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

[druxey]

Well, it comes in from aft. Also, this is the arrangement seen on other ships, so must have worked.

[SJSoane]

Oh, good, thanks druxey. Nice to know you have seen this elsewhere, and it is not a contradiction between a Lavery drawing and the original Bellona sheer.

[SJSoane]

At last, sawdust created again. I decided on a modelmaking cheat at the bows. The actual construction has the black strake and all planking above running all the way into the rabbet at the stem. Later, a thin lining is added over this planking between the upper and lower cheeks, through which the hawse holes are eventually drilled. I decided to combine the planking and the hawse lining piece as one part, the thickness of the planking plus the lining. I would rather fit one piece to the bow, than one and then another on top of it. The black strake and one additional strake will butt into the aft end of this piece, and one will never see if they run under the lining or not.

 

And instead of messing with the steamer for this short thick part--the two parts combined are as thick as the wales--I sawed these to the curve at the bow. A fun change from steaming. Only a few thin planks plus the thicker channel wales will remain to be bent around the bows.

 

Mark

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by SJSoane

[SJSoane]

While installing the hawse lining/planking pieces, I had occasion to look at the dimensions of the hawse holes. Both Steel and the Shipbuilder's Repository call for 1'-5" diameter holes, "after the pipes are let out". And they call for hawse lead pipes 1 ½" and 1 ¾" thick respectively. I notice that the hawse holes in both the first and second contemporary models seem a smaller diameter than 1'-5". In the models below, the distance between the cheeks is 2'-3", and you can see in the finished model that the hawse holes are about half the distance, or about 13".  And the models don't show the hawse pipes, only a clean hole drilled through the bolster and the lining.

 

So, could the models be showing the actual diameter of the hole with the pipes installed but not indicated, which would be 1'-1" for Steel (1'-5" minus 3" lead pipe thickness)? Interesting that they don't show the hawse pipe exposed to the outside. Surely the lead would run all the way out over the bolster, if it were there to protect from wear.

 

Mark

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by SJSoane

[SJSoane]

Two steps forward, one back. I was ready to start planking today, then remembered that I need to resolve how to paint the red at the ports. 

 

The Admiralty Paints Red Ochre was way too orange to match the red on the Bellona second model. So am back to the idea that I can continue to stain red parts throughout the ship where I don't have to worry about creep along the grain; and then carefully paint the edge of the planking at the ports with acrylic paint to match the stain. 

 

I discovered that an old jar of Floquil Caboose Red is an almost perfect match to my stain, although obviously it is more opaque than the stain.

 

But before trying this out on the hull itself, I have made a mock-up of a port, which I will use to test the stain + paint idea and see how it looks and works. I will also explore the idea of painting the edges of the planks just before I glue them in, saving problems with masking this thin edge.

 

No wonder it takes me so long to move this model along...

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Yes, Mark, the lead was usually carried over the bolster or naval hood in a sort of semi-circular tongue shape. The outer edge of the bolster was usually radiused off, which is not shown in your Bellona hawse hole photo. above.

 

I found that, using a flat sable brush, I could paint the port edges quite neatly by putting the brush against the surface to be painted, then drawing the brush toward me in a single movement. That way, no paint should land on the outside of the planks. On the rare instances it did (usually due to an overloaded brush!) I waited for the paint to dry, then scraped it carefully off with a scalpel blade. See the photo and judge for yourself.

[SJSoane]

hi druxey,

 

Yes, I will try that. It looks good!

 

I had a good day building a mock up of the ports, testing some construction and painting ideas.

 

I made a little jig, with rabbets the size of the port stop, for drawing the stop edge on the frames, then using them to scribe the edge of the plank, and finally to align the plank edges together when gluing. It keeps a very even margin around the port. I use wedges to hold them firmly in place.

I then tried masking off the stop edges with Tamiya tape, and staining with my usual red stain.

A little bit of creep into the grain, as expected.

 

Then I planked up the sides and top, using the jig. I have also modeled the wale, in this mock up, because this will be the most complicated paint intersection I have to worry about. The wale is black on the face and tops and bottoms, except at the port cill where it is also painted red on top. I need to study how all of this will work cleanly.

And tomorrow, I will try druxey's method of painting the Floquil Caboose Red on the edges of the planks. We will see....

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by SJSoane

[SJSoane]

I discovered this morning that I had two old jars of Caboose Red, one was PolyScale acrylic, the other Floquil enamel. The PolyScale was too red, bu the Floquil was perfect. I tried 100% paint, and then diluted 50-50 with thinner. The diluted looked a little more like the stain, and this is what I tried on my mockup. But the paint ran a bit. I did manage to scrape and sand away the overflow, so it did not seem to get into the deeper grains as the stain does. So, I might be in business here. I may try undiluted paint, which I imagine will run less, but will be brighter next to the stain.

 

Mark

 

[Beef Wellington]

That's a really nice result Mark, looks great from here!

[SJSoane]

Hi Jason, thanks so much. I see you did a very nice paint job on your HMS Snake; do you remember what paint you used, and how you did the edges of the planks? I am still open to ideas!

 

Mark

[dvm27]

I no nothing about paint Mark but I'm sure someone like Druxey could advise you how to tone down the color by mixing with another.

[druxey]

You could also try a little sanding sealer on the end grain before using dilute paint. That should stop bleeding. Unfortunately, this trick won't work for stain, as sealer will block it!

[SJSoane]

hi druxey,

That sounds like a great idea. I realize that I can paint the ends of the planks before installing, which should help with access to this difficult edge. And sanding sealer would be easy to apply at this point. What do you recommend for sanding sealer, with enamel paint coming over it?

 

Mark

[Stuntflyer]

Hi Mark,

 

What I find most interesting is your making the port stop blocks in such a way that two blocks can be used to handle any port shape and size by using wedges for spreading them. The suggestion that druxey had of using a sanding sealer should definitely help if cleanup is needed.

 

Mike

[druxey]

Yes, I use Humbrol; but any enamel paint will work. I've not tried acrylic paint, so can't speak to that.

[Beef Wellington]

6 hours ago, SJSoane said:

Hi Jason, thanks so much. I see you did a very nice paint job on your HMS Snake; do you remember what paint you used, and how you did the edges of the planks? I am still open to ideas!

 

Mark

Hi Mark, I'm not very adventurous with colors, so have stuck to the Admiralty paints red and yellow ochre.  I like the look of them, but of course colour preference is a very personal thing.  I used the technique Druxey outlined, sealing the outside planking, painting carefully and then simply scraping off any excess - worked pretty well.

[SJSoane]

thank you druxey, Greg, Mike and Jason for these very helpful ideas on this challenging detail.

 

I think I am almost there; the final test is sanding sealer on the ends of the planks, then paint with the Floquil before installing the planks. I am not sure how my rub on poly finish will interact with the sanding sealer, so I need to check that out before I run into problems with the final finish on the outside of the planks.

 

I finally took on a task that I have been avoiding for some time, trimming down the wales at the three aft-most ports to reveal the 3" port stops. It was very tedious, chopping into the wale material without damaging the face of the frames to which they had been glued. In hindsight, I might have trimmed these before installing, although the challenges of bending and clamping these pieces probably would have induced errors and shifted the cut line anyway. 

 

One side done, the other awaiting a time when I feel like tedious work...

 

Mark

 

 

[SJSoane]

I finally got things organized enough to stain the port sides and cills.

 

This stain at the edges and top will be overlapped by planking, so it was not essential to keep a neat edge. But I thought that I might be staring at this for some time to come, since I am so slow in construction, and so I decided it would help my morale if it looked neat at this point.

 

I therefore masked the edges with Tamiyo tape, leaving a little beyond the 3" that will be revealed by the planks. I also blocked out with paper, just in case I got messy.

And then I used my normal red stain, wiping on with a cloth. Messing around with this dislodged my thread planking lines, making this look all ahoo. I need to clean this up before FINALLY beginning planking...

 

Mark

 

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by SJSoane

[Landrotten Highlander]

looking good

[druxey]

...and, you're off to the races with it! I guess it wasn't so bad after all?

[SJSoane]

Thanks  Landrotten Highlander and druxey, it definitely takes a village to build a ship model! I am grateful to everyone who helped with this confounding little detail of paint at the ports. 

 

Now the fun of planking!

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

As we start to approach the end of summer, lots of things get in the way of working on the ship. I am almost looking forward to winter....

 

I did manage to stain all of the port sides and cills. I had to remove the string showing the run of the planking to do so, and just for fun, tried showing the run of planking with artist's 1/16" tape, as shown in Chuck's planking tutorial.

 

It seems to work well either way, with some advantages and disadvantages on my solid hull. The string required gluing on, leaving little lumps at the glue spots, and it is harder initially to pull it into a fair line; but it is easier to push and pull it into place for a fair line before the glue sets. The artist's tape is easier to pull into an almost fair line, but harder to move for adjustments because the adhesive sticks immediately. I had to run a scalpel along the tape in places to release the adhesive, pull into a fairer line, and then press down.

 

My hull frame is starting to look a little ratty after all of these years of banging around, and I look forward to covering this up with some nice clean planking!

 

Mark

 

[druxey]

Tape is good, but I find thread and dilute white glue easier to handle. To adjust the line of the thread, wet your finger and roll the thread up or down as required.

[SJSoane]

hi druxey,

 

So you are not using carpenter's yellow glue, more like Elmer's white glue?

 

Mark

[druxey]

Yup, regular PVA, Mark.

[Vane]

This must be one of the more serious and outstanding builds of the forum.  How many years do you think it will take in total?

[Hubac's Historian]

It certainly is, in my opinion!  There are probably something in the neighborhood of 30 really great and interesting builds going, on MSW.

 

Because of the variety of subjects, it’s a difficult thing to objectively quantify, but Mark’s model is a top-7 build for me!

[SJSoane]

Hi Vane and Marc,

 

Thanks so much for your kind comments.

 

I looked up in my log book, and reminded myself that I decided to build an Admiralty model while I was visiting the Maritime Museum in London in 1988, choosing the Bellona because I like the look of mid 18th century ships the best, and I was able to obtain Lavery's book on the Bellona. I spent the next 10 years--off and on--redrawing the ship from ¼" to 3/16" with the limited resources I had at the time, and began construction June 5, 1998. And since that time, I have been able to work on it off and on, sometimes putting it away for months or a year at a time. So I started drawing 31 years ago, and constructing 21 years ago, with gaps in between.

 

I am not sure if I am unusual in this regard, but I would have to acknowledge at this point that I am only going to build one ship in my lifetime (other than a wood kit of a schooner I built when I was 16). I think I am about 2/3rds done, and at my current rate of progress I am likely going to need another 10-15 years.

 

This project obviously became much more than just building a model of the Bellona. I decided early on that I wanted to craft my model as well as the Admiralty models I saw in London, even though I had no particular skill in this when I started. So building the model also involved learning through doing, and thinking hard about how to accomplish something at a higher level of skill than I had at any given time. This meant it went very, very slowly as I built jigs or practiced skills while tackling a new aspect of the build. And throwing away a lot of efforts that didn't meet my standard.

 

Also, when I started, I had access to very little information about how these ships were constructed. So throughout the years, as more information became available--particularly thanks to this website--I have had to go back and rework things already made, or redraw things not yet made, to accomplish a model as close to the original Admiralty models as possible.

 

At the risk of sounding like a cliché, this project really has become more about the journey than the end. I enjoy the learning and puzzle-solving as much as the construction, and working away in the shop is almost like a meditation period--a focus on a familiar yet always challenging project. I can't quite imagine what life would be like without the Bellona to work on. I will have to hold off gluing on the last part until the very end!

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Well put, Mark. I agree that the journey is both interesting and fascinating, as well as the challenge of acquiring knowledge and new skills. For me, the problem solving aspect is also very rewarding. 

 

Footnote: my first serious and large project, a 64, took 30 years start to finish, unrigged. Glad I started young!

[Hubac's Historian]

Well said, Mark!  And the model you are making is every bit the part of the original upon which she’s based.