shipaholic

Happy Birthday Mick have a good one

Hi Mike

Just give them a good buff with a cloth and redo the blackening, sometimes it takes two goes to get them right. My barrels are Chuck's and I used the same blackening solution and mine look great.

Cheers

Steve

I have a Model Expo rope machine and, although a bit clunky, it works fine. It just takes a bit of practice to learn how to make good rope with it.

Thanks Mick

Thanks Alistair

I thought rope strops on the blocks would be more authentic because I have never seen gun tackle blocks with metal bands. See the pics below of the Victory cannon and the restored cannon from the actual Endeavour in a museum, they both have rope stropped blocks.

As a bit of a side project I bought some Caldercraft 1/60 cannon kits to put on my AL Endeavour, because the ones on my AL are crappy. The Caldercraft cannon are a bit low slung though and don't look realistic. Anyway I will make them up and put them on, but I won't be rigging them, just recoil ropes. One bonus is they came with lots of small eyepins, and good capsquares that I used on my 1/48 cannons. You can see the relative sizes of the 1/60 and 1/48 cannon.

I've been a bit tardy on the ship lately, too much other stuff going on at the moment. Got some done this weekend. Finally finished building all the guns, now I just have to rig them all. I've rigged one gun so far.

Happy Birthday Mike

I wasn't happy with the capsquares on the cannon so I modified them to look more correct.

Hi Mick

The blocks on the cannon are 3mm ones that I bought from Chuck Passaro. Yes, the "bit that holds the bowsprit" you refer to, the knightheads, are different to yours because I didn't use the kit supplied ones. There are a lot of things different about my Endeavour compared to all the others because I am not referring to any instructions or any one single reference source, I am doing my own version based on the original 1768 draught plans and many other contemporary sources. Many of the parts on my Endeavour have been purchased separately or scratch built.

There certainly are many different versions of the Endeavour because all of the reference books etc have filled in the knowledge gaps with guesses and none of them agree with each other, then the kit manufacurers adapt their kits differently depending their interpretation and which reference sources they used. Also a lot of builders are modifying their kits to look like the full size replica of Endeavour or base them on the Anatomy of the Ship book.

Cheers

Steve 

Edward

Maybe you should contact Caldercraft (Jokita) and get the barrels replaced. Check the gun carriage parts also to make sure they are the correct size.

Steve

Hello Edward

Welcome to the Endeavour club, I look forward to watching your progress.

Yes those gun barrels are way too big, the actual 4 pounder guns on Endeavour were 1.82 meters long, so they should be about 30mm long, not 45mm.

Cheers

Steve

These gun tackles are hard to get right, I thought I would try expending the rope between the blocks, might look neater, dunno.

Some pics

Hi Mick

Thanks for the nice words. Yes I have to agree about the wood, its not very good, and does look a bit rough on the small parts like cannon carriages and bitts.

Steve

Hi Slog,

Yeah its hard enough at 1:51 but yours at 1:60 scale is harder!! I had to make really small eyebolts from copper wire, and the hooks are really small. I've been practicing some more hook making today, trying to get them smaller.

Steve

I like taking pics of my ship, here are more

Yes Alistair I will definately get some. Then I will be able to see my cannon tackles like this

Hi Alistair

I have one of those small stands with the crocodile clips and a crappy magnifying glass, and I needed to use the magnifying glass for the first time ever when I was trying to thread the rope through those 3mm blocks. So yeah I am thinking of getting a pair of those magnifying glasses.

Steve

Thanks Pierre, don't be disheartened it is a hobby not a contest. I too look at other builds on here and I am amazed at the workmanship but it also inspires me to do better.

Steve

One more photo

Some more pics of my progress

I got my 3mm blocks from Chuck today, so tonight I set up one of the gun tackles, I think the size looks right. Very fiddly work though, not looking forward to doing 11 more, I might need to buy a magnifying glass.

Hi Mick

No they're not meant to be rounded. I only used a flat file for mine, here is some pics showing what shape mine are.

Steve

Looks really good Steve

Tell me, does your kit actually come with instructions about the roping, masts, spars etc

I say that as I am a little worried about getting to that point with mine as there are no instructions, just plans

Full size plans maybe but I have never done anything this complicated and a few pointers would have been good   

No doubt when I get there there will be helpers about though   

I just hope that I will be able to get mine looking as good as yours Steve

 

Keep it up   

Mick

Hi Mick

Yes there are instructions in the partwork magazines but I am not following them or any other instructions. I am basing my rigging on contemporary sources, books such as "The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War", "The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor" as well as referring a bit to Marquardt's "Anatomy of the Ship" and Parkin's "HMB Endeavour".

Steve

Thanks Hamilton