HMS Beagle by LucienL - OcCre - 1:60

[LucienL]

Hey everyone, so it seems like there are several HMS Beagle build logs all of a sudden. I had planned on writing up my own once the hull was completed and we are pretty close now (been building for 5 months, just need to finish up the deadeyes), so I thought I'd start to write up some of the earlier stages as well as outline what I'm going for with this build. 

 

So, I am currently a third year uni student studying Biochemistry and Biology and as a result, Charles Darwin and the HMS Beagle are very close to my heart and is partly what got me into this hobby. I've done a build log on my first ship, HMS Bounty's Launch, which I started with my Dad in around 2011 before leaving it on a shelf for 9 years. I've also built the USS Albatros to try and familiarise myself with OcCre kits and develop my skills for the big one (the Beagle).

 

I'm going to try to build the ship as accurately as I can with a few exceptions. I have managed to obtain a copy of the Anatomy of the Ship book for the Beagle and will be making some modifications to the model accordingly. Some parts are out of scale (deck planks and a few others), but I'll just have to live with that. The biggest modifications I will be making include coppering the hull, folding actual fabric hammocks and scratch building 3 additional small boats (A yawl and two 28 ft whaleboats) to better reflect the real ship. Also I'll try to make my own sails when I get there, but I have a feeling that is still a little way off.

 

For the colour scheme, I have been inspired by this particular build on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYRfDE8_1vM&t=526s

I really like the darker colours on the wooden parts even if it may not be accurate. There is also the replica in Chile and a virtual tour on youtube as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTo1X9EzFDQ. It seems like the internal bulwarks would have been painted white. I will not be doing this purely for aesthetic reasons.

 

So far I've been enjoying the build even if it has been quite challenging. The hardest part by far was the coppering, I'll go into more detail later, but I've given it a patina and it took some trial and error to get that right. It was also a bit tricky to lay all the tiles without disturbing the patina too much. There have been a few major instances where I've had to redo things, but I feel that it has always been for the better.

 

So anyway, here goes, these are the first couple of pictures I have. I've been taking lots of photos (597 is the current count) and should be able to outline the process pretty well, even if it was a while ago now.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by LucienL

[LucienL]

Whoops, miscalculated in the last post, have been building for four months. Deck write up coming soon, watch this space.

[LucienL]

Okay, so it was a week into the build, and I hit the first major challenge, the deck. On my Albatros I did not attempt to simulate caulking and somewhat regretted that, so I decided to give it a go on this ship. I cut individual planks because I like it that way, even if it takes more time. I will be using a matte varnish on this build as I think it looks better and more realistic.
Caulking was achieved by shading the edge of the planks with a 6B pencil and I was able to lay the planks mostly without drama. Although, a few notes, I laid the planks building from the aft to the fore, which meant that it became increasingly difficult to fit the planks in as I reached the end. Maybe next time I would lay a line of planks down the middle and build outwards.
The Beagle had a three butt planking pattern according to the anatomy of the ship. Also, I did initially go with the pencilled in nails as recommended by the OcCre instructions. I have since significantly changed my stance, I think the pencil nails are out of scale and don’t look realistic. If I were to do it, I would also simulate the nails on the mid planks. I have since stripped the deck and removed the pencil nails, but we’ll get to that.
 

 

In this photo, the deck doesn’t look so bad, it is probably a little too dirty though.

 

Unfortunately, as I continued to sand the deck and redo some of the caulking, the pencil marks made the deck dirtier and dirtier
 
I varnished the deck, while still hoping it wouldn’t look too bad and also not realising how dirty the deck had become
 
After some back and forth, I decided I was not happy with deck and decided to strip the varnish and clean it
 
The varnish could then be easily scraped off, giving a clean deck after a few planks were glued back down. Cleaning was done by scraping a sharp piece of glass over the deck several times. This is the best was I could find and works really well, giving a very tidy deck without destroying the grain.
 
The nails were re-drawn (grr) and the deck was varnished again
 
(still wet here)
 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by LucienL

[LucienL]

 

The kit instructions show most of the brass pieces being added without further alteration. I have some problems with this. First of all, this is implying that these pieces would have been made of raw brass instead of iron as they more likely would have been made of. Second, this is also implying that the ship makers would not have done anything to the brass to protect it from corrosion. So instead, I will be either painting or blackening all the brass pieces to add to the ship (I also think it looks better)

The worst offender are the brass doors, which I feel look very wrong. I made my own wooden doors using some sapele strips stained with light oak and some sycamore strips. I don’t remember the exact measurements, but they were pretty similar to the brass doors, so if you wanted to make your own you could copy the measurements from the kit. I did end up replacing these doors to better match the developing colour scheme later on (and also to re-build them a bit better).

 

The next step was the windows, which were painted black. After some thinking, I decided to cut out a hole in the wall behind them to make it look a little more realistic.

Then to give the illusion of their being an open space behind the windows, I glued some mirror shards behind them

 

 

This gave a really nice effect that is a bit tricky to capture in a photo. I’m really happy with it and will be doing a similar thing with the cabins and sky lights. If I had just left a hole, it would have been quite difficult to tell that anything had been done behind the windows. With the mirrors it reflects the light and adds a bit of life to the cabins.

 

The poop and forecastle decks also went on with no dramas. 

 

[LucienL]

The bulwarks were the first key deviation from the kit instructions. From the anatomy of the ship, it seems like the bulwarks would have been higher from the forecastle to the poop deck than the kit allows. Also, raising the hammock rails will allow for a larger space to insert folded hammock, which is also good.

 

The YouTube videos recommend starting from the middle of the ship and working towards the ends when nailing the bulwarks. I highly recommend doing this. On one side I didn’t follow the instructions and it was much more difficult than the other side. My gluing is a bit messy, but no one will see that when it’s finished, I’m using a high strength wood glue that takes a while to dry.

 

I found that it was a bit of a challenge to get the bulwarks even at the forecastle, I’m not sure why, it may have been because I didn’t start nailing one of the bulwarks from the middle out, but it took a bit of sanding and re-nailing to get it right.

 

Then, when lining the bulwarks internally, I didn’t trim down the top strip. This gave a height that I was pretty happy with and looks similar to the plans.

 

The next challenge was the gunports. I initially started out by filing and trimming with a blade, but I now wish I hadn’t. I think I did make the gunports a little too big. What I would recommend doing is making up a little sanding stick of the appropriate side and using this to very lightly sand the lining back (after some trimming). This will give a nice straight line that will make tidy gunports.

 

And yeah, so that was it. Then it was exam season and the boat took a back seat for a while. Planking was a big job and I wanted to do that in one big chunk so I waited until uni finished for the semester before getting to that.

[uncarina]

This is a really great start! I have this kit and many of the elements that I’ve thought about (eg, doors and windows) you’ve addressed very nicely. I’m also planning to copper the hull so will be taking notes from your work. Thanks for posting your build.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[LucienL]

Hey Tom, thanks for your reply. I have some tips for the coppering now, there's a lot of trial and error that I can hopefully help people to avoid. I'm happy with it now, but it was a bit of a bumpy ride.

[Dean77]

What a great job you're doing!

I'm building HMS Beagle too, I wish I had carried out some of the modifications you have done it does look so much better.

I'm a bit to far into the build to make changes now, I've just started making the masts. 

Look forward to the updates!

 

[LucienL]

Hey Dean, your build looks great! I think the Beagle would be a difficult first kit but you’ve done an excellent job

[LucienL]

On the Albatros I was determined to do proper tapering of planks and use whole planks to cover the full length of the hull for the first planking. This was contrary to the OcCre instructions, which suggest a different method. The OcCre method involves cutting all the planks square and using them to cover as much space as you can. Then small triangles are cut to fill the gaps. On the Beagle, I used the OcCre method. Let me tell you, the OcCre method is definitely the right way to go about it. Tapering the planks and steam bending them took several days of on and off work on the Albatros. On the Beagle, I was able to get the whole thing done in a day (I was on break so had some time to spend on the boat). For a first planking it really does not matter how pretty the individual planks are on the hull, the shape just has to be there, and it needs to be sanded smooth. To get this right, I had to spend a lot of time on the fairing (but also not too much).

 

This is the ship after the first planking was finished, it’s rough but that is okay.

 

After extensive sanding and filing

 

Then filling, followed by more sanding

[Robp1025]

This is a great build so far your actually right where I am on my build!! This is my first real ship build and I'm finding it pretty relaxing. My next build I'll probably do a lot more research and really go for realism. 

[LucienL]

Hey Maliba, there's a lot more to building a real ship. I'm really enjoying being able to go into the history of this little boat. The beagle is definitely a very relaxing and satisfying build!

[Cathead]

Great start. As a geologist, I share your fascination with this ship, its voyages, and its most famous passenger. I was fortunate enough to visit the Chilean replica a few years ago and shared a series of photos on MSW as part of a larger thread on Chilean naval/nautical experiences. I can't vouch for the perfect accuracy of the replica, but the photos might still be useful as a guide or inspiration.

[Robp1025]

13 hours ago, LucienL said:

Hey Maliba, there's a lot more to building a real ship. I'm really enjoying being able to go into the history of this little boat. The beagle is definitely a very relaxing and satisfying build!

Yea I hope to do the ship some justice and if you have any tips to help with the realism of this ship I'd love to hear and try them on mine. I cant really do the copper though cause I'm limited on resources and equipment.

[LucienL]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:06 PM, Cathead said:

Great start. As a geologist, I share your fascination with this ship, its voyages, and its most famous passenger. I was fortunate enough to visit the Chilean replica a few years ago and shared a series of photos on MSW as part of a larger thread on Chilean naval/nautical experiences. I can't vouch for the perfect accuracy of the replica, but the photos might still be useful as a guide or inspiration.

Hi Eric, I've actually come across your photos of the beagle replica before. Thank you, they have been a huge help, it gives a pretty good idea of the colours and shape of the boat, even if there are a few potential inaccuracies.

 

23 hours ago, Maliba1025 said:

Yea I hope to do the ship some justice and if you have any tips to help with the realism of this ship I'd love to hear and try them on mine. I cant really do the copper though cause I'm limited on resources and equipment.

You'd be surprised, it doesn't take much to do the coppering. I did mine with thin copper tape from an electronics store (Jaycar in Australia) and a sharp knife. Ageing it was a little more tricky, but still doesn't require much. It is a lot more work though and I was really conflicted on it. I do like the natural wood, so I completely get that.

[LucienL]

The planking in this kit is a little out of scale. This is also a problem with the deck, but I can live with this. As the entire hull of the ship will be either painted or coppered, there was a little less stress with the planking this time around. I’m really happy with how it turned out, but it is a shame that none of it will be visible in the final boat. I used contact glue and just took it slow with a healthy amount of sanding. It's also really good to have a screwdriver with a plastic handle or something similar to run over the planks. That will really get them to lie flat and fit snugly. The raised hammock rails were a little delicate being made up of only a thin strip of wood, so I had to be careful with that.  I have a lot of photos from the planking, so I think I’ll just post those and let them tell the story now.

 

 

Also, just an important note; if you are going to do coppering, the hull has to be extremely smooth, any bumps or raised planks will show through on the copper.

Edited April 4, 2021 by LucienL

[LucienL]

 

The rubbing strakes went on with no dramas, but there is a small issue with the kit here. There shouldn’t be a third rubbing strake at the water line. According to the anatomy of the ship and most other sources I can find, there should be a thicker wale around here. I had some trouble getting the scale right, but a 7mm plank looks about right.

 

 

At first, I tried to do 2 5mm planks to do the wales, but this was way too thick and looked wrong and one of them had to be removed. I used CA glue, which I regret now, and it was a bit messy. Some of the planking came up but could be glued back down. I remember being very frustrated at the time but it would all be painted and the actual damage was very minor.

 

The hammock rail reinforcements were fun though, just a bit of work to get them to line up and be spaced properly.

 

After looking at this for a while, I came to the realisation that the wales were too thin and the spacing between the bottom of the gunports and the wales was too wide. I then added a 2 mm strip just above it and that looked pretty much bang on

 

Also, I did the anchor wales, which was tricky to get the same on each side. What I ended up doing is shaping the pieces off the boat and then lining them up to get them to look right. Then I just used one side as a template for the other to get them to look exactly the same.

[Robp1025]

1 hour ago, LucienL said:

 

The rubbing strakes went on with no dramas, but there is a small issue with the kit here. There shouldn’t be a third rubbing strake at the water line. According to the anatomy of the ship and most other sources I can find, there should be a thicker wale around here. I had some trouble getting the scale right, but a 7mm plank looks about right.

 

 

At first, I tried to do 2 5mm planks to do the wales, but this was way too thick and looked wrong and one of them had to be removed. I used CA glue, which I regret now, and it was a bit messy. Some of the planking came up but could be glued back down. I remember being very frustrated at the time but it would all be painted and the actual damage was very minor.

 

The hammock rail reinforcements were fun though, just a bit of work to get them to line up and be spaced properly.

 

After looking at this for a while, I came to the realisation that the wales were too thin and the spacing between the bottom of the gunports and the wales was too wide. I then added a 2 mm strip just above it and that looked pretty much bang on

 

Also, I did the anchor wales, which was tricky to get the same on each side. What I ended up doing is shaping the pieces off the boat and then lining them up to get them to look right. Then I just used one side as a template for the other to get them to look exactly the same.

Dang it lol you were on the same part as me and I just glued down the third rubbing stack so I cant switch it out without losing my planking. Yours looks really good with that thick wale.

[LucienL]

15 minutes ago, Maliba1025 said:

Dang it lol you were on the same part as me and I just glued down the third rubbing stack so I cant switch it out without losing my planking. Yours looks really good with that thick wale.

Ah man, I guess if you did want to do it you could glue another 5 mm plank just below it, that would give you the same thickness but the spacing might not be right. It does cause some potential difficulties with the false quarter galleys (little metal window things at the back) so just be aware of that if you are going to do it. I ended up making the quarter galleys out of wood with some extra material so I could get them to be the right shape.

[Robp1025]

12 minutes ago, LucienL said:

Ah man, I guess if you did want to do it you could glue another 5 mm plank just below it, that would give you the same thickness but the spacing might not be right. It does cause some potential difficulties with the false quarter galleys (little metal window things at the back) so just be aware of that if you are going to do it. I ended up making the quarter galleys out of wood with some extra material so I could get them to be the right shape.

I'll sit on it I think and see how things go. I appreciate the warning about future issues as well.

[LucienL]

I decided to stain the internal hammock rail decorations with a fairly strong oak stain, which as I’ve mentioned before is just because I like the look, not because it is more accurate. This was also a really fun part of the build. The little bits look really good and are pretty enjoyable if a bit time consuming.

 

I also put the top rail on. The instructions suggest you do this after painting, but as I will not be using the provided wooden hammocks, I didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t do them now. The soft limewood was easy to bend into shape and hold with CA glue but the sapele was much more difficult. It’s a much harder and springier wood.

It looks quite messy here because I used some filling putty to close the gap between the top rail and the strips of the hammock rail. This was maybe unnecessary as the paint would have sealed the gap pretty well anyway.

 

 

Here are the diamonds, which took some time to line up just right.

 

As a way of committing myself to folding the hammocks from fabric, I used the provided wooden hammocks as a spacer piece to bend the sapele. No going back now, they were completely destroyed when I tried to take them out. I’m going to have to fold 120 tiny fabric hammocks and I still haven’t done it yet so I can’t promise that it turns out all right. I do think I would have been unhappy with the wooden ones though.

 

And here is a very dusty final photo for this stage 

[Pete D]

3 hours ago, LucienL said:

I decided to stain the internal hammock rail decorations with a fairly strong oak stain, which as I’ve mentioned before is just because I like the look, not because it is more accurate. This was also a really fun part of the build. The little bits look really good and are pretty enjoyable if a bit time consuming.

 

I also put the top rail on. The instructions suggest you do this after painting, but as I will not be using the provided wooden hammocks, I didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t do them now. The soft limewood was easy to bend into shape and hold with CA glue but the sapele was much more difficult. It’s a much harder and springier wood.

It looks quite messy here because I used some filling putty to close the gap between the top rail and the strips of the hammock rail. This was maybe unnecessary as the paint would have sealed the gap pretty well anyway.

 

 

Here are the diamonds, which took some time to line up just right.

 

As a way of committing myself to folding the hammocks from fabric, I used the provided wooden hammocks as a spacer piece to bend the sapele. No going back now, they were completely destroyed when I tried to take them out. I’m going to have to fold 120 tiny fabric hammocks and I still haven’t done it yet so I can’t promise that it turns out all right. I do think I would have been unhappy with the wooden ones though.

 

And here is a very dusty final photo for this stage 

Looking great , good work...

[uncarina]

Definitely the road less travelled! I love your progress and commitment to authenticity.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[LucienL]

Thanks Pete and Tom for your comments.

 

I glued on the keel using some slow drying wood glue with a bit of CA glue to hold it in place. This went fine, I used a bit of filling putty in some places to close the gaps between the hull and the keel pieces. This was coppered so it actually doesn’t matter that much, but at the time I still wanted it to look good.

 

Then I made up some steps using some 1 mm material. I had to buy extra wood strips for the extra small boats that I will be building so I used that, but I think there would be enough 1 mm material provided in the kit to make up some steps, they’re not included in the instructions but are in most replicas/sketches/plans whatever. The plans would suggest that they had three layers, I tried this with some thinner material, but it just looked too crowded and messy. 2 layers of the 1 mm stuff looks good, I think. I can’t get the spacing quite right as the rubbing strakes are probably too thick, but I’ve seen that on some other ships, spacing of the steps has been adjusted in a similar way to accommodate rubbing strakes, so there is some precedent even if they would have been evenly spaced on the beagle.

I think the steps come out 3 mm on the hull and the one on the wale comes out 2 mm from memory.

 

And then after some cleaning and dusting, I could varnish the boat. The matte varnish really brings it to life, I was really happy with it at this stage and took a lot of photos.

 

And here's one of the boat outside

[LucienL]

Okay, so, painting, argh, so many things I would do differently. First of all, the water line was a real challenge for me. I eventually got it, but the pencil really struggled to mark the varnished hull. 

 

I used a white undercoat as a primer. It was very runny and I should have used it more lightly, but oh well. It turned out all right after some scraping with a blade.

 

Okay and then the actual paint. So, I didn’t realise that the paint I was using was actually glossy, so that was a bit annoying. I decided to varnish it with the matt varnish to protect the paint and also bring back the dullness. This is a bit later, so no photos of that in this post, but it did kind of work. The black turned out well, but the white went a bit yellow. I eventually re-painted the white parts with a flat wall paint sample pot, but that’s also a bit later.

Definitely don't paint white on black like the instructions suggest. You will have to do a lot of white coats to cover the black.

 

Also, getting the lines where white meets black to be clean and tidy was a real struggle. It is very difficult to get tidy lines with masking tape, it’s a good starting point, but is still a little messy. I used a very small brush to very gently paint around the lines and a blade to scrape off spill over while the paint was still wet. This was an ongoing process and I continued to do this through later stages as well. Unfortunately, due to an accident later on, I had to re-do most of my painting, but we’ll get to that.

Edited April 8, 2021 by LucienL

[LucienL]

Then I just did some of the smaller things that help to make the hull look more finished including the gunwales, catheads, pin rack and mast steps.

 

I also wanted to make my own wooden false quarter galleys to replace the metal ones. First, because I didn’t think my painting would be as crisp on the metal ones and second, because it would make it easier to fit in with the thicker wales. I made them out of some 3 by 1 mm strips.

 

The white bits are 2 mm thick (two strips on top of each other) and the black bits are 3 mm thick. The white has been inspired by the replica. The sketch in the anatomy of the ship shows blue windows. I am not sure if this is to suggest they would have been painted blue or that they would have been actual windows. The former seems unlikely as that doesn’t really fit and the latter is definitely not true. These were ‘false’ quarter galleys meaning that they were not actual windows and were purely decorative. Therefore, I think the replica in Chile has got it right and that’s what I went with. (thanks Eric, for the photos)

 

 

 

The bottom wavy bit is just a 1 mm strip cut using the metal quarter galley as a template and stuck on top of the wale

[Cathead]

Nice work! You're welcome.

[LucienL]

The metalwork on the transom was one of the more difficult parts of the build so far. I was a bit messy with the CA glue at first and continued to clean it up for a while. I planked both sides of the transom after bending so that the planking would still be visible on the poop deck.

 

The top rail was a bit of a challenge as it almost needed to bend in two directions

 

 

Here is my first scrappy attempt at the decorations, you can see a lot of the CA glue residue as I kept taking it off and bending it again to get it right. I've realised now that it is good to have some soft-nosed pliers for this work as well as the flat nosed ones for bending and straightening respectively. I think I was hoping that the CA glue would hold the brass in a bend, which was a mistake. I think it would be better to make sure that the brass piece was fully bent to shape before gluing on.

 

I also varnished the paint to make it dull again

 

It might be difficult to see, but the varnish did make the white look a bit dirty and yellow

 

Here are the davits

 

Also, I re-did the doors using the oak stain and also a little bit neater than the old ones

 

And this is the transom after some more tidying up

[LucienL]

The gunports were another fun little job. To ensure that no gaps were left, I lined the gunports with a small overhang as seen in the below photo.

This meant that they would appear to fit snugly even if the port was a little too wide

 

The 2 aft most ports were not functional and were planked over but marked according to anatomy of the ship. These 2 ports are visible below and didn’t have hinges. I saved the hinges from these ports for use in the flag lockers.

Here are all the ports nice and snug, I had to cut the rubbing strakes a little to allow for the larger gunports

 

 

The planked over gunports had their rubbing strakes extended.

 

[LucienL]

Also, a couple of other touching up things; I cleaned up the transom again, I think this is where I left it.

 

 

And of course; the deck. I finally removed those pencil nails. I stripped the deck again and scraped the pencil marks off with a blade. I like it much better this way. I'll have to try simulating nails more accurately in a later build (most likely the Endeavour).