HMS Diana 1794 by Ray - FINISHED - Caldercraft - A 38 gun Heavy Frigate

[Ray]

Hi Stergios

                    I used a plain overhand knot tied four times, tied one side and then the other, with a small dab of super glue to set the knot.

[Ray]

The lower mast shrouds, ratlines, futtock shrouds, and the catharpins have been completed, also the main part of the bowsprit has been set onto the hull and rigged plus the gammoning has been done, also the rigging at the bow, for the main stay and the preventer stay.

I am now in the process of making the stays,the mouse being the most awkward part to make,I tried tapering some wooded dowel drilling and threading them onto the rope but found serving over them did not work out well, so I am making them by tying thread around the rope, thick first and tapering with thinner rope, coating with PVA and serving,and then serving again when the whole stay is served,they are much smoother that they look in the photos.

[jim_smits]

Hi Ray

 

I found the most simple effective way to make a mouse was to simply serve upto where you want to locate the mouse and then serve backwards and forwards over 5-10mm (depends on size you want) gradually building the mouse up.

 

Dab on some dilute PVA every pass to hold it all together. After two or three passes, start favouring the 'thicker' end of the mouse with smaller extra passes and then finish with a couple of full passes and then continue serving down the the stay.

 

Hope this all makes sense.

 

Jim

Edited November 15, 2014 by jim_smits

[Timmo]

Nice work Ray, it's looking great.

[aliluke]

Very nice Ray - it is really looking the business now.

[Ray]

Mouse making method

After trying out several methods I found just building up layers of serving gave the best results with a dilute coat of PVA to set the mouse after finishing the tail, I then continued to the end of the serving from the tail end, I then served the other end i.e. from the beginning to the head of the mouse, the stay was completed by adding the loop at the end.

Mouse on machine

mouse made

stay loop

mouse & loop

[Ray]

All the lower mast stays have been completed, time to turn my attention to the top masts.

 

[drtrap]

Hi Ray, your work is excellent.

May I ask you how have you stabilized the lowermasts on the deck?

Using carpenter's glue, epoxy, cyano or just nothing?

Thank you.

 

Stergios

[Beef Wellington]

Ray - you've set a very high bar indeed!  Love it.

[jim_smits]

Looks fantastic Ray!

[mobbsie]

Excellent work Ray 

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[jaerschen]

Very well done Ray

[Ray]

Thanks for the comments and ticks guys

 Stergois The lower masts were fixed into the hull with fast drying PVA which gives some wiggle room time and care was taken to ensure they were at 90 deg across the deck.

[capnharv2]

Thanks so much for sharing Ray. Your work is an inspiration to us all.

 

Harvey

[Ray]

Top mast was fitted to the fore mast next, and the shrouds and ratlines have been added.

 

One tip I do have, which I seem to have omitted to mention in my earlier posts on the shrouds and ratlines, is that, most kit manufacturers instructions for ratlines, recommend using .25mm, or which ever size natural thread and then stain it black (a very messy option in my opinion) there reasoning’s being that black thread is to stiff to use well Caldercraft thread is quite stiff, but I always use Amiti which is no stiffer than natural colour thread.

The main and mizzen next.

 

Shroud with 3mm block

 

Shrouds

 

 

 

 

Shrouds And ratlines with Lady Nelson shows how big Diana is

 

 

[GuntherMT]

Are Diana and Lady Nelson the same scale?  Very nice work.

[Blue Ensign]

She looks beautiful Ray,(as does your Lady Nelson) great colour toning. Impressive even with only the lower masts and standing rigging in place, which is a look I find quite appealing on models.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Timmo]

Ray, I agree. Diana is a beautiful vessel and you are more than doing her justice and she looks very good next to Lady Nelson.

 

BE- is your admiration for lower hamper only because that's the stage Pegasus is at?

Come on, we're all waiting for you to finish your masterpiece and inspire us all-especially those dealing with the tricky string-end of things.

[Ray]

Thanks for the comments and ticks guys.

Brian they are both 1/64  in my next update I will try a photo of Diana with Pegasus  as they are both 1/64 , I would love to build a kit at the same scale of a 50 gun ship, a ship like HMS Leopard but none exist a big hole in the market in my humble opinion.

[Ray]

The main and mizzen top masts are now in place, and have all their shrouds and ratlines added, phew, I am glad they are all finished and that I split it up this way, as it did make the ratlines a lot less tedious to tie,I will now most likely add as much of the standing rigging that I can before fitting the tagallants masts.
I have also included some photos of Diana with Pegasus and The lady Nelson.

 

Firstly a lower fold down table I used to bring the rigging to a better level to work at

 

Main and mizzen masts

Completed ratlines

 

 

Some photos of Diana with Pegasus And some with The Lady Nelson as well

[Beef Wellington]

What a wonderful collection of ships Ray 

[jaerschen]

I'm with Jason, a wonderful sight.

[S.Coleman]

What a brilliant job you have done. It's come along a great succses. Now the fiddly part of rigging is here. Good luck!

[Timmo]

Coming together there ray. That's a fine collection of His Majesty's vessels.

[gjdale]

A very nice collection there Ray. Diana is looking superb.

[mtaylor]

A very impressive looking fleet, Ray.

[jim_smits]

So when are you taking on the french?

[Ray]

Hi Guys

              Many thanks for all the ticks and the many nice comments.

I think "The Fleet" will have to wait for a Three Decker to arrive before taking o the French

[Ray]

Standing Rigging

With all the shrouds and ratlines tied I decided to add as much of the standing rigging as possible before the topgallants masts went on. Again another small issue not enough 5mm dead eyes, to complete all the back stays to the main mast, so some extras were ordered, there are 88 supplied, which I admit I did not count, but I still counted up 90 needed, and at this point I am 6 short, I may have dropped and lost a couple, but who does not, I also think there should be a few spares built into the kit. Next the main and preventer stays to all three topmasts were made up and added, this did meant that bowsprit needed to be fitted, which has the down side of making it more difficult to turn her round, side to side, when adding rigging to each side.
One aspect, I have been having difficult with, is using  the rigging plans, so far I have found that some rigging rope runs overlay others, some of the runs I cannot even work out how they start or how they terminate, maybe it is just me, but, I did not have this problem rigging Pegasus, as a result this promoted me to dig out the Pegasus rigging plans and(in conjunction with Peterssons book), and as Pegasus is a ship rigged Sloop, her and Diana should be rigged nearly the same, so I am using both sets of standing rigging plans, and where I cannot, be sure, or work out, were the rigging runs on Diana s plans go, I will rig her as per Pegasus, this should be OK as naval rigging practices were most likely standard on all ships.

[jaerschen]

The rigging is looking and better and better Ray, very nice done.