rvchima

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Swivel Guns
These are just a couple of pieces of PE brass with a nail through the center soldered together. Bend up the tabs and attach the brass barrel with a piece of wire, then solder the wire. Like always I used Novocan black stained glass patina for the black color.

Boat Storage
 
The longboat and pinnace go in cradles on deck. They look awesome up there.

Eight spare top masts are lashed to the tops of the bits fore and aft of the boats. While I was making spare masts I went ahead and made another set. That way I could use the worst ones as spares and the best ones above.

The spare masts are lashed in place. If I'd known I would be doing this much lashing in 2018 I would have paid more attention in Boy Scouts in 1968. The longboat and yawl are lashed atop the spare masts.

Someone please tell me why I spent so much extra time and money on a curved grating kit for the main deck hatch. Now I totally understand why Pat Banyan built his model with only 2 boats aboard.

My wife Cinda Chima is an author of popular young adult fantasy novels. She posted a photo of my model similar to the one below on Instagram the other day, because her latest series includes scenes with pirates. Her post has 161 Likes right now. I told her I don't have 161 Likes TOTAL in all my posts on MSW.

Fernando,
Welcome aboard! I should explain that, in the model airplane world, what I am doing would be called standoff scale. It looks pretty good if you stand off a ways. If you want serious attention to detail check out Pat Banyan's completed build or  Dave Rowe's nearly completed build.

Fernando,
Welcome aboard! I should explain that, in the model airplane world, what I am doing would be called standoff scale. It looks pretty good if you stand off a ways. If you want serious attention to detail check out Pat Banyan's completed build or  Dave Rowe's nearly completed build.

I just bought an interesting book at a local used book store. "The Neophyte Shipmodeler's JACKSTAY," by George F. Cambell, published by Model Shipways, 1962. It's 59 pages softbound and full of labeled drawings of sailing ship parts. It explains pretty well what things are called, how they work, and how they changed over time. It even explains what a jackstay is. There is no index but it's easy to flip through and find a relevant drawing.
 
My favorite part is
The Rigging
It has been truly said that the rankest amateur can successfully rig, though he know not his mast from a hole in the ground.
 
The original price was $2.50 US. I paid $8.99 for a 56 year old copy. And amazingly Modelexpo-online.com still has it for sale for $12.99.

Holiday Break
My wife and I are leaving tomorrow for a week-long cruise through the Columbia River gorge on a modern stern wheeler. It covers the most of the width of the state of Oregon. Then we'll rent a car and visit Portland, Oregon, Mt. Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park, and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I'll post photos of any interesting river craft. Back in mid August.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Swivel Guns
These are just a couple of pieces of PE brass with a nail through the center soldered together. Bend up the tabs and attach the brass barrel with a piece of wire, then solder the wire. Like always I used Novocan black stained glass patina for the black color.

Boat Storage
 
The longboat and pinnace go in cradles on deck. They look awesome up there.

Eight spare top masts are lashed to the tops of the bits fore and aft of the boats. While I was making spare masts I went ahead and made another set. That way I could use the worst ones as spares and the best ones above.

The spare masts are lashed in place. If I'd known I would be doing this much lashing in 2018 I would have paid more attention in Boy Scouts in 1968. The longboat and yawl are lashed atop the spare masts.

Someone please tell me why I spent so much extra time and money on a curved grating kit for the main deck hatch. Now I totally understand why Pat Banyan built his model with only 2 boats aboard.

My wife Cinda Chima is an author of popular young adult fantasy novels. She posted a photo of my model similar to the one below on Instagram the other day, because her latest series includes scenes with pirates. Her post has 161 Likes right now. I told her I don't have 161 Likes TOTAL in all my posts on MSW.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Swivel Guns
These are just a couple of pieces of PE brass with a nail through the center soldered together. Bend up the tabs and attach the brass barrel with a piece of wire, then solder the wire. Like always I used Novocan black stained glass patina for the black color.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

I love the hand drawn plans for the Gaff! Here's a man who plans what to do next. I usually just dream about it in the morning as I hit the snooze alarm again.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Swivel Guns
These are just a couple of pieces of PE brass with a nail through the center soldered together. Bend up the tabs and attach the brass barrel with a piece of wire, then solder the wire. Like always I used Novocan black stained glass patina for the black color.

Anchors
I decided that I could safely attach the forward anchors now. I left a coil of line to attach to an anchor buoy eventually.

Swivel Guns
These are just a couple of pieces of PE brass with a nail through the center soldered together. Bend up the tabs and attach the brass barrel with a piece of wire, then solder the wire. Like always I used Novocan black stained glass patina for the black color.

Boat Storage
 
The longboat and pinnace go in cradles on deck. They look awesome up there.

Eight spare top masts are lashed to the tops of the bits fore and aft of the boats. While I was making spare masts I went ahead and made another set. That way I could use the worst ones as spares and the best ones above.

The spare masts are lashed in place. If I'd known I would be doing this much lashing in 2018 I would have paid more attention in Boy Scouts in 1968. The longboat and yawl are lashed atop the spare masts.

Someone please tell me why I spent so much extra time and money on a curved grating kit for the main deck hatch. Now I totally understand why Pat Banyan built his model with only 2 boats aboard.

My wife Cinda Chima is an author of popular young adult fantasy novels. She posted a photo of my model similar to the one below on Instagram the other day, because her latest series includes scenes with pirates. Her post has 161 Likes right now. I told her I don't have 161 Likes TOTAL in all my posts on MSW.

Oars
 
The kit came with a lot of photo-etched brass oars in 2 lengths. There is no mention of oars in the instructions or plans, but they obviously go with the ship's boats. The p-e brass parts in this kit are beautiful, but flat oars just didn't look right because they stack up flat. I briefly considered carving 24 oars out of basswood, but only briefly. Instead I decided on composite oars with brass blades and wooden handles.
 
The handles on the brass pieces were 1.2 mm across. I thought about buying a draw plate to make the handles, but our friends at Bluejacket Shipcrafters had 1.2 mm dowels sold as treenails. Besides, the 10 mm dowel supplied with the kit for the mainmast was misshapen and Bluejacket had that too. I ordered 2 of each and had them in 2 days.
 
I cut the 1.2 mm dowels to length, spun them in a rotary tool and shape the handles, and split the other end. I cut the blades off the p-e brass oars, glued them to the handles, painted my composite oars, and tied them into little bundles for the boats. You can see them in the previous post.

 
 

Ships Boats Completed
 
The instructions said that the ship's boats should take a couple of weeks. That was a little optimistic - they took about 60 hours over 19 days, but I build fast. The only problem with the plank-on-frame construction is that the floor ends up too close to the side rails. The poor sailors would have to sit with their knees to their chins. The clinker-built construction of the yawl and skiff came out better than I expected.

Anchors

I won't be able to attach the anchors until the rigging is done, but I built them just for fun.

I'm Still Building! 10 months, 77 work days, 305 hours
 
I haven't posted for awhile, not because I've given up but because I've been having too much fun building. You can see in the photo below that I've completed a lot since the last post: cannons, hatches, pumps, wheel and tiller, eyebolts, and even the stern window covers. Everything is permanently attached. Some detail shots follow. 

I know there is some controversy about the boomkins but I don't know enough about ships to worry about it, so I just built what's in the plans.

I bought the curved hatch gratings from Chuck at the Syren Ship Model Company. They were a little tricky to align but they came out beautiful. The cannons are straight out of the Caldercraft kit. Here's another case where the cut parts didn't fit. The cannon frameworks had interlocking slots that all had to be filed to fit. The axles all had to be filed round. The wheels were more or less round but all different sizes. I mounted a bunch on a mandrel, spun them up in my rotary tool, and sanded them to size. In the end the cannons look pretty good.

I also ordered pump kits from Chuck but they were a different style that the Endeavour. I ended up using the kit pumps.

The wheel that came with the kit was 2 layers of photo-etched brass. The PE parts are beautiful but just don't look right for a wheel, so I bought a wheel kit from Chuck - 15/16" diameter and about 30 pieces! But the pieces are cut to a precision of 0.1 mm and fit perfectly. If you're curious you can view the wheel instructions here.

And I finally made up the covers for the stern windows. Nothing too fancy.
 
Two Questions about Rigging
1. It is tempting to put a drop of CA on rigging threads to hold them in place, but the CA changes the texture and color of the thread. Do you use CA or something else?
2. Do you use beeswax on the thread? I know it cuts down on fraying but does it collect dust?
 
 
 

Honey I Shrunk the Binnacle
 
There has been some controversy about the binnacle for this model. Marquardt's book Captain Cook's Endeavour, Anatomy of the Ship (AOTS) shows a tall, bridge-like structure that sits in front of the wheel over the skylight. The kit has an identical design. I'm not a sailor but I am an engineer, and nothing seems right with that design.
It would be 6 feet tall and block the captain's view ahead. It would shade the beautiful skylight and prevent it from opening. You would have to reach through the wheel to open the little drawers along the top - very dangerous in rough seas. Photos of the replica show a little cupboard that seems to be used in port for display, but this photo shows the real binnacle in use. Note the horizontal compass on top right. The binnacle is about waist high and sits to the port side of the wheel. Other photos show a similar cabinet to starboard.

 
I Googled binnacle and found this photo of a binnacle for the Nonsuch, a British ketch that sailed into Hudson's Bay in 1668-1669, 100 years before the Endeavour. A replica of the Nonsuch was built in 1970 and now sits in the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, Canada. That binnacle looked perfect to me. It is about the size of the cabinet on the Endeavour replica, has an enclosure for a lantern, and a window for the compass.

The photo shows almost a perfect front view so I printed it at 10 percent, traced it, and built one from balsa right over the tracing. Here's a photo of the kit binnacle (front only) with my first build in the center. The box came out about 22 mm high, a little over 4 feet scale, and it just seemed too big. I showed my wife and asked her if my binnacle was too big, and she told me it wasn't big enough. I'm not sure what she meant by that. Anyway I reduced my drawing 75% and built the second one on the left.

I added some paint, a window, a tiny paper compass inside, and some hardware, and here's my final binnacle. I'll tie it down on the port side of the wheel.

I probably spent 10 hours on this fiddly thing. I never do stuff like this, so don't expect to see any more heavy detailing on this build.