rybakov

Hello,
the first step is done 😅 Tomorrow I will turn the hansing pieces fore and aft of the waist rail. 
 

 

Hello all.
As some of you already know, my mom passed away at the beginning of this month, so things have been hectic to say the least. The legal stuff, her will and testament, what are we going to do with her house and all the stuff in it, her jewelry, etc. For obvious reasons my mood has been less that cheerful. BUT, life has to go on and I finally managed to finish 12 upper deck cannons as you will see.
I have to admit that I was hesitant about getting in the trouble of making those rope coils, but now I am SOOO glad I did!!!
I used a piece of masking tape to roll the coils over it. I used a very strong glue tape so I had a really hard time taking them off the tape. If you are copying this method, I'd suggest you use a less tacky tape like Scotch tape or something similar.


 

 
"Bath" the coils generously with diluted white glue. I did two coats for greater strength. The surface you are going to let to be seen is the one underneath.
Also remember to coil half of them clockwise and the other half counter-clockwise.

 
Here they are. 12 upper deck cannons rigged and with their complements (coils and cannonball racks) in place.



 
 

I don't know the name of that wooden v-shaped blocks they used to put under the gun barrels, but if you decided to add them, you would  have the guns pointing horizontally like we use to represent them.  But whatever you decide to do, the whole model, and in particular the guns, look fantastic. Congratulations.
 
JP
 
 

Cannon assembly line update. (With special mention to Sjors and Anja  )
 
First, a bunch of eyebolts in two different sizes had to be made.

 
I am starting with these 12 cannons that go on the upper deck. Here, holes for eyebolts have been drilled

 
Here eyebolts are glued and attached and coat of BLO applied

 
Cannons in place. This is one of the rare occasions in which I use cyanoacrilate (Super glue)

 
Here hinges have been placed
 

 
A piece of rope tied to the cannon bell
 

 
Process of tying the eyebolt
 

 
Two cannons rigged
 

 

 
These 12 cannons are now ready to be mounted.

 
To be continued...
 
I don't know how to remove a photo. This next one wasn't intended to be here 
Ahhh- The delete button is well hidden!

Implementation of howitzers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning.

In the meantime I have created the preconditions for setting the topmast shrouds.
I made the necessary ropes myself.

 

 

 

 

Continuation 
 

 

 

 
Pawel

the carronades:

 

 

 

 

I agree completely with Kirill.  To be clear, I am not arguing against blue and gold.  Blue will still figure very prominently in what I am going to do.  My main argument, here, is that it would not likely have been a dark ultra-marine.
 
I have chosen this lighter Cerulean shade as my primary blue, mostly because I like the way it looks against the yellow ocher.
 

 
Strictly speaking, though, I do not think this is a period-correct color for 1689.
 
All models are a pastiche of correctness and stylistic choices.  Some of the paint choices I am making are deliberately to emphasize all of the work that was put into the ornamental  program.  As a finishing touch, I will buck orthodoxy and make the style of lanterns that I would like, as opposed to what Berain drew.  That doesn’t necessarily make them “correct” choices; just my choices.

Large scale coverage:

 

 

 

 

 

OK, the build hasn't stopped -it's just proceeding at a glacial pace.
 
Boat Construction
 


General Pics - alas she is so big it is almost impossible for me to take a full profile photo
 

 


 

 

 

 

Forward bridge complete and fitted. This is a time consuming and fiddly job to say the least! The decoration that runs around the bridge edge is made by twisting three strands of 1 mm brass wire together then hammering them flat on an anvil block. The handrail is 2 mm brass wire hammered flat.  These were then bent into shape using a forming template. Billing's instruction for the edge decoration was to use rigging thread - yuk!
 

 


 

coming along nicely there phil - nice to see vicky in the background there.
 
Keith

Planking complete, phew, as the late Cilla Black might say "That's a lorra lorra planks!

 




Trickiest part is around the propeller well (which will be trimmed back flush) so apologies for the filler.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Half the planking fitted. After all these years I think I've finally got the hang of using stealers! The detail of the propeller well shows the 3D printed part

Okay- the rigging is complete. I'm waiting for a case to be made, so Ethalion's under a cardboard frame with a plastic dust cover over her at the moment - not her best look.
 
I shall take some better photos and post them when she re-emerges. I shall add (at least some of) the ship's boats around the model rather than on the skids as they hide so much of the deck beneath. But for now I'm going to call this one finished . Thanks so much to everyone for your encouragement, interest, wisdom, likes, ideas, etc...  Especially Barbossa, Ray, Beef Wellington... I've taken so much inspiration from your builds!
 
Here's just a few photos...
 

 

 

 

 
She's in much need of a nicer stand, but that will happen when the case arrives
 
Thanks again.
 
Rob
 
 

First planking
 
First I should probably say that I went back and added a rabbet at the bearding line, as on Ethalion, as I figured that would give the best chance of a neat termination for the planks at the stern post, once the second planking was in place.
 
The lime wood planks provided with this kit are lovely - really well cut and nice and easy to shape... even so, the stern transom of this ship is a challenge... 
 
Using an app called conecalc, I worked out the radius the plank would need to be bent to laterally to sit flat round the stern... it's pretty severe, and my first few efforts at bending the plank like that were dismal. I ended up using 3x1.5mm beech I already had in the end so that I could get the bend. And even with soaking, and using a rib-bending iron, it was still quite the task. 
 
The planks were added with superglue, and once the whole hull was first-planked, I painted watered down carpenter's glue (Aliphatic resin) over the hull to stick the planks together. This seemed to give a really nice solid base.
 

 
The rib-bending iron is great... in a matter of seconds, you can get something like the the result below (and the wood is dry from the heat before it goes onto the hull, so it isn't going to shrink, either...)
 

 
With carefully edge bending using the rib iron, and gently teasing the planks, I managed to plank half way down the hull, and also the garboard  strake and the two planks above without tapering any of them...  The rest was then filled by letting the planks lie as they wanted to.
 

 
Once the hull was closed up on both sides, a liberal coat of wood filler was added, and the hull sanded back to get a really smooth finish, ready for the second planking. The sternpost, and the strip that adds onto the bow? were also added now that the sanding was mainly done and they wouldn't get damaged.
 

 

 

 

 
After taking these photos, I went over the whole hull and sanded it down further, as I realised there was more filler left than I wanted, but it gives an idea of the result. It'll do for a first planking.
 
I've begun the second planking, but no photos to show yet. So that's me up to date.
 
Thanks for all the likes and for looking in.
 
Rob

The stern former
 
As with the bow, the stern is shaped using balsa formers. These are a little more tricky than at the bow, as it's one single piece that is entirely responsible for the eventual shape of the stern in all three dimensions.
 
It all begins with three identical balsa blocks of equal shape.
 
Again, I made a cad drawing of the plans given by MarisStella so I could take some measurements off it and put extra lines onto it. The extra lines showed where the balsa blocks should start and finish on the x, y and z axes. This enabled me to cut them down to rough shape in the vertical and horizontal planes before sticking them together.
 

 
I've tried to draw a picture of how I went about this... hopefully it gives some idea... basically the idea is to take away what you know WON'T be in the final shape one axis at a time, and then see what you're left with... when you've done that, you can start to take off the edges back to the curves you will eventually want.
 

 
As they say, the way to eat an elephant is slice by slice! When done this way the whole thing feels much more achievable.
 
The first wood I removed was the angle at the top - This forms the continuation of the line that runs along the tops of the bulkheads, and is not horizontal... it is higher at the stern than at the final bulkhead. (see 1 on the diagram.)
 
This was achieved by marking the difference in height from the plans, and then sawing off the majority and sanding flat with sandpaper laid on a flat surface. The slope can kind of be seen below:
 

 
Here are some more photos of progress... I marked the outline of the third balsa block - this is more than all that will be left of it once shaped, so why stick on the rest? It'll only need to be sanded or cut away... 
 

 
And here it is cut down and attached...
 

 
Then I marked the angle of the backside of the stern (the transom) - again, this is not vertical... the curve of the stern at the top of the block sticks out more than the curve at the bottom of the block... I started this shape by removing the excess straight across the stern.
 

 
Then, using a template made from the plans, I shaped the lower curve so that it was the right shape... (slowly and carefully, checking progress lots...) As I got closer I used a strip of paper pinned into the balsa to mark the line of the wale... 
 

 

 
And in this way, the shape gradually took form... Once it was close, I stuck it on to the bulkhead (using gravity to keep it in place as it stuck - which was either brave or possibly stupid, but I seemed to get away with it... ), hence the angle of this photo...
 

 
I noticed that the angle of the rear bulkhead could easily be wrong, so I used balsa blocks to wedge it up and make sure it stuck in at right angles to the false keel. (There are no dowels through this bulkhead to help you out! 
 
Final shaping was then done on the model.
 
Next up is first planking. But again, that will need a separate post.
 

Okay - with the gradual wrapping up of Ethalion (the rigging is completed), it's time for an update on the Barque Stefano.
 
With the bulkheads roughly faired, we finished last time with them glued into place, save the final bulkhead at the stern. The next task is to fair the balsa blocks that provide shape for the bow and stern.
 
I scanned the plans, and created CAD copies of the pertinent outlines to help me shape the blocks, and once these were stuck onto cardboard and cut out, they made good templates...
 

 
This was done before the balsa was stuck on, and then I rough shaped the balsa off the model using a coping saw to stop the room being consumed by a pile of shavings... The false keel and bulkheads gave the rough pattern for what shapes these parts should be. The block was built up so that the gap that would be left on the outside was filled at the bow so the whole area would be solid in front of the front two bulkheads. (Sorry - an ugly sentence, but hopefully the picture explains)
 
(Remember these are handed - they have to fit either side of the bow!, I almost forgot.)
 
It doesn't have to be pretty at this stage... it's all going to get sanded down and up soon enough.
 

 
The blocks are then stuck into place.
 
I quickly realised that sanding was going to take forever to remove this much material, and still created buckets of dust, so I switched to a small plane... Finishing off was then done by sandpaper  folded to make it fairly firm, and in broad sweeps to get nice curves... 
 

 
And here are the profile templates...
 

 
The gap between the first and second bulkheads was also filled at the outer edge... and then sanded back to make a smooth curve... 
 

 
Next up is the stern balsa former...  But this post is long enough already.
 

Good morning.

Good morning.

balustrade:

 

 

 

 

 

Hello, and many thanks for your likes and comments
I have been a little lazy at the yard the last 14 days, because of the wonderful weather we had here in the northern part of Germany. Last week we had here winter with 5-10 cm snow and temperatures down to -15°C (5°F). This week the opposite, spring with 15-20°C (41-68°F) and mostly bright sunshine 😊
 
That was the sunrise this morning, the yellow color comes from the Sahara desert dust, that came with the warm winds.

 
But today I started at the yard with the sheave blocks
 

 

 

 

 
 

Hello,
it is done 😅 All the hinges are ready.