooks and I'm just using some spare 0.1mm line. I'll probably dye it a bit darker for the real thing. This is my first go at frapping: Could do better, as my school reports often said! However I'm quite pleased with the scale and overall appearance of the tackle, and that's what I was most concerned about. As I said previously, if I couldn't have managed something small enough and neat enough I'd rather just leave the guns un-rigged. Onwards and upwards then. Derek

Thanks B.E., very helpful advice. I must admit I’ve been struggling to work out how to manage hooks that size. Derek

Those rubbing strakes really help to show off the lines of the hull. I found rapid acting aliphatic resin (Super 'Phatic brand) almost as fast as CA when I used it to glue a batten to define my Speedy's waterline. Derek

Well done. You'll be catching the rest of us up in no time!

I've just noticed in the Speedy instruction manual that Chris refers to the inhaul and outhaul tackle collectively as the training tackle. Probably where I got it from. My excuse anyway. Derek

OK, I can see I'm not going to get away without at least trying to rig the guns. Glenn - I think even 2.5mm blocks would be over-scale for 4-pounders. They'd be over 6 inches. Chris suggests 2.0mm which equates to almost exactly 5 inches. Not a huge difference, but I think it would show on such small cannon. I normally like to make my own blocks and I've previously tried 2mm but with very limited success. I've therefore ordered some 2mm pearwood blocks from Chris and I'll experiment. I'll blame you and VTH if I'm still struggling and cursing in a month's time😀. Derek

I suspect I got the terminology wrong, so the apology is mine. When I referred to training tackle I meant the rigging Blue Ensign calls side tackle. There's a very good review of cannon rigging here, in which the side tackle is called the outhaul tackle (because it is used to haul the gun outwards through the gunport) and also the gun tackle. The tackle used to haul the gun inboard is variously called the inhaul tackle and the training tackle. I think my confusion was caused because the gun/outhaul tackle can also be used to train (i.e. traverse) the gun. Confusing? Just a bit! Looking at Blue Ensign's Alert makes me tempted to try full rigging. On the other hand, Speedy has 14 4-pounders which will present an even greater challenge than Alert's 10 6-pounders. Decisions, decisions. Derek