HMS Bounty by k-slak - Constructo - 1:50

[k-slak]

HMS Bounty 1:50 has been my third wood boat/ship build but my first large multi-mast tall ship. Its been a fight at certain points of the build and always find the directions helpful but much more vague than I desire. 3 pages to build an entire board seems too little and the equivalent of "plank the boat" seems to be much to simple to state than how challenging it is to actually plank the boat. 

 

What is done so far: hull, deck and primary rigging is now complete. I'll see how to make a album that shows the long term progress to now (new and still figuring this platform out). 

 

 

Whats next: making sails, rigging spars and attaching to masts. 

I am currently puzzled by the "step by step view in the plans" thats written in the instruction book when there is no notes of what comes before another or even if one should work bow to stern or other way as well as understanding when is specific to one side or duplicated on both sides. I'm having to wing it which isn't how I flow. Any suggestions on this part would be helpful. 

 

[k-slak]

This is HMS Bounty Kit from Constructo 1:50 Scale. I started this project in last August 2023. Due to work schedule and that work on the ship can't really be done (at least for me) in small time blocks, I only get to work on it on the weekends when there isn't other things going on. There have been times where I hit big struggles and stepped away for multiple weeks (such as between hull and mast building). (Side Note: The paint sets in the background of my photos are my spouses, who does plastic model building. We share project building spaces so there is a little of his paint inventory on my work bench)

 

I've struggled with the instructions from Constructo. At times they were written very well while other times they were vague. The instructions don't refer to plates in the plan set which I think would be really helpful. The last part is for rigging and the instructions just said refer to the step by step in the plan set. Well there is no numbers related to steps and the assumption of working left to right and top to bottom for "steps" but it's unclear if things are mirrored nor is there a "other side" or bow, stern view to refer to. I think I've made good decisions on interpretation along the way based on photos and random videos I have been able to find online. I do wish there were more photos of the rigging and cross sections of the ship I could refer to but we all do what we can. 

 

Mast building hack (from a beginner) - this likely is what everyone else already knows but without a lathe and not wanting to spend hours sanding I was able to use a hand size planer to taper the mast sections. Placing the planer at an 45 degree angle to the mat and pushing toward the end while my other hand held the end and rolled the dowel. Once you are close I finished the rounding and symmetry with a small block sander. So effective and saved me so much time. 

 

Cradles throughout the build: In the beginning I used no cradle at all and when I needed some stability or support I actually used a rice sack I made a long time ago as a heat pack. It's great in that it can be scrunched, folded, and situated to fit the shape of the support needed. Once the Keel was on I switched to a keel clamp cradle. This worked well until once day while shifting the base the pivot point got stuck and when giving it some extra ump it snapped the keel straight off the hull (lots of cuss words and some crying occurred as I felt like the ship was ruined). After the keep repair my spouse purchased me a "dry dock" like cradle and I've used that since. All three methods have been useful at certain points in the build and wouldn't now work for all the stages.

 

I've learned a LOT along the way and are just getting into the install of the spars. I'll get to all of that in a later post. Since I just joined I wanted to provide some background and pictures of my journey to this point. I look forward to my future builds and sharing my struggles, questions, ad triumphs along the way. 

[tlevine]

Welcome to MSW!

 

Some people prefer to rig fore to aft.  Others, just the opposite.  A good rule of thumb for deciding whether a line is found port and starboard vs. one side only is to consider what each line is used for.  

As far as making masts, take a look at this.  Scroll down to installment 20.

 

[Wawona59]

I've been reading your build log with interest.  Very clean and neat work.  The multiple colors of the woods that you used seems to beg for an oil finish such as linseed oil or tung oil.  

 

Noticed that your Bounty build log somehow got into the forum for ships launched from 1900 to present.  Perhaps ccoyle or one of the other MSW administrators will be able to move it for you to the proper forum for ships launched in the late 18th century.  That away others will be able to find your build log a well.

 

Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing your Bounty build with us.

 

[k-slak]

Thank you. I likely selected the wrong one on accident. 

The hull is actually wood stained and has a clear varnish (a semi gloss I think). Overall I really like the look of it but know its potentially not totally accurate. 

[Ferrus Manus]

I like the look of it as well! If you were to go for an accurate look, the ship would need to be painted in its entirety. You should look for primary sources as well as the replica if you intend to do this. As for the rigging, I tend to rig square-rigged vessels starting from the centerline and moving outward. There are plenty of rigging diagrams on MSW for the Bounty. Another source I have that might be helpful to you is "The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships" by C. Nepean Longridge, a book explaining the construction of 18th century British square-rigged naval ships. 

[k-slak]

Rigging! Rat lines finished up a few weeks ago. This last weekend tackled the lines between the masts. I'm sure I don't have angles right but I was in the space of "this is what it is given its my first full ship and did my best to follow the directions." I have already learned so much from reviewing everyone else's builds that I'm excited to do it more accurately on my next build. 

 

As mentioned in my last post I am at a stopping point as I figure out what I am going to do with the sails. Thank you to everyone who has already helped. Hope to make a decision and move forward with sails by this weekend. 

[Knocklouder]

Very nice work, it looks awesome                            Bob  M.

[Ronald-V]

Looking good!  

[k-slak]

Thank you admin (Chuck P) for helping move my build log into the correct launch era. I'll be more careful when creating in future! 

[k-slak]

Sails...I read a variety of posts and watched some videos and various posts. I decided to go down the path of cotton cloth. Im not ready to go down the path of silkspan. 

 

I scanned all the plans for a duplicate and bought a natural cotton so its unbleached and there are parts that have some darker strands.

I then cut and traced onto the fabric the needed lines. then sat at my sewing machine to sew the lines in. 

 

Then folded the edes in and and oinned. Then ran a slightly longer stitch length around the edges. 

 

 

Then hand seeing begins with whip stitching the main thicker string around and making a loop on each corner using slip knot and anchoring it with stitch and continue around with a small overlap of the larger "rope". 

 

 

I've got many more to trace, cut, and sew. 

 

I plan to furl most of the sails and keep the ones between the masts out. I dont know the official names for them. Will be a bit till I get them attached but hope to provide more photos as I go. 

[MikkiC]

Welcome and nice, neat work. I find some plans are a bit overkill and others quite lacking. 

I, too, am working on a kit with little instruction. While frustrating at times, I've learned a lot and really honed my problem solving skills. In more advanced kits, the instructions are sparser because the designer assumes we know. That's fair.

Glad I found your log. I'll be following along with great interest. I think the Bounty I built was a Mamoli kit. Great plans and instructions but the wood quality and fittings were less than desirable.

[k-slak]

Thanks @MikkiC. Hopefully all goes well with rest of sails. The ones Ive done so far look pretty awesome when all finished and laid out. Will be fun once the sails start going on the masts. Much much more to come and do. 

 

My first boat was ugears sail boat then small 18th century sail boat, then cross section of victory. So i went from easy to advanced pretty quick but still novice skills and lots of trial and error and so far have some good success. Pretty impressed on the final products but a ton to learn still. 

 

Thanks for following along

[k-slak]

Life has been hectic and motivation low for a while but got some energy and few days off during thanksgiving time to sit at the bench a while so i made progress. 

 

I noticed early, thankfully, that I needed to lash the sails to the spars before lashing/fixing them to the masts. This realization likely saved me a lot of headache. Had picture but with getting a new phone i cant seem to find it.  

 

Then as recommended by others and the plans i started at one end and worked my way stern to bow adding the layers of lines as i go. 

 

I'm using a thicker than scale thinner cotton and ironed them with some slight curve. I knew at this point I wouldn't be able to furl the sails as the fabric is too bulky but i also need to figure out how to give some more shape down the line once all the rigging is in. 

Given this is my first true full sail ship i am allowing myself to just lean into the learning and be okay with it not being perfect or 100% correct. I have 4 more ships in model storage to practice this craft on. For now it is lots of learning. 

As I made lots of progress and seeing some good results I was motivated to continue the next day building the rigging that attaches to the sails. 

 

 

In just three days I got all the sails up, secured, and now working on the rigging that helps trim the sails (I believe), I have a few more steps before flags get installed. 

At the moment what I'm trying to imagine is how to get the sails a little more billowed(full) with them on the boat knowing the fabric is heavier than scale. At the moment my thought is to bundle up some cloth to place under the sails, then spray or brush on a water and white glue mixture and then let it dry. Any other ideas given the choices I have made? 

 

 

 

One last learning moment is the monoculars should be installed after all the rigging. The amount of times I've now broken these monoculars off has driven me crazy. I gave up repairing and plan to complete them once all rigging is done. You can see one of the monocular casualties on the deck in my last photo of this post. 

 

Happy building to everyone! Happy holidays too!

Edited December 7 by k-slak

[ccoyle]

15 minutes ago, k-slak said:

At the moment my thought is to bundle up some cloth to place under the sails

 

Just my two cents, but I think your sails look fine as-is.

[Knocklouder]

 Hello,look around for a product call GAC 400 by Golden. a friend @mrcc recommended this to me I really like it.  Cover up your ship with paper then brush it on both sides of the sail and use a hair dryer on medium heat for about 10 minutes , It dries clear and wash off nicely. I have used it on five ships so far.  Some have used potato water as a stiffener, but I have never tried that lol. good luck your doing a great job on your ship.      Bob  M.

Just another thought .🙂

Edited December 7 by Knocklouder

[k-slak]

Thanks everyone. I remembered one challenge has is typically adding to my frustration and curious is someone has a trick on how to more precisely do this. 

 

Belay pins require a wrap around top and bottom. The first wrap is pretty easy but the second wrap particularly on the underside seems to be really challenging. I'm only doing two wraps on all pins (i dont know if i need to thats just some unconscious decision i made early on).  

Anyone got a trick for catching the bottom of the belay pin? 

[k-slak]

Request for help. 

I'm in the last bit of the ship, and just installed the flad but I honestly hate how they look. they aren't hiding any shape and look like stiff boards rather than like everything else. I would like to use completely different material. anyone have a source for British flags (all 4 kinds) in 1:50 scale. 

 

Also the kit doesn't have a name plate. any suggestions on making one? 

 

 

[ccoyle]

If you have a good printer you can easily print them at any scale you like. Paper is much easier to drape naturally than fabric.

 

One thing to bear in mind is wind direction. If you display billowed sails, the flags should fly in same direction the imagined wind is coming from. If the sails are slack or the model is bare-poled, then ideally the flags should hang straight down. Here's a 1/250 scale paper flag hanging loosely:

 

[Nirvana]

Three days to set sails?! That is impressive timeline. Your Bounty is impressive as well.

 

[MikkiC]

On 12/7/2024 at 8:43 AM, k-slak said:

Thanks everyone. I remembered one challenge has is typically adding to my frustration and curious is someone has a trick on how to more precisely do this. 

 

Belay pins require a wrap around top and bottom. The first wrap is pretty easy but the second wrap particularly on the underside seems to be really challenging. I'm only doing two wraps on all pins (i dont know if i need to thats just some unconscious decision i made early on).  

Anyone got a trick for catching the bottom of the belay pin? 

I'm a little late here, sorry. I use long, curved tweezers (one in each hand) when rigging. I treat the tweezers as extensions of my hands.

 

She's looking good. 

[MikkiC]

Name plate: make stencils and paint? Wood burner? Brass letters? Many options are available. You're pretty creative, so I'm eager to see what you settle on.

[schooner]

One trick to make flags look more realistic is to sandwich a piece of aluminum foil between the two sides with its dimensions just 1 or 2 mm less than the paper dimensions. Add a piece of the halyard line along the folding seam and then glue the 2 sides together.

 

When the glue is dry take 3 or 4 wood dowels of different sizes (1/4 inch and smaller). Taking the 2 largest dowels pinch the flag along a line between the bottom inboard corner and the top edge a little way away from the top inboard corner and bend/curve the paper around the outboard dowel. Move the dowels to the outboard edge of the curl and repeat going the opposite direction. Keep alternating using successively smaller dowels until you get to the bottom outboard corner of the flag.

The aluminum foil will help the curves or folds maintain their shape. 
If you are not satisfied then flatten out the flag and try again using different dowel pairs and different starting locations.

With some practice you can make flags that look like they are in a stiff breeze, a light one or hanging limp in a calm. You can see what I did by clicking on the below link to my Sequin build, the flags are in post #54.

 

Keep up the good work, you have a great looking model.

Edited Wednesday at 07:01 PM by schooner

[schooner]

As far as nameplates I have had good luck going to local trophy shops - they can make anything you want, metal or plastic, and usually for less than you would spend online.

[k-slak]

On 12/23/2024 at 8:10 PM, Nirvana said:

Three days to set sails?! That is impressive timeline. Your Bounty is impressive as well.

 

Ha. Feels like way more than 3 days to get these sails on. Your words are so kind. Thank you. 
Once I attached the sails to the spars (took a half day) I had to step away. I just wasn't up for the potential frustration and taking the next step of getting them attached to the Masts. To get them on the Masts that took almost a full day of drilling holes that were missing and finally understanding what one of the drawings actually meant. In hind sight it probably was about 3 very long days and ability to do nothing else (estimate over 16 hours of work), to get them on. It has taken me another week or so to figure out all the sail rigging lines and work through my frustrations. Thanks so much for following this journey. 

[k-slak]

23 hours ago, schooner said:

One trick to make flags look more realistic is to sandwich a piece of aluminum foil between the two sides with its dimensions just 1 or 2 mm less than the paper dimensions. Add a piece of the halyard line along the folding seam and then glue the 2 sides together.

 

When the glue is dry take 3 or 4 wood dowels of different sizes (1/4 inch and smaller). Taking the 2 largest dowels pinch the flag along a line between the bottom inboard corner and the top edge a little way away from the top inboard corner and bend/curve the paper around the outboard dowel. Move the dowels to the outboard edge of the curl and repeat going the opposite direction. Keep alternating using successively smaller dowels until you get to the bottom outboard corner of the flag.

The aluminum foil will help the curves or folds maintain their shape. 
If you are not satisfied then flatten out the flag and try again using different dowel pairs and different starting locations.

With some practice you can make flags that look like they are in a stiff breeze, a light one or hanging limp in a calm. You can see what I did by clicking on the below link to my Sequin build, the flags are in post #54.

 

Keep up the good work, you have a great looking model.

I did something similar to this on my HMS Victory Cross section. At the time I didn't think about different diameters of dowel. That is a great note! 
I ended up pulling all the flags off the ship. We did some online research on how many and what flags were ever flying on the ship at one time when it was underway vs. at port. From what I found there would only be two flags frown: 1x British red commissioning pennant HMS 1606 pattern and the 1x Red Ensign. Based on the design and time period what came in the kit is totally wrong anyway so i have to print, make, or order flag that are correct. Since I have finished everything else I have decided to go flagless at the moment. I took final photos yesterday and will be adding a name plate then calling this one complete!
That said your advise will absolutely be utilized in future builds, thank you so much for following this build and helping to answer some of my questions. So helpful.