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


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Looks good Rob...and I like the blue!  Glad it wasn't just me that had a bit of a tough time figuring out the stern, but looking very nice.  Interested to see how the lights turn out.  I agree with you, the width of the stern frames do not tie in with the projections in the AOTS.  I have the 1:48 plans on order from NMM so will be interested to see which proves most accurate.  You look to be on track making sure everything aligns nicely, trial and error seems to be the only way and recognizing where compromises are needed to keep the 'look and feel' - even when the projections are scaled to account for the curve and the angle, it doesn't account for the curvature of the fascia in 3 dimensions and how the lower curve appears.

Edited by Beef Wellington

Cheers,
 
Jason


"Which it will be ready when it is ready!"
 
In the shipyard:

HMS Jason (c.1794: Artois Class 38 gun frigate)

Queen Anne Royal Barge (c.1700)

Finished:

HMS Snake (c.1797: Cruizer Class, ship rigged sloop)

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Nice work on the taffarel rob

Regards

Paul

Edited by paulsutcliffe

The clerk of the cheque's yacht of sheerness

Current build HMS Sirius (1797) 1:48 scratch POF from NMM plans

HMS Winchelsea by chuck 1:48

Cutter cheerful by chuck 1:48

Previous builds-

Elidir - Thames steam barge

Cutty Sark-Billings boats

Wasa - billings boats

Among others 😁

 

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Thanks Jason and Paul.

 

It really does cause a fair bitof head scratching but I think I'm getting there... at least I'm over the psychological "what on earth am I doing" hurdle.

 

It really is great to have other builds to look at and follow. There's no way I'd be getting on this well without them. The instructions are brief to say the least.

 

Take care

 

Rob.

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Hi Rob

Those small ports you have mentioned on the counter i don't think are gunports but are for access to the rudder, I am using the Diana book for my Sirius build as well as I only have the nmm plans to work from and the Diana is a very similar ship/time frame, they wouldn't have been able to get a gun back there, ,look at my transom framing and you can see there wasn't much access, hope that helps

Regards

Paul

The clerk of the cheque's yacht of sheerness

Current build HMS Sirius (1797) 1:48 scratch POF from NMM plans

HMS Winchelsea by chuck 1:48

Cutter cheerful by chuck 1:48

Previous builds-

Elidir - Thames steam barge

Cutty Sark-Billings boats

Wasa - billings boats

Among others 😁

 

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Now you say that, it makes perfect sense...

 

A little more progress to show. I've been working on the transom again... I soaked the transom in boiling water and bent it round a frying pan (with vertical sides), and clamped it. That's resulted in a pleasing curve. I also started working on the side galleries.

 

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Looking at those photos, I'm not sure with the way it curves upwards, so a rework is called for. But I'm pleased with where they end up w.r.t. the gunports and the transom.

 

For a little light relief, I've done some more work on the gratings, surrounding them with 2x6mm boxwood, and using a stock pot with sand paper inside to sand the curved profile on the top.

 

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Happy building

 

Rob

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Exciting news! (for me, anyway)

 

I'm heading up to the National Archives in Kew (London, England) on Thursday (my day off) - I've signed up for a reader's ticket, and I've ordered up the original masters' logs, musters, pay logs, and a box labelled: "Ethalion . Capture of La Bellone, 1798.", which will be about the Battle of Tory Island. It'll be pretty special to look at the very documents from the ship I'm building a model of. I love history! Hopefully the documents will be available, and there'll be lots of fascinating insights coming up!

 

These documents still exist, because although Ethalion was wrecked in late 1799, everyone on board was saved, presumably along with the most recent logs and documents, and so here they are. Waiting for me!

 

HMS Ethalion (1797-99) makes a good study, because she had a short, but busy life... I can't imagine how many documents there are for a ship like Victory. I wouldn't know where to start!

 

More soon.

 

Rob

Edited by robdurant
specifying which Ethalion!
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  • 2 weeks later...

So... I'm working on transcribing the master's logs for Ethalion - a time-consuming process, but I'm finding it really interesting, and the task of reading the handwriting well enough to write it down accurately helps me take in what's being said. So far I'm completely amazed by the sheer amount of fresh beef a Frigate got through! So far Ethalion has taken her maiden voyage to Copenhagen doing convoy escort with HM Sloop Scorpion through some pretty unpleasant weather... the Topgallant masts have been up and down a few times already in only a month or so. The logs start in July 1797, and Ethalion spends a good part of July and all of August in the Nore. One of the things going on at that time is hangings for mutiny aboard various ships to be witnessed... I wonder whether these are punishment for the Nore mutiny a few months earlier. Certainly it must have been a tense time for everyone.

 

For example:

Tuesday
1st August 1797

SSW to WSW

P.M. Mod’t and Cloudy. Employ’d occasionally. Answer’d Signal for a Lieutenant. AM fresh Breezes with Rain Sent a boat Manned and Arm'd to attend the execution of the Mutineers of H M Ship Sandwich. Read the Articles of War to the Ship’s Company.

 

Sandwich was the flagship in the Nore at the time with Admiral Lutwidge aboard. And below is the original (apologies, the photo I took of this page was somewhat blurry):

image.thumb.png.26cbcb93bf26b43d1e662fdce7b50a98.png

Anyway - a little progress on the model, too... after a LOT of sanding, the gratings are finished.

 

The row nearest the camera is the upper (gun) deck, and the row behind is the forecastle and quarterdecks... both laid out so right is towards the bow, left is towards the stern.

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Thanks for all the kind comments and likes.

 

Rob

Edited by robdurant
Fix table width...
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Not much to update at the moment really. The time finally arrived to start the coppering of the Port side of the hull. I find it fascinating the way I tend to get into the groove after a while, and it gets done... I reckon I've probably got about 300 tiles on so far. I put a line of masking tape over the wood that'll be exposed above the waterline, just to protect it from superglue marks from tiles that slip...

 

On the starboard side, I put a coat of black acrylic to seal the wood and give the superglue something to stick to (otherwise it all sinks into the wood and leaves nothing to stick the tile - this reduces the amount of superglue I get through a lot)... this time, I used some matt enamel varnish. It was lovely to see how the box and walnut came up.

 

The first photo shows the difference with the varnish... at the top is the varnished wood, and at the bottom the untreated wood... left is box, right is walnut... (and the grey marks are my pencil marks from marking the waterline ready to put the batten on... this is that tricky bit at the stern where the hull tucks round.

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I've carried on transcribing the Ethalion logs... turns out Ethalion went to assist the ships of the line the day after the battle of Camperdown, and helped Isis bring her prize home.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A major milestone! The coppering on the hull's complete! I'll be honest, I won't mind switching back to wood glue from CA. The mask worked really well, though. It's definitely worth paying a little extra for a proper vapour mask (not one of the wood dust masks). I used the following mask...

 

3M 4251 Maintenance-Free Organic Vapour/Particulate  (it was around £22 and worth every penny)

 

I ended up with a fair number of copper tiles left, so Caldercraft seem to have supplied ample spares. I may well go along the keel and tidy up a few of the first tiles I put on... they're pretty easy to pop off if required.

 

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On 13/02/2018 at 11:53 AM, robdurant said:

Oh, yes... and here's what my son and I have been working on at the same time :)  His first airfix kit! Not bad for a 7 year old. He's really excited about the second one, now. A DeHavilland Mosquito's in the post.

20180210_114959_900.jpg.a72d0073ba692827df0b0bde779bc9bd.jpg

Happy building!

I used to love the Red Arrows Gnat   it was the first dispaly aircraft I ever saw when I was 8 years old.

 

OC.

Current builds  


28mm  Battle of Waterloo   attack on La Haye Saint   Diorama.

1/700  HMS Hood   Flyhawk   with  PE, Resin  and Wood Decking.

 

 

 

Completed works.

 

Dragon 1/700 HMS Edinburgh type 42 batch 3 Destroyer plastic.

HMS Warspite Academy 1/350 plastic kit and wem parts.

HMS Trafalgar Airfix 1/350 submarine  plastic.

Black Pearl  1/72  Revell   with  pirate crew.

Revell  1/48  Mosquito  B IV

Eduard  1/48  Spitfire IX

ICM    1/48   Seafire Mk.III   Special Conversion

1/48  Kinetic  Sea Harrier  FRS1

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm still transcribing the logs for Ethalion - it really is fascinating... They're very matter of fact, recording this sort of thing from Thursay 12th April 1798. HMS Ethalion had just left Spithead and was passing the Needles.

 

Quote

At 5 Close reef the topsails handed the Miz topsails Go down topGt yards ½ past 5 past through the needles it being low water the Ship touched with her Keel on the Bridge but did not stop neither do we suppose she Receivd any Damage.

1798-04-12-keel.thumb.png.25abed24312e76949d6a9f51c5749c53.png

I found this description of the "bridge" at the Needles...

Quote

“The Needles are part of the east-west spine of chalk that runs through the island, under Newport, emerging at Culver Down. There is a chalk ledge, or bridge, running out from the Needles to Bridge buoy, sounding between 3-10m, which causes overfalls. This ledge is all that remains of the chalk spine that used to run across Christchurch Bay, linking to Old Harry Rocks in the Isle of Purbeck, when the island was still linked to the mainland.”

From the following link (with which I have no connections - just found it googling:
http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/specials/pilot-the-isle-of-wight-the-needles-to-st-catherines-point-3161/2
 

Now, I appreciate I'm no professional sailor, but no matter how professional you are, that's got to be a bit of a heart stopper when heading for a thousand tons of wooden ship bumps along the bottom at sea!

 

Anyway - it all adds to the picture as I begin to detail the hull...

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Having shaped these strips (don't know what they're called?) I'm not entirely happy with the colour - they are box, but they're much whiter, and look more like maple... I'll see if they tone down, and otherwise might remove them and remake them... we'll see. The paint at the top also needs touching up, and the yellow adding, but I just wanted to get the boundary line marked on before I stuck them in place. The top rail is clipped in place so I can measure up and check how it's all working out. It will be trimmed to go to either side of these verticals when the time comes.20180309_171415_900.jpg.8804718504b3b91d308a97a22308effe.jpg

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So, I took those vertical pieces off... fenders? - I wasn't happy with the colour, so I used some very watered down Admiralty Paints Yellow Ochre as a wash just to tone them down a little... I don't want everything to be exactly the same colour (that's the beauty of wood, surely) but close enough that it doesn't whack you in the face when you look at it... It looks better to the naked eye - these close-ups are brutal!

 

I took the opportunity to narrow them down equally (to 1.6mm at the bottom), and align them better... the photo makes them look uneven, but the ruler tells me the vertical centre lines are parallel. I also added the paint, although this will need touching up.  Overall I'm closer to happy with them. Side steps next. I have a scraper lined up for them.

 

The fenders now...

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Hi Rob, really beautiful work, those rails look nicely in proportion and certainly 'finer' than the kit's walnut.  Colours are always hard to judge in photos but glad you were able to tone those down a bit.  Are you planning to attach all of the trim at this point?  I'm planning to wait until I have the quarter deck in place before going any higher than the sheer rail with trim to allow any compromises with the line of the wale and deck to get figured out....and also whatever is going to happen with the headworks.

 

Tell your son he did a really nice job on his Red Arrow.  I'm finding my son doesn't quite have the same passion for plastic modeling and hes been chipping away at a model of the Tirpitz for quite some time.  I've promised him I'll post a picture of it when he finishes!

Cheers,
 
Jason


"Which it will be ready when it is ready!"
 
In the shipyard:

HMS Jason (c.1794: Artois Class 38 gun frigate)

Queen Anne Royal Barge (c.1700)

Finished:

HMS Snake (c.1797: Cruizer Class, ship rigged sloop)

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 Thanks for the kind words Jason. And thanks to everyone for all the likes.

 

I'm also planning to wait until the quarterdeck is on before putting on the higher rails. I have found it a challenge to visualise precisely where the deck edge Will be so won'tfeel confident I'm putting the top rail in the right place until then. I do want to make up the rails in one go though as if I lost the scraper it would be tricky to make one just the same. I shall scrape them an store them until the right moment.

 

I haven't thought much about the headworks yet other than to keep an eye on where they terminate on the hull. I want to get the stern sorted and the quarter galleys first.

 

My son and I are making two p51 mustangs side by side now... he seems to be having fun but time will tell whether the bug really bites :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

This is seriously nice work, Rob. Lots of good guff, too. I'm very much impressed. (I'm a huge fan of the Aubrey-Maturin series, too.)

Completed:

Billing’s Boats Cutty Sark

Artesania Latina Swift

Aeropicolla HMS Prince

Panart Royal Yacht Caroline 

Current build

Caldercraft HM Brig Supply

Next:

Corel HMS Victory

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Very interesting Rob, where did you obtain the log again? - I'd be interested to go through a similar exercise.  Good to see 'Jason' gets a mention on page 132!  BTW - I wonder if the ship's name it looked like you had difficulty transcribing on same page is Melpomene?

Cheers,
 
Jason


"Which it will be ready when it is ready!"
 
In the shipyard:

HMS Jason (c.1794: Artois Class 38 gun frigate)

Queen Anne Royal Barge (c.1700)

Finished:

HMS Snake (c.1797: Cruizer Class, ship rigged sloop)

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  • 2 weeks later...
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7 hours ago, robdurant said:

Sorry for the lack of updates... I came down with flu, and I'm just getting back to "tired-but-normal-ish"... spent a week having no choice when I slept - it just happened, and I knew it had happened when I woke up again. Anyway. Looking forward to jumping in and getting on with Ethalion again.

 

Rob

Sorry to hear your unwell   speedy recovery Rob.

 

OC.

Current builds  


28mm  Battle of Waterloo   attack on La Haye Saint   Diorama.

1/700  HMS Hood   Flyhawk   with  PE, Resin  and Wood Decking.

 

 

 

Completed works.

 

Dragon 1/700 HMS Edinburgh type 42 batch 3 Destroyer plastic.

HMS Warspite Academy 1/350 plastic kit and wem parts.

HMS Trafalgar Airfix 1/350 submarine  plastic.

Black Pearl  1/72  Revell   with  pirate crew.

Revell  1/48  Mosquito  B IV

Eduard  1/48  Spitfire IX

ICM    1/48   Seafire Mk.III   Special Conversion

1/48  Kinetic  Sea Harrier  FRS1

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To gently ease myself back into working on Ethalion after flu, I installed the first decorative rail along the port side to match up with the starboard. I also used the scraper to create a reasonable supply of decorative rail that will hopefully be enough for the rest of the hull sides and transom. All this was 2x 1.5mm maple.

 

Now, I'm biting the bullet again and getting on with the quarter galleries - I think these have kind of scared me - they're complex, and very visible... So. A good few hours with a computer (Apple Pages), the Anatomy of the Ship diagrams, blown up to 1:64, cereal boxes, scissors, and masking tape... it took a few versions, but here's where I'm up to...

 

Version 1: Swoops down too much - it doesn't maintain the line from the gunports...

 

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Version 2 was better... It doesn't look like it, but this took a gentle curve, such that the centre of the panel is lower than the outsides - about 1.5mm across the length of the arc.

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Here's a comparison with the diagram (although they're not lined up perfectly) I've also put the top and bottom templates in on this photo... The masking tape along the bottom roughly mirrors where the trim will go along the bottom of the gallery - and I'm happy that this seems to line up with the sweep of the ports with a slight lift by the stern, as per the diagram. Also, looking from the stern quarter, the windows match up nicely with the stern lights.

 

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And here's the templates I ended up with...  I've added a ten centimetre measure vertically and horizontally to check if my printer was behaving and actually printing 10cm as 10cm - turns out it's about 9.96cm when printed.  I could compensate for that, but these fit on my model.

 

Also of note, is that these are to fit the scale width stern transom I've made according to AOTS, not to fit the kit transom. The AOTS version is considerably narrower.

 

ethalion_quartergalleries_templates.pdf  

qg.png.31a983429c21d9880a0f2a1615267e41.png

 

As an aside (and here's the job I'm avoiding, because I don't want to mess it up!) - here are the steps I fashioned from boxwood with a scraper, files, and patience...

 

I'm happy with the steps, but now they need to be fitted to a hull side with a slight tumblehome... I think I know how to do it, I just need to be brave and get on with it... I don't have any power tools such as a sander with angled bed, so I've made a jig... but I'm struggling to hold onto these little blighters and get them down to the right tread depth, with the right angle to stick out horizontally from the hull... Anyway - quarter galleries first, and then back to the steps.

 

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Wow - those close-ups are brutal - they look okay to me in real life! :) These are going to need some cleaning up...

 

Happy building to you all!

 

Rob

 

 

 

Edited by robdurant
improve explanation
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Looking good!  Nicely thought out approach Rob, the quarter galleries are harder to get right than one would think.  Visually, line of the wale is so critical.  Studying the plans, it looks as if the slope of the bottom of the gallery follows the line of the wale, similarly the decorative rails and channels appear parallel.

 

On the steps, I too had the intention to angle to account for tumblehome, although it is not very pronounced on the Artoises (sic?), but found them just too darn fiddly to get right.  In the end I made the call it wasn't worth it as no-one would notice but me....but I've already put my hat on ready to take it off to you!

Cheers,
 
Jason


"Which it will be ready when it is ready!"
 
In the shipyard:

HMS Jason (c.1794: Artois Class 38 gun frigate)

Queen Anne Royal Barge (c.1700)

Finished:

HMS Snake (c.1797: Cruizer Class, ship rigged sloop)

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