HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by glbarlow - FINISHED - 1:48

[glbarlow]

The Completed Hull

 

It’s been a year almost to the day since I pulled out the starter kit, plans, mini-kits, and unmilled lumber to begin my build of HM Cheerful. At that point, as I read through the well written and photo supported monograph, there were so many things  that I had absolutely no clue how I was going to do. It has been an adventure, I learned how to do all those things.

 

I thought it worth a moment to pause and share a few photos of my build of Cheerful. I pulled out my camera gear to try and do her a bit of justice. The bowsprit was still installed in temporary mode and the mast is far from finished but there for contrast in one photo. So without further comment, here she is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your comments and likes.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by glbarlow

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Rustyj said:

Beautiful work

 

12 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Nicely done!!!

 

34 minutes ago, JpR62 said:

Great work

 

Two posts back to back.  Thank you for the comments, hope you also enjoy the completed hull photos.

[WalrusGuy]

2 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

Two posts back to back.  Thank you for the comments, hope you also enjoy the completed hull photos.

I really enjoyed the photos! Very beautiful and clean work. Really looking forward to seeing the rigging!! 

[DelF]

Just beautiful! You've achieved such a crisp, clean finish on all your work - very impressive.

[VTHokiEE]

Glenn - Beautiful work and beautiful photos. If I ever tackle this one my log will be “See log by glbarlow, he did a better job and took better photos” followed by completion photos 2-3 years later. 😂

[marktiedens]

Very nice!!

 

 

Mark

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, VTHokiEE said:

followed by completion photos 2-3 years later. 

You can do this one for sure, but hilarious comment🤣

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, drjeckl said:

tried the look of a train tackle for the gun carriages? 

I thought about it and replaced the ones seen in the photo with 24 guage wire versions but from clean deck it would go to cluttered deck in my opinion, especially with the rigging to come. 

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, DelF said:

achieved such a crisp, clean finish on all your work

Thanks Derek. I’ve tossed and replaced so many things all the way back to planking I feel like I’ve built it twice. 

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, WalrusGuy said:

enjoyed the photos!

Thank you!

[glbarlow]

26 minutes ago, marktiedens said:

Very nice!!

I appreciate your saying so. 

[Chuck]

Really nice pics.  It shows how careful and attentive to craftsmanship you have been.  
 

i also love the tone and color of the cedar when its cleanly worked.  Just beautiful.

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, Chuck said:

 It shows how careful and attentive to craftsmanship you have been.

Thank you Chuck. I also love the color and tone of the yellow cedar. My focus on detail and willingness to do it over until I get it right is a tribute to your elegant design, instructions, and guidance. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by glbarlow

[DBorgens]

Beautiful and inspiring. I look forward to your masking and rigging.

 

Dave B

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, DBorgens said:

I look forward to your masking and rigging

Thank you!  Me too 🙂

 

[garthog]

What a beautiful job!  Why go further?  That’s a museum piece as it is.  The cedar really does look great, especially as beautifully crafted as the entire model is now.

 

garthog

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, garthog said:

What a beautiful job!  Why go further?

Thanks Garthog! There’s still more fun to be had and more things to do for the first time, I can’t stop now😁

[Edwardkenway]

Beautiful hull Glenn, the cedar is gorgeous!

While I agree with Garthog, I'm also itching to watch you rig Cheerful, and once rigged I'm sure she'll still be mire than worthy of a place in a museum or  discerning  collection 😉 

[glbarlow]

54 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

museum or  discerning  collection

Thank you for saying so, but the collection will only be mine I’m sure. I doubt I could part with it after being so long together with her. 

[glbarlow]

The Masting & Rigging Begins

 

A new stage of building has begun. With the hull complete its time for the masting and rigging, beginning with the bowsprit. I kind of enjoy this part of the model, and once again (he said again), Cheerful is taking me into new territory.

 

 

The bowsprit bobstay and guys, or as someone with my level of nautical knowledge calls them, the bow stringy things, require both served line and thimbles. So there was a pause while I assembled the Syren Serv-O-Matic I’d purchased a long while ago. It was time consuming and not at all fun removing all the char from each piece, but Chuck is right in the instructions to encourage us to do so. It does look much better once done and coated with WOP. Now to figure out how to use it, I thought it would be more complicated than the simple instructions explain. Turns out it wasn’t - its the perfect machine to serve rope quickly and easily. My first effort, which I thought would be practice, was good enough to use. It takes no more effort than turning the crank and a steady hold on the thread.

 

 

Next up are the thimbles. I found this nifty brass tube cutter at Rio Grande Jewelery tube cutter which has a number of handy tools for modelers. It comes with a handle, I removed that and mounted in on my vise. It proved to be an excellent way to quickly generate short lengths of very thin brass tube with a neat cut. Just set the length with the screw guide, hold the lever down with one finger, place the jig saw in the slot and cut. My $17 (including a bunch of blades) Amazon jig saw proved its quality and value once again, cutting as many as I wanted without fail or issue.

 

 

I found (thanks to @DelF ) that a spring loaded punch is much more effective for me at consistently generating an even “fold” on the both sides of the brass tube to create the thimble. While of course a hammer and regular punch work fine, I more often than not crushed one side or the other - why practice my hammering skills when the $9 spring loaded version (Amazon) does the job. After creating a number of them in different sizes I blacked them using my standard process.

 

 

I have plenty of commercial hooks, eyelets, and rings - and I’m not using any of them. In fact I pulled off the ones I had placed earlier (down the center of the deck) and replaced them with home made versions, mostly of 24 gauge black wire. The heft of these on a 1:48 scale model is noticeable. After some practice and a bit of wasted wire, I now have my own way of knocking out all the eyelets, rings, and hooks I need for Cheerful.  It was good I did because the thimbles require a hook with a larger eyelet to connect the hook to the rope.

 

 

I learned my rigging technique from Bob Hunt’s practicums, his AVS was my first model many years ago. The “fishing lure” method of seizing has served me well, but I thought I’d look at other methods and did a little research. I came to the conclusion that while there are in fact many ways to seize lines and strop blocks, after experimenting with a few of them I’m content to continue with the one that I’ve been using. With two additions: First, thanks again to Derek, in some instances I’ll use thin fly tying line and in others I’ll continue to use 50wt Gutterman poly thread. My only issue with the fishing lure method has been the small thread ends that were left despite my using high quality Gingher embroidery scissors. Second, thanks to @Ryland Craze I now have the answer to that issue by using extremely sharp and close cuticle cutters, my newest ‘tool’ investment (again from my friend Amazon). They are so flush cutting and sharp they can also cut the wood of the block, which I did and consequently had to replace, so care is needed. I also vary the use of watered down white glue, hypo-cement, and CA depending on the situation. I'm comfortable with each, they each have their pros and cons, why fixate on just one or the other.

 

Finally, I have a bunch of empty thread spools to transfer Chucks now historical rope, marked with the size. Not sure what I’ll do when these go empty for the last time, maybe a Rope Rocket in my future, but not for this model - I have what I need.

 

 

And off I went. The bowsprit collar is shrink wrap plastic (but I also use black card or black masking tape again depending on the situation). The rings in this case are made from 22 gauge black wire for some extra heft and of course a little (very little) weathering powder brushed on.  The blocks are seized to the hooks with fly fishing line while the served rope is seized with 50wt poly thread. The thimbles are from 1.6mm thin brass tube (yes, Amazon). The hooks have larger eyelets to accommodate the thimbles. Of note these where done before my “discovery’ of cuticle cutters, but I didn’t want to go in there after the fact for fear of cutting off more than I wanted to cut in such close quarters. This is one of this macro hi-res photo things. I didn’t even notice excess thread until I looked at the photo for this log entry.

 

 

Here’s the bowsprit end of the bobstay tackle and guys, naturally I’m using blocks from Syren.

 

 

 

 

And the bow side view of the same. The bobstay is belayed to its pin, but loosely. Like most I don’t tension the lines completely until later. The guy lashing took some experimentation (it was replaced more than once) and research, none of which was definitive. I learned many different techniques were used both by modelers and on the actual ships. In the end I opted to seize the line at the bow eyelet and tie it off at the center after two loops through the guy thimble and seize the running end past the knot (essentially a sheeps bend). And…I remembered to put on the traveler before the blocks, so it will just hang there a while.

 

Next I turn my attention to the mast.  Thanks for stopping by, the likes and especially the comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

Edited April 13, 2021 by glbarlow

[DelF]

 Beautiful, neat work as always Glenn. Btw, I’ve now got the tube cutter you recommended on my Speedy log and it’s a game changer. Thanks! Now to look for a cuticle cutter...

[JpR62]

Wonderful work as always ! And again a lot of information that will help the next modelers 😀

[glbarlow]

17 minutes ago, DelF said:

look for a cuticle cutter...

Thank you for the comment. I’m sure there’s an equivalent on Amazon UK. 😊

Cuticle cutter

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by glbarlow

[glbarlow]

4 minutes ago, JpR62 said:

again a lot of information

Thank you. That is my hope. Yours is coming along great!

[MEDDO]

Fantastic progress Glenn.  Very motivating to come here and see this coming together 

[glbarlow]

11 hours ago, MEDDO said:

Very motivating

Thank you for saying so. It is so much fun  to build. 

[bartley]

On 4/14/2021 at 2:52 AM, glbarlow said:

Second, thanks to @Ryland Craze I now have the answer to that issue by using extremely sharp and close cuticle cutters, my newest ‘tool’ investment (again from my friend Amazon). They are so flush cutting and sharp they can also cut the wood of the block, which I did and consequently had to replace, so care is needed. I also vary the use of watered down white glue, hypo-cement, and CA depending on the situation. I'm comfortable with each, they each have their pros and cons, why fixate on just one or the other.

 

 

Yes Glenn, I got this Idea from @bigcreekdad.  I have been using these as well for a while and they are great.  I bought them at my local Pharmacy (I think you call them Drug Stores) so they are easy to replace if the edge goes dull.  No problem so far.

 

John

Edited April 16, 2021 by bartley

[Rustyj]

Looking great Glenn. Another great example of your fine workmanship!

[glbarlow]

3 minutes ago, Rustyj said:

great example of your fine workmanship!

Thanks Rusty, I appreciate your saying so!

[BobG]

Great work, Glenn, and a wonderfully informative build log as well!

 

What is the tool with the different diameters that you are using in the photo of you forming your hooks and eyelets?