Lady Nelson by JGoff - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 - First Ship Build

[JGoff]

After much thought, I did decide to mark the waterline and paint below. I’m not entirely pleased with the result so I will have to back and sand and add some wood filler. The lines of the planking are quite visible. Seems like most painted hulls I have seen are smooth. Are there any thoughts on this? From a distance it looks decent but zoom in and all the little faults are visible. 

To mark the waterline, I used the waterline marker that can be purchased at Vanguard. First I measured from the plan sheets the bow and stern using a caliper and made the appropriate marks. Then I clamped the keel in the vise, made the necessary adjustments and marked the line. It was somewhat difficult to mark without the cutter tilting, so I had a little assistance from the admiral to make it work. 
 

On to the guns. At the moment, I am sanding the gun carriage wheels, but the carriages and guns have been partially painted, as I painted the carriages prior to removing them from the sheet.  They are quite fiddly so as I have noted from others, a jig would be helpful for assembly. 
And finally, with the cannon barrels, I painted those matte black, brushed with gunmetal weathering powder and used hairspray to seal (it is what I had on hand). Here you can see the difference that the weathering powder made.

 

Thanks for dropping by and for the comments and likes. 

[AJohnson]

Those are fine scratch built replacements Johnathan, well done. 👏 

[JGoff]

19 hours ago, AJohnson said:

Those are fine scratch built replacements Johnathan, well done. 👏 

Thank you, Andrew!

[JGoff]

Thanks for the likes guys!

 

A quick Sunday afternoon update as I have finally gotten around to spending the time to engage the blackening process. 
 

I followed the article “Blackening Revisited” and I’ll summarize the process here:

1. Pickle in sparex for 15 mins

2. remove with copper tongs and place items into baking soda solution water to rinse. 
3. Place items into acetone for 10+ mins using gloves from this point forward. 
4. Place in blackening solution with hot water at a 1:7 ratio agitating gently to expose all surfaces for 3-4 mins

5. Dry for 10-15 mins and polish with dremel. 
 

After following this, I decided to give the parts another bath into a fresh blackening solution mix for 10 mins and this seemed to do the trick. 

And in case I decide to make my own eyebolts and such, this just arrived:

Getting this project done now frees me up to finish the rudder and canons. 

 

Till next time!

Edited September 1, 2024 by JGoff

[flyenrw]

Howdy, Johnathon....I wanted to swing by your build as I noticed and appreciate your having a look at what's happening on my work bench. Your Lady is coming along well. You mentioned starting with limited skills , but you've proved to yourself, that's not been draw back. Where you are in the build, right now,  is light years ahead of what you probably felt you could accomplish. To me, you recently mentioned the hull and planking detail seen beyond bottom  paint,..... I feel is a reflection of all the wooden boats at dry dock. I can't make comparisons as this is my first Ship build too, but to me this Lady is no beginner and considering how your ship looks, you're pointing true north. Best Regards, Roger

[JGoff]

18 hours ago, flyenrw said:

Howdy, Johnathon....I wanted to swing by your build as I noticed and appreciate your having a look at what's happening on my work bench. Your Lady is coming along well. You mentioned starting with limited skills , but you've proved to yourself, that's not been draw back. Where you are in the build, right now,  is light years ahead of what you probably felt you could accomplish. To me, you recently mentioned the hull and planking detail seen beyond bottom  paint,..... I feel is a reflection of all the wooden boats at dry dock. I can't make comparisons as this is my first Ship build too, but to me this Lady is no beginner and considering how your ship looks, you're pointing true north. Best Regards, Roger

Indeed! And you are absolutely right. It has been a little journey of sorts and not quite knowing the path I’ll take to the final destination. At least for my first build this has been my process. Perhaps for my next build, I’ll do some planning, but this one is all about just figuring it out and trying to stretch my skills. Every time I sit at my workbench it is a new task to work through one piece at a time. I appreciate you stopping by and for your kind comments, Roger. 

[JGoff]

Life has been busy with many different responsibilities, so my time in the shipyard has not been as much as I would like. But I have finally painted and assembled all the cannons, which are the purchased 3lbrs from Vanguard. I will rig them with breech rope before gluing them to the deck.

Next up I am working on the channels, and the strops for the deadeyes defeated me. After fighting with them for a while and splitting several in multiple places, I thought I might could do them with the 24 gauge wire that I had purchased. Making several attempts at that, consistency in size proved challenging so I made a little jig using one of the kit supplied strops, nails and a block of wood.

 

The one at the top is with the kit supplied strop and below is with the 24 gauge wire. It still takes a little fiddling but the jig will offer some consistency and more dignified speech. Any thoughts on the use of the wire as a substitute? What do people generally use if they are making their own parts?

 

Thanks for the input and dropping by!

[flyenrw]

Hi Johnathon, I think you're right on target with the wire, if to make them from scratch.  I have read of a few challenges with the kit supplied strops and chain plates breaking at the bend and because of that,  decided to order the beefier,  Amati version shown in the plans , but not supplied in the kit! The laser cut are a bit frail. Your cannons look nice. I have considered them as well. I'm a sucker for punishment, with lots of little details that they have! OMG another intense building session! It makes such a difference over the cast product when finished. You can find 2 mm blocks on Syren Models Web site,  that won't be too out of scale.  Just Depends on How deep in the rabbit hole do you want to go? Your Lady is coming along and looking good!

[JGoff]

15 hours ago, flyenrw said:

Hi Johnathon, I think you're right on target with the wire, if to make them from scratch.  I have read of a few challenges with the kit supplied strops and chain plates breaking at the bend and because of that,  decided to order the beefier,  Amati version shown in the plans , but not supplied in the kit! The laser cut are a bit frail. Your cannons look nice. I have considered them as well. I'm a sucker for punishment, with lots of little details that they have! OMG another intense building session! It makes such a difference over the cast product when finished. You can find 2 mm blocks on Syren Models Web site,  that won't be too out of scale.  Just Depends on How deep in the rabbit hole do you want to go? Your Lady is coming along and looking good!

Thanks! Yeah I am considering rigging gun tackles. I did purchase the 2mm blocks from Syren just in case I decided to go down that rabbit hole. Just so you appreciate the size of a 2mm block and threading the rope through is a patient endeavor. I’m using .25mm from Ropes of Scale. 

[flyenrw]

Yup, that's pretty small!,  But I feel, its really worth the effort to add the additional detail.

At first glance, its really apparent, the quality in the line, which if to do that right, is just what you need.

A breach line only is rather spartan. Looking forward to how you progress.

[Danstream]

Very nice work with the deck furniture. Looking forward to seeing your way to improve this model.

Dan

[JGoff]

On 11/18/2024 at 2:28 AM, Danstream said:

Very nice work with the deck furniture. Looking forward to seeing your way to improve this model.

Dan

Thanks Dan! Of course, you are outpacing me, so I may be looking to you in the next few weeks. 

[JGoff]

After some time away, I was finally able to put in a few solid hours this weekend. I’ve secured the breaching lines to the cannons but have decided to forgo the side and train tackles. I also shaped the bowsprit from square stock and have painted and seated it though it’s not yet glued and pinned - I’m still debating whether I’m satisfied with it or if I should start fresh with a second attempt. I’m also shifting my attention to the mast, yard and boom, considering the best approach for shaping them from the round stock included in the kit. Plenty to think through but it feels good to be back in the shipyard.

 

[glbarlow]

You’re doing quite well with your first model. The breaching lines are enough for such a small model, the effect is there.  I’d encourage you to make your own eyelets and ring bolts using the 24 gauge wire (what you have is correct). The result is such an improvement over commercial versions. I made hundreds for Cheerful and Winchelsea, in one way it’s tedious and another therapeutic and in all ways a skill worth learning. I attempt to describe the process in my logs.  Give it a try, you’ll start by making 10 to keep 5, but production improves with practice. 

[JGoff]

19 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

You’re doing quite well with your first model. The breaching lines are enough for such a small model, the effect is there.  I’d encourage you to make your own eyelets and ring bolts using the 24 gauge wire (what you have is correct). The result is such an improvement over commercial versions. I made hundreds for Cheerful and Winchelsea, in one way it’s tedious and another therapeutic and in all ways a skill worth learning. I attempt to describe the process in my logs.  Give it a try, you’ll start by making 10 to keep 5, but production improves with practice. 

Thanks Glenn. I had gotten that 24 gauge wire for that purpose. I wasn’t very pleased with my attempts with eyebolts but I’ll acknowledge I probably gave up too soon. Now the ring bolts I did make with that wire using your log. A big improvement over the kit supplied ones. I’m sure I’m not done with eyebolts yet, so I’ll transition to those for the remainder of the rigging. Thanks for the encouragement. 
 

And to all, thanks for the likes and for dropping by. 

[JGoff]

I’ve now finished tapering the mast, yards, gaff, and boom. Initially, I found this a bit daunting since I don’t have a lathe, but I came across a YouTube method that made sense to me. I divided the dowel into sections for the taper and, using a sanding block, rotated it while gradually working my way down. I also picked up some carving knives, which helped refine the taper and shape the top portion of the main mast.

 

Next, I’ll start preparing everything for rigging and stropping blocks. Chuck has a great tutorial on stropping blocks that I plan to follow.

 

It’s clear to me that the mast, yards, and rigging in this kit are a simplified version compared to a true cutter rig. I considered modifying everything for historical accuracy but, for now, I plan to follow the kit’s drawings. From my research, the plans seem to capture the fundamentals well. Of course, as I continue reading, I may decide to make adjustments.

[glbarlow]

The included rigging are very simplistic and underdone. I found this book very useful, and specifics to fore and aft craft including cutters. It isn’t overly difficult and does help spice up the model. Plus good learning exercise.

Rigging: Fore and Aft Craft. Lennarth Petersson. I found it on Amazon. 

 

[vossiewulf]

Glenn, I ran into the same issue with my Lady Nelson. Unfortunately Lennarth Petersson's book isn't perfect either, as discussed in the thread I started on cutter rigging:

 

I've ended up doing Chuck's Cheerful rig at 75% scale on my 1:64 Lady Nelson, while taking some rigging info from Petersson's book. But the bottom line is that there appears to be no standard cutter rig, there are some with two yards and some with three, with varying heights and rakes. So you have flexibility.