HMS Victory by gjdale - FINISHED - Mamoli - Scale 1:90

[gjdale]

A question of size:

 

I was chatting on Skype with Mobbsie this evening and when I held up one of my boat frames, he commented that he hadn't fully appreciated the tiny size of these from the previous posts.  So, at his suggestion, here is a picture of the smallest of the Pinnace frames, poised on the fingernail of my left forefinger. (No comments on the enormous hand size please ).

 

[realworkingsailor]

Riiiight... so you're next build is what? A fully framed Swan class sloop....... in a bottle?

 

 

Andy

[alangr4]

 

Grant

 

Just came across your log.  A fantastic journey to follow and congratulations on your rendition of Victory. A magnificent achievement. Well done. 

 

Your model is a sure fire winner at this year's ACT Model Shipwrights Exhibition.

 

Your investments in new machinery for the workshop suggests that something big is brewing for your next project -  beyond the cutters. Your mention of Romero a clue?

 

Alan

[gjdale]

Welcome aboard Alan - always happy to see another face here, especially a fellow Canberran! Thank you for your very kind words. And no, the next project is not a Romero one, although that may be the one after........ All will be revealed in due course.

[Blue Ensign]

Wonderful work Grant, you have  got down much finer with your framing than I dared attempt at 1:64. Like your idea of refixing the centre cut-outs to aid external shaping of the frames.

 

Looking forward to seeing how your boats develop.

 

B.E.

[Sjors]

This is the beginning of a scratch career !

So tiny and still so great to see !

Great job Grant !

 

[rafine]

I am really impressed Grant. The boat framing at this scale is terrific.

 

Bob

[themadchemist]

The scale of the framing was obvious due to the 150mm ruler laying beside them, but the shot of the fingernail sized frame ought to really bring the scale home for many. It did me!

 

You know they are small but when seeing that contrast.... well lets just say I'm not being TOO kind in my evaluation, your just TOO modest.

and if your an apprentice, I think any master ship wright would be ecstatic to have you working under them. Not all apprentices are equal. 

[newbuilder101]

Okay, now I'm seriously worried....I have my ship's boats to do in the future and our models are close to the same scale! I can hardly wait to see your next steps!

[Moo]

Just catching up after an unplanned hiatus from the forum and my own VERY modest 1st build. It's high quality craftsmanship work like yours that in some ways intimidates, but certainly always provides a fantastic benchmark to aspire to!

Awesome stuff Grant.

Cheers

Leanne

Edited May 6, 2014 by Moo

[Trussben]

Please let Grants next project be a TFFM swan class!! That would be great to see.

 

Ben

[Jim Lad]

Hmmmm.  So when are you going to start on the small bits, Grant?  

 

John

[gjdale]

Thanks Andy, Alan, B.E., Sjors, Bob, Keith, Sherry, Leanne, Ben, John, and Lawrence, and once again, all of the "likes".

 

Ship's Boats continued:

 

Last night I glued the frames and their inner pieces into the building jig.  The trick with this is to ensure that the inner frame pieces are glued only to the main cutout insert and not the frames themselves, and that the frames are glued only to the jig slots and to the keel, and not to the either the frame inner pieces or main cutout insert.

 

Here's what that actually means:

 

 

The above is the completed assembly.  During planking, the inserted pieces will give stability and strength to the frames.

 

Here is what it looks like without the inserts:

 

 

In this next shot you can notice two things.  Firstly, that my keel slots were not aligned as well as they might have been, so I had to widen some of them (this won't be visible later, so no big deal).  The second thing is that you can see where the pressure of the Mk 1 Finger Clamp was slightly above tolerance and resulted in snapping the keel in two places.       Once again, I don't think it will be too noticeable in the end as the entire hull will be painted, allowing me to apply a little filler as/where needed.

 

 

And in the final shot below, the inner support pieces removed from the jig.  When in place, they are quite a snug fit so won't drop out accidentally if I pick the whole thing up.

 

 

Overall, I'm reasonably satisfied with the outcome so far and will proceed to the next step - making the stemson and hawse timbers.  This should be fun!     

 

 

[mtaylor]

[themadchemist]

I really like the inner frame and build board cut out assembly, which can be added back for support. This is similar to Chuck's MS Pinnace design. I had all but decided to build using a solid former as cutting and reproducing the laser cut pieces was going to be a Bear of a job.

This method solves that problem/issue and the 1:24 pinnace kit won't be near as hard as your itsy bitsy 1:90 build. Great idea that I've never seen before. Thanks for sharing Grant.

 

Sometimes rather then trying to figure things out for yourself it pays to be slow and pay attention to what others are doing. I've had several problems solved in that way. There's nothing better then seeing the solution your needing on MSW. Thanks for passing this along, but now I want to start the MS Pinnace.

[Dan Vadas]

Hi Grant,

 

Great work so far on the boat - I'll probably copy your method for my (huge ) 1:48 scale one for Vulture.

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Thanks Mark, Keith and Danny, and once again, all the "likes".

 

Just a brief update. I've had to head off to Sydney again on family business, but did manage to take a couple of pics of progress on the Pinnace before leaving. Now I've had a chance to upload these

 

Having fitted all the frames in place, the next stage was to install the Stemson.  I used some 1/32" x 3/64" castello box for this.  It is simply bent (with the aid of a small travel steam iron) to follow the curvature of the keel/apron:

 

 

 

Next was the creation of the Hawse Timbers.  The same 1/32" x 3/64"stock was used for these, and again they were simply bent to follow the shape of the Stemson.  Here are the first pair of Hawse timbers going in - they have yet to be trimmed to shape:

 

 

 

The remaining Hawse timbers were then created in similar fashion, following the curve of the last piece and stepping back along the curve of the bow, to eventually fill in the space between the keel/stem and the first frame.  They are yet to be trimmed to length and faired in.

 

 

Next job will be to trim the ends of these to match the shape of the first frame, and then fair them to form a smooth, solid surface around the bow.  This will provide a good foundation for the planking at the bow.  Sounds easy enough - what could possibly go wrong?   

 

 

[Remcohe]

Great what a tiny boat. I really appreciate the way you're approaching this miniature boats.

 

Remco

[mtaylor]

All I can I do is shake my head in wonderment, Grant.   1:90 scale... I'd love to see what happens if you do a 1:64 or 1:48 build.

[gjdale]

Thanks Remco and Mark.

 

Mark - stay tuned.  

[mobbsie]

Don't ya just love those fiddly bits, coming on a treat mate, looking real good.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[realworkingsailor]

It really looks fantastic...

 

I still say you should try a fully framed Swan-in-a-bottle..

 

(Just for the sake of sheer badness )

 

 

Andy

[augie]

Mark's comment covers it.

[Sjors]

Mark's comment covers it.

That the easy way to give comment       

 

But Augie is right......Mark's comment cover it !

 

[themadchemist]

So you won't give up what your next build is, and I respect that.... but will you tell what scale it will be? Surely not another 1:90.

 

Nice work on the hawse timbers. Its hard to tell from the picture, did you notch the build board or do they stop flush at the build board. From having worked with small like this, I know that having them there will make planking the stem/bow easier. That's another interesting approach to a problem with building so small. Your giving up so really great build tricks with this build, Thanks my friend!

[gjdale]

Thanks, Mobbsie, Andy, Augie, Sjors and Keith. Your comments and encouragement are always appreciated.

 

Keith - the hawse timbers are glued to the top surface of the build board.

 

Andy - a ship-in-a-bottle is on my "one day" list, but I don't think it will a fully framed one! Not even I am that mad!!!

[realworkingsailor]

Ok...... we'll leave it to the dedicated SIB modellers.... they're all a little differently "tilted" anyway

 

(no offence intended guys)

 

 

Andy

[gjdale]

Ship's Boats continued:

 

Back home for the weekend and have managed to get a little bit more done on the Pinnace.

 

First up was trimming and shaping the hawse timbers.  The weapon of choice for this task was the micro motor dental polishing unit that Janos had put me onto some time ago:

 

 

While it looks large in comparison to the task at hand, using the polishing stone tip makes this task controlled and quite easy. The unit has a variable speed foot control that I am growing to love very quickly.  I can see the Dremel being relegated to the "used technology drawer" in the near future.

 

 

 

 

In the last photo above, you can just see a small gap between the Stem and the Hawse timbers at about the junction with the build board.  This is important and the reason will become apparent in the next post............

Edited May 17, 2014 by gjdale

[gjdale]

Ship's Boats continued:

 

With the Hawse timbers completed, it's time to start planking.  I'm using 1/64" x 1/16" Holly for the planking.  The first plank to be installed is the Sheer plank.  All planks are soaked briefly in water, then pre-bent using a small travel steam iron. I find the steam iron gives me good control of the bends - especially the tighter ones. 

 

The gap mentioned in the last post comes into play here as it seats the forward end of the plank neatly while it bends around the bow.  The second photo below shows a close-up of this.  

 

 

 

The next plank is the Rubbing Rail.  This is thicker, but narrower plank, and I used 1/32" x 1/32" Costello Boxwood plank for this.  Again, pre-bending with the steam iron is essential.

 

 

 

The next plank is the first of the tapered planks.  There is not a lot of science applied here.  While it would be nice to do this the "proper" way, the scale and size of the actual materials make this impractical - at least for this apprentice shipwright.  in this case, I have simply tapered the plank to half it's original width at the bow, starting from about the fourth frame back.

 

 

 

More planking to come.  It will take another 7 or 8 strakes of planking to complete the hull.  Hopefully, I'll get to finish that tomorrow. The beauty of these little boats is that while they are fiddly and delicate, they do come together quite quickly.

[Blue Ensign]

68mm  from Transom to stem, incredible work at that small scale, can't wait for the next installment

 

B.E.