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

[scratch]

Lovely , lovely work indeed .

 

 

David

[Jim Lad]

Very nice bit of smithing there, Danny.

 

John

[mtaylor]

Incredible metal smithing, Danny.  And yeoowwww that's tiny.

[WackoWolf]

Excellent metal work, beautiful detail. Keep the pictures coming.

[patrickmil]

Very nice stairs, and the railing is a true masterpiece!!! Unbelievable how small those parts are.

[dgbot]

Nice lookind stanchions Danny.

 

David B

[druxey]

Well done on those double-ring stanchions, Dan. Having done them myself, with much cursing, I know just how tricky they can be! Your solution looks great.

[michael mott]

Dan, excellent work on the stanchions, my those are small.

 

Michael

[tlevine]

Those stanchions are incredible.  I will definitely refer to your technique when I eventually get to this point.

[popeye the sailor]

you have been busy Danny......good progress!  the ship's wheel look outstanding,  and the stairs look sweet as well!  well done on the stanchions and railings too! 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks go out to Tim, David, John, Mark, Joe, Patrick, David, Druxey, Michael, Toni and Popeye. I surprised myself with how successfully the railings turned out too .

 

Toni, next time I need to do some of this micro-soldering I'll make sure to document my method. It involves a block of Pumice stone to support the tiny rings.

 

Quarterdeck Breastwork

 

The Quarterdeck Breastwork was made in similar fashion to that on the Forecastle, with a few differences. The stanchions each have two sheaves (2.5mm diameter) instead of one, and there is a second rail.

 

Here's a pic of the setup I used in the lathe to make the 10 sheaves. Because of the small diameter of the brass wire I had to work very close to the chuck. This setup minimized the steps needed - I made the sheaves one at a time and parted them off as I went, moving the stock for each one.

 

The hole was drilled first, then I used the Parting Tool to score the wire to prevent it slipping sideways. The groove was cut next, and finally I finished parting the piece off. It took about an hour to set everything up and cut the 10 sheaves :

 

 

The five stanchions were turned using the DRO - they turned out identically . The slots for the sheaves were cut in the Mill using a broken 0.8mm drill, going 1mm deeper with each cut :

 

 

The sheaves were fitted, and the stanchions cut to length. There is a tiny difference in the angle of the bottom of each to allow for the roundup in the deck :

 

 

I used a scraper to cut the molding into the edges of a long piece of stock for the rails. Then I marked out and cut the square holes for the stanchions on the Byrnes saw. As I did for the forecastle railing a second piece was glued to the other edge to get the rail to the right width :

 

 

 

I used some 1.5mm bamboo pegs to secure the two outer stanchions to the deck and clamped the rail into place :

 

 

After a coat of Minwax :

 

 

This concludes Chapter 10 of "The Fully Framed Model - HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780" Volume 2.

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

Very nice Danny - it seems you are a man on a mission - the updates are coming thick and fast

 

cheers

 

Pat

[gjdale]

Fantastic Danny! I love the way you have done the sheaves - I must try that method next time I need some. Can you just clarify for me how you cut the groove on June sheave. Was that with the "normal" cutting tool, with the parting-off tool used for separating the individual sheaves from the stock, or did I get that mixed up?

[Dan Vadas]

 Thanks Pat .

 

Fantastic Danny! I love the way you have done the sheaves - I must try that method next time I need some. Can you just clarify for me how you cut the groove on June sheave. Was that with the "normal" cutting tool, with the parting-off tool used for separating the individual sheaves from the stock, or did I get that mixed up?

 

You got it right Grant. I set both the "normal" tool and the parting tool to the distance apart that allowed me to just use the "X" axis wheel to cut both without moving the "Y" axis. The sheave is 0.7mm thick.

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Thanks Danny - my favourite words again

[Remcohe]

Very nice work Danny, on to the next chapter!

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Remco. I'm still a LONG way off thinking about masts yet Brian   .

 

Fixed Gangway Newel Posts and Railings

 

The last of the Posts and Railings. The railings have an "S" bend in them to allow for the differences in widths of the gangway :

 

 

 

 

 

There is a strap which both reinforces the railing and gives an extra handhold :

 

 

 

  Danny

[Mirabell61]

beautiful Fitting out Danny,

 

very nice work and also composition of Wood tones

 

Nils

[Yambo]

 

There is a strap which both reinforces the railing and gives an extra handhold :

 

 

  Danny

 

To me, that strap looks completely out of place Danny. I'm sure it's meant to be there but . . . well, it just looks wrong.   

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Nils.

 

To me, that strap looks completely out of place Danny. I'm sure it's meant to be there but . . . well, it just looks wrong.

 

 

I agree with you Yambo - it DOES look wrong in the pics (much better in real life), but it IS supposed to be there .

 

  Danny

[Piet]

Hello Dan, those iron straps do look like hot hammered iron, hammered to the required thickness by an experienced iron worker.  i.e. they look authentic !!  That was not an uncommon practice in those days, many other parts were made from wrought iron.

One of my trade certificates is smithing and iron work.

 

Cheers,

[dgbot]

Hello Dan, those iron straps do look like hot hammered iron, hammered to the required thickness by an experienced iron worker.  i.e. they look authentic !!  That was not an uncommon practice in those days, many other parts were made from wrought iron.

One of my trade certificates is smithing and iron work.

 

Cheers,

I would have to say the same thing.  Are you using pixie blacksmiths to do your straps?

David B

[Erebus and Terror]

Having just completed much simpler (i.e. flat) straps on my build, I have to say that is very nice indeed. Impressive detail. 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the compliments on the straps Piet, David and E&T.

 

Having just completed much simpler (i.e. flat) straps on my build

 

 

Yeah E&T, these were considerably more difficult to make than flat ones . The previous pics didn't really show that they  also have an "S" bend that roughly follows the wooden rail below :

 

 

Doing the lateral bends was a trick, and getting Port and Starboard rails to look like mirrors of each other was a whole different ball game .

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

home run Danny 

[newbuilder101]

The railing and strap look terrific. I'm quite sure your symmetry on both sides is spot on....I've not seen anything amiss yet!

[mtaylor]

Ah.. so  you were holding out on us about the "s" curve?  Did you cut out the strap in the "s" shape or heat and laterally bend it?

[Dan Vadas]

Did you cut out the strap in the "s" shape or heat and laterally bend it?

 

 

I bent them cold using two pairs of small pliers. I didn't have any brass of the correct thickness, so I filed down some sheet and cut the strips with snips - quite a bit of hammer and anvil work to straighten it out (hence the "hammered" look). Also quite a bit of work with a needle file to get out the plier marks.

 

  Danny

[michael mott]

Very Nice metal-smithing Dan

 

Michael

[patrickmil]

That is fantastic metal work Dan, but I'm always very impressed with your wood working and how precisely you get multiple pieces to look identical. With the stanchions, are you just gluing these down? If the sheaves were going to be in use with rigging would you secure them any differently?