HMS Winchelsea 1764 by glbarlow - 1:48

[Trussben]

Superb details - now you go back to planking for a while.

[jfhealey]

As far as I can see this is faultless. Keep going at this standard and you will have a superb Winchelsea.

Best wishes

Fred

[glbarlow]

44 minutes ago, Trussben said:

back to planking for a while

Thank you. True, but the deck is a little more fun and not so long a haul - I hope 🙂

 

[glbarlow]

35 minutes ago, jfhealey said:

As far as I can see this is faultless

Thank you. It isn't, but I'm happy with it.  The design is such a work of art.

[BobG]

Your work is nothing short of perfection, Glenn. Well done!

[glbarlow]

On 11/12/2022 at 4:49 PM, BobG said:

Your work is nothing short of perfection,

Well, it’s a little short of perfection, but Thank You for saying so.  I do try. 

[glbarlow]

My deck is faired and ready for the false deck to be added

Not before I drop this scroll, with a message I wrote to the future, into the hold below hopefully never to be seen again. 

[Rustyj]

2 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

Not before I drop this scroll, with a message I wrote to the future, into the hold below hopefully never to be seen again. 

At least you are dropping something into the hull never to been seen again intentionally unlike some of us! 

 

Looking forward to seeing the deck work commence.

[Dave_E]

Now there’s a cool idea! Sort of like the coin under the stepped mast. I’m going to borrow that when it’s time. Thanks! 👍😀

[Edwardkenway]

A wooden ship time capsule, so to speak! Nice little touch!

 

I will now be able to use your Winnie log as a reference, now that you are passing where I've got to😉🤗 on mine.

 

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Rustyj said:

unlike some of us! 

I turned it upside down to shake all that out. It’s when something later drops in the open hatches that I’ll also never see again 😁

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Dave_E said:

Now there’s a cool idea!

Not entirely mine, I likely saw it somewhere on the forum. Still a cool idea. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by glbarlow

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Edwardkenway said:

I will now be able to use your Winnie log as a reference, now that you are passing where I've got to😉🤗 on mine.

There are plenty to choose from, hope I help a little. Now you need to pick up the pace and pas me again 😁

[jfhealey]

What a lovely idea. It's intruiging to think about the circumstances in which your message might one day be read. What sort of a world will the reader live in I wonder.

Best wishes

Fred

[glbarlow]

9 minutes ago, jfhealey said:

It's intruiging to think about

It is kind of a kick to know it’s there

[glbarlow]

The Bulwarks and Cabin

 

It’s been a minute. While the bulwarks seem like an easy and quick task, for me it wasn’t. A lot of adjustments and time to get what I wanted to get. Plus the holidays and family time reduce time in the workshop.

 

Other than this one with the scroll I failed to get any photos of the lower deck planking and beam installation seen in the outer edge of the photo. There are two of these openings for eventual hatch covers, and make for a nice touch. There will only be a glimpse below once the deck is built out, I still added a little red paint down there for the hope of a little color showing. Even if it doesn’t these were fun to construct.

Next up is adding the false deck. It’s in six pieces and important to get lined up along the centerline  Having the lines lasered for deck furniture placement and the grid lines are a big plus. The deck openings helped line up 6 pieces along with temporary pins, I took the time it took, including a plumb string, to get the centerline correct, starting with the center pieces, then aft, then the bow.

I probably didn’t need this much weight to hold it down while the glue dried but I do now know its firmly in place. I used white PVA to allow me time to make any last minute adjustments for fit. Getting the first half of the center was a bit of a challenge, the rest fell into place as they should.

I got caught up in the building and didn’t get many photos. There are multiple widths of wood, ¼, 3/16, and 7/32 making up the first layer to get the proper fit deck to rail. Once it was complete I went back and touched up the paint on the ports.

 

A few things to note:

 

This was a good time to check the run of planking at the waist. I pulled out a strip of the 5/16th wood used for the eventual cap rail and made a few minor adjustments for a good fit with the moulding on the hull exterior. Much easier to do this now before painting and without apprehension of damaging anything else, ok, less apprehension.

 

I’m sure the build order as described by the monograph is done with good purpose. However, if I were doing it again I’d install the false deck and bulwarks before doing the exterior work of chapter 3. I did a lot of clamping as I installed bulwark planks and was constantly concerned about damaging the fine detailed work on the exterior the of the hull with the clamps. It would have been easier, I think, without the frieze work and moulding to clamp the outside. Again, that’s just me.

 

One absolute mistake I made was gluing on the quarter panel roofs at the end of chapter 3. I absolutely should have set these up in my cabinet and added them much later.  I try to be careful, but I’ve knocked off and had to replace the ornate fence on its top twice now. Just me being rushed with hand movements as I painted but still why have them there as a target for reckless movement.

Naturally, me being me, I wasn’t always satisfied and pulled a plank or two I didn’t like. The Byrnes Thickness Sander once again proved its worth, I ran all the planking through it before adding them to the ship and minimized the planks I wanted replaced.

The deck clamps are important to get right. I was glad to have chapter 7 parts on hand to test fit a couple of beams, I took the time for careful measurements to ensure they’d be squared up. With the port clamp fixed I adjusted the starboard side for an accurate fit, the beams are now square and the clamps in alignment with the etched laser grid marks on the false deck.

The laser etched cabin panels are another nice touch. I did have to make a number of adjustments to fit my model, but fortunately they were minor. I guess my placement of those port sills way back at the framing stage were pretty much where they were supposed to be. The tape at the stern came in handy in preventing small pieces from disappearing forever into the dark hold.

When installing these panels it’s important to find out just how many clamps you can get in there to hold it while the PVA dries.  I think I did pretty well in achieving max, and likely not entirely necessary, clampage. Once again affirming the rule, when you think you have enough clamps, buy more clamps.

The second layer of planks, just 1/32 thick (actually a bit less), add a really nice look to the bulwarks, it takes time for alignment and installation but fun to see the result it brings.

Here’s really weird iPhone pano of the starboard side. It’s obviously warped but still a fun look at the completed bulwarks.

Ready, set, paint. I pride myself on being extremely neat and organized as I mask the deck and ship for bulwark painting, or maybe not. I’m am a firm advocate for Tamiya tape. It is perfect for this task, flexible and once applied no paint is going to leak beneath it. In this regard for my model work it leaves the usual blue painters tape in the dust.

 

On a side note, @kurtvd19 recommended the large “eraser” block also shown in the photo for cleaning sandpaper of embedded sawdust. It does this quite well. It has the added benefit of being the perfect size to lift and tilt the build board for better working angles. Unlike wood blocks, being rubber, it doesn’t slip. It's worth the purchase for this alone (available on Amazon).

Back at the beginning I chose Winsor & Newton Galleria Crimson Acrylic for my bulwarks, ports, and other deck work. I thinned it with Liquitex Matte Medium. I’m sure there are better explanations for this verses water, for me it imparts more translucence to the paint as well as more of a matte (hence the name) finish than water thinned acrylic. I’m sure this is debatable, everyone has their own choice and thoughts for paint work.

Seven coats of paint and many days later the bulwarks and cabin are complete. It’s difficult to get a photo of showing this in any interesting way. The paint is matte, but the work lights impose a bit of a glare, it’s either that or photos in shadow. I hope you can tell how nice the 2nd layer adds to the affect. I’m really happy with the color. It may not be historically accurate (though some shade of red was), it does make for a nice model. I like a similar shade of red on my Cheerful. Like then I decided if I’m going red, I should really go RED.

While I was painting, and under the premise of paint early often, I also painted the deck side of the transom. The paint is still drying and there is touch up underway including the black of the transom top. I’m glad to get this done now, much easier access at this point. Finally the stern cabin ‘wall” is complete to include the stern margin plank. A rudder housing and benches come later.

 

On I go to margin planks and deck planking. I’ve already milled a batch of planks and run them through the thickness planer. I also get to build some coamings and the first of the deck work in the process. I guess the big sanding and paint work is done for me and a year of two of detailed (and fun) work is ahead.

 

Thanks for stopping by, for the likes and especially the comments, they are appreciated.

 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by glbarlow

[Chuck]

Looking really good!!! So nice when you get this stage.   Each bit of progress makes a huge difference visually which helps keep you going.

[glbarlow]

 

1 minute ago, Chuck said:

Each bit of progress makes a huge difference visually

Thanks Chuck. It definitely looks like an actual ship now. Very rewarding from those long days of planking the hull.

[DelF]

She's looking great Glenn. I don't think I'd appreciated how big she is until I saw your shot with the metal rules on the deck, and the one on the cutting mat. 

 

As always, I admire your attention to detail and your refusal to accept second best. I would probably have been happy with a couple of coats of paint, but you show what can be achieved by going the extra mile and applying seven coats - inspirational!

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

6 hours ago, DelF said:

show what can be achieved

Thanks Derek, I always appreciate your comments and observations. She is definitively big, over three feet, the 1:48 scale is fun to work with though.  

[Rustyj]

Looking really nice Glenn. Your attention to the details now will pay off later when everything

is close to spot on and "adjustments" will be kept to a minimum.

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, Rustyj said:

attention to the details

Thanks Rusty, it is kind of nice when the work on the core infrastructure of the ship pays off later, and obvious with close tolerances when it doesn't. Glad to make it to this stage.

[glbarlow]

Margin Planks

 

A short update this Christmas Eve.

Gained an early Christmas present with this Veritas mini-worktable. This setup make it much easier to hold down and cut the forward margin planks. I was fortunate that the paper templates were a close fit requiring little modification. So I attached them to a 3/64 thick sheet wood with rubber cement and rough cut them with a simple #11 blade.

Leaving the template attached as a guide I turned my mill and Dremel accessory into a basic spindle sander. I finished them off with fine grit sandpaper to make for a tight fit to the bulwarks.

The waist and stern sections were managed with 5/16 strip and my ever-handy bending station. I used the templates as an initial guide then laid them into place marking where adjustments were needed. The heat-only bending process makes this easy and quick with the yellow cedar.

Hard to get exciting photos of margin planks.  I ran the planks through the Thickness Sander along with the eventual deck planking. I followed the template to cut one side of the scarf joint, traced that onto its matching partner, then cut and sanded each to match up. They turned out well enough the four joints are barely visible on the photos, hopefully the WOP I apply later will bring them out. I sanded one edge of 1/32 square strip and added the waterways. Both the margin planks and waterway were attached with PVA. With that my deck is ready to plank starting with the cabin area.  That will all wait until after Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Rustyj]

Excellent work Glenn. Though pictures don't seem exciting placing the margin planks is a great start to the decking. 

 

Merry Christmas to you too!

[glbarlow]

I decided to go off-book. I follow the monograph, everything about Winchelsea is so well thought out and designed why wouldn’t I.  Nonetheless I wanted to do something that made my Winchelsea mine and the captain’s cabin seemed like the place to do it.

This boxwood and cherry paneled deck will be mostly covered by the quarterdeck in time. Still I had a little fun doing it and historically accurate or not I like it. Onward to the rest of the deck.

Edited December 28, 2022 by glbarlow

[Rustyj]

Nice work Glenn. That's the nice thing about model building. You can build it the way that makes you happy.

 

You are the ship's captain after all!  

[Thukydides]

On 12/17/2022 at 4:59 PM, glbarlow said:

Back at the beginning I chose Winsor & Newton Galleria Crimson Acrylic for my bulwarks, ports, and other deck work. I thinned it with Liquitex Matte Medium. I’m sure there are better explanations for this verses water, for me it imparts more translucence to the paint as well as more of a matte (hence the name) finish than water thinned acrylic. I’m sure this is debatable, everyone has their own choice and thoughts for paint work.

Acrylic paint is made up of 3 components: pigment, binder (the stuff that makes it dry into plastic) and water. Essentially what you are doing is adding more binder. The binder is what primarily gives the paint the sheen (matte vs gloss) and so if you add a matte binder then it will make your paint more matte. Personally when painting if I need to thin my paint a lot then I add both water and a medium. The reason is that if you add too much water then there is not enough binder in the mixture and the paints starts to separate. In general water will make it more translucent and make the final dried layer be thinner. Binder will make the dried layer a bit thicker, but just with less pigment for a given area. In your case it appears that the type of paint you are using is high on pigment and low on binder and water. This means that the amount of thinning you have to do to make it look good at scale likely necessitates at least a bit of medium for best results.

 

Ultimately as you noted the best thing to do is play around with the proportions and find what works for you as it depends a lot on what paint you are using etc… The only hard and fast rule I would suggest is don’t add much more than 2 parts water to paint without also adding some sort of medium to ensure your paint doesn’t break down.

 

Great work, it is looking really good.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Thukydides

[jfhealey]

That is a beautifuly executed floor to the captain's cabin and you are absolutely right to say its your Winnie and you get to make it just as you like it. Upon any view its going to be a super build.

All the best

Fred

[Trussben]

Nice Floor Glenn! we all like to add features that make our models unique and our own!

[glbarlow]

9 hours ago, Rustyj said:

build it the way that makes you happy.

 

3 hours ago, jfhealey said:

get to make it just as you like it

 

2 hours ago, Trussben said:

make our models unique

Thank you all for the kind comments.  I wasn't sure about going off book, I might not have without knowing the eventual quarterdeck will leave just a glimpse. I did something similar on my Fair American years ago, liked it then, like it now :-). Now I guess I can't enter it in the annual historical accuracy competition 😄

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by glbarlow