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

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Mark, good warning. The virtue of the pencil is the non-slip eraser end. Any ideas on another way to get a grippy end ? Maybe coarse sandpaper on the end of a thicker push stick?

 

 

[mtaylor]

Sandpaper.. even just dip the stick in rubber cement a few times to build up a coating.  I also sometimes cut a notch in the then such that I can push from the end of the wood into the saw and also holds down the end a bit.   I'll try to get a photo if it's not clear.

[bruce d]

44 minutes ago, SJSoane said:

Any ideas on another way to get a grippy end ?

Two ideas tested and passed in my shop:

1, a pencil as previously discussed but without an attached eraser, just a slip-on wedge shaped type. Works a treat, totally expendable.

2, a flexible sanding block, like this...

 

.. either whole or sliced up to suit the workpiece. Very grippy, also expendable.

 

Like Mark, I got an on-the-job lesson about the attached standard type of eraser but fortunately it was a little less dramatic. 🤐

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

10 hours ago, bruce d said:

Very nice setup and very good timing: I have been playing around with fixtures to make a  moulding and will now go straight to your method, thanks.

One question, if you don't mind? Did you try reversing the arrangement so the cut-off moulding was not between the workpiece and the guide? 

 

Yes, there is an easy way to reliably rip consistent depth mouldings by temporarily cementing a depth stop to the Byrnes table, both before the blade and on the off-cut side.  Then, one can simply adjust the fence so that the wood blank meets the stop.

 

One caveat to this is that the fence adjustment on some micro-saws may not allow for a “soft” approach to an external stop, thereby exerting excess pressure between the blank and the stop - if that makes sense. 

 

 

[AON]

What about using these replacement erasers on the end of a dowel?

 

Integra Pencil Cap Eraser for Standard Pencils, 144 per Box, Pink (ITA36523)

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Integra-Pencil-Standard-Pencils-ITA36523/dp/B00181LCHU/ref=sr_1_6?crid=47MKFGNSI70S&keywords=eraser+tips+for+pencil&qid=1647134226&sprefix=eraser+tips+for+pencil%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-6

[AON]

Mark

Having trouble finding my darn PDFs of the drawings.

worse case I'll recreate the PDFs.

bear with me

[SJSoane]

10 minutes ago, AON said:

What about using these replacement erasers on the end of a dowel?

 

Integra Pencil Cap Eraser for Standard Pencils, 144 per Box, Pink (ITA36523)

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Integra-Pencil-Standard-Pencils-ITA36523/dp/B00181LCHU/ref=sr_1_6?crid=47MKFGNSI70S&keywords=eraser+tips+for+pencil&qid=1647134226&sprefix=eraser+tips+for+pencil%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-6

 

Clever, clever!

I remember these from when I was a kid. Nice find, thanks!

[bruce d]

8 hours ago, AON said:

What about using these replacement erasers on the end of a dowel?

That's what I use, get 'um in packs of 20 for £1. 

[AON]

I PM'd you the thickness Guide dwgs.

 

BTW - last night at the NRMSS meeting Kurt announced the NRG will possibly have a simplified version of the thickness guide for sale off the website store in April so you might want to wait a month and just buy one!  It is of the style he uses.

[SJSoane]

Hi everyone,

 

It has been a long time since my last post. Other things going on, slow progress on the Bellona with little to show of interest. A lot of thinking about next steps!

 

I have finally roughed out the timber ends, giving the hull a much lighter feeling. These still need their distinctive hollowed top and sides. And they bring into play the railings at the their base and halfway up their lengths. I am still thinking how to do this, likely inserting short pieces between the timber heads, and then continuous railings alongside to give the appearance of a railing pierced by the timber heads.

 

I have completed the sheer strake, which was particularly satisfying since it really contributes to the sweet lines of the hull. I am now beginning to fit the moulding over the sheer strake. This will be very obvious in the final model, and it needs a particularly smooth, faired line. I have made a ply template at the right curvature, that I will clamp to the hull above the moulding and then clamp the moulding up to the lower edge of the template when glued. But in the waist, the fairness will be particularly obvious,  and the ply template doesn't have anything to rest on or clamp against. So I decided to start fitting the capping rail in the waist, up to which I can clamp the moulding for a smooth run when I glue it.

 

The lower photo shows a temporary rough blank for the capping rail, to check the fairness in both directions. I'm thinking I will glue the mouldings first, then come back and do the capping rail. This gives me a final edge against which to test the fairness of the outer edge of the capping rail.

 

I got into a whirlwind of thinking, trying to figure out the sequence of painting and assembly in the upper works. Everything above the waist rail already installed is painted a dark blue for the frieze, except for the sheer and drift rail mouldings which remain bright, and the top rails and timber heads which are black. I have decided to spray paint the blue, after masking the mouldings to which I have already applied the polyurethane finish. We will see!

 

BTW, I just received the NRG thickness guide for the Byrnes saw. Beautiful, works well. Thanks everyone who made this possible!

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

All looks very nice, Mark. Good process thinking on your run of moldings as well. Hdd you considered painting friezes on paper off-model and gluing them on in sections? Many contemporary models were painted this way. It obviates the need for awkward masking or working against gravity. And, if you mess up a piece, it's easily replaced. The friezework on Comet was done this way:

 

[SJSoane]

Hi druxey,

 

I have gone back and forth, back and forth, on this question. I thought about the paper, and then looked in more detail at a number of slight changes in surface that I would have to deal with. In particular, the lower edge of the sheer strake is offset slightly from the planking below. You can see that very clearly in the first photo below, the offset just below the moulding currently temporarily clamped on. Bending one sheet of paper around this would kill the sharpness of the detail, and a sheet on each surface would leave an uncovered lower edge of the sheer strake.

 

Also, as in the second photo below, there are a number of pieces that the painting wraps around. I could paint these separately, but wondered if I could match the same color and transparency on the paper versus the wood parts painted.

 

To be honest, trying to think this all through has slightly incapacitated my further progress. I know what I need to do is try a couple of experiments off the ship. I should try painting on paper and attaching to dummy bulwarks; and then also spray painting and painting the frieze directly on wood.

 

You have nicely prompted me to this action. Once I get the mouldings attached, I will proceed with some experiments!

 

In your Comet example, did you glue the paper to the final surface, and then trim with a scalpel to the required edges? or trim it first, then glue? Getting a clean line to the lower edge of the sheer rail is what I find daunting in this, since this will be so prominent.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

 

 

[druxey]

I use very thin paper, well stretched, to paint on, using acrylic paint. It should mold well around the different plank levels. Also, put on in short lengths, it is easy to manage. You could pre-paint the base color over the chesstrees and fenders and simply add the detail after. As for trimming, I pre-trim the lower edges of the pieces and trim the upper edges (under the rail above) when dry. Any slight irregularity, should it occur, will be hidden under the shadow line of the rail.

[allanyed]

Druxey

When you say very thin paper, are you speaking of tissue as gift box stuffing or something else?  Do you think silk span would be too thick?   

Thanks

Allan

[druxey]

Allan: Even regular bond paper will work well. As it is sealed, there should be no deterioration over time. However, you might wish to consider rag content (archival) paper. I've not tried using SilkSpan for this purpose, but imagine that would also work well.

[SJSoane]

Slow but steady progress. I have planked up to the drift rail level, and look forward to cutting those volutes in the drift rail. I started this outboard planking 5 years ago to the day, and this is what I have to show for it. In this period I did cast the guns and prefabricate the beams for the remaining decks, but still slow, slow, slow!

 

My wife is threatening to put my ashes on this ship and push it out into the lake on fire, if I don't get it done before I pass away. So I am highly motivated to keep going....

 

Mark

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Just a spectacular planking job, Mark!

[garyshipwright]

Mark She is outstanding good sir and like you am  slow, slow , slow. After looking at her, she is one very gorgeous Lady and her fine lines are really showing through in the first photo. . Gary

[mtaylor]

Looking great, Mark.  Life does tend to get in the way but the threat of a Viking funeral seems a bit extreme but effect motivation.

[druxey]

Looks lovely, Mark. Sweet sheer line. As I say: Good things take time!

[SJSoane]

Thanks so much, Marc, Gary, Mark and druxey. I am really looking forward to doing something else besides planking!

 

I learned a lot in this planking process. I remember reading Longridge's Anatomy of Nelson's Ships many years ago, where he described mass producing identical planks on a jig. At first thought, this should work because the sheer and planking lines on this hull as drawn in the sheer plan are arcs of circles; therefore, you would think that the planks would be parallel sided with a constant radius, and the same all along the hull.

 

But this is not the case. The tumblehome bulges more at the midships than the extremities, and the aft upper works are flatter than the strong curves at the bow. This creates a sinuous flow of strakes, getting wider and narrower as they progress along the hull. It is a visual delight when completed, but it means that every single plank needs to be spiled to its specific location. I don't know how Longridge ever made his identical planks work.

 

Also, this means that while the lines are perfect arcs of circles as seen from straight on in the sheer drawing, the actual curve on the face of the hull is not a perfect arc. The radius of any given strake changes as it progresses along  the hull.

 

I learned how to spile from David Antscherl's and Chuck Passaro's excellent articles posted on this Model Ship World website.

 

And once into the game of spiling each plank, I experimented with a number of ways of turning these out efficiently. I tried a jig to hold planks on edge for planing, but never satisfactorily planed the concave edge despite investing in small planes meant to do this. Next, I tried cutting each plank out of a sheet with a jewelry saw, and then filing the edges smooth, which worked but was very slow. Also, the curves of adjacent planks did not always align perfectly.

 

Finally, I ripped strips of wood wide enough for the widest plank in a strake, then shaped each edge with long concave and convex sanding blocks. I make these by laying out the radius I want using a plastic template from a set of road-drafting curves I was given years ago. I bandsaw to the line, then put coarse sandpaper on one edge. I rub the two together back and forth to smooth the face of one block, then reverse the sandpaper to sand the other block. They are perfect curves.

 

I attach sticky backed sandpaper, and then clamp the sanding block in my workbench. I rub the plank against it, rather than trying to hold the block and plank in my hands. This gives much more control and consistency in shaping the edge:

 

 

I have accumulated enough blocks of different radii to meet every spiling and shaping need on my hull.

 

I usually had to bevel the lower edge of each plank on my upper hull, due to the tumblehome. I would rub the plank along the sanding block at a slight angle to get the desired bevel. This of course changes the radius a bit, so I learned over time how to exert pressure at the ends or the middle to adjust the radius slightly back to what I need. Checking its fit periodically against the lower plank would tell me when I had a perfect fit. After spiling the width of the plank at various points and drawing a smooth line through the points, I then chose a sanding block of the correct radius to form the upper concave plank edge.

 

Once the planks in a strake are glued on, I run a sanding block of the desired radius along the top edge. As mentioned above, the radius at the top of a complete strake varies along the length of the hull, so I use the appropriate radius block at any given point, and smooth the transitions between radii to get a fair curve along the entire length.

 

Where the ends of the planks had to be cut for a gunport, I would hold the plank to the hull and draw the angle needed for the cut. I would adjust my Byrnes disk sander to sand this angle, then test it against the hull for parallelness to the gunport edge. I would judge if it needed to be a sharper or shallower angle, adjust the miter gauge on the disk sander, and try again. It often took me three or four tries before the angle was perfect. Using the miter gauge meant that I could sneak up on exactly the right angle by slight adjustments to the gauge.

 

The other discovery that really helped was to clamp planks down onto the plank below, as well as against the hull. My dockyard style hull helped enormously for this, because I could put a clamp jaw below the wide lower edge of main wale, and then the other jaw on the plank to be clamped. This really helped pull things together snuggly.

 

Having finally perfected my planking techniques, my planking days are soon coming to an end. At the rate I am completing the Bellona, I will never be planking a ship model again! Maybe I need to bequeath my collection of sanding blocks to someone when I finish the Bellona.....

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by SJSoane

[albert]

Great beautiful work Mark.

[druxey]

Any scratch builder accumulates a collection of concave and convex sanding sticks or blocks. You have a very organized collection there, Mark!

[SJSoane]

I am still working away, slowly. I have run into a continuing puzzle of what happens before what in the building sequence. I know I have to finish all outboard work and paint and work the friezes, before fastening the guns in the gundeck (because they stick out) and proceeding along to the upper decks. However, I can't finish the outboard works before fitting the cat beam and cattails. So now I have to flip back to decks for a time. Maybe I will start the remaining decks at the bow, finish the outboard work, paint, and then get back to the decks...

 

Long story short, I have started on the cat beam. It requires a rabbet at its aft side, for landing the planks of the quarterdeck. I have long thought how nice it would be to have a small router table, and now I need one. I suddenly thought, what about the Foredom drill press stand turned outside down? it worked!

 

I made a fence with a face the same radius as the top of the beam, which provides good support. A wooden block fitted below the Foredom clamp allows a screw for fine vertical adjustments.

 

I saved a bunch of money on a dedicated miniature router table; I wonder what I should spend it on?🤨

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

[SJSoane]

While attending to the cat beam, I had to look again at my reconstruction of the beakhead in the original model. I saw more this time than I had seen before. Notice the arches over the doors to the fore platform. At first, I though it was cut through the cat beam with a half circle on the fore side, and an elliptical shape on the aft side. But after messing around, I realized that it is an additional baulk of wood afore the cat beam, through which is cut an arch in elevation and plan, or a quarter dome. You can see that in the section below. I imagine this was done to give more headroom for the door, while minimizing the wood cut away from the lower surface of the cat beam.

 

 

 

I also realized that the original sheer drawing from the admiralty grossly mis-represented the cathead. The contract for the Marlborough, built just 2 years after the Bellona, gives information on the cathead with a "steve" (stive) forward of 3 1/2" to the foot, and upward of 4" to the foot. The Berwick and Bombay contract gives a length of 7 feet outboard. I drew some apparent size drawings for plan and elevation using this information, and came up with a more compact new of the cathead in the sheer drawing. Here is the geometrical construction of the cathead in plan and section:

 

Here is the original admiralty drawing:

and here is my more accurate rendition:

For so many years, I had assumed that the Admiralty drawings were the most accurate information I had, and I could trust its dimensions. I now realize that it followed some drafting conventions that simplify and distort, like the upper head rail drawn as if it were parallel to the drawing plane, not angled towards the figurehead. Multiple sources of information usually save the day!

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by SJSoane

[garyshipwright]

Nice job Mark. This is one of the item's that am looking forward to building, if I ever get there. Your hard work and drawings are a life saving and just might save me some time that is if I have your permission using this. Gary

[Hubac's Historian]

I come to your build log to be amazed, Mark.  You never disappoint!  The most impressive thing to me is your out-of-box thinking, yet methodical approach to devising the plan for execution.  The superb results pay homage to this at every stage of the build.

[druxey]

Ah, yes: The joys and frustration of projection drawings.

[SJSoane]

Thanks so much, Gary, Marc and druxey, for your kind thoughts. Gary, I have sent you a PM about drawings. Marc, like you, I love working through problems and finding solutions. I am glad you find mine interesting, because I enjoy looking over your solutions to historic accuracy.  

 

And druxey, as you know, the projection drawings on the catheads are particularly fun, since they have to be adjusted first from true elevation to apparent plan, and then from the apparent plan to an apparent elevation to account for the stive in two directions. I confess it took me a few tries before I could visualize what was going on. I tried at first to work this in one step rather than two, but it was too complex for my poor imagination. I guess one step at a time keeps things more orderly!

 

Here is the cat beam fitted but not yet installed. Facing the prospect of many more beams to install on 3 more decks, I decided to rationalize the work a little.

I use my sliding jig to measure the distance at each beam between the sides. The next challenge is to trim each end equally so the centerline remains on center. I made a simple jig  seen here, in which I can position the sliding measuring jig between converging strips of wood, and mark the location on the paper.

 

Removing the side strips of wood, I can then align the center line of the beam with the centerline of the jig, showing me exactly how much to trim on each end to remain symmetrical:

The cat beam interacts with the complex reverse tumblehome at the bow, and so its top surface aligns at an angle less obtuse than the lower surface. I used angle gauges to determine the top angle, and then progressively filed the lower surface through trial and error.

So now the first transverse piece at the bow, which will serve as the foundation for the entire beakhead bulkhead. It was very gratifying to see that the hull form I had constructed so many years ago aligned perfectly with where it needed to be in order for the cat beam to fit properly.

Next, thinking about the catheads and how they will cut through the bulwarks. I wish I had thought about this before already installing the sheer trim that will be cut into at the base of the cathead. Some precision surgery needed to keep this intersection clean.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark

Edited July 25, 2022 by SJSoane

[druxey]

I'm sure your surgical skills are precise enough Mark! Your model is looking very nice indeed.

 

And yes, it is much easier to correct projection in one plane at a time.