HMS Surprise by Navis Factorem - FINISHED - 1:75

[S.Coleman]

Beautiful clean crisp work. Did you use a foil similar to that of candy wrappers for the decoration above the stern windows? It came up real nice.

[Navis Factorem]

Hi All,

 

Back from Christmas / new year holidays and time to get back into construction.

 

Bow detailing and for a bit of a distraction I might start on the ship's boats. There are 4 main different types, the drawings in Lavery & Hunt (L & H) show construction of 5 different boats, launch, cutter, jolly boat, pinnace and skiff, I haven't seen any images with the small skiff shown, they might have been stored out of sight. In the "Mauritius Command" notes at the back of the book describe 5 ship's boats, 28' barge, 28' launch, 2 x 24' cutters and 18' jolly boat.

 

Where the boats were stored is a bit of a mystery. Various L & H images show different things. The Hunt painting on p59 is a good view of the deck and shows 3 boats in the waist (2 stacked), one on stern davits and one on starboard davits. If another was on port davits it is hidden behind the mizzen sail and that would make 6! The L & H Admiralty plans clearly show 4 boats, launch centred on the waist beams, pinnace on starboard davits, cutter on port davits and jolly boat on stern davits. Another Hunt image (cover of "Wine Dark Sea") on L & H p53 shows 3 boats side by side over the waist. If there were 3 more on davits that would make 6 again. L & H image on p94 shows 5, port and starboard davits, 3 at the waist, 2 stacked.

 

So it looks like I have a bit of freedom to position boats where I think they look best. I intend to make 5 as described in "Mauritius Command"  and will locate 3 on the davits and 2 in the waist, stacked. This means that the waist won't be too cluttered and details on the main deck below will be able to be seen.

 

I will use the same boat building method as i did for the Bounty boats, balsa blank with rib and plank construction.

 

In answer to the question about stern decoration I used gold paint and a fine blade type drawing pen with paint for the detail.

 

The original ship's boats pics were lost when MSW 1 vanished but here they are again:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

 

[Palladio]

Heureka,

another scratched "Surprise". Well done! When I read your log, it sometimes felt like a deja vue of my own experiences with Jack Aubreys beloved Ship.
 

[Mirabell61]

Beautiful work David,

 

the ship looks lovely, also the build of the boat...

 

Nils

[Navis Factorem]

Progress on the bow details.

 

Like many things there seem to be numerous alternatives as to how the head timbers, rails etc are configured. The most significant difference I found was which of these items was visually dominant. Some images I found had the rails outside the head timbers so the rails were continuous, others had the rails inside the line of the head timbers so these were continuous and some had both in the same plane so they formed a sort of 2 dimensional grid.

 

The drawings in Lavery & Hudson seem to show the vertical head timbers as being more visible and continuous so I have gone for this arrangement. it would have been much easier to have the rails continuous on the outside of the timbers as fitting the short rail lengths between the timbers and keeping them aligned was a bit of a challenge. in reality I guess the rails would have been continuous and fitted through the timbers but I was not up to that.

 

I found it interesting to find pics of models where the main rail had been fitted much lower obstructing the forward gun port. In fact some models had deleted this pair of ports completely. As it is I will have to be careful how I fit the port lids in the open position.

 

The most obvious missing piece is Athena the figurehead. My fine carving skills are non existent and trying to craft this myself would involve a massive learning process. A tempting option could be to write a polite email to Mamoli who make a 1:75 Surprise kit and ask for their version to be sent. Although learning to carve could be quite interesting. I'm sure that Janos could give some pointers.

 

Next are the gratings and seats of ease which sit above the head timbers. These have been made up and painted.

 

L & H/Admiralty drawing

 

 

  

 

   

 

 

 

 

[Mayohoo]

Very nice!

[HIPEXEC]

Beautiful work!

[Navis Factorem]

Some more bow details.

 

The false rails, catheads, cathead supporters, ledges (gratings) and seats of ease have been added. The catheads and supports are dry fixed and the temporary pin fixings are because the forecastle deck needs to be removable for some time yet.

 

Always an interesting subject, I find the number of seats of ease intriguing. The L & H/ Admiralty plans for Surprise clearly show 8 individual, 4 pairs of 2. This is what I have built.

 

As I have not been able to find information of the same standard as the Anatomy of the Ship series for Surprise I have been using the AoTS book on HMS Diana as a reference for some of the details that are not clearly defined in the L & H Surprise book. One of the big variations is the number of seats of ease. The AoTS for Diana clearly shows a total of 2. Compare this with the French built Surprise with 8!

 

Why the huge difference?

 

Perhaps it has something to do with diet. Possibly French cuisine of the late 17th, early 18th centuries was much more sophisticated than the English equivalent. Did this carry over to their warships? Did French sailors have a much greater need than their English counterparts?

 

A friend that I discussed this with had a simple answer to at least halving the discrepancy, his suggestion was that the pairs at the head of Surprise didn't represent twice the number of facilities, half of them, in the European tradition, were bidets! Not sure about that.

 

Any contributions to this discussion would be most welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                   

                                   Lavery & Hudson head details                               

 

                                   

 

                                   

 

                                   

 

                                   

[Navis Factorem]

Time for something a bit different.

 

The next hull detail that I will build is the channels with chains and deadeyes.

 

To get the correct layout the exact angle of the shrouds running down from the tops is needed and the best way to do this is to build at least the lower sections of the masts.

 

I have decided to work to the fictional Aubrey layout with the standard main mast replaced with a 36 gun frigate item. Fortunately the Lavery & Hunt drawings include this layout so all that was required was some careful upscaling. This layout also includes a taller mizzen mast so this will also be included.

 

To see what the overall mast layout looks like I have made up all the sections and rough joined them.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                 

 

                                 

[Palladio]

I like your "heads" :-))))

 

The drawing of Karl Heinz Marquardt which depicts the fictional Jack Aubrey Surprise, is very helpful indeed. But there is a little sketch of Geoff Hunt (which is also included in the book) that proofs helpful too because it outlines the overall "look" of the ship. Hunt used this sketch and some rough models for his famous paintings.

[Navis Factorem]

I have spent much time searching through my well thumbed Lavery & Hunt and know the sketch you refer to. To a large extent this sketch helped to define the mast heights and the overlaps at the tops. The final heights were an average of 2 or 3 different pics but that sketch finally defined the overall mast heights, mizzen slightly shorter than the foremast with the 36 gun lower section of the main mast together with the standard 28 gun frigate main topmast and main topgallant mast giving the distinctive triangular profile.

 

Cheers,

 

David. 

[Navis Factorem]

Tops and trestle/cross trees.

 

A disadvantage of the scratch build path is the lack of detail drawings giving precise dimensions for items such as these.

 

Some serious searching was required to find out just what size they should be. My initial attempt using various sketches, diagrams and descriptions, particularly a side view of the tops in Lennarth Pettersen's book, ended up with a main top which just looked too big when made up.

 

Back to the search. "The Ship Model Builder's Assistant" by Charles G Davis has some very helpful schedules which define the sizes of tops and trestle/cross trees, along with all sorts of other parts, based on the length of a ship and the heights of the mast sections. Using this I have resized these parts and they now look more in scale. 

 

I copied the drawings for the tops from a pdf version of "Anatomy of the Ship, HMS Diana" pasted them into a word document then changed the sizes until correct, well, as close to correct as I can get. I only had a layout for the main top and I think this will also be OK for the foretop as they are pretty similar in size, I will simplify the framing for the mizzen top as it is quite a bit smaller. 

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

[akd]

Beautiful work, David !

 

I'm sure it's a silly question , but how do you plan to install guns on lower deck ?

[Navis Factorem]

Not so silly, but the quarterdeck and forecastle are removable to be permanently fixed in place further down the track.

 

Cheers.

[Navis Factorem]

Mast progress.

 

I had planned to make up only the lowest sections of the masts so I could set up the positions of the main shrouds for the channels and chains, the next step in the hull construction. But I got a bit enthused with mast construction so I made up the lot including tops and trestle and cross trees.

 

All the sections are still dry loose fit so the alignment and rake is not fixed.  

 

Now I can get onto the channels.

 

Cheers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[albert]

Very beautiful work.

[mtaylor]

Impressive masts, David.

[kees de mol]

Very beautifull build. I like the small boats you made I have to keep that in mind.

[Navis Factorem]

Chains.

 

Having the lower mast sections now makes it possible to plot the angles of the shrouds and chains.

 

Port side fore mast chains installed.

 

The port side main mast chain angles have been marked out with a weighted string from the main top.

 

The chains are made from 0.8mm brass wire which I finally found at a haberdashers. The brass is chemically blacked then touched up with matt black paint. To maintain a horizontal line for the bottom of the chains one of the lengths needs to vary in length as the changing angle progressively increases the overall length towards the stern. I have decided to make the longest link vary so I have only pre-made those at the bow end as they are pretty much the same length and those further aft will be made up to individual lengths. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rhephner]

Those are some fantastic chains. Did you solder them to stay closed, or was the bend itself enough to hold them tight? Did you use a jig?

 

Nice work! I wish mine looked half as good.

 

Rich

[Navis Factorem]

The credits are rolling, I have just finished watching Master and Commander for the third time but after many years.

A wonderful experience, it brings the Surprise to life once again.

The joy of Aubrey and Maturin continues.

I have just finished reading the Thirteen Gun Salute for the scond time and am thoroughly enjoying the entire book series again.

Gleaning details of the Surprise from the books is an added bonus.

[Navis Factorem]

The port side chains are complete apart from a bit of final aligning and touching up.

 

I use a jig of sorts, a block of hardwood with lots of wires of 2 sizes at different spaces for the various chain parts and positions. The 2 sizes are for the the fixings to the hull which are 0.6mm sewing pins and 0.8mm which is the thickness of the brass wire for where the links connect to each other. The large rod is for the dead eye rings to shape the bottom connections of the dead eyes.

 

Fortunately the brass wire that I found is fairly stiff so it holds a shape pretty well and I will not be soldering the joints. Once the chains have been finally adjusted I will CA the dead eye bottoms at the channels so that load from the shrouds and back stays is not transferred into the chains themselves.

 

I think the starboard side will be neater than the port side and by the time I have finished I will probably be pretty good at making up chains. Of course all will be forgotten when the time comes to make them up for the next build.

 

I have found this to be a fairly painful process. This much handling of small fine pieces of wire punctures the finger tips quite frequently and I'm getting quite a layer of scar tissue. I cut the shaped chain sections with side cutters then grind the ends flush with a disc on my Dremel. I have brushed the edge of the disc a couple of times with a finger. This smarts too! Heart and soul into a model obviously isn't enough, some blood also helps.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

David,

 

good work ! , I like your attempt for the self made chain plates and deadeye stroppings     

 

Nils

[marktime]

"I have found this to be a fairly painful process. This much handling of small fine pieces of wire punctures the finger tips quite frequently and I'm getting quite a layer of scar tissue. I cut the shaped chain sections with side cutters then grind the ends flush with a disc on my Dremel. I have brushed the edge of the disc a couple of times with a finger. This smarts too! Heart and soul into a model obviously isn't enough, some blood also helps."

 

 

David, I want you to know that us followers are sharing your pain.  Pleae don't stop. We promise to bandage your broken fingers when you have finished teaching us how to construct a superb model..

 

:D

 

[mtaylor]

NIce work on the chains David.   Yes there will be blood.. which seems to be part of the building process.  i think everyone's ship has been signed by DNA.

[rwiederrich]

Very nice work...clean and satisfying...well done.

 

Rob

[Navis Factorem]

Starboard chains now also fitted. This process was a lot easier than the port side and much less blood was spilt!

 

There will be some fine tuning and probably some dead eye changes when I get to fitting the shrouds so that I have matching dead eye pairs and the lanyards are consistent.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

 

 

[Navis Factorem]

Hi Lawrence,

 

Just before I opened the MSW site I had again scoured L&H and the internet generally looking for Surprise boat information. This time I was particularly trying to work out the boat colours. It appears that the boats are generally painted white with a coloured stripe at gunwale level and possibly across the stern. This would make sense so that they could be identified from behind.

 

As previously described there are various versions of the boats that Surprise carried and their numbers. My decision on what to build is mainly decided on the boat plans available in L&H so there will be:

            1 x 26' pinnace with a red stripe, stored at the stbd waist, 

            2 x 25' cutters, one with a blue stripe, the other looks like an orange stripe but I can't be sure, stored on the quarter davits, blue stbd side,

            1 x 18' jolly boat which definitely has a yellow stripe, stern davits

            1 x 28' launch, the only colour I can find looks like brown but I think this unlikely, waist port side.

Any more colour advice from members would be greatly appreciated.

 

For the boats I made for the Bounty the cutwater, keel and transom are made from spare bits of 2 mm thick walnut and the ribs and planks are from 0.6 x 4 mm mm mahogany deck planking cut down to 2 mm wide for planks and about 1 and a bit mm for ribs.

 

Bounty is 1:60 scale and although Surprise is 1:75 scale I will use the same size materials for the Surprise boats, going any smaller would drive me crazy(ier!)

 

I glued the entire boat assemblies with CA to be able to work without long PVA setting delays. The jig was made from balsa, a fair amount of which stuck to the inside of the hull when I chopped it out, first slicing as close the the hull as I could then pulling out the rest with needle nose pliers. I was amazed the hull didn't disintegrate in the process. I was careful to only glue the ribs to the jig outside the finished hull shape.  when fitting the planking I tried to avoid getting glue on the jig but I think it all worked because the balsa is very soft and any glued surface just pulls away and bits stayed attached to the hull and were fairly easy to tidy up. I think luck had a lot to do with it. 

 

I hope this helps.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

[Navis Factorem]

Time for some boat building.

 

The first that I will attempt will be the 28' launch.

 

I have scanned the page out of L & H and upscaled to 1:75 then cropped, copied, flipped and butt joined the hull profiles to create full width rib shapes. The plan and long section views will be glued to a sheet of ply as a base. The blank will be shaped out of balsa and glued to the plan view on the ply for attachment of cutwater, keel, transom ,ribs and planking. Hopefully I will then be able to remove the hull from the blank and complete internal details.

 

I'll see how it goes and hope luck is still with me!

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

 

L & H drawings

[Navis Factorem]

Deadeyes take 2.

 

I visited an interesting exhibition of model ships a couple of weekends ago. Some of the models are outstanding, they remind me that I am a relative newcomer to the hobby.

 

Looking at some of the models of ships from the same period as Surprise, and more carefully checking out the drawings and some images online, I realised that the deadeyes that I have used are too big. So some more work was needed on chains and deadeyes. The next size down that I could source from my friendly supplier was 4mm diameter instead of the 5mm used initially. All the chains were removed, the old deadeyes popped out and the top part of the chains reshaped to take the 4mm items. Fortunately the process didn't take too long and I am much happier with the result.

 

Live and learn!

 

Cheers,

 

David.