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

[mtaylor]

No words, Danny.  What the others have said say it all.

[Captain Al]

Incredible work Danny.  Truly inspirational.  So glad to see you back at work and healthy. 

[Dan Vadas]

Quite a few guys to thank for dropping in and commenting - George, John, Pat, Greg, Richard, Carl, Crackers, Nils, Popeye, Steve, Grant, Mark and Al. Thanks guys .

 

I don't know what we are going to do when you are finished with this outstanding ship......I'll be crying I think. 

 

 

Or you could follow along with my next build Greg .

 

the ability to craft your own blocks and perform such life-like rigging,  is a prime example of technique and experience.

 

 

I don't know so much about the experience bit Popeye - until this build I'd been buying most of the blocks or using kit-supplied ones. It IS more a question of technique, which I'm still working on - my more recent blocks look a lot better than some of the early ones on Vulture .

 

 Danny

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

I will, I will, with all my heart!

Greg

[Dan Vadas]

Yard Lifts

 

The Yard Lifts are used to square the yard. They don't carry a lot of the weight, which is done by the Jeers, so they seem a little flimsy. The main and fore lifts are of 3" rope, and the mizzen are a mere 1.5" (diameter).

 

The pics should tell the story of how they are rigged :

 

 

 

 

 

 Danny

[GLakie]

No doubt, outstanding work Danny. It'll probably take me 10 years to get my "Connie" to look that good, if then. 

[Maury S]

outstanding

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

Amazing is all I can say, we have all I can say which hasn't been said a million times before.

 

I've got a possible idea for your next ship - why don't you and Janos joined forces and make either HMS Royal William or Sovereign of the Seas. You can do the ship showing all the decks etc and using Janos' s wonderful abilities, he can do all of the detailed carvings......What a ship that will be.

Cheers

Greg

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Janos, George, Maury and Greg.

 

Greg - my next ship will be in a bottle (because I've always wanted to do one ). Janos's talents would be wasted in that environment .

 

I thought I might mention a couple of recent "incidents" in the workshop.

 

1. About 4 weeks ago we bought a kitten (name of "Pud") to keep the pup company. We should have named him Houdini, because he gets into the most impossible places. My workbench is a long way off the floor - 900mm to be exact - but somehow this little devil managed to get up there. I was in the next room watching TV, and when I glanced through the open doorway I saw Pud INSIDE HMS Vulture   . He had his back legs on the bench on the port side and his front paws on the starboard waist rail. I approached very slowly and carefully removed him from the deck - luckily no panic ensued and he came out without a fuss. No damage done at all .

 

2. Last week we had both of them de-sexed, so they were both a bit quiet and dopey the next day. Ziggy the pup likes to lie next to my feet while I'm working on the ship. I have a mobile swivelling office chair, and poor Ziggy was lying behind me without me knowing when I pushed the chair back and ran over one of his paws. Poor bugger, as if the visit to the vet wasn't enough .....   .

 

3. Last night I heard a noise in the workshop as if something had fallen. I was too tired to get up and investigate at the time. Next morning I found that the diffuser on the flouro light above the bench had somehow come loose and had fallen across the end of the Main Yard. This thing is a metre long and weighs about 300 grams at least, but the only damage to Vulture was a straightened out hook on the inner lift block (see pic 3 above). It took me all of 1 minute to re-bend the hook and slip it back into place, but the damage looked horrendous at first  .

 

 Danny

[cog]

Dan,

 

Lucky your vulture wasn't in a bottle !!! Sorry to hear about Ziggy ... You probably need to grow eyes in the back of your head ... The problem with pets is they can behave like the pest ... and need a forgiving owner - which can be hard to be sometimes. Glad everything is alright with Vulture, and the pets!

[GLakie]

Sorry to hear about Ziggy, but glad to hear Vulture is fine. Shame!-------Would have paid money to see a picture of Pud working on Vulture! 

 

Cheers

[BANYAN]

Glad to hear no serious damage to the model mate - but what an 'adventurous' pair of shipmates / yard workers you have there   You'll have to install a reversing beeper on that chair for Ziggy (you will just have to have one of those laying around

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Bad move, Danny - you should certainly have photographed Pud before removing him from the hold!

 

John

[Ponto]

Spectacular work as well as spectacular images.......would it be too forward of me to ask how these wonderful stills are captured?

 

JP

[Dan Vadas]

Bad move, Danny - you should certainly have photographed Pud before removing him from the hold!

 

John

 

That was the LAST thing on my mind at the time John .

 

would it be too forward of me to ask how these wonderful stills are captured?

 

 

Thanks JP. Wonderful?? I don't know about that - there are usually half a dozen rejects before I get one that looks half-good. Hand held Canon digital camera, with auto-focus and macro zoom (not SLR).

 

 Danny

[mtaylor]

It's good news that there's no major damage.   I'm assuming also none to poor Ziggy's paw.   I can understand why no pictures of Pud... pity... would have been great.   They are fun to have in the shipyard, though.

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny,

Glad the ships ok with minimal damage. I assume that Ziggy was the reason the light cover to came down. It could have been a CATastrophic to you and all of your loyal readers.

QUESTION? What would you do if Ziggy's leg was trapped in the ship and the only way to free him was to break the ship or cut off his arm? I know what I would do! I change his name to Tripod!

[gjdale]

So, Vulture has now been cat-scanned? If Ziggy were a Labrador Retriever, it would also have been lab-tested!

 

Glad to hear no significant damage all round Danny. Pets are wonderful companions but they do try our patience at times.

[popeye the sailor]

Gibbs {our American Eskimo} is my lil' buddy {should have named him Gilligan}     he hangs around me as well,  even choosing to lay under my desk while I'm at the computer.  I gotten to the point where I have to look before I move my feet!   feel bad when I don't 

 

you've got amazing luck Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the replies guys .

 

Main Stay Tackles

 

These are used when loading into the hold, and also for launching the cutter. There is one above each hatch. The lines will tighten later when the hooks are attached to the cutter :

 

 

They consist of a double and a single block on each. The lower single block has a thimble and eye seized into it. A large hook goes through the thimble :

 

 

 

 

The standing end of the pendant lashed to the stay :

 

 

 Danny

[GLakie]

Outstanding work Danny!

[SJSoane]

 

Beautiful work, Danny.

 

Mark

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

Another great pict-o-graph of your outstanding work. Glad to have you so you can teach me what to do step by step.

Cheers

Greg

[dgbot]

Keep up that kind of work and you will be wearing glasses thicker than mine.

David B

[rth385]

Hi Dan,

I hope you missed the weather of the last couple of days.

I echo the others comments. Your work is extraordinary, so realistic and your photographic skills are incredible. It's like your are photographing the actual ship.

Regards,

Russell

[Maury S]

Very nicely done.

Maury

[hlipplaa]

Hello,

Love watching this build. Been following it for a long time and its never dissapointing. Hope you don't let it nosedive onto the floor again, that was a dissaster (not sure which build it was).

May you enjoy your hobby for a long time to come!

Greetings H Lipplaa from Holland

[Landlocked123]

Danny,

 

Mine is just one voice adding to a chorus of praise.

 

I don't know if you ever saw the film "As Good as it Gets" but in a key moment Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt that she makes him want to be a better man.

 

You make me want to be a better modeler! As they say, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp". You make me want to be a better modeler. I don't know if I can ever reach your level of accomplishment, but I will try and I will always owe you that.

 

Best,

John

Edited April 24, 2015 by Landlocked123

[mtaylor]

Well said John.  I think most of us feel the same way but have never expressed it.  I know I feel that way and haven't said it.

Edited April 24, 2015 by mtaylor

[cog]

John,

 

Well said, as goes for Mark.