HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by Chuck - FINISHED - 1:48 scale - kit prototype

[Chuck]

Thanks guys for the kind words and likes.   Hopefully the next one wont take as long.  

[Tigersteve]

Hi Chuck,

Are you going to update the monograph to include your rigging process? I think most people would find that very useful. 

Steve

[Chuck]

Yes indeed...its on the list.   I just have to catch up with making parts.....blocks....rope....inventory etc.  Then I will start writing.

[mcpwilk]

Beautifully made model. Shouldn't she be flying an ensign rather than a Union Flag?

 

Mike

[yamsterman]

hi chuck

beautiful job chuck......might yet get round to starting on mine! once the washingtons finished.

 

as we say here in the black country....." bostin ay it ar kid!!!"

 

cheers....mick

[whaynes]

Quote

 

Chuck, is there a rigging plan or diagram showing how the anchor and buoy are rigged?  I'm somewhat confused by the pictures.

                                            Walt Haynes

[Chuck]

Like this...does this help.

 

[whaynes]

Yes, thanks .

         Walt

[SawdustDave]

Congratulations Chuck, on completion of another outstanding build.  Been a while since I've taken time to wonder around and play catch up on some of my favorite projects.  Confessing that I tend to get so wrapped up in my own work I don't visit as much as I would like.... my bad.

Every visit to your logs is such a great learning experience.

I remain among your biggest fans, forever grateful for all you have done for me personally over the years.

Thank you.

Dave

[Ondras71]

Congratulations!  A beautiful build.  Ondras71

[Blue Ensign]

Hi Chuck, I am just about to start fixing the bulkheads on my version of Cheerful, and I am mindful of your warnings about  ensuring that the scored reference lines  on the bulkheads face forward for numbers and aft for letters. This is probably a stupid question but which camp does bulkhead Ø fit into - numbers or letters? I have trawled thro' some of the build logs and there seems to examples of both.

Regards,

 

B.E.

[TomShipModel]

Good morning,

I haven't built Cheerful, but I have seen two of them in progress.  I'm speculating is that it has to do with the bevel of the bulkheads.  Since "O" is the dead flat, I don't think that it makes a difference which way you put it in because there is no bevel for that frame.

 

Best regards to you.  You are embarking on a great project.  Enjoy!

[Chuck]

Tom is absolutely correct.

 

Chuck

[Dowmer]

Chuck,

I'm playing around with the flag technique you detailed earlier (see below).  It works amazingly well BTW. 👍

My question is, how did they (18th century) attach the flag to the halyard...or how did you attach it to the Cheerful?  Toggles?

 

Thanks for the great tips,

 

 

On 4/24/2017 at 5:46 PM, Chuck said:

Anyway here are the photos.  The flag is just a test and I am living with it for now as I try new things.   I like it but I dont know how much.   Its printed on tissue paper for wrapping gifts with my inkjet.   Then its sprayed thoroughly with flat clear fixative.   It is soaked pretty good and molded before it completely dries.  This stiff may be too thin though...but lets see what others think once they see it in person.  It does shape nicely with various size paint brush handles.

 

 

[Chuck]

Honestly I dont know.  But at scale for the model I just poked tiny holes on the corners and lashed it to the rope with sewing thread.

[Dowmer]

Thanks Chuck, I did a little research and found a reference to the use of toggles. At this scale for the boat I’m making at 1:48 it was a pain but it sort of worked.  I love your method of using tissue paper. It does the trick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alde]

Wow Dowmer. That's a nice looking flag. I love that it has some translucency. 

[Bob Cleek]

Strikingly impeccable workmanship! It's a joy to behold. People seem to be effusive in their praise on this forum, which is nice, but not always as deserved as the praise for this masterpiece. Well played, Sir!

 

May I ask a question about the anchor buoys. I can understand that they might be stowed temporarily on the shrouds when jilling about the harbor to deliver messages, personnel, and the like, because the anchors were weighed and will soon be set again, but why so high up on the shrouds? Why didn't they simply tie them off at deck level? When at sea, I'd think they'd send them below to minimize windage aloft and do the same in action to reduce the amount of potential shrapnel that might result if struck.

 

Similarly, why are the buoy rodes and pendants so far up on the shrouds and not stowed separately to be lashed on when the buoy is used? Why did they carry them way the heck up there so somebody would have to climb the ratlines and carry them up and down? I'm also curious as to why the buoy rodes and pendants are depicted as coiled in a circle like a cowboy's lariat, one much higher than the other, which would indicate extremely hard-laid line. Why did the line not simply lay as do softer laid falls on a pinrail?

 

I've done some time sailing in vessels with similar rigs and my share of full-size traditional rigging, so I'm looking at it with a "sailor's eye." I'm sure you've researched it fully, so I expect it's correct, but it's new to me and I'm curious about what seems to be a convention in modeling vessels of this period with which I have no experience and don't understand.

[Chuck]

Thank you very much.

If we could only go back in time and ask them!!!   But as model builders of boats from this era we can only guess.  Sometimes more questions than answers.  I do not know the answer to that question,  but it must have seemed practical at the time.  That set up was copied from two contemporary models one of which is known for its original rigging.   I wondered the same thing when I saw that the first time.

[Bob Cleek]

21 hours ago, Chuck said:

Thank you very much.

If we could only go back in time and ask them!!!   But as model builders of boats from this era we can only guess.  Sometimes more questions than answers.  I do not know the answer to that question,  but it must have seemed practical at the time.  That set up was copied from two contemporary models one of which is known for its original rigging.   I wondered the same thing when I saw that the first time.

Aha! Well, if the intent was to replicate an historic contemporary model, then it's all as it should be.  We are between the devil and the deep blue sea when it comes to deciding whether to go our own way or not in such instances. It calls to mind a retrospectively humorous dust-up (one of many) between a well-known historian and curator of a certain maritime museum and its government administrators who, knew little or nothing about ships and the sea, their last job having been cataloging Indian pottery shards in the Southwest or some such. The administration decided to exhibit a certain very old and highly detailed model over the curator's strenuous objection that there were numerous errors in the model which rendered it historically inaccurate. The administrators overruled his objections, finding that "Even the errors, if such they be, are part of the historic fabric of the artifact and it will therefore be exhibited in its original state." Of course, few who saw the model really would have ever known the difference.

 

I recently saw a beautifully executed HO scale layout of an historic railroad yard and rail-ferry dock in a museum exhibit. It portrayed the area in the town where the museum was as of 1889.  There were, however, three or four small boats in the waters off the piers depicting some people fishing. Each had a nicely modeled outboard motor on the stern!

 

It may have been Howard Chapelle... I can't be sure, but it sounds like something he'd say... who cautioned against less that the highest standards of research in modeling known vessels and vessel types, noting that we never know if our model might, by chance if nothing else, survive for a few hundred years and then be the only existing historical record of its type. For that reason, we owe it to future generations to do our best.

 

Nobody can argue with a fine model of a fine model, though!

[rth385]

Hi Chuck,

Waiting for my kit to arrive. I have downloaded the build instructions and am going over them to get a better feel for the challenge ahead. I agree with the others in that your build is fantastic and your explanation of the processes is clear. I have one question. I cannot see the anchor cable. I would have thought it should come on board via the hawse holes. Unless I am missing something, the anchor seems to be lashed to the forward gun opening with no cable attached. Could you please clarify for me.

Regards,

Russell

[Chuck]

I chose to model the Cheerful with her anchors stowed.   You could however choose to show the model with anchor cable as others have done.  Just check out some of the other build logs.   Its a personal choice.   I rather prefer not showing the anchor cables.   

 

Chuck

[Sea Hoss]

Love it! 

[rth385]

Thanks Chuck,

I appreciate your immediate response.

I like the look of the cables and I think that's the way I'll go.

Regards,

Russell

[RickyGene]

Have this thread saved to Favorites for fast access.  Wow, you sir, are a Master, and I only wished I could do 1/2 the quality and craftmanship you share.  I purchased the frame/starter package and all the then available fixtures.  I just retired last year and I purchased this in 2017.  Should be placing a lumber order this month.  Thanks for the opportunity to try a scratch build, albeit w/your most excellent starter set.  Have laid out now!

Rick

[glbarlow]

Planning to use this great log to help guide me in my build of the Cheerful. 

[English Rebel]

Chuck

Just read this build. Your model-making talents are amazing, as is your incredible attention to detail. Well done.

Alan

[archjofo]

Hi, Chuck,

this has become a wonderful model.
The rigging is also a dream.
I admire your work, I can learn a lot from it.

[Tossedman]

Wow! Just spent a few relaxed weeks reading through this thread. I echo all of the kudos and other good things that people have already said. Fantastic work Chuck! Haven't built a ship as of yet, lot of planes, trains and automobiles though. Once I get a build or two under my belt this cutter is definitely going on to the to do list. 

 

Cheers,

 

Todd