HMS Bounty 1783 by rcmdvr - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:48

[rcmdrvr]

I single planked but used a slightly thicker plank (around 1/8 inch) to stand up to the filling and sanding required.

[Jerry]

Hello Don,

I'm really glad i came across your build log.  My admiral is building the Amiti kit of the HMS Bounty and is presently struggling with the initial hull planking.  It's very difficult because of the thickness of the strips.  They are 1.5mm thick x 6mm wide which makes them (even with adaquate soaking) ,  difficult to bend.  She has managed so far to plank the first four strips heading down from the bulwarks. But from now on, it'll be necessary now to taper the strips. I realize that the kits are different but I believe the Bounty is the same and hence the main purose of this posting:  

 

She is using John McKay's "Anatomy of the Ship" as a guide.  This book shows the huill to be copper clad.  I have had experience building two ships with copper plates, the Cutty Sark and The HMS Victory.  It was tedious but I felt well worth the results.  She is planning to double plank the hull as called for in this kit and then to copper plate from the waterline down.  The Amati kit shows a hull painted white but as mentioned above,  McKay's book shows the hull copper clad.

 

Just thought I'd mention it.

Best,

Jerry

 

.  

Edited August 17, 2015 by Jerry

[jbshan]

1783 is certainly within the time limits for coppering, and they were apparently willing to pay for a lot of modifications for this expedition.

[Desert_Sailor]

Here's how mine turned out... about 10 months in the making

 

I have more pix if people are interested...

 

DS

[Jerry]

Hey DS...Very nice.  A see-through version,  Looks terrific.

Jerry

[rcmdrvr]

Jerry.  I have not done the research you have regarding the Bounty.  I did look at some internet available information and decided that I liked the exterior appearance of the Bounty reproduction that unfortunately sank several years back.  While the information on this ship is limited I do not see where her hull was plated.  I guess there are a million ways to approach this particular model.

 

Desert.  Your model is beautiful.  I hope that mine comes close.  I really like your interior details.  While the interiors are somewhat of a fantasy, I think they help make this version of the Bounty a great discussion model.

[Desert_Sailor]

Thanks

 

I call this my sea going "doll house."

 

In fact, I got a number of the interior furniture details (i.e.  tables, lamps, chairs..) from a doll house store...

The rock ballast  came from my LHS  which has a large stock of model train supplies.

The extra casks came from Model Expo

 

May not be the most accurate Bounty,  but it was fun to build  and that's what counts!!

 

 

The breadfruit plants could have been more accurate  but what do I know of botany?

 

Given the beauty of the wood I couldn't bear to paint the hull.. 

 

and my work space hasn't been that clean since.....

[Captain Al]

McKay clearly shows the ship to be copper plated on p. 55. That being said, I've looked at logs of probably 10 Bounty builds and I think I recall only one being plated.

 

I tip my hat to anyone who has completed this build in less than a year. I'm now going on 18 months now and still have not even built my masts. In fact I'm just working on the bowsprit and its giving me fits as to what fittings go where. I am really disappointed in AL's plans and photos at this stage. They leave you in the dark just when you need photos the most. I've searched all the Bounty logs I can on this site and others and cannot come up with any detailed closeups of the bowsprit. If anyone reading this has done a Bounty sprit and is willing to take some and post them, I'd be forever in debted to them.

[Desert_Sailor]

Here are my only two pix of the finished bowsprit..

 

I tried to follow the supplied plans  and it wasn't easy.

Not sure of the accuracy to the REAL Bounty.. but it looked OK to me when done

 

If you have any other q's,  just ask...

 

 

[Captain Al]

Thank you DS, these pix will be helpful. What I'm concluding is that almost everyone deviates from the less than adequate AL plans. And that is what I will have to do. The most confusing thing in the plans is

where it shows 2 sheaves (part 281s) at the far outboard end of the sprit, attached to the sprit (seemingly) by a copper ring 8mm in diameter. I've never seen a "sheave" attached this way (I don't see how it can be done and still have the sheave spin -- aren't sheaves normally on a axle?). And I've not come across anyone elses build that put them on. So perhaps this is just another misprinted part number.

 

Looks like I will put as many blocks on as are obvious or which I see on other builds. Then I'll just have to wait to rig the thing to see if they're in the right places and if I have too many or not enough. From there I can decide if I want to jury rig or try to be accurate.

 

Thanks again for you help.

[Captain Poison]

Are you talking about this ring?

[Captain Al]

Wow, where have you been all my life Capt. P? These are first real closeups I've seen and now it makes some sense. I've done the inserted sheave in the sprit but til now didn't know what was going to go through it. So it looks like the ring, with its hooks, block and sheaves, will slide forward and aft. How clever;

seriously.

 

I wonder if you have any more closeups of your bowsprit and if I'd be imposing to ask to see them.

Regardless, a million thanks for these. I'm inspired to get back to the bench.

[rcmdrvr]

Nice to see that a lot of posts of other models of the Bounty have been posted.  I have not had the opportunity to post in a while but I have continued to make progress on the model.  I have been building a lot of the deck equipment.  I actually like this stage of construction.  It is very relaxing to work with the small pieces of wood and to fashion the equipment.  While I do not come up to the skill level of some of the other modelers who have posted their work here, I think I am headed in the right direction.

 

Hope you enjoy the photos. 

[rcmdrvr]

A few more

[Jerry]

Good to see the latest photos, Don.  I really like your color scheme of the hull.  We're at a standstill as the admiral just returned from having some surgery and we'll have to wait for some futher recovery before she can get going again.  She does have some of the first planking strips attached but needs some filler block work before she can do any more.  It's hands off for me as this is her build and all i'm allowed to do is "coach."  

Anyway, keep going with your beautiful work.

Best,

Jerry

[rcmdrvr]

Well it has been a few weeks since I posted.  I do remember to take pictures as I complete a step but I am not good at resizing and posting the photos.  I have continued working on the deck furniture.  Making and rigging the cannons proved to be quite a challenge.  First time I have worked with making blocks.  Lots of work with tweezers.  Quite a tedious effort but I am generally pleased with the results.

 

The anchors were also a project.  Again, the thread work is all new to me.

 

As you can see, I tend to break the model down into a series of little projects.  I work on that project until it is done.  Lots of projects to go.

 

The steering mechanism was kind of fun.  First, I did not realize the complexity of steering aboard these older ships.  Must have been fun dodging all the steering ropes and blocks when you were rushing around the decks.

 

I am really enjoying this model.  I tend to put in three or four hours per week (an hour at a time in the evenings).  Learning a lot of new skills as I go along.  One is figuring out what the plans and instructions are telling me.

 

I hope you enjoy the photos.

[Mirabell61]

Nice build Don,

 

Nils

[Jerry]

Thanks fo the posting, Don...Your beautiful work is much admired and your photos will surely help my admiral with the model once she gets that far.  Hope your day goes well.

Best,

Jerry

[Captain Al]

Very nice work LA.  Good to see you making steady progress.

[Gentlegiant]

Hello all the Bounty builders , i follow all your build log. I foud full good idea in all the different build log for building mine.Last week i check the instructions and the parts , and i have a question about the single planking with the 2mm thick walnut .Watt do you think off double planking with two kind off strip more thin ?

​

[rcmdrvr]

If you have been following my build, I single planked and then painted the hull.  As other have expressed, this is a tough hull to plan.  If I had decided to have a natural finish, I would have applied second planking of very thin wood such as pear.  This would be a challenge, however, as you would have to deal with the matching all the open ended planking on the side that is only partially planked.

 

Good luck.

[Gentlegiant]

Tank you for the advise of matching the open ended planking , this is an other challenge too.

[rcmdrvr]

Well, work continues.  I have now completed work on the life boats (did they call them life boats?).  The bottom boat and the larger of the two was plank on frame and not to difficult.  Some of the interior work was a bit tedious but I feel it came out OK.  Be careful of some of the walnut parts.  The grain runs across some of the smaller parts and can split if mis-handled.  The top boat was built by stacking elongated "donets".  The stack was then sanded and carved to shape.  I used a dremmel motor a lot on this boat.  Hint:  Don't glue the bottom of the boat to the donet stack until you have completed most of the shaping.

 

Rigging the two boats to the deck stands was a job.  As I progress, I see that rigging is a major task.  I have found that if I CA the end of the thread, it hardens into a needle that makes it easier to thread thru the blocks.

 

The last completed steps was mounting the boarding cannons.  There are ten all together.  Easy, relaxing work.

 

Well, it looks like masts is the next step.  I will try to be more frequent in my updates.

[Captain Al]

Great work LA -- and in such a short period of time.  I think you've caught up to me and I've been on this build for almost 2 years.

 

I've got a couple questions for you.  First, you mention building the two life boats (in fact I think they were both working boats and only one turned into a life boat and that wasn't by design).  The upper one, the jolly boat, was built up in layers.  Now you say "don't lay the bottom til you've almost finished shaping the hull.  Here's my question -- my bottom piece was a flat piece of ply, about six inches long and two wide.  It was labeled as a pre-cut part, meaning it was to be used as is.  So I shaped the bottom donut just enough and into the same shape as this bottom piece.  I assumed the boat had a flat bottom (maybe used in very shallow water).  Now I see that your's has a much more V bottomto it and that it is much narrower at the keel.  Can you explain how you shaped the bottom donut into this shape -- if I had done that there would have been nothing left of the donut.

 

Second question -- your cannon look great.  Did A.L. provide the brackets like they should have?  Mine came without those 10 brass parts and I had to make them.  Not hard, but surely not as nice as your's.

 

So on to the masts....as you plan on how to build them take a look at the parts lists closely.  Here's what I found -- (I've just started building them myself) -- there are 3 parts to each mast and there are 6 caps which are precut and used to join two parts together.  These caps have holes and squares to insert the tops and bottoms of the mast.  I have found that in two cases the diameter of the dowel which A.L. indicates to use is too small to fit snugly into the hole.  For example, the top mizzen mast is supposed to join with the lower mast in cap 594.  The caps square (for the bottom part of the mast) is about 7mm, while the dowel they recommend is 6mm (before any tapering).  This seems to be a part or joint that has to be nicely snug.  So I've used another dowel that was larger than the 7mm and shaped it to fit right.  But I wonder if I'm missing something here.  When you've had some time to look it all over (I would suggest a lot of time), please post your conclusions.  My thought is that the size of the holes in the caps is what must determine the size of the dowel.

[rcmdrvr]

My cannon brackets were hand made.  I could not find any furnished parts.

 

I did notice that A.L.'s photo directions pretty much end when you complete the hull and deck furniture.  I guess they felt that photos of the mast assembly was too expensive.  I also searched the drawings and came up with no help in assembling the masts.  I found a book on Amazon on rigging model ships and I downloaded the Kindle version.  It is of some help.

 

I came to the same conclusion as to caps etc.  Yes the dowels fit the round holes in the caps loosely but I plan to make small wedges to tighten everything up.  According to the book, this sort of approximates what was done on 1 to 1 scale ships.  I have decided not to apply any adhesive until I have all three masts "assembled" and aligned.  Hopefully this will allow me to back out of any mistakes.

 

I will try to post photos as I go along. 

[Captain Poison]

I also have seen the same thing and what I did was use another dowel, so I had a perfect fit in the caps, sometimes the A.L. recommendation are not entirely accurate

 

Edit:Also I had to correct the space at the sides of the topmast to leave more room for the shrouds

Edited October 5, 2015 by Captain Poison

[Captain Al]

Part of my problem with the dowels fitting the holes correctly was due to the fact that I had the cap backwards -- I thought the square holes were to go at the bottom of the next mast part and the round ones at the top.  Once it was confirmed to me (by Danny no less) that the square tenons were at the top of the masts, then these size dowels worked better -- but still not perfect.  Lots of adjustment sanding will be needed for perfection.  Its also tricky to make sure they are the correct diameter to slide through the trees.

 

Thanks for posting these pictures CP.  A question:  Are those half round parts which the kit calls "cap stiffeners" and which are placed on top of the cap in between the top mast and the top end of the lower mast -- are they supposed to simulate sheaves for halyards?  All the photos I've seen of them seem to show grooves in them or even the halyards running up and down around them.  And yet they're called "stiffeners."

[rcmdrvr]

Captain Poison.  Great attachment.  What is the source of this?  Can I get my hands on the source?

[Captain Poison]

*Captain Al, Those half part serves to support the rope that held the yard..

 

I am improving all the rigging which I think is deserved in this scale...my work is based on the book

"rigging period ship models" by Lennarth Petersson,I highly recommend it.

 

*LA Don, The source of that picture is "Anatomy of the ship" The Armed Transport Bounty by Jhon McKay.

 

http://soubory.radekshipmodels.cz/knihy/ both books are here...

 

The comment I made in the post #86, about the space needed for the shrouds is because I'm using thick ropes (excellent ropes found in Syren - Ship model company-) .54/ 1.37mm

Edited October 8, 2015 by Captain Poison

[Captain Al]

Another mystery solved.  Thanks CP.  I have both those books now.