HMS Atalanta 1775 by tlevine - FINISHED - 1:48 scale - from TFFM plans

[Mirabell61]

beautiful work Toni,

 

Nils

[druxey]

Coming along nicely, Toni!

[Martin W]

Ahh, Toni -- I have to admire your skill in painting the frieze on that step.  And how delightfully clever, too!

 

And by the bye, I got my cutting disks from Otto Frei.  I also found they fit nicely in my mill with the razor blade set tightly in a clamp -- I got more accurate results than I ever did just holding my Dremel in my hand (happily for the rest of the world, I am not a surgeon).

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[dgbot]

Your painting really makes everything stand out,  Showing off your craftsman ship.  I wish I could get up close with a real good camera with a macro lens.

I would probably fill up the memory chip before I was done.  Gorgeous !!!

David B

[tlevine]

Thank you gentlemen for your kind comments and thanks to everyone for the likes.  Hopefully I will get to spend a little more time in the workshop soon.

[RichardG]

Toni,

 

I got to see the model for real on Sunday. It's even more impressive!

 

Richard.

[dgbot]

I agree with Richard Toni.  Both of your models were a dream to look at.  Unfortunately my back went out before I could get my shots.  I envy the members of the club who have the joy of seeing it up close.

David B

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Toni. Simply breathtaking! I assume that you used a single hair brush on the painting of the freeze on the steps! Unbelievable

Havagooday my friend

Greg

[kurtvd19]

Toni:

Excellent work.  I didn't get a chance to tell you that Atalanta received several votes for People's Choice at Manitowoc - even though it was in display only.  Bill got a couple too.

Kurt

[tlevine]

Not too much has gotten accomplished on Atalanta these last few weeks.  Two weeks ago she took a trip to the Midwest Model Ship Show in Manitowoc Wisconsin.  Bill Maxwell's magnificent Fly and Atalanta were displayed next to each other as works in progress.  Last week was spent in the garden.  This week it rained so much I was able to put in a little quality modeling time. Next week all the weeds will have grown like...weeds!

 

 

The standards and most of the eyebolts have been added to the main and mizzen channels.  The iron supports for the main studding sail boom are fixed to the main channel.  These are a gooseneck and an eyestrap.  My apologies for lack of photos-in-progress but the camera was not available until after completion.  These are straightforward pieces to fabricate.  The straps taper in thickness outboard to in.  The "neck" on the gooseneck is a piece of brass tubing cut in half and silver soldered to the strap.  There is a step on the eyestrap which was made by soldering an extra piece of brass to the undersurface and filing down the top to form the step. They are bolted to the channel.

 

 

 

There are eight swivel gun mounts, three on the forecastle and five on the quarterdeck. Although identical in configuration, each one is different in length.  I started with a 9" square stock and milled the top part into an octagon.  Then, based on the plan, the final length of the octagonal section was determined and cut by hand.  There is a shoulder transitioning between the square and octagonal sections and this was made with a file.  The square section tapers at the foot except where it abuts the hull.  It is installed perpendicular to the waterline and secured with two bolts.

 

There is a reinforcing strap and socket which accepts the mount for the swivel gun.  In real life, this is recessed into the gun mount.  In 1:48 life, this was made of acid free paper which was dyed with a archival black pen.  I attempted to make a decent appearing hoop but decided the only way to get an octagonal hoop was to also use paper, wrapped three times around the gun mount to get the correct thickness (0.5").  I have also finally cut off the top timbers flush with the rail.  I left them long to protect the top of the ship.  Now, on the port side, the gun mounts will perform the same duty.  They have temporarily been kept long on the starboard side.

 

 

[albert]

Wonderful work Toni.

[druxey]

Nice progress, Toni. The crowded appearance aboard these small ships is well shown in one photo. 

[tlevine]

Thank you Albert and Druxey.  And also thanks for all the likes.  

 

The next thing to attack was the drift rail and their scrolls.  This is the topmost decorative rail and runs on the top edge of the frieze.  It is interrupted by the channel brackets and swivel gun mounts.  It is made in the usual fashion with the pattern carved into a razor blade.  Now it gets interesting. The rail drops down between the fifth and sixth gunports.  A rounded corner was needed to accommodate this drop.  There is nothing terribly difficult about this or the scrolls.  It is time consuming and fiddly but not hard to accomplish.  I traced the shape on a wood blank and scraped the straight section with the razor.  Then I carved the corner piece with tiny chisels and needle files.  I would suggest to anyone doing this to make the vertical limb over-long at this point as it is prone to tear-out.  One the shape was correct I fit it to the lower section of rail already in place with a 45 degree miter. 

 

The scrolls were approached similarly.  The shape was traced out on a blank and roughly shaped with chisels and an eleven blade.  This blank was glued onto the back of a piece of sandpaper.  The sandpaper helped prevent slippage on my cutting board during the shaping process.  The straight section was scraped and the scroll was cut in.  The thickness of the scroll diminishes as it drops down and increases again at the "ball".  For the aft scroll this means that from 11:00 to 6:00 the thickness tapers in and from 6:00 to 3:00 it tapers out to the original thickness.  Sorry about the picture quality.  They actually look better than the pictures suggest.

 

 

 

[tlevine]

I forgot to add the picture of the corner.  Here it is.

 

 

 

[dvm27]

Nice job, Toni!

[Landrotten Highlander]

Nice job.

One thing though - is it me, or is the scroll on one side different than on the other side of ths ship (pictures aftscrolla and aftscroll2a?

[tlevine]

Thank you for pointing the discrepancy out Mr. Rotten.  Oh well, back to the carving board!

[tlevine]

And here is the re-worked scroll.

 

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Much better, Toni! Now, that didn't really hurt, did it?

[tlevine]

Didn't hurt at all, Druxey.  The embarrassing thing is that it took someone else to point it out to me.  That is the beauty of MSW.  We are a community that really cares for the quality of work presented.  

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Amazing Toni, It's all I can say.

Havagooday

Greg

[Mirabell61]

beautiful ship Toni,

 

and an awsome build, that lovely painted fries makes it unmistakeable your "HMS Atalanta". In all its a pleasure to explore and look at this Swan Class model develope....

 

Nils

[kees de mol]

Wow, the bleu is really bright and in combination with the gold and the wood I like it very much.

[tlevine]

There has been a little progress over the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, most of it has been backwards, not forwards.

 

It is time to make the lodging and hanging knees for the forecastle.  There are no pillars for these beams.  The knees are made of 4.5" stock.  They are fairly straightforward to make except  that there is no hanging knee associated with the beam over the gun port (between beams 5 and 6).  Needless to say, I goofed and cut the lodging knees for the hanging knee insertion.  I replaced the starboard knee but left the port one since it will be planked over.  Next, I started taking some measurements...and then some more measurements...and then some more measurements.  I have become one of the many victims of cumulative error.  The photocopied plan which was glued to the building board when this project was started is positioned 9" too far forward, so although all my measurements taken from the dead flat are correct, everything taken from the fore and aft extreme lines is off by 9".  Additionally, the location of the cap rails is 4" too high.  

 

None of this is truly a big deal from a construction of the hull perspective, although it will be a slightly different ship than constructed in 1775.  The problem is that the bowsprit sits at a shallower angle and would cut through the foremost beam.  Happily, I was not planning on masting her anyway.  After this discovery and the frustration associated it there was only one thing to do.  Walk away, have a cold one and come back the next day.  Hopefully there will not be any more surprises down the road.

 

I moved the first two beams from the proposed layout in TFFM to prevent a hanging knee from interfering with the fore port opening.  All the lodging knees and the first set of hanging knees are in place and tack-glued.  The most difficult hanging knee is the one on the fore side of beam 2.  The cant is this area is significant so there was a lot of trial and error fitting this in place.  

 

The cattail still needs to be made and this cuts through one of the lodging knees and articulates with one of the beams so nothing will be secured until this is installed.

 

 

 

 

[gjdale]

Sorry to hear of the cumulative error problem Toni. However, it does nor detract from the beauty of your model in any way and I doubt that any of us would have noticed had you not told us. Red wine helps in these situations too!

[dvm27]

I also had to relocate some beams and knees while building by model, Toni. Obviously no one will know when you're finished and your model looks awesome. 

 

Makes me wonder about some of the identification of Navy Board models based on measurements. Could the builders of these models possibly have been accurate to the plans with none of the cumulative errors experienced by us? As they were usually employed by the shipwrights would they have cared about a couple inches on the model one way or the other? I wonder how close the actual ship, as built, was to the plans. I suppose we'll never know but I doubt if they sweated a few inches so long as clearances were correct.

[AON]

I know that "Oh sh...oot!" moment oh so well    and I feel for you.

[druxey]

It's more than likely that the beam layout varied between ships. The plan was specific to Pegasus rather than Atalanta. You've done the tight thing to be your own master shipwright. 

 

As for cumulative error, when the Admiralty inspectors come to see the work, the additional length means a larger tonnage. The contract says you are to be paid by tonnage, so you'll profit from this 'mistake'!

Edited June 29, 2016 by druxey

[tlevine]

Thanks for the moral support,gentlemen.  And thanks to everyone for the likes.  I promise, the next ship will have the correct length!

[tlevine]

Work has started on the cat head.  This one piece has taken me over three hours to plan and fabricate.  I still have to install the sheaves and finish sand it.  I will show a few pictures today and will describe the steps of construction as I make the starboard one.