HMS Vulture 1776 by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - 1:48 scale - 16-gun Swan-class sloop from TFFM plans

[dgbot]

Just making that curve would have been a pain.

David.B

[Jim Lad]

Lovely piece of work, Danny.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Toni, E&T, David and John.

 

Toni, I made a Scraper :

 

 

 

I've made all four Upper and Lower Cheeks. The upper ones have a more pronounced curve in the forward arm, and also a scarf joint for the Hair Bracket which continues to the top of the stem :

 

 

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

Very clean work Danny, the result is stunning and makes a difficult shaping task look easy - always the sign of a good tradesman.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[SkerryAmp]

Such control and mastery over the medium!!    The parts themselves are works in and of themselves - continues to be inspiring sir!!!

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks again for dropping by Janos, Pat and Adam. Your comments are appreciated .

 

Moving right along, I've fitted the Upper Cheek to the port side in the following pic :

 

 

The Manger Scupper caused me a few worrying moments, as it was halfway into the cheek. I came up with the following solution :

 

 

Before fitting the lower cheek I made the Trail Board, which fits between the two cheeks on the stem. This gave me a perfect alignment, as I only have to butt the lower cheek to it's bottom edge.

 

 

Next I glued in the Trail Board, closely followed by the lower cheek :

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Hair Brackets

 

The Hair Bracket is an extension of the upper cheek, and continues it on to the top of the stem.

 

I made a card template of it's shape and cut it from the same stock I used for the rest of the cheeks. The bracket starts off quite thin where it joins with the cheek, but widens considerably as it rises :

 

 

A finished bracket with the blank for the starboard side on the left :

 

 

Considerable work was involved in adding the moldings and shaping the scroll. I'd have liked to have done better with the scroll, but I was at the limit of what I could achieve with Swiss Pear - it's too soft for really detailed carving :

 

 

The port side bracket dry-fitted :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Coming along nicely, Danny!

 

John

[patrickmil]

Your work is inspiring as always Danny. Great work!

[Trussben]

You are making that look easy Danny, but I'm sure that it isn't.

You say the Swiss Pear is too soft for those details?

 

Ben

[alangr4]

 

Hi Dan.  Have just come across your build log. Absolutely awesome and happening here in Oz.

 

There is several days worth of reading and digesting in front of the fire. Will watch your progress from here with much interest.

 

Well done.

 

Alan

[popeye the sailor]

so cool to see scribed lines in wood.........extra fine detail.....    I don't post 'cuz so many are......they say what I think.......it's superb work!

[marktime]

Are you scribing freehand? You seem able to get beautiful parallel lines: if you are not using a former then you are a true sculptor!

 

I'm just echoing what many have already said but it's worth saying again, just incredibly inspiring.

[ChrisLBren]

Looking really nice Danny - I'm at a similar point on Confederacy - i know how difficult it is to scribed parallel grooves on the headrails and cheeks.  Ben to answer your question - swiss pear is softer to carve than box.  Euro box is the best if you can find it, costello box almost as good.  I had some costello crumble on me while attempting these rails on my build.  Can't imagine them coming out half as good as yours Danny in swiss pear - kudos !

Chris

[S.Coleman]

You have an amazing build going on there. Real neat and tidy work. Love it. Everything looks like it fits neat and flush.

[cristikc]

Dan, you have a lot of good ideas, and hope that you don't mind that we take some of yours ideas to use

 

All the best, and wait new ideas

Cristi

Edited May 18, 2014 by cristikc

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you John, Patrick, Ben, Alan (welcome aboard), Popeye, Mark, Chris (thanks for answering Ben's question, all points correct ), Scott and Cristi (copy whatever you like ). Comments are always appreciated .

 

Wash Cants

 

These pieces are very rarely seen on models, but I thought I may as well add a bit more detail . The Wash Cants are designed to take the strain off the Lower Cheeks from the incoming waves, and are shaped to deflect the water away from them.

 

First thing to do was cut a blank using a card template and then get it to fit snugly against the hull and stem. Then I used a drum sander in my Dremel to take off the bulk of the material between the upper outer edge and the lower inner edge, finishing with a sanding stick. Then I used a round sanding stick to cut a slight concave into the seen face - this shows up a lot better in "real life" than it does in the pics.

 

Here are a few pics of the port side wash cant against the blank for the starboard side. If you've ever shaped an aeroplane propeller then you can appreciate the work involved in this piece - a very similar thing :

 

 

 

 

I've tack glued the port side one in place just for this pic, it still needs a bit more detailing :

 

 

  Danny

[Remcohe]

Very nice Danny, it looks like a difficult part to make.

 

Remco

[dgbot]

Interesting to say the least,

David B

[gjdale]

Now that looks tricky! Nicely done Danny.

[allanyed]

Cudos Danny. 

 

I do not recall seeing mention of it earlier in your build, but I may have missed it. What materials are you using for trennals, bamboo or something else? 

 

Thanks for continuing to share your build.

 

Allan

[Trussben]

Yep, that looks like a real fun part to make, how many attempts Danny?

 

Ben

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Remco, David, Grant, Allan and Ben.

 

Quote

What materials are you using for trennals

Bamboo for treenails, blackened brass wire for bolts.

 

 

Quote

how many attempts Danny?

One .

 

 

  Danny

[dgbot]

Danny my boy you need to kick back and take a stiff one soon.  Otherwise you are going to go to lala land and we do not want that to happen.  

David B

[Dan Vadas]

Too late David, I got there a long time ago .

 

Both Wash Cants are now shaped, and I've simulated the joins in the sections they were made in with an Xacto and a pencil :

 

 

  Danny

[mtaylor]

I didn't even know there was such a thing...  and you've done them beautifully.  So in real life, they were made is sections?   Interesting.

[Vivian Galad]

Lots of things to learn. Loved the scraper u improvised. All in all, a master´s job - piece by piece.

[druxey]

From contemporary models, the wash cants appear to be composed of planks laid diagonally, as Dan has shown.

[mtaylor]

Thanks Druxey. 

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Mark, Druxey and Vivian.

 

Bolsters

 

The Bolsters fit forward of the Hawse Holes. Their function is to prevent the Hawse Cable from chafing on the upper cheek and planking around the holes.

 

I'm only fitting the port side, as there is no planking around the starboard hawse. Making one of these was enough of a mission - it took me 3 1/2 hours to shape   :

 

 

I made an error when I cut the hawse holes. I angled them forward too far, and consequently the only way to fit the bolsters to make them look somewhere near correct was to cut them into the upper cheek a bit :

 

 

The fitted bolster. Some tidying up will be done when the glue is dry :

 

 

  Danny