HMS Indefatigable 1794 by Nick 843 - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[Nick 843]

So I'll start a build log.  Just see my intro to the effect that I'm a beginner in wood ship models.

 

First remarks:  the kit arrived late Friday.  Unboxing, sorting and organizing Fri/Sat, and started to build yersterday/Saturday, and will continue today, although a good part will be organizing space, storage and access to parts, that sort of thing.  If anyone has a warehouse for rent, I might be interested.

 

The kit is just stunning/gorgeous; I could go on and on.  Awesome packing.

 

Nothing special to show at this point via pic.  I'm just through step 17 in the manual which has the first 12 or so bulkheads fitted to the keel.  As the manual says, at that point you really do start to get a sense of Indy's size.

 

More later.

 

Cheers/Nick

Edited October 13 by Nick 843

[Ronald-V]

Good to see you starting a build log 👌

[Nick 843]

Up to here today.  A couple of beers dictated quitting for the day in case the concentration not quite up to snuff.

 

Pool noodle supports idea from another build log, just adapted to suit me.  For now, the cut orange noodles enable support and can roll from side to side as needed.  The green and which is on the other side as well, keeps in position.

Nick

[Nick 843]

Up to here now.  Nothing especial to comment; pretty straightforward so far.  Fit is just excellent.  Most plugs need just a hair of sanding to fit easily but without compromising tightness.

 

Have been eyeballing (in addition to the manual of course) build logs by James H (the prototype), Glenn, Kevin, Blue Ensign, ECK and Delf both as I go and looking ahead to pick up any tips, points to watch out for etc.  Starting to think about paint steps and doing painting when accessible vs not.  Next up is going to be gratings and hatch coamings and orlop ladder, which have been thinking about painting and/or coating before they go on.  I don't think it's necessary, and none of the build logs mention this.  But I've been looking at HMS Victory photos which suggest some gratings may have been painted, but there doesn't seem to be uniformity on it.  The ladder seems to have been left plain wood.

 

 

[Nick 843]

May not be much if anything the next couple of days or so.  Reading and comparing various build logs on bow and stern pre-fairing.  I think I have enough 4mm mdf scrap now to knock up a rough copy of one or the other to practice the fairing on something other than the real parts.  This will be my first real challenge.

 

Speaking of comparing various build logs, I started a comparison table so that it's easy to jump to particular spots/topics in each log.  If such a thing is of interest to anyone, I'd be happy to provide it.  The native file format is OneNote, but it's easy to pdf or even copy to Excel.

 

 

[Nick 843]

Made some progress in the last couple of days.

Notes re pics below:

1. general pic; have put together bow and stern sections also.
2. overhead of lower gun deck installation with gratings.
3. I mention the gratings/hatchway as I gave those parts a couple of coats of thinned matte varnish (vop) to avoid paint bleed.  I then used (prior glueing the parts onto the deck) the AK Interactive paint marker.  I got the markers a couple of weeks before ordering Indy to use on my plastic and resin models.  I hadn't used them that much, but was already impressed with their ability to paint small parts in situ, highlighting, etc.  Anyway, they worked real well here and without the muss and fuss of a paintbrush.  I masked the edges and just drew the paint on; no drama.

[Nick 843]

So here's a question if I may.

 

In the last couple of days, I've been reading a fair amount about planking, and about fairing.  Not to suggest I actually know anything btw.

 

About planking first, in the course of it I came across the NRG's Half-hull planking kit.  I've ordered it to learn something hands-on vs theoretical before planking comes up.

 

My immediate interest was about fairing, because pre-fairing the bow and stern sections is up next.  So I've read a bunch, looked at pics, and in particular have gone through the instructions about the half-hull kit, which also speak to fairing.

 

My question is about the baseline reference point for fairing (and thus pre-fairing also of course) to get the required width of hull.  The half-hull instructions say at page 25 (pdf p. 27): "Begin fairing in an area that does not require much wood removal.  That is generally in the dead flat area."  There's a diagram to illustrate.

 

 

The diagram is obviously exaggerated, but I get the idea.

 

In the pic below, I put some styrene strip across Indy's hull at the level of the intersection of the frames with the sub-deck.  It doesn't show too well in the pic, but obviously the dead flat area is in way of frame 9 (the double frame) and it even extends to frames 8 and 10; then you can just about see that it starts to touch other frames at an angle, indicating what has to be faired to get flat contact with the planks.  And I know it becomes more accentuated if the strip is moved down towards the keel.

 

My question is this.  If frame 9 is basically flush (maybe with a hair of sanding to make it completely flush) with the intersecting sub-deck, is that my baseline reference point for fairing? i.e. little if anything would be removed at that point.

 

I'm not quite sure I've asked the question properly; let me know if more explanation needed.

 

 

[Thukydides]

The top of the sub deck should show you the faring line for that part of the hull, but the angle that the fairing occurs at will change depending where on the bulkhead you are sanding. The best way to do it is to have a test batten ready to hold against the bulkheads at various angles. When it is bent over the bulkheads there should be no space between the batten and the bulkheads. If there is then the hull is not faired enough.

 

In general the process for me is take a sanding stick and fair over multiple bulkheads at once. That helps to get the correct curve. The amount of char visible can also serve as an indicator. However the best check is the batten test. 

[Nick 843]

Got it. Thanks very much.

[Nick 843]

Orlop ladder in.  I also cut some small blocks from the 4mm mdf scrap and glued them under the sub-deck for added strength, and painted thinned glue over all joints under the sub-deck, likewise for strength.

 

[Nick 843]

I haven't dropped this or lost interest btw, not at all.  I had to get stuck in to a big room renovation project and that took up most of my spare time over the last 3 weeks.  I did some sporadic work on the model when I could, but only got really back into it yesterday.  The below pics show where I'm up to just now.

 

A couple of observations:

 

1. I did have some fiddly time laying down the sub-deck.  Each half fitted perfectly on its own without any trouble.  But when I tried taping the two halves together, folding them and dropping/unfolding them both in at the same time, I just couldn't get them to slot into place despite repeated tries.  I think they went in ok on one occasion, but that wasn't enough to give me confidence to go to glue.  I then decided to glue them in separately, but needed to get dry fit quick and easy first.  It wasn't until then that I tweaked to the idea, which I picked up on iirc in Glenn's build log, that I should sand off the char around the sub-deck's slots.  That had them fitting much more easily and I glued them down fine and matched up just right.  In retrospect, I probably should have tried the two taped together; it probably would have worked fine.  But anyway the result is fine.

 

2. I know the manual says to fair the bow and stern sections prior to installing, but I've decided to fair with them installed.  I know that might make it slower and a bit more fiddly, but I'm fine with that versus possibly mucking it up; I think with them installed I can see the overall lines better and, when I fair, have a better feel for how the lines flow all the way along.

 

3. You'll see that I managed to bust off three bulkhead ears portside aft of bulkhead 9 (centre).  !@#!~.  That happened when I was fiddling with the sub-deck; the maddening thing is that I knew perfectly well about their fragility and kept reminding myself to be careful.  I think a sleeve snagged them; reminder to self: work with rolled-up sleeves.  Anyway, I'm not too fussed as I'm pretty sure of the fix.

 

4. As far as that fix is concerned, this is my current idea (and if anyone has any comments or suggestions, much appreciated).  The second and third pics, if they upload in the correct order, shows the three busted ears, and with longitudinal frame parts 63 and 62 just lightly dry fitted, probably wrong way around but doesn't matter to illustrate.  You can see the same on the undamaged starboard side.  My idea is that when I get to this in the next few steps, I can glue 62/63 in place on the intact ears, and then (having given the lightest sand to the busted ear ends since they're a bit fuzzy from breaking off and won't sit to 100% correct height) glue the busted ears to 62/63.  Then I'll fix the busted ears into place including at matching height using a couple of small blocks of mdf glued on either side of each ear.  I may have to cut the inside of the blocks to match the inside slots, but that's not a big deal.  And as far as I can see looking ahead in the manual, the little notches in the outside lower part of the bulkhead don't seem to receive anything but just get covered with the outer bulwarks.  I still have to double-check all of this looking ahead in the manual, but that's the thought just now.

 

More soon.

Nick

[Nick 843]

Nothing major since my last, but steady progress.  The fix I mentioned worked well; I just decided though to glue the broken-off ears to the longitudinal framework and for now not to glue the busted ear ends together.  So for now they are free-floating, but in place.  I figure that leaving them free for now means I can adjust and then glue later when other stuff fixes their position.

 

Moving and rotating Indy was precarious with my pool sausage setup.  So I've made up a rotating platform from an old turntable thing, with wood and foam-rubber supports.  Once I have the right position I need, I can use the adjustable feet to sit on the table which makes it real solid.

 

Nothing else of note, really, next up are the inner bulwarks.

 

 

[Nick 843]

Making good progress with the inner bulwarks.

 

Took me a while to figure out an efficient sanding method on the inner bulwark framing.  The access is not easy for a stock sander, what with the compound curves, especially close to the bow.  After some trial and error, I made a couple of sanders out of some old doorstripping foam, pic below, and stuck on some sandpaper with double-sided tape.  They've proved to have enough flexibility, yet also firmness to be able to sand in a horizontal motion but getting the entire framing vertically at the same time.  Plus some getting into tight spots with the other sanders pictured.  The nice thing about the foam sanders is that the edges have nothing abrasive on the deck surface, since the edges are just foam and the smooth edge of the tape.

 

So that's going well now and the other pics show dry fit of the inner bulwarks themselves.  I did have to, or at least decided to, soak the forward two sections in order better to bend them into shape.  That's worked fine and later today I should be able to do fine fitting/trimming after finishing up with sanding a few spots that are still a bit high.

 

Once I got going well with the sanding, I realized that I was enthusiastically sanding the heck out of the bulkhead 2 framing, which doesn't have to be sanded since the adjoining bulwark sections just go up against the framing there.  No biggie, I've sanded down to a sort of vertical beam shape, and may cover them with a little box/column made from waste pearwood.  I know none of this gets seen, or not much at all, but I want to know later on that it looks good underneath even if I can't see it.

 

Back soon.

 

[Nick 843]

I've had limited model time the last 4 weeks.

 

It took me a while longer than I expected to finish off the fairing for the inner bulwarks, one partial view below of the finished fairing while gluing the inner bulwarks.  But it went fine, just slower as I wanted to get it right (according to me).

 

I'm now up to where the second pic shows, with the deck beams dry-fitted and glued up the ledge parts once the beams set the positions of the ledge parts.  I've said it before, but will say again, the fit is fantastic.  The beams mostly slotted in perfectly right away, and where they didn't it was only because the ledge needed a slight nudge to seat firmly against the bulkhead ears.

 

I might vary as I go on, but this is not a detailed build log.  There are a good number of excellent and detailed logs by James H (on the prototype), Glenn UK, Kevin, Blue Ensign, ECK, and now a new one by Clark.

 

I'll be into fairing the hull after Christmas; looking forward to that.

 

Meantime, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to all!

 

Nick