Royal William by pirozzi - FINISHED - Euromodels - 1/70

[pirozzi]

Ok, I tried the toothpick idea for treenails. First I made up a scrap planking board using the exact wood strips as on the ship, so I did not screw up the hull if it did not turn out well.  Then I proceeded to drill the boards and place the toothpick ends. Once dry, I cut them off and lightly sanded.

I think it looks perfect!! I will now go buy about 4000 toothpicks and start treenailing away. This should take a few months.  

 

I don't remember who I got this idea from, but it was someone on this forum. Many thanks mate!, who evere you are.

 

Vince P.

[GLakie]

Seems like a good method to me Vince. Toothpicks are going on my list of household items to get when I start mine. On a side note, this is when you might want to pick up a side-hobby, just to break up the monotony of doing 8,000 tree-nails.   

[Ulises Victoria]

I don't remember who I got this idea from, but it was someone on this forum. Many thanks mate!, who evere you are.

 

Vince P.

Hey. It may have been me! These photos are of my Bounty, taken in 2007.

[pirozzi]

Hey. It may have been me! These photos are of my Bounty, taken in 2007.

Yes, now I remember those photos. Great idea mate . I still learn some neat stuff on this forum.

[Fam]

Thank you Ulises Victoria, my credits to you as well, because I got the idea from you and used in my Pinco back in 2009-2010!

And confirm it works very well!

Bye

Fam

[Ulises Victoria]

It fills me with joy helping somebody.

[pirozzi]

Here is just one row. I need to find a diversion or I will wind up in an institution before this is done.

 

Vince P.

[Jaxboat]

OMG, Vince. I think you are right about the diversion. Also how many tree will this take ? Great Idea though. Love your work. This beastie is on my to do list. Your work is an inspiration!!

Best

Jaxboat

[Ulises Victoria]

Whoa Vince!!! I kinda feel guilty for having inspired you to start this job. 

Good luck and keep the photos of the treenailing job coming. Can't wait to see it finished!

 

P.S Are you drilling or just punching the holes?

[Keith_W]

Hi Vince, looks to me as if you're not planning to paint the lower hull white? 

My lower hull is painted white. Because of this ... it only took me 3 days to do all the treenails  

You might also be able to save yourself some time by drawing in where the side decorations and wales will be. Once you add these, any treenails under it will be hidden. 

[pirozzi]

Hi Vince, looks to me as if you're not planning to paint the lower hull white? 

 

My lower hull is painted white. Because of this ... it only took me 3 days to do all the treenails  

 

You might also be able to save yourself some time by drawing in where the side decorations and wales will be. Once you add these, any treenails under it will be hidden. 

Hi Keith,

I am going to paint the hull below the waterline white. I did not think about some of the trennels being covered. That is a good idea. I will stop and mark off where they will be hidden and only do the rest.

 

Thanks,

Vince

[pirozzi]

After thinking about many of the areas where the trennels will be hidden, I decided to stop that process and mark off the hull first. Thanks, KeithW.

 

The waterline is marked off and the first coat of white primer is on. I will put 2 coats of primer and then spray on white enamel. I did this on the scrap piece with the trennels in place and they are all but invisible. There is no need to place the trennels below the water line. That should save about 2000 trennels and part of my sanity.

 

Vince P.

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

"Good thinking 99

Cheer 86

Havagooday

Greg "

[pirozzi]

The white below the waterline is completed.

Next is the most dreaded part of this build. Making the transom. I had read all of the horror stories, studied the plans for hours, reviewed Julier's notes, read Pete's notes 10 times, and gone over other build logs here. At this point, I still don't have a clue as to how to do this, or where to start. This is where the plans fail big time. The transom support pieces that have to be carved in every direction,don't even have a clear photo or drawing of how they are even supposed to look.

I suppose I will give it a try, but I am not very enthusiastic about this at all.   

Vince P.

[GLakie]

The hull turned out nice Vince!     I'm far from being an expert, but with a problem like that transom, maybe a good approach would be to go through some trial runs with scrap wood first, until you come up with something you can live with. You would think the manual would go into a little more detail with something as important and detailed as the transom.  A serious short-coming of a lot of kits. 

 

Cheers

[Landlubber Mike]

Great looking build Vince.  Good luck on the transom, but given how nice the rest of the build is going, I have a feeling you won't need it

[Keith_W]

Hey Vince, I must have made about 10 posts about the RW transom in my build log, with LOTS of photos along the way. Having completed the lower transom support pieces, I now know how they should be shaped. Let me know if you need help. 

[pirozzi]

Hey Vince, I must have made about 10 posts about the RW transom in my build log, with LOTS of photos along the way. Having completed the lower transom support pieces, I now know how they should be shaped. Let me know if you need help. 

Hi Keith,

Yes I have looked at all of your posts on this, over and over. I am going to use the metal trim pieces that came with the kit, so I will do it that way instead of the plans way. I am still confused as to the order of carving those 2 blocks, parts 54 and 55. The camber has to be cut, the contours for the metal decorations, the inside to fit the hull curves, and the channels for the metal trim. The plans are no help at all. Also, I don't have the fancy sanders and saws like most of you guys have. What I do will have to be done by hand. Did you do the camber first? When cutting the concave contour, did you make the width just wide enough for the decorations? And the big question, how did you determine where to place the carved blocks on the ship? It would seem to me to cut the insides first and fit them to the ship first, then the camber. How did you do it.

 

Thanks,

Vince

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Good luck Vince...... I know you are going to need a load of it. But if your previous results are any indication for your next big step, you will make it a breeze!

Havagooday

Greg

[Keith_W]

Vince, this is the order that I did it. 

 

1. Mark in pencil the line of the wales, and where you think the parts 54 and 55 should sit on your ship. Take note in particular of where parts 54 and 55 terminate with relation to the gunports, AND the correct inclination of the transom (remember, these follow the curve of the wales!). 

 

2. Cut the inside contour to fit the ship. Due to differences in planking between my ship and yours, you can not use the same dimensions that I came up with. Also note that adjustment in the future will be necessary after you fit the wales. 

 

3. Dry fit both parts 54 and 55 to ensure that the inside contour is correct. Drill two holes through both parts and secure with dowels to ensure a consistent reference. 

 

3. Mark the lower transom piece (part 55) with the correct lines for the OUTSIDE contour. The lower section is referenced against the mahogany ply piece (part 56), and the upper section against part 54. You SHOULD end up with a shape similar to what I obtained here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/7195-hms-royal-william-by-keithw-euromodel-172/?p=285618(note that I have also taken reference off Pete's I-I from the Euromodel website, my piece looks a lot like his!). Carve it using whatever tools you have - if you don't own a disc sander as I do, I would suggest a Dremel for rough shaping followed by files and sandpaper. Make the piece oversize, so you can adjust the shape later. 

4. Mark the upper transom piece (part 54). The lower part is referenced against the transom piece below it (part 55). The upper half of this part is VITALLY IMPORTANT. It MUST follow the same curvature as all the decks above it, and project rearwards in a way that maintains a straight line when referenced against the line of the transom (I drew a straight line down from the poop, quarterdeck, etc). In my build, these do not yet exist (which allows me flexibility to adjust the length of these later). You have already built your poop deck, so you MUST reference against it. Now carve part 54. 

5. You will note from my log that both part 54 and 55 need to be curved with a deflection of 2mm in the center with respect to the sides. I found it impossible to bend these pieces, so I shimmed them. If you can't bend them, shim them. 

 

6. Using a photocopy of the metal decorations, adjust the concave feature on both parts 54 and 55 so that the metal pieces will fit later. 

 

7. Carve a channel to fit the metal decoration pieces (note that in my build, I replaced these with scratchbuilt decorations). 

 

8. Glue the lower transom (part 55) piece to the hull. Adjust the shape of the transom support (part 56) and glue that in place. Leave part 54 unglued until you decide on the shape of the deck above it. This will allow you to make final adjustments to its shape and inclination if necessary. 

[pirozzi]

I have started to tackle what I believe will be the most challenging and difficult part of this build. That is construction of the transom and stern galleries.

There are 2 ways to build these. One is using the plan drawings from scratch and the other is using the carved metal trim pieces included with the kit and using the plans for measurement references where necessary. Pete's notes in the Euromodel references cover both and Keith Julier's article deals only with the first choice.

I have decided to use Pete's notes and the second method. There are 3 wood pieces that make up the transom base and they will require a considerable amount of carving in every plane. The parts are #56 which is a thin plywood piece, parts #55 and #54 which are thick walnut pieces. Since I am using the metal carved trim pieces, Part #56 will not be needed on the ship, but must be used to mark the edge of the bottom of piece #55 for carving.

The first thing to do is temporarily join all 3 pieces together with either bolts or dowels so the edges can be marked for trimming. Part #56 on bottom, #55 in middle, and #54 on top. Line up the sternpost slots with a piece of 10mm wood and the forward edges of all the pieces. The first 4 photos show this.

Next up is to seperate the pieces and work on #54 by shaving the top and bottom to form the correct camber. The piece is reduced in thickness from 13.0mm to 10.5mm.

Once that is done, place the piece on the stern and mark where it will be heightwise. The distance from the top of the upper quarterdeck to the top center of #54 should be 98.0mm. The piece should also be slanted downward slightly. There are differences of opinion on what the declining angle should be, but I agree with Pete and the line of the lower gun deck should be in line with the top of #54.

In order to get #54 to butt up against the last bulkhead, a considerable amount of wood has to be cut away on the insides of both ends to match the curve of the hull planks, and the slot for the sternpost has to be deepened as well.

The lower edge of the outside surface has to be carved back using the mark made with the edge of #55 to form the inward cant, and the ends have to be trimmed back and beveled to wrap around the last lower gunport. Both Pete's notes and the plans have good drawings to reference this.

Once the piece is sitting correctly on the stern, mark the edges all around with pencil lines and remove it for later.

 

Vince P.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Vince P.

[GLakie]

With all of the thought and planning you're putting into this phase Vince, I'm sure it'll turn out beautiful! 

 

Cheers

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Vince

With your diligence to this difficult part, I'm certain it will turn out right.

Keep up the great work!

Havagooday

Greg

[clipper]

excellent work, well done mate

Tony

[pirozzi]

The transom base pieces have been fully carved and the channel cut for the metal trim. A hole has been cut for the rudder post and the whole thing painted black. Two pieces of the decorative metal have been placed. The metal is painted gold and then bent to conform to the wood base. The pieces have to be carefully trimmed of extra metal. The metal is very fragile and has to be bent ever so carefully to prevent breakage.

 

Vince P.

[GLakie]

That turned out real nice Vince!!  Nice work!! 

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Dito from George x 10

Greg

[maggsl_01]

Hi Vince,

 

I am impressed. Very well done. What an effort to do - or should I say fun? I took some looks at the plans for the Friedrich Wilhelm from Euro Model (what will be my next model... probably...) and understand how much own creativity is necessary to come to a great result. The more I see and read from you or Keith or Denis the more I am sure that it will be a real challenge to build that ship some day.But a challenge I am looking forward to with some kind of impatience (??). Although there is the help from Euro Model (from Piratepete I think) I will need some  brain...brain and brain to get the model as it should be.

 

First I will end the Endeavour and then, perhaps in spring next year... the FWzP will enter my shipyard.

 

Cheerio

 

Max

[pirozzi]

I am still working on the transom base.

The base has been mounted on the hull with all of the decorative pieces except for the top rail. It will be placed once I flip the hull over. The last photo shows how much the metal trim has to be shaped. The piece on the left is before and on the right is after. The metal is hard to bend without breaking and requires a little heating to make it softer. I used a plastic hammer and an anvil to make the bends.

There are 4 gunports in the transom base. The lids had to be made from scratch and were placed along with the hinges and pull ropes.

 

Vince P.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Vince P.

[GLakie]

That piece looks great mounted up to her Vince.  Are you using a small mini-torch to heat up the metal?