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

[WackoWolf]

Everything looks Beautiful Danny, love the coil work. I agree with Mark about the fabric glue. But I know you will test it first, so I will be waiting to see what you say about it. Keep the pictures coming.

[Richard Griffith]

Very nice work Dan~! 

Your work is setting a gold standard for me.

 

Duff

[WackoWolf]

Duff,

 

    To bad you miss the log when he started it on MSW 1, you would have love it. Danny keep the pictures coming.

[Bill Hime]

Danny,

The rope is a vast improvement. Also after slowly working my way through every page of this build, the thing that strikes me is the subtle difference in colors from framing vs decking vs cannon carriages then to rope and texture. All lend to making the details stand on their own. Nothing overpowers another. It gives a sense of walking through the life size vessel. Beautiful work !

 

Warm Regards,

 

Bill

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks all for dropping in again .

 

John, Mark and Joe - the "Sew Stable" Fabric Stabilizer I used seems to have done the trick nicely. It's set like PVA, but doesn't look like it's been glued down. Just the slightest amount of darkening of the thread, but after painting the whole line it's not at all noticeable .

 

Spyglass - I'd already "notched" the blocks (I do that with all of them). These ones are only 2.7mm, so it probably doesn't show as much as larger ones do. I gave the lines a bit more of a soak after the main part of the coil had dried and worked the lines a little bit more realistically. They look better to the naked eye than the pics may show.

 

Bill - I'm glad you like the "color scheme" . I've used seven types of timber so far - Swiss Pear (a light and a dark shade), Castello Boxwood, English Boxwood, Ebony, Holly and Australian Cherry Ballart. The only paint used on the model is some Lead Grey for the Magazine floor and the Scuppers and Matt Black for the Galley Stove. The only other paint that will be used is Matt Black or Umber for the Seizings on the Standing Rigging, and a mixture I've made up that matches the Running Rigging lines for their seizings - the tiny fishing line I use for them only comes in white.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Gangboard Knees

 

I've made and fitted five of the six port side Gangboard Knees. This required a slight re-do of four of the gun tackles, as the two forward ones on gun #4 and the two aft ones on gun #3 are both attached to the knees, not the spirketting. An oversight on my part .

 

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

I like the contrasting colour for the knees, Danny!

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

beautiful progress Danny.........the cannons and rigging looks great!  your wood working skills are super......nice work! 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John and Popeye.

 

Planksheers in the Waist

 

I've started on the Planksheers, sometimes called Cap Rails or Covering Boards. I made these from Australian Cherry Ballart, which is not related to Cherry but rather refers to the red coloring.

 

It's not visible in the pics, and is almost invisible to the eye, but the outer edges of them have a slight molding scraped into them.

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

The Cherry Ballart is a nice contrast for the planksheers, Danny - ain't that a delightful timber to work!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John.

 

ain't that a delightful timber to work!

 

 

Yes and no - it's a lot better than some and has nice coloring, but it also has a fairly chunky grain, depending on the piece you select. This makes scraping a molding into it rather difficult at times.

 

Hances

 

I've started with the port forecastle hance. First I milled the underside to shape and finessed it to fit the planking, then I used the disc sander and a needle file to get the upper side to follow in a parallel curve. I cut the molding in with a shaped scraper and an Xacto blade.

 

 

 

I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue with the Cherry Ballart or rip the lot out and use dark Swiss Pear. I'm not all that happy with the definition of the molding.

 

  Danny

[JPett]

Ahoy Danny

 

Regardless of your decision it really shows there is almost no limit. Amazing work

 

Can I ask how you get the symmetry in your tree nails. I noticed that even on your deck they are perfectly spaced.

[Jim Lad]

Hmmm.  Maybe the bits of Cherry Ballart I've been using have a better grain.  I have to say that moulding could be crisper, but then we all know how brutal close up photos can be.

 

John

[gjdale]

Knowing your attention to detail and "getting things right" Danny, I suspect we'll be seeing a re-do on those. No criticism implied Danny, but I agree that these don't seem to match your own expectations. I suspect that some Swiss Pear will give you more the result that you're looking for.

[amateur]

As soon as you start asking questions on "to redo or not to redo".. we all know what will happen.

btw: did your woodworms miss one little hole? (in the upper left corner of the gunport)

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for looking in Jeff, John, Grant and Jan - much appreciated .

 

Can I ask how you get the symmetry in your tree nails. I noticed that even on your deck they are perfectly spaced.

 

 

Jeff, I draw a line down the centre of the frame or beam and just do the rest by eye.

 

btw: did your woodworms miss one little hole? (in the upper left corner of the gunport)

 

No Jan, they didn't. There are bolts in every 3rd frame in the waist. I won't be fitting them until I'm ready for clear coat, as there may be a bit of touching up to do (as in sanding) before then.

 

John, Jan and Grant - the redo is about to happen .

 

  Danny

[amateur]

Thanks,

 

It looked such a lonely, empty space

 

Jan

Edited November 26, 2013 by amateur

[Trussben]

I knew you would redo them Danny, you are too good to let something like that get by! I look forward to seeing the new version.

 

Ben

[Dan Vadas]

OK, here you go Ben and the others who commented on my Hances v1.0 - I've remade the Planksheers and the first Hance using a dark shade of Swiss Pear. I'm much happier about the result - crisper definition and far less chipping out. There are minor irregularities which you can see under high magnification, but to the eye they look pretty good if I say so myself . They will look even better when a finish has been applied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Yes, much better definition,Danny.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you John - I like it now .

 

A small "Tutorial" on how I made the Hances.

 

One trick I learned long ago is to make small pieces that are awkward to hold on the end of a long piece of stock which can be used as a handle for more control.

 

First I Milled the inside curve. These will all come out the same for the four of this type - the planking is finessed to fit the radius :

 

 

Next the outer curve is sanded down to follow the shape of the inner one. I started off with the Byrnes disc sander and finished with a sanding stick :

 

 

I could only use the molding scraper for the straight grained section :

 

 

The curved sections were cut with a very narrow Xacto chisel :

 

 

The piece will be cut off the longer stock when it's all cleaned up.

 

  Danny

[mtaylor]

Nice tutorial Danny and they did come out nicer.

[gjdale]

Great little mini-Tutorial Danny.

[BubbleHead]

_Hello:

 

_{Very nice Danny.}

_TJ

[ajromano]

Danny,

 

Great quality and thanks for highly detailed how to.

 

Tony

[Bill Hime]

Very nice work. The quality is in the details.

 

 

Bill

[Elmer Cornish]

I love your log ! thnx for knowledge ,now I have to work on the skill!

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Mark, Grant, TJ, Tony, Bill and Elmer .

 

I've made all 10 Hances. I've used a simplified design eliminating the fancier rolled scrolls on most of them - they were hard enough to carve out the way I've done them   .

 

The upper ones on the forecastle and quarterdeck have been scarfed out to fit to the planksheers :

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Danny

[michael mott]

Very Nice recovery Danny, thanks for the Step by Step, I have tucked that one away for the future.

 

Michael

[Jeff-E]

HI Danny,

 

 Beautiful work on the hances. I agree they look much better than the previous version and thanks for the tutorial