HMS Winchelsea 1764 by glbarlow - 1:48

[glbarlow]

Shingles, Friezes, and Moldings

 

This title sounds like a 80’s rock band or a law firm specializing in medical malpractice. It isn’t, it is about my hull becoming all fancy.

 

It’s been a minute since my last post. My wife and I took an Alaskan cruise, it was a great adventure filled with good weather, good food and drink, and fun adventures - time well spent with my best friend of 46 years. Finally back to Winchelsea I turned my attention to the hull sides and its combination of quarter gallery, friezes, and multiple moulding strips.

One little shingle, two little shingles, three little shingles… The quarter gallery roof is a fun little mini-project. I had earlier shaped and sanded down the roof block to match my galleries. It takes a little work to mirror the two as close as possible with two angles and the curve at play, the etched line on the top helps. Then the shingles; first I sanded them down to near 1/64th while still in the sheet, from there installed the first row using PVA (see I don’t always use CA). There are options in deciding the spacing, I preferred them in tight minimizing the gap. My roofer friends would approve I think.

 

Once dried I sanded them (as Chuck suggests) even more thin with 320 and 400 soft sanding sticks, particularly on the top, before laying the next row. They actually look pretty nice left bright.

I elected to paint them with Admiralty Paints Ironwood Black, as I noted earlier though meant for iron works it’s a nice matte black, and the same paint used on the wales. Though it may be a bit hard to tell in the photograph, the right one is weathered, the left still in the matte black base. I weathered them using Doc O-Brien’s Grungy Gray weathering powder. I really like the 4 brush set (from Micromark) for application, I use them all, the smallest to apply, the round to remove excess, the (actually in back in the photo) the third to feather it and finally the larger brush to buff. I think it makes for a nice look, the shingles now appear to be gray slate (in my humble opinion). I’m going to experiment with some form of fixative, but multiple tests before I try it on the roof. Any suggestions that doesn't make them shiny appreciated.

With that the gallery is complete, except the very detailed railing on top which I’ll save until later when I’m less likely to break it off. Neither the roof or the nice lady on the side are glued in place as yet.

A pause for a maintenance break, replacing the 320 grit sandpaper and cleaning my ever faithful Byrnes Sander. I use Denatured Alcohol to clean the aluminum tables and mitre gauge, also to remove any residual adhesive from the front of the wheel.  I was surprised how well GlideCote (which I learned from Jim Byrnes) works. Making the table more like a sheet of smooth ice, the wood glides easily and consequently is easier to manage. This plays a bigger role on the saw and thickness sander, it’s still handy here as well.

After installing the first more narrow middle moulding I decided I didn’t like the look. So, like I do, I removed it and made a new moulding.

 

The top moulding is laser etched. All the moulding is attached with CA except the volutes.  They are also laser etched, I needed time to get them positioned so used PVA. I also broke two sanding them, @Chuck was kind enough to provide replacements, I then decided they looked really great not sanded…..

 

Then it was on to more life lessons of paper glued on wood. I mentioned in the last post my initial reservations on using printed paper and how wrong I was. It is easy to apply and looks great. I print them with highest quality on my Epson ink jet printer then spray them with Winsor & Newton Fixative. Once dry I outsource them to my much more talented wife to cut out. With the need to always align at least one edge directly up against (and not under) wood moulding, having a clean cut line is imperative, she’s far better at that than me.

 

The frieze was relatively easy to cut out  from the ports with my Swann-Morton #11 scalpel - though I started with a fresh blade. The key is to first let the glue stick adhesive thoroughly dry so its rock hard.

Having intentionally covered the fixed blocks I located them by drilling from inside, slowly, through the holes made back when they were installed. I threaded some nice Syren Rope through both holes from the outside and pulled it back and forth from the inside to restore the grove making it a block once again. A sharpened #2 pencil completes the look.

 

A dilemma. The upper stern hull frieze did not fully cover the area above the roof for my model.

The solution was easy, once I thought of it, print out that same frieze at 150%, cut between the solid blue and the frieze, match the seams when glued on the model. It worked out great.

For me the proper line from the forecastle volute to the stem did not follow the planking as it does from the volute to the stern. I spent time with the plans and came up with a couple of jigs to get the correct spacing for the run of the moulding. (it is not coverging at the stem, just the aspect angle of the photography).

I’ve been clear in my posts that all of my work is perfect, I never do anything wrong, nor ever need to fix anything…NOT! Lesson learned in my new paper world. As shown in the previous moulding its been my practice to have a continuous run of moulding over ports. I’m confident of my skills to then free the ports with my Excel #11 blades. Paper, unlike wood, is very unforgiving, a small mistake results in the paper tearing. It initially was a tiny tear but I couldn’t just leave it. Once the moulding was removed, it didn’t matter, I was removing and replacing the frieze. As Rusty noted in a recent post I could have just showed the finished work and pretend it never happened, I prefer to share what went wrong as well as what goes right.

 

Though it took time there is no harm no foul. As Chuck points out on his model, it is difficult to find any seams once the pattern is matched and new frieze section glued in.

Having tossed my continuous run approach I switched to cutting the lower moulding section by section, matched up the width with the gentle use of my freshly maintained Byrnes Sander, then glued it in place. I cut a spacer clamped up tight to the upper moulding to keep an even line though all the sections.

 

With that a few photos of the finished side. Though a semi-professional photographer I just use my iPhone for all my build photos. An as all seasoned photographers know a badly wrinkled piece of material is a proper backdrop. Not true, I just didn’t feel like ironing it. While the iPhone does nice work, it does tend to squeeze curves and warp aspect a bit. So things are actually straighter, or curvier, than they seem. Also I removed the tape, but not the residue, from the stem.

Now all I have to do is turn the ship around and do it all again on the port side. As always, thank you for your likes and especially your comments. I hope I’ve provided a bit of entertainment for your day.

[scrubbyj427]

Beautiful! I’m glad that you found the batten trick and used it to achieve the proper curvature of the lower moldings between the ports, it makes easy work out of it.. She’s looking great!

[rafine]

Wonderful work, Glenn.I wish my own looked as good.

 

Bob

[jfhealey]

Looking wonderful Glenn. You must be very pleased with her (the Winnie that is; though your wife's cutting out of the friezes looks pretty spot on).

Fred

[glbarlow]

18 hours ago, scrubbyj427 said:

found the batten trick and used it

Great minds think alike. I should have read your earlier log entries and would have gotten there quicker. You figured out before I’d even started my build 😊

 

9 hours ago, rafine said:

I wish my own looked as good.

Yours looks quite good, I enjoy following your progress.

 

2 hours ago, jfhealey said:

You must be very pleased with her

Ha.  I’m quite pleased with both of them.

Edited September 25, 2022 by glbarlow

[Blue Ensign]

I run out of superlatives to describe the quality of your work Glenn, suffice to say I greatly admire what you are achieving.

 

Regards,

 

B.E

[glbarlow]

On 9/25/2022 at 9:34 AM, Blue Ensign said:

superlatives to describe the quality of your work

This same phrase applies to your work as well.  Thank you Be, much appreciated. 

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Very Nice

[Dave_E]

Did the real ship have all this ornate painting and carving? And then go into battle? 😳
Beatifull. 👍

Edited September 29, 2022 by Dave_E

[glbarlow]

45 minutes ago, Vladimir_Wairoa said:

Very Nice

Thank you!

 

27 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

real ship have all this ornate painting and carving

I believe that it did, kept the ship’s carpenter busy I’d imagine. 😏

[dvm27]

3 hours ago, Dave_E said:

Did the real ship have all this ornate painting and carving? And then go into battle? 😳
Beatifull. 👍

We all know about the major sea battles but I believe I read somewhere that most of these vessels spent the majority of their careers without engaging in active battles.

 

Beautiful work Glenn!

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, dvm27 said:

Beautiful work Glenn!

Thank you Greg, I appreciate your comment.

[westwood]

I envy you Glenn, I would also like to have finished friezes
but at the same time, I'm scared of this part.
But you did it great and it looks very good. 👍
You're on chapter four soon.

[glbarlow]

I was a bit skeptical too, but I built a little confidence with the stern counters and once I sorted out a process it all went as advertised. The glue stick real works. You’ll do fine. 
 

Still have the stern above the counter but I should be Into Chapter 4 just before my one year mark building this fun project. 
 

Thanks for the comment!

[DelF]

Like B.E., I ran out of superlatives to describe your Winchelsea some time ago. I'm not sure the bar you're setting could get much higher.

 

Derek

[Edwardkenway]

3 hours ago, DelF said:

Like B.E., I ran out of superlatives to describe your Winchelsea some time ago. I'm not sure the bar you're setting could get much higher.

 

Derek

I thought much the same as Derek and BE!

If the bar goes any higher,  I'll be able to walk under it.

Excellent work as always. I'll enjoy following the subsequent chapters. 

[glbarlow]

3 hours ago, DelF said:

I'm not sure the bar you're setting could get much higher.

 

18 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

If the bar goes any higher,  I'll be able to walk under it.

Thanks guys, very kind of you to say. There are a number of really excellent Winchelsea builders whose path I follow.

[Thistle17]

As they say Glenn copying or following another's work is well deserved flattery. Your work is in my list of one's to follow!

Joe

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Thistle17 said:

Your work is in my list of one's to follow

Thank you, I hope it’s helpful.  

[FrankWouts]

Beautiful work Glenn!

I'm again astonished how you can keep up this pace of working and still deliver such quality work!

You much have six fingers on each hand....

Frank.

[FrankWouts]

On 9/29/2022 at 6:32 PM, dvm27 said:

We all know about the major sea battles but I believe I read somewhere that most of these vessels spent the majority of their careers without engaging in active battles.

 

Beautiful work Glenn!

Mostly blockades or sieges of harbours, effectively enough...though I believe Toulon could be recaptured on the English/Spanish in 1793 by good old emperor Napoleon without firing a single shot at any English ship in harbour....so no harm done then to any mouldings too, which was a good thing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Toulon_(1793)

Edited October 3, 2022 by FrankWouts

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, FrankWouts said:

astonished how you can keep up this pace of working

Thanks Frank, but I feel like I'm crawling along.  I'm in no rush, I just have time available to work on her.

[glbarlow]

Port side

 

Finished the port side friezes and moulding. Excuse the messy work bench (the ugly yellow rag is part of my bow bumper cheap rig for turning the ship to work on the stern).

That led me to decide I didn’t like the starboard side as much so I’m taking it off and doing it again. I think it’s important to do all three sides of a ship model, or so it seems in my case.

 

 

Check out December in the 2023 NRG calendar Thanks NRG, and of course thanks Chuck for such a great model in HM Cheerful!

 

Off I go to make more moulding, hoping one day I get to the stern. Thanks for looking in.

[jfhealey]

Could you post a photo showing what it is about the starboard side that falls below the standard you set yourself. I just want to understand how far behind the ball game I am.

Fred 

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, jfhealey said:

post a photo

It was just the lower moulding, I’m just my own worst critic. It’s been removed so nothing to see that would help😊

Edited October 6, 2022 by glbarlow

[scrubbyj427]

She’s looking stellar Glenn! And congratulations on making the calendar! 

[Rustyj]

Your work continues to be exceptional! I love seeing your updates. Well done on the calendar too! 

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Rustyj said:

love seeing your updates.

Thanks Rusty, as I do yours. I’m ready to move on from these friezes and do something new.  

[glbarlow]

Outer Hull Complete (for now)

 

After installing, ripping off, and replacing the hull moulding and friezes for a while I’ve now completed the Chapter 3 outer hull work.  So Yay!

 

I turned my attention to completing the quarter galleries with the addition of the nice rail on the top. I say nice because it looks good finished. Nice wasn’t necessarily a word I was using as I cleaned, lined up, and installed the little tiny pieces that make it up. 

So here’s a few fun facts, the rail consists of 9 parts, it is part of the roof which including everything to sand and glue together consists of 43 separate parts. One quarter gallery, including the roof and rail, is a total of 91 separate parts, large and small, sanded, scraped, glued, fitted, and installed to make it up.  So 182 separate pieces in the two photos above.

 

 

 

In my humble opinion the assembly of all those pieces of wood and paper make for an outstanding signature component of Winchelsea. While there are a lot of parts, every aspect of the design not only amazing it is logical, Chuck’s instructions make total sense and are easy to follow.  It isn’t all done at once, I started the first step in July, it follows the course of the build. While I’m quite happy with my quarter galleries, I know the reason they look good (at least to me) is in very large part due to @Chuck design and the laser cut components he provides with Chapter 3.

 

Finally..., on to the stern. Thank you for your likes and comments - they are always inspiration.

 

 

[Rustyj]

Beautiful work Glenn. So much more fun than planking that huge hull.