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

[AON]

Wonderful use of the width jig and centering template.

[Stuntflyer]

On 7/24/2022 at 9:34 PM, SJSoane said:

Some precision surgery needed to keep this intersection clean.

I remember feeling hesitant when I needed to cut out for the catheads. Using an ultra fine saw really made things a lot easier. No doubt yours will look great.

 

Mike 

[the learner]

On 5/16/2022 at 6:44 PM, druxey said:

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:

 

Wow fantastic painting Druxey, true artist at work!

[SJSoane]

Hi everyone,

 

A long, long time since I last posted. I have been working away, but the recent pieces took an exceptionally long time to work out, and there was not a lot to show in the process.

 

I realized some time ago that I would not be able to install the guns on the lower deck until I completed the outboard works, since I would not be able to turn the hull on its side for painting once the gun barrels were projecting from the side.

 

So I was planking up to the top, when I further realized that I would need to install the catheads before completing the planking at the fore end of the forecastle. And those turned out to be way, way more difficult than I had imagined.

 

I first carefully drew true size projections of the catheads in plan and elevation:

 

 

When I cut them from blanks, I assumed I could just cut straight down according to the drawn plan. Wrong! The cat tails inboard are not only shaped athwartship according to the forecastle beam round up, but also beveled fore and aft according to the sheer of the deck. But the catheads outboard are beveled according to the sheer of the hull, which is steeper. This means the cathead twists as it passes through the hull relative to its tail. I went through a number of failures before I figured this out.

 

Before I could cut the hook scarps on the tails and cut the slot into the hull on the sides, I needed to locate the cat beam underneath. Then I realized that I would need to locate the beakhead bulkhead stantions since they score onto this beam and have to align with the vertical edge of the hull in this location. But in order to install the beakhead stantions, I would need to build the substructure  for the beakhead just above the gundeck level, which meant that I had to drill the hawseholes before access is covered up here, and that meant I had to complete the cheeks outboard.

 

 

So, then onto cheeks. These also had a much more complicated geometry than I had first appreciated. They have a round-up athwartships to match the sheer of the main wales at the bow; they fay to the wales with a curve and also a slope back along the face; and they have an upward slant fore and aft to match the hull sheer. As I tried to fay these to the wales, the slightest change in holding them against the wale would change the shape needed. So I made supports at the correct angle and kept the lower edge flat, so I could reliably slide the cheek against the wale for the usual trim, test, trim, to fay it accurately. Then I could shape the lower edge of the fore and aft arm to its final form.

 

And voila, lower cheeks:

 

I don't know why this took me so long to work out these two interesting pieces, the catheads and cheeks. Perhaps because they are so prominent I took my time to get it right....

Now onto the upper cheeks and the hawse holes and bolsters.

 

Mark

 

 

 

[druxey]

Well done indeed, Mark. Cheeks are a  b*ggar to do correctly and you've done it very nicely. That you didn't make separate catheads and tails (us lesser mortals tend do that!) is also exceptional. Take  a bow (pun intended).

[mtaylor]

Going that extra mile or maybe 50 miles to get it right looks to be worth it.  

[yvesvidal]

Superb work that you did, Mark.

 

I have to say that even on the CAF Model kit, the cheeks were a nightmare to build.

Similarly, I have been postponing the building of the catheads but your implementation is helping me a lot.

 

Thanks

Yves

[SJSoane]

Thanks, druxey, Mark and Yves.

 

Interesting, the cheeks look so straightforward, when you look at photos of models from the period. It is only when you start down that road that you discover the complexities waiting for you!

It is further testament to the shipwrights who designed and built these. Functionally, they just had to provide lateral support to the head. But aesthetically, they had to continue the sheer lines of the hull, and echo the roundup of the main wales as they bend around to the stem. They cared as much about the looks as the function.

 

Yves, after I figured out that the catheads twist as they go through the hull, I cut the blanks oversize in the plan way, and then shaped the correct angle first on the tails and then on the head. I never did figure out ahead of time the geometry of how they intersect with each other on the tops and sides. I just worked carefully to maintain the correct angle on each end, and then the crease lines between the two just settled out on their own as I brought the surfaces together. The crease lines don't align with anything like the curve of the hull in plan or the sheer from the side. But they appear to be hidden within the hull frame, so all looks shipshape when it is all done.

 

By the way, at my 3/16 " = 1'-0" scale, I could not at first figure out a way to cut the slots in the cat head for the sheaves. I tried drilling them out, and then cleaning with a chisel, as would be done in normal practice; but I did not have a tool thin enough to get into the slot. In the end, I had to use a slitting saw on my mill to cut slots from the ends, and then fill with with small slivers of wood to block the outer end. I hope the carved cathead on the ends will cover up the fact that is it not a solid piece of wood, but a lamination of sorts. Best I could do!

 

Mark

 

[Stuntflyer]

Hi Mark,

 

I once used a 1/32" x 5/16" end mill to make the slot in the knee of the head. It can easily go down to the 5/16" depth if needed. Couldn't you have used an end mill to make the slots in the catheads?

[SJSoane]

Mike, interesting! My slots are 1/32".  I haven't seen an end mill that small. That really would simplify this, and I see I have more of these in the stantions in the bulkhead beakhead. Do you recall where you got the end mill that small?

[Stuntflyer]

I will take a look see right now and get back to you shortly

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

I have up to 1/64

probably came from KBC Tools

[Stuntflyer]

I buy these from https://www.harveytool.com/

 

These are end mills for plastics. They are not cheap, but seem to work quite well on boxwood. They are long reach too. The end mill I mentioned is # 938931. https://www.harveytool.com/products/tool-details-938931

 

They will send you their catalog. I usually call them and they direct me to a local distributor to place the order. Harvey tool: 800 645 5609

 

Mike

Edited December 14, 2022 by Stuntflyer

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Mike, I ordered one today. And Gaetan, I added in a 1/64" end mill to the order; I had no idea they came so small!

[druxey]

There are also very small specialist mills that dental technicians use by Meisinger. See:

 

https://meisingerusa.com/home

 

Warning: this site may present the possibility of danger to your credit card!

[SJSoane]

Wow, paradise!

 

[SJSoane]

On to the piece between the cheeks--I don't know what it is named--that forms a broad surface through which the hawse holes are cut.

This is an interesting piece, because it appears to be in two layers, one longer than the other. The layer closest to the hull has a single elliptical edge (between the ends of the cheeks below), while the layer on top of it has an elliptical edge with vertical segments to the cheeks (the double curves between the end and the hawse holes). Maybe it is actually one piece with this step carved into it, but I am treating it as two layers for constructional ease.

I am pondering how to curve these two layered pieces to the curve of the hull. I have tried cold clamping a rough blank of one layer (below), to see how much springback there is, and it is a fair amount. Not sure I should trust glue alone to hold this permanently.

 

So, do I try steaming these thin pieces, and clamping to the hull to dry? Or maybe glue them together as a lamination, and clamping that to the hull to dry?

Does anyone have experience with this piece?

 

 

 

[Stuntflyer]

They are not that difficult to make. . Wet the wood and bend them together or separately while clamped around a curved shape similar to that of the hull. A large can or plastic container works fine. I sometimes use a round table edge like the scroll saw table. The bend always allows for some spring back. Hot heat dry with a hair dryer for a few minutes, and then let everything cool completely. I always make these pieces longer than needed to allow for clamping. Once the spring back is reduced substantially it should be easy enough to shape and clamp them to the hull.

 

Anyway, that's how I made mine on the Winnie.

 

Mike

Edited December 16, 2022 by Stuntflyer

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Mike.

BTW, once I get the 1/32" mill, does it need to be fed in tiny amounts to avoid breakage, or is it pretty robust?

[garyshipwright]

Hi Mark. Here is a couple of photo's of the cheeks and they items made for them. Its been awhile since I made them but believe I used a piece of curved wood to get the right curve on them using a heat gun after putting water on them. Hope it help's Gary 

Edited December 16, 2022 by garyshipwright

[Stuntflyer]

Mark, I feed about 1/16" at a time. I have no idea how robust it is, though its size makes it look fragile.

 

Mike

[druxey]

As others suggest, laminate two layers over a form and heat/moisture bend.

[dvm27]

With those tiny milling bits I often use them to make a series of small overlapping holes then make shallow passes to clear out the remaining wood between the holes. Might be hard to do in a drill press but the Sherline Mill makes it a breeze.

[yvesvidal]

20 hours ago, SJSoane said:

On to the piece between the cheeks--I don't know what it is named--that forms a broad surface through which the hawse holes are cut.

This is an interesting piece, because it appears to be in two layers, one longer than the other. The layer closest to the hull has a single elliptical edge (between the ends of the cheeks below), while the layer on top of it has an elliptical edge with vertical segments to the cheeks (the double curves between the end and the hawse holes). Maybe it is actually one piece with this step carved into it, but I am treating it as two layers for constructional ease.

Yes, on the CAF model Bellona, it is presented as a two layers parts, made of thin plywood. I first glued one against the hull and when dry I glued the second one after dipping them in alcohol and bending them with my fingers. So far, they have not come loose..... 🙂

 

Yves

[SJSoane]

Thanks so much, everyone.

 

Gary, I am getting ditzy in my old age; I forgot that you had already tackled this interesting detail and turned out a beautifully crafted solution. thanks again for showing this.

Greg and Mike, good advice on using the delicate mills. Mine got misdirected in the mail, and won't get here for another week. Then I will play around with it for the sheaves in the beakhead bulkhead stantions. Those were going to be a bear to construct at 1:64 scale without this mill...

 

druxey Mike and Yves, I steamed the first layer and it worked perfectly, thanks for directing me to this solution. It was just too hard to fay the lower edge to the cheek with the piece springing away all the time.

 

druxey, do you happen to know if there is a name for this additional plate on the face of the hawse holes. I don't recall seeing it named anywhere, but then my memory is not the greatest lately. And have you seen anywhere how it is actually constructed? Carved out of one piece, or also laminated in real life?

 

Happy holidays, everyone!

[garyshipwright]

Mark I believed they were called the bolster piece's, at least that is what is listed in Falconer Dictionary.  Steel calls them anchor lining, solid pieces of oak, bolted to the ships side. . Pieces of oak timber fayed to the curvature of the bow under the holes down upon the upper cheek, or solidly between the cheeks to prevent the cable from rubbing against the cheeks.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Gary

[AON]

According to The Construction and Fitting of the Sailing Man of War 1650-1850 by Peter Goodwin

Page 179 figure 6/10

The backing piece was called the LINING.

The front piece that bottomed against the lower cheek and rose to half the hawse hole and had a radius in it that the holes for the bend of the cable passing over it was called the ELM BOLSTER.

The hawse hole had an oak lining in barrel stave fashion, between 8 and 12 segments.

This was covered with lead or heavy gauge copper, the latter being used in the 2nd half of the 18th century (1750+), in some cases lead only.

Edited December 22, 2022 by AON

[SJSoane]

Thanks so much, Gary and Alan, just when I think I know the name of everything, then I discover yet more to know...

 

The lining proved yet more difficult to fasten than I expected. I could not get a clean shot at clamping the outboard end firmly to the hull. So I made a special clamp, with a pad shaped to the end of the lining. either my clamps could not reach that far over the edge, or they were so fat I couldn't see if things were bedded home or not. So thin legs on the new clamp gave a good view and also applied pressure at just the right place.

 

Then it all worked out:

 

And a first look at the second layer, which still needs steaming. And the hawse holes penciled in:

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

[AON]

I'm no smarter than anyone else, I've just accumulated a good reference library!

 

Happy to share.

[SJSoane]

While waiting for steaming and glue to dry, I tackled a drawing project I had long, long put aside, the pumps. I am not installing anything except the cisterns, but I was always curious about these. So I did a little digging in Lavery's Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War (pp. 66-76), Peter Goodwin's Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War (pp. 138-142), David Antscherl's Fully Framed Model (vol. II, pp. 96-102) and Dodds and Moore's Building the Wooden Fighting Ship (p. 100).

 

The year of the Bellona's completion, 1760, appears to be in a transitional period from earlier, inefficient pumps to the much improved Coles-Bentinck which was first tested in 1768 and underwent a number of improvements over the next few years. There is less information available in these printed resources for the pumps before the Coles-Bentinck, so I was left wondering what the Bellona pump more exactly might have looked like.

 

The only primary document drawing I could find closer to the launch of the Bellona is plate VIII in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine published 1769, which I have shown here from the Guttenberg ebook project. Brian Lavery says this has features in common with the Coles pump, but with some notable differences like the cogged wheels which are not in the later Coles-Bentinck pumps. He says that "Either this is an early version of the Coles pump, or it is one of many other inventions of the period." (p. 72 footnote).

 

Falconer's clearly identifies this illustration as the "naval chain-pump, by Mr. Cole, under the direction of Capt. Bentinck", which Falconer says works much better than the earlier pumps. It must have been one of the very earliest versions, since the cogged wheel disappears in later versions. And Falconer is publishing this just a year after the initial test of the Coles-Bentinck pump.

 

Lacking detailed information on pumps before this one in Falconer, I decided that this would at least be closer to the Bellona date than the later, well illustrated Coles-Bentinck pumps. Shall we assume that the Bellona installed this improved pump when it first become available a decade after launch?

 

I quickly discovered that this drawing is not an accurately scaled drawing. The distance from top to bottom is way too short relative to the sizes of the cisterns and pump tube diameters. So I took features from this drawing and tried to accurately scale it to the actual hull.

 

Things I learned in this exercise.

1. The cogged wheels do not engage or drive the disks as they go around. There are bolts at the point of each tooth that actually engage hooks on the chain links. I see why they quickly abandoned the cogged wheel and kept the bolts and hooks.

2. The disks are of a smaller diameter than the tubes everywhere in the pump EXCEPT at the most critical part, a chamber at the outboard base of the pump where the disks have a tight fit (last illustration below). This makes sense, after thinking about it. A tight fit all along the pump would have created a great deal of friction in the machine. It only needs to pull up water within this chamber which then holds up the column of water from the chamber to the cistern. Very, very clever.

3. This drawing curiously holds the bottom chamber up from the floor, indeed, hanging off the keelson. Later pumps try to get right down to the floor or even cut into the frames so the point of pulling up water is as close to the bottom as possible. This pump will leave a good puddle in the bilge that it cannot reach. However, when one considers that the hull is usually heeled over, it is probably getting close enough to the bottom of the bilge water.

 

If anyone has come across sufficiently detailed drawings of pumps in service just before this pump, please share and I will redraw. Until then, the Bellona gets a pump refit....🙃

 

Oh well, back to the model....