HMS Resolution ( AKA Ferrett ) by Gregory - Corel - Scale 1:50

[Gregory]

This will be my build of the Corel Resolution kit.  I was attracted to this kit based on a build I saw at  Model Ship Builder This is a Japanese site with many  very nice models represented.  I favor the natural wood/antique look with my models, so the style of this build serves as inspiration for what I hope to accomplish.

I have a rather long winded prologue that follows, so feel free to skip to the actual build description that should show up down there somewhere…

 

There has been some discussion here at MSW about the basis for this kit design.  It is pretty much agreed there was no actual ship of this configuration named HMS Resolution.

Resolution Solved

 

There are some plans from the National Maritime Museum of a sloop named Ferrett ( 1711 ), a 10-gun single-masted, cutter-rigged Sloop.. 

 

We also found some plans drawn by Howard Chapelle, that are clearly based on the NMM plans, embellished somewhat, but matching the basic lines perfectly as far as I can tell.

Corel appears to have used those lines, and embellished the ship even further, which I will discuss more as I go along, because I will not be incorporating some of those embellishments in my build.

There is more.

Chapelle drew another set of lines and wrote:

“ Ferrett and Sharke “ ,with  more detailed information pictured below.  I assume Chapelle had access to some resources I haven’t been able to identify, or he speculated based on convention at the time.

 

There are some plans of “ Shark ( 1732 ) “  from the NMM which say: “ A ketch-rigged 8-gun Sloop. “The lines are very similar to Ferrett, but not a 1 to 1 match.  A major, but not the only difference, being two masts, which fits the “ketch “ designation.

 

 

Corel calls the ship a ‘ cutter ‘ .

 I wondered what makes a sloop a “ sloop “, and found it was very ambiguous..  I settled on this from Wikipedia.

In part:

 “ A sloop is a sailing boat with a single mast typically meaning one headsail in front of the mast, and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast.”

We also find:

 “ If the vessel has two or more headsails, the term cutter may be used, especially if the mast is stepped further towards the back of the boat.”

On the other hand there are a lot of ships called sloops, that have two or three masts.

I’m not uncomfortable with the designation of a cutter because the sail plan seems very similar to other cutters, as well as the notation on the NMM collection article which says :“ Cutter rigged sloop. “

 

The NMM plans say the length of the gun deck from rabbet to rabbet is 65 feet, while I calculate the scaled length of the Corel model at about 70..  I imagine the other dimensions will not match any better, but not an issue as far as I’m concerned.

 

Chapelle provides some deck details in one of his drawings that differ significantly from what Corel calls for.  Since there are no deck details on the NMM drawings of Ferrett, I would lean toward the Chapelle interpretation, but I may mix and match as I go along, and point it out when I deviate from the Corel plans.

The two large grates do not look typical to me, and I will have to see what I will do with that deck space.

 

 

 

I can’t resist the urge to also note, that in my research, I found a Sterling kit of Ferret on eBay..

 

It looks like it was probably based on the Chapelle drawings, but the deck plan seems a bit absurd with some sort of ship’s boat athwartship with no capstain or windlass.

 

I have also found two Ferret kits from the Ideal Model Co..   One plastic, and the other wood. They both appear to be based on the Chapelle drawings.

Continuing on, here is a brief rundown of the Corel kit contents.  If anyone has any questions, I will do my best to provide an answer.

The box art..

 

The framework is well done, but I have some modifications in mind, which I will document later.

 

There is a generous fittings package.

 

Unfortunately, the provided sailcloth is too heavy, and the flag set is un-usable..  I make my own rope, so the provided stuff is of no use to me.

 

There are eight sheets of well drawn plans.  The strip wood and dowels appear to be of good quality, but I will have to see what is usable as the build progresses.

 

(To be continued.)

 

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Gregory

[Thunder]

Hi,

 

This was a very enjoyable kit to build even though I new the history to be incorrect. Materials are very good. I didn't use the flag at the time but managed to make it look respectable on my Speedy build ( well I think so). It was one of my early builds so I didn't do the research to much later. 

 

One major difference between a cutter and sloop is the fitting of the bowsprit. The sloop is at a greater angle and fixed. The cutter runs parallel with the deck and can be hauled in to shorten its length.

 

I am going to look forward to your build as I have so often thought of re-vamping mine. The first thing I would do is change the stern gallery and badge mouldings. Then I would re-rig as a sloop because I managed to do a bit of a cutter / sloop hybrid.

[Gregory]

Seeing your build inspired me to get this off the shelf and get busy.

 

I just looked at your flag on speedy.  It looks really good. Was that out of the box?  The red is all bled out on mine and I can't think of any easy if any way at all to fix that.

Here is a readable version of the text from one of the Chapelle drawings.

 

[Thunder]

Hi,

 

The flag was straight out of the box and just needed trimming. It wasn't on a sheet like that but on its own and was very clear. It was just very stiff and took a lot of soaking and shaping. My wife brought me the kit in the first few years we were married and we have been married 27 years so may of been an earlier version.

 

Adrian

[Gregory]

 

Corel's plans call for the stem, keel and stern post to be covered with veneer at some point.  I'm fortunate to have acquired a laser cutter not too long ago, so my intention is to create a built up stem and keel parts with some wood stock yet to be determined.

 

 

First, I cut out part of the plans to define my cutting area.

 

 

I had to cut the frame into two pieces, because my laser bed is not big enough for the full size frame.

I put it back together, added a rabbet strip and started defining the bearding line.  You can see the pieces I cut off with the laser; they will help me shape the new parts.

 

Here are the tentative lines for the stem parts.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Gregory

[Gregory]

I'm working on the prototype for the stem pieces.

 I decided to use the stem profile from the Chapelle/NMM drawings, as I don't plan on using the figurehead

provided in the kit, and the NMM lines  appear to reflect a common shape of the period.

 

The char has not been cleaned up, and I may not bother, as I will be using some other wood, yet to be determined.

The joint on the two front pieces does not look tight because it isn't glued.  The back piece is just one piece at this time.

I decided to just engrave the scarfs instead of cutting three desperate pieces.  Depending on how the grain looks on the 

wood I settle on, I may decide to make separate pieces.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Gregory

[Gregory]

A few subtle changes.

I cut some pieces from my new yellowheart .

Not glued, and not cleaned up, so we can compare the difference afterword.

The discoloration is from the smoke created when cutting..  That should change with the cleaning..

 

I realized I shaped the forward-most stem to sit too high as seen in the previous post, so I scaled that back..I should have the rest of the keel finished soon

[Gregory]

I  realized ( later ), that conforming the beakhead to the Chapelle and NMM drawings, also meant changing the part of the stem behind the beak.. ( Someone let me know what the correct terminology is )

I cut out the rest of the keel and stern post and glued it to the backbone..   The difference in color, from front to rear, is mostly due to lighting.  The Rudder is a work in progress, and not finely tuned yet.  Considering the way I work, it may be version one, of several versions to come.

 

 

While not  scale, but still relatively fine, I like the way a coat of poly has brought out the grain in the yellowheart that I chose for the stem and keel.  I have yet to decide how I may use this wood in other parts of the model.

 

Thinking ahead about the details of the model; things to be working on while glue is drying; I am working on the cannon.  The included barrels, are really quite nice, and seem to be a reasonable size for six or eight pounders.   I will be looking for any input and opinions in this regard..  They measure in at 35 mm, which at the kit scale of 1:50 translates to  5.75 feet .  My research has shown the barrel length for various " pounders" can vary somewhat.

 

The kit supplied carriages might have seemed acceptable 20 or more years ago, but not now in the age of laser cutting, and the standards set by the models we see here at MSW.

Luckily, as I mentioned earlier, I just happen to have a laser cutter.

I'm working on a built up carriage, based on various drawings and several build logs here at MSW..

 

This is a little rough, and not my final choice of wood..  What you see is walnut, and I am thinking of going with cherry.

Why a dark wood with the carriages?

I have a vision of an un-painted model with contrasting (but not too severe) woods.  The deck will be lighter, with darker details including the gun carriages.

I noted in a build log by BlueEnsign regarding the Cutter Alert kit, that the carriage trucks had square hubs and  axles.  He also noted how fragile the axles could be when trying to round them off;  particularly at the scales we are working at.  My answer to this problem is a sanding tool I devised for rounding off small square stock.  It is simply some fine ( 320 ) sanding paper rolled into a small tube, affixed to some small round stock and used with my low RPM Dremel tool. The inside of the tube is the working side.

Here is the tentative result; keeping in mind  I plan to smooth some of those rough surfaces you see..

It could be a matter of perspective, but it may appear the carriage is under sized compared to the barrel.  However I have based my parts on a number of resources  such as Chuck's long gun on the Cheerful, and the 6 pounder from the Hahn plans of rattlesnake. 

 

 

I have also been looking at the excellent guns that DocBlake put together for his Blandford cross section.

 

...Which don't appear a lot different, in my opinion, to the proportions of the gun I have put together.

 

 

That's it for now..  Should be fitting the bulkheads and beginning the planking soon..

 

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Gregory

[Gregory]

A little bit of progress..

 

The main false deck is a real tight fit and all I really needed to square up the bulkheads. 

The quarter deck false deck did not match the plans and wasn't fitting well, so I cut a new piece, which resulted in the color difference..

Looking forward to starting the planking. after fairing things up a bit.

 

 

[Gregory]

No update for a while but I haven't been entirely idle.

 

I have almost completed the first planking, but it is uglier than I would care to share  at the moment..

I have continued work on my gun carriages. Fine tuning the design, and experimenting with different wood, in an effort to come up with a final plan.

 

Meanwhile, I'm still exploring the use of my laser cutter to refine what can be done with this kit.

 

When it comes to planking the deck, I like to do it off of the ship.  I print the deck plan on tracing paper, then glue the planks onto the paper.

 

This is a first effort with planks made from maple veneer with my laser cutter.  I feel the laser char takes care of the simulated  caulking.

(.. to be honest, not the first effort, but the first time I'm happy enough to show what I've come up with )  

I hope to be showing more progress in the near future.

 

Anyone who has experimented with fabricating their own parts, can probably attest to the amount of time you can spend trying to get it perfect, which never really happens.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Gregory

[Gregory]

Finished up the quarterdeck planking. If you compare my finished work to the last post, I decided to increase the number of imaginary  beams under the quarterdeck.  Three would have been unlikely and it made it difficult make the scarfed planks look nailed realistically.

It is my understanding that ' nibbing ' wasn't done in the period ( 1711 ) this ship represents, so I shaped the outer planks with hook scarfs  to avoid points butting into the margin.

 

 

 

 

As I was finishing this up, I was reminded of why I like to do this off the ship..   I had completed, or thought I had, the work you see above and was applying some poly when I realized I had left out a plank on the left side of the deck.  It was obvious after the fact, but I had spent so much time staring at the tree nail pattern, I guess I saw what I wanted to see.

 

Anyway I was able to splice in the missing plank/s with very little effort compared to the problem it would have been if all the planks had been glued onto the false deck.  Instead of just splicing in a plank, all of the planks to the left of the missing one, would have to have been ripped out.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Gregory

[Gregory]

P.S.

I have picked up so many tips from the other members here, I may not always remember to give credit where credit is due.  With that in mind, I want to say that I got the idea for the scarfed planks near the margin from Chuck's instructions for the USF Confederacy.  The instructions for most, if not all of Chucks designs are available for free at Model Expo, and they are an incredible resource for detail work.

 

However, they are a mixed blessing in that they really set the bar high, and make it a little difficult for me to reach a point where I can say " O.K., That's good enough; time to move on.

[Gregory]

This will take a while longer than the quarter deck, but it should go relatively faster with the lessons learned. 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Gregory

[EricWilliamMarshall]

On 3/25/2020 at 4:31 PM, Gregory said:

The instructions for most, if not all of Chucks designs are available for free at Model Expo, and they are an incredible resource for detail work.

I agree!! They are like ship modeling school!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

On 3/25/2020 at 4:31 PM, Gregory said:

are a mixed blessing in that they really set the bar high, and make it a little difficult for me to reach a point where I can say " O.K., That's good enough; time to move on.

I hear that! I just tell myself: my early work (I.e. what I’m doing now), will help show how much I have improved later!

[Gregory]

Time to bite the bullet and share what we all know:  It's not always pretty.

 

My first planking is just about ready for the 2nd finishing layer. 

I don't like to use paint except in certain circumstances, which I will bring up later when I paint something. With that in mind, I am using a dark mahogany stain to accent the gun ports. 

 

Still have some details to work out with the bow gunwales. Fabricating some knight heads, not part of the kit plans, but  based on the Chapelle drawings.

Meanwhile, I am working on other details while the glue dries..

 

The kit includes a so-so cast transom, but it will not fit my vision for this model.

Again, I go to the Chapelle drawings for Ferret/Sharke.

 

 

These are my laser cut frames that I will incorporate into a cherry transom.

I don't think I will be attempting any detailed carving on this model, but will accent the shape of the transom and window frames with some moldings.

 

With a lot of time on my hands, I will hopefully have more updates soon.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Gregory

[Gregory]

Work goes on..

For me, the planking is more than one project. I switch back and forth between above and below the wales.  

Port side above the wales is almost done.  The darker color on the left is where I am seeing how some poly will look.

Only three strakes below the wales so far.  I'm still doing some planning for tapering at the bow an broadening for the stern.  The kit uses 4mm wide planks and calls for 5 stealers at the stern.

I'm making my own 5mm planks out of veneer and will shape them to avoid stealers or drop planks.

 

This is my spilling technique that I am still refining. Good thing I have plenty of the veneer I am using.  I lay a piece of masking tape over the area where I want to put a plank, and trace it with pencil.

 

I lay it out flat on a piece of paper, which I then scan, and refine the shape in my editing programs.

I then use this pattern to cut out the plank with my laser. 

 

 

 

Needs a little trimming for a tight fit, but it lays flat with no further bending required.

No pictures of my scrap bin while I was refining this process..😁

 

Looking ahead:

I won't be using the cast quarter badges that came with the kit.

 

As with the transom, I will try to put together something based on the Chapelle drawings.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Gregory

[Gregory]

 

Minor update to show I'm still working..  

Planking above the wales complete.  A couple of coats of poly, with more to come.

Next up; inboard gunwales and cap rales.

[Gregory]

Hard to believe it's been over two weeks since an update, because I have been doing some work almost every day, if it has only been to lay a plank or two. As I mentioned,

I'm spiling the planks that are curved and it takes some tweaking to get a good fit.  The scrap bin has grown considerably.

 

Here is the last plank for the port side ready for gluing.   The finish on the bow, while not perfect, is not as lumpy as it appears in the photo.  The grain of the wood and lighting create a look

that is somewhat unflattering..  But I know you all know how that goes.

 

I'm Satisfied with the fit. 

I decided to go with one drop plank on the bow.  While they usually show up higher on the bow, I said " what the heck " .  Being close to finishing the side at this point, my laziness got the better of me and I decided to make one plank instead of three.

 

 

Port side done.

 

Not a lot left to do on the starboard:

... and I'm looking forward to working on the other aspects of this build, that aren't as repetitious as the planking.  

[Edwardkenway]

Excellent planking, I keep striving to get such a good looking hull! 

Very nice work. 

[Gregory]

Thanks..

[Gregory]

 

Starboard all done.

She stem and keel are showing lighter than they appear in person.  Perhaps future updates will show there is less contrast that this picture shows.

[Gregory]

Finished the main deck planking off the boat.

 

 

Installed in place.  Lot of detail to be done.

 

 

 

Here is a little jig I made for placing the eyebolts for the gun tackle.

[VTHokiEE]

Neat jig for the gun tackles; I'll probably be borrowing that.

[DavidG]

a very nice model you are building, these Corel kits build into great looking ships.

regarding the transom, I agree the casting doesn't fit the quality of your work. If the cast decoration piece is crisp enough, you may try to make a copy with a blue stuff and modeling clay and glue it over your wooden transom. there's a lot of how-to videos out there, make a search for blue stuff/oyumaru.

[Gregory]

Thanks..  I will have to check out the " Blue Stuff " ...

[Gregory]

One of the detail projects..

The kit plans show an unlikely door to the great cabin.  Scaled from over 7 feet, it seems there was some misunderstanding about the average height back then, or even now.

 

 

Here is my prototype for the bulkhead and door. I borrowed some dimension ideas from Greg Herbert and David Antscherl's Speedwell , where I calculated the

door height to be about 4'7".  Stooping a bit as you step down, would seem to be the order of the day.

I plan on refining this a bit more and will present the final design later.

 

 

[Gregory]

 

Finished up my quarterdeck bulkhead project.  The scrap pile grew considerably while refining this..

 

 

The cupola, also inspired by Greg Herbert and David Antscherl's Speedwell, was more challenging for me than I expected.  

 Still trying to avoid paint, I settled on a wood mold that I covered with copper leaf..  The patina was created by enclosing the part in a sandwich bag with a chopped boiled egg..

 

Go figure...

 

What to do next..  Capping rail? Tiller ?  Cannon?    I have already fiddled a bit with all of those..  Now to get it done...

[Gregory]

Ooops!  I just realized I didn't add the hinges, and a door knob/latch handle..  

I'll be back...

[Gregory]

As promised..

 

 

Card stock and Mod Podge.

 

 

 

One little project at a time..