robdurant

Hi,
 
A small update... I've got some more of the deck fittings in place, and spent some time working on the starboard staircase. I've also started rigging the cannon (using some left over bits from Pickle. Given the larger scale of Caroline (1:47 rather than 1:64 for Pickle), and the larger size of the cannon (over the tiny carronades on Pickle), it seems a shame not to rig them fully. Anyway, here's how it's going so far. I made a jig, and so far I've only got two rigged up - it's amazingly time-consuming. I haven't tied off any of the ropes yet, so there's a certain spaghetti quality to the whole thing, but hopefully the pictures make sense.
 

 

 

 
Eyelets in deck ready for rigging cannon

 

 

 

 

 
48 x 2mm blocks, 56 x eyelets, 24 x hooks, 16 x rings later and it's just a case of finishing putting them together... More pictures soon
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Hi,
 
It's time to start my second build log on ModelShipWorld.com.
 
As I won't be starting this build from scratch, I guess a little explanation is in order.
 
My father started this model, and built it to the point shown below, where the hull decorations were mainly in place, and the deck furniture was mainly built, if not fitted. He passed away in January 2013, and I felt it would be a terrible shame for the model to be left unfinished. The challenge was to get some of the skills necessary to attempt to finish such a kit, so I started with something smaller.
 
For those interested, you can see how I got on here with Caldercraft's HM Schooner Pickle (HM Schooner Pickle.)
 
Anyway, I finished that kit a few days ago, and now I'm ready to begin work on Caroline.
 
Here's a picture of Caroline before I started work (except to go over her with a soft brush to get the dust off)
 

 
You can see a number of the fittings next to the bow.
 
The first evening's work was to go through the plans carefully and try and get my head around what had been done and what hadn't. I was immediately struck by how sparse the instructions are. Compared to Pickle which guides you through the rigging step by step with great care, the instructions for Caroline stop once you've put the deck furniture on, and just point you to the plans. Thankfully I'll be able to draw on the many excellent resources on this website, and my experience with Pickle.
 
Secondly was that the plans are printed on both sides, and so some time was spent sellotaping the plans back together where they had worn so thin they were in pieces.
 
Once this was done, I was ready to start fitting deck furniture (which had been pre-assembled off the model by my father). An emotional process, but it's lovely to see it start coming together.
 
Photos of progress so far are below:
 
Cleats at the bow, fitted:
 

 
Capstan, fitted, although I'm not very happy with the gap between the capstan base and the deck, so this will be gently refitted...
 

 
The support for the flag pole...
 

 
Steps...
 

 
And then, just for the fun of it, I dry-fitted some of the other fittings just to give me an idea of how they would fit onto the deck side by side... (cannon, ships-boat supports, etc..) - all of these are dry-fitted (and now I look at it, the sled for the ship's boat is upside-down!)
 

 
Sorry about the state of the photos, but it will give a rough idea.
 
Anyway. Happy building, thanks for looking, and I hope to be back with an update very soon.
 
Rob

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

So here's where I landed with the lettering.  First the letters were painted in a darker brown and then overpainted with yellow ochre and few highlights.  The goal here was not perfection as I new that was not going to remotely close, hopefully "impressionistic" describes it.  Was very happy with the outcome, may touchup a little more but I'm forcing myself to stay away for now.  The placement may look a little odd, but I had to estimate where the decorative rails will be so it should be correctly aligned when those are in place...something to potentially still go awry.  I'm following the guidance that the letters should fill the upper counter leaving a little space between the rails.  The photos are a little unkind and to my eye looks better in person.
 
First picture is the obvious comparison to the kit supplied PE letters, and you can see the perspective narrowing of the font.  I placed the lights in the stern while fine tuning the angle as it seemed that these need be complimentary somehow, although the angle varies from every viewing angle.
 

Carl, Rob, Christian, Niles and the likes - thanks for your kind words, encouragement and patience on this slow voyage...
 
Jesse, Dave - Of course you are right, but no matter how many times I tell myself that it doesn't help...I probably have one of those personality disorders along the lines of "well he did it, so why can't I?"   And yes, its gets me into trouble with those fixes around the house that I maybe shouldn't be tackling.. 
 
Anyway a little update as I really can do no more to the bow at this point, which means I need to get back to the stern...then I remembered that that was basically the reason for me taking a break and starting work on the bow...There are a couple of questions at the end.
 
Once the cheeks and the rails were done, I needed to tackle hawse holes and the bolsters.  These had me really thinking, but first step was once again to shape from some thick stock, only this time I had to take it even slower as pretty much the entire interior face needed to fit tightly against the hull because any errors would be really obvious once the holes were cut.  The balsa filler blocks were also removed (Interestingly, you can see the outline of the recess that I had put in a long while ago to try to introduce a void behind the expected hole placement to look a little more authentic...seemed a good idea at the time but they would have been in slightly the wrong place)
 
The holes themselves are ~6mm in diameter, and taking a drill bit of that size was clearly out of the question.  The hole centers were estimated and I drilled with a 2mm bit in a hand drill.  This was large enough to get a round microfile in to gradually enlarge and then use a larger round file.  Once the holes were approx. 4-5mm and still quite rough, some tapered dowel was used with sandpaper around to again gradually enlarge until they were approximately the right size.  All the time doing this, the bolsters were held in place with fingers so everything would align - I didn't want to commit to gluing in place just yet.

Once again, I knew I'd be making my own out of castello, but continuing the trend I think the kit supplied parts are way undersized.

One other item to take care of is the Gamming knee, the kit supplied part was generally oversized, but it was necessary to cut a new piece because the back of the knee was undersized.  Not sure how much of this will be visible, but it fun to make.  The hole is for the mainstay collar, some alteration will likely be needed on the head timbers but that is for another day.  This is not attached yet.
And the final results...these pieces seem to really bring out the face of the ship and to my eye really add some character.

 
Some questions:
The bulwark are considerably thinner than they would be in scale, and although the photo makes it more obvious, this is apparent if you look for it.  Also, I know that the hawse holes were lined in lead, but I'm not seeing this as a feature standing out to me looking at models, in many it seems these were just painted ochre...would welcome other's thoughts and suggestions here.  I'm leaning toward a 'lead like' grey just on the inside of the bulwark but not extending over the bolster. For fellow Diana kit builders.  I placed the waste rail on the starboard bow side only as it seems to me that this could cause problems with the fitment of the bow grating against the hull - anyone have any experiences on this?  
 
 

Thanks again to all for the likes and encouragement
 
Yes, it really does spur you on when the pile of wood starts to look more ship-like...
 
Lots of progress today...
 
The rudder's on. Made up the anchors. Also put the channels on along with the peg boards inboard. I made replacements of these parts from beech to contrast the hull, rather than use the walnut ply, as I wanted them to look a little bit less flaky... Also made all the frame heads and swivel gun mounts out of beech to continue the theme...
 
Long story short, here's the progress so far...
 

 

 

 

 
Really pleased with how it's coming along.
 
Take care
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

Hi Tony,
 
Thanks so much for those pointers. I've been somewhat lax in posting over the past few weeks, but I have made considerable progress. I decided to keep pretty much to the kit, but to add an approximation of sails. Your log has been extremely helpful in this process, and although the results I have aren't nearly so neat, and the rigging isn't so authentic, I'm pleased with the results I've got.
 
So... to the pictures...
 
A lot's happened since 9th December. I decided the 'just wood' look wasn't really working for me, so it's had a bit of paint now...
 

 
I've turned the masts, booms, yards on my lathe. I replaced the wood for this task with larger walnut dowel, which helps in three regards.
 
1. It allows me to centre the wood carefully to get a more even round.
2. It allows me to put a square end on the bowsprit.
3. It doesn't need staining or painting - it just looks nice out of the tin (cardboard tube!)
 
I also rigged the cannon (with breaching ropes, but not aiming tackle). I unwound the rope to create an eye to put the rear of the cannon through (cascabel?). This looks more effective than tying it round, which is the method I've used before, and also means I don't have to do clever tying which seems somewhat too bulky when I've attempted it.
 

 
Then I launched into sailmaking using modelspan tissue...
 

 
At this point I paused, because I remembered a comment that I read in another log (possibly Tony's - tkay ? ) that sails attract dust like nothing else... So I finally got round to doing something I've been meaning to for a long time, and built a boat-box from wooden display box section stained with ebony stain and perspex. It's just large enough to fit Pickle and Sherbourne (as long as I have the square sail on Sherbourne trained round as though the wind's coming over the starboard quarter... That was the aim, anyway...
 

 
Then it was back to building... The mainsail was next...
 

 
Then the doorbell rang... And it was my next model
 
Just as a comparison... here's the centre-former of the next model, which is also 1:64 - HMS Diana, which I intend to build as Ethalion (1797), one of her sister ships...
 

 
Yep... those Frigates may not have been the biggest ships out there, but you wouldn't have wanted to take one on with a cutter! I stopped long enough to build a board to keep the straight keel straight.
 
Then it was time for Ratlines, swivel guns, anchors, lifts, braces, etc... The finishing touches...
 
And here it is, finished today:
 

 

 

 

 
It isn't perfect, but as a first attempt at sails, I'm really pleased... Not sure I'd attempt all the sails on a frigate, though!
 
Thanks so much for all the encouragement and advice along the way.
 
Happy building
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

Wow. Those pieces fit together beautifully! Thanks for sharing how you went about making them. I hope to follow in your footsteps.

Wow. Those pieces fit together beautifully! Thanks for sharing how you went about making them. I hope to follow in your footsteps.

Hi Jason, fantastic work
Tackling these rails, you proved to be far more persistant than I was.
I made it easy for myself and just glued a blue paper strip upon them, ahem....

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

It's been a while since my last update, and lots has happened, so here's an update.
 
Deck planking
 
I completed the gun deck, with 1mm maple. I'm pleased with how this has come out, and I'll be wiser when I start the quarter deck later on in the build. Replacing the wood seems to have been a good choice, not least, because I've been able to vary the widths of the planking to reflect the real ship more truly.
 

 

Inner planking for gundeck
 
I pre-painted the gundeck inner walls red using the admiralty paints and installed them.
 

 
Stern
 
Using Ray and Beef Wellington's logs as a guide, I approached this part of the build with trepidation. Only time will tell whether I've got it right, but I used scans of the plans as templates as others have done before me to line up the parts for the stern. So far, it doesn't look too bad!
 


Once the stern parts were in place, I opened up the area where the keel former would go to take a wider stern post from boxwood.
 


 
 
First hull planking
 
This is in 1.5mm by 6mm lime. It's lovely wood, actually. Really sharp and easy to form. I filled at the bow and the stern with balsa to act as a support for some of the more complex curves that this hull contains.
 


 
I started putting a plank on each side (to prevent the keep getting twisted) and once I reached where the gun deck was, I marked the frames and the gun port positions (The height of the port rises slightly at the back (between 21 and 25mm from the gun deck)) before I lost the frames as a reference behind the planking.
At present the gun ports are marked out as they will look when framed, so the holes made will need to be larger. This has helped in terms of understanding where the bulkheads meet up with the gun ports. (For some of the gun ports, one side of the port frames will be bulkhead.)
 
I've used a mix of plank nippers and boiling water to edge bend the planks so they aren't forced round the corners. After reaching roughly the point where the wale is, I started to work all the way down on the starboard side. Here's the progress so far.
 

 
 

Great work on cheeks, perseverance pays ...

Hi Chaps, we'll I am back after a little hiatus.   Ron, Mark, Pat, Bob and the likes - thanks for the kind words as always. 
 
Sjors - Its nice to have the option to use the kit part rather than nothing, its insurance 
 
I've landed a new job, which is some relief - even though I had time on my hands I couldn't enjoy building but did what I could when the mood took me.  I'm not sure how the scratch builders feel, but these cheeks and rails had me thinking I'd never get them done and asking myself if I'd bitten off more than I could chew.
 
First off, I had to decide how I wanted to terminate the rails.  This period seems to be a bit of a mix in styles, mixing more elaborate decoration with a hint of future frugality.  I decided to err on the side of ornamentation after studying some NMM models, which basically just meant a larger scroll on the hair bracket and lower cheek I tried to follow guidance in TFFM as much as I could, and I've shown the progress pics below.  This wasn't as hard as I thought and for a first effort I was pretty happy, but I'll leave final judgement to others.  I knew I'd be painting these, so I found myself occasionally putting a think coat of paint on to get a better sense for the contours which is difficult with the pale castello.  
 

Once the scrolls were done, I made a scraper for the contour and tried to add the profile.  I found this very tricky and found myself battling the curve, the changes in width and the slight grain, especially in the thinner sections.  First approach was to shape the cheek piece and the rail and then glue together (I did these off the model painting would be next to impossible once mounted).  This didn't work as well as hoped, the profiles didn't match and the edges had rounded, but some filler and rework did the job.  For the others, I glued the cheek piece and the bracket before profiling which seemed to work fine.  I used a touch of sepia wash to highlight the profile.  Near the scroll, there is barely a profile so paint is needed to give the effect.
 
Overall, I give myself a "C" on the profiling:  hopefully could do better next time but needed to move on or forever be stuck in hairbracket purgatory.  Next time () I think I'd try using pear rather than castello but didn't have any of the right dimension to hand to try.

Lastly, couldn't resist adding a little more detail than the kit offers and wanted to add both a Filling piece and Trailboard.  Looking at contemporary Artois models, the filling piece is quite substantial and adds a distinctive look.  First off, I tried making a 1mm thick version bent to the hull shape - too thin.  I next tried a 2mm think version, but again felt it was too thin.  Tried 3mm, but it was impossible to bend, so went with a 5mm castello sheet and shaped as needed.  This was quite a bit of work as none of the sides are at 90deg, and the hull curvature needs to be accounted for, luckily this doesn't need to be perfect as the interior faces will be hidden by the  cheeks.  The trailboard was relatively simple but again took a while to get the appropriate shape.  Once complete these should go together like a jigsaw puzzle.....

And the finished result.  These will not be glued until I have the port side pieces finalized, but they fit together just fine.  Overall, I found this tricky and time consuming, but educational.  Without detailed plans there was a lot to consider to get the alignment looking right to my eye, for example, the lower cheek scroll terminating at the foot of the figurehead, the hair bracket scroll aligning with the rounded top of the lacing piece.

Finally, recognition for all those failures forever consigned to the wastebasket of progress....

Hi Rob, really nice progress on the planking, love the tapered sternpost - think your solution is a little more elegant   Hopefully I'll have an update soon as the bug has bitten me again, you look to be really having some fun with this kit.  All the best.

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

It's been a while since my last update, and lots has happened, so here's an update.
 
Deck planking
 
I completed the gun deck, with 1mm maple. I'm pleased with how this has come out, and I'll be wiser when I start the quarter deck later on in the build. Replacing the wood seems to have been a good choice, not least, because I've been able to vary the widths of the planking to reflect the real ship more truly.
 

 

Inner planking for gundeck
 
I pre-painted the gundeck inner walls red using the admiralty paints and installed them.
 

 
Stern
 
Using Ray and Beef Wellington's logs as a guide, I approached this part of the build with trepidation. Only time will tell whether I've got it right, but I used scans of the plans as templates as others have done before me to line up the parts for the stern. So far, it doesn't look too bad!
 


Once the stern parts were in place, I opened up the area where the keel former would go to take a wider stern post from boxwood.
 


 
 
First hull planking
 
This is in 1.5mm by 6mm lime. It's lovely wood, actually. Really sharp and easy to form. I filled at the bow and the stern with balsa to act as a support for some of the more complex curves that this hull contains.
 


 
I started putting a plank on each side (to prevent the keep getting twisted) and once I reached where the gun deck was, I marked the frames and the gun port positions (The height of the port rises slightly at the back (between 21 and 25mm from the gun deck)) before I lost the frames as a reference behind the planking.
At present the gun ports are marked out as they will look when framed, so the holes made will need to be larger. This has helped in terms of understanding where the bulkheads meet up with the gun ports. (For some of the gun ports, one side of the port frames will be bulkhead.)
 
I've used a mix of plank nippers and boiling water to edge bend the planks so they aren't forced round the corners. After reaching roughly the point where the wale is, I started to work all the way down on the starboard side. Here's the progress so far.
 

 
 

Thanks for the likes
 
I’ve added the 7mm waterways, and continued planking with 3mm from the centre out towards the edge. To do this I needed to find a way of cutting a whole bunch of 3mm planks to the same length. I used a template with a stanley knife blade, hitting it with a hammer, to cut the planks one by one. This was surprisingly effective and quick, and I’ve been very pleased with the results. The template was made using "display case section" offcuts stuck onto a ply offcut. I used the display case section because I had it left over... the advantage being that it's nice and square, reasonably cheap (from Cornwall Model Boats) and a good size for this stuff... and they can be quickly and easily glued with carpenters glue.
 
Hopefully the following pictures are fairly self-explanatory. It's probably worth saying that if you're going to hit a stanley knife blade with a hammer, please wear safety goggles!
 

 

 

 
Once cut, the 3mm planks aren’t very sharp on the edges, so I made a second template to sand them to size… this was a head-scratcher, because I wanted the planks to end up exactly 3mm wide… eventually, I settled on using 1.5mm plasticard glued together with plastic-weld… This allowed me to make two sides (one fixed, and the other floating) that could be put on each side of a stack of planks… One edge was flattened using a scraper, and then the planks were turned over to scrape the other side to get the width down to 3mm.
 

 

 

 

 
The pressure of the scraper and a hand holding the floating side of the template in place was sufficient to get the job done...
Once scraped, I edged all the planks with a sharpie marker.
Here are the results...
 

 
Once I got to the edge of the top and butt planking, I started adding these in. I’ve been using Shipyard Sid’s template to do this, and it’s been extremely helpful.
 

 
I’m almost finished on the port side, then it’ll be the same again to complete the deck.
 
Here are the results so far... Not perfect, but it hasn't been scraped yet, so I'm pretty happy. The caulking should tone down a little bit when it's scraped, and I'm aiming for the newly built look, so I don't mind if it's fairly dark.
 

 

 

 

 
That's it for now
 
Happy building
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]
 
 

Thanks for all the encouragement, helpful advice and likes!
 
David: I appreciate the warning... please do feel free to point things out as I go - I'm very much wearing my 'L' plates as I go on this build, and I"m grateful for any and every bit of help I get along the way. I set the reinforcing plates with about 5mm clearance from where I expect the planking to end up, so hopefully I've left enough room. I didn't want to put them too high, because they're there to give support. This photo gives a better idea... Time will tell whether I got that right
 
Thanks for sending that template, too. It'll be a great help, I'm sure. Hope I can do something like as good a job as you did!
 

 
Jason: Thanks for the heads up... I'd spotted that short fall, and planned to add a false keel to make up the difference (in the photo above, a few mm are hidden by the building board, but it's still not a lot that'll be left once the planking's on). I'll put on the false keel the planking's done, so it doesn't get too bashed about. (Now, I just need to remember to do that!).
 
I spent a little time fairing the bow templates yesterday, using the ship's lines from Anatomy of the Ship (AOTS) as a guide.
 
I've just had a parcel of balsa wood arrive in the post, so the next job is to infill the gaps between the front and rear bulkheads, and then I'll look at planking the upper deck.
 
I also need to work out how to fair the rearmost bulkhead... Might wait until the upper deck is planked before I do that. Now - to plank on or off the ship? Decisions! Both methods are mentioned in the instructions, and I notice both methods have been used with great success in others' build logs here
 
Take care
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

It's been a while since my last update, and lots has happened, so here's an update.
 
Deck planking
 
I completed the gun deck, with 1mm maple. I'm pleased with how this has come out, and I'll be wiser when I start the quarter deck later on in the build. Replacing the wood seems to have been a good choice, not least, because I've been able to vary the widths of the planking to reflect the real ship more truly.
 

 

Inner planking for gundeck
 
I pre-painted the gundeck inner walls red using the admiralty paints and installed them.
 

 
Stern
 
Using Ray and Beef Wellington's logs as a guide, I approached this part of the build with trepidation. Only time will tell whether I've got it right, but I used scans of the plans as templates as others have done before me to line up the parts for the stern. So far, it doesn't look too bad!
 


Once the stern parts were in place, I opened up the area where the keel former would go to take a wider stern post from boxwood.
 


 
 
First hull planking
 
This is in 1.5mm by 6mm lime. It's lovely wood, actually. Really sharp and easy to form. I filled at the bow and the stern with balsa to act as a support for some of the more complex curves that this hull contains.
 


 
I started putting a plank on each side (to prevent the keep getting twisted) and once I reached where the gun deck was, I marked the frames and the gun port positions (The height of the port rises slightly at the back (between 21 and 25mm from the gun deck)) before I lost the frames as a reference behind the planking.
At present the gun ports are marked out as they will look when framed, so the holes made will need to be larger. This has helped in terms of understanding where the bulkheads meet up with the gun ports. (For some of the gun ports, one side of the port frames will be bulkhead.)
 
I've used a mix of plank nippers and boiling water to edge bend the planks so they aren't forced round the corners. After reaching roughly the point where the wale is, I started to work all the way down on the starboard side. Here's the progress so far.
 

 
 

This is just the first coat of primer to show me the hills, valleys and pinholes. I have some more light fill and sanding.
Some areas "look" rough, but the lighting and shading accounts for some of it. This hull is a solid as a church. The inside is very rigid as it's epoxied with fibreglass cloth..... and two clothes pins! 

Current look - after painting and weathering:
 

Dear friends, 
thank you very much for all your comments and praise. I appreciate your attention and support. That is a great honour for me. 

Now I have a lot of duties and work around the house and I also spend much time on cars´ care/detailing, but I try to continue with RK whenever possible.
 
How I achieve these accurate and clean results with card and foil planking.....  I use ordinary but very sharp scalpel from Tamiya manufacturer and long ruler to cut foil strips. I do not need any special tools. The strips are cut on a hard cardboard pad. In the same way, I cut cardboard tapes and other parts, but I have to repeat cutting more times because the material is thicker - sometimes up to 2mm. These cut strips are always straight. I shape and bow them during sticking to the model using hot air for attaching foils while I stretch them slightly. For bending the cardboard into the curve I use hot steam. I always attach the strips slightly tightened.
 
The "wooden" planking is ready and improved with Tamiya colours (thinned with original thinner and retarder - it is easier to apply on the surface then) to achieve more realistic appearance.
Before painting: