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

[Shazmira]

Dan, I have to ask...what do you do, or did, in the real world? You said it is easier for you to build from scratch than a bad kit; therefore, your knowledge of ships must be quite extensive. I am forced at the moment to just bash a kit since I really know nothing about ships but what I have picked up in my short time here. My first attempt a a scratch build will be the battle station lol.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks to Ben, Geoff, Adrieke, David, John and Shaz .

 

anybody want to invent a drill that drills at 90 degree angle

 

They already have : Proxxon Right-Angle Drill . Unfortunately, I don't own one - yet.

 

I shudder to think of the bits you must have broken.

 

In round figures - NONE . The last time I can remember breaking a drill bit was when I tried to go just a bit too far up a piece of round bar in my lathe - that was about 6 months ago .

 

Dan, I have to ask...what do you do, or did, in the real world?

 

Concretor (32 years), Industrial Painter, Forklift Driver and Truck Driver (last 13 years). Model building is my escape from all that .

 

You said it is easier for you to build from scratch than a bad kit; therefore, your knowledge of ships must be quite extensive. I am forced at the moment to just bash a kit since I really know nothing about ships but what I have picked up in my short time here.

 

Shaz, I'm coming from the exact same place as you - I knew nothing about REAL ships either until I joined MSW. I started out with just making Kits as per instructions (some a bit better than others), found MSW and all the guys who REALLY know ships, bought a few books recommended by them and went on from there to Kit-bashing and now Scratchbuilding. It's been a great learning experience, and I'm STILL learning every day - and will be until the day comes when I can no longer do this hobby for whatever reason (death of old age probably ).

 

  Danny

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Dan, the wells are looking great. Thanks for the hint. These small hints are what really help to avoid mistakes.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for looking in Christian. BTW - there are four eyebolts immediately either side of the Main Mast and three on each side adjacent to it that should also be drilled and fitted before any work begins on the Pump Cranks. I'll drill these now and show you the updates later.

 

Hi all,

 

The final part of the Chain Pump setup - I've glued in the Pillars at the aft ends of the cranks. I was bumping and bending the aft ends of the cranks quite a bit, so I figured it was time to stabilize the whole structure. This meant fitting the 3rd Quarterdeck Beam as well :

 

 

 

My Aft Hatch is a little out of alignment - it's actually 2mm too short. I knew this a while ago - the problem is much further down. The Lower Well was slightly too far forward (2mm to be precise) and things further upwards had to be shifted to accommodate this. I'm not about to rip up two decks to fix an otherwise minor error properly .

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

2mm, Danny?  Rip out the whole structure!   Just make sure you've got everything else under the quarterdeck set up before you find the need to add any more beams!

 

John

[Jim Lad]

Janos,

 

If I tried that I'd probably set my model on fire!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Just make sure you've got everything else under the quarterdeck set up before you find the need to add any more beams!

 

All under control John - there's not much aft of here until I get to the Lower Capstan (my next job, and one I've been looking forward to .

 

Janos - your methods may well work, but they sound like too much hard work for this situation (and I'm with John - I'd probably set MY ship on fire as well ). Thanks for the tips, and I'll use them if I have to - these ones drilled FAIRLY easily, although a couple are done on a bit of an angle ... easily corrected when I fit the eyebolts.

 

Christian (et al Swan Builders) - here are the eyebolts holes I mentioned earlier. TFFM mention them a few steps further down the track (9.33 and 9.34 - would have been a lot better earlier on before the Pumps   ) :

 

 

 

The ones adjacent to the Main Mast Partners will be "sort of" the same on all the other Swans - Vulture's partners are on an angle rather than parallel to the centre line. I've done a bit of my own "shipwrighting" here - the eyebolts would have to be drilled into the Partner Carlings, which is what I've done. I've also placed each one on a Ledge.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Don't you just love it when you THINK you've got something wrong .... and it turns out you are right after all ? :D

 

My apparent problem with the Aft Hatch being too short turns out to be just a discrepancy between TFFM and the NMM plan - Vulture has an Aft Hatch EXACTLY the same length as I've built it. Somewhere along the line (and it was a while ago) I'd actually used the NMM plans to set it out. Yeeeehah .

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Well that was a pleasant discovery Danny!

[Shazmira]

Shaz, I'm coming from the exact same place as you - I knew nothing about REAL ships either until I joined MSW. I started out with just making Kits as per instructions (some a bit better than others), found MSW and all the guys who REALLY know ships, bought a few books recommended by them and went on from there to Kit-bashing and now Scratchbuilding. It's been a great learning experience, and I'm STILL learning every day - and will be until the day comes when I can no longer do this hobby for whatever reason (death of old age probably ).

 

  Danny

Danny, really?!?! Wow, then there is hope for me yet!!!

[WackoWolf]

There is always hope. Think about it like this, Danny only did kits at one time, just like the rest of us. And now look at where he is, you can do the same, it just takes time and a want to do it. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone talks about them. You are no different than anyone else, you have a brain and know how to use it. Give it time you will get there also.

[michael mott]

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone talks about them.

Which is a pity because some of our best learning comes from those mistakes.

 

Michael

[Dan Vadas]

Capstans

 

The start of the Capstans. There are two of them - the Lower Capstan on the Upper Deck, and the Upper Capstan on the Quarterdeck above it. They are joined together between decks to work as one. I'm using English Box for all the components - some of them are quite small and require a very good timber.

 

The Lower Capstan Barrel has 10 flats milled into it to take 5 Whelps, and the Upper Capstan has 12 flats and 6 whelps. I decided to turn and mill both together for ease of setting up. They will be separated between decks for installation purposes.

 

I used the Dividing Attachment on my Sherline mill to cut the flats :

 

 

 

Then I turned down the centre portion :

 

 

 

I've also started making the Whelps. The ones for the Upper and Lower Capstans are of different sizes, there is also a corresponding difference in angles. I'm also using the Mill to cut the angles, with the aid of the Tilting Table :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Nice machine work, Danny!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John, it's a lot of fun .

 

Which is a pity because some of our best learning comes from those mistakes.

 

Michael

 

Michael, we have a Topic devoted to this very subject : How I fix Boo-Boos and Oopsies by Dan Vadas - Share your own "Fixes" here

 

  Danny

[MD11pilot]

I am in awe Danny. You inspire us mere mortals to try for a higher level of precision. Thanks for taking the time to put together this very detailed build log. It's a true pleasure to peruse.

[riverboat]

Hi Danny...... just caught up on your build, all I can say is .... you are unbeliveably talented!!!  .... the pumps are just awesome along with everything else you've done...... I was amazed at what you told Robbyn about not knowing much about ships until you joined MSW. Man I thought you owned a shipyard!  ....... Well, I'm sure you've heard that old saying..... "When you've got it, you've got it"... and you certainly have it.... Talent !!. Oh yeah, thanks for your nice comments on my log, I've missed your input...... thanks again for your Supply....

Frank

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you very much for the kind comments Eric and Frank .

 

Continuing on with the Capstan, the next job was to finish shaping the Whelps. Looking from above they form a wedge shape, with the outer edge 2" thicker than the inner. To cut these angles I made a wedge-shaped block of scrap timber which I lightly PVA'd to the underside of the piece that I'd Milled the faces to. I cut one edge on all 11 pieces, then I used Isopropyl to remove the wedge, let the alcohol evaporate thoroughly, and glued it back to the opposite side to cut the other angle :

 

 

 

 

 

After cutting them all to length I set the saw blade to protrude just 0.25mm above the bed. I carefully marked the positions of two of the Chock Scarphs in one each of the Upper and Lower Whelps (there is a slight difference in them), set the fence to the first cut and did all of them. Then I reset the fence for the other 3 measurements and cut all the remaining ones :

 

 

The two on the left in the pic above have only been cut on the saw. The two on the right have had the Mortices cut into them. I used a #11 Xacto to cut the angles - they were quite easy to do, owing to the saw cuts.

 

Another pic showing the wedge-shapes of the whelps :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Cunning work, Danny!

 

John

[gjdale]

Neatly thought out Danny. Just goes to show what can be achieved with a little extra thinking and planning (plus knowing the capabilities of your machinery).

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you John and Grant - you ain't seen nuthin' yet .

 

Next trick was making the Chocks. The five lower Lower Capstan ones are 3 3/4" thick, the six lower Upper Capstan ones are 3 1/8" and both sets of upper chocks are 2" thick - keeping them separate was a trick .

 

The chocks taper inwards and are also bevelled for the scarphs. The upper capstan ones have a slightly different angle to the lower ones. I started by sanding one edge on the Byrnes disc sander using both the angle gauge and tilt table. Then I cut them all to width on the Byrnes saw using the angle gauge for the other edge, and freehand sanded the bevel into each one :

 

 

 

Then I glued the Whelps and Chocks to the Barrels :

 

 

 

 

I left all the chocks oversize on the outer edges at this stage. They will be turned down to size in the next stage :

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Very neatly done, Danny!

 

John

[mtaylor]

What John said...  very clever way of solving the chock problem.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John and Mark .

 

Next comes the Trundle Head - this is made from four pieces of timber. Two are edge-glued to make the 1'9" wide piece needed. I made sure the grain was running in different directions to make it stand out as two actual pieces later. The other two were treated in similar fashion.

 

NOTE: I didn't really need to do this for the trundlehead, but I thought it would be a good practice for the Upper Capstan's Drumhead which is a lot more visible - turns out it was, I made a setup error that would have stood out later on.

 

Then I turned up a "dummy shaft" which could be chucked in the 3-jaw chuck. I spot-glued the head to it for the machining work.

 

The square cuts for the Capstan Bars were milled in next, using the dividing head again. Not possessing a mill cutter of the required diameter (0.73mm) I used a 0.38" slitting saw which needed setting up twice for each cut :

 

 

Then I chucked both parts of the Capstan Barrel complete with Whelps and Chocks back into the lathe and trimmed down all the chocks. I also used a Boring Bar to take out the inside diameter of the trundle head where it fits to the barrel. I should have done this earlier while it was still in the lathe, but no biggie - it was still glued to the dummy shaft. I separated the head from the dummy shaft with Isopropyl :

 

 

The lower chocks in each section have a Concave outer edge. I filed these in with a half-round needle file :

 

 

  Danny

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Dan, it's a pleasure to follow your detailed descriptions how do you do your job. It will be very helpful in a few years for me.

[Jim Lad]

Delightful work, Danny!

 

John

[dgbot]

Increadable work Dan.  Reminds me of a couple of chinese puzzles I have seen over the years.  How many parts are in that assembly if I might ask.

David B

[Sjors]

Hi Danny,

 

It looks like a Rubik's cube but it looks amazing!

When you are boring you can make parts of them and fit them again...

 

[hopeful]

So, you are the guy who developed the rubic cube. Sensational work, Danny.

 

BFN

 

Hopeful aka David

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for dropping in again Christian, John, David, Sjors and David . Yeah, it reminded me of a Rubic's Cube or Chinese Puzzle when I took the pics .

 

How many parts are in that assembly if I might ask.

 

37 so far David - there are quite a few more to come   .

 

Here's the next stage of the Trundlehead and Drumhead. I've glued the two pieces of trundlehead together and turned out the recess for an "iron" strengthening ring. This will be made from Ebony. There are actually two of these for each head - one in the lower section and one in the upper of both. I'm only doing the upper ones, as the lower ones can't be seen. I've also milled out the ten slots for the Upper Capstan Bars into the Drumhead :

 

 

I turned the ebony ("iron") ring about three times thicker than needed - it still snapped into 5 pieces on the final cut   . It took a while to find the pieces around the lathe, and a bit longer to sort out which one went where, but they eventually fitted into place with very little sign of breakage. I'll sand them flush on the lathe after the glue dries. I'm hoping for a better result for the very visible Drumhead rings :

 

 

  Danny