HM Schooner Pickle by Jeff E - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:64 Scale

[Jeff-E]

Hello Everyone,

 

Welcome to my build log of The Schooner Pickle and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Most of you will know the history and significance of 'Pickle ' and it has been told in detail in other logs of this build, so suffice to say that she will always be famous for carrying dispatches from Admiral Collingwood detailing the Victory at Trafalgar and the news of Lord Nelson's death to England. On the 28 of july 1808 Pickle was grounded off Cape Santa Maria on the Chipiona Shoal on her approach to Cadiz. Pickle sank quickly but all her crew were saved.

 

I also intend to keep an up to date time log of the build.

 

The kit itself is I think of good quality, however their pre cut sheets seem to have been milled out instead of laser cut but they do seem quite accurate. the supplied timber is of average quality and a sample bunch of the lime strakes I measured varied from 3.7mm wide to 4.1mm, they are supposed to be 1mm x 4mm  . The brass etched parts and the other parts, rigging blocks,pins, carronades ect are all of excellent quality and the plans and instructions are both detailed and comprehensive  .

 

I think this kit will be a good challenge for me  firstly because of the scale, I did not realise how small some of the parts are   and also because it is a bit more complex than the two other kits I have completed.

 

This will be a slow build so please be patient with me. The instructions reckon it can be built in 4 to 6 months of evening work but my estimate for me will about 12 months of part time work.

 

Following are some pictures of the kit itself and then I will post where I am up to at present

 

 

I intend to paint this model so I also brought the recommended paint kit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

And some more pictures of the kit  

                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Jeff-E
replace photos

[Greg]

Hi Jeff

This is a kit that I want to do, so I will be watching with interest.

Cheers

Greg

[Jeff-E]

Hi Greg,

 

Thank you for looking in, I hope you enjoy watching.

[Meredith]

Hello fellow neighbour.. nice to see someone from our end of Oz building.

 

Great little model - I will watch along too.

[Jeff-E]

So now down to the build.

 

The first thing to do was to sand the Bearding line on the false keel. The measurements and profile of this are found on plan 1. They instruct you to sand the keel down from 5mm at the start of the bearding line to 3mm at the stern thus when the first layer of planking is laid it will again be 5mm at the stern post. After the first planking has been laid you are then to sand the first layer of planking, following the same bearding line, again to a width of 3mm at the stern. This does present a slight problem as the first plank strakes are only 1mm thick so to sand them down to a width of 3mm at the stern means there would be no plank left  .To overcome this I have decided to sand the first planking down to a width of 4mm at the stern and then sand the second planking down to the finished width of 5mm. So only taking 0.5mm off each run of planks.  

 

To assist me so that the line remains the same through each stage I made a template out of thin cardboard

 

 

 

 

 

Then I marked the line on the false keel and sanded it back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Jeff-E
replace photos, spelling mistakes

[Jeff-E]

Hi Brian,

 

Thank you and welcome to this log, I hope you enjoy it.

[The Sailor]

Hi Jeff,

I will follow your build log. I think, you will have big fun with this kit. And yes, some parts are very small.

[Jeff-E]

Hi Meridth,

 

Thank you for looking in from a beautiful part of the Territory, I hope you enjoy watching this build.

 

Happy Territory day for tomorrow  

[Jeff-E]

Hi Richard,

 

Thank you for watching and welcome to this build. I am looking forward to having lots of fun with this kit and I hope I don't loose any of those tiny parts  .

[Jeff-E]

The next step in the instructions is to fit the stempost and keel, however after some deliberation I am thinking of fitting the bulkheads and plank termination patterns first as this will make it easier to fair them, especially in the bow stem area without fear of accidentally damaging the stem post or keel. Any input on this theory would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have constructed a building board, or rather modified one I had intended for use on another model, and have cut out all the frames and dry fitted them to the false keel. The lower false deck has also been cut out and dry fitted.

 

I still need to check the frames for symmetry and as most of them are a loose fit on the keel to add some small filler pieces to make them fit a bit tighter on the false keel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is where I am up to at the present moment I will post some more as I make progress

Edited February 19, 2020 by Jeff-E
replace photos, spelling mistakes

[Captain Slog]

Hi Jeff,

 

You are off to a great start.  I believe all Caldercraft sheet wood is CNC cut so get very accurate shaped pieces with no laser burn to sand off.  I also found the photo etch and supplied fittings to be very nice although there strip wood is average at best (for my kit anyway).  

 

Although I have read plenty of other Caldercraft builds complaining about the strip wood also, one as far back as Decoymans seven year itch build of the Agamemnon so can't be a recent issue.  Will interesting to see what you make of your supplied wood.

 

Cheers

Slog

[mobbsie]

Hi Jeff,

 

You started your build and were making super progress but you haven't posted an update for a while, have you put her on hold or is it that you just haven't updated your log.

 

I know others are waiting, were a patient lot.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[kapiteinhadock]

Hi Jeff, looks like a very nice kit. I have to keep this one in mind for the future. Currently we have a live size replica in port in Gibraltar http://www.schoonerpickle.com/ . Hope to see an update of this build soon.

 

Greetings, Jantje

[Jeff-E]

Hi Jantje,

 

Thank you for looking in and for the link to the Pickle site , there are some nice photos on there that I can use for reference to modify the kit a bit when I resume building this model. Unfortunately this build is on hold for the moment while I finish the Victory bow section.

 

You are very lucky to be working in such an historic place

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

I thought it might be time to resurrect this build from the shelf. It has been on hold for some time, I first put in on hold to finish the Victory Bow section, then I got it out again after I had finished the Victory after I started to have problems with the first planking not laying as I wanted it to, mainly due to me not taking enough care when I originally faired the frames.

So about six months ago I got it out again and had a look at what solutions I could come up with to rectify my problems which I will explain when I get to the first planking but for now I need to edit the first few posts to replace the pictures which have gone missing and then I will post some more pictures of the build to catch up to where I am at with it now. 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

As mentioned in post#11 some of the frames were a loose fit on the false keel, both fore and aft and athwart ships. To rectify this problem spacers made from 0.5mm timber were glued to either side of slot in the frame and to the fore or aft side of the slot in the false keel, a centre line was also marked onto the frames and the spine of the keel for alignment purposes while they were sanded.

               

     

After they dried they were sanded until they were a snug fit on the false keel, being careful to take a small amount off each side of the slot to ensure the marks lined up. They were then dry fitted to the keel again.

    

    

I decided I wanted to mount the model on pedestals, as suggested in the manual, so the next job was to drill mounting holes through the keel and into the false keel. There are two mounting holes one positioned between frames three and four and the second between frames five and six aft of the slot for the mainmast, also as mentioned in post#11 I intend to not to attach the keel and stem post until after the fairing of the frames is completed, so I also drilled some dowel holes in the keel, stem and sternpost to help align them squarely to the false keel and to strengthen the joint.

   

   

   

The size of the mounting holes is 3mm and the dowel holes are 1 mm and will be fitted with bamboo dowels when the keel and stem are fitted.

thanks for looking and the likes.

     

[Ronald-V]

Nice work! Have fun with this great little ship!

 

[Jeff-E]

Hi Mugje,

Thank you, I have had a look at your build and you did a fantastic job on it!👍

[Jeff-E]

Hello All,

After all the preparations were completed on the false keel it was time to glue the bulkheads to it.

     

     

While they were drying the lower deck was planked. I chose a 3 butt shift pattern for this deck, the planks were cut to length and the caulking was simulated by darkening the sides and ends of the planks with a pencil and the trunnels were simulated by drilling a 0.3mm hole in the plank and touching the hole with a pencil.

     

     

Once the keel and bulkheads had dried support blocks were glued either side of the mounting holes on the false keel, these were made from offcuts of the plywood held the bulkheads.

     

The lower deck and the gunport former were then glued on and the assembly was set aside to dry for 24 hours.

     

Thanks for looking and the likes.

     

 

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All,

After the structure had dried the frames were faired.

        

       

The stempost in the first photo is only temporarily fitted. I have decided to leave the stempost and keel off the model until the first planking is completed.

The next job was to fit the gunport patterns, they are cut from 0.8mm ply and are fairly fragile so I made a jig from a strip of 2mm aluminium bent around the gunport former to give me their shape at the bow.

      

      

The ply gunport patterns were then soaked in water for about 1 hour and then clamped to the jig and allowed to dry.

      

After they had dried they were glued to the model following the instructions in the manual.

      

      

The model was then set aside to dry for 24 hrs.

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All,

The first planking is the next stage of the build. As mentioned earlier, when I restarted this log, this is where my problems began that caused me to shelve the build.

The main problem was at the bow as the planks started to curve down towards the keel I noticed a clinkering effect was starting to appear and to get the planks to butt up flush with the plank above it a gap was formed between the plank and the frames, especially on the first 3 frames from the bow. This got worse the further down towards the keel I went and I started to add spacers in between the plank and the frame. I stopped after I had added 4 planks to the starboard side and 5 to the port side. The gap between the last plank laid on the port side and frame 2 was about 1mm was only going to get worse if I continued so that is when it went on the shelf for a while, quite a long while as it turned out.

So when I got it out again and had a good look at it the only thing I could think of that would cause the planks to lay as they were was that the frames had not been faired correctly so I removed all the planks except for the first one on each side that sits under the gunport patterns. I made up two bow filler blocks from pine and fitted them in between frames 1 and 2, which I was going to fit in the first place but decided against it because I did not think they would be needed on such a small hull. After fitting them I carefully faired the hull again paying special attention to the bow area and checking the lay of the planks as I went. It turns out I wasn't far out with the original fairing but enough to cause me problems. I decided when fitting the planks this time I would fit the garboard strake and the plank next to it and then plank alternately from the top down and the bottom up. Thankfully Caldercraft supplied enough planks in the kit to cover my mistake.

I cannot find any photos of the planking before it was removed but below are a few photos of how the new planks went on.

    

     

     

You should be able to see the bow filler blocks in the second and third photo. All of the planks except the first one underneath the gunport pattern and the garboard strake were tapered at the bow, most of them to 2mm (half their width). They were shaped at the bow and the stern by soaking them in water and then pinning them to the model and allowing them to dry and then finally gluing them on.

    

    

   Even after tapering them to half their original width a stealer was still need at the bow.

   

Thanks for looking and the likes.

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

The first planking was completed without an further issues and a few hollows were filled. 

     

      

      

      

The hull was sanded and the planks were trimmed at the bow to allow the stem post to fit snugly between them.

I cut a 1 x1 mm rabbet into the stem post and keel using a 1mm milling bit in my dremel mounted on it's drill stand. I mounted the part to be machined in a vice and then set the depth of the cut on the drill stand and manoeuvred the vice underneath it by hand as I don't have an 'X' 'Y' machining table. The cuts are not as accurate as you would get them with a table but I think they turned out OK.

After the rabbets were cut the stem and keel were doweled and glued to the hull.

      

       

The rabbet can seen in the above photo. The stern extensions and the stern counter were then fitted.

       

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.

  

Edited February 24, 2020 by Jeff-E

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

After the keel and stern counter were dry the stern counter was planked. The sternpost was fitted temporarily so that the planks were laid hard up against it to eliminate any gap when it permanently fixed.

      

The next step was to add the black strake and the wales. The positioning of these planks is important to determine the rest of the run of second planks above and below the wale. The first plank is position so that it sits 1.5mm below gunports 2 thru 5 and is the allowed to follow it's natural lie fore and aft of these points.

      

      

       

The wale plank is laid directly underneath the first plank and is the same material as the first, 4 x 1 mm walnut and both planks are untapered. A 4 x 0.5 mm plank is then laid on top of the first plank and a 4 x 1 mm plank is laid on top of the second plank forming the black strake and wale.

       

        

        

I like this method of approaching the second planking, laying the wales first, as it gives you a clear line above and below it for the run of planks. The other kits I have done have you complete the second planking first and then add the wales over the top of it. If it is practical I will use this method in future builds.

All comments welcome 

Thanks for looking and the likes.

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

The second planking was done with the supplied 1 x 4 mm walnut strips which were fairly good quality after a light sand. The first plank to be fitted was the garboard strake.

    

    

Then planks were laid alternately above and below the wale and from the garboard strake up.

    

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All, 

The second planking continued with no major problems. These planks were shaped the same way as the first layer of planks by soaking them in water and pinning them to the hull, allowing them to dry and then gluing them into position.

     

      

      

      

      

      

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.

[Jeff-E]

Hello All,

The second layer of planking was completed and sanded.

   

    

     

      

      

The next job is to mark the water line and to remove the extensions on the bulkheads so that the deck can be fitted.

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.

[JeffT]

Looks great Jeff!

[Ronald-V]

You are going pretty fast! And did a great job on the planking

 

[Jeff-E]

Hello All,

 

Thank you Jeff and Mugje for your kind comments.

 

As mentioned before the next job was to mark the water line. I did this following the instructions and using the little jig provided in the kit. Once the hull was level and set up on the jig it was fairly easy to mark the line.

I decided to fit a batten along the water line for the copper plates to butt up against, as I did on the Victory bow section, I made the battens from 0.5 x 5mm Sapellia which was trimmed down to 1.5mm strips and glued onto the hull following the water line.

   

    

    

     

It was a bit fiddly to get the bend right at the rear of the but it finally glued down OK.

All comments welcome.

Thanks for looking and the likes.