HMS Berwick 1775 by bruce d - 1/192nd scale - Navy Board style

[bruce d]

Many people look upon the Navy Board style models of Donald McNarry and Philip Reed as works of art. I am one of those people.

Here is an example of the ‘Philip Reed Navy Board style’ in 1/192^nd scale:

In his book ‘Building a Miniature Navy Board Model’ he tells what is necessary and shows the often counter-intuitive steps in a logical order. It was only when I considered building one that I recognized his skill as a modeler is matched by his ability to describe and demonstrate his methods.  After I read, re-read and generally immersed myself in his process I was impressed with his brevity in explaining an intricate process.

For better or worse, I decided to attempt building a model in this style.

                                                               -

Subject: HMS Berwick 1775, an English 74 gun third rate of the Elizabeth class designed by Slade and built at Portsmouth. She fought at Ushant and Dogger Bank, was captured by the French in 1795 and served them under the name Berwick. She was re-captured by the Royal Navy at Trafalgar and three days later foundered in a storm while being returned to England.

J2632, one of the HMS Berwick NMM plans:

Length on gundeck: 168’ 6” (51.36m)

Beam: 47’ (14.3m)

Scale: 1/192, which is 1/16^th inch to the foot.

This gives a length on gundeck of 268mm and beam of 75mm, a.k.a. 10.55 inches and 2.95 inches.

Material: Hull main components are Swiss Pear, upperworks will be lime, contrasting woods where appropriate.

Plans: There are several plans of Elizabeth class ships in the NMM collections, including Berwick, and there is also the contract for sister ship Bombay Castle. I used the hi-res plans for the framing of her sister-ship HMS Resolution in the Wikimedia.commons site (Category:Ship plans of the Royal Museums Greenwich - Wikimedia Commons) as the basis for the hull. The Danish Archives also have an alternate view of the same ship in hi-res and the two agree. I am indebted to MSW member Martes for generously sharing his digital renderings of an Elizabeth class ship.

Digital tweaking was carried out with PhotoSuite on various plans to incorporate features needed for the model. The side view is too large for my home printer so two sets incorporating the full hull were produced to scale at a local reprographic company; the 27 hull stations and everything else were produced on my printer.

 

If you have Philip Reed’s book, please refer to it. If not, here is a bare-bones explanation: the idea is to carve the hull out of slices of wood glued face to face.   

These ‘slices’ from which the model is made are cut to the appropriate profile for the hull station before assembly. Once the collection of slices is glued together the basic shape of the hull is revealed. Each slice then becomes an individual frame/futtock by a process of assembly, un-gluing and reworking, re-gluing and fairing and so on. During one of the stages, while the shaped frame sections are disassembled, the inside line of the futtock shape is drawn on each piece and the waste wood in the centre is removed. After this step is complete and the pieces re-assembled, the beginning of the ‘navy board’ look begins to emerge. The keel, deadwood and deck beams all have equally oblique paths to completion but that comes later.

 

One more look at his work before I get onto my build.  Here is a glimpse from midway through the construction of Philip Reed’s Mordaunt:

The first hurdle quickly becomes obvious. The ‘slices’ which started as solid pieces of wood became futtocks after they are first assembled. The thickness of the slices is crucial to the outcome because their size must exactly match the scale thickness of the timber on the original. If too thin, the model will be short; too thick and the model will be too long. To amplify, if the model requires for example 100 timbers then you need 100 vertical pieces of wood (let’s stop calling them slices now). When glued face to face, if the pieces are 0.1mm too thick then 0.1 x 100 = 10mm too long. That’s nearly a ½ inch to my friends in North America. Whether metric or Imperial a 10mm/ ½ inch error is a bad thing at 1/192 scale. So, as Philip Reed says in ‘the book’, you have to establish this dimension by trial and error. It is simply not an option to rely on a calculation and procure wood based on that figure but you can’t check without wood to perform the test so … clearly the final milling of the wood to the finished dimension can’t go ahead until the trial and error test is successful (photos below show the test process). This complicates matters if ordering wood from a supplier and I had no practical solution other than to mill the wood myself.

To test, mill a piece of wood to the desired thickness according to your best guess. Ten small sections of this wood are glued together face-to-face and lightly clamped in a vice. When cured, the combined thickness is compared to the scale plans of the framing. It is either right or wrong, no half measures.

After four attempts, it turns out that the correct thickness for my purposes is 2.2mm (.087”). I was able to achieve this +/- .1mm consistently so I felt confident but took one extra step to keep things within spec: all blanks were graded and the thick, the thin and the spot-ons were sorted. More on this later.

The actual milling of the wood is a major part of this build but it feels right to keep the two subjects apart so I will start a separate thread on my milling adventures. For now, I will skim through the milling and get to the  model-making. Warning: sawdust ahead.

 

Bruce

 

[bruce d]

I am using Swiss Pear for the hull. There are 27 hull sections and four frames in each. From my available stock I could produce rectangles 50 x 44 mm which means the majority of the frames will be made from two of these blanks side by side.

 

First steps in milling from blocks of Swiss Pear:

Rough cut: they were then put through my shop-made thicknesser.

 

Ready to cut to size on the Byrnes saw.

 

… and then the blanks are sorted.

 ______

 

There are twenty-seven hull sections:

 

Each hull section was printed on card and cut carefully to shape.

The red line on the card is lined up with the top (short) edge of a blank and the centre-line aligned with the long edge. The importance of a perfect 90 degree corner here will be evident soon. Using the card as a guide the shape is transferred to the pear blank with a mechanical pencil. Note the grain runs vertically.

The blank is immediately marked with the profile name to avoid mistakes. 

 

This marked blank is now used as the top in a stack of four blanks, held together with blue painter’s tape/CA glue. This avoids getting any glue on the wood. If you don’t know the tape/CA trick, here’s how it works:

Put blue painter’s tape on the two surfaces opposite each other.

Put a few small dabs of CA on one of the tape surfaces and bring the two together, aligning carefully. I make a stack of four with the middle two having tape on both sides and the result is perfectly stable for scroll sawing. The painter’s tape leaves no residue when removed. I don’t bother with a CA accelerator since I want a moment to ensure things are lined up before the CA grabs.

Clamp or use weights as in pic below. I may have gone a little over the top with the weights.

(Since these photos were taken I now glue-up two stacks of four at once with no problems.)

Once the CA has cured you can handle the assembly like it was one piece and as long as you can avoid lateral pressures they will stay in line.

 

Bruce

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by bruce d

[bruce d]

The four are now cut to shape in one operation on the scroll saw and set aside still attached to each other.

The final shaping is done with a small drum sander.

... and checked. 

… and immediately put away before I can do any harm.

 

By the way, this is my new favourite tool. Seriously, it makes me giggle it is so good. Tool review to follow.

____

 

Next is the building board.

 

Bruce

 

 

[mtaylor]

Looks like this will be a neat project.   I'm in.  Now go get some popcorn.

[allanyed]

VERY nice start.  I am on for the entire trip.  Mark, please be ready to share the popcorn.

Allan

[druxey]

Nice beginning. I smiled when you showed your Dremel scroll saw. My first power tool back in about 1969 was an early Dremel. While it did the job, it vibrated so much that my fingers tingled for 20 minutes after each frame cutting session! Hopefully the modern version has improved.

[bruce d]

11 hours ago, druxey said:

Nice beginning. I smiled when you showed your Dremel scroll saw. My first power tool back in about 1969 was an early Dremel. While it did the job, it vibrated so much that my fingers tingled for 20 minutes after each frame cutting session! Hopefully the modern version has improved.

This one?

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I have a stack of Swiss Pear on standby.

[Jaager]

Bruce,

We discussed this, but seeing what you are doing, I have a solution to your cross grain problem.  It will require some do over though.
You are framing using the classic Navy Board style?   An over size floor timber?  A F1 that is actually F1 +F3?
This is all bends with any spaces within each frame and no spaces between the bends.
Frame 1 is the floor and the top.
Frame 2 is F1.   
If you continue actual wood in F1 on above the overlap at the wale up to the rail,  the hull will be a wall of wood topside. 

This is much stronger, but must be planked over if an elegant look is the objective.

Cutting the ports is trickier with a solid wall.

 

Right now, you appear to be framing the stb side and the port side as separate units.

I am suggesting that this be done as the whole frame/bends/section of bends - or as I have termed it: sandwich.
I suggest that you continue frame 2 as you are doing it - as two mirrored pieces.  

Make frame 1 be two or even three pieces.
Frame 1 below the wale - a piece with horizontal grain - the grain running along the length of the floor. The piece will be as wide as the beam of the ship.
Above the wale - a separate piece of wood with the grain vertical - perpendicular to the bottom floor half - grain oriented along the length of the top.
The miser in me says that since the actual top is such a small portion, that section can be three parts. two outer pieces of Pear and a middle piece of junk wood.

This means that you will be shaping a complete section of bends as the whole.  -a horseshoe instead of a quarter circle- Getting at the inside will be more difficult in several ways.

 

 

[bruce d]

14 minutes ago, Jaager said:

Right now, you appear to be framing the stb side and the port side as separate units.

 

Thanks for the input. As for which method I am using, well, that is part of the attraction of the Reed/McNarry style. It can be seen in the third photo in my first post. In it, all the hull assembled so far consist of pieces that started out being a solid shape representing a portion of the hull and then, in the best manner of a sculptor, you chop away everything that doesn't look like framing. In the photo you can see some as yet unfinished pieces behind the partly finished hull. The centres have not yet been removed. Mine will look similar but instead of each frame being from one piece of wood it will be of two butt-jointed on the centre line and re-enforced by the next frame which is made of three pieces, one of which is glued across the bottom. 

The cross grain problems you offered advice on are (so far) not cropping up. Things got better when I settled on alternating solid pieces with smaller strips of the same thickness at right angles across the lower section. 

I hope you follow that jumbled description: if not, I should be bringing the first sets of parts together soon so watch this space.

[bdgiantman2]

I am going to follow this build, this ought to be very interesting. Have that book by Phillip Reed, as well as that same scroll saw. Amazing the details Mr. Reed was able to build into his models.

 

Brian D

[druxey]

It was this model, with a flex-shaft takeoff at the side. A real beater!

 

But, back to the subject. Philip Reed's books are excellent tutorials for making exquisite miniature models.

[bruce d]

Very brief update: it's begun!

[bruce d]

The building board.

This style of construction requires a  building board with distinct features.  It seems there are no rules (whew!) for what the finished building board should look like as long as those features are present and the whole thing is stout enough to take a surprising amount of handling, bracing, clamping and abuse.  Time will tell if/how mine can be improved.

What is needed is a flat surface with a raised piece, call it a ‘spine’, running lengthwise. The spine must be straight, of uniform dimensions and tough enough to survive the building process (coming soon). The frames of the model will be aligned horizontally on this spine so it should not be vulnerable to wear. At either end there must be a flat face, square to the board, for vertical alignment. One of these faces can be fixed but the other must be able to be positioned firmly anywhere along the spine.

The first board I made simply wasn’t going to be good enough. I haven’t included photos but I realised the material of the base and the spine were vulnerable to wear and knocks and I would end up in a mess. Cue some rethinking.

The Mk11 board, see below, has a much greater chance of keeping things straight as the hull is assembled, dis-assembled and re-assembled as is required in this building system.

To describe the beast: starting at the bottom, a dense chipboard cabinet door (the grey board) has one true straight long edge. Screwed to this is a section of laminate flooring, upside down, with truly parallel long sides. This is mounted off-set so one edge is flush with an edge of the bottom and the other creates a step giving a convenient place to mount a surface gauge.  The smooth flat surface of this upper piece forms the working surface of the ‘shipyard’ and will resist wood glues.

The accuracy of the spine is crucial to the alignment of the frames during construction as it is the constant reference as the various assembly/re-assembly processes unfold. A piece of cherry 5.5mm wide and 9mm high was clamped and weighted to ensure it was absolutely straight and central when epoxied to the laminate. It is a bit longer than the model and if I have thought this through correctly that extra length will be handy.

Painter’s tape kept the epoxy from grabbing the batten used for a straight-edge when clamping.

 

Checking: it worked.

The ugly assembly at one end has a flat face perpendicular to the baseboard surface and the centreline.

It is secured with a thumb-screw so it can be fettled back into position if it’s alignment is compromised.  A series of notches along the top will allow rubber bands to be used for clamping and I will add a few pegs if needed. The ‘working’ face is 20 thou ( .5mm ) white plasticard, stuck on with double-sided tape and easily replaced if damaged. Again, wood glue won’t adhere to this material.

 

At the other end of the board the lump of mahogany also presents a perpendicular face. It has a central groove to fit snugly over the spine and is square where it matters. The groove is long enough that it won’t twist in position.

A snug fit is needed. It turns out a bit of fettling was needed to relieve tight spots:

Test, test and test again. I will apply a touch of paste wax on the spine and in the groove.

I will work out the best way of clamping/binding the movable piece in position once I get started.

This arrangement may look clumsy and over-engineered but will remain stable on the bench. It will be possible to use a height gauge on all sides around the model as construction advances.  The removable end-pieces are my ‘security blanket’ as I hurtle towards the unknown.

 

Bruce

 

[BANYAN]

Hi Bruce, that's a good start.  My recommendation would be to use some 'T'-track on either side of the board (assuming the visible edges are straight and parallel?  You could use an underlying baseboard to secure it to rather than route into the existing board should you wish to go that path?  The parallel tracks can be further enhanced with a 90-degree knee (small square) behind the board to ensure it remains perpendicular, while the tracks would keep the board parallel with the central keel piece.

 

cheers

 

Pat 

[bruce d]

Hello Pat, 

Good points. I considered a T track system but stuck with the spine & straight edge design.

I was naively expecting to make the whole building board in minutes when I decided to tackle Berwick. The written words by Reed and McNarry just brush past this part and the more I looked at it the more I saw it as a 'make or break' part of the model. 

We'll see if I chose right!

Cheers,

Bruce 

[JohnLea]

On 6/8/2023 at 6:50 PM, bruce d said:

 

By the way, this is my new favourite tool. Seriously, it makes me giggle it is so good. Tool review to follow.

____

 

Next is the building board.

 

Bruce

 

 

Are you still planning a tool review?

[bruce d]

22 minutes ago, JohnLea said:

Are you still planning a tool review?

Hello John, yes, it will coincide with a particular step in the Berwick build (soon, I hope!).

[bruce d]

In post #12 I gave a teasing view of something that looked a little like a ship. It was made of the stacks of cut frame pieces seen at the end of post#3, just piled on edge in the right order. They remained stuck together, held by the CA & painter’s tape trick. It’s time to separate them and start some assembly.

 

The CA/tape method worked well. Here is a stack of four frames, still perfectly aligned:

 

Starting with a dull scalpel forced into one of the gaps, I ran it all the way around until the tape starts to give way. 

 

 

It opens like a clam:

The painter’s tape leaves no residue.

 

After peeling off whatever tape is left I immediately wrote the frame number on both sides of both pieces.

 

 

A thorough inspection of each piece revealed a couple of rejects caused by my over-doing the CA, leading to CA on the wood. As the centres of the frames will be removed later this is not a problem but during the earlier steps there can be no high-spots when the frames are glued together face to face. Here I am dealing with a small blob and lump of tape before sanding it level. If it is too large, I would discard the piece and make a replacement.

 

Next step is to glue two frame halves together with a butt joint. This is the jig for the assembly.

 

 

It is checked for square from time to time.

 

 

So, finally some assembly. The two frame halves with CA applied, pushed into position and held flat while the bond forms. There is a piece of non-stick paper between the jig face and the frames.

 

 

Success.

 

 

About a quarter of the frames done, notice there are a couple of duds, plus some of the thicknessed pear wood to be used in the next step.

 

Bruce

 

 

[bdgiantman2]

Your progress looks really good so far, Bruce. You also are at the place where I find myself in trouble most, getting the notch right for the building block - or with my case building a model of the Brig Eagle, the place where the keel and the keelson timbers will be connecting on the frames. 

[JohnLea]

I like the "This is what I have done." but I really really like "This is how I did it".  Thanks

[No Idea]

Bruce this is a fascinating build - I'm in!

[bruce d]

After a delay due to life-stuff, I am back in the fiddleyard.

 

Having made the frame half-sections in pairs and fours (post #3) and then butt-jointed two together to make a complete frame (post #18), I did some quality checking. 

A few assemblies failed inspection and were remade from spare stock.  I made about 50% more than needed when milling the Swiss pear to cover the learning curve but, so far, I have only had to remake four frames.  All pieces got a very light sanding, had their identifying marks freshened up after all that handling and checked one last time.  Once satisfied, it was time to cut the slot in each that would locate it accurately where it belonged on the building board.  As bdgiantman2 mentions above, this stage appears demanding. The slot in each frame piece must be dead centre and a good fit on the spine running centrally on the board; if not, any slop will show up later and cause headache and grief. Getting this right started with the fussy approach taken earlier to getting each of the half-frames aligned precisely in the assembly jig.

So, to business. The butt-jointed frames all have their centre-line at a perfect right angle to the straight line across the top, sort of visible in this photo:

In order to put the slot consistently in the same place on all (50+) frames a jig and fixture were needed.

The fixture first. It consists of two pieces of hardwood, sapele I believe, planed smooth, square and parallel; an offcut of Swiss pear as a spacer the same thickness as the frames to be held; and a thumbscrew and M6 wood insert. A couple of woodscrews finished it off.

 

The pear was sandwiched between the two pieces of hardwood and then, after predrilling, two woodscrews pull them together.

The assembly must sit flat without any rocking. I ran a plane along the bottom to make sure. In use, the threaded insert will be at the back on the right and the thumbscrew faces the operator. 

The gap between the pear spacer and the thumbscrew is large enough to accommodate the widest of Berwick’s frames. A line is permanently marked in this gap and a clearance slot on the bottom is scribed accurately on it.

This fixture, with a frame clamped in place, will slide right and left between two fixed stops. The saw is prepared by mounting my sexy auxiliary fence with a travel stop to limit travel to the left and the standard Byrnes fence to the right. Trial and error produced a good, snug fit. 

Cutting the slot, with the fixture at full travel to the right:

… and to the left:

 

The finished slot:

A test piece was aligned, clamped and passed back and forth over the blade. It worked well, the test piece fitted snugly on the spine:

Time to try it for real. Profile ‘L’ is one of the wider profiles. Line up the centre-line, re-tighten the left and right stops and go.

Viewed from below after cutting but before removing the workpiece:

 

 

I am happy with the fit and, as long as I am careful lining up the joint on the profile assemblies and don’t touch the locking screws on the stops, they should all be consistent.

Fifty-three to go.

[Jaager]

Would a clamping jig on a sliding table and a gang of slitting blades to make a dado be an easier solution?

[bruce d]

The advantage of using the adjustable stops is that I can make minute changes in seconds. This was useful when setting up but now it's locked. 

I performed a couple more tests than are shown and my guess is that each frame will take about two minutes to slot.

Now I'm curious. Maybe a separate thread asking has anyone here used a dado on their Byrnes?

[BANYAN]

I've never even seen a dado stack (blades) for that sized table Bruce - it will be interesting to see if anyone has.  I typically use my router for these tasks - putting a sacrificial piece of wood behind the piece being cut/routed protects it from chip-out keeping it all nice and clean looking.  I like your solution though, seems to work well.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited August 6, 2023 by BANYAN

[bdgiantman2]

I had a feeling that would be getting better results using a table saw to make those slots for where the ribs mount to the keel or for the building jig block. *SIGHS* I really wish I had the money to afford a table saw. Knew that the scroll saw wasn't accurate enough for those cuts

[bruce d]

How about a version of the fixture for the scollsaw?

[bruce d]

Update: I've remade a handful of frames and am plodding through the steps already described to get them into play.  The next step requires all frames to be present and correct.

In the meantime, I had a very pleasant visit to Royal Museums Greenwich (a.k.a. The National Maritime Museum).  The only plan of Berwick showing the stern decoration and figurehead, J2632, is not available online in hi-res and I am glad to say I was allowed to view the original.  The detail is superb and, I confess, more elaborate than I had imagined.  There was a 'what have I done?' moment but it passed.

For copyright compliance reasons I will not post the images taken directly from the original.  However, I have begun a crude process of digitally separating the components and looking for clues as to what was carved and what was painted.  It is based on J2632 but is modified enough to allow me to comfortably post it here.

This is work-in-progress, a tool to get me closer to the finished model and will evolve.  Plan A at the moment is to start on the stern decoration as soon as the re-drawing is completed, the figurehead later.

 

 

[bruce d]

Update:

I'm chipping away at the frames as time allows, will post photos when I reach a natural break.  

Also, work has begun on the fixture to hold work in progress for stern decorations. 

 

The Society of Model Shipwrights is linked with MSW as a chapter club.  A talk on building Berwick is now on their channel:

 

 

Bruce

[druxey]

Take each relief carving one at a time. Looking at the whole tafferel load at once is rather daunting!