Mary Rose by Mr Pleasant - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:80

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

After some gentle persuasion on another thread, here's my build log for the Mary Rose. 

From what I can see this is the first build log for this kit which is fortunate for me as you've got nothing to compare me against.🙂  This will be a build as it comes out of the box and will hopefully somewhat follow the plans but some allowances will have to be made for my lack of ability.  As long as it looks sort of like the photo on the box at the end and I've had a lot of fun along the way then I'll be happy.

 

The kit itself is pretty good and is standard Caldercraft fair in that the wood varies from pretty good for the most part but poor in some instances especially the Tanganijka provided for the deck planking.  Instructions are brief but the plans are excellent

 

I started this back in December 2020 and have been working through the planking so not a great deal to see so far.  Not sure how some members seem to get through the planking really quickly as it seems to take me forever.

I'm not a master shipwright like a lot of members so my log will be pretty much limited to progress rather than a master class in how to's and techniques, however I will point out any issues that I come across so that any other builders of this model will be forewarned.

 

Oh yeah, I'm not a master photographer either.....now that expectations are set, feel free to follow along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Louie da fly]

You've made a very good start on this, mate. Looking good.

[HardeeHarHar]

Nice work!

[Jim Lad]

Looking very nice.

 

John

[Ian Barefoot]

Well done - a very nice start! I'll follow your build with interest - particulqarly as this will probably be my next build after 'Sherbourne.

 

Don't let 'nit pickers' put you off with regard to detail - after all, nobody axctually knows what tke lady actually looked like in real life...  The recovered archaeology only realy covers the starboard side up to a certain level on the poop, and forward to a remarkably vertical straight finish - where she was cut loose from the remains the bow by a hydraulic chain saw...  Anything foreward of that (apart from the keel & forefoot which were recovered in diving operations in 2005) is pure conjecture based maily on the 'Anthony Roll' entry. and there's some discussion about whether that actually depicts the 'Mary Rose'!

 

If you need any detailsof the internals, let me know cos I'm hoping to be taken on as a museum guidein the near future..

[Louie da fly]

Is this your first model? The way you introduced the thread makes it sound like it is. In which case I'm even more impressed - that's some pretty nice planking there.

 

By the way, would you be a Kinks fan by any chance?

 

Steven 

[Mr Pleasant]

9 hours ago, Ian Barefoot said:

Well done - a very nice start! I'll follow your build with interest - particulqarly as this will probably be my next build after 'Sherbourne.

 

Don't let 'nit pickers' put you off with regard to detail - after all, nobody axctually knows what tke lady actually looked like in real life...  The recovered archaeology only realy covers the starboard side up to a certain level on the poop, and forward to a remarkably vertical straight finish - where she was cut loose from the remains the bow by a hydraulic chain saw...  Anything foreward of that (apart from the keel & forefoot which were recovered in diving operations in 2005) is pure conjecture based maily on the 'Anthony Roll' entry. and there's some discussion about whether that actually depicts the 'Mary Rose'!

 

If you need any detailsof the internals, let me know cos I'm hoping to be taken on as a museum guidein the near future..

Thanks for the encouragement and offer of the photos...feel free to post any that you think are useful.  I have the AoTS by Douglas McElvogue that is proving slightly useful and provides a good supplement to the Caldercraft palns

[Mr Pleasant]

9 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Is this your first model? The way you introduced the thread makes it sound like it is. In which case I'm even more impressed - that's some pretty nice planking there.

 

By the way, would you be a Kinks fan by any chance?

 

Steven 

Hi Steven

Thanks for the like, this is my 3rd model, first being Virginia 1819 by AL and then  Endeavour by Caldercraft.  

 

Yeah, massive Kinks fan...Ray Davies, pure genius

 

Mark

[Louie da fly]

4 hours ago, Mr Pleasant said:

Yeah, massive Kinks fan

 

Me too.

 

Steven

[allanyed]

For only your third ship, heck, even if this was  your 10th, the hull planking looks quite nice!   MAYBE the planking and wales should not rise at the bow as much as in the photo ala Viking ship style.  I am not sure on this as I am not very familiar with planking techniques prior to the mid 17th century.   If the wales are glued on top of the planking rather than being an actual strake of planking, this would not be terribly difficult to adjust if you wish.   You can see the run of the wales on the model of Mary Rose at RMG.  There are photos in several views.  https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/68966.html  As this is a modern model, the interpretation may well be inaccurate to some degree, but hopefully, RMG gave some guidance to assure as much accuracy as possible based on the  available information at the time.  

 

Not everyone thinks being as accurate as possible/practical is nit picking,  so in the end, it should be what makes you happy and that the hobby is a joy, not a chore.  

 

Hope to see more pics as you make progress, thanks for sharing with us.

 

Allan

Edited August 21, 2021 by allanyed

[Louie da fly]

On 8/21/2021 at 1:04 AM, allanyed said:

MAYBE the planking and wales should not rise at the bow as much as in the photo ala Viking ship style.  I am not sure on this as I am not very familiar with planking techniques prior to the mid 17th century.  

 

Honestly, I don't think this would be necessary. Though we have to make allowances for artistic licence, contemporary illustrations do seem to show the planking rising at the bow.

 

 

 

The reconstruction drawing of the Mary Rose shows a less extreme rise, but it has to be kept in mind that this part of the hull was never recovered, so the reconstruction may be based on later practice. And of course this also applies to the RMG model.

 

 

Steven

 

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Louie da fly

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the continued commentary and to Allan for the links to the the pictures from the rmg collection, certainly gives me something to aspire to.

 A quick update on where I'm at.....

I lowered the wales a tad as on reflection they may have been a bit sharp at the bow compared to the plans.  Fortunately these are glued to the outer planking so I was able to unglue them so far back and drop them down slightly.

 

Cannon ports have been framed and the lower part of the hull has been given a couple of coats of amber shellac

 

Channels are fitted, pinned and glued but they're a couple of mm high at the start and this is going to cause some slight issues with the channel brackets but more on this when I get to install them.

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

[Louie da fly]

Coming along nicely, Mark. Looks good.

 

Steven

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Small update showing latest progress.  Continued to work on the hull and had a few small issues to contend with.  The 2mm walnut sheet that contained the channel brackets isn't of good quality and is quite orange in nature and almost the texture of cork.  You can see the difference in colour against the channel in the photo below

 

 

I tried staining but wasn't happy with outcome so ended up milling some of the spare walnut planks down to 0.2mm to make a veneer to cover the brackets.  This has led to the brackets being a little thicker but I think I can live with this more than I could live with the original wood supplied

 

As mentioned in my previous post, I've measured something wrong somewhere and the channels are positioned a little high .  The channel brackets should fit under the blue line below

 

 

The channels were already pinned and epoxied in place so I considered removing some  material off the top of the bracket but this would leave no recess for the belaying rail and taking material off the bottom would result in the belaying rail when fitted almost touching the channel so I elected just to live with the error.  

 

Some additional photos showing overall progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

[Louie da fly]

Nice work, Mark. You're probably the only person who's aware of the problem with the location of the channels (well, yes, obviously, us now that you've told us).

 

The planking's looking very good - both the carvel and the clinker. Nice and crisp. 

 

This is going to be a very attractive model.

 

By the way, are you planning to make your forecastle the shape Caldercraft model shows? There's a lot of information to suggest the forecastle would have been different - as shown in the pics I put up in my post of August 23. I suggested this, with my reasoning at    https://modelshipworld.com/topic/4031-mary-rose-forecastle-more-info-on-its-shape/?tab=comments#comment-114264

 

Beautiful work.

 

Steven

 

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi Steven

Thanks for the comments.  I hadn't thought about deviating from the plans but your link to your previous post has given me something to consider

 

Thanks

Mark

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Didn't realise it has been so long since I last posted....

Still working on completing the fitting out and the decks are nearly complete, not a lot more to say really at this stage just steady away.  Out of the box, I've not come across any major issues and any small issues have been of my making...anyone planning on building this model make sure you get the first layer of planking tight against the top of bulkheads in the bow area, I didn't and its causing a few issues getting the bulwarks to fit properly and I've some work to do to the forecastle bulkhead as a result.

I've left some decking incomplete at this stage as I want to try and get a continual run of the planks along the waist gangway but we'll see how that works out

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

MP

[Louie da fly]

Very clean work, Mr Pleasant. Looking very good. This is going to be a very attractive model.

 

Steven

Edited February 17, 2022 by Louie da fly

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Small update on progress over the last few months or so.  Forecastle is now complete and just a few points for those who may be planning on building this model.

The fore beak platform provided didn't really fit and so I had to fashion another out of scrap.  The photos below show the kit supplied  and my modified version

 

 

Next was an issue of my own making, when planking the main deck, I planked to the oval provided in the false deck for the bowsprit.  This is far too large and I only realised once the forecastle was pretty much complete and I was checking the fit of the bowsprit.

The following shows the repairs in a tight space (before and after)....not perfect....but lesson learned for future!!!

 

 

 

Cannons are now rigged on the main deck all rope was made on a home made vertical rope walk.  Gutermann Scala 200 and 240 thread colour 464 was used

 

 

 

Again for those considering the model the centre hatch coverings in the below need to be made narrower than the kit supplied otherwise the support columns for the waist gangway wont fit....don't ask me how I know

 

Some general photos of progress.....looks like one of the cannons has lifted from the deck, time to get the glue out 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

Edited April 19, 2022 by Mr Pleasant

[Baker]

Very nice work 👍

[Louie da fly]

Nice clean work, mate, and some nice solutions to potential problems. She's looking good.

 

Steven 

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the likes and comments.....really appreciated!!!

Just a quick update, deck works are now complete and the gangway installed.

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop, masts and yards

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

Mark

Edited May 2, 2022 by Mr Pleasant

[Louie da fly]

Ah, coming along nicely. 

 

Steven

[MateuszPL]

It looks great. Good luck with your further work.

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Must be time for another update.....

Had a small issue with the shrouds fouling on the sides as shown below

 

Not sure how this happened as I haven't deviated from the plans and having checked the photo (below) that came on the instruction manual it's not clear if there is an issue with the model itself or not and particularly the shrouds further away from the Main mast and around the Mizzen mast.

 

 

Regardless, I needed to fix it, the channels are epoxied and pinned so I couldn't remove them, the mast was also epoxied and not moving, the height increase in the mast to clear the sides would have been significant in any case.  Only real option I had was to add material to widen the channels, luckily there was sufficient spare wood from where the channels had been cut from.

 

Next was on to fixing the shroud dead eyes and this was accomplished using a jig with a horizontal line drawn on to fix a constant level...I know some people prefer spacers but I find this works for me.  

 

 

 

The dead eyes for the channels are only held by rope and these had to be stitched prior to seizing as no amount of glue, shellac, varnish would take the strain once the shrouds were pulled tight....following photos show where I'm up to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

[Louie da fly]

Well, I can't understand how the shrouds can have turned out to foul the hull. With pre-cut bulkheads it can't be that you've got the tumblehome wrong. But I'm glad you've found a good solution (in fact that's probably what I would have done in your place).

 

Regarding the lower deadeyes, McElvogue's Book "Tudor Ship Mary Rose" (available as an e-book, by the way - see https://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Warship-Mary-Rose-Anatomy-ebook/dp/B014WSVJKK ) - shows them held by a metal strop,

but I don't know whether he has archaeological evidence to back that up or whether it's speculation on his part. Note also that the Mary Rose deadeyes have LOTS of holes for the lanyards - it must have been a quite complex set of tackle. But as you're following the kit instructions, not kit-bashing, that's rather irrelevant. But your shrouds and deadeyes look very good.

 

Steven

Edited August 25, 2022 by Louie da fly

[Mr Pleasant]

Thanks Steven

I have the AoTS book and did consider the chainwork option but the chain supplied in the kit is so soft that I think I would have struggled soldering the ring from the dead eye to it and I didn't fancy making up my own chain so I elected to go with the plans as below where "B" is thread

 

 

Also, it's not the first time I've had issues with Caldercraft models and the shrouds.  I got caught out on the Endeavour and this was a problem with the kit and is discussed by others in a thread in the "masts and rigging section".  I think it's something similar in that the main mast should be slightly longer than what is given in the plans and the channels should be slightly wider.  But all good, hopefully others who are planning on building this ship can learn from my mistakes.

 

Mark

[Mr Pleasant]

Wow, where did that time go!!!!!  9 month since my last post.  

Standing rigging and ratlines are now pretty much complete, I've done the stays with "mice" although the instructions didn't call for them and the plans were a little unclear in this regard and the AoTS that I have doesn't have a lot of detail regarding the rigging.

 

There's quite a lot of resource on this site on the making of a mouse and after quite a lot of trial and error I've managed to get something that I'm fairly happy with

 

 The setup that I got best results with was to use a serving machine.  This allowed me to keep the weaving threads tight but also made the weaving a lot easier than other methods I tried as I could keep turning the weaving threads towards me once I had gone over and under a pair.    Thread used was Mara 30 and is probably a little on the large size but was all I had in large quantity as there is a lot of waste,  11 weaving threads were used.  The circle used to keep the threads separated  is simply a piece of card with the 11 holes punched thorough, I numbered the holes as I found this helped me keep track of the weaving thread as I went under and over the threads.  The mouse former was turned on a lathe and is roughly 3mm in length

 

 

 

Once this was set up it was "simply" a matter of threading the weaving thread under and over a pair and turning the gears of the serving machine towards me to weave under and over the next pair and so on.  Once the former was covered then I served a length of the stay and formed the eye to stop against the mouse.

 

Following photos give an idea where I'm at

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in and hopefully my next post won't be too far away

 

Mark

 

[allanyed]

Lovely build Mark!

One thing that is a new for me, what was the purpose of the two cannon on the QD pointing at the FC?  I am not questioning that they existed and they are shown on the modern day model at RMG, (link below) but what was their purpose? To blast grape shot at boarders? 

Thanks

Allan

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-68966

[Baker]

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

Lovely build Mark!

One thing that is a new for me, what was the purpose of the two cannon on the QD pointing at the FC?  I am not questioning that they existed and they are shown on the modern day model at RMG, (link below) but what was their purpose? To blast grape shot at boarders? 

Thanks

Allan

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-68966

These are a kind of "bow chasers".

positioned in the strerncastle