HMS Bellona 1760 by SJSoane - Scale 1:64 - English 74-gun - as designed

[Remcohe]

Exemplary, what else can I say.... 

 

Remco

[Mirabell61]

Wonderful build Mark,

 

clean, accurate, precise joinings, etc...

 

Nils

[DORIS]

Excellent craftsmanship. My deep admiration to your fascinate skills and accurate work.
All the best,
Doris

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up, Mark.  She looks superb.

 

John

[SJSoane]

 

Thank you, druxey, michael, remco, mils, doris and john. Your comments are well appreciated. Work in my "other life" continues to pull me away from the shop, and so progress is all too slow....

 

Here I am beginning work on the forecastle and quarterdeck clamps, and the stringer in the waist. I always wondered what the clamp did at the fore end of the forecastle, where the sides pull out to form a drop for the anchor. It is a wicked twist from an inward to outward angle as the clamp continues from the waist to the future beakhead bulkhead.

 

I also found that I needed to refine the inner surface where the clamp will lie, now I know its location. You can see some recent filing in this area, which removed the patina that accumulates when my wood is left alone for a long time. That surface probably last saw some sandpaper or a file five years ago or more...

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

 

 

[druxey]

Yes, that clamp is a tough one to get in nicely. I'm sure the original shipwrights were thinking the same as you as they wrestled it into shape and place! Well done, Mark.

[michael mott]

Those deck beams look awfully large

 

Nice work on the clamp though, it is always great to follow your updates mark.

 

michael

[dgbot]

Nice conclusion to a difficult operation.

David B

[SJSoane]

 

Hi everyone,

 

I finally got the forecastle and quarterdeck clamps, and the waist stringer, installed.  I learned a few things. First, the clamps increase in width, therefore increasing the deck heights, the further aft. The officers got certain privileges. Second, the sheer of the moulding at the waist outboard is not the same as the sheer of the clamps and waist stringer inboard. So the waist stringer on its upper surface--where it follows the sheer outboard--is not completely parallel to its lower surface--where it follows the line of the sheer inboard. Subtle, but it shows just how complex and inter-related are all of the lines of the ship. I continue to marvel at the design.

 

I started on the clamps for the roundhouse, but then realized that these will be in the captain's cabin, and I need to think how I am going to color the cabin. The Princess Royal discussed in Rob Napier's book shows white bulkheads in the admiral and captain's cabins. I find white a bit garish, so may consider natural wood panelling. At any rate, the roundhouse clamp will have to wait until I think this through.

 

Mark

 

[druxey]

Ah! A great collective noun is suggested by the photo of your clamps clamping the deck clamp (is that clear?): 'a grip of clamps'. Thank you, Mark! Those deck clamps look great as well.

[SJSoane]

 

Thanks, druxey, it was also a gripping episode of clamping before the glue began to set. It keeps the pressure on....

 

Mark

[mtaylor]

Ouch.. those puns...  The red on the clamps is nice touch. 

[Bill Hime]

I have spent the better half of the afternoon, reading and studying your log. As a cabinet-maker and restorator, I am in awe of your precision and detail. I'm new to ship building and this is the very inspiration I'm looking for in my own goals...I have a long way to go to even walk in your hemisphere

 

Warm Regards,

 

Bill 

[SJSoane]

 

Mark, once druxey started the puns, I couldn't help myself...;-)

 

Bill, thank you for looking in. I once dabbled in furniture making, and learned a great deal from Fine Workworking magazine in seeing how skilled cabinet makers tackled various tasks. I hold your profession in the highest regard.  I started my Bellona 25 years ago when I didn't know there were other ship model builders about, and had to learn everything by trial and error with a lot of error, and a handful of old books to give some guidance. But the Model Ship World website now provides a remarkable forum for sharing and learning. I have learned a great deal from the many skilled model shipwrights on this forum. I and others will be happy to help you as you find your way in this amazing field.

 

Mark

[michael mott]

Beautiful work as always is apparent from your last pictures, Wow 25 years ago! you are a patient man sir.

 

Michael

[Remcohe]

Those deck clamps look really good.

 

Remco

[EdT]

Great work, as always, Mark.

 

Ed

[SJSoane]

 

Thanks Michael, Remco and Ed. It is beginning to look like I will be a one-ship shipwright, at the rate I am going. Your comments help keep me on task!

 

Mark

[dvm27]

Love those clamps and the research behind them, Mark. I also have never been a fan of the milky white color used in the cabins and hope you stick to natural or varnished wood. As a mater of fact, I can't recall the use of white as an interior feature on many Navy Board models, can you?

[SJSoane]

 

Hi Greg,

 

I agree with you about the white. The second Bellona model uses a lot of what I assume would be ivory for details, and it really jumps out as much brighter in tone than the rest of the model. The HMS Princess Royal in Napier's book shows white deck clamps in the admiral and captain's cabins, and a combination of white and natural wood partitions (red on the weather side, interestingly). I don't like any of the white. I am thinking about a nice wood paneled library in a Georgian house of the time; that is what I imagine the captain would have wanted. So I am going for natural wood. It will keep me to my architectural roots. Now I just have to figure out how to make the matching Georgian cabriole leg table and chairs, for which I am sure Remco will have a solution for me!

 

Mark

[druxey]

Holly tones down nicely after a few years. Is that a possible compromise? Some 18th century models' cabins were painted with in a pale eau-de-nil green or light blue.

[Remcohe]

 

 

Now I just have to figure out how to make the matching Georgian cabriole leg table and chairs, for which I am sure Remco will have a solution for me!

 

At this scale ???? That's a tough one, maybe if you use brass. I think wood is to delicate for such fine curves and thin legs.

 

Remco

[michael mott]

 

At this scale ???? That's a tough one, maybe if you use brass. I think wood is to delicate for such fine curves and thin legs.

Well it depends on whether you add the claw and ball or just the simple plain type  

 

Michael

[dafi]

Moderators:

Is there any possibility to copy this interesting discussion either to Building, Framing, Planking and plating or to Ship's Deck Furniture, Guns, boats and other Fittings. (Good question - is it considered hull or furniture?!?)

 

Like this it we would be jamming this marvelous report and the discussion would be found more easily too :-)

 

If not just delete this message

 

Cheers, Daniel

Edited September 24, 2014 by dafi

[mtaylor]

I followed the request and all the relevant discussion on the paneling has been moved to here:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8164-thinking-things-throupaneling-in-the-grait-cabinsterrige-and-other-aireas/

 

So now Mark can have his log back and the paneling discussion which is relevant to more than just Bellona is on it's own in the Research area.

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Mark!

[archjofo]

Excellent woodwork!

[SJSoane]

Hi everyone,

 

I am taking a break from the model for while, and putting the Bellona into TurboCad. I have incrementally made adjustments to my original hand drafted drawings over the years, and discrepancies have begun to show up as I move higher up the model. So, I will make a CAD drawing with everything up to date.

 

In redrawing in TurboCad, I discovered something very perplexing about the stem construction that I had never noticed when I originally drafted it. Using TurboCad, I could not make the lines of the rabbet in the stem fair smoothly on the points of the circles that I could pick out in the Admiralty drawing. When I tried to reason this through, I discovered that the original drawings show a dotted line where the rabbet OUGHT to be, i.e., intersecting the fore perpendicular at the fore end of the gun deck. But the rabbet itself has very definitely moved forward of that dotted line.

 

This looks very intentional in the drawing. But it makes no sense. How can the gun deck stop short of the rabbet? There would be a gap between the deck, and the planking housing into the rabbet.

 

Any ideas?

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

 

I might have figured this out, although I haven't seen this elsewhere. It could be that the dotted line shows the inside face of the frames at the bow, with the forward edge of the decks butting against the frames. The rabbet would therefore be at the forward face of the frames.  Except the distance between the dotted line and the rabbet increases in length as it goes higher, whereas the frames should be thinning down; and the dotted line continues past the top of the little bulkhead deck which  is also to upper limit of the frames in height. Curiouser and curiouser....

 

Mark

[druxey]

Is the drawing an 'as designed', 'as built' or ' as altered'? Or is there no clue on the drawing as to which of these it might be?