HMBV Granado by Vane - Caldercraft - Scale 1:64

[Vane]

HM Bomb Vessel Granado - 3rd build

My third build I am actually doing in slight parallell mode to my HMS Snake. Both vessels are similar in size and so far it has been quite easy to do something on the first model and then the same to the other. I hope I havent taken on too much since I am also rigging my HMS Victory from Corel.

 

I think the Granado is a really beautiful model with nice lines and also a rather unique look with the huge bomb throwers in the center of the ship. This will be a great addition to my other builds.

 

 

 

History

According to JoTiKa, 12 bomb vessels, including Granado (the sixth), were built at the outbreak of the War of Jenkins's Ear in 1739.

Granado was ordered on September 14th 1741 and the keel was laid on November 18th 1741. Although it is uncertain who designed the Granado, it is commonly attributed to Thomas Slade, the naval Surveyor who oversaw the construction of the ship at Ipswich. Thomas Slade also went on to design famous ships such as H.M.S. Victory.

Granado was unusual in that she was designed to be used as either a sloop or a bomb vessel, being constructed with a conventional square stern. Launched on June 22nd 1742, Granado was taken to Harwich, fitted out and put in commission as a sloop.An Admiralty Order on July 15th 1745 was issued 'to fit her (Granado) as a bomb' but this order was reversed on July 17th 1745 and Granado remained as a sloop. It was not until 1756 that Granado was fitted for the first time as a bomb vessel from an Admiralty Order on July 26th 1756. Between the launch of Granado on June 22nd 1742 and her fitting as a bomb vessel July 26th 1756 a number of changes had been made to Granado's configuration as compared to the original Admiralty plans the most noticeable of these are as follows:

1.     Two extra 4pdr carriage guns were added (Admiralty order of June 20th 1745) bringing the total 4pdr carriage guns to 10.
2.     Two bow chaser gun ports were added allowing accommodation of the extra guns either under the forecastle as bow chasers or at the fifth gunports.
3.     The mortars as shown in the Admiralty plans are two 13 inch mortars however when fitted as a bomb vessel this was actually changed to 1 x 13inch and 1 x 10inch mortar. This is confirmed by the provisions list on March 30th 1757 which details 50 large and 50 small shells.

Granado remained as a bomb vessel until the Admiralty Order to fit her as a sloop on March 20th 1760. It was during this period as a bomb vessel that Granado was involved in her most active role. On January 22nd 1759 Granado and the squadron under command of Commodore John Moore anchored off Basse Terre. The following morning the citadel and batteries of Basse Terre were bombarded. By January 24th troops had occupied the forts of Basse Terre and Fort Royal, the town had been devastated by fire caused by the carcasses discharged from the bomb vessels. On February 7th, the fleet moved to attack Fort Louis at the entrance to Cul de Sac Bay. The attack began the following day and by February 15 the bombardment ceased with the capture of the Fort.

Granado was again converted to a bomb vessel in August 1761 and she remained as such until she was sold on August 30th 1763 for £575. During this period Granado was involved in the action of capturing Morro Castle and El Morro in the West Indies and the capitulation of Havana on August 13th 1762.

 

The kit

This kit is one of the newer from Caldercraft and that is very noticable. The plans and instructions are extremily good and way more describing than the HMS Snake. This kit is also has much more parts in it and seams to be much more detailly made. Its a much more complex build and probably not suitable as a first model. 

 

The wood was better in this kit however I think Caldercraft makes a bit of false advertisement when they only provide walnut for the second planking while all of the photos they have on this ship is made of a much brighter wood (probably boxwood). 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Vane
Added kit photos

[Vane]

Caldercraft has a good basic design of their models and its quite easy to get started once you understand how its made. However, they seem to have redesigned it since their first models. The HMS Snake you could "lock" the whole sceleton of the ship with the pre cut floor. Now you are supposed to add the floor later.

 

The precut gunports also have a different design where you can first add a half long board underneath it in the front section.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Vane
Added photos

[Nikiforos]

She looks terribly fragile -- and all these scales ... 1200th, 350th, 72nd, 64th, 60th, 50th, 25th... Other modelled subjects tend to huddle around common scales but ships, no. Wonder why that is apart from the gulf between, say, an aircraft carrier and a coracle in their own RL scales, and that's obvious,  but we could say the same of a 00's Bleriot monoplane and a 50's Vulcan nuclear bomber.

 

Regardless, I think the Granado will be a looker once out of the drydock. 

O7

[Vane]

I like the 1:64 scale for wooden ships. Nice details and perfect to work with without a microscope!

[Vane]

I would prefer to build various ships in the exact same scale just so they look nice and correct next to each others. Caldercrafts Nelson Navy series is mostly the same. However, I do think that one reason that most manufactures differ so much is that modelships tend to be displayed alone and then they tend to suite best in a certain size. And if a ship becomes too large it is difficult to decorate your living Room with it. For example, even Caldercraft decided to not go with 1:64 for HMS Victory. Yes, it would had been a really impressive model, but would it be practical? 

[Vane]

Making progress with the planking...

[Vane]

First layer done. So far so good.

[Vane]

And now to the most difficult decision, so please help me out!

 

Should I stick with the walnut in the kit or order some boxwood for the 2nd planking? 

 

Anyone got any good photos of the kit made in walnut?

[GrandpaPhil]

Are you planning to paint?  

[jwvolz]

I did my Granado finish planking with Boxwood and am very happy I made that decision. The walnut in my kit was of very poor quality. There are photos of how it looks in my build log link. 

[Vane]

I am only painting it as on the box with some black and white. So there will be plenty of wood seen..  i got lots of photos of how it will be in boxwood but less in walnut 

[Vane]

I think i have enough walnut with quality for it.. the question is what is better looking..  dark or light ?

[Vane]

Before Brexit, I am doing a larger order from my UK supplier. I am ordering my favourite kit (even though it will take a long time before i can take it on) and larger amount of wood i think i need for the future. So it is time to decide on the second planking (where only the whale will be painted black). 

 

Unfortunately, I dont like the look from walnut on this kit. As I understand, the Ferrari of woods, Boxwood, would be best but it seems to be impossible to find a supplier in Europe that ships 1×4mm strips? So what are my options then?

 

I want something brighter than walnut and pleasant to work with. At the moment, Tanganyika is what i found to be the next best thing to boxwood. Easy to get also. Any other suggestions from you?

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by Vane

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Vane, you seem to have quite a few kits underway, don't know how you do it!  Anyway, to your question...I can only share my personal experiences...

 

Lime - rather soft, very pale and not sure how evenly it would take stain if you were looking to colour

Maple - hard, does darken slightly over time from its initial paleness to be not totally dissimilar to tanganika.

Tanganika - in my Snake build I used the supplied Tanganika for the deck and it looked great.  Additional orders I found to be less satisfactory, as well as the wood provided in my Diana kit, as the wood had a very non-scale red/brown grain in the pores which I didn't like

Walnut - nothing more need to be said, but I think I've only experienced the really bad kit supplied stuff so maybe not fair to judge.  But, my personal preference is for a lighter look similar to the contemporary admiralty models.  Think its personal preference on the colour, and the colour does seem to vary a lot, the stuff I've seen tending to be darker.

 

Best of luck agonizing over this!

[Vane]

Thanks for your support. It's definitely a difficult choice. I don't need to rush it though. Have plenty of work on my other kits to do and Granado is last on my priority list.

 

The choice of wood is not just about this kit. IMHO I think all my 1:64 kits should in the end be consistent but at the same time show some variation so they look good when displaying them together if u understand what I mean. Does that make sense?

Edited July 24, 2019 by Vane

[Jolley Roger]

Pear or cherry might be a good option too and should be available in 4mm strips - Pear and cherry

[Vane]

So many options... :-P

[Vane]

The whales have been marked out. This kit design differs from others i have done where u start with doing the complete whales by adding 3 strips of 1x4mm walnut in 2 layers.  After that you start with the 2nd planking.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Vane

[Ronald-V]

Interesting build! I like the ship to and considering it for a second build. The wood choice is difficult tho!

[Vane]

I Will do the whales in walnut, paint them black and then try a few options out...

[Vane]

The pre bending tool makes it a bit easier... but I hope i got this right. It feels that everything else will be relying on getting this in exact position!

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Vane - Looking good.  The trick with the wale it seems is to have it parallel to the sheer of the top of the bulwarks and all of the various rails.  Once you see it it seems so obvious but is very apparent from looking at original plans, but I completely missed it on my Snake build.  Given that you have these preformed, it should be possible to use that as a guide.

[Vane]

Thanks. I havent done it on my Snake yet where u add three 3mm stripes on top of the 2nd planking. Here you start with the whale which is  bigger (2layers of three 4mm stripes).

Edited August 10, 2019 by Vane

[Beef Wellington]

I think the method of building up the wales as you are doing to more preferable and would suggest doing the same on Snake and Diana, which both suggest planking wale over second planking - both are the oldest CC kits I believe.  On quite a few models you see the run on the second layer planks and the wale crossing over each other which to my eye now looks awkward.  This is more in line with how the wales would be done on a framed model, and allows you get a nice finish on the wale first, and a nice foundation for the run of the second planking.

[Vane]

Its a huge difference between the Granado and the Snake kit. So I guess there has been alot of product development. Its too late to change on the Snake now but once i start on my Diana i Will go with the method that worked best 🙂

[Vane]

First layer of the whales in place... one more to go!

Edited August 10, 2019 by Vane

[Vane]

Whales added and sanded. For once, i didnt use pins... the Chuck method with CA. It took some time to get used to … with my fingers constantly stuck on the model like a kid licking a metalpole a cold winterday.

I am seriously thinking of using Tanganyika Wood for the planking since i dont know where to get boxwood in Europé.  

[Vane]

So how many layers of paint should I give this whales before starting with the 2nd planking which will be natural?

[GrandpaPhil]

Until it covers well is my advice.

[Vane]

Its already completely black after the first layer... but when i read the more professional buildlogs they seame to do several and also sanding in between. 

 

Just looking at all buildlogs we all are aiming at different results/quality. Some builders just glue the pieces together without any sanding at all others do it so perfectly so there is not a single visable scratch or crack.