HMS Enterprise by Kevin - CAF - 1/48 - August 2020

[Kevin]

HMS Enterprize was the lead ship of the Enterpize class of 1770.  The class was designed by Sir John Williams with a gross dimensions and tons of 120’6” (gun deck), 99’6” (keel),  33’6” (beam),  11’ (depth of hold) and to carry 200,men.  Armament was 24 x 9 pound guns on the upper deck, 4 x 3 pound guns on the quarter deck, and 12 swivel guns.   She was ordered in January 1771, Keel laid on September 9, 1771 at Deptford, launched  August 24, 1774; hulked in 1791.  Twenty-seven ships composed this class.

 

A pair of paintings of the ship by Joseph Marshall in 1775 is held by the Science Museum in Kensington and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

 

 

Enterprise served as a cruiser and convoy escort.  Her most notable action occurred on June 7, 1780 whilst at Gibraltar when her crew spotted six Spanish fire ships drifting into the harbour toward the fleet at anchor.  A warning salvo was fired to alert the fleet and the Enterprize’s cables cut to allow the ship to drift away from the hulks and opened fire on the hulks in an attempt to sink them.  The Spanish fleet lay outside the harbour for any British ships trying to escape so the British seamen boarded the small the fire ships to attach lines to away from the fleet and burn themselves out.

 

On April 27, 1782 near the Leeward Islands she captured the 22-gun American privateer Mohawk which was later taken into Royal Navy service.  Mohawk was sold in1783.

Enterprize was decommissioned in May 1784 and from 1790 she served as a receiving ship and hulked in 1791.  In 1806 she was taken to Deptford and broken up in 1807.

Lines, profile and decoration drawings of Surprize as built can be purchased from the Royal Museums Greenwich (National Maritime Museum).

 

The Kit

 

CAF MODELS of Shanghai, China has created a stunning 1/48 scale Admiralty model of HMS Enterprize.   Before reviewing the kit a few words about wooden sailing ship kits from Chinese producers is warranted because they are not all created equal.  In 2001 China was allowed to formally join the World Trade Organization (WTO) which meant the country had to abide by international trade agreements and practices such as copyright protection.  Prior to 2001, China was the largest source of counterfeit goods that focused on covered luxury goods, cosmetics, sportswear, and appliances.  As a result of joining the WTO, far fewer counterfeit goods are no longer produced or available in China, but remains a problem because copying has become a way of life and normal practice for many manufacturers.  This problem is endemic among many wooden model kit producers in China who readily use copyrighted drawings to produce their kits without acknowledgement or licence, and these kits are readily available on shopping websites.  They will continue to do this as long as it is profitable so do not buy these unlicensed and counterfeit kits.    

 

A concerted effort by Model Ship World and the Nautical Research Guild to highlight these practices and alert model makers to the counterfeit products is having success and has gone further to lend an open and willing hand to any Chinese producers who wish to abide by the WTO and international agreements.  One of these companies is CAF MODELS located in Shanghai, China.  CAF MODELS first came to attention for producing unlicenced kits of French vessels from the ANCRE collection of drawings and monographs.  With the help of members of the Model Ship World community, proper agreements between ANCRE and CAF MODELS are being negotiated and to CAF MODELS’ credit, has stopped selling any models based on ANCRE material until an agreement is signed.  These kits will return once the agreement is finalized and signed.  

 

In the meantime, CAF MODELS has a number of original kits for sale such as HMS Enterprize, with several more under development.  CAF MODELS kits are designed and manufactured by Mr. CAO Feng, or in English -- Tom Cao.  Tom is an engineer by profession and used CAD to design kits from Admiralty drawings and other references.  His CAD designs have become very precise and is able to detect and correct draughting errors in commercially available plans and well-known sources.  I had the pleasure of meeting him and his lovely family in Shanghai in 2018 where he kindly took me to his home to show me how he designed model kits and his extensive reference library. 

 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone, welcome to yet another new start something new to me, a POF kit, although im not sure it is a kit, but certainly aint a scratch, 

 

the parcel arrived this morning 10 days after ordering, 7 of them in transit, 7.5 kgs 

inside is 4 well packaged boxes, with lots of laser printed bits for the keel, outer hull, and most of the weight and volume comes from the jig to keep it all togehter

 

i will be building the jig first, as im frightened to start the frames 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Looks like you've really stepped in it this time! I'm sure you'll manage just fine, and have a good time with it too!

 

Andy

[Kevin]

thank you Andy

 

there was always going to be a time when i moved away from a commercial kit, but some of the new ones on the market are also very appealing

[James H]

Can't wait to see you build this. You've paving the way for me and Coureur 😄

[Ronald-V]

Really interesting to see a build log from this model!  

[Kevin]

33 minutes ago, James H said:

Can't wait to see you build this. You've paving the way for me and Coureur 😄

oh no, in that case i hope i do a good job i dont want @cafmodel sales to drop

[Kevin]

22 minutes ago, mugje said:

Really interesting to see a build log from this model!  

im normally quite good at doing build logs it's just that i tend to leave projects 1/2 way through, but always return

[clearway]

at which point did you say what have i done to myself🤔😉, should be a great build though.

 

Keith

[Kevin]

1 hour ago, clearway said:

at which point did you say what have i done to myself🤔😉, should be a great build though.

 

Keith

lol not in the last two minutes

 

[Sjors]

I take  a seat and will follow this journey.

I always thought that the Enterprise is a starship 😃

 

Sjors

[gjdale]

I’m very interested to see this one come together Kevin, so I’m pulling up a front row seat right next to Sjors and the popcorn. We just need Mark Taylor to arrive now to open the bar!

[ken3335]

Hi Kevin.  looks terrific, as I said I’m envious but I can only cope with one build at a time. It looks like your Amerigo is going to have to wait another ten years leaving me to Battle on alone.

 

ken

[Matt D]

This kit looks incredible!  I'm going to follow and I look forward to seeing this beauty come together.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

[yvesvidal]

WOW !!!! Kevin, you are relentless !!!

 

What a fantastic kit. I will be following with a lot of interest as I would like to acquire a kit from CAF (but a prohibited one...the Chebec 😉 )

Working at the scale of 1/48 or 1/32 is also the best way to include a lot of details.

In addition, when you are tired of it, it will fit perfect next to my submarine at the same scale.... 😉

 

Yves

[Kevin]

3 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

WOW !!!! Kevin, you are relentless !!!

 

What a fantastic kit. I will be following with a lot of interest as I would like to acquire a kit from CAF (but a prohibited one...the Chebec 😉 )

Working at the scale of 1/48 or 1/32 is also the best way to include a lot of details.

In addition, when you are tired of it, it will fit perfect next to my submarine at the same scale.... 😉

 

Yves

get me a 1/24 in a cutaway oberon class sub kit and you might have a deal

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

day 1 project Enterprise

 

Building frame

this are most of the bits for the frame, in very good quality ply

i started this yesterday, but with little success, it was after a good nights sleep that i got my head around the project,

but first the moans, the overlap baseboard are not working correctly,

nothing fits,

and non existent instructions

 

made up from two layers which overlap, and top one should line up with lasered slots on the bottom one. they are then meant to be screwed through to a decent bench 

however, it took me ages to line mine up, not all the base boards are cut at 90degs and as a result not all the lasered slot match the ones in the lower boards, but some are spot on, so it is not something i have done wrong

not everything is cut at right angles

straight keel line, but as a result some of the slots are not matching the lower ones

 

things then started to go wrong then, as i was working blind, i was making the assemblies up and putting them in place but everything is about .5mm to large, and requiring far to much force, and as the slots were off set,as well  i was fighting a loosing battle

 

 so went bed

 

Day 2

 

after some thought over night i made a plan

 

check the base again for alignment 

remove all the sub assemblies and sand everything on the bench sander, including removing the laser burn with my dremmel and all of a sudden i had a different building frame, not much i could do with the slightly  offset slots (about 20) apert from remove a bit of wood which has worked fine

 

i have a set of photos now for anyone wanting to follow the build progress 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ryland Craze]

Wow Kevin, You had me worried when things did not align properly.  I could feel your pain. I am glad that you got that problem resolved and can now move forward.  I look forward to following this build.

[Kevin]

3 minutes ago, Ryland Craze said:

Wow Kevin, You had me worried when things did not align properly.  I could feel your pain. I am glad that you got that problem resolved and can now move forward.  I look forward to following this build.

i have read reports where others had had the same issue, but the kit itself is fine, but yes it made me grumpy yesterday

 

[BobG]

Hmmm...I would have been grumpy too especially with a model that is so expensive. I would expect the parts to slot together with excellent precision like we are seeing with the Vanguard models that Chris Watton is making. I'm glad to see you found a way to overcome the problems but, I have to say, that it's a bit disappointing to see some problems crop up from the start.

[Kevin]

6 hours ago, BobG said:

Hmmm...I would have been grumpy too especially with a model that is so expensive. I would expect the parts to slot together with excellent precision like we are seeing with the Vanguard models that Chris Watton is making. I'm glad to see you found a way to overcome the problems but, I have to say, that it's a bit disappointing to see some problems crop up from the start.

Bob this is still just the frame, my main concern was the slots in the baseboard not matching, but as it has gone together (post sanding) im happy

and few decent phots in  the instruction would have been so useful

no doubt, in the future, all this will be in landfill, or lol with a 1/2 built keel on the shelf of doom

as for cost £334/2=£167 per build day

[clearway]

oh how we forget the basic nightmares we were faced with years ago when you had to cut everything out because laser cutting didn't exist😱. nice fix though kev.

 

i have two open fires so my used/ scrap wood is cremated- however need to make sure you have really finished with it!

 

Keith

[Tankerman]

Kevin, I am a few stages ahead of you on the construction of this kit and have been hoping to find time to start a build log here soon. I am sorry to read that you are having problems with the building jig as I found that once I had sorted out what goes where from the instruction illustrations all went together as intended. The tabs and slots are a tight fit and work with a file is required to remove the char but as the jig will form the basis for an accurate hull nothing can be loose.

I have studied your photos carefully and cannot see how things went wrong, the photo below shows my jig in the same area.

 

 

 

I can assure you that you should not have any problems with the fit of parts as your construction of HMS Enterprize progresses. It is a superb kit but just requires a lot of concentration and pre-planning so do not be dis-heartened, you will enjoy it.

I see you too, are in Somerset. PM me sometime and we could probably manage a "socially distanced" meet up.

 

Chris

[Kevin]

day 3 building frame complete

 

well the frame is complete, and the top level is removable to allow access to the build

 

no glue has been used other than on 4 connection strips 

in the end i was happy the way it all fitted, after my initial problems

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

Day 3 frame completed, started keel

 

i never realised just how many items make up the keel, and each item is made up from 2 half 

 

i bought some recommended glue titebond quick thick it is not so wet as my normal PVA glue

 

the two half's are glued back to back after having a very light sanding 

 

the plan sheet has been covered in tracing paper to protect it, and allows me to put the items in a rough position, as they need to be sanded, to square the ends off 

one of the boats will be put away tomorrow

[BobG]

That's an amazing keel, Kevin. 

 

I've been using Titebond Thick & Quick a lot and I prefer it over regular Titebond since it sets up quicker and isn't runny.

[James H]

More like a jigsaw 🤣

 

Can't wait to see you make and fit those frames.

[Kevin]

5 minutes ago, James H said:

More like a jigsaw 🤣

 

Can't wait to see you make and fit those frames.

lol at this rate i will have it all finished by the weekend

[ken3335]

Hi Kevin, two things come to mind, the first what an amazingly comprehensive kit, the second, it didn’t take you long to get started!  I suppose you were like a child at Xmas, good luck with it.     Ken

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, ken3335 said:

Hi Kevin, two things come to mind, the first what an amazingly comprehensive kit, the second, it didn’t take you long to get started!  I suppose you were like a child at Xmas, good luck with it.     Ken

LOL more like a spoilt brat