HMS Winchelsea by jfhealey - fully rigged version

[jfhealey]

Thank you gentlemen for your kind remarks and likes which, as always, as a comparative newcomer to this hobby, I greatly appreciate.

 

I decided to focus on the fo'c'sle and bows. To that end I rigged 6 cannons with Syren Ultra rope. They were glued in before Chuck made the capsquares available in this scale. I doubt it matters very much: they will be difficult to see when the foredeck is part planked. I will use the Syren capsquares for the remainder however.

Funny how you see things in the pictures you overlook when looking at the piece - I see there is a ringbolt missing but nothing I can do about it now. Here they are glued in.

 

With these six guns installed I can put in the deck beams for the foredeck. I made up the manger from costello boxwood along with the mast partner, mast foot and the little Y shaped piece

 

I reworked the lower frieze. Looking at page 1 of chapter 1 of the instructions it appears the frieze starts (and perhaps ends at the bows) with a fairly conventional acanthus leaf decoration before the painters and decorators went off on one. I had a go at replicating that. 

 

And this is what it looks like fixed on.

 

I spent a lot of time making up fixed blocks in costello box without realising the extent to which they disappear in situ. I decided to glue the Syren parts, sanded very thin and edge bevelled to the planking and to paint them, as best I was able, to match the friezes. Here they are.

 

This is where I am now.

 

 

All the best 

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gregory]

Those cannon are superb!   The frieze painting really sets your model apart.

[scrubbyj427]

Woah! Beautiful work Fred! Guns look fantastic!!!

[Chuck]

Wonderful progress.  The guns look great.

[jfhealey]

Good mrning all and thabk you for your kind words.

 

The head rails and the whole head assembly are a miracle of design and engineering. The top rails fit together perfectly straight out of the box without even showing them a piece of sandpaper. The head timbers I found less easy. I quickly realised that filing out the mortices for the lower rails was likely to confound me. I adopted a different approach: I did not cut mortices at all but rather cut the lower rail in to four sections and carefully fitted the pieces between the head timbers. I used a 5 minute epoxy for that on the footing it has some gap filling properties which I would need. It actually worked out reasonably well. There is a bit of "swelling" around some of the joints resulting from the generous application of the epoxy but nothing noticeable without making a point of looking and I would rather have that than an unsightly gap.

 

To paint or not to paint is a connundrum we have all resolved in our different ways. I elected to paint because I thought the black paint added some theatre - a bit of drama to what is after all a warship. 

 

The gratings again fit perfectly straight out of the box. Fitting requires patience but little skill - Chuck has done the tricky bits for us.

 

Moving on to the aft section of gratings I found the L shaped piece required a bit of adjustment. I can see where I went wrong. I allowed the head rails to sway outwards a little ( you can see it in the picture below - the starboard timberhead is leaning in a bit as is the port timberhead though the picture does not shoe it) having failed to notch the fancy rail adjacent to the cathead. That's annoying - I just took my eye off the ball in the final minute of the game but it's not the end of the world. It does however throw the laser cut pieces out a little.

 

After that its a home run - just the heads and a tidy up. The bowsprit is not yet set at the finished angle - I don't want/can't secure the inboard end down until it is finally glued in and pegged. The gammoning rope is looking like it amy be a bit of a fiddle when the time comes.

 

 

 

Thank you for looking by.

 

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Lovely work on a tricky part of the model.

[jfhealey]

Good afternoon all. Here is an update on my Winnie build.

 

It feels like a significant milestone because at last the bowsprit - that I made such a long time ago - is in. I had to fix it in permanently as I wanted to both glue and peg it to the gundeck and I could not plank the centre of the fo'c'sle until that was done.

 

Here she is in the garden on a rare day when the sun has shone.

 

Two things in the picture below. First I placed railings around the headwork. I guesss there must have been railings. Using the heads without would have been a very precarious occupation - certainly not a place to skive off work for a cigarette break. But should the railing extend all the way back to the main rail I wonder? Secondly I placed a little chock on the outboard end under the boomkin. I appreciate the contemporary model does not have one but had I been the builder (of the real thing) I'd have put one there for support and stability, so my model is getting one.

 

I turned the boomkins incidentally and the bent them with heat. I thought that easier than shaping the Syren parts.

 

Cutting the fancy rail was not a job I looked forward to - but it went ok. I used pins and epoxy for a relly secure fix.

I can see my gammoning chocks are too big but I can live with them. One, I suspect, of a litany of historical errors that I shall make with the masting/rigging.

 

 

Lovely lines fore and aft.

I think I will finish up the fo'c'sle area/bow end and then work my way back. In fact there are only a few detail bit and pieces to go. The end of the Syren bit is in sight - the masts are largely made so I hope to see real progress by the year end.

Best wishes

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scrubbyj427]

Stunning work Fred! I’m now extremely motivated to resume work on my Winnie, next month. Keep the updates coming!

 

JJ

[jfhealey]

Thanks chaps.

JJ - it's perhaps not for me to say but a lot of us are following Portland with a keen and anticipatory eye. Perhaps you could alternate - 2 weeks on Portland and a week on Winnie or something like that.

Fred

[scrubbyj427]

48 minutes ago, jfhealey said:

Thanks chaps.

JJ - it's perhaps not for me to say but a lot of us are following Portland with a keen and anticipatory eye. Perhaps you could alternate - 2 weeks on Portland and a week on Winnie or something like that.

Fred

Thank you Fred, I’m making a career change that’s going to allow me to dive

into Portland almost full time, but I have to wait until January, but I do have some updates on Portland coming shortly. In the meantime, in about a month, ill

be able to direct some major efforts towards completion of my Winnie.