HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by bartley - FINISHED - 1/48 scale

[bartley]

My wife and I are keen opera fans and although there is no live opera at the moment, the Metropolitan Opera in New York is streaming a different opera every day including some performances from the 60's and 70's starring performers like Big Lucy Pavarotti and the legendary black American soprano Leontyne Price.   The effect on my ship modelling can be seen in the attached photo!

 

John

[bartley]

Post 26: Chain Plates deadeyes etc

 

I made the backstay plates and the chainplates as described by Chuck. I am not sure what the correct procedure is for making the deadeye strops is but here's what I did:

 

I made some rings by wrapping 22 gauge wire around a 6.3 mm diameter dowel

Then silver soldered them closed

Blackened them

Then crimped them around the deadeye

The plans show the chainplates nailed to the wales then to the hull then to the channel.  I thought this involved an ugly kink so I put two nails in the wales and one in the channel.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

That is looking very good.  Nice work on those deadeyes.

[bartley]

Post 27:  Boom Crutches

 

I found these tricky.  The procedure for constructing them is well described in Chuck's post so as I tried to follow this I don't see a point in repeating his excellent description.  Nevertheless, several attempts ended up in the bin before I obtained something reasonable and even now they are far from perfectly matched.  Fortunately the black paint hides a multitude of sins!

 

John

[Chuck]

They look pretty good to me.  I also had many many attempts that ended in the bin.  Those are quite tricky although they do t look like it.  Lots of angles which arent apparent until you start working in them. 

[bartley]

Post 28: Timberheads

Once again Chuck describes how to make these.  I made them in pairs (oort and starboard) so that they matched as closely as possible.  I measured the angle with my digital protractor:

This got me started but in the end I eyeballed it.  It is surprising how a very small difference in angle is noticeable.

You will also notice that I have installed the scuppers. Here rather than just use a hole as indicated on the plans I used rivets to fill the holes .  These are used on electronic circuit boards and have an internal diameter of 1 mm and fit into a 1.6 mm hole. I blackened them first of course.

 

 

[MEDDO]

Nice progress!

 

On 7/6/2020 at 8:45 PM, bartley said:

Fortunately the black paint hides a multitude of sins!

I have thought this on numerous occasions 😁

[bartley]

Post 29: Seats of Ease, Knees etc

 

There are three parts to the seats of ease, top, side and front.  There are some tricky angles involved.. I had taken an overhead photograph of my hull and I used this to obtain the profile of the top:

 

.One has to be careful about using such photos.  Most zoom lenses and phones suffer from barrel distortion.  So if you photograph the end of your room for example the walls will bow outward.  Clearly, this makes taking a profile from  such photographs inaccurate.  I used a prime lens which suffers less from distortion and then Photoshop knows which lens you used and can correct for any distortion remaining. Anyway I did make a card template first but the profile was so close that I went straight to the 1/32  timber.  For the sides I used the profile from the transom frame Y and this was accurate enough as well.  For the ends I first made a long piece extending from port to starboard matching the deck profile and making sure it was the same height on each side.  Then I cut the required section next to the bulwark on each side.

 

After assembly I checked that the heights were equal using my digital protractor.  One of the advantages of these is that the hull does not need to be exactly level.  I know my gunwales are level so I first placed the level between the gunwales and zeroed the device then bridging across the seats I could check the angle

 

In fact the angle flicked between zero and 0.05.  So even in the higher angle the difference in height works out to be only 0.06 mm

 

The curve of the transom knees was obtained from the plan and the approximate angle from my overhead photo but the biggest challenge was shaping them to fit the angle of the internal transom frames.  This was trial and error and I found that a had to do a bit of reshaping of the transom frames themselves.  obviously this should have been done earlier but I did not predict the problem until I tried to fit the knees.  so here is the inboard of the stern showing those features.

The horse for the boom sheet was fashioned from 1.2 mm wire and washers were made from light card as  suggested by Chuck.  The cleats are from siren and have been left natural at this stage.  I know Chuck point out that contemporary models show them painted red.  However, any any boat I owned which had wooden cleats we found it impossible to keep any protective coating, paint or varnish on thembecause of the friction from the rope.  Modern synthetic rope is not so bad but hemp is like sandpaper.  I can always decide to paint them later.

 

John

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Well done.  Yes those are trickier than they look.

[Bossman]

Bartley, very, very nice! Cheerful is next on my list. 

[bartley]

Post 30:  Eyebolts and Cleats

 

there are a number of eyebolts and several cleats to be installed and this has occupied me for the last few days.  I am always concerned about these commercial eyebolts pulling out when the tension is axial. When the tension is at right angles there is not a b problem of course and here most of the deck ringbolts are not used.

It has only really happened to me a couple of times but can a real pain if it happens late in the rigging process when the deck is not so accessible so I make my own by the "twisted pair" method.  This is copper which is a bit soft but I cannot access brass in very many diameters. After they are made they are chemically blackened of course

These were made from 24 gauge wire twisted around a 1.4 mm drill.  For bolts with a ring.  For bolts with a ring a 1.0 mm drill was used with the ring in the eye of the bolt.  Rings were made by winding 24 gauge wire around a 2mm drill to form a spiral and then snipping it down the center.

For the gun tackle eyebolts  again a 1 mm drill was used.

 

Here is a picture showing the  the deck eyebolts

There are several cleats along the bulwarks and for these Syren cleats were used with a bit of shaping to give a reasonable appearance. (see the image in the previous post).

 

John

 

 

 

[bartley]

Post 31: Bowsprit

 

I am in the process of constructing the remaining deck furniture - Windlass etc.  However, I decided to make and trial fit the bowsprit so that I can avoid maneuvering around the deck fittings. I turned this from 5/16 square stock as suggested by chuck.  I drilled three 1.5 mm holes while the stock was still square and also the holes for the sheave at the tip

 

I then turned this on my home made "lathe"

The board at the end has a Roller Blade bearing.  I actually have two of these and on longer jobs I position one about half way along to add extra support.  I find this works pretty well and is cheap!

 

Of course I had to enlarge the hole in the bow to fit.  Initially, I did this with drills of increasing diameter but this led to tearing of the timber so in the end I did most of the work with a round file.  Here is the fitted bowsprit:

 

 

John

 

 

[bartley]

Post 32:  The Winch

 

The winch was constructed as per the plans.  The posts were made from 5.6 mm square stock (7/32) and the cross beam from 4.75 mm Square (3/16).  The tops of the posts were shaped in a similar manner to that fused for the timber-heads (knife and needle file):

The roller was tuned on my homemade lathe to a diameter of 4 mm and the bolt heads were simulated with 24 ga blackened wire:

Micro-tubing was used for the winch handles.

 

 

John

 

[bartley]

Post 33: Pin Rails

 

I have constructed the pin rails from 3/64 strip as suggested by Chuck.  He makes his own pins from 3/64 square strip but I found that my skill s could not match his especially making 20 odd all the same! so I opted for commercial brass ones.  Clearly they will need some further treatment - blackening, or maybe painting to llok like wood:

 

These fit tightly into a 1mm hole and seem to be about the correct scale.  .  Here I need some advice Chuck because  they are only 8mm long and do not extend far below the pin rail.  I have some 12 mm long ones but they need a 1.2 mm hole as you can see in this mock-up:

 

The tops also look a bit more "authentic".  What do you think Chuck?  I am worried about the consequences of the short ones when it comes to rigging them.

 

John

 

[Chuck]

They look OK....the length wont affect things.   But yes they are the typical funky shape for commercial ones being very bulbous on the tops.  I am more worried about you not being able to get the rope coils over the top of those because they are so close together.

 

But it will probably be OK.  I think you should use the longer ones.   They are much better than the shorter ones.

[bartley]

The continuing saga of the belaying pins!

 

I can make boxwood ones down to close to 1 mm in diameter at the lower end but for me consistency is the problem If I just had to make one I would be quite happy but 20 odd? I am not sure I have the patience or the skill.  Here is a pic of mine versus the commercial ones:

 

[MEDDO]

The shape of the long brass ones look good but I would see if there would be a way to practice more to make your own.  Maybe a justification for some new tools 🙄 fancy new lathe maybe...

[bartley]

Post 34: Cannon Carriages

 

A bout of arthritis has kept me away from the workshop for a while but I have now made some progress with the gun carriages.  I am using Chuk's kit and a jig similar to the one he describes:

 

 

I constructed a trial carriage some time ago and I found it difficult to to drill the holes for the iron work reproducibly so I decided to drill all the sides before

assembly

 

 

 

and then I thought why not install most of the ironwork before assembly as well?

 

 

So here are a set of assembled carriages:

 

 

John

 

 

 

[Matt D]

Those look gorgeous, John.  I’m sorry you’ve been struggling with arthritis.  It must be frustrating.

[bartley]

A few people have asked me what power tools I use.  I have to confess to living in the dark ages a bit as the only power tool I own is my Byrne's saw which I now could not live without, though I do have access to a mill via a mutual arrangement with a fellow builder.  Here is part of my basic tool set:

 

 

 

[bartley]

Post 35: Installation of the Rudder

 

I shaped the rudder as described by Chuck in his post.  Tapering towards the aft edge and a steep tapper on the front edge.  I deviated a little from Chuck's guidelines in the installation of the Pintels and Gudgeons.  Chck makes up the center piece with its two straps and then attaches it to the rudder.  I found it easier to attach the center piece to the rudder in the correct position and then glue on the straps to the rudder and the center piece.  I drilled the bolt holes a little deeper into the rudder and inserted short lengths of 22 gauge wire snipped of close.  Again as described by Chuck

 

 

I glued the the center gudgeons to the hull in a similar way and then added the strap but I used a length of wire to keep them aligned.

 

 

The rudder was then hung at the red painting completed at the top.

 

 

John

[Chuck]

Very nice work.   Good to see a rudder not too far away from the stern post.   Nice!!!

[bartley]

Post 36: Pin Rails

 

The port pin rail is now installed. Rails are made from 3/64 strip and 4 mm deep.  O.9 mm holes keep the pins reasonably tight:

 

 

Starboard still to do and the bow rail will need to be replaced as I drilled the holes too large,

 

John

 

[bartley]

Post 37: The Tiller

 

The fabrication of the tiller was straight forward. I glued the profile from the plan to 2 mm boxwood sheet with a glue stick.  I prefer this method of attaching paper rather than PVA as it us easily removed with alcohol leaving no residue.  Then, after cutting out the shape with my Knew jeweler's saw, I used files and sanding sticks to make a round profile. I found that leaving a chunky handle made the sanding process easier

 

 

 

 

 

I will not install it yet as it is quite fragile and I am concerned that it might snap while I am adding other deck fixtures

 

John

[MEDDO]

That rudder and tiller look really nice.

[bartley]

Post 38:  The Carronades

 

This is a first for me (my previous build had no guns)  so I am enjoying the process but it is quite a slow business for me .  I quite like the look of black trucks but being mindful of the discussion on this point  from Druxey and others it seems that the consensus is "any colour but black" so I have gone with red.  I placed a few on deck to see how they would look. Just as on the chain plate straps, I used chuck's  method for the blackening of the cannons (painting followed by weathing powder).

 

 

The rigging of the guns is next.  The breech rope is quite straight forward using the method described by Chuck but I am finding fabricating the in-haul tackle much more of a problem.  I am exploring a few methods at the moment n order to find one that is quick enough to make the 40 or so blocks with hooks yet produces an acceptable appearance.

 

John

Edited November 3, 2020 by bartley

[bartley]

Yes Glenn,

 

After all they are our models so we can do what we want. 

 

I think that the main issue was that someone wanted to use black rims to simulate metal bands so it was pointed out it that would not be done on a ship as it would damage the deck.  Then that morphed into avoiding black altogether because it looked like metal.  But our gunwales are black and no one says the look like metal!

 

John

Edited October 27, 2020 by bartley

[bartley]

Post 39: The Catheads

 

As suggested by Chuck these are made in two parts from 3/16 square stock which was cut on my Byrnes.

 

The first step was to cut slots into the caprail - always a scary business,  cutting holes in nicely fabricated parts.

 

 

The inboard part was made first and notched to fit the spirketing and the waterway:

 

 

 Slots were cut for the sheaves using a micro mill.  I do not own one of these but i have access to one via a colleague whom i cut planks for.  However, as always with this kind of arrangement, I am not very competent because I never  learn by experimenting.

 

 

Finally the inboard end was round to fit.  The idea is that it should look like one piece - which as it presumably was.  Cut from the elbow of a tree I presume.

 

 

So finally the two parts were glued in position:

 

 

 

John

 

 

[MEDDO]

Very nice I am also always hesitant to cut into pristine work but yours came out really nicely 

[bartley]

Post 40 : Internal Ladders

 

I love these little scratch building projects in this build.  They look easy but, on reflection, are more difficult than they seem at first (at least for me).  Chuck’s excellent instructions are a great help – better than the kit, which I built previously.  However, I notice that he often stops short of providing the intimate details on how to build a particular component.  Far be it for me to read his mind but I believe he wants us to problem solve.  In this case, for instance, there are photos of the shapes of each of the parts. However, we must get the dimensions and angles from the plans.  How do we ensure that the angles of the steps are all the same, that the sides are parallel, that the port and starboard ladders are the same but mirror images?

 

I solved these problems in my own way but I always face something of a dilemma in providing a “how to” in my log.

Firstly, though I have learnt a huge amount from "how to" descriptions provided by others on this site, this is only my second build so I am very inexperienced and the way I stumble along and solve these little challenges is probably of little interest because experienced builders have probably solve the same problems long ago.

Perhaps more importantly, the problem solving is exactly what I enjoy so much about this build.  So, by providing intimate details on how to build a component, do we actually spoil the experience for others?  Those who built this ship earlier like Rustyj, Rafine and Stuntflier perhaps had a better experience because they had no “how to” and had to solve the problems themselves.

 

Anyway here is how they look:

 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by bartley