HM Cutter Speedy 1828 by oakheart - from plans drawn by Bill Shoulders in 1972

[oakheart]

1 hour ago, Gregory said:

a little 'tapping' with hammer might be necessary.

I just made one, tapered as you suggested, works a treat, thanks again.

 

Tim

[oakheart]

I have decided to leave the 'welps' off for the moment.

Pleased with the way it looks

 

 

 

just noticed, I still need to line the gunports.....

 

Tim

 

[oakheart]

Managed to get a bit more done, winch and fife rail.

 

 

Ignore the wonky Belaying pins I have new ones in the post from Cornwall Model Boats.

 

 

the close up photograph really shows all the warts. I think a bit of fettling is in order.

 

Tim

 

There will be a bit of a break now as I have my eye surgery tomorrow, so will not do anymore till I can see straight again. 

[oakheart]

On 9/2/2024 at 4:52 PM, oakheart said:

eye surgery

Thanks for all the likes, means a lot.

Surgery went well, with just local anesthetic, I was  awake for the whole 3 hours. A very strange experience.

With one eye now sewn shut for some days, it's hard to judge distance and scale so don't think I will try and do any work on Speedy.

 

all the best

 

Tim

 

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

9 minutes ago, oakheart said:

A very strange experience.

With one eye now sewn shut for some days, it's hard to judge distance and scale so don't think I will try and do any work on Speedy.

Well,it sounds like it hasn't affected your brain anyway. 😁

 

10 minutes ago, oakheart said:

all the best

Likewise.

[oakheart]

7 minutes ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

it hasn't affected your brain anyway

Ha Ha - let's see on that score............... 🙂

 

Tim

[oakheart]

Having a lot of spare time over the last few weeks with nothing to do but listen to the radio was frustrating.

Becoming bored I instead found yet another rabbit hole to explore right here on MSW – scale rope making…..

 

Much reading and planning later,  I got so much good information from Phil Kroll, Delf @DelF, Dubz , Olha Batchvarov, Paul Nixon, vaddoc @vaddoc, gregory @Gregory, michael mott @michael mott, wefalck @wefalck,  dziadeczek @Dziadeczek, bob cleek @Bob Cleek, snug harbor johnny @Snug Harbor Johnny and of course Chuck @Chuck plus many others –

 

There is such a wealth of good information here.

https://modelshipworld.com/forum/82-discussions-about-rope-making/

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19706-gutermann-polyester-thread-for-making-rope/

 

Anyway after much bodging with parts found around the workshop, here is my 3 hook  rope walk and some sample ropes

 

the gears are from an old RC boat, the shafts run in simple brass tubes, all powered by a Como Drills hand piece running at about 900rpm

 

the bucket of nails weighs 150 grams

 

topper made from some plastic part from a dismantled ink jet printer.

 

The ropes shown here are all made from Gutermann Sew All polyester thread which is 0.1 mm dia.  the colour is No 265 ( warm fawn or wheat ) which looks similar to hemp or hessian rope, which I can get from both Dunelm and Hobbycraft locally. 100m for £2.50

I found I can make all the rope sizes I need from this single yarn, the recipes are:-
0.4mm  dia. : 1 x 3  ( that’s one thread on each of the hooks )
0.6mm dia. : 3 x 3, gun tackle rope
0.8mm dia. : 5 x 3  breeching rope
1.6mm dia. : 14x3  a chunky hawser laid rope that would do for an anchor
Then using 3 of the right hand 3x3 ropes I made a 1.6mm dia. left handed cable laid rope for the anchor. Thanks to Olha on YouTube for explaining how.

 

The four ropes I have settled on after much testing are :

 

left to right = 0.4mm, 0.6mm, 0.8mm, 1.6mm cable laid rope

 

here are the breeching rope and anchor cable roughly place on  Speedy.

 

 

for such a simple machine it produces some excellent ropes, so thanks to all those out there for their help.

 

This is so much fun, I may just decide to rig this cutter!

 

Tim

 

 

Edited September 26 by oakheart

[Gregory]

Great results for a first shot at rope making!  I don't think I've seen better scale rope.

[vaddoc]

Indeed, great rope! My experience with polyester thread is that it produces quite stiff rope, especially if multistrand but yours looks fine.

[oakheart]

10 hours ago, vaddoc said:

it produces quite stiff rope

Thanks for the compliment @vaddoc

when first made the rope is already pretty flexible but becomes even more so when cooked at 170C for 6 mins.

 

Tim

Edited September 27 by oakheart

[oakheart]

16 hours ago, Gregory said:

I don't think I've seen better scale rope.

Thanks @Gregory flattery indeed but I think others have produced better.

Crazy Craig @iMustBeCrazy will be along soon saying all this will go to my head 🙂

 

Tim

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

28 minutes ago, oakheart said:

saying all this will go to my head

If I have to...

 

Your little toy seems to do a nice job but perhaps you need something more man sized like my grandfathers rope maker.

The little guy in the pic will eventually become a crew member for my Bounty launch.

 

[oakheart]

1 hour ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

my grandfathers rope maker.

That looks like it could make some serious rope, have you used it?

 

Tim

[iMustBeCrazy]

9 hours ago, oakheart said:

have you used it?

No, and I doubt my grandfather used it more that once. Town wasn't that far away and he had a model T truck. When the farm track was flooded he tied ropes to the corners and had the kids try to keep him out of the ruts Life was different then.

[oakheart]

OK, I now have to get my act together and finish this build as I now have an HMAT Supply kit by Artesania Latina waiting on the shelf.

Not to much to do now, this list got to about 25 things still to do, I'm sure there will be more as I build.

 

I now have made all of the parts to start assembling the cannons, I am glad there are only 8 of them.

I made a simple jig from scraps for assembling the carriages.

 

Here is the  kit of parts

 

 

I am still undecided about how to rig the guns when I have assembled them, any advice is welcome

 

Tim

 

[oakheart]

On 11/22/2024 at 9:35 AM, oakheart said:

how to rig the guns

Here is the first choice I have to make, fitting the breech rope to the cascabel.

Having look through many blogs here and other places. Not sure which one is best for this build.

 

 

wrap around or divided rope ?

Tim

 

[bdgiantman2]

17 hours ago, oakheart said:

wrap around or divided rope ?

Tim

 

That is definitely divided. Chuck Passaro has given a very detailed post on how he is rigging the guns on his Speedwell model, and he has done his rigging as the divided like in the picture.

[oakheart]

4 hours ago, bdgiantman2 said:

divided. Chuck Passaro has given a very detailed post on how

Thanks @bdgiantman2 I have indeed seen @Chucks very good tutorials on doing that splice.

 

My tussle is whether to go with that style or the other one on the left, which has the rope wrapped once around the cascable / cascabel ( not sure of the correct spelling for that ).

The wrapped splice is more bulky but also in some ways looks neater, at least with my rendition.

Tim

 

[oakheart]

I think I have decided to go with the wrap around breeching rope.

Next question is do I seize it or not?

here it is just super glued in place

 

here is my attempt at seizing it.

 

maybe it looks neater without.

 

Tim

[oakheart]

 

managed a bit of work on the cannons

 

 

With this build I was going to leave it un-rigged, but I am now considering using this as a vehicle for learning for when I build the HMAT Supply.

Can any one recommend books, logs on here to help with this?
The booklet by Bill Shoulder is not bad but a bit lacking in detail.

 

Thanks 

Tim

 

[Dr PR]

If you are a glutton for punishment you could try make a "cut" splice like what was actually used on the cascobel,

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=650378

 

[oakheart]

5 hours ago, Dr PR said:

you could try make a "cut" splice

Hi Phil @Dr PR thanks for the feedback, I did try doing that splice but it looked really messy, see post 316 above.
I think it may be because I am using a 3 thread rope?

 

There are examples of the wrap around method on contemporary models, but they may have been altered at a later date

here is SLR0673 a 16 gun brig ( 1810 ) that I photographed during my visit to Chatham Dockyards. It shows yet a different style.

 

 

here is one I have done with a simple wrap that I have seen done on full size cannons.

 

 

 

I have a problem with unruly ropes and I think the hooks are much too big.

I also need to do some fettling on the carriage.

Tim

 

[oakheart]

 

 

 

made a new full height mast from a piece of pine I had, really just to see what it's like to turn down the taper.

Not sure about using it, the grain is a bit over size and makes look a bit toy like.

 

 

I do have a piece of boxwood that would do, but that goes to the opposite extreme and can look very bland.

Really I would like to use Cedar but I don't have any 9.5mm thick. I could try gluing a couple of 5mm strips together?

 

Tim

 

[Gregory]

Have you considered a dowel from a hobby store?

 

Most I have seen have a very subtle grain.

[iMustBeCrazy]

36 minutes ago, oakheart said:

Not sure about using it, the grain is a bit over size and makes look a bit toy like.

Sure does. I'm far from being familiar with UK timbers but I'd look at Ash. You want something that looks like a de-barked tree (in miniature).

[oakheart]

1 hour ago, Gregory said:

dowel from a hobby store

Thanks  Gregory, that is a really good suggestion. I am in the big city over the weekend so will have a look at what they have in the model shop.

The big problem with online stuff is you never know what you will get. 

 

Tim

[oakheart]

1 hour ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

I'd look at Ash

Thanks craig. I have some ash logs that we have as firewood, unfortunately none are long enough.

There are a few wood turners locally that I will have words with.

Picking up on what @Gregory said I will also look in the local BnQ, Wickes stores in town as well they may have some ramin dowel.

 

Tim

 

 

[oakheart]

I found some close grained timber in the workshop, the wood carver who gave it to me said it was Lime.

So some hours later this is what I got. I did a quick test yard from cedar as well.

 

 

It was not quite long enough so I had to add a bit to the top. The join will be hidden under the metal strap

 

 

here is a close up

 

 

now I can see the detail, there still a few marks to get rid of 

Tim

Edited December 8 by oakheart

[oakheart]

14 hours ago, oakheart said:

a few marks to get rid of 

and here it is cleaned up.

 

 

I would like to thank all those builders whose logs helped me along the way, of course Thunder @Thunder who without his help, I would not have even started this build. There are too many others to mention them all.

The Cutter cheerful, which is pretty close to this cutter 'Speedy' was one of the designs that helped me a lot, so I must give a special thanks to Chuck and his very clean design and his prototype build log. Thanks @Chuck your design and build log have been an inspiration to me, and will continue to be so for the rest of my build.

Then of course there is Crazy Craig @iMustBeCrazy who is a constant help with his wisdom and know-how.

 

This forum / website is such a brilliant resource to have found.

Tim

Edited December 9 by oakheart

[oakheart]

Thanks for all of the likes, it really helps to keep a body motivated.

 

Tim