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

[michael mott]

Nice belfry Danny for whom does it toll?

 

Michael

[patrickmil]

That's a fantastic looking belfry and bell. Very realistic and a real compliment to your Vulture.

[dgbot]

Nice belfry Danny for whom does it toll?

 

Michael

Looks like you are a man who likes to read a good book.  Hemingway was always a good read.

David B

Edited March 19, 2014 by dgbot

[Mirabell61]

very nice Progress Danny,

 

your beautiful build in all Details of this Swan Class is an awesome sight !

 

Nils

[mhegazi]

Nice work Danny

now I'm amazed how brass also obeys you

 

Keep up the good work

 

Mohamad

[amateur]

Strugling, can't find any refernce in the pic: how large (or should I say: tiny) is that wonderfull bell?

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you David, Michael, Patrick, Nils, Mohamad and Jan.

 

Is all the wood from hobby mill ? I know the framing is from the hobbymill but just wondered about the other timbers . Or did you source some from within Australia .

 

 

David, that info can be found HERE

 

Nice belfry Danny for whom does it toll?

 

 

Hopefully not for me Michael :mellow:  .

 

how large (or should I say: tiny) is that wonderfull bell?

 

 

Jan, it's 5mm x 5mm.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Forecastle Railing and Spar Rack

 

There is a Railing on the aft end of the Forecastle. Two Stanchions support the port and starboard sections. Each stanchion is fitted with a 2mm diameter x 0.7mm thick sheave which I turned on the lathe :

 

 

I made the rails in two sections, as it was nearly impossible to accurately cut the square holes for the stanchions without splitting the timber :

 

 

 

Some time ago I mentioned that there didn't seem to be a forward support for the ship's boats - yes there is . The Spar Rack does this job - the boats are lashed to spare spars carried on the rack. The rack is the same width as the railings. They still need a finish applied :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Companion Top

 

The aft Companion has a clerestory-style top fitted to it. Cutting the 2mm x 3mm holes for the Lights was a challenge . I cut them with a #11 Xacto and a tiny chisel, and bevelled their outer edges :

 

 

I "glazed" the lights with strips of very thin acrylic sheet, glued in with PVA. The corners of the four sections have been bevelled for a knife-edge fit :

 

 

 

A roof was cut from a piece of 0.6mm thick Castello and glued to the sides :

 

 

The assembly fitted to the deck :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Nice progress, Danny!

 

John

[Trussben]

Sweet Danny!

 

Ben

[BANYAN]

Some very nice details there Danny, they really enhance the excellent quality of your build!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[newbuilder101]

VERY nice indeed!

[dgbot]

Great work Danny.  Making holes cleanly at that size is not easy.

David B

[scratch]

Beautiful work Danny . I looked at HobbyMill and noticed they have finished the masting package , that's a bugger .

 

David

[gjdale]

Very nicely done, as always, Danny.

[CaptainSteve]

 

Forecastle Railing and Spar Rack

 

 

I made the rails in two sections, as it was nearly impossible to accurately cut the square holes for the stanchions without splitting the timber :

 

 

 

So THAT'S how it's done !!! 

Thanks again, Danny. Will add that one to the memory banks for later on.

[DORIS]

Dear Danny,

Your work is really perfect. The highest level of the details and quality of your work make a great impression and it is very inspirational. I love the belfry!

Keep up and have a great time
Doris

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for looking in again, and the kind comments John, Ben, Pat, Sherry, David, David, Grant, Steve and Doris. I appreciate it .

 

Ship's Wheel

 

Making the Ship's Wheel is one of the most challenging, but FUN, parts of the whole Build. I used some of the method shown in TFFM, with some other ideas of my own. I used English Box, as some of the 32 parts are very thin and needed the best timber available.

 

First I turned up the 10 Spokes. These were done using the Digital Readout on the lathe. If I'd failed with these then I'd have had to look at "Plan B" - buying a ready-made wheel. The only "failure" I had was with the first one .... I wasn't happy with the thickness of the handpiece (too thin). Version 2.0 looks better  :

 

 

I started by making a "building block" from a piece of 10mm thick Pear. The Rim of the wheel is 3" thick, whereas the Hub is 5" thick, so I turned out the centre portion 1" deeper to allow the hub to be centralised in the wheel (measurements are "real life"). After marking out the limits of the rim I cut and glued the hub to the block, and also the 10 segments of the rim. I used PVA to glue the pieces to the block but Epoxy to glue the segments of the rim together, for reasons which will become apparent later on :

 

 

Next I turned the rim and hub to size :

 

 

 

Leaving the block in the chuck I transferred the unit to the Mill, and cut the 10 slots for the spokes with the aid of my Indexing Attachment :

 

 

 

Continued next Post ....

[vulcanbomber]

I've not looked in for a long time and all I can say is WOW Danny, she is really beautiful, your craftsmanship is simply amazing.

[Dan Vadas]

..... Continued

 

(Thank you Geoff and Caroline)

 

The unit after milling the slots. I must have miscalculated one of the cuts, but I later managed to correct it by cutting and gluing tiny portions of wood back in. The repair turned out invisible :

 

 

The spokes needed the sections where they join the hub and rim squared off, and also reduced in thickness to keep the spokes central :

 

 

The first three spokes glued in. I used CA for a temporary fix to keep them aligned :

 

 

After gluing in all the spokes I cut another 10 thin segments of the rim and hub and Epoxied them on. Then it was back into the lathe to trim them down. The pic below is how they came off the lathe before cleaning up :

 

 

Cleaned up with a very sharp Xacto :

 

 

Last step, and the scariest   , was to soak the unit in Isopropyl Alcohol to soften the PVA which attached the wheel to the block. I held my breath when I started removing it, but ..... SUCCESS :D :

 

 

A little bit of final cleaning up is still needed after the alcohol has fully evaporated.

 

  Danny

[aliluke]

Brilliant work Danny. I looked at the info on the wheel in the FFM and couldn't imagine how it could be done - you have proved it can be with the right tools and very good skills. The skylight is a treat too. I'm going to have a go at the same for Fly but don't fancy my chances at 1:64.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Alistair.

 

In hindsight there was one thing I didn't think about when I made the Building Block. I should have drilled a 4.5mm hole in it's centre to allow me to give the Hub an assist when removing the wheel from the block. The centre hole in the hub is 3mm, and this would have given me the "step" I needed to work the hub free from the block. I managed to do it by CAREFULLY drilling a couple of small holes through the block after all was glued together - SCARY   .

 

Good luck with trying to make a wheel at 1:64 - it was hard enough at 1:48   .

 

  Danny

[aliluke]

Hi Danny

No I'm not going to try the wheel at 1:64 . It is the aft clerestory in the manner of the FFM, like yours, that I'm going to try and even that seems like a difficult prospect.

 

On a completely different matter - I notice your gratings and coamings are quite heavily cambered whereas some models show them quite flat. Is this all guesswork in terms of historical accuracy? I like your camber but went very flat with mine for no real reason and now I wonder what is more correct (I suspect yours is given the depth of your knowledge)?

 

Cheers

Alistair

[druxey]

Well done with the wheel, Dan!

[WackoWolf]

Excellent work Danny. Thank you for the walk true. Keep the pictures coming.

[dgbot]

Nice way of making a ships wheel.

David B

[mtaylor]

Impressive and a great tutorial.  Makes me less nervous about doing one though like Alistair, mine has to be 1:64.  I think the next ship will be at 1:24....

[scratch]

Now thats nice wheel and an excellent explanation on the process Danny .

 

 

David

[Jim Lad]

Great work with the wheel, Danny - it's turned out well.

 

John