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

[Beef Wellington]

M - thanks for watching over my shoulder

 

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

 

Robert, here you go, hope you're not disappointed...she had her first trip outside for some beauty shots.  The Snake doesn't have the most beautiful lines of the other ships on here (Mars and Pegasus esp.), but maybe a certain "utilitarian elegance".

 

Edited May 5, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[j21896]

Thanks Jason.  She's an elegant one indeed!  Quite the sun bathing beauty

 

I don't think I mentioned it before, but your paint work is immaculate!

 

Cheers,

Robert

[Jean-Pierre]

I love your build. Maybe it's your first ship, but I assume not your first build.

 

2 remarks :

The grating under your ship may be a little oversize for your deck.

Seriously now, I have noticed that for chains  (for your rudder) definitely you have to count the links to have exactly the same number on each side.  Otherwise you have one side opf the chain hanging lower than the other side.  I just mention it because it is quite easy to correct if wished so.

 

About the gratings, yours show how this very prominent feature should look like on a model, and I am sure Caldercraft delivers battens of the right thickness.  This is unfortunately not the case with other makers like Artesania, Occre and I think Corel, who offer too small items, which when assembled show very large openings that would make it impossible for the crew to walk on.

 

Happy building

[cog]

Jason,

 

She does look good. Even though you may feel other ships' lines are more elegant, she has her own beauty, and you've done her right.

 

As JP wrote: The grating under your ship may be a little oversize for your deck. I wonder if you want to sink her on her maiden voyage using that

[jim_smits]

Looks really good in the sun Jason! Currently toiling away putting carronades together and making rope coils for the deck.....

[Beef Wellington]

Appreciate your motivating comments chaps!

 

Robert - coming from you and what you've done with your Mars that is high, probably undeserved praise.  I can only aspire to what you've acheived.

 

Jean-Pierre - thanks for stopping by and the kind words.  I did my best to ensure the chains were symmetrical and they look fine in person, however they never quite seem to look look right in photos, must be because of all the angles involved.  I don't have a lot of prior experience, the usual Airfix plane and tank kits growing up, and of course HMS Victory (think it was 1:180).  My last complete model was 20yrs ago,1:96 Revell USS Constitution, I was happy with it at the time but I'm sure if I looked at it today I'd see a lot of things I'd want to do better.  I started the Billings Bounty 15 or so years ago and really got no further than the framing as instructions were poor and I couldn't figure out the basic planking and failed horribly!  It wasn't until I found MSW that I got the courage to try again with the wonderful support and help from its members that really helped de-mystify the hobby.

 

Carl - I built the table for practice

 

Jim - I'm with you on the Carronades, this seems to be the next 'daunting' task which I wan to get started on soom

[Sjors]

Great, great great…...

Beautiful picture!

That looks really great!

And you put her on a real ship or are that where she is standing on,are  not the grating of a real vessel?

 

[Beef Wellington]

Glad you like the pictures, its a lot easier to post pictures than make progress I think.  I hope I'm not guilty of posting too many with too little progress 

[cog]

Jason,

 

If you would hardly make progress, you would be showing the same pictures again and again ...

 

You might ask him/her whom is responsible for 'the maximum number of images per post in comparrison to build progress', should be somewhere in the rules and regulations department I would say

[j21896]

Hi Jason,

 

I say, when in doubt, you should post more and more pictures!   You'll surely get no complaints from me.

 

Robert

[Sjors]

I have to agree with Robert,

 

We want MORE pictures!!!!

I LOVE pictures     

 

[PMG]

I Jason,

I am discovering your log and I am really impressed by the quality of your construction.

I shall follow it with great pleasure.

Cheers,

Pierre

[drtrap]

Small update, definitely getting a bit more comfortable working with some of the what I'm sure are basic skills to most!  Started to tackle the tiller.

 

1 - found that the tiller arm is too long, and the plans seem to contradict each other from side to top elevation in determining the length.  In the end I sort of averaged it, dry placed the wheel and adjusted for what I thought looked about right length.  Side note, the more I work with the plans the more I keep reminding myself that they are more "guidelines" in a number of respects.  After finding the right length, I shaped the end to the angel of the rudder and drilled a 1mm hole in the tiller arm and the rudder to accept some wire - this seemed a little more reliable (how you are supposed to work with the pre-cut square 'pin' I don't know).

 

SPOILER ALERT - You'll see there are two holes in the rudder, the top is a mistake which I'll explain

 

2 - Dry fitted tiller arm.  I'l probably round this off a bit before final fitting.

 

3 - Dryfitted the aft platform and found that the tiller arm was too high as the arm did not clear the support beam (again, despite using the plans as guidance) - simple to fix, but another example of where I'm learning its important to be 3 steps ahead.  It would have been a real pain to correct this after it was all rigged

 

4 - Threw some of the other in progress deck fittings together, looks like its going to be rather crowded back there even without the aft platform, and ladders still need to go in.  Need to assemble these and plan for where these will go prior to fitting the tiller rope otherwise it could cause problems later.

 

rudder1.JPGrudder2.JPGrudder3.JPGrudder4.JPG

Hi Jason, 

do not say to me that I should buy rather two (than one) extra ships wheels....     

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Jason, 

do not say to me that I should buy rather two (than one) extra ships wheels....     

 

The replacement wheels come individually in a pack so you would need 2, I hope I didn't suggest anywhere only one was needed, if so I apologize.

[drtrap]

I know the extra pack, I did place my order before yours, the point is that I opened the wheel;s pack yesterday and realized that I needed another one wheel !!

I think that Cornwall Model Boats description was 'nt the appropriate one on this...

Cheers !

Edited October 18, 2013 by Stergios

[Beef Wellington]

Had a naming ceremony! Credit for this goes to Blue Ensign whose excellent approach on his Pickle build I poached for applying the lettering, which are letraset 5mm gold Times New Roman dry rub transfers. Easy to apply, but alignment is a bit tricky - looks better in person for some reason. I tried to get the letters to follow the curve of the underside of the stern.

 

Edited May 11, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[jim_smits]

That looks really good Jason! Starts looking up method......

[Blueskippy]

I agree with you Jason BE's idea was poached by me also on Sherbourne, great idea - easy and effective.

By the way your "Snake " is looking superb

[Blue Ensign]

Nice job on the name Jason, but then I may be biased

 

Seriously, those dry rubs do look better than the brass etched supplied versions, not least because the names on British ships were also painted on rather than stuck on in relief.

 

I think the dry rubs give a  more period look to a model, It is a pity that letraset don't do a  greater range of fonts and letter sizes.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Beef Wellington]

Jim, Smitty - thanks, I have your Pickle on my 'to read' list which I promise I'll get to soon.

 

Seriously, those dry rubs do look better than the brass etched supplied versions, not least because the names on British ships were also painted on rather than stuck on in relief.  I think the dry rubs give a  more period look to a model, It is a pity that letraset don't do a  greater range of fonts and letter sizes.

 

Definitely agree BE, unfortunately the Snake kit doesn't even come with the photo etch letters as an option which I've seen in some of the other builds, so its this or nothing it seems.

[cog]

Jason,

 

You could photoetch the letters yourself. On the other hand, I like the look of it the way you have done it now.

[Beef Wellington]

Carl - I'll think I'll put off the photo-etching of my own letters to a future build!  I have enough going on with just the kit

[Beef Wellington]

Not much progress unfortunately, but starting to seriously think about getting the 'great guns' started.  Finally managed to (nearly) complete one of the carronades and am posting just so others can see what the aftermarket Caldercraft carronades look like.  Despite my trial attempts and desire to blacken the carronades (could only get "Blacken-it"), I decided to paint them as I found it next to impossible to get a consistent tone with all the various metals needed to build up the carronades, some smaller parts would only go brown - I tried all the recommended chemical/physical cleaning methods together with varying dilution %'ages.  In the end I just had to admit defeat this time round and will add this as a challenge for a future build.  Only 15 more to go plus two cannons....

 

Couple of things that I'm a bit confused with:

 

• There aren't any wheels or training tackle attachments - I can't find any similar photos or drawings but I'm assuming CC did their research on this, would these have just been moved with handspikes?
• There is no breaching ring on the cascable - again this seems to be an omission (?).  Will probably just wrap the breech rope around the neck unless there are any suggestions for adding these (I'd be more happy if there was justification for not having to add

I've ordered the some additional 3mm double and single blocks and also bought a block sander from Model Shipways, it seems to do a nice job rounding off the square edges of the blocks and making them appear smaller as the large size of the 3mm blocks seems to be a common comment by others.

 

I've also ordered some 0.1mm line and was going to consider using this for the line, but it may be too fine.  Otherwise I'll probably go with the supplied 0.25mm line.

 

Lastly, was going to solicit some opinions.  The elevation screw in the picture I've left as bare brass (mainly as I was waiting until all were mounted before painting so I could get consistent elevation for the carronades), but then I came across this picture of a carronade on HMS Trincomalee which shows the same shiny elevation screw (circled in red).  Got me thinking that it may be OK to leave them unpainted, although it could be a bit over the top so may just try to chemically blacken a touch to take the shine off.

 

[davyboy]

Jason,

 

There would certainly be train tackles and trucks as are shown in the Trincomalee pic. To save me writing go to the Scratch build logs and look at Rogers´ Syren build log on page 3. That is how it should be set up. Your Snake is looking very good. Breeching rings should be easy to make from brass or plastic tubing,cut off small slices and with a little filing to fit and thick cyano you are in business.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Dave

Edited May 17, 2013 by davyboy

[molasses]

Jason:

 

Unfinished brass elevating screws are very likely correct, based both on the Tricomalee photo and on research I did for my Cruizer class topic (see my signature). On HMS Peacock, my sources specifically mention that her captain had his crew spend much more time keeping the brass elevating screws and brass traversing truck brackets highly polished than he did exercising them at the guns.

 

In the Tricomalee photo, the tackle for running out the guns is visible as are the traversing wheels (and the breeching ring you noted). The run-out tackle was hooked into the inboard eyebolt on the slide and at the bulwark near the breech rope eyebolt. Carronades would also have training tackle hooked into an eyebolt at the inboard end of the skid and at an eyebolt set at the midpoint between each pair of gun ports. Here's a detail of an American 32 pounder carronade of the period. I doubt very much that British carronade carriage assemblies would have been much different.

 

Detail from The History of the American Sailing Navy by Howard I. Chapelle, copyright 1949 

 

You can see from this detail that Caldercraft simplified the carronade assemblies somewhat, most likely in order to keep things simple enough for the average intermediate-level kit builder to accomplish and to keep the production costs low enough to be able to sell the kit to the intended market.

 

I hope this helps. 

[Ferit]

Salute Jason,

What I saw in your log is that your construction is very clean and straight at every stage and looks really great... Congratulations...

[Beef Wellington]

Dave (davyboy) - thansk for the kind comment and good tip, I need to do some thinking whether this want to tackle this (pun intended).  I guess these would need to be really small diameter 1.5-2mm(?)

 

Dave - picture definitely helps.  Its strange, the kit supplied carrondes come with white metal wheels, I had thought about trying to use these to replace the wood but the sizes don't work - the kit carronde trunnions mount on the sill of the gunport, the aftermarket ones use a deck mounting block.  Even though these represent the same thing its amazing how different the sizes are.  The 32lb carronades are just bohemoths as well, they barely fit underneath the top of the gunport.  I need to think about the extra work on the training tackles, I'm tempted to maybe fir the rings, but not the tackles as it may just leave the deck a bit too cluttered.   Need to ponder some more...

 

Ferit KUTLU - appreciate the kind words, I'm doing my best, you Berlin is very clean and precise, beautiful wood tone.

[Beef Wellington]

Here are the results of my experimentation with the block sander.

 

I the photos below are shown (left to right):

• Untouched Caldercraft 2mm single block (natural)
• Caldercraft 3mm double block that has been in the block sander (walnut)
• Untouched Caldercraft 3mm double block (walnut)

Apologies for the photo quality, an iPhone is not great for these small objects.  The block sander definitely makes a big difference to the appearence of the blocks, and in person there is more of a difference.  I could probably put this in for a little bit more time and may do that before I commit so they all end up the same.  Note that both of the 3mm blocks are walnut, the sander lightens up the surface.

 

The block sander I used can be seen at http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=MS27 . I'm sure there are better, but seems a pretty cheap and cost effective simple approach.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[Beef Wellington]

Played around with the hook and strops on the block. The wire is 26 gauge and the line is 0.1mm Caldercraft hemp. I think in real life hook would protrude more, but I think it needs to be reduced a bit to allow for the short tackle length and should look OK at this scale.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[j21896]

Nice going Jason!  Those blocks clean up pretty nicely.  I'm thinking about building my gun carriages next also, so I'm pondering the same types of things regarding rigging, etc.  I'll be watching with great interest as you proceed.

 

Cheers,

Robert