Royal Caroline by Bedford - Panart - 1/48

[michael mott]

A lovely job Steve she is looking very sharp indeed, I'm sure your daughter is watching in spirit and enjoying the progress as much as we are.

 

Michael

[Bedford]

Thanks Michael, my son came for a visit last weekend and was impressed with it and with the doors and windows still to be done on the forward wall of the kings cabin he was able to see into it well enough to see what's in there so I'm glad he saw it and knows what's there first hand.

[Bedford]

Since this ship has quite a few knights heads which all require the same shaping I milled a piece of scrap brass to accept the timber sizes required and then milled two right angle grooves for the file to follow and glued in a stop so they will all come out the same.

 

 

[Bedford]

I've been fitting the knights heads/bollards and you'll see a piece of sheet brass bent to straddle the walnut cap strip. This was first used to protect one part of railing while sanding adjacent pieces but now I've drilled the guide hole for the knights head dowels. It's such a simple way to keep the hole in the centre of the strip. 

 

I would have left the knights heads varnished if they were walnut but they are beech so I decided to paint them red which most fixed tie off points would be anyway. I've also made and attached the stern lanterns.

 

I've come across a problem I had with the Bluenose kit I did years ago in that while the walnut plank stock varnished normally, the thicker square stock doesn't seem to let the varnish dry. From memory it took up to 2 weeks on the Bluenose and it's been 4 days for the cat davits and adjacent bollards and they are still a little sticky. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[Kevin]

i normally use a matt varnish/ water based, and most woods are workable again within the hour, but i tend to dilute it a little on first coat

Edited April 8, 2021 by Kevin

[Bedford]

I've mentioned a block of river red gum I have in a few other builds, I like to put a little of it in every build because it's such a beautiful Aussie timber and it machines very well. In this case I've machined a strip of holes to separate into the freeing ports.

 

[Bedford]

I've made more progress, 1st instead of using 6mm dowel to make the flue for the galley stove I used 6mm brass tube, it looks good painted black.

 

Then I moved onto the brass rails, I have no idea what they're called but they took a lot of fiddling to get them shaped and fitted. There is still some fine tuning to do on them.

 

I don't know if I mentioned it before but I also turned up double sheaves for the cat davits because there is no way those anchors were raised with a single line offering no mechanical advantage. It has to be 4 to 1 at least.

 

[Bedford]

Time for shroud tables, first step lash down the ship to the build frame to keep the hull level to allow the tables to be attached level

 

[Bedford]

I made a block to mount on the dial gauge base so I had an adjustable level rest to get the shroud tables nice and level. For some I just clamped a plank between larger tables so it would follow the curve of the deck.

 

 

The plans call for a bit of string between two dowels to act as hand rails on the stairways. I don't know about anyone else but if I was building a royal yacht for King George II I wouldn't be doing that so I made them out of walnut.

 

[Bedford]

I've obviously slowed down a bit on this build, I went in flat out for weeks but that gets too much so I've been doing other things.

 

Among those other things I've turned a new "plug" for the scroll saw I have. When I did the hand rail the huge gaps around the blade and the dreadfully made hold down foot made the job very difficult so I turned a new plug which supports small pieces much better and while trying that out I put an after market blade in and tried it without the foot and found I no longer need a foot so there's a fiddly part I don't have to make now. An advantage of the new plug is I can orientate the slot on any 90 degree increment I like which keeps it away from snagging small thin fiddly bits.

 

[Bedford]

I've mentioned before that in the kit the cat davits only had a single line 1:1 pull which is wrong, I'd imagine maybe 6:1 but 4:1 at least. So I turned double sheaves to go in the cat davits a while back and today I made two double blocks to complete the set. They look a bit furry in the pics but in the flesh they're good and I found that by "sawing" a piece of cord back and forth in line with the pull I was able to round down the dummy sheaves in the blocks so I'm well pleased with that.

 

When the ship goes into the display case it will have one anchor fully stowed and one hanging from the davit.

 

[Bedford]

I've been concerned for some time that the weight of this hull would be too great for the tiny keel ( 4x4.5mm ) to sustain any lateral movement so I've come up with a 3 pedestal system whereby the centre pedestal is parted off below the keel and a cross arm fashioned from two layers of 1.2mm brass plate soldered together after shaping them to fit the hull. The cross arm is screwed to the hull and will hopefully provide the anti roll protection I think it needs. The wooden base it is currently on is for setting up and continued building, when done the pedestals will fit straight into the display base.

 

I had to get this sorted now while I can still tip the thing upside down.

 

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Steve

 

That looks very good. I like the delicacy of your design.

[Bedford]

Thanks Mark, I've been stewing this over for weeks trying to come up with an elegant solution. Most involved very complex milling of the centre pedestal head from larger diameter brass which I wasn't keen on. I saw one model with the two pedestals as usual and a vertical strut from the display base to the far side of the hull which I even considered for a bit but thought a bit too rudimentary. This solution presented itself the other day and I'm very happy with it. Viewed from a normal angle there is very little to see which is what I wanted.

 

[Bedford]

I've been a bit quiet on this for a while because other things get in the way and now there's a major roadblock.

 

I've been given notice to vacate my home. It was only meant to be a temporary address but I kind of got settled.

Now I have to decide where to move to because I won't stay in Sydney, it's just too full, too hard to get anywhere and way too expensive. I'll be looking at somewhere hopefully down the south coast with a view to either renting or better still, buying a house where I might just build another 1:1 boat.

 

So at present the Royal Caroline is on indefinite hold and I feel that my involvement with the Sydney Heritage Fleet will have to end. Pity, I love the Waratah!

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Steve,

 

Best wishes for this, I hope it resolves well for you. There's some wonderful south coast areas, & so many beautiful estuaries & tidal rivers. Jervis Bay has a maritime museum & recently won an award for their restoration of this lovely boat, so they must be pretty active.

 

Mark

 

[Bedford]

Thanks Mark, I've been to the maritime museum, it's an interesting place. I'm looking for somewhere with something like that I can get involved in

[EJ_L]

Steve, beautiful work! Something to be proud of for sure. I am just starting a kit bash build of this very model kit and I can see that I will be taking some inspirations from your build. I hope your troubles resolve themselves well for you and life gives you some peace again. I look forward to your return!

[Bedford]

E J I'm still here just not building.

 

Thanks for the appreciation, I'm putting a bit extra into this one because of my little girl.

 

Feel free to ask anything.

[Kevin]

lovely build and wonderful tribute

[Bedford]

Well it's been over a month and due to covid I need to apply for any property I want to look at and to date I can't even get a look at anything. It's crazy!

 

At this rate I'll be putting everything in storage and occupying a friends spare room in Orange.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Bedford

[Cathead]

A frustrating situation to be sure. Best wishes for resolving it and being able to return to this incredibly meaningful project.

[Bedford]

Well as expected I have put everything in storage and am in said friends spare room in Orange. I've been invited to look at one house in all this time and it wasn't suitable but it looks like there is another one on the horizon. Wish me luck!

[Mark Pearse]

Best of luck with that Steve.

 

Is it inland, Orange / Bathurst area? We had sheep & cattle between Oberon & Bathurst when I was a kid, so that area is close to my heart.

[Bedford]

Thanks Mark, I'm still looking at the coastal lakes, Jervis Bay/Lake Macquarie areas but am keeping an eye on the local market because I may have to concede defeat at some point. I lived here for 30 odd years, My kids grew up here, my daughter died here. It feels like home but I do like to be able to wet the boat often and easily so I want to be near one of those lakes, both of which have community groups I could enjoy being involved in.

[EJ_L]

Best of luck!

[Bedford]

Well after approx 17 weeks looking for a new place I have finally found one but I can't move in for about a month. It is within walking distance of the largest saltwater lake in Australia (I think) Lake MacQuarie just a little north of Sydney. So I will take a while to get set up and undoubtedly spend a lot of time rowing and or sailing Miss Caroline on said lake and in between all that I'll get back into the build, the royal yacht awaits.

[Keith Black]

Steve, congratulations on finding a place! 

[Mark Pearse]

that's great news Steve.

 

Look out for my mate Mike & his Jock Muir yacht Lahara A121, the blue spinnaker (pale green coachhouse roof is easy to recognise). I'm not sure where she is moored.

 

 

 

[Bedford]

Well folks, the day has arrived, I'm in my new home!

 

No furniture etc yet, that comes tomorrow but here's a pic of the RC sitting in readiness and the MC keeping her company. As well as a pic taken just 900mtrs from my front door. 2 mins drive to the boat ramp as opposed to almost an hour.