HMS Diana 1794 by DaveBaxt - Caldercraft - 1:64

[DaveBaxt]

Small progress due to another leave of absence ( holliday). Cut out the sections for the scuttles and oars so that the doors would lie flush with the hull and also the 4" scuppers . I only fitted the 3 forward ones as I thought I would ensure the main mast chainplates were fitted to try and miss these if possible. Regards the hinges for the doors, the ones supplied are far to flimsy but managed to find some extra ones left over from my Endeavour kit which is the same 1:64 scale so a bit of improvement I think. I am also in the process of gluing the upper focastle drift rail but still need to make the decorative scroll out of boxwood as per the quarter deck drift rail. Some cleaning and touching up of paintwork is required. 

Edited October 25, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Rudder, Pintles and rudder brackets..I made a new rudder from 5 mm boxwood  as the top of the rudder above the copper plates  would be visible rather than the  supplied rudder made from walnut . I also tapered the rudder as per the stern post .I also made my own pintles from boxwood rather than use the castings supplied by Caldercraft as I had a lot of problems with these when I used them on my Endeavour build. A big improvement but still far from perfect . Even though I fitted the pintles individually I still had some issues with the copper plates stopping the rudder from moving so ended up removing the tiles from the inner edge of the rudder to allow free movement. I then painted the rudder edge with Dark Star, aged copper acrylic  paint . I also painted the rudder brackets the same colour to simulate a bronze alloy rather than blackened brass. See my question posted regarding  the effect of electrolysis  on Iron brackets when copper plates are fitted to the hull.

I found this part of the build quite difficult and time consuming but eventually got there. I still need to refit a number of tiles which became loose in the process. I also need to touch up a few areas of weathering the copper tiles.

I still need to fashion a spectacle plate but as yet have not come up with anything satisfactory wiithout resorting to soldering so looking for some ideas. Anyone?

Edited November 7, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[Gregory]

Looks really good!

[AJohnson]

Nice upgrade Dave. 

[allanyed]

18 hours ago, DaveBaxt said:

I made a new rudder from 5 mm boxwood  as the top of the rudder above the copper plates  would be visible rather than the  supplied rudder made from walnut . I also tapered the rudder as per the stern post

Love it!!!   It is great to see you are going a step beyond and not settling.    

Allan

[DaveBaxt]

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

Love it!!!   It is great to see you are going a step beyond and not settling.    

Allan

Thank you Allan and to everyone for their kind likes and replies. I am trying, but do find a lot of the upgrades difficult and don,t turn out as well as I hoped but hopefully some improvment on each previous build I have done.

          Fasioned a spectacle plate out of copper plate and then lightly blackened.

Edited November 8, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[allanyed]

Dave,

What did you use to blacken the copper?   

Allan

 

 

[DaveBaxt]

13 hours ago, allanyed said:

Dave,

What did you use to blacken the copper?   

Allan

 

 

I just used  Birchwood Casey Brass black . I think most gun stockists have it here in the Uk. I think it works quite well with copper as well as brass and easy to control the depth of blackening. I do however always soak the copper in acertone before blackening and even pickle it if it will fit in my cooking pot, more so with brass.. It is quite expensive for a small bottle but i water it down using distilled water and goes a long way. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[allanyed]

I like BC for brass as well.  For copper I have been using diluted liver of sulfur as I can blacken it after it is in place without worry about scratching the surface during installation.   Another plus is that LoS does not stain the wood and a quick rinse/wipe down with a wet paper towel is all that is needed for once it has been applied to the part.  Wish it worked on brass as well.   

 

Allan

Edited November 9, 2023 by allanyed

[DaveBaxt]

2 hours ago, allanyed said:

I like BC for brass as well.  For copper I have been using diluted liver of sulfur as I can blacken it after it is in place without worry about scratching the surface during installation.   Another plus is that LoS does not stain the wood and a quick rinse/wipe down with a wet paper towel is all that is needed for once it has been applied to the part.  Wish it worked on brass as well.   

 

Allan

Cheers Allan. I have tried to get LOS here in the UK but found it prohibitively expensive. If you say you can use it on the model and wipe off  after use, then perhaps it is time to have another look and see what's available. Being able to blacken the copper plates after the copper plates are in place  would in my view be a game changer. I have not tested brass black on wood or paintwork to see what the effect would be but I might give it a try.  If it oxides brass/ copper then expect it would be corrosive butI am unsure of the processes involved as chemistry is not my strong point.Thanks again for another great tip.

[DaveBaxt]

I am almost at the point of 9 months since starting this project and as the winter is almost upon us ( or it seems like it anyway) here in the uk, it is time I stopped working on the Diana in my garage,which is draughty and cold and return to finishing off the rigging on my Endeavour build. However before I do switch projects I would like to continue a little longer on the Diana and finish off the head rails. As I understand this is probably the most difficult part of the build so would like to complete this so that I won,t be jumping into the deep end on my return in possibly 6 months time.

        I have  Re fitted the stem post which after breaking off at the gammonning hole at some time in the past( Planking) and I left it off until I had filed out the hole for the Bowsprit which according to Lees book  'The Masting and rigging of English ships of war' and my calculations is 11mm dia at the widest part.( This was worked out from 1794 and not upto 1794 and this works out the same as the AOTS Diana., I  will not be using the Ramin dowels supplied by Caldercraft as it is my intention of making the masts from square boxwood stock.

Head rails

         After removing several parts from the walnut and plywood sheets ( see photo below) It is clear that some of these parts are at least on the flimsy side and at worst the incorrect size or shape. Perhaps my hull is not the exact shape so I have therefore decided to make as many of these as possible from boxwood. 

First I found that the upper and lower cheeks weren't long enough so fashioned 4 of these and shaped them to fit the hull and stem post and then roughly cut out the upper and lower rails as these will need to be modified in an attempt to make them similar to the rails fitted to the hull

I also need to paint the Figure head which is suggested in the following photo.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[dunnock]

I made most of the headworks from scratch.  It took me a long time and several attempts but it's worth keeping at it.

David 

[DaveBaxt]

10 hours ago, dunnock said:

I made most of the headworks from scratch.  It took me a long time and several attempts but it's worth keeping at it.

David 

Thank you David for your reply. I have been looking at your build log and think you have made a cracking job on the head rails. Thanks to your good self and others such as DavidEN and Beef Wellington I have eventually got my head around how it all comes together but found the drawings on both the Caldercraft instructions and the AOTS drawings very difficult to understand. I have already made a few mistakes and will need to make some of the boxwood parts a gain so I see where you are coming from.

Edited November 15, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

 

Continuing with the head rails and  stem . You can see there is something not quite working out with the gammonning knee. I can see from Dunnocks Diana blog that this needs to be thinner and a different shape altogether so proceeded to make a new one from boxwood.

Another problem I have noticed when placing the gammoning knee in position that the bowsprit hole is too low and this is confirmed when try to fit  the figure head in position and a 10mm dowel in the bowsprit hole. I could have swore that I had allowed for ths figure head when drilling the hole earlier in the build. Here is a reminder.

I have spent some time removing the rails from the bow in orde to sort out this problem with the bowsprit hole and I decided to blug the hole with a 10mm dowel and filler. Eventually after securing the ship as level as possible using a frame, I managed to drill a hole using a long 10mm drill bought for this purpose at an angle of 20 degrees( copied from the AOTS drawing) and this time it looks to be inline with the stem post and at the correct height. Here is the drilling in action.

The above work has held me up somewhat but needed doing. I now need to clean up the paint work and replace the rails  on the bow. I have managed to make some progress with the head rails but have found this very frustrating but have kept at it . The main problem I was having was trying different methods to get the correct decorative relief on the rails but after several attempts I don,t think I could come up with anything better than just using this tool.  

Here I tried to make one with a shaper which looked ok ( before painting) but did not turn out too well and did not look similar to other models .I also tried using modellers masking tape which was not great so ended up going free hand which is the best I can do

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[RossR]

Very impressed with your jig for drilling the hole for the bow sprit.  I find that step very nerve racking.  

[No Idea]

38 minutes ago, RossR said:

Very impressed with your jig for drilling the hole for the bow sprit.  I find that step very nerve racking.  

Me too what a great jig you made - Lovely work!

[DaveBaxt]

41 minutes ago, RossR said:

Very impressed with your jig for drilling the hole for the bow sprit.  I find that step very nerve racking.  

Thank you for your reply RossR.and No Idea. I know I feel the same way. very nearvy I took me a full day to figure out and build the frame but it was worth while in the end as and I am quite pleased with the result.

Edited November 25, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[AJohnson]

Excellent work Dave your scratch built head details will be much better, you “Diana” builders certainly seem to be put through it, trying to wrangle this kit into shape. I always had Diana on my wants list, but think I’m going to wait for Vanguard models to do a frigate; either Surprise and/or the others Chris has mentioned like Phoebe or Amphion. 

[DaveBaxt]

5 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

Excellent work Dave your scratch built head details will be much better, you “Diana” builders certainly seem to be put through it, trying to wrangle this kit into shape. I always had Diana on my wants list, but think I’m going to wait for Vanguard models to do a frigate; either Surprise and/or the others Chris has mentioned like Phoebe or Amphion. 

Thank you for your comments Andrew.You have a wise head on your shoulders going with Vanguard as this is the most difficult one I have tried building so far but so far enjoying the challenge that it brings,  but not every day haha.

[allanyed]

19 hours ago, RossR said:

Very impressed with your jig for drilling the hole for the bow sprit

Me too.  Lot of work, but it gets the job done right,  kudos!

[DaveBaxt]

3 minutes ago, allanyed said:

Me too.  Lot of work, but it gets the job done right,  kudos!

Thank you Allan for your kind words.

[DaveBaxt]

A little progress with regards the head section and rails. I managed to get all three of the animals onto the sides but not in the same order as the Caldercraft drawing as I had to place the thinner dog in the middle so that it would fit under the gammoning hole. Although most of the parts are made from boxwood , I did however use the supplied four timber heads.. I have glued these into position as per instructions but also pinned them to give extra strength to the srem post which had previously broken off and thought it might need a bit of added strength. Hopefully I will not regret this if the timber head sections require replacing for whatever reason.

          Unfortunately the decorative side pieces didn't turn out as well as I hoped, I didn't have much joy using the yellow Tamiya masking tape after sealing the wood with shellac  and after several attempts I eventually ended up painting them by free hand . The section of upper sheer rails still require replacing but think I can leave this until the head section is complete. I also need to touch up the paint work on the figure head and other sections of the bow.

UnUnfortunateU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Continuing with middle rail and cant wash, I used 1.5mm square boxwood for the middle rail. I also managed to turn the supplied upper and lower walnut cheeks into the wash cants and taking the approximate sizes from the AOTS Diana book.

                 Moving onto the Cat head cat head supporter and Ekeing and again i think I will make these from boxwood.Acording to the Caldercraft drawing there is quite large differences in the setting angles of the cat heads than the angles depict in the 'The construction and fitting of the sailing man of war 1650 to 1850' by Peter Goodwin who has 45 deg fom the center line and 15 to 20 deg from the horizontal. The Caldercraft and AOTS has these at 55 deg and 20 deg respectively. I think 20 degs should be ok but wonder if 15 deg would be better. I however think that 55 deg should be ok and wonder if I changed this would give me problems with stowing the anchors at a later date. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Edited December 12, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

Another big thank you to dunnock,DavidEN and Beef Wellington for helping me with their Diana build logs and getting me through  a number of issues with the head  rail assembly.  Once again I used boxwood for the various parts including the catheads and  cat head supporters and cathead knee. I temporarily made up a section of decking and using 1mm walnut and planked this small section to ensure I had the correct positions of the catheads when making the cathead supports and also enabled me to fit the Ekeing and lower rail too. I used a 1mm milling cutter for the cat head reeve slots rather than using thin strips  as depict in the Caldercraft plans. I then touched the paint work between the sheer rails and replaced the sheer rails and when the glue dried I removed the necessary sections from the sheer rails to fit the Cat head supporters. 

        Next up is the Main and false rails  the kit parts come as one piece but don,t think the main rail will make a good job so will make this out of boxwood. I will then attempt to modify the combined Main and false rail by removing the head rail and discarding it. AS the false rail is painted black , I think this walnut section can be used.

 

   

 

 

 

Phew ! Almost complete. It has taken me almost a month of work on the head section  alone to get thus far and was definately the biggest challenge so far. Just the grating pieces to make out of boxwood , seat of ease and to finish off some fittings on the catheads. The combined cathead together with the knee and supporter are not yet glued into position as I will need to remove these to gain access to remove the temporary section of decking and fit the upper deck at a much later stage. 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

A 5 mm lime dowel was used for the seats of ease and drilled with a 3.5 mm drill. I did not use the supplied parts for the grating as the slots were very fine but used the origonal section for the out size dimensions and used 2.7 square boxwood sanded down to 2mm square for the frame and 1mm square boxwood for the ledges and the same for the actual grating pieces. Although the finished piece is different than the actual Caldercraft plans but apart from the paint work which could have been better I am fairly happy with my first attempt manufacturing my own parts out of boxwood and scratch building this part of the build. Lining up port & stbd  recesses for Boomkins were slightly out so will need to correct this at some later stage.

I am really glad to have completed this part of the build as this is the first time I have attempted to make my own head rails and other parts out of boxwood. I have made a number of mistakes and I have had to compromise with a the grating and seats of ease etc but on the whole I think it has been an improvement on the supplied kit parts and looks reasonable from a normal viewing distance. Hopefully as I continue with the build I will find the next bit easier going.

Edited December 21, 2023 by DaveBaxt

[dunnock]

Looks very good Dave and a big improvement on the kit parts

 

David

[DaveBaxt]

Hatch coamings ,gratings and ladders

Moving onto the above and other deck fittings. I used boxwood for the hatch coaminngs and used the supplied gratings. I stained the coamings dark using a mahogony stain to give some contrast with the gratings then sealed them using a varnish , however this run into the graings and darkened them somewhat so will probably replace these at a later date.

              I also used the kit supplied parts for the step runners and 1x 4 mm walnut for the actual steps then used walnut for the shot garlands and using a forming cutter for the recesses.I distroyed the largest of the steps when trying to fit a middle runner so will need to make a new one. I intend to cut the middle runner on my Proxxon Fet bench saw using a 1.1mm wide cutting disc and hopefully this will make it easier to fit.

Clamping the steps into the runners. 

 

 

temporarily positioned coamings with shot garlands and showing gratings and steps

 

coamings without gratings and another set of steps

Whilst waiting for some more gratings to come from caldercraft and some more side runners for the steps, I have been looking at the Riding Bitts. I intend to use boxwood for these and take the sizes from the AOTS book. Looking at some of the other builds of these I can see a number of builders have painted the cross beam on the forward half  only and can only wonder why. Other than it looks rather grand is there any other reason for this perhaps the paint would just wear off due to the anchor ropes rubbing on the bits but then why not leave the paint off altogether. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

                 

 

 

     

 

Edited January 9 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

After further consideration of the Riding bitts and comparing the AOTS drawings and those supplied by RMG there are clearly  a few differences. The first two drawings are from the MRG site and the last drawing is a copy of the drawing from  AOTS Diana. Looking at the side profile drawing( second drawing down, the cross beams and pins of both fore and aft riding bits look similar in size ( cross section). However the AOTS Diana drawing clearly shows that the forward riding bits are smaller than the aft ones.(cross section).

Unfortunately when looking at the first drawing from MRG this does not confirm the above  either way. At least I can't tell either way. The cross beam looks to be the same (cross section) but are not as wide and the  fore standard is shorter than the aft one. Therefore my conclusion is that . Perhaps the both fore and aft bits would be identical had they not come up agains the fore  jeer bitts. I am still not convinced either way which is correct and can see from a few Diana builds that they have made the fore riding bits smaller so  wonder if I am wrong in thinking the sections are the same for both the fore and aft riding bits. Unfortunately Caldercraft have decided to only supply one set of riding bitts and even these look to be too small in section . I will start making the aft riding bitts from 6mm boxwood sheet and perhaps by the time I am ready to move onto tmaking the fore riding bitts, somone can come up with what is the general practice. For the record the book' The Construction and fitting of the sailing Man Of War 1650~1850' by Peter Goodwin. States that the construction of the riding biits are the same but unfortunately does not mention the sizes.

 

Edited January 9 by DaveBaxt

[DaveBaxt]

                  Completed fore and aft riding bitts. Pinned the back beam as well as glued using PVA and very fine pins.Thinking of using  ply wood for the stove floor tiles. Unsure of the thickness which will depend upon the height of the chimney in relation to the deck above. I am thinking of framing this piece of wood and might score the wood to look like tiles. Unsure of the thickness of wood required for this as I have used the Brodie stove supplied by Vanguard which is an upgrade on the Caldercraft supplied parts and may need to adjust this hieght to get the right height above the upper deck. Any ideas on the correct thickness of this flooring would be greatly appreciated. I have primed the stove with white primer as I have no black primer at hand and will air brush this when  I have attched the various brass parts I have replaced the grating for the origonal light colour which is what i have hoped for and sealed them using Liberon sand & sealer which worked better than shellac or varnish as these  just seemed to darken them more than I would have liked.

                   According the Caldercraft instructions next up is assembing the 18Lb gun carrages and associated fittings  but I might deviate from this somewhat and inbetween and finish off some more gun deck fittings such as capstan, bilge pumps and binicle and manger etc cl

 

Edited January 14 by DaveBaxt

[No Idea]

Looks great Dave - I think I would make the floor as you see fit in a thickness that makes the job easy.  The reason I say that is because of the stoves location if it's too high you can reduce the height of the stove simply by sanding its base.  No one would know but you and I don't think it would alter the finished article at all.  I think there's plenty of alteration to suit your needs - keep the updates coming