HMS Winchelsea 1764 by Matt D 1:48

[Matt D]

I am happy to announce that I have purchased the plans and am starting my build log for the HMS Winchelsea.  I've been interested in this since the first time I saw the project on the Syren Ship Models website.  I'm very excited to start a group project early on in its inception.  It will be fun to work on this with so many other modelers.  Thank you, Chuck, for putting this together and sharing your hard work and passion with us.  I will download the plans and get started on cutting frames this week.  

[Chuck]

Welcome to the group.....

[Matt D]

I’ve started working on frames.  I won’t get much more done until the weekend, but I really wanted to get the false keel and one bulkhead cut out and fit together.

[Chuck]

Very nice.  

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, Wallace said:

And off we go. Will you be using a jig to keep that keel and the bulkheads nice and square?

Yes.  I have some large scraps of 3/4" birch plywood hanging around my basement that I will use to build the base.  I'm going to use scraps from the 1/4" Baltic birch plywood to make right angle brackets to hold it square.  The base will be 12x36.  This model is gigantic!  I held it up next to my Virginia 1819.  The hull will be twice as long and almost twice as wide.  I knew that going in, but it's different when it's sitting on the bench.  Of course, you have to feel the same way about your HMS Victory.

[Matt D]

I have cut out all of the bulkheads and dry fitted them to the false keel.  It’s very gratifying to see this frame set coming together.  

Bow section parts

bow section assembled 

Mid ship section assembly 

Mid-ship parts

Here is the bow and midsection just loose fit together 

This is the aft section parts

 

This is the aft section assembly.

 

next, I’ll built the build board.  I’ve made the right angle stands and cut out the board.  I just need to assemble the pieces.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Matt D
Adding comments

[Chuck]

Make sure the bottoms of all those bulkheads touch the rabbet strip like this.  They should end flush or nearly so to the bottom of the bulkhead former.  You will need to adjust your slots so that is the case.  The only ones that dont are at the stern from say bulkhead 19 or so.  Those will follow the bearding line.

 

Chuck

 

 

Chuck

[Matt D]

Thanks, Chuck.  Your picture and direction help a lot.

[Matt D]

I made the build board and test fit the frame assembly in it.  The right angle brackets are made from scraps and held together with epoxy.  I used factory corners from my plywood to ensure that they are accurately 90 degrees.  The one in the picture below is the best one of the bunch. 

[Matt D]

8 hours ago, Wallace said:

The effort and attention to squaring it all off will pay dividends later on down the line Matt, believe me. 

Of that, I am certain!  Plus, this model will be on the build board for a long time because there's a ton of work to do before planking!  I suspect that I will need to build a hull contoured cradle for it to sit in at that point, and that replace the 90° stands with cradle pieces.

 

Chuck, it's a long ways down the road, but I thought I read in your log that there will be a longboat for Winnie.  Is that true?  If so, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Chuck]

My thoughts so far is that there will be both a longboat and a pinnace.   The cradles will be needed as you start planking the belt along the keel.  Its just a matter of using three bulkhead plansheets to take the curves from after adding and including a slot for the keel.  They will be placed in the same three locations as the brackets.

 

Chuck

[Matt D]

I received my chapter 1 parts just before leaving town for work.  So I couldn’t get much done for a couple of weeks.  I’ve assembled, tapered, and installed the stem pieces along with the rabbet.  Now, I’m working on the keel.

 

Chuck, I’m struggling in my mind with the false keel.  According to the parts list, there is one piece that is 1/4 x 5/64 and 15 inches long.  And that’s what is in my chapter 1 set.  That piece won’t cover the full length of the keel.  Is there another piece that I’ve overlooked?

[Matt D]

I have suffered a major setback on my Winnie project.  I had thought that my large sheets were a little oversized because I printed them on a 34x44 plotter.  But I had it set to 100% scale.  Apparently, those sheets are right and my bulkhead sheets were printed a little small.  I found out when I put the keel on and then laid it on the full size sheet.  The keel goes exactly to the end on the sheet and my false keel comes up short.  I did a little more testing and determined that every plywood piece is small.  I have to cut the whole thing out again.  Luckily, I think I can salvage the keel and stem using my #11 ungluer.

[Chuck]

That is too bad.....live and learn.....check every piece against the plans before proceeding the next.   It will come out even better teh second time around.

 

Chuck

[svein erik]

dont feel bad! i did the same mistake on my scratch build Pequot , so i have to cut everything out again....😲

as Chuck say .... it comes out better the 2 time😆 good luck with the winni build😊

 

svein erik

[Heronguy]

I've done 2 copies of the bulkheads and BF (plywood was too thick >1/4").  Definitely improved the job I did 2nd time.  Yours already were well cutout so you'll just have to chalk it up to "experience". 😀

[Matt D]

Thank you guys for all the nice words of encouragement.   And thanks for the likes.  I’m leaping right back to work on Winnie frame V2.0.  Luckily, I had enough Baltic Birch 5 ply to make the bulkhead former and I have plywood for the bulkheads as well.  So I’m taking advantage of the fact that the admiral is at work today and I’m at home.

[shihawk]

Sorry to hear of your mishap but now you have got me worried , I had problems getting the AO sheets printed and went ahead anyway .Am hoping to get them to-day so will need to check .At least it,s only ply but it,s the 

time wasted that would annoy me .You were better to find out now than further down the line .

 

Boyd

[Matt D]

4 hours ago, shihawk said:

Sorry to hear of your mishap but now you have got me worried , I had problems getting the AO sheets printed and went ahead anyway .Am hoping to get them to-day so will need to check .At least it,s only ply but it,s the time wasted that would annoy me .You were better to find out now than further down the line .

 

Boyd

Hi Boyd:

The step I skipped was to verify the scale on the print-outs.  If you lay your scale on it, you should be able to confirm that the prints are the right size.  Here is a picture of what it looks like.   Good luck with your sheets - I hope they came out the correct size. The good part for me is that the second set of frames is coming out much better than the first.  Apparently, I needed an extra ten or twelve hours of practice on my scroll saw!

[shihawk]

 I had started with 5mm ply and then changed to 5.5 mm so i agree the practise is usefull . Did get my sheets to day and thankfully all is good  . so onwards and upwards 

 

cheers Boyd .

[Matt D]

I’ve now fully recovered from my scaling error and am ready to move on.  One upside is that I used a softer plywood for the bulkheads this time.  I was using 5-ply Baltic birch.  My former is still made of that, but the bulkheads are now Home Depot grade birch plywood, which is filled with something much softer and lighter than 5-ply Baltic birch.  That should make fairing much easier.  I’m now ready to start gluing bulkheads into position and fairing the hull.

[Chuck]

Nicely done!!!   Glad to see you are back on track.  

[Matt D]

I am getting the gun port sills and lintels ready.  I cut them all out using my calipers to find the lengths and then using my home made scroll saw crosscut sled.  That setup lets me accurately cut both sides at the same time.

 

 

First, I measured the gap at the bulkhead former.

Then transfer that length to the crosscut sled stop

Then cut two sills or lintels at once.  I still had to sand a little to get a good fit, but I did that together as well to ensure the same length on port and starboard.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Matt D
Added more descriptions

[Chuck]

That is a smart way to do those.  Well done.

[Matt D]

Thank you, Chuck, Mark, and the likes.  It felt good to make some new progress again!

[Matt D]

My gun ports are all framed in and faring is pretty close to complete.  I’ve taken my time and had to fix a few problems.  I broke both sides of bulkheads 25 and 27 early on.  That mainly happened because I messed up the installation of 25 and had it off center by about 1/16th.  It did look bad until I started sanding and could really see it proud on one side and recessed on the other.  I was trying to cut it free and broke one upright.  It all turned to crap as I tried fixing it and ended up with a new pass through the scroll saw.  As you can see, I did some reinforcing on the new ones.  I also broke the starboard upright on A and fixed it with a bridge.  In these pictures, the stern frames are just dry fit so I could see how they look.

[Matt D]

Tonight’s work was to set the stern frames, glue the tick strips, and fit the window guides into place.  Next time I get to the shipyard, I’ll work on the sills and lintels.

[Chuck]

Really looking good Matt.  You are making steady progress.😁

[Matt D]

It was a beautiful day here in southeast Michigan today:  50 degrees and sunny with just a little more breeze than I would have liked.  So I pulled my table saw out of the garage and milled my chapter 2 lumber.  My saw is a Jet 10” contractor grade saw with a pretty good blade, but a crappy fence.  So I used a piece of 3/4” birch plywood to make a false deck that I clamped on top of it and screwed a 1/4” thick piece of basswood onto that to use as a fence.  That gave me good results.  Unfortunately, my blade kerf is thicker than a band saw blade.  Thirteen 1/4” billets yielded about 150 planks.  So I’m sure I’ll be short.  I’ll wait to order more until I get an idea of how short I’ll be.  I’m very happy with my results.  I made a ton of pieces today and kept all of my blood inside me.  Table saws are very unforgiving, so I took my time and did it very carefully.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Matt D
Punctuation

[Matt D]

I’ve made some progress on the stern.  I’m not quite sure how to use the other two stern filler pieces.  It looks like they should go on the bottom of the stern frames horizontally.  But I haven’t quite figured out how they fit.  Do they need to be sanded a lot?  I was thinking about using the stern planks to guide me a bit.  

 

In case you noticed, I changed the white balance on my camera from “auto” to “incandescent”.  My shop lighting is mostly soft white LED fixtures. This still isn’t quite right, so I’m going to try using the custom white balance setting.  But I need to read up on it a bit first.