BLACK VIKING

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments and likes.
 
Manufacture and assembly of the cannon barrel.
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though I'm deep in my current build I've really enjoyed looking at kits and thinking about what my next project will be and I'm intrigued by the Soleil Royal. I really like ships of this era and am hoping to be able to move up to something this complex after finishing my current build. I've been looking at these two different kits and other than the scale are there any major differences that might make one or the other a better kit? There are a ton of videos of deAgostini builds but I haven't found nearly as much on the Mantua kit and the build logs I've found are doing pretty extensive rebuilds for accuracy which isn't something I'm probably ready to do yet. Builds of both that I've seen look fantastic so I'm just interested in any feedback on these two kits that anyone would be willing to share. 

Other thole-pins with their boards built :
     

Well, with the continued encouragement of Vane, I have decided to break the ice and start a build log for my efforts on the HMS Granado.  I have ordered the AOTS reference and my wife was super kind and found a nice reference book on the builder....
 
Granado was ordered to be constructed on September 14th, 1741 and the keel was laid on November 18th, 1741. The construction of the ship occurred at St Clements on the River Orwell near Ipswich.  The Granado's design was unusual in that she was to be used as either a sloop or a bomb vessel, being constructed with a conventional square stern.   Launched on June 22nd, 1742, Granado was initially taken to Harwich, and fitted out and put in commission as a sloop.  It was not until 1756 that Granado was fitted for the first time as a bomb vessel from an Admiralty Order on July 26th 1756.  However, between the launch of Granado and her fitting as a bomb vessel, a number of changes had been made as compared to the original Admiralty plans, the most noticeable of these were as follows:

1.     Two extra 4pdr carriage guns were added (Admiralty order of June 20th 1745) bringing the total 4pdr carriage guns to 10.
2.     Two bow chaser gun ports were added allowing accommodation of the extra guns either under the forecastle as bow chasers or at the fifth gunports.
3.     The mortars as shown in the Admiralty plans are two 13 inch mortars however when fitted as a bomb vessel this was actually changed to 1 x 13inch and 1 x 10inch mortar. This is confirmed by the provisions list on March 30th 1757 which details 50 large and 50 small shells.

It was during its period as a bomb vessel that Granado was involved in her most active role.  On January 22nd, 1759, Granado and the squadron under command of Commodore John Moore anchored off Basse Terre.   By January 24th troops had occupied the forts of Basse Terre and Fort Royal, and the town had been devastated by fire caused by the carcasses discharged from the bomb vessels.
On February 7th, the fleet moved to attack Fort Louis at the entrance to Cul de Sac Bay. The attack began the following day and by February 15 the bombardment ceased with the capture of the Fort.

Granado remained as a bomb vessel until the Admiralty Order to fit her as a sloop on March 20th 1760.  Granado was again converted to a bomb vessel in August 1761 and she remained as such until she was sold on August 30th 1763 for £575. During this period Granado was involved in the action of capturing Morro Castle and El Morro in the West Indies and the capitulation of Havana on August 13th 1762.

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'Fisher Lassie' heading out. w/c 16” X 11”

Oars and the klides on which the oars were binded (Ion. κληΐς [ῑ], κληῗδος, κληῗδα, etc. (Hom. uses only the Ion. form):—Dor. κλᾱΐς, κλαΐδος [ῐ] Simon.23)

Hi there,
 
Welcome to my building log. Resumed the building this year and wanted to share some of learnings. More pictures than words:) This is my first build and i have obtained plenty of useful information from this forum. 
 
1. Align frames straight and sand them properly and smoothly which will make much easier for planking
2. Use the first layer of planking as practice. Measure the gap and do some math. In short, the middle is much wider than the front and end. There are several videos in YouTube that i found helpful for planking. i would suggest to finish one plank in the center and start from the bottom
3. Mark the position of the gunport. Cut the gunport after the first layer of planking is completed (this is different from the manual)
4. Spend more time on the second layer of planking and try to avoid small gaps between planks. if you do have gaps you can use wood fill or scratch wood to fill it in
5. Buy different grades of sand papers, sand blocks, pins, clamps, super glue gel (better than liquid), knife blades, stains, etc.
 
It may take a bit longer for the next update.
 
Cheers,
 
F
 

Todays pic. 
On the Banks after Cod.
w/c 19” x 11”

Last pictures to see the overall views....
 


 
Next step the oars!!!!.....

Good afternoon everyone 
 
day 22 hawse timbers fitted
 
thank you for comments and likes
 
i would like to think im getting better at the wooden kit building, or the quality of the kit is, lol must be the latter 
 
thats the hawse timbers in, although i needed to remove a bit of wood

Finished the bowsprit (see pics), which is really interesting with the small mast & shrouds at the end.  
 
I was looking at this and thinking about the spritsail, which on the real ship must have put a lot of torque on the sprit in high winds.  Looking at the rigging plans, I don't see a lot of side bracing, but I may not be looking closely enough.
 
Regards,
David

I've visited the Victory twice - once in 1973 and once in 2009. I missed the Warrior - we had a choice and decided on the "harbour cruise" - a mistake in retrospect. And the Mary Rose had just been locked away while they built a new building to display her in. But they compensated by displaying an enormous number of artefacts found on board, so we didn't miss out completely.
 
The redback is pretty much equivalent to the black widow - apparently a variant of the same species. The red mark varies from individual to individual - sometimes it's not very obvious.
 

 
They're pretty tiny - about the size of the pic above. We see them a fair bit. They like to hide in dark crannies - there's an old song  called Redback on the Toilet Seat. I had a mate who woke up with redback bites all over his stomach (it'd been in his bed and must have panicked). He got sick but survived ok. But apparently you can die from anaphylaxis - the poison is more powerful than that of the funnelweb, but doesn't act as fast - 15 minutes for a funnelweb. Then there's the white-tip, whose bite makes your flesh rot, though recent information suggests that's not true after all . . .
 
You sure you want to come here? 

Slow and steady progress on the hull over the past week and a half, but tonight I glued in the last two planks of the first layer. I've done a bit of sanding, but have a ways to go to smooth everything out. I'm mostly satisfied with the work I've done, though I would hardly call it perfect. The bow still has a bit of a clinker effect that I'm hoping I can sand down. The stern hasn't been sanded or cleaned up at all yet, so it still looks a bit raggedy where I trimmed the planks. The planks between the maximum curve and keel amidships have some gaps that I've filled with PVA glue and sawdust (not clearly visible in the photos).
 
I also built a slip for the boat to sit in while I work on it. The kit provides a 6x6x500 piece of limewood for just this purpose. After cutting it in half, I attached the two pieces to a random piece of 3/4"x2" that I had sitting around from another project. 
 
Next steps: I've trimmed the tops of the bulwark frames from the main deck and so need to finish planking it. Then I'll plank the sides of the parapet and add deck planking to the fore- and aft-decks. 
 
Photos are a full shot from the starboard side, then three details of stern, midship, and bow. Finally, two shots from straight ahead and straight behind.
 

ML and Corvette stand by a surrendering U boat off the Canadian Atlantic coast w/c 16.5” X 11.75

Hugging Truss!!!!!!

15 m of thread 0.15 mm diameter. Stressed and organized
 



 
Fixed and tied...
 

 

As Craig has shown, There is no river Hulk for it to have a mouth. Mouth comes from the anglo-saxon mūða which does mean mouth as in outlet of  cf. Portesmūða meaning mouth of the portus. Hence my contention that os hulci means outlet or port for hulks. I think that whichever bored monk was given the job of coming up with a logo for Shoreham had a mean sense of humour which could only be satisfied by punning. The misspelling of singno and dingno is probably due to a dingbat of a carver who couldnt carve letters backwards or had too much mead for breakfast.
I'm going away to lie down for a while.😕
Dick

I appreciate the compliment, Mark!
 
Well, with the harps made, the windows are now complete, and I’m about 60% of the way, done, with the amortisement.
 
Final assembly will take some finessing, but here is what we have so far:

Next up, I will tackle the semi-structural elements above the windows.
 
Thanks for the likes and for looking in!

Capture and sinking of U744 LtoR HMCS StCatherines  HMS Icarus  U477  HMCS Chilliwack 
watercolour 16.5“ X 11.75”

Hello everybody.
I am kinda new here. I mean i have kept an eye on basically every ship build here.
And now i thought its time for me to post my build! 
This isn´t my first build (first was La Couronne - because of the price tag :D),
but this one i want to make as original as possible (for the real thing).
As I said my goal is to make this ship as it is right now..not what it was.
But will see through the process. Maybe some colors here and there- will see! 
 
And little bit of the backstory as well.
Like my name says i am from Estonia. I have liked those old ships from the very beginning.
Saw the first one..an boom liked it and it stay´d this way. And i remember when i was young 
i always wondered how the hell people build these... because my ships what i build these days
was basically just arrow shaped wood blanks with sails But now when we have internet and computers
i have searched here and there..i found these kits and everything. and then i stumbled 
upon this forum. and only thought what i had in my mind was: Dear diary- JACKPOT! 
i have learned so much from you guys. And now i want to put all this knowledge to work!
And bit what i have done so far (almost a year of building).
 
I really don´t like these plastic figurines..so i made them all out of wood
so they look authentic! And i painted the ship dark brown... well the color dark brown was on the canister 
lid but the ship came out pretty black but i don´t mind!
and there are some pictures of the progress so far! And now when the winter is coming and the nasty Covid-19 raising his 
head it time to start building again! 
Martin.

Final sail is ready.  Now to finish the deck furnishings (finally decided to make my own blocks for the carronade and main boom horse/traveler).  Then it's time to set the deadeyes and shrouds.
 

Thanks for the replies.
With respect to figures - I have been investigating several online figure creators that allow you to download an .stl file for 3D printing. Most of these are geared toward fantasy and model railroad figures and kind of miss out on 18th and early 19th century maritime figures that I'm interested in.  I managed to make a "navy-like" officer in Hero Forge (heroforge.com).  The process is fairly straight forward - you  pick and choose pre-made bodies, parts, clothes, poses to assemble a figure.  You can customise the pose and, when you're ready, you pay $7.99 (US) to download the .stl file.  You can actually have them print the figure for you for $19.99.  They state it is roughly 1:48 scale. (25mm or 30mm). 

 
I bought the download (emailed to me in maybe 30 minutes) and opened it in ChituBox software (free) in order to create a file for my Elegoo Mars resin printer.  i added supports (easy) to make sure that the model prints correctly.

There are many types and colours of resins you can use for the printing. I purchased a standard grey UV-sensitive resin which must be cleaned in 100% ethanol/isopropanol and, since my workshop is next to my furnace, I quickly purchased a water-washable resin.  (Winter is coming and I don't want to wash parts in 100% alcohol outdoors when it's -25C!)  Here are the results using the two resins:

Back to the ChituBox software to scale that figure to 1/92.  I'll print that size shortly and get back to you folks.

Clear skies!
Gabe
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Its good to be back and modeling, I'm continuing my Hannah build after being shelved for 5 years.

I think I will try the paper shields! What would you suggest for the boss?
 
Anyways, made some actual progress today! These are just smartphone captures so not the highest quality. Went black and red - think it came out nice!
 

20200915
Yesterday evening I finished the rudder.  I decided not to stain or paint it but to leave it the natural wood color.  To lash it to the sternpost, before gluing the rudder to the post, I drilled 5 x 0.8mm holes just off the edge of the post.  After the glue dried I used a small sewing needle to pass the smallest diameter thread that came with the kit through each hole so that I ended up with 4 loops around the post.  I pulled the thread tight and then glued the thread close to the post on both sides of the rudder letting a bit of glue fill-in each hole.  I held the threads taut with some clamps and once it had set trimmed the ends close to the rudder. A drop more glue and the ends of the threads disappeared.  Most of the stern post is hidden by what I’m calling bulkhead 0 (the instructions call it frame 0) so not using any paint on the sternpost allows it to move in the grooves filed in the stern-most part of the keel and bulkhead 0.  I decided to use the lighter of the two colors of 1mm x 2mm wood strips to finish framing the rudder.  This morning, after letting all the glue dry overnight, I sprayed a light coat of clear acrylic on the rudder, lashings and lower portion of the post.  I’ll give it one more coat this evening after a light sanding.
 
Having time this morning before I had to be in the office, I glued the false decks in place.  The false decks needed a bit of minor work (dry fitting, sanding, nibbling, and repeat as needed) to get them to fit right.  No major issues here.  The aft (upper) false deck overhangs the stern just enough to cover bulkhead 0 when that is installed later today. 
 
Will start thinking about the hull planking after I get the rudder and bulkhead 0 installed.

Bulwark and hull painted.
I know that line is not that smooth that I wanted but I'm satisfied with it.
I'm gonna keep it this way.
 
 
Sjors