Armed Viriginia Sloop by JpR62 - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:48 - First wooden ship build

[GuntherMT]

Love your scratch stack and the little details.  This continues to be a wonderful build.

[JpR62]

Thanks to all the 'Likes'.

As I was rather focused on my queen Anne Barge, the advance is rather modest.

I have added some small details on the deck equipment.

The boom crutches have been glued.

The cleats comes from Syren Ship Model : 5mm boxwood cleats.

[JpR62]

The catheads have been added.

I used a photocopy of the cap rail plan to accurately determine the position of the timberheads.

I followed the advice given by Chuck in his build log of the HMS Winchelsea: a little square from a 3 mm strip was glued on top of the timber to "simulate" a nice carved detail and then sanded thinner.

All the cleats comes from Syren Ship Model.

 

[JpR62]

Finally, the last six cleats have been added on the top of the cap rail.

Again, a photocopy of the cap rail plan was used to determine their positions.

[JpR62]

The timberheads and cleats on the cap rail are painted.

I hesitate on the finish to adopt for the cleats on the bulwarks.  I saw three possibilities used in the different build logs : keep the natural color of the wood (current situation), paint them in red or paint them black. The logic would seem to lean towards red...

I still have to make the eight pedestals for the swivel cannons. This will be my next step.

 

[DocBlake]

Nice job, JP!

[JpR62]

Thank you Dave and all the 'Likes'

The pedestals for the swivel cannons are done

Time to discover a new job : rigging process of the cannons. I will begin with the breech lines...

[JpR62]

Thanks to all for looking on my build.

The breech lines of the 6 cannons are finished. I upgrade to some Syren ropes and I have not regretted it.

I have build a little jig to be regular in my work.

For the installation of the breeching ropes, I was inspired by the wonderful work of Beef Wellington on his HMS Jason build log.

Time to try to make the gun tackles and their rope coils.

 

 

[captain_hook]

You have made nice progress, looking very good. In my opinion the more easy way is to cut the tackle about 1 cm after last passing through the block and glu it directly onto the deck. Then make a separate rope coil and glue that onto the tackle‘s end. I find this way more appropriate to make sure all rope coils are of equal size and position next to the gun.

[DocBlake]

42 minutes ago, captain_hook said:

You have made nice progress, looking very good. In my opinion the more easy way is to cut the tackle about 1 cm after last passing through the block and glu it directly onto the deck. Then make a separate rope coil and glue that onto the tackle‘s end. I find this way more appropriate to make sure all rope coils are of equal size and position next to the gun.

That's what I do also.  Here are the two gun deck cannons rigged (from my 17th Century Battle Station).

[JpR62]

Thanks CaptainHook and Dave.

That's exactly the answer to the question I was asking myself : do I have to do the tackle and the rope coil with only one length of rope or separate the process in two parts. It seemed me easier to make a separate rope coil but all the pictures posted in the different build logs show me one long rope lying on the deck waiting to be rolled 😉

I will follow your valuable advice and use your method.

Thanks for your help and thanks to all the 'Likes'.

 I'm just waiting on an order of some Syren ropes 😊

 

[JpR62]

The blocks and the tackle ropes are done. All the components come from Syren Ship : 3mm hooks, 1/8 single and double  blocks and .012" ropes.

I use the method described by Bernard Froelich in his excellent book 'L'art du modélisme' for prepare the blocks : I first pass the brown rope through the hook and tie a single knot, then I glue it all at the top of a block with a micro drop of CA. I pass the rope on each side of the block and tie the rope with a single knot at the bottom of the block. I apply some white glue diluted to fix this single knot. When everything is dry, I cut the ends of the rope and add a micro drop of white diluted glue. At this scale the single knot at the bottom of the block mimics quite well the splice.

Now time to assemble the blocks. I found this excellent design that show the process to follow. There is no more to...

 

[J11]

Nice work JPr62. 

[JpR62]

Thanks for all the 'Likes'.

I finished my work on the cannons. I really enjoyed this part of my project.

I first build a little jig to help me set up the blocks.

I followed the advice of CaptainHook and Dave for the rope coils. After setting up the tackle rope and blocks, I cut the rope and have glued it directly onto the deck. I improved my jig by adding two stations for formatting the rope coils...

When the separate rope coil is ready, I just have to transfer it from the jig to the deck. I glue the rope coils onto the tackle's end.

I will now be able to set up all the others elements of the deck ☺️

 

[captain_hook]

Since I am stuck with my alternative launchway, you might be able to finish your AVS before I do. Nice work, looks very good.

[JpR62]

Thanks for all the likes.

Captain_hook, I still have a lot of work before I finish... and I work in parallel on the queen barge 😉

 

Not a great advance. I just come back from a week holiday in Paris. Too bad that the National Maritime Museum is closed. But I still had 2 beautiful days at the Army Museum. Beautiful collection of armor and naturally very complete display on Napoleon's time.

 

I just put in place all the elements constituting the deck.

Before starting my work on the masts, I will focus again on the queen barge. It's time to set up the oars 😉

 

[JpR62]

Thank you to all the 'Likes'.

I finish to built the lower mast and top mast.

I replace the metal cast hoops from the kit by the mini-kit from Syren Ship.

The 5 mm cleats also come from Syren. I just simulate the nails with some black colored wire (0.32 mm)

Mast mounting test. The mast cap casting must be burnished.

The fid passed through the rectangular slot prevents the topmast slipping through the top.

I will now work on the bowsprit and jibboom.

 

 

[JpR62]

Thanks to all the 'Likes'.

The lower mast was glued in place.

The bowsprit and jibboom built and installed

I tried to simulate the mast coat by covering the mast wedge with a fine paper dipped in white glue diluted with water. The whole thing is then painted in black acrylic.

Time to work on the channels and chain plates.

 

[JpR62]

Thanks to all the 'Likes'.

This week I worked on the gaff and the boom.

The parts highlighted in green on the plan will subsequently be painted black.

Inspired by Dubz's wonderful job on his HMS Sherbourne, I could not resist adding some details.

I will now start assembling the spreader and topsail yards before moving on the painting phase of all these elements.

 

[JpR62]

Thank You to all the 'Likes'.

This week I worked on the two yards.

I have the chance to found an excellent article written by Chuck Passaro on how to improve the details of the yards. This 6 pages article entitled 'Intermediate techniques for improving yard details' can be downloaded from the 'Club-resources' section of 'The Ship Model Society of Ney Jersey' web site. It is very informative and full of interesting techniques.

All the different elements were the painted black.

Time to work on the chain plates.

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by JpR62

[captain_hook]

You‘re making nice progress.

[DocBlake]

Excellent work!

[Chuck]

Really nice progress my friend.

[JpR62]

Thank you to everyone who follows my work.

The boom sheet traveler has been added.

For the chain plate, I encountered problems with the brass wire provided in the kit. He was too soft and I did not get a regular result. Also I turned to a  set of chain plates from Corel.

They were just a little long. I made a little jig to open the hole for the pin. The green line indicate the future length of the chain plate.

Finally I worked on the swivel cannons. I followed the method used by Blue Ensign for its cutter Alert. The guns are turned brass swivel guns from Syren. The hooks are from Caldercraft and the 1.3 mm brass tube from Albion Alloys Ltd.

The swivel guns were blackened and some grimy black Doc O'Brien's weathering powder was gently rubbed with a brush.

I still have to install all that..

[DocBlake]

Great job!

[JpR62]

Thanks Dave.

All is now in place. The swivel supports are not glued. The tube is just inserted in a hole previously drilled in the wooden support. The guns can thus turn.

Time to work on the last piece before starting the rigging job : the anchors.

[JpR62]

It's been a really long time.
Having worked on the Queen barge and on the Medway longboat, I had put aside my work on the AVS. In fact I was waiting to be able to build the support.
Having been able to acquire a Byrnes table saw, I therefore tackled the construction of the support.

As during the construction of the support for the barge, I was greatly helped by these dear legos ...

For the precision of the cuts, the Byrnes table saw is a formidable efficiency !

The support is ready to receive his ship.

 

[JpR62]

I'm officially starting the rigging steps 😁

I need to learn some skills first.

Robert Hunt's practicum is very helpful in my learning.

I'll start with the boom first and move on to the bowsprit.

 

[GuntherMT]

Do yourself a huge favor and read through all of the rigging parts of the practicum entirely, at least a couple of times and then try to picture in your head how it will all go together, because I remember that he got sloppy (for lack of a better term) after the rigging started and some things were in an order that wouldn't work at all in practice, or would certainly make things a lot harder.

Couple things I remember specifically is the mast construction where the metal bit that holds the topmast on gets placed too early and you are then unable to actually put the topmast in from the top - I had to get mine in from the bottom which wouldn't have worked if I had done it as late in the steps as I think he says.

 

Also go through and look for all the little rigging bits that are anchored into the mast - especially things like eyebolts, and do those early, instead of when you discover you need to add one very late in the rigging process when there is a bunch of stuff in the way.  Don't ask me how I know this... lol.. 

 

There is a lot of good practical advice in the rigging part of the practicum, but my memory says that you need to re-order a fair number of steps to actually get it done without a lot of pain.  My guess is that he did all the rigging and then went back and wrote it down, but not in the proper order, but that's just my guess.  He admitted openly on his old forums years ago that he hates rigging so rushes through it and I think that's reflected in his writing of this part.

[DavidG]

very nice work so far. your precision and finishing are really great!

regarding eyes at the end of the block strops, you could try to cut the thread end diagonally. that way the thread end will diminish in thickness under the seizing, simulating the splice.