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

[Jim Lad]

There you go, Danny - just like a bought one!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Joe, Aldo and John.

 

I turned the 4.5mm x 0.8mm sheaves on the lathe.

 

To cut the slots for the sheaves into the catheads I first drilled a series of 0.9mm holes on the mill. The slots are drilled in a vertical plane, not at right angles to the arms of the catheads so they were set up to the same angles as on the ship :

 

 

After drilling the holes I used the mill to "join the dots". This needed a lot of careful passes for each slot - I went deeper in 0.5mm increments - to avoid breaking the drill. The results were pretty good :

 

 

The sheaves fitted up. A drop of CA holds the pins, and the sheaves move freely :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Sure beats my usual fake sheaves, Danny!

 

John

[rdsaplala]

Those sheaves look perfect, Danny, splendid job!

[Sjors]

Morning Danny,

 

So this is the way  how to make those sheaves…..

Great job !

But I think that we can not expect something else from you.

 

[st george]

Nice looking sheaves you've got there Danny.

[BANYAN]

Nice work on the catheads and the replacement beam Danny; and another thankyou for the Mini-tutorial.  You'll have to lay off some of shipwrights soon and employ some additional riggers

 

cheers

 

Pat

[gjdale]

Very nicely done all round Danny. And another great tutorial to boot!

[Dan Vadas]

Sure beats my usual fake sheaves, Danny!

 

John

 

John, you're forgiven - if I was building at 1:96 scale as well I'd have faked them too .

 

Thank you Brian, Aldo, Sjors, David, Pat and Grant .

 

Cathead Caps

 

I mentioned the Cathead Caps a couple of posts ago - here's how I made them, which is a bit different to the method described in TFFM.

 

First I cut the two pieces for the caps from English Box. I glued these two pieces to a block of scrap to make handling/turning/carving a lot easier. I turned the central boss into each piece :

 

 

Next I sanded the four edges to an angle to taper the "rays" and marked them out :

 

 

I carved out the sections between each ray with an Xacto and my favorite modified Chiselpoint :

 

 

 

Last jobs were to cut the cap off the "holder" with the table saw, glue the cap to the end of the cathead and sand the edges at the appropriate angles. The catheads are now glued into the ship. Note that the cap is slightly larger than the cathead. Please excuse the poor quality of this pic - I had four attempts at taking it and this was the best I could do (bad lighting at that angle) :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

What, Danny?  No

cathead?  

 

John

 

[Dan Vadas]

No John - Vulture has the "simple" Star design on the Cathead Caps. Thank God .
 

 

  Danny

[rdsaplala]

Beautiful carving work on the cat-head star, Danny, they look great!

I'm still trying to figure out how to fake them on my little sloop.

Edited September 1, 2013 by rdsaplala

[Kevin]

i love the repair you did on the catheads, thank-you for showing how you did it

[tlevine]

Danny, thanks for the heads up on the cathead.  Someday I'll even get that far!  Everything looks great.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Aldo, Kevin and Toni .

 

Steam Grating Coamings

 

There are two Steam Gratings and a Cowl Cover over the galley stove. These are shown in a different configuration to most of the other Swans, as Vulture's stove is facing the opposite way to them.

 

I constructed the coamings the same way I did all the previous ones, so there is no point showing that again. The only thing of note is the much larger "roundup" on the athwartships head ledges :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Nicely done, Danny.  Any thoughts on why the stove was put in a... about on the Vulture?

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Nicely done, Danny.  Any thoughts on why the stove was put in a... about on the Vulture?

 

John

 

Beats me John - maybe they decided there was a better way to use the very limited space under the forecastle after they'd built the first dozen or so "Swans". Note that there are also two extra doors in the forecastle bulkhead (behind the Bitts) to give outside access to the firebox.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Steam Grating

 

I've made my first (and maybe ONLY) Grating - this goes over the stove. I'm a bit reluctant to make too many more (maybe some on the quarterdeck) as they hide too much detail beneath.

 

The grating stock is 0.79mm thick English Box, a fraction oversize (they should be 0.75mm) but I decided to make them the size of a 0.030" kerfed saw blade on the Byrnes saw using the Micrometer Stop.

 

My first job was to make a list of the spacings (i.e. the Micrometer stops) using a spreadsheet. This made it a lot easier to work out accurately than trying to remember and then calculate each one (especially if I'm interrupted   ) :

 

 

Then I set up a piece of 2mm thick stock and started cutting 18 slots halfway through using the micrometer to set up each one (I made a couple of spares "just in case" - I needed them too ):

 

 

Then I cut each strip off against the fence, again using the micrometer stop. The measurements are identical to the previous cuts :

 

 

 

 

Assembly is the same as using kit gratings (fiddly, but at least they were cut more accurately than most kit ones). I dipped the grating into diluted PVA and let it dry :

 

 

After sanding the grating to size and gluing it into place I sanded the roundup in. I've also fitted the Cowl Base :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Very neat grating, Danny - pity we may not see any more!

 

John

[Sjors]

Wow Danny,

 

These gratings are looking better then the ones they provide in a kit !

One question….

At the rounding of the gratings, you sand them in the shape of the "holder" ?

I hope you understand what i mean…...

 

[WackoWolf]

Very nice work Dan. I enjoy watching this post because you walk the work through for everyone to see. Keep the pictures coming. I have learn a lot from you and know I will learn more.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John, Brian, Sjors and Joe .

 

do you apply wipe on poly to each assembly before adding the piece to the model

 

 

Sometimes Brian, depending on how deep inside the hull the piece goes. There is no finish applied to the gratings and coamings so far.
 

One question….

At the rounding of the gratings, you sand them in the shape of the "holder" ?

 

 

The "holder" is called a "Coaming" Sjors, and yes - the grating is sanded to the same shape after gluing it in.

 

:cheers;  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Galley Cowl

 

Time for some more brass work. The Galley Cowl is 15" in diameter, which scales down to 8mm. The top piece is fitted at a slight angle upwards, about 95 degrees at the join.

 

I turned the outside diameter first from a piece of 10mm stock - the closest I had. Then I drilled the centre out to 7.5mm - in several steps starting with a 3mm pilot hole :

 

 

I made the piece about 5mm longer than needed to allow for a bit of final trimming. I cut the pipe using a fine hacksaw in a mitre box, and finessed the angle to 47.5 degrees on both pieces using my disc sander. I used a piece of scrap to hold the smaller piece - saves burning or sanding down fingers   :

 

 

 

The finished article after silver soldering ready for some small details. The assembly will be blackened when it's complete :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Danny the blacksmith!    Nice job, mate.

 

John

[Trussben]

Now that was great to see how you made the chimney, thanks Danny, it was the old lightbulb going off in my head moment.

 

Ben

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John and Ben, but "you ain't seen nuthin' yet " .

 

Cowl Baffle

 

There is a wire reinforcing ring around the rim of the cowl. This was silver soldered on and cleaned up.

 

A baffle is attached to the opening of the cowl to regulate air flow to the stove's firebox.

 

I cut a disc of 0.3mm sheet, drilled two 0.7mm holes through it and silver soldered the two sliding pins. I filed the protruding ends down to simulate a peened over end.

 

 

Next I fabricated two sleeves for the slides to travel in from 0.75mm ID tubing and a 0.5mm pin to locate them correctly. These were CA glued into the cowl - too much heat would have been needed to solder them in and I risked destroying my previous work.

 

 

 

Finally two wire handles were drilled into the cowl and CA'd in. The whole assembly was blackened in stages and polished.

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Just like a bought one, Danny!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Just like a bought one, Danny!

 

John

 

Yeah - except you can't buy them :D .

 

  Danny

[mtaylor]

Amazing metalwork, Danny.  And nice tutorial to boot.

[druxey]

Dan: I learned a great technique from a jeweller for silver soldering successive joints. She told me that, as well as using 'hard' (high melting point) for the first joint, 'medium' for the next and 'easy' for the third, you can protect previously soldered joints with yellow ochre. This is in powder form. Mix with a little water to a paste, then paint it over the joints you want protected. Heat will turn this red, but it will wash off when pickled. There is also now an 'extra easy' grade of silver solder available, but she doesn't recommend using it - it doesn't make a very good joint. Hope this is of some help.