robdurant

Looking really good Rob, you'll be overtaking me soon.  Ah the coppering, best of luck and patience!  I had always thought for some reason that the lower counter ports would have been used as an access point for hawsers if there was a need to run an anchor astern or access to rudder head- these would have opened up into the gunroom (wardroom on a frigate) and the shape of the hull would make mounting a cannon impractical.  I'm not sure how these hawsers would have been secured though.  There are also concealed gun ports in the stern fascia of the great cabin if you look closely which could have been used when cleared for action and the lights removed.

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
 

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
 

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!  
 
I got the remaining 10 chain plates re-made today, and hope to get them installed over the next few days.  I think I can finish this build before the end of the year, then on to whatever is next.  I was chatting with my wife the other day, and explained that I'd love to build the 18th Century Longboat next (kit already in the closet), followed by the Syren (which would be my first ship with guns), then maybe the Constitution (which she loved - an excuse for a trip to the east coast), then maybe the Victory (also something she loved, an excuse for a trip to the UK).  After that...probably scratch builds?
 
Is it bad that I'm only 2/3 done with my 2nd build and I've got the next 5-10 years of ship builds planned out?

Well, it has been a long time.  I wish I could say I've made tons of progress, but it has been a crazy few months.
 
Back in January, I was on a roll.  After finishing the winch assembly, I jumped right into chain plates.  The Bluenose has 20 chain plates, so I decided to prepare them all at once.  I cut strips of brass and made a jig to help my get the holes drilled on my little Proxxon drill press.  
 

This worked really well, and very quickly I had 20 brass strips with decent looking holes and filed tips.
 

 
These were then painted black, and I started the process of installing them.  This required drilling some holes in the main rail and creating a 'slot', being careful to make sure I stayed on the outside of the bulwarks.  I attached the deadeyes (after staining them) using wire.  I got through all 10 on the quarter deck.
 

This all happened within a few days of my last post.  Before starting in on the chain plates for the fore deck, I decided to take a week off.  Then disaster struck.
 
We have a service that comes and cleans every other week.  For years, they have cleaned around my work bench.  This time, they decided to actually clean my work bench.  The remaining 10 chain plates were lost.  I'm guessing they got 'wiped' onto the floor and vacuumed up.  This was incredibly demotivating, and I decided to take another week or two off.
 
Fast forward a few weeks, and we were starting a remodel of our house.  This included all new floors (I've wanted to replace the carpet in my office/ship-building-room for a while so I stop losing tiny pieces in the carpet).  Since they needed to replace all the floors, I had to pack up my entire workbench for over a month.  The ship was carefully wrapped up to protect it from dust (our entire house was covered in dust for weeks), and stored in one of the 2 rooms that wasn't being touched - a bathroom.  It was a little unnerving to have my ship sitting in a bathtub for weeks, but it survived.  I decided to hold off on starting the build back up until ALL the remodeling was done in order to avoid issues with dust.  The whole process took about 2 months.
 
So finally, today, I have everything set back up.  The workbench is unpacked.  Power tools (mill, drill press, scroll saw) are back in my make-shift shop (a walk in closet in my office).  I'm ready to dive back in and re-make those 10 chain plates.
 
During this break, I crossed the 1 year mark on my build.  I thought I'd be further along by now, but I've kept detailed notes on my progress and I see where the time went.  Since future builders of the Bluenose may stumble across this build log, here's how the last year went:
 
Build started April 1, 2016. Framing (keel, rabbet, bulkheads, fairing, stern blocks) - 16 days. Planking the lower hull (up to the deck) - 28 days. Planking the bulwarks, scrapers, transom - 11 days. Planking the deck - 24 days. Cleaning up the hull (hawse pipes, mooring chocks, etc) - 6 days. Painting the hull - 68 days. Rails (main rail, buffalo rail, monkey board) - 34 days. Hull details (rudder, name plates, scroll work) - 41 days. Deck structures (cabins, hatches, companionways, etc) - 28 days. Aft deck details - 4 days Fore deck details - 4 days Machinery (engine box, countershaft, windlass, hoisting, etc) - 31 days  
The first big stall came with painting, which took over 2 months, mostly driven by waiting a week or so between coats.  The second big stall has been my chain plate disaster/remodel.  
 
So, here I am, 1 year into this build, ready to dive back in.  I have just a few things to knock out (chain plates, anchors, dories) before I start building the masts, which obviously leads to rigging.  My best guess right now is that I have 8-12 months left.
 
I'm excited to finally be able to work on the ship again, and I look forward to being able to post an actual update with progress!
 

This old photo shows my confusing first four deadeyes.
The first is backwards, 2nd and 3rd are good. Then I had to repair the fourth.

See below I fogged the glass by using CA instead of solder for the brass.  Too late to fix with solder without stripping the paint.

I hope you do not stop Bismarck to get started on Missouri.

Yves, it's funny  you say that. I was literally just thinking what if I just glued the bow onto the rest of the hull. But I must controll myself and not touch it. So Im going to bring it to my girlfriends house. 

I guess that she will be really impressed....... or am I wrong?
So far it has been with great delight that I have follow your progress - impressive (showed some pictures of PE where you can see the "smallness" - she was impressed but commented " I hope you are not going to build something as big as that"
Shamrock

really compliments the steps you've taken so far........really looks sweet!   

Oh, I forgot. For the wood I used light Denish oil
Hennie

Time for an update.......
I just finished painting the hull. I did the white paint 4x and now I am satisfied how it looks.
 
 

Nice beginning, Chris. When my daughter was young, I had to take ten years off from any modeling. Well, not quite true: I built a number of things such as a doll's house with her! But no ship modelling.

Congrats to You!

This is off to a great start, Chris.  I can relate to trying to get a little quality working time in, around the sleeping times of my kids.  I try to get at least a little something done, most evenings, but some nights I just don’t have it.
 
Anyway, this is such a lovely frigate you are building, and I am looking forward to following along.

Thanks for the feedback - I cut this piece out a lot quicker this AM - I spend most of my time adjusting the scarf joint - its not bad - the other side looks even tighter.  Most importantly the assembly is following the plans to specifications for now

Nice tub, now you can stretch your legs

I managed to get in a few hours on the build today, generally making a lot of wood dust in the house (as it was dark outside) Mrs OC was not too impressed  - dogs house emoticon springs to mind.
Anyway after the dust had settled - no pun intended, I  did a final bit of fine filling with my curved needle files, towards the rear as I had to curve a plank that sits at an akward angle, I also tidied up the bow.
 
Here are a few pics folks.
 
OC.

Just a question: if this result is labelled 'quite acceptable' how on earth does '(near) perfect' look like? If ever my results came out half as good as this, I would be very, very happy indeed.....
 
Jan

When you find them, let me know where I can get a pair!!! Now Slog mentionned it, I wondered what that ridge/ring was for ... but the difference in scale = 1/200 vs my plastic 1/350 - put me off too ... so much more details ...

Very nice work Danny.
 
Just an observation, but I think the barrels may need to slide further back into the breech block up to the collar.  They do look overally long as is and I haven't seen similar 20mm caliber barrels with a such a collar away out by itself before. 
 
Cheers
Slog

I wish I had a surgeons EYES . Thanks John, Pat and Fernando.
 
  Danny

Awesome detail Doc!
Cheers Fernando 

Nice work especially at that scale Danny.  You must have a 'surgeons' hands
 
cheers
 
Pat