olliechristo

Thanks ZyXuz..    I get lazy and use my phone to take photos when i should get out the 16mp Canon, which i did just now.. Detail cant hide then
 
So I thought i would share this technique i just came up with to make a bucket.. (I really dont like the look of those churned out by the thousand ones..)
 
So i found a nice size tapered lid off a epoxy tube and screwed the base to that and waited till everything was in position with bands to hold it tight, then I "spot weld" with CA and it popped out no worries after a few minures., just dont over do glue at this stage... Then i sanded inside round and mixed Araldite 24Hr super strength to coat the inside.. Tomorrow it will under go trimming and sanding down to a much thinner thickness..
 
Also a close up of water cask.. This time i cut the bands from aluminium cans in about 2mm strips and sprayed matt black before glueing on, then satin clear coated the lot...     Cheers again all commenting and helping .. Ollie

I have been building one of the final items for interior... Drinking vessel (cask) you tell me what it's called..
 
Made a tap out of brass but think i will redo it in the style in picture.. only took 10 mins.. Attatched a picture of them in the Endeavour replica...
 
Thanks all. and happy crafting. Ollie

wow! it's really some fantastic work on all the miniatures! and cabin
well done!

Here comes a short update..
 
Ladder Making

Ladder has to be done before the hull planking, so that it's easier for me to check whether the feet of the ladder 'landing' correctly from outboard.

The kit provides the materials of the ladder, with pre-cut ladder slot for the steps. Anyway, they are not as good as expected.
 


As you can see from the picture above, the slots of the ladders are not aligned. I've tried switching them, but still only a pair matches. 

For the 'surroundings' and steps, I used these:
 


I made the wider strips inside the narrow ones, so that it acts like plug to the deck. After some measuring and checking, here's the result:
 


It's a bit terrible, isn't it? lol Especially at lower right corner..
I remade one anyway.
And then insert the steps into the slots.. steps are in 20mm length.
 


Just glue them together and they're completed.
 


View from this angle, the extended part can be seen clearer. It also helps covering the ugly plywood cross section.

As seen from deck..
 


Picture below shows how I check the angle of the ladder from outboard.
 


I haven't made the handrails of it, because the stanchions provided by the kit is way out of scale in their height. I might adjust the upper deck higher, or remake the stanchions.

Thanks for viewing!

Day 23
I was tidying up all my ship stuffs after working it one night, and when I digged out all stuffs at the bottom of the box of my kit, and OMG!!! I found one thing that I've totally forgotten.. The Bell!!

Bell & Belfry
So, quickly I searched through the net for examples of belfry as references.. and this is what I've made!!


Belfry
 
The columns are those leftovers from my beloved Pearl. Two 1mm thick of maple strips (leftover from 1st layer hull planking) are stacked up, and then another strip as bridge to hold them together. And, the shaft is made from fuse wire.. thin enough to cross through the crown of the bell.
 
Well, the flat head really doesn't look good.. So, I added a 'hat' for it! It is made of 3 * 1mm thick maple strips, and beveled at both ends. And, the shaft is painted to black.
 

Belfry After Staining
 
Now, where should I place it??? Hmm... normally it should be at the main deck, but my main deck is currently tightly occupied.. but putting it on poop or front deck looks weird..
Anyway, here's a shot of how it's look like on deck!

Belfry on Deck
 
Err... any comment on the position?? it really looks tight there!

Light & Lantern
As previously mentioned, I am still waiting for my LEDs to arrive.. however, I actually already bought 'lamps' to light up my cabin but it's just not bright enough.. That's why I'll need to buy LEDs to replace it.. and IT's tritium!
 
The main reason I wanted to use tritium to light up my ship is because of its durability, in which it is able to light up for 25 years!!! You just have no idea whether you'll be able to see it goes off alive!! In case you never heard of tritium: it is quite frequently used in military purposes, for example night vision on weapons; while for household application, watches.


Tritium Vials
 
Tritium is costly. I bought 10 of them, and it cost me nearly USD$100!!!
I tested it at night with all the lights in my room turned off and taken this shot..


Light From the Cabin
 
3 vials are placed RIGHT surrounding each window, in this case 6 vials are already used for the side windows, and there won't be enough for the stern ones (3 windows). This shot is taken in long exposure of 30s, and I swiped my phone flash over the ship during the exposure. If I don't do that, you'll be just seeing the light..
 
OK, the result here looks kinda satisfying but it's really different in real life. The light is already not noticeable from ~3m distance, without any presence of other light source in the same room!! Moreover, 3 vials for each window is just so not worth doing, that's why I changed my mind to replace them with LEDs.
 
So, instead of wasting them, I planned to make them lanterns on deck!


Column's Head and Base Cut Off
 
Again, by using the column from my Pearl, I cut off the head and base of the column as the head and base of my lantern. I then drilled a 1.5mm diameter (diameter of the tritium vial) hole on both the head and foot, and pinned 4 more holes at the 4 corners of the foot. These 4 small holes will be where the columns of lantern set, like this:
 

Lantern of Tritium Vial
 
The eye on top is made by the thinnest fuse wire.
 
The first one really took me some times until I came up with this idea, and my patience just allowed me to make another 2 on the same day.


The Three Brothers
 
How it's look at night.


Lanterns At Night


Brightness Comparison
 
Here you can see the brightness comparison of tritium with my laptop's notification lights..



-End of Day 23-

I have been building one of the final items for interior... Drinking vessel (cask) you tell me what it's called..
 
Made a tap out of brass but think i will redo it in the style in picture.. only took 10 mins.. Attatched a picture of them in the Endeavour replica...
 
Thanks all. and happy crafting. Ollie

Day 4
  As mentioned in the previous day, the cabin sits between bulkhead #10 and #11 where only very limited space for me to design it. I drew plan to make sure everything sits right: Draft on Captain's Cabin   So, I've only 49mm * 25mm of space for me to include everything into the cabin!!! This is going to be very challenging!!   I started with the table first. Since I still kept all leftover wood pieces of my Black Pearl making, it makes my work easier...  No big issue on making the table.. around 20mm * 8mm. And then, the chair.. The Chair, Tiniest Among All   Making the chair is the HARDEST part!!!   To make sure all these furnitures looks in ratio, the chair's seat needs to be only at 4mm * 4mm, and its legs at 1mm * 1mm!! The tiniest wood strips I have is only 1mm * 2mm, in which I'll have to cut them in two!! It took me around 30 minutes to complete this, with few breaking wood strips..   The Map! 'Map' Dip with Coffee to Give Vintage Effect   I've also made a map (ok, just a paper.. ) to fill the table. In order to give it a vintage effect, I added some flavours (IPOH White Coffee) on it I canceled my cabinet planning, and replaced it with a mirror. This idea came out when I was eating snack for my breakfast, which the inside of plastic bag is a good reflective body. Mirror with Stands Using Previous Ship's Material   The stands are the leftover pinrail material from the Black Pearl, which I think suitable for this too.    To fill up the big empty space on the port side, I added another pole hanger. It is made by using one copper nail as its pole, and copper rings as the hangers. It really took me sometimes to glue the hangers on the pole... Pole Hanger Beside the Table   For the bed.. Too sad that I've forgotten to take photo on its progress.. It's done by using a 4mm thick wood piece, and few small pieces to tissue papers. I put a folded tissue beneath first, to make a 'bulge' effect, and then only 'wrapped' the whole thing up as a bed sheet.  For the pillow, I cut out a long 'tissue-strip' and wrap it up at one end of a wood strip. Glued it, and then cut off the end of the strip. Captain's Cabin As Seen to Stern Side   Take a close look, and you'll see a pen in a container on the table!! :lol:  The container is made by a spanker bead from my Black Pearl; while the pen is made by a refill of mechanical pencil! Take a clear look again!!! YES, I made another chair to fill up the space!!!    Now left only a door to complete..    It's done by using the removed part from the half deck.. I added planks on it, and drilled a hole as sash of door, and then a nail as door knob! Door to Captain's Cabin   So, it's how it looks like now!!! ^^ The Captain's Cabin   I can finally proceed to the most fun part of ship modelling... PLANKING!! - End of Day 4 -  

Thanks Mike and Ian for your advises..
I almost placed an order of timbers which cost around £30, and then I read your replies...  really appreciate the quick respond.
 
My problem was that I've forced the strips to bend too much and cause it impossible to put the next strip on in whole piece. Well, I don't know why I didn't come up with this simple solution which is to cut the rest into shorter length.. It seems very workable now, but need more patient than doing 'normal' planking. A lot of tapering works needed.. will start working over when I have a good mood.
 
Mike,
Thanks for reminding me on the beakhead area It really helps covering a lot, and the wales too! 
for the area below the waterline, I think a thick white painting is unavoidable now. It has to be so thick that the strip borders couldn't be seen. I remember Dubz did the same for his Syren on the wale area  (well, of course he didn't do that to cover his superb planking job ):
 

I really like how he finished his painting, just brilliant!
 
I've also just noticed that most of the Victory models have the upper stem painted to black, which is quite a good idea to cover the plywood structure. I'm not quite sure whether my color theme fits the black upper stem, but I think it's good to find a way to cover it, either painting or wood strip
 
 
Ian,
Thanks for the idea on the sawdust! I'll try work it out this few days. Anyway, I'll need to fix the planking first
and 'switching tasks' sounds good too! so I won't easily get bored doing same work for a long time
I might now consider switching my annoying job too! haha
 

Hull Painting

The whole painting process has been uncertain, and it ends up to a result not even close to my previous planning.

After a real lot of times of painting and sanding and painting and sanding and painting and sanding, this is what I end up to.. An 1824 HMS Unicorn colour scheme.
 

 
 

 
Comparing to the real ship.. which is quite close to USS Constitution and HMS Trincomalee also
 
I always think that showing the natural wood colour will be best for this ship, but due to my hull planking mistakes I'll really need to use dark colour to cover those errors.

Here shows the progress:

Hull is painted to white as previously planned. Around 6-7 layers are applied.
 


A thick black wale is added by using 4 x 4mm black wood strips, and the 'nose' is painted to black too. Anyway, when I wanted to paint the gun port area, the yellow paint that I bought couldn't paste on the wood equally, and caused all the clouds and prints all over the area. I sanded and repainted, but still return the same result. So, I thought of changing a colour scheme...  
 

 
I found that the 1846 HMS Unicorn would be nice to follow too, so I started to work it out on port side. I started by extending the wale area, so that it's touching the waterline; and narrowed the gun port area down to the height of gun port.

 

 
Here's how it turned out. At this point, I still couldn't get a good mix of red ocher.
 

 
Two-face
 

 
I searched through my store room, and thank God there is still a unopened of red ocher paint in it I applied 2 layers on it.
 

 
When I was think about what modification should I do to the bow, I found another inaccurate plan about this kit. The bow that showing on the box is different from the instruction plan. As you can see, there are actually 2 gun port lids instead of the ladders. I'm currently planning to follow this one.  
 

 
Anyway, after long hours and days of working on the colour scheme... I've finally done it. Although it's not the scheme that I want the most, but this is the best result I can get.
 

 
I will continue on the beakhead and stern modification next.
 
Thanks for viewing. ^^

You talked about officers stores and what they are. I have done considerable research on what was stored onboard ships of that era. You wouldn't believe all the stuff they could pack in a ship that small. Besides the crew that is. Officers stores were not of the normal "working" stores like salt horse, flower, raisins, salt and that sort. The officer or officers usually had an occasion to use their own funds to enhance their diet and comfort. Like live chickens on deck for eggs and fresh meat. Down below they could bring jams, seasonings, special cheeses, almost any dry or easily preserved sweet things they might want during their time at sea away from the shore. This is not talking about the wines and booze
also packed. Remember that water did not last long in the barrels and a little rum in the water killed off the creepy crawlies and the taste. So it's kind of think about what you would like ad figure out how it could be packaged in those days, usually paper and string or boxes also cases...tea and coffee...bottles etc. Does that help???
 
Tom

I must thank all for waiting to see more of my build. I did not go with a traditional hull after all. Somewhere, and I am not sure where, I saw a ship with a polished clay (perhaps Cold Porcelain), as her hull only, included with all the wood topside and rigging, fittings, blocks, etc. of a normal model ship.
 
So I decided after I completed planking a good solid hull, my bow on this Greek Bireme was giving me a lot of trouble, as well as the stern. So I am fashioning her from a light coat of Paper Clay which dries as a kind of white wood if you will, fully carveable, sandable, and able to file if necessary.
 
Upon completion, she should have a smooth finish of paint with my airbrush and a coat or two of a polished satin polyurethane.
 
Honestly, I did not think all the twists and turns of the bow and stern would be so difficult for me so this was a good alternative I think.
 
I would like to hear what everyone following has to say.
 
And furthermore, I shall never give up this ship!
 
I forgot to resize my photos so I am off to do that and will post here shortly.
 
John E (Auvergne)

You are doing a fantastic job...are you sure this is your 1st build ?
 
It's making me feel very inferior when I finally get around to starting my build - work is chaos at the moment catching up after a few days off sick

Hi all, progress has been a bit slow, I have many other things that need to be done, would spend a lot more time if the boss alllowed it,... .. I have worked towards getting my interior madness finished and onto the planking and the plan... doing reading and research on planking.. think i have sorted in my head..
 
I have made some brass handles and planked one of the walls.. Made a few items for the cupboard and just enjoying it really... Will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.. Happy crafting all.. Ollie

Ollie, you are doing a wonderful job! It is evident you are quite passionate about your craft! Best wishes and keep us posted...your work is phenomenal.
 
 
John E

She's coming along nicely, Ollie!
 
John

Sweet!!!

Hi all, progress has been a bit slow, I have many other things that need to be done, would spend a lot more time if the boss alllowed it,... .. I have worked towards getting my interior madness finished and onto the planking and the plan... doing reading and research on planking.. think i have sorted in my head..
 
I have made some brass handles and planked one of the walls.. Made a few items for the cupboard and just enjoying it really... Will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.. Happy crafting all.. Ollie

I currently still have the ‘Francis Pritt’ in the planning stage – currently working on the hull lines – but she should be ready to start making sawdust in a couple of weeks (says he hopefully).
 
In the meantime, here’s a bit of an introduction.
 
A (very) brief history of the evolution of T.I. luggers
The pearling industry at Thursday Island (known almost universally as T.I.) started as far back as 1870 using smallish lug rigged boats that had previously been used in the beche-de-mer fishery.  The later type of pretty ketch rigged boats were introduced into the T.I. fishery sometime after 1876, by James Clarke, a local entrepreneur, who is thought to have had the first of these type of boats designed and built in Sydney  on the lines of popular pleasure yacht design of the day with a beautiful ‘wine glass’ hull.  This type of efficient and seaworthy boat quickly became the standard type at T.I. and many were built by local shipwrights to a slightly simplified design with a plain wooden skeg instead of the shaped ‘wine glass’ type keel.  Although the popular ketch rigged boats were then almost universally used, the popular name of ‘lugger’ stuck and is still used today to describe boats of the pearl fishery.  By the way, the industry was mainly concerned with collecting the pearl shell, as the mother of pearl was used in all sorts of domestic applications before the invention of plastic.  Actual pearls were a bonus, when found.
 
Thursday Island
For those not too familiar with remote Australian geography, Thursday Island (T.I.) is a small island lying just to the north of the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsular – that’s the pointy bit of Australia on the top right hand corner that reaches to the north and almost touches New Guinea.
 
Francis Pritt
‘Francis Pritt’ was built in 1901 as the lugger ‘Santa Cruz’ by the famous T.I. builder Tsugitaro Furuta.  She was purchased by the Anglican diocese of Northern Australia in 1905 for use as a mission ship and renamed ‘Frances Pritt’ in honour of a former Archdeacon.  She was 50.58 feet in length with a breadth of 13.75 feet.  She was said to be an especially deep boat with a full load draft of 7.5 feet.  She was sold again to a local trader in 1910 and is thought to have been lost on a New Guinea river bar shortly thereafter.
 
Why Francis Pritt?
As some of you will know, I usually build models of ships with a personal or family connection, but the ‘Pritt’ is a little different.  A friend of ours used to live in the township of Ngukurr, in Arnhem Land, doing bible translation work.  Ngukurr had formerly been known as the Roper River Mission and was founded by the Anglican Church in 1908 after the Bishop of Northern Australia, Gilbert White, pleaded for a mission station in the area as a means of protecting the local Aboriginal people, who were being indiscriminately murdered by European settlers.  The ‘Pritt’ was the ship that scouted the area in 1907 and then took the first team of missionaries (both European and Aboriginal) to the Roper River in August 1908.  After the establishment of the mission, nearly all the surviving local Aboriginal people came to the Roper River and were protected there.
 
That storey, combined with the honest good looks of the T.I. luggers, seemed very good reason for me to depart from my usual approach and build the ‘Francis Pritt’ in memory of that first mission.
 
The Model
The model will be built plank on frame at a scale of 1:48, giving an overall hull length of 12 5/8 inches (320mm).  I’m building the ‘Pritt’ at this larger scale rather than my usual 1:96 as she will be on public display when completed (final location not yet finalised) and needs to be large enough for people to see properly.
There are no plans for the ‘Pritt’ – indeed plans for early luggers are few and far between as the Japanese builders on T.I*. built mainly by eye.  There is, however, a lines plan for one of  Furuta’s luggers from about the same time as the ‘Pritt’, and there is also a lines plan for a luggere built at the same time by one of Furata’s, Tsurumatsu Shiosaki.  Using these lines plans plus the broadside photograph of the ‘Pritt’ on the slip (below), I pretty confident of getting a hull pretty close to the original.  The rigging and deck fixtures and fittings will be taken from surviving photographs.
 
John
 

Francis Pritt under sail in 1907
 

Francis Pritt on an unknown slipway in 1908
 

Landing supplies from the Francis Pritt at Roper River, August 1908
 

I will also follow with interest   hello from across the ditch... Regards FNR

I have wanted to do this model since seeing the Endeavour models in Gisborne when i was a boy for Cook's 200th anniversary in 1969.They are over a metre long very impressive up on poles.This model will be 815mm long by 300mm wide,should be enjoyable.

thanks Mick
 
did a few hours of sanding today
 
before sanding :

 
I work in steps. first I sand off the sharp parts of the reinforcements making them even with the bulkheads and the keel

 
then I slowly keep sanding till all the laser cut burns are gone

 
the 2 reinforcements in between the bulkheads at the stern are really difficult to sand
 
I still have lots to do on the bow and stern areas and I haven't even started on the bulkheads in between so I doubt I ll be able to finish this weekend
 
 

Ollie,
 
Whatever that label says, it wouldn't be 'ice chest'!  
 
I think you might find the teak a bit too grainy for the scale you're working at, but if you could see before buying to assess the grain, it would be fun to use.
 
John

Good grief!  He builds his own working model compass and then apologises because it's not fully gimbled!   
 
John

Hi guys and gals. I wanted to show my progress on this Bireme Greek Warship the past few days.
 
First, I had to do some painting on the topside merely to show a progressive schedule I hold myself accountable for. I need to see a progressive advancement to feel as if I am actually accomplishing something. Not sure why, but that’s how I work.
 
Secondly, I have caught some mistakes; i.e. using too much glue (so instead of the glue applicator I now use a paintbrush), slow but it looks better; I don’t know how I did this but my calculations for the bow was like way off. Don’t know what I was thinking…
 
So for the bow I have had to cut away some planking and replace @ the CL of the bulkhead, where now I do not have 1 continuous piece of planking all the way through the hull from stem to stern in some areas as shown in the pictures.
 
I am learning though. Actually, I have discovered with a mixture of water & wood filler at very thin doses works well on the inside of the hull as a filling agent to cover minor and small defects. Not sure if that is actually legal or not but I did not want this baby to go to the scrap pile just yet.
 
I then sand the hull down with 400# sand paper (again, hope that’s OK), then with a #0000 steel wool to give it a flat shine and reduce any grit caused by the wood filling agent I created.
 
Once complete with the hull’s bow I will do minor aesthetics throughout the hull and then…tackle the beast, the stern, or prow…wish me luck…
 
BTW, the instructions on this thing are quite minimal…a good kit for the most part, but one must know some woodworking skills as well as a small bit of Marine Engineering, but truly, nothing major. I just like to sound as if I know what I am talking about…(DOH?!).
 
See ya’ll next time! Have a great night! I am learning folks.
 
John E (Auvergne).

Because the gunports had already been cut out the next plank could be cut into sections and fitted in between each port, eliminating the need to soak it.  From this plank down I started to taper each plank so it would not ride up over the one above it
 

 

 

 
As the planking progesses down the hull past the Middle gun deck I no longer could use spring clamps to hold the the planks flat agaist the hull. So I had to resort to planking screws, which I had got from Modellers Shipyard a few years ago. As I did not want big holes on the inside of the hull I made up some spacers by gluing two pieces of 1.5mm offcut planks together this allowed the scew to bite into the first planking without going through it  
 

 

 

 

 
I must admit that I was a bit aprehensive at using 1mm strips for the second layer of planking but I think that the use of thicker planks for the second layer is better as they tend to hold their shape and can be adjusted to fit more easily than the thinner 0.5mm strips, this is just my humble opinion however
 
 So this is where I am up to as of today, the log is up to date. The updates may be a bit slower from here on in so please be patient with me. At my present rate I hope to have the sescond plaking complete in the next few weeks