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

[Keith S]

4 hours ago, clearway said:

i would leave final verdict on fitting trysails till Matthews book comes out (hopefully should be getting a message about mine within next 10 days or so),

If you look on twitter he has put a couple of teasing shots on his tweets , one being a video of the fully detailed outboard profile drawing though still wont help you with the trysail quandry.

 

Keith

 

Nuts, I don't have "Twitter". Well at least it's easier to pull them off than it would be to put them on once I've started on running rigging. It does cause a bit of mischief concerning where the mizzen stay will attach to the main mast. 

 

Where did you order your book from? I pre-ordered mine on "Amazon" but haven't heard anything since. 

 

At the rate I build, the book will be out before I need to worry about any of the information it will contain. The davit arms and trysail masts are easily pulled off if necessary. 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Keith S

[clearway]

True Keith if they can be removed no harm done. I ordered my copy from Waterstones who are a u.k. based bookstore (they also have a website you can order off) , though it might be assumption on their part on the ten days! 

 

Keith

[Keith S]

I wish I had ordered mine from a real bookstore and not evil Amazon.

[Keith S]

Here I've built up the foretrees and top. I wanted to build up the top from planks the way it's depicted in Lees' book, and it was very interesting to see it go together more or less how it would have in real life. I continue to use the ratios given for a tenth-rate frigate. So far it seems to look pretty good in terms of size. The top is bigger than the one from the kit, but it doesn't look disproportionately large. I hope. Also, I can see now it was foolish of me to glue the trees onto the main mast. That will make it more difficult to build the main top. Oh well!

 

I was disappointed when I painted it. I was rather hoping the planking detail would show through the paint. It did not, and I don't like the effect. This is why I didn't paint the water-closets at the stern. However, I think it would look strange to have painted masts and unpainted tops, so I will press on. 

 

I really do despise paint. Whenever you're hoping to cover an error, it refuses to hide anything; but when you are hoping it WON'T cover some detail or other, it covers marvellously. 

 

I've been aboard a number of ships in my life however, and I've noticed that the paint is slobbered onto parts like this pretty liberally in real life. So maybe it's actually realistic. It's just kind of too bad the planking is hidden: it took a long time to do. But I will know it's there. Maybe it will prove a blessing when the model is old, and it doesn't warp.

 

I also blackened the deadeyes and coated the boat-davits with wipe-on poly (I found some!!) and tapered the main topmast. It does not look very tapered in the pictures but I think that's an effect of the lens more than anything.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Keith S

[Keith Black]

 Keith, in real life I think paint was used extensively particularly inside the gunnels. I'm sure  white paint was used inside the gunnels to help illuminate the working areas at night as much as possible. A candle or whale oil lantern in rough weather is not going to produce enough light to be effective IMHO. 

 But that's the modeler's lament, show the beauty of the wood and its tight and tidy construction or make the model as it actually was, slathered in paint. And I'm not sure how neatly the crew could have painted when done on a rolling deck. Contemporary paintings show ships with sharp defined paint lines but most all are at distance, standing distance may have looked much different unless the crew had the time when tied up at dockside. 

[Keith S]

Thanks Keith for the encouraging words. I think you're right, real working ships -even warships- do not look as crisp and tidy close-up. The whole point of paint in real life is to FILL the cracks, not show them off. 

 

Whenever I make something I'm not immediately proud of, I put the ship on the dinner-table and watch it for a while. Sometimes, this helps me decide whether to pull the part off, or leave it on. The foretop is starting to grow on me actually. It looks correct with the paint, and once I've included the black iron banding and rivet-heads, and futtock chains, it will probably be perfectly acceptable. 

 

 

[clearway]

Nice 😁- if i was painting mine Keith that's how i would have done it.

 

Keith

[Keith S]

This morning I've been working on the bowsprit fittings. There is a lot of stuff in this particular spar. I had to make the cap three times before I got one I was reasonably happy with. Drilling parallel holes on an angle is not easy, particularly when one of them needs to be filed square afterwards. I also tapered and roughly shaped the jib-boom, although there is a lot left to do on that thing. I wanted it to have a square heel, so I started with an oversize dowel, and carved the butt square after tapering the rest. I think it turned out "OK". We'll see. 

 

This is a significant stage in the model for me, because now, she looks just about how the real ship looks on the ocean floor. We know from sonar images and Parks Canada's fleeting seaweedy glimpses that the ship still carries her jib-boom, and while I don't know how much of her masts remain, at one point in the last 20 years Sammy Kogvik, the Inuit sailor who led the survey ship to Terror's position, saw spars sticking out of the water. While these spars are't there anymore, it seems likely that Terror's masts stood for quite some time. I think now my model looks similar to what we might expect to see when further documentation of the wreck becomes available. Minus the kelp and sculpins. 

 

As for me, of course I will be pressing on and trying to complete the model.

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

She is coming along now Keith (see there are spars stored midships as well😉). It only seems like 5 minutes ago we were discussing last year abuot when we start masting and rigging her!

 

Keith

[Keith S]

15 minutes ago, clearway said:

She is coming along now Keith (see there are spars stored midships as well😉). It only seems like 5 minutes ago we were discussing last year abuot when we start masting and rigging her!

 

Keith

 

Observant! Yeah I cut the fore topmast, and was looking for a place to put it where it wouldn't get mixed up with all the other little bits of dowel I've got lying about. Seemed like the sensible place to store it till I get around to mounting it! 

 

You're right, once the spars begin to be built up, the model build seems to accelerate, doesn't it? Although I still have things to build on the hull: Kevels and mooring bitts and more chainplates primarily. 

[clearway]

11 hours ago, Keith S said:

 

Observant! Yeah I cut the fore topmast, and was looking for a place to put it where it wouldn't get mixed up with all the other little bits of dowel I've got lying about. Seemed like the sensible place to store it till I get around to mounting it! 

 

You're right, once the spars begin to be built up, the model build seems to accelerate, doesn't it? Although I still have things to build on the hull: Kevels and mooring bitts and more chainplates primarily. 

you are right there Keith- when you think you are ready to continue with a stage it's like oo need to add them and oops before i add them i best put those in while access is easier....... etc!

 

Keith

[Keith S]

This time I photographed the top BEFORE globbering it up with paint, more or less so I can show how I built it up using planks imitation of how the real one may have been built up. I read somewhere (probably Lees') that around about this time the Royal Navy authorized the tops to be built up in two parts, to be assembled aloft. This makes some sense, as it's basically two "leaves" with the cross-members bolted into position and pinched between the crosstrees and a set of upper sister-crosstrees. Of course I glued them because tiny bolts are not feasible. Later, I will add blackened pin-heads and "iron" (black paper) reinforcements per the original, which hopefully will make them look better, as I still do not like the white paint. I've also worked on the sprit and jib-boom, adding bees, cleats and iron banding around the cap. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking good!

[Keith Black]

 Keith, I hope everything is good with you and yours, I'm looking forward to seeing a update.  

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I second that! I hope all is well!

[Keith S]

Hi guys, thanks for checking in. Everything is fine here. My model-building is interrupted every year by the "Summer" here, which is short and brutal. I would not be able to forgive myself if I spent any of it in my basement lair instead of being outside, or at least being upstairs where I can see the sun. I live very far north and work as a "bush" pilot, which means 24- hour sunlight and 12-14 hour working days while my work- aeroplane is on floats. I also have a neglected "real" sailboat that needs attention when I'm not either working or sleeping. Currently I am busy getting ready for winter and clearing my tools out of the garage so my wife's car will fit in there. Then I can get ready to pull "Terror" off the shelf in the lounge (my wife tolerates the model being on display because it's not an aeroplane) and get working on her again. My model-building is always like this. I take twice as long as anyone else. One time it took me three years to build a basic balsa-and-tissue model plane. Thank you for your well-wishes though- I appreciate it; and I will be posting more progress pictures soon.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Keith S

[Keith Black]

 Keith, I wish we could sit down together sometime and swap bush plane stories. Most of my experience was in a Super Cub on tundra tires in summer and skies in the winter, a plane my buddy owned and piloted. I know what's involved, please fly safe. 

 

 Nice ride, very nice. Do you have to fuel out of 55 gal drums or can you get into a for real fuel service? 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Keith Black

[clearway]

cool as Keith, not sure about your neck of the woods but after daylight saving with the time getting dark by 4.30ish in the afternoon though still very mild here.

Keith

[Keith Black]

 Here's a link to Keith's employer, looks like a good outfit. 

 

https://www.airtindi.com

[clearway]

Thought your log needed brought into our Terror group hug Keith😁

 

Keith

[Keith S]

Just got THIS in the post... I'm feeling a bit group-hug-y at the minute.... 

[clearway]

Yey we both have it at last Keith! Jeez nearly two years we were waiting m8.... woooosh!

 

Keith

[Keith S]

Well, the current excitement surrounding the release of Dr. Betts' long-awaited book about HMS Terror has impelled me to get old "Mini Terror" out of her protective box in the basement and start collecting myself to begin the next burst of activity. 

 

With "The Book" being available, the model takes on a different status. I don't mean my model specifically: I mean the commercially-available OCRRE model. When I purchased the kit, it was during the period of time that Dr. Betts himself was doing all the research to make an accurate model of the ship. While he is a respected and accomplished archaeologist, he is also, like us, a model-ship builder. His research began as a journey to make an accurate model of a mysterious and long-lost ship. THE BOOK contains everything a serious model-maker needs to build an authentic and highly accurate model of this heroic little bomb-ship.

 

This does not mean that the "Terrors" on this forum have it easy from now on.

 

There are some things I now know I need to do. I need to make a steam safety-valve uptake that penetrates the deck. We still don't know whether the locomotive lurking under the orlop-deck is a Stevenson "Planet" or another similar but different engine. Perhaps divers will clear this up for us. THE BOOK tells us, however, that the wreck does have a copper pipe protruding from the site of a former illuminator, which corresponds roughly with the location on the boiler of the "Croydon" type of locomotive. The aft companionway/ladderway is positioned directly over the locomotive, so any uptake would have to be built with a bend in it, which makes it plausible that the pipe on the wreck is in fact the safety-valve uptake. That's good enough for me, and I will be building it. The divers expressed surprised at the diameter of the pipe, because it is wider than they believe a "steam pipe" ought to be. However, my feeling on the subject is that a safety-valve vent or uptake is more-or-less simp,ply a flue, and would hold no pressure. Therefore the wider the better, as its only function would be to carry the moisture, noise, and heat of a safety-valve release clear of the interior spaces. 

 

The canvas-enclosed "iron-maiden"-like lookout station on the foremast will make an interesting feature, and we now know that Captain Crozier removed the iron davits from the waist, which explains why boats were piled up like turtles all over the rest of the ship. This is a relief because building davits is a time-consuming project, and I shall simply omit the waist ones. 

 

During conversations with the Group of Keiths, and friends, (particularly Craig)  we have discovered that there was a post-like compass mount protruding from the small table forward of the mizzen, and THE BOOK indicates that there may also have been binnacles on either side of the helm. However they were likely removed when the ship reached high latitudes that rendered the magnetic compasses useless. 

 

There are still many mysteries to solve.

 

 

 

 

 

[Keith Black]

Keith, good to see you getting back to work on the Terror. 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Keith Black

[iMustBeCrazy]

47 minutes ago, Keith S said:

However, my feeling on the subject is that a safety-valve vent or uptake is more-or-less simp,ply a flue, and would hold no pressure. Therefore the wider the better, as its only function would be to carry the moisture, noise, and heat of a safety-valve release clear of the interior spaces.

Sounds good to me, you wouldn't make a pressure pipe any longer than necessary.

[clearway]

Nice to see you back with her Keith, i agree with you regards the pipe as having seen/travelled behind many steam locomotives the safety valves are built into the boiler and most definitely blow off large quantities of steam when the pressure builds up, so a large diameter pipe would be needed to clear it safely. Beginning to think it might have been an idea to have held back doing all that rigging in the waist of my build with all the mods i have been doing recently!

 

Keith

[clearway]

Hello Keith- hope you are doing o.k.- any thoughts / progress on your little terror?

 

Keith