BLACK VIKING

Hello and thanks to everyone for the kind comments.
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20200911
Yesterday went to visit the local hobby shop without any clear intention to purchase a new kit but if I saw one I just couldn’t pass up…
Came away with the Amati Chinese Pirate Junk.  POB so my first planking kit. 
Opened the box when I got home, perused the drawings and instructions, boxed everything back up for the evening and started doing some research.  1st impression was that Amati’s instructions, while clearly written, are a bit sparser than the ones that came with my first build (Corel Line’s Mayflower) and the drawings are also a bit sparser.  Second impression was that this should be an interesting build.  And then the old saw – take your time.
 
20200912
Too nice a day to spend inside today so not much accomplished.  Have the keel piece and bulkheads cutout and the first 2 bulkheads mounted to the keel.  Enough for today.

HMCS Rockcliffe on escort duty in the North Atlantic.
w/c 16.5” X 11.75”

Dusk, WW2 heading out into the Channel.Polish MGB's Sally Forth looking for trouble. 
w/c 16" X 11"
Jim

The wooldings for the after mast wedges in progress, and complete:
 
           
 
 
 
Foremast - as mentioned above the halyard knight needed to be moved aft so the mast didn't foul its operation. Here is the deck with the knight removed, then with the slot in the deck extended aft and a new length of plank inserted to close up the gap, all the way to the mast. Then I trimmed the gap so the tenon of the knight fitted exactly into it and relocated the knight to allow enough room for its lanyards to run freely. 
 
                  
 
I started making the lateen sails. As they are going to be furled I made them narrower than full size so they wouldn't be too bulky when furled. Unfortunately the first method I used didn't work - I cut the fabric out, then taped it down and glued the bolt rope to the top of the sail (the bit that goes against the yard). But as the fabric  was cut on the bias - i.e. at 45 degrees to the weave - the sails mutated. You can see below that the straight line I'd cut along the horizontal had stretched downward, pulling the ends inward - I trimmed the cloth against the bolt rope, but when I measured the sails against the yards they were quite a bit too short.
 
        
 
       
  
So I started again. This time I didn't cut the fabric until the bolt ropes were glued in place, which kept it from deforming.
 
  
 
And when the glue was dry I cut the sails out. Now, because I'd allowed extra fabric in case they shrank the sails were too long, so I cut them to length and everything worked very nicely. Now I'm in the process of fixing the first sail to the yard with robands - a lot more fiddly and difficult than I'd expected - and very frustrating; I have great difficulty tying a reef knot in cotton thread - fingers too clumsy, tweezers keep on slipping at the last moment - I've finally taken to tying a thumb knot and adding a dab of glue, allowing it to dry and coming back to finish the knot. Very time consuming.
 
I took the third photo from a funny angle, so it looks like the sail starts a fair way down the yard. In fact it comes all the way up to the blocks - the end part is just flipped on its edge so you can't see it.
 
 
         
 
 
While I'm waiting for the glue to dry I've been getting the halyards themselves sorted out and attached to the yards:
 
 
 
 

 
That's all for now. More to follow as I get more done.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sounds good. Apart from anything else, you'll be the only one who knows (apart from all of us, of course) that you've deviated from an exact copy of the original.
 
In my view, they probably didn't get too fussed with exact placement (unless there really is some reason for the frames to be off-square) - all they wanted was something to keep the sides from being squoze inwards by the pressure of the seawater. I doubt that a Viking would get upset with you for doing it this way. On the other hand . . .
 
                          
 
 

Thanks for all the likes and the comments.
 
PhilB, glad to be of service - but be aware that my ship is lateen rigged, while yours would be square rigged, and the rigging plan is different. And I don't believe you need to have that kind of adjustment at the lower end of your shrouds. I've added some info regarding this to your build log.
 
Making the blocks was rather difficult - at that scale (remembering that these are copies of real ones from archaeology) I couldn't get a drill bit the right size - the holes had to be drilled with a dressmaking pin with the head cut off. And they don't have real sheaves (pulleys) in slots - I just drilled two holes and carved a fake slot and "sheave" between them. Five sets done so far - another 7 to do; then I'll have enough to set up the shrouds.
 
In the meantime I've also been working on the guys hoisting the after yard. I got a legth of wire to approximate a straight rope (rope's too flexible) so I could get them all in line. Not a perfect job - some of their feet don't touch the ground! -but when I glue them to the deck and replace the wire with a rope there should be enough flexibility to allow everything to work without the slight deviation from a straight line being noticeable. I don't know if you can see that the hands are based on the photos above of me hauling on the garden hose, but I put a lot of work into that and I'm pretty happy with the result.
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

Luckily @Morgan discovered a small detail in the large Turner painting: The anchor lining, almost hidden by the fallen fore sail.
 

 
Looking at the Turner scribbles there is a line, that could be interpreted as the bolster for the lost lining.
 

 
Looking at the Queen Charlotte of the the same time, one could see how it should have looked.
 

 
First the frame was added ...
 

 
... then I realised that the lower batten should have been the bolster. Took one step that was left from the entry port and it fitted 🙂
 

 
Unfortunately it broke while fixing 😞
 
The replacement part was bent the wrong way, so I took the time for a cup of tea and did hang the part inside to make it flexible, bent it the right direction and let it cool down in its new shape.
 

 
After fixing it, I realised that it sat not properly ... 
 

 
... even the paint did not help.
 

 
So another disassembly took place ...
 

 
... and then it fitted 🙂
 
As the anchor lining was to protect the hull and the irons from the anchor, I wanted to show some scratches. First I took a spare anchor to simulate its way up ...
 

 

 

 

 
But how do those scratches look like? It was not a metal hull with clean rounded scratches, but I opted for some splinters on the edges of the planks and some flakes of paint coming off. The color I oppted for a warm siversih grey, like old exposed wood is showing.
 

 
Need some black ink to simulate depth.
 

 
After the lanyards was fixed ...
 

 
... things were done 🙂
 

 
Cheers, DAniel

Hot off the Brush. Thames Estuary on a blustery day. w/c 14” X 10”

Patrick, As always thank so much - As you know I'm a huge fan of your work.
 
Minor update - need to re-do bowsprit area so thought I would add these two bits. Added the gratings as well.
 
Regards,
 

I have heard that sentiment here and elsewhere, and it is my guiding ethos on this build.  My objective, always, is to maintain a standard that will allow the viewer to get up really close and scrutinize the work.  It isn’t that they won’t find flaws, errors or omissions, but they definitely won’t find any distracting sloppiness.
 
So, the knee extensions are glued-in, and I think the run of their sweep is fair and consistent.  I like the look of the raised bolsters around the hawse holes.
 
Given how fragile the artists’ acrylic, raw sienna was when I applied it - I was surprised at how difficult it was to scrape away from the glue areas, a year later.  Granted, there was a clear topcoat applied, but it took real effort to scrape the yellow, once you were past the topcoat.



There’s a little bit of putty work that still needs to happen, here, and then I’ll prime, paint and repair finishes in the bow area.
 
The beakhead deck is secure, now.  You can see the styrene fill, along the leading edge:


Filling that gap facilitated a natural camber which should be present, anyway.
 
Ultimately, I have decided that I will maintain the roundhouses.  While I agree with Chapman that they probably are not correct, the wrapping hull modification was complicated by the fact that this sweeping wrap extends up into the upper bulwarks.  Builders of this kit know that the upper bulwarks are separate pieces that I am nowhere near ready to install.  So, I think I will just avoid all of that, on this build, and look to install additional simple seats of ease.  Here are the roundhouses painted, but not installed:

I have not yet applied the walnut ink wash.  This red color, though, will be what I apply to the beakhead bulkhead, along the run of the main deck ports, selectively throughout the lower quarter galleries, and throughout the stern facade.  It is also an artist acrylic, proprietary mix for BLICK.
 
I’ve thinned it considerably with water, and the color lays down beautifully in thin coats.  I have found that the artists’ acrylics are hit or miss.  Fortunately, my blues are going to work!
 
I also picked up a bottle of the Tamiya X20 thinner for acrylics, and this helped with the application of my yellow ocher, so that was a great help.
 
I’m finishing up my starboard amortisement dolphins, and I was amazed to realize that they are about 1/32” taller than the port side:

Here, I have the P&S forward carvings back to back:

I double-checked the 90% reduction photo copies and there is no distortion from one side to the other.  They match up perfectly.  I can adjust this, so that both sides match, but it remains a mystery.
 
I have figured out what the process will be for making the false amortisement windows that go between these dolphin carvings.  Those will be my next small-work project, and I think they should be relatively straight-forward.
 
Here is the stock port headrail, as it currently aligns:

Unfortunately, I will not be able to use these; the headrails need to lap the hull by about another 1/4”, and there is no feasible way to stretch or modify these so that they look good and right.
 
Patterning new ones will enable me to correct the problem of the forward scroll rising up, alongside the sprit-mast, thus spoiling the line fairleads.  I will also be able to space the headrail vertical timbers (decorated with lyres in Berain’s drawing) so that they align with the headrail supporting timbers.  This way, I can space those supporting timbers, along the trailboard, in a way that makes sense.  Ultimately, I believe that I can graft the forward scroll and rear escutcheon onto the new headrails, thus saving an enormous amount of time.
 
If I can achieve all of that, I will have done justice to the bow.  Before I do my paint touch-ups, I’ll get busy extending the beakhead bulkhead and getting that in place.
 
Thank you all for looking in.  Enjoy this last week of the summer, as best you can!

Thanks Tom (usedtosail) and Mark for your comments and the others for the likes and visits.
 
Since I had finished the upper well structure and everything in that central part of the orlop deck seemed OK I was keen to have a try at the more complicated mid-ships beam which has the beam arms attached.
My only previous experience with deck beams, carlings and ledges was with the slightly simpler, flat and square orlop ones.
The curved beam arms looked more complicated, although the basic cutting of them was reasonably straightforward with the bandsaw and smoothing them with a sanding drum in the drill press . . . but first I had to decide on their configuration.
I had a good rummage through the Fifty Gun Ship book (there are no plans for the deck beams in the plans/drawings I have) and could only find a few drawings of beams for 50 gun ships from an earlier period.
Here is the best one I could find with the mid-ships beam with beam arms circled in red >

 
Having looked at so many build logs of Royal Navy ships from the late 1700s, what I saw in that drawing above differed somewhat as far as that central beam was concerned, so I opted to go with what I was seeing in the other builds.
This is first attempt at the rather complicated joint between the beam and the arm >

 
. . . and 'clicked' together >

 
First dry fit >

 
Both beam arms with one carling on each >

 
On the models I've viewed there have been some with two ledges between beams, some with three ledges and some with four ledges, so, at first I opted to go with two ledges >

 
I was quite happy with that first attempt, but the more I looked at it the more I began to think there probably should be at least three ledges between the two beams.
So ~ ~ ~ for the other side I decided to go for three.

 
Doing three ledges involved creating more mortices -- reasonably easy to do the 'square' mortices, but a bit more of a challenge to do the angled mortices in the beam arm and in the lodging knee.
 
Here, a bit of an incongruous picture showing the difference between the two sides >

 
OK ~ it may look a little odd but as the deck will be planked and nothing of the beams, carlings and ledges will be seen, I am leaving it the way it is.  There was quite a lot of work and time spent on these beam arms and associated 'bits' - even just the simpler starboard side, and in reality it was something of an experiment as I wanted to see if I could tackle that new challenge.
 
Here, the beams, the arms, carlings and ledges are now glued in position with the upper well also in position.
In this picture only the starboard lodging knee was still to be fitted (it can be seen lying on the cable tier) >

 

Thanks matt.  Sail material is a little heavy but I'm liking it so far.
 
Main sail rigging in process now
 

On the Clyde
 

First time in over 20 years the ship has had yards on the foremast!!  Now the rigging fun begins!
Thanks,
Mark

The sail mounting and sail rigging was completed. The oars were carved, painted and bundled. The Gokstad is finished. 😎
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These upper knee extensions have been a real challenge to fit, so far.
 
A big part of the challenge is that I raised the upper knee a solid 1/32”, in order to buy a little extra space for the trailboard.  That modification, though, did result in the need to add and shim with new plastic.
 
One upgrade that I wanted to attempt was to raise the cheeks, surrounding the hawse holes, which I think I reasonably succeeded at.  In this reverse-engineering environment, it isn’t perfect, but I think it is passably better than stock.



Be well, and thank you for looking in!
 

Queen Mary

And some more - the front face of the port castle is done. I re-used the arches -once I'd separated them I just had to trim them a bit to fit.
 
     
 
   
 
And here's the castle dry fitted in place. Doesn't look too shabby at all . . . you'd never know I'd stuffed up.
 
     
 
Still working on the back of the castle - If it sticks out too much inboard the crew won't be able to get between the castle and the pump assembly.
 
And here are the blocks for the tacks and the vangs in place on the yards.
 
     
 
I've made four bitts to take various bits of rigging (halyards, sheets).
 

 
And here they are in place. (The aftermost one is a bit hard to see because it's mostly hidden behind the aft crutch for the yards.)
 
      
 
 

Hi all . I have cut out a few more bulkheads and the false keel . I must admit they take a lot longer than I thought but I'm not going anywhere so they will take as long as they take. As you can see from the pictures I have cut them way side the line so I can sand them down to the right level. Hopefully it's going to be a nice day tomorrow so I can cut some more. 
Cheers for following 
Martyn

Hi all 
I have now completed cutting out all the bulkheads and kell and have dry fitted to see how they fit and all seems fine.
Next job cutting out the decks from some 2mm ply .
Thanks for following.
Martyn

Hi amazone the plans are from the Corel Vasa which I built several years ago but I have changed a pop decks to look like the Flying Dutchman. I looked at the ship from the film and thought that looks like the Vasa so it was the perfect candidate.
 Thanks for following 
Martyn

Hi all .
I have been a bit busy on the FD . The planking has been finished and sanded down. I was going to second plank the hull but I like the look of it as she is meant to look all beaten up.
Next job planking the decks and capping the bulwarks. All the wood has been left over from all the other builds I have done so this has cost me next to nothing so far and quite pleased with the outcome. I'm not very good at carving so I plan to use modelling clay for the carvings so just wondering what the best one to use .
Thanks for following 
Martyn

Continuing on with the sail rig...
 
After some thought and referral to an earlier MSW post:
 
 
So the sheet terminates in a tack knot, secured by a loop for the clue line as there doesn't appear to be a block used for the topgallant clueline end.
 
 

 
Although I'm still unsure as Lennarth Peterson's book shows the lines passing through a sheave in the topsail and topgallant yards? Was this an artistic simplification or perhaps specific to the Melampus model his book was based on?
 

 
 
Hopefully I'm on the right track.
 

8/31/2020
A couple of days ago I finished the yards and started hanging them and working on the standing rigging.  After making a bit of a mess ‘tarring’ line with diluted paint I decided to try something a bit different – Sharpie permanent marker.  Working like a charm – no paint specks around the workshop and doesn’t take any time to dry.
 
Yesterday I continued with the standing rigging.  Was cruising right along; at least I thought so.  After a few hours work I took a really critical look at my work.  To say I wasn’t really pleased is an understatement.  Along the way I managed to tilt the mizzen mast forward and the foremast to starboard; ship looked like it was being rigged by a drunken sailor after a storm.  Since making the decision to de-rig and start over was a big one, I stopped for the day to take stock of resources (Do I have enough line?  Can I de-rig without breaking anything?  Do I have the patience to do this?) and figure out a way forward.
 
Can’t accept that I wasn’t as careful as I should have been so I started de-rigging the foremast this morning.  Untying from the belay pins is a pain but not as bad as untying small knots from eyebolts or around masts.  Beginning to wish I hadn’t fixed all of the knots with glue.  Mizzen mast next to de-rig and then I’ll start the reassembly – slowly. 
 
Need to remind myself not to get so focused on what I’m doing that I forget to step back & check the work more critically…it will all be worth it if I can get it looking correct.