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13 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

I suppose this means I'm barking 🤪

Barking mad, to take on what you do. But I guess the proof is in the pudding, or in this case the models - you do them very well. 👍

Regards, Jeff.

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1 hour ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Barking mad, to take on what you do. But I guess the proof is in the pudding, or in this case the models - you do them very well. 👍

Regards, Jeff.

 

I actually believe myself to be a below average modeller most especially with wooden boats, but an above average writer. I can often concoct a story to explain the shoddiness of the models. 😂 That doesn't matter of course, as long as we are all having fun. 🙂

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2 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

That doesn't matter of course, as long as we are all having fun.

IMHO that's rule number #1, and the most important rule of all.

 

2 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

I actually believe myself to be a below average modeller most especially with wooden boats,

I don't follow a lot of wood boat models, I'm mainly into styrene so I don't know what the average is, but I believe your wooden boat models are very good.

 

Regards, Jeff.

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2 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

I don't know what the average is

 

This one is Grant Tyler's FIRST BUILD. He's doing the Mantua Victory kit (not the most highly regarded kit of the subject). I'll allow that he's been working on it for a year or so longer than my experience of wooden boat kits, but this is the standard I currently aim at ... and miss. 

 

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His build continues on another forum, Ships of Scale, which I'm not allowed to link to but feel I have to acknowledge as my source for the photo. Grant won't mind me borrowing.

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  • Bertie McBoatface changed the title to HMSV Bagel (Beagle with some bits left out, and some in the wrong places.) ~ Deck Furnishing Phase

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It's often a surprise to me how much difference a coat of paint makes. I've turned the white 'cheat line' to ivory for a more period look and to allow me to use a colder white for highlighting later.

I painted the inner bulwarks in colours that I think Capt Fitz Roy might have chosen for his personal fiefdom.

And I painted a lot of the woodwork black as pitch. I've avoided using pure black on a model for decades as I believe black is too black when viewed from the scale 120 feet away (2 feet viewing distance from my head to the model). However, I've abandoned the search for the chimera 'accuracy' now and come to appreciate the blackness of the blackest black that I had to hand just for its drama. A lot of detail is lost with this black a black (it's Indian ink) but that's ok because like the white, I'll be highlighting it later.

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Today I changed gear. I'd been wearing those pants since September. No, really. Ooooh! Seriously for a minute. I've given myself a new challenge for the next thirteen months. Maybe I've been hanging around with @Enzo the Magnificent for too long but, encouraged by some of the prodigious building totals on the Year Book Section, I looked at my plastic stash and said "Dang Nabbit, I'll build then ALL!" 

 

For the coming year I'll concentrate on efficiency, speed and quantity of models, letting the quality improve solely through practice. I have 17 plastic kits on hand, one resin figure and two plastic ones. I declare my intention to build all of them by the end of 2023 together with two wooden boats (one of which is this one and must be  half-built already (please!) and the other being an open boat - no masts or rigging). I'll work a morning and an evening shift each of three hours with one tea-break in the middle. I'll give the afternoon to the dog-walking. Weekends optional. Starting today. 

 

The first job was to reorganise the modeling space. Cupboard doors off for speed, most used tools closest to hand, maximum amount of clean clear working space available. That took two hours but I won't count that towards the Beagle building total. The job's not completely done yet but already I found a lot of things that I didn't remember owning and quite a lot that I never used and never will. I don't own them any more! 

 

And then I turned to the boat...

 

Deck furniture is the fiddly stuff but it has to be right and it has to be firmly attached because most of it forms foundations for rigging the beast. The last thing I need is racks of belaying pins coming away as I wind on the last rope! So there's going to be a lot of pinning and other sneaky reinforcement happening.

 

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There! Those davits are not going to move. Not because of the giant steel blocks but because that eyebolt extends right through the beam and into the side of the transom. The davits are glued to the rail and also nailed, but that's under the gravity clamp so you can't see it yet.

 

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Drilling the holes for the rigging of the davits and the eye bolt and the nail hole and keeping them all perpendicular to the various surfaces would not have been possible with my eyesight if I didn't own this little pillar drill. Tonight was the first time I've used it in earnest to do something which would otherwise have been impossible and I'm very pleased with it's performance. I bought it back in the summer and on first trying it was close to sending it back. They keep costs down by not setting it up so if you get one be prepared to strip it down and tune up the mechanism. Once that's done it seems to be marvellous. I'll let you kow if it starts to let me down.

 

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Before I began my workmanlike approach to modelling, I'd have wandered off after doing the davits. Now though, when the glue is drying on one part, I'll work on another. This is a trunnion bearing and cap square from the carronade on the forecastle. Tiny isn't it? It turned out to be as pingable as any plastic part and flew six feet out into the wastes of the carpet. Or rather, the other one did. This was the one I tried to make a copy of having not found the first one. That took a while, I can tell you. However, I managed it and while fitting the barrel, I pinged that tiny lump of metal away too. More fingertip searching ensued. I didn't find the barrel but guess what I did find? Yep, the aforementioned tiny bit of wood! 

 

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Since I found the trunnion bearing while I wasn't looking for it, I decided to search for the carronade barrel by filing the casting marks from one of the anchors. I used to hate filing metal when I was required to do it for a living (anyone here remember the 'Hacking and Filing' phase at RAF Halton?). Now, I find it very relaxing which is probably why I was able to turn away from my vice and immediately spot the lost barrel!

 

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With the barrel in place and the glue setting I was able to turn to the next item. But first, is anyone interested in why this is a carronade and not a gun? First, no Royal Navy ship ever carried cannons. They were always called guns. Nor did they have gun carriages, the wooden parts were called trucks. If the guns were off loaded for shore use by the Army, they immediately became cannons on carriages. These guns were expensive, difficult to make, had a recoil which frequently broke the ships they were mounted on and were often unnecessarily accurate and long ranging for the close quarter battles of the time. "Lay her alongside and we'll give it to her muzzle to muzzle!"

 

Enter the carronade. Named for the Carron Iron Works and not a misspelling of cannonade (which means an artillery attack, a stonk) the carronade was a low velocity gun which was short ranged, not very accurate, but cheap, easy to manufacture, had a gentle recoil, which increased it's rate of fire as it didn't need to be hauled back into position after every shot. It was lighter too due to it's short barrel. It's great advantage was the weight of it's shot, they came in different sizes of course but were always big. The Victory carried 68 pounder carronades also known as 'smashers' from the mess they made of the enemy.

 

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While my carronade was setting (I'm using superglue for these small parts but it takes a while to set hard on wood), I fettled the shaft of the windlass and its cheeks. Beagle carried a 'patent windlass' instead of a capstan, to save room one presumes. It seems to be powered by crank handles at each end, though there are square holes for the old fashioned wooden bars too. It's rarely mentioned in Darwin's book so I guess it worked ok. 

 

This series of fiddly little jobs took me a little over two hours including clean up. Writing this update including uploading photos and researching carronades, took me almost an hour. Hmmm...

 

In order to get more models built in the coming year and improve my skills in the process, I'm not sure that I can continue to spend 33% of my bench time typing. I know there are a few of you reading this sad saga, this dreary chronicle but it's getting to be a dull old thread now, in't'it? Perhaps I'll only post at weekends? I'll give it some thought.

 

151:00

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1 minute ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

That's the only way that quality ever improves. 

 

It's a necessary condition for improvement but perhaps not the only one. Discuss, people.

 

 

 

 

Are you OK Enzo? I think that's the first time you didn't appear with a joke when I mentioned your glorious name.

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1 minute ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Are you OK Enzo? I think that's the first time you didn't appear with a joke when I mentioned your glorious name.

 

Yes, I'm fine, thank you.  And you're right.  It is glorious...   :smartass:

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10 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

It's a necessary condition for improvement but perhaps not the only one. Discuss, people.

 

 

 

 

Are you OK Enzo? I think that's the first time you didn't appear with a joke when I mentioned your glorious name.

If I look at my completed builds, I can see that the quality has improved.

That saying ‘practice makes perfect’ has a lot of truth, mine might not be perfect but they are certainly getting better.

Jon

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3 minutes ago, Faraway said:

If I look at my completed builds, I can see that the quality has improved.

That saying ‘practice makes perfect’ has a lot of truth, mine might not be perfect but they are certainly getting better.

Jon

 

I can see that in your builds, Jon. You are getting very good indeed!

 

What we are talking about applies to any skill but keeping to the modelling sphere, I know modellers who post here who are very prolific indeed but the quality of whose work never changes. Sometimes we see their old stuff from years back and it's the same. They may be unconcerned about, or unaware of the seam lines, the brush marks, the silvered decals. So simply building a lot of kits isn't the only necessary thing for improvement.

 

I think the first thing needed for raising our own quality is to have a strong desire to improve. If a person is happy with their hobby, that's absolutely fine. Continuous improvement isn't compulsory.

 

I'd next add being a 'reflective practitioner'. It's essential to look critically at our own work and say "That aspect of my model is not good enough for me so next time I will do it differently and aim to do it better."  People with that attitude may post their RFIs with a note that constructive criticism is welcome. It's also important not to be so self-critical that we lose enthusiasm.

 

The next step would seem to be actually doing it differently. That might be inventing a new way for ourselves or researching another's technique and adapting it for our own use.

 

And repeat as necessary. Ad infinitum.

 

Personally, I'm very aware of my declining hand skills and eyesight and how those factors are causing a decline in my models' quality. I'm trying to improve in order to at least stay where I am. I'm running hard up the down escalator because if I don't, then within a few years my models will be so unsatisfactory to me that I'll leave the hobby in defeat. This is why I've given up the aircraft. Having worked with the real thing, I'm all too aware of the increasing shortfall in the standard of my aircraft models. Tanks and boats are new to me so I'm not so overly critical. Also, starting a new genre means that I will inevitably have much to learn, many things that I can still improve on - so I'm gaining a little altitude on that escalator which is a cheering thought.

 

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I worked a two and a half hour shift this morning. I use the word work deliberately because I'm approaching my modeling the same way that I used to approach paid employment. I've organized myself and my workspace and now I'm working to a timetable.

 

The difference is amazing. I'm hardly getting distracted at all and the moment one piece one sub assembly is set aside to dry. I pick up another one. In a single morning I've done as much as in the last week.

 

I'll do an update with pictures on Sundays. Though I'll still drop in to carry on conversations as and when. 

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This is the first official Sunday update and it's going to be a bit thin because I've already updated during the week. However, future ones should be a bit more interesting.

 

Deck furniture then. I've been surprised by how much there is of it and how time consuming it all is. Most of the items are quite tiny, but they do take a lot of care (and searching on the floor). I was thinking of the deck furniture phase as being a short intermission between building the hull and the masking and rigging but it's considerably more than that so it will probably take the rest of the year, ie a fortnight to finish it.

 

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The first thing I tried to tackle were some ladders up to the poop and forecastle decks. After my success with the rudder pintles, I thought I would solder it all together. 

 

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The problem was how to hold the six pieces of brass in position. I had several attempts all of which failed. I tried tinning all of the pieces and then jamming them together, hoping to quickly apply heat to each joint to fix them. This did not work. Everything just fell apart. I think I have to go to super glue for this particular job. OcCre have been good to me by giving me six ladders for the four positions. They obviously knew this was going to be tricky!

 

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I made some winding handles for the windlass. This isn't exactly the way the instructions suggested, but it's good enough. I presume there was some kind of gearbox in there if such small handles were to haul in such big ankles?

 

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I made the gun trucks some time ago. But as you see there's more to be done.

 

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These are lockers for the signal flags which also act as steps. I think the way of doing the hinges is quite clever. Okrie's suggestion, not mine.

 

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On the ship's wheel I have included a little piece of plastic! It will be covered up with rope when it's finished so I'm not too bothered. I added the cross piece at deck level with the holes to allow the rope to disappear into the deck. This is underneath the poop deck so it's not really very visible.

 

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That looks like the Eye of Sauron but is in fact a sighting compass. Beagle's main mission was to make charts of the seas around South America, so taking accurate bearings was a major part of the job. I added a pin for secure attachment to the deck.Most of these things will be pinned as well as glued into place.

 

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I have no idea what these things are called. They will have eyebolts in the holes at the ends and sit on the poop deck. Typical of wooden boats kits, you make these entirely from sticks. 😀 Good for the woodworking skills!

 

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These small bits are actually small bitts. Bitts are extensions from the frames of the boat above the deck to provide a secure attachment point for  ropes of various kinds.

 

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And now things start to get somewhat scary. This is the first part of the assembly of the channels. They are boards attached to the outside of the hull to which the shrouds will eventually be attached. They are going to take a lot of tension just as on the real ship. I am advised to fit them and then try to tear them off again! It's better to find out early that they're not properly fixed on. I will be pinning them, gluing them and probably sneaking in some unhistorical reinforcing blocks underneath too. That's after I've made all ten of them. There's a lot of repetitive work on a sailing boat/ship but fortunately nothing in this genre as tedious as building tracks for tanks, thank goodness.

 

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Here's one of those davits I showed you earlier. Note the pinning. And all this holds is a dinghy. Prior to the Beagle's voyage, dinghies were known in the Navy as Jolly Boats. Captain Fitz Roy introduced the new terminology. He was also the first Captain to use Port and Starboard instead of Larboard and Starboard, for reasons which are obvious now, but hadn't been noticed before.

 

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Belaying pins on their rail (?). They are hugely out of scale and far too fat as well, but who cares? Not I. At one time I was going to sand them slim but really, there are too many of them!

 

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Everything is reinforced!

 

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Sunday Dinner! That's half a pound of meat in there - I will be reinforced too!

 

154.15

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y4mN7lTpN0ww6sxn_JMPPtkFCJ7MKlgZZMzgwM_X

 

The channels were easily completed. Today was the day for attaching them. I used the plan as you see to make sure that I put them in the right places and the right way round too.

 

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Oops! My lowering of the bulwarks and repositioning of the wales has had knock on effects. If I attach the channels below the upper wales as the kit suggests, It's all too obviously blocking the gunport. I elected to fit them above the wales instead. This model looks less and less like Beagle each time I go near it. How fortunate that it's now the fictional Bagel. 🤣

 

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Some delicate carpentry was required to cut slots in the fake frames that I'd invented. It looks a mess but the frames and wales will trap and strengthen the channel's attachment to the hull.  

 

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I'd already prepared 28 deadeyes for fitting to the channels. There are more to come. Lots more.

 

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This is what I'm trying to emulate.

 

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But again my wales are in the way. At least I've learned the importance of proper placement of such apparently unimportant details.

 

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I had to be creative with my chains. It's actually a solid bar - presumably these were once actual chains and the name stuck?

 

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First one done. The expression on the deadeye is similar to the one on my face when I contemplated how many more I have to do!

 

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As usual, it gets easier the more you do. It's still a tiresome job needing good concentration so I'll working just a few at a time. The chains look a bit bland and were this a max effort build I'd probably apply a bit of detail. 

 

(I'll be heaving to over the three day holiday while I participate in my first Blitzenbuild GB so the Sunday update idea has already died a death.)

 

 

159.05

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1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

The expression on the deadeye is similar to the one on my face when I contemplated how many more I have to do!

 

All of that rigging, so much rigging. I think that is one of the reasons why I don't have any interest in building such a subject. However, I suspect that is one of the aspects of building such a model that attracts and draws in many builders. There must be great sense of accomplishment to work through such a daunting task not only when done but also in the process of doing. 

 

Good luck with your Blitzenbuild GB, have fun.

 

Seasons best wishes.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

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I'll be making headway slowly on the Bagel after Christmas and I'll also be working on this wooden whaleboat model in the Salty Sea Dog GB. As the GB has a deadline, the whaleboat will be prioritised. You might like to take a look over there when things go quiet here. All welcome!🙂

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y4mQQKg9yqBCuvF8oRxpWW081tMwoWdx378Uhito

 

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As promised a week ago, here's the slow but ongoing patination of the copper foil. It's better in real life but I think you can see the red and blue hues have spread widely and fairly evenly over the hull. I've boiled no more eggs so maybe it's a continuing crystallisation of something like it. Any chemists care to speculate? 

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y4m3MYvEbUWd7bzXSJRWsyQQTCctslS6hXv-RHJ-

 

The thought of the somewhat repetitive job of fitting these deadeyes and associated brasswork has kept me away from the Bagel all week but I'm happy to have put in a solid hour and a quarter before my hands began to hurt too much. I did ten of the little pingers which was twice my rate the first time I tried it. They still look a bit of a bungler's muddle though. I'm going to accept that as it was my silly idea to cut the bulwarks down so late in the day. Live and learn...

 

 

 

160.20

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