HM Bomb Vessel Granado 1756 by preservedkillick - Caldercraft - Scale 1:64

[preservedkillick]

Sanding of second planking below the wales almost complete (ideally needs good daylight, and it's getting dark here !, so I'll finish it tomorrow). Few very minor gaps, but I'd argue they make it look more authentic. Used 400 => 800=>1200 grit wet/dry. Fears of sanding "through" the rather thin walnut strip not realised thank goodness :-o

 

Not sure why the manual leaves fitting the stern post so late (it's at the end of completing the second planking) - I'd have thought fitting it now would give better continuity in the paint. Can't see that it's going to interfere with fitting the stern counter etc. if fitted now. Hmmm....

Edited April 11, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Hull painting completed. Went for a sort of cream off-white, which I think gives a nice contrast with the bare wood and the black on the wales, without being too pristine. Very slight gaps in the planking are visible, but I don't find that objectionable - at least it's clear the thing is made from planks ! Need to decide what varnish to use on the unpainted areas - I quite like satin rather than utterly matt

 

Edited April 26, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Finished (or at least stopped) touching up and varnishing the hull. False Upper Gun Deck glued and pinned in place. Mortar beds constructed, drilled and varnished (went for satin in the end, which I think I'll stick with, apart from decking). The mortar housings overall look like they'll be a project in themselves - nice lot of detail ! Need to try out chemical blackening the ring bolts versus painting, whilst the deck is going off.

 

Edited April 29, 2015 by Alan Ball

[Gundorph]

Looking great... keep up the good work..

[jthemanjack]

Looking good Alan .....Will start posting again after a long break ,I am a little bit ahead of you but only just so we will both be building together , 

     

    Jack

[preservedkillick]

Thanks guys. Jack - those "long gaps" just happen don't they  - life just keeps getting in the way of ship-building!

 

Chemical blackening of the ring bolts looks pretty convincing to me - perhaps a little too matt, though that's easily fixed. Prefer it to paint I think, though of course it's *much* more costly. Different stuff to what I used on Bounty, and seems to work better, though I'll hang fire on final verdict until I've tried it on brass - seem to recall it took forever to get anywhere near convincing cannon  barrels, and there are a lot more on this one.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Mortar housings progressing. Several attempts at assembling the upper longitudinals/traverse bulkheads (61/62) - and a certain amount of blue air - because the former needed reduction to fit in the housings and I kept breaking the assembly apart again when filing (because it's just butt joints at the corners). Eventually resorted to reducing the longitudinals to fit first, and then assembling them to the bulkheads - then immediately fitting the whole lot to the housing to keep it square. Fiddly-diddly IYKWIM. On to the even-more-fiddly-looking canopies.....

 

Edited May 4, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Completed the first sliding canopy-half (bar the ring-bolts). Seems to be slight disagreement over whether the side planks go under the roof planks or butt alongside them - plan shows the former, and the manual the latter. Not helped by fact that the "1 * 5" strip supplied turned out to be 1 * 4, causing further confusion. Eventually sided with manual and went for "alongside" (and raided stash for some actual 1 * 5). Result looks pretty good (IMHO) - hope I can replicate it three more times. Need to be careful to check that the two halves will actually meet in the middle (sounds obvious, but....)

 

Edited May 6, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Hmm, here's a thing....

The top of the lower 3* 3 part of the removable strongback isn't flush with the rebate on the inside of the mortar housing, so the side covers can't sit horizontal and aren't properly supported. AOTS clearly shows this rebate at exactly the same level all around the side cover, as one would expect.

What have I done wrong.......

 

Edited May 13, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Looks to me like the rebate on (all) the mortar housings is about 1mm too low - should be 1mm from the top edge - mine are clearly at least 2mm. Found a build photo on the Jot site that clearly shows the rebate higher on their parts

 

 

 

You can see (I hope) that the rebate is below halfway on mine (top photo) and above it on Jot's (bottom)

 

Have to scratch my head over the best way to fix this - don't fancy trying to build up those tiny rebates by 1mm..

Edited May 14, 2015 by Alan Ball

[preservedkillick]

Best solution appears to be small pieces of 1 x 1 on the back of the side covers where they sit on the offending rebates - allows the cover to sit perfectly flush and doesn't mar the pit surround, at least one of which I'll leave visible (not sure yet how to display the mortars yet). If I need demounted side covers on show, I can easily build more without the add-ons. Hope the CNC depth didn't go awry on anything else !

[jthemanjack]

Those 1mm x 1mm fillets sound very fiddly to me Alan but like you I can't see any other way around it ,maybe you could  Email Caldercraft  and describe the problem....I hear they are very good at sending replacement parts when there is a problem with parts , might be worth a try .

   

Jack

[preservedkillick]

Hi Jack

 

The pit surrounds are of course really, REALLY securely glued in place (things always attach particularly well when you subsequently decide you need to remove them!) - not sure how much damage I might do getting them out - probably damage/destroy the base and /or other side components as well, also three weeks is about par for Jot once you get their attention IME. The add-ons sure are fiddly, but perfectly doable, given they're out of sight

Edited May 18, 2015 by Alan Ball