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

[Edwardkenway]

Because you've done such a brilliant job of rigging your guns and 14 at that, I think I will fully rig my 6😁😉

They do look awesome and was definitely time and effort well spent. 

[glbarlow]

Now you’ve set the standard for the rest of us. Really exceptional job of it!

[DelF]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

2 hours ago, SpyGlass said:

That is EXCEPTIONAL WORK   - can i suggest you post a pic with your finger in to remind everyone how small these guns are.

Thanks SpyGlass, and thank you also for your encouragement and for your helpful post that showed me the right way to go on frapping.

 

Here's the finger shot you suggested:

 

 

Derek

[mugje]

Really nice!! And small  

[DelF]

Thanks SpyGlass. You should definitely give it a whirl. Fingers and eyesight can be helped - I only get by with the help of good magnification and good quality tweezers!

 

Derek

[Blue Ensign]

She's looking superb Derek, and great work on the tackle rigging.

 

That Quad-hands tool looks an excellent investment, I'm tempted.🙂

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[joep4567]

absolutely great work!

 

[DelF]

Many thanks B.E. and Joe - much appreciated.

 

52 minutes ago, Blue Ensign said:

That Quad-hands tool looks an excellent investment, I'm tempted

 

I would urge you to give in to temptation! No other 'helping hands' I've owned is a patch on this - every aspect of the design is well thought out and constructed. Heavy metal base, repositionable arms with very strong magnets keeping everything stable, thick sleeves on the clips that hold work firmly but gently, and lock-nuts that enable you to lock clips once you've got them in the right position. Even the bright paint is a help, providing contrast with the material you're working on. I went for the larger one with five arms for £59.99 from Amazon but I'm sure the regular 4-armed version at £49.99 would be more than adequate - I've not yet used more than three arms simultaneously. Highly recommended (and I'm not on commission, honest!).

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

I went for the 4 hands version, I’ve never needed more than 3 plus I thought the 6x9 inch base would fit better on mu bench. I was hesitant until Derek assured me of the strength of the magnets to the base.

 

i need to stop reading these forums, I learn about too many great tools that I can’t resist. Amazon just makes it all too easy. 

[DelF]

50 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

i need to stop reading these forums, I learn about too many great tools that I can’t resist

Me too! Hope you're getting on OK with the Qhands?

[glbarlow]

30 minutes ago, DelF said:

you're getting on OK

Haven't really used them yet, no rigging or small hands work with where I am on Cheerful. It does look very solid and better than the little extra hands thing I've used for years. 

 

 

[BobG]

I just read through your build log and all I can say is just WOW! Magnificent!!

[DelF]

11 hours ago, BobG said:

I just read through your build log and all I can say is just WOW! Magnificent!!

 

Thanks Bob - glad you enjoyed it!

[DelF]

Spars

 

Rather than wait until I've completed all the spars I thought I'd do two or three posts to log progress.

 

As I mentioned earlier I decided to make all the masts from boxwood, starting with square stock, planing it to octagonal then sanding to round where necessary (see post #187).

I also decided to make all the yards from kit-supplied dowels as these would be painted black.

 

I'll start with a couple of exceptions to these decisions. First, the main and fore yards have octagonal centre sections. Chris suggests starting with 6mm dowel, creating the octagonal section with a file and then sanding the rest. I thought it would be easier to start with square stock, plane it all to octagonal then sand all but the centre section. 

 

I started with over-length square stock, planning to leave enough spare wood at each end of the yards to grip in the lathe chuck. However I decided that sanding a ten inch stick with only one inch held in the lathe was making the job harder than it needed to be. Instead, I wrapped a small piece of sandpaper round the centre section of the yard and held that in the chuck. The sandpaper provided enough grip to hold the stock firmly but without damaging it. I was then able to sand each end in turn.

 

 

 

I was slightly surprised to see that the plans call for the fore and main yards to be identical, although Chris notes that Cochrane is thought to have lengthened the main yard by a few feet (Chris suggests 15 - 20mm). I don't know how far unrated vessels like Speedy conformed to rules current at the time for larger ships, but lengthening the main yard as suggested brings the ratios of the various spars much closer to the 'norm' - namely that the main yard diameter should be 0.9 X the main mast diameter and the fore yard 0.875 X the main yard.

 

 

 I'll cover the second exception to my decisions about spars in the next post.

 

Derek

[DelF]

Spars #2

 

The thinnest spars are the flying jibboom and the stuns'l booms, all 2mm. The latter are unpainted so need to be made from box like the masts. In both cases I doubted my ability to use the square/octagonal/round method I use for larger spars so I tried an alternative. On my recent English Pinnace build I used a homemade drawplate to make the oars. These were 2.4mm in diameter so I saw no reason why I couldn't use the same method here. I explained the method in detail in my pinnace log, including how I made the drawplate. I really would urge anyone to have a go at this if they need to make small diameter dowels. It's not hard, and just requires a suitable piece of steel (eg an old steel ruler) and some decent drill bits. I've got a set of 1mm to 6mm bits in 0.1mm increments which is ideal. The pinnace log has plenty of pictures, but here's a couple for Speedy.

 

The first one is a bit daft really - the spar is spinning so you can't see it's square going into the drawplate! But at least you can see it will handle a reasonable length.

 

 

Here's the drawplate right up to the chuck:

 

 

And the first of four dowels completed. These four will be enough for all 8 stuns'l booms, and the flying jibboom is visible at the top.

 

 

A lot quicker, easier and more accurate than sanding ( although of course the stuns'l booms will require tapering). 

 

I've tried the technique with larger diameters but with less success. For some reason larger holes in the drawplate tend to leave unwanted spiral grooves in the wood. I may do a bit more experimenting in the future, but for now I'm happy using the plane-to-octagon method with anything over 2mm.

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

I really hate that I’m now going to have to buy a lathe....

 

Beautiful, next level work as usual...and excellent tutorial to add to bookmarked pages. 

[DelF]

Thanks Glenn. 

4 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

I really hate that I’m now going to have to buy a lathe...

 

You really can do most of this stuff with a drill or rotary tool securely mounted. The advantage of the lathe is that the hollow headstock enables you to hold long spars in the middle, as I did with Speedy's main yard. The good news is that wood lathes are a lot cheaper than metal working lathes. The Proxxon one I use would probably go for less than $200 in the U.S. 

Do what I do when I want a new tool - put your valet on short time for a few weeks and save the money that way 🤑🤪

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

29 minutes ago, DelF said:

put your valet on short time

He’s indispensable, how else would I get dressed. But with the covid stuff I can do that with the chauffeur, he’s just sitting around anyway.🤪😜

[DelF]

 

1 hour ago, glbarlow said:

But with the covid stuff I can do that with the chauffeur

 

The chauffeur! Why didn't I think of that?

 

"Parker!   I say, Parker...!"

[glbarlow]

😂🤣

[Vane]

Proxxon delivers again! 

[DelF]

SPARS

 

Work on the masts and yards is progressing well. I've dry-fitted the masts and bowsprit just to make sure everything looks right before I apply glue. Here she is in my homemade dust cabinet:

 

 

Here's the various yards and booms:

 

 

Everything is just awaiting painting and rigging with blocks etc before fitting to the ship.

 

I'll post a few more pictures on some of the detailed points of interest once I get them sorted (other domestic duties are intruding on dockyard time just now!).

 

Derek

 

 

[VTHokiEE]

18 minutes ago, DelF said:

Here she is in my homemade dust cabinet:

As I’ve been working on cannons my hull has been sitting in the garage collecting dust... I really should make something like this. I’d been thinking about it every time I went out to work on it (and then shook my head said that stinks and didn’t do anything about it 😁, I think I have a plastic bin that could work for now.

[DelF]

Hi Tim. The dust cabinet is nothing special - just a few lengths of spare wood and some plastic sheeting stapled to the outside. The sheet folds up out of the way at the front.

 

Derek

[DelF]

Stuns'l Booms and Boomkins

 

I added the stuns'l booms this afternoon. I'd already made some boxwood dowels using a homemade drawplate I described earlier, so all I had to do was sand them to shape in the lathe:

 

 

Here's all eight fitted:

 

 

While I had some spare dowel I decided to make the boomkins, simple spars with just a shallow groove in the outboard end. This was easy to make with a round-edged file:

 

 

Note to self:  try to figure out why some shots are perfectly sharp and others are rubbish 

 

Derek

 

[glbarlow]

On 8/22/2020 at 10:46 AM, DelF said:

perfectly sharp and others are rubbish

I’m also a photographer. Not sure what you’re using, but it’s about the focus point. If using auto focus on a camera switch to single point focus and move the focus box around and on your subject, half click the shutter to get the focus then snap it. Auto focus makes a decision on what it thinks the focus is, and it’s wrong a lot.  If an iPhone touch the subject on your phone screen, it will focus there signified by a yellow box. I imagine androids have something similar.

 

Great work on the mast and spars. I’ll outsource mine to you. 

[BobG]

13 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

If an iPhone touch the subject on your phone screen, it will focus there signifies by a yellow box.

Well I didn't know that...thanks for the tip!

[DelF]

19 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

 If an iPhone touch the subject on your phone screen, it will focus there signifies by a yellow box.

Thanks Glenn. I'm using an iphone so I'll try that.

 

19 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

the mast and spars. I’ll outsource mine to you

I'll struggle to get them done AND your cannon rigged 

 

[VTHokiEE]

40 minutes ago, DelF said:

Thanks Glenn. I'm using an iphone so I'll try that

There’s also a minimum focus distance to watch out for when you get too close and phones will often focus on the background of the background is too “busy” or not enough contrast with the subject.

[glbarlow]

54 minutes ago, DelF said:

struggle to get them done AND your cannon rigged 

I know, a lot of work. Can you cover shipping 😂😂😂😂