robdurant

Hi all, Thanks for the likes and encouragement. Jason: Yes, I had noticed those concealed gun ports... I'm hoping I'll be able to work them into the stern fascia when I get that far. It's amazing the way the space on these ships were used in so many different ways. I'm glad I wasn't the one getting the table ready for the officer's dinner after the ship's company had pulling a wet anchor cable through that space on a stormy day! Another reminder what a different world it was. In the meantime, I'm making progress with the hull coppering. Given how long this task takes, in a confined space, I invested in a proper mask to protect my lungs from the superglue. (If anyone's interested it was a "3M model 4251 Maintenance-Free Organic Vapour/Particulate" mask). The difference is stark. Once it's on, I can't smell the superglue, and after at least 7 hours so far, I haven't noticed any adverse effect. Previously, when I did the coppering on Pickle (much smaller!), I was noticing after a day working on it, I was wheezing. So - I have not stocks in masks, but I'd strongly recommend this as essential not optional if you're doing a boat this size. I use a stick with blue tack on the end to hold the tile, then I use another offcut of first planking material to put superglue onto the back of the tile. The blue-tak holder is then used to position the tile, and hold it in place until dry. The superglue gives just enough time to push it up against the neighbouring tiles before it sets. This method seems to result in very little superglue going in the wrong place. You'll notice that I've put masking tape on the parts of the hull that will be exposed when finished. Early on I had a tile drop, thankfully onto the part of the hull that will be covered up, and it left a dark mark on the planking. I don't want that to happen to all that lovely boxwood! Any tiles that don't quite go in the right place can be gently lifted off with a craft knife. I've left the pot of tiles open in the hope that they'll all start tarnishing at the same time. I shuffle the pot round occasionally to give all the tiles a chance to get some air. Finally, a near escape, and a lesson that I should have already learned! I decided to move the table the boat was on, and thought to myself - "I'm only moving it a few metres - it'll be fine...I'll leave the boat on the table while I move it... " Well, the table leg got caught, and before I knew it the table had stopped but the hull was sliding towards the edge of it... Suffice it to say I had no time to do anything but cry out... Thankfully the hull slid half off the side of the table, and then stopped, and I was able to catch it... !!! To say I was shaken is an understatement. It would have dropped five feet onto a wooden floor... Anyway - by the grace of God, and with no thanks to my own stupidity and laziness - the model lived for another day! An advanced new years resolution! Don't be lazy. Move the boat somewhere safe. THEN move the table. Time will tell whether I've learned my lesson fully enough! Happy building to you all. Rob

Brilliant - Nelson's favourite! Looking forward to following this log.

Hi What a stunning build! Reading your comments on Nelson and his patch reminded me of this section from Sugden's wonderful two part biography which may be of interest "Legend depicts Nelson with a ridiculous black eyepatch, as if hiding an empty socket, but his many portraits and the few descriptions suggest that time more or less restored the appearance of the injured organ. Only the fine pastel made by Johann Schmidt of Dresden in 1800 depicts the slightly clouded aspect it presented to more intent observers. Nelson’s ‘beauty’ survived, but his vision was irreparably damaged." - John Sugden, A Dream of Glory, ch XIX.6 So your figure is already an excellent likeness. Take care Rob

I like that stand - it looks really smart

Yay! The planking's complete. I'd be further along, but last week my wife said - why don't you take the day and get down to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - frankly, I didn't have to be asked twice. Not least because I'd already got the annual ticket. Anyway - the planking's complete, and I've marked up and painted the blue section on both sides. I've also completed the lower counter planking. Interestingly, wandering round Victory I noticed that the port in the lower counter on Victory IS a gunport... but if that were the case on Ethalion, the port would be on the lower deck - an odd place to have cannon... I was struggling to get hold of 2mm boxwood in the UK, until I realised that Guitar Stringing (the stuff they put on the edges round the body) is 6x2mm and you can get it in castello boxwood. I've bought a bunch of it, and I'm planning to use it for the companionways and gratings. I put a sheet of sandpaper inside a stock pot to sand the curve into the top. It's the perfect radius. Once I was satisfied that was going to work, it was time to get on with the hull again. And following the lead of Jason (Beef Wellington) and Ray, I've decided to copper the hull earlier than the instructions suggest. One day in and I'm about 150 plates in to the task... It just about feels like I've made a dent in the task! Each tile is picked up with a stick with inverted duct tape on the end, and a little CA applied to the back with another stick. Then it's placed on the hull, with just enough time to position it before it sticks. I painted the hull below the the waterline black to seal it a little before I started the coppering - that stops the CA leaching away into the hull... I was getting through a lot of CA on the first few tiles before I realised that was the problem! I'm using the Caldercraft copper... I quite like the effect, even if the rivets are way too pronounced for scale, and once it's gained its patina it becomes less noticeable. As it stands, it's looking way too bling for my tastes, but time will fix that I figure I'm going to be coppering for a while, but I shall retreat to working on the quarter galleries if I need a break. Happy building. Rob

The white really compliments the rest beautifully. Nice!

Looking forward to seeing another Syren come together. Sounds like you've already found some excellent places to look for inspiration ways to go about each task. All the best for your build(s) Rob

Wow. Congratulations on a fabulous model!

Hi David, Hope all's well with you? How are you getting on with Diana? Have you got the gunports cut out yet? Looking forward to seeing your progress. Rob

Here's a slightly better picture of the second planking of the lower counter underway with the lower deck ports.

Thanks to everyone for the likes, Thanks Old Collingwood for the encouragement. And thanks TigerSteve, donrobinson and Beef Welljngton for the advice on wipe on poly. I think a bit more detail needs to go on the hull (decorative strips etc.. ) before I varnish... but your advice is very helpful.

A small update. There isn't much to report. Just to say that I'm still planking up and down from the wale, and up from the keel on the port side. There's no way to hurry it... it just takes as long as it takes. I also trimmed back the bow planking to allow the beakhead replacement part to be inserted again. Ah yes, and a few days ago, I put the second planking on the lower counter, and included the ports. I’ve noticed that in Anatomy of the Ship, Diana, those ports on the lower counter don't seem to be gun ports at all… at least, they aren’t marked as such. They’re ports, yes, but as far as I can tell, the stern-chasers would have been fired from the captain’s quarter’s on the upper deck. The gunports there are extensions of the transom windows. Instead, the ports on the lower deck are far smaller. Perhaps a gun could have been fired through them, but would it have been smaller calibre…? presumably, in anything but a light sea, it would have been far too close to the water to want to fire a gun from there. AOTS shows the lower deck ports as being approx. 8mm square… (including extending the height because the counter is angled on the diagrams)… the Caldercraft plans show these ports as being approx 12.5mm square. I've followed AOTS on this one. You can just about make them out in the picture below... That's it for now. Happy building. Rob

Mind if I add my tuppence on taking photos? If you're outside, I'd try shade (with the background in shade) or a cloudy day. Direct sunlight tends to cause burn out (where the whites and blacks have no detail vecause the sensor in the camera can't cope with the extreme range)... clouds act as a natural diffuser. If you can get a background that's a long way behind the model you may be able to get it blurred (setting the aperture to be wide - a small f number accomplishes this too) and that helps to make the detail stick out more. That said, your pictures to this point show a very handsome model!

Thanks so much for the encouraging comments. I'm really pleased with the colour of the boxwood - it's really lovely stuff! I've been wondering about the finish - I've noticed that Minwax wipe on poly seems to be a favourite with many, but it's hard to get hold of in the UK. Any suggestions of what I might use in its place? And have others used a Satin or Matt finish?... I've noticed there are water-based and solvent based versions, and I think someone had said the solvent version might give a more rich colour? (I guess a test is called for, but I can't run to buying every varnish in the shop just to try them out ) In the past, I've tended to go with a Matt finish, but it'd be nice to really show this wood off. Finally, should I only varnish the areas that won't have paint on them, or the whole...? Lots of new questions tell me I'm heading for a new stage of the build! Take care Rob

A small update... I've finished planking the starboard side (all except for a tiny stealer, anyway). The walnut below the waterline will be covered up with copper tiles.

Fantastic! This was the first wooden model I built. Such a lovely model to work on... well designed, brilliant instructions (streets apart from Caldercraft's earlier models) and plans, and makes up into a really handsome model (although I'm sure yours will be streets ahead of my humble efforts). Hope you don't mind if I pull up a chair too. I notice that your first bulkhead from the bow doesn't suffer from the uneven top that mine had.

Wow. I love this bit of the build where the deck - and so the ship - starts to spring to life. It begins to feel like a place you could walk round. Great work.... and an inspiration for when I reach this stage. Love the bitts and manger!

A brief update... I've begun the second planking with 0.7mm boxwood veneer. I've also taken a little time to look at the stern to make sure everything's lined up. This required taking the stern elevation (from AOTS) and stretching it (the plans are square to the stern, whereas the stern itself is angled so the top is further astern than the bottom. The difference seems small, but the picture below demonstrates how much difference it actually makes. I'm planning to attempt Dirk's method of using veneer to make the stern lights (windows) when the time comes, as the Photo-etch stern lights will not fit. The Admiralty (Caldercraft) ebony stain arrived, and the wales were given a couple (four?) of coats to bring the walnut base into line with the blackened boxwood. I wanted to do this before I began the planking to get a perfect line on the wale. Then it was time to put some planks on. Four planks above the black strake, and one below the wale so far. It's worth noting if you reach this stage that there are two types of surround for the gun ports. The sternmost three ports and foremost one have lids, and so the second planking stops 1mm short of the port. The remaining ports are planked flush with the edge of the gunport, as they will have no lid. At least, that's my interpretation. I'm looking forward to seeing how the hull looks as all the messy red around the gunports disappears. It's been looking like someone attacked it with lipstick up until now. Overall I'm impressed with how neat the veneer looks. It's thin enough to be easy to shape and get to stick on to the hull, but not too thin that it disintegrates. It's excellent quality wood (prepared and sold as stringers for instruments and marquetry), and definitely a whole lot cheaper than buying boxwood from the United States, given I'm in the UK. In fact, it's sold by a company about 30 minutes down the road from me that I discovered through google (http://www.originalmarquetry.co.uk/), so really easy to get hold of. I love the rich honey colour of the box. It will really stand out, and look good against the blues, blacks and reds on the hull as I get further along. Happy building Rob

Time for an update. As always, thank you for the likes and encouragement. I'm not quite sure where I'll go with the decorations, but thankfully I still have a while to ponder that. Perhaps some fishes... I will take that advice and check out the alignment of the lower cheek. I'm somewhat dreading trying to get everything to line up, but as you say, fore-planning will hopefully take some of the pain out of the process. In the meantime, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Portsmouth historic dockyard. It was wonderful to be able to go round Victory again, and I was quite taken with the white bulwarks on the gundeck. Not sure if they're a little anachronistic on Ethalion, but I thought I'd have them white instead of red or ochre. We'll just assume that the captain fancied having them that way. I'm hoping it will allow a little more light to see everything once the quarter deck, foredeck and gangways are on. It also created a nice contrast with the walnut waterway(?) I added between the deck and the bulwark. The walnut wasn't in place when I took the photo below. The gunports are all lined now and remain the red ochre. The second task attempted was to build up the templates for the quarter deck bulwarks. Having decided that I wanted to have the railings on the quarterdeck (as per the NMM plans, rather than the AOTS plans), I thought I needed to modify the ply templates by cutting them down. However, when I checked the templates they were way off. In the photo below, the template sat on top of the ply is the kit provided template. The outline of this template can be seen faintly drawn on the ply below, along with the ports that are defined on the NMM and AOTS plans, which are all approx 5mm further towards the stern of the boat. The heights of the carronade and cannon ports are also different. When built, Ethalion (as per AOTS) had a quarterdeck armament six 32lb Carronade and six 9lb cannon in the following arrangement. STERN – Carronade – Cannon – Carronade – Carronade – Cannon – Cannon – WAIST This is reflected in the size of the ports. I decided not to cut out the ports until the bulwarks were planked, in order to keep them strong, and allow any minor adjustments to be made. Main Wale I wanted to plank in line with the wale, so the wale needed to go on first. That gave me another challenge. To get the wale in the right place, I needed the waterline, and that wasn't marked yet. So. It was a job of propping up the hull (with 6mm clearance off the floor at the bow, and none at the stern), with masking tape to stick it in place, then using a jury rigged contraption to mark out the waterline. Once the waterline was marked, the wale could be carefully measured and marked out. These measurements were taken from the AOTS plans. Once I was satisfied with the sweep of the wale, I put the first of the 3mm strips in place. I built up a layer of 3mm strips, then the black strake was created with 4mm black-stained boxwood strip. Then the wale below was built up with more 3mm walnut and covered with black-stained boxwood. Once sanded and scraped to smooth it, the whole was stained with admiralty ebony stain to bring the walnut into line with the boxwood.

Hi Ben, What a great start! As far as the ship's boat goes, it looks very similar to the launch on HM Schooner Pickle (also by Caldercraft) - and that was one of the most recent kits, so it has the downloadable manual here: http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Manuals_Pickle.htm . Take a look at pages 53-56 for details and photos of how it all goes together. All the best Rob

Thanks Jason, Yes, the more I thought about it overnight the more I came to the same conclusion... the figure overall is about 1cm longer than the Diana figurehead, and most of that extra height is above the head (although the legs are longer too). Thankfully Aethelion gives a solution - for the brave! I launched in to remodel the figure to have a dolphin's tale - one fluke on each side of the beakhead... I can't claim credit for the tail - it was part of a plastic dolphin ordered on Amazon. After a LOT of hollowing out using a Proxxon drill/engraver, the figure sat much lower on the beakhead, and was able to lean forwards more. That solved the clearance issue, and then it was "simply" a case of cutting off the legs with a mini-hacksaw, splitting the dolphins tail vertically with a craft knife, and using 1mm wire and CA glue to strengthen the join between the figure and the halves of the tail. There's still a little work to do to make the join invisible, but here's the progress so far (with some shots against the plans to show how the jib boom at AOTS angle should clear the figurehead). Here's the figure with the dolphin tale attached, but no filling / painting. The white is where I've carved the tail back to fit the figure. And after some filling / painting: A bit of work to do to hide the join, but I think I'll make his clothes come down to the join - that'll hide the join more easily. Oh, yes... and I got two more gunports lined... onwards and upwards! Thanks for all the advice, likes, and encouragement. Rob

I couldn't resist hollowing out the slot for the beakhead and putting some paint on Aethalion today, along with his buddy... let's call him Acoetes, as per the captain of the same ship that was overtaken by Bacchus in Ovid's tale. Here's the result so far... (with the Caldercraft-supplied Diana figurehead next to it for comparison) And his buddy, Acoetes... standing guard. Now... back to the gunport lining on the port side. Two down - twelve to go!

Okay - so I said I was feeling a bit jammy, because I'd had a cunning plan about figureheads. I know enough about my own abilities to know that I'm not about to carve / sculpt a figurehead out of a block of wood or fimo or (insert your medium here), and choosing to model Ethalion instead of Diana meant that the kit-supplied figurehead wasn't going to work! (Ethalion was a bloke for starters, and then he (was) turned into a dolphin!).... so... back to the internet to pursue a solution. And I think I have one. You can let me know what you think. It's a UK based website called http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/. Just to be clear, I don't have any relationship with these guys other than this transaction, but this transaction was as good as I could have asked. It's a simple payment process where you email the address on the site and let them know which figures you'd like (I chose the 54mm figures (red links at the bottom of the home page), Greek Peltast with javelin and Spartan Hoplite - it's the Peltast who'll be gracing the bow of Ethalion... they were £3.75 each, which is a steal! You can get them painted, too if you want. Anyway - I ordered on Wednesday, and they sent a paypal link for payment, and they were waiting on the door mat on Monday when I got home from camping. Here they are literally as they arrived in the post without any further cleaning up at all. And after I did a little basic surgery... with the boxwood beakhead insert for Ethalion... And next to the dolphin I'm intending to use to replace the feet and show the beginning of the transformation that Ethalion underwent... (shouldn't have argued with Bacchus!). I shall move his left leg back a little and cut out his back a little to allow him to sit better on the beakhead, but I think it should be doable. For those of us who aren't up to creating our own figureheads (at least, for the model we're building today), perhaps this will be of help Happy building Rob

A small update today. Starboard gunports are all lined, now. I've put a first coat of red ochre on as well. Pretty pleased with how it's going. On to the port gunports now, but I'm off on holiday first. I wanted something that required far fewer tools while I was away, so I've ordered a Shipyard HMS Mercury (the 1:96 paper version) - having opened the packet, I've realised I've bitten off a massive chunk that's going to be a job to chew. We'll see how it goes... It'll be interesting to work on similar ships in such different materials. I'll make Mercury as an admiralty style model, unrigged. She's much smaller at 60cm, but will still be a fair size rigged, and there's only so much space in the house In the meantime I'm feeling jammy because I've found a wonderful website with some greek figures that I hope will allow me to make up an Ethalion figurehead (half greek warrior, half dolphin)... If it turns out as well as I hope, I'll share the site. Watch this space! Anyway. Here are some photos of progress on Ethalion. These photos show up quite how much work I need to do on the first planking before I start putting on the second. That's it for now. Rob

Thanks so much for all the likes and encouragement. And you're very welcome Hamilton. Not much to update, but a little progress on lining the gunports. This is a time-consuming process, but it makes the gunports look so much neater it really is worth the time and patience. I'm thrilled with how it's turning out, and once I've finished this side, I'll put on a couple of coats of Caldercraft Admiralty paints red ochre to see how it looks. I need to protect the deck first, though. You can see in the photo directly above that I haven't trimmed the inside of these gunports back yet... I though that job would be a bear, but actually it isn't proving too tricky with a little patience and some sandpaper with some wood behind it to give some support. Happy building! Rob