BLACK VIKING

... and play with themselves on the internet. That "other" forum is disgusting; a minority cult.

And finally sanded flat on both sides and installed.

Hello all!
 
Been away at a holiday for a week, but now I'm back at it!
 
Tompslattery, Thank you. Yes the brass parts look nice. The gun sleds are just two lasercut plywood parts glued on top of each other.
I was looking through your buildlog and it looks like you have an older version of the kit.
Great work on it, your model is coming along nicely! 👍
 
Rick01, Thanks for the tip. I did use a drill to line up the holes. I used a brass wire for the bars instead of the steel supplied. I left this untreated. But the trick with heating is a good one!
I've decided to leave the transom and the "bench" in the stern off until I fit the caprails, rubrails and rudder. I think this approach will be easier than following the sequence in the instructions.
 
After sanding the hull, I prepared to fit the keel, stem and sternpost.
 

This meant cutting a groove in the bow and opening up between the garboard planks to make the pieces fit in.
 

First the keel..
 

And then the stem. I used a razor saw and a scalpel with a new blade to do this. I found it a little tricky to get it straight and nice but it ended up ok.
I think it would have been easier to fit the stem and keel before planking, and make a rabbet to fit the planks in.
 

With the keel, stem and sternpost dryfitted I glued it all in place.
 


So, when the glue dries, more sanding, some filler and more sanding! 🙂
 
I've also made some progress on the dinghy, finishing the hull planking. My little changes to the sheer and transom made it so the lasercut keel/stem piece didn't fit.
So I made a new one out of some scrapwood I had lying around.
 


And after some shaping...
 

A bit more sanding and some paint, I think it will look good!
 
That's it for now!
 
Gaffrig.
 
 
 
 

Mizain mast detail  :




       

It’s run to the finish’s line now. It’s taken a week or so to get lots of little things done, but this is a great feature on the ship. 
 
the kit only comes with 1 plane so I bought a 6 pack of them, and the upgrade comes with PE for two. 
 
the anchor chains were added and a aftermarket set of anchors which are better than the kit blobs. Tomorrow I’ll rig this crane and do up some rigging for the paravanes, then I can do the individual stanchions 

Rails done.  I like how it turned out running them flush to the stern.  
Helms battens on the deck.
New tiller crafted.  Just need to trim the end once the rudder is on to get a good fit 
Dont like the look of the wire traveler that goes mid-deck.  Going to see if I can find a sample of something crafted where I could maybe use a painted dowel the same thickness. More to research.
Working on the caronade next.  Need to decide if I'm going to replace the metal firing quin. Painted the canon and hinge (i like the polished brass look for these smaller guns - takes me back to my navy days polishing vertigre off brassworks with the fruit punch they served in the mess hall!)

I have purchased several 'used' models in the past. I just wanted to post some observations about the practice, and ask if anyone has had similar experience. Most of these are either just opened by someone and rustled through, or they started building it, then quit, probably a kid who didn't realize how much work was involved. They work out to be much cheaper, in some instances, and if all the parts are still present, can end up just as nice as a brand new model. And, really, most parts you can fab up if you need to.
 
A recent purchase was maybe twenty or thirty dollars cheaper than market price, and was missing the instructions. No problem. Not on this forum. I was able to get a digital file of the instructions, a parts list, and even the six plan sheets, which were also missing. 
 
Another one was chopped up pretty bad and had a bunch of pieces already cut out of the parts  boards. The description of the sale said it had been started. Did not mention the chopped up part. I almost complained, but then I remembered I paid $8.88 for it. It's a Scientific model, usually going for around $30. I managed to fix up the butchery, but the stern is considerably more trim than the original Bounty. Finished product came out alright for the money.
 

 
 
So, that's all. I wonder if anyone else has had good or bad luck buying used.  
 
-geno

Lower rail on.  Time to grind height for upper rail.  You can see how the upper stern is too high in this model for their own design. it's not supposed to be much higher than the rail.  Time to grind.
 
Just fabricated a wooden bowsprit masthead.  Used alder to replace the posts from metal.  Like how it turned out.  I think I like the alder grain for scale.
 
I also finally added an extension to the rudder (guess I'm in the rudder club now!)  A little more shaping and it should be ok.  Hoping the tiller will hide the joint.
 
Working on replacing the metal tiller with wood but keep breaking it!

Hi Mates.
I have wanted to build this kit for a long time, I will also attempt to super detail this project beyond the “out of the box” kit – as excellent as it is. I have “bashed" my two last builds – enjoy the challenges of added detailing -- I have the McKay book that is filled with many line drawings and images; it will be an excellent guide. Along with incorporating great ideas seen in other build logs of this ship here at MSW.
 
I recently acquired a 1980s “new in box” kit from a member who had one available. He contacted me after I had made a request for one here at MSW.
 
That specific vintage kit was of interest to me because the 650+ included decorative bits were all cast in solid bronze (that number includes cannons). The current kit is supplied with 650+ white metal bits that have been electroplated, and apparently, from what I’ve been told, may result in some lost of casting details??  (TBD) – many other advantages are certainly in the current kit’s box as well, and not part of the 1980s box contents.
 
Given that this ship’s beauty, for-all-intent-and-purposes, was because of its 600+ ornamentations I got intrigued with the idea of solid bronze castings; luckily found one (Big thanks Jay L)
That said, instructions were really non-existent, included lumber still looked very good, other included kit’s amenities were, well from three decades ago. Bronze sculptures were, for me, the prize….as well as the 1:1 plan sheets (nice) only in Italian.
 
Jay's kit did not have a single super tiny missing bronze ornament – all were mixed up in 15 or so zip lock baggies – took hours to go through them all –haha. all other parts were 100% there as well.
 
Moving forward two weeks – a large heavy UPS box arrived at my door hmm? – Turns out that I was gifted, for Father’s Day, with the current Sergal #787. So best of both kits will be blended into this single project. My family did not know that I had already purchased a much earlier edition. The current kit certainly has its many advantages, but the earlier kit shines in many ways as well, many of which will become part of this project.
 
I will balance this log with some, as needed, comparisons between the old and new kit versions – No criticisms of either just occasional comparisons. That said, this log will focus on the build as it goes forward. I am lucky to have the best of both available for this project.
 
PS: I have listed this log as a 1637 ship – I know that she was around for many decades after, and that her stern ornamentation (provided in both kits) is more reflective of a much later example. But for builders 1637 is the “agreed to” year.
 
First log entry with some notes. – will also (thankfully for you) keep the writing to a minimum going forward.
Thanks for looking in, and if you are interested Welcome to the shipyard.
 
Regards,
 

 

Good day ladies and gents.  I finally finished the treenails on one side of the hull and put the last coat of WOP on it. Once finished with the other side I will be very happy I endured the pain of this detail. Cannons. I sanded and prayed Polyethylene on the laser cut sheet with the parts For the cannon. Then sprayed on the red. The parts are all cut and ready for finish sanding and assembly. 
 
it is amazing what a moments inattention will do. The rear axles are a bit longer than the front. A tiny bit! While cutting out the rear ones I got happy and dropped three of the front ones into the pile before realizing my mistake. I spent the next 15 minutes p, which seemed like an hour, measuring each with callipers before sorting them out!
 

Hello my friends,
Started second planking four weeks ago and have now finished starboard side. It is the most comprehensive second planking I ever have done before but I did it. I have done some sanding today but I have decided to leave the final touches to when port side is done. I had some problems with a couple of gun ports but on the other side I am confident that port side will be much better as the builder now has more experience 🙂. Most of the planks are fixed with a combination of CA and wood resin glue. I have a feeling that wood glue is more reliable but CA has its advantages when planks are to be set in curved positions.
 
Looking at my pictures below make me realize that flaws which are barely visible to my eyes when I work on Aggy becomes very prominent with the Iphone camera. Is there a flaw filter I can use before publishing🙂? This makes me realize that when some of you, dear fellow builders, publish close up pictures without any apparent gaps, bumps and cracks, there are some very skilled builders at MSW. I lift my hat!



 
Regards and stay safe
Henrik

Hey There Richard ..  I've slowed down a bit over here (back in work, but on a short week)
 
The last thing I did on the Slipway was to create a template off the original stand (the bow part) and cut it out in thin wood sheet, glue it to a small base that slips nicely between the Slipway blocks (between the 2nd & 3rd set of blocks, the highest ones in the above photo.. Post #847 ) this supports the Ballahoo nicely, enabling the Keel to sit on all blocks as I begin to measure the distances and angles required for the 'Timber Uprights' that will stop her from falling over... 3 or 4 per side I'm thinking..  Bit more work to do on it before the next Photo Set  
 
Thanks For Looking In Richard, Always Appreciated ! And Thank You Also To The Likes..  Will Have To see If We Can Get Any More 'Father Ted' Quotes In Here Jason    Can Never Have Enough 'Ted'
 
All The Very Best
 
Eamonn

Hi Folks ... Quick Update ..
 
This past week or so I have been properly examining the Stand situation, it was never my intention to display Ballahoo on the Kit stand but instead to build a kind of Launch Way of one type or another (very similar to Dirks in fact)
So after a fair amount of browsing through various examples of 'Slip Way' Type Stands, I narrowed it down to the one below.. This is one I first saw on Dubz's Sherbourne build log and also on another Cutter (in a Museum I think) and it seemed perfect !
It isn't quiet finished yet but is about 90% there, all that's left is to fine tune the Keel supports and build the upright side Supports (4 per side) then stain the whole affair Medium Oak colour.
The Base the stand is sitting on isn't the permanent one, the knots are a bit prominent (though that said I kinda like it  )
 
All The Best
 
Eamonn

And The Back Stays Are Done ..    (with No Obvious 'Deliberate' Mistakes Either 🙄 )
 
Got a fair bit of rigging done today, kinda got a production line going.
 
All The Very Best & Thanks For Stopping By
 
Eamonn
 

The next step was to finish the gun carriage and install it. A trial was done outside the boat, and a problem became immediately apparent. When assembled, the muzzle of the cannon pointed downwards to such a degree that removing the quoin was insufficient to get the muzzle to at least the horizontal. The carriage was built as per the instructions, and as all but two pieces were pre-cut, there was very little room for error, and the two pieces I had to make were fashioned from blocks already sized. A measurement made on the carriage as built was found to be 5mm greater than the same measurement on the cross-section on the plan. And this discrepancy was certainly sufficient to raise the quoin high enough to depress the cannon’s muzzle. I puzzled over this for a while, then decided to change the way the quoin was mounted.
 
The cannon on its carriage as initially built.
 

 
The carriage as modified.
 

 
The carriage with its cannon, mounted on the gun slide.
 

 
As part of the on-board equipment there are two water containers and three tubs, all of which have to be made by gluing staves to pairs of ply discs. The top and bottom discs are of different diameters. The tricky part of this is that all but one are open topped, so the staves cannot be glued to the top disc as this has to be removed once all the staves are in place. The instructions suggest waxing the edge of the upper disc so that glue does not adhere. Instead I wrapped the disc in cling film. The staves were tapered appropriately, glued to the bottom disc and edge glued to each other. Gel CA was used for this and with a setting time of 60 seconds there was plenty of time to position the stave and more than enough to get at least one finger in just the right place to glue it to the stave. All five have two bands of reinforcing rope wound around them, while the two water containers have rope handles.
 
One tub, it contains the anchor rope, has both discs in place so this was easier than the others. The photos shows the beginning of this tub, and although it’s not apparent in the photos, I was actually building it upside down. How I did this I don’t know as the diagram on the plan is perfectly clear. Ah well. I realised this the following day, swore, pulled off all the staves, cleaned up the two discs and redid it.
 

 

 
The beginning of a water container, showing the top disc wrapped in cling film and several staves in place.
 

 
The tub for the anchor rope on the left, a partly completed water container in the middle and a finished water container on the right (it still needs the handle).
 

 
There are various accessories for the cannon to be made - a swab, a scoop, a rod for ramming the charge home and what looks like a corkscrew that is used to clean fragments of rag out of the barrel. The scoop is formed from a section of brass tube, the “corkscrew” from twisted brass wire and the ram from a piece of dowel. The instructions suggest you make the swab by gluing small pieces of white cloth to the rod (the handle) to get the desired thickness, then trim this to get it looking cylindrical and finish by rotating this against sandpaper to get a fluffy surface. I decided to shortcut all this by gluing an unused felt polishing pad that came with my Dremel to the rod, then holding this against the Dremel’s drum sander to reduce its diameter. Quick and easy. Smaller versions of the swab and ram were made for the two swivel guns.
 
The completed cannon and swivel gun accessories. A Dremel felt pad is on the right, and one of these was used to make the swab next to it. Another pad, cut down, was used to make the swabs for the swivel guns.
 

 
Cheers.

The cleaning is basically done. I am comparing the "look" with the MAAS model and they are close...so I didn't clean too deeply. The guns, gunport covers, rigging and masts have been removed. 
  The masts and yards will be shipped to the member that's going to rig them. We are missing  topsail, topgallant, main and lanteen yards -- one of each.  The flag masts are also going to need replacing.  Feathermerchant will provide replacement yards. He is also getting the rigging.  It is three diameters: .5, 1, 1.5 mm (lanyards, running rigging, and stays respectively).  
 
It is nice to see the colors and gold trim come out Unfortunately, the dirt covered myriad splits/cracks.  None threaten the integrity.  It will be better to leave them alone.  It adds age character.  The gun covers and guns will be replaced soon 

Two steps forward and one step backwards ...
  😡
 
... as I said somewhere above – on Friday the plastic globe on my 12W LED globe-bulb in my architect’s lamp fell out and dropped right onto the lower carriage on the workdesk. One of the caster-roller snapped off and two others were loosened – then I spent an hour turning everything on the table upside-down and didn’t find the roller – then I sifted through the waste-bin nearby for another hour and still couldn’t find it – eventually I gave up, cut a new bracket on the laser-cutter, fitted it and then turned up a new roller. Perhaps should have done it like this in the first place, as one always spends more time in search of a part than it takes to make a new one, but I just could not believe that a part like that could have been ejected so far ...
 
 
Still work on the lower carriage ...
 
 
OK, the gun is the key feature of a gun-boat and its very raison d’être, but this gun and its carriage seem to develop into a model of its own right. Perhaps one day I should build a larger scale fully working (the mechanics, not the ballistics, which would be probably illegal over here in Europe) model, now that I have a pretty good understanding of its functioning.
While I was drawing some additional parts to be cut with the laser, I realised, that I had completely forgotten the stiffening brackets for caster wheels. They are essential elements in the construction, as the wheels each have to carry around 15 tons of the total weight of the gun. The brackets were fabricated from steel plates and forged(?) angles, fabricated on the model from tiny pieces of Canson-paper cut with the laser.
 
 

Stiffening brackets added over the caster-rollers
 
 
There were also two brackets needed for the operating lever including connecting rod of the gun training mechanism and for the clutch that connects the cranks below the barbette with the gun. The latter allows to connect gears for two different speed ratios, a high ratio for fine weather and a low ratio through as self-locking worm-gear for foul weather. A quite sophisticated arrangement actually, but as nothing of it will be visible on the model, it was ignored.
 
 

Supporting brackets and connecting rods for working the training gears
 
 
Connected to the gun training mechanisms is also a kind of capstan to help run-in the gun. A tackle is hooked into each side of the upper carriage and the runner lead by two guiding wheels into the lower carriage and onto the capstan. The wheels were turned from steel rod and their supporting brackets cut from Canson-paper. I meant to closely reproduce the original design, but in the end had to simplify it, because the parts were simply too small to laser-cut and handle. Because they are so flimsy that had to be put into place now and will have to painted over.
 
 

Rollers in brackets to lead the running-in tackle
 
The next challenge will be the fitting of the eleven gratings distributed around the lower carriage.
 
 
To be continued ...

I've done that more than I'd like to admit and I'm sure it will happen again. When that has happened to me I end up talking to myself wondering how in the world how I could have actually done that!
 
For example, I had a tough time getting the deadeyes on the shrouds done properly on my Medway Longboat and when they were finally done I was really pleased. The next day I was admiring them and realized that I had them upside down on the port side!  
 
I'll bet we've got more company that we realize when it comes to these these kinds of errors...most folks just never show it in their build logs!
 
I now consider it just part of the journey and try and just enjoy the ride...

Afternoon quickie. P&O liner Medina requisitioned as The Royal Yacht. 'H.M.S. MEDINA with T.M. The King and Queen outward bound for India escorted by H.M.S. ARGYLL, COCHRANE, DEFENCE and NATAL.'1911. W/C 11” X6”

Added the outer/top level rower support beams. Looks to be reasonable & logical enough. It resembles a bit of life boat type bracing (which adds hull structure integrity & strength).
 
Not looking forward to cut all those needed little rower seats.

I've been busy the last couple of days with this. I've put on 3 coats of poly. Plan to continue sanding and coat, but this is enough for now before taping off the upper deck and paint the sides. I plan to poly over all coats together after that to get a uniform finish.
 
Also, as a side project, I made this stand out of some scrap wood in the shed, and I trimmed it off with the two colors that will be on the boat hull.

 

The overall dimensions I have on my master drawings are:
 
Length - 1582mm (includes bowsprit and gaff/boom)
Height - 1061mm
Width -  590mm (Main yard and stunsail booms)
 
Hull only length - 1066mm
 
I have attached a side cutaway profile of the kit, as the main question people ask is why would they want to buy this over other model kits of the same...

Forecastle railings on side, front and back finished, along with pin racks, catheads, bowsprit decorations, and staghorn cleats along the inside of the ship's bulwarks.
 
Regards,
David

Saludos compañeros…gracias por ver mi trabajo.
Ya estoy preparando para hacer los cadenotes de las vigotas, normalmente estas argollas no van soldadas, he tenido ocasión de comprobarlo…  son muchos y extraordinarios  los modelistas  que  simplemente  hacen coincidir el empalme del alambre una vez doblado, con el encastre para su  alojamiento en la mesa, queda muy fuerte y no se ve… pueden pasar como soldado.
Yo he querido complicarlo un poco más y las he soldado.
Ha continuación paso unas imágenes donde podéis ir viendo el proceso que he llevado,
Primeramente formo un muelle con alambre de latón cocido, en este caso 1m/m y con un rotaflex y un  pequeño disco… y de esta manera voy sacando los aros.
Una vez soldados repaso solo la soldadura, y los sumerjo en vinagre blanco para limpieza… dos minutos es suficiente para que ablande la suciedad, a continuación los pasáis por un cepillo de alambre y muy rápidamente se quedan que parecen de oro.
He preparado un pequeño útil y me ha sido de gran ayuda.
Más adelante os presentare el resto de los herrajes.
Como siempre salud y bienestar para todos…Cuidaros¡¡¡
 Liberto

Indeed, let opponent come
preferably along port and starboard, because maneuvering is not yet possible 
Thanks 
 
Making the triangular deadeyes (Much work, little progress)
To the person who once invented the triangular deadeyes , rounds are much easier to make (I think this advice comes centuries late...)
Make these to scale,   with the grain of the wood in the longitudinal direction is not easy 
Much time has passed to find a way how to build them.
 
Examples are the Vasa and Mary Rose. The triangular deadeyes from this era look quite thin.

 
 
And determine the size.
A surplus of my Heller Soleyl Royal has about the right thickness height and length. The deadeyes (plastic) of Billing's Vasa are clearly too thick.

 
Building a wooden prototype and a mold


First saw wooden beams
 



Sand the wood to size so that it just goes through the mold.


File grooves


cutting this is fairly easy because it is in the same direction as the grain.


 
Sanding to thickness.


8 done 40 more to go.  Then drill the holes. That will also be a challenge.
 
Thanks for following, comments and likes