HMS Pickle by mugje - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:64 - first build

[Ronald-V]

Also planked the outside of the stern with some scrapwood that i found.

It's not mentioned in the manual, but the large piece of walnut didn't looked accurate. It looked to me a bit weird that they had such large pieces of wood in that period 😁

[Ronald-V]

[Sea Hoss]

Your deck looks great! Doing a nice job of it all...

[Ronald-V]

Thank you! 😁

[Ronald-V]

Just varnished the deck. I really like it how it let pop the color of the planks! The result is beautiful in my opinion.

How much layers of varnish do you guys put on the deck? One or two?

[Ronald-V]

Just painted the inner bulwarks ochre red. Fun to do! I like painting the ship, because i can channel my pursuit of perfection into it 😂😁

[GrandpaPhil]

Excellent work!

[Ronald-V]

Thank you Phil!

[Ronald-V]

Does anyone has some tips about how to install the capping rails? It's a tricky situation.

I tried with wood glue and nails, but it's not really accurate. The nails are splitting the bulwarks.

I only drilled holes in the capping rails (a bit smaller then the nails itself). Maybe also in the bulwarks?

It's to difficult to clamp it somehow.

[Edwardkenway]

Hi Mugje I held my capping rails on Sherbourne down with elastic  bands as you can put quite a bit of tension on with them.

Hope this helps  

BTW  very nice job

[Ronald-V]

Great tips! Thank you both!

 

I have now first soaked the capping rails and dry fitted them with nails really careful, drilled the rails and the bulwarks. I'm letting this set for two days (going on a trip tommorow😁)

 

Then i hope the rails have the nice bend already in them when i'm gonna glue them with the elastic bands👍.

Sounds like great tips guys. I tried the bands but they pusht them inside the bulwarks, but the trick with the pieces of scrapwood sounds really clever👍

Edited August 8, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

Okay...tested the method with the elastic bands, but couldn't get it just right. But the scrap pieces did help! I used the scrap pieces with clamps against the bulwarks, so it was easier to align the capping rails. But still used pins to nail the rails at the bulwarks. This worked pretty okay. Still needs lot's of touching up afterwards 😁😉

 

I found that the montage of the capping rails one of the most difficult parts of the build was for now, but really satisfying when it's done 😊👍

[Ronald-V]

Needs some filling here

[Ronald-V]

Getting more and more respect for the people who make the ships 'naturel' regarding the colors! I can correct a lot of mistakes with some filler and paint, so that's handy for now😂

[Ronald-V]

Thank you a lot! I will look for finer pins. These ones have a thickness of 0.7 mm

 

[Ronald-V]

Ah tnx! It's a lot clearer now! That with the elastic bands does sound a lot easier now. I just misunderstood it wrong in the first place. Well, that's useful in a lot of ways indeed. Thanks for al the help👍

That lego seems also very handy, so i need some of that  

Edited August 13, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

filled the gap between the capping rails with a piece of scrapwood, and cleant it up afterwards.

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

with the Dremel just flatted the pins. I filled the dents...that came along with my Dremel work with some wood filler

Edited August 13, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

started painting

[Ronald-V]

The copper plates still need some work...there are some spots of glue residue. It's not the most fun work, so i do it in little steps

[Ronald-V]

Finished al the painting of the hull! That's a nice milestone for now

Especially the bottom of the yellow strip was difficult for me. I didn't get it perfect in my eyes with just the hand.

So i used masking tape and that made a lot of difference. Now it's okay to me.

The flashy spots on the copper plates are from the dremel. I have to clean the plates once more so everything can age simultaneously.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

I used some steel wol and sandpaper to rough the paint a bit up. I don't like the clean look of a freshly painted ship.

It's needs to be a bit old and scruffy ;). The pictures don't capture it just right. In real life it looks much better.

I need to borrow the camera of a friend of mine so i can photograph the details better.

 

[Ronald-V]

I enjoy the build a lot! In the past i was a person that gave up on things pretty fast because i encountered to many problems, but this hobby

is teaching me patience and selfesteem. Wonderful! 🎇

I'm so happy that i rediscovered the hobby again. I think that i wasn't ready for it a few years ago. Now it's time to move on with it, and to enjoy 

the process it's given me.

 

Little personal sidenote

[Ronald-V]

The hull is ready so i can start with the inner bulwark fittings. First i will fresh up the cleats, they are pretty rough casts.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

then I painted the etched brass eyelets and cleats with first a metal primer and then 'mat metal black' from Admiralty paints.

It's really small haha! I have to get used to it...to handle such small items

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

Then installing...

[Ronald-V]

Working on the carronades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by mugje

[Ronald-V]

[Ronald-V]

It's needing some paintwork when it's finished but it looks already good now. It's really small! Almost to small for my trembling fingers haha.

And i find it a bit weird that Caldercraft didn't use solid pieces of walnut, but a kind of plywood idea with two small layers of walnut and something cheaper in between.

A bit of a compromise.

[robdurant]

17 minutes ago, mugje said:

find it a bit weird that Caldercraft didn't use solid pieces of walnut,

Hi mugje,

 

I expect solid walnut at that sort of size would have been too fragile as it would split along the grain... plywood walnut is a better material for the task, but it does bring with it the challenge of tidying it.up to look neat. The alternative would be a harder finer grained wood such as european boxwood, but it's very expensive compared to walnut. 

 

Well done with those carronades! They look fantastic... much neater than my effort... Pickle was my first wooden model too. Keep up the great work.

 

Rob