rybakov

Post Fifty-five
 
Hatches and gratings – Part Two
Modifying the hatches was fairly straightforward on Sphinx, not quite so on 'Indy.'
On all three of the hatch/ladderway sets there are support pillars central to the head ledges; adding a round-up complicates the fitting.
Apart from any other consideration, I think a slight round-up and camber to the gratings provides a much more pleasing aspect.
Whether the coamings are high or low, a camber appeared to apply.

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To create the camber, I attach strips of Boxwood atop the ledges. This is then shaped down to a feather edge where it meets the coamings.

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Cleaning up still required but you get the idea.

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The gratings camber was formed around a large diameter cardboard tube (4¼”)

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Bit of a leap of faith this, you never know until the job is done whether the grating will fall apart having been given the water and heat treatment.

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The Main hatch was supplied with three sections of gratings. I’m pleased Chris provided this arrangement, I had to do it myself on Sphinx, and tricky little beggars they were to make.

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In my version the coamings rise 4.4mm (11”) above the deck with the Head ledges higher by 1mm.
Once fully cleaned up the coamings will be painted black and the gratings left bright.
 
 
B.E.
20/07/2023
 
 

Thanks, Dan!  You know me - fortification is never too far from my fingertips 😀
 
I decided to play around with thin metallic wash coats of gold and silver for the continental figure of Europe.  As the wealthiest region of the world, I wanted her to have a shimmery, almost etherial quality.

The basecoats for the lower garb of both Europe and Asia are the same ModelMaster Random Tan.  For Asia, I went over this color with a brown enamel wash.  For Europe, I used a thinned application of Citadel red wash, followed by several applications of a very thin wash of bright gold.  The gold collects in the recesses in a very satisfying way.
 
Initially, I wasn’t happy that the folds of Europe’s blouse did not really show through the Ultra Marine.  That was why I decided to try a silver wash.  The pictures don’t really do these girls justice.
 
For the backsides, I was kind of forced to end the naturalistic painting of the figures along the original part line, where I filled-in with new styrene.  I wanted to follow the cyma-curves of the tafferal, but that just wasn’t feasible:

The black will fade into the black of the tafferal.
 
Well, that’s it for now.  I’ll be on and off vacation for the next several weeks.  I’m touch-up painting, and getting all of these elements ready for assembly.
 
I’ll post glamour shots of the whole ship, in a few weeks, when it’s all together.
 

The upper deck capstan:

Post Fifty-four
 
Centre line fittings. (Part One)
These consist of the hatchways and ladderways.
They are provided in the kit complete with grating sets and attached shot garlands in pearwood.
The kit grating sets go together very nicely, and the gratings  fit neatly into place with minimum effort.
The depth of the coamings (2.8mm) equates to a height above deck of 7” which looks a tad low to my eye for a ship of this size.

1465
Looking at the Adm plan of Indy, the coamings, assuming a 1:48 scale, equate to a height of 9½” above deck. *
At 1:64 scale this equates to 3.77mm
The Lower deck coamings are much lower, as are those of the Qtr deck.
 
*By Navy Order 1795 coaming were to be built well clear of the deck, approx. 15-18” (5mm – 7mm at scale)
Goodwin (Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War)
Indy went into service around the same time as the Navy Board issued the new order.
Lavery (Arming and fitting of English ships of war) notes;
Coamings and ledges varied considerably in height, according to the size of ship and their position. They could be as high as 12” on a large ship and as small as 3” on a sloop or Brig. By the late Eighteenth century much higher coamings were fitted on the gundeck than other decks, as water was much more likely to come in thro’ the ports of that deck.
 
With all this in mind;

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I have beefed up the underside of the coaming frames using a combination of 3mm x 2.5mm and 2mm x 2.5mm strips.

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The finished height will be tweaked once I have decided about the round-up to the head ledges.

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The main problem with getting into this sort of detail is that Indy is a late age frigate conversion of which there seems to be a dearth of detailed information. Most of the contemporary large frigate models from which a visual appreciation may be gained, date from the 1770’s and earlier.

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The beefed-up hatches on the vast expanse of the Indy gundeck don’t look out of proportion, to my eye at least.

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I next need to look at the round-up to the head ledges.
 
B.E.
19/07/2023
 
 

Hello,
thank you Mark. That was also one of my thoughts, but because I have no idea about rigging I discarded it. All others also many thanks for your comments and likes.
 
Here now some pictures of the now more or less ready fore castle. When I looked at the pictures, I realised that I have to install the gun port lids. So that would be the next action here, and when that is ready, the quarter deck and waist is the next building site. The anchors will come later.

@druxey
@JerryTodd
@jdbondy
Hello fellow colleagues,
I am really happy about this feedback. Thanks a lot for this, also for the many LIKES.
 
Jerry,
Thanks for the hint.
OK, my mistake, I should have attached the lifts.
So don't worry, once the lifts are in place, they will of course prevent the strop for the brace block from being pulled out over the sheet sheave.
I've done that in the meantime, as you can see in the picture.

The rope for the sheet has also been drawn in.
 

Hello,
 
because nobody seams to know how the fish david worked, I decided to do it like I described it in my last post and as it is build at the contemporary models. The other end of the hook rope (?) was connected to a double block, where I think some men pulled. 
 
Here some details. Sorry, Johann, I stop doing this. It's not my world. 




And here the fish david is I think far enough outside to catch the anchor with out damage the ship. But I will build it as seen at the pictures before.

Post Fifty-three
Planking the gundeck
For this I am using mainly 1mm x 4mm Boxwood strip provided by Hobbymill eu. Broader strips will also be required in certain areas.

0492
I have already prepped the deck by the addition of carlings beneath the hatch openings and have opened up the deck area above the Lower deck ladderway down to the Orlop.
The gundeck will otherwise be fully planked.
 
The first job is to fit the margin planks.

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These are not too difficult on Indy; the forward section requires cutting out from 1mm Box sheet but for the greater part 6mm strip can be used with gentle edge bending.

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I added a couple of scarph joints just for interest and with the open and clear decks on this minimalist build, they should be visible.

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The part that will represent the waterway and contain the scuppers will be fitted once the Spirketting is in place.
Before I can get stuck into the main planking, I need to consider the centre line fittings.
 
These are intended to be simply glued atop the finished deck planking but I prefer to fit these in place first and plank up to them.
This will involve beefing up the depth of the coamings etc by 1mm to compensate. I also like to see a round-up to the head ledges so these will also be modified.
 
B.E.
17/07/2023
 

Continuation: Equipment of the fore yard - Bream blocks - Poulie de bras
In the context of the production of the brace blocks with stroops for the fore yard, I would like to go into more detail here as well.
The length of these blocks is 24 cm in the original, which corresponds to 5 mm in 1:48 scale. With this block size I do not use extra sheaves, but work them out of the wood.
The served strops for the blocks of the fore braces on my corvette were connected by thimbles, which was commonly called "dog and bitch" connection (see drawing).

Source: The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships - Longridge, C. Nepean - Spritsail yard of HMS Victory
 
The following picture shows a brace block with the prepared strops and the thimbles already connected. The connections of the strops can be seen by the dark color of the super glue. These areas will be covered later by the lashing and will then no longer be visible.

  
The manikin is to show the scale of the block with the strops.

  
The next picture shows how the lashing is applied around the gluing area.  

Here you can see the finished rigging element.

The next picture shows the port side yardarm of the fore yard.  

In order from the inside out, the following rigging elements are already in place:
- Grommet strop
- Jackstay
- thimble strop for clew
- footrope
- Strop for yard tackle
- Strop with brace block
 
Finally the lifts and the fore yard sheets are missing, as well as the studding sail booms
To be continued ...

The head grating was remarkably tedious to make, and I can honestly say that I did not enjoy any aspect of this process.
 
I began by making a series of styrene strips for the slat stock that followed the curvature of the headrails.  Each segment had to be cut to fit and placed by hand:

I used a drafting compass to get approximate measurements at each location, and then it was a lot of filing and test-fitting until each slat bridged the span perfectly.

After all slats were initially cemented with styrene glue, I brushed the whole assembly with thin CA - the Crazy Glue variety.  I like this stuff for certain applications.  It dries with some body to it, so it is good for something like this where it “keys” into the spaces between slats, and locks them firmly in-place.  This is important for the sanding/leveling process.
 
I made a semi-soft sanding block from sanding foam, and double-stuck a piece of 100 grit paper to its face:


Then I’d manipulate this sanding block with a pair of tweezers and a finger from my off-hand.  It took a bit of effort, but I faired out the surface without dislodging any slats:

In the white, the following angles show the ‘thwartship camber of the grating pretty well:

Finally, I could fix the new seats of ease in-place:

In an episode of “you couldn’t do it again if you tried,” I impaled my left hand with a pair of pointy tweezers that I dropped and tried to catch, as I was attempting to place these seats.  One tine went pretty deep!  Fortunately, my tetanus booster is up to date.

Now all I have to do is prime and re-paint.
 
Thank you all for stopping by!  More to follow..

small advance:

Post Fifty-one
Boxwood hull planking
I had in mind from the outset that the Boxwood above the wale planking would echo the ‘yellow paint generally applied to these vessels.
Not that I will be following the realistic painting scheme of the era. As a Navy Board style model I will apply a degree of artistic licence, and follow the tradition of contemporary models in using minimal paint.
This also means that I will allow the natural boxwood planking to follow the sheer rather than the deck line paint job which was the fashion of the time.
The Topsides consist of pre-cut Pearwood sheets of plain wood with added mouldings and rails. At the lower edge a rail below the channel line will cover the join between pear and Box.

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In its bare form the Boxwood is too pale for my liking, so I have been looking at methods to enrich it somewhat.
Application of w-o-p darkens the tone but not quite to the degree I have in mind.

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Having tested various combinations on Box strip I decided on using Colron English light oak Wood dye.

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Three coats have been applied by brush, immediately wiping off with a soft cloth.
A coat of w-o-p was then applied to seal the effect.

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At this point the aftermost gunports have been fully cut into the wales which were then repainted.
 
Onwards…..
 
B.E.
15/07/2023
 

Painting the shards of sunlight, emanating from behind the Apollo carving, is tricky because the field is so small; the available space doesn’t really allow for masking both sides of the line.
 
My solution was to first draw pencil guidelines for each sun ray.  Port to starboard symmetry should be avoided for a detail like this.  I wanted lines of varying length and tapering thickness to extend beyond the horse and chariot carvings, from a variety of angles.
 
The idea was to lay a strip of tape as an additional guide to the pencil line; this way, I could run my brush over the tape side of the sun ray and nudge the wet edge carefully to the pencil side of the ray.  It was important to remove the tape while the paint was still soft, otherwise the tape would likely lift the finer sections of the painted ray.
 
As I have throughout the ship, I wanted to incorporate silver gilt with the gold.  As Eberhardt (if I remember correctly) once pointed out, this would have been unlikely on the real ship, but as an artistic choice it adds to the visual impact of the thing.  In the photo sequence below, I am adding a thin gold line to the previously painted silver line of a single ray:

On the starboard side, you can still see my faint pencil (6H) layout for the remaining rays to be painted.


It was occasionally necessary to go over sections of these ray lines with a wet brush, when the tape did lift small flakes of paint.  As fine as these lines are, these repairs are manageable over short sections because most of the line remains as a visual guide.
 
After painting the clouds and applying a grey wash, I placed the carvings to get a sense for the whole composition:

In my estimation, this is just enough radiant sun to convey the idea.  After gilding the carvings off the model, and carefully scraping paint away to fix them in-place, here is a preliminary view of what the backboard looks like on the model (not glued yet):


There are still a few mouldings to be fixed in-place, and I have not yet painted the side lantern brackets.  From the side view, this impression of depth is what I was hoping for:

You can see the tiny Zodiac symbols that I painted into the cornice top.  The acrylic paint pen wasn’t quite fine enough to do this, practically, so I simply sketched a basic approximation of each symbol in its opening with a hard pencil.  I then carefully painted over the pencil lines with my finest sable brush.  Considering the scale, they are little changed from the moulded versions on the stock stern plate.
 
At the present moment, I am considering how I will paint the two Continental figures of Europe and Asia that sit atop the cornice.  Their clothing will definitely be painted in a more naturalistic fashion, like the Four Seasons figures.  I think I have the colors figured out.  Gold will be used sparingly.  The main thing is that their faces and any other exposed skin will be painted grey-washed white.  I’ve done this for the quarter pieces, the cathead supports and most notably the figurehead; there is something about this approach that is reminiscent of classical statuary, which were the original inspiration for these carved works in the first place.  In any case, this approach avoids the thorny issue of representing different regions of the world in different skin tones.
 
More to follow - thanks for stopping by!
 
 

Post Fifty.
Time to add a coat of w-o-p.
I make my own up using spirit based Black friar clear satin Poly varnish diluted 50% using white spirit.
Applied sparingly with a soft cloth the first application will reveal those areas that may need more attention.
 Application of w-o-p darkens the pearwood, and brings out the richness, but of more importance the overall tone of the wood is uniform and consistent.

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The colour tone is close to what I had hoped for to contrast with the Boxwood and is not far off the patination I would aspire to achieve were I to copper the hull.
 
That’s a story for another time.
 
B.E.
14/07/2023
 

Thanks Kevin, Andy, and Alistair, and for the 'likes' - much appreciated.
@ Andy - the jury is still out on the  coppering question.
@ Alistair - don't know about a masterpiece, but I'm fairly satisfied that the planking will be good enough to give me the  'unadorned' option.
 
Post Forty-eight
 
Planking completion.

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Two strakes to go and the hull is re-marked for the last time to shape the planks.

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The final strake.

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Last plank and completion.

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Complete. 🍾
 
Altho’ it feels I’ve spent a long time doing the second planking it has only been 25 active working days including the drop planks and Top and butt wale planking.
Not very long in overall terms for a build of this magnitude.
The work does involve several re-markings of the strake lines on the hull to keep things on track, the transfer of each reference point on the planks cut to scale, and the necessary tapering and spiling to get the fit.
There were failures along the way but the incidence of scrapping planks was thankfully low.

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Onto the sanding and cleaning up the hull.
 
B.E.
12/07/2023

 
 
 

fixing the guns and bulkhead 
 










 
 
 
 

Post Forty-seven
Nearly there!
With ten strakes to go the trickiest part is the sharp bends and twists where the planks abut the stern post.

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In this example the plank is wider at the end than the otherwise tapered run.

1340
The planks sometimes take on a serpentine shape.
 
Over the weekend I made a concerted effort to push ahead with the planking and I put in two longish days at the workbench.

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The serpentine shape of the planking runs is evident here but I am now happy that there will be no crowding of the planks at the stem.

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I have concentrated on the bow planking as this is the most critical area, and I am pleased that there is no excessive sny as the planks follow the round of the bow.
 
Two days later……..

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Two strakes left and they will be of pretty uniform shape - I’m relieved to see.

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A small satisfaction to be had when both sides match.

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My shipyard assistant casts a critical eye over my efforts, is he impressed, hard to tell, but I'm satisfied. 🙂
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.
11/07/2023.
 

@jdbondy
@matiz
Thank you very much for the nice comments. Thanks also to everyone else for the many LIKES.
 
Hello fellow colleagues,
back from Italy I escaped straight to the cool basement shipyard ... 😁
But apart from a few "finger exercises" I didn't get much done. I guess I have to "groove in" first, to put it drum-wise... 😁
 
Continued: Equipment of the fore yard -footropes and stirrups - Marchepieds et étrier
 
In the meantime, the footropes and stirrups for the fore yard have been completed. With the help of the following photomontage I just want to give you a few more insights into the production of the details.

On the next picture I show the current equipment level of the fore yard, where not too much is missing anymore.

Up soon ...

Hello,
it is done, the fore castle is ready. Ok, there are some things left like the anchors, but that comes later. The only thing I would build here next, is the fish david. 

Post Forty-six
Planking continues.
One of the downsides of the ‘Indy’ hull is the sheer size and weight which becomes very wearing given the constant need to turn it about and shift it from inverted to upright and back again to check the run of the planking.
I’ve obviously spent too much time on small hulls in recent times, I think back fondly to those fine little fishing boats and even Sphinx, which at the time I also thought was a big beast, but seems quite small now.
 
Not moaning, just musing, - on with the show.

1290
I have now re-marked the hull with the plank widths at each reference point. Sixteen 5mm planks are now required at the two central bulkheads ‘M’ and ‘9’.
 
Another week and this is the state of play, now four months into the build.

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I am now planking alternatively from wale down and keel up, it is a slow business and I’m achieving around two strakes a day.

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I am closely watching the run of planks at the bow, and at this point I will re-mark the runs, hopefully for the last time.

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Tapering is now a feature from around Bulkhead 11 to the stern, but towards the keel the boards also broaden out a little.

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Little by little the gap is closing, and the finish line is in sight. Ten strakes are now required, and another week should see the second planking completed.
 
B.E
08/07/2023
 

other photos:

gun port lids:

Thank you, Gentlemen, for the kind words and the likes.  I hope I will not alienate too many of you with my next foray into the unconventional.
 
I have always liked the painting of the backboards on the Dutch ships.  A few stellar examples of Herbert Thomesan’s work:





I pulled these images from my Pinterest board Navies of Other Euro Nations.  Herbert is a master of color, texture and shade.  I take much inspiration from his use of vivid, complementary colors, and naturalistic painting of ornaments and the backboard paintings that illuminate the ship’s namesake.
 
I have started painting my backboard.  I want Apollo and his four horses to appear as though they are coasting just on the periphery of our atmospheric realm.   Key to this effect is a softly diffuse transition from our earthly cerulean sky to the deep blue of the cosmos.
 
It occurred to me, though, that the plank seams that I scribed into the backboard would make this effect near-impossible to achieve because the successively thin layers of ultra-marine would want to bleed along the seams.  My solution was to putty-in transitional arcs to both sides:

The horse carvings will distract the eye from these small areas where it is visible that the plank seams disappear.
 
A base coat of cerulean blue went down first, over the entire field.  I then applied successively thinner coats of ultra-marine from the top center, feathering out to the sides.  This was just a patient process of application (maybe 10-12 thin coats) and adjustment with a wet brush.  I got the diffuse effect I was after:

Now, to tone-down the brightness - a thorough slathering in walnut ink:

Once this dries, I take a wet brush and begin pulling away most of the color until I’m left with just enough patina to make it interesting:

There is still adjustment to be made with the weathering, but that will be a blending process after the backboard is attached to the model.
 
Next, I can sketch-in the Zodiac symbols.  I bought a fine-line acrylic paint pen to make that easier.  The clouds will be painted white and washed with grey.  The ornament will get the usual two-tone gold, except for the three fleurs on the coat of arms, which will be bright gold.
 
 
My plan is to also mask for fine shards of sun light, in gold and silver gilt, to be emanating from behind Apollo and his horses.  This will be difficult to achieve without overdoing it, or otherwise ruining the blue backdrop.
 
Thank you for your continued interest.  More to follow..
 
 
 

some progress....
I haven't fixed anything yet, everything is provisional. It is necessary to position the two guns with their gun port lids before fixing these bulkheads
 










 

I started the construction of the quarterdeck beams: