HMS Terror by Keith S - OcCre - scale 1:75 - as she (dis)appeared on her final mission 1845 - first wooden ship build

[Keith S]

Haha happy to be of service, Keith. Victory is a massive job; if I was working on a ship of her magnitude I'd probably drive myself mad. Though I must admit it would be nice to be building a model of a ship one can actually visit! It simultaneously excites and frustrates me that in one of these years soon there will be men prowling the corridors of Terror, but I will not be one of them. Parks Canada hasn't released much of their footage either. Just little snippets.

 

[Keith S]

I've been beavering away at the armour plating on the bow. I can't work out why, but I am finding this part of the model extremely tedious. I suppose I'd better learn to be patient before I begin the rigging! Each little aluminium plate needs to be individually crafted. The instructions depict the plates being cut to a certain size, and then stuck on one after the other as easy as you please. But in reality, other than the first five or six plates, the curvature of the ship's spoon-bow makes it necessary to taper and adjust each corner till it fits against its neighbour. There isn't a right angle in sight. 

 

I've done the starboard side and I'm about 2/3 through the port side. They are probably not going to be perfectly symmetrical, but that will not be noticeable, especially once they are painted black. 

 

I've put little dimples in the plates to represent rivets. I've no idea if this is true to scale, but it stands to reason there would be rivets or something holding the plates on. 

 

 

[clearway]

looks o.k. so far Keith- i am thinking about using the point of a scriber to imitate nail indents. The chainplates look a lot better than occres (i am either going to scratchbuild the chainplates or go down same path- depends how energetic i feel at the time). Keep up the good work so far.

 

Keith

 

😉

[Portsoy]

Keith, 

 

Lovely work on your HMS Terror model.

 

Perhaps the National Maritime Museum may be able to tell you what colour the ships boat was painted?

For Arctic operations , would have thought it unlikely it was just varnished.

 

For the iron bow plates, have you considered making them out of plastic card instead? Easier to paint,cut and shape compared to aluminium supplied with the kit.

 

I have followed along with Mathew Betts blog build of HMS Terror since he started ,but he has not posted any updates in quite a long time- well over a year now....

[Keith Black]

8 hours ago, clearway said:

looks o.k. so far Keith

Keith, what Keith said........Keith

[Keith S]

Plasticard never even crossed my mind, until now! Oh well, I'm most of the way through the plating and I've already bought the etch primer and matte black paint for it.

 

I feel you are right about the boats. In paintings, like "They forged the last link with their lives" the boats are depicted as being green and black. In other paintings they seem to be white with a dark-coloured topside stripe. 

 

I really haven't made up my mind about the boats. The whale-boats stowed astern will be either upside-down or hanging from davits. If they are on the davits, I'm considering making canvas covers for them. The longboat and jolly-boat midships will be right-side-up. In all probability the smaller one would have been upside-down but I'm going to mount it right-side-up to show the interior detail. 
 

My intention is to display the ship as she would have been under steam in an open lead, with the sails hastily furled. I imagine in this scenario she would have had at least one boat on the davits rather than fully stowed. 

 

 

[Keith S]

The bow plating is coming along. I now have both sides done; all I need to do now is make the little pieces that cover the stem and the ones that overlap the ice channels. I wouldn't say I'm exactly "proud" of the job I've done, but I feel it is acceptable, especially because it will be painted matte black to match the hull. Besides, I have a feeling the bow armour on the real ship was a rather brutish-looking affair, probably rusty after being at sea for a while and especially after bashing some ice. 

 

 

[clearway]

looks alright from here Keith😁- besides when people are viewing her they will be drawn to the deck fittings and rigging.

 

Keith

[NovaStorm]

Once you paint it that will blend right in Keith. It looks great! Your just seeing all the aluminum bling at the moment. 

Just wondering if I ever get around to starting mine, would it be easier to ruff shape out the plating after putting on the first hull planking. Then installing after the second planking and before painting?

[Keith S]

7 hours ago, NovaStorm said:

Once you paint it that will blend right in Keith. It looks great! Your just seeing all the aluminum bling at the moment. 

Just wondering if I ever get around to starting mine, would it be easier to ruff shape out the plating after putting on the first hull planking. Then installing after the second planking and before painting?

Thanks! I don't see any advantage to doing anything with the plating before the second layer of planking is on, but I WOULD do it as soon as possible after installing the keel and stem. I don't know if the paint you choose for the hull will stick properly to the aluminium. I'm planning on masking it and painting with etch-primer and matte black spray. 

 

I wish I had done the armour plating earlier because The ship is harder to handle now it's got all those little details on it. So far, I've only managed to knock off a cathead.

[clearway]

the problem with aluminium is it forms an oxidised layer in contact with air- this is what makes it hard to glue/ weld. before gluing or painting give it a rub down with either an abrasive rubber or very fine sandpaper/ emery cloth and paint straight away.

 

Keith

[Keith S]

1 hour ago, clearway said:

the problem with aluminium is it forms an oxidised layer in contact with air- this is what makes it hard to glue/ weld. before gluing or painting give it a rub down with either an abrasive rubber or very fine sandpaper/ emery cloth and paint straight away.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, I tried emery paper but the little "rivet heads" made that tricky. The abrasive rubber is a good idea, and immediately before the etch primer I'm going to scrub it with some aggressive scotch-brite I nicked from the airframes shop at work.  

[Keith Black]

Keith, did you even try wipe on poly and then painting? 

[NovaStorm]

Thanks Keith and Keith great info I would not have known to do that. I would have cleaned it and painted. Cheers ~

[Keith S]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Keith, did you even try wipe on poly and then painting? 

Believe it or not Keith, I couldn't find any wipe-on poly around here. I live in a crummy little town in the Arctic and if it's not at "Canadian Tire" (and it generally won't be, no matter what "it" is) it's not gonna be anywhere else. I had some "regular" polyurethane varnish and I tried that on a scrap piece. My acrylic black model paint didn't like it and turned out kind of streaky. I'm going to try spraying it. Painting is my least favourite thing. I always seem to screw it up somehow!

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Keith S said:

I live in a crummy little town in the Arctic

 

1 hour ago, Keith S said:

My acrylic black model paint didn't like it and turned out kind of streaky

Those streaks are from the misquotes and black flies (no-see-um) mixing in with your paint.

[Keith S]

49 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 

Those streaks are from the misquotes and black flies (no-see-um) mixing in with your paint.

Ha ha, I wish it was warm enough for bugs! Summer is about two weeks behind schedule here! It's awful.

 

[Keith S]

OK so I've made a change to the model, which I hope makes sense. I've got rid of those legs the boat-chocks were sitting on. The kit has the large boat sitting on stilts because it is too long to fit between the forward ladderway and the pump cranks (I haven't built these yet). It overhangs the sliding hatch on the ladderway. The thing is, I am starting to wonder if this large boat is just a boat from the generic boat-bin at Occre, or whether its size and shape are based on any actual historical records. The draught I have ordered from the National Maritime Museum depicts a big pile of boats sitting right on the deck with the prow of the lower one between the pumps and just slightly overhanging the hatch due to the rake of the stem. The other boats are depicted stacked inside this one.

 

Therefore, I have decided to mount my "Master Korabel" boat in chocks right on the deck, and I've decided not to use the large cast-metal boat provided. This is the largest 1:72 scale (close enough)small boat that they provide, and it's only about a scale foot shorter than the largest boat whose silhouette can be made out in the shipyard draughts. 

 

If anyone thinks I've made a mistake here, please let me know. 

 

I see there's a lot of hand-wringing, squinting at plans, and second-guessing that goes on when trying to build a model ship. 

 

[clearway]

i have just had a thought Keith- what if the forward boats were actually mounted on that heavy sled you see in Matthew betts log?

 

Keith

[Keith S]

That's certainly where I would put them...

[Keith S]

Here's the latest work on Mini-HMS Terror:

 

I'm fairly pleased how the plating turned out on the bow. I carefully de-greased everything and scuffed it up before applying an etching primer followed by matte black spray. It's turned out quite well if I do say so, and it's a big relief to have this part finished. It's one of those parts of the model that if done poorly, can really be an eyesore.

 

I've also finished playing about with boats. I've decided not to use the long boat from the kit, and simply display my "Master Korabel" boat on the cradle that came with the boat kit. The chocks on the deck were too low and the "stilts" in the kit were too high, and the little cradle looks just right to me. I mounted them where there are depicted two transverse planks in the admiralty draughts, so it's pretty realistic anyway and places the boat at what looks to me to be the hight it is supposed to be. In real life, it's quite believable perhaps the boats were sitting on the sledge, but in the absence of confirmation in the admiralty drawings I've chosen to take the easy way and stop trying to speculate: To quote Keith Black: "My rules have been, that if I couldn't make it look close to what an element actually looked like, don't make it. Don't make an element if you can't verify it was actually part of the ship (don't make up history,accurately portray history to the best of your ability) Don't make an element if it's going to look cheesy, better to not make it at all." 

 

(thanks Keith, sorry for stealing that) 

 

Also for this reason I also omitted the part of the armour where it flares up and covers part of the chock channel: the complex curves were difficult, and I felt that a poor job here would detract from the model more than their absence. In my opinion it is barely noticeable in this scale.

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

looks the part Keith- hopefully mr betts will have re-started his blog by the time i get there😁- however it certainly makes more sense the way you have done it than occres depiction (i might still be tempted to scratch a couple of sleds and mount the boats on them- though that's a long way off)- nice look to the bow armour paint job

 

Keith

[Keith S]

I have to admit, I've been a bit sneaky with the boat cradle. I glued it onto the deck using white glue, without preparing the surface first. The glue doesn't stick permanently to the varnish, so while it's secure enough for now, if you or Mr. Betts end up encountering a better plan, I can easily knock mine off without damaging the ship and steal your ideas! 

 

If you look carefully at the side-view in the admiralty draughts, the big pile-o' boats are represented by faint outlines, and the bottom outline isn't so much boat-shaped as a big, flat, pan-like thing with a pointy front. You may well be correct that it's a sledge of some kind! 

 

I suppose the thing to find out, which may be recorded somewhere, is whether the sledges were made on the scene by the crew from ship's timbers, or whether they were equipped with them from the outset. 

 

As an aside, I sent an e-mail to the National Maritime Museum inquiring about whether they have any diagrams showing the sail plans or rigging for the exploration ships. I was very surprised and pleased that I got a response within three days (!) from a curator. He said it was very rare to have the sail plans for any particular ship and in this case they hadn't got any. But what impressed me particularly was that he did include the results of some online searching he did himself, and he finished with a suggestion that I check out Mr. Betts' blog! Also he confirmed that the ships were "barques" and wished me good luck with my model. While I didn't learn anything new, I was very pleased and gratified that someone would take the time to make such a polite and detailed response. 

[clearway]

i spotted the outline of the pointy cradle on the plans too- it would make sense to have them pre-made and the bolts holding them together would support this. I was looking through james lees masting and rigging last night and it does show rig of stays on ships around our time- no mouse on the stays and they run slightly differently to how you see them on victory- also a couple of nice stills on matthews log from the terror series- if we follow standard rig practice we can't go wrong as no one can say hey that's not right😉

 

Keith

[Keith S]

7 minutes ago, clearway said:

i spotted the outline of the pointy cradle on the plans too- it would make sense to have them pre-made and the bolts holding them together would support this. I was looking through james lees masting and rigging last night and it does show rig of stays on ships around our time- no mouse on the stays and they run slightly differently to how you see them on victory- also a couple of nice stills on matthews log from the terror series- if we follow standard rig practice we can't go wrong as no one can say hey that's not right😉

 

Keith

 

I'll have to wait until my copy of the book arrives: I don't know what a "mouse" is! But I'll be sure not to put one on my stays! Ha ha.

 

[Keith S]

Today I did some work on the main pumps that sit on either side of the mainmast. On his blog, Mr. Betts' research indicates that the pumps were a "flywheel" type. The flywheels have curly spokes and are not a feature of the kit. I tried to make some by soldering some brass wire but I lacked the skill to do a good job, especially on something so small. Then I remembered that some trains have metal wheels to apply hand-brakes. And what's more, some old-fashioned ones had handwheels with curly spokes. So I went to a website that sells details for garden-scale model trains, and behold, the handbrake wheel for a 1:20 scale American railway wagon is just about exactly the same size as a 1:75 Massey pump flywheel! Some good luck there. 

 

I can see in the close-up photo that I need to touch up the black stripe on the boat!

 

 

[clearway]

nice work on the flywheel- model railway companies sell some nice goodies like handrail wire and knobs that are finer than most model ship fittings you can get

 

Keith

[Geowolf]

hi Keith S, your Terror likes very fine!!! i hope my model will be near to your one! very nice painted as original model, i prefer too. Wich Paint are you using? my test with chalk Paint are not very Good 😕

 

your modification about "bumpers" for ice (painted White) are interesting, i'll think about it. The OCCRE design is 5+4+3 trims, a looot of wood,... 

 

thanks in advance and regards, 

[Keith S]

8 hours ago, Geowolf said:

hi Keith S, your Terror likes very fine!!! i hope my model will be near to your one! very nice painted as original model, i prefer too. Wich Paint are you using? my test with chalk Paint are not very Good 😕

 

your modification about "bumpers" for ice (painted White) are interesting, i'll think about it. The OCCRE design is 5+4+3 trims, a looot of wood,... 

 

thanks in advance and regards, 

 

Thank you for looking at my model, Geowulf, and I will try to answer your questions.

 

I have used several kinds of paint. I would advise you not go forward with paint that you don't like. If the paint is no good, you will not have a good time building your model.

 

For the white parts I used a type of paint called "Citadel" which is made in the U.K. There is a store in my town in Canada that sells products for an adventure game that people play on the table with little figures and models. I do not play this game, but I find the paints and brushes they sell are excellent. They have a lot of pigment and cover wood, white metal and plastic beautifully, and don't show brush-marks. Because they are meant for adventure-gaming, they have silly names- for instance, the brown colour I used on the windlass is called "Mournfang Brown" and the white I used is called "Ceramite White" but they are excellent paints! Unfortunately the little store is closed because of Covid-19. I hope they come back. 

 

Also, there is a model ship supply shop in Canada called "Cast Your Anchor" and they sell things online. They provide a set of paints for various ships. They are also pretty good, and they have common Admiralty colours. The yellow on my ship is called "English Ochre". 

 

Of course these shops are in Canada. But I'm sure there are equivalent shops in almost every country, and the "Citadel" paints are almost certainly available on Ebay. 

 

The black hull on my model is not painted. My wife liked the bare wood, but I wanted it to look black. I made a compromise and used a wood-colour "Ebony" stain, which is like a thin varnish with pigments in it. It took about three coats to darken the wood to an "ebony" colour, which looks black from a distance but close-up you can see the wood grain. (so my wife is pleased and maybe she will let me display the model in the lounge when it is done) 

 

For the rest of the black parts, I'm simply using "Testors" matte black paint for model aeroplanes. 

 

The white "bumper" (called a "chock-channel") is not modified! The only change I made was to move it 5mm lower, from the 15mm shown in the plans to 20 mm below the bulwark tops. I sent an E-mail to Occre with this correction, and they responded and said I was correct and the instructions contain an error. You're right, it uses a LOT of wood to build it up, but it is very easy to carve to shape afterwards. 

 

I hope this helps! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

wish i had clicked with that before gluing mine on Keith- nevermind🤪 just work round it! For future reference i was checking the masting and when doing the mizzen mast dont use the top - barque rigged vessels only had the cross and trestle trees with no platform.

 

Keith