Fair Rosamund 1832 by hamilton - FINISHED - from OcCre Dos Amigos - 1:53

[hamilton]

Hello again!

 

Well it's only been a few days since I completed bashing the Corel HMS Greyhound into the HMS Blandford and here I am at it again! 

 

I've seen a few build logs for this kit out there - one notable one here is by Meredith, who has done some amazing work on this kit. Guillemot also has a build underway it seems, but I've not seen a log here - only a few photos of what also looks like an excellent build. I don't think mine can improve on these examples, but I'll add it to the lot anyway.

 

The history of this vessel is at once ignoble, vague and confusing. She definitely began her career as a slaver - the Dos Amigos, a Baltimore Clipper. A description from the NMM here states that she was a Brazilian vessel running slaves from West Africa to Brazil until 1827. Other sources list the date of her capture as 1830. In any event, it is also clear that she was captured and outfitted as an anti-slaving vessel, which role she dispatched admirably until 1845 under the name Fair Rosamund. Like others, I have preferred to represent OcCre's kit as the anti-slaving ship. A draught I found a reproduction of online shows her as re-outfitted in 1832 - though it's hard to say whether the re-outfitting took place in 1832 or 1831 - the draught dates from 1832 in any case. Here is that draught - the date is listed at centre left and can be seen more or less clearly if you zoom in on the image. It may have been captured in 1830 and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1831.....a couple of sources support this timeline.

 

Apparently there is (or was) a replica project for this vessel underway - not sure if it is still happening. But I did find a brochure presenting some of the history of the vessel with some details. You can read it here. This information lists the ship as being not Brizilian but Cuban. It may have been built in an American shipyard and sold to private owners (Cuban or Brazilian...). Anyway, the provenance is difficult to discern though there are some consistent aspects of the history.

 

One of the more nettling questions for me has been - what differentiated the Fair Rosamund from the Dos Amigos? A thread begun by Guillemot provides some answers - the first area of differentiation was in armament, the second in the sails and rigging.

 

1. Armament - OcCre shows the kit bearing one 18-pound carronade on a swivel carriage. A couple of sources I have found online state that as the Fair Rosamund she carried "three guns". What these guns may have been is open to broad speculation, but Guillemot's thread provides some suggestions - look here. I'm not sure how I will supplement the carriage gun supplied with the kit.....but at least there is a place to start.

 

2. Sails & rigging - a couple of images of the Fair Rosamund (one an isomorphic pen and ink drawing of the vessel under sail and the other a sail plan) depict her as carrying a gaff topsail above the main sail. The OcCre kit does not include this among their complement of pre-fabricated sails. I will include this sail to further differentiate her as Fair Rosamund.

 

Anyway, that's about all I've got for introductory material. So what else am I going to be doing to the kit? Changes I can predict are:

 

1. Coppering the hull (like Meredith, whose work here is stunning)

2. Scratch building the cabin, the mast tops, and the gun carriage

3. Possibly replacing the hull and deck planking (though this is "budget dependent")

 

Other things may get done in the course of building that I can't predict, but we'll see......

 

Finally, for your delectation, some images of the kit and its components. Bye for now! Not sure when building will begin, but sometime soon....

hamilton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2014 by hamilton

[mtaylor]

Ok goodie.. there's a chair available....  <grabs chair>  I'll wait patiently.

[realworkingsailor]

Looking forward to following along your next build... I see lot's of possibilities for your kitbashing/superdetailing abilities!

 

Now as for a chair....... **Eyes Mark seated comfortably**

 

 

Nah... I'll just grab my own..

 

Andy

[hamilton]

Thanks Mark and Andy! 

 

Started the build this evening by cutting out the bulkheads & centre keel from the billet. I have to say the quality of the ply supplied with this kit is quite poor - VERY soft. And of course the keel is bowed, and so I'll need to devise a decent clamp for it - not only along the base, but to correct a warp that runs along the top of the keel part....could be tricky. My Toulonnaise keel had a decent warp in it and between clamping the base of the keel and working hard to square & strengthen the bulkheads it ended up getting worked out. Hopefully the same will apply here......

 

Tomorrow I'll make the clamp/building board, put on the mast mortices, make some bulkhead support beams & begin installing the bulkheads. This one's going to be much bigger than the Blandford.....good thing it's a gift - I've nowhere to put it!!

hamilton

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking forward to following this build Hamilton.  I bet working at 1:53 will seem like you're working with gigantic parts after working at 1:100

 

On the keel, is it worth cutting out a new one?  I cut out a new keel for my Unicorn using a scroll saw and it wasn't all that hard to do so.  My keel was also warped, though not as bad as yours it sounds.  It made me feel more comfortable working with flat stock rather than hoping that clamping and other steps ended up working.

[The Sailor]

Nice project Hamilton. I'm looking forward for the first pictures of the hull.

[hamilton]

Hello Mike and Richard! Thanks for stopping by - still waiting for some updates on the Endeavour and Mercury, Richard!!

 

Mike - unfortunately I can't pursue the strategy you suggest. I'm a kitchen table modeller and have no power tools except a dremmel that I pull out on rare occasions. Everything else by hand. Cutting a new keel is simply not possible, attractive as that option may be, so I'm reduced to clamping and squaring the old fashioned way.

 

The problem with the warp is that it seems to be more pronounced along the top edge then it is along the base. With my Toulonnaise keel, clamping along the bottom edge solved the warping issue. With this one I'm not sure....I will likely have to try to fair the keel as I attach the bulkheads. I'm spending this evening making my building board, so once that's complete I'll have a better sense of how deep the problem goes....

 

Anyway, I've come to expect these things in ship kits and not get too frustrated or upset by them - simply another problem to solve is all.....(of course, talk to me when I'm half way through the planking and I might be singing a different tune!)

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hello there:

 

I think I've corrected the keel warp. Clamping the keel in a building board mostly straightened it - there is a tiny bit of bowing still at stern, but this I can correct in the installation of the subdeck. 

 

As I've said, the ply supplied with the kit is very poor - the stuff represented in the photo-illustrated instructions seems of higher quality, and looking at the photos is making me jealous of whoever got to work with the better wood. Anyway....the bulkheads needed only very minor adjustments to get them to fit and on first blush there are no glaring issues (which is a relief after the challenges with Corel's Greyhound!!)

 

The bulkhead slots in the subdeck need to be corrected, but this is a minor issue - though the sound of me filing out the slots turned out to be a major issue for the Admiral who was sitting close by trying to work....so that task has been postponed.

 

Here are some photos....

hamilton

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2014 by hamilton

[Blue Ensign]

Looking forward to seeing you work your magic on this new project hamilton.

 

B.E.

[hamilton]

Thanks BE - some magic will certainly be required - though maybe not as much as with the Blandford!

hamilton

[rafine]

Off to a good start Hamilton. I'm looking forward to following your build.

 

Bob

[hamilton]

Thanks Bob - just popped by your Essex log - she's looking great! 

 

Haven't done much on FR these last days - just working the sub-deck a little to get it to fit on the bulkheads and planning ahead for deck planking...hopefully I'll have a chance to install the bulkheads and deck this week. I'm heading to Italy on Friday - a bit of work, a bit of pleasure. And then I'll have much to make up for with the Admiral when I return.....back soon

hamilton

[hamilton]

Thanks Crackers! I knew about the lady in the painting and about the ship, but didn't put the two together! And the Portsmouth connection is nice to have, too - at least it explains why OcCre included an American flag with the model! Though I don't think she would have flown an American flag in her slaving days (since the other sources I've seen say either Brazil or Cuba)......

hamilton

[hamilton]

Thanks Crackers once again for even more interesting historical information! This is very illuminating.

hamilton

[hamilton]

Well I'm now back from my trip and back to the bench. Tonight I installed the bulkheads along with some reinforcing strips, cut to measure between each bulkhead. In conjunction with the building board, this has served to straighten (mostly) the warped keep. There is still a very minor bend towards the stern, but this will be corrected when I install the deck. So far so good....

 

If any of you have built an OcCre kit, have you come across this strange feature - a set of notches cut into the edges of the bulwarks into which is placed a rather thick (2mm) plank that runs the full length of the hull and acts to bifurcate the hull for planking? It seems a little redundant and I'm considering filling in the notches and just planking as usual....of course part of me is curious as to whether this feature has any benefits, so I might try it - thought I'd canvas you all for comments....I may post the question elsewhere in the forum.....

 

In the meantime, here are some pictures

hamilton

 

 

 

[cdogg]

Midwest kits have the notches on some of their models, but they were for placing a very large plank over to stabilize. Probably different with yours.

[Meredith]

I can't even remember if I used the notched out parts. I will need to look back at my photos.

 

Good to see someone else joining me in this build Hamilton- you will probably catch me up. I have been very slow lately due to some personal issues. I hope to finish planking the second side tonight and then complete the coppering. Things will move a bit faster then.

 

I left this build on the shelf for quiet sometime due to the horrible ply. I was going to re cut it - I had some MFD. I have seen some others use it for builds. But I'm glad I waited - my Mfd is NOT good in my humid weather. I persisted and used the kit ply. It's all covered up now so I can forget how awful it was

[hamilton]

Thanks Casey and Meredith:

 

Casey -- you may be right -- I used small strips between the bulkheads so the long strip in the notches might be redundant....

 

Meredith -- I hope all is well with you. I really admire your build and will likely imitate some of its features (the margin plank on the deck, for example). The ply  IS awful, yes! Probably the poorest quality I've worked with so far. On the up side, this came in handy when I was attaching the deck last night - the ply was so soft, that small straight pins went into it with very little effort! Now that the deck is installed, the bowing in the centre keel has been completely corrected. 

 

Bye for now

hamilton

[hamilton]

A bit of progress on Fair Rosamund:

 

The deck - came in the same rather disappointing ply as the bulkheads - kind of fuzzy and messy, but a little more solid. Had to fix the bulkhead extension slots to fit the framework - no big deal. Marked the deck up for planking (centre line & positions for the deck planks. Here are some photos

 

 

 

 

Margin planks - not featured as part of the kit - I borrowed this feature from Meredith, who included them on his build. I may have cut mine a little wide, but they'll eventually be partly thinned by the inboard bulwark planking. I guessed at a measurement of 7mm by looking at Meredith's build log and judging the width of his margins relative to the sub-deck. I decided to make the margins in 4 sections, scarfed together.

 

I made templates using bristol paper and transferred these onto 10mm x 3/64mm lime - unfortunately I only had enough of this material for the first 2 planks port and starboard and the plank across the stern....my local wood supplier only had 1/32 or 1/16" sheets, so the last 2 planks on both sides are 1/32 - eventually I'll sand the others down to match. Here again are some photos of the process - the same process was used for each of the margin planks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next steps - fairing the frames & deck planking/finishing - fun times ahead!

 

hamilton

[rafine]

Very nice work on the margin planks.

 

Bob

[Blue Ensign]

Nice progress Hamilton, neat job on the margins

 

B.E.

[HIPEXEC]

Looks good!

[augie]

Great job on the margin planks.

[hamilton]

Thanks Bob, BE, Rich and Augie:

 

I've now finished planking the deck, but I'm too embarrassed to show it.....I added nibbing to the deck planks at the bow and this worked out fine. But because of the size difference between the bow & stern margin planks (3/64") and the middle ones both port & starboard & the deck planking (1/32"), I had to sand the thicker ones flush. I thought (mistakenly) that using a heavy grain sandpaper (80) would be the best approach to getting rid of the excess wood. But when happened was that it left all kinds of unsightly scratch marks on the deck planks - almost like someone keyed my deck...no amount of sanding with lighter grain sandpaper worked to get rid of these.....

 

Then there was the staining....I decided to lightly stain the deck with Minwax golden oak, slightly diluted. I did this with my Glad Tidings and I was really happy with the results. However this time it turned out quite blotchy - only later did I read (somewhere on this forum) about applying wood conditioner before staining and now I'm kicking myself....

 

I'm sure it will be fine after all the deck fixtures are installed, but at present it is quite unsightly.....I may post some photos later as a warning to those who dive into such things heedlessly......for now, I'll sign off

hamilton

[aliluke]

Hamilton - I'll bet you are being too hard on yourself. "Embarrass" it and we'll see. I reckon it is probably as good as anyone of us can do.

Edited June 28, 2014 by aliluke

[mtaylor]

Hamilton,

 

I agree with Alistair.  We are our own worst critics.  

[augie]

Takes a good man to fess up to miscues.  But don't beat yourself up....... we are our own worst critics.  And yes, basswood can be a bad actor sometimes.  I try to remember to always use pre-conditioner on it but I've missed a few times.

[hamilton]

Well there are no close-ups of the deck, but in the following shots you can see the blotchiness....Not happy with it, but I'm not exactly sure what can be done, and I know it will be covered up will all kinds of detritus to distract the eye....onwards, then, armed for the future with the insight not to do this again!

 

In other news, I've spent a couple of days just focusing on fairing the hull and working out the installation of the long single-piece bulwarks. It's quite tricky to install these, but they were not nearly as finicky as the ones I installed on the Pinky. In the end, I think they went on well - I took quite a bit of time to get the symmetry right...

 

Anyway, here are the photos - hope you're all doing well

hamilton

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Tim I.]

It is looking good. I presume the keel straightened right out in your fixture?

 

- Tim

[hamilton]

Hi Tim:

 

Thanks for commenting on the log! I have been a very bad diarist on this build, I'm afraid - while my last post shows the bulwarks installed the build is actually at a much later stage. I've completed the first hull planking, inner bulwark planking, installed the bulwark stanchions, planked the outer bulwarks and wales and begun the second planking! Yet none of this is documented. I have to say it is largely because the tail end of the summer is always a very busy time work wise, and around the house, battening down the hatches while I still have a bit of spare time.....

 

Anyway, my modelling time has been spent....well, modelling! So sorry for the lack of updates. Strangely, once the new semester begins I will have a bit more time for documentation....and some updates will follow.

 

As for the keel, Tim - yes the building board, combined with support beams placed between the bulkheads, combined with the straightening & stiffening effect supplied by the sub-deck has cured the bowing. My experience with a couple of bowed keels (notably on the Toulonnaise, which was considerably worse than this) has shown me that it's not impossible to correct a bow using the kit parts at hand.

 

Anyway, some day I will post again on this log....until then I'll continue to admire everyone else's builds!

hamilton