HM Bark Endeavour 1758-61 by DaveBaxt - Caldercraft - 1:64

[AJohnson]

1 hour ago, DaveBaxt said:

No pressure then . One issue I had with widening the mizzen channel is that the chain plates supplied were now no longer long enough  but fortunately I had some extra ones from a spare etched brass sheet I have.

                                  You might have to return the favour when I start on the Vanguard models which might be next up. Best of luck Andrew with your current build I am sure you could give me a good few tips. Best regards Dave

Well my first encounters with Vanguard are good, but still not fool (me) proof, I have broken two bits already, but they are conveniently hidden and glued under the false deck….. 🤐

[DaveBaxt]

I wish I had a pound for every.................

[DaveBaxt]

Update . Continued with deck fittings including the 2mm blocks for the steering gear  and used 0.25 mm for the tiller rope and 0.5 mm for the pendents ( sizes taken from Lees book) Once again I found the 2 mm blocks difficult to work with but I persevred and finally managed it. Also I used 0.1mm thread for the doors for the transom windows and wondering if this should be larger but used the same size for the handrail for the walkway over the tiller arm. I have also secured the binicle in place again using the 0.1 mm thread.

                I have made a start on the anchors but found the stocks supplied with the kit unsatisfactory as they are the wrong shape so made some up using my miller the same size 2 pieces 3 x 6mm   x 60 mm for each anchor. I then machined the slots and then glued the two parts together with the stock in the centre. I also made the rings out of 1 mm brass wire as suggested on the drawing.

                           I am almost ready to star the gun tackle but as yet I have not decided how much I need to show and will try to use 2 mm blocks again and try not to have any coils of rope lying on the deck. I think the next part is going to be quite awkward.

After placing the bowsprit into position I ave noticed that it does not lie in the correct position as the brackets for the boomkins are getting in the way so will need to move these so that the bowsprit sits between them hopefully the the bowspit will sit on top cutwater/stem and lie at the correct angle. 

Edited December 24, 2021 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Completed the 4 x Anchors and run the chord through the iinboard hawse to the foorward anchors which ends up in holes drilled into the deck which I assume is into the hold.The chord  is  supplied with the kit which was a bit light for my liking  so stained it with tea for half an our to tone it down a bit. The positions of the anchors will need to be changed once I have fitted the shrouds and I am not sure what to do with the aft anchors and wether or not to attach the ropes to these as I am not sure where they are supposed to go. Ie do these also take a turn around the capstan.

 

Moving on now to the 4 lb cannon . I have now managed to complete the Breeching lines which you can see are not yet attached to the ship until I figure out the best way to fit  the gun tackle. It is my intention to use 2 mm blocks ( the smallest I can find) but I do not have any double blocks at this size only 3 mm. So I will try and use just single blocks only. I am also not sure what to do wiith the tackle falls but thnk wrapping the ends around the tackle seems to be what a few people have done and looks quite tidy so I might try this. 

          I found when fitting the Breeching it was easier to wrap the rope around the cascabel first and securing it underneath before seizing the ends to the eye bolts. Hope this makes sense. 

Edited December 31, 2021 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Made 12 hooks out of copper eye pins and drilled end of the 2 mm blocks for gun tackle. I didn,t fancy laying coils of rope on the deck as can,t see how this would be done in practice although not sure what the standard of safety practices were in those days. I found this part of the build the most difficult so far. I probably went through about 50 x 2 mm blocks and the same amount of eye pins during the process.

                 I made a big error when making up the guns and kept them all the same angle so when they were pulled up through the bulwarks/ports they were all at different heights compared to the cap rails due to the sloping deck.Hopefully I can change the elevation of the gun barrels by adjusting the wedges. Unfortunately I glued these into position so might not be able to do that.

                            Also I think I would probably fit the guns before fitting anything else on the deck to allow for more room when working with the cannons. If my next model also has more than 6 cannon I think I will probably just fit the breaching rope. Anyway here is my progress so far. Just need to give the ropes a coating of diluted PVA glue.Not the best of workmanship but I found this part more than a little stressful and time consuming.

Edited January 5, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Moving onto the ships boats and first up is the Pinnace. This is my first attempt at building a ships boat from the ground up. My first boat build was the one for the Bounty which was cast in metal and did not look too bad when painted. According to what little research I have done the Endeavours boats consisted of A long boat, a Pinnace and two skiffs. According to Endeavour she has One Long boat, One Pinnace , one Yawl and a skiff.

                   Here is my attempt at putting together the keel and the flat bottom of the boat after trying to fit each bulkhead to the keel and breaking each bulkhead at the recess at the keel I decided to attempted a different approach fitting the flat base before fitting the keel was met with some success. However in view that the size of the boat the difficult I would have and the vague nstructions moving forward I have decided to see what boats Vanguard models have to offer and  hopefully they have 4 boats of similar size I can use. I understand that the long boat is sometimes refered to as Cutter. Here are the actual sizes of the model boats measuring the length of the keels

Size of model sizes                                                 Size @ 1: 64                                     Size in imperial                            Possible boat to consider                        

Long boat (Cutther) 95 mm x 32 mm                 6080 mm x 2048 mm                                  19' 11" x 6' 8 "                                        20' Cutter

  Pinnace                    96mm x 27 mm                  6144 x 1728                                                  20' 5'  x 5' 8 "                                          ?

Skiff                             104 x 22                                6656 x 1408                                                   21' 10"                                                   ?

Yawl                                69 x 27                                1656 x 1728                                                   5' 5" x 4' 5"                                            ?

There are quite a few boats that Vanguard models supply but a lot of them seem to be a bit larger than the boats supplied by Caldercraft for the Endeavour kit but hopefully Chris will be able to help me out with something similar. 

[DaveBaxt]

Fortunately I am in luck as Chris has kindly sorted me out with something which is very similar to the sizes and similar to the types of boats supplied by Calsercraft. but there ends the similarity Mainly the Long boat, Pinnace, Yawl and skiff. In the mean time I can move onto the masts and I still need to make up the Lantern down aft. So still have lots to be getting on with. I may have a try at planking one of the Caldercraft boats as I need some practice at seeing what its like planking such small items. So might have a go at this before attempting the real thing.

[DaveBaxt]

Not been on for a while but haven't been idle. Tried my hand at making the long boat and still working on the pinnace. Not too bad for very first attempt at building such a thing but still want to use Chris Wattons boats when they arrive

I have also been looking ahead to constructing the masts and have decided to use square stock instead of dowel and also use castello boxwood which is readily available here in the uk. I have also made a station for turning the square stock into an octagon section and bought myself a decent miniture Veritas  plane to carry out the finer work on the yards etc. This is the first time I will have tried this, so hopefully it turns out ok. Here is a photo of my station. It will also double up as a honing station , once my guides turn up for my planes.

The 90 deg grooves on the blocks were produced using my Proxxon FET table saw and the long small 90 degree V was produced using the Proxxon 90 deg  router head.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Masts

             Made a good start on the Masts using Lees book 'The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War' for all the sizes . I did however compaired the design  with the AOTS drawings which were slightly different but used this design instead. I made all the masts from boxwood planks and cut off square section and using the 7:10:7 formular to then trim the square section into an octogon and then rounded off using a miniture block plane and sanding on a small Proxxon lathe. The flats for the cheeks on the lower masts were acheived by using a Proxxon Milling machine as were then octogon sections for the mast blocks and square section for the mast head. The tapers on the mast heads were achieved by stepping using the milling machine and then filing to gave a taper. Although the above work took me longer than it probably would of  using hand tools than using machines instead . I personally though it made a better job than what I could have done by hand. Here is a few photos of the progress.

 

This is the first time I have made the masts from square stock but after a bit of practice, I found it quite relaxing and enjoyed using the various machines.

I have made a start on the spare masts but still got a few more to make

As you can see from the above photos I used the kits Trestle trees and cross trees and I intend to use the kits floors and some other parts made out of walnut as these areas will be painted black and are  quite good. 

I have still got a lot more work to do such a fitting the cheeks, woldings and iron straps to the lower masts. I also have to make the holes for the sheaves and fid holes in the topsail masts  which might be tricky  trying to make them look realistic. Anywway here is the work so far.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[SIDEWAYS SAM]

Good work on the masts.

Still no nearer starting my version

but after seeing yours I will get around to it.

 

Enjoy the rest of the build.

 

Best regard,

Sam.

 

 

[DaveBaxt]

22 minutes ago, SIDEWAYS SAM said:

Good work on the masts.

Still no nearer starting my version

but after seeing yours I will get around to it.

 

Enjoy the rest of the build.

 

Best regard,

Sam.

 

 

Thanks for youtr input Sam. Its always good to see another Endeavour Build. So I will keep an eye open for your blog

[Gregory]

Nice work Dave.. 

 

What is the official name of that chuck fixed to the Proxxon mill?  It looks really useful..

[DaveBaxt]

21 minutes ago, Gregory said:

Nice work Dave.. 

 

What is the official name of that chuck fixed to the Proxxon mill?  It looks really useful..

Thank you Gregory. Dividing head, also made by Proxxon and is listed as an accessory . 

[shipaholic]

Hi Dave

Nice work shaping the masts. But before you go any further check your scale, those masts look too tall in that last picture.

Cheers

Steve

[DaveBaxt]

25 minutes ago, shipaholic said:

Hi Dave

Nice work shaping the masts. But before you go any further check your scale, those masts look too tall in that last picture.

Cheers

Steve

Hello Steve and thanks for your input. I have yet to make some adjustments to the final height of the lower masts. I worked all the lengths useing Lees book from the main mast and that from the breast of the ship and then worked out all the other masts as per lees book..There could also be an issue with the height in which the lower masts sit on the false keel rahter than in reality just above the true keel.I thought I had subtracted the difference from this but will check again.The fore masts need to come up slightly iso the cap is 2/3rd up the main mast head. The miizzen lower cap is in line with the floor of the main mast . I checked to see if the mizzen shrouds clear the rails bulwarks and they do.Hope this makes sense. Best regards Dave

                                 

 

 

[allanyed]

It is sooooo nice to see your masts made from square stock rather than dowels.  This of course means any wood can be used instead of be relegated to the wood from which store bought dowels are made.   You have shown that a lathe is unnecessary to make nicely rounded and tapered masts.   Having the mill set up is a big plus, but for most of the folks here, the squaring can be done with chisels, blades, files and patience.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Allan

[DaveBaxt]

54 minutes ago, allanyed said:

It is sooooo nice to see your masts made from square stock rather than dowels.  This of course means any wood can be used instead of be relegated to the wood from which store bought dowels are made.   You have shown that a lathe is unnecessary to make nicely rounded and tapered masts.   Having the mill set up is a big plus, but for most of the folks here, the squaring can be done with chisels, blades, files and patience.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Allan

Thank you Allan your input is always welcome and truely appreciated. I think my next set of tools will be a decent set of chisels and using this for tapering the square mast heads  is something else I would like to try. I still need lots more practice with the hand tools but in the mean time using a milling machine is much more accurate at least it is for me personally but definately would like try other methods. Best regards Dave

[DaveBaxt]

2 hours ago, DaveBaxt said:

Hello Steve and thanks for your input. I have yet to make some adjustments to the final height of the lower masts. I worked all the lengths useing Lees book from the main mast and that from the breast of the ship and then worked out all the other masts as per lees book..There could also be an issue with the height in which the lower masts sit on the false keel rahter than in reality just above the true keel.I thought I had subtracted the difference from this but will check again.The fore masts need to come up slightly iso the cap is 2/3rd up the main mast head. The miizzen lower cap is in line with the floor of the main mast . I checked to see if the mizzen shrouds clear the rails bulwarks and they do.Hope this makes sense. Best regards Dave

                                 

 

 

p.S Well spotted Steve. I have just checked the sizes of all the masts and guess what. I forgot to allow for the difference in depth of the mastsin the model compaired to that of the Lees calculations! Ggggrrr! It would apear that Caldercraft model is not too far out, at least for the lower main mast anyway.

So will need to either make a new one or adapt the one I have already made. Due to the taper and the machines flats for the cheeks being now too long as well. I will probably have to make a new one. I will also need to adjust the heights of both the fore and mizzen lower masts to suit the main lower mast. Thank you once again Steve for helping me before I progressed too far and now there is not too much work to do again even though I probably need the practice.

[AJohnson]

Really enjoying seeing you make you own masts Dave, your ‘have a go’ attitude shows the way and I think I will try to follow in your footsteps on my next build, I have not been happy with the dowels on my Bounty, so my next build will be more of a kit bash (an old HMS Snake I have in stock) so don’t want to go down that route of using the provided dowels again. 
where did you get your nice planes from?

[DaveBaxt]

2 hours ago, AJohnson said:

Really enjoying seeing you make you own masts Dave, your ‘have a go’ attitude shows the way and I think I will try to follow in your footsteps on my next build, I have not been happy with the dowels on my Bounty, so my next build will be more of a kit bash (an old HMS Snake I have in stock) so don’t want to go down that route of using the provided dowels again. 
where did you get your nice planes from?

Thank you for your kind words and good to hear you are having a go too. Doing it from square stock gives you a different choice of wood instead of the soft very grainy wood supplied in the kits, not discounting that they are all warped, or at least the ones I received were. I  have cheated a bit using a lathe but as Allan said with a bit of practice you can achieve pretty good masts without one  and I am hoping to move away from the machines as much as my skills will allow. It is quite enjoyable using the miniture had tools . 

                   I look forward to you starting the HMS Snake, another ship that I too am interested in doing. At ther moment I am still leaning towards the Diana, also by Caldercraft and will end up bashing quite a lot.( as I have the AOTS Diana book) . 

Edited March 10, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

After adjusting the main mast to that of the which I think would be the correct position above the real keel some 30mm lower than before and also corrisponds with similar t the Caldercraft length. Here the resemblence stops as all other masts are in line with Lees book. However the lower masts also resemble  RC Anderson book 'The rigging of ships in the days of the sprit sail' whereby the cap of the fore mast is in line of the main mast 3/4 of the head. Also the mizzen cap is in line with the top of the main mast. This allows clearance of mizzen shrouds of the bulwark rail.

 

 

 

Now moving onto the Spritsail and again following lees book for length and shape ets. What I cannot make my mind up is regarding how many woldings . Lees book suggests between 3 and 6 and I have decided on perhaps 4 . Also Iron hoops are for a later date and replacing the woldings . However the AOTS and other references show Iron hoops but no woldings. So I cannot make my mind up. Any suggestions in this area would be welcome. 

 

 

 

Further check in Lees book page 183 for all other ships after 1745 gives the bowsprit mast as 0.63x the main mast which worke out at just over 202mm. This seems way longer than the Caldercraft dimentions. However I also checked with Monfeld's book which is even longer and worked from the breadth of the ship. I have therefore decided to continue using Lees book for reference as much as possible.

Edited March 13, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Completed the spare masts including the spare stunsaol booms. I stiil need to attatch the lower stunsail booms to the channels but all in good time. I have also done some work on the bowsprit and Jibboom  but still need to add the cleats and fairlead saddle.  Also fro Lees book there are no iron bands only rope woldings with wooden rings on each side as per the other masts other than the iron bands on the caps. For the bowsprit  bees I made my own as per lees book and also fitted some bees blocks. which helped to secure the bees. I also made the bowsprit cap too. Here is a few photos of this weeks work. Doesn't seem a lot but there you go.

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

A few more bits a pieces added to the bowsprit including the cleats for the gammoning, fairlead, wooden bands and woldongs. All fairly straight forward  other than a bit tricky getting the wooden bands to stay in place . I ended up using two spots of CA whhere the two ends meet and then running a bead of superphatic glue on the inside of the bands before running 0.5mm black thread for the woldings. Just a few more cleats for the Stays and preventer stays and then the collars to complete.

 

Next will I will be moving onto carrying out ptetty much the above to the main,fore and mizzen masts. Starting with the fitting of the cheeks to the main and fore masts. 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[AJohnson]

Very nice Dave, how did you make those wooden bands that border the woldings?

[DaveBaxt]

7 hours ago, AJohnson said:

Very nice Dave, how did you make those wooden bands that border the woldings?

Thank you. I got the idea off Shipaholic, using veneers .( Thanks again Steve if you are watching) I got some samples of different colours and then soaked one of them, a 300mm , 20mm wide length overnight to remove the adesive strip.(unsure if this would do the trick) I then I cut several 2mm wide strips and wrapped them around the mast to form like a spring and then allowed to dry overnight. I then removerd and cut through using vey sharp sissors. I will see if I can hunt out a photo for you .I think I have one somewhere. Here it is some of them came out ok. I have sinse bought a 5 mtr roll . One which I think is the nearest match to boxwood.

Edited March 22, 2022 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

On another tack from the  Endeavour I have made a dicision regards my next build,also from Caldercraft. THe HMS Diana and going by the sizes of the box compaired to the Endeavour. What a Beast she is!

 

[Gregory]

That really shows off the planking on your Endeavor.

[DaveBaxt]

2 hours ago, Gregory said:

That really shows off the planking on your Endeavor.

Cheers Gregory. For some reason that is about the only thing I find relatively straight forward but I think the Diana could be another learning curve. I have always done the planking the full length of the ship in one length but even though the planks look to be the full length I am not sure if that would be wise to try it. So again something new for me.

[Gregory]

Just take a good look at some of the Winchelsea logs for some planking tips on a hull of this type.. 

Adding butt joints to your Diana planking would be a nice touch..

Edited March 24, 2022 by Gregory

[DaveBaxt]

A slow process but more work done on the lower masts including woldings and wooden bands on each side. Accorrding to Lees masting and rigging the mizzen mast also has woldings and two less than the fore mast. Fitted cleats to the mast supplied by kit bit I kind I kind of wished I had  fitted wood ones wich may have been stronger as the cast ones supplied by the kit look as if they could easily be knocked off. I was still not happy with the final hieght of the cross/tressle trees so made a final adjustment when fitting the hounds and bibs making sure that each one was inline with the keel when the masts are stepped to fore main and mizzen at 90, 87 and 83 deg respectively and ensuring that both fore and mizzen masts are the correct height in relation to the main mast.

 

There is still more work to do on the mast heads such as iron hoops and wood verical battens to fit., however before that I need to fit a number of blocks on the underside of the cross trees and quite a bit of work to do on the mast tops. I intend to use the ones supplied by the kit which apear to be close to the correct size  but are in pretty good shape.

                       There is further work to do on the caps to ensure these are also parallel to the mast tops but will leave this until the tops are in position.  when seizing the blocks to the eyelets(on the uderside of the cross trees) I am using watered down PVA glue instead of of CA glue to see what the results are .

Edited March 29, 2022 by DaveBaxt