HMS Unicorn by ianmajor - Corel - Scale 1:75, 1748 to 1771

[Landlubber Mike]

Very nice work Ian - the details are coming along very nicely.

 

One thought on the figurehead and transom decoration.  Have you considered using washes for low lights and dry brushing a lighter color for highlights?  That might make the decorations pop a little more.

 

For what it's worth, Chris passed along his technique for painting items to match boxwood - a technique he got from Chuck:

 

 

Basically the formula for painting to resemble boxwood is a 50/50 mix of Raw Sienna and Yellow Ochre as a base coat.  You then go in with light washes of Raw Sienna mixed with a touch of white for your low lights and Yellow Ochre mixed with a touch of white for your highlights.  Use several washes to give the piece dimension.  Then apply Minwax Golden Oak - allow to get tacky for about 30 minutes then brush off.  Repeat if necessary

[ianmajor]

Mike,

 

I will try some washes. Admitedly it has gone from peeling guild and corrosion look to a bit of plastic style.  

[Ferit]

Hi İan,

Another exceptional metal works... Endurance, uniformness, consistency...

[jwvolz]

Looking great Ian!

[ameletters]

Can you get a pre-cut kit for a pinnace 1:75 somewhere - then please tell me! I cannot stand the idea of a ship without a lifeboat!

[ianmajor]

Ameletters, thanks for dropping in.

 

I am not aware of a wood pre-cut kit for a ship's boats in 1:75. All that I have seen are boats molded in plastic or metal.

 

My intention is to make a pinnace and a longboat for the Unicorn from scratch based on NMM plans. I am going to use the same technique as Hamilton did for the ship's boat on his 1:100 Greyhound. He based his on a Model Shipways kit for a 3 3/4" boat. The part of his log covering this starts at :- http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1172-hms-blandford-by-hamilton-from-corel-hms-greyhound-1100/?p=92838  

 

Another fine description of the construction of a 1:64 pinnace and a longboat is in BE's Blandford log. He has scratch built these based on scaled down version of Chuck's kits. BE bought the kits and produced "little and large" versions. The start for the ship's boats in his log is at  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/332-hms-pegasus-by-blue-ensign-victory-models-enhancing-the-kit-a-build-log-of-sorts/?p=170951    

 

Both of these logs make valuable reading.

[ianmajor]

Here are a couple of links to launch type kits (these are at Cornwall Models).

 

Corel offerings at http://Cornwall http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/corel-ships-boats.html

 

Caldercraft 1:64 offerings at http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/caldercraft_boats.html   This includes a 28' pinnace. To see what these look like on a well made model go to http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/8518-dsc05664/ (Landlubber Mike's completed Badger).

Edited August 2, 2014 by ianmajor

[aliluke]

Hi Ian

I'm sure that I've looked at your Unicorn log before but never replied...What you are doing, making and researching is fantastic. I'll scroll back through your log for looks and tips. Wonderful work and a superb log. Thank you.

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Ian, welcome back.  Thanks for all the tips on the small boats.  

 

Interestingly, the AOTS Pandora shows the ship with five small boats - a 28' pinnace, a 24' launch, two 22' yawls and an 18' jolly boat.  Going from port to starboard, the ships sat three abreast in the following order:  (1) 24' launch with 22' yawl nested inside; (2) 28' pinnace; and (3) 22' yawl with 18' jolly boat nested inside.  Looking at B.E.'s log, if I scratched 5 small boats I would probably be looking at an extra five years to my build    The other issue is that having three small boats abreast like that substantially covers the entire area of the waist, so one would not be able to see all the details.

[ianmajor]

Alistair,

 

Thank you for visiting my log. As ever you are very generous with your comments and encouragement.

 

Joe, 

 

Thanks for your comment as well.

 

Mike,

 

Thanks for the welcome back. We had very nice weather on our trip. In fact the weather has been very warm here in the UK - sunshine on consecutive days in Manchester - such a rarity. When I made the length of chain I was able to sit in the garden, sunning myself and listening to the singing of a charm of goldfinches. Bliss.

 

My son who lives in Essex in the south east corner of the UK was telling me about their thunder storms - heavy rain and amazing lightning displays the like of which he has not seen since he was working on farms in the middle of Australia somewhere.

 

On the boats/launches I am going with the info from Lavery (page 231) where he says that during the  period in which this Unicorn existed a frigate of 28 to 36 guns would have had 3 boats being:-

 

1) 21 or 22ft longboat.

2) 28ft pinnace

3) 22 or 23ft yawl

 

My plan (assuming I can successfully make the things  ) is to have the pinnace sat on the spare top masts in the waist and the longboat suspended by the main stay tackle along with tackle from the main and fore yards. The yawl will be off scene assumed to be wandering around on a fishing trip, day out or whatever.

[gjdale]

Hi Ian,

 

I decided to pay your log a "return visit" and it has taken me several days to catch up with your progress. Boy am I glad I did too! What you have achieved here is just tremendous. I particularly enjoyed working through your stove construction - what a great tutorial on metal work. Guess I know now where to come with questions on that subject! I'll look forward to following along from here.

[ianmajor]

Grant, Thank you for your kind words.Praise from a great modeler such as yourself is fine praise indeed. If I can answer any questions I am always willing to try.

 

Well I have not been totally idle over the last month. I am still working through a rigging schedule which is taking a fair amount of time.

 

I completed the gun port lids. The hinges were made of 1.2mm wide strips of 0.2mm thick brass. I embossed these to represent the bolts plus drilled them to take the rings.

 

The rings were wound from 0.3mm brass wire using a 2mm former. I also produced some split pins to hold them in place.

 

The hinge edge of the lid I drilled to take two short pieces of florist's soft iron wire. These would also go in to corresponding holes drilled in the hull to give some additional support to the lids when glued in place. The wire being soft allows the lid position to be tweaked before the glue set.

 

 

As per the contemporary models of similar sized ships I produced 5 lids per side being:

 

2 off to cover the gun ports around the crew/cooking area under the foredeck.

 

3 off covering the captains cabin, the captains sleeping quarter on the starboard side (an anti-room on the port side) and covering the gun port immediately ahead of the captains quarters.  

 

From my discussions with Mike it became apparent that the Corel plans show the channels too low down and I had fitted my channels as per the plans. The spacing of the deadeyes is also not ideal. I was concerned that they would cause me problems in fitting the lids - and so it proved to be. The lids are badly crowded by the channels. 

 

The ropes to lift the lids should enter the hull a couple of millimeters higher than I have them, but any higher and they would have fouled the channels. For consistancy I fitted all of these ropes at the same angle including the pair that are clear of the channels. Not good - but looks OK when I take my specs off.

 

 

[ianmajor]

I also added the fenders and chesstrees to the hull in the waist area. Each chesstree was drilled and filed to represent a sheave to take the main tack, plus holes drilled in the hull to feed it through. There is a bulkhead extension inside at this point where a cleat should be so I will be using a stopper knot on the inside of the hull instead of belaying to a cleat. It looks OK.

 

 

A view along the hull with all of these items in place. It looks almost respectable.

 

 

That completes the exterior work on the hull for now. I still have some items to add around the stem but I need to produce the bowsprit first to make sure I get them aligned correctly.

 

So now I can't put off the gun rigging any longer.

[Landlubber Mike]

Your Unicorn is working out very nicely Ian.  Excellent job!  I really like the last picture - the model looks fantastic!

[jwvolz]

Terrific work Ian. She looks great!

[petervisser]

Hi Ian,

 

Just looked in and wow, what a great Unicorn you have made. Can't wait to see more.

 

Peter

[ianmajor]

Mike, Joe and Peter, thanks for looking in and for your kind words.

 

I have bitten the bullet and started rigging the canon. I began with the breeching tackle. There are no eyes(?) above the cascabels to pass the rope through. I have seen breeching tackle wound around the cascabel but I decided to use cut splices. An interesting challenge!

 

I used some of the 0.7mm rigging cord supplied with the kit. This consists of three strands shroud laid. Each strand is made of three finer strands laid the opposite way.

 

My first three attempts at the cut splice are in the first image.

 

 

The approach was to reduce the ends down to a single strand for 3mm then to use whipping to secure these single strands in place. The first one came out asymmetric. It looked neat but the real breeching tackle would unlikely be like this since all the strain would be on one half of the splice splice. (Top splice in photo)

 

The second one down in photo is again a false splice but I managed to make it symmetric. Sadly the points at which the three strands are reduced to one stick out like sore thumbs. It looks ragged.

 

The third attempt in the photo I reduced the ends to two then one strand over 5mm and used longer whipping to cover this. It looked better but I was still not happy.

 

The next photo covers my next effort.

 

 

For this I whipped each end for 4mm leaving 10mm free which was opened up. The whipping is a standard type I learnt in the cub scouts nearly sixty years ago! The one leg of the whipping was left very long.

 

The two whipped parts were clamped side by side and the free ends spliced in with one tuck under and trimed off. The two long legs from the whipping were then served around the splices giving the final view in the photo. It looked much better.

 

Time to try them on the cannon. This last splice is fitted on the cannon on the left of the next photo.

 

 

I had not been using proper splices because I thought they would look fat but for the next one I decided to give it a try. I still used the whipping in the centre of the splice but this time made both halves of the splice with two tuck unders. Giving the rope a twist from both ends tightened the splice up and it was held firm with diluted PVA glue. This is in the middle of the photo.

 

Still not happy. They look like they have big mouths with wide grins.

 

So the final one I dispensed with the whipping altogether. I spliced one end in to the other rope 20mm from its end. The splice was tightened by twisting as before then glued - being clamped whilst the glue dried.

 

Previously I had used the whipping to fix the size of the splice. For this effort I used a cannon barrel and made the second part of the splice tightly around the cascabel - making sure that it remained symetrical. The second half of the splice was glued as before then the ends trimed off.

 

The result is on the right of the photo. I think this looks much better - in fact to get the barrel free would require the spliced to be cut off! 

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

For the photo I have managed to use one of the 4 carriages that will be surplus to requirements - it is rather rough as can seen.

 

The cut splice is basically 2 eye splices in tandem. I used the Animated Knots web set for inspiration. See here.

Edited September 2, 2014 by ianmajor

[JohnB40]

Hi Ian,

 

I'm looking forward to your ideas on gun rigging......Timely I might add,as I have been messing about with the ships guns for about 3 weeks now. All gun bits are ready for finial assembly,but I find it impossible to make the decision on whether to paint the carriages or not. Have you thought about separating the cord strands just enough to poke the cascabel through with 2 strands above and one below,then use a dab of PVA either side to secure in place? .

 

My mind also nearly melted before I could make a start on drilling the bowsprit socket....Turned out OK,centered and at the correct angle,but I had to have a nap afterwards to recover from the strain.

 

I hope you have had a good summer

 

John

 

 

[aliluke]

Hi Ian

I wrap my breeching line so can't help with the splicing. However I would suggest that 0.7mm rope looks a bit heavy to my eye. I use 0.6mm at 1/64 (much research was done - i.e. I copied the size from someone elses log who did do the research...) so at 1/75 I think 0.7mm is perhaps overscaled.

[ianmajor]

Thanks guys for the likes and input all of which is greatly appreciated.

 

John, 

Glad the drilling for the bowsprit went well. Mine will be a butt fit I am afraid. In the same area I am trying to work out how the boomkins are rooted - did they fit in a socket or what?

 

Alistair,

 

Thanks for your input. I also felt the 0.7mm rope was rather well fed. Some of it I tried to darken by soaking in tea (after I had drunk the rest). Result was that the rope swelled to 0.8mm diameter.

 

I had a look at your Fly to see your cannon rigging which is very nicely done. (For those interested look here for an example from the log).

 

So - you used 0.6mm at 1/64 scale which equates to a diameter of 38mm full size. Scaling back down to 1/75 gives me 0.51mm diameter. I have some 0.45mm thread (nominally 0.5mm) so I used that to have another go.

 

The next photo shows the two thicknesses side by side. The new thread is laid the same as the thicker thread. I have opened it out for 20mm and stained two of the tips so that I have one red, one yellow and one blue (anyone for three phase mains supplies!  ) so that I can keep track of which one is which when splicing. The stained ends will be cut off on completion.

 

 

The splicing approach was the same as before except the thinner thread allowed me to use three tuck unders giving a splice that was firm even before I finished it with diluted PVA.

 

In the next photo I compare the results. The thicker one on the left, the new thinner one on the right.

 

 

How's that (as they say in cricket)?

Edited September 3, 2014 by ianmajor

[gjdale]

Ian,

 

Well done all round. I have to say that the thinner thread in your latest post looks to me to be the winner. Great work, well executed.

[ianmajor]

Thanks Grant,

 

You have to admit those old Corel gun carriages have an air of realism in the way they represent large amounts of schrapnel damage!    

Edited September 4, 2014 by ianmajor

[aliluke]

I definitely like the thinner thread and it also makes your splice more compact. Nice one!

[ianmajor]

Alistair,

 

Thanks again. I think I may reduce the splices back to two tuck unders to make them a little more compact.

 

I notice from your entry in BE's log about your enjoyment of your "rougher pastures down here". My wife is organizing a 3 week trip to NZ next year for us, so I too will have the opportunity the enjoy those pastures. It will be in the nature of a last great project for us - any more will be a bonus.   She has wanted to go to NZ for a long time (so have I) - I think she wants to look for Hobbits (DON'T THROW THAT BRICK AT ME.      )

 

Having decided to make the breeching tackle from 0.45 thread I am now starting to produce the other 15 that will be used. I had already made 8 sets with the thicker thread which will be set aside.

 

In parallel I am preparing the gun carriages ready for rigging. I have the wedges for the quoins ready. I need to produce some caps to hold the barrels down.

 

To shape these I made a rather crude die. Very easy. I started with two pieces of scrap brass and some 1.5mm brass rod.

 

The two bits of scrap I clamped together to drill two 1.5 holes through them and soldered short lengths of the rod into the holes of one part. I then pushed them together and used my miller to make them rectangular and the same size.

 

 

I clamped the two pieces together with a long face uppermost and the join between the two in the vertical plane. Then using a 1.7mm bit I positioned the tip of the bit on the join then drilled down through them.

 

 

When the two parts were separated they were each left with a semi circular cross sectioned grove. I then soldered a length of 1.5mm rod in the grove of one of the parts. Cleaned them up then and them together to make sure they fitted. A little more cleaning around the pegs was required then all fitted well. On the left of the next photo is the part with the rod attached across the middle, the right hand one has the pegs and groove. Above them the results of a test press. The results are not perfect, I should really have taken a skim of about 0.2mm off the face of the left hand one before fitting the rod to give some clearance for the material to be pressed - but at normal viewing range the imperfections are very hard to see.

 

 

I will be using brass strip 1.5mm x 0.2mm. This is so thin that I won't need to use a vice to squeeze the die just my agricultural bodgers. The next photo shows the tool in use.

 

Using a 1.7mm drill bit to make the lateral hole and using 1.5mm rod in the groove leaves a clearance gap in the "shaping" area. Note the lateral hole/rod is nearer to one end. The distance from the rod to the end of the die will determine the distance between each pressed lump.

 

 

A slightly different view of the tool in use.

 

[ianmajor]

Next was to press some simulated bolt heads/clamps whatever. I have riveting tool which I use in my model railway activities which came in handy here.

 

The individual caps were then sliced off.

 

 

One problem with the Corel carriages is that the trunnions sit well down in the holes so that a line along the top of the carriage touches the circumference of the trunnion. This is shown by the left hand cannon of the next photo. A normal shaped cap would curve well above the trunnion. I decided to file the top edges down between 0.5 to 1.0mm so the carriage top line would pass through the centre of the trunnion - as in the right hand carriage.

 

 

A final photo of a cannon with the new thin breeching tackle partially fitted along with (as yet) unblackened caps.

 

The cannon is standing on a jig I made to do the rigging. Yet again a case of my SIFD (Stealing Ideas From Dafi).

 

 

There will be no ship building for a few days. Tomorrow (Friday) I will be spending the day with the Manchester Chapter of the GOGs (Grumpy Old Gits). We will be sampling the delights of various Mancunian ale houses and having lengthy intellectual(?) discourses.

 

Saturday I will probably spend feeling sorry for myself.

 

Sunday I will be off to Telford to a different set of GOGs. This time it is the Gauge 0 Guild, of which I am a member - so I will be playing trains. It is also where I restock my materials and get any tools. I have decided I need some more good quality long tweezers to help with the rigging.

[aliluke]

Nice work on those cap squares. I couldn't make brass work for these parts and ended up just using thin card painted black.

 

Glad to hear you are heading down here. The best months weather wise are February and March. Also I recommend Abel Tasman National Park. A bit off the usual tourist trail but my favourite place and it is where we spend our annual summer holiday. 

[gjdale]

Hi Ian,

 

It may have seemed simple to you, but your descriptive post on the manufacture of your die to make the cap squares was particularly educational for those of us who remain metal-work neophytes (or in my case, luddites).  I am DEFINITELY copying this to my "great ideas" folder! (I might have to call this folder SIFI - Stealing Ideas From Ian )

 

Would you mind posting a picture of your railroad riveting tool in action? I'm intrigued by this.

Edited September 5, 2014 by gjdale

[ianmajor]

Spyglass, Alistair and Grant, thanks for looking in - and thanks all for the likes.

 

Grant,

 

The rivet forming tool I have is a weird and wonderful looking thing. It is not the easiest of tools to use but it can produce very good results. I have successfully produced complex rivet patterns on brass and styrene sheet with it.

 

Basically the rivets are formed by a pointed die pressing the material in to a hole in an anvil. The press came with three anvils each with different size holes so that cosmetic rivet with heads of three different diameters can be produced.

 

The first photo shows the general layout. The press is operated via the horizontal lever at the top. Consistent pressure on each rivet is controlled via the adjustable stop. For very thin material the die may punch a hole - so the adjuster is backed off to prevent this.

 

In front of the press are the other two alternate anvils plus a die for use on half etched rivet holes in etched brass kits.

 

 

The next photo shows the operating side. The material is held in the clamp so that it extends over the anvil. The two knobs give X - Y positioning to within 0.025mm.

 

 

The third photo shows a 1mm wide strip clamped on the press, the lever being operated making the die press down on the anvil.

 

 

The next photo shows the sort of rivet work that can be achieved with this type of tool - it is the rear of the smokebox of a scratch built loco, the boiler is about 20mm in diameter. I used formulae in a spreadsheet to work out the X/Y position of each rivet in the two circles. Great fun!

 

 

There are a few downsides to this type of press not least is the fact they cost over £100 stirling.

 

However...............

[ianmajor]

It is possible to press cosmetic rivets using a centre punch and small hammer. The challenge is to consistently hit the punch with the same force or else the rivets come out in different sizes.

 

Many of the railway modelers use a press that is simply a sharp point on the end of a rod. The rod has a weight that will freely slide up and down it. The rod also has adjustable stops. The idea is you position the point where you want the rivet to be, with the rod perfectly vertical. Then raise the weight up to the top stop, let go, it then falls hitting the bottom stop, pushing the point in to the material. The fact that the weight drops the same height each time means the impact will be the same each time (according to Newton and his gravity    ).

 

When I was in Telford at the convention I saw one of these for sale at £12. It was based on a piece of studding. So on my return I bought a length of M5 threaded studding (cost £1 a yard), plus I had some M5 nuts and a piece of half inch round steel.

 

 

I filed the end of the studding to a 60 degree included angle point (as on the die of my press). I cut the lump of steel to 3/4 inch long then drilled a 5mm hole through the centre. (You notice like all railway modelers I gaily switch between metric and imperial measurements - 7mm to the foot anyone!  )

 

 

I assembled the pieces using M5 nuts in pairs to lock them in position.

 

The next photo is the MK I assembly. The two nuts to the right, at the pointed end, are the fixed stop. The other two nuts to the left make the adjustable top stop.

 

 

So I put some 1mm wide brass strip on a piece of pine wood. The wood acting as an anvil - there needs to be a little give. The point was positioned on the material with the rod held vertically and the steel block released from the top stop. I produced two rivets this way, then used my press to produce another two for comparison.

 

The new tool did not produce well defined rivet heads.

 

MK II was called for. I had a hardened steel point from an old pair of compasses. I end drilled the threaded rod and glued the point in to it. (A old darning needle could be an alternative). 

 

A also had to countersink the ends of the steel block to stop it catching on the thread when released.

 

The next photo shows the MK II version.

 

 

This was tried and produced much better results. The next photo shows a comparison. 

 

To the left, under the red arrow, the two poorly defined rivets produced by the MK I tool.

 

In the middle, under the blue arrow, the two produced by my press. The edges are crisply shaped by the hole in the anvil.

 

On the right, under the green arrow, the two produced with the MK II tool. With slight adjustment and possibly using something other than pinewood as an anvil even better results could probably be achieved.

 

The narrower point of the MK II tool made it easier to line up the position of the rivet. 

 

Not too bad for a tool costing less than £2.

 

[gjdale]

Thanks Ian for your pictures and descriptions - most informative.