HMS Bellerophon by freewheelinguy - FINISHED - Victory Models - Semi-scratchbuilt

[Chuck Seiler]

Len

Superb work. I will need to go back and spend more time on this. I really like how you did the transom castings.

Edited May 9, 2013 by Chuck Seiler

[rafine]

Great work Len and great to see the log back.

 

Bob

[Timmo]

Very happy to see this back Len. The work of a master unfolding here.

[freewheelinguy]

Thanks all for the kind words and looking in, greatly appreciated. I as much as you guys enjoy seeing others builds in progress. 

 

Timmo, far from a master, but thanks.  Make many mistakes, just an average modeler, but I do enjoy this hobby.

[mtaylor]

It's great to see this coming back, Len. 

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Len, looking forward to seeing more progress, I loved following your Bellerophon's progress before the great crash. Thanks for reposting.

[Blue Ensign]

A fine looking build Len, I wish I could achieve the neatness of finish you display in all areas. I like what you've done with the stern, and the decoration looks excellent to my eye.

 

I know we all fixate on those little areas where we think it hasn't perhaps gone as well as we would hope but my favourite saying is a model is more than the sum of its parts, and  the sum of your parts is shaping into a very attractive  Billy Ruffian.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[mort stoll]

Great to have you back.

 

Mort

[freewheelinguy]

Thanks for the compliments, greatly appreciated always.

 

Build update:  

 

Presently have been working on the headrail and associated pieces, but while I was waiting for some bending pieces to cure I decided to build up the six carronades required for the poop deck.

 

When purchasing the material for this build I decided to purchase the carronades from Caldercraft.  These seem to be the closest size for this scale, plus the came with the elevation screw.

 

Carronade assembly as follows:

1. Added breeching ring 20 gauge wire.

2. Shaped out of boxwood piece, drilled hole for mounting pin and glued to bottom of carronade.

3. Cut 1/8"dowel 1/16", drill center hole, slipped down screw, drilled two hole and glued 24 gauge wire handles.

4. Screwed onto carronade and cut screw (looking at magnified picture will cut off more, plus pic shows I need some cleanup).

5. Painted after treating brass pieces in Blacken-it.  Paint used Admiralty matt (metal) black.

 

Carronade carriage assembly as follows:

1. Cut and shaped two platform pieces out of basswood and painted red.

2. Made nine eyelids for each carriage out of 28 gauge wire and attached.

3. Added two more eyelids and rings out of 24 gauge wire for breeching rope.

4. Made and shaped wheel assembly plates out of thin styrene, cut round toothpicks 1/8" for wheels, glued pieces and added to bottom of carriage.  Initially, had an additional wood pieces on bottom as my carronade drawing showed, but when I put this on the ship was too high off the deck therefore removed and cut wheel plates in half.

5. Made the pin for the carronade out of filed down toothpick through draw plate.

6. Made the two side pin holders out of 1/8" dowel, filed bottom flat, and a strip of wood for bottom piece, glued together then drilled the hole for pin.

7. Glued carronade to carriage.

8. Made front pin plate out of thin styrene, added pin, painted black and glued to carriage.

 

Next up: mounting and rigging to poop deck.

 

Take care and if your reading this thanks for looking in.

[mort stoll]

No thank you for posting this, it is great.

 

Mort

[mtaylor]

Len,

 

Great looking guns and carriages.  I'll bet  your happy not to have to all 74 guns.

[Blue Ensign]

A very nice job on those carronades Len, they are excellent

 

B.E.

[russ]

Len:

You are doing really beautiful work. Thanks for sharing this build.

 

Russ

[gjdale]

Very nice indeed Len!

[Beef Wellington]

Those look fantastic Len!

[hollowneck]

Nice job on those carronades, Len!

 

Ron

[freewheelinguy]

Thanks for all the comments. Always appreciated and welcome either yah or nay.

 

Hard to believe a month has gone by, since my last post.  Still working on headrails area and rigging the carronades.  Modeling time has decreased because of cycling vacation to Wisconsin plus other interests.  Should post updated pictures once carronades are rigged.  

[freewheelinguy]

Build update:

 

Finished mounting and rigging the carronades on the poop deck.  Wasn't sure how to rig them properly, so I took my best shot.  The drawing I have shows the train tackles bulkhead eyelets spaced about the length away from the perpendicular.  I had two problems: one being the lack on bulkhead on this deck and second if I put the eyelets this distance the two aft most carronades rigging would overlap.  I guess the train tackles were spaced as specified to allow it to be pulled parallel with the deck.  I just mounted a eyelet for running out, breeching and train next to one another on each side.  I also think there was a tackle running on each side from the front eyelet on the slide of the carronade to an aft eyelet on deck for the purpose of bringing the slide aft for loading.  I had seen a drawing of this, but can't find it.  There are so many versions of carronade assemblies.  I've attached the picture of the one I used for example.  Would be great to have a reference for the use of each eyelet.

 

For rigging I used single and double blocks (3/32) purchased from Syren Model Company. The rigging line for breeching is from Amati and the tackles are DMC 100 and using UNI-thread 6/0 for seizings.  Hooks are made from black annealed #28 gauge wire.

 

Made up purchased buckets from Amati (these are made attaching two halves which did have some offset therefore required sanding, not good).  I did make the mistake of only purchasing 8, but 12 are needed to complete bucket rail, oh well.  Made the handles from 32 black annealed wire.

 

Presently working on the hammock cranes netting.  I'm using a material that I purchased when building my HMS Fly from JoAnn Fabrics (craft store).  It only comes in black, but has the diamond shape and pretty close to scale.  I think I paid about $1.25 for a yard of the stuff which is enough for many builds.  Prior to mounting this material, I ran DMC 40 thread through each hammock crane and secured a knot on each end.  Then made strips of eight rows of diamonds from the netting, folded in half and pushed into position, then using UNI-thread 6/0  tied a knot connecting each top diamond to the top thread rail.  Once complete used diluted Vallejo black paint, therefore the reason for covering deck.  Thin paint will spatter.

 

Continuing on.

[Rustyj]

Very nice job on what I consider a difficult part. Well done!  

[Ray]

Len Super work on rigging the carronades and the hammock netting, the netting is always trickey and yours looks spot on. 

[mtaylor]

Excellent work on the carronades and nettings. 

[RMC]

Len: before making your masts, make sure the boarding pike rings fit.  See my latest post.

 

Bob (RMC)

[WackoWolf]

Len,

 

     Excellent work, enjoy watching this build. Keep the pictures coming, I am always watching.

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Len, everyone has already said it, carronades look fantastic.  Is the breeching rope the beige 1mm Amati line?

[freewheelinguy]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments.  Greatly appreciated.

 

Jason,

 

It's Amati 1.3mm.  Scale wise diameter is larger than what is correct for these carronades, but visually I liked this better.

[RGL]

Awesome build!

[Anja]

Hello Len,

 

Happy birthday. I hope you have a great day.

 

 

Anja

[gjdale]

Happy Birthday Len! I hope you are spoiled with lots of Ship modelling presents.

[Chuck]

Looking good Len.   Tedious to rig those guns but it looks very good.  Boy that is nice deck planking too.  Look forward to seeing more.

 

Chuck

[mort stoll]

Happy birthday. Many many more my friend.

 

Mort