HMS Speedy by Delf - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - Scale 1:64 - Master Shipwright edition

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, DelF said:

finished the starboard side

You're doing exceptional work!  

 

I have a very careful process for marking waterlines -but its now history. From here on I'm stealing your laser level idea - very clever.

Edited April 7, 2020 by glbarlow

[glbarlow]

I have several dentist tools that come in handy for a lot of tasks - the scraper shown in this amazon listing (the one on the left in the photo) is one of my most used tools. It works great for scraping away extra glue. The other tools come in handy from time to time, like putting a drop of CA in a hard to reach place.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Dental-Scraper-Stainless-Remover-Cleaning/dp/B07XF4KQTL/ref=sr_1_19?crid=32L1T8YIOC1DH&dchild=1&keywords=dental+scraper+tool&qid=1586277043&sprefix=dental+scraper+tool%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-19

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by glbarlow

[EricWilliamMarshall]

2 hours ago, DelF said:

 

Beautiful!!!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

38 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

the one on the left in the photo

That is a great idea! (Which I will steal!!)

[DelF]

Thank you Edward, Chris, Glenn (X 2!), Eric and SpyGlass for your kind comments, and thanks as always for the 'likes'.

On 4/7/2020 at 5:39 PM, glbarlow said:

I have several dentist tools that come in handy for a lot of tasks

Good recommendation Glenn. Amazon don't sell this exact set in the UK but I managed to get something similar. I tried out the scraper that looks closest to the one you use and it worked perfectly for getting excess glue from the angle between the batten and the hull. It made it a lot easier getting the port batten fitted as I was comfortable using CA this time.

 

On 4/4/2020 at 12:28 PM, EricWilliamMarshall said:

Chuck (of Syren fame) uses sheet brass

Thanks again Eric for suggesting brass sheet for scraping excess glue. I particularly like this method as I can easily cut a piece of brass to the exact size and profile I need, and I've used a couple of these scrapers to tidy up the hull.

 

Derek

[DelF]

Slow but steady progress on the port coppering. 

I'm taking it slow because as I mentioned before I'm having to wear a mask to avoid adverse reactions to the CA and It gets very uncomfortable after a while. As a break, I've started preparing all the components for the 14 cannon. Being more used to 1/48 scale I'm finding the pieces TINY, to the extent that I can't assemble the carriages without assistance. I'm going to have to make up a little jig to hold everything in place while it's being glued. I tried to dry-fit a carriage (as described by Glenn in his Speedy log) but the pieces were so small and light I just couldn't get them to behave.

 

Oh well, at least it keeps me away from the CA for a bit.

 

Derek

[Vane]

Your copper looks great!

 

[glbarlow]

Your patient pace is admirable 👍🏻

[DelF]

Port side coppering finished😁. Not the best pictures - I'll try to get some better ones when I get to the next stages.

In the meantime I've made up a little jig to help assemble the gun carriages. Looking at this in close-up I can see the laser-cut components need a bit more tidying up!

 

 

Derek

 

[chris watton]

Those little 4-pounder carriages are tiny, aren't they!

[DelF]

16 hours ago, chris watton said:

Those little 4-pounder carriages are tiny, aren't they!

You're not kidding...

Explains why my fat fingers couldn't assemble the parts unaided!

 

Derek

[DelF]

Limited progress this week as I've been taking advantage of the fine weather to get jobs done in the garden (that's manspeak for trying to cross off a few of my chores from my wife's lengthy list). 

 

First job was painting the wales and prow. I started by masking off the unpainted areas but made a mess of it. Paint seeped through in some places, and in other the tape pulled bits of paint off the top edge of the wales. I used good quality tamiya tape so I don't believe that was the problem. Rather, I think my mistake was applying several coats of matt polyurethane to the unpainted areas before painting the wales. Some of the varnish got onto the wales and prevented the acrylic adhering properly. So, after much sanding, cleaning and swearing I went back to basics and repainted the wales with as steady a hand as possible. The result is certainly better than my original attempt (which I was too disappointed to photograph ☹️). 

Meanwhile I've made some progress with the cannon, starting with a little jig to shape the cap squares. It's just a drill bit the same diameter as the trunnions, half-sunk into a groove in a piece of wood. Once in place I just use a thumbnail either side to press the little piece of photo-etch into shape. Just makes it a bit easier to fit to the carriage. As for that, I started using CA but found I couldn't always get the cap square sitting properly before the glue set, so now I use PVA. Not ideal but it's not load bearing so it shouldn't matter.

The cannon are coming along, but you'll see that the blackening process didn't work too well on the cap squares. I think it was because I tried to do too many small pieces all together, and I couldn't agitate them enough to get them all evenly treated. I'll touch up with Admiralty metal black when I've finished them all.

 

Back to the chores!

 

Derek

Edited April 26, 2020 by DelF
Typo

[Glenn-UK]

Looking very nice indeed, well done on your work to date.

[glbarlow]

Those are the longest skinny cannons I’ve ever seen 😂🤣

 

Your hull looks great. Not sure what to offer on the painting. The Tamiya tape is usually the answer.  I have a tool I use (hard curved metal end) to run along the edge to ensure a really tight seal.  I’ve had the poly underneath the tape and not had a problem. At any rate you recovered nicely.  Nothing stands out worse on a model more than bad paint lines, sure don’t see any now. 

[Ryland Craze]

Your Speedy is coming along nicely.  I love the boxwood.  This is going to turn out to be a beautiful model.

[Beef Wellington]

That some very nice coppering, well done.  The thickness (from the hull) of the batten tends to exacerbate the optical illusion of the waterline not being straight, so the thinner the better, but you look have to nailed it.

[DelF]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

53 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

Those are the longest skinny cannons I’ve ever seen 😂🤣

I didn't know what you meant Glenn, until I looked at the post on my iphone. Yikes! I've edited and hopefully it's OK now.

 

Derek

[DelF]

I thought I'd have a break from the hull and cannon and show how I intend to make the spars for Speedy from castello boxwood sheet. I've gone for the bowsprit as it is a reasonable size to demonstrate the method.

The bowsprit is 6mm diameter, so the first step was to rip a square strip from 6mm sheet. I made it over-length to allow for trimming and to allow sufficient waste to grip in the lathe.

  

The next step is to reduce the square section to an octagon. Some years ago I made a little jig to mark square stock prior to planing:

 

The idea is to pull the stock between the two brass pegs, making sure that the wood keeps in contact with both pegs and the marking pin between them. When you've made one pass, you turn the wood round end to end and pull the wood through again. You repeat this for all four faces, ending up with two scribed lines in each face. So what, you say?

 

The idea is that these two lines divide each face in the ratio 7:10:7, which ensures that when you plane each corner down to the lines, all eight resulting faces will be equal. The beauty of the little jig is that it doesn't matter what size the stock is - provided it will fit between the pegs, the scribed lines will always be in the correct ratio. When I made the jig I had to work out the spacings and the diameter of the pegs from basic geometry but if anyone's interested I could post the measurements. 

 

Here's the next stage, using a standard planing jig.

Starting with the green Stanley 100-type finger plane and finishing with the Veritas low-angle block plane it only took a few minutes to reduce all four corners.

 

On to the lathe - although a drill or Dremel-type rotary tool would do equally well:

Again, it only took a few minutes to sand the dowel down to a reasonable round section. I started with 120 grit and finished on 600. A quick coat of shellac which protects and imparts a nice warm sheen and the bowsprit's finished, bar trimming to final length.

 

I'll make the remaining spars in due course. Even if you can't get hold of boxwood, I'd certainly consider using a lighter coloured wood than walnut if you can.

 

 

Derek

 

 

 

[egkb]

Brilliant Step By Steps Derek ! The shellac does indeed take the 'chill' out of the wood  

 

All The Very Best

 

Eamonn

[6ohiocav]

Derek,

 

Ingenious jig. Can you please send your measurements either as a post or a private e-mail if your prefer. I have masts that are part octagon, part round, and your marking system with proper apportionment will make this task easier and more precise.  

 

Love your build. 

Edited April 27, 2020 by 6ohiocav

[DelF]

Thanks Eamonn!

 

1 hour ago, 6ohiocav said:

Can you please send your measurements

Sure, glad you found it helpful.  The brass pegs are 2.5mm. Not crucial, but thinner is better - too thick and I think it throws the ratio out. The centres of the pegs are 17mm apart, and the steel pin is 5mm from the centre of one pin. The pegs and pins are just fixed in holes I drilled in a piece of scrap aluminium. One word of caution - don't scribe too deep or it'll be difficult to sand the lines out without reducing the diameter of your stock too much.

 

I should add that I decided to do this how-to piece after Glenn Barlow started an interesting discussion on Chris Watton's thread about the possibility of boxwood spars. I made all the spars for my Royal Caroline build in a similar fashion, including yards with octagonal centres etc. Definitely my favourite technique.

 

Derek

Edited April 27, 2020 by DelF
Typo

[glbarlow]

Nice post, very informative.  I've not converted square stock to mast and spars yet, but its time to learn.  So:

Between yours and the other couple of posts I can make the jig to hold the wood for planing. I ordered by first planer ever, it will be key to not slice off my thumb.  However I don't have the means to work with metal or the metal to work with - your jig looks like an excellent tool but I don't think I can make it so I'll have to find another way to mark the wood.

Where did you get the boxwood, it seems like it’s a magical wood that no one can find.

 

This is really good work Derek, I'm looking forward to watching your masts and yards progress.  I have to figure this out for Cheerful, I better start slicing some wood for practice.

Edited April 28, 2020 by glbarlow

[DelF]

Thanks Glenn - great that you're planning to have a go at making spars from square stock. I found it daunting at first and needed a couple of practice sessions, but if you mark your work carefully, use a nice stable planing jig and a sharp well-adjusted plane it becomes surprisingly easy and enjoyable. It's particularly gratifying to be able to make spars with combinations of square, octagonal and round sections. Just out of interest, what plane have you ordered?

 

As for marking, in the absence of a jig it's just down to a sharp pencil and an accurate ruler. Or possibly a miniature version of a carpenter's marking gauge? Here's an example from Blue Ensign's Pegasus log, where he uses the 7:10:7 method to draw his lines prior to planing.  I wouldn't worry about being hyper accurate - even the 7:10:7 ratio is just an approximation. You can work out the correct value from high school geometry, but for the lazy among us there's a neat online calculator at http://www.liljedahl.info/projects/octagon_calculator/. The calculator lets you input one any of the dimensions of an octagon in the diagram below and it will calculate the others.

 

So if your stock is 24 units wide (for ease of calculation), ie dimension A, then the calculator tells us that C:B:C is 7.03 : 9.94 : 7.03.

Close enough to 7:10:7 in wood, and at our scales. There's another calculator at https://rechneronline.de/pi/octagon.php which is even more comprehensive, and gives access to calculators for lots more geometric shapes.

 

So long as you don't plane too much off the corners, sanding your spar in a lathe/drill should even out any slight inaccuracies in your octagon as you reduce it to round.

 

To answer your question on boxwood, I get mine from a UK supplier here. Unfortunately they don't ship outside Europe. However their castello boxwood comes from South America so I should think you'd be able to get it in the States. It seems expensive - the 6mm sheet I picked for illustration in the link is £25.20 - about $31. However the 1060 X 140 mm sheet will produce a lot of spars and planks - if you mill your own it probably works out less expensive than cheap timber bought ready sized. 

 

Let me know how you get on with your new plane.

 

Derek

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by DelF

[glbarlow]

6 hours ago, DelF said:

what plane have you ordered?

IBEX 36mm FLAT FINGER PLANE - 12mm BLADE. Ron (hollowneck) suggested this one. 
 

Thanks for the detailed response, I will make use of it in my prep for Cheerful, and likely the bowsprit for Speedy/Flirt. And here I thought you were just a good modeler, turns out your also a math professor as well 🙂 

 

I may order more Alaskan yellow cedar from Chuck for practice and perhaps use on Speedy/Flirt and also see if I can find lime wood stock. I have had no luck locating boxwood. There used to be a guy, Jeff with Hobbymill. All of us miss him and clearly don’t realize how good we had it. The boxwood above the Wales on my Nelson was the last I had from him.  
 

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by glbarlow

[ASAT]

Glenn I found some 24x3x3/8” billets on sale for $15 ea here: 

https://www.cookwoods.com/collections/boxwood-castello.  Don’t know if there is a minimum or not, but quite a few resources came up..... they also have 18x2x2 turning squares if that’s too thin....

Edited April 28, 2020 by ASAT

[DelF]

1 hour ago, glbarlow said:

IBEX 36mm FLAT FINGER PLANE

That looks like a beautiful tool.

 

Alaskan yellow cedar should be an excellent alternative to boxwood. I tried to get hold of some over here when I saw Chuck use it on the Winchelsea group project, but it only seems to be used by high-end boat builders and in large and expensive sizes. If I lived near a boat yard I'd be tempted to beg offcuts, but as I don't I'll have to make do with boxwood.

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

7 hours ago, ASAT said:

24x3x3/8” billets on sale

Thanks Lou, I'll give them a look. Google did not lead me to them so I appreciate the link.  I think I'm going to make my first attempts with some Alaskan Cedar once Chuck re-opens his store.  I'm not going to go nuts, aside from Cheerful I'll try the mast and bowsprit for Speedy/Flirt. But I do need the boxwood  (ok Want the boxwood). I'll do some measuring to see if 3/8th works. 2" is way bigger than I'd ever need, though I may be able to rip it down some.

 

I'm going to watch Derek in wonder as he makes his 🙂

 

[ASAT]

Glenn, if you really can’t find box in the sizes you need, you let me know and I’ll send you some... I have a bunch that I have been hoarding for a while now.... 

[DelF]

I wish I had friends like that!

 

A few bits of work on the hull yesterday and this morning. First, I scrounged some felt from my wife's craft stash to line the building cradle so I don't damage the copper.

 

Next, the hair brackets and bow cheeks were fitted both sides of the prow. These are laser cut pieces, requiring a minimal amount of sanding to fit in place:

Then I had my first breakage. The cap rail comes in four parts, laser cut in 1mm wood. Sanding the char I manage to snap the end off the starboard bow section. However it was easy to repair with a dab of glue.

You can just see the split across the first rectangular hole, but it won't show once painted. Here's the cap rails pinned and glued in place.

 

Just to prove that no kit is idiot proof, the next repair job was self inflicted. The outer edges of the cap rails have to extend 0.8mm from the hull to accommodate the swivel gun bases. In the bow area I got this wrong when I glued and pinned the cap rail, with a wider overhang. As a result there was no overhang inboard, and it just looked bad. I didn't want to risk pulling the cap rails off; I also think the hull is wider towards the bows, given the way I had to twist the gun port pattern to get it to fit. I decided to cheat by gluing thin strips of wood to the inside of the cap rails and filing them to shape.

 

I don't think the result is too horrendous, and there is now a more even overhang inboard. Here she is with the cap rail painted and hawse holes drilled. 

The recommended 2mm diameter holes look a tad small to me, and I might widen them slightly.

 

I've now got a question to resolve regarding the stern counter side timbers. The instruction manual shows how these fit at the end of the wales, requiring the latter to be trimmed:

 

From the pictures in the manual it appears that Chris trimmed the wales at a much earlier stage, before painting. I'm finding it difficult to see how the side timbers are meant to fit, and I'm reluctant to trim the wales and risk damaging the hull if I'm not certain.

 

Reading ahead in the manual, I think the boom crutch needs to sit on top of the side timber so I can't leave it off all together. So I might just see if I can just fit the upper, curved part of the timber on top of the wale without cutting into the wale itself. Looking at the photo in the manual I think the net result would be the same. I'll check other people's logs who are further ahead than me before I commit to that. 

 

Derek

[Glenn-UK]

Hi

Nice work. I did trim the wales to fit the side timbers. I did mess around with the positioning to make I was happy with the look, I have attached a couple of pictures.