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

[Padeen]

Oh my goodness! She is already masted!!! I have been away too long... Beautiful job as ever Dan!

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks once again for all the kind comments Geoff, Grant, Greg, Nils, John, Joe, David, Steve, Christian, Carl, Janos, Johann, E&T and Padeen, and also for all those who "Liked" my last post .

 

I somehow made a measurement error on the Mizzen Crosstrees, and subsequently had to remove all the pieces of the top (apart from the Battens), make new crosstrees and refit the lot. I'm very happy with the results now .... that kind of thing would have caused all sorts of problems later on.

 

Topmasts

 

The Topmasts are a bit trickier to shape than the lower masts. Starting from the bottom they have an octagonal shape, then a square, another octagon, a tapered round for most of it's section, a tapered octagon and a tapered square topped by the tenon for the topmast cap. It all sounds very difficult, but it was surprisingly easy (although time consuming). As with the lower masts most of the work was done with a chisel, rounding the middle section with sandpaper.

 

 

I made the Fids from brass strip. The rectangular holes were cut with a very narrow chisel after first drilling two small holes :

 

 

 

 

 

Two slots were cut for the Top Rope sheaves, which were turned from brass :

 

 

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Lovely Danny, as always. I may have asked before, so please forgive the repetition, but what tool do you use on the lathe to creat the grooves in your sheaves. Some pics of the process would be great.

[BANYAN]

Nice clean work on those masts Danny.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Remcohe]

I see they are really challenging shapes to make, but you make it look like a walk in the park

My hands are itching to continue with my masts......

 

Remco

[cog]

Danny,

 

Another 'redo' - is there any competition in redoing going on? Splendid work on those top masts

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Grant, Pat, Remco and Cog.

 

Grant, first I drilled the hole, then I used a left-handed cutting tool set to cut at an angle of 45 degrees both ways for the groove. The sheaves were removed from the stock with a cut-off tool. I had to make them one at a time - drilling a 0.5mm hole any further than the thickness of the sheave plus the thickness of the cutoff tool (plus 0.3mm for good measure, a total of 1.8mm) risked a snapped drill.

 

Topmast Trestles and Crosstrees

 

These were a whole lot of fun to make. The Mizzen crosstrees in particular are very tiny - a mere 1.4mm wide by 2.8mm thick (don't try THIS with anything but the BEST timber ). The crosstrees have an aftward curve, and are rebated to the trestle trees in the same way as the lower ones. I found that the best way to make them was by first cutting the rebates into the stock, then cutting in the outside curve. Next I used a compass to draw a parallel line the width of the crosstree, marked and drilled the holes for the shrouds using my mill, and cut the inner curve on the scroll saw. Finishing off was done with a sanding stick. Here are a couple of pics of the Main and Mizzen ones :

 

 

 

 

The Fids for the topmasts were of three sizes, the Mizzen fid being 6.5mm long by 1.0mm wide by 0.5mm thick. I made them the same way as the lower ones :

 

 

A couple of pics of the topmast tops in place :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Topgallant Masts

 

The Topgallant Masts are rather on the thin side, but still needed the same amount of detailing as the lower masts. The Hounds are similar to those on the Topmasts. There are 4 sheaves in each mast, although I cheated a bit on the 3 upper Mizzen mast ones - the two middle ones just have a sheave pin, and the uppermost one is a fake made by drilling two holes and filing a dummy sheave into it. The 1.0mm diameter sheaves which I made for the upper fore and main topgallants are about the limit in size that I can make, these needed 0.75mm which I put in the "too hard" basket :

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[mtaylor]

Lovely work on some tiny bits there, Danny.  If you hadn't told us what you faked, we wouldn't have known it.

[Jim Lad]

You're sure steaming (sailing?) ahead with this, Danny!

 

John

[allanyed]

Danny,

You know the quality is top shelf when you can show those close ups and there are only flawless pieces of workmanship to be seen.  Well done and thanks for being willing to show those close up shots. They are very helpful.

Allan

[Mirabell61]

super work on the masting sheaves Danny,

 

Nils

[gjdale]

Superb Danny. And thanks for the extra info on your method for cutting the grooves in the sheaves.

[EdT]

Top notch work as always, Danny.

 

Ed

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Mark, Geoff, John, Allan, Nils, Grant and Ed - much appreciated.

 

Cheating is only when you get caught. You should not have told us.

 

 

Geoff, the idea was to give other builders another option for very small sheaves .

 

Thank you Ed. You were one of those responsible for me "lifting my game" .

 

Cheek Blocks

 

The Fore and Main masts have a pair of double cheek blocks in the Topmast Head. I cut these on the table saw from English Box. They are fitted with 0.6mm thick by 2.4mm diameter sheaves :

 

 

 

  Danny

[SJSoane]

 

Beautiful work, Danny, and I particularly like the fids and topmast crosstrees since I haven't seen these modeled so well.

 

Mark

[michael mott]

Very nice workmanship on the tiny sheave and related wooden parts Danny, you could have been a watchmaker in a former life

 

Michael

[Kevin]

lovely to catch up on your log, brilliant work

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Mark, Michael and Kevin .

 

Bowsprit

 

The Bowsprit is tapered like the lower masts, that is it narrows inboard from the Knightheads. It has a tapered tenon which fits into the step in the support in the forecastle :

 

 

The forward end has two flat sections for the Bees. These sections are offset from each other :

 

 

Some views showing the bowsprit fitted into the step :

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Piet]

Brilliant work Dan. 

 

Cheers,

[Dan Vadas]

And thank you Piet .

 

Continuing on with the Bowsprit. The Cap has been made - this one is considerably more difficult to make than the mast caps, due to the angle of each cut. The groove in one side is the seat for the Jackstaff :

 

 

 

I cut down and soldered one of my spare trunnion caps for the jackstaff capsquare :

 

 

Also made were the Bees and Bee Blocks, the Spritsail Yard Sling Cleat complete with "lead" liner, the Jibboom Saddle and a Woolding :

 

 

 

Continued next post ......

[Dan Vadas]

..... continued.

 

To drill the holes at an angle in the Saddle I set it up in my mill vise :

 

 

The Saddle and Gammoning Cleats fitted :

 

 

The inboard end gets a "iron" band made from thin card :

 

 

The outboard end of the Jibboom has a shoulder cut into it and a tiny sheave :

 

 

Some views of the bowsprit assembled. As with the other masts nothing has been glued yet (apart from the fittings) :

 

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

Thanks Dan, great work and an interesting update to view while I am away on my travels

cheers

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Brian and Pat.

 

Hearts

 

The standing rigging for the bowsprit requires a number of Hearts, both open and closed. I made these from English Box in the following manner. First cut the groove for the strop using the table saw on both sides. Next I filed the groove on the end with a very thin needle file. I put the stock in my vise and tapered both sides, and used a 0.8mm "chisel" to recut the groove. Next step was to drill the centre hole using the mill - I drilled a number of holes and trimmed the excess with an Xacto blade. Finally I cut the heart from the stock on the table saw :

 

 

 

 

 

Continued next post ......

[Dan Vadas]

..... continued.

 

I've finally come to making the actual rigging .

 

Collars

 

First step was to make the Collars for the hearts. These are Served for their entire length, so my new Domanov Serving Machine got it's first run :

 

 

 

For the serving line I used Quilting Thread, which is made from cotton with a polyester coating. It has no fuzzies at all, and is quite easy to work with. It also has no "rope definition", but at this scale that's not noticeable.

 

I used my vise to hold the eye and turned the excess serving line around the main line to make a very neat fake splice :

 

 

A couple of hearts with their strops. The larger is for the Forestay and has a double strop (one still to fit). The smaller is for one of the Bobstays :

 

 

A bobstay collar lashed to the bowsprit :

 

 

  Danny

[allanyed]

Danny,

The served collars are superb.  Your workmanship and attention to detail was evident at the beginning of the build.  As good as it was, I think you have gotten even better! 

 

Allan

[archjofo]

First-class work, Danny.

[Mirabell61]

Great looking Details Danny,

 

I also lke those halfring shaped wooden line-guides for the spritboom , the Amati plan is missing these in the scale 1:64 though, I would like to adopt These...

 

Nils

[gjdale]

Raising the bar yet again Danny! Great work.

[GLakie]

Just spent hours going over this magnificent build and all I can say is (almost speechless-------almost), you sir, are an artist and looking at these pics are really inspirational and a perfect example of what can be accomplished with a little dedication and a lot of love for the craft. Beautiful work Danny!

 

Fair Winds