HMS Ethalion 1797 by robdurant - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:64 - Modified from HMS Diana 1794 kit

[robdurant]

I've updated the template above to include a former for the aft edge to provide support for the top and bottom templates.

 

quartergalleries_templates.pdf

 

 

So, here are the first attempt at the new quarter galleries...  I pritt-sticked the templates to the parts on 1mm ply and cut them out (scissors and craft knife), then soaked the fascia and fixed it round a metal cutlery pot to bend it to shape... Soaking the fascia took the paper off, and I managed to build the starboard quarter gallery with the window part upside down! The effect was to make the curve upwards even more pronounced - it really looked odd... I didn't take a photo, but trust me, it was all wrong It didn't take along to get it fixed.

 

I'm much happier with the line... the windows are perhaps a little large - I need to have a re-measure - but I don't think they look out of place.  (Note the upper counter is a card mockup and the masking tape came unstuck as I took these photos... ) The black and the white fuzz you can see is the remnants of the paper templates.

Also, this evening I finally got round to it and tidied my boat building space.... (will wonders never cease!)

 

 

[robdurant]

Another brief update... more work on the quarter galleries.

 

 

The quarter galleries are a little proud at the moment, but I will be adding a strip for the tafferal (?) so this should fill in that space. It will also neaten the edge of the stern lights. These photos do give an idea of how tricky all the angles are... there's another block to go beneath the one already in place, and then the metal casting below that... On top, there are two more blocks... each has to be carefully shaped, and then duplicated on the other side. I've replaced the four walnut parts per side with two 6mm box parts (although it did feel a little wrong painting it!) Nothing's glued in place yet.

 

I've also filled the grain and painted the stern transom.

 

Happy building!

 

Rob

[Old Collingwood]

Lovely lovely  work,    your build is so much inspiration for my own build.

 

OC.

[robdurant]

Thank you OC it's very kind of you to say so. It's so great to see others builds and get ideas and encouragement.

 

Thanks to everyone for the likes.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Time for a little update.

 

• Remaking window template for quarter galleries to get right size of windows
  I've continued shaping the quarter galleries. I'd been concerned that the window apertures were too large, and the uprights too narrow. I've remade them and lined the apertures with box to match the stern gallery.
  
  (see below for photo)
   
• Lining windows
  These were lined with Boxwood - 6mm x 0.7mm boxwood veneer cut in to 3mm strips. By using the outer edge, a nice square edge is found to go flush with the gallery.
  
• Painting decoration on stern gallery
  I got out my best brush and got to work painting the decoration on the gallery - to my eye this looks so much better than the somewhat heavy brass photo etch which lacks a little something in detail. I tried painting the decoration on the uprights between the windows, but found that too tricky, and the photo etch for these parts is quite nice, so I've used that.
  
  (photo before I changed the painting on the uprights for photo-etch)
  
• Shaping above and below quarter galleries
  A lot of time was spent fashioning these 3D puzzles... Each part is unique, and needs checking constantly to get it to fit well. They're not perfect, but thankfully they will be painted, so a little filler will hide a multitude of sins!
  
  
• Lettering on upper counter
  I used an inkjet printer on baking paper to transfer the lettering onto the upper counter, then painted over the impression. It took about 10 attempts to get the print in the right place, but then it worked quite well... It isn't perfect, but I'm quite happy with it.
  
  
  
  
• Crew
  The crew arrived and were duly painted, ready to help getting a sense of proportion.
  
  
  
   
• First attempt at carving
  I wanted to include the feathers shown in AOTS above the uprights where the wide curve ends on the gallery. So it was time to break out the proxxon engraving set. Taken from 2x6mm boxwood (guitar stringers). Again, as a first attempt I'm reasonably happy, but I think I'll probably end up taking these off and thinning them down - they're a little heavy at the moment.
  
  
• Testing spacing for decorations on stern gallery
  I placed the white metal decorations provided in the kit onto the stern to check the spacing. It fits pretty well, but the lions really ought to become dolphins, and the centre figure of Diana needs to become a Georgian representation of a male figure of Bacchus, or perhaps Acoetes as per Ovid's Metamorphoses... We'll see how brave I'm feeling. On the plus side, this can all be done off the model, so many attempts are easily possible. I can keep going til I'm happy!
  
  

And finally, a picture of the pieces in place on Ethalion...

 

[Jobbie]

I’m gobsmacked. That really looks fantastic. I love the lettering particularly. I assume you reverse the image, then print on wax paper and use that as a rub transfer? Which program allows you to flip the font?

[robdurant]

Hi Jobbie

 

Yes that's right. Just normal baking paper that you use to line cake tins. I sellotaped it over a sheet of A4 paper to give it some strength.

 

I use a mac and in the print box it has a "flip horzontally" checkbox. So it really couldn't be easier. It's also useful for printing out bits of plans for port and starboard. Just hit print and select the checkbox as necessary.

 

Thanks to all for the likes and kind words of encouragement.

 

Rob

[Beef Wellington]

Looking really good Rob, definitely spot on with the "3-D puzzle' comment.  Like the lettering on the upper counter, and the boxwood frames are a very nice touch.  Your filigree came out very nicely as well, great stuff!

[robdurant]

Thanks Jason

[robdurant]

A mini-update...

 

Stern lights... the carpenters glue still needs to be cleaned up a little, but I'm going to let it set really hard first. Once these have clear plastic glued behind them they'll be plenty strong enough

 

 

[Beef Wellington]

Lovely...would love to see some pics of how you assembled the lights.

[robdurant]

 

Thanks Jason.

 

I started by working out a template for the windows (based on the AOTS diagrams extended out in the same way as I calculated the transom shape).

 

Then I printed it out and stuck sellotape over it to stop the pva from sticking to it. I put some cereal box card behind it to give it a bit more substance, and clipped it behind the transom lining up the diagram with the window apertures.

 

I'd already lined the apertures with boxwood. This was boxwood veneer (0.7mm thick officially but actually closer to .5mm when I checked with the micrometer). I cut it to about 3mm for the window surrounds, and to ~0.75mm for the internal framing (using a sharp scalpel and lots of patience). The pre-cut edge of the veneer was always placed facing out to ensure a good square edge: the cut edges I achieved with the scalpel were nowhere near as clean.

 

The verticals were put in as single strips, carefully checking the heights with the digital vernier calipers and using the point of the calipers to mark the wood rather than trying to mark it with a pencil which is just hopelessly inaccurate. Often the strips needed very slight amounts shaving off the ends to fit neatly. Sometimes it would take two or three attempts.

 

Once gently placed in position I used a paintbrush to apply watered down pva to fix the vertical in place.

 

 

The horizontals were done the same way, but as three separate parts for each horizontal. Tweezers were an absolute must, and it took a lot of attention to make sure the line followed the diagram underneath, but the PVA allows the part to be re-placed as many times as necessary.

 

 

Finally, I realised pretty quickly that not only was good light a must, but the light needed to be directly overhead, otherwise the shadows make everything look completely out of whack.

 

Hope that's helpful. If you've got any questions, just ask.

 

Rob

 

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by robdurant
Removing unwanted photo at bottom of post

[robdurant]

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for the likes and encouragement.

 

A small update.

 

First I filled the stern counter with balsa to give some support to the upper counter (and provide more area for it to be glued to)... I also extended the lower counter to add on the curve at the top (I left this off earlier to avoid it getting bashed, and I'm glad I did).

 

 

Having pinned the quarter galleries and pieces at the stern (with 1mm brass rod), I got the point where I was comfortable with their fit. I don't know how else I would have managed as it feels like you need twenty hands to do this, and masking tape isn't up to the job.

 

I finished the glazing of the quarter galleries (from the inside) and placed some strips of wood behind the plastic to give it some more support. I don't want it falling into the model later! Then, having double and treble checked everything, the quarter galleries were stuck into position.

 

Once in place, the upper counter was fixed, again according to the pins that had been put in place. It was fixed having shaped it, and with the stern gallery in place (but not glued yet - it isn't glazed, and I want to do of the decoration off the model) to make sure it all fitted together.

 

Here are the pictures so far.

 

I'm really pleased with the sweep of the gunports and windows. Also with the box window frames.

 

Happy building

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thanks again for the likes

 

I've spent a happy day working on the stern of Ethalion today... I mentioned yesterday I wanted to do some more work on the decoration just below the taffrail... I've been working up the courage to try some carving, and the moment had arrived. The narrative involving Ethalion in Ovid's Metamorphoses involves the sailors being turned into dolphins, and so I'd already done a Frankenstinian manoeuvre creating a new figurehead that is a soldier morphine into a dolphin's tail, as below:

 

Now the challenge was to make the stern work too. At present (understandably) it's Diana with her quivers full of arrows slung over her back, and lions on each side showing she's a huntress. But I wanted to put dolphins in the Lions' place... Was my carving up to it? Well, I'm amazed at what some patience can do ... I glued 6x2 strips of castello boxwood edge to edge with carpenters glue and printed out some pictures of dolphins and sketched them onto the wood, then I set to work. I chain-drilled round the outside of the dolphin to get the shape, and then gently and slowly, with a brand new x-acto blade carved away.

 

Here are some of the stages as I went, and the finished items... I may thin them down a little more. The tails proved almost impossible to keep stuck to the dolphin during this process, so were carved separately and glued on. Painted, they fit quite nicely with the existing decorations. It's made me want to try some more bits! The bug has bitten!

 

I then spent some time getting the top angle of the stern right so that the rail sits parallel to the line of the side rails as they approach the stern. Once this angle was right, I glued on another strip of box to neaten up the edge (the ends aren't stuck down yet in the picture below). The observant among you will notice that somewhere along the line I also lost one of the decorative bits that goes between the windows and search as I might I could not find it. Happily, Caldercraft provide one spare... I need to make sure I don't lose that one!

Next step is to mark the extra decoration between the dolphins and the ladies at each end, and paint that in before sticking the decorations in place. Then I think I shall store this somewhere safe until I'm a bit further along.

 

Take care

 

Rob

 

[robdurant]

I fancied a bit of a change after wrestling with the stern, so I got out the brodie stove mini-kit and starting putting it together. I'd forgotten how much I dislike white metal. Every time I use it, it just seems to turn to mush. It's hard to stick, and heavy.

 

I didn't want to spend any more money if I could avoid it, though Jason (Beef Wellington) has used a 3D printed one that looks very good from what I can see. So... after a frustrating time trying to turn it into something that looked remotely like a stove, I gave up, and started making one out of plasticard and card instead based on the AOTS plans. Here's the progress next to my shocking attempt at the kit to compare it with...

 

The white metal parts provided in the kit:

 

 

My attempt at putting them together...

 

Now, starting to build my own (you can see the mess I made trying to paint the white metal one... Here. I'm adding the cowling for the flue, which is slightly angled back in to the centre of the stove:

 

I added the edging using paper - .5mm plasticard looked way too clunky.

 

As it stands now... (Caldercraft kit, left - My attempt, right) You can see the grating details going in, and a whole variety of other detailng will also now be possible. That said, it's debatable how much is worth it, as it's well hidden away in the finished Frigate.

 

Finally, I dug up this photo from when I was visiting Victory in November... a helpful comparison. I've also ordered some scale bricks which will help me make a nice tiled floor for the stove once it's ready to place.

 

 

For anyone who's interested (and hasn't seen them yet), I put all the photos up online and linked to them on this thread:

 

 

 

[robdurant]

A mini-update on the stove, then.

 

I got some scale OO gauge bricks, and laid them onto paper using PVA to fix them for the fire-proof base.

Once completed, the base was painted over with water-down pva to fix it, and provide a kind of glaze. Then it was lined with 0.7mm box veneer to provide a surround.

A shot of the stove so far, with plasticard legs, driptray and a lick of paint added. (Kit-supplied background, mine, foreground.)

I've left a few areas unpainted, as there are still some details to add. Overall, I'm pleased with it, and it weighs 18g including the white metal flue instead of the white metal version which weighs 65 grams!

 

Happy building!

 

Rob

 

[robdurant]

For the sake of clarity - and in fairness to Caldercraft, I should make clear that I am using their flue and condenser, as they seem a good likeness and are well made (albeit a bit of a challenge to hollow out the flue.

[Jobbie]

Well played, Sir! Those bricks are a nice touch.

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

A bit more work on Ethalion today. I was musing over how the sheer rails went onto the sides of the ship, and decided to go back and have another look at the pictures on the National Maritime Museum website. I remembered looking at the builders models when I started out on this path, and the pictures weren't brilliant, but had a note next to them saying they planned to get better shots soon.

 

Well... cut a long story short, they're there now. (At least either they're new, or I just missed them before.)

 

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66303.html

 

Under the main image, if you click the right arrow to view more thumbnails, there they are. You can click the thumbnail, and then if you click the expand icon they're really nice quality images.

 

A slight side note, this model's marked as a Diana class, but the date is 1794, and I'm pretty sure it's Diana, of the Artois class? Happy to be corrected. I'm hoping to replicate the really nice decorative pattern on the tops of the quarter galleries.

 

More pictures of my progress soon.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Once again, I'm indebted to Jason (Beef Wellington), Ray, and Barbossa for their excellent insights along the way with their builds of the Caldercraft HMS Diana...

 

I've taken a pause with the sheer rails until I've got the quarter deck / fore deck on... I think then it will be easier to make it all look right. That means there are some things that need tidying up before the model starts sitting upright permanently!

 

The Fore Bitts.

 

I made up the fore bitts... only one is provided in the kit, and I really wanted to beef them up a bit (I was struck by just how sturdy they really were when I visited Victory - albeit she was a bigger ship! So I started from scratch with boxwood, using AOTS and Jason's excellent effort as a guide... The square section uprights and crosspieces are made up of laminated 2x6mm guitar stringer, and the shaped supports from 6mm boxwood sheet. Before they were stuck together I checked that the stove and its brick base fitted in between the supports.

 

I started making up the chain pump boxes... although for some reason I don't have a picture of them. I'll take some and put them up when I next work on them.

 

Rudder.

 

Next was the Rudder. Because I'd modified the backbone of the ship to have a tapered stern post, the rudder in the kit wouldn't fit. Again, AOTS provided the template (photocopy it out at the right scale, Pritt-Stick it on, then soak gently once it's cut out) to create one from boxwood sheet. I cut out the shape using a coping saw, and then filed and planed it down to shape, and sanded, then scraped the gradient from top to bottom. This took quite a while. Once done, I added the pintles, 2x6 boxwood section cut to shape with 0.6mm brass rod inserted. Black card was used to simulate the bands at the top of the anchor, and copper paint added to the edge that will be towards the hull.

 

The kit provided copper eyelets were used for gudgeons, and the shape in the counter opened up to accomodate the rudder properly. I had to take a fair amount of material out of the transom to provide space for the rudder to lift up a little higher than the point at which it eventually hangs so it the pintles could be lifted over and into the gudgeons.

 

All in all, I'm very happy with it. I haven't finished coppering it yet, but the effect is pleasing already.

 

 

 

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thanks again for all the likes.

 

I finished the rudder, added the straps and spectacle plate (yes, they should be brass, but I find the brass / copper colour combination jarring, so someone painted mine) - and hung it. The straps on the hull are still to add. The straps are made out of card as the photo-etch ones are oversized.

 

 

I've continued working on the fittings for the gun deck. I made a little production line, and put together the main parts of all of the 18lb gun carriages. I'm not done with that, but I was going cross-eyed whittling all the trunnions, so I decided to deal with the guns, too.

 

I did an experiment, sanding the char back, but not trying to remove it completely... the carriages will be painted, so I'm happy with this.

 

I also purchased some casey brass black (this comes with a serious health warning!) and I've begun blackening the guns themselves. This was more involved than I expected. The method I used is as follows:

 

1. Use a brass brush in my proxxon mini drill to gently buff the cannon (this removed any surface coating)

2. Wearing gloves, wash thoroughly in fairy liquid (I started with white vinegar, but the fairy liquid seemed to work just as well, and it stinks considerably less!)

3. Transfer to clean water.

4. Remove and air dry - this was done with the gun muzzle sat on top of a brass rod so that no part of the outside of the gun was touching anything.

5. Dip into neat Casey Brass Black and keep a close watch until it looks fairly black... lift out with needle nose pliers and drop into clean water.

6. Once clean, take out, dry off and buff with kitchen towel. Any areas that had not blackened nicely were buffed with the brass brush again, and the process repeated.

 

Sometimes I didn't get a completely even finish the first time, but by the second time, the guns had turned a nice even grey. The finish is far more even than my painting efforts, and it buffs to a nice shine - the kind of finish you can imagine a gun crew being really proud of... (In the photo of the gun on it's carriage, there are a number of steps left unfinished on the carriage.) I'm thrilled with this. I need to finish blacking the guns, (I've noticed that caldercraft sell brass carronades now, so I'll look at getting some of them for the quarterdeck)... and then I need to work out a way of blacking the copper eyelets in reasonable bulk without them turning into a black clump! perhaps sticking them into a balsa block?

 

Here are my results.

 

 

Looking through the previous build logs for the Caldercraft's Diana, I was concerned that the guns provided with the ship may be a slightly odd shape with cascabels that were over-sized and a somewhat heavy muzzle... My fears were unfounded when I opened the fittings. They're things of beauty. Looking at the ones supplied before, it seems that Caldercraft have very much upped their game! Kudos!

 

Here's a pic of one of the ones I received (they're all identical) - it seems to match up very closely with the AOTS diagram.

 

And just 'cos I can, a picture of the gundeck with all it's unfinished carriages. Very pleased so far.

 

 

Happy building

 

Rob

 

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

A swift update. Mainly a conveyor belt of getting gun carriages finished. I'll try and outline the process I'm using below:

 

I'd already removed all the wheels from the boards, fitted them onto my mini drill and put them over sandpaper to get rid of the char. Then I put the big and small wheels in separate bags so I could find them later.

 

1. Assemble the carriage frames. (Sides, axles and front and back)

 

I used a plasticard jig to do this.

 

2. Whittle the axles to fit the wheels.

 

There's no shortcut. It's just slow and steady with a sharp xacto knife, stopping and checking the fit time and time again.

 

3. Drill the holes for the eyelets and breaching rings

 

I made a template for the sides out of plasticard, and for the back. The side one worked brilliantly by slotting over the axles. When I came to use the one at the back, there wasn't enough purchase to stop it simply getting picked up by the drill and spinning on the drill bit. So I used some masking tape to stick it into place on each carriage. (This is for the eyelet that will be fixed to the rope used to pull the carriage back in to the Frigate.

 

 

The holes were drilled with a 0.65mm drill. The hole with the cross through it on the template is the pre-drilled hole used for the supporting bar between the sides. This template was used for both sides, simply reversed. The notches in the bottom fit over the axles where they narrow) By leaving my wood working vice a little ajar, I could sit the axles into the gap, and that gave the support to be able to drill into it carefully with a proxxon mini-drill. Again, I'm sold on this little drill. All in, for the 28 main guns, it was  196 holes, without the re-opening up after painting for the pre-drilled holes, so the proxxon drill made a massive difference.

 

 

4. Add the bar that goes between the sides.

 

This was .65mm steel bar - not sure where it came from, but it saved me needing to blacken a whole bunch of brass rods, and looked pretty neat.

 

 

5. Add the fore and aft part on top of the bar, and the back axle.

 

(This remained unpainted, because I liked the contrast, and wanted a way to show the carriage was box as per the grating surrounds etc...)

 

(wow, close ups are cruel! or maybe my eyes are being overly generous!)

 

6. Add the eyelets and breaching rings.

 

The breaching rope rings are not included in the kit as far as I could tell, so I wrapped thin black lacquer wire around a 1mm drill bit lots of times, slid it off, and cut it into lots of rings with a pair of scissors. These were gently prised open and pushed shut on one of the blackened copper eyelets to make a ring. Tedious, but looks pretty good. My only slight concern is that these might be slightly tight for the breaching rope. I need to check this sooner rather than later. They fit the scale of the rings on Chuck Passaro's excellent pdf of his gun carriages (see his website), and it's that I've been working to.

 

 

7. Make up the wedge with it's holder, used for setting the elevation of the gun.

 

I used my mini drill to spin the box strip and files to shape it into the handle for the wedge.

 

8. Put the gun barrel in place

 

(not glued yet, because I want to set the height of all the guns individually.)

 

9. (Also not done yet) Add black card strip over the main bar the gun sits on, so it looks like it's held in place by metal bars.

 

I tried those last few steps on one gun as shown above and it looks nice to my eye.

 

Having seen these close-ups I clearly need to go over and have another look at some of these and tidy them up a bit, but it at least gives an idea of the process I've been using.

 

Anyway - 14 guns down, and a bunch still to do, but the weather was nice this afternoon and it seemed like a good opportunity to try and get some photos of the progress so far.

 

 

I can see a whole bunch of things that need tweaking / fixing before it all gets fixed in for good, but it's nice to see that I'm at least heading in the right direction

 

Happy building everyone!

 

Rob

 

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Rob, love that last quarter shot, most definitely her best angle in my opinion!  Picking up on my cannons as well, I'm intrigued by the barrels that came in your kit, they are definitely different to what was supplied in mine, much more appropriate. They look very nice indeed.

[robdurant]

 

On 8/23/2018 at 10:00 PM, Beef Wellington said:

Hi Rob, love that last quarter shot, most definitely her best angle in my opinion!  Picking up on my cannons as well, I'm intrigued by the barrels that came in your kit, they are definitely different to what was supplied in mine, much more appropriate. They look very nice indeed.

 

Hi Jason.

 

Thanks - yes, I agree, the quarter is definitely a lovely angle on these frigates.

 

Looking through your log, I noticed the barrels had changed. I'd seen the comparison on your log of the different barrels, and had intended to swap mine up for the RB barrels, but comparing the ones in my kit with the AOTS book, they're certainly close enough for my liking... I'm really impressed with them. A considerable difference at the muzzle and the cascabel to the ones you were provided with. Hopefully that's a change that's going to be permanent for future Diana builders, as it seems a shame to let down such a beautiful ship with the previously kit supplied barrels. That said, I'm also looking at the carronades which are the whitemetal moulded ones, for the quarterdeck, and thinking I want to upgrade those with the caldercraft ones they sell separately. Thankfully there aren't so many of those to swap up!

 

As always, your build is an inspiration, and a great encouragement along the way, and given we're both working on gun carriages at the moment, I feel your pain - I've done half of them and turned back to the Stern to work on that for a break! I'm happy with the results I'm getting, but yours are something else! I stopped a step short of adding the vertical bolts... I wasn't sure how many holes I could put in the carriage sides before they'd start turning into sawdust

 

I also agree that blackening the brass wherever possible is better to painting. It's so nice to be able to handle the parts without knocking off flakes of acrylic paint left right and centre! And the idea of hand painting 600 eyelets doesn't really appeal, if I'm honest! It took 30 seconds to blacken them. A technique I'll be using every time from here on in.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

A little progress...

 

I've been working on the stern, trying to tidy it up and make sure everything fits together neatly. I've worked myself into something of a corner. I want to glue it all together, but as soon as I do, the window glazing has to go in, because the frames are fixed. I don't want to do that until I'm confident I'm not going to fill the stern with dust... and I can't be confident of that until the quarter deck is fixed on, and it's all sealed... It's all a bit of a poser... but until I've worked out how that happens in my head, I'm not gluing the stern lights on.

 

That said, I've started making the lower-most sections of the quarter galleries. These are provided as white metal parts, but because of the way the stern on my "version" worked out, I've remade them to fit better. The decorative spheres at the bottom are still a little further towards the stern than I'd like, but I think I'm getting to the point where I can live with it. (They're glass dress-making pins)

 

The lines will all be covered by the decorative mouldings.

 

Next job was to start putting the decorative moulding strips on. I started with the stern, so that things match up side to side.

 

(NB: The stern isn't glued on, just held in place so I can make sure it all lines up - the decorative moulding at the bottom of the stern lights is glued onto the stern lights.)

 

This was quite tricky, as increasingly there's nowhere to fix clamps to keep everything in place... I used a mix of masking tape, and 0.65mm drilled holes to pin the rails in place before gluing with carpenters glue. Everything was checked before and after gluing to make sure there was a nice curve (to my eye) both from side to side, and top to bottom... This curve needs to match between the upper and lower rails, so it's not a job to rush!

 

The lower rail was sanded so the profile was not facing the floor, but facing more outwards... This seems to have helped with the look. The upper rail was sanded to face pretty much directly outwards, almost as though it were a window sill.

 

 

So... after much rearranging, and checking, and double-checking and careful trimming... That's the progress I've made to date. You'll notice I trimmed the rails, but left them a little over length. The side rails will butt up against the front of these, and then they'll be gently shaped (hopefully) to merge them into one. They'll be painted with Admiralty Paints yellow ochre, so hopefully any minor bodges will be hidden by that point

 

Just for the fun of it, here are a couple of pics before I did the rails, with the light coming through the lights as it were. (Notice the false light on right and left - they couldn't be real windows, because the hull intersects with the transom in the middle of them... From what I understand they were put on to make the ship look bigger and more imposing). The glazing (which is not fixed yet, and before I do, needs a good clean) is in once piece, and is the clear plastic supplied with the kit, with black card glued onto the back to block the false lights.

 

Happy building

 

Rob

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking Superb.

 

OC.

[Beef Wellington]

Stern looking very nice indeed Rob, well done!  BTW, the two outside lights were false lights, similarly the foremost and aftmost light in the stern gallery.  Looking at Trincomalee shows this in practice, though think those were painted a lighter green.  Seems it was all to keep the proportion and elegance of the stern rather than for practicality.

[paulsutcliffe]

Not to afford some privacy while using the head??

[robdurant]

11 hours ago, Beef Wellington said:

Seems it was all to keep the proportion and elegance of the stern rather than for practicality.

It certainly worked  I can't imagine what I'm going to build after this Frigate. They really are the most handsome ships for me.

 

11 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looking Superb.

 

OC.

Thank you OC

10 hours ago, paulsutcliffe said:

Not to afford some privacy while using the head??

When you put it like that I think I would have been glad of the false lights... lol. Not that I would have been resident in the captain's cabin. Powder monkey or waister more likely

 

Thank you for the encouragement gents.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

I was looking at Ethalion yesterday evening and wondering why something was jarring. Earlier on in the build I'd decided not to have red bulkheads on the gun (upper) deck. Having just visited HMS Victory I thought I'd paint them white, but in retrospect, at 1:64 scale, it just looked jarring, and to my mind took away from the lovely yellow tone of the boxwood. So. After some careful masking, I decided to paint them ochre instead. The hope is this will tone them down so they sit more in the background. It will also be a good moment to add some of the detail on the deck.

 

This morning I decided I didn't like the look of the deck right towards the stern. I'm sure no-one will see it, but I know it's there. So, inspired by HMS Mercury, I drew up a bulkhead on QCAD, and have spent the day turning it into a reality.

 

Here's the pdf of the CAD drawing. (I make no claim to absolute authenticity, but it looks correct to my eye)

 

Artois.Gundeck_bulkheads.20180913.pdf

 

I pondered whether to use wood to make the bulkhead, but the details were so fine that I wasn't sure I was up to it. I didn't want it all to end up looking clunky and overscale... So I used a mix of 1mm plastic for the bulkhead shape, 0.5mm plastic for the uprights and top and bottom beams, and paper for the detailing. I still need to finish the doors (these will have boxwood windows as per the stern lights and quarter galleys. Having painted it ochre I'm pleased with the result so far (it still needs final fitting, and to have the doors attached - they'll be open a little). According to AOTS it should fit just behind the sternmost grating, and before the third gunports from the stern.

 

The white line along the bottom of the outer walls is where the spirketting will go (I've pre-painted some wood strip that will be fixed to neaten it all up)