Swallow 1779 by tlevine - FINISHED - 1:48 scale

[dvm27]

The use of the thin tape to make the reinforcing rings is very clever and looks very convincing Toni!

[tlevine]

The cannon and swivel guns have all been cast and blackened.  The casting process went surprisingly well.  I bought a pewter bar and casting spoon from my local jeweler's supply house (Amazon).  Using a jeweler's saw, I cut off teaspoon-sized pieces from the pewter and melted them in the spoon over the flame on my cooktop.  The guns were cast using the setup shown a few weeks ago without any difficulty.  I waited a few minutes between each pour to allow the mold to cool down.  Unfortunately, the royal casting mark did not come up as sharply as I had hoped.  Most likely this occurred because it is made of paper.  Everything was blackened in pewter blackening solution from Blue Jacket.  Finally, they were clear-coated with a matte finish.  I also noticed that I had neglected to mold the trunnions on the swivel guns.  This was corrected by boring through the gun and inserting a brass wire.

The cannon barrels needed carriages to rest on.  The first two pictures show the numerous parts necessary to construct the carriage.  I will not be making the capsquare until the guns are ready to be mounted.  The last photo shows the cannon resting on the carriage before the capsquare is installed.

[tlevine]

I have managed to get a little more work done on Swallow.  The rest of the fittings for the gun carriages have been made and the cannon have been installed on to the carriages.  The swivel guns have been installed onto their mounts.

I discovered that I did not fit the latches on the bitts, so they were removed and the latches were installed.  The hooks are made from sheet brass which was shaped with an A/O thin disc.

The tackle for the cannon was installed, as well as miscellaneous ring bolts on the deck.  The swivel guns and cannon were temporarily installed and the paint has been touched up.

 

[Wintergreen]

Wow, what a lovely build!

And the detailing is quite extrordinary I must say. Years ago I saw HMS Mars from Caldercraft and really liked the hull shape. This Swallow is very similar in both shape and size I think (RW dimensions).

Thanks for sharing 🙂 

[Jim Lad]

Absolutely delightful, Toni.

 

John

[tlevine]

I realize it has been a long time since this build log has been updated.  Between finishing the Echo cross-section and the garden, there has been very little time for her.  I have finally made some progress.  The channels, deadeyes and chainplates have been installed.  The angles for the chainplates was determined by stepping a false lower mast and running a line from the top to the chains.  The deadeyes are made from English boxwood.  I have not decided whether I like the color contrast of the channel moldings.  These were made from apple.  I tried a different approach on the preventer plate.  Previously, I would cut the plate from sheet brass, drill the holes and score the middle of the plate.  This time, I used 24-gauge square copper wire.  I set up a jig with two brads, wrapped the wire around the brads, pinching at their bases and silver soldered the ends and center sections together.  Heating the plate during the soldering process had the benefit of softening the metal so it could be bent over the middle link.  

Other details have been added.  Preventer eyebolts have been installed, as well as eyebolts along the two masts.  Only the foremost port was fitted with a cover.  This was fitted so it would hinge on its fore side.  The contemporary model shows six exposed timberheads, five in the bow area and one aft.  The plan only shows three in the bow and none aft.  I followed the plan.  Next up will be rigging the guns.

[JeffT]

Very nice!

[druxey]

Nice to see you back on the job, Toni! How did you like using square wire instead of sheet metal?

[tlevine]

Thank you to everyone for the likes.  I have made the rope for the gun rigging.  Making the blocks comes next.

 

Druxey, I started with sheet brass.  Then I decided to clean my workroom,  In doing so, I found the spool of square wire that I had used for the planking bolts.  24-gauge was the perfect size for the job.  After a few "fails", the process went very quickly.  I would never go back to the other way.  After a Sparex soak, I used brass blackener instead of liver of sulfur and had no issues with blackening.

[druxey]

Yes, I made the same discovery some years ago: square wire is definitely the method of choice. Finding square wire is another story, though.

[tlevine]

I purchased mine from Rio Grande but Amazon also has it in smaller quantities.

https://www.riogrande.com/product/copper-square-wire-dead-soft/132410GP/?code=132423

https://smile.amazon.com/Gauge-Copper-Wire-Square-Dead/dp/B08K8177PZ/ref=sr_1_24?crid=1YGLS6ZFIR23C&keywords=copper+square+wire&qid=1656709809&sprefix=copper+squ%2Caps%2C347&sr=8-24

[Seventynet]

Toni, could you explain why square wire is preferable to round wire especially considering the hole must be drilled round?

thanks,

Ian

[albert]

Great beautiful work Toni.

[druxey]

Thank you, Toni! I was looking for brass, so missed seeing copper.

Edited July 2, 2022 by druxey

[tlevine]

Ian, I set up a jig similar to the one shown below.  I nailed two brads into a scrap of 2x4 and wrapped the wire around them, leaving the ends along the straight part of the plate.  I then used a needle-nose pliers to pinch the wire just inside the brads (dotted line).  The ends of the wire were then trimmed and soldered using a silver solder paste.  Some of the silver flowed along the straight part of the plate, securing everything.  No drilling required.

[dvm27]

I too enjoyed working with square stock although of brass, which needed to be annealed before working. I assume the copper is soft enough not to require annealing?

[tlevine]

The copper I bought was dead soft, so I did not need to anneal it.

[Seventynet]

Thanks very much for that explanation Toni.

[tlevine]

It has been a few weeks since the last posting, but I have been busy in the shop.  The next item on the list is installing the cannon.  For this, I had to make 56 blocks.  There are just over 1/8" long and are made from English boxwood.  That was the easy part.  Next came the strops.  Strops are made from served line with either one or two eyes.  Serving, splicing it into a loop and making the eyes took several days.    The result is nowhere as good as some of our European brethren, but it is the best I can do at this size.  Now to make the gun tackle.

[druxey]

Stropping small blocks is not easy! Looks like you did well, Toni.

[tlevine]

The first gun has been temporarily installed.  Looks like that rear truck needs a little straightening!

[dvm27]

Very tidy and scale-lie Tony.

[tlevine]

The wobbly truck has now been repaired.  I have completed making the gun tackle and breeching  ropes.  The gun tackle is frapped and attaches with hooks to the bulwark and the gun carriage.  The breeching is wrapped around the cascabel and attaches to rings on the bulwark.  The end loop on the breeching is formed by splicing; the splice and the loop are served.  I used a somewhat unusual tool to serve the loop...a crochet hook.  And not the kind that is used to make a quilt.  This is a #12 size, left over from when I used to make lace.

 

To prevent the carriages from moving, a #76 hole was drilled into the edge of the deck planking and the front axle.  A 24 G wire was inserted and glued with CA.  You can see one of the wires in the first two pictures.  Three down, eleven to go!

 

 

[tlevine]

I have finished installing the rest of the cannon.  The pumps are next.

[druxey]

Very ship-shape, Toni!

[tlevine]

Thank you, sir.  And thanks to everyone who has been following the slow progression of this build.

[tlevine]

The next items were the pumps.  The band on the top of the pump is self-adhesive copper foil, typically used in making stain glass windows.  Looks like I need to clean out the inside of the pump!

The original model of Swallow shows a carved swallow on the stern.  The carving looks better in person than it appears in these pictures.  Making the masts is next.

[the learner]

Looking Great! and thanks for the tip using square wire for the chain plate links and the link for the supplier.

[shipmodel]

Hi Toni - 

 

Just caught up with this build.  Looking extremely nice, neat and clean.

Love the capstain.

Looking forward to future progress with the rigging.

 

Be well

 

Dan

[tlevine]

Thanks for looking in, Dan.  As for rigging, the only other rigging I plan on doing is for the anchor!  Speaking of which, I will be showing the ship with two bower anchors; the starboard one will be secured to the ship and the port will be lowered onto the base.  Since I had good luck casting the armament, I decided to cast these from pewter as well.  This is the material I use for the casting.  It is a high temperature silicone rubber that can be used for low-melting-point metals like pewter.  The second picture shows the rest of the equipment necessary for the casting, including a pewter rod.  As you can see, there is nothing exotic about the process.  It is, however, very sensitive to the relative weights of the components, so they need to be weighed down to the gram.

The first step was to make a master anchor from wood.  It would have been a lot less work if I had simply made two anchors from wood but I like the look of the metal.  I made a box from scrap basswood ply, embedded it in clay and did my first pour.  After removing the clay, you can see the result.  There are two dowels going through the mold for alignment.  The pouring spout is on top and there are relief openings at the end of the flukes.  These were too large, preventing the flukes from filling completely, and were reduced after a few unsuccessful pours.  The next photos shows the mold after the second layer of rubber was poured before and after the master was removed.

 

The two mold halves were clamped together, being careful not to distort them with the clamps.  I used pieces of the box to distribute the pressure.