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Hi All,

No actual hull paint yet, but there was another thing I needed to do first so this will be about that. I've planned this as a "waterline" model, but one with the complete hull visible below the surface. The first one of these I remember seeing was a very large scale model of the 5-masted full-rigged ship Pruessen under full sail in an absolutely HUGE showcase at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco. Surprise will have more crew figures but, otherwise, this should be a lot less work.

 

I haven't chosen the material for the sea's surface yet, but have worked up a pattern for the hole that will need to be cut in it. The model's hull was stood on it's keel clamps on a relatively flat piece of cardboard & some marks were transferred from the hull sides down to that with a carpenter's square & pencil, along with centerline marks at bow & stern. The rest of the approximate waterline shape was sketched on a bit oversize with a pencil & the outline was cut out with an old serrated steak knife.

 

Serendipity is another modeler's tool & on this occasion it took the form of the exact height of the yogurt tubs (the ones I save for mixing resin in) I then placed the cardboard on, bringing it exactly to the waterline with the clamps touching the work surface. Fine "trim" adjustments could be made by shifting the height of the clothes pins at bow & stern, now resting on the cardboard:

 

Surprise_471

 

Surprise_477

 

Scraps of thinner card stock were chopped up & double-stick-taped all around, touching the hull to get a more precise pattern. I discovered early on that the precise angle of heel desired was hard to maintain with the clamp springs trying keep it level, but serendipity stepped in again & provided 2 wooden blocks of the exact heights needed, within arm's reach & in plain view as I looked about for "something" to do the job. Now the clothes pins could be shifted under the cardboard & out of the way:

 

Surprise_476

 

As a ship heels over, the shape of the waterline becomes asymmetric, so the one on the body plan wouldn't tell the whole story even if this was a scratch-built model based exactly on that plan, which it isn't...

 

Surprise_479

 

Oh; right. I actually drew the outline on the plywood work surface first, THEN marked one-inch "stations" & transferred those widths to the cardboard. The waterline shape on Surprise's body plan does resemble the model's, though it seems that the kit hull is actually sharper forward at that level:

 

Surprise_484

 

The rudder also had to be taped on before this outline could be finished. Some "water work" will need to be done after the model is "afloat", but the cutting & fitting should be done before the hull paint goes on, so it seems I'm shopping for some clear or translucent blue plastic panel material now, preferably with a watery texture. There will definitely be a showcase for this one; the extra rigging details added by spiders are never quite right & then everything gets covered in dust...

 

Surprise_481

 

'Til next time,

 

Cheers, -Lars

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1 hour ago, lars_opland said:

5-masted full-rigged ship Pruessen under full sail in an absolutely HUGE showcase at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco.

I remember seeing that model down in the bay and this is looking to be heading in the same direction of class as that said display  👍

 

beefy

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On ‎29‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 07:35, lars_opland said:

After drilling 6 shallow 1mm holes in the forward edge of the quarterdeck, I twirled a soft, blunt pencil in each of them, pressed a strip of clear tape over them to pick up the rings of graphite & stuck that tape on my strip of .040" railing to accurately transfer the stanchion spacing

 

Neat trick

 

Kev

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Thanks Again, Fellas.

 

Beefy, IIRC, that Pruessen model was in the neighborhood of ten feet long, scratch-built, fully rigged, manned & detailed, & frozen in the act of making easy work out of slicing through scaled 10- or 15-foot seas under shortened sail. I don't hope to get very close to that level of class, but do want to reward close inspection with a bit of entertainment. It's what we do, right?  # ;^)##

 

Cheers, -Lars

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Okay. Still trickling out incremental progress reports because that's how it's going.

 

The gun deck was placed on one of my wooden blocks aft & a clothes pin forward, then the clothes pin was adjusted as a wedge to bring the area around that open forward hatch level with the work surface & just the right level to place the top of that widest ladder against it's bared plastic attachment points on the hatch coaming, with that patch of berth deck resting flat on the work surface. Liquid cement was applied to the top of the ladder with a small brush & allowed to dry overnight.

 

The following evening, the gun deck assembly was turned over gently & 4 strips of .040" styrene were added to stabilize the small deck patch at the bottom of the ladder:

 

Surprise_485

 

After more drying time, the ends were snipped off & the gun deck turned right side up again:

 

Surprise_487

 

The first bit of permanent rigging is on. Some dark button & carpet thread was selected, knotted at one end, stiffened with CA glue at the other, then passed up through one hole under the wheel, 4 times around the barrel, back down the other hole, tensioned with a hanging clothes pin & CA-glued along the top of the bulkhead between the Captain's & Sailing Master's cabins before trimming off:

 

Surprise_486

 

The Admiralty draft & Marquardt both show 6 pumps in 2 rows on the gun deck, either side of the main mast, but the decommissioning inventory only lists 4 pumps. As usual, I opted to do less work & installed 4, after drilling shallow holes in the deck for better bonding. I had little reference for the exact appearance of these, so only approximated the size & shape shown by Marquardt, with the same tubing as used for the helm's barrel & some short bits of styrene railing rod left over from my Matchbox 1:72 Corvette. After drying, these were painted red:

 

Surprise_489

 

With all that done, there was no longer any excuse not to get the deck assemblies joined. The capstan parts were dry-fitted together through the quarterdeck & the hull was...temporarily, again...closed up with the usual clamps & clothes pins.

 

There's a bit of a twist in one of the hull halves, so an additional clothes pin was clamped at each end to help hold things straight & prevent any of that twist from being induced into the deck assembly at this point. Likewise, the starboard edge of the fo'c'sle deck & forward end of that catwalk didn't want to settle in place, so rubber bands, sprue & dowel were added to apply the needed pressure. The stern was held on with a stout rubber band & a dowel passed through 2 gun ports to further prevent any parts creeping about while glue dried. Finally, after another check to confirm there was no twist in the hull, I was able to begin reaching in with a narrow brush & liquid cement, connecting whatever I could, gluing the galley flue to the top of the stove, it's deck collar to the surrounding coaming & to it, & adding the 4 ladders around the waist:

 

Surprise_490

 

Gun tackles are painted & the upholstery thread breachings are almost done for the main battery. The thread is pulled forward & stuck to the masking tape to tension it around the gun breach a bit, & enough CA is applied to soak in & be sure it'll hold that bend. This thread couldn't have been any thicker & still get through those rings!

 

Surprise_492

 

Gluing the capstan in was a multi-part process all it's own. The lower unit was glued to the gun deck by reaching in through a gun port with the glue brush while the shaft in the upper unit held it in place, then allowed to dry overnight. The next day, the quarterdeck capstan was pulled out, a generous amount of liquid cement was applied to the end of the shaft with the glue bottle's brush (too big for most things, but not this...) & the shaft finally pushed quickly through the quarterdeck & into position (far enough, but not too far...). The fore, main & mizzen bits are all glued in, & I was even able to reach in & flow some glue between the top ends of the bow sprit step & it's adjoining fo'c'sle deck beam, which are happily, luckily, in full contact:

 

Surprise_493

 

Still no guns installed, no paint on the hull & no glue between the hull halves, but this stage has been a huge step in the right direction! Thanks again for looking in,

 

Cheers, -Lars

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Thank you, Stuart,

I forgot to mention painting those braces flat black because they don't represent anything that was actually there...not that anyone will ever even notice that patch of deck at the bottom of that hole after the boats are on their cradles!

Cheers, -Lars

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 Lars,

Very inspirational and impressive skill and craftsmanship my friend.  Reminds me of the awe I felt watching my Dad building his Sailing Ships as a boy. All of Dad's were built from wood never plastic. Thank you for reminding of days long gone! Keep up the highest excellence.

Highest Regards,

Gregory Jouette

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15 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Never heard the term “ordinary” used like that before. 

Hi F4U,

 

"Mothball fleet" for sailing ships. It comes up often in Napoleonic naval warfare novels.

 

Thank You very much, Greg. One of my early inspirations was the plastic Aurora Viking Ship my grandfather had built-up on a shelf in his living room, circa 1959-60. There's a copy in the SMER box, hiding in our attic now "for old time's sake".

 

Cheers, -Lars

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2 hours ago, lars_opland said:

Hi F4U,

"Mothball fleet" for sailing ships. It comes up often in Napoleonic naval warfare novels.

Cheers, -Lars

 

'In Ordinary' is one of the many book-keeping exercises done by the naval powers of the C17-19 to keep non-active ships off the exchequers's books. To put it simply (and disregarding a lot of quite important subtleties) the Navy worked on an estimate system (a pre-allocation of state funds; rather like that operated by the US federal government today). Money was allocated in three estimates- the ordinary, the service estimate, and the exrtra-ordinary.  The Ordinary was supposed to account for the day-to-day management of the fleet- it not only included keeping vessels in general upkeep, but also accounted for the half-pay of naval officers who were ashore. The politics of the time meant that warships acted rather like the modern nuclear deterrent- seldom used but requiring VERY expensive maintenance. It was not unusual for an C18 ship of the line to spent 90% of its life moored up in an estuary 'in ordinary'. But when the time came, the funding structure meant it could be commissioned within days or weeks using money from any of the other budgets.  Of course that is all theory- in practice C17-18 naval administration was a corrupt as any other public office of the period: being an established senior naval officer or dockyard worker 'in ordinary' was a good gig if you could get it- pretty much a state retirement plan.

 

 

Will

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Thank you for the details, Will!

 

C.S. Forrester, O'Brian & others have all mentioned ships kept "in ordinary" & officers on half-pay in peacetime while chronicling the shifting fortunes of their fictional characters, but these things are never connected in those works as parts of the same program. The officers are never said to be "put in ordinary", but they were, eh?

 

Cheers, -Lars

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I have absolutely no connection with ships other than the cross channel ferries to France but I have just spent a happy two days reading your build thread from beginning to end. Interspersed with many “google” moments for clarification and education in such things as the rating system for ships, the difference between canons and cannonades and the books of Patrick O’Brian.

Your obvious passion for what you are creating shines through and is what makes the whole process, the modelling as well as the historical detail, so fascinating.

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Thanks so much, guys!

 

It's funny how some "fictional" models can be educational, while others are hard to describe as such, isn't it? 

Here's a glimpse of the original kit's deck assembly, which is held to a remarkably accurate curve by just 6 long pegs molded onto the top part & 6 sockets in the gun deck. Considering some of the issues in this old kit, this assembly feature was remarkably well engineered. Note the very narrow strip of deck that's supposed to hold up the main mast, & the lighter plastic around it that's already stressed. This is where the stop was that's intended to hold against all of the rigging tension on the main mast!

 

LaFlore_kit05

 

Here's the scratch-built deck assembly, finally imitating that characteristic sheer line after a lot more work! Now it will be possible (with care) to close up the hull later without breaking off a bunch of resin carronade assemblies...

 

Surprise_498

 

2 crosstrees are missing from the underside of each fighting top, so strips of .040" styrene were cut for fore & main, .030" for the mizzen. Looking a little chunky in this view, but they'll do:

 

Surprise_500

 

Thanks again for looking in,

 

Cheers, -Lars

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Stop the presses! Here's how NOT to do research.

 

I was gifted a copy of Steel's "Elements of Mast Making, Sail Making and Rigging" but hadn't studied it very closely until now. One of the large "plates" folded up in a pocket inside the back cover shows a fighting top for a 36-gun frigate...with only 2 long cross trees underneath, just like the kit parts were molded. Thinking maybe the other 2 weren't counted as part of the platform assembly, I image-Googled both HMS Trincomalee & USS Constitution for views of this detail & sure enough, just like the kit moldings again (minus the round hole for the kit's vinyl shrouds) so out came the #11 knife & away went an hour's work. 

 

I was looking up the appearance of the cheeks under the trestle trees when that issue came up, so that's done, anyway...or will be, once the bottom ends are tapered down some:

 

Surprise_504

 

The quarterdeck rail had dried with a bit of a twist in it, so this lash-up was weighted with clothes pins while more liquid cement was applied at the bottoms. I don't think that changed much, but it was worth a try...

 

Surprise_502

 

This last ladder was installed with the deck assembly stood on it's side between rubber molds; a bit of a battle, tweezers my only weapon....

 

Surprise_501

 

Until next time, again...

 

Cheers, -Lars

Edited by lars_opland
Accuracy
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Hi All,

 

In case anyone noticed the news about the quake here on Nov. 30 & was wondering how well the model rode it out, "it could have been worse". The deck assembly fell about a meter to the floor & will have to be reconnected, but the catwalk didn't re-break & only 2 ladders were spat out from between. Both hull halves fell about 2 feet to shag carpet & a pile of rags...but then got the full force of several parts bins full of stuff, plus several 3-ring binders full of printed reference photos & other odds & ends on top of that. The port half escaped unscathed & the starboard half suffered only a couple minor cracks & lost the end of it's beak head, which has been found during the clean-up & put safely away for now. Currently using this opportunity to move some shelves, better secure them to walls & generally improve the shop's floor plan, cleaning as I go. 

 

The house is okay, but image-search "Vine Road earthquake damage" for some disruption that appeared less than half a mile from here...

 

Cheers, -Lars

 

"A sailor's work is never done."

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  Without doubt this is some of the finest styrene craftsmanship I have seen on either side of the Atlantic. Lucky is the model that gets to have its full potential realized in your miniature shipwright's yard! I do believe I'll pull up a chair, pour out a hot cuppa, and enjoy the p[proceedings. My only regret is that I'm only just coming aboard; as nicely rendered as your painted plastic decks may be, I wish I could have brought the AM product link below to your attention at the start of the build. Still, I'm looking forward to your voyage to completion. Sierra Hotel, sir, and most inspiring.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lindberg-Jolly-Roger-Flying-Dutchman-real-wooden-deck-for-model-1-130/222999585692?epid=0&hash=item33ebcfa39c:g:I-cAAOSwi7Vb-cmZ

Edited by Professor
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Thanks All,

 

The shop furniture is all set up again, & everything is secured to the walls now. Today things start going back up on shelves, but many, many tiny parts still need sorting.

 

Meanwhile, the HMS Surprise project will be more like watching submarine races than any other sporting event, right up to the point it was at over a week ago, when actual progress can be reported again.

 

Dafi, anyone who considers plastic modeling to be relatively boring hasn't tried to kill an afternoon watching TV lately. "Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothin' On". -B. Springsteen

 

Professor, I can recite the phonetic alphabet, but don't recall the meaning of the acronym "Sierra Hotel". Never considered real wood veneer for this build because making plastic look like wood is just another painting challenge from my perspective, but thanks for the link.

 

Cheers, -Lars

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  • 8 months later...

Hi All,

 

Currently working with Flickr tech support to re-gain access to my image hosting account. No spectacular updates yet, but nothing at all here until I get that little detail sorted. Repairs have commenced, anyway.

 

Cheers, -Lars

 

P.S. Finally sussed what "Sierra Hotel" stands for. Duh!

Edited by lars_opland
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