HMS Mercury 1779 by Mr Pleasant - 1:64 - based on Shipyard paper model

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

It's with a little trepidation that I start this build log and as such a word of caution is required..... If you are of a nervous disposition and easily offended by poor quality workmanship, find a complete disregard of historical accuracy extremely upsetting and deem lowering  the quality of this forum as morally outrageous then then I beg you to avert your eyes and leave now as the following content is probably not for you.

 

Ok, for those of you that are still with me and made of stronger stuff there are some points that I need to make you aware of before I start

 

a) I am not at one with wood

b) tools are not a natural extension of my hands

c) I do not see a plan on paper and turn it into a 3D matrix in my mind and compute complex curves and angles instantly

d) If there are two ways to do something, I'll choose the wrong one

e) If there is an easy way and a hard way, I'll inadvertently do it the hard way

e) I was not blessed with any real woodworking skills and I have to make do with my God given abilities

f)  I enjoy making ship models and I struggle daily to overcome the points above.

 

Let's begin

This is my fourth model ship (see signature for details) and my first attempt at a scratch build.  I'll be using the paper model by Shipways as the basis of the build and will be using as much as what is contained in the paper parts as templates to assist as I attempt to  covert it into a wooden model.  I've also downloaded the plans of Syren from wiki commons as an aid as the paper "plans" do not contain plans as such...what is provided is along the lines of

 

 

Syren download

 

The content of the paper model is really good and has excellent rigging, belaying, mast and yard info and in my opinion is as good as Caldercraft rigging plans...small example of rigging info

 

 

 

Masts

 

 

The paper model is at a scale of 1:96 so the first order of the day was to scan the sheets and print out at a scale of 1:64 and to try and identify what parts are printed on the 30+ A3 sheets and compile into a spreadsheet for ease of location.

 

Bulk heads were cut out of 6mm plywood....this is just normal ply from the local hardware store (Bunnings), I know there is discussion in another topic on the merits of using something better but I've got to work with what I can get easily  in my little corner of Queensland.... but first a little manipulation of the templates was required.

 

As below the bulkhead templates only go to the main deck level and make no provision for the bulwarks

 

 

The way the paper model caters for these is to add internal supports to the deck as shown in the photo below which has been copied from the paper build log of Mercury by  @catopower

 

 

These supports are few and far between and made from the templates

 

 

 

 

 

I've used these templates to form an extension of the bulkheads

 

I know I could have used the Syren plans to form the bulkheads but I want to use as much as what is provided as part of this build

 

"Keel" piece is made from 3mm plywood....I can hear the gasps now "that won't be strong enough to support 6mm bulkheads....far too flimsy"....I originally considered the 6mm ply but this would result in a loss of definition of the bulkheads once a 6mm slot was cut into them.  I've repositioned the bulkheads slightly to centre them over where the thin card bulkheads would have gone.  The bulkheads at stem and stern have been positioned so that the face is identical to where the card bulkhead would be as I need to use these as refernece points for the bow and stern works.  I've also omitted 3 bulkheads (no's 4, 13 and 17) as I deemed them not necessary with the 6mm ply and closeness to the others

 

 

A strip of 1.5mm has been glued to the "keel" piece to form a rabbet for the planking.

 

 

I'm further on than this but will call it a day for this initial post.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

Thanks for looking in

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking forward to this build!

 

 

[jpalmer1970]

Great start 👍 It will be interesting to follow along with your build.

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the likes

@GrandpaPhil hope you start back on your card version, it's looking good so far

@jpalmer1970 thanks, happy to have you along

 

 

Ok, stem part next....this has been broken down into its component parts and glued up

 

 

 

 

I've milled some cherry to a 6mm thickness for the stem, keel/false keel and stern post pieces and mixed some black acrylic paint into PVA glue for the joints.  Some of the joints are not perfectly tight but I'm fairly happy for a first attempt

 

All glued to the "keel" piece

 

I've scored a line along the cherry 1mm in from the "keel" piece (if you zoom in really close you can just see it) , I'll cut this away after the first planking to use as a rabbet for the 2nd planking.  I'm hoping the scoring will help in a smooth removal

 

The 6mm cherry is centered  on the 3mm "keel" leaving 1.5mm on each side to take the 1st planking which will be.......yeah, you guessed it 1.5mm in thickness.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

Mark

 

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

4 hours ago, Mr Pleasant said:

@GrandpaPhil hope you start back on your card version, it's looking good so far

Thank you very much!

 

Mercury is sitting on a shelf located in a place where it cannot be forgotten.

 

I have been looking at it frequently lately and thinking about finishing it once I finish my other active builds.

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the likes.

Onto fitting the bulkheads

 

A quick jig was made to keep the spine vertical whilst the bulkheads were fitted.  Bulkheads kept square using Lego and clamps

 

 

Once all bulkheads were fitted I added spacers to keep everything square, this is simply achieved by taking measurements of the gaps between the same bulkheads on either side of the spine and taking the average, two pieces of stock are then cut to that length and glued in place between the bulkheads

 

 

The 3mm ply spine is still flimsy at this point so bracing pieces are required.  These are cut from the templates provided and 3mm ply is used.   I cut the bracing pieces roughly 5mm less wide than the templates so that the edge of the bracing pieces were clear of the bulkhead edges..

Following shows a couple of the bracing pieces cut and installed clear of the bulkhead edges

 

 

Gaps in the bulkheads are plugged with some pine and sanded flush

 

 

The frame is now rock solid and straight

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

Mark

 

 

 

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the likes....

Just a quick post setting out the bow area for planking.  This isn't the way I've done it in the past but seeing as how I'm experimenting in how I can use a paper model as the basis of a wooden version I've stuck with the way the paper model is done.

 

From left to right shows the process

First I extended the formers (red lines) above the deck level with sacrificial tabs to aid in the planking around the bow above the level of the deck

Next shows them fitted and I've added some 6mm ply against the spine that follows the curve of the stem post and in line with the rabbet piece i fitted in post #1

Finally I've filled between the formers with Jelutong wood.  This sands quite easy but takes nails better than balsa should I need to 

 

 

 

More functional than pretty

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All

Thanks for the likes...

Moving onto the stern area, this needed some manipulation to how the paper model is constructed.  Hopefully my explanation of how I achieved this is not to confusing.

 

Firstly for context this is how the paper model is done

This formation allows for the modelling of the internals and for a moment my ambition threatened to overrule my ability, eventually, however reality prevailed and I decided against going this far.

 

This means I have to change parts H1 to H4 (top left) to accommodate the fixing of the stern fascia.  The paper model simply has this glued on top of part 6 (top left) and to the bulwarks and relies on the flexibility of the card to get some curvature.

 

Although there are no corresponding parts to what I need to achieve, there is enough information provided for me to fashion the parts needed and this explained (hopefully) below

 

Part G (above top left) is the transom and this was fashioned out of some hard maple 5mm thick by the template provide in plan view and the curvature determined by the markings on bulkhead 17 (horizontal markings).  A chamfer was then  created for the planking

 

 

 

 

 

Next was extending parts H1-H4 to allow the forming and fitting of the stern fascia at a later date.  To achieve this I used common features of two templates to give me the final shape

 

 

 

Middle picture above....X, Y and the deck level are common on the formers H1-H4 and to the bulwark templates.  These were glued one on top the other to produce a single template shown in the right.

 

Blanks were then cut from hard maple using the template ...I'm only using H1 and H4 on both sides of the stern post and omitting H2 and H3

 

 

The only difference in the finished parts of H1 and H4 is the length that attaches to the transom to give the curvature of the stern fascia and this was cut to the correct size

 

H1 and H4 templates were then used by subtracting 5mm for the transom to give me the shaping for the planking below the transom. Below shows these fitted and then filled with balsa and shaped

 

 

 

 

Finally H4's are  glued in place, with a bit of additional padding (3mm mdf) to help with the run of planking.  This will be sanded for a fair line.

 

 

 

 

I'm not installing the H1's at this stage as they will interfere with the planking

 

Hope this all makes some sort of sense.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Mark

 

 

[Mr Pleasant]

Hi All 

Thanks for the likes....time for a quick update.

 

First layer of planking is now complete, below shows a bit of the progress, rough finish and after sanding.  I placed tape around some of the bulkheads where I didn't want the planks to adhere to as these bulkhead extensions are to be cut away in future.  I could have used templates to cut the bulwarks out of some ply but I've elected to plank instead.  I  also added some strengthening across the bulkhead extensions to protect and reduce the risk of them breaking them during planking.

 

I used hoop pine for the planking and milled to 5mm x 1.5mm strips.  Hoop pine has no discernable grain and bends quite easily....most importantly it stays straight after been cut into strips from a larger plank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The planking turned out relatively ok, however, for transparency.....I did make a slight error.  In the previous post I mentioned that I'd fair the mdf that I added as packing, which I did.  What I didn't do was fair the "leg" above this and this has resulted in a run of concave planking for 5 or so planks.  This will be hidden by the galleries but leaving like this will make it awkward to shape the formers of the galleries so I'll fill and sand this gap to get a straight run

 

Fashioned a bit of a mast step  glue well for all three masts as the 3mm spine would not give enough surface to glue onto.  I know some people just rely on the rigging to keep the masts upright....but not me , more glue the better, no way am I relying on my rigging to keep anything straight

 

 

As a quick check on how accurate I am at this stage to the paper model, I overlaid the paper planking templates onto the hull and all appears ok.  Normally I would line off the hull for the second planking by working out the bands but as things look ok, I'll use the templates to give the bands and tweak as I go along (you can just make out the separate planking  templates by the numbers I've written on them) .  At the top you can just see the templates that could have been used to cut bulwarks out of ply

 

 

 

And finally I added the false deck for the main deck.  A joggle stick was used to shape the false deck and cut from 0.8mm ply.  I had to install  in separate pieces as I couldn't get it into place in single go.  Holes cut (not vey well but sort of round) for the masts.  I've marked the deck at every 20mm to help with the planking shift pattern

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping in

 

Mark