HMSV Beagle - OcCre - 1/60

[Bertie McBoatface]

16 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

paper cut-out kits

 

I bought an ancient one of those. Printed in 1974 I think. The paper modelling would always have been beyond my abilities but in this case the old paper has suffered badly from its own acid and now has the feel of a wet sliced loaf. I'd like to see anyone fold it.

 

However, I bought the thing with the mad idea of using it as a cheap form of plan and scratchbuilding the actual boat from ply or MDF sheet. I doubt that I'll ever do it but it tempts me from time to time, I take it out of the envelope, smell it and return it to the shelf. 🙂

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, psdavidson said:

A lot of the parts were detached from the frames. No idea if any of them are broken

 

Doesn't matter, it's wood. You just glue it back together or make a new one.

 

 

Was it this one? If it lives up to that photo I'll be delighted and very very very surprised. If.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I changed the title to reflect the fact that the Lords of the Admiralty referred to the Beagle as "His Majesty's Surveying Vessel Beagle". I guess they too were confused by the question of whether it was a brig, bark or even ship. Silly old admirals. 😉 

[Bertie McBoatface]

As I was clearing up before bedtime I noticed that both the main deck and the keel/bulkhead unit are now rather twisted. It’s as though some fool left them on his desk by the window for the last few very hot and sunny days. 

[psdavidson]

10 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Was it this one? If it lives up to that photo I'll be delighted and very very very surprised

I'll try to dig it out and check. I think it was a lot less complicated

[psdavidson]

This is what it's supposed to look like

 

 

and this is what arrived

 

 

 

i think it's more likely to become firewood than the ship in the picture

 

This is the paper one

 

 

I think it's the photo that's blurry, not the printed paper

 

/P

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 6/24/2022 at 1:22 PM, psdavidson said:

think it's more likely to become firewood than the ship in the picture

 

Build it. Burn it. Enter it in the Entropy GB. 😁

 

Actually it doesn't look bad for a fiver. It's an amuse bouche for wooden ship modelling.

 

On 6/24/2022 at 1:22 PM, psdavidson said:

the paper one

 

All those rectangles in floppy old paper. Damn that for a game of sailors!

 

Mine arrived today. Posted from UK.

 

 

It looks brilliant at first sight. It's a plank on bulkhead boat with sails (that you have to sew), masts, planks, a laser etched deck. It has everything that I have encountered on the Lady Isabella and Beagle, but in a tiny scale.

 

 

That's state of the art for a grating.

 

 

Tiny pin rails for the belaying pins, but no pins. Easy enough to make some from cocktail sticks or plastic or brass rod in this scale. There's a ball of string which I'd replace with fishing wire, but no blocks or deadeyes which would be a kick in the back of the knees for a newbie. (Hey, I'm not a newbie anymore!) No guns either. 

 

 

Instructions are basic but in boat kits, that's not unusual.

 

It's all the parts than can be easily made with a laser cutter/engraver but none of the difficult things that require other machinery. I thought it might be a scan from a European or American kit and did some googling. 

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

This is a larger scale kit of the same boat for £170 on Amazon

 

 

EDIT: More experienced ship builders (and manufacturers) than I, over on MSW are convinced that this is the victim kit that was scanned, reduced and sold unbranded, so please don't buy one. It's too good to be true. The wood will be of dire quality and the result will be a mess. And of course it's stolen property and manufactured in some sweatshop by people on starvation wages. 

 

 

 

 

I must say I quite fancy that Mamoli kit. It makes up rather nicely.  It's a customs schooner from New England 1800-1830(ish), a very fast boat. Now that is a kit worth building.

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Psmith's PSunday PSupplement #1

 

 

 

The poop deck has caught up with the forecastle. This time I stuck the planks down with wood glue rather than contact adhesive to my cost. The additional moisture caused the deck unit to curl upwards at the sides, exactly balancing out all the camber I was so determined to build. I hope that I'll be able to restore the convexity by clamping and gluing some deckhead beams underneath.

 

 

The slight warping caused by the unseasonal English sunshine was easily dealt with.

 

 

It was worse in the deck but clamping and gluing them together seems to have restored them to their approximate straightness.

 

 

I added a 2mm strip to the top of the Beagle's backbone and used strong clamps and much glue to bend the deck over this and attach it to the frames. It took ages as I only had the two necessary bar clamps and had to work frame by frame.

 

 

Camber was achieved a lot easier this way. Now I can use thin planks on the deck and avoid a week of sanding.

 

 

Reinforcement was required due to the enormous tension on that deck. Those square blocks are glued side grain to side grain which is far stronger than the end grain joints designed into the kit. It was my idea to bend the deck though so it's not OcCre's fault. The structure now is as rigid as a violin and I'm sure it would explode if dropped. I'd better not drop it then!

 

 

This is the front end. I don't believe the alcove to be correct. It makes little sense to me based on several rough drawings from the nineteenth century and a lot of reading. (The details are in the other place.)

 

 

It was pretty easy to remove it. The other side of the bulkhead will be veneered over in due course.

 

 

At the other end of the boat, the marked area has to come out to allow me to build and furnish Darwin's cabin. Actually the charting room with its huge mahogany table but that's where the great mad slept, with his feet in a drawer on one side and his head in a cupboard at the other. High up and right aft in the ship was probably the worst place for a seasick mariner, but that's where they put him and that's where he stayed.

 

The slot is the mizzen mast housing so I extended that downwards and will probably remember to make the mast taller to compensate.

 

 

Planking the main deck. This time I have no worries about running out of timber. These are planks that I have cut from a solid piece of hornbeam and the dimensions are quite variable. There will be much wastage but I have at least three times as much as I need.

 

 

I've drawn in some frame lines. Each butt joint in the planking must be sited on a frame. The ones between the gun ports would have beed very strong and I've guestimated another set in between those. This will give me a pleasant pattern of joints in what's called a three plank shift without being too 'busy'.

 

You can see the start of the pattern in these trial strakes. The one in the centre of the deck is the 'king plank' from which all the rest line up. I'm putting a scrap of black paper between the but joints to stand for the caulking since painting the ends led to a lot of paint soaking in too much and looking a mess. I didn't have this problem on the two upper decks as they are both too short to need joints.

 

 

I've opted for 20 foot long planks which span four of my frames with a little left over to be trimmed off. Painted on both edges as before.

 

 

The paper caulking is currently being applied to half of the planks and then I'll be able to do at least half of the deck without interruption. It needs a lot of concentration but it's a doddle compared to the hull planking.

 

 

And finally, that's where the poop cabin will be built. It looks like a ballroom to me as I've been used to that piece of plywood bisecting it. When I begin to panel it out, I guess it will feel very small!

 

Elapsed time 15 hours and 15 minutes. That's working time, disregarding reading, thinking, planning, dreaming (nightmares really! 😱). It's going to take hundreds of hours to complete, assuming that I don't tread on this one!

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 6/24/2022 at 2:51 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

I now think my £10 kit is probably kosher and rather nice, even though there's a requirement for either some  aftermarket or some ingenuity.

 

Or it's a pirate copy of a legit kit that's no longer in production. I hadn't thought of that. ☹️ 

[psdavidson]

10 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The poop deck has caught up with the forecastle

Painful, and probably very messy. 😁

 

She's coming along nicely

[Bertie McBoatface]

14 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

Painful, and probably very messy. 😁

Tantric 

[BillF67]

Off again on another madcap scheme? What scale Camel will you be building for this Beagle?

 

As always, watching with much interest, old boy.

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, BillF67 said:

What scale Camel will you be building for this Beagle?

 

Oh. Haha. That’s just nuts. Peanuts. 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This is off to a great start. If the silkspan doesn't work out, it could be worth getting a sample of cotton lawn for comparison. Also, I have copies of the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol1 and 2 and at least one of them has a chapter or two on sailmaking with a lot of good detailed diagrams if that's of any interest to you? Actually I have numerous other books on sailmaking for that matter.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

This is off to a great start. If the silkspan doesn't work out, it could be worth getting a sample of cotton lawn for comparison. Also, I have copies of the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol1 and 2 and at least one of them has a chapter or two on sailmaking with a lot of good detailed diagrams if that's of any interest to you? Actually I have numerous other books on sailmaking for that matter.

 

I fear that sails are at least as complicated a subject as the sheets. Am I right to think that they aren’t ever flat but are sewn with a ‘belly’ like a parachute?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

16 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I fear that sails are at least as complicated a subject as the sheets. Am I right to think that they aren’t ever flat but are sewn with a ‘belly’ like a parachute?

 

I'm certainly not qualified to comment authoritatively (we will be going on a residential course to learn how it's done) but from the text books, yes the sails are 3 dimension but in practise what I believe that means is that most sails are a combination of straight lines along the edges not being truly straight (such that when rigged, taught and full of wind they are straight but the rest of the sail is bellied) and relying on bias stretch in the fabric - which for modelling purposes is easy to see since the bias is straight on each bolt of sailcloth obviously since that's how it's woven and the direction of the parallel lines of stitching on the sail show how those bolts were laid edge to edge such that when stretched on the bias the sail enlarged the right way.

[Bertie McBoatface]

23 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

I'm certainly not qualified to comment authoritatively (we will be going on a residential course to learn how it's done) but from the text books, yes the sails are 3 dimension but in practise what I believe that means is that most sails are a combination of straight lines along the edges not being truly straight (such that when rigged, taught and full of wind they are straight but the rest of the sail is bellied) and relying on bias stretch in the fabric - which for modelling purposes is easy to see since the bias is straight on each bolt of sailcloth obviously since that's how it's woven and the direction of the parallel lines of stitching on the sail show how those bolts were laid edge to edge such that when stretched on the bias the sail enlarged the right way.

 

Yes, as I said = complicated. 

 

That part that I emphasised was very helpful to my understanding. Thanks.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Mid Week Missive

 

Since Sunday I've enjoyed some hours of planking that main deck. It's hardly worth posting a photo, though it's pleasant, soothing work. Most of the time I've been able to set aside thoughts like "I'll get this done by the weekend then start on ..." or "I'd better do something more interesting so I can post an update." I'm gradually learning the ship builders pace. It takes as long as it takes and that's often measured in years, not hours.

 

I've enjoyed a couple of busy days off-bench with new IKEA bookcases to assemble in the 'sitting area' of the lounge. This will facilitate a 'workshop area' redesign, doubling the bench space available for future work on larger ships. The plan is to move everything which is currently on or very near the bench (it's a desk really) to a bookcase which is maybe seven feet away from my chair. This will force me to stand up and take two steps every now and then which will be excellent for my back and actually allow me to work longer hours on models. Of course the real everyday tools (scalpels, sandpaper, favourite saw etc) will remain in the desk drawers ready for immediate use.

 

This is the the latest of several dozen reorganisations as I've moved house, changed genre, entered and exited relationships 🥰. Maybe this will be the perfect solution? 🤣 Unfortunately I can't yet tell as today I'm too exhausted to try it out .

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

9 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Maybe this will be the perfect solution? 

It’s almost perfect. I have found the piece of grit in the Vaseline already. When standing up and taking those two steps to the big bookcase, I am within sight of and heading in the direction of … the fridge!

 

🎂🍰🧁🥮🍔🌭🌮🥙🥗🍕🍟🍖🍗🥓🍱🧆🍣🍤🍿🍳🥞🧇🍩🧁🍦🍨🍧🍭🍬🍕🍆🍑

 

(Those last two snacks look jolly rude, don’t they?)

 

😁😁😆😅😂🤣

[Bertie McBoatface]

Yesterday I ’Won the Day’, meaning that I collected the most ‘likes’ on my posts. Thanks everyone. 
 

It’s very flattering and as an Englishman I wouldn’t usually mention it except that most on my posts concern wooden sailing ship model kits, something of a rarity in the Britmodeller Universe.

 

I’m taking this ‘anomaly award’  as evidence that you all might  benefit from having a Bertie McBoatface kit upon your benches. ‘Fink about it, and you’ll see that I’m right!

 

All together now “Wood is  good! Wood is  good! Wood is  good!”

 

Soon you will all be as mad as me and WOODEN BOATS WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!! 🤪😜🤣

[psdavidson]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Wood is  good! Wood is  good! Wood is  good!

Careful how you say that, especially after posting awber ober eggplant and peach emojis

 

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Yesterday I ’Won the Day’

Congratulations. Shows that people enjoy your erudite ramblings on wooden floaty things

[Faraway]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I ’Won the Day’,

Well done. 

Following your builds is both entertaining AND informative. I can live my wooden model building through your logs () see what I did there ?

Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, psdavidson said:

Careful how you say

 

Quite so. I've scrupulously avoided the word 'dogging' as a synonym for 'Beagle building' for similar reasons.

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 6/16/2022 at 5:07 PM, ColonelKrypton said:

A few shorter planks with some cross wise joints might have looked good too -

 

While planking the main deck my thoughts wandered back to this comment. I'm using 20 foot long planks on the main deck, cut down so that the joints are always lined up to the nearest frame. The decks were structural and the planks would have been laid as long as possible. There's less structural integrity needed on forecastle and poop but I believe the shipwrights would have made use of the 20 foot planks to avoid unnecessary joints, both from the waterproofing and the esthetic advantages. Remember, Capt Fitz Roy was supervising the refit in person and was a perfectionist, an aristocrat (of sorts) and rich. He wouldn't have been fobbed off with short planks.

 

So the two short decks will retain their sleek appearance - until I add a carronade on one and a skylight on the other.