Queen Anne's Revenge by DSiemens - FINISHED - ~1:1250 - BOTTLE

[DSiemens]

Well I'm starting a new build log.  I know I have a Syren I haven't touched, and a Satisfaction that needs a complete redo.  Well they're going to have to wait.  I've come to a couple conclusions recently that have lead me to decide on the build and the method for the build.  Point one my time is limited.  I got a lot of life going on so I've decided it's about time I build a ship for myself.  I've always had an interest for the QAR and that interest was sparked again by this guy Queen Anne's Revenge by Shipmodel.  If you haven't seen his log check it out Dan's doing some great work.  In any case I'm going to build a ship I have some interest in because this time I'm not selling it to Pirates or trading it to Spanish Ladies for bonsai.  (If you want to know what that means check out my Santa Maria and Mercury build links in my signature.)  This time I'm keeping it.  

 

Second point.  I was inspired by DFellingham's build the Esmeralda (also a great log) to build a the long boat of the Mercury out of paper using a wood plug.  It came out nicely.  

 

 

Since then I have been contemplating the idea of building a full ship using this method.  Now I'm going to put this idea into action.  This will be only the second time I've tried this so if it totally fails the first few times stick with me.  I've had two builds now that flopped on me after the first few posts and I must say it's embarrassing.  Lucky for me your all good sports.  

 

Also to add to the time constraints point this build has a specific dead line.  I found that I have a break between my school semesters from Nov 24th to December 9th.  So while I have more time not having to do home work I get to build.     Also since I have such a tight deadline I can't worry about to many details so this build is going to me small....

 

 

This is the plug I'm going to use.  The ship will actually be made of paper stained with wood stain and cut into little tiny strips.  The plug is covered in wax and the paper stips glued on like planks.  After the glue dries the ship comes off the plug.  The tricky part will be adding the masts, spars, rigging and sails.  Will I try ratlines this time?  ......most likely.     

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Daniel I will be following along, I am interested to see how you get on with the waxed plug., how will you manage to get the first strips to stay in place before the next?

 

Michael

[bhermann]

Daniel - it's good to see you finally  keeping one for yourself.  I am curious what you are thinking about using for ratline material, at this scale it'll have to be mighty thin.  I'll be following along.

 

Bob

[DSiemens]

Michael it's a bit tricky but they kind of stick to each other and the plug wax.  I'll make sure to post pictures.  

 

Thanks bob.  I have some extremely thin fly tying thread I plan to use.  Tying it will be tricky but it is small enough.  

[DSiemens]

Planking is on.  I stained some paper and then cut it in 1 mm strips.  I started from the top and glued that one to the plug.  The rest are glued to each other each overlapping.  I then put on a couple coats of clear nail polish to seal it and make it stiffer.  A resin maybe better but I don't have any at the time being so I went with the nail polish.  

 

 

 

 

 

Once the polish is dry I will work on removing the plug.

 

[michael mott]

Daniel that is looking good!

 

Michael

[DSiemens]

Thanks Michael.  

 

I got her out of the plug.  I used a razor blade to gut out the edges on top that were glued to the plug then put my pin drill into the top of the plug for leverage.  A simple tug and she came loose.

 

 

 

I then drew the planks on another piece of paper cut out the deck and glue the deck in.  

 

 

 

Now I got to figure out how to cut out the gun ports.  There's supposed to be ten on each side.  

 

I've been wanting to put an aprox scale on this ship but the size eludes me.  I've found she was anywhere from 200 to 260 tons.  I approximate that to around 80 feet long.  This is all guesstiment based on length to tonnage comparisons I've made.  If I'm way off let me know.  if 80 is correct though 80 x 12 = 960.  This model is an inch long so that would be 1;960.  Since I can't get an exact though I won't put it in the title.   

 

 

[augie]

I have no clue on how you will cut the gun ports.  But I'm sure you do!

[captainbob]

Paper on a waxed plug.  Well done.

 

Bob

[mtaylor]

Tricky but it worked...  paper over a mold.  Neat!!!

[DSiemens]

Augie actually I had no idea.  Now I do.  

 

Thanks Bob and Mark.  Your comments are always appreciated.

 

I tried three different things and the last one worked.  I worked on some separate paper and didn't have much luck so I opted to just drill the holes with my pin vise.  No such luck it got all torn up and the holes weren't straight.  So I thought I may as well try the cutting method and see what happens.  That just made it worse so I cut off the bulwarks altogether.  I then cut a 1mm thin plank and cut it into 2mm pieces.  I glue each piece on to the ship leaving a space for the gun port.  I let it dry and then added a cap rail and the channels underneath.  I think I will paint these to bring them out.  Any suggestions on the colors is welcome I'm not sure yet what I want to do.  I'm shooting for as historically accurate as possible given no one knows what the ship looked like.  In other words common colors for ships in this era.  

 

I have one cannon in for sizing.  I think that looks about right.  I will cut out the rest of the cannons and add some hatches.  I also have to do the gun ports on the side.  I had planned 10 guns ports but managed to get only get eight.  I think I'll put to more on a higher deck.  I still have to build that up as well.  These tiny ships are still a lot of work.   

 

 

  

[shipmodel]

Hi Daniel -

 

What a treat to see a real miniature of the model I am working on.  You are really capturing the essence of the ship in a really tiny way. 

 

As for scale, my model will be 36.5 inches when measured on perpendiculars from the top of the taffrail to the front of the stem, which is what I see for your model.  Multiplied by my scale this gives a length for the actual ship of 1314 inches, or 109.5 feet.   If your model is one inch long, give or take a bit, I don't think you would be far wrong to say that it is 1:1250, which is a common miniature scale.

 

I've bookmarked your build and look forward to future installments.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

 

Dan

[DSiemens]

Thank's Dan.  Now I feel better about updating the title.  That and this ship is officially the first one I've done that has reached the four digit scale.  I can check that off my list of things to try.  

 

Thanks!

[augie]

That technique certainly sounds reasonable.  But then I think of the scale!

 

What is the cannon itself made of/from?

[DSiemens]

Augie it's simply a piece of wire.  I'm debating whether to just put in the wire by it's self or try to make gun carriages.  I'm leaning towards just cannons.  The eye has a way filling in what's missing.   

 

I forgot to mention I have a new appreciation for paper modelers.  While it's strong at a small size which helps with the detail it doesn't sand and isn't as forgiving as wood.  I think I like wood a lot more. 

[michael mott]

Amazing Daniel, you are really pushing the limits.

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

Michael,

 

You and Daniel both push the limits... just at opposite ends of the spectrum.  

[Sjors]

Wow Daniel,

 

I want your model next to mine.......

I think your model fits in a barrel of one of my canons     

Great job you are doing !

 

[Small Stuff]

Daniel,

 

you did the pictures by an electron microscope, didn't you??? 

 

Wonderful work far away from my skills! Beside producing empty bottles

[DSiemens]

Thanks Michael, Mark, Sjors and Stan.  Your complements are greatly appreciated.  

 

Mark remember that Michael also built a cutter at 1:500 he's pushing the limits on both ends. 

 

Stan people like me appreciate the fine art of emptying bottles keep up the good work.  Your ship building skills are fantastic as well.    

 

Got some more work done.  Bulwarks are completed on the port side and half of the cannons are in.  

 

 

 

[captainbob]

Just another 2 1/2 inch boat.  Oh!  Wait!  That's a metric scale.  Well done.  Well done.

 

Bob

[DSiemens]

Thanks Bob. I use rulers and coins for the ship in bottle forums. They like seeing size. I'm using metric for this ship because it makes more sense at this size.

[DSiemens]

More updates.  The upper decks are in.  

 

 

 

 

I will add four more guns on poop deck and then move forward with the masts and chain plates.  Also if any one has any ideas on colors to paint her that would be very helpful.  I'm really not sure what I want to do.  

 

 

[Sailor1234567890]

She going in one of those 50 ml sample bottles? Wow, that's small.

[DSiemens]

Thank you all for your comments.  I did some research on the paint and with some help from a couple guru's on this forum and in the club I found my answer to the color scheme.  I also think it fits the Queen Anne's Revenge rather well.  She took a much darker turn.

 

 

 

 

Ships in this day in age generally came in three colors.  Ocher, red and black.  Usually a mixture of the three.  The colors came from different things mixed in the paint.  Black was created from ash.  Red from oxidization or essentially rust.   I'm not sure about ocher I'd have to ask again.  A very common theme for the day was a black ship with an ocher stripe a long the gun ports and red on the inside of the bulwarks.  This seemed to fit so I went with it.  

 

The masts are in place but I plan on cutting them down and stepping them.  Still more to do.    

[shipmodel]

Daniel -

 

Add my compliments to all the others.  Really nice work at a really small scale. 

 

I agree with your color choices although I might have gone with a brown/natural look for the sides of the hull.  QAR had been a slaver for several years before being captured by Blackbeard, and I don't think that slave ship owners would waste money on paint, and pirates even less so. 

 

It's a real help for me to see someone else's conception of the ship as I work my way through the masts and fittings.

 

A very Merry Christmas to all . . .

 

Dan

[michael mott]

Amazing Daniel, it is only when I see your fingers that I realize how tiny this ship is.

 

Michael

[JesseLee]

Looking good. I love this. Got my start in ship building with mini-ships like this.

[DSiemens]

Thank you all for your comments.  

 

Dan - that is a very good point and one I haven't thought of.  It raises some questions actually.  First I wonder if I have the right ship design at all.  I based the build on plans from late 1600's to early 1700 french frigates.  There is a big difference between a slave ship and a frigate.  From just a small amount of research it seems slave ships had much broader bows and lower poop decks if they had poop decks at all.  They didn't have nearly so many gun ports but obviously Black Beards crew would have cut these out after her capture.

 

I did find accounts differ as to the Queen Anne's revenge.  The http://www.qaronline.org/History/TheShipsJourney.aspx website begins with the ship as being a slave ship.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne's_Revenge suggests that the QAR was built as an English frigate captured by the French and converted into a slave ship.  If that's the case I still may be off since the plans I used are French and not English.  Wikipedia doesn't seem to have source for this info though.  I did find multiple sources stating La Concorde was originally a French capture though and refitted as a slave ship.  It's impossible to say what the extent of the refit was though so it's any ones guess as to how she really looked.  I guess a French frigate is as close as anything.

 

Also if she was a navy frigate to begin with she may have had paint of some sort.  It may have been removed during the refit though.  Who knows.   

 

All said I'll stick with the plans I've selected.  I will go with the assumption that Black Beard would have painted the Queen Anne's Revenge after a few of his early successes.        

 

Jesse - I'm a little biased but I say go for it.  Small scale is a lot of fun.  

[shipmodel]

Hi Daniel -

 

I think that the most definitive history of the ship has been done by the team at the North Carolina Maritime Museum which is excavating the ship underwater in Beaufort Inlet.  They, along with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Affairs, has commissioned a number of researchers and enlisted any number of grad students, here and in France, to comb the records to see what can be found. 

 

It appears that she was built in or around 1710 to the plans of a small French frigate as a privateer for a French merchant family to be used during Queen Anne's War (1708-1711).  Once the war ended the family went into the slave/privateering trade.  The ship would leave France for the west coast of Africa to pick up slaves, transport them to the French posessions in the Carribean, then return to France, picking up any prizes she could on the way home.  On her third slaving trip she was captured by Blackbeard.

 

All this and much more is in the report written by Mark Wilde-Ramsing, PhD, which incorporates much of that research and his own doctoral dissertation.  You can find it here  http://wayback.archive-it.org/org-67/20120515002435/http://www.qaronline.org/techSeries/QAR-R-09-02.pdf

 

This doesn't change a lot from your conception of the ship, but I hope it is of some interest.  I'll be looking forward to your progress.

 

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

 

Dan