robdurant
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Everything posted by robdurant
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A major milestone! The coppering on the hull's complete! I'll be honest, I won't mind switching back to wood glue from CA. The mask worked really well, though. It's definitely worth paying a little extra for a proper vapour mask (not one of the wood dust masks). I used the following mask... 3M 4251 Maintenance-Free Organic Vapour/Particulate (it was around £22 and worth every penny) I ended up with a fair number of copper tiles left, so Caldercraft seem to have supplied ample spares. I may well go along the keel and tidy up a few of the first tiles I put on... they're pretty easy to pop off if required.
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That all makes perfect sense.... I wasn't aware that was even an option at this scale but the results speak for themselves. Fascinating. I'll go back through your and Pat's logs and take a closer look. Thanks Rob.
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Those look fantastic. So helpful to see the way you've gone about making the parts ready to fabricate these parts. Hope you don't mind my asking what may be a silly question... When you say weld, is that tin and lead soldering / silver soldering or another method, and do you add flux separately or use fluxed solder? I've done some electrical soldering, but never had much success with brass parts... perhaps because my soldering iron wasn't powerful enough. Those jigs look really neat, though, and the result speaks for itself!
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Oh, yes... and here's what my son and I have been working on at the same time His first airfix kit! Not bad for a 7 year old. He's really excited about the second one, now. A DeHavilland Mosquito's in the post. Happy building!
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Not much to update at the moment really. The time finally arrived to start the coppering of the Port side of the hull. I find it fascinating the way I tend to get into the groove after a while, and it gets done... I reckon I've probably got about 300 tiles on so far. I put a line of masking tape over the wood that'll be exposed above the waterline, just to protect it from superglue marks from tiles that slip... On the starboard side, I put a coat of black acrylic to seal the wood and give the superglue something to stick to (otherwise it all sinks into the wood and leaves nothing to stick the tile - this reduces the amount of superglue I get through a lot)... this time, I used some matt enamel varnish. It was lovely to see how the box and walnut came up. The first photo shows the difference with the varnish... at the top is the varnished wood, and at the bottom the untreated wood... left is box, right is walnut... (and the grey marks are my pencil marks from marking the waterline ready to put the batten on... this is that tricky bit at the stern where the hull tucks round. I've carried on transcribing the Ethalion logs... turns out Ethalion went to assist the ships of the line the day after the battle of Camperdown, and helped Isis bring her prize home.
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So... I'm working on transcribing the master's logs for Ethalion - a time-consuming process, but I'm finding it really interesting, and the task of reading the handwriting well enough to write it down accurately helps me take in what's being said. So far I'm completely amazed by the sheer amount of fresh beef a Frigate got through! So far Ethalion has taken her maiden voyage to Copenhagen doing convoy escort with HM Sloop Scorpion through some pretty unpleasant weather... the Topgallant masts have been up and down a few times already in only a month or so. The logs start in July 1797, and Ethalion spends a good part of July and all of August in the Nore. One of the things going on at that time is hangings for mutiny aboard various ships to be witnessed... I wonder whether these are punishment for the Nore mutiny a few months earlier. Certainly it must have been a tense time for everyone. For example: Tuesday 1st August 1797 SSW to WSW P.M. Mod’t and Cloudy. Employ’d occasionally. Answer’d Signal for a Lieutenant. AM fresh Breezes with Rain Sent a boat Manned and Arm'd to attend the execution of the Mutineers of H M Ship Sandwich. Read the Articles of War to the Ship’s Company. Sandwich was the flagship in the Nore at the time with Admiral Lutwidge aboard. And below is the original (apologies, the photo I took of this page was somewhat blurry): Anyway - a little progress on the model, too... after a LOT of sanding, the gratings are finished. The row nearest the camera is the upper (gun) deck, and the row behind is the forecastle and quarterdecks... both laid out so right is towards the bow, left is towards the stern. Thanks for all the kind comments and likes. Rob
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Great idea with the mast collar. She's looking really smart.
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Wow! You've done a lovely job with this model. It makes a fascinating subject. I laughed out loud when I saw the bucket Glad the pictures were helpful.
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Exciting news! (for me, anyway) I'm heading up to the National Archives in Kew (London, England) on Thursday (my day off) - I've signed up for a reader's ticket, and I've ordered up the original masters' logs, musters, pay logs, and a box labelled: "Ethalion . Capture of La Bellone, 1798.", which will be about the Battle of Tory Island. It'll be pretty special to look at the very documents from the ship I'm building a model of. I love history! Hopefully the documents will be available, and there'll be lots of fascinating insights coming up! These documents still exist, because although Ethalion was wrecked in late 1799, everyone on board was saved, presumably along with the most recent logs and documents, and so here they are. Waiting for me! HMS Ethalion (1797-99) makes a good study, because she had a short, but busy life... I can't imagine how many documents there are for a ship like Victory. I wouldn't know where to start! More soon. Rob
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Now you say that, it makes perfect sense... A little more progress to show. I've been working on the transom again... I soaked the transom in boiling water and bent it round a frying pan (with vertical sides), and clamped it. That's resulted in a pleasing curve. I also started working on the side galleries. Looking at those photos, I'm not sure with the way it curves upwards, so a rework is called for. But I'm pleased with where they end up w.r.t. the gunports and the transom. For a little light relief, I've done some more work on the gratings, surrounding them with 2x6mm boxwood, and using a stock pot with sand paper inside to sand the curved profile on the top. Happy building Rob
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Thanks Jason and Paul. It really does cause a fair bitof head scratching but I think I'm getting there... at least I'm over the psychological "what on earth am I doing" hurdle. It really is great to have other builds to look at and follow. There's no way I'd be getting on this well without them. The instructions are brief to say the least. Take care Rob.
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Time for another update. I've been working on the stern lights, trying to work out how to create these myself so that I could ditch the photo-etch ones, which others have documented are not the same shape as the lights in AOTS... they are smaller, and the curve is not uniform. To that end, I started making some 5mm deep ones, version 2 was 3mm deep, and now I'm trying some that are ~2mm deep. All out of .7mm boxwood veneer. These are built up on a CAD drawn template based on the AOTS stern view (which has been extended vertically to take into account the diagram being directly stern-on, and the actual fascia being tilted - further astern at the top and further towards the bow at the bottom. I've also been working on the stern fascia itself. I've taken "Beef Wellington"'s lead and recreated this myself. The kit parts are all 2mm ply... I've used 3mm walnut, and used the extra depth to shape the covings. They're also based on the vertically extended AOTS pattern, which was cut out and stuck onto the walnut to provide the template to cut out. The new cutouts for the lights are to proper scale, and should fit the new windows nicely (it looks pretty close at the moment, but time will tell.) As it stands I'm feeling much more confident about this part of the model. The stern will be considerably narrower than the kit, but the lights should look more to scale. It will mean that the quarter galleries will need to be shallower. If I were starting again, I would have narrowed the last few frames to bring this in... but this would have been far from simple, and it'll have to stand now. Planning: (this is all a bit Ted Heath, but I'll have another crack at it now I've got a bit further with the stern fascia.) Stern light trials... They are very uneven here, but the uneven face will face into the stern, and the even face (face down on the board) will be the side that you see... And the stern fascia... Using some maths (that was a bit of a shock to the system), I worked out that for 140mm of width, and 8mm of depth for the horizontal curvature (creating a radius of just over 310mm), the additional length for the stern fascia would only be 1.1mm.... basically, I need to leave a tiny bit on instead of sanding down to the line! Much happier with this than with the kit-supplied parts. Nothing wrong with those parts... they'd be fine... but I'm enjoying the kit-bashing aspect of this even more (and it has the added benefit of making the whole process last a bit longer, and giving me an excuse to use lovely wood.) Happy building and a very happy new year to you all! Rob
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Wow! That's a serious Bowsprit - being so long must have really increased the sail area... The rigging and hammocks in the netting look superb to me.
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You can really see the shape appearing now - lovely work - doesn't look like you'll need too much elbow grease - just a small tin, perhaps? I've got a soft spot for this hull shape, because it was the first boat my father built (a Mary Ann Billings), so had a big effect on my wanting to start the hobby! Looking forward to seeing it all sanded down again. Those stern blocks look perfect. You'll be painting before you know it.
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Hi Looks like a nice subject and a nice contrast to vanguard. I wonder whether the slight difference in scale will be noticable (in terms of fiddliness) once you're working on the fittings? Hope you don't mind if I pull up a chair. Rob
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This is so helpful as I'm just starting out on the quarter galleries myself... They look amazing! If mine turn out half as good I'll be very happy.
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Thanks. I can't take any credit for the choice of blue. It's the same as on yours... the tamiya flat blue xf-18 I think? Though I'm not at my boat building table to check at the moment.
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Another minor update... Last night I filled the gap between the (castello) boxwood beakhead replacement and the false keel, and this morning I sanded it smooth, narrowing the beakhead a little so it tapers as it goes down towards the keel. I also took the opportunity to smooth the beakhead a little so it's a curved profile at the front. Once that was done, I was able to finish the coppering on the starboard side... (phew!) I'm glad this hull isn't any bigger - all those Agamemnon builders have my respect - their patience is considerable! That said, I find coppering fairly enjoyable once I got into the swing of it. It isn't perfect, and there are far better examples on this site, but I'm really happy with it. I might start on the quarter galleries before I copper the other side - I fancy doing something different for a bit! Rob
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I spent some time remarking the waterline (somehow, it was way off!) and then fixing a thin boxwood strip in place to make sure it was neat... the copper runs up to this plate. The waterline was marked by attaching the hull right way up to the table with masking tape (with a 6mm block under the keel at the bow to get the waterline level as per AOTS plans), and then using a sturdy tin with a retractable pencil attached to it to slide around the hull and make the mark. The benefit of a retractable pencil is that when you get to the stern overhang, you can extend the pencil led (carefully) and keep on marking... Otherwise the hull gets in the way. It isn't sophisticated, but it works for me. A whole evening was spent making sure the strips were in just the right place. The coppering continues, but as I reached the bow it became necessary to finally fix the boxwood beakhead in place, checking the angle of the bowsprit as I went (using an x-acto knife handle.) I wasn't happy with the coppering lines at the stern, so lifted 20 or so copper tiles and re-laid them. And finally... I was walking past Sherborne a couple of days ago, and the morning sun was coming in through the window, and it looked like this... a strong argument for putting sails on your models? Have a blessed Christmas!
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I think I'm right in saying that Ray switched to beech for the rails on his fantastic HMS Diana precisely because it would bend so well when steamed. It seems to be a strength of beech wood and I noted it down because I'll need to follow in his footsteps when I get to that point. Link to Ray's post about Beech rails Fantastic build! This model is well up there on my "would like to build" list so I'm following with great interest.
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