HMS Beagle by RobTBay - OcCre - 1:60

[RobTBay]

One more try at the doors...

 

I couldn't leave it alone. I decided to try building another door. My first rough attempt at the doors and frames were a little too thick (protruding out from the bulkhead too much. I wanted to try and make the door and frame a little thinner (and the frame lighter in colour). On the left is my original attempt at making a door, the middle is the painted brass part from before, and on the right is my new attempt with a little more care taken and thinner door and frame.

Still not happy with how it looks in a zoomed in photo, but looking at it on the ship at a normal viewing distance, it actually looks much better. Once again, it's more relevant to look at them on the ship, so in the photo below they are temporarily installed on the bulkhead and not necessarily in their correct places (and not quite as zoomed in!)...

...and lastly with the overhanging deck (more like what you would actually be able to see)...

I did a better job with the door in the last attempt, but it's still hard to compete with the clean lines from the brass part ...especially when just doing it by hand (no fancy machining involved). I like the lighter thinner door frame ...it still gives the door a bit of accent without being obvious, and probably more like what would have been done (everything would likely have been painted the same). I still have a minor irritation that in the brass part, the door panels are reversed as to how they should be, maybe I'm the only one who will ever notice but I still see it. But the lines in the brass part are certainly crisp and clean.

 

I meant to take a picture of how I made the door but I got too involved in the building and forgot to take a picture! I just used two very thin pieces of maple (0.5 mm thick), cut the squares out of one and then glued the two pieces together. Which make a nice representation of a door with two panels. After which I added very thin strips of wood as a door frame (0.6 mm wide and 1.2 mm deep ...so it will protrude out slightly from the door itself). Not complicated, gives a good effect but it is still tough to get everything completely straight at this size when only using a knife and a ruler.

 

Looking at the last door now, I just realized the top frame piece on the door isn't actually straight!  Oh well, it was just a test ...I'll have to make sure I get them bang on for the real thing. Now I have to actually make the decision ...hmmm.

 

Rob

 

[Whitebeard]

That's what I love about modeling - you invent 99 ways how not to make something, and only then do you get the perfect recipe. In hindsight, after using thin paper to make my doors, I'd try try using veneer. If you sand it down you get even thinner layers and they retain the wood fire structure. At times I've also found thin double-sided self-adhesive tape very helpful.

[RobTBay]

Speaking of 99 ways... I'll come to the windows in a minute! But the final production of the doors is done!

 

The version of the doors I went with are made up of two layers, a backing layer which also become the interior panels and a second piece that sits on top to become the door stiles and rails. Then I added thin stips on the two sides and across the top to represent the door frame itself. The side frames will reach up to the bottom of the deck above (thus they look like they stick up a bit).

 

The doorknobs were made from the small brass pins/nails provided in the kit. I wasn't happy with their size ...they looked a little too big. So, I chucked some pins in my rotary tool and gently touched a file to them to flatten the tops a bit and reduce the diameters slightly. 

 

Once I was just about finished with the doors, I realized I still had to do something with the windows before I go ahead with installing the doors and planking the bulkheads. I had already decided I wasn't happy with photo-etched brass window squares provided in the kit. I might have been able to live with painted brass doors, but the windows just didn't sit right with me ...particularly after all the effort with the doors! So, you may have noticed the dish of window parts in the second to last picture ...which are some of the remains of a few of my test attempts. I think I might be on version six...? I won't say more until I'm sure I've worked it out... but I think I have!  More on that in the next post.

 

Back to my windows!

 

Rob

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by RobTBay

[RobTBay]

The bulkeads under the quarterdeck and forecastle have now been completed, complete with doors and windows.

 

First off, the doors were installed. I added the doors and windows before adding the planking. As much as possible, I wanted the doors to have the impression that they were in the walls, not on top of the walls ...so I took advantage of every little bit of depth I could get, short of cutting holes in the bulkeads for the doors and windows!

I also passed on the etched brass windows in the kit and made some simple rectangles from 0.5 mm maple stock, that surrounded a piece of acetate glued to some maple painted dark brown. I experimented with trying to attach the acetate to the frame only, but the whole structure was too delicate (the thickest piece only being 0.5 mm thick!). After a number of different attempts, I went with simply gluing the acetate to the painted backing board. The glue dries not completely clear, but it gives the window a kind of old imperfect window look ...which I think is actually kind of fitting in the end. At least that's what I keep telling myself.  

I took some 0.51 mm (0.02") brass rod and bent a set of safety bars to put over the windows (painted black). I experimented with several different ways of depicting and attaching the safety bars and went with the bars bent over the outer frame of the window.

After attaching the doors and windows, I added the planks to the bulkheads. The plank widths were cut down to 3.5 mm from the 5.0 mm sycamore stock provided in the kit. This gives approximately the size as to what is shown in Marquardt's Anatomy of the Ship. I stained the planks a thinned ochre brown to match the doors. The door frames were stained a slightly different light brown color to provide a bit of visual contrast. This should give a nice but subtle contrast between the bulkhead planks, the deck, and eventually the sapelli highlight color.

And here are a couple of pictures with the sub-decks for the forecastle and quarter decks temporarily put in place to give an idea of the final effect.

Now it's on to finishing the planking of the forecastle and quarterdecks.

 

Rob

[RobTBay]

Deck planking on the forecastle and quarterdeck is now complete and the decks installed.

 

It went fairly well, complete with joggling the deck planks where they meet the margin boards. I went for the correct impression more than precisely accurate for prototype construction. It's close and gives a good impression of what is shown in the Marquardt's Anatomy of the Ship. I'm happy. 

If anyone recalls a comment from @Whitebeard a while back reminding me to not cut out the reference holes that show in the plywood subdeck when installing the deck planks. I think my answer was something like "sounds like something I might do, but I'm fully aware and watching out for that!". I guess I have to eat my words.  One evening I had a few minutes to spare, and I sat down and trimmed up the margin boards I had installed ...and cut out the matching reference holes! I didn't notice what I had done until I had finished the quarterdeck planking and was half done with the forecastle deck planking. 

 

I filled in the holes with some 1.0 mm maple (thick enough to fill the space but not interfere with the reference tabs from the frames). The quarterdeck margin boards will be covered by another piece anyway, only a little bit will show. The forecastle repair will show a little more, but it's only in the margin board and there will likely be enough busy stuff going on the deck to distract from it. I don't think it will show much in the end. Oh well, it could have been a bigger error, and not hard to recover from. 

 

Here are the two decks installed...

And I'll leave you with a picture of the current state of the build...

That catches you up for the last couple weeks of work. The doors and windows took some "trial and error" effort to come up with something I was happy with, but I think it was worth the effort. 

 

Next, it's on to the installation of the bulwarks.

 

Rob

[RossR]

I am really impressed with your doors and the windows.  The decks are also impressive.  

[RobTBay]

Thanks @RossR! Those doors and windows took a bit to trial and complete ...I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks they were worth the effort! 

 

Rob

Edited May 6, 2023 by RobTBay

[RobTBay]

Forming and installing the bulwarks.

 

The forward and aft couple of bulkhead frames required some sanding to make sure the shape of the bulwarks flowed nicely. This wasn't particularly hard, but I took my time and kept tweaking until I was satisfied.

 

The instructions/vidoes showed using a can as a form to bend the bulwarks. Rather than trial and error bending around a single round form, I thought it would be better to have a form that was the correct shape for the bulwarks. I printed out a piece of the plans (at full plan scale) and pasted it onto a scrap piece of 2x6 pine. Then cut it out on the bandsaw along the line of the bulwark in the plan to make the form. I only really needed the form for the bow portion of the bulwarks, since the rest has very little curve to it and was easy to bend into place without any straining.

Then came the soaking of the plywood part. This step made me a little bit nervous. Getting plywood wet is generally considered the way to delaminate plywood! However, the instructions called for a 20 minute soak, which is what people seem to do successfully in their build logs. Trying to bend the dry plywood to the form would very likely have caused it to crack, it needs the wood to be softened up a little to take the bend. So, soak it I did. I only put the bow section of the bulwark in the water, since that is the only part I was going to bend on the form. Then I generously clamped it to the form and used a heat gun to dry it back out again and set the new shape while still clamped. Once I completed the first bulwark, I flipped the pine form and did the second bulwarks with the curve in the opposite direction.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the bulwark once it came off the form, it kept the shape perfectly. Which means it took very little clamping pressure to install the bulwarks on the ship. I just used modified binder clips to hold it in place at each bulkhead and a little bit of painters tape to ensure it stayed exactly where I wanted it.

And a picture of the two bulwarks installed...

 I was dreading this step a bit. But in the end, it went smoothly, and I didn't encounter any problems.

 

Next step is to decide whether I'm going to add a waterway detail or not along the deck/bulwark joint first, or just move straight to planking the inside of the bulwarks as in the instructions?

 

Rob 

Edited May 6, 2023 by RobTBay

[RobTBay]

Adding the waterway along the join between the deck and the bulwark was on my wish list of things to add to the model. Not sure why this one got in my head, I just thought that it would be a nice detail that would add a touch of additional realism, which often didn't seem to be done ...maybe for a reason!

 

From Marquardt's Anatomy of the Ship drawings (see below) the waterway would form the final deck plank (margin plank) or the base of the bulwark depending on how you look at it.

I wasn't going to try and incorporate that additional profile height into the margin plank on the deck ...maybe someday when I'm up to doing scratch builds, but for this one I felt it was just a slight reach beyond my capabilities to pull off. Therefore, I was going to add it after the deck and bulwark planking was done. However, I got the idea that it would look better if it was installed before the bulwark planking, and then the bulwark planking could come down to meet it cleanly ...and hopefully make it look more like the integrated piece it's supposed to be, rather than added on at the end.

 

I created a tiny 1.3 mm x 0.8 mm maple strip to match the deck planks. Then I used a #11 knife blade to scrape off the corner of the strip to make the profile almost triangular. I tried cutting off the corner along the strip, and then sanding off the corner, both of which left it a little rough without a nice straight edge. I eventually used the test piece I made way back when I was figuring out how I would do the deck planking. The test planking had been stuck on a piece of scrap plywood which provided a nice backstop which I could then hold the #11 blade perpendicular to and draw the strip through the gap. Then I just kept slowly moving the blade a little closer to the backstop and drawing the strip through until I achieve the desired profile.

Installing the waterways along the main deck was no problem, since there was very little curve and the tiny piece bent laterally enough that it went in without even needing to be clamped. The pieces at the bow on the foredeck was another matter. They would have snapped if I tried to bend them laterally into place. So, I built another form just like I did for bending the bulwarks (just in 1/4" plywood this time). 

I then soaked the waterway piece to allow them the flexibility to be bent to the form and clamped it in place, using smaller clamps this time so that I didn't crush the tiny pieces. Once they were dried and set using the heat gun, it came off the form and held the lateral bend matching the form just nicely. I then flipped the form and did the waterway for the other side.

Since they were formed to the bulwark shape, they installed without a hitch. I did use a couple of small clamps to make sure they didn't move while the glue dried, but they was no real stress on them to install. And here are a couple of pictures of the waterways installed.

Once the bulwark planks are installed, the waterways won't appear quite as wide.

 

I think that worked out pretty well! Now on to the bulwark planking.

 

Rob

 

[RobTBay]

Bulwark interior planking complete! I went with thinner boards than provided in the kit, 3.5 mm width (to reflect Marquardt's drawings) rather than the provided 5.0 mm strips. I still used the provided sycamore strips, just cut them down. I wasn't worried about the bit of wastage since I had planked the deck with maple rather than the provided sycamore, so there was lots of sycamore strips remaining.

 

I stained the planking with the same thinned down ochre brown I used for the forecastle and quarterdeck bulkheads. I noticed that in the instructions they never stain the plywood edges in the gunports. Some of that plywood is still exposed in the final assembly. I think the kit is relying on the sycamore and plywood being a similar colour and choosing not to complicate things. Me, I can't seem to resist complicating things!  Also, since I stained the planking, leaving the plywood unstained would really stand out! So, I put a bit of the same thinned down ochre brown on the interior edges of the gunports. I'm guessing I will likely have to do a bit of touchup before I'm done, but at least they have been stained at least once while it's still easy to do.

 

Here is an overview picture and a couple of close up shots of the bulwarks (and waterway detail)... 

I'm happy with the final look of the added waterway at the deck/bulwark join now that the bulwark planking is complete. It took a bit more work, but it adds that bit of detail and hides an obvious joint line.

 

And here is one final picture of where the build is at so far...

Now, on to prepping and planking the hull! As I work on sanding the frame bulkheads, I'll also be reading up on hull planking (and watching the videos) from the forum. I'm going to do my best to do it the "proper" way!   

 

Rob

[RobTBay]

Preparing the hull for planking! And no, I didn't completely drop off the forum ...just had a busy summer. I did spend some of that time pondering how I'll be planking the hull, since I'm not planning on using the OcCre method. I should go back and review the planking videos and articles on the forum before really getting stuck in to the planking.

 

On a few build logs (not necessarily just Beagle builds) I noticed that sometimes the bulkhead spacing near the bow and stern can cause the planks to bend at an odd angle as they cross over the bulkhead. So, I figure I'm going to need more support between the bulkheads to keep the planks running on a smooth flow. Of course, pre-bending the planks should also help with that a lot. But do I fill in the spaces with solid wood, or just add additional filler bulkheads? I'm thinking at the moment I like the idea of adding bulkheads. So, I built a few pieces to test fit the idea, see if I like the results.

 

I took the remains of the parts sheet for the bulkheads and traced the outline of two subsequent bulkheads on top of each other, and then added some additional lines by eye to create in-between pieces. Since they will be sanded down anyway, as long as they are slightly oversized, the actual dimensions of each only needs to be close (absolute accuracy not essential). I'm only really concerned about the first and last couple of bulkhead spacings where most of the extreme bending will be occurring (and of course at the very bow as well). The rest I figure should not be a problem (I hope ).

 

Here is an image of the pieces just test fitted, and then a closer view of the bow and stern.

I still have a little bit of adjusting to do to the pieces, but that's the idea. However, I got to thinking that maybe I should thicken the shims at the bottoms, and on each edge of the bulkheads in the bow section as well? 

Which I think I will do. I'm also wondering if I need all those additional support bulkheads, perhaps where I had three, two would do, etc.?

I may still add that angled bulkhead piece at the bow, or maybe just fill it in entirely. What do you all think, more or fewer ...or just go solid wood?? I'm thinking at the moment to add the additional shim pieces and go with one less additional bulkhead support in each section (at least at the bow end, the stern will probably still get two), more like the last picture above but with the additional shims added at the bottoms. Thoughts?

 

Feels good to be back at the workbench! 

 

Rob

[The Gimps Chimp]

Hi Rob,  Good to see you back working on the Beagle.  I too have extended periods away from the hobby as life sometimes gets in the way  

 

My thoughts on the bulkhead filler would be to fit the fillers in the forward two bulkhead spaces at the bow and the rear most space at the stern.  I don't think the others will help you much.  Having said that, if you have them cut it won't hurt to fit them now.

 

I struggled a little when I did my first planking and wish I had fitted fillers.  The first result wasn't pretty but with wood filler and sanding it came out okay.  After the second planking was fitted you would never know what mess lay beneath it.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

Chimp

 

 

[RobTBay]

Thanks Chimp. I’m trying to do as clean a first layer as possible, partly just as practice for the more visible second layer. But you’re right, the first layer is about defining the shape of the hull …as long as you get there, it doesn’t completely matter how. 🙂Having said that, I’m still striving for using as little wood filler as possible. Mostly just to see if I can.

 

I’m kind of thinking that the number or completeness of the filler bulkhead pieces may be less critical than just putting some kind of filler in the first and last two existing bulkhead sections. Some approaches might be better than others, but anything is better than nothing!

 

Back to the workbench, and see what I come up with! 

Rob

[JFMJr]

On 3/9/2023 at 1:55 PM, Whitebeard said:

Hey, thanks for posting your update. Like I said before, I admire your precision and attention to detail, ans the fact that you're making your own pieces rather than relying on the kit in total. When it comes to the deck paint question, I only washed my decks with some linseed oil and airbrushed it with some satin varnish, worked nicely (here it is half-painted for comparison before adding one final plank to the front).

I totally get your idea with the doors (Not Jim Morrison's)...I've made mine as well, though at the time I still made the bits and bobs by hand. Now I'd just design them and 3d print them like I did with the canons and other smaller elements.

The kit guns and  other kit details are quite low quality in my opinion. If you'd like, I can send you the stl files  for print.  

Looks great. Not that far along yet on my Beagle. You guys ahead of me are a great help!