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

[Beef Wellington]

Yves, Jim - cheers!

 

Kevin - you're not the only one to wonder, and the aft most carronades aren't even fitted yet which adds yet more congestion (Jim has a nice picture in his log of this).  Every square inch of deck space seems to be being put to use.   I'm still perplexed by the port openings in the stern fascia, I had initially assumed that these were for stern chasers, but there just doesn't seem to be enough room but for even the smallest gun to be worked.

[Beef Wellington]

She definitely has her curlers in at the moment, hopefully this will turn out OK....Despite trying to use the capping rail to shape the gunport templates long ago, they are simply not the correct shape and don't match the plans (especially at the bow).  Definitely a case of doing the best you can with whats provided, I couldn't face making my own.

 

To try and get round this I drilled holes and placed pins in the capping rail to try and shape more appropriately to the hull, these seem quite capable of handling the lateral forces and I drilled these before applying glue.  Inserting the pins first once the glue is on allows the capping rail to then just be slide down and into place with confidence.  Pins are temporarily positioned while the PVA dries.  Once set, will carefully remove and see how well the glue holds.  Will probably put in permanent pins to be on the safe side, fill, sand and paint.  I've only tackled the starboard side so far just in case I need to adjust the approach for the port side.

 

I will need to probably make a fresh capping rail for the stern as the curvature is less than the provided part, this goes a way back to the initial fitment of the stern fascia and my inability to get as much curvature as suggested.  Hopefully should be easy.

 

Edited April 20, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[mort stoll]

Hi Jaison,

 

Fast question, did you use the wheel supplied with the kit? Your wheel looks a lot better than the kits.

 

Thanks,

Mort

[jim_smits]

Hi Jason

I had exactly the same issues with the capping rail. Main thing to be careful with is to make sure it doesn't overhang inside too much otherwise your pin rails will not fit with the belaying pins in.

I would also recommend permanently pinning as I didn't trust the glue to hold the lateral strain.

Keep it up though!

[j21896]

Hi Jason,

 

Here's to hoping that glue holds.   I'm sure your idea of permanent pinning will do the trick too.

 

Cheers,

Robert

 

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Jaison,

 

Fast question, did you use the wheel supplied with the kit? Your wheel looks a lot better than the kits.

 

Thanks,

Mort

 

Mort - I used the aftermarket Caldercraft wheel, otherwise the parts from the kit.  I did decide to put the wheel on the inside of the supports rather than the outside as called out in the instructions.

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Jason

I had exactly the same issues with the capping rail. Main thing to be careful with is to make sure it doesn't overhang inside too much otherwise your pin rails will not fit with the belaying pins in.

I would also recommend permanently pinning as I didn't trust the glue to hold the lateral strain.

Keep it up though!

 

Hi Jim, all good advice.  I tried to keep the rail as even as possible along the length which means a rough 1.5mm overhang inside and and out.  Where I this wasn't possible, I looked to make the inside overhang the smaller of the two...fingers crossed.  If necessary, I'll probably try to add an some material to the back of the pin rail if needed.

[mort stoll]

Thanks Jason. I am going to order wheels also.

 

 

Mort

[Beef Wellington]

Nothing really revelatory here, but may be useful for others building this kit.  You can see the number of pins I used in the bow section to alleviate any lateral strain from forcing the capping rail to match the bulwark shape.  I experimented with a couple of different approaches, using the 1mm wire and cutting off the provided pins.  I ultimately went with just using the pins as they seem to work just fine.  The PVA glue did a really good job holding the lateral forces once left to dry really well, so this is really just insurance.

 

Basically just removed pins one at a time, cut to length so the end sits slightly below the cap rail surface, glued with thick CA glue and then filled with wood filler.

 

At the stern, the aft cap rail piece was actually much closer in shape than I though, but I made my own piece anyway.  The plans seem to call for the aft cap rail to go fully across the stern.  As can be seen, I was more concerned with ensuring that the side cap rails were correctly positioned and then dovetail the stern cap rail by repeated sanding and fitting.  Once painted, don't think it will really make one bit of difference.

 

Oh, and I used steam to pre-bend the stern cap first as it was a little short to force, I found this worked really well, it softens up the glue in the ply which can be shaped with fingers easily before it 'sets' again very shortly after.

 

Edited April 22, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[j21896]

Congrats Jason.  She starts to really look more complete with the capping rail installed, doesn't she?  Look forward to seeing her all painted.

 

Robert

[jim_smits]

Will echo that. There was something complete about having the capping rail in place.

Good stuff Jason!

[Beef Wellington]

Robert, Jim - thanks.  Totally agree, getting the cap rail in place really makes the hull feel a bit more final.  Was pretty happy how it turned out.

[Beef Wellington]

Would appreciate any thoughts or advice here before I get too far - the kit instructions are not much help. 

 

1) Looking to fit the side fender (first picture) - there is actually a pre-cut part but everything I see shows the fenders going from the cap rail to the wale, and this piece is 2-3mm short both on my hull and compared to the plans.  I decided to make my own to fit better so that it would fit and used 2x4mm strip to do this and used the pre-cut piece as a guide - this did require some careful shaping to allow for the very slight hull curvature. (both are shown for comparison)

 

2) All that is said about the waist fenders is to "cut some 2x4mm strip to length and glue in place as per plans".  I'm guessing these should have a similar shape and fit to the side fender, does this look correct?

 

[Blue Ensign]

Nice work on the capping rails Jason, and your replacement fenders look better.

 

I notice the kit part has a 'sheave' hole in it, is this supposed to be a chesstree rather than a fender? they are similar in form.

 

Your broadside is looking very smart in the close-up photos.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[Beef Wellington]

Nice work on the capping rails Jason, and your replacement fenders look better.

 

I notice the kit part has a 'sheave' hole in it, is this supposed to be a chesstree rather than a fender? they are similar in form.

 

Appreciate that BE, I'll take that as approval to proceed  The instructions call them 'side fenders', but I agree with you that they are perhaps misnamed and should be called chesstrees.  On my next build I'd like to do some proper sheaves, but I think I can live with drilling holes for now.

[Blue Ensign]

I don't know whether they have been misnamed Jason,  ships often have both. A pair of fenders, just forward of the side steps, and a separate chesstree with the sheave, located further forward along the hull to take the Main Tack.

 

Check before you do anything drastic.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Beef Wellington]

I don't know whether they have been misnamed Jason,  ships often have both. A pair of fenders, just forward of the side steps, and a separate chesstree with the sheave, located further forward along the hull to take the Main Tack.

 

Think I'm good.  The plans call for the pair of fenders for'ard of the steps.  There is only one other item further forward and it is to take the maintack as you describe, this is what I'm think is mislabled, seems it should be called a chesstree and not a 'hull side fender' (There is no reference to chesstree anywhere).  Really appreciate you helping clarify.

[Beef Wellington]

Jim - this is how I was planning to tackle the hawsers and grating.  I copied this from a photo from Victory which showed exactly this (of course I can't find it now).  You can see the comparison of the supplied 2.5mm and 2mm Amati hawser.  Maybe its just the bright white colour that makes it look much bigger.

 

If anyone has any ideas on hawser sizing for a ship of this size it would be appreciated (Snake is 100' long).  2.5mm scales to 6.3" diameter and 2mm scales to 5". 

[Blue Ensign]

Jason, there are different methods of determining the size of anchor cables depending on who you read.

 

Lees (Masting and Rigging) gives the proportion 0.62 of the diameter of the maimmast.

 

Lavery (Arming and Fitting) makes reference to a 17th century basis of 1/2"  of circumference for each foot of the ships beam at midships.

 

Snake had a beam of 30' 6"  equating to 15.25" circ. = 1.9mm diameter at scale.

 

In respect of Pegasus with a narrower beam of 26' 10" on this basis the cable would work out at 13.4" circ = to 1.69mm diameter.

Using the Lees basis of 0.62 of the mainmast diameter (18⅜”) the cable would work out at 11.39" circ = to 1.43mm diameter.

 

On your photo the smaller 2mm cable looks more appropriate and does tie in with the beam calculation result.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

 

[cog]

Jason,

 

Sorry staying away this long. Nice progress so far, capping rail looks very smart. Those fender benders ... didn't know ships from that period had any

[normanh]

I would have thought about a foot for the hawser looking at my model i used a drill in the region of about 4 mm to give a fair clearance on the line.

 

Norman

[jim_smits]

Jim - this is how I was planning to tackle the hawsers and grating.  I copied this from a photo from Victory which showed exactly this (of course I can't find it now).  You can see the comparison of the supplied 2.5mm and 2mm Amati hawser.  Maybe its just the bright white colour that makes it look much bigger. If anyone has any ideas on hawser sizing for a ship of this size it would be appreciated (Snake is 100' long).  2.5mm scales to 6.3" diameter and 2mm scales to 5".

 

Cheers for that Jason.

I am actually on holiday in Cornwall at the moment. Will be passing by Cornwall Model Boats on my way home and will pick some 2mm rope up. Anyone need anything else whilst I'm there! ;-)

[Beef Wellington]

On your photo the smaller 2mm cable looks more appropriate and does tie in with the beam calculation result.

 

B.E.as always,  appreciate the insight.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[Beef Wellington]

I seem to have reached a stage where there are now many options open to me on how to proceed, and have had difficulty deciding how I wanted to attach the bulwark pinrails.  The plans indicate that these should be fitted directly under the capping rail, however everything I've seem indicates that these should be mounted lower (pics below of Trincomalee and Constitution).

 

Mounted one set to see how it looks and think this is how I will proceed, these are at 3'5" (~1m) actual height above the deck which seem to tie in with the real life examples.  Another reason for choosing this height is to ensure that the belaying pins don't interfere with the capping rail overhang nearer the stern where the bulwark height is less than the bow.

 

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

I have seen the pin rails mounted slightly higher, level with the top of the gunports. However, your rails look good Jason and I would go with that position.

 

Cheers,

 

Maurice

[j21896]

Hi Jason,

 

I agree.  That height looks and 'feels' right to me as well.

 

Robert

[cog]

Jason,

 

It would be unlogical to mount them higher. To get a strain on the jards, one would require the line to pass under the pinrail and around the belayin' pin, which gives the leverage to tighten it up. If mounted to high, you can never get the required leverage.

[Beef Wellington]

Maurice, Robert, Carl, appreciate you checking in and the advice.

 

Finished the starboard pinrails, couple of things to note (mainly for my own benefit when I refer back to this)

1. Two brass pins were used in each pinrail as recommended to take any strain from rigging
2. Once the right height had been determined, I made a block that could be placed on the deck to ensure each pinrail was a consistent distance from the deck.  The height chosen ensure that there is sufficient clearance from the capping rail, and no interference with the sweep ports
3. Putting bit of pressure on pins attached to the pinrails was sufficient to make small 'locating' indents in the bulwark that could then be drilled out properly before gluing.
4. Installed the belaying pins once pinrails were fixed and painted.  Once again, these are not the kit supplied pins, they are the aftermarket Caldercraft ones offered in their newer kits, a cheap but worthwhile upgrade in my humble opinion.

Glad I deviated from the plans, second photo shows that there is a more workable distance between the belaying pins and the bulwark which will hopefully allow me to coil some ropes on here when I get to the rigging. 

 

Will be travelling next week so will need to put tools down until I get back,  but pretty pleased with the way these turned out.  Shes starting to feel a bit more like a ship and not just a hull.

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

All looks shipshape and tidy Jason, - nice job

M.

[j21896]

Hi Jason,

 

Looks very nice!  Great tip on achieving consistent placement height -- I'm inching closer to installing pin rails, and that will come in handy.

 

When you have a chance, perhaps an overall shot showing the recently installed capping rail throughout?

 

Safe Travels,

Robert