Queen Anne Royal Barge circa 1700 by Blue Ensign - FINISHED - Syren Ship Models - 1:24 scale

[Blue Ensign]

Post Nineteen

 

Lower Moulding Rails

 

The stern Frieze patterns that run from the Flying Transom to the break of the stern sheets govern the position of the lower rail which sits just below the carved decoration.

1588

I used separate colours on the plan to better identify the individual carving pieces.

 

Between the upper rail and the lower rail top there is a space of 4mm running from the bow to around Frame O where it starts to widen by degrees.

I used a 4mm wide Pearwood plank to mark the level of the lower moulding to this point, and applied Tamiya tape to secure the line.

1589(2)

I cut out the frieze patterns from the plan and Blu tacked them in position to determine the level of the rail at the stern.

1591(2)

The required space was thus established and marked with Tamiya tape placed to run with a natural curve to meet the previously placed tape.

The main objective is to get a smooth transition and avoid any hint of an awkward angle in the run of the moulding.

I have decided at this point to get some paint on the topsides before I apply the lower moulding.

0056(2)

This will speed up the process and will provide a good line to fit the moulding to.

For the purpose I am using Vallejo Flat Red.

 

With five thinned down coats applied it is time to fit the lower moulding strip.

Further coats will be added post fitting.

 

The Boxwood strip used for the moulding is not long enough to cover the full hull length and requires a join.

0066(2)

Fortunately, there is a sculptured ornamental decoration that runs downward at the break of the sternsheets and covers this point.

I am using ca to fix the rail, but careful as I was tiny amounts of excess ca squeezed above the moulding which will mar the paintwork.

091(2)

This is why I haven’t sought to complete the paintwork before fixing the rail.

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089(2)

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0108(2)

Testing the fit of the carved decoration blanks, I did have to tweak the aft rail sections to get a close fit to the carvings, but fortunately they popped off easily enough with the point of a scalpel blade.

 

Before I move on to the next phase there’s a fair amount of cleaning and further painting to do.

 

 

B.E.

11/04/21

 

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty

 

Completing the First section

 

This involves cleaning up the hull, fixing blemishes, and re-coating the topsides.

The moulding rail has been extended onto the Bow stem, and paint added.

A Further coat of wipe-on-poly was applied to the unpainted areas.

I will leave the painting of the capping rails until I have fixed the internal panels.

 

Progress photos to complete this stage.

0114(2)

0115(2)

0116(2)

0118(2)

0124(2)

0127(2)

0153(2)

 

Moving onto the internal fittings.

 

B.E.

16/04/21

 

 

 

[Rustyj]

She's a beauty Glenn!

[MEDDO]

Elegant

[BobG]

Beautiful work and so FAST!!

[Trond]

This is just pleasing for the eyes to look at. 

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Guys for your interest and nice comments.👍

 

Post Twenty-one

 

Internal stern fittings

 

I am following Chuck’s suggested order of work for the internal fittings, starting with the stern area.

 

Progress has slowed a little mainly due to a relaxing of covid restrictions, and a spell of fine weather tempting me out with the camera.

This next part also bears some thinking about, even tho’ Chuck has laser cut all the parts, careful positioning and a little tweaking is still required, and I wanted to take my time with this important area of the build.

0172

The bench armrest were fitted first followed by the stern sheets internal boarding.

0173

For these I made card templates to tweak the fitting requirements before I committed to the Cherry versions.

0175

These were trimmed to fit and heat treated whilst clamped in place.

0183

I also made card templates for the bench seat supports before fitting.

The ‘T’ square is used to mark the frame positions for the supports, taken from the plan, and to check the vertical line.

A spacer is taped to Frame 10 to position the aft support piece.

0186

The pinky red colour reproduction on these photos is not realistic. On the model the Vallejo flat red is true.

 

Once the glue has set, this area will be painted before moving on.

 

 

 

B.E.

21/04/21

 

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty-two

 

Completing the stern area

 

Before I started multiple coats of thinned paint were applied to parts previously completed.

 

The bench seats were next added.

These took a fair bit of tweaking to get a good fit.

1613

I found it necessary to reduce the width of the bench tops  from the back edge towards the aft end to allow adequate space for the smaller central piece, without reducing its size too much.

The overall effect looks proportional, to my eye at least, and the fit was otherwise fairly good.

 

It is not reflected on the model but I would imagine that parts of the bench tops were hinged to allow for storage.

 

At this point I turned my attention to fitting the Coxswain’s benches.

The height measurements were taken from the plan and transferred to the model.

1620

I decided to add bench supports in the form of 2mm square stock to aid the fitting of these tricky little pieces.

1624

Checking the level of the support rails.

 

The space for the Cox’n between the stern sheets backrest and the Transom seems quite tight at 18”, but I suppose with an average height of 5’5” in 1700, it must have been adequate particularly if smaller men were chosen for the task much as in the case of modern racing shells.

 

Still I digress…

 

I left the final length of the Cox’s benches until I had got the fit of the back rest.

 

I found this a tricky little beggar to fit.

I started with a card template but I still scrapped the original Cherry piece due to over enthusiastic bevelling.

I fared better with a replacement cut from a bulkhead centre, but this still entailed what seemed an endless trial and error process.

1627

I made up a simple jig using thin strip, to gauge the seat back angle.

 

Once eventually happy with the fit, I returned to the Cox’s seats.

1628

Having fitted the supports I made a template covering the full width of the seat area.

1632

The seat back is glued into position against the template.

1642(2)

The actual seats are then cut to size, bevelled, and slotted into place.

 

I had toyed with the idea of leaving the bench tops natural but I didn’t find the dark Cherry shade against the red paint appealing.

I think Box or perhaps Cedar would have given a more aesthetically pleasing effect.

00109

I left the Boxwood bench seats and thwarts natural on my Pinnace build (above) which I think does give a more pleasing contrast.

1641(2)

A final check that the Cox’s seats match for level.

1648(2)

1647(2)

I decided to detail the laser cut edges of the bench tops in gold, which I thought appropriate for a Royal Barge.

1649(2)

The handling, gluing, and minor filling left its mark on the paintwork and inevitably further fine sanding and painting is required now the parts are all in place.

 

I will attend to this before I move onto the risers.

 

 

B.E.

26/04/21

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

That looks great.  I would however think again about leaving the seat edges gold.   Before I read your post I thought you hadnt finished it yet.  It looks like you forgot to paint it rather than add a gold detail on purpose.

 

But its all coming together lovely.

 

Chuck

[glbarlow]

I always enjoy your detailed descriptions of your work and appreciate your taking the time to describe your process.  The barge looks great!

[Blue Ensign]

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

That looks great.  I would however think about leaving the seat edges gold.   Before I read your post I thought you hadnt finished it yet.  It looks like you forgot to paint it rather than add a gold detail.

 

But its all coming together lovely.

 

Chuck

Thanks Chuck, I see what you mean about the gold,  it does look better in reality, but a simple thing to change. 👍

[Blue Ensign]

8 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

I always enjoy your detailed descriptions of your work and appreciate your taking the time to describe your process.  The barge looks great!

Thank you Glenn, I quite enjoy writing the logs, something to keep the grey cells occupied, provide me with an aide memoire of how I did something, and hopefully answer some of the questions others may be thinking in relation to the same build.

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty-three

 

Rising to the occasion

 

Well at least installing the risers, but before I begin I take one  last critical  look at the  frames and apply a little more fairing.

I also gave more attention the inner face of the lower planking that will be seen below the risers and cleaned that up before applying wop.

 

The top level of the riser strips is taken from the plans and copied to the model using a strip ‘T’ square.

The recesses for the thwarts are pre cut so it is important to not only ensure the risers are level across each side but that the corresponding thwart slots are square across the boat.

 

Having marked the riser line I needed to get a feel for the fit.

1653

Temporary thwarts are set across the risers that are simply wedged into place against the top line marks.

1658(2)

So far so good, and I bring my scale oarsman into use to check the relative height.

1654

He’s above average height for the early eighteenth century but even so doesn’t look out of scale to my eye.

 

The next suggested task is to fix the risers, but before I went further I thought it a good idea to check the Fore-deck position as its relative height to the risers is important.

 

After some faffing about I decided to fix the deck in place first, which will give a firm level to adjust the risers to. A small notch was cut out of the aft edge of the deck lip to allow the risers to pass and meet the bulkhead.

1667

To get the deck to sit flat on bulkhead ‘I’ I needed to pare down the frames a fair bit more.

I note on the plan that the deck is shown as boarded, this is not reflected on the provided Cherry kit piece.

1669

Even tho’ the deck is intended for painting, I think it is worth scribing plank lines which should subtly show thro’ the paint.

1673

With the Fore deck in place a further dry fit of the risers.

Can’t be too careful at this stage, out of square or level thwarts will ruin the look of a boat.

1677

With the riser of one side glued, temporary thwarts are again used to check that they sit parallel and square across the boat.

The process is overseen by the critical eye of my boat yard assistant.

1688(2)

 Both risers glued into place and fitted with full size temporary thwarts.

1686(2)

With some relief it seems that I don’t have to reposition a riser, and my eye detects nothing untoward.

1682(2)

Satisfied with the result I can now move on to the stretchers.

 

B.E.

29/04/21

 

[Chuck]

Where did you get those oarsman?  They look like a pretty perfect fit for the model.   All you would need is a queen and helmsman.  I looked all over for those when I built it.

 

Chuck

[Blue Ensign]

He first put in an appearance on my Pinnace build also at 1:24 scale

0922

His origins are a Dean's Marine 1.24 scale figure, but he underwent some serious surgery.

Originally he was a Vietnam War period American soldier in Jungle gear. His arms were broken in two places, his uniform and jungle hat cut away and he was given some clothes from the slop chest.

I was pleased that at a given 1:24 scale he fitted the boat spot on, as he seems to do on the Royal Barge.

 

 

I am seriously tempted to crew the barge in the style of the Museum model, but it won’t be cheap having a crew of nine plus the Queen at 1:24 scale made.

 

B.E.

 

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Chuck and B.E.,

 

I'm sure if you make enquiries you could find someone to 3D-print some 1/24 scale oarsmen for you. And a queen and maybe a duke in attendance...........

[Blue Ensign]

Hi Ian,

 

I am in contact with a company called Modelu.

 

Modelu – Finescale Figures (modelu3d.co.uk)

 

This is the company that produced the figures I used on my fishing boat builds.

 

B.E.

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty-four

 

Stretchers

 

These are bars running athwartships across the floor boarding for the oarsmen to brace their feet against to give purchase when rowing.

They are secured by chocks cut into long timber strips that run along the inner sides of the boat above the decking.

 

The question is how to approach the job, it seems quite tricky at first thought.

 

The strips that hold the stretchers need to be even on both sides, remain vertical, but have both a convex curve on the horizontal plane, and a concave curve on the vertical plane, to follow the frames on which they sit.

Chucks Model

 

The plan in my kit (2018) does not reflect the required set-up, and the exact positions can be seen in the instruction photo’s as shown above.

 

My approach.

The two easily determined points are at either end of the strip.

 

I glued the Port and Starboard strips at both ends to the frames in the correct positions and used temporary cross pieces (stretchers) to check the squareness before the glue fully set.

 

At this point I have not glued the remainder of the strip length to the frames.

1692

The related temporary thwarts were put into place to check they ran in line with the stretchers.

1694

One side of the strip was then glued down using weights until the glue grabbed. Small wedges were used to make sure the strip didn’t move downwards towards the decking.

1697

I then glued the stretchers in place at the two end positions followed by the remaining contact points on the opposing strip, which was also then weighted.

1720(2)

The remaining stretchers were then glued into place having checked that all the thwarts lined up with the stretchers, and that the stretchers were level across the deck.

1708(2)

I had an issue with the laser cut thwarts in my kit which Chuck has quickly sorted out, but I used the now scrap (inverted) thwarts for test fitting purposes.

1711(2)

The thwarts sit well along the risers and I am content with the result.

1712(2)

Satisfying to see that the stretchers are not a bad fit for the test oarsman.

1713

1716(2)

1717(2)

 

While I wait for the new thwarts to arrive there is plenty of other stuff to get on with, not the least the carving aspect to the decoration.

 

B.E.

01/05/21

[Rustyj]

Very nice work B.E.

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Rusty, and to those who have posted 'likes'

 

Post Twenty-five

 

That subject of carving

 

Chuck has very thoughtfully provided some nice Boxwood blanks for the decoration of the barge, to give us an introduction to carving.

In practice it is more like adding definition and a rounding to the profiles, but even so, easier said than done.

If all else fails, and exasperation wins the day, there is the fall-back position of a resin set to take away the pain.

1738(3)

My assembled kit to tackle this first foray into this new adventure.

As suggested, I am starting with the Queen Anne monogram.

1749(2)

The 'carving' in progress.

1750(2)

The Swann-Morten micro chisels at 1mm and 2mm widths  work well along with the No11 scalpel blade.

1751(2)

The rounding and the deeper profiling of the letters can be seen in these shots.

1756(2)

From left to right, the wip Monogram, the Resin version, and the original blank.

 

Even at this stage I am preferring the look of the Boxwood versions, altho’ I think the Resin version would look better once coloured.

1749

The question with all exercises of this type is when to stop.

 I think a little more smoothing, and softening the rounds, but the more you do the greater the risk of a breakage.

 

I will make a back-up Monogram just in case.

 

 

B.E.

06/05/2021

 

 

[Chuck]

That looks very good.   I rounded quite a bit as you can see with the resin version.   That is a cast from my carved boxwood version.   I did more detail carving of the crown as you can see.   Keep smoothing .....it will get even better.   

 

Chuck

[Chuck]

Here is a carved example with Gold as I know you like that look as well.   Something to consider.

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Chuck, I'll carry on smoothing 🙂

 

Quite enjoyable doing this, almost therapeutic, a great idea to provide the makings  and opportunity to have a go.

 

B.E.

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty-six

 

A little more whittling

 

I continued to fettle the Monogram using a combination of micro chisels and sanding sticks shaped to fit in the nooks and crannies in an effort to impart some round to these tricky areas.

 

 Chuck makes reference in his log to ‘Analysis Paralysis’

1759

Each check of the macro lens reveals tiny areas displeasing to the eye that are not there at a viewing distance of eight inches, and even less so on the model.

1763

Once I reached the point of satisfaction to my admittedly old eyes, but assisted by the optivisor, I  brought proceedings to a halt.

 

The Monogram was placed in a small container of Isopropanol to free it from the backing.

I had used a thin smear of dilute pva (non waterproof) to secure it but even after four hours it showed no sign of releasing.

 

At this juncture I did what Chuck wisely advises against.

 I tentatively slipped a scalpel point beneath the top part which has the least fragile parts, and gently eased it a fraction before replacing it in the alcohol.

I repeated the process a few times until I could get a sliver beneath it thus allowing greater access to the alcohol. Over the next two hours, by degrees, I eased the part until it came away intact.

 

Macro views of the Monogram temporarily in place on the Flying Transom.

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1788(2)

1790(2)

 

From a normal viewing distance as gauged below, it looks ok to my eye.

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1792

I will leave as is for the present and turn my attention to the hull decoration.

 

Even tho’ I escaped without issue with the Monogram, I think the pva is perhaps a little too strong for the purpose, so I purchased a Pritt stick to temporarily secure the hull decoration.

 

I took the precaution of doing a test piece before committing to the real thing, and release was much easier after around four hours.

1771(2)

The decorations have been labelled to run fore to aft and I was careful to ensure I had the Portside decorations the right way up to mirror the Starboard set.

 

Looks like I’ll be whittling away for a while yet.

 

B.E.

07/05/21

 

[Chuck]

Looks fantastic…really nice.  If anything I hope this gives you some confidence to carve more stuff in the future.  I really enjoyed it although it does take a lot of time and cant be rushed.  But it makes a world of difference on the model.

 

 

[glbarlow]

Impressive carving. Definitely not something I have the patience for doing. Congratulations on finishing these!

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Chuck I will persevere with the Acanthus leaves, and hopefully they will make the cut so to speak. 😀

 

@  Glenn,  Lack of patience, I don't believe it, given your exemplary work on Cheerful.

I wish my completion was in the plural, the acanthus leaves are still the blanks, only the Monogram has received chisel and  knife. 😀

 

B.E.

[Blue Ensign]

Post Twenty-seven

 

Hull decoration

This consist of seven strips of Acanthus leaf decoration (three per side)

 

Boxwood blanks are provided, and whittling consists of stop cuts, paring, and rounding.

More complex than the Monogram because tight curves present greater difficulty.

 

Fortunately, Chuck has provided excellent large-scale drawings indicating the stop cuts, the positions of which are transferred to the blanks.

 

Again, there is a fall-back position in the form of a resin version of the decoration. Knowing that it is available reduces the ‘fear’ factor in starting this task.

1798

The aftermost section being progressed, the corresponding blank below it.

Chuck's fine examples.

This is what I’m aiming for…

1795(3)

… and this is the reality as work progresses on the aftermost moulding.

 

 A couple of extremities have broken away but were re-attached with water-proof glue. The tiny scroll at the Transom end pinged off into the ether never to be seen again.

Fortunately, this is the end that may require trimming to fit so its absence may not be missed.

 

The depth to the moulding is beginning to show as the stop cuts and paring take effect.

As the sharp square edges of the blank pattern are softened it is starting to resemble a decorative moulding, but still a long way to go, but I will persevere.

 

As luck would have it my replacement thwarts arrived this morning which means I can return to the main event and progress the whittling at a more leisurely pace.

 

B.E

08/05/21

 

 

[glbarlow]

More great work BE.  Could you provide the source for your micro chisels? They look like nice tools to have. 

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Glenn,

 

The chisels are made by Swann Morton.

This is the supplier I use in the UK, but they are available from many sources.

Swann Morton Fine Blades and Handles Range - Scalpels & Blades (scalpelsandblades.co.uk)

 

The SM61 Blade is 1.5mm and the SM62 IS 2.5mm.

I couple them with an SF2 handle - 103mm.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.