robdurant

Thanks to you all for looking in, liking, and encouraging me along on this build. I'm finding it fascinating and fulfilling, and it's nice to know that others are finding enjoyment in it, too! I took another look at the cabin roof, and compared it with those on the Cutty Sark, and realised that the profile was the opposite way up (thick at the top and narrow at the bottom). Not a big deal, but it niggled at me, and I decided to try it the other way round. Through my own laziness in not taking progress shots, I also neglected to take photos of me sticking planks onto the cabin roof only to realise that I hadn't cut them to scale length... so - here are some shots of the work, which I obviously got right first try!!! 🙄🤣 One of the benefits of re-doing it, is that I realised it made sense to plank from one end, over the other end, and then sand it back to get a neat transition to the surround. Then the surround was glued in place... And the profile was carefully filed back into the corners where the joins were (yes, I wimped out of trying to do neat 45 degree mitres!) Then it was a case of rinse and repeat for the aft deckhouse, with the added challenge of making sure the hole for the raked mizzen mast was in the right position. (Achieved by measuring back from the front of the deckhouse when the deck was not in place, and then transferring this measurement (plus the overhang) onto the deck. The next thing I wanted to have a crack at was the railings. They could probably wait a bit, but I was itching to see what they looked like! There are 17 each side, covering 140mm between the centres of the columns at each end (at least on this interpretation!), and that leads to an 8.75mm gap between column centres along the row. The aft deck has a 3 degree slope, rising from front to back. It also has the camber to allow water to run off. I made a jig to allow me to file the bottoms of the columns evenly to 3 degree angles. By turning the column slightly so that the angle faced inboard, I could account for the slope fore and aft, and the camber. I've drawn a very rough diagram here... And the actual jig looks like this... You can just see the column poking out from the end of the styrene tube. When the column was removed from the styrene tube, I marked the top to show which direction the angle was (it's barely visible to the naked eye!) Then these marks were used to line them up as I glued them in place. I've only done the starboard side so far. When the deck is laid flat you can see the angle (I made up a small 87 degree angle piece to check against.) And a few pictures of the side, finished. The wide angle lens makes the end columns look like they're at different angles, but they are in fact all as near parallel as I can get them. I'll gently sand the top to add the angle to the columns for the rail, and once added, the whole structure should be reasonably strong. Right. I think that's enough for this evening. Happy building to you all Rob

Thanks Vladimir I've been planking the cabin roofs so I hopefully should have another update by the end of the day.

I tried glazing some of the portholes, which seemed to go very well. More practice would not go astray, but that's the beauty of Humbrol clearfix, you can just go back and have another crack at it. I have yet to put the portholes into the aft superstructure. I used my violin rib bender at 230 C and water to warm the ply roof formers and introduce the curve of the deck (it never seems like a good idea to me to simply try and make the glue force wood into a curve). Then I took some walnut 4x3 strip and using Artesania Latine micro shapers (https://artesanialatina.net/en/micro-tools/1296-micro-shapers-b-wooden-plastic-models-miniatures-tool-8421426273014.html - the bottom right shape of the middle scraper in the picture on this site. The profile was put into the entire 1mm length of the strip, and a length of it bent vertically to match the contour of the cabin roof. It was glued to the cabin roof clamped with a 0.5mm strip on the plywood so that there was a lip of 0.5mm. THis means the decking should sit flush with the surround, eventually. That's the plan, anyway. In this photo you can see the profiled strip at the back, and I'm gluing each end to the cabin deck ply. Once the pegs are removed it looks like this... And because I used plasticard for the spacer, it doesn't stick to the carpenter's glue I used for the wooden strip. It simply lifts away, leaving the lip for the decking to be applied. And here's a decking strip which seems to fit nice and flush. (I do love it when a plan comes together ) The next task is to cut nice neat mitres at each end of these pieces so that I can add the lengthwise edges. Before I do that I'll plank the deck, so I can get the edges really nice and neat. That way, when I glue the edges on, they'll simply butt up against the decking, and I won't have to worry about the 0.5mm lip. More soon

What a great idea! You've reminded me, I have some already tucked away in the back of my paint cupboard I shall fish it out and see if it's still serviceable. I've used it in the past on a 1:96 destroyer, and it was brilliant. I've just got out of the habit, because my more recent models have had gunports or stern lights! It's useful for sticking in clear plastic without clouding it, too.

Thank you Rob. Yes, I shall glaze them from behind. I'll probably used clear plastic, as I have some left over from a previous build. I was thinking that a hole punch might be a neat and efficient way of making the circles.

Thank you Rob. Again, a little progress this evening. I have drilled and filed out the porthole openings in the forward superstructure and fitted the portholes. The deck is as yet unbent, but I'll bend it with water to give it a water run-off. I've also found some columns for the railings that are close to those on the plans. These are Amati walnut 12mm columns (I bought 70 of them, which should be enough, with a few left over!). And a few lined up for effect... They're a tiny bit over height so that I can file the angles into the bases and tops to make them vertical on the model (even though the deck is sloped a few degrees.) Happy building all Rob

Thank you Rob, your work on Glory of the Seas has been a great inspiration to me, and having followed your log, I gained the insight to acquire a copy of Underhill's Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier which looks like it will be a great resource once I get to that stage, as there is no belaying point plan in the kit for Stefano (that I've found, anyway). It's a wonderful task you're engaged in recording and replicating these amazing vessels! I had the privilege of living less than ten miles from Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London for a number of years, so was able to visit her and give thanks that she was not more damaged by the fire she suffered. The Clippers (from both sides of the Atlantic) are undoubtedly some of the most handsome ships ever built. To my eye, the Barque Stefano also catches something of this beauty, though she's a smaller vessel. Each material has its strengths and weaknesses, and those lend it to different tasks. The ability to cut such thin plastic so simply without having to watch out for grain direction or splitting was a great draw for this purpose. To use wood would have required veneer, which I find hard to work, and as it was going to be painted anyway, it was a done deal. It is lovely having those natural wood tones alongside, too

Morning all, Thank you as always for your encouragement, comments and likes. I've continued working on the superstructures. The aft superstructure was made in the same way as the fore s/s. When fixing the layers to one another, I've found a floor tile (purchased for photo-etch work) very useful as a flat reference to make sure I don't laminate a curve into the parts. Because this superstructure is not rectangular, but trapezoid, the floor had to be carefully measured to account for the thickness of the walls, and the 3.5mm quarter round section which would be used at the corners. Even with careful calculation a little fettling was required to allow it to fit together nicely in real life. The final challenge was to make sure that the hole for the mizzen mast was in the correct position. Once assembled, I was happy with the results. Happy with that, it was time to think about portholes. I wanted portholes with a very minor flange, and very thin wall. I couldn't find anything commercially available, so I decided to make them myself from 5.8mm styrene tube on my proxxon lathe. My design calls for 18 of these, and they were all made in the space of a morning. Care has to be taken not to overwork the styrene and melt it. Then it was time to paint them with some bronze paint (gold mixed with a little brown) A partition wall was made for the aft superstructure from 1mm "planked" with 0.13mm styrene. Finally, I sprayed the superstructures with white primer, and then hand painted with a few coats of Caldercraft matt white (with a few drops of water to make it flow better and avoid brush marks). I haven't drilled out the holes or fixed the portholes in place yet, but this photo gives you some idea of what it might look like. Looking at this photo, I think I need to sand them a bit thinner, still. But that's it for today Happy building. Rob

Thank you Keith

Well, I finally got sick of staring at the card mockups for the superstructures, and decided to have a crack at making them in styrene (or HIPS - High-Impact PolyStyrene) to be precise. I bought a shed load of this when I semi-scratch built my HMS Cottesmore, and it's been sitting tucked down the back of my boat desk since then. I printed the CAD designs I'd put together - the original idea was to photo-etch it - and pritt-sticked the design onto the plastic. The shape was then cut out in two levels. The arches in 0.5mm plastic, and the main sides of the superstructure in 1mm. I tried to make the corners with styrene tube cut into quarters (as difficult to do as it sounds!), and quickly decided it wasn't going to be accurate enough. So I then purchased 3.5mm quarter round evergreen styrene to fit into the corners. A base was designed that would help give the structure strength, make sure it was square, and act as the floor inside the cabin. I've been through a few x-acto blades, and I'm never going to rival the masters on this forum, such as @Hubac's Historian, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I'm hoping to put a black and white floor in and part-opened doors, along with scale portholes, which I may well need to photo-etch, as the ones I've seen to purchase look to me over scale. Here is the progress so far... Cutting out the parts... And assembling them - this took two attempts as the first attempt ended up warped. I took it apart and assembled it more carefully, ensuring that the base plate was glued evenly. NOTE: The base plate needs to be raised off the deck a little for two reasons. One the deck curves from fore to aft, and two, because there is the king plank on the deck that passes through the cabin underneath the floor. And a shot of the Barque as she stands - apologies for the quality of this shot, but the lighting was awful. I'll try and get some better ones soon. Aft cabin next, but that's one for another day. Happy building Rob

Stunning work, and definitely the right call to remake those trim sections above and below the upper counter. As always your work is an inspiration.

Very neat work with the lights. I just found this thread. Hope you don't mind if I follow along. It looks like you're making great progress! 1:50 is a nice scale to work in. How big will she be when she's rigged?

Hi all, A very quick update... I turned the capstan on the lathe this evening from 12mm walnut. I left a small peg on the bottom to sit in a hole drilled in the platform. The result... And an overview of the deck of Stefano as she stands...

Thank you Yves

Okay - full disclosure. I've messed up the order of things, and it's entirely my fault and not the kit's! The kit specifically says: Don't stick the fore deck down at this point. It'll make it very hard to install the stays that are mounted beneath this deck. Hmm... somewhere I got over-excited and just went ahead. Anyway, I'm confident I can find other ways to achieve what I need to do when the time comes, but if you're following along and thinking of building this kit, I would STRONGLY recommend that you follow what the kit instructions say, and hold off gluing the fore deck down! Anyway - with that said, I tried removing the deck and it was so well stuck down I was only going to destroy work I was really really pleased with, so we're moving on. The bitts that pass through the foredeck were installed first. These are made out of 5mm square section walnut. I used a printed out scan of the bow area of P9 on plan 1 to make sure these were put in the right place, and the holes were first drilled out, then opened up to fit the bitts with a file. The next step was the anchor davits, which are 6mm laser-cut parts. They pass through the bulwark above the main rail and below the top rail. This again requires careful marking out, drilling and filing, whilst trying to protect the rails. Marking out the positions of the holes... (yes, it looks a lot like the photo above, but if you look closely there are pencil markings where the boat davits go, now... 😆 ) Cutting out the holes... The end result... Finally, I made up the capstan base. This is a 4mm walnut part, which needs to be sanded so that the top surface is horizontal despite the rise of the deck towards the bow. It also needs to have the slot filed into it for the king plank. I over filed this and had to add walnut back in to make it fit nicely. The next step will be to add a variety of turned parts from dowel (the davit bitts, capstan, compass and an attempt at the balustrades for the railings. I have a small lathe so this should be simple enough, although as I think I've said before I'm a little nervous about trying to consistently turn out the railing uprights. Also, I need to add the metal work for the anchor davits. I've paused because I couldn't decide whether I would leave the davits natural, or paint them. I'm erring towards leaving them natural. The alternative is to paint them white to match the upright between the rails. All thoughts welcome! Take care Rob

She's looking very smart. Thanks for posting the progress. That yard looks very neat with its various cross sections (circular and octagonal) along its length.

Hi all, The foredeck is in place and planked. I made the planks shorter lengths as per the main deck for the first three rows on each side of the king plank. Beyond that the planks seemed a realistic length to be full runs. And the finished article... The angle of the photo makes it look like the kingplank isn't quite lined up, but in fact it's spot on Happy building Rob

Thanks Bob for your kind words. A little more progress. I added a couple of "shelves" out of 1.5mm square walnut to provide a little more support for the edges of the foredeck aft of the forward bulkhead. Then I checked the plans to make sure there's nothing under the foredeck that needed sorting before I fixed it in place (there wasn't anything I spotted on plan 3.) I glued the king plank onto the foredeck, sanded it so it was thinner and merged more nicely into the rail at the bow and the support at the aft end of the foredeck, and glued the foredeck in place, clamping it to make sure the edges glued down well. And here's a photo of the progress from a few angles... A little touching up of the white rail paint will be required, and then the fore deck will be planked. Happy building, all Rob

Hi Jason. It came that way and it really does give plenty of flex to the part to let in bend in two directions.

Thank you Keith, and thank you everyone for the likes. A little update on the aft steering platform, and then onto the foredeck. First, I added some small supports to the uprights to make them look a bit more like they belonged. These were made out of 2x4mm walnut, and you can see them in the third and fourth photos below. They're glued in place on the platform, which made assembling everything else considerably easier. Then, having added pins to position the steering platform at the rear, and having painted the steering components, I threaded the chains through the grating, and I've wrapped it round the drum. I'm not sure about the black ship's wheel yet... I'll see if it grows on me. Next I focussed on the fore deck. This is section 49 of the instructions. It composes a ply false foredeck in two halves with cutouts to allow it to flex, and a 4mm walnut beam that supports the aft end of the foredeck. The instructions say that the foredeck will need to be soaked for hours in order to shape it, however the shaping is, in fact quite slight. I stuck the ply foredeck together with superglue, put water on it, and used my violin rib bender at 230 Centigrade to give it some shape. Once the curve was in, it needs to bend upwards. It will glue neatly in place, but needs supports round the edges, otherwise, it won't make a secure base for the planking. I've begun adding those supports using balsa, and so far it's looking okay. I got confused here, initially. The instructions say that the foredeck should meet the bottom edge of the bulwark rail. It wasn't entirely clear what that meant... Here's a picture that hopefully will explain it better than words... Before I worked that out, I thought the ply false deck needed to go under the rail - and spent quite a while getting rid of the balsa support I had in the bow area down to that level. Then I realised how silly that would look, and spent a while putting it back! 🙄 The supports currently look like this. The foredeck, once bent looks like this... It's not a major bend, but getting the bend even across the gap took a bit more patience. Even pressure across the join whilst it was steam bent was important. The 4mm walnut part has a 1.5mm strip glued to it. This was done by gently bending the 1.5mm strip then clamping until the glue set. It was left overlength, then trimmed once the glue was dry. The support is too long to fit - or at least it was on my model - but rather than trim it separate to the ply false deck, I glued them together first. Before I could do that, I had to trim the aft edge of the false deck as it had curved edge. I still haven't worked out why, but there we go. It was carefully trimmed with a steel straight edge and a sharp xacto knife, then glued to the support. Now the task of fitting the support to the model could begin. In honesty, I trimmed it a little short, but nothing major. It just isn't quite as neat a push fit as I like to aim for. I've cut the king plank, but I won't fit that until I've got the false deck firmly in place. Before I do that I need to return to the plans and carefully make sure I'm not losing access to something I need to get to. It would be frustrating and invasive to have to remove this platform to regain access down the line! The instructions do say to fix the platform in place, but I have an irksome memory that I may have neglected to put some eyelets on the deck earlier on in the instructions. Anyway - here is how it looks dry-fitted at present. (nb: the false deck is sitting a bit proud at the bow, but it does sit lower when I push it down. Also, the king plank hasn't been finally shaped yet, and will be sanded thinner to merge with the deck support beam and to be thinner at the bow end.) Happy building to you all. Hope this helps someone following on. Rob

You're most welcome Glad it's proving helpful.

You've done a beautiful job with that deck planking Jason. Really glad to hear none of your models suffered with the water ingress.

The next task was to take a look at the ship's wheel arrangement. I had already bought a replacement 18mm wheel, which was the perfect size. However, it needs a long rod coming out of the back, and the one provided is 1cm or so. Initially I thought I might simply solder a longer length onto it, but it is vulnerable, simply sticking out, and the joint was hopeless. Instead, I realised I could simply take the existing rod off, and replace it with a 1mm brass rod cut to the right length, soldered into place. The walnut parts (parts 47, shown on Plan 5 in the kit) were cut out of the walnut sheet. Initially I managed to snap the post that holds the rod up, and wondered whether it would simply disintegrate when cleaning off the laser char, but it actually proved to be more robust than I expected. This section of the build was yet another head scratcher. It shows a 6mm dowel with a hold drilled through the middle. Seemingly simple enough, but I don't possess a large lathe or a pillar drill, and my efforts to drill a 1mm hole through a dowel have been shaky at best! Anyway, eventually I bit the bullet and tried with my proxxon lathe. As predicted the drill wandered, and what was a central hole at the entry point was at least 2mm off by the time it came out the other end of the 16mm long dowel. Undeterred I enlarged the hole so that the 1mm rod could pass through straight, and used the end parts provided (which were turned in my drill to remove the char) to line up the rod when glued on. All in all, it was alright, but it's all left to the build to work out. It looks okay - as shown dry-fitted below, but I think I may try and tidy these bits up a bit and make them look a little smarter before they're glued in place. I think I may also add some planks to show where the parts are mounted on the grating before fitting them finally... they look a bit flimsy just placed on the grating. All comments and thoughts welcome! That's it for this evening. Happy building, all, and a happy new year if I don't catch you before then! Rob

Thank you all for the likes. Hope you've had a great Christmas! I've been working on the gratings at the stern for Stefano. These are made from grating strips provided in the kit, which are put together loose, then brushed over with diluted carpenter's glue (Aliphatic resin / yellow glue is a souped up version of PVA glue). The sections of gratings (as shown in P9, P10 on the plans) are too large to be accommodated by one length of grating strips, so these must be carefully cut and joined together. I worked out a scheme as shown below... The sections were outlined with 4x2mm walnut, giving an outline as follows. This assembly is upside down (i.e. the solid lines in the gratings will face fore and aft on the up-side, as per gratings on an 18th C ship.) Assembling it this way also means that the flat side is up, although I later sanded these walnut strips flush on the under side as well. This is dry fitted... DON'T glue part 48 (at the front on the picture below) on yet... it will be glued so that it's flush with the bottom of the gratings, not the top, as the top of the grating will end up level with the bottom of the rail, and part 48 will be level with the TOP of the rail. The beam at the front is a 4mm walnut laser cut kit part no. 48, which has been carefully fitted to sit underneath the main bulwark rail so that the top is flush with the rail. This involved enlarging the notches, and setting the width. The assembled gratings sit in the area to the stern of part 48 (in the photo above) and cover over the tiller and chain arrangement. As far as I can tell they will sit just under the bulwark rail so that it looks tidy (there's no way you could get the gratings to look tidy if they butted up against this rail without a lot of extra work to create some walnut trim that fitted this shape, so this is the trade-off! To trim the parts, I made a template out of card using shape left in the laser cut sheet from the main rail part as the template. (nb: it's the lower rail, not the upper!) Then it was a task of gently cutting out the gratings to shape... tedious and easy to break them, but I got there eventually. Lots of test-fitting was called for. Here it is dry-fitted. I won't stick it in yet. Not least, because as I put this together, I accidentally knocked one of the blocks for the tiller chain below off it's hook, and had I glued this platform in place, I wouldn't have had any access to fix it... so I want to make that a little more idiot-proof before I lose access permanently! In fact, you can see it in the photo below. Right - there's more, but I'll put that in a second post.

Thank you Jason. Yes, I think it's a mix of instructions that are often quite succinct, and a large quantity of plans that I'm only now beginning to really get my head around, and some simplified items. For example the posts for the balustrade round the rear superstructure are entirely missing from the fittings. They'd be something of a pickle to turn on a small lathe so that they each looked the same. Anyway - that's a challenge for another day. Here is a little more progress on the chain arrangement for the steering. The blocks were completed and blackened, then the 1mm blackened chain (the same chain that's used for the rudder chains underneath the transom) was linked to the first blackened eyelet, and threaded through the blocks for each side. The plans provide good detail for this arrangement. The sides are done individually, because the chain will need to pass through the grating that will go above this setup, and then round the drum behind the ship's wheel. The instructions helpfully remind you to leave some slack for just that purpose. I erred on the side of caution to make sure I wasn't under when the time came to link it all up. Some pictures of my progress... For a first attempt at these photoetch blocks I'm quite pleased, I have to say. They are fiddly and time-consuming, but it's nice to have metal pulley blocks where they would have been metal on the ship. Thanks for all the likes, and apologies that progress is slow, but real life rightly takes priority, and the Barque is, thankfully, patient If I don't post again before then, every blessing to you all this Christmas! Rob