HMS Pickle by flyer - FINISHED - Caldercraft - Scale 1:64 - my interpretation

[flyer]

Hi Nils

Thank you. They should be – ships are female, aren’t they?

 

Hi Martin

That’s not decided yet. However I think I will paint the inner bulwarks in yellow and therefore the inside of the gun ports as well.

 

Hi Mike

Thank you.

 

[flyer]

Amatis copper plates have arrived and the tedious work of gluing plate by plate is going on.

 

Caldercrafts plates delivered with the kit aren’t that bad but in my opinion they look too much like a badly shaved hedgehog. The nail heads protrude too much and Amatis solution looks better. Also it is possible to attach Amatis plates overlapping which seems the correct way do to it - and that way it is much easier to create a nice smooth run of the plate belts.

 

Left: CCs plate, nail heads flattened   Middle: Amati’s plate   Right: CCs plate, out of the box

 

 

Coppering in progress

 

 

Close view of the overlapping plates

[Mirabell61]

super coppering Peter,

 

Nils

[Martin W]

I second Nils' comment.  I'd never realised copper plates would differ that much.

 

Martin

[flyer]

Progress lately was rather slow because the garden required some attention. However one of the tasks there was so to speak a preparation for the next step with my Pickle. I practised some deck laying (replacing a 10 years old very weathered one) in scale 1/1. Or – if you take the average dimensions of the ship’s deck planks it’s rather scale 1/2 as the dimensions are by chance just about half of it. Also the diameter of the screws heads is in proportion and I find it remarkable that they are hardly noticeable. I will again omit the treenails heads on Pickles deck.

Fortunately my deck in the garden was required to leak and caulking was not necessary. The wood by the way is larch – hardly used in ship building but quite good in withstanding weather untreated because of its high natural resin content.

 

Real deck laying...

 

‘Treenails’ (screws with 11mm head diameter) are hardly visible

[flyer]

During rainy days work on Pickle continued and coppering is mainly completed. Just the keel and rudder remain.

I’m still asking myself if I should leave the copper with that patina it was delivered with (perhaps a result of the etching process) or if I should polish it the way I did on Pegasus. A third option would be to polish and then tarnish it with salt and vinegar (Frank / riverboat would probably love that).

 

 

 

[Martin W]

Love the 1/1 decking.  I don't think I've ever actually seen larch -- it seems to resemble cedar, which is what most of our 1/1 decks are around here.

 

Good work on the coppering, too!

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Interesting remark about your cedar wood…

 

I came across that wood now and then while in the US but never thought much about it. As cedar forests are very rare in Europe nowadays (because a lot of trees were used for ship building (!)), I was intrigued by your remark.

Larch and cedar belong to the same family of trees (pinaceae). So I was rather wrongly thinking that larch–like wood wasn’t used for ship building.

What you use over there as cedar seems to be from quite different trees – in fact from juniper or thuja trees. Perhaps the close similarity of the color and texture of the wood is the reason for the denomination.

Larch grows around here and in the near Alps up to 2000m and is quite common and is often used for decking if you want to use untreated wood.

 

Cheers

Peter

[Martin W]

Very interesting, Peter.  I think the cedar that was once common in buildings here was in fact juniper, and belonged to the cypress family.  Most of the big pieces of wood (such as those used in my house) came from the Western Red Cedar, which grew into large enough trees to be logged for lumber.  Those have been mostly depleted, since the lumber was sold inexpensively.  Here in Oklahoma we have a smaller variety, the Eastern Red Cedar, which is a pest, since its oily wood becomes a serious threat during the range fire season.  We mostly cut them down, and then grind them up for garden mulch.

 

So, yes, American cedar is different from what we call the Cedar of Lebanon, a member of the pinaceae family.  And frankly, I'll go out of my way to avoid working with American cedar -- it's too soft and splintery, very splintery.  I don't know how it would hold up on a ship, though I do recall admiring a canoe that a friend made from cedar strips.

 

Wood is ever interesting.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Well… at least your summers seem to be hot and dry enough that you have a risk of forest fire – not much chance for that here. Only in that part of the country which is south of the Alps and in some deep valleys in the Alps the mixed pine forests burn occasionally – on the other hand they are also growing quite good wine there. The question is now: which side of the medal is front, which reverse?

(To complicate things a bit – we grow some good wine also north of the Alps.)

 

Cheers

Peter

 

[Martin W]

Peter -- I recall drinking some outstanding wines from the Ticino, and in Zurich I drank some whites, but can't recall what they were.  Here in Oklahoma, some folks are trying to produce wine, but they haven't worked out the variety that can handles clay soil, little water, lots of heat, and more wind.

 

Switzerland has always been one of my favorite places, and for countless reasons (I remember waking up one morning on a foggy mountainside, hearing the cow bells, and thinking it was as close to heaven as this swab would likely get).

 

cheers,

 

Martin

[riverboat]

Hi Peter.... just caught up with your new build..... Really nice!! work, can't believe how far you've come in such a short time.

I'll try to keep up with you

 

Frank

[flyer]

Hi Martin

Making good wine on clay soil should be possible, I believe, as well as growing it with little water. California is basically a desert state and look at the wine they make.

Thank you for complimenting my country. Oklahoma is unfortunately one of the blank spots on my personal map. Checking the web I found that there are some cows there – we do have something in common!

You seem to have a special notion of heaven, if cowbells bring you there (Oklahoman paradise?) but I really hope there is also a heaven where they admit old swabs and where blues music is allowed and where a fine steak is available instead of the ever-present manna and perhaps even a fine drink and I hope I may also smoke a good cigar there!

Take care.

 

 

Hi Frank

It’s nice to hear from you. As a brand new retiree I can now spend more time on useful things (like building little boats which even don’t swim properly) hence the faster progress.

 

Cheerio

Peter

[flyer]

The deck planking has started. This time I try to get a bit more sophisticated deck. Waterways have been made by some additional 6mm wide stripes. Then king planks and uninterrupted binding strakes are laid. Now the ‘normal’ planks are being laid but they will be stepped into the waterway after the first 4 planks from the centre line.

I also thought about tapering the planks but decided against it as not all sources show this and it would be very demanding as the 1mm thick stripes used in this kit can hardly be bent sideways.

Caulking was again imitated by painting the edges with a black marker pen.

 

 

Waterways are formed (in 3 parts) from 6mm wide stripes

 

 

King planks and partners installed

 

 

The definite form of the aft deck end will be found with the attaching of the transom

 

[Mirabell61]

Peter,

 

nice deck plankling waterway and caulking look good. Perhaps you may want to check with the plank width 6 mm (1:64) will be in actual 384 wide ! Planks.....

 

Nils

[Martin W]

Nice start, Peter.  How did you get the waterways to make the bend -- scarph joint?

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

The waterways were puzzled together by irregular ‘scarf’ joints, then cut down to a width of 5mm freehanded with a scalpel. The joints are not caulked (in the prototype waterways and king planks are keeping the deck together in its length and need solid joints) and should be inconspicuous. Therefore I do not fumble with scarf joints true to original.

The inner bulwark planking will cover the outermost mm of the waterways bringing their width down to 4 mm which corresponds to the kit supplied deck planking.

 

 

Close look of first plank stepped into the waterways

 

 

 

[flyer]

Hi Nils

You are right, of course. Above I tried to explain why I ordered some 38cm planks.

 

Hi Martin

Scarf joint would be the right thing but I tried to cheat a waterway without having to make those real complicated joints.

 

Thanks for compliments.

Cheers

Peter

[flyer]

The deck planking has been laid but awaits some more sanding and scratching to bring it up to a standard any self-respecting bosun or first lieutenant would expect.

In the meantime I started fumbling with the parts of the first two carronades and completed the assembly of the first one. I put it provisionally in place to check the gun ports. The weapon looks rather puny and the commander not too happy about his armament but that will be all he gets. At least I will put in additional two carronades to stock up to the eight mentioned in the web. Those six provided with the kit leave Pickle definitely too frail.

 

 

Some additional sanding is required as the caulking seems to be spilling out of some seams...

 

 

Carronage assembling reminds me of Swiss watch making

 

 

Those seem rather small weapons.

 

[riverboat]

nIce work on the deck planking Peter..... look'n good!!!

 

frank

[Blue Ensign]

Your deck planking looks excellent Peter, and those Amati copper plates are a great improvement over the kit supplied ones.

 

I too pondered over the diminutive size of the carronades but they are true to scale, a little over two feet in length at full size.

 

Nice progress you're making with your Pickle.

 

B.E.

[mobbsie]

I missed the start of this log somehow Peter, mind if I pull up a stool.

 

Your progress has been quick with excellent results mate and I look forward to following along.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Mirabell61]

Good Progress Peter,

 

"Pickle" is well coming on and great looking.....

 

Nils

[flyer]

Hi Spy

It seems they really used those tiny carronades. (Perhaps we shouldn’t think too much about that. Otherwise some remarks about men’s preoccupation with size could be provoked.)

 

Hi Frank

Thank you. That’s the kind of deck you get if you keep it out of the weather…

 

Hi B.E.

Thanks.

I understand, a carronade is a gun where precision is traded for caliber. Probably we should compare this 12lb carronade to a 4lb cannon in the same scale.

And I really would like it if Caldercraft could change the design of their copper plates. But perhaps they follow the look of the plates on the model of the Bellona while Amati could have taken Constitution’s plates as an example. Nevertheless I believe that in the 19^th century they knew enough about hydrodynamics to avoid such protruding nailheads.

 

Hi Mobbsie

Welcome aboard! No log of your latest build?

 

Hi Nils

Thank you.

 

Cheers

Peter

[Beef Wellington]

Peter, missed the start of this as well, deck planking is looking great, very nicely done joggling.

[Martin W]

Fine looking planking, Peter.  Those carronades do indeed look smallish, but the Pickle was also something of a small vessel, right? 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Jason

Welcome aboard and thanks.

 

Hi Martin

Yes, now it seems a 12 lb ball had a diameter of 4.4 in or 12 cm. If you try to avoid capture of your small boat by a much larger enemy, those balls could give him something to think about while you make sail and escape as close to the wind as possible.

Browsing the net I find, that the capture of USS Essex was the only documented case where an enemy stayed deliberately out of carronade range to reduce a prize to a hulk before actually capturing it.

I guess I will have to live with those carronades and work on the sailing qualities of my Pickle (not very great yet).

 

Cheers

Peter

[flyer]

The inner bulwark planking was now glued on and the gun port openings were finished with knife and nail file.

A template for the transom was made from 0.5mm ply wood and glued on. It will now be planked out- and inside.

 

The kit's template compared to the new one

 

 

The light yellow on the lowest plank on the bulwark will be the colour for bulwark and the stripe above the wales

 

 

 

[Martin W]

Looking good, Peter.  So, in making the transom bigger, are you planning on some decoration?

 

cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Actually it's not much larger - just overhanging a little bit to right and left. The available space will be filled by the gun ports and the name board. Decoration wise a capping rail around the transom as shown on the plan of Laura will have to do.

 

Those small and fast vessels didn't probably stay in one place long enough for the bystanders to appreciate any fancy woodworks and I don't see any decorations in publications about vessels of that class. Pickle must shine solely with her functional design and the cleanliness of her deck. As I'm no riverboat, fortunately a romantic decoration with seaweed, clams and some dirt is also beyond my skills.

 

Cheers

Peter