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

[Beef Wellington]

Sailor - cheers. 

 

Does the hull just sit in the supports, or is it fastened to them?

 

Robert

 

Robert - I was planning on just having her sit in the cradles, it seems pretty sturdy.  I have thought about putting a few small rods in and drilling a couple of holes in the keel bottom to be doubly sure, but I think unless there's an earthquake should be solid, especially once in a case (that I have yet to figure out as well).  Any recommendations on either point would be appreciated.

[j21896]

Jason,

 

I figured I'd ask, as I'll be going the cradle route too.  It's probably not necessary, but I was just wondering if folks use any special techniques to "lock" the hull in place.

 

Robert

[drtrap]

Hi Jason

please do tell us about the base..

Where did you buy it from?

Thanks

 

ST

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Jason

please do tell us about the base..

Where did you buy it from?

Thanks

 

ST

Stergios, this is where I found the base - www.historicships.com, I went with the mahogany.  The wood for the cradle got from www.woodcraft.com.   Shipping is pretty high from both.  The cradle was made by using the contour gauge against the hull to get the shape and then cutting out with a fret saw - basic woodworking but I haven't had to do anything like this since school so was a bit trial and error 

[drtrap]

Stergios, this is where I found the base - www.historicships.com, I went with the mahogany.  The wood for the cradle got from www.woodcraft.com.   Shipping is pretty high from both.  The cradle was made by using the contour gauge against the hull to get the shape and then cutting out with a fret saw - basic woodworking but I haven't had to do anything like this since school so was a bit trial and error 

Thank you Jason

I'm still trying to declare what's the more safe way of keep her stable and safe in to the future. Placing her on a base using cradles or fixing her on two 2mm rods as I have already predrilled the respective holes at her keel....

Happy New Year !!

[mobbsie]

Love what your doing here Jason, the base and stand looks very good.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Beef Wellington]

Cheers Mobbsie and all the 'likes'.

 

Think I'm officially into the rigging stage.  Mizzen mast stepped and the shrouds in installed.  I'm going to wait to finish 'tightening' these until later.  Found the method of getting the 3.5mm deadeyes into the shrouds at the correct height very fiddly, after many choice words found that using 2 pieces of wire in the holes worked better for me (rather than a single one as called out in the instructions) as this provided some more stability.  Hopefully the 5mm deadeyes will be a little easier.

 

Theres quite a stack of shrouds around the mast which is quite pleasing, glad that these were served.  Following Andy's advice the Burton pendants were 'painted' with quite a bit of dilute PVA and then weighted so that they followed a more natural, less gravity defying line.

 

A belated Happy New Year to everyone!!

 

Edited January 2, 2014 by Beef Wellington

[texxn5]

Looks nice Jason.  I'll be doing the same very shortly.....

[Sjors]

Great job Jason !

 

2 things.....

You have on the mizzenmast no platform ?

 

Be careful that you take enough distance between your deadeyes.

The are short all ready and when you tying up the lanyards and the tension in the shroud is working, you have the opportunity that the deadeyes are "kissing' each other.

I had that problem with the Le Mirage and had to change it.

Best wishes my friend !

 

Edited January 2, 2014 by Sjors

[Blue Ensign]

She looks wonderful Jason, and those Mast tops are excellent, nice to see the overall shots of her.

 

B.E.

[The Sailor]

Awesome work, Jason. She looks fantastic!

[Beef Wellington]

Great job Jason !

 

2 things.....

You have on the mizzenmast no platform ?

 

Be careful that you take enough distance between your deadeyes.

The are short all ready and when you tying up the lanyards and the tension in the shroud is working, you have the opportunity that the deadeyes are "kissing' each other.

I had that problem with the Le Mirage and had to change it.

Best wishes my friend !

 

Hi Sjors - no, there is no platform on the mizzen mast, the mizzen mast seems quite 'stunted' compared to larger ship rigged vessels.  The mizzen cross tree is about the same size as the crosstrees on the main and fore top masts.

 

Here is a picture of the deadeyes but not yet tightened fully, please tell me if I've done something wrong.  I first put the shrouds around the mast and then looped around the deadeyes before seizing them.  As is the shrouds looks taught, but I'm not sure how taught these need to be - the .75mm line seems much stronger than the masts at this scale and I'm worried I'd break something if they needed to be much tighter.  

 

[Sjors]

Hi Jason,

 

You don't do anything wrong.

The only thing that I was talking about is when you tight up the lanyards and there is much stretch in the shrouds, you pull the deadeyes together to each other.

I know from previous builds that the stretch can be a lot.

Better is to keep the shrouds a little bit shorter so you have the opportunity to pull the lanyards straight and avoid touching of the deadeyes.

I hope you understand what i mean.

 

[jim_smits]

Hi Sjors - no, there is no platform on the mizzen mast, the mizzen mast seems quite 'stunted' compared to larger ship rigged vessels. The mizzen cross tree is about the same size as the crosstrees on the main and fore top masts.

 

Here is a picture of the deadeyes but noit yet tightened fully, please tell me if I've done something wrong. I first put the shrouds around the mast and then looped around the deadeyes before seizing them. As is the shrouds looks taught, but I'm not sure how taught these need to be - the .75mm line seems much stronger than the masts at this scale and I'm worried I'd break something if they needed to be much tighter.

 

IMG_0595.JPG

Hi Jason,

 

Those look spot on to me. I didn't tighten too much when I rigged the lanyards, just enough to get some tension in the shrouds.

[Beef Wellington]

Sjors - understand you perfectly, thanks.

 

Jim - appreciate the confirmation

 

Full steam ahead it is...I suspect that the other shrouds and stays will take quite some time, but already I hear the very faint Syren's song of the ratlines.

[Moonbug]

Nice looking work Jason!

 

- Bug

[hamilton]

She's looking great Jason! Glad to see the rigging coming together - the shrouds are laid very nicely.

hamilton

[Landlubber Mike]

Really great work Jason.  I'm a bit further along in rigging my Badger, but I think I would have had an easier time going with your approach of adding the mast sections and accompanying rigging in sections, rather than building the entire mast, stepping it, and trying to run the rigging.  Things get a bit complicated with the lines doing it the latter way.  The only good reason to do it the latter way in my opinion is that it is probably easier to ensure that the mast sections are all lined up correctly.  I'll be interested to follow your steps and see how you liked your approach.

[Beef Wellington]

Here's some good news for all you Snake modelers out there looking to get rich  .  Check out the link below, seems the going rate for a completed model is around GBP 1,450 (~US$2,400) which includes the case.  Its clear no one does this to get rich!

 

http://www.rubylane.com/item/802481-3341/Fine-Cased-Model-1797-Sloop

[Moonbug]

Jason,

 

  I once calculated the highest possible amount I could sell my San Juan for, then divided it by how long it took me to build and came up with a potential earning of something like $2 an hour...  hehe.

 

- Bug

[clloyd]

Well Jason,

 

You're responsible for me getting to be a half hour later as I've read all the way through your log.  She looks great and you can see the benefit from all the extra work you are putting in.

 

Colin

[mobbsie]

Now you've made me go and do some extra work on my Burton Pendants. :D :D :D

 

Got to soak and weigh them down now, good thinking mate. ;)

 

I like what you are doing here, clean and tidy, don't worry about the ratlines, the king of ratlines i.e. Sjors, will always help you out if you need it. :o

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Beef Wellington]

Bug - nice to have you on board.  I think I'm below the $1 mark 

 

Colin - thanks for kind words, I'm learning from your wonderful Pandora

 

Mobbsie - it was Andy that put me onto that.  Anyway, I owe you at least a couple for the 'mouse' help...speaking of..

 

First Mouse:

 

I've been procrastinating over my first mouse on the mizzen stay.  Size was estimated from various drawings.  Followed Mobbsie's method and made the mouse out of wood dowel and glued onto the line which was then served.  PVA glue was brushed onto the wood to keep the serving line in place (this photo is the second attempt and you can see the fuzz from attempt 1)

 

Finished moused end...Lever identifies a pretty small eye vs the instructions which call for a much larger one against the mouse.  The stay was served a little beyond the mouse which per Lever can be done "according to fancy".

 

Mizzen stay in place...it looks OK to me but as always would welcome feedback if I'm off track before committing to this.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Beef Wellington

[realworkingsailor]

Looks great, but you should bring the loop of the stay down over the shrouds, so it rests as much as possible on the cross tree bolster.

 

Andy

[Blue Ensign]

Looks good to me Jason

 

B.E.

[jim_smits]

They look fantastic Jason. Really struggled with the mouse on my stays and this has made it look simple.

 

Bet you're looking forward to ratlines now.....!

[texxn5]

Nicely done, I like the serving....your pictures show us how it's supposed to look.  Thanks..

[Beef Wellington]

Andy - appreciate the observation, I had tried what you describe before taking the photo, but it just didn't look right.  Turns out, I had the stay going under the wrong cross tree arm.  All corrected now and sits a treat on the crosstree

 

BE, John, Jim and the 'likes' - thanks as always

 

Main Stay and Preventer Stay collars

 

Started tackling the main and preventer stay collars while waiting for some line to stretch out for the main mast shrouds, (still don't feel I have the shroud thing figured out just yet, but its early days...).  After a bit of a break in the shipyard, these took a full day to complete.  The instructions indicate that the collars should be lashed under the bowsprit through some eyes, but I decided to take the approach outlined in Lever for these.  Unfortunately, because the gammoning is in place, a lot of fiddly steps needed to be done on the ship.

 

As anyone who's done any serving knows, and I'm rapidly learning, is that the process requires you to know the correct length of line you need to serve because 'trimming a bit off' isn't an option.  Here's the first step figuring out the length of served line I'll need.  Marker pen on similarly sized natural line.

 

Detail of the final collar as per Lever

 

Main stay collar in place...

 

...and preventer stay.  I had added the cleats onto the bowsprit before mounting, and commented at the time that the plans were inconsistent.  Luckily the collars seem to sit nicely where intended

 

 

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

Nicely done Jason, you're so right about that serving business, it surely does slow things up and like you I find I have to do a mock up on each item to hopefully gauge the correct length to serve. So glad I invested in a serving tool, doubt I would have had the stamina to do it otherwise.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[texxn5]

Interesting approach and info on serving.  I'll be doing that soon and it is something new.....never done before, thanks for the pictures....