Model Ship Builder

6^th September 2011

Next job was to assemble and fit the anchors. These are shown with wooden stocks and anchor rings. I wasn’t convinced about the anchor rings so I did a search for images of anchors. The majority of those I found didn’t have wooden stocks and almost all had a shackle rather than a ring. The only ones I found with both wooden stocks and an anchor ring were those on HMS Victory. I think this is really a matter of date, but at what point these changed I can’t say.

I decided to go with the wooden stocks because fitting an ‘iron’ stock would have been difficult with the anchors supplied, but the rings would be replaced with shackles.

The stocks are made up of two walnut pieces which are supposed to be nailed and glued together. First job was to cut grooves across the centres to accommodate the anchor shaft. After that, the pieces had to be shaped in both depth and thickness. After shaping the depth of the first piece, I used it as a template to shape its partner. Shaping the third piece was done the same way:

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Next, the pieces had to be shaped in thickness:

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I used a black marker pen on the two inner faces before gluing them together in an attempt to make the joint visible. It is visible, but I’m not sure how much effect the marker pen actually had.

Rather than putting lots of nails through the stocks, I opted to make ‘iron’ bands to fit around them. I cut some thin strips of brass and made a set in the end for the joint. I cut a very shallow rebate in the underside of the stock to accommodate the joint, wrapped the strip around the stock and cut it to length.

I then dropped it on the floor.

I have an office chair and carpet tiles on the floor. After I rolled the chair back – over the brass strip – to retrieve it, this was the result:

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Surprisingly, it survived. Probably because the carpet tiles had a little bit of give in them and it wasn’t completely flattened. So, time to solder the ends together. The tweezers held the band around the stock and I used the point of another pair of tweezers to press down the end as I soldered it.

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The next picture shows the first anchor with the bands in place. The second anchor has a shackle fitted. I wasn’t happy with this shackle, it was made from 0.3mm brass wire and looked too thin. I later replaced it with one made from 0.5mm wire.

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Before fitting the shackle to the anchor, it had to be hooked into the end of the anchor chain. Once that was done and the brass parts blackened, this was the result:

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The final job was to hoist the anchors into place. On Astrolabe I left one anchor hanging from the cathead falls, but that wasn’t really an option this time with the sails set. So, I made up a couple of rope fenders and lashed them up.

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22^nd September 2011

Just a minor update this time, fitting the figurehead and the flags.

The figurehead came as two separate white metal castings and I described how I’d more or less welded these together some time ago. I was supposed to fit it at that point but I left it off until later. However I didn’t post any pictures of it then, so here’s the item in question:

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I can’t say I was particularly enthusiastic about it, but as my painting skills are pretty basic it was never going to be a masterpiece anyway!

There were no colours specified so I kept it relatively plain. I’m reasonably satisfied with the results:

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There were two flags supplied, one for the main mast and one for the stern flag mast. Another two items that I didn’t rate particularly highly. They are made from some fairly coarse weave material and are very stiff. The blue colouring of the stern flag is very uneven and looks very patchy when the light is behind it. It’s passable when lit normally.

After a fair bit of rolling and unrolling, I managed to persuade them to hang reasonably well.

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Mario: Can you persuade your friend to join the site?

You know, the one who actually built all those really nice boats that you told us were your handiwork!

4^th October 2011

Almost finished, but the final jobs need to be done in order.

The kit includes a plywood stand, but I think this must be considered to be a building stand, which is the way I’ve used it up to this point. I’ve left the paddlewheels off until now to avoid damaging them so the next step is to get the ship on a proper stand.

When I was assembling the keel and bulkheads I glued some plywood reinforcing pieces to either side of the keel where the mounting screws would go. This is the picture I posted at the time:

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After the glue had dried, I drilled holes in the keel and screwed some suitable screws into the holes. I then removed the screws.

At that point I was intending to turn some pedestals at a later date but I recently saw some advertised whilst I was ordering some additional rigging cord from Cornwall Model Boats. They were only 56p each so I ordered some on the assumption that if they weren’t suitable, I hadn’t lost much!

When I received them, they looked quite nice, but the slot in the top was much too narrow for the keel. There wasn’t enough material to simply widen the slot, but cutting a new, deeper slot was quite easy.

I found a length of oak floorboard that looked as though it would make a nice base - or possibly two! Reluctantly, I decided that the pieces I’d be left with after cutting it in half would be too short so - one base only it is.

After a little bit of work with the router. This was the result:

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If you look under the paddle box, you can just see the paddlewheel axle. At the moment it just clears the bottom of the paddle box but once the lower part of the paddle box is fitted, the axle won’t come out. This means that the paddle wheels have to be fitted before the paddle boxes can be completed. So, a little bit of assembly work is required:

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Double check at this point: yes I’ve got the starboard wheel on the starboard side!

The final job is to fit the bottom sections of the paddle boxes:

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And this is what it looks like now:

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