robdurant

Not much work done on this recently as I've been on a push to get Barque Stefano completed... but we're making progress. The sails are complete, and being attached to the yards...  However, tomorrow I have an exciting day planned. I'm visiting the National Archives in Kew, London, to look at the Captain's and Master's logs of HMS Bristol. I'm hoping to read the logs for a few major events in Bristol's history - in particular her dismasting during the Great Hurricane in 1780, and a few other events.
 
So... watch this space, and I'll try and share some of what I discover. I find this part of the process really helpful in building the desire to really dig into the design and build. The connection with the vessel drives me on to see the model completed.
 
Thanks for looking in.

Aah - thank you, my better half has ordered this for my birthday, so I'm looking forward to having a good look through and getting some inspiration. To return to your earlier comments, I've pondered them, and I think I'm looking to get past plank on bulkhead, but with simplified frames... so probably using the stations rather than re-lofting each frame, and with a simplified structure without cant frames at the bow and stern. 
 
I've had another crack at the transom using an angled frame (16 degrees from perpendicular) aft of station 25 - this goes out to the wale. I've re-drafted the transoms and hopefully now it is something more workable... Some pictures... It's not quite perfect yet (and I haven't drafted the inside flow of the transom pieces), but I feel like I'm making progress. It's certainly helpful to be able to make multiple designs and try them all out.

 

 

Thanks again for all your help
 
Rob

I've spent a little time working on the stern of Bristol to see how it all shapes up... here's my progress. The stern structure was drawn out from the plans, taking care to note how the balcony and accompanying cabin walls fitted, and then the transom was stretched vertically by a factor of 1/Cos(14.2) to make it fit when it was at an angle.
 
Here's the stretched outline... 
 

 
And the part cut out in two parts and glued back to back - the recessed cornice over the cutout was removed on the outer layer, creating a 3d effect - this will be bevelled as well on the final 1:64 model, but as a proof of concept it works.  It's also confirmed that the upper deck (third down in the photo below) comes too far back, and will interfere with the stern upper counter as it is.

 
Happy building to you all
 
Rob
 
 

Progress on the 1:128 mockup from my CAD drawings. I've finished cutting out the stations and added the quarterdeck, fo'csle and poop. It's been a helpful exercise in seeing the lines of the vessel, any conflicts in terms of masts / deck cutouts / etc... Now, it's helping me think through how the stern will be constructed. I'm pleased to say that none of the frames look particularly out, except for one (frame 5) where I suspect I probably cut over the line a little... But now I can go back and take a look at this before I move onto the 1:64 scale version!
 





 

So those numbers above have been refined again by cross referencing back and forwards from the half breadth and station plans... I got to the stage where I wanted to see how things fitted together, and particularly the deck levels and openings on the decks, and where the masts land compared to the stations, etc... 
 
So here is a 1:192 styrene half hull in construction. It's only got half its stations in so far, but it's starting to give an idea of how the whole might look.
 

 

 

Thanks Dusan,
 
I've been working on the table of offsets. 
 
1. I traced the stations, giving the following table: (note negative values are because I've maintained the right of centre and left of centre frames so I can easily do a visual check of the output with a line graph.)
 
  TRACED FROM PLAN           Distance from centre (mm, 1:1) Station WL0 WL1 WL2 WL3 WL4 WL5 U       735 1476 2268 S   303 1120 2056 3019 3825 Q   921 2068 3202 4162 4820 O   1560 2929 4102 4976 5438 M   2153 3618 4747 5490 5805 K   2775 4218 5207 5784 5972 H   3247 4617 5485 5923 6025 F   3604 4856 5635 5999 6066 D   3787 4975 5688 6014 6066 B   3908 5019 5712 6015 6066 Ø   3990 5065 5737 6015 6066 Ø (bow)   -4001 -5064 -5740 -6031 -6069 1   -3940 -5016 -5724 -6032 -6069 3   -3848 -4949 -5675 -6022 -6059 5   -3631 -4811 -5602 -5992 -6049 7   -3428 -4640 -5486 -5934 -6029 9   -3088 -4394 -5324 -5850 -5976 11   -2541 -4027 -5078 -5692 -5912 13   -2029 -3581 -4754 -5507 -5795 15   -1505 -2997 -4272 -5192 -5591 17   -1062 -2348 -3706 -4805 -5364 19   -718 -1636 -2855 -4236 -5062 21   -434 -981 -1936 -3344 -4582 23   -229 -496 -1050 -2163 -3725 25   -111 -210 -416 -879 -2079 AP          
   
The second task was to cross-check these against the half-breadth plan, which gave the following offsets:
 
  Distance from centre (updated by half-breadth) (mm, 1:1) Station WL0 WL1 WL2 WL3 WL4 WL5 U       732 1490 2343 S   267 1052 2027 2925 3830 Q   910 2025 3120 4090 4803 O   1535 2878 4001 4922 5435 M   2131 3608 4679 5446 5788 K   2694 4186 5161 5763 5975 H 93 3181 4575 5454 5922 6055 F 960 3563 4826 5620 5983 6080 D 1453 3784 4968 5696 6005 6084 B 1717 3896 5046 5731 6022 6080 (B) 1824 3938 5075 5744 6030 6076 Ø 1845 3930 5062 5741 6024 6048 Ø (bow) -1844 -3923 -5054 -5739 -6020 -6048 1 -1794 -3868 -4997 -5724 -6003 -6045 3 -1619 -3770 -4904 -5687 -5992 -6038 5 -1342 -3639 -4803 -5630 -5978 -6033 7 -854 -3411 -4641 -5526 -5931 -6024 9 -111 -3055 -4389 -5360 -5845 -5996 11   -2571 -4028 -5118 -5720 -5920 13   -2031 -3562 -4782 -5528 -5795 15   -1492 -2972 -4308 -5220 -5630 17   -1062 -2334 -3704 -4831 -5421 19   -707 -1638 -2883 -4232 -5121 21   -434 -991 -1930 -3307 -4624 23   -235 -509 -1093 -2134 -3670 25   -106 -211 -429 -885 -2042 AP              
Finally, I copied these back over the plans, and made a few modifications to the U and S stations at WL5 and WL4 so that the stations flowed smoothly.
 
The following changes were made:
U, WL5 = 2190
S, WL4 = 3018, WL5 = 3788
 
The following image shows the original lines traced off the plans in white, and the updated lines taken from the half-breadth in green. As can be seen, the differences are fairly negligible, except at the extreme breadth, where they become a little more significant. The difference amounts to a maximum of 7.7 centimetres at 1:1 scale, so nothing too dramatic.

This image shows some of the differences more closely - cyan is the plan lines, and orange the updated lines from the half-breadth.

The next step is to begin working out framing distances, and lofting the frames using the curves these stations produce...

 
Anyway - that's enough from me for now. Happy building, all.

I couldn't resist seeing the model so far jump off the drawing board into real life, so I've started to make a basic paper half-hull mockup at 1:96 scale to get a sense of the lines. At the moment there's no lateral support for the frames, so they're all over the place, but an interesting exercise nonetheless, and adding the poop / quarterdeck / upper gun deck will help matters no end. The deck locations are marked with solid lines and waterlines are marked with dashed lines. This half-hull should help me work out how to go about realising the internal structure.
 
Progress so far... 
 

Some progress to show. I've started getting the plans into CAD ready to begin designing the skeleton of the model.

 
A long way to go, but it's good to make a start. The actual plans are colorised, with different parts on different layers so I can separate them easily. Near the stern on the half-breadth plan some of the waterlines divide into two lines as they approach the rabbet. I've never noticed that on plans before, so if anyone knows what that represents I'd be interested to know.
 
More soon  
 
Rob

A little history - Bristol was caught in the great hurricane of 1780, and dismasted along with HMS Hector... the image below is public domain:
 
 
 
There's a particularly lovely model of Bristol in the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto; pictures of which can be found on Wikimedia. The link below from the Art Gallery itself suggests this model was built in 1774, making it contemporary - perhaps even the builder's model. https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.106283
 

I've just finished the yards on the mainmast. It's a process of keeping the faith as you go, as it has to look like an explosion of rope before order then appears out of the chaos... Here are the footropes in process...

And then completed...
 
 

And here's a shot of the whole mast... the lower stunsails have had the stunsail yards attached to the tops, but haven't been rigged at all yet... None of these yards are finally attached, but are pretty much complete as units. 
 

To have a bit of a break from the yards, I think I'll do some ratlines on the lower shrouds. I think I probably need to tackle the futtock shrouds (metal bars?) first, though, otherwise they're going to be a bear to access.
 
Thanks for looking in

Thanks, George.
 
Yes the work being done now all seems to make a difference to how the final model will look, which is spurring me on. 
 
It's startling how much sail these vessels can spread. Stefano must have been an amazing sight, even though she was a humble working vessel.

Not much work done on this recently as I've been on a push to get Barque Stefano completed... but we're making progress. The sails are complete, and being attached to the yards...  However, tomorrow I have an exciting day planned. I'm visiting the National Archives in Kew, London, to look at the Captain's and Master's logs of HMS Bristol. I'm hoping to read the logs for a few major events in Bristol's history - in particular her dismasting during the Great Hurricane in 1780, and a few other events.
 
So... watch this space, and I'll try and share some of what I discover. I find this part of the process really helpful in building the desire to really dig into the design and build. The connection with the vessel drives me on to see the model completed.
 
Thanks for looking in.

I've just finished the yards on the mainmast. It's a process of keeping the faith as you go, as it has to look like an explosion of rope before order then appears out of the chaos... Here are the footropes in process...

And then completed...
 
 

And here's a shot of the whole mast... the lower stunsails have had the stunsail yards attached to the tops, but haven't been rigged at all yet... None of these yards are finally attached, but are pretty much complete as units. 
 

To have a bit of a break from the yards, I think I'll do some ratlines on the lower shrouds. I think I probably need to tackle the futtock shrouds (metal bars?) first, though, otherwise they're going to be a bear to access.
 
Thanks for looking in

Hi all,
 
Not much more to show, except the reefing points that are now stiffened using watered down PVA front and back. This was done before they were trimmed to length, by placing a small ruler behind the reefing points. Then they were trimmed to the bottom of the ruler giving a nice neat line.. The second photo is the progress on the mainmast lower-topsail yard with the footropes in progress....
.
 
As always, thanks for the likes and encouragement.
 
Rob

I've just finished the yards on the mainmast. It's a process of keeping the faith as you go, as it has to look like an explosion of rope before order then appears out of the chaos... Here are the footropes in process...

And then completed...
 
 

And here's a shot of the whole mast... the lower stunsails have had the stunsail yards attached to the tops, but haven't been rigged at all yet... None of these yards are finally attached, but are pretty much complete as units. 
 

To have a bit of a break from the yards, I think I'll do some ratlines on the lower shrouds. I think I probably need to tackle the futtock shrouds (metal bars?) first, though, otherwise they're going to be a bear to access.
 
Thanks for looking in

Hi all,
 
Not much more to show, except the reefing points that are now stiffened using watered down PVA front and back. This was done before they were trimmed to length, by placing a small ruler behind the reefing points. Then they were trimmed to the bottom of the ruler giving a nice neat line.. The second photo is the progress on the mainmast lower-topsail yard with the footropes in progress....
.
 
As always, thanks for the likes and encouragement.
 
Rob

Progress on the sails... I've just finished the bolt ropes on the topsail studding sails for the main mast - that's BS22 and BS23, so I'm two thirds of the way through the sails now... Once I've sewed on the bolt ropes, it'll be reefing points next... I have a plan for how to do that...  No photos of this, as it looks almost identical to the many photos I've posted of the sail sewing so far... 
 
What I have also been working on is the detailing of the yards, ready for them to carry the sails. I've completed the bands and the painting on the foremast yards, and now I'm working on the mainmast yards. It makes a huge difference to the look of the model, and when I get a chance, I'll take a photo outside with all the yards squared up.
 
Here's are the bands added to the foremast yards...  They're made of black card... 
 

 
And here they are painted... 
 

 
And finally, the full width of the main mast main yard, and that same yard, with stunsail booms removed again, so that the white sections can be painted...
 

 

Thank you for looking in, and for the likes and comments.
 
Rob
 

Work has begun on the foremast shrouds...

I set up the mainmast shrouds today...
 



More soon
 
Rob

Okay - so today I added the bolt rope to another sail - no need to add pictures for that. It's another stay sail, so they would look pretty much identical to the previous pictures I've posted. Then, as a change of scenery, I began adding the mizzen shrouds. These are using (as a note to self as much as anything) 4 strand, 2x threads per strand, from #50 DMC Cordonnet thread, dyed in Rit Cocoa brown die. The captain's clearly a showy so and so, so he's used contrasting natural #20 DMC cordonnet thread for the lanyards.
 
The lanyards are something of a challenge. I've added two starboard pairs and one port pair so far (alternating sides, beginning to starboard), and because the dead-eyes are inside  the railing, and the lanyard needs to pass through the railing  from the outside on the lower deadeye, it took me lots of fiddling with tweezers, super-glue strengthened end of the lanyard and summoning of patience, before I realised that it was possibly simply to bend the deadeye in towards the centreline of the deck to rig it, and then bend it back out again. This is by far the easiest method I've found, and it's made the task achievable (still fiddly, but possible). I'm not sure whether leaving the deadeyes detached until this point would have helped matters, as I haven't tried that approach, but certainly one for builders of this model to watch out for.  
 
Here are some photos of progress so far. I haven't put watered down Aliphatic resin (carpenter's glue) on these yet, so the ends are left long intentionally. I'll do the whole lot in one go, once I'd happy they're all a good length.
 
One deadeye is rigged off the ship (I have a little template to keep the distances consistent), then the shroud is wrapped round the mast, through the crosstrees and top, and brought back down to have the other deadeye rigged. Before I rig the second deadeye, I put on the first lanyard, so that I can gauge where the second deadeye should go.
 
  


Thank you to everyone for the likes and encouragement.
 
 

Thank you for the likes.
 
I haven't stopped working on this, but it takes me a good couple of hours to put the bolt rope on each sail, so here is sail BS 4 getting bolt rope...  COnsidering I haven't done a lot of sewing before, I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming out.

Hi all,
 
I've finished hemming the sails, and now it's onto bolt ropes. For this, I made some thinner rope (3 threads per strand of #50 DMC cordonnet thread). The bolt ropes come to an end at each corner of each sail, and they're used to attach the corner fittings for the sail. These were blackened ready for use. I've simplified what the instructions call for a little, but things are going well so far. 
 
Here's a photo of the photo-etch corner fittings.
 

 
Step one is to attach the over-length bolt rope.

Step 2 is to attach the corner fittings... This results in something of a spiders web at each corner, but it all gets tidied up once everything's attached. In the photo below the photo-etch corner fitting has been attach to the left boltrope, but not the right.

And here are all the hemmed sails laid out ... 34 in all!
 

Plenty more sewing to enjoy... After this step - which will take some time! - comes reefing points, attachment holes, and lots more work on the yards to get them ready.
 
Thanks for looking in
 
Rob 

Thanks Rob, and everyone for the likes. Not much to update, really. I've just been steadily working through the sail set, double hemming them. Today I needed to make some more rope, too.
 

 
Once I got to the stay sails, there's no rigging to hold them at the moment, so I was forced to empty a tin of shortbread to provide somewhere to keep them safe 😁 There are two more stay sails to make, and then four stunsails and I'm done on this stage!

Happy building  
 
Rob

A few more sails... The fore mast is now full and I'm onto the main mast sails... (all just hung temporarily over the yards)

I've also made a couple of the staysails, but those aren't in the photo.
 
Thanks for the likes.
 

Not much work done on this recently as I've been on a push to get Barque Stefano completed... but we're making progress. The sails are complete, and being attached to the yards...  However, tomorrow I have an exciting day planned. I'm visiting the National Archives in Kew, London, to look at the Captain's and Master's logs of HMS Bristol. I'm hoping to read the logs for a few major events in Bristol's history - in particular her dismasting during the Great Hurricane in 1780, and a few other events.
 
So... watch this space, and I'll try and share some of what I discover. I find this part of the process really helpful in building the desire to really dig into the design and build. The connection with the vessel drives me on to see the model completed.
 
Thanks for looking in.