rybakov

Hello,
it is done, the rails are ready. That was more work then expected and not so easy to do. The next things at my list, are the supporter knees for the cathead 

Thanks!!!
 
Chapter eleven starts with my completing the six channels. .
 
Before gluing each channel to the hull I set the straps. Each strap was angled according to the plan sheet. A tiny drop of medium CA underneath is all that was needed. I did find that there where a few slots which needed some angling on the bottom of the channel in order to get the desired strap angle. I was careful not to file away the shape of the slot as seen from above. During the gluing process, the IGAGING Digital Height Gauge was used to set the channels parallel to the build board. Once the channels where set, I used blackened brass nails, leftover from my Mayflower kit, to attach the bottom of each strap to the hull. A tiny smear of CA on the nail was more than enough to hold it securely in place.




Mike

Just a quick update. .
 
I managed to complete the upper rail today which finishes up chapter ten. One thing I would mention is the importance of being able to tweak the pillars on either side of the gun barrels. In my earlier post #483, Ofelia shows the way to get them into alignment. If I had glued them in with epoxy or CA it would have been very difficult to tweak them later while installing the upper rail. The rail is thin, so it wouldn't take much for things to not line up perfectly.
 
Before adding the rail, I checked it for the run along the pillar tops. It was check in both directions, sideways and from the top. I ended up changing the curvature of the rail as well as re-tweaking one or two pillars. Since the pillars where glued in with PVA, I simply nudged the pillar one way or another without the need to moisten the glue joint.
Mike

I took measurements off of the model, and transferred them to my drawing, which I had sprayed with hairspray to fix the graphite before proceeding with the pixie figure.  I expected to be erasing a lot, and I was correct!
 
Unfortunately, the hairspray altered the “tooth” of the paper, and I just could not draw clean lines, so I taped an overlay for the pixie.  This was helpful, in revising my earlier attempt because I could re-plot elements I wanted to maintain, while making spatial assessments of what needed to be changed.
 
It took a while to get the proportions of her limbs where I wanted them.  You can see, in comparison with the drawing I made at the start of this project, how scaled-down the horse and pixie now are:

I am satisfied with all of this, so tonight I will paste a photocopy to a blank of 1/16” styrene sheet, and I will begin making the port headrails.
 
The horse figure will be integral to the headrails, while the pixie will be a separate part.  I expect each headrail side to take a couple of weeks to make, but this is an enjoyable and portable side-project.
 
As always, thank you for the likes and for looking-in.  More to follow!

Continuation: Fixing the topgallant shrouds
In the meantime, all topgallant shrouds have been attached to the corresponding fittings of the deadeyes. The final fixing of the lashings only makes sense after all the shrouds have been installed. 
The ropes were fastened with a simple splice.

 
The lashings of the topgallant shrouds are here attached to the foremast behind the 2nd and 3rd top mast shroud. 

 
Next I will make the catharpins of the top- and topgallant shrouds.
See you soon ...
 

Hello,
thank you for your comments and likes
I made at least the covers for the stanchions and the last two stanchions. Boy, that where nasty little beasts 🤨 After one afternoon I had one ready! For the second one I needed only 2,5 hours. But now they are ready and build in.
When the special artist is in the right mood, he will paint the next time the decoration for the covers.

Hello,
it is done! The rails are now hard and fast. Now are only the short stanchions at the end of the upper rails and the painted covers for the stanchions left.

The design process continues.  After checking against the model, I realized after all, that I would have to shift the front three pilasters aft by about 1/16”.  Now the gammoning will pass cleanly between the ‘thwartship supporting timbers.
 
I took this opportunity to mark the cardboard template for the height of the aft rosette.  In doing so, it dawned on me that I could do exactly as Druxey suggested, and make additional room space beneath the headrails. His annoying😜 voice kept rattling around my brain, as I kept thinking to myself “you know he’s right!”.  In the end, it was a simple matter of lifting the aft rosette until I was satisfied with the spacing.
 
Now that I had determined to copy the Berain design more closely, I did a little more refining of the rail widths, and then set about drawing the aft, scrolled rosette;  it is simple-seeming enough, but I spent hours trying to draw this volute.  My pointillist-mapping technique for drawing irregular curves looks like this, just before I trace over the dotted line:

I thought this looked pretty good until the next day, when I realized that the volute should be as closely centered on the middle rail as possible.  More hours were spent drawing and erasing:
 
This was much better, however, the scroll within the scroll needed a little re-balancing, especially in consideration of the way in which the horse’s snout nestles into this open area:

Okay, now I could start penciling in only the necessary mouldings to help me determine the size of the bellflower garland:

I am making small alterations to Berain’s design, as I see sensible and/or necessary; in the original drawing the garland runs all in one direction, aftwards.  I have decided to make a transition between the second and third pilasters, so that half the garland runs forward toward the reins of the figurehead.
 
Here is where the drawing stands, as of now:

At this stage, I can photocopy this drawing and paste a copy to my cardboard template, so that I can take precise measurements of where my pixie figure will fit-in without the whole thing looking un-balanced.
 
Drawing all of this, is one matter.  Figuring out how exactly to apply my layered approach to part-making so that there is the appropriate sense of relief and overlay will take some thought.  If that weren’t enough, the headrails bow out, around the beakhead grating, and then reverse inward to tuck-in behind the figurehead.  I don’t think heat-bending is the way to go, here.  I will, instead, induce these curves over a form, over a period of a few days.
 
I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend!
 
More to follow…

Hello,
the carpenters where busy today and made the mouldings at the rails. I will ask the painter, if he will paint them this evening. I think for an extra beer it could work 😉

Hello, thank you Gary and all others for your likes,
today only a short update, I cut out the rails and fitted them in. The stanchions now are also fast installed. The next step would be to give these rails there contours.

Fixing the topgallant shrouds
A long time ago I dealt with this topic in more detail, but without any concrete result. However, I can no longer postpone the implementation of this detail. According to my research and a corresponding interpretation of the description in the monograph of La Créole, the topgallant shrouds are now fixed by lashings, which are attached to the fittings of the deadeyes. The respective lashing is made with thimbles. 

On the next picture I show the course of the topgallant shrouds using the main top as an example.

 
So once again thimbles had to be made, 24 of them in total. In relation to the deadeyes, the thimbles should not be too big, of course. That's why I had to introduce another thimble size (ø 0.9 mm / ø 1.2 mm / ø 2.0 / ø 2.5 mm) in addition to the ones used for this model so far. For this purpose I bought brass tubes with a diameter of 1.0 mm, which finally resulted in thimbles with a diameter of about 1.6 mm. 

 
In the meantime I only make the thimbles with a suitable centre punch. With the cone-shaped point I form the tube section into a thimble with lightly dosed hammer strokes, as shown in the following picture.

 
To make the strops for the lower thimbles I use served ropes with ø 0.35 mm. For tying to the fittings of the deadeyes, eyes are formed as shown in the drawing before.
The last picture shows the finished strops, 4 x 3 pieces in total. The shorter strops are for the mizzen mast. 
 
I will report about the fixing of the topgallant shrouds on the model soon.
To be continued ...
 

I’ve completed and am in the process of painting the stern archway brackets.  The channel standards are coming along, slowly, after a little excise and replacement.
 
I have continued to tweak and play around with my new headrail design.  The bottom rail width still requires a little tweaking, but the symmetry and taper are already an improvement over the stock rails.  Here  are the carved elements that I can definitely recycle:

When I re-incorporate stock carvings, I like to undercut the carvings with the tip of a #11 blade, in order to give a better sense of relief; the idea is similar to the process of metal chasing brass castings, for example.  The carvings end up looking crisper, overall, and it is an easy thing to achieve with backward scrapes of the blade point, heal first.
 
The pilasters have been re-spaced.  I wanted them to neatly correspond with either the fleurs of the Xs of the trailboard, but the abbreviated design of the trailboard made that an impossibility.
 


It just occurred to me, as a matter of fact, that I will have to re-check my tentative pilaster layout to ensure that it does not intersect with the run of the gammoning.  On the stock kit, this consideration is moot because there are no ‘thwartship supporting timbers that the gammoning must pass between.  Here, though, those supports will align with the pilasters.
 
I have decided that I will design the aft medallion to closely follow the Berain drawing.  The stock medallion is nice, but it interferes with the horse and pixie sculptures in ways that are un-tennable.
 
As always, thank you for your interest and for looking in.

Hello,
yes, they are tricky Druxey. But I think, now I got it. The forth version of the upper rail and the stanchion to the right looks more like a piece of plywood. But some fine tuning here and there and a lot of paint and it is't to be distinguish with a good head. We will see how it looks with the real rails.

I guess that we each have our own idea of what constitutes a milestone. For me it's getting all that repetitive work completed in making guns.
Mike
 
 

Hello,
many thanks to all for the kind response.
 
Today I present you another video LINK to the construction of my French corvette, which shows the production of the anchors.
I would be happy if you like it.
 

Hello,
today I was for some time back at the yard and I tried to fit the rails into the stanchions. The rails are just templates to see how they fit and what I have to change. And at least you see at a picture the most faults. But I think, this version will do it.

Thought I would add some close up photo's of Montague.  I was on the NRG site and came across the article by Kurt on taking photo's of ones work and figure I needed to practice  a bit. Guess I have to find a little space for a photo booth when  taking good photo's of my ship.  Well guys one day maybe I get the hang of taking good photo's, hope you enjoy the close up. Gary

Hi guy's. Here's a update on the build but this time it is more about her building board. I add a way of being able to tilt her from side to side  which helps keep the back in tack and a lot easier getting to thing's.  I worked on a couple of hanging knee's and being tilted made it a lot better.  I can't take the Credit for it which goes to  Alan/AON and the tech info on it. Hope you enjoy the pictures and any question will be more then happy to answer them

All looks very nice, Mark. Good process thinking on your run of moldings as well. Hdd you considered painting friezes on paper off-model and gluing them on in sections? Many contemporary models were painted this way. It obviates the need for awkward masking or working against gravity. And, if you mess up a piece, it's easily replaced. The friezework on Comet was done this way:
 

Hi everyone,
 
It has been a long time since my last post. Other things going on, slow progress on the Bellona with little to show of interest. A lot of thinking about next steps!
 
I have finally roughed out the timber ends, giving the hull a much lighter feeling. These still need their distinctive hollowed top and sides. And they bring into play the railings at the their base and halfway up their lengths. I am still thinking how to do this, likely inserting short pieces between the timber heads, and then continuous railings alongside to give the appearance of a railing pierced by the timber heads.
 
I have completed the sheer strake, which was particularly satisfying since it really contributes to the sweet lines of the hull. I am now beginning to fit the moulding over the sheer strake. This will be very obvious in the final model, and it needs a particularly smooth, faired line. I have made a ply template at the right curvature, that I will clamp to the hull above the moulding and then clamp the moulding up to the lower edge of the template when glued. But in the waist, the fairness will be particularly obvious,  and the ply template doesn't have anything to rest on or clamp against. So I decided to start fitting the capping rail in the waist, up to which I can clamp the moulding for a smooth run when I glue it.
 
The lower photo shows a temporary rough blank for the capping rail, to check the fairness in both directions. I'm thinking I will glue the mouldings first, then come back and do the capping rail. This gives me a final edge against which to test the fairness of the outer edge of the capping rail.
 
I got into a whirlwind of thinking, trying to figure out the sequence of painting and assembly in the upper works. Everything above the waist rail already installed is painted a dark blue for the frieze, except for the sheer and drift rail mouldings which remain bright, and the top rails and timber heads which are black. I have decided to spray paint the blue, after masking the mouldings to which I have already applied the polyurethane finish. We will see!
 
BTW, I just received the NRG thickness guide for the Byrnes saw. Beautiful, works well. Thanks everyone who made this possible!
 
Mark
 
 
 


 

As always, David, your perceptions are right on!  For one, the following pic is more representative of the space available to me:

I would like to have more space, but then I’m compressing the width of the three headrails, between the upper cheek and the beakhead grating.  The three headrails also require interspaces; slightly less than a half inch at the forward end (after revision) isn’t a lot to work with.
 
The fact remains, though, that this design process remains fluid, because I haven’t even gone to the vellum, yet, to delineate the rails and position the stiles and figure out what to do with the aft medallion.
 
As always, this kind of feedback is welcome!

I had a series of epiphanies in the grocery store.  First of all, the exact positioning of the aft medallion matters a great deal, because it determines whether the cathead timbers will clear the headrails.
 
Last night, when I was positioning the stock headrail to take a measurement at the figurehead, I was looking at it from the outboard perspective; I had failed to consider that one of the modifications I made was to recess the beakhead bulkhead into the upper bulwarks, so that there would be an “actual practice” plank overlay of the beakhead bulkhead.
 
When I got home, after putting away the groceries, of course, I positioned the stock headrail piece where it actually needs to be.  I discovered that the shortage is much closer to 5/16”, rather than the heavy 1/8”th I had previously based my pattern on.
 
It also dawned on me that I had not even bothered to place the sprit-mast to even see whether the forward medallion was actually now below it.  What was I thinking?!
 
Anyway, these were not difficult alterations to make.  Here is headrail pattern 2.0:


The other important consideration is that the beakhead grating has to flow into the headrail on a steady incline, so the top edge of the headrails can’t dip below the line of the grating.
 
Of course, the next question is whether I will have room for the pixie figure that I drew, just aft of the headrail:
 

I’m not sure about that:

Although, it could simply be a matter of re-scaling the figure.  When I drew her, it still had not dawned on me that the Berain bow drawing does not account for the forecastle deck.  The figure I drew is “stretched” in order to accommodate that reality:
 

Perhaps she can be somewhat reduced in scale to fit comfortably between the headrails and that first port opening.  I may, ultimately, need to alter the aft medallion to copy the actual Berain design because the Heller version adds width to this critically tight spot.
 
That’s a problem for another day.  At least I have the length and sweep worked out. 

A lot of small odds and ends have been happening.  I’ve smoothed-over and re-touched the upper bulwark joint.  I painted and installed the starboard spirketting and the quarter deck beam.  I’ve fitted and installed the last little piece of the frieze, where it bridges the bulwark joint.  I’ve also installed all of the starboard channels.
 
One aspect that has provided a series of mis-steps is the buttressing knees of the channels.  First, I could not locate the card template I had made for the port side, so I made a new template.  Then, the first knee I fitted was made from slightly thinner styrene than what I used  on the port side.  After the second knee, I found my original template!  So, even though I will remove the first too-thin knee and replace it, I manually faired the first two knees to the correct profile.  The third knee I installed was too tall!
 


I decided to take a break from that frustration, for a moment.  The port side gallery bracket is well-underway and coming along nicely.
 
Last night, I was in the mood to take a stab at a pretty challenging re-design.  As previously discussed, the kit head rails are now a generous 1/8” too short, after increasing the hull width at the stem.  To attempt to use them, anyway, would result in a visual compromise that would only serve to draw heaps of attention to its wrongness.
 
Even on the stock kit, there are numerous problems with the way these rails were designed.  Most significantly, the forward escutcheon rises above the level of the sprit-mast, where it becomes an encumbrance to the rigging.  Secondly, the low-sweeping arc of the rails makes it very difficult to craft plausible supporting knees, which the kit omits, in the first place.
 
Since, I have to re-make the rails, I thought I’d try and solve these two additional problems, while also improving the grace of the arc.  My plan is to extract the forward and aft medallions, as well as the acanthus stiles that connect the three rails.
 
The pattern I arrived at, I think, does a reasonably good job on all of these fronts.  The three rails taper, gradually, from 3/4” across the rails at the aft medallion, to 1/2” at the forward medallion:

Arriving at this pattern was just a matter of holding the stock part to the model and taking a measurement for the increased length, as well as figuring out the point at which the arc could transition into a slightly more shallow curve (just aft of the cathead support).  Then, it’s just a process of drawing and erasing arc segments with a set of French curves.
 
The stock rails on the model:

The sweep is so low, your supporting knees must be practically flat in profile.  The forward medallion is also way too high:

By contrast:

There is, now, at least some elevation to create a cyma-curve for these supporting knees.

I think the curves are more fair now, as well.


There is a lot of work in these, to bring them to fruition, but I think this is a solid starting place.
 

Thanks you all!
 
I've been catching up on areas of the ship that were not completed earlier. The Q-gallery windows where on hold to avoid damage or dust collection. The remaining large guns due to my just being lazy. Anyway, here are some photos along with a few updates to chapter ten. After I drill the holes for the pinned QD guns I will finish up the upper rail on the QD.






Mike

Hello,
we are back at the yard and I'm busy with the stanchions for the head rails. 😰