HMS Bellerophon by flyer - FINISHED - Amati/Victory Models - scale 1:72

[flyer]

Hi Snowy

 

Snowy? in Darwin?🤔

 

Seriously - I start coppering aft and at the keel and work forward, finishing line for line. The plates are overlapping and the lines brick-like shifted. Gradually the line near the stern gets a bend. Then, after about 6 lines or so, I insert a stealer. The work is tedious but bringing on the plates overlapping - as the prototype was done - leaves room for corrections and basically you only have to trim the plates at the waterline.

If you are looking for more detailed information about the construction of the ship I would recommend a copy of: The 74-gun Ship BELLONA by Bryan Lavery from the Anatomy of the ship series.

Vanguard is a ship of the Arrogant class which has similar design dimensions as the Bellona class.

 

Cheers

Peter

[Martin W]

Well done, Peter.  Your Captain has the right notion of finding the direct route to a solution.  A good cast of a heroic figure will always strike the eye -- even more than would a mere pachyderm.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Snow]

Thanks flyer

I'll look into that book as well

Cheers snowy

[bj.scm@telia.com]

Hi Pete,

 

Björn here. Your log is very interesting (and helpful) and it looks great! I bought the Vanguard kit from Victory models about  a year ago, The process has so far been kind of slow as 'normal' 10-12 hours working days seem to taken up most of my time. As of about a month ago I have however become a part time pensioner, now only working three days a week. So now i hope that i will be able to advance a bit more swiftly. Just now finished the first planking and starting to look at how to fit the gallery pieces together. 

 

Cheers

Björn

[flyer]

Hi Martin

So called heroes are reason for scepticism. Look at this one. Besides enslaving a perfectly innocent flying horse there were quite some rumours about his conduct among the ladies and in later life he was punished for his hubris. Nevertheless I kind of like that rogue - and yes, he definitely has more glamour than an elephant.

Meanwhile, the skipper still has some work to do for a not only simple but also precise solution of the decoration problem.

 

Hi Björn

I bid you a 40% welcome to the ranks of the retired gentlemen!

Thanks for the comment  My  quarter galleries just fit together more or less by themselves - or perhaps I was just lucky. But still the windows and the decoration have to be put in/on. I hope this will work as straightforward as the basic structure.

 

Cheers

Peter

[flyer]

The balcony has been planked

 

upper deck

All the guns and furniture are now installed on the upper deck. After some browsing through MSW, web and several books about how to install the galley stove I finally decided to set it directly onto the deck because the most important thing would have been strengthening the beams below it, it seems unclear if those 'modern' stoves really were still installed on a brick base and it will hardly be visible after closing the forecastle and quarter deck anyhow.

 

To check the openings for the bowsprit I had to provisionally fabricate itself. A small plane and the use of sandpaper and an electric drill as lathe reduced the 12mm dowel to 11mm and some work with nail files formed the seat for the cap and the bees.

Installing the beams for the quarterdeck presented some problems because during careless handling of the build several stubs on the MDF bulkheads which should serve as seats for the beams were broken off. Fortunately fixing them with some splints and epoxy glue went well and the scars will be invisible below the quarter or forecastle deck.

 

details of beakhead bulkhead added, provisional bowsprit in place

 

 

deck details

 

 

the stove sits directly on the planks and Bellerophon has got some teeth

[Martin W]

Peter -- You've been busy!  All those details do add up to make this a handsome build.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Quarterdeck and forecastle

This deck was fixed in place with the waist beams glued in after fixing the deck to avoid conflicts with the exact latitudinal placing. Another of the very few mistakes in the kit construction became now obvious. Beam 12a lies across an opening in the quarter deck where a stairway down to the upper deck must be placed. Beam 13a already had to be left off as it conflicts with the mizzen mast. Checking RMC's marvellous Vanguard it seems that he had the same problem and hat to cut out the centre part of the beam 12a - which I will do as well.

 

The cabin bulkhead details were painted and fixed and the bulkhead put in place. Again nail heads served as door knobs. I don't know if door handles would be the proper prototype solution but the shiny knobs look tidy. The deck within the cabin got its planks, the side walls were planked as well and the gun ports framed. The inside of the cabin was again white- or better light grey-washed and 4 of the 9 pounder guns were prepared (I just filed the front sides of the carriages flat and painted them, similar to the hidden guns on the gun deck) and put provisionally in place.

 

In between I started the detail work on the side galleries and put the windows in. To glaze them I used some left over 0,2 mm cellophane which is easier to handle than the stiffer one in the kit.

After painting the frames - here I used acrylic paint - they were cut out and the sides cleaned. Then a piece of cellophane was cut out along the edges of the window frame. Now the 'glass' was glued onto the frame with a little white glue. After putting on a small amount of CA glue with a toothpick into the window openings of the side galleries, I installed the glazed windows flush with the gallery surface. No haze occurred on the windows by this use of CA and I like its holding powers when I accidentally touch them.

 

Planking of the quarter deck was started by installing a waterway using 0,6 x 4mm Tanganyika wood strips. The 1mm inner bulkhead planks will reduce its with to 3mm. The ends of the planks cutting into the waterway are gradually reduced to about 30% of their width, the exact form then pencilled onto the waterway and the excess waterway material carefully cut out with a knife. With a reasonable steady hand it works fine.

 

cabin with provisionally placed guns

 

 

the captain inspects the finished cabin bulkhead - the debated beam 12a is clearly visible

 

 

cutting out the 'glass'

 

 

removing excess white glue with a toothpick

 

 

finished glazed windows glued in with CA

Edited May 30, 2019 by flyer

[Martin W]

The Captain should be pleased.  That bulkhead is impressive with the pilasters and glazed windows.  I also have to like the door knobs.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

back to the upper deck...

While working on the quarterdeck gun ports I realized that several details on the upper deck were missing. I forgot not only the cleats but also the sheave blocks for the sheets. The problem is that the respective information is not found in the manual, which is just covering most basic building steps, but hides scattered over all the plan sheets.

Fortunately the missing cleats were all in the waist area and could be added rather easily. Then I tried to fabricate the quite prominent sheave blocks for the fore sheets. First version was a simple hole in the hull - naah, too simple. The second version was to cut a slit into the hull and insert a small disk cut from a 3mm dowel - still looked wrong. Finally I worked a slit into a piece of leftover boxwood, inserted a disk, stained it walnut, cut and filed a rectangular 3x5mm slit into the ships side and inserted the fake sheave block - acceptable.

I think it's a pity that there is no step by step instruction booklet as in Caldercraft kits but on the other hand I'm supposed to be a moderately experienced kit builder by now and should have learned to check the depth of the water before plunging in head first... On the other hand again successfully correcting needless stupid mistakes gives a strange satisfaction, perhaps greater than what you feel doing it right from the beginning and not knowing how tricky the whole thing could be... So I will get on with the build and continue to make stupid mistakes.

 

botched sheave block try

 

tinkering a sheave block

 

final solution

[AON]

If you've only done the pair I am not sure you have gotten them all.

This is from HMS Elephant... same as the Goliath... same as the Bellerophon.

[flyer]

Hi Alan

Thanks very much for the help. I'll have to do 3 more pairs then.

Sometimes I wonder if it makes sense to concentrate on such details on a moderately built build witch many imperfections, some from the kit manufacturer and most from myself. But if you are aware of something you could at least try to improve I guess you have to do it or else you would always just look at that specific detail, sticking out like a sore thumb.

 

Cheers

Peter

[AON]

If you really want to go nuts there is another set of sheaves further forward.

 

I can measure these off the print for you if you like.

Edited April 20, 2019 by AON

[flyer]

Most kind, thank you.

 

But what really could drive me nuts is how to belay the main sheet (through the second from aft of all these sheaves, I know, but how, oh how?) Anyway, I will tackle that problem after more important issues, such as installing the skippers flushing toilet!

 

By the way, there is a part in the kit which resembles that 5th sheave block (minus the sheave) and which I believe is used for the main bowline.

[AON]

Measured off the plans to the scale on the plans from aft to forward.

aft double set of sheaves (see photo below) approx 8" diameter x 1" wide sheave

next forward approximately 13" diameter x 2" wide sheave

next three forward approximately 9" diameter x 2" wide sheave

 

The best way to size the sheave is to identify the rope that it is used for and follow the sheave sizing rule for the size of the rope.

Rope size is the circumference

Divide this by 3.1416 = rope diameter

Multiply the rope diameter by either 4 or 5 (Lee versus Steels) to get the sheave diameter

Multiply rope diameter by 1.1 equals the sheave thickness

Add 1/16" to the sheave thickness equals the width of sheave hole

The length of the sheave hole is 1.333 times the sheave diameter

 

 

[flyer]

Thank you very much.

 

It seems that the sheave block should run parallel to the planks and only the sheave itself is angled. That mistake I will have to live with.

 

While trying to work out the correct size of the fore sheet and its sheave block I stumbled about a point in Lees. He writes (page 185) that the lower stays are half the diameter of the appropriate lower mast!? However, if I take half the mast diameter as the circumference of the stay I get a stay with a diameter of a bit more than 1,6mm. Do you think it's meant this way?

 

The kit uses 2mm rope for the fore stay and according Lees this would mean a 0,8mm rope for the sheet and 0,9mm sheave thickness according your figures. So by sheer luck my try for a sheave block seems to have about the right dimensions with a 1mm slit for the sheave and length of 5mm for the sheave hole. By the way - don't you use metric in Canada as well?

 

Cheers

Peter

[AON]

I believe the block and sheave are both angled at about 7° or so.

 

Yes they sometimes wrote diameter but meant circumference.

Steel's tables for rigging are located here:   https://maritime.org/doc/steel/tables/pages/032-ShipOf74Guns.htm

Thanks to this forum I discovered the site on JSloane's HMS Bellona build.

 

Yes the Canadian younger generation are more metric but it is still mixed for some industry.  I am so close to the states that I hear and see many words pronounced and spelt oddly for the way I was taught in grade school.

 

The good thing is no one will take a caliper to your model so close enough is damn good in most cases.

[bruce d]

1 hour ago, AON said:

Steel's tables for rigging are located here:   https://maritime.org/doc/steel/tables/pages/032-ShipOf74Guns.htm

Alan, many thanks.

Bruce

[flyer]

Well I do - I'm using my slide gauge all the time. On the other hand the eyesight fortunately develops such that it compensates more and more for inaccuracies.

[flyer]

In the meantime the arming of the quarterdeck continued. The 9-pounder guns forward of the cabin bulkhead will be 'fully' rigged. To simplify the process the tackle blocks are directly attached to the eyebolts, bypassing the hooks. I use black thread which could be taken for iron binding and hook - considering the scale and my eyes.

When I'm fed up with rigging the tiny blocks I work a bit on the stern. Bellerophon got her name (or is it his name? - a female ship with a male name - the English language can be confusing). Instead of the kit's photo etched letters I tried 6mm gold gothic font letters. A full stop was added with a dot of gold paint. (There was a discussion in this forum about how the ships were named and it seem the names ended with a full stop. ) I think the result looks quite acceptable.

 

 

step by step reworking of guns and carriages

 

 

the skipper checks a gun which is ready to be hoisted on board

 

 

port side of the quarter deck

 

 

although the name is already there, I didn't break a bottle of champagne on the bow (yet)

Edited May 30, 2019 by flyer
correcting mistake

[Martin W]

Nice work, Peter.  You're wise to find ways to escape occasionally from rigging the guns.  Did you use adhesive lettering?

 

The English language is intentionally confusing, that way we can employ lots of lawyers. 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Thank you. Yes it is adhesive vinyl lettering with a thickness of 0,1 mm - stable but thin enough to still show the wood structure below the material (BECC made it).

 

And I'm afraid lawyers are a plague in any language and every culture however simple it may seem...

(Very sorry if I just trod on the toes of any lawyer in this forums - but if you are here, you are most probably an exceptional lawyer!)

 

Cheers

Peter

[Snow]

Top work 

I'm  really enjoying  watching  her grow

[flyer]

Because I still was reluctant to continue with gun rigging, I put the transom in place and started on its decoration. While trying to fit the flexible decoration part I found that it was too wide and would not fit around the quarter galleries stern windows. As it was already mutilated after scratching away the elephant I brought myself to cut it in half, taking out about 1,5 mm in the middle. (A similar operation had already worked for Pickles boat so I did it again.)

 

The now 3 parts were painted and glued onto the transom. After much re-gluing, light sanding, touching up again and again with the 4 colours used (black, yellow ochre, white and flesh) and mending Pegasus' broken wing I achieved an acceptable result which even for once looks better on the pictures than in reality. Using only 3 basic colours and just a little more on the central image of Bellerophon on Pegasus looks right to me - not pretentious but with a simple elegance. Again, less seems to be more.

 

After closing the side galleries I could see what benefit I gained from the extra work with hollowing out the gallery frames to give a view into the lower part of the side gallery: Well, not a big one, but I'm still glad I tried it. Next time I should radically cut away as much as possible of the part where it touches the hull.

 

 

3 parts of the transom decoration ready to be glued on

 

 

the yellow ochre looks a bit more golden than in reality

 

 

the transplantation of Bellerophon was quite successful

Edited March 7, 2023 by flyer

[md1400cs]

Peter,

Very nice - looks great.

[Martin W]

Nice work, Peter.  That was a bold move to cut the taferel, and it definitely seems to have worked well.  Bravo!

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[mort stoll]

great job. it looks great.

 

mort

[flyer]

It has been quiet in the wharf lately, because I paid a lengthier visit to my daughter which was spending some time in Japan. It was a most interesting journey in a different, beautiful world. Shipbuilding was only of minor interest (but I might build a Woody Joe model of a Japanese vessel like I saw in the Edo museum). Visited woodworks were mainly temples and shrines and one very impressive visit was to Hiroshima - where you see what happens if generals are allowed to play unrestricted with their war machines...

 

model of a Higaki-kaisen ship in the Edo Museum

 

never again!

[AON]

When I stood by the handrail barrier surrounding that building at ground zero and my host described how people jumped into the canal (that runs along one side) for relief from the scorching heat to only find the water was boiling... I had tears in my eyes... and do so now once again just thinking about it.

[Mirabell61]

stunning taferel Peter,

 

very nice work !!

 

Nils