HMS Winchelsea 1764 by glbarlow - FINISHED - 1:48

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, SteveL said:

had overlooked laser cut pieces.

In fact there are laser cut pieces in yellow cedar, four of them, the lower a slightly different size than the upper. I fabricated two more I placed between the two. The laser cut pieces do require some shaping. 
 

For the inboard fairing I filled between the bulkheads and ports, including the bow, with balsa, more as a guide. I think I showed all this early in the log, you may want to check there or other logs for options. 
 

Hope that helps. 

[SteveL]

I’m taking much more of your time than intended and I apologize but please let me clarify. 
 

[glbarlow]

You are correct, those bow caps are cut from 1/16th board.  Good new is the actual cap rails to be installed in chapter 10 are laser cut. Chuck encourages everyone to download, print, and cut out those chapter 10 paper templates as a guide to ensure you’re shaping your bow to match them now.

 

Do you have a build log? If not I’d encourage you to start one, it’s a lot easier to get answers like these using photos and text of your model. I try to put all I can in my logs to be of help just as I consult multiple other logs to get help. 

[glbarlow]

Starting the QGalleries

 

This post will look a lot like many other fine logs that have gone before me. I’ll once again say how wonderful MSW, build logs, and this group project are as a ready resource, in addition to Chuck’s fine monograph of course, in helping guide my build. Maybe I’ll offer something new to those that follow, or at least serve as confirmation doing as others have done.

 

The q-galleries are an exercise in patience. Not difficult in and of themselves to make, given the nice laser cut parts Chuck provides for chapter 3, they require a great deal of precision in getting the measurements, location, and references lining up one part to another, and those to yet another.  Like many elements of the build, getting the “infrastructure” right is critical to how the final product will look.

First up is cutting out the gallery template and marking the location of the top frame and roof. I thought for a moment why not just get some crayons, color this in and call it done, but decided to continue forward when my grandkids wouldn’t let me use their crayons.

I glued on the upper frame after checking and rechecking measurements. There is the reality that every hull is different and there likely won’t be an exact match. It’s amazing though how well Chuck’s design works, things just seem to fit and/or have the built in latitude for adjustment. I will give myself a little credit for my obsession all the way back to fitting the stern frames and gallery framing against the plan. (the template is just loosely sitting there for the photo).

Next up is adding the lower frame or floor along the line of the wales. Here it's held up for checking using my new best friend, double sided tape. It holds well and is easily removed.

I prefer to work both sides of the ship rather than completely finishing one, so while waiting for the PVA glue to dry at various points I worked on the transom cove. I’m happy to report I did not break those lovely but very fragile scroll parts (they come as two, then mated on the cove). Don’t need it yet, but it was a nice distraction.

Not sure which log I saw this on, so thanks to my fellow builder for the idea of installing the head before adding the q-frame planking. I’ll have to say fitting it this way from the side verses working from the top was a straight forward approach, just had to gently fair the outboard edge to match up with the upper and lower frame.

After fairing the frames I added the “planking,” a 1/32 layered sheet that easily bends on multiple axis to nicely cover the frame. It was a bit of a challenge for me to line it up to cover top and bottom, fore to aft. Just a little fumble fingered work, it’s purposely oversized to allow for that adjustment - I just had to do it. I resorted to CA here, it’s not going anywhere now.

I spent several hours sorting out how to attach the gallery roof. Pie-shaped it has to hold itself up (for now) glued to two sides. Ok, that’s not so hard…maybe…  The challenge is attaching the slippery little pie so that it is parallel to the upper frame, like the lower frame reasonably closely following the run of the planks, and be in line with the deck. After a few false starts I elected to install some temporary “scaffolding” after measuring remeasuring, then measuring again. The final challenge for me was to have both port and starboard roofs the same height above the upper frame and the same height below the top rail of the hull on the side and the transom at the back.  I had to carefully remove my scaffolding after the glue had a little time to hold and before it became glued to the hull too. 

With that both galleries are ready to be closed up with posts, windows and moulding followed by the roof and touch up painting. If you never hear from me again you’ll know it didn’t go well or I’m still trying to scrape wood into molding.

 

Thanks for stopping by, your likes and comments are always appreciated.

[Dave_E]

Words of wisdom from a master builder! Nice work indeed! 👍😀

[rafine]

Coming along really nicely. You’ve done the hard parts. It should be easy and fun from here.

 

Bob

[Trussben]

Looking really good, I enjoyed this part of the build.

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, Dave_E said:

master builder!

Thank you for the comment, I’m far from a master builder, I doubt I’m in the top 10 of Winchelsea builders, but thanks for the thought😊Just doing the best I can. 

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, rafine said:

should be easy and fun from here

Thanks Bob, not sure about easy, but it is fun. 
 

8 minutes ago, Trussben said:

I enjoyed this part of the build.

Thank you. You did a nice job with your log in this section, an excellent reference.  

[Dave_E]

Your modest. 👍

[Edwardkenway]

Nicely done Glenn, I do wish I'd thought of a temporary scaffold, as my hand was numb holding the top piece in place😬

Keep up the good work 👏 

[scrubbyj427]

Looks great Glenn, very clean and precise. Spend as much time as necessary on the frames and windows, just like your planking, it will pay off. 

[glbarlow]

52 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

a temporary scaffold,

No telling where it would be if I tried holding it🤣

[glbarlow]

51 minutes ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Spend as much time as necessary

I’m pretty good at making extra time necessary 😂

[Rustyj]

Excellent workmanship and description Glenn. A perfect example of planning and patience! 

[hollowneck]

17 minutes ago, Rustyj said:

Excellent workmanship and description Glenn. A perfect example of planning and patience! 

I agree with Rusty. Very pristine, precise work. When completed, your Winchelsea scratch is going to be a stunning model. 

[glbarlow]

It's been a minute. A longer post once I complete most of the galleys. 

Meanwhile I've been plugging away, teaching myself how to do mouldings...and trust that a glue stick really is a great way to add paper to wood.

 

More to follow soon - if I can get to it before we head off to Alaska.

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by glbarlow

[Rustyj]

Looking really good Glenn!

[glbarlow]

QGalleries Continued

 

It’s a process. To close up the galleries there are friezes and moulding to make. However those are a continuation of friezes and moldings with the stern, and there is moulding to make, did I say that already.

I made one moulding for Cheerful, a simple basic one, and when I say made it that means cutting a profile into a piece of brass and scraping it into a strip of wood. All the Winchelsea builders of course know this of course, but for others its worth noting this isn’t necessarily easy. There is both art and math to make a scraper, I’m not sure I’m all that great at either one of those. Scraping is the easy part, it’s that thing to scrape with, there’s where the fun is.

 

For Winchelsea there are 7 different profiles required, on multiple sizes of strip boxwood. One of the 7 is provided as laser etched, the rest have to be scraped.  I started by mapping out what and where I needed them. The galleries need three different mouldings, two of which are continued around the stern.  As you can see from my map, I am confirming my lack of talent for art.

I decided if I was going to make one moulding I might as well make all that I needed and so I had Moulding Day(s). I’m sure there are many better ways, I chose to use a porcelain tile as my firm, flat base and my double sided tape to keep the strip held in place while I scraped away...I went through a lot of double sided tape. I used the two metal rulers to get the long thin strips straight and then pressed it into the tape.

 

Ok, so I cheated a little. I acquired the silver Amati scrapers for Cheerful, they were no help. Here with Winchelesa the smallest sizes were a good start. The scrapers are in millimeter and the strips imperial, so the first modification was adjusting to fit with my mini-files. I also, again displaying my math art skills, I modified the shapes, width, depth, and design also with the mini-files. This worked for the larger sized strips, but like with Cheerful, they were no help for the small strips, the two rows that run the length of the hull. For that I was on my own with my brass scraper, I used my mill to precisely size and start the shapes I wanted and went back to the mini-files to finish them.

 

Way more than you wanted to know about moulding - but in the end I’d matched the monograph, plans, my map, and my scraper set to complete all the moulding I’ll need for the model, at least for Chapter 3 anyway. My run at moulding scraping turned out ok I think.

But wait, there are the caps for the laser etched columns between the windows. Credit to @Trussben for showing us how to make use of extra (at least I hope it turns out to be extra for me) of the laser etched moulding to cut the caps from. Nice, uniform, and a perfect match to the columns, just a matter of cutting 16 (near) identical ones at the right width and angle. Did I mention my math skills. Knowing I could never free hand 16 (near) identical anything, I cut templates for my chopper and sliced away. I’ll do this again for the stern windows (ok, stern lights for the mariner minded) later.

And with that I had all I needed made to complete the galleries, sorta.

Winchelsea is a big model, bigger than I anticipated when I designed my workshop. My neck was getting tired of the strain of bending sideways, so with a block and and shop towel to keep the stem from crashing into the wall and more blocks to raise up the back I now have this precarious way to work at the stern and on the galleries more closely from the side. This photo is about as far as I move away from the model, it goes back on the table before I leave the room. I don’t want to hear a crash. The balance point is pretty dicey, but it works.

Anyway. Finally here’s a photo of the actual model. Two mouldings, window frames, and a frieze are added to the base described in my last post along with the drops. I admit I was skeptical of applying the friezes. If you haven’t done it (and there is so much on this model I have never done before) sticking paper printed off my printer with a glue stick that’s basically what my grandkids use (I did get the extra strength craft version) just seems like it wouldn’t work.

 

It really does. I printed with the best possible media format my printer will do on ordinary copy paper, sprayed it with Winsor & Newton Fixative, talked my wife into cutting it out, ran the glue stick over the back and on it went.  A slight diversion here The world does not favor left-handed people like me, starting with scissors. You right handed people wouldn’t get it but the way the blades on scissors are set up a left handed cutter can’t see the line being cut. Consequently I can’t get close to cutting out the friezes with the precision required. Fortunately my wife is good at it, as long as we used my Singer scissors to cut paper and not one of the 17 pair she has for her hobbies, ok maybe not 17.

 

I like the moulding designs, applying them is a process.  Like planking, there are multiple curves at work so out came the bending station. Being a little tepid about it at the start, I ended up enjoying the moulding making process and am now ready to scrape away in the future.

Everything I do, I do right the first time….not.  As I’m prone to do if I decide I don’t like something I rip it off and do it again. In this case I didn’t like the upper moulding run and how the upper counter frieze looked so off they both came. It took a while to clean off the tightly glued frieze but it did all come off. I didn’t want to use a lot of solvents to avoid damaging other areas but a little carefully applied denatured alcohol took care of the paper removal and a little acetone even more carefully applied removed the moulding. In for a penny……

Eventually I got there. Since the both the moulding on the galleries continue on around the stern, seemed like a good time to get everything below the stern windows done. Plus it’s so pretty, all that glue stick work in action. All the moulding was applied with CA.

The first of those beautiful carvings is now added in the form of the drops - these and the ones to follow really, really make this a special design and a special model. They make this ship so much more than the usual kits. Very cool all by themselves, I’m excited to see them installed on my model.

Assembly time, I added the window along with upper sills cut to fit. The paint is scraped off the top of the frames to accommodate another moulding size and differentdesign. I made what I liked, not sure if it’s accurate or not, but they are accurately made.

 

I’ve said this before, so once again for those who follow. Chuck’s design works perfectly, there are tolerances and room to adjust to some degree. However as I assembled these galleries I was reminded just how important it was to get the ship’s stern frames and gallery framing right way back when it didn’t seem all that important so many months ago. It really pays off to take your time. It’s not like Chuck doesn’t say that a lot, it really does pay off, the take your time thing.

With that I added the top moulding, the columns with their caps (may still need a little adjustment there) and test fitted and adjusted the roof I’d shaped and sanded  and will soon shingle in preparation along the way. I’ve been doing both sides by stages so I only have this last step to finish the port side. As you’ll notice another carved figure is test fitted into its eventual space. The moulding was adjusted a little to accommodate his shoulder. Don’t tell anyone, I sanded off a bit of his butt to get a tighter fit. He’s held there loosely by, you can guess by now, double sided tape. His female companion on the other side is an easier fit than this big dude. (I see in this macro photo I already need to call in a window cleaner).

So with that mini-me (or my imitation as someone said) stops by to take a look and invites his neighbor, clad in my Winchelsea color scheme seemingly by chance, to join him (by wife wanted me to paint him, so here he is).

 

Next up the hull sides and stern above the upper counter.  As always thank you for stopping by with your likes and your comments, they are very appreciated.

[Dave_E]

No words. 👍😀

[rafine]

Beautifully explained , and even more beautifully done.

 

Bob

[Blue Ensign]

I just love the sweep of your hull timbers up to the the lower counter, and I think you were right to remove the first go at the counter frieze.

I too am a fan of Chuck's paper friezes and they look so good on Winnie, I adapted them for Sphinx.

Beautiful work Glenn.

 

B.E.

[Kevin]

stunning work, i just wish i was 10% as good

[glbarlow]

21 hours ago, Dave_E said:

No words.

Thanks....I think 😄

 

21 hours ago, rafine said:

Beautifully explained , and even more beautifully done.

Thanks Bob, I appreciate the kind words

 

20 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

love the sweep of your hull timbers up to the the lower counter

I do too BE, not sure how I managed that but it did come out nice. Application of Chuck's plank bending, hull lining, and every plank a project.  I'm amazed at the difference a simple #2 pencil makes applied between planks.  And of course there's that Alaskan Yellow Cedar...

 

20 hours ago, Kevin said:

stunning work,

Thank you, it comes from a lot of doing over bad work and practice.

[glbarlow]

Finished up the port gallery, other than the singled roof which comes next. Replaced all the column caps on the starboard side with slightly wider ones like these. Forgot to get a photo with the female figure, she fits without needing extra shoulder room. I did however, with due apologies to her, have to sand a bit of her butt to get a nice fit into the overhang. Sorry lady.

[scrubbyj427]

Nice work Glenn. Well done on the moldings.

[Rustyj]

This was a pleasant read before starting my day. Excellent work Glenn. 

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Well done on the moldings.

Thank you, it’s one of those things that now that I’ve done it I know I could do it better.  Move on Glenn, move on.😂

 

1 hour ago, Rustyj said:

This was a pleasant read

I appreciate you saying so Rusty. I do try to make the posts entertaining and possibly informative. 

[BobG]

Stunning work, Glenn!

[Thistle17]

Beautiful execution Glen! Inspirational!

 

Joe