HMS Beagle by usedtosail - OcCre - 1:60

[usedtosail]

Thank you Steve.

 

I soaked the transom piece for 20 minutes and clamped it to the hull for a few days while I was away. Today I glued it to the hull.

 

 

Edited June 16 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

I removed the clamps from the transom piece and it was nicely glued to the hull, with no gaps on the edges. I finally finished painting the fake quarter galleries. For the final touch I used clear paint on the window panes. I test fit them and will glue them in place soon.

 

 

I have also been working on the rudder and its hardware. The kit came with premade pintles and gudgeons which I was going to use, but after I blackened them I thought they looked too wide. So I used some thinner brass flat stock to make new ones. It took me a few tries to get the bends right but after I made a useable one I was able to reproduce it pretty well. I soldered a pin into the pintles then pickled and blackened all six pieces. Here are the new pintles mounted to the rudder with brass nails that I also blackened. In the cup are the new gudgeons on the bottom and the kit supplied ones in the top.

 

 

Today I mounted the rudder to the hull. I did not glue the gudgeons to the hull, but used the blackened nails to nail them to the hull.

 

 

I have also been working on the cat heads. I drilled holes in the ends for the sieves and painted them black. I then glued them in place after widening out the slots in the bow for them and notching them to fit flush against the fore deck. This took a bit of fiddling to get them to fit right. I'll get a picture of them for a later post.

Edited June 17 by usedtosail

[Jolly Jo]

Your pintles and gudgeons turned out really nicely, well done!

[clearway]

Looking good so far- i have this one in my ever growing stash and will be doing a kitbash on it like my Pccre Terror, Erebus and Endurance. I agree about the occre 2nd planking material and i use 3-4mm x 1mm walnut strip.

One thing though - i am not sold on the carronade mounted in the bows and might leave it off? and will extend the deck right up to the bows under the anchor deck.

 

Keith

[g8rfan]

Hi Tom

Very nice build, it's coming along well. Being a scientist myself (chemist) this is a ship I've considered once I finish the Connie I'm currently working on. Of course, at my pace, that will be several years from now. Anyway, love your details. your connie build is one I have read through several times and I definitely will use a few of your techniques. keep up the great work.

[Der Alte Rentner]

On 6/18/2025 at 2:54 PM, g8rfan said:

once I finish the Connie I'm currently working on.

So, why are we not seeing a build log?

[g8rfan]

Not sure why you're not seeing it, I'm definitely here.

[usedtosail]

g8rfan - I think he means a build log for your Conny build.

[g8rfan]

Yes sir, that's what I meant. I do have a log going, in fact, just posted a little last night. Working on the bowhead at the moment. Ive got the Bluejacket 1/96 kit. Its my first wooden ship build (crazy, I know) so needless to say, Im on a very steep learning curve. But thanks to folks like yourself, I have plenty of great teachers. Please drop in.

[usedtosail]

Thank you Jo, Keith, and g8rfan, and for the likes. I will definitely follow along with your Connie build g8rfan.

 

Keith - looking in the AOS Beagle book, the ship did not always have that carronade in the front so I think you would be good either way. To me it is a big feature for the version of the ship that carried Charles Darwin so I will be including it.

[usedtosail]

Time for an update. Even with the record heat we had been having I managed to get some time in the shop this week and last.

First, as promised here is a photo of the cat heads. I haven't touched up the black paint on them yet, but you can see how much I had to notch them so the bow rail lays flat on them.

 

 

The instructions show using brass rod to make the decorations for the transom and planking it vertically.

 

 

I did not like the look of that, so I made wood trim pieces for the transom and planked it horizontally as it shows in the AOS Beagle. I did leave off the curly Q's though and the trim on the counter.

 

 

 

My trim pieces may be a little too wide but I can live with that. This will all be painted black. I then sanded the planks down and glued the fake quarter galleries to the hull.

 

 

On the other side of the transom piece instead of just painting the plywood black as the instructions show, I planked it as well.

I will stain these planks to match the inner bulwark planks.

 

 

I slightly edge bent planks for the rails at the top of the bulwarks and the aft deck. These will also be stained. The kit supplies a laser cut piece that goes on the inside of the transom piece at the deck and the fit was OK but not curved enough. I soaked and bent a piece of basswood and clamped it to the inside of the transom piece at the deck to use instead. This gave me a much better fit.

 

 

Finally I have been working on the taffrail and outer trim pieces for the transom. For these I used the cut out from the laser sheet that held the transom piece and made two pieces of hardwood with the top curve and the side curve. I used the top curve piece to bend the taffrail (on the right), which came out very well. I tried doing that for the side pieces (left) but I could not get them to bend enough without kinking.

 

 

So I decided to cut the side pieces from a block of boxwood. I first rough cut the inside curve with a band saw then sanded it using a sanding drum in my drill press, until I had a good fit on the transom piece. I then rough cut the outside curve with the band saw and used a disk sander to get it to the same thickness as the taffrail. Once I had one side piece made I used it as a template for the other side piece.

 

 

These came out much better than the bent pieces. These and the taffrail will also be stained before I glue them on.

 

[usedtosail]

Well I was so happy with the cat heads but they are not correct. I used the laser cut pieces for the aft davits which looked like cat heads to me. I was able to take them off without damaging the deck or the bulwarks. I made the correct cat heads from the supplied square stock. They fit better than the davit pieces but I still needed to notch the bottoms to get them to sit flat to the deck, just not as much. I drilled holes for the sieves but this time I drill them at an angle so when the cat head is installed the holes will be vertical. They are pained black on the left in the photo below.

 

I made the new aft davits using the cut out in the laser sheet from the old ones. There was enough excess wood on the sheet to make both of them. I again cut them out to a rough outline then sanded them with a sanding drum and disc sander. These will be left natural so I gave them a coat of wipe on poly after drilling the holes for the sieves. They are on the right in the photo.

 

 

You can also see some of the rail and trim pieces after I stained them and gave them 2 coats of wipe on poly.

Edited yesterday at 06:15 PM by usedtosail