Barque Stefano by robdurant - MarisStella - 1:63

[robdurant]

Right. Time to behave and get back to the build in order. 

 

The next step was the "remaining elements of the foredeck". Firstly, item 30 - the bitts. There are six of these, each comprising two vertical posts which are shaped from 4mm walnut dowel (I struggled to get a nice round section, so ended up using some 5mm dowel instead), and a plate made from a 15mm length of 1.5x5mm walnut strip. Using the Proxxon DB250 lathe, I was able to turn these uprights reasonable consistently. Unlike the columns on the aft cabin these will not be in a line next to each other so if they vary a little it's not such a big deal.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the foredeck so far, with the bitts placed roughly in position. Nothing on the foredeck is glued down yet. I've also put together the belaying pin rack (49) which can be seen at the bow. Again, I replaced the belaying pins with thinner ones.

 

 

And a picture of the stern area with the bitts roughly placed in position...

 

 

And finally an overview of the whole vessel so far... (I'm waiting for some 8mm dowel to make the mizzen mast).

 

 

Next up in the instructions is detailing the anchor davits and working on the vertical windlass.

 

Happy building!

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for the likes!

 

I've been blessed with a few evenings to work on Stefano over the past few days, so I have a little to report.

 

With the foredeck filling up, I decided to paint the bitts matt black instead of leaving them walnut. They'll complement the anchors nicely that way. 

 

 

I've also put together the anchor stands with their metal parts that clamp over the anchor to stop it moving round in heavy weather. The suggestion in the kit is that the metal strap over the anchor is made from copper strip. I reverted to a tried and tested technique and used 2mm wide strips of black card. These were detailed with eyelets glued onto brass pins and cut short to represent the hinges. It's not perfect for detail, but at 1:63 it gives that suggestion of detail that approximates what's going on. 

 

 

 

I used masking tape to stop the anchor bar (proper name?) from flopping around while this was being done. The bar gets tied down with rope, and I've done this on one of the anchors - a very fiddly procedure!, but I don't have a picture yet. I'll put up a picture once they're all done.

 

It was then that I got distracted again. I started thinking about the figurehead. The kit provides a block of wood and encourages the modeller to carve the figurehead. Thankfully, I had a figurehead left over from my HMS Ethalion based on the HMS Diana kit by Caldercraft. In that build, I scratch built a figurehead from a greek figure and a dolphin's tail... 

The Diana figurehead was the perfect size for Stefano with a couple of modifications:

 

1. The decoration where she sits on the bulkhead was cut off.

2. The tails of her dress needed to be bent outwards along with her legs to accommodate the stem and bow of the vessel.

 

These figureheads can be purchased separately from Cornwall Model Boats, I believe.

 

I was worried she'd get a bit cold in the Atlantic breeze, so I added a little modesty and gave her a dress that covered both shoulders, and filled in the gap where she would have sat on the Frigate's beakhead all using Fine white Milliput. Once done, the suggestion is that the whole figurehead be painted in gold, but I used a mix of Vallejo brass (which is a little toned down compared to their gold) and "Ivory" for her skin, again to tone it down a little. A pen was used for the eyes, as it's easier to control than a paintbrush!

 

Here are some pictures of progress...

 

As she was at the beginning of the process...

 

 

Starting to add the dress...

 

 

Adding dress details...

 

 

And beginning to paint her...

 

 

 

And once she was painted she was added to the bow...

 

 

 

 

Overall, I feel she's a great improvement over anything I could have carved from scratch, and since she was sat in a parts box doing nothing it's a win-win situation!

 

I'm really pleased with the way the ivory and brass colours work together, and from a distance she really makes Stefano look smart! I'm also pleased that, much like the figurehead on the plans, she has one arm outstretched.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Rob

 

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

I've had a lovely day today cracking on with Barque Stefano, and it's time for an update (in amongst being dad's taxi ).

 

I've been continuing to work on the deck furniture, and among that are the skylight and companionway. The kit suggests these are built on balsa blocks, but I've never much liked that mode of construction, and the aft superstructure had gone so well, I was contemplating making the skylight the same way, with the 3.5mm radius corners, but when I started to draw it up in QCAD, I realised the corners were going to be well oversize for the skylight and could look a bit silly - especially when the angled top was put on with its squared off corners. Instead, I used styrene to construct the main housing of the skylight. Measurements were taken off the plans, and I made the sides to maintain the angled front and back, as per the main superstructure (which sits on the fore-and-aft angled deck. This angle turns out at approximately 3 degrees.

 

Once constructed the skylight was placed on sandpaper that was placed on the cabin deck to sand in the curve in the deck so it could sit flush. Unlike the structures that sit on the centreline of the main deck, there is no raised king plank here, so it's an easier task.

 

 

Once the size was finalised, I could mark the cut-out on the superstructure deck and drill a hole for access, then and cut it out with a coping saw (I tried chain-drilling it, but it was very heavy going, as the plywood false deck makes for a very substantial structure. I scored through the planking where I was planning to cut to avoid the planking lifting as I went.

 

 

And a picture of the structure in place with the skylight hole cut.

 

 

Now attention turned to the panels that form the lights on the top of the skylight. I wanted to end up with something like the effect seen on Cutty Sark as posted by Nenad here (thank you for the inspiration!):  

The kit shows a few upright bars, but I wanted lots of horizontal bars that were much lighter in diameter. So I made a walnut frame, and then a styrene frame to sit on top of it to simulate the metal guard. I still feel it's a little heavier than I would have liked, but it's heading in the right direction.

 

 

Here they are being primed... 

 

 

And once the skylight itself was painted, they're put together. There are still some details to be added yet to add glazing from the inside, and to tidy up the inner edge of the superstructure deck.

 

 

And here it is sat in place (but not glued on yet), showing a hint of the patterned deck below...

 

 

 

Next up is the companionway.

 

Thanks as always for the likes. 

 

Rob

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Great job on the skylight grating....

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Thanks Rob.

[robdurant]

I've made the binnacle. I used the RB models binnacle for inspiration - It's really good, but made for 1:50 - too big for Stefano.

 

Instead, I used it to work out the dimensions of a binnacle at 1:63 - it works out 23mm high - 1.4 metres at scale.

 

I turned the main structure from 10mm lime dowel, then added a paper trim round the centre of the compass housing, a styrene viewing window and painted it. A 1.5mm rod was left on the bottom to provide a stronger joint with the model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also glazed the skylight with transparent plastic, and used a couple of plastic battens to ensure it wouldn't fall into the model. A walnut trim was added to the inside of the skylight, and another walnut strip to the partition in the deck house where it was visible through the skylight. No pictures of that right now, but I'll try and add some later.

 

Happy building!

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Sweet job Rob.....

 

Love a little lathe work thrown in there now and again.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi everyone,

 

Not so much an update today as a few photos that might be of interest. I was re-making the dust cover for Ethalion, and thought I'd grab the opportunity to take some pictures of HMS Ethalion (the Caldercraft HMS Diana kit, bashed a bit), and the Barque Stefano to date...

 

 

 

 

I find it fascinating to see the differences and similarities between the two...

 

I've got a busy few weeks coming up, so there may be a bit of a pause before I'm able to give any more updates. Fear not, though. I'm keen to continue with Stefano asap

 

Rob

[Ian_Grant]

I used to display my Cutty Sark and Constitution side by side; it is interesting to see one bathtub-like bow and one razor-like bow together.

[robdurant]

I've been looking at the ladders that go on deck today... I've found a couple of pictures of ladders on Cutty Sark, which are providing some input alongside the kit plans.

 

 

 This photo is © Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.  In fact, I found a very similar photo taken in the same place that had a person standing in it, which helped with the scale.

 

I drew up a plan for the ladders based on this, and taking into account the perspective effect. It worked out to have a rung height of about 25 centimetres. Then I went back to the Barque Stefano plans, and cross-checked the dimensions... there would be less rungs necessary for he ladders at the back of the aft deckhouse, but the angle was good, and the dimensions close to those on the plans. The difference was in the thickness of the materials suggested.

 

I decided to create two jigs. The first would allow me to cut rhomboid shapes which would go above and below the rungs and hold the rungs at the correct angle (6 degrees from horizontal) and spacing. These would be stuck to solid outer sections to create each side of the ladder. The second jig allowed me to cut the rungs to size consistently. These jigs were quickly made out of styrene.

 

The whole structure has been made out of 4x0.4mm walnut strip.

 

The jig for cutting rhomboids...

 

 

The rhomboids cut...

 

 

Constructing the sides of the ladder...  A strip of the rung material was placed between the rhomboids until they were fixed in position to ensure the gap was right.

 

 

And the sides completed... (but left overlength at the top and bottom...

 

 

Rungs glued onto one side...

 

 

And the finished structure...

 

 

Finally, a shot of the ladder (still untrimmed at the top) dry-fitted in place. The aft edge of the deck house roof will be trimmed back to allow the ladder to attach firmly.

 

 

I like that the rungs look so light. Often on kits, I feel they look a bit oversize.

 

Right - that's it for this update. Happy building to you all, and thanks as always for the likes!

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Oh yes, and I forgot to show the CAD drawing I did, so here it is as a jpeg... 

 

 

... and attached as a PDF, which is the right scale in case anyone wants to follow along. Do note, though, that the rungs should be 11mm long for the aft deckhouse of Stefano.

 

Ladders.pdf

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

More progress on the deck furniture.

 

I made up the second ladder for the aft deckhouse, and the ladders that lead to the raised deck at the bow.

 

 

 

And I've made up the stove chimney for the galley using styrene tube (the kit calls for 5mm dowel, but I couldn't see how I would get a nice even bore through the dowel that looked to scale) - I also used 4mm dowel as it's a little more dainty and looked better to my eye.

 

 

The hole was made in the deckhouse roof as per the plans, and here's the chimney dry-fitted. Thing is - now I'm tempted to put the stove in the deckhouse! Not least because there's a door opposite! Hmm... door open? door shut? And what would the stove have looked like? All thoughts welcome!

 

 

Finally, I've started making up the companionway that sits beneath the raised deck at the bow. In the kit it has a flat roof, but I wanted to add in a curved roof from side to side, and also make sure the fore and aft walls were perpendicular to the waterline. It will have curved corners like the deck houses. The line running through the parts is the level that the bottom of the internal former will sit at to be horizontal to the waterline and to clear the king plank running along the deck. The lines running vertically on 3.5mm either side of the corners are the lines I need to cut to so that there's room for the corner mouldings, which are 3.5mm quarter round styrene. You can see on the left, I've already put a support underneath that line on the port wall of the companionway - this will make gluing the whole thing together much easier, and although the styrene is only 0.5mm, it should be a good strong structure.

 

 

As I look at the model now, I'm beginning to realise how much more restricted a lot of the rigging points will be compared to a Napoleonic frigate, for example... They're all tucked away below bulkheads and between deckhouse and hull side, etc... In addition, once the companionway is in place I'll lose pretty much all access to the space in front of it beneath the fore deck. Plenty of thought will be needed to ensure I don't paint myself into a corner.  (Not least because I neglected to follow the instructions and have already glued the fore deck down!)

 

Anyway - it's going okay so far.

 

Happy building, all!

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Rob...she's looking sweet.  Nice job on the ladders.

 

I purposely left the chicken coop free on my Glory build because I needed the room to belay lines to the pin rail at the foot of the mast.....If I had glued the coop down....rigging any lines there would have been a real booger.  I'm also fixing mobile pin rails to the mizzen shrouds for all the bunt and sheet lines.  Probably not atypical...but more practical.  

 

Did I mention that I have a license......too?

 

Rob

Edited March 30, 2022 by rwiederrich

[robdurant]

On 3/30/2022 at 6:56 PM, rwiederrich said:

I purposely left the chicken coop free on my Glory build because I needed the room to belay lines to the pin rail at the foot of the mast.....If I had glued the coop down....rigging any lines there would have been a real booger. 

Thank you Rob. Yes, I think leaving the deck houses loose until as later as possible sounds very sensible. I'm trying not to glue down anything I don't really need to at this stage, as I feel my way through the build.

 

[robdurant]

A little more progress. I've been working on the companionway... I had mentioned I think, previously, that I thought this was going underneath the foredeck... it doesn't. That's a completely different companionway, shaped like the quarter of a circle.

 

This companionway goes just in front of the aft deckhouse, and having realised that (thankfully before I got too far along) the plans were redrawn in cad with the angles updated to achieve vertical front and back, and construction began in earnest using the same materials as the deckhouses (styrene for the main box, and wood for the roof).

 

Here's the plan... (Download it as a PDF here: CompanionWay.20220329.pdf) The line running through the middle is the bottom extent of the former, so that it won't strike the king plank. If you want to have the doors to the companionway open, as I did, you will need to trim out the centre of the former as required.

 

 

And the structure itself... (notice that the first photo is of the structure before I realised my mistake, so the sides are at far too steep an angle (because the deck at the bow is much steeper than at the correct point aft). The following photos are of the correct version as above. As always the plans are fixed to the styrene using pritt-stick... this gives just enough sticking power to keep the paper in place as it's cut out, but simply pulls off and any excess can easily be removed with a damp cloth.

 

 

The styrene structure complete and in place over the deck, where the cutout was prepared. The aim is to give the impression of the drop-away that someone would climb down into through the companionway. I may make a dummy ladder top to sit in here, too.

 

 

Progress on the roof - which was made the same way as the others...

 

 

Then it was on to the hatch. In the kit this is supplied as a 4mm solid block. It looked a little heavy and monolithic to me, so I made a replacement out of walnut 1.5x4mm planks, and used 1x1.5mm strip round the bottom to make space for the runners (which were also 1x1.5mm strip). Here are the two parts for comparison... 

 

 

 

With the runners...

 

 

And in place...

 

 

I've begun to line the inside of the companionway...  The doors are already cut out, and will be open eventually.

 

 

And a final really bad photo of the part in situ on deck... (dry-fitted)

 

 

I'll try and get a better photo later today  There's no paint on the structure yet, and it'll need some tidying up, but I'm happy with how it's come out. You can see where I'm going to have to remove some markings from the deck, where I accidentally marked out the extent of the roof, not the structure itself. Thankfully it's only pencil.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

I've made up the lifebelts for the stern-end of the fore deckhouse. These are laser cut "donuts" of 3mm walnut that I shaped by temporarily gluing them on to styrene tube which I could then use in a drill to turn them and file them into shape. Once shaped on the outside, they were taken off the tube and shaped on the inside. 

 

 

They were then sprayed with white primer, then masked with thin strips of tamiya masking tape.

 

 

The mounting frame was made of black card, and glued straight onto the lifebelt...

 

 

 

The whole assembly was then superglued onto the deckhouse. Here it is compared to the original mockup...

 

 

Next I moved on to start the ship's boats... It seems to me that you need to make these at this point because the boats stands should be fitted to the deckhouse roof and need to be shaped to the boats before fitting.

 

The boats are made over balsa moulds... Here are all the components provided...

 

 

The first task is to cut the mould balsa out of the sheet provided. The outline is lasercut, so that's nice and simple.

 

 

I've made scans of the plans to stick on the top of the mould so I have a good idea of where the bulkheads ought to sit, and have cut the moulds to overall height.

 

 

 

 

All in all a productive few days. Reading the instructions it suggests that 0.5x2mm and 0.5x3mm walnut strip should be cut from 0.5x4mm walnut in order to plank the boats... I was fairly convinced that that way lay madness, so I've ordered a quantity of both 10x0.5mm and 2x0.5mm walnut from Cornwall Model Boats to give me both planking strips that are nice and flexible (and hopefully compliant!), and some wider strip for curved planks or the frames that go in the boats, which are also to be cut out specifically (and sadly not provided as laser cut components).

 

I'll update you as I go.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Another little update on the boats. I've used CAD to create templates for the profiles of the ship's boats at each cross-section. These are then printed, laminated, and cut out. They can then be used to check the shape of the plug at each frame. So far I've done the moulds for 71.1 and 71.2. I'm pleased with how these are going so far. I've also taken delivery of the 0.5x2mm walnut strip for planking them.

 

First the positions are marked on the plug

 

 

Then the biggest template (#8) is used to reduce the length of the plug to that dimension...

 

 

The other templates are numbered from bow to stern, and can now be used to reduce the plug smoothly down to those stations...

 

 

 

 

 

Et voila!

 

For a first and second attempt, I'm really pleased. 71.3 and 71.4 to shape, and then we'll be thinking about how to stop the boat sticking onto the plug as I plank it. I also want to replace the keel parts in the kit as they're plywood, and completely the wrong colour. If I can, I'd like these boats to end up as natural walnut. Time will tell whether I do a nice enough job of it.

 

More soon

 

Rob

[robdurant]

A full complement of molds...  These will need to be shaped on top as well, as the first planks laid are the rubbing strip. It's a fascinating exercise going through these four different craft one by one and seeing the subtly different shapes of the hulls.

 

[robdurant]

Well, there's been a bit of a gap due to real life quite rightly intervening, but I've had the opportunity to begin planking one of the boats with 0.5x2mm walnut, and to turn the mizzen mast (it just looked odd with fore and main dry-fitted, but not mizzen!).

 

In theory these ship's boats will now be planked again... I'm sure that will add strength, but I wonder whether it will make them look over-scale? One possibility (since I really struggle making these boats) is that I'll put canvas tops over them, which will remove the need to make the insides look pretty, and allow me to leave the balsa blocks inside. I could even do that having removed a good part of the balsa and seen just how strong it actually is, or indeed, having double-planked it. Lots to ponder!

 

Just a little progress for this update, but hopefully lots more, soon . Thanks as always for the likes.

[Keith Black]

 Looks great!

[robdurant]

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Looks great!

Thank you Keith

 

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thanks as always for the likes and encouragement.

 

I've been working through more of the deck furniture. In particular the deck pumps, bitts and pin rails round the main and fore masts, and the windlass. In various places I've substituted the suggested dowel for styrene tube, as I find it easier to work with, and I don't have a pillar drill to allow me to easily bore accurate holes through dowel.

 

Pump:

 

I wanted to have at least some sense of the cylinders being hollow and having parts moving up and down in them rather than being solid, so I used styrene tube here, with a larger diameter styrene tube for the rings. The upright was also made out of square section styrene, and the rest from soldered brass, which had not been tidied up at the time of taking the photos. I used small tabs of styrene to simulate the linkages between the cross bar and the vertical rods. In retrospect, I didn't file the gap into the base for the king plank before I assembled this, which meant I had to go back and add more walnut later.

 

 

Next were the bitts and pin rails to go round the masts. These were made up as per the kit instructions. The pin rails were fiddly to sand, but care and patience won the day. The only part I replaced was the turned upright, which is provided as a laser cut part, as shown in the first photo below, but I turned from 3mm walnut dowel instead, as it was easier.

 

The smaller uprights were turned in my proxxon drill with small files (the lathe would have been complete overkill)

And then it was on to the windlass... These parts are lasercut. Again, I substituted styrene tube for dowel here.

 

Finally, I've been working on the other windlass, which remains unfinished to date... Again the parts are partly laser cut, but the main drums are all fashioned from 8mm dowel. I decided to turn these in one go on the lathe, so I could be confident they would all fit nicely. I'm pleased with how this went.

 

So this is where I've got to so far. Close ups are a bear, but it looks pretty nice from a normal distance. By turning the gaps to be the right width and diameter, I can simply cut them in the middle, and they pop into the 4mm holes in the laser cut parts. A little fettling was required, but it means it should all line up nicely in the end. 

 

Right - that's it for now. Happy building, all

 

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

I've had a good evening fitting pins to some of the deck furniture, and drilling the holes to position it. None of it's glued down yet, but it all looks much neater, especially as the pin rails round the masts are now positioned.

 

 

 

It's really lovely to see the deck starting to look busy, and get something of a feel for what the finished model might look like. The masking tape on the fore cabin is marking out where the stands for the ship's boats will be mounted as and when I get to it.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thank you for the likes. 

 

I've been doing more work on the deck furniture, and the hull decoration today... one of those days when you can really see the results of the work you've put in, which is always pleasing!

 

1. The companionway under the forepeak.

 

This was built from styrene, to match the other deck houses, although being so small, I sanded in small rounded edges on the corners instead of using the larger 4mm corner styrene section. The roof was created using veneer as the false base, with beech decking, as per the deck and other deck houses, and 2x1.5mm walnut strip round the edges. The hatch was created in the same fashion as the aft companionway, and this one is glued closed, as there's no hole in the deck to simulate below decks. I've had a few attempts at the doors - not sure I'm happy yet, but at some point I need to bite the bullet and put doors in throughout the companionways and deck houses.

 

The rough structure (this door was replaced later).

Making the deck...

 

And in situ (dry-fitted)...

2. Mast clamps... (61, 62, 64)

 

These are laser cut. The fore and main mast bases need a slot filing in them to fit over the king plank. They also need the laser char removing and the top shaping.  They will also need the inner edges filing to allow them to sit flat even though the mast passing through them is raked. The main mast base is from the 6mm laser cut panel, and will need sanding down by 2mm. 

 

3. Hull decorations... 

 

These are made from thin ply, and need (very gently) shaping to give them depth and definition. I used my proxxon engraving set for this. You can see that even with a gentle touch, I managed to snap off the tiny scroll at the bottom. Thankfully, I found it after a quick search and it was a clean break, so it could be reinstated.

Detail is shown on the plans, so you can draw the scrolls and details onto the parts before attacking them...

For a first attempt, I'm really pleased at how they turned out. Then it was time to spray them. I decided to add the name to the stern at the same time.

Once sprayed, the lettering was placed back into the ply holder to space them properly.

Masking tape was stuck over the top, and then the letters were lifted out, still attached to the masking tape.

Now, this masking tape could be turned over, and carpenter's (Aliphatic) glue could be added to the back, and the whole then placed on the stern.

Once placed, the gaps on each side were carefully checked, and after a minute or so, I very gingerly removed the masking tape and used a dressmaking pin to remove the glue that had oozed out in a few places.

Now it was time to add the decoration. This was easy enough for the parts in front of the curve at the stern quarter, as these parts sit flat.

For the parts aft of these, they wrap around the stern, and so they were steamed over the spout of a boiling kettle, and then clamped very gently round a curve.

This imparted the desired curve, and meant the glue doesn't have to hold this surprisngly tough ply to a curve. Instead, they could be glued on with very little pressure required.

And here are the results.

4. Pin rails round the fore and main masts.

 

These are deceptive little blighters. They're simple enough to make, but once you come to put the belaying pins in, even though I drilled the holes out really carefully, they split again and again. The rail itself is not ply, so on the curve, the grain crosses the part, and I must have stuck these back together at least five or six times in the process of getting all the belaying pins in. I'm hopeful that now the belaying pins are in place, they're going to add strength, but we'll see. I can well imagine the whole thing going ping half way through rigging - NOT an something I particular want to encounter! Once the glue's had a good chance to dry, I'll have another look at them and see if they're feeling strong enough.

All in all, a very productive time! Here's a picture of the whole vessel...

 

More soon

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Rob...she is looking beautiful...just beautiful.

 

You have really proceeded nicely...clean , precise and mastered skillfully.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

 

8 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

Rob...she is looking beautiful...just beautiful.

 

You have really proceeded nicely...clean , precise and mastered skillfully.

 

Rob

Thank you, Rob.

[robdurant]

I wanted to see how easy it was to run the anchor chain, having mistakenly glued the foredeck in place too early. Hopefully my mistake will help someone else to avoid it. The answer is that using brass wire and a torch and some needle nose pliers, and lots of patience, it wasn't too bad. Mainly because I'd hollowed the balsa out before putting the deck on. With that said, it was still something of a fiddle, and once the brass wire was threaded through from one side to the other, I could then pull the ready-blackened anchor chain through. It will come from the holes in the deck just aft of the windlass, pass round the windlass, then go through the bulkhead, down to the hawse pipe holes, out of the bow, loop up to the cathead, where it is wrapped around to find the anchors on the deck. I realised in doing this, that the chain was too big for the hawse hole, so I opened them up and had another go.

 

(All of the deck furniture was removed for this task, so that I had access, as you will see in the photos...)

 

 

The ends are left completely loose, as are the rosettes on the hull, as these will be stuck back on once I've finished getting everything finalised.

 

The other thing I've started working on is the bowsprit. By the plans this is made from 10mm walnut, but my hull has ended up fitting an 8mm dowel. It needs shaping so that it reduces to 7.5mm at the outer end. On the plans, it almost seems to be greater in diameter at the stern end, than at the point where it goes into the hull, but that would mean that either the hole would be too small so that it could be inserted, or once inserted, the hole at the entry point at the bow would be too large. I've opted to keep it at 8mm all along the length once it enters the hull. According to the plans the jib simply ends at its stern end, hanging in thin air, shortly after it exits the sternmost bulkhead it passes through, but again this provides no force pushing forward to counteract the pressures of the rigging on it (or indeed, my whacking it as I walk round the house with it, moving it from my boat building space to its home on top of the piano! So, I've left it slightly long, and bevelled the bottom edge, so that it now pushes right through until it gently sits on top of the king plank. As it stands, it needs shortening about 7mm, which will be taken off the stern end, as the square section has been cut in at the bow-end. It needs to be a 4.7mm square section to fit the bowsprit cap. This proved simple enough to do, and I filed in this section while it was still in the lathe, which helps me to line it up for the filing.

 

As you'll see, I haven't removed the laser char from the outside of the bowsprit cap, as I wanted to leave it as strong as possible while the test fitting was taking place. The laser-cutting on these 4mm parts does not go quite all the way through the part, so a little cutting out is required, but not too much. It's certainly easier than cutting out parts with no help at all.

That's it for now. I really enjoy this stage of a build. It feels like it's all coming together quite pleasingly! Happy building to you all.

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

Thanks so much for the likes - it's a great encouragement.

 

Part two of the knock-on effect of sticking down the foredeck too early was pointed out in the instructions. They say quite clearly that you mustn't forget the large eyelet under the foredeck. 

 

From what I can tell that eyelet only shows up on one side-view on the plans - It sits a centimetre under the foredeck, and needs a hole drilling vertically into the deck. I'd missed it because it doesn't show up on the top down view where all of the other eyelets in the deck are marked. It's kind of important, because it forms the anchor point for the main stay for the main mast!

 

I scratched my head for a bit and realised that I could kill two birds with one stone. By allowing the bowsprit to come further aft, as I had done, the bowsprit would occupy the space where the stay would be anchored. By drilling the vertical hold into the end of the bowsprit, I could then put the bowsprit in, then, once it's finally in place, and I'm rigging, install the eyelet in the end of it (because the hole was now in the right place). This is all hidden behind the companion way that sits directly behind it under the foredeck. The eyelet is installed in these photos, but not glued in place, because the bowsprit will doubtless be in and out of the boat a few times yet.

And here's a shot of where the bowsprit ends up when installed.

Feeling pleased with myself I went on to install the eyelets on the outside of the hull, and the rails. I also drilled the holes for the cleats at the stern. Nothing much exciting, except that I was tired and broken a few drills in the process. It's a bear to drill down into the upright between the main and topgallant rails.

 

The big eyelets were installed at the bases of both masts. Definitely not a job you'd want to do with the pin rails in place, so do follow the sequence in the instructions here. (I've intentionally not glued down any of the fittings until I'm confident all of these gotchas are finally out of the way!, but the instructions are proving to be in a helpful order.)

 

The next job was to start making the ship's boat cranes. There are two types. A support that runs across the deck, which was made out of wire, and copper left from a fret from the copper tiles for the hull.

 

Hopefully the sequence of photos will be fairly self-explanatory here...

 

The uprights fit into holes that came ready laser cut in the pin rails (which were opened out to 2mm with a pin drill.)

I have a little more to share, but I'll put up an extra post after tea, which is smelling lovely! Pork and apple cider casserole.

 

Happy building to you all.

 

Rob

[robdurant]

And the second part of the update.... I've also spent some time putting together the mizzen top, and making and fitting the mizzen topmast.

 

There's still a lot to do on both... The mizzen top is made from laser cut parts from both the ply, and the 2mm and 3mm walnut sheets.

 

This structure will have a walnut surround.

 

I turned the walnut topmast, and fitted it to the cap. The mizzen mast needed a little fettling to fit the structure that supports the top.

 

Today I added the cheeks to the mizzen, and the pin rail that sits just above the deck. I'll show that in a future photo, as I'm waiting for more belaying pins to arrive (I'm replacing the kit ones with Caldercraft 9x1.5mm belaying pins)

 

Finally, I turned some 2mm brass rod from the kit to taper it and then bent it to shape for the ship's boat davits that sit on the port quarter. These had eyelets cut off the top of 1:48 RN stanchions soldered to the top, and copper strip soldered to the back as a cleat.

 

The tapered rod... (It's worth noting that once these were made, I realised that the sternmost davit is shorter than the foremost one - thankfully every other detail is identical, and I'd made these to the longer version, so it was just a case of shortening the sternmost one.

As per the cross-support for the boats over the deck, these were inserted into the pre-laser-cut 2mm holes in the pin rails.

Next will be to give them a lick of paint, and then it will be back to the mast fabrication.

 

That's it for today. 

 

Rob

[robdurant]

Hi all,

 

I've been working out what dowels I needed to make the masts, yards, bowsprit, gaff and boom... These were calculated based on the largest diameter required to allow the square sections to be made as part of the mast. The first step was to work out which dimensions were shown on which plans. The answer being: plan 10 for the mizzen mast and spars; plan 9 for the foremast and yards and jib boom / bowsprit; plan 8 for the main mast. (excuse the messy drawing below, but it helped me think it through in one go, and meant I had all the measurements in one place)

Having done that, the next task was to take stock of what dowel I had, and what I needed, and then assign the spars to the stock.

The measurements are my own taken off the plans, so don't take my word for it - do your own measuring - you have been warned!

 

The left hand column (e.g. 8mm) is the dowel diameter I intend to use, the next column is my code for that particular mast / yard, the third is the length of the spar, and the fourth is the diameter at it's maximum (where a square section is required, I've noted the maximum diameter to encompass that, along with the final size of the square section) - nb: I've noticed now, that some of the square sections at the foots of the top masts are NOT square... they're rectangle, so watch out for that, too.

 

The pencil lines go from the spars to the stock I have... this is my way of checking I'm not going to run out, but also that I'm using the wood in the most efficient way. The spars are measured out onto the dowel with at least two centimetres spare, so that I have a bit of surplus to be left at each end while turning the spars. The measurements on the table above do NOT include this surplus - I just add it on as I mark up the wood.

 

Everything's marked out onto the dowel, with masking tape tags to keep a record of which section will be for which spar...

Once that's done, I cut the lengths out, ready to be turned.

 

Laying them out gives some idea of what the effect will be (and helps you spot if you've missed any... as I had... I missed the mizzen gaff and boom!

Then it was on with the turning. Today was the turn of the main topmast and topgallant. These were turned, taking care to fit them to the caps as I went.

 

And it's always pleasing to be able to raise the mast with no glue required at all... just the friction of the cap holding it all together. I'm beginning to get that dread sense of the scale of this model when she's complete... and that's before I begin to think about the stunsails!

Thanks as always for all the likes

 

Rob