harlequin

I'm trying to decide whether or not to colour Bellona or to leave her all wooden. I'm not going to copper plate her but may add colour to other parts of the hull /masts and yards.

framework underway finally the glueing has started. the old lego comes in handy. frames 15 and 16 glued together and shaped before being attached to the keel. frames 15 and 16 now attached to the keel.

bulkhead1  is only slightly visible on the finished model and is covered too by the belay pin rack, however I did plank mine too as the lighter colour of the bulkhead would still stand out.

hi Augie.......HMS Bellona is following on close behind. Her frames have had their first dry fitting and pics will follow. I'll post some better pics of Greyhound in the completed forum soon.

ships boat

Well she is completed. A very frustrating but ultimately rewarding HMS Greyhound. So many times she nearly ended up getting launched against the nearest wall, but retaining enough charm to prevent me from doing so. I'll post some more pics soon in a more attractive surrounding. I must say she looks great. Lots of historical inaccuracies and some of the running rigging belayed in odd places but when all is said and done she doesn't look too bad.  

HMS Greyhound has been completed...........pics to follow when I have finished my bottle of lagavulin

Hi Ferit......the black rigging rope is by caldercraft, and many thanks for the compliments. The Greyhound should be finished tomorrow.

finished ships boat. Hi Hamilton..this is the supplied ships boat with a little modification. I.ve added some oars by amati and I don't think it looks too bad.Very near completion now, next couple of days will see it home IF I decide to use the supplied flag set. I may change those.

Blue sky in England Hamilton is a rare thing....but I will do that if ever summer arrives.

thanks Augie I shall try that product.

Hi Hamilton, regarding the rigging colour. I purchased caldercraft black rigging instead of dyeing the corel line. It is a great rigging line the only drawback is that the caldercraft line doesnt take up PVA very well. I use a super glue first on the knots then a very dilute PVA mix afterwards to take away the shine the superglue leaves.  Just the main mast yards to go now along with finishing the ships boat, the anchors and flags and she will be there. I havent done anything else yet on Bellona because if i get started on that I know I will neglect the rigging on Greyhound. A good week should get me there. Also the belaying pins with Greyhound aren't the best, you may wish to replace those, but most of them are covered with rigging anyway so they have done the job ok. I look back now on Greyhound with a mix of frustration and pleasure and also wish i'd added extra colour to the gun ports but that was the decission I made at the time. She is looking great and I would recomend this kit to anyone despite all the faults. I have grown to love the little devil and actually the sense of achievement at overcoming the faults in this kit is great. I look forward to your continued success in your Greyhound build.    

progress

Hi Hamilton.....the ships boats that I tried didn't look right for Greyhound so I stuck with the supplied one, but a mod to make the POF boat slightly narrower in width would do the trick. The two I tried were too wide to look right.

it certainly is coming along nicely.........once you get to the ratlines you will prefer the shimming.

home straight now.

15/4/13

Hamilton I'm equally looking forward to seeing your kit of greyhound progress especially with the planned improvements. The rigging is proving to be as awkward as the rest of the kit but I would have been disappointed if it were not. There will be several (loads) of inaccuracies with the rigging on my kit but I am using my completed corel kit HMS Victory as a guide and can live with the mistakes I have made. I am a builder who is not overly concerned if my build includes historical inaccuracies. She is now coming alive as you say, in fact I too am beginning to smile as I look at her. I am sure you will improve on my build and as you progress if I can help I will. With the rigging you will undoubtedly do it different to mine. You will notice in the greyhound instructions that the book differs from the sheet plans which differs from the picture on the box. Confused you will be, but your pre-planning regarding the belaying will prove invaluable. When all is done and dusted Greyhound looks beautiful and you will have bad moments and good moment but will end up with a model you will be glad you have completed.  

getting there.

slow going especially with no real concrete proof of where the lines are belayed. Trial and error is the norm.

Right, Bellona has been unboxed and i've dry fitted the keel and frames. A little minor sanding required to get a nice fit between the two which after the wrestling match that was HMS Greyhound this comes as a relief. I will post some pics soon. Again I'm going for the full wooden look for the entire hull without any paint or colouring. Its great to get my hands on wood again after the shroads and ratlines fiasco of Greyhound. I have now tied over 20 million ratlines since January....  . I do love the look of Greyhound though and she has definately grown on me. Bellona looks like a mighty fine ship too. Anyway watch this space for the photos.  

I must say the frames and keel on Bellona are a much better fit than on Greyhound, so none of the early hair pulling and gnashing of teeth so far.

Bellona has had its box opened and a first dry fit of the keel and frames. My daughter plays rugby for a club side(Liverpool St Helens) a county side(lancashire) and a divisional side(The North of England) so have been busy getting her to matches and training sessions so have not done much on Bellona yet. Watch this space. 

very neat job there. I think you will negate those little problems without too much difficulty. I like the fact you are adding to greyhound to enhance what is a very fine looking model despite its peculiarities.

I'm beginning to remember. Rather than the flimsy little supports supplied in the kit, I used a balsa wood filler and sanded to the required curve after fitting the two side pieces of the transom thereby using the curve of those pieces as a guide, then a little more filler attatched to frame 13 to support the angled planks, although I do recall having a little bit more space than you have in this area, but only by about a mm. It was a trial and error job that owed more to luck than judgement. It is a pig of a kit as you say but really is worth percevereing with it.