HMSV Beagle - OcCre - 1/60

[ColonelKrypton]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

While planking the main deck my thoughts wandered back to this comment. I'm using 20 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. 

 

Thorough and proper reasoning and with no period reference photographs we will never know for certain those details of HMS Beagle. 

 

cheers, Graham

[Bertie McBoatface]

Just now, ColonelKrypton said:

 

Thorough and proper reasoning and with no period reference photographs we will never know for certain those details of HMS Beagle. 

 

cheers, Graham

 

That's one of the really good things about this genre, you have to think for yourself but no-one can prove you wrong. 😄

[Bertie McBoatface]

We have hit the top of page four at the same time that the clock-in card tells me I passed 20 hours.

[Bertie McBoatface]

The deck is almost laid. I’ve done a little cleaning up of the first laid planks but I really must be disciplined enough to let the glue dry out completely before I shape the edges. 
 

If I finish the deck laying today I might start on another aspect of the model while the hull is ‘untouchable’; maybe one of the many ship’s boats. They are challenging little beasts. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I've just edited my posts on that cheap Chinese kit we discussed on the last page. I've seen more information on it on the MSW website since then. It is a stolen design and should not be bought or built by decent people. I was naive to buy one and won't build it, though I will quite likely buy the Mamoli original which looks a stunna! 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Sunday Supplemental Number 'B'

 

 

 

This week I 'ave mostly bin plankin' the deck.

 

 

It didn't take long for me to realise that the thick black card which was glued to the underneath of the planks and wrapped around one end was causing that end to sit high. Sanding it level isn't a problem but that will leave a small area at one side of each joint where the grain of the planks comes to the surface slightly. I think that will give me an interesting shadowy differentiation between the planks once the varnish goes on. I remain hopeful.

 

 

The first plank laid goes right down the middle. This king plank is actually four 20 foot planks making up what I think should more correctly termed a king strake, but whatever term we use, it goes right over the holes for the masts. I'm happy to report that I noticed this before the sides were planked so I was able to drill pilot holes for future enlargement to fit the masts exactly.

 

I have a new tool.

 

 

Based on the fossilised remains of a pterodactyl that crashed into a tree, this is a superior plank cutter. It's superior to a pair of Tamiya snips anyway, as it has plenty of leverage to drive that Stanley knife blade through a millimetre of hornbeam without straining my arthritic fingers at all. It's also superior to a razor saw because I haven't (yet) learned to saw right angled cuts.

 

 

Another toll which is surprisingly useful is a dumpy screwdriver. When the planks are laid, the glue sucks them down fast and sliding them that last quarter of a coleopterans dingle (as Darwin might have said) requires a bit of a shove. Fingernails aren't up to it but my dumpy is. I should rename it the Parent Psmith Plank Pusher and sell 'em for silly money on eBay.

 

 

On the subject of tools, I use my little scraper every time to clean the oozed glue from the adjacent plank. It dries clear but it can really mess up the alignment of the next row.

 

  

 

I've had some interesting deliveries this week including these rather fine pedestals which will need to have securing nuts epoxied into the frame somewhere along the keel. Where exactly on the keel is still under consideration. Too far apart and the composition is dull and too stable, to close together and the ship is on tippy-toes - forever. This being ship building, I have several weeks to make a decision on the matter. 

 

I'm really getting the hang of slow building now. I'm getting into the mindset of a 1970's Department of the Environment worker and the only time that matters is tea-time.

 

 

Glamour shot. Now we see the three plank shift developing. There will always be three unbroken planks between each butt joint on any particular frame. I made only two mistakes in the pattern that required the brutal replacement of a laid plank. The first was at the beginning when I was still barely competent and the second at the end when I had become complacent. Isn't that a classic failure pattern? Bomber crews in WWII were more likely to be lost on their first or last missions than at any other time in their tour of operations, or so I have been told.

 

This was the point where I ran out of prepared planking.

 

 

So I went into mass production. It was immediately after this that I realised that the paper did not need to run below the planks. I have the hand skills to simply put a piece on the end. Too pingin' late mate! I carried on heaving up my plank ends just for the sake of consistency.

 

As I got closer and closer to the end, I noticed I was slowing down even more. I didn't want it to end. Every plank had been hand made by me, each of them was individually shaped so that it fit 'perfectly' with no need for brute force and heavy clamping, to secure it to the underdeck which I had personally modified to incorporate the required camber. Building that deck is my thing and I'm going to miss it when it's finished. Although this is a kit, it feels 'scratch built' so personal is the connection. One day I'm going to build a boat entirely from the plans and my imagination and what an experience that will be.

 

 

And that's the sum of the week's work. The photo is taken in raking light to show not only the ragged nature of the unplaned surface but the definite existence of the camber - Yippee! 

 

You can also see the little mistakes that I made that weren't worth correcting because of their location. You can't? Well don't expect me to point them out to you. 🤣

 

There are ninety planks on there and I wasn't bored for a second of the fifteen hours it took to lay them. I know each one individually like a farmer knows his sheep, though they may look identical to you. I have to tell you, this woodwork has taken my enjoyment of the modelling hobby to new heights. It's as different from building a plastic kit as playing your own guitar is from listening to a recording of someone else doing it; my song might not be as good, it might not even be recognisable to anyone else but it's mine. 

 

Since the start of this year I've made several models. First was a Hornet which I painted in a strange way to simulate the evening light of the tropics. I finished it, photographed it for posterior and immediately threw it in the bin. Next came the Tamiya F-4 which is the best engineered plastic kit I ever saw. Despite that I battle damaged and modified the ping out of it in order to stay interested enough to finish it. It's survived in the back of the display cabinet because I knew it would be my last aeroplane model ever. I had no more pings to give in that genre. 

 

Turning to armour, I completed a Valentine tank project which involved turning a Mk2 into the prototype and 'short tracking' it in a very strange way. The idea of building a straightforward gun tank doesn't float my boat at all, it doesn't even wet the pavement. I built a cutaway Lee tank from a very complex and deeply difficult MiniArt kit and dropped it to total destruction within a week of finishing it. I started and abandoned an AEC armoured car soon afterwards. Then I started a plastic HMS Victory on impulse and wrecked that 'accidentally' (?) by standing on it. And last Friday I started a Lancaster Nose Art kit in 1/32 for the Canadian GB. I've managed two short sessions and despite the ruinous price of the thing, I have a zero mojo situation there too. I think I'm starting to see a pattern.🤔

 

For six months (actually a lot longer, when I look back further) I've been floundering from one thing to another trying to maintain some interest in plastic kits, a hobby that has lasted with a few gaps since I was about eight. It's gone. I've had gaps before but this feels like I was walking down the road to Damascus when I crossed the River Rubicon and burned the bridge behind me. Plastic is dead to me, in fact it's even made from very dead marine animals from 300 million years ago.

 

Fortunately, and thanks to @Dubz's wooden ship WIP, I discovered just in time the antique arts of boatbuilding, the old school way. Lad's and lasses, be careful about trying one of these. You may find that once you've had wood, there's no way back. The stuff is as addictive as crack, or 'shake' as we woodworkers call it. I love it so much, despite its ability to go horribly nasty on me at times, that I wrote a poem about my immutable conversion.

 

 

The Kits Not Built, by Bertie McBoatface

 

 

Two hobbies diverged; plastic and wood,

And sorry I could not build both

And be one modeller, long I stood

And looked at one as far as I could

To armoured cars in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was harder and needed more care;

Though as for that the working there

In either genre, really was about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In boxes sealed in piled up stash.

Oh, I kept the plastic for another day.

Yet knowing how kit leads on to kit,

I doubt if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two hobbies diverged; plastic and wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

With deepest apologies to the shade of Robert Frost

 

 

 

[Courageous]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:59 AM, Bertie Psmith said:

Bertie McBoatface

And maybe this should be your new user name 

 

Stuart

[Bertie McBoatface]

11 minutes ago, Courageous said:

And maybe this should be your new user name 

 

Stuart

 

That's a good idea.

 

@Mike, is it possible to change my user name to Bertie McBoatface to reflect the new direction in my modelling life?

[Mike]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

That's a good idea.

 

@Mike, is it possible to change my user name to Bertie McBoatface to reflect the new direction in my modelling life?

Yes, but can I entreat you to sleep on it before making such a momentous and life-changing decision?

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

Yes, but can I entreat you to sleep on it before making such a momentous and life-changing decision?

If it makes you grit your teeth, forgetaboudid. 😎

[Adm Lord De Univers]

On 03/07/2022 at 13:32, Bertie Psmith said:

You can also see the little mistakes that I made that weren't worth correcting because of their location. You can't? Well don't expect me to point them out to you. 🤣

I cant see any, Sir Bertie McBoatface, but pray do tell for my continued education...

 

David

[Bertie McBoatface]

21 minutes ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

I cant see any, Sir Bertie McBoatface, but pray do tell for my continued education...

 

David

Look in the cabin space at the back end and you’ll see, or rather won’t see some missing joints. 

[Adm Lord De Univers]

8 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Look in the cabin space at the back end and you’ll see l, or rather won’t see two missing joints. 

Ah ok, I wouldn't say that was a mistake!

 

David

[Bertie McBoatface]

50 minutes ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

Ah ok, I wouldn't say that was a mistake!

 

David

I do. So I’ve fixed it now.
 

That deck, scraped smooth is beautiful now. 😍

[Bertie McBoatface]

Saturday SITREP

 

The postie brought some goodies this week.

 

 

This is a HobbyZone building slip. They make similar for aircraft and tanks too. I'd always thought them a bit of a gimmick but I'm a convert. This thing, with all of its accessories holds the boats whatever the stage of their construction, firmly enough to actually work on them. Filing the deck down was much easier with the thing held steady than holding it n one hand and filing with the other, faster too.

 

 

That deck ended up looking like this. Not perfect but good enough for a first attempt. The pattern came out just right and only the unevenness of the caulking lets it down.

 

 

I decided that I would add simulated treenails (dowels) which I impressed with the butt end of a drill, following the lines of the frames. It's awfully like riveting!

 

 

Unless a strong light is directed from the side like this, the marks are almost invisible which is exactly what I was aiming at. The idea is that a viewer looks at the boat for ten minutes and then notices the marks.

 

 

I have a new and all-round better plank vice, just in time for spiling the hull planks. The first planking has to be good this time because I'm not doing the second layer. Above the waterline is painted and below it's covered in copper sheeting, so why bother applying a very thin veneer of expensive wood. I'll use some around this boat and save the rest for another project.

 

My son and I made the vice, based on the Moxon design, from an old painter's easel belonging to my daughter - a good family project.

 

 

There's some of the hull veneer-like planks used to line the fo'c'sl bulkhead. The hatches are cherry wood with brass latches and the hatch frames are mitred walnut, just to see if I could. It looks nice but it will all be painted, as the real thing undoubtedly was, although no-one knows in which colours. Room to be creative. I'll possibly follow Fitz Roy's heraldry if his family had any.

 

 

One last picture of the forecastle deck going on for keeps. You can see the camber there and on the main but the poop has probably pooped it. Never mind, two out of three ain't bad. (There's your earworm for the evening.😁 )

 

As I had two days off sick, that's not bad progress for the week and brings my grand total of hours up to 27:45 in just under a month since I first started cutting wood. Every time I compare my progress with my hours I realise that my 'planned' (ha!) end date is now receding into the depths of winter 2023. It doesn't really matter though. 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Like what you're doing there, looking good. I like that idea of the 'rivets', think I'd be tempted to put a wash down to show them off.

 

Stuart

[Bertie McBoatface]

22 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Like what you're doing there, looking good. I like that idea of the 'rivets', think I'd be tempted to put a wash down to show them off.

 

Stuart

 

Thanks Stuart. It's great to have a comment from time to time. As a pre-millennial, 'likes' mean little to me compared to a few words.

 

Washes on an unvarnished wooden deck would be rather unpredictable but yes, I know what you mean. I was into armour models and figures for long enough to want to show off the details with a wash and/or a drybrushing every time. You'll see some of that later when there's some paint on her but those trennels were more or less invisible on the real thing from a scale viewing distance. They were the same colour as the deck, more or less, and dead flat and always level with the deck surface. And that sacred deck, under a martinet like Captain Fitz Roy would have been cleaner than our kitchen chopping boards, at all times. In fact I've already emphasised them well past the point of 'accuracy'.

 

Many ship modellers don't feature them at all at this scale (1/60) and others make them big dark pencilled circles, and some go the length of drilling holes and gluing in cocktail sticks. 'Builder's choice' rules in this and many other areas of shipbuilding in wood. It's one of the things I like about the genre.

 

 

[ColonelKrypton]

14 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It's great to have a comment from time to time. As a pre-millennial, 'likes' mean little to me compared to a few words.

 

I am of like mind. I tend to not post many replies unless I feel I have something to add as I don't much care for the "me too" kind of replies.

 

Trunnels - very interesting in what you have done.  The picture taken with the sideways light show them to good effect, in fact to the point when I first looked at the picture the trunnels appeared to convex standing a wee bit proud of the deck but I quickly realized that was just a trick of the light fooling my my feeble not quite awake morning brain.  I do like to see some detail, especially if done in a such subtle way as you have done here - it's there to be discovered, not a "slap on the face, look at me" kind of detail.

 

Bertie's Beagle is shaping up nicely.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

51 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

 

I am of like mind. I tend to not post many replies unless I feel I have something to add as I don't much care for the "me too" kind of replies.

 

 

I've even had my comments on a build quoted by someone else who just adds "I agree with Bertie". 😁 However, it is sometimes difficult for me to find new words for 'well done'.

 

51 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

Trunnels - very interesting in what you have done.  The picture taken with the sideways light show them to good effect, in fact to the point when I first looked at the picture the trunnels appeared to convex standing a wee bit proud of the deck but I quickly realized that was just a trick of the light fooling my my feeble not quite awake morning brain.  I do like to see some detail, especially if done in a such subtle way as you have done here - it's there to be discovered, not a "slap on the face, look at me" kind of detail.

 

A variation of that 'trick of the light' effect appeared for me in another part of the deck. You'll see that the caulking alongside the planks is (unfortunately) rather variable in width. If I look at the deck while standing next to the window, I can't help interpreting the dark lines as shadows indicating an irregular deck. My visual cortex knows that window light comes from the side and decodes the signals accordingly. When I turn away from the window, I see a smooth but stripy deck again. I can't un-see the window illusion, even when I touch the deck and confirm its plane surface. It's a very strange feeling when eyes and fingers disagree. (I have some ongoing problems with my eyes which I guess contribute to the solidity of the effect.)

 

51 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

Bertie's Beagle is shaping up nicely.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

Slow and steady. Thanks Graham.

[BillF67]

Who’s wood this is I think I know.

He usually works in plastic, though;

He will not mind me stopping here 

to watch the Beagle slowly grow.

 

Cracking work on this Bertie.

 

Bill, with a debt to Mr Frost.

[Bertie McBoatface]

41 minutes ago, BillF67 said:

Who’s wood this is I think I know.

He usually works in plastic, though;

He will not mind me stopping here 

to watch the Beagle slowly grow.

 

Cracking work on this Bertie.

 

Bill, with a debt to Mr Frost.

 

Bill. That is BRILLIANT! Thank you very much. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

A Miscalculation, an Improvisation and an Expenditure

 

I'm in a 'work stopped' situation right now. I can't fit the bulwarks until I've made Darwin's cabin and I can't make the cabin until I know how much I'll be able to see. And I won't know that until I build the skylight and cut a hole out of the poop deck to match it.

 

 

So, on with the skylights.

 

This is typical model boat wood tech. It's a bit crude to say the least, relying as it must on flatpacks to build up shapes. These will be panelled over and then some PE will finish the job. I'm certain that there's a dozen better ways to do this but I'm hanged if I can work one out on such a hot and sultry day as today so I'll just carry on as the kit suggests. At least the formers (?) assembled neatly and square.

 

One of the units pencilled K9 is the poop skylight. It's an appropriate code because it's no bigger than a dog kennel. I have totally miscalculated the scale of this thing. Actually, I haven't calculated it at all, I just vaguely thought "1/60 is bigger than 1/72 so it's 'large scale'. Hank on Psmiffy, it's not even 1/48! It's much nearer tiny-impossible-to-detail scale than I thought. The cabin to which I was intending to fit a table, chairs, a hammock, bookcases and cupboards is smaller than a Phantom cockpit in 1/48. The hole which I would cut under the skylight is SPITFIRE cockpit size and the scale thickness of the poop deck would make it about a foot thick. Silly me.

 

The cabin idea has gone out of the window, or skylight. Interior details in 1/60 are not possible for my level of modelmaking, as I'd have realised instantly if this had been a tank. Who would think of a 'full' interior treatment on even a 1/48 Sherman? Very silly me.

 

Unfamiliarity with the subject matter is the root of all this. I haven't walked on the deck of a square rigger since Victory in 1968. Never, mind. It's all learning and this embarrassing miscalculation is one that I won't forget!

 

 

In the spirit of making all of my mistakes on this build so that the next one will be ok, I've shored up the bows with some balsa blocks. Planking the bluff bow will be very challenging and I figure that having a solid foundation instead of attempting to bridge two frames will give me a better chance.

 

 

Time to rasp it off. The dog left the room. Balsa is marvellous for carving and to my surprise I got to this stage quite quickly. I've caught the contour of the concave part low down which looks awful subtle for 3mm planks to follow.

 

I've looked at a lot of WIPs for Beagle on other sites and the way of doing the hull is really different to my last boat. For one thing, the keel and stem are to be glued on post planking. Until that point, she looks like a walnut whip without the walnut, a policeman's helmet without the crest, a Bakewell tart without the cherry. I think I need the keel and stem to line my planks up against. I'd like a rabbet (or slot) along the stem to sink the end of my timber into to stop it pinging out into space until the glue sets. I'm going to improvise something and fix up the mess with filler. Thank the stars I'm painting this one!

 

I know the Voyage of the Beagle was one of exploration but I'm beginning to feel that I'm off the charts too.

 

 

If in doubt, buy more tools.

 

This lot are Chinese of course and are for rigging at a distance. I'm really thinking of the next model which is a lot broader in the beam. That means I'll have to reach across the deck to belay the rigging to pins inside the bulwarks. These  l  o  n  g  tweezers and scissors might help. The other thing is a spade because this is actually an aquarium tool set. I may need a little spade to bury the Beagle with, should it become necessary to have her put down...

 

 

[steve5]

love looking at your wood work skills bertie , a bit envious .

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 hours ago, steve5 said:

love looking at your wood work skills bertie , a bit envious .

Nah, don’t be envious about something that you could do if you wanted to. It’s not proper woodworking. There’s not a dovetail in sight. It’s actually very similar to scratch building with plastic card and strip. ‘Cutting and sticking’. 
 

Bending the stuff is a bit of a knack, I’ll admit. Even that is pretty easy with the small cross sections of the material. 
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

You've got me thinking now. I’m questioning why I don’t incorporate plastics in places where I’m going to be painting over. Those skylights for instance could be a lot more delicate and in scale if built from plasticard. 
 

The only problem is gluing plastic to wood when I dislike CA so much. But there are alternatives, I’m sure. Hmmmm…

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Indeed there is no rule to force a modeller to stick with a single material