HMS Jason by Beef Wellington - Caldercraft - 1:64 - Artois-class frigate modified from HMS Diana 1794

[Beef Wellington]

Gents, very much appreciate the information being shared.  Could I please suggest that any further discussion on gun rigging and cannon firing techniques and procedures find their way into a specific post for that purpose, there are already quite a few of these already on the site and definitely better placed there to keep all content relevant and on topic.  Of course more than happy to answer questions on the approach taken for this model.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Beef Wellington

[Chuck]

Really beautiful work.   Love looking at your updates. 

[Dr PR]

Jason,

 

Will do. I was worried that we were hijacking your thread. When I get time I will post a condensation of these discussions in the deck furniture, boats, guns and other fittings section.

[Mirabell61]

Hi Jason,

I`m delighted to study your well built HMS Diana and enjoyed your progress to date, keep it going...

also very nice pics...

 

Nils

[Gahm]

This looks fantastic, Jason! It is just a pleasure to follow along!

 

Thomas

[Timmo]

Love the long shots of the deck Jason. A superb build.

[Beef Wellington]

Cheers gents,

 

Small update reflecting this weekend's work.  Have been unsure what to do with the fore companion ladder and whether to include the safety lines and whether these would look right, but approaching point where decision is needed.  I seem to recall reading in TFFM that the hand ropes would have been secured to small ringbolts in the deck below (there really should be a word for the situation where you remember reading something but then are subsequently unable to find the reference when actually needed!).  Small PE ring bolts were used in the lower deck and 0.3mm line secured to them with a false splice.  RB Models stanchions were used as they seemed a little more to scale, rather than the kit supplied items which appeared too tall - these may not be completely period accurate, but are close enough to my eye. 

 

I feel there should also be something around the main hatch companion ladder, but cant quite see what this would look like, as the iron supports for the pumps are obstructions.

 

The only way I could figure out to install these was to estimate the length of line needed and then attach the ringbolts off the model to - I was anticipating many redoes here but luckily seemed to get it how I was hoping on the first attempt.  The location of the ringbolts was determined by dry fitting the companion ladder, the ladder only being finally installed once the hand ropes were all in position.

 

[cog]

Nice work Jason, dispite the missing reference. I would have expected the handropes for the ladder to be slack as well as a final detail, since there is no knot at that last stanchion on either side. Now I am nit picking. A very nice additional detail for the build!

 

5 hours ago, Beef Wellington said:

(there really should be a word for the situation where you remember reading something but then are subsequently unable to find the reference when actually needed!)

When you are talking about me I would call it dementia, for most it will be temporary amnesia, if I can still remember it correctly

[ASAT]

Jason, I call it CRS but I am probably a lot older than you 😎  Wonderful details as usual!

[Old Collingwood]

What are we on about  - I cant remember🙃

 

OC.

[mugje]

Amazing work on your Diana!!! Really inspiring! Thank you

[drtrap]

Absolutely wonderful work Jason!

[Beef Wellington]

Sorry for the delay to recognize the kind comments and likes!  

 

24 Foot Cutter:

 

Work has started on the 24' Cutter.  I'm recording my progress in this log as it seems more logical coming from this kit, however, I hope to mount this boat on my other build, Snake.  I leaning toward not mounting any ships boats on Jason, at least directly, so this seems a good opportunity to stick my toe in the water on these smaller boats without risk of serious catastrophe if things don't turn out as planned...I'm determined to make the best show of these as I can building from the kit, so we'll see.  Many other build logs seem to show the finished article so I wanted to try and record progress as I stumble in the dark.

 

The frame parts fit together pretty easily, however what is not clear is how these would ultimately go together to end up as a cutter.  The instructions essentially say 'plank this as you did the main hull' which isn't too much help.  The first decision was to figure out where the frames should be set in the keel former.  Looking at the profile and the lines, it seemed the best option was to sit the frames approx. 1mm above the keel bottom.  This will mean that planking will be pretty much flush with the keel former so an external keel will need to be added.

 

 

Straight away the stern fascia looked far too small so a replacement was made from the same 1.5mm ply.

 

The formers at the bow we reduced and beveled as best could be estimated envisioning the final hull shape and how the plank will sit, and some limewood shaped at the stern.

 

The instructions do indicate the floor should be glued in position, however I want to leave the option open to remove this as it seems to sit a little high (should be at same hight as the keelson), and put the floor planking (footwalling) in as low as possible once the hull is completed.  Profiling the frames also indicated another challenge, the 1.5mm play is rather soft and pliable, and very thin in places.  To try and reduce the strain, some limewood reinforcement was glued to the most delicate frames.  Even with this, this requires a light hand.

 

Planking could then commence using 0.5mm walnut provided.  The usual frustration here, the kit supplied walnut is poor....no more need be said.  The main challenge at this stage is that the planking can't be glued heavily to the frames as these will need to be removed later on, and the keel former is rather bendy.  Small amounts of PVA glue were used to keep planks in position on a few frames only.  CA glue was used to attach the walnut strip at the bow.  A second strake has been added so far using the same approach, only some PVA glue was applied to the strip edges to try and bond these.  Once set, dilute PVA glue was brushed onto the installed planks to try and give it a little more strength at this stage.

 

We'll see where this goes...

 

[mugje]

Doesn't look like an easy build! But it seems you are doing well

[BANYAN]

That cutter is coming along very nicely BW,  great to see the update.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[pigwar]

Breathtaking works, amazing!

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks chaps for the ongoing interest and support.

 

Continuing to feel my way through this.  I really wanted to make the kit materials work, but had to go off on my own which was educational, and more fun than I expected.  I managed to get only 3 strakes of the walnut strip, with tapering, on before it became apparent that no more could be done - even with these some clinkering was unavoidable even with the thin strip.  The thin 0.5mm walnut strips (all of varying thickness and closer to 0.65mm thick) don't edge bend at all to be able to use that technique and luckily some ~1mm thick wood sheet was found from which spiled planks could be cut (not sure what it is, CMB had supplied this when I ordered maple, but it clearly isn't and my guess is its limewood sheet, its pretty soft).  You can see the curvature required below.  The keel former was cut back to provide a slight rebate for the planking at bow and stern, fiddly and a bit messy but seemed to work.  Glad the more structural work is behind me.

 

 

The garboard was installed before the planking was closed up, don't think the shape is fully correct for actual planking practice as this was not tapered at all, but it allowed the last 2 strakes to fit easily enough.   The other benefit was that the final strake had a straight side which made shaping that much easier.  Glue was only used very sparingly on a few strakes and frames where necessary to keep the lines true.  After each strake was positioned, the surface was sanded lightly and diluted PVA glue  brushed on to the whole to hopefully add some additional strength.

 

 

 

Finally, here's a comparison of the hull form to the resin Cutter mini-kit supplied by CC, I bought this way back with the kit.  This looks much more like a launch rather than the sleeker Cutter's lines and overall proportions very different.  To my eye the stern fascia is probably a little big proportionally but need to consider that the keel strip is not yet installed which will change the proportion, but will probably reduce this a little by thinning down the planking thickness there.  Rather than put on a second layer of planks, I'm considering using card stock as a second 'planking' layer to represent clinker planking.  It needs something because when the interior is sanded down the hull could be wafer thin...to quote Mr Creosote.  Any thoughts or experiences with this?

 

Next steps will be to cut and install custom bow and keel pieces, and remove the bizarre sternpost aft of the stern bulkhead that doesn't seem prototypical.  

 

 

 

[mugje]

That is indeed a great improvement compaired to the supplied little cutter hull!

[Beef Wellington]

@mugje - just to be clear, the resin hull shown is an 'aftermarket' mini-kit supplied by caldercraft, its not included in the kit.  What I'm attempting to do is leverage the kit supplied items as best I can.

 

Cutter Progress: Part 2

 

Keel and bow section was cut out of some spare wood and glued in place, and once the basic hull was completed, a decision was needed on how to add a second layer of planking, kit instructions specify to use another layer of 0.5mm walnut.  I really wanted to try and replicate the clinker hull planking shown in the AOTS Diana book, and to do this a used some cardstock instead of wood to cut individual strakes.  Fist challenge was to determine the width of each plank on the hull.  This was done using 'tick strips' at about 10 points along the hull.  The lowest (non-clinkered) garboard strake was simply omitted.  The end of the cardstock strips were cut down (rather than truly tapered) to allow the planking to terminate smoothly at the front bow and stern which is how I believe the planking is done in practice.  Each strip was cut to about 2.5mm thickness, the benefit of cardstock is that when coated with dilute PVA glue it becomes very manageable and can simply be bent to shape rather than the spiling that would have been necessary if wood had been used.

 

Once the hull had been marked out to 'prove' the planking separation, these were not referenced again.  Once a strip had been installed, the lowest point of the next strip was placed using the tickstrips.  This process was simply repeated, with time allowed for the glue to dry sufficiently for the surface to harden.  Dilute PVA was used quite liberally to ensure a good bond between the wood and card as the hope is for this to add additional structural strength.

 

 

 

The final 2 strakes were completed with one wider strip as the uppermost strake is non-clinkered and would not be visible.  Extra height was added for safety as this can be easily cut back once glue has dried.

 

 

Once both sides had been completed, each was  given a few more coats of dilute PVA for added insurance....why not?!  With the exterior planking work completed, attention could be turned to the interior and the potentially catastrophic step of removing the frames.  This actually went smoothly, but has to be approached with patience and a light hand.  The kit base was removed as well as the actual flooring should be a little lower I feel.  The frames were cut back a little more than is perhaps necessary, but this will allow flexibility as to where the floor is, and hopefully prevent them from being seen.  Practically, it also allowed the interior planking to be sanded more effectively.  The hull in this state clearly needs a light hand, but is surprisingly robust despite my fears.

 

Once an initial sanding had been completed, some light wood filler was used to fill imperfections and deal with some of the slight clinkering of the topmost walnut strips.  Once sanded back, dilute PVA was once again brushed on....yes, paranoia perhaps, but can't hurt.

 

 

Finally I was able to add an initial coat of white point to the hull to get a better idea of how this turned out (In this case Valejo 'off white' as it was all I could get from Amazon in a reasonable timeframe).  This highlighted that some finish work will be required in some areas where the eye is drawn to surface imperfections, but one thing I've learned is that the cardstock planks can be effectively sanded, probably due to the application of dilute PVA glue.  Definitely some fine tuning still needed and far from perfect, but its hard not to be pleased with the result for a first attempt.

 

[BANYAN]

Nice planking job BW; fiddly work these clinker boats aren't they?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[egkb]

Very Cool bit of work there Bud !  Brilliant use of Card Stock and the Off White looks the the part also.. Tis one of the first things I was strongly recommended (not) to do when painting the Ballier's hull 'Don't use 'white' white paint, dull it down a tad.. it will look better'

 

Can't wait to see what's next ..

 

All The Best

 

Eamonn

[robdurant]

Wow - that's how my first attempt was going to turn out in my head, and mine ended up in the scrap heap... Beautiful work Jason. You have every reason to be pleased. Having just attempted to build this mini-kit, I have some idea of quite how fiddly it is.

[robdurant]

One question - are each of the planking strakes straight, or did you curve them to fit the hull? It sounds from your description like you made them straight, then used plenty of pva to make them pliable enough to side-bend when fitted?

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Rob, yes the strips were just cut straight.  I was fearful these would need to be spiled but that did not prove necessary.  When damp, the cardstock was very forgiving to place, each was only around 2.5mm wide.

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Folks,

 

Sadly been rather absent from both the shipyard and this site for some time.  I very much hope to catch up soon on everyone else's fine builds here soon.  Time to get a little more up to date, the cutter is pretty close to completion aside from a little fettling.

 

Frames were added to the interior using strips cut from some scrap 0.5mm pear wood.  These were soaked and pre-bent in situ prior to gluing with PVA:

 

 

The frames were further reduced down to the keel former to try and get a bit more depth the boat.  To my eye, applying planking to the false deck puts the board too high, especially as there is very little room to play with considering the various structural elements still to go on. A template for the footwaling was then made up to determine the shape.  Once the placement was determined, the rising plank was added (again cut from some 0.5mm pear sheet)

 

I wanted to try and allow the footwalling to have an element of curvature which would be natural on the real boat.  A relatively straightforward way to achieve this was to apply wood strip to thin card to match the template which maintains a lot of flexibility (Straight strip was used rather than the more complicated curved planking on the plan).  Once dry, the assembly was easily glued on top of the keel former, the footwaling then follows the interior curve naturally.  

 

 

With those element in place, it was possible to add the platform under the sternsheets.  The Diana plans show these as a grating, but to my eye again the kit supplied grating is too large, so plain boards were installed instead which also appear to be used.  After the main and fore mast steps, thwarts and ringbolts I assume would be used for hoisting the boat had been added, the bow was closed in using a cover as suggested on the plan - this also helped disguise the rudimentary construction at the bow.  The rowlocks were cut, interestingly these are not symetrical between port and starboard, and one seems to sit rather awkwardly in the sternsheets.

 

The sternsheets were made up and installed, again having used a template to finalise shape, together with all the other details including mast thwarts, gunwale and knees.

 

The colour scheme follows a slightly simplified version of that shown below which seems suitably utilitarian.  Looking at this, and comparing once the black was applied, suggests to me that I made a mistake in the tapering of the clinker planking.  The black area covers both the wash strake and upper strake, and judging from these pictures it appears that these are of somewhat consistent in width, especially toward the stem.  I had tapered these proportionally as well, hoping nobody else notices...

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Beef Wellington

[Gahm]

Your cutter looks great! Beautifully done! And I love your clinker planking idea . . . it is clearly worth remembering when building the next little ship 🙂

 

Thomas

[Blue Ensign]

Great result with your cutter Jason, I like the looks of her. 👍

 

B.E.

[Sjors]

Wow!
 

I thought that the Jason was almost finished by now...🙃

I have to scroll back to see where you are.

 

Sjors

 

[Sjors]

I have scroll back and drooling again!

I was almost forget how great this is!

Just love it.

 

Sjors

[Timmo]

That’s lovely work Jason