HMS Sophie by TBlack - kit-bashing Jack Aubrey's first command from the Vanguard Models HMS Speedy

[TBlack]

12 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Tom, Are the cabin walls either side of the ladders going to remain as they are now?  

Keith,

I thought I would leave them as they are. This is a pretty simple craft without much embellishment, like Fair American?

[TBlack]

Davits in, according to the book cover painting. They look very far apart for a small ship's boat. BTW, if there is a boat on the davits, would there also be a boat amidships?

You'll notice, also, that I've started installing rigged cannons. No training tackle. As Ron Neilson (hollowneck) points out: too small and finnicky.

[Jno Fielding]

How’s progress going TBlack? Been missing the updates

[Keith Black]

 Ditto Jno's post, Tom. How are you doing and how goes the Sophie project?

[TBlack]

Boy, have I been absent? I've had a sciatica problem which makes it difficult to stand at the workbench. Other life events, as well,  have taken priority. Consequently, progress has been on hold. I'm coming back, working on the final deck details. Stay tuned!

Tom

[Keith Black]

 Tom, sorry to hear about your back. Looking forward to you resuming work on the Sophie. 

[mtaylor]

I hope the back problem is solvable, Tom and you can return to doing what you want.   This getting old stuff ain't for sissies is it?

[TBlack]

The back problem is solvable with Diclofenac and sitting down. I've gotten this far and am finishing up the rigging on the guns.

I'm sorry that I painted the capstan, according to the instructions in red; I think the bulwarks in red is sufficient

[Nipper]

3 hours ago, TBlack said:

The back problem is solvable with Diclofenac and sitting down. I've gotten this far and am finishing up the rigging on the guns.

 

I'm sorry that I painted the capstan, according to the instructions in red; I think the bulwarks in red is sufficient

I agree with you on the colour of the capstan.  Although we don't know for sure what colours the ships were painted, I just don't like the look of deck fittings all in red ochre.  Red for the inner bulwarks does loook right, however.                           

[Jno Fielding]

Sorry about your back, I hope you feel better. As to the capstan, I think as it’s already done perhaps it would be best to make light of the red color. In the book, Sophie’s defaulters are flogged there!

[TBlack]

Moving right along: I think I mentioned previously that I didn't use the metal etched grates supplied in the kit, but made my own. Has a little more depth. Also, finished rigging the cannons and installed the pumps. Again. The kit supplies a dowel for the pumps, but my understanding is they are octagonal in cross section. So I built them that way. Also, the kit pumps have no discharge; easily remedied.

There will be a month's hiatus now as I'm going to Maine for July and away from the shop.

[allanyed]

The gratings look nice but for future consideration keep in mind that the battens run fore and aft rather than athwartships..  Probably not a big deal to most folks, and they do look more realistic than metal etched.    Enjoy your voyage to Maine!!

Allan

[Cathead]

Allen, forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but don't both those images show the battens running fore and aft?

[Thukydides]

36 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Allen, forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but don't both those images show the battens running fore and aft?

They both show fore and aft as opposed to what was done on the model. The image is designed to correct the problem of the holes right by the coming. In other words the image is designed to illustrate a different problem, but in this case it also shows how they should run fore and aft.

 

In any case the model is looking great 😃.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Thukydides

[allanyed]

5 hours ago, Cathead said:

Allen, forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but don't both those images show the battens running fore and aft?

Yes, but originally the sketch was meant to also show open edges on one which is not correct,  Sorry for the confusion.  Thanks for pointing this out😀 

Edited July 1, 2023 by allanyed

[Keith Black]

 Tom, I think the pumps and grating looks great. What wood is the grating made from? Beautiful color. Enjoy your trip to Maine.

[TBlack]

Allen,

Yes it’s minutiae, but also important. Thanks for your attention! I will be more attentive to this in the future!

Keith,

I use pear. It seems to match pretty closely.

TB

[Figulus]

Hello, @TBlack and friends.

I wanted to offer my salutations and thank you for the pleasure I've derived from reading this build-log. Since the beginning of the year, I've been able to call myself a fan of Mr O'Brian's writing, and have enjoyed seeing others such as yourself (et al.) channelling this mutual esteem and enthusiasm into other passions. I look forward to seeing any future progress of your exploits no earlier than you find convenient.

Kind regards, and stay safe,
Figulus.


P.S. I hope you've found your back medication has improved things, and that the sciatica isn't slowing you down.
I wish you all the best in that regard and all others.

[TBlack]

Long time no write! Couple of things stymied me: first I could find no large (5mm) deadeyes included with my kit. A brief conversation with Chris Watton revealed that he had no record of my buying the kit from him (I can't imagine where else I might have bought it). Nevertheless, he shipped me a whole new package of deadeyes (classy guy!).

Next was the bow timbers which in the kit are PE pieces that I thought looked too thin to be timbers, so I made my own:

And the deadeyes are in:

I know that Theodosius has followed the recommended color scheme at the bow (see his Speedy log), and I tried that, but didn't think it looked quite what I wanted.

My next piece of deck furniture is the ship's wheel, and I notice that the kit does not include a binnacle for Speedy, so that needs fabricating as well. The wheel will be a challenge, so I may be a while!

Tom

[Theodosius]

I think I should give this O'Brian books a go. Long time lover of the Hornblower epos. Dunno, how often I read this :-).

 

Like it very much, that you bring one of the vessels of the books to life and also in such a good manner! 

 

Beeing proud to be referenced here, even though I can't full agree with you. Not, that you don't go with my color scheme, but that I followed the colours of the prototype build and you don't. 

 

Well, you differ in TWO points from the instructions: you don't have painted the inlays in the hair brackets and the vertical bow rails (or frames).

 

My build differ in FOUR points from the instructions: I paint inlays on the bow main rails, I have the bow cheeks(?) in wood not black, I have the hawse bolsters in wood not black, and I don't have painted the stem under the hair brackest to the waterline black.

 

In the end I would say, that you are much more in line with the colours of the prototype build than I am :-).

 

But that is all fine, would be realy boring, if we all would do the same with our models :-). Hope it is ok for you, to point this out, in the end it does nothing to both our builds, and I like your bow-colour cheme also! 🙂

Edited September 8, 2023 by Theodosius

[TBlack]

I'm reading Ed Tosti's book on Naiad for tips on wheel making. He's at a scale 1:60; I'm at 1:64 (close enough). The wheel is 4 mm wide, not a problem, but 2 mm thick,

through which spokes protrude. This is going to be interesting! It means the spokes are 1 mm? 

Any thoughts?

Tom 

[Ian_Grant]

Begging your pardon of course, but my thought would be to buy a wheel ... 😉

[Keith Black]

 Tom, is it a single or double wheel? I agree with Ian, buying one would make life so much easier.  

[TBlack]

Keith,

It's a single about 3' across plus 5" for 8 spokes. I agree with both you and Ian that buying would be the easy way to go and probably look just fine, but I've just ordered some 1/16" boxwood from Joe Volpe. I'm going to give it a try!

Tom

[Quimp Slattery]

4 minutes ago, TBlack said:

I'm going to give it a try!

Tom

 

That's the way to do it! 👏

[Keith Black]

 Wishing you success with the wheel, Tom. I look forward to seeing your work. 

[TBlack]

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

  Tom. I look forward to seeing your work. 

Me too! I have Ed Tosti to guide me (he and I have all the same tools to work with). And I have a supply of boxwood.

[Nipper]

I agree - it's more fun to have a try at building something first.  There's a lot of useful learning in tasks like this.

That said, I spent a lot of enjoyable time last year trying to make a set of furniture to go in the captain's cabin of my Sphinx, and then Chris Watton brought out his super resin furniture, which I couldn't resist!  So I spent some time making miniature books, including a logbook, to go on the captain's table, and a framed portrait of his wife.  The results are so-so, but the enjoyment was immense.

 

Nipper

[Quimp Slattery]

8 minutes ago, Nipper said:

The results are so-so, but the enjoyment was immense.

 

 

They might be so-so but they are your so-so. Sometimes I prefer my so-so to someone else's perfect.

[TBlack]

Nipper,

Speaking of Chris Watton's resin offerings, you have prompted me to mention that I think I will go with his resin ship's boats rather than the wooden kit included. If Hollowneck can do it, so can I! Besides, I think I need 2, one for the davits and one for the deck? Or should I just put one on the davits? How many boats would a brig have had?

Tom