Surabaya by Piet - 1/80 - Mid 17th-Century VOC ship

[amateur]

Ah, progress!

At least we  now know that you could build very nice plank on frame dinghies

 

Jan

[*Hans*]

Yes, waiting for news from the Surabaya - as the Batavia is already quite long underway...

[Piet]

Thanks Jan and Hans for dropping in.  The Surabaya will be worked on soon but right now I have two little boats working right in front of her and it's a mess.

Two build docks and lots of wood pieces and parts.  

 

Yeah Jan, that dinghy was a real challenge but I learned a lot with it.  Plank on frame with klinker build planking was not easy.  I'm striving to do better with version 2.0 and wish me luck.

 

Cheers,

[amateur]

I sure wish you luck with the little boat!

 

Jan

[*Hans*]

Hey Jan,  which Jan are you on the Dutch forum???

[amateur]

Hi Hans,

 

I use the same names and avatarseverywhere i go

 

Jan

[Don Quixote]

Ahoy, Piet. 'Tis Brian from what have you cooked today. Thought I'd check out your current build and I'm not sure if I'm glad I did. INCREDIBLE! LOVE what I see... Just jealous! I'm on my first build. I've done the bulwarks and gun ports over 4 times and the planking was bloody hell. I can't imagine the skill, knowledge and intellect that goes into a project like this!

 

beautiful!

[popeye the sailor]

so this is where you've been off to!  haven't looked all the way through,  but what I've have seen.....I'm amazed!   looks awesome Piet...I can't wait to see the rest! 

[Piet]

Hey Brian, good to see you here on the Surabaya shipyard.  Yeah, I know you from the cooking blog and really enjoy that topic.  I like your instructions on technique, specially classic French, although I prefer Provençal.  Thank you very much for that compliment but I don't deserve it.  I love to do planking and on this model I just lucked out.  I studied out of a few books in how to do it so i just did as is suggested.  

Once the O19 model is completed and on the display board and in my studio I'll get back at working this ship again.  

 

HI Popeye, thanks for dropping in but I'm not quite ready yet to continue with this model.  I need to complete the display board for the O19 first, which is close.  Just the edge trimming left, staining and varnish.  I have already tried putting the O19 on it and it fits great, looks good too.

 

I know you and Brian are busy with your own models but make some time and plow through this build log from the start.  You'll find that I had to do several re-do's.  I'll also be making new furniture for the captain's cabin.

 

I'm really looking forward continuing with the work here.

 

Cheers, 

[Mirabell61]

Very nice model Piet,

 

I just had a look into this wonderful build log, as I was`nt aware its on your slipway in the moment. And you have been quite busy on it as the progress shows,...

Well done !

 

Nils

[Jack12477]

Hi Piet,

 

Just found your build log and pulled up a chair.  While going thru it your pictures stopped displaying after post #91.  I think the gremlins have struck again.

 

Anyway nice work and nice looking model.

[Piet]

Hello Nils, good to see you here at my VOC shipyard, thanks for dropping in my friend.  Now you can see that I have my work cutout with the rigging.

Yep, she's been patiently waiting on my small workbench in the garage and I'll be getting back to her very soon.

 

Hello Jack and welcome too in my VOC shipyard.  Thanks for dropping in and your kind comments.  No gremlins my friend, she had to take a backseat to my O19 build.  I thought I could work on both at the same time but that idea went by the wayside.  I felt compelled in working my father's boat and complete it.  However, now that the O19 is nearly finished I'll get back to working the VOC ship.  So stay tuned.

 

Cheers,

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

I'm definitely going to enjoy following along; like many others on this Forum.

 

All the best

 

Patrick

[GLakie]

Hi Piet! Just started going over your log from the beginning. Made it through page 1 in about a half-hour or so. Very nice work! A gallion-style ship is an interesting subject for an old history student like me. Should be all caught up in a day or so, and looking forward to seeing you start back to work on her.

 

Cheers

[Piet]

Thanks George for visiting my Surabaya build.  I am doing the same thing too, just to get back in the groove.  The dockyard is now all cleaned up, kinda and ready for the shipwright (me) to get back at her.  I still have a few domestic issues to handle and prepping for the visit of Sir and Lady Hekker in two weeks.  

 

Ys, I'm actually eager start work on her.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello everyone, Piet's back in the Surabaya shipyard!  I have accumulated a few more tools and 0.5 mm brass tubes for the canon lid hinges.  I have to redo all the lids already done because the 1 mm tubes are just too much out of scale.  There are no 0.5 mm brass tubes available here in the US but Remco offered to get them for me from Holland.  Thanks again, much appreciated.

 

In the meantime though I started on converting 8 of the 18 pounder canons to 12 pounders.  I cheated and bought a bunch of precast cannons that would fit my scale of 1:80 for 18 pound canons but on the upper deck they must be 12 pound.  The are too large to make them look good.

 

I also had to modify the gun carriages for the modded canons.  

 

I cut the barrel from the gun in front of the pivot pins and shortened that piece a 1/4 inch and did the same at the breach end where I cut about 1/8 of an inch off.  Drilled holes in the three pieces and cemented the gun back together using steel finishing nails as reinforcement.  A little filing and presto, I have a 12 pounder.

 

Actually it wasn't all that simple because the castings were not round but oval.  Fortunately this was mostly at the barrel end.  I had to first file the barrel round before cutting the canon pieces.  Not doing this first would give me all kinds of grief when cementing them back together again.

 

Drilling the holes for the pins was also a tedious job because I had to go slow other wise the metal would melt and jam the drill bit.  I think I lucked out in that all the holes were very close to center and wound up with straight looking guns.

I used 5 minute epoxy to cement the three pieces together.  A little fine tuning and cleaning and then a coat of flat black paint.

 

The gun carriages are still not finished yet.  I only made one for now and will use that as a pattern for the other nine 

 

I also started to make the wheel / axle securing pins.  Micro work, to say the least.

 

Well here are a few pics of the progress so far.  This'll be slower going then with the work I did on the O19 but it has to remain fun.

 

This shows the difference after I converted the first gun.

 

This shows the barrel end removed from the gun and in proces of shortening.

 

This shows the same treatment with the breach end.  I used a grinding wheel in my electric hand tool to shorten it that 1/8 inch.  I had to go slow to prevent the metal from melting and clogging the stone.  The final treatment was with a file to make the cuts square to centerline.

 

Here I have laid-out all the parts to be cemented back together again.

 

This shows the result of all my work for just one gun.  All together i estimate about 4 hours or so per gun.  I didn't check time so it could very well be longer when counting all the time i spend in dressing the gun.

 

This shows the completed gun on its carriage with the next one in line to be done.  All that's left is painting. and attaching the hardware for the ropes.

 

Here you can see the axle / wheel pins.  They too still need to be dressed some more - - - carefully, because they are fragile.

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

Hey Piet you're back and off and running.  Looks like a fairly tedious job you've got going there, but the end result is looking good.  I'm glad you're back at it. 

 

Cheers

[JesseLee]

Wow Piet, great job on the cannons!

[Omega1234]

Wow Piet, great job on the cannons!

Yep! Can't argue with Jesse there, because those cannons are real beauties!

[ioannis]

Another talent here

Impressive build.

[cog]

Nice Piet. (Fast reader too, if I recall well ...) Like the way you build up your guns ...

Edited August 12, 2015 by cog

[mtaylor]

Very impressive work on fixing those guns, Piet.   A PITA but worth it from what I see.

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for your warm welcome back messages, and then all the likes, it's really appreciated very much.  Yeah, it's been what, almost 3 years since I last worked on her.  As yuns know I kinda concentrated on the 019 build.

 

Well, here we are and trying to spend some more time on this ship.  I finished four of the eight cannon conversions except for some final detailing, which includes adding the bolts that hold the pivot straps.  I made the straps from paper that I painted flat black.   I'll wait with all that till all eight are completed, no sense in prepping the paint twice.

 

Then there is all the hardware yet, with the ropes.

 

Here are a few pics of what was done today.  Yes, it was rather warm in the dockyard (garage), 33 C!  But I love it though.  

 

This was how I left it last evening.  So, this morning I started dunking the wheels in brown dy so they could dry out for later assembly.  I also painted the axles flat black.

 

Here is the bunch from another angle.  I decided not to polish the canons but leave them somewhat rustic.  Gives a better impression of time at sea 

 

This shows only two of the 32 wheel securing pins.  Yeah, they are still in the rough state but before I installed tem into the axles they were dressed a little better.  I decided not to glue them in the axles in case the crew needs to change a wheel 

 

This shows the four cannons placed in their position on deck.  You can now see that the smaller size fits a lot better without running into the hatch coaming at recoil.  It also gives the crew some space working around the hatches.

 

Here is an overhead view.

 

Here is a close-up of one of the cannon assembles.  This is probably the roughest cannon of them all but I kinda like it and it's not noticeable when placed on deck and ready for action.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[GLakie]

She's looking good Piet. Nice work. 

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

Those cannons are marvellous. Nothing short of a miniature model; each in their own right.

 

Nicely done! I'm looking forward to your next update.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Edited August 15, 2015 by Omega1234

[popeye the sailor]

nice job on the Cannons Piet..........good to see you back in the workshop.  

[SawdustDave]

Great to see you back to the bench my friend. Beautiful work as usual.

[Piet]

Finally an update from the Flying Dutchman.  I have been busy with domestic chores, some cooking for my wife and other sundry items.  However, I have been able to spend a few hours on and off at the workbench in between.   Some of the work was the same as previously posted thus it made so sense to clutter up the log with same stuff.  

 

I have now completed the conversion of all the canons on the main deck waste area.  I still need to make the tackle hardware for them as well as the tackle.  Plenty of single and double pulleys, hooks and eye bolts.

 

To have a change of pace i started with the starboard side gun deck gun ports.  I made a bunch a few years ago but several are too small for the gun ports so I have to make about 6 new ons and that includes the two at the stern.

I also have to remake the associated hardware - - - hinges!  The previously made hinges are too large in scale - - -  I used 1 mm brass tube for the hinges.  I obtained 1/2 mm brass tubes from Holland via Remco, that'll be mucho better.  That means that I also have to redo all the gunport hinges on the port side   Hey, what's another redo among friends 

 

Okay, here are a few pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

The cannon you have re-done look great Piet. Re-dos are a bummer but worth it in the end. 

[Omega1234]

Very nice work on the cannons, Piet.  Your VOC's looking pretty speccie, without a doubt! 

Edited August 27, 2015 by Omega1234