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

[flyer]

Hi Alistair

 

Thanks a lot for the compliments.

Also, I appreciate your appreciation of the concrete. The backdrop is a wall connecting the house (kind of yellow clinker, the same Mario Botta sometimes used) to a later added outlying concrete garage, thus forming a nice protected patio and outdoor photo spot.

 

Hi Alan and Meriadoc

An uncoloured but sincere thank you for the flattering feedbacks.

 

Cheers

Peter

 

[AON]

I tried printing a flag on thin tissue paper once but didn't like the results. The ink bleeds through to the other side as expected... just the colour seemed off.

[allanyed]

On 7/8/2023 at 2:32 PM, flyer said:

Some patience, textile paint and fiddling with masking tape brought an acceptable result. The flag is hand painted onto the same cotton I use for the sails.

The ensign really does look good!  Can you give us the name of the textile paint and the TC of the cotton cloth you used? 

Thanks

Allan 

[flyer]

5 hours ago, allanyed said:

Can you give us the name of the textile paint and the TC of the cotton cloth you used? 

 

 

After using it for years and now taking the picture I noticed, that the red isn't actually textile paint - but works anyhow.

 

The TC is an estimated 200 - 260 (per inch). The second picture compares the fabric delivered with the kit (right) with what I found in a small local mercer after asking for the 'lightest, densest, natural cotton you have'. The somewhat ham-fisted sailor btw is in scale 1/72.

 

Cheers

Peter

 

https://en.pebeo.com/catalogue/couleurs-pour-textiles

 

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by flyer

[allanyed]

2 hours ago, flyer said:

The second picture compares the fabric delivered with the kit (right)

Congrats on taking the time to find better material and thanks for sharing your information.!!!   The burlap-like junk found in some kits is so far out of scale it is shameful and have completely ruined many otherwise very nice looking models.   

 

Allan

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by allanyed

[flyer]

the spritsails and John Harland

 

James Lees in 'Masting and Rigging English Ships of War' explains nicely the different elements of the bowsprit rigging but doesn't  always indicate what's right and wrong. Additional information such as own research or flawless kit plans are needed.

 

John Harland is the author of 'Seamanship in the age of sail'. Actually I was just looking for some information about how to set spritsail yards and eventually a sail. But then I found in his book a very interesting chapter about spritsails (page 85ff.). A few questions were answered but still more raised. What he writes, especially about the sprit topsail, had me thinking. He states that  - and I hope I understood him correctly:

 

When the flying jib boom was introduced together with the flying jib, immediately the dolphin striker and martingale stay followed to hold the new boom down. However the martingale stay made the setting of the spritsail topsail impossible and the spritsail topsail yard became useless and disappeared. The martingale backstay at first made an almost vertical return to the bowsprit to allow the spritsail to be set. Later the martingale backstay was led directly to the bow, thus preventing also the spritsail to be set and it passed into disuse as well.

 

The proposal of the kit to have dolphin striker and spritsail topsail yard simultaneously seems illogical although John Harland states that this configuration may be seen on contemporary models and even on today's HMS Victory. On the other hand the way the martingale backstay is set up, which initially baffled me, is now explained.

 

So I seemed to have 3 options:

 

- scratch the dolphin striker again and set both spritsail yards (yay - all that work on the 2 replacements for nothing!)

 

-scratch the spritsail topsail and its yard and have a somewhat ambiguous situation with a dolphin striker and no flying jib boom.

 

- add a flying jib boom (yay again!)

 

Then I noticed that just on John Harland's book cover a situation like the second one seems to be depicted. Also, if you had to take in the flying jib boom for some reason, you would leave the dolphin striker in place . So, option two was it.

 

Additionally he stated that near land the spritsail was never set because it hampered the forward vision from the quarterdeck too much.

 

Finally he explains that when sailing by the wind the spritsail yard was triced up also without a sail set and the guys on the lower or weather side were hauled taut to give additional downward pull to the jib boom.

 

Conclusion: I will scratch the spritsail topsail and it's yard and adapt the rigging of the spritsail yard accordingly. The spritsail yard with a furled sail will be triced up by about the same amount as all the yards are braced. I will also add the missing guys to the spritsail yard.

 

In this Thomas Luny painting (found in the web) Bellerophon is depicted with dolphin striker, flying jib boom and without spritsail topsail yard.

 

 

Another Thomas Luny painting (also found in the web) showing a two-decker with similar configuration sailing by the wind and showing the triced up position of the spritsail yard.

 

[Meriadoc Brandybuck]

I think this highlights the difference between a sail plan as an exhaustive diagram of all the sails a ship might set at any given time (well, except they usually don't depict studding sails) versus the routine sails actually used in prevailing conditions.  Practices changed over time, and the rig would be modified to suit the season or locale.  It's interesting to read log excerpts (like in the book Nelson's Ships by Goodwin) to see what sails were noted as set or taken in depending on various changes in conditions.  I suppose you could phone the NMM for a copy of the Bellerophon's log?

 

Meriadoc

[AON]

17 hours ago, flyer said:

 

Conclusion: I will scratch the spritsail topsail and it's yard and adapt the rigging of the spritsail yard accordingly. The spritsail yard with a furled sail will be triced up by about the same amount as all the yards are braced. I will also add the missing guys to the spritsail yard.

I think you made the right decision.

[flyer]

 

spritsail yard and sail

 

A by 30% reduced and furled spritsail was bent onto its yard. Without the spritsail topsail yard the rigging could be a bit simplified. On the other hand I did add the guys according to Lees' description. The yard was triced up by about 20°, as on the painting above.

I rather like the dynamic impression Bellerophon gives with this arrangement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[barkingmaddbarry]

On 7/24/2017 at 5:22 PM, flyer said:

 

 

i live near by the greenwhich museum i will pop in and have a lot and take pics of the painting 

 

Hi Tony

 

Thank you. Regarding the victory plans, I don't know for sure which of the 3 ships they are representing but as the basic variant is Vanguard it should be her. Some differences among the sister ships might show up during about 30 years after being built.

 

There is an oil painting in the NMM in Greenwich with the title 'Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815' (BHC3227) which was painted in 1816 and should be a quite reliable source. Unfortunately the small reproductions in the web don't show the exact details of the disputed area.

 

Your Bellerophon is a gem and I hope you will post more pictures.

 

Cheers

Peter

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks fantastic!!  Love the sails!

[barkingmaddbarry]

On 8/6/2017 at 9:50 PM, mtaylor said:

Peter,

 

If you don't have it, get a copy of "The Billy Ruffian" by David Cordingly.   I think the photos of paintings alone will help you.  Plus there's a "reconstructed" set of plans by Norman Swales on page 12.   Unfortunately, I've not been able to find a hard copy of just plans alone.

page 12 it is 

 

[flyer]

fore topmast staysail

 

This as well is set furled. By reducing foot and leech each by 20%, I got a sail area of roughly 2/3 of that on the plan. The sail was again made in a simplified way and bent to the fore topmast stay.

 

Because I did earlier rig the preventer stay above the main stay I had to set the staysail on the stay itself. Perhaps thismeans, that the arrangement of the stays is in fact incorrect.

 

The sail was bent to the stay with robands and all lines were added.

 

While now furling the sail  tried to follow the explanations of John Harland in 'Seamanship in the age of sails' - as well as I understood them. The outcome doesn't look to bad and after belaying the lines, I'm now ready to move on to the last sail, the jib.

 

 

plan with reduced sail area

 

 

sail set, not yet furled

 

 

 

...and furled

 

 

looking ok

 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by flyer

[flyer]

do kit designers dislike travelers?  or

setting up the jib stay

 

 Since I started making the sails I had problems with one of them: I simply didn't like the cut of that jib.

 

Although in the book Bellona of the AOTS series the jib looks similar or perhaps even stranger than that on the kits plans, all other sources showed quite differently cut jib sails. First I tried to reshape the sail more in accordance with Lees explanations. Very slowly I finally realized, that in the kit the jib sail was wrongly set on the fore topgallant stay and the jib stay completely omitted.

 

I guess sometime during the making of the bowsprit I was glad not to have to make a traveler for the jib stay assuming that on a 74 a different arrangement was used. Well, it wasn't.

 

Furthermore I think, I never met so far a kit with a decent traveler included. Perhaps there were some approximations like combining stay and out hauler and leading the stay directly through the hole in the jib boom which represents the sheave or setting up a simple ring around the bowsprit.

But after seeing how much thinking goes into representing beautiful, detailed stoves which are mostly invisible on the finished model a decent traveler shouldn't be asking too much for...

 

Fortunately the necessary cheek blocks on the fore topmast are included in the instructions. So, the difficulty was only to set up the traveler around the finished jib boom.

 

I searched some stiff brass wire with 0,7 and 0,4mm diameter in the leftover box and bent the 3 parts: ring around the bowsprit, shackle for the stay and hook for the tack of the sail. Owing to the reduced availability of material and my clumsiness the parts are rather a bit oversized.

Shackle and hook were finished with a bit of soft solder, threaded onto the opened ring, the whole forced onto the jib boom and the ring closed and soldered. While the jib boom was protected with some masking tape the whole arrangement was now painted. A small block was fixed to the ring for the down hauler.

 

As jib stay I fixed some 0,5mm black thread to the shackle, led it up and through the starboard cheek block on the fore topmast and down the fore channels. I set the end up with a simple tackle, hooked into a ringbolt on the channel. The out hauler is 0,5mm natural thread (slightly oversized again), leading through a hole in the outer end of the jib boom (this represents a sheave) and back towards the portside knighthead. Again it is made fast with a simple tackle, hooked into the lower part of that knighthead.

 

Now I made an adapted paper template to test the jib sail and found it looking definitely more convincing.

 

 

the skipper checks the parts of the traveler

 

 

the ring is not yet soldered

 

 

finished traveler in place

 

 

jib stay through the starboard cheek block

 

 

jib stay tackle inboard of the shrouds

 

 

in hauler set up with a tackle to the knighthead - its end is belayed in front of the skipper

 

 

adapted jib sail template on the new jib stay

 

[Meriadoc Brandybuck]

My guess on the strange otherworldly jib in the Bellona AotS drawing is that it’s an old, strictly light airs maneuvering sail that never featured in many paintings. I don’t recall seeing anything like it anywhere. 
 

Meriadoc

[flyer]

jib sail

 

Several tries were necessary to find an adequate size for the jib sail. To me it was clear, that the kit's plan for the sail was grossly unfitting. Trying to draw one following the description in James Lees in 'Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War' was more difficult than expected. Several attempts were tested with paper templates just to prove unsatisfactory. Finally I tried to use the same proportions in regard to rigging and the other sails as Pandora's jib in the ATOS series has. Judging by eye it looked about right.

 

To bend the jib to its stay I used again figure-of-eight robands. The tack was hooked into the traveler and the rigging set up with help of the kit plans and instructions and some clarification by Lees.

 

Now I only have to install the anchors, to check the natural hang of all lines and to clean up everything...

Oh yes, and to find a suitable berth for a rather big model...

 

trying to find the right size - the smaller blue outline is the final one

 

 

detail of the peak

 

 

all sails are now installed

[flyer]

anchors

 

A suitable stream anchor was added to the 5 anchors from the kit, all completed and stored. A conflict for space occurred between the sheet and bower anchors and the lower stun sail booms. The only way I could think of, was to place the anchors on top of the booms. Thus, to set booms you have to move them from under the anchors.

 

Anchor buoys were formed with some 2-component putty and hung into the shrouds. As I understand anchors were buoyed and buoys should therefore be shown whenever a cable was bent to the anchor making it ready for use. For size I used information from John Harland who writes that '... the anchor buoy was in length one-quarter the length of the anchor shank, in diameter, one-eight...'.

 

port side with sheet and bower anchors and the extra stream anchor lashed to sheet anchor

 

stream anchor

 

the cable is attached to the bower anchor and the cat block with tackle is hooked into the ring

 

starboard with sheet and bower anchors and the kedge anchor lashed to the sheet anchor

 

kedge anchor

 

anchor buoy stowed in the fore shrouds

 

the buoy rope lashed to the anchor

Edited December 23, 2023 by flyer

[flyer]

empty belaying pins and ringbolts, loose ends

 

Despite having to overcome a shortage of usable belaying points on the forecastle there were still a few unused pin positions on the poop deck.

Also unused ring or eye bolt positions around main and mizzen mast had to be filled. The kit instructions put eye bolts into those locations. However I think that ringbolts, allowed to lie flat when unused, would be more sensible when mounted on the deck. I didn't find much about that in the web but thought it would be easier to run about on deck if you wouldn't have to fear to catch your bare feet in a ring, take a tumble and break your ankle.

 

To imitate a ringbolt with a small fixed ring which encloses the movable one tightly, I bent an eye bolt 90° and put a drop of glue onto it to simulate the fixed ring.

 

After fixing all loose ends I could find, finally...finished!

 

the way I fabricated the imitated ringbolts

 

 

unused ringbolts around the mizzen mast foot

 

 

fore mast foot with eyebolt(with tackle) to the left and one of the empty ringbolts lying flat on the deck

 

 

 

moderately busy scene on the finished forecastle

 

 

the skipper seems quite fond of his ship - and so am I...

Edited December 26, 2023 by flyer

[Mirabell61]

Hi Peter,

congrats to that beautiful model, she looks great with the sails and you did do a great job with the rigging...

 

Nils

[flyer]

Thank you, Nils. When I see what quality you achieve, scratch building your Ergenstrasse, I appreciate your compliment even more.

 

Oh, and a very happy new year!

 

Peter

 

[Meriadoc Brandybuck]

Merry Christmas, happy New Year, and congratulations on finishing your lovely 74 before the year ended!  This was quite the project.  Can’t wait to see the victory album!

 

Meriadoc

[Techtonic]

Congratulations Peter on completing a superb build! I've been following along with great interest and have stolen quite a few of your ideas for my Bellerophon.

[ccoyle]

Congratulations! That is a beautiful model in every respect.

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Very nicely done!

[aliluke]

Brilliant! Congratulations!

[md1400cs]

Peter,

 

Very nice indeed - Looking great !!! 

Congrats 🍺

 

[Ronald-V]

Congratulations with finishing this stunning ship! Quite a epic journey and wonderful result  

[flyer]

changes, amendments and mistakes

 

The biggest changes were the dummy gun carriages on the gun deck and the cast gun carriages, the stern decoration as well as leaving of the spritsail topsail and its yard.

 

The most rewarding improvement, in my opinion, were the dummy carriages. Thank you, Michael (md1400cs). On any kit which includes such dummy guns, installation of a sort of dummy carriage should be tried.

 

 Minor amendments were the changed curve of the stern, the scuppers, the sails fabricated my way, the flag, shot garlands, the captains skylight, the taffrail, the rudder chains, the anchor bolsters below the fore channels, the traveler on the bowsprit, anchor buoys and several minor changes.

 

The biggest, uncorrected mistake is probably that I did set up the preventer stays above the stays, thus having to hang the staysails onto the stays themselves.

 

slightly reworked gun carriage for the upper gun deck and dummy carriage for the lower

 

 

gun port with  dummy-carriage and -gun / carriage and no gun / gun and no carriage

 

 

the elephant was scratched away and replaced by a epoxy-cast of Bellerophon

 

 

finished transom with new rail on top

 

 

spritsail without topsail and traveller on the bowsprit, holding the jib stay

 

 

 

[flyer]

Thank you all for the compliments as well as for all the support carrying me through this build.

And a very happy New Year to all of you!

Peter

[flyer]

  

conclusion

 

After more than 6 years, I'd say it was a rather longish journey but I really had a lot of fun along the way and it was definitely worth the effort. The outstanding quality of the kit and the possibility to build 3 different ships makes it easy to overlook a few shortcomings, such as questionable details in the rigging plan or the very questionable gun carriages. On the plus side are also things like the very detailed plans such as the sail plans, the boats or the many fine details to build bulkheads or stern and side galleries.

 

A perfect kit where you may build just out of the box without research or rounding out with additions might be just a bit dull - I will probably find out more about that with my next project.

 

In any case this kit enables you to build a wonderful model of a 74, the backbone of the wooden walls protecting Great Britain during the Napoleonic wars. Finding a good enough place to present the rather large end result is another story...

 

 

a few final pictures.