HMS Snake by Beef Wellington - FINISHED - Caldercraft - Scale 1: 64 - First wooden ship build

[drtrap]

Pete, Jim - just muddling through trying to find things that work for me...

 

Stergios - take a look here http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/509-hms-snake-by-beef-wellington-caldercraft-scale-1-64-first-wooden-ship-build/?p=76645.  Once rigged, carriages will be glued to the sliding bed so its secure on model.  These are unglued while being rigged and the pin seems to hold them in position as needed together with the small piece of wood holding it in correct place.

Thank you for replying (as usually) so promptly!!

Edited August 29, 2013 by Stergios

[normanh]

I love those carronades such a huge improvement over the standard cast white metal ones, I wished I had ordered these now as an upgrade for my Snake.

 

 

Norman

[drtrap]

I think that a point of later concern is whether the (aftermarket carronades kits) deck blocks should be drilled or (better) glued on the deck...

[Beef Wellington]

Norman - although I found them to be the devil to assemble and paint, I'm glad I tried.  Next ship I'd like to do a few more cannons which I enjoyed making up quite a bit more.

 

I think that a point of later concern is whether the (aftermarket carronades kits) deck blocks should be drilled or (better) glued on the deck...

 

Stergios - the deck blocks were the first thing I glued, sliding beds were then attached to these (with supplied painted brass wire and CA glue).

 

Little bit of progress on carronades, prob won't post more until I've made some progress on slide tackles.  Planking under capstan is made from walnut strips rather than the ply part supplied.  Mizzen pinrails still need a fair amount of tidying up and not fixed.  Not much deck space left at the stern!

 

Edited March 28, 2014 by Beef Wellington

[Sjors]

Hi Jason,

 

When I magnify the pictures…..it looks great !

Really a great job, you can be proud what you have done so far.

Next time fully rigged cannons?     

 

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Jason,

 

When I magnify the pictures…..it looks great !

Really a great job, you can be proud what you have done so far.

Next time fully rigged cannons?     

 

Sjors, the hook and tackle department is working hard to meet the challenge...

 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Beef Wellington

[Sjors]

Thanks Jason

 

More pictures shows me how i can tackle this at my next build.

Beginning looks great !

 

[Blue Ensign]

Love that last series of deck shots Jason, she's looking mighty fine

 

B,E,

[drtrap]

CaptCraig, Ferit, Mort, Sjors and BE - thanks gents for the continuing support.

 

Some slow but steady progress, finally getting a chance to try the various different things that I've thinking about for the last month or more:

 

Have one carronade attached with breech rope.  Unfortunately my seized knot ended up looking more like a baguette than a knot after all the manhandling, hopefully this will get a little easier with practice.  I'll probably play with this some more to get final placement so it looks natural.

 

Made up a couple of hooks and attached to a double and single 3mm block to see how this would look.  Hooks are made from the small 0.3mm brass etch eyebolts bent to shape.  Once rigged, managed to get one of the crew to test things out - thumbs up.  Pretty happy with the way my first carronade is shaping up.

 

I'm probably going to frap the tackle falls around the blocks as per current practice on HMS Victory rather than cheese them on the deck - no Admirals inspection for me...

 

As always, suggestions welcome.

 

breech rope.JPGstrops and hooks.JPGtraining tackle.JPGheave.JPG

Hi Jason, those hooks are painted or blackened?

Thanks.

[j21896]

Hi Jason,

 

It's been a while since I checked in.  She is looking beautiful!

 

Cheers,

Robert

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks for the kind words gents, means a lot coming from you.

 

Hi Jason, those hooks are painted or blackened?

Thanks.

 

Stergios - I blackened the hooks first, and then painted before bending.  However, what I've found works better is to just blacken the hooks and paint afterwards.  Otherwise the paint comes off very easily and needs another coat.

[drtrap]

Thanks for the kind words gents, means a lot coming from you.

 

 

Stergios - I blackened the hooks first, and then painted before bending.  However, what I've found works better is to just blacken the hooks and paint afterwards.  Otherwise the paint comes off very easily and needs another coat.

Yoy're right! I spent so many hours trying to apply primer and painting afterwards on minor/tiny structures with disappointing reslults.

[hamilton]

Just catching up here Jason - she looks great - the time (and money!) you spent on the carronades was well worth it - I'll echo BE's comment about the deck shots - they look amazing.

hamilton

[texxn5]

Looks really nice Jason.  Your deck shots are outstanding.

[Beef Wellington]

_{Robert, John - thanks for kind words}

 

_{Hamilton - interesting you say that, even though the cost is not trivial, I'm taking the view that I'm spending longer building this kit by doing these things and therefore saving the expense of buying another kit so therefore cost neutral....I think that logic works}  

 

_{Anyway, I seem to have got myself into a bit of pickle. After finally managing to get one of the bow chaser cannons installed, I decided to have a quick check to see how these could be rigged.  The problem is that the eyebolts that I believe the tackles are attached to are not far enough away from the bulwark to prevent the blocks touching (I'm using 3mm singles to be consistent with what I'm using on the carronades).  After a few choice words I thought that maybe these could be attached to the eyebolts attached to the far end of the carriage (although I have no idea what these were actually used for).  At least then I can keep some consistency and I'm not too sure that it looks significantly different from more than a few inches away.  I'm also not sure what my options would be as the carriage is now firmly attached to be deck....}

 

Edited September 4, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[ModelBoatMaker]

I'm not sure about cannon rigging, looks great to me though. Could I just ask did you apply oil/varnish to those belaying pins? The colour looks different to the ones of my pickle

 

Cheers,

 

Pete

[Timmo]

Very nicely rigged gun you have there Jason. Well done

Wayne

[aliluke]

Hi Jason

I've been looking at your log without reply. You are doing fantastic work - crisp, clean and precise. I like it very much!

 

As for your tackle problem: consider fixing the rope to the blocks without a separate hook. This saves a lot of room but does give you an iron bound block rather than a rope bound one. I did this on my AVS which I reckon is a tighter rig than yours and got good separation between the blocks. I use a very thin blackened jewellery wire for the process. The same process is used for the double block but without the rope seizing. Here is a diagram I did a while ago and a picture of the roped tackle with 3mm blocks. You can also look at my AVS log for the results. I reckon you'll gain all the space you need but it will look slightly different than your carronade rig. I also have no idea what that eye bolt standing up from the rear of your cannon carriage is for - haven't ever seen one there...

 

Really great work - I'll keep following.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[Ferit]

Very nice work!...

[Beef Wellington]

Timmo, Ferit - cheers!

 

Pete - have done nothing at all to the pins

 

Alistair - thanks for the detailed guidance, I love the suggestion, I think BE also took a similar approach to what you describe and now after re-reading its all making a bit more sense - learn by doing I suppose.  Your picture is really tremendous, a work of art in of itself!  What kind of line are you using, it looks so much better than anything I've seen elsewhere - on my next kit if I get that far I definitely want to upgrade the thread.  I'm going to ponder the cannon rigging question for a bit, mainly because I'm not going to have time do anything in near future, but definitely think that your suggestion is the way to go.  I've also been quietly checking out your Fly (that sounds bad!), you've got a wonderful build going there that I'm certainly learning from.

 

Managed to finish off one of the carronades after much experimentation.  Far from perfect, but pretty pleased with how it turned out compared to the look I was going for.  Would have been nice to have had smaller blocks as they are definitely a little overscale, but I can live with it.  No more updates until I'm done with carronade rigging!

 

 

 

[hamilton]

Hi Jason:

 

Excellent work! As for those eyebolts on the rear of the cannon carriages, I think they would have been used for a tackle that would run back behind the cannon and include another block hooked to an eyebolt on deck - not for the gun tackle (though using them as such makes more sense aesthetically for the reason you explain above). I'm sorry I don't know the name of the tackle, but someone here will.....

 

Alistair's suggestion is a good one and if you can follow it it's the way to go. Being lazy I might have fudged it by seizing the block directly to the eyebolt on the gun carriage and leaving out the hook altogether - but Alistair's strategy results in something far more authentic. Anyway - great work! I love watching this ship come together

hamilton

[aliluke]

Hi Jason

Your carronade looks very fine to me - very crisp and clean. I use Morope for my rigging but you might consider Chuck's rope and some others out there. Morope isn't cheap, has it's own "features" but does look really good in my opinion. It also has a springy character which is really useful when you figure out how to exploit it. I would definitely suggest an aftermarket rope for your kit (or for future kits) should be considered. Your great work deserves a good rope.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[Beef Wellington]

Not much of an update, but its all I have as I haven't had much time to spare recently.  I've been staring at the holes I'd drilled in the cathead pretty much from when they were installed and I just couldn't get comfortable with the way they looked. Reaching a point where I would have no options I decided to try and improve these, took a while to convince myself fully recognizing that a mistake would probably make things a lot worse.  Finally plucked up the courage to tackle them, and by drilling some more holes in between, and using a sharp knife, a very small file and some patience I was able to get proper slots rather than holes.  I then simply cut small slices of dowel for the sheaves.  Far from perfect but I'm much happier with how its looking now.

 

[jim_smits]

Looks great Jason!

 

It's funny I was looking at my cat heads in exactly the same way the other night.......

[Ferit]

As always very clean and nice...

[aliluke]

Those sheaves look very good to me. I might try that approach when I get there. Very nice work!

 

Cheers

Alistair

[j21896]

Nicely done Jason!

 

Robert

[texxn5]

Hi Jason, the carronades and catheads look great.  thanks again for the pictures, they really help get a good understanding of things.

[hamilton]

The cathead sheaves look amazing - nicely done!

hamilton

[Blue Ensign]

Great fix job on the cathead sheaves, and I do like the look of your carronade Jason.

 

B.E.